In Contention

Category: Daily

  • John August and ‘Go’

    There are plenty of 10-years-later retrospectives going on this year.  a powerful year in cinema such as 1999 is bound to spark nostalgia.  Most recently we were discussing David O. Russell’s “Three Kings.” But over at MakingOf, there is a nice, brief chat with John August, screenwriter of “Go.”

    Doug Liman’s “Swingers” follow-up was somewhat under-the-radar in 1999.  It certainly wasn’t an awards contender, but I always loved it.  And the soundtrack got its fair share of play my first year of college.  Take a look:

  • 10/13 Oscarweb Round-up

    Jarvis Cocker• Could Jarvis Cocker step into the original song race with “Fantastic Mr. Fox AKA Petey’s Song” from Wes Anderson’s latest? [The Guardian]

    • Scott Feinberg talks to “A Single Man” star Julianne Moore. [And the Winner Is…]

    • What are the real lessons of Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown.” [Beyond the Multiplex]

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  • Category shuffling gets complicated

    Meryl Streep in It's ComplicatedIt’s been interesting to note that many of the conversations concerning the Oscar race that I’ve had with people lately revolves around category placement for a number of the year’s contenders.  It was a topic Anne and I addressed directly in Friday’s Oscar Talk, in fact.

    There tends to be dueling ideologies on this, as well as what makes a performance a lead and what makes it supporting.  But purely from a marketing standpoint, it’s understandable that sometimes studios might play the landscape of the picture for an array of acting shots on goal rather than perhaps be true to the realities (that are, again, subjective) of the role within the narrative.

    We mentioned the anticipated classification of Marion Cotillard and Vera Farmiga in the lead actress category for “Nine” and “Up in the Air” respectively in the podcast, but as Pete Hammond points out in a recent Notes on a Season item, the category musical chairs are taking place elsewhere, too.

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  • Tyson on Oprah’s couch

    I finally got around to James Toback’s documentary “Tyson” last night, which is an extremely thoughtful look at, well, one side of the heavyweight’s story.  Tyson makes for a captivating subject but I’m not sure the effort made for a captivating film.

    Tyson will be on Oprah this afternoon.  Here are a couple of highlights that have popped up up via CNN:

  • Hollywood Film Fest to honor Moore, Cooper, Kavanaugh

    Julianne MooreNew awards announced today via press release include Julianne Moore for the Hollywood Supporting Actress Award (for “A Single Man,” among other films), Bradley Cooper for the Hollywood Comedy Award (something had to go, by proxy, to “The Hangover,” I guess) and Ryan Kavanaugh for the Hollywood Producer Award.

    Additionally, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Melanie Lynsky, Paul Schneider and Zachary Quinto have been selected for the Hollywood Spotlight Awards, making the whole thing a giant grab-bag for all.

    Full list of honorees announced so far after the jump.

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  • No Off the Carpet column this week

    A morning screening and various other things have me a bit out of pocket, so no column, but predictions have been tidied up in the sidebar.  Plus, we went ahead and added a set of documentary short predictions, now that the shortlist is out.

  • 10/12 Oscarweb Round-up

    The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant• Gregory Ellwood mulls over the pros and cons of this year’s Best Actor hopefuls. [Awards Campaign]

    • Andrew O’Hehir on the British indie film explosion. [Beyond the Multiplex]

    • A.J. Schnack does a nice job of wrangling up info on the shortlisted short docs. [All These Wonderful Things]

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  • “20th Century Fox has made a preemptive acquisition of a pitch to tell the story of Moses in ‘300’ style.”

    The mind reels…

  • AFI honors Mike Nichols

    Mike NicholsScreen International reports that veteran film, TV and theater director Mike Nichols will be the next recipient of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award, to be presented next summer:

    “Genius is a word oft overused in our world, but surely not in the case of Mike Nichols,” [AFI board of trustees chair Sir Howard] Stringer said. “His artistry has spanned the mediums of modern storytelling – movies, television and the stage – and his gifts across five decades continue to inspire artists and audiences alike.”

    No argument there from me. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” “The Graduate,” “Carnal Knowledge,” “Silkwood” and “Closer” all continue to hit me where it hurts, every time I see them. For others, it’s “Angels in America.” Or “Working Girl.” Or even his brave attempt to make cinematic sense of “Catch-22.” Forget the duds … mainstream American cinema doesn’t have many (or any) like him today. Congratulations, sir.

  • Sendak on ‘Wild Things’

    Maurice SendakThe best read of the day is Scott Timberg’s substantial LA Times profile of “Where the Wild Things Are” author Maurice Sendak, which traces the vast influence he and the book exerted on children’s literature — as well as a certain young Spike Jonze.

    As someone who was heavily raised on Sendak’s work — “Wild Things” apart, I could recite his entire “Nutshell Library” back-to-front in my kindergarten days — I’m glad to see the 81 year-old author foregrounded amid the swell of hype for Jonze’s film. Obviously, Timberg devotes much attention to the boundary-breaking darkness and psychological grounding of Sendak’s work; more surprising, however, is this interpretation of the book’s cinematic properties:

    In “Wild Things,” a single sentence can take pages to unfold, its meaning changing slightly with each image. And this book with numerous wordless pages ends with a half-sentence and no accompanying image. Sendak works similarly to the directors of the French New Wave, who used jump cuts and other techniques to dislocate their editing.

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  • Goldfrapp meet Beatles in ‘Nowhere Boy’

    Alison GoldfrappI meant to mention this just before I went on vacation in September, but it slipped my mind.

    Anyway, adding to the many reasons for my interest in Sam Taylor-Wood’s “Nowhere Boy,” the John Lennon biopic that closes the London Film Festival on 29 October, is the promise of a score by electro-pop outfit Goldfrapp (probably best known Stateside for their 2005 hit “Ooh La La”).

    The British duo, comprising musician Will Gregory and vocalist Alison Goldfrapp, revealed last month that they had almost completed the score, and would be recording string segments with a full orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London. (An obvious tribute to Lennon, and a nice one.)

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  • Foreign film correction: Greece submits ‘Slaves’

    Slaves in Their BondsLast week, based on word from a source I had no reason to disbelieve, I reported that Greece had submitted the acclaimed Cannes prizewinner “Dogtooth” in the Best Foreign Language Film race. Not so, apparently.

    I’m not sure whether this was incorrect from the start or the selectors changed their minds — details can get murky in this race — but Screen International confirms that the the Greek entry is actually veteran director Adonis Lykouresis’s “Slaves In Their Bonds.” Apologies for the misinformation.

    Either way, it’s probably a savvy choice. For all its critical kudos, Academy voters most likely wouldn’t have touched the violent, discomfiting “Dogtooth” with a bargepole, while Lykouresis’s film, a romantic family saga set in Corfu at the turn of the 20th century, sounds rather more up their alley.

  • Truth

  • The Great Performances: 1995

    (from left) Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison CountyBased on some of the comments I received last week regarding my article on great acting, I took the suggestion of a young lady and am kicking off a series of articles, one per week, that will explore the best performances ofeach year, beginning today with 1995.  So let’s go back and work our way towards 2008 and discover the great film performances we know about, and maybe a few we do not.

    The Academy did a pretty fine job in 1995 when it came to the acting nominees.  Sure there was some shock when John Travolta was snubbed for his superb work in “Get Shorty,” and those hoping for a three-peat with Tom Hanks missed it when the actor was not nominated for his solid work in “Apollo 13.” I personally would like to have seen Clint Eastwood nominated for his wonderful work in “The Bridges of Madison County,” but there are just five slots open, and so many fine pieces of acting.

    One could also argue for Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, both excellent in David Fincher’s “Seven,” or Bruce Willis, who was nobly brilliant in “Twelve Monkeys,” and perhaps even Jack Nicholson in “The Crossing Guard.”

    Nobody could argue with Nicolas Cage in “Leaving Las Vegas,” Sean Penn in “Dead Man Walking” or Anthony Hopkins for “Nixon” as Best Actor nominees.  And frankly I believe Penn gave the best performance of the year, one for the ages in fact. However, Richard Dreyfuss in “Mr. Holland’s Opus?” Seriously?  I love Dreyfuss and I think he’s even been short-changed in the past, but come one.  He does fine work and it’s not his fault the script asks him to be mushy and sentimental, but I have struggled with his nomination over Hanks, Travolta and Eastwood for many years.

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  • Guilds announce honorary awards

    Amy PascalWhen two guilds have already named certain people they plan to honor in 2010 — unlike the Academy, they don’t feel the need to relegate honorary award recipients to a separate ceremony in November — you know the season is upon us.

    The Producers Guild of America recently announced that their next annual Milestone Award will be jointly awarded in January to Sony Pictures chiefs Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton. Considering the studio currently holds the top two spots in the U.S. box office chart, it seems an apt week to make the announcement.

    Recent recipients of the award, the PGA’s highest career honor, include Jeffrey Katzenberg, Warren Beatty and Clint Eastwood, while last year’s winners were Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Education’ lands, animation expands

    Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard in An Education• After a quiet week for awards news, this week’s Off the Carpet column contemplated the depth of the Best Actress race.

    • A topic that Kris and Anne also debated in this week’s episode of Oscar Talk.

    • Speaking of Best Actress, “An Education,” with its nomination-bound performance by Carey Mulligan, finally hit theaters this week.

    • And speaking of Mulligan, she placed highly in our list of the Top 10 actors under 30.

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  • New ‘Precious’ trailer

    Check it out over at Apple, with comments from Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey and Gabby Sidibe tossed in.

  • QUERY: Name an obscure film from the past decade I should see.

    I’ve been preparing for my obligatory best of the decade column, which will drop in December after we’ve assessed 2009’s offerings.  I’m covering bases on films that inevitably slipped through the cracks, but I’m looking to be as thorough as I can.  If there’s a film you can think of that blew you away between 2000 and now but know in your heart of hearts hasn’t hit my radar yet, chime in.