The new iteration of “At the Movies” debuted this weekend with A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips. The duo tackled Shane Acker’s “9,” the Sandra Bullock comedy “All About Steve,” Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain” (with a rather swift and wrong-headed assessment from b0th, I feel) and Mike Judge’s “Extract,” among others. Here’s an online exclusive that I rather enjoyed, the two critics discussing the films that hooked them and made them realize there was more to the medium than entertainment value:
Category: Daily
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London fest adds awards, goes heavy on Clooney
While still ensconced in Venice, I must admit that the thought of diving into another festival makes me slightly dizzy — but the London Film Festival doesn’t care about that. LFF artistic director Sandra Hebron unveiled a strong lineup this morning, but the real news is that they have added a bevy of awards to their trophy cabinet.In addition to their existing honors, including the Sutherland Trophy for best debut feature and the Grierson Award for best documentary, the festival will, for the first time, hand out an overall Best Film award, as well as an honor for Best British Newcomer. Meanwhile, the British Film Institute will award writing and directing fellowships. Compounding these changes, the festival will, for the first time, hold a formal awards ceremony on the final day.
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Michael Moore sticks foot in mouth
I recently had a conversation with someone about Michael Moore and why he has a dicey professional reputation, and the answer — not to put the filmmaker on the couch — was interesting. Here’s Moore, making money hand over fist yet crying out against the evils of capitalism and the greed of corporatism. Perhaps it triggers some sort of guilt/self-loathing.At Venice over the weekend, it seems Moore tried to address that in some way, but he might have effectively discontinued his Hollywood career in the process (though that seems to be fine by him):
In an outburst…that could spell the end of his Hollywood career, Moore turned on a roomful of executives from the film company that bankrolled his latest movie and ridiculed them as the perfect example of a capitalist corporation he criticises in his new film, before pointing out that he is now wealthy enough to make his own.
Moore, whose film Capitalism: A Love Story is in the festival’s official competition, stood in front of executives from the big-budget studio Paramount and openly mocked them. “Why would these companies give money to me, a guy who is diametrically opposed to everything they stand for?” he said.
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9/9 Web Round-up
• Roger Deakins, Alexandre Desplat and Colleen Atwood added to Hollywood film fest honorees. [Variety]• Matt Damon talks “Bourne 4.” [Empire]
• Viggo Mortensen planning an early retirement after the release of “The Road?” [Cinema Blend]
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R.I.P. Army Archerd
I never knew Army Archerd but I ran into him once or twice when I was at the Variety offices for this reason or that. I was certainly aware of the era he represented, the first daily movie columnist of his kind. He died Tuesday of mesothelioma at 87. Here’s a bit from Tim Gray’s Variety obit:Mixing one-sentence items with lengthier pieces, Archerd insisted on exclusives and provided a community bulletin board, giving details of new deals, reporting from film sets and awards shows, as well as chronicling the births, deaths and hospitalizations of showbiz denizens. He was known for being fair, quoting people accurately and being generally upbeat — which, in the latter part of the 20th century, became increasingly rare for an entertainment reporter.
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Randy Thom to be feted by CAS
The press release, in part:Rerecording Mixer/Sound Designer, Randy Thom will receive the Cinema Audio Society’s highest accolade, the CAS Career Achievement Award, to be presented at the 46th CAS Awards on February 27th, 2010 at the Crystal Ballroom of the Millennium-Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles.
“The Cinema Audio Society’s Career Achievement Award honors the best of the best and Randy Thom’s career spanning more than 30 years and over 75 films and numerous awards certainly warrants being honored,” stated CAS President Edward L. Moskowitz. “He has collaborated with some of the finest producers and directors on project as varied as blockbusters, independent films, cutting edge animation, commercials and videogames. His work exemplifies the perfect integration of sound with image.”
Thom has been nominated four times by the Cinema Audio Society for his work on FORREST GUMP, JUMANJI, CONTACT and CAST AWAY and took the top honor in 1995 for FORREST GUMP. He has shared in 14 nominations for Academy Awards, winning for Best Sound Editing for THE INCREDIBLES and Best Sound for THE RIGHT STUFF and nominated for: STAR WARS: EPISODE VI-RETURN OF THE JEDI, NEVER CRY WOLF, BACKDRAFT, CONTACT, CAST AWAY, THE POLAR EXPRESS and RATATOUILLE.
Thom began his career in film 30 years ago working on the film APOCALYPSE NOW and is currently the Director of Sound Design at Skywalker Sound.
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‘Up in the Air’ clip
See it in HD at Apple. A trailer link made the rounds; somehow it got out early. I thought /Film was going to have the exclusive on that Thursday but who knows.
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9/8 Web Round-up
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Mark Boal wins Gucci Award at Venice
I’ve been promising my interview with “The Hurt Locker” writer Mark Boal for too long now, but simply haven’t had a moment to — as Kate Winslet would say — gather. With a lighter load today, I’m hoping I can have it ready for tomorrow.Meanwhile, however, I’m thrilled to report that yesterday, Boal claimed his first official award for his work on the film, taking the Venice Film Festival’s relatively young Gucci Group Award.
Established in 2006, the award recognizes outstanding achievement in film by an artist from a different professional background — as you are surely aware, Boal is an accomplished journalist, whose “Hurt Locker” screenplay grew from his own experience embedded in an EOD bomb squad in Iraq.
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More on Reitman/Wilder
Friday I posted a piece asking whether Jason Reitman might be on track to becoming the new Billy Wilder (an idea first put forth by USA Today writer Anthony Breznican). The notion was met with some wicked vitriol from those who felt it a silly comparison or, at the very least, too soon to discuss.Fair enough on the latter, as I mentioned in my piece to begin with and in the ensuing discussion. But three days later, Stephen Farber invoked Wilder’s name in his Hollywood Reporter review of “Up in the Air” and compared the film’s protagonist to the “corporate pimp” of Wilder’s “The Apartment.” And today, in going back and forth on the idea with Breznican, he has offered a clarification but isn’t backing off on his point:
“My comment is bound to provoke that sort of thing,” Breznican wrote of the reaction. “I think you got what I meant, but I probably should have been more precise. Obviously Reitman, at the start of his career, does not add up to Billy Wilder’s entire output. But of course, that wasn’t what I was saying. Rather, I meant Reitman is working with Wilder’s toolbox, and telling the kind of stories that incomparable veteran once told.
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Hey, the rest of the year counts too
As we sit in the flurry of festival season, with the even more flurry-ful (sorry, I’m tired) awards season upcoming, everyone’s eyes are pointed forward, as we impatiently await the supposedly Oscar-tailored collection of movies peppered across the next 3 or 4 months.At this point, it’s easy to forget that the year is actually 12 months long, and that the warmer seasons offer their (admittedly, usually smaller) share of work worthy of celebration.
So I’m grateful to friend, reader and generally superb film writer Nick Davis for assembling this handy (though very idiosyncratic) alterna-Oscar ballot of the best work released in 2009 thus far.
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Congratulations, Pixar
I just realized I probably should have posted something about Pixar (and directors John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird, Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich) receiving the Golden Lion for career achievement in Venice yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, not having been present for the occasion, I can’t offer much beyond that fact.
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Werner, Werner, what have ye done?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m kind of glad to know there’s a lunatic out there making films. Never a dull moment, that kind of thing. But I want to know what happened to Werner Herzog. What happened to the artist who gave us grand statements like “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” “Fitzcaraldo” and “Woyzeck?” Who is this new guy?“The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is a train wreck from the starting gun with a performance that almost captivates for two acts and soars of the rails for the last big push. It would be embarrassing if it wasn’t so oddly endearing for being so utterly brazen. And yet it doesn’t have the balls to embrace that sense of cinematic anarchy because it is, in the final analysis, a generic, inconsequential story.
Intriguingly enough, the crowd response was considerably positive. That could have had something to do with the fact that Nicolas Cage was on hand to talk about the film, but the madness of it all clearly struck a nerve with this early morning crowd. Color me confused.
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‘White’ diamond in Venice
Good festival vibes are traveling through both sides of the Atlantic this weekend, it seems. Just as Kris lost his heart to a movie in Telluride yesterday, so, on this bright Venice morning, did I.It’s a beautiful thing when faith is rewarded. I had already pegged Claire Denis’s “White Material” as my most anticipated film of the festival, and was duly met with an unalloyed masterpiece that outstrips its seen Competition rivals by such a wide margin it’s almost a little embarrassing.
A searing study of political and personal rebellion in West Africa, led by a premier-form Isabelle Huppert as a French plantation owner obstinately clinging to her land as order and sanity crumble around her, it’s plainly the strongest film in any Venice strand thus far. It also might just be the year’s finest to date.
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Michael K. Williams coming out in 2009?
Something struck me while watching Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime” earlier this morning. Actor Michael K. Williams is having a coming out moment this year with powerful supporting performances both here and in John Hillcoat’s “The Road.”Fans of HBO’s “The Wire” are no stranger to Williams, who dazzled viewers for five seasons as stick-up man Omar Little, offering an on-the-money characterization that probably should have seen its day in the Emmy sun. Characterized by a pronounced facial scar (a reminder of a bar fight many years ago), Williams has always been something of a go-to guy for intimidating gangster types.
In “The Road,” he brings a quiet humanity to the role of The Thief, stealing for survival, rendered sympathetic by the circumstances that forced his hand.
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‘Up in the Air’ sings in the Colorado mountains
I wouldn’t dare review Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” via iPhone from an in-transit gondola, but I’m compelled to write something immediately.
The film is a triumph. It drips with Reitman’s passion, his love for his wife and child, his assessment of his own journey into adulthood. He just finished telling the audience at the Chuck Jones Theater that it’s probably the most personal film he’ll ever make. One can certainly understand the sentiment.
I’ll get into this more later, but I consider it a four-star knockout that couldn’t have hit the country and, to speak personally, me, at a more perfect time.
