In Contention

Category: Daily

  • ‘Contagion’ character posters

    I’ve successfully dodged the trailer — and swiftly ducked out of any online discussion — for Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion,” to I can honestly say that I haven’t the faintest idea what it’s about, and plan to stay cheerfully ignorant until the lights go down at its Venice press screening in a few weeks’ time. Fortunately, this set of six character posters that hit the web yesterday doesn’t shed any more light, selling the film on its tantalizing cast and a hazy sense of foreboding that invites so many questions. What’s going on? Why can’t we touch anyone? Why has Matt Damon switched bodies with Mark Wahlberg? Why is Jude Law preserved in ice? And what did poor Gwyneth Paltrow, here lobbying hard for Ron Howard’s long-gestating Tilda Swinton biopic, do to so displease the film’s marketers?

    All will be revealed in under a month. The most arresting of the designs is after the cut, followed by the most flattering (Marion Cotillard clearly has friends in the right places) — check out the rest at Yahoo! Movies.

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  • Toronto updates lineup, plus ‘Take This Waltz’ teaser

    The vast Toronto Film Festival lineup is a still-growing beast, but today it swelled to 125 titles with the addition of a cluster of homegrown Canadian titles, including two films — Mary Harron’s “The Moth Diaries” and Jean-Marc Vallée’s “Cafe de Flore” — that will debut at Venice a few days earlier. Most exciting, however, is the world premiere of “Keyhole”: avant-garde auteur Guy Maddin’s first dramatic feature in several years reunites him with former muse Isabella Rossellini, while Jason Patric (hey, remember him?) takes the lead.

    Steve Pond has the list of new Canadian additions, while you can check out the full lineup (thus far) at the festival site.

    Speaking of all thing Canadian, by the way, a couple of readers have asked for a space to air opinions on the teaser scene (I’m not sure why some are calling it a trailer) recently released for the TIFF-booked “Take This Waltz,” the Michelle Williams-Seth Rogen romantic drama from Oscar-nominated actress-turned-filmmaker Sarah Polley. I thought the spot too isolated and inconsequential to merit much discussion, but the force is strong — check it out after the jump, if you’re so inclined, and share your thoughts.

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  • Things we lost in the fire

    Apologies for the silence on the site in the last day or so — Kris has been in transit, while I’ve been distracted by dispiriting events close to home.  The riots that have been plaguing London since Saturday night seemed to finally attract the full attention of international news networks today, but I’m not sure how effectively they can convey the queasy jumble of anger, confusion and dread afflicting most of the city’s residents, myself included.

    Many of us, even, are scarcely getting the full impression: it’s hard enough to wrap one’s head around local misfortunes — last night, I was dryly informed via Twitter that a bus a mere half-mile from my house had gone up in flames — before taking in the full, discontinuous jigsaw of incident and loss, and moving on to ponder what this means on a broader (and longer-term) national and social level.

    “It’s sad that so much damage is somehow being done with so little conviction,” I overheard a train passenger say this afternoon, a quote that seemed to me to sum up the stateless quality of the last couple of days.

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  • French trailer and poster for ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’

    As some you will remember, I flipped for Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need To Talk About Kevin” back in May, and the film has yet to work its way out from under my skin. The film is heading into its second festival phase, build on its Cannes buzz at Toronto and perhaps Telluride. (It’s sure to have a high-profile gala spot at the London Film Festival too.) We’re still awaiting the US and UK marketing, but for the impatient, French distributor Diaphana has put out an intelligently cut trailer that does a pretty good job of conveying the stylized, sensually led approach Ramsay has taken to the material — but keeps the lid on Tilda Swinton’s Oscar-ready performance. The poster, however, could use some improvement. Check them out after the jump, via Bleeding Cool. (Thanks to reader Jim T for the tip.)

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  • BOX OFFICE: ‘Apes’ rose

    I’m no box office expert, but while $54 million is obviously a great late-summer number for “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” I can’t help but wonder if it would have had a shot at more bank if it had been let out of the bag earlier via advance press screenings. Regardless, word of mouth could keep its legs strong, and I’m sure Fox is more than happy with this. “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” hit a billion worldwide earlier in the week and will be lapped domestically by “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” later this week. “Cowboys & Aliens,” meanwhile, is toast.

    (Courtesy: Exhibitor Relations)

  • Blank

    It’s probably largely to do with the inherent sense of understanding, but there’s also something universal about it, about the tragically imperfect’s search for perfection. In any case, I find this to be one of the best, if simplest, slices of genius on the page in our time. Anyway, as you were. I’m just bored here.

  • Hollywood’s new obsession: robots

    Trends are hardly new in Hollywood, but I can’t help but react to the escalation of robot-themed projects in the works as of late, all of them, no doubt, looking to cash in on the multi-billion-dollar “Transformers” franchise.

    First there is the Hugh Jackman-starrer “Real Steel” later this year. Then, whenever he decides to get around to it, Steven Spielberg will dive into the adaptation “Robopocalypse.” An adaptation Daniel Wilson’s book “How to Survive a Robot Uprising” is also in the cards (which would dovetail nicely with a take on the Max Brooks classic “The Zombie Survival Guide”).

    Yesterday a reboot of “Short Circuit” was announced, and today, /Film reports that “Monsters” director Gareth Edwards is working on an untitled project “about a young human child (probably around 5 years old) and a robot who travel across the galaxy in search of mankind’s origin in a world void of humanity and filled with robots.” The director is apparently pitching the project as “a robot Star Wars.” Well, that’ll certainly get the suits listening.

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  • In praise of the modern movie soundtrack

    I generally try to ignore film opinion pieces I think are fundamentally misguided — à chacun son goût and all that, plus the fact that fighting one mind is generally more trouble than it’s worth — but Ben Walsh’s idle article in The Independent today on the supposed demise of the movie soundtrack does such an absurd disservice to the current landscape of film music that it can’t pass without objection.

    Walsh’s standpoint is a dully nostalgic one: movie scores were so much more memorable in the old days, when greats like John Williams, Ennio Morricone and Danny Elfman (who are all dead, apparently) conjured whistle-ready themes by the dozen, while scores today “seem so completely unmemorable” by comparison.

    His pool of case studies for this assertion is a shallow one — he speaks mainly of the recent Oscar winners by Best Picture, Original Score and Original Song, oddly conflating the last two categories as if the two disciplines are somehow comparable — and even through that narrow prism, his preferences are hard to justify.

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  • First look at Anne Hathaway as Catwoman

    Or, to be more precise, as Selina Kyle, given that the “Dark Knight Rises” machine seems to be avoiding the “Catwoman” moniker. My considered verdict on this: she’s not Michelle Pfeiffer. But then, few people are. Beyond that, I have no opinion, though I’m sure many of you do. Have at it in the comments.

  • Tell us what you thought of ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’

    I finally caught up to Rupert Wyatt’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” tonight and thoroughly enjoyed every frame. It’s easily the best blockbuster of the summer season and, I’d say, the best film of the franchise (including the classic first installment, which is far better as a concept than it is as a film). It’s also a real shame Fox couldn’t build some steam by showing it earlier and getting the word out, because I think a bigger box office might have been in the cards. We’ll see how it does Sunday, but for now, midnight screenings should be letting out shortly on the east coast. I’d love to hear your thoughts, so head on back here with them when you get around to the film this weekend.

  • Brett Ratner and Don Mischer announced as Oscarcast producers

    Is this the day the earth stood still? Eesh. Via AMPAS release:

    Brett Ratner and Don Mischer will produce the 84th Academy Awards telecast, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak announced today. This will be Ratner’s first involvement with the Oscar show; Mischer will for the second year in a row serve as a producer and as the telecast director.

    “I was so impressed with Brett when I met with him to discuss the Oscar show,” said Sherak. “He has an incredible love of film and its history and is a true student of the business of movies. He’s unbelievably creative and knows how to take risks that are both interesting and inspiring. Together with Don Mischer – who, by the way, just earned an Emmy nomination for his work on the 83rd Academy Awards – I think these two will give us a fantastic Oscar show that you won’t want to miss.”

  • ‘Margaret’ finally goes free

    And you thought “The Tree of Life” had a protracted journey to its eventual release. It’s well over two years since I first wrote about the woes of Kenneth Lonergan’s chronically delayed sophomore feature, “Margaret,” and even then, it was a stale issue. The film was shot in 2005 — long before co-producers Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella passed on, long before leading lady Anna Paquin’s career was transformed by “True Blood” — and has languished in post-production purgatory (with occasional trips into legal hell) ever since.

    Indeed, the wait for “Margaret” simply to travel from set to screen has now exceeded the already frustrating five-year gap between Lonergan’s marvelous, Oscar-nominated debut, “You Can Count on Me,” and the production of his follow-up. Some blamed Lonergan’s perfectionism in the editing room, others an unruly, 168-page shooting script; whispered reports from test screenings weren’t overly encouraging. For better or worse, I had assumed by now, the film was lost to us.

    Happily, I was wrong. Making good on a brief but firm promise made a year ago, distributor Fox Searchlight has named a September 30 release date for the film.

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  • Serkis addendum

    Thanks to reader Micah for pointing me to this NPR interview with Andy Serkis, which offers a nice nugget to dovetail with this morning’s post about Oscar-worthiness and the potential for a Special Achievement Award for the actor’s work in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” Here is his take on awards hub-bub around performance-capture (which starts at the 18:40 mark):

    My take on it is — and having worked on it for some years now — is that acting is acting. A performance is a performance. When we shoot these things, after they’ve been shot, the director, Rupert Wyatt, cuts the film, he edits the film. And the actor’s performance — my performance as Caesar, for instance, in this film — he can see my face on film going through all the emotions. He then cuts the entire story using my performance. And then eight or nine months down the line the visual effects shots, the overlaying of the performance with the skin and the texturing and coloring and painting over my eye movements and so on, that’s done later on. But the director’s already edited the movie and told the story and wants to uphold the performance of that actor.

    [Photo: NPR]

  • First look at Henry Cavill as Superman in ‘Man of Steel’

    Looks like the Singer costume. Something about the plastic-ness of that steel door bothers me. Lots of trepidation on my end. Fingers crossed.

    (click for larger version)

  • Forget Best Supporting Actor — it’s time to honor Andy Serkis’ “Special Achievement”

    There has been a lot of talk this week about Andy Serkis’ stirring performance-capture portrayal of ape rebellion leader Caesar in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” In many quarters, writers are calling for consideration in the Best Supporting Actor category. It’s a song and dance Serkis and those of us who follow the film awards season have heard before, but I wonder if it’s the wrong approach.

    It’s important to face facts if you want Oscar recognition for Serkis. The Academy — an actor-dominated body — is not ready to hail performance-capture outside of the effects arena. Period. Two years ago, “Avatar” showed us that there was fear there when it missed out on a Best Picture win. It was admittedly one of a handful of issues that served as a stumbling block, but the sense (amplified by competing Oscar campaigns) was that a quickly advancing technique could one day render actors obsolete. Yes, it was a ridiculous fear, but it was a fear nonetheless. And for some, I’m sure it still is.

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  • Up my alley

  • Weta out in front for VFX Oscar with ‘Apes’

    I missed last night’s big press screening of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (inexplicably held until the last minute and then embargo-requested — didn’t hold — by the studio despite people loving the film). I will, however, be catching it tomorrow night, but one thing we’ve been counting on since the beginning is a nomination for Best Visual Effects.

    Now, it’s looking more and more like the film could just walk away with the statue. Put state-of-the-art effects in a bad movie and you have an uphill climb. Just ask “Transformers.” The Academy at large doesn’t know what it should be looking for in the below-the-line categories, so more often than not, members just pick their favorite of the bunch.

    However, if you have undeniable effects work in a blockbuster that actually goes over well with the Academy, you have something to work with.

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  • ‘The Help’ and the year’s best ensemble performance…so far

    Now that I’m done crying my eyes out, a few words on Tate Taylor’s “The Help,” which I caught this afternoon.

    It’s a beautiful film, safe, sure, but it knows where to lay the emotional hammer down and where to let the rock keep skipping on the surface. Most striking is the ensemble, as there isn’t a single bad performance in the film. In fact, I’d say all of the them are comfortably above average, the highlights coming from Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. But then Jessica Chastain was my personal favorite. Oh, and what about Sissy Spacek leaving you in the aisles?

    You see? It takes a real special touch to get this kind of across-the-board perfection out of a cast. Bryce Dallas Howard has pinpoint devilish precision. Allison Janney wiggles her way into your heart even after you don’t want her there. Ahna O’Reilly captures that locked-in submissive state wonderfully. Cicely Tyson punches you in the gut with just a few minutes of screen time. On and on. Oh, and Emma Stone…duh.

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