“The Vintner’s Luck,” from “Whale Rider” director Niki Caro, is one of a number of under-the-radar titles we’ve had our eyes on in the Contenders section since February. The film is described as concerning “an ambitious young peasant winemaker and his lifelong relationship with an angel as together they grapple with the sensual, the sacred and the profane in search of the perfect vintage.” Alrighty. It stars Vera Farmiga and 2002 best Actress nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes, and this being “the year of the woman,” as Guy has pointed out in the past, it’s worth passing along (thanks to reader Adam):
Category: Daily
-
Not shocking, but still…wow
Over at Cinematical, Todd Gilchrist has taken on the gift that keeps on giving: moronic junket journalists and their moronic queries. In a post titled “Dumbest Questions Abound at the ‘Orphan’ Junket,” Gilchrist rattles off the top five doozies, saving this nugget for last:
1. Are you ready to be hated by America for being this sinister antichrist of this film?
How anyone could casually ask a 12-year-old this question is incomprehensible, and inexcusable. I think there are legitimate and even good ways to ask this question, such as, “are you concerned at all that people might confuse you with this character?” or “do you worry that people might react to you negatively because of how scary your character is?” Amazingly, Isabelle Fuhrman managed to come up with the perfect answer, and provide the junket’s highest point just when it seemed like it was at its lowest:
“If America hates me, then I’ve done my job,” she said. “That’s the point of the movie!”
She should have then punched said journalist in the mouth, but there’s time.
-
Comic-Con on the way
Like the rest of the web geek world, I guess, I’m gearing up for this year’s San Diego Comic Con International, which begins with preview night on Wednesday.All eyes, of course, are on Thursday’s slew of events, a treasure trove of goodies that made for a ton of Sophie’s choices when putting together my personal schedule. I’ll definitely be at the Disney panel, with glimpses of Robert Zemeckis’s “A Christmas Carol” in 3D and a taste of Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” among other things. Speaking of 3D, perhaps the most anticipated panel will be James Camerons “Avatar” event. I’m definitely looking forward to that, but the likely crowd of humanity that will be doing same? Not so much. Trying to wrangle some VIP consideration as we speak.
The Peter Jackson-produced “District 9” isn’t as high on my to-do list as most, but I’ll probably park it for Paramount’s “Iron Man 2” Panel on Saturday. The film just wrapped a 72-day shoot over the weekend, by the way. Warner Bros. also has a panel, on Friday, but Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are” is the only thing that has me interested there. Focus Features also plans a considerable presence with “Coraline” (the Blu-ray and DVD of which hits shelves tomorrow) and “9.”
Oh, and Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.” I suppose I should check that out.
-
This is the theme to Gary’s show…
Totally off topic, but an announcement landed in the inbox this morning concerning the upcoming release of “It’s Gary Shandling’s Show” on DVD. This isn’t “The Larry Sanders Show,” mind you, which was big on HBO for a number of years, but the 20-year-old original sitcom the actor starred in long ago. I used to watch it along with “The Tracy Ullman Show,” “In Living Color,” “Married…with Children” and “The Simpson” back when Fox had a powerhouse prime time line-up.
Anyway, it dug up memories so I thought I’d share. The opening theme song always cracked me up: “This is the theme to Gary’s show, the opening theme to Gary’s show, this is the music that you hear as you watch the credits.” Brilliant.
(Full press release on the forthcoming DVD release after the jump.)
-
40 years later…
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon walk. But I’m having trouble drumming up any real feeling about that since it really hasn’t meant a damn thing since. We never went back with any real initiative, the space program has stalled for the most part and never seems to break any new barriers and, yeah, I actually put some level of stock into the idea that we never went there in the first place.Don’t get pissy with me. I guess we could look at the tapes again. Oh, wait. NASA “lost” them and “probably taped over” them. That ought to get the conspiracy theorists’ hearts racing.
But seriously, I can’t say the occasion is particularly moving. It doesn’t feel like it has meant anything in the grander scheme. The “ours is bigger than yours” mentality that drove us to seek out a moon-landing in the first place doesn’t really register these days. Maybe I’d feel different if I were there, in the moment, feeling the vibe, etc. But from this perch, it’s not moving the needle. Just me.
Don’t tell Buzz Aldrin, though:
The occasion is marked by outlet after outlet this week. In the pages of The New York Times, John Strausbaugh writes up the centuries-old fascination with a moon landing in fiction, fables and film that preceded the Apollo 11 mission, while Jeffrey Kluger has the Time Magazine cover story (with some peripheral discussion on the conspiracy theory stuff).
(More fun after the jump.)
-
7/20 Web Round-up
• Edgar Arce talks “The Cove” with documentarian Louie Psihoyos. [Latino Review]• With Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” on the brain, Saul Austerlitz takes a look at the “dramedy” through the years. [Chicago Tribune]
• Meanwhile, Patrick Goldstein looks at the mystifying missed opportunity of the film’s one-sheet. [The Big Picture]
-
How Harvey corrupted Oscar
It’s a little over a week old, but I only just noticed Mike Goodridge’s rather interesting column at ScreenDaily, in which he offers yet another take on the Academy’s expanded Best Picture field. (Is it even a month since the announcement? It feels like we’ve been talking about this forever.)Unlike many, Goodridge is wholeheartedly in favor of the move, which he sees as a potential corrective to the more cynical manipulations of Oscar campaigning. I don’t necessarily agree with that conclusion, but I found myself nodding while reading the setup for his argument, in which he traces the Academy’s motivation back to Harvey Weinstein’s earliest campaigning days.
Though Weinstein is now regarded as the poster boy for disingenuous campaigning, Goodridge looks back to a time (one many pundits seem to have forgotten) when he was a force for good on the Oscar trail, using his unsurpassed savvy to get deserving indie underdogs into the race.
-
Catching up with the ten
It slipped my mind to update the Oscar nomination predictions I made in early June, which were looking sorrily outdated with a scant 5 Best Picture nominees. (What a difference a month makes!)Anyway, if only to get with the 10-strong program, it was time for a midsummer tidy, so my updated predictions can be found here.
Aside from doubling my Best Picture ranks, I’ve limited myself to mild tweaks elsewhere — after all, with most of the big players still unseen, I’m as clueless now as I was before. As I said back in June, I believe in having fun at this early stage in the game, so I’ve retained a few wildcard inclusions and omissions.
-
An idle rant for a Sunday morning…
… but one that’s been simmering inside me for some time. Who the hell are the numbskulls who select the pull quotes for DVD cover art? Do they get paid for their efforts? If so, why? And what in God’s name are they reading?I know it’s a trivial concern, and it’s not entirely limited to the DVD side of things: there are any number of theatrical one-sheets out there with the most mind-bogglingly (pick the relevant combination) banal/inappropriate/lazy/barely creditable selection of critical endorsements graffitied over their increasingly uninspiring designs.
But it’s for DVD that the marketers involved produce their biggest headscratchers, going blindfolded as they select the most random possible quotes from the most unimpressive sources, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they’re actually trying to sell the movies to punters.
-
WEEKLY WRAP: Toronto looming, ‘Education’ rising
• Lots of buzz over “An Education” this week, with a new trailer and poster unveiled … and the talk isn’t only about Carey Mulligan.• We kicked off a new season of Tech Support with a look at the runners and riders for Best Cinematography.
• Darwin biopic “Creation” will open this year’s Toronto fest, while “Bright Star” and “Precious” are also in the lineup.
• Speaking of “Precious,” this week’s edition of Page to Screen examined the novel behind the Sundance sensation.
-
R.I.P. Walter Cronkite
It’s difficult to put words to this one. Those more adept at such things will surely write the glowing appreciations the man deserves in the coming weeks. But nevertheless, the most trusted man in America is gone. And personally speaking, it’s quite ironic considering just today I finished a rewrite of a script largely about the death of journalism. Anyway, given the upcoming anniversary (though more on that Monday), I can think of no better clip than this:
-
Thompson to indieWIRE
Weeks after I expected the announcement of Anne Thompson’s shift to indieWIRE to drop, it seems the formalities are finally under way. Sharon Waxman reported the goods yesterday, but I missed it at the time.My thoughts are that this is a real coup for Eugene Hernandez and the indieWIRE team. And, it’s the best fit. Thompson was always a bit too media savvy for Variety and certainly would have been a great fixture at any of the outlets that were angling to lure her in (including The Wrap), but she’ll bring a fierce independent spirit to her new digs that I personally think will prove refreshing for her.
So, a big congrats to Anne. Break a leg.
-
1976: the last hurrah of the American western
The western was not yet dead in 1976 when four high-profile installments were released to varying degrees of success. Four years later, of course, Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate” would kill the genre for several years (and United Artists for longer), and though it has seen ups and downs in the years since, for the most part, the western remains one of the least popular genres with studios.In my opinion, Cimino’s film was never as bad as the critics said it was at the time. Many of them were lying in wait for a Cimino failure, hoping to ambush him for the lies told during the press interviews for ‘The Deer Hunter,” which won the man an Oscar and was the Academy’s choice for Best Picture. He was not a Vietnam veteran, he had never seen Russian Roulette used as torture, in fact he had never been out of America until he made the “The Deer Hunter.” This all but ruined Cimino’s reputation, which is somewhat sad because the man had a hell of an eye for detail.
That of course was the issue with “Heaven’s Gate”; though stunning in its detail, the film is insufferably slow and ponderous, with perhaps two truly stunning sequences, the best among them the community roller skating sequence, which pulsates with energy driven by a young man, the film’s composer David Mansfield and his fiddle, as they skate around the rink, veering in and out of surrounding bodies.
There was a time in the 1950s and 1960s when 20% of the films coming out of Hollywood were westerns. There were 26 prime time western programs on television, all popular, and John Wayne ruled as the top box office star. By the 1970s, westerns were made less frequently, and Wayne’s box office throne had been usurped by another star of the genre: Clint Eastwood.
-
‘Bright Star’ poster
-
Clint Mansell on growing up through film music
It’s no secret around these parts that I’m a pretty committed disciple of composer Clint Mansell. I was absolutely beside myself — livid — when his work on Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain,” potentially the best score of the decade, was unceremoniously snubbed by the Academy two years ago. So it was delightful to read through this Pete Paphides piece in The Times of London, an interview with Mansell charting his course from pop rock star to serious film music collaborator as he prepares to take to the stage at London’s Union Chapel Monday with his Los Angeles string ensemble, Sonus Quartet. The group will be playing selections from Mansell’s film score catalog.Much of the article (which has sporadic, fleeting quotes, a style that drives me mad) details Mansell’s collaboration with Aronofsky. The two met in New York over a decade ago when Aronofsky was fresh out of film school looking to produce his black-and-white mind-bender “Pi.” But there is also finally comes around to Mansell’s collaboration with filmmaker Duncan Jones on “Moon,” which eschewed the composers typical stylistic particulars in favor of a more traditional approach (that is no less atmospheric and of a piece with the film’s expert craftsmanship).
-
Kubrick interview
Yesterday we celebrated the 10th anniversary of “Eyes Wide Shut.” I wanted to put the ole’ Blu-ray in for another look. Maybe I’ll get around to it today. Anyway, I came across this YouTubed audio interview with Kubrick (in three parts) and thought it was worth posting. Great insights into the man. I feel like I’ve heard it before, but can’t place it. Here’s part one. Parts two, three and four after the jump:
-
Shoddy screening rooms: a rant
This will be a lot of inside baseball that many of you just don’t care about. For that, I’m sorry, but sometimes you have to get something off your chest.A guy like me has little to nothing to complain about when it comes to screening films in Los Angeles. I see films early, free, in a comfortable setting and, generally, with no hassle. But in the nearly five years I’ve been in this town, a growing frustration has set in that finally snapped the camel’s back in half yesterday: poor screening room facilities.
Last night I settled in for a screening of Shane Acker’s “9” (which is under embargo at the moment — more from Comic-Con, I’m sure). It was at the Sunset Screening Room over on the strip, a facility I’ve been to maybe two or three times. Studios tend to shy away from booking there, it seems. Early on in the first reel, it became apparent there would be an annoying sound issue.
I’m not aural expert by any means, but it sounded to me like a channel kept dropping out, forcing an uneven quality to the film’s track throughout. For a couple of minutes it would be a muffled, low end kind of thing with some irritating “warbling” (best way I can describe the sound) and then — BOOM! — the sound would kick back in properly and the elements were suddenly loud and invasive.
