In Contention

Category: Daily

  • Gervais does Conan

    I haven’t offered any comment on the Conan/Leno/NBC situation because, well, I’m not privy to the particulars.  There’s always more nuance than the usual scapegoating that gets perpetuated by, say, geek media outlets who couldn’t have less of a clue.  I’m a Conan fan before I’m a Leno fan (I’ll be in the audience at The Tonight Show Tuesday), but I also understand something called “business.”

    Anyway, that having been said, I liked the playful joshing between Ricky Gervais and O’Brien regarding the situation throughout last night’s interview.  The Globes ought to be a hoot Sunday night with Gervais as emcee.  Parts 2-4 after the jump.

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  • BFCA/HFPA on the way

    Golden Globe AwardsThis weekend the first two major televised awards shows will hit and the race will begin to take a certain shape.  Though to be quite honest, I’m beginning to get the sense that each of these major precursors will go different ways.  At the end of the day, I think we could be looking at a three-horse race all the way up until the Best Film Editing award on Oscar night (which will either go to “Avatar” or “The Hurt Locker”).  Then it’ll be a two-horse race between that film and “Up in the Air” right up until the final envelope is opened.

    This is what we wanted, though.  Right?

    Pete Hammond does a nice job of previewing the BFCA’s Critics’ Choice Movie Awards at The Envelope.  Pete and I did a little dog and pony Q&A intro to a free showing of “Up in the Air” at the Landmark theater in West L.A. last night to a packed house.  Some 60 attendees were turned away at the door.  Mainly it was raising awareness, discussing the nominees, offering up who we voted for, etc.

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  • Iowa critics spring for ‘Up in the Air,’ ‘Crazy Heart’

    Best Picture
    “Up in the Air”

    Best Director
    Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”

    Best Actor
    Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”

    Best Actress
    Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”

    Check out the rest at The Circuit.

  • 1/14 Oscarweb Round-up

    Mark Boal• Buzz Aldrin, Willie Nelson and more comment on the accuracy of a number of the season’s contenders. [Variety]

    • Peter Jackson and Stanley Tucci talk “The Lovely Bones.” [FearNet]

    • Brooks Barnes Q&As “The Hurt Locker” writer Mark Boal. [The Carpetbagger]

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  • Burton’s ‘Alice’ goes emo

    Mia Wasikowska in Alice in Wonderland

    [UPDATE: Commenter Aspect Ratio reassures the pop-phobic that only Avril Lavigne’s contribution will feature in-film (and over credits). Otherwise, it’s Danny Elfman business as usual.]

    File this under film news I didn’t see coming: Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz and Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus are collaborating to write music for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” which opens Stateside in March. Wentz told MTV News:

    We did a song for ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ [and we] might do a few more depending on when [Mark] goes in with Blink. [It] sounds nothing like Blink or Fall Out Boy. Mark understands songwriting on a completely different level. It’s awesome to have a chance to sit in a room with him and watch him work out a melody.

    The less it sounds like either artist’s band the better, as far as I’m concerned. The “Alice in Wonderland” soundtrack will also feature new tracks from the likes of All Time Low and Avril Lavigne, as well as (slightly more my speed, this) Robert Smith and Franz Ferdinand. Cinema Blend’s Katey Rich has a full listing here.

  • Blind sided by a charming pair

    (from left) Sandra Bullock and Quenton Aaron in The Blind SideI haven’t been much for “The Blind Side” this year.  I gave it a look pre-release and thought it was somewhat flat, expected it to be a modest hit (but was it much more than that) and maybe stir awards talk for Sandra Bullock but beyond that, I didn’t think it would move the needle much.  Then the film took a life of its own, eventually crossing the $200 million domestic mark, yielding story after story focused on Bullock’s amazing year (the film is the first female-driven film to hit that box office milestone).

    So I thought at best last night’s little event for the film at Il Cielo in Beverly Hills would be a nice opportunity for some free drinks and a brief chat with a likely on-her-press-game Bullock and little else.  But boy was I wrong.  After speaking with both Bullock and star Quenton Aaron for quite a while, I think they’ve made for one of my favorite experiences of the season.

    Aaron, for starters, is absolutely charming, humble, nice as he could be and just a delight to talk to.  I’m not used to looking up at people, but at 6′ 8″, I’m sure Aaron is the same way.  Before getting the role he was working as a security guard at Rockefeller Center in New York.  The first person he told about the news, in fact, was Tina Fey, who was walking by in the hallway when he let loose a scream of joy while on his cell phone.  “What is it?,” she said, startled herself.  “I just got this part,” Aaron told her.

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  • Ryan Bingham performs ‘The Weary Kind’ on Letterman

  • 1/13 Oscarweb Round-up

    Maggie Gyllenhaal• Nathaniel Rogers wraps up his “top 100 of the decade” series with a pair of unconventional musicals taking the top two spots. [The Film Experience]

    • Melena Ryzik chats with “Crazy Heart” star Maggie Gyllenhaal. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Why Quentin Tarantino wants to be the next Howard Hawks. [The Guardian]

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  • DGA doc nominees include ‘Cove,’ ‘Anvil,’ ‘Agnes’

    Agnes Varda in The Beaches of AgnesMuch like last week’s announcement in their top category, most of the usual suspects are present in the Guild’s documentary lineup.

    I’m particularly pleased to see French New Wave veteran Agnès Varda continue to rack up a healthy precursor tally; at this rate, she’s on course for her first Oscar nomination. (She’d be breaking an Oscar age record in the process, too.)

    Of course, the DGA and the Academy don’t enjoy nearly same hand-in-hand relationship in Best Documentary as they do in Best Picture. Not since 1991 have the two agreed on a winner (Barbara Kopple’s “American Dream”), and even then, it was in separate years.

    Meanwhile, a measly three of the last 17 DGA doc winners were also Oscar nominees. (It’s not much better in reverse: only seven of the last 18 Oscar winners also scored DGA nods.)

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  • Steve Pond on Oscar’s “broken” song category

    Kate Hudson in NineThe Best Original Song race gets an awful lot of stick for its wonky voting system and sometimes questionable musical judgment — problems that have lately converged to scupper the hopes of many well-regarded contenders, with last year’s snub of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wrestler” raising particularly widespread ire.

    I’ll start, however, by saying a few words in the category’s favor. The odd egregious snub aside, the standard of competition has improved notably in recent years — some have complained that the Academy no longer recognizes familiar chart hits with the regularity that they did in the 1980s, but their musical range has expanded. The last decade has seen them embrace hip-hop, world music and folk, including several numbers that were imaginatively integrated into the cinematic fabric of certain films.

    Do they still nominate the occasional stinker? Sure. But by and large, we’re in a better, more adventurous place than we were 10 years ago, when dreary MOR balladeering from the likes of Phil Collins, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston ruled the race.

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  • ‘Princess and the Frog’ score DQ’d

    The Princess and the FrogThe whole branch is reaching a level of farce that is unbelievable.  Reports Steve Pond:

    Although Randy Newman’s score to Disney’s animated film “The Princess and the Frog” was originally deemed to be eligible in the original score category at the Oscars, the Music Branch Executive Committee met on Monday and disqualified Newman’s music from consideration.

    The score, the committee determined, runs afoul of an AMPAS rule disallowing “scores diluted by the use of tracked themes or other preexisting music,
    diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs, or assembled from the music of more than one composer.”

    Sounds familiar.

  • ‘Fox’ vs. ‘Up’

    UpI can’t help but wonder if there are some hard-working publicists out there getting in the ear of a few people, since we’ve had two pieces in as many days calling the race for Best Animated Feature a potential upset waiting to happen.

    Anyway, first, at The New York Times, Brooks Barnes uses LAFCA and NYFCC wins for Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” over Pixar’s “Up” as a basis for determining the race is bending in the Roald Dahl adaptation’s favor.  Sasha Stone notes the mantra, however: critics don’t vote for Oscars.  Barnes then goes on publish fluffy quotes from vested interests that don’t really make the case one way or the other.

    Meanwhile, at The Hufington Post, Sam Wasson notes that “Fantastic Mr. Fox” manged to force Anderson “out of his world of decadence and ushered him toward a more economical, barebones approach to story.”  Which could go a long way for him with the Academy, Wasson seems to suggest, since his recent work has been a bit inaccessible and it’s been almost a decade since the writer/director was recognized by the organization.

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  • Great track

    “The Hurt Locker” hits shelves today on DVD and Blu-ray and I’ve been meaning to mention the film’s commentary feature, which I gave a listen over the weekend.  It’s an awesome track, wall-to-wall info and plenty of insights from director Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal throughout, who never let off the throttle.  Boal adds a number of wonderful notes from his own experience, how he came around to certain scenarios on the film that are based in real life, etc.  Anyway, just thought I’d mention it.  It’s well worth a look, though unfortunately, there are no other extra features besides a flimsy 12-minute behind-the-scenes featurette.  But anyway, go get it.

  • LAFCA picks the top 10 films of the decade

    Laura Elena Harring in Mulholland DriveYou can never have too many of these, right?  Right?

    Right?

    1. “Mulholland Drive”
    2. “There Will Be Blood”
    3. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
    4. “Brokeback Mountain”
    5. (tie) “No Country for Old Men” and “Zodiac”
    6. “Yi Yi”
    7. (tie) “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and “The Lord of the Rings”
    8. “Spirited Away”
    9. (tie) “United 93” and “Y Tu Mama Tambien”
    10. “Sideways”

  • Behind the sonic magic of ‘Transformers’

    Transformers: Revenge of the FallenSpeaking of sound, Paramount was shrewd enough to put together a wonderful event last night in the Cary Grant Theater on the Sony lot dedicated to the sound design of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” Re-recording mixers Gary Summers and Greg P. Russell were on hand, as well as sound effects editors Ethan Van Der Ryn and Erik Aadahl.  Michael Bay was also in the house, introducing his crew and discussing the importance of sound in his work, which he has said is 50% of the movie-going experience. And the Cary Grant, by the way, is the actual stage the film was mixed on.

    After a brief introduction from Bay, Russell took the mic to briefly explain what it is he and the boys do.  “Painting with sound” is what he likes to call it, since as a re-recording mixer, he gets to sit at a console and play with a treasure trove of effects created specifically for the film by Van Der Ryn, Aadahl and their team.  Most of the effects for the film were indeed original to the piece, which is preferable with something as aurally unique as the “Transformers” films.  “Some people take it off a shelf,” Bay said, referring to the use of stock or cataloged sound effects, “and that’s just wrong.”

    Then it was on to the first of five clips, the opening set piece in Shanghai, which was a nice way of getting the modest crowd in the mood for the night’s shenanigans.  Frankly, this kind of thing should be open for the Academy, which votes in the sound categories at large when it becomes clear year in and year out that most of the membership doesn’t understand quality sound work, let alone the difference between sound mixing and sound editing.

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  • The sound of ‘Star Trek’

    (Courtesy: SoundWorks Collection)

  • Vancouver critics go ‘Up in the Air’

    Check out the full list of winners at The Circuit.

  • 1/12 Oscarweb Round-up

    Peter Capaldi in In the Loop• Steve Pond talks “In the Loop” with Armando Ianucci and Peter Capaldi. [The Odds]

    • Dave Karger makes his Golden Globe picks. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Katey Rich runs down the pros and cons in a four-way race (but it’s actually a three-way race). [Cinema Blend]

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