Category: Daily
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Fox Searchlight double-bills two classics with ‘The Wrestler’
Fox Searchlight Pictures will be screening its awards season favorite “The Wrestler” in tandem with two classics of American cinema next week: Elia Kazan’s “On the Waterfront” and Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull.” The event, to be held at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, has been dubbed: “Contenders: A Look at Film Heavyweights.”Each film, with their esteemed blue collar performances from Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro respectively, has popped up in Q&A sessions during screenings for Aronofsky’s film, a Searchlight spokesman said. The screenings will take place on Monday, December 8 and Tuesday, December 9.
“I look at those films and I stand in awe of them,” Aronofsky told me yesterday. “You can’t take your eyes off them. They are mentor films to ‘The Wrestler’ in a way” and they contain “untouchable, iconic performances.”
Aronofsky says both “On the Waterfront” and “Raging Bull” have always been an inspiration. He studied both in film school, in fact. But beyond that, it is hardly surprising that parallels might be drawn between these two classics and Aronofsky’s film; actor Mickey Rourke’s performance has been singled out as an “amazing tour-de-force” by the Los Angeles Times’ Patrick Goldstein. Variety’s Todd McCarthy, meanwhile, wrote that Rourke’s work “instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances.” And so it will again next week.
“My favorite part of the process is working with the actors,” Aronofsky said. “It reminds me that the only true time we get to be artists is between ‘action’ and ‘cut.’ And every day, Mickey gave me a new gift. Watching him work is amazing and the honesty he brought is reminiscent of those films, I think.”
The first double-bill will start at 6:30 p.m. Monday evening with “On the Waterfront.” “The Wrestler” will follow at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday, Aronofsky’s film will show at 6:00 p.m. and “Raging Bull” will close the evening, and the two-day event, at 8:00 p.m.
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More thrilling than…
Happily for Universal, the majority of US critics seem to like “Frost/Nixon” significantly more than I did. It’s currently sitting on a healthy Metacritic score of 80, with ringing endorsements from such estimable names as David Denby, J. Hoberman and Kenneth Turan. As a side note, however, on reading Turan’s review, his parting shot struck me as unusually ill-judged from a critic for whom I have great respect:
The result is involving, engrossing cinema — more thrilling, in fact, than Howard’s “The Da Vinci Code” — filmmaking of a type rarely seen anymore and sorely missed.
More thrilling than “The Da Vinci Code?” Considering that Turan clearly loves the film, is that line — possibly the faintest praise imaginable — really the best he could do? Moreover, the addition of the words “in fact” suggests that this should be in any way surprising. Of course “Frost/Nixon” is more thrilling than “The Da Vinci Code.” But then, so are corporate training videos. Dig deeper, Mr. Turan.
Moving on. I was previously uncertain that the film would generate enough passion to be a Best Picture contender, but as the pool grows ever shallower, it looks increasingly as though this safe, solidly crafted and apparently well-liked effort could be among those left standing come February.
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Trades mixed-to-positive on ‘Gran Torino’
A couple of days ago, David Poland snarked that “Gran Torino” plays better as a comedy. Well, whether by accident or design, that’s exactly how some trade papers are reading the film. While Variety’s Todd McCarthy calls it a “funny, broad but ultimately serious-minded drama,” The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt goes all out in declaring it a “return to comedy.”Whatever the genre, the verdict is mixed. Honeycutt seems to enjoy Eastwood’s “rare comic performance,” but thinks the film may disappoint fans of Eastwood’s recent, weightier work:
The movie itself … is an unstable affair given to overemphasized points and telegraphed punches. It lacks the subtlety of Eastwood’s recent efforts, but then again, the film must be seen in the mode of “Dirty Harry reunites with his ‘Every Which Way but Loose’ orangutan” — only this time it’s an aging dog named Daisy.
That this mostly comic film turns tragic is a foregone conclusion as this mood change is signaled all along. (When a character spends an entire film coughing up blood, we don’t imagine he’ll be around at the end.) Yet Eastwood’s direction cannot always smooth out the unevenness and forced situations in Schenk’s script.
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‘Slumdog,’ ‘Torino’ win big at NBR
The National Board of Review has announced its list of winners for the 2008 awards season and Fox Searchlight’s “Slumdog Millionaire” is the big champ, taking down three awards including Best Film and a tie for Best Adapted Screenplay with Eric Roth’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Dev Patel also won the award for Breakthrough Performance by an Actor.That tie for adapted screenplay does little to separate those two competitors at this point, both in that category and in the big race, which most concede is neck-and-neck at the moment. David Fincher also took the NBR’s Best Director award.
The immediate point of interest is the love for “Gran Torino.” Clint Eastwood seized the Best Actor trophy, perhaps the first in an upcoming slew of awards for the actor’s swan song performance, perhaps simply indicative of the NBR’s affinity for Warner Bros. product. Nick Schenk won the award for Best Original Screenplay, which will lead many to think this film is a major Oscar player. Hmm…
Another interesting tid-bit: Paramount Vantage was virtually shut out of the proceedings, with only a single mention for “Defiance” in the NBR top ten. Nothing for “Revolutionary Road.” But it is worth pointing out that “There Will Be Blood” was completely shut out of the group’s awards last year, and we all know how that turned out.
I think calling Viola Davis’s admittedly stunning performance in “Doubt” a “breakthrough” is a bit of a stretch considering how long the actress has been in the game, but the definition of that award shifts from year to year it seems.
And finally, after James Franco slipped into the Indie Spirit Award nominations for his supporting performance in “Milk,” Josh Brolin walks away with the win today in the same category. Who knows how it will turn out for Oscar? My bet is still on Brolin, who had a banner year with his performance here and in “W,” not to mention the left-over goodwill for his work in multiple films last year.
(Full list of winners after the jump.)
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The mayor of Castro Street
(Snapped outside of the Castro Theater in San Francisco between opening night screenings of Gus Van Sant’s “Milk” last Friday. There were a few weepers in the crowd that flooded out soon after I took this shot.)
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An evening with the cast and crew of ‘The Dark Knight’
A boatload of people turned out last night for the Beverly Hills reception in honor of “The Dark Knight.” I hesitate to say “star-studded,” since the principle cast and crew were the most recognizable parties. But suffice it to say the premises was packed with little breathing room and plenty of adoring press.Producer Charles Roven and screenwriter Jonathan Nolan were the first to show, side-by-side and quick to engage with some of us ready to pounce. Roven, who I interviewed recently for a Variety profile on Heath Ledger (publishing this weekend), was trying to take it all in stride. The only film he’s ever produced that landed Oscar’s attention was “Twelve Monkeys” in 1995 (nominations for Best Costume Design and Brad Pitt for Best Supporting Actor). He’s welcome to the idea that “The Dark Knight” could be his first trip to the party as a nominee but he’s almost more interested in discussing what’s on the horizon, namely Tom Tykwer’s “The International,” which has been with Roven for 16 years of development and will finally find its way to screens in February.
Jonathan Nolan, meanwhile, proved to be a welcome five-minute diversion. A real guy’s guy with a swift Chicago accent, he clearly delights in a deep discussion about the Caped Crusader. His brother Christopher gave him a copy of Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” when he was 13 years old and the Bat has been with him ever since. “I’ve been into Spider-Man and Wolverine, but for me, it’s always been Batman,” he said of the character that has brought him into the limelight of sought-after screenwriters. I asked the obligatory “will there be a third one” question, and taking on the role of fan first, he offered, “I hope so. Given what happened to Heath [Ledger], it’s hard to say, ‘Yeah, let’s do another one!’ But I hope so.”
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And the Oscar for Cutest Swag goes to…
… Overture Films, for this miniature djembe drum sent all the way from Beverly Hills to London to promote “The Visitor.” Well, it made me smile.
Incidentally, the soundtrack — by Oscar-winner Jan A.P. Kaczmarek — is really rather lovely.
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12/4 Oscarweb Round-up
• Probably the first time I’ve enjoyed reading her in years, but Nikki Finke comes to the aid of Mickey Rourke after an unfairly conveyed New York Times profile. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]• David Carr, meanwhile, confronts Rourke at the Gotham Awards. [The Carpetbagger]
• Michael Cieply reports on the changing face of the Academy membership. [New York Times]
• Pete Hammond takes a look at leading players in supporting competition… [Notes on a Season]
• …and gives a big, sloppy kiss to “Gran Torino.” [Notes on a Season]
• David Poland, meanwhile, takes another shot at Clint Eastwood’s film. [The Hot Blog]
• Nathaniel Rogers chats with “Rachel Getting Married” co-star Bill Irwin. [The Film Experience]
• Patrick Goldstein questions the Oscar prowess of “The Reader.” [The Big Picture]
• Indie is the new black, according to Anne Thompson. [Thompson on Hollywood]
• Karina Longworth reports from a New York press conference for “Revolutionary Road.” [Spout Blog]
• The trial of Mary Pickford’s Oscar takes flight. [Associated Press]
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A shot in the dark
Okay, so Kris has sensibly avoided predicting the frequently confounding National Board of Review awards, but I figure you need someone to mock and taunt when the announcement arrives later today, so I’m offering myself as a sacrificial lamb. My best guesses (which is not to say good guesses) after the cut.
I’m bearing in mind that last year, they chose not to include their Best Picture winner in their Top 10, thereby making it more of a Top 11. As for how they choose to categorise and separate independent film, I have no idea.
I must admit that, for all their occasional goofiness, I harbour some affection for the NBR awards, if only because they sometimes throw some curveballs into the mix (“Quills” or Campbell Scott, anyone?) and were among the few to suitably reward “Moulin Rouge!” in 2001. Here’s hoping they’re similarly adventurous this around.
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Take that, Oscar: Grammy nominates ‘Dark Knight’ duo
The Academy’s petty disqualification of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s score for “The Dark Knight” from Oscar contention has already caused much gnashing of teeth on these pages, so here’s something to compound the embarrassment.It seems the Grammy voters are rather less fussy. Zimmer and Howard’s work was nominated yesterday in the category of (deep breath now) Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media. (Still with me? Good.)
And hey, look who joins them on the list: none other than Jonny Greenwood for “There Will Be Blood,” who of course won last year’s Oscar because the work was simply too groundbreaking to be ignored. Oh right, except he didn’t, because he was disqualified. Sensing a pattern here?
We shouldn’t be surprised by now that a voting body unrelated to the field of film should exhibit more common sense than AMPAS’ music blue-hairs, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
Joining Greenwood, Zimmer and Howard on the list are three more 2008 contenders, Thomas Newman for “WALL-E,” Ramin Djawadi (surprise!) for “Iron Man” and John Williams (yawn) for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
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Sundance competition lineup revealed
For those who really want to get an early start in the awards-guessing game, the lineups of films competing for honours at next month’s 25th annual Sundance Film Festival has been announced. As usual, the competition is split into four sections — US dramatic, US documentary, world dramatic, world documentary — with 16 films competing in each.Looking down the list of films, it’s pretty much impossible to anticipate hits or highlights based on name recognition alone. After all, the whole point of Sundance is for unexpected successes to emerge out of nowhere. This time last year, who could have predicted that a miniscule, star-free picture called “Frozen River” would be making waves on the awards circuit following a win at Sundance? Nobody. That’s the beauty.
With that in mind, I’ve selected one film from each section that piques my interest — either I’ve been following its progression for some time, or I simply like the pitch and/or people involved.
AN EDUCATION (World Dramatic) I’ve been intrigued by this one for a while, partly because it’s written by Nick Hornby, and partly because it stars the incandescent young Carey Mulligan, who blew me away as Nina in last year’s Royal Court production of “The Seagull” (now on Broadway). I predicted then and there she’d be a star, so I’m interested to see if this demonstrates her potential. She plays a smart teenager in 1960’s London who falls under the spell of a debonair older man. Peter Sarsgaard, Emma Thompson and Sally Hawkins are also in the impressive cast, while Lone Scherfig, best known for “Italian for Beginners” (an unusually cuddly work from the Dogme sect), directs. I’m in.
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Skeletor yields Nixon?
Anthony Breznican’s USA Today profile of “Frost/Nixon” star Frank Langella is a nice sprint through the actor’s career with nice anecdotes from this year’s Best Actor hopeful. But sue me for relishing the send-off more than anything else:In the 1980s, his movie career waned, but one high-profile performance was that skull-faced villain Skeletor in 1987’s Masters of the Universe, based on a hit toy line and cartoon his children watched. “In the end, they couldn’t care less,” he says. “I had a screening for them, and they both fell asleep!…I loved playing Skeletor, and people sometimes say, ‘Aren’t you embarrassed?’ Not in the least! I loved my performance in that. I worked very hard to make him as exciting as I could. It was a great paycheck. But it was also delicious.”
He also wrote some of his own dialogue, including this question to Dolph Lundgren’s muscle-bound hero: “Tell me about the loneliness of good, He-Man. Is it equal to the loneliness of evil?”
The actor pauses as an idea occurs to him. “Sir Thomas More and Richard Nixon,” he says. “I am playing in both of these men the loneliness of good and the loneliness of evil. Jeez, I never thought of it before.”
Langella starts to laugh: “The parallels between these two … Who would have known Skeletor would be the precursor?”
Brilliant. Read the rest here.
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12/3 Oscarweb Round-up
• Jeff Wells senses the “push back” against certain contenders, steps up to bat for “Revolutionary Road.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]• Yours truly chats it up podcast style with John Campea to dish on how early favorites are shaping up. [The Movie Blog]
• David Poland reports on the BFCA’s newest category: Best Action Film. [The Movie Blog]
• T.L. Stanley talks “Elegy” with Sir Ben Kingsley. [Gold Rush]
• David Carr reports from the sadly left-out-in-the-cold Fox Searchlight table at the Gotham Awards. [The Carpetbagger]
• Geoffrey Macnab talks to Danny Boyle about Oscar heavy “Slumdog Millionaire.” [The Independent]
• John Horn corners “Doubt” helmer and scribe John Patrick Shanley in the Big Apple. [Los Angeles Times]
• Patrick Goldstein responds to some (some would say) odd Golden Globe classifications. [The Big Picture]
• As “Milk” strives to make a difference, five films that actually did as much. [Spout Blog]
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‘Frozen River’ continues its run at Gothams
“Frozen River” is really turning into one of the surprise packages of this admittedly young awards season. Just yesterday it had a superb showing in yesterday’s Independent Spirit nominations, where it beat the more hotly fancied likes of “The Visitor” to a Best Picture nomination, only two days after landing an unexpected nod in the top category at the Golden Satellite Awards (fending off even heavier opposition, principally “Benjamin Button”).Now its dream week continues after taking the Best Feature award at last night’s Gotham Awards, as well as a Best Breakthrough Actor gong for Melissa Leo. Not bad going for a film that was only being talked of in Best Actress circles a few months ago.
If it continues to emerge as this year’s indie Cinderella story, I’ll be interested to see what notice the Academy takes of it. I sense a Best Original Screenplay nod for Courtney Hunt is a genuine possibility considering the dearth of heavyweights in that field. At the very least, however, the more momentum the film gains, the more I like Leo’s chances of a well-deserved Best Actress nod.
Moving on to the rest of last night’s awards, I’m glad to see that “Synecdoche, New York” jointly triumphed in the Best Ensemble category, tying with “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” — with a scattering of Spirit noms too, at least Charlie Kaufman’s widely misunderstood masterpiece isn’t getting completely shafted this awards season.
Meanwhile, Lance Hammer unsurprisingly took the Best Breakthrough Filmmaker award for critics’ darling “Ballast,” while sentimental favou Sitrite “Trouble the Water” emerged victorious in the Best Documentary category.
The cutely named Best Film Not Playing At A Theatre Near You citation went to “Sita Sings the Blues,” while Penelope Cruz, Gus Van Sant, Melvin Van Peebles and documentary vet Sheila Nevins tooks home tribute awards.
