August 03, 2007
Best Ever Oscars?

Someone asked me this question the other day, certifiably the most difficult question there is in the game of movie-going/Oscarwatching. So I thought I'd actually give it a whirl.


Who deserves to win across the board in an "all time Oscars" showcase? Here's what I came up with:


Best Picture: "Citizen Kane"
Best Director: Francis Ford Coppola, "Apocalypse Now"
Best Actor: Peter Sellers, "Dr. Strangelove"
Best Actress: Maria Falconetti, "The Passion of Joan of Arc"
Best Supporting Actor: Ralph Fiennes, "Schindler's List"
Best Supporting Actress: Linda Blair, "The Exorcist"
Best Adapted Screenplay: "Double Indemnity" (Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler)
Best Original Screenplay: "Network" (Paddy Chayefsky)
Best Art Direction: "Metropolis" (Otto Hunte, Erich Kettlehut, Karl Vollbrecht)
Best Cinematography: "Apocalypse Now" (Vittorio Storaro)
Best Costume Design: "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy (Ngila Dickson, Richard Taylor)
Best Film Editing: "JFK" (Joe Hutshing, Pietro Scalia)
Best Makeup: "Dick Tracy" (John Caglione, Jr., Doug Drexler)
Best Music - Original Score: "Once Upon a Time in the West" (Ennio Morricone)
Best Music - Original Song: (next to impossible)
Best Sound Editing: "Robocop"
Best Sound Mixing: "2001: A Space Odyssey"
Best Visual Effects: "Jurassic Park"
Best Animated Feature: "Fantasia"

July 12, 2007
1-18-08

Hey everyone, my name is Brian Kinsely, I'll be writing the reviews over at Page to Screen every week for a while, hope you enjoyed the look at Charlie Wilson's War.


Now that the pleasantries are over, let's get down to businss: Quicktime finally put the trailer for top-secret "1-18-08/Cloverfield/The Parasite" movie up. If you saw "Transformers," you saw what I consider to be the easy winner for best trailer of 2007, but one of the finest trailers I've ever seen. I remain skeptical on what the film itself might look like, but the trailer guarenteed that on 1-18-08, I'll be at the movies.


I've been trying to think of what the greatest trailers of all time are. I suppose starting backwards would be a good place to start: I thought last year's best trailer was hands down "Little Children." Agree/Disagree? What are some of your favorite trailers of all time, and in recent years?

January 18, 2007
Still so much better than the finished product...

And it still gives me chills:


December 08, 2006
I can't stop listening to the greatest score of the year.

Clint Mansell has a gift. More filmmakers should hire this guy.

November 17, 2006
Eric Roth story in Sunday's New York Times

This was by far my favorite piece for the paper so far. It's left me with a decent acquaintance, if not friend, in Mr. Roth, and it was a day in class for this aspiring screenwriter:


"Eric Roth's Screenplays Get Made, Except the Ones That Don't" (NY Times)

October 27, 2006
I just got off the phone with Robert De Niro.

For this Eric Roth story I'm writing for the NY Times.


It's weird talking to your childhood icons. I mean...WEIRD. Not to mention being in the position to call him "Bob." It's not that "I'm a big fan of your work" kind of talk, which we can all handle fine. It's that professional discussion about a person's work that is just otherworldly. And it'll likely happen again Tuesday when I go to Forward Pass to interview Michael Mann.


But hey, I'll cling to my childhood as long as I have to.


"Bob" is sensationally humble and nice, by the way. Hard to believe he kicked a guy's face in in "Goodfellas."

October 20, 2006
Busy day ahead...

Lunch with Alan Arkin...phoner with Adriana Barraza for a Variety piece...co-ordinating a face-to-face with Eric Roth for a NY Times piece...oh, and there's always the pesky day job.


This is what they make Red Bull for.

October 13, 2006
Blech...
cokeblak.jpg


Anyone try this stuff yet? I think I'm gonna hurl...

September 26, 2006
Small world...

So I'm talking to this GORGEOUS blonde at the Rainbow Bar and Grille on Sunset Sunday night. She's Scottish, in a band, etc. I had just finished that Q & A with Kevin Macdonald earlier in the afternoon, so I had "The Last King of Scotland" on the brain.


Me: "Do you happen to know who James McAvoy is?"
Her: "Of course, James is me big brother."


WEIRD.


The band is called Streetside, by the way. I should know, I asked her about a thousand times in my drunken stupor. Thanks, Joy McAvoy.

September 04, 2006
Holy SHIT

I know this is a strange thing to say, but I can't believe the Crocodile Hunter is dead.

August 29, 2006
Titles Schmitles

A couple of things - because it's really starting to bug me. First, Milos Forman's distribution-less film is "Goya's Ghosts," plural. Not "Goya's Ghost." Second, Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" follow-up is called "Marie Antoinette," WITHOUT the hyphen.


And why does Variety want so badly to stick a "The" in front of "Inside Man?"


Anyway, tell a friend. Please.