Author: John Foote

The new millennium Oscars?

Looking back over the previous Oscar winners for Best Picture since 2000, the start of a new century (and a new millennium), I find myself wondering sometimes what the hell the Academy was thinking. It’s no secret I disagree with the Academy a lot, but I can also admit that when they get it right, they get it right.

But since 2000, their Best Pic choices have run the gamut from incredibly ridiculous, “Gladiator” and “A Beautiful Mind” being just goofy, to bang on, with “The Departed” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” I am told the Academy is moving in a more progressive direction, willing to take more risks, and I suppose some of these winners do just that. But they could have gone further.

Year by year, here’s a quick look, with some thoughts about who might have won, and who should have at least been nominated…

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January 18, 2009
Tuesday is bigger than movies

Way off topic for a moment, but I am Canadian, proud of my country, happy to be here, though I confess to having always been fascinated with American history and politics. There are many friends of mine in the United States and I enjoy visiting whenever I can. Cocoa Beach, Florida is a popular destination for my family and Los Angeles is always great fun.

I was four when JFK was killed and vaguely remember my parents being visibly upset at something around that time. As I grew older I was most aware, and deeply saddened when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and watched the train carry RFK home, tears streaming down my cheeks for reasons I did not understand. Watching Nixon resign was bittersweet because I always believed he had it in him to be a great President (and indeed proved to be a great Statesman), and watched with great interest when George Dubya was “elected” in 2000.

Never in my lifetime did I expect an African-American to be elected President of the United States. There would always be too much racial hatred, too much anger, too much prejudice. What a pleasant shock to find that was not true, that people really wanted a change. To quote “2010”: “Something’s happening…something wonderful.”

We are in the midst of witnessing history this week, seeing something extraordinary. In remarkable recognition of what might have been, Obama’s own children stated it would have been just as exciting to have seen Hilary Clinton win and a woman lead the United States.

I am staying home Tuesday because I want to see history as it happens. And I welcome Obama’s chance to take America into the next stage of their greatness.

And I have every confidence he will do just that.

January 18, 2009
Some help with my new book

Kris has kindly pointed out a few times in addition to being a very busy film critic up here in Canada, I also have a seven-book (keeps growing) deal with Greenwood/Praeger in the United States. The first, “Clint Eastwood: Evolution of a Filmmaker,” was released December 30, 2008.

I am currently working on “Spielberg: American Film Visionary,” due for release in December of 2009 and have signed to do “The Coppolas: Francis and Sofia” (release date to be announced). But I’m also working on something as we speak called “The New Millennium American Cinema, 2000-2009,” the first in a series of decade-specific titles from the publisher.

Given the title, it’s self-explanatory: the mainstream hits and misses, the critically acclaimed films, and those cult pictures (say, “Donnie Darko”) that found an audience despite of the odds against them in the last decade. The format of the volume will be a chapter devoted to each year with sub-chapters within devoted to each film, and an end discussion of the major new directors and actors to emerge in that particular year. In terms of size, we are looking at between 500-550 pages.

I was hoping to pick the brains of the good people that chime in on this site and see what they thought of this span of time in the cinema and the films they believe have made an impact, for better or worse, with critics or at the the box office (or both). In other words, which films do you think should be included in the book? I’d love to hear from you.

I have an initial list, but I’d like to compare it with my fellow celluloid junkies who have your finger on the pulse of the film world. Give me the titles and why they should be there. Again pay attention to the title, “The Millenium American Cinema” — so just U.S. titles. This is strictly a study of cinema from the United States and the impact of those films.

Have at it!

January 17, 2009
Best Actress: a tough call

Rarely does the lead actress category provide more suspense than leading gentlemen and rarely is it as packed with fine performances as it is this year. I can remember years when it was a struggle to come up with five nominees for best actress, 1975 and 1992 springing to mind. It might have less to do with quality female performances than it does the amount of quality female roles Hollywood provides.

But the Academy won’t have any trouble this year. There are going to be excellent performances left off the list of nominees this year due to uncharacteristically heated competition, that is a sad fact, and there is not a thing anyone can do about it except continue to love and support the performances snubbed. In fact it is not even that they will be snubbed, it’s just that there is only room for five ladies, and this year, selecting those final five must be proving an enormously difficult task for the Academy.

With her two Golden Globe wins, Kate Winslet seems to be a shoo-in for her superb performance in “Revolutionary Road,” a truly heartbreaking piece of acting that is sadly underseen at the moment. Meryl Streep, meanwhile, will be nominated for the 15th time for her tyrannical nun in “Doubt” and Anne Hathaway will get a welcome to the big show for “Rachel Getting Married,” in which her caustic turn as Kym has altered the course of her career and announces her as a serious actress in the industry.

And then it becomes tricky — those final two spots.

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January 17, 2009
Jenny Lumet could continue an Oscar tradition

In the 1970s there simply wasn’t a greater director of actors than Sidney Lumet. Roles in his films came with Academy Award nominations virtually attached. From 1973 to 1988, Lumet directed actors to 16 Oscar nominations, three of those eventually winning an Oscar. He himself was nominated for Best Director for “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Network” and “The Verdict” and most certainly should have been nominated for “Prince of the City,” which earned him a New York Film Critics Circle award.

A former actor himself, Lumet understood inherently how to work with his on-screen talent, how to allow them the space they needed to create without seeing them run away with his film. Most importantly, he understood how to direct them to best serve the piece. Incredibly he never won an Oscar for his work at the helm, but the Academy did give him an Honorary Award a couple of years ago, which he followed with his best work in years: “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.” In his 80s now, he is as fresh and alive as he has ever been, and still one of the great living directors.

And now his daughter Jenny could become a first-time Oscar nominee for her screenplay “Rachel Getting Married.” Lumet must be pleased — Sidney, I mean. I had the pleasure of interviewing him last year and he was an utter delight, frank, unafraid to speak his mind. He mentioned his daughter was working on a film I might see within the year. With a smile and a twinkle in his eye he said, “It’s very good.” Ever the proud father.

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January 16, 2009
A film that sticks — why ‘Revolutionary Road’ is a masterwork

GENTLE SPOILERS WITHIN — READ WITH CAUTION

Fear of change, fear of risk.

“If you don’t try anything, you can’t fail,” she tells him, striking at the heart of what has him so afraid of uprooting their family to Paris in the hopes of a better way of life. Frank Wheeler is terrified of change, but his wife April longs for it. She needs change to survive as a person, as a wife, believing, wrongly perhaps (perhaps not), that change will help her marriage and better define her place in it.

The characters in “Revolutionary Road” are in agonizing pain as they go about their daily lives, each trying to keep their marriage intact while also trying to live out their dreams. Deep down, they must know their dreams have to be sacrificed to a degree. Way down in their gut, they must know their dreams may never come true, and it is quietly destroying them.

Is “Revolutionary Road” a classic American film destined to be remembered for decades to come? Or is it merely an over-praised, depressing work that will be forgotten once it hits DVD, a bizarre blip on the careers of the creators? I tend to believe the former. It is a sublime work of art and a demanding piece of cinema that takes audiences on a difficult journey through a rocky relationship that, for me, resembles the young years of George and Martha in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

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January 15, 2009
After finishing off the Joker, Batman may have to fend off a Nazi and a biggot on the way to Oscar

A week ago with the announcement of the Directors Guild Awards (DGA), it seemed Christopher Nolan and “The Dark Knight” were headed for Oscar night, with nominations for Best Picture and Best Director highly likely. But like a full balloon with a slow leak, the air is slowly hissing out as “Gran Torino” and “The Reader” seem to be gaining momentum.

I loved “The Dark Knight.” It was, for me, the best film of the year and highly deserving of top tier nominations. Regardless of its comic roots, Nolan’s accomplishment in giving the film a heart and soul on a grand scale is even greater, and I hope the Academy sees it that way.

“Gran Torino” has gained enormous momentum since being released wide, racking up more than $30 million at the domestic box office. Audiences are coming in droves to see Clint back on screen. He surrounded himself with largely or complete unknowns, amplifying is screen presence. Very shrewd. Audiences are going to see him, possibly for the last time, as he portrays the sort of character they love to see.

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January 15, 2009
INTERVIEW: Amy Adams

Amy Adams has arrived. No “doubt” about it.

Sunday she was sitting at a table with Meryl Streep, Viola Davis and John Patrick Shanley at the Hollywood Foriegn Press Association’s Golden Globe Awards where she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, one of five nods the film received. Surrounded by major artists such as Ron Howard, Frank Langella, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Clint Eastwood, Kate Winslet, and so many others, she looked comfortable and right at home.

But seven years ago she was struggling to find work. And the actress says she was ultimately stunned to land a plum role in a major film being directed by Steven Spielberg, two time Academy Award winning director and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

“It’s been fantastic,” she explains by phone, “surreal, but I am loving it. ‘Catch Me If You Can’ was a huge break for me and Steven was just so generous as a director, so enthusiastic and positive all the time. Going to the set was a constant pleasure.”

The actress says she is “trying to just experience things right now, to let them happen and see where we go with it — take everything as it comes to me.” She’s somewhat overwhelmed by the attention she is getting these days. I liked Adams within seconds of speaking with her: soft-spoken yet talkative, forthright, honest, and modest.

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January 14, 2009
If nominated, will Clint win Best Actor? I think so…

Though it ain’t over till it’s over, I think the five nominees for best actor have all but been decided. Come nomination morning, I expect to hear the names of Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn, Frank Langella, Mickey Rourke and Richard Jenkins.

Of course I have no way of knowing if this is how things will end up, but I have a pretty good feeling (which means nothing). Left off the list will be Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which will garner the most nominations of any film, and Leonardo DiCaprio for “Revolutionary Road,” a brilliant, dark and troubling masterpiece, destined to be re-discovered in years to come as perhaps the best film of the year and certainly DiCaprio’s best work to date.

Eastwood is in partly because he is Eastwood and partly because he does fine work. The role is tailor made for him in the manner Rooster Cogburn was written for John Wayne in “True Grit,” which won The Duke his only Oscar back in 1969. Eastwood gets to growl, cuss and throw out all sorts of racist comments in portraying a nasty old son of a bitch who turns out to have a heart. For anyone who has ever met or spoken to Eastwood, they will realize this character is light years away from the man, making it a startling performance.

I am so tired of reading that he is playing himself. Sure he is portraying an extension of himself. All actors do that (and always have), but Eastwood is also portraying a variation on the sort of role that made him famous. Could Walt be “Dirty Harry” after retirement? Damned straight he could and perhaps this is why the film has been greeted so warmly in some quarters, because the reviewer sees Eastwood’s character as an older version of Harry, a much loved character from years gone by, and a reimagination of his screen iconography. It is sort of like seeing an old friend again.

Well…sort of.

If nominated, Eastwood will be a major threat to win the award. In fact, no, I’ll just say what Kris has been saying for a few months, now that I’ve gone back to the film a third and fourth time: if nominated, Clint WILL win.

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January 10, 2009
DGA discrepancies with AMPAS are not uncommon

The announcement of this year’s DGA nominees has left the sense that the races for Best Picture and Best Director are over. Not so. While the guild and Academy line up most of the time, and have a decent track record with the directing branch, we must not forget the years that proved otherwise. This could be such a year.

Ask yourself how many times the Best Picture category has lined up perfectly with the nominees for Best Director? Please also be aware that the DGA has awarded their prize sometimes to directors not even nominated for an Oscar: Ron Howard for “Apollo 13” and Steven Spielberg for “The Color Purple” to name a couple. So while the race is certainly clearer, it is by means over.

I still believe Woody Allen stands a strong chance for being nominated for “Vicky Christina Barcelona,” just as I believe that Darren Aronofsky could sneak in for “The Wrestler.” But who gets snubbed?

Gus Van Sant, Christopher Nolan, Ron Howard, David Fincher and Danny Boyle are worthy nominees all, most deserving of their attention and potential award. But who of those esteemed five could the Academy allow to slip away? It’s a tough call.

I hate to say it, but I think Fincher is the most likely snub. A stunning film to be sure, and likely the major nominee recipient…just as “The Color Purple” was in 1985. My gut tells me Fincher might get the shaft only because he’s been on that side of things before, and the others are just too hard to ignore. That said, let’s not forget that Ron Howard has been a victim of this sort in the past, for his finest work in fact, “Apollo 13.” And Nolan is in some dicey waters, though I doubt he could be the victim of the blockbuster mentality that haunted Spielberg for “Jaws” (and much of his career).

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January 9, 2009
Celebrating Heath’s accomplishment

When Johnny Depp first read the role of Captain Jack Sparrow, there was nothing in the script to suggest the performance he would eventually give. That bizarre manner of speaking, sounding slightly stoned, the crazy off-kilter walk, and the way he moved his arms, all but flailing them about. That was an actor’s artistry, plain and simple, and it was something to behold. That is the genius of Johnny Depp.

When Heath Ledger was given the role of the Joker I was mildly surprised, not because I did not think he could do it. On the contrary. It just never occurred to me to consider him for the role. Obviously Christopher Nolan knew something I did not. Then consider the obstacles facing Ledger, the largest being a performance from one of the greatest and most beloved actors in the history of the cinema in the same role back in 1989. “Batman” was still a hot DVD, plenty fresh in the minds of viewers. Jack Nicholson’s Joker was, at the time, critically acclaimed. He stole the movie right from under Michael Keaton’s nose — even had top billing. Yet Tim Burton’s “Batman” was a fantasy, and Christopher Nolan has gone in an entirely different direction with his “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.”

Ledger understood this and made the decision to portray the Joker as realistically as possible, as a terrorist, as a murderous maniac with a mind that was pure evil and twisted genius. He walked differently, he moved differently, he spoke differently. The licking of the lips to soothe the scars of his mouth, the manner of speaking slowly as to challenge the other person, all of this was Ledger. He created something rather extraordinary in the film and that should be celebrated.

I believe he gave the best performance of the year in 2005 for his breathtaking work in “Brokeback Mountain,” but the Academy thought otherwise. But I don’t think that will happen this year. This is one of those performances like Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront,” Nicholson in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Robert De Niro in “Raging Bull” and recently, Forest Whitaker in “The Last King of Scotland” that is so brilliant, so stunning to watch (and watch again), the Academy has to honor it. This is one for the ages, to be discussed and reviewed for years to come.

Tom O’Neil is tossing the supporting actor race around with a couple of colleagues over at Gold Derby. Entertainment Weekly’s Dave Karger brings up the issue of winds of changing, the “dynamic changes in momentum,” as O’Neil puts it. But let’s face it. The Academy will look like fools if they don’t hand Ledger this trophy, because this is the most discussed performance of the year.

The best directors, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, they hire their actors and trust them to do the job, to come to the set prepared and having created something for the film that will work for the director’s vision. Nolan did this with Ledger He smartly stood out of the way and let him go, allowing the actor to enhance the film, give it an edge, bring to it a dark brilliance. And what could “The Dark Knight” be without the darkest of villains?

January 7, 2009
Sean Penn wins critical trio, seems poised for Oscar

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Society of Film Critics and New York Film Critics Circle have agreed nine times on their choice for best actor of the year, including Sean Penn this year for his riveting work in “Milk.” On five of those occasions, the gentleman has gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Robert De Niro was first for “Taxi Driver,” one of the great film performances which lost the Oscar to Peter Finch in “Network,” a posthumous award for the British actor. Dustin Hoffman would win across the board three years later for “Kramer vs. Kramer.” In 1981, Burt Lancaster won across the critical board for “Atlantic City,” but he lost the Oscar to sentimental favorite Henry Fonda in “On Golden Pond.”

British actor Bob Hoskins would nab all three critical awards for his decent mobster in “Mona Lisa” but had no chance against Paul Newman in “The Color of Money” come Oscar time. Daniel Day-Lewis has twice won the critical hat trick with “My Left Foot” and last year for “There Will Be Blood,” making him the only double winner of the honors.

Nicolas Cage won all three critics prizes for his doomed drunkard in “Leaving Las Vegas,” no doubt edging out Sean Penn in “Dead Man Walking.” And for his seething work as Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland,” acting great Forest Whitaker won with the critics and with Oscar.

Sean Penn seems poised to take the golden guy one more time…

January 4, 2009
My picks for the 10 WORST films of the year

As always, this list was no trouble to write. There is always an abundance of bad films in a given year. I tend to go for the films that should have been stronger, that had a good director or fine actors, but still came out smelling like sewage. There’s no excuse for that.

1. “88 MINUTES”
It only felt like 88 weeks.

2. “10,000 BC”
What really needs to be said?

3. “THE LOVE GURU”
And again…is there anything I can say?

4. “THE HAPPENING”
Shyamalan continues to disappoint.

5. “SEX AND THE CITY”
Great looking girls with money bitching about their poor lives…awwww.

6. “MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA”
Spike Lee’s war epic, horribly acted by a central character with an annoying child…stupid and boring. Worse, Lee’s own racism was never more evident.

7. “THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL”
Just bloody awful.

8. “MEET DAVE”
More from Eddie Murphy as his career spins round and round the toilet bowl.

9. “SPEED RACER”
???

10. “BANGKOK DANGEROUS”
Cage can act…so why doesn’t he??

(Check out my list of the year’s best here.)

December 30, 2008
My picks for the 10 BEST films of the year

It’s no secret that I don’t expect 2008 to be remembered as a banner year for cinema, though with that said, there are plenty of exceptional films to be remembered.

Perhaps 2007 spoiled us and got our hopes up and 2008 brought far too many let downs and disappointments from great filmmakers. Usually when I sit down to write up the year’s best, the first short list stands at around 30, perhaps 35 films that range from very good to great. This year I was at less than 20, and in some cases, I was probably stretching to allow space for this or that.

But I got it down to 10, so here they are…

10. “VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA”
This film was not vintage Woody Allen, as he has grown so much as a director for anything new from him to be considered a throw-back, but it is certainly refreshing Allen. Sexy and sleek, this film is part of the newest stage in the director’s career, moving away from the comfort and familiarity of New York to an exotic locale with Americans mixing it up and getting into all sorts of bizarre situations. Penélope Cruz all but burns a hole in the screen with her sensuality in this film, which is terrifying because she just might be psychotic. Welcome back Woody…we’ve missed you.

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December 29, 2008
Why (and how) I became a film critic

I think this is important to state right now. Why do Kris, Guy, Gerard, Blake, Brian and I do what we do? How did we get on this path? Obviously, I cannot speak for them, but here’s my story and some insight into why I love film, and how deeply that love goes.

Though my education on film began at the age of seven in a small Ontario village called Seagrave (where I live now), the actual “eureka” moment came in August of 1979, 10 minutes after walking out of the first Toronto showing of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.” For the previous three hours I had sat and watched Coppola’s surrealistic exploration of Vietnam, its images haunting me throughout. I was numb as I sat down on the street bench a few feet from the theater entrance.

At the age of 20, I was an acting student hoping to become a film actor, but at that moment I had been galvanized in some way I could not fully explain. For years I had consumed all things cinema, seen everything I could, set my alarm to watch the late, late shows and wrote my own reviews, which I kept in a large binder. Somehow I knew right then that acting was not for me (I was never really any good). I wanted to write about film.

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December 24, 2008
‘Revolutionary Road’ — snubbed today, sure to be remembered forever

One of the biggest surprises of the awards season for me is the fact that “Revolutionary Road” is being all but forgotten by many critics groups and has certainly slipped off the Oscar radar as a result. Is the film deserving? Absolutley. I think it is one of the best films of the year and among the finest I have seen this decade, but for whatever reason — and who can explain these things — it has not gotten a great deal of press.

This is a major accomplishment, a work of art superbly directed by Sam Mendes who in eight years has become one of the most exciting directors in modern cinema. Though I count myself among those who though his breakthrough film “American Beauty” was very good but also radically over-praised, his follow-up, “Road to Perdition,” was superb and should have been among the nominees for Best Picture and Best Director in 2002, vastly superior to “Chicago.”

His third film, “Jarhead,” was darkly beautiful to look at but didn’t quite work with audiences who are still not interested in films about Afghanistan or Iraq (whichever installment). Mendes possesses a gift with actors, one of those directors like Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and more recently, Paul Thomas Anderson. He’s able to bring out their best work. It seems no surprise he married an actress.

He is also patient with a narrative, allowing it to unfold with the knowledge the audience connects with the actors. With “Revolutionary Road,” he has cranked out a crowning achievement in a career just getting started, and yet like so many other masterworks, it may slip through the cracks, barely noticed.

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December 23, 2008
Just because I don’t get it, doesn’t mean it’s not good

Kris is taking some heat in some quarters for his comments on “WALL-E,” and while he has never said it was a bad film, he didn’t fall over himself seeking superlatives for it either. In fact, the movie did not do much for Kris, which is an unpopular sentiment, given the critics awards and rave reviews for the film.

Why is this not okay with some people? Similarly, why is not okay to say that one does not feel “Citizen Kane” is the greatest film of all time? I don’t think it is and you have no idea the heat I take for that. Kris made a bold decision, one he believed in, one he felt was right, one that was honest.

When will people realize that at the end of the day we are all critics with an opinion, but some of us are fortunate enough to do it for a living? Does that set us apart? Not really.

Watching a film is connected to the oldest of rituals, similar to the ancient Greeks filing in to see a play and watching with rapt attention the players on stage. They then left the play and discussed it, just as we do today with cinema. Maybe we like the film, maybe we don’t…it is all opinion-based and at the end of the day, no one is really wrong.

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December 22, 2008
Clint Eastwood’s potential Best Actor win

It could happen…but it shouldn’t.

My admiration and love of Clint Eastwood’s work as a director was enough to send me on an 18-month research and writing spree, piecing together a study of the man that should be in bookstores in a week’s time. In the forward, I make clear that had anyone suggested to me in the 1970s that Eastwood would one day be an Oscar-winning director and producer, one of the best directors working in modern cinema, and a two-time Best Actor nominee, I would have laughed, long and loudly in their face. Certainly there could be no question about his star power…he had that. But he was hardly a great actor.

Earlier this year his film “Changeling” was released to strong reviews, but doesn’t seem poised to do much for him come Oscar time (a shame). But there is talk of a Best Actor nomination for his performance as crusty, cranky, tough-as-nails Walt Kowalski in “Gran Torino.”

Actors have won Oscars masquerading as a career achievement in the past. Hell Al Pacino must know as do we that “Scent of a Woman” is not his best work, yet he won the Oscar for it. Henry Fonda won for “On Golden Pond,” though he should have won years before for “The Grapes of Wrath,” while James Stewart took home the gold for “The Philadelphia Story,” one of his lightest performances.

Guy put together a smart list of similar AMPAS atrocities a few weeks ago, so I won’t go into them here. Suffice it to say, the “career achievement” Oscar is a staple of a dubious Academy year in and year out.

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December 20, 2008