In Contention

Category: Daily

  • Yes, it’s true — Zimmer and Howard are back in the mix

    Patrick Goldstein’s sources are apparently right on.  I was told by a representative party at tonight’s premiere of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” that, indeed, James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer’s wonderful score for “The Dark Knight” is officially back in the running for an Oscar.  I was actually told this was coming two days ago, but had nothing to go on beyond one inside source, so I didn’t want to go there yet.  Oh well.  Here’s hoping it can translate to a nomination, but that pesky two-composer thing might still stick in the branch’s craw.

    It was an interesting place to hear the news, considering the only score that tops Howard and Zimmer is Alexandre Desplat’s sublime work on “Button,” the likely (and deserving) Oscar victor.

  • The amount of ‘Dark Knight’ DVD exclusives is officially out of control

    Seriously.

  • All in the family

    Further proof that critics in their 60s/70s, etc. have no objectivity when it comes to Clint Eastwood. They see their fathers, they see themselves, and they see one of their heroes… but they don’t necessarily see the actual movies.

    Hollywood Elsewhere commenter JB’s response to Jeff Wells’s over-the-moon (top?) reaction to Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino.”  I’m not saying anything, just putting JB’s sentiment out there for everyone to see.  No commentary.  Zilch.

  • Reel Geezers on ‘Milk’

  • 12/8 Oscarweb Round-up

    Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump• Lou Lumenick runs down his 10-best list… [Lumenick on Film]

    • …and calls “Mamma Mia!” the guilty pleasure of the year. [Lumenick on Film]

    • Peter Sciretta gets a juicy tid-bit on the “Forrest Gump” sequel “Gump & Co.” from screenwriter Eric Roth: 9/11 killed the idea and all the principles decided it wasn’t relevant anymore.  Interesting. [/Film]

    • Christopher Nolan elaborates on his four favorite scenes from “The Dark Knight.” [USA Today]

    • Anne Thompson goes deep on why “Australia” misses the mark. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Mick Brown sits down with “Doubt” star Meryl Streep. [Daily Telegraph]

    • As the ship sinks around him, Gregg Kilday reports on the box office muscle of this weekend’s Oscar contenders. [Hollywood Reporter]

    • Ariel Kaminer tracks the road to the big screen for Bernhard Schlink’s “The Reader.” [New York Times]

    • Eleanor Clift talks the parallels of “Frost/Nixon” to the current administration, parallels writer Peter Morgan certainly didn’t have in mind. [Newsweek]

    • A refreshing list of the year’s superlatives. [New York Magazine]

  • D.C. critics chime in, ‘Slumdog’ reigns

    Rubiana Ali in Slumdog MillionaireI was totally out to lunch on this today.  “Slumdog Millionaire” continues to dominate while Heath Ledger wins his second award (after that AFI gong earlier in the week).  “Doubt” pulls down another ensemble win while truly astounding group performances from films such as “Synecdoche, New York,” “Gomorrah” and, indeed, “Slumdog Millionaire” continue to be ignored.  And Mickey Rourke picks up his first critics’ citation.

    The winners:

    Best Film: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
    Best Actress: Meryl Streep, “Doubt”
    Best Ensemble: “Doubt”
    Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt, “Rachel Getting Married”
    Best Breakthrough Performance: Dev Patel, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Original Screenplay: Jenny Lumet, “Rachel Getting Married”
    Best Animated Feature: “WALL-E”
    Best Foreign Language Film: “Let The Right One In”
    Best Documentary: “Man On Wire”
    Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

    Sasha Stone has some historical perspective over at Awards Daily.

  • Great shot

    (from left) Mickey Rourke and Darren Aronofsky on the set of The Wrestler

  • Will ‘The Wrestler’ bring The Boss a second Oscar?

    Bruce SpringsteenIt’s been 13 years since Bruce Springsteen was nominated for an Oscar (1995 for the title track to Tim Robbins’s “Dead Man Walking”) and two more since he’s taken the award home (1993 for “Streets of Philadelphia”).  With little in the way of competition beyond songs like “Rock Me Sexy Jesus” from “Hamlet 2” and the “High School Musical 3” soundtrack (okay, Peter Gabriel’s “Down to Earth” from “WALL-E” is a definite threat), the question becomes, Will The Boss win statuette number two?

    I’m thinking it’s a great possibility, especially when you consider the story behind the track.  As Mickey Rourke has been telling journalists who’ll listen, and as he said to me during our interview last month, the actor sat down to write Springsteen a letter after falling out of ouch for over a decade.  Springsteen took a look at the film and went to work on a blue-collar track to go along with the story, all the while director Darren Aronofsky not fully grasping how big a deal that was.

    Aronofsky wasn’t a big Boss fan and didn’t really get the connection the performer has with his fans until Rourke took him to a concert and Aronofsky finally got it.  “Hey, they really like this guy,” he told Mickey.  Nothing like a little innocence to go along with Aronofsky’s undeniable intellect.

    Anyway, Springsteen said he wanted to do the song for Rourke because he wanted to help the actor get back up on his feet after a crashed-and-burned career.  It was touching for Rourke, no matter whether jaded journalists want to question his sincerity.

    Yesterday Fox Searchlight sent out the musical particulars of theire films “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Wrestler,” including original scores by A.R. Rahman and Clint Mansell respectively.  Also in the mix were the original tunes “Jaiho” from “Slumdog” and, of course, “The Wrestler.”  But this version was much more souped up than the original version you hear over the credits of the film.  Indeed, it takes on an epic scope, manifying the impact of the film in your mind (have a listen to the new version here or at the bottom of the post).

    Anyway, I think it’s clear this race will be between Gabriel and Springsteen, two legends throughout the generations.  At the end of the day, could Springsteen walk away with that second Oscar bookend? Listen to the new version and decide for yourself:

    [display_podcast]

  • 12/7 Oscarweb Round-up

    A.R. Rahman• Pete Hammond reports on the week that was, including a lively “Seven Pounds” Q&A session. [Notes on a Season]

    • Jeff Wells responds with a second-hand swipe at the film. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • And Steven Zeitchik breaks embargo, writes up a positive assessment. [Risky Biz Blog]

    • Tom O’Neil points out how Oscar success for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” could finally be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s warm Hollywood welcome. [Gold Derby]

    • Hat-tipping A.R. Rahman’s collaboration with M.I.A. on the “Slumdog Millionaire” soundtrack. [Vulture]

    • David Carr talks to “Doubt” scribe and helmer John Patrick Shanley. [New York Times]

    • Heath Ledger wins his first award of the season. [New York Daily News]

    • Roger Ebert offers up the 25 best films of the year. [Chicago Sun-Times]

    • The Times goes longer. [The Times]

  • A voice of dissent

    Whether it’s on blogs like this one or in loftier film publications, there appears to be a general consensus that 2008 hasn’t been the best year at the movies, particularly in terms of American cinema. Lots of promising projects, ambitious ideas, isolated moments of genius, but very few bull’s-eyes — especially when compared to last year’s bumper crop.

    Well, one person disagrees. Roger Ebert, in fact. He believes 2008 has been “a great year for movies, even if many of them didn’t receive wide distribution.” Indeed, he thinks it so great that he can’t limit himself to a standard year-end Top Ten, instead listing his 20 favourites in alphabetical order:

    “Ballast,” “The Band’s Visit,” “Che,” “Chop Shop,” “The Dark Knight,” “Doubt,” “The Fall,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Frozen River,” “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “Iron Man,” “Milk,” “Rachel Getting Married,” “The Reader,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Shotgun Stories,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Synecdoche, New York,” “W.” and “WALL-E.”

    He rounds out the last with his own “Special Jury Prize” winner, Guy Maddin’s “My Winnipeg,” which I’ve been itching to see for a while. And of equal standing, he says, is his list of the five best documentaries (which actually reads like a plausible Oscar slate): “Encounters at the End of the World,” “I.O.U.S.A.,” “Man on Wire,” “Standard Operating Procedure” and “Trouble the Water.”

    Of course, it’s hard to argue with a personal list. Each to their own, and all that. But I must confess to feeling dismayed that only two foreign-language films made Ebert’s cut in a year where, for me, the likes of “Gomorrah” and “The Class” showed more conceptual breadth and storytelling verve than almost anything to emerge from Hollywood (or Indiewood) this year. And with so many included, I find the absence of “Hunger” and “The Wrestler” hard to fathom, particularly when something like “W.” is there.

    (more…)

  • That ‘Tropic Thunder’ ad

    A few of you guys have expressed some general enthusiasm for the “Tropic Thunder” FYC ad for Robert Downey Jr. at the top of the site here.  I agree, I think it’s a stroke of genius.  Well, FYI, I was at a party in honor of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” tonight (at the drop-dead-stunning home of producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall), and director Ben Stiller clued me into the fact that the scheme was his idea.  Paramount marketing kept coming back and trying to get something creative out of Stiller and finally he said, “Let’s just make it a campaign for the character he plays.”  Voila.  I love it.

  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Slumdog’ surges, ‘River’ emerges

    Sorry it’s a day late, but here’s the week that was. Awards and nominations left, right and centre — the season is officially under way, folks:

    • “Slumdog Millionaire” emerged as a bona fide frontrunner, taking Best Picture at the season kickoff, the National Board of Review awards …

    • … only days after taking top honours across the Atlantic, at the British Independent Film Awards.

    • Speaking of indies, “Frozen River” also enjoyed a great week, emerging victorious at the Gotham Awards …

    • … while it was also one of the top nominees for the Independent Spirit Awards.

    • We took a break from the awards beat to chat to the impressive ladies of “I’ve Loved You So Long,” Kristin Scott Thomas and Elsa Zylberstein …

    • The former of whom took a gong at the European Film Awards, which were otherwise all about “Gomorrah.”

    • The Annie Awards for animation revealed their nominees, with “Kung Fu Panda” surprisingly leading the field.

    • Meanwhile, the mysterious Golden Satellite nominations were as head-scratching as ever.

    • The first reviews finally emerged on “The Reader,” and they generally like it … from a distance.

    • While the appearance of reviews doesn’t make “Gran Torino” any less of a puzzle this awards season.

    • And all the while, the rumblings around “The Dark Knight” grow louder.

  • Campaigning posthumously for Oscar…where’s the beef?

    Heath Ledger in The Dark KnightI read this Rachel Abramowitz story concerning the pitfalls of campaigning for a posthumous Oscar nomination on behalf of Heath Ledger twice.  Packed with anonymous sources (until 42 West’s Cynthia Swartz pops up at the end with some insight on hawking Massimo Troisi 13 years ago), it really is a brick-wall story.  Nothing gleaned, nothing of substance conveyed.

    Dare I say it, I would have killed it.  Not because of the subject, and Abramowitz does what she can at the whims of her sources, but because it doesn’t carry the weight it might have if certain parties had taken their heads out of the sand.

    At this point, I think it’s a bit ridiculous for Warner brass and campaigners to stay off the record for this stuff.  It’s understandable in certain cases and I get it, you don’t want to come across as taking advantage of Ledger’s death.  But other than idiot Terry Gilliam, I don’t think anyone really thinks that is happening or has happened.  It’s been a classy ride, and as Abramowitz notes, the studio “was deft in its initial marketing push for ‘The Dark Knight,’ for the campaign neither hid Ledger’s presence nor overly hyped it.”

    This could have been an insightful story with names in the mix, giving a real face to the realities of attempting to ensure a sort of prosperity for Ledger’s work through campaigning it for awards.  The most interesting point comes at the end of the article, when Abramowitz is forced to quote from the paper’s geek blog Hero Complex (from a Geoff Boucher interview with Christopher Nolan).  But otherwise, it’s just a lot of hot air and it really gets under my skin.

    The true infuriating quote, however, has to be this doosey from some moronic competitor (who we can only hope represents either a marginal Hollywood opinion or, at the very least, is indicative of nothing more than behind-the-scenes smearing that takes hold this time of year):

    “Until we wake up one day and we no longer are making any good movies — dramas — then the academy will not go this route, unless it’s outrageously different . . . . This picture is not so different from the first one. It’s still the Batman story. He wears a hat with ears, a cape that can fly.”

    I’ve been repressing my inner Bat-geek for some time this year, trying to keep an even keel, combatting the hyperbole when I can.  Because let’s face it, praise for “The Dark Knight” got out of hand this year.  But more and more, as I read stuff like this, as I talk to publicists whose antagonistic banter you can see through like crystal — oh yeah, believe me, there are people trying to take this thing down because it rightfully scares them — more and more I’m finding it necessary to beat the drum.

  • ‘Gomorrah’ sweeps European Film Awards

    Wow. As I said when the European Film Award nominations were announced a month ago, this year offered a pretty vintage slate of contenders. I therefore expected the honours to be spread quite widely, as is often the case with these particular awards.

    But it was not to be. In a spectacular sweep, Matteo Garrone’s riveting Mafia opus “Gomorrah” took home five awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenwriter, Best Cinematographer and Best Actor for Toni Servillo, who won jointly for “Gomorrah” and his more prominent role in “Il Divo.”

    I must admit the latter award surprises me: terrific as Servillo is in both films, I assumed “Hunger” star Michael Fassbender had that one locked up.

    In a less surprising but richly deserved victory, Kristin Scott Thomas took the Best Actress award for “I’ve Loved You So Long,” her first trophy of the awards season. I suspect it might not be her last; check out my interview with the extraordinary thesp here.

    Elsewhere, “Hunger” inevitably took the Discovery Award for debut director Steve McQueen, while “Waltz With Bashir” was an inspired choice for the Best Composer prize (beating Oscar-winner “Atonement,” no less).

    But beyond that, it was “Gomorrah” all the way, marking an auspicious start to the awards season for a contender generating buzz beyond just the Best Foreign Language Film category. I’m pleased to see this landmark film getting its due, though I do wish such notable fellow nominees as “Happy-Go-Lucky” and Laurent Cantet’s wonderful “The Class” hadn’t gone home empty-handed. Ah well.

    Full list of winners after the cut.

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  • Hell of a thesp

    (from left) Kate Beckinsale and Vera Farmiga in Nothing But the TruthI mostly enjoyed this by-the-numbers Adam Liptak New York Times piece concerning Rod Lurie’s upcoming “Nothing But the Truth.”  I’d say this little anecdote about Vera Farmiga’s acting prowess is probably the best part of an otherwise ho-hum article, though:

    But the film’s most striking performance comes from Vera Farmiga, who plays the C.I.A. operative, here called Erica Van Doren. In one scene Van Doren, suspected of leaking her own identity, is given a lie detector test. “We brought in a real polygraphist to polygraph her,” Mr. Lurie said. “He actually connects her up to the machine and asks her, ‘Is your name Erica Van Doren?’ and so on.”

    Mr. Lurie thought that would be good for verisimilitude. But it turned out the machine had something to say about the power of Ms. Farmiga’s acting. The polygraph operator, Mr. Lurie recalled, pulled him aside afterward: “He says: ‘You’re not going to believe this. The machine says she’s telling the truth.’”

    Farmiga is solid in the film, as is, really, the entire cast, from Kate Beckinsale on down.  I also agree with Jeff Wells that the film is not getting the attention it deserves, but that’s directly attributable to a) the amount of money Yari Film Group/David has to toss at an awards campaign versus the pocket books of major studios/Goliath, and b) the late-year, November/December glut of Oscar contenders, many of which have fallen out and will continue to do so, but for the time being, are ruling the conversation.

    My thoughts, published during the film’s Toronto run, can be found here.

  • Posters for ‘Nothing But the Truth,’ ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’

    Yari Film Group has just released the poster art for its awards season duo, Rod Lurie’s “Nothing But the Truth” and Brian Goodman’s “What Doesn’t Kill You.”  Each of these films is struggling under the weight of big-spending studios this season, and it’s a shame.  Each contains an exemplary 2008 performance (Kate Beckinsale in “Truth” and Mark Ruffalo in “Kill”).

    I also really like the poster design.  Okay, so the “Kill” one-sheet is a clear rip-off of “The Departed,” but I still like it.  And the “Truth” poster is crisp and sophisticated, not as on-the-nose as it could have been.  Nice work overall in what has been an awful year for poster art.  Have a look:

    Nothing But the Truth and What Doesn\'t Kill You

  • 12/6 Oscarweb Round-up

    Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman in Australia• John Patterson on the legacy of Harvey Milk. [The Guardian]

    • Robert Abele talks to “Frost/Nixon” star Michael Sheen. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Rebeca Hall, meanwhile, discusses her involvement in the film with Jenni Miller. [Premiere]

    • Peter Knegt chats with visionary “Hunger” director Steve McQueen. [indieWIRE]

    • John Anderson profiles animation legend Bill Plympton. [New York Times]

    • Jean Oppenheimer on the hopeful rise of recognized female directing talent. [Variety]

    • As “Australia” leaps into the marketplace, Kevin Maher offers a how-to for making romantic epics. [The Times]

    • David Carr gets some in-house, on-the-record defense for what has been considered an unfair Mickey Rourke profile in some quarters. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Karina Longworth runs down the most disappointing films of the year. [Spout Blog]

    • Anne Thompson files briefly regarding last week’s “Dark Knight” soiree. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Jeff Wells, meanwhile, is hearing murmurs of a surge for the film among AMPAS ranks. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Peter Bart on the off-screen serendipity of “Slumdog Millionaire.” [Peter Bart]

  • Weird feeling…

    Seven PoundsThe race is pretty much here, in front of our faces.  Last night and Wednesday night, “Seven Pounds” finally went before the press at large.  We can’t write about the film yet, however.  T.L. Stanley does a nice job of reporting last night’s hilarious Q&A session with the film’s principles here.

    Basically, all secrets are out on the season; all mysteries are solved.  Yet I’m staring at a blank BFCA ballot, due in two days, and I can’t decide what I liked this year.  So call me at a loss as to what the AMPAS will truly go for.

    This is, without a doubt, the most unconventional Oscar season we’ve ever seen.  Personally, I think we’ve got six real contenders.  And the five I’m predicting are slowly gelling into “the knowledge.”  Maybe.  But I stopped being “sure” of things long ago.  I’m bracing myself for anything.

    The LA critics will speak up on Tuesday and the Gotham crew will chime in the next day.  I’m betting on lots of “Slumdog” love on this coast.  No idea what’ll happen back east.  But by the time everyone starts to go off on holiday, maybe…maybe…the picture will begin to clear up for us all.