In Contention

Category: Daily

  • 11/18 Oscarweb Round-up

    Coraline• Jeffrey Wells responds to the documentary short list. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Dave Karger and Missy Schwartz go back and forth on the Oscar prospects of “Slumdog Millionaire.” [Entertainment Weekly]

    • T.L. Stanley catches up with a report from the “Revolutionary Road” screening this weekend. [Gold Rush]

    • Peter Bart whines about a lack of Oscar ads…again.  And insultingly draws the conclusion that studios are hanging talent out to dry.  Again. [Variety]

    • Patrick Goldstein chastises Bart for the whining (fair enough), but in calling for a moratorium on ad buys, fails to understand that their existence might have something to do with the fact that he hasn’t had to accept a buy-out yet.  Just sayin’. [The Big Picture]

    • Reporting with the Dudes from the “Big Lebowski” festival. [The Guardian]

    • Kathy Marks reports from the ground at the “Australia” premiere in Sydney. [The Independent]

    • Alonso Duralde runs down 10 competitors for Best Picture. [MSNBC]

    • Mickey Mouse turns 80. [CNN]

    • David Frank comes up with 10 reasons not to make a third “Batman” film.  Kris Tapley hunts David Frank down with a pair of garden sheers. [Rope of Silicon]

    • Helen Mirren talks about the joys of being in her birthday suit. [The Times]

    • Susan Wloszczyna talks to Henry Selick about the upcoming “Coraline.” [USA Today]

    • Praising the film for the most part, Glenn Kenny hopes “Revolutionary Road” can find an audience. [Some Came Running]

  • Oops…sorry Kathy

    I just realized that in this morning’s chart update, I forgot to add Kathy Bates to the list for her performance in “Revolutionary Road.”  She is most definitely in the running.  Next week.

  • Is Viola Davis stealing Meryl Streep’s Oscar thunder for ‘Doubt?’

    Amid the conflicting reviews that have emerged so far for John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt,” the one common denominator between them appears to be unanimous praise for the supporting performance of Viola Davis. You may remember Kris describing her work as “gut-wrenching,” amid an otherwise tepid review.

    Davis’ role may be small — she has a mere two scenes — but as the Academy has demonstrated in rewarding Beatrice Straight in 1976 (or in nominating Ruby Dee earlier this year), brevity is no obstacle when they are sufficiently moved by a performance.

    Knowing the role, I’ve thought for a while that Davis could wind up the film’s strongest contender for gold, despite many supposing the film would be The Meryl Streep Show. Streep, however, has suffered notices as mixed as the film’s, with heady praise balanced out by detractors (including a much-quoted Variety review) who find her performance a tad on the melodramatic side.

    Now Nathaniel Rogers at the Film Experience, whose deeply considered views on the female acting races are always worth reading, has seen the film, and he is also climbing off the Streep bandwagon. Venturing that Streep may have to wait a while longer for that elusive third Oscar, he writes:

    Sister Aloysius is a sticky role but it’s not the slam dunk “erase memories of Cherry Jones’s powerhouse stage creation”‘ it needed to be for Streep to reach Nicholson’s three statue tally. Best Actress fanatics take note: the way is clear for Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road / The Reader) if she delivers –it’s getting harder and harder to imagine anyone else winning.

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  • 15 Oscar docs short-listed

    And here’s the list, from AMPAS:

    “At the Death House Door”
    “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)”
    “Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh”
    “Encounters at the End of the World”
    “Fuel”
    “The Garden”
    “Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts”
    “I.O.U.S.A.”
    “In a Dream”
    “Made in America”
    “Man on Wire”
    “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”
    “Standard Operating Procedure”
    “They Killed Sister Dorothy”
    “Trouble the Water”

    The surprising exclusions are “Religulous” (though not really — it isn’t particularly good as a documentary, even if it is amusing and has a soul) and “Bigger, Faster, Stronger.”  The frontrunners, I’d guess, “Encounters at the End of the World,” “Man on Wire,” “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” “Standard Operating Procedure” and “Trouble the Water.”  But that’s me.

  • Variety weighs in on ‘Revolutionary Road’

    UPDATE: We’re not out of the woods yet. The Hollywood Reporter gives it the thumbs-down, something I didn’t notice earlier, as the review was buried in their impossible website. (Seriously, guys, work on it.) Anyway, Kirk Honeycutt calls it “didactic” and “emotionally overblown,” and has nothing to say about the performances.

    On the other hand, Honeycutt makes no secret of his disdain for the source material (“it fails to escape the novel’s misogyny and contempt for anything suburban”), so make of that what you will.

    EARLIER: And it’s good news, even if they have some reservations. Unlike Kris, I haven’t had the privilege of seeing this yet, but it sure as hell sounds like an across-the-board contender to me:

    “Revolutionary Road” is a very good bigscreen adaptation of an outstanding American novel — faithful, intelligent, admirably acted, superbly shot. It also offers a near-perfect case study of the ways in which film is incapable of capturing certain crucial literary qualities, in this case the very things that elevate the book from being a merely insightful study of a deteriorating marriage into a remarkable one.

    DiCaprio often achieves the kind of double register the film as a whole less consistently captures, as he indicates Frank’s thought process in the split second before he decides what to say. At certain moments, the conjoined cerebral and emotional aspects of his characterization summon the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s breakthrough performances around the time of “Five Easy Pieces.”

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  • Michael Giacchino tapped to head Oscar orchestra

    Michael GiacchinoFrom the AMPAS press release:

    Michael Giacchino will serve as the musical director for the 81st Academy Awards®, telecast producer Laurence Mark and executive producer Bill Condon announced today. Though Giacchino has composed music and conducted orchestras for both film and television, this will be his first time with the baton for the Oscar telecast and for a live broadcast.

    “Michael is an extraordinarily talented and versatile musical artist,” said Mark and Condon in a joint statement. “We couldn’t be happier that he is game to come on board.

    A highly vague quotation that, but the news is the news.  Glad to hear it.  Giacchino is a personaly fave (who was criminally ignored by the Academy for his work on “The Incredibles” in 2004).

    Alright…bring on the host announcement (which should come any day).

  • It begins…

    New FYC print art for “The Dark Knight”:

    For Your Consideration: The Dark Knight

  • 11/17 Oscarweb Round-up

    Nicole Kidman in Australia• Jeffrey Wells has kind words for “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” and spends some time with director Chris Bell. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Nathaniel Rogers talks with “Happy-Go-Lucky” star Sally Hawkins. [The Film Experience]

    • David Poland talks to the “Slumdog” crew. [The Hot Blog]

    • Ben Lynfield goes deep on “Waltz with Bashir” across the pond. [The Independent]

    • Eastwood calls Jolie “a fine actress hampered by beauty.” [Daily Telegraph]

    • Might the gyrations on Wall Street affect what we want to see in the cineplex? [MSNBC]

    • Danny Boyle talks his Mumbai undertaking with the Gray Lady. [New York Times]

    • Here’s a random list: the top 10 most accessible foreign films of the last decade. [Spout Blog]

    • Donna Freydkin spends some quality time with Nicole Kidman. [USA Today]

    • Guillermo Del Toro’s five favorite films. [Rotten Tomatoes]

  • Looking for comedy in the awards world

    Over at his OscarWatch column, Dave Karger recently asked a question that has been bothering me for some time regarding this year’s awards race.

    Namely, how the hell are the Golden Globes going to fill out the ballot in the Comedy/Musical races?

    Best Actress looks solid enough. So far, we have two clear-cut frontrunners — Sally Hawkins and Anne Hathaway — in the Actress category, though I wonder if they will wind up placing Hathaway in the drama field, where I think she belongs. Meryl Streep will inevitably get cited for “Mamma Mia!” and I feel confident that Emma Thompson will grab a deserved nomination for “Last Chance Harvey.”

    Karger thinks Sarah Jessica Parker could round out the list, though I might look at Beyonce Knowles in “Cadillac Records” (much as the thought of her playing Etta James upsets me) or Rachel Weisz in “The Brothers Bloom” as alternative filler nominees. (The Globes don’t mind elevating supporting roles when there’s a paucity of contenders, though Weisz is a legitimate lead, in my opinion.)

    It’s the Best Actor category that’s really problematic. From what I can see, Dustin Hoffman has this in the bag for his endearing autumnal turn in “Last Chance Harvey” — not just because it’s a lovely performance, but because I can barely think of any competition for him. With the news that Josh Brolin has (rightly, I think) been denied comedic classification for “W.,” Karger thinks the other nominees might pan out like so:

    I’d also make the case for Paul Rudd, who anchors the current hit Role Models with his signature deadpan delivery, and Ghost Town‘s Ricky Gervais, who was brilliant in a sophisticated comedy that nobody saw. The HFPA could go the more obvious route with Get Smart‘s Steve Carell or Hancock‘s Will Smith, but here’s hoping they’ll think out of the box and recognize another understated humorist: Michael Cera from Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. We can dream, right?

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  • Oscar nominations that made me cheer

    Over the years I have been watching and studying the Oscars in earnest, since about 1974 (age 13).  It has always been a nice surprise when an unexpected actor, director or film made the cut to the final five.  It’s a special kind of high.

    I remember reacting with surprise and genuine happiness when Giancarlo Giannini was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in “Seven Beauties,” but even better was the inclusion of Lina Wertmuller, the film’s director (becoming the first woman ever to receive a designation in the directing category — nd for a foreign language film, no less).  I loved the film, so this put me over the moon, even though Giannini’s nod likely cost John Wayne his nomination for “The Shootist.”

    In 1997 it was Atom Egoyan, nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Sweet Hereafter,” a brilliant study of grief in small town Canada; the L.A. Times named it the best film of the year but up here in Canada, we never expected Oscar attention for Atom and his film.

    I was equally thrilled when Martin Scorsese was rewarded with a nomination for his direction of “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a bold, passionate film made from the heart by one of our greatest directors.

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  • Random

    I always love the artwork they plaser on the front and back facades of the Hotel Figueroa in downtown L.A.  This shot was taken maybe a month ago; I just found it in my iPhone.  There is a “Kung Fu Panda” DVD promotional job up there now, but on the backside, recently enough, there was a beautiful “Max Payne” painting that almost made one want to see the film.  Almost.

    Anyway, lazy Sunday.  I thought I’d share.

    South-facing wall of Hotel Figeuroa

  • Okay, the REAL final one-sheet for ‘The Wrestler’

    Alright, so as reported below, that image that leaked out onto the net today is not the final “Wrestler” poster art, but rather, an early comp that made its way out somehow.  The real poster has been supplied to me by Fox Searchlight below, and essentially, it’s the same image we saw at the AFI Fest premiere of the film, with a credit block added beneath.

    Now that we’ve cleared that up, onward…

    Fox Searchlight Pictures\' The Wrestler

  • Testify

    UPDATE: I’m told the poster image below is not the final art for the film. It is a comp that leaked online somehow and the studio is none too happy about it. We’ll be getting the actual poster up in this space real soon, so stay tuned.

    (Leaked comp artwork after the jump.)

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  • Will BAFTA stick by their own?

    I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the BAFTA Awards. On the one hand, they can be far more daring and playful in their choices than the American Academy — this is an organisation, after all, that has handed their Best Film award to such enduring works as “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” “GoodFellas” and “Lacombe, Lucien,” while nominating the Oscar-snubbed likes of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “The Usual Suspects.”

    Their technical awards are invariably more imaginatively awarded, too — take a look at their Best Film Editing category, for example, which in recent years has crowned “Eternal Sunshine,” “City of God” and “Mulholland Drive” as winners. And they can often be counted upon for gratifying upsets, as when Pedro Almodovar pushed past Sam Mendes for Best Director in 2000, or when “Trainspotting” blindsided “Sense and Sensibility” in the 1996 screenwriting race.

    For an awards show that fancies itself world-class, however, BAFTA can be infuriatingly parochial in their selections, stubbornly rewarding their own in the face of bigger, bolder competition. I doubt most of the voters could say with a straight face that “Four Weddings and a Funeral” was the very best film of 1994, nor “The Full Monty” of 1997, but they cleaned up nonetheless.

    For the last two years running, that kind of provincialism has ruled the voting, with this year’s awards looking particularly suspect. I think “Atonement” is a fine film, but handing it their top award seemed tokenistic at best, not least when the only other gong it took was for Best Art Direction.

    It’s a trend that Variety thinks could continue this year. In an article previewing the British contenders in the acting categories, they point out that Limeys have taken 16 acting BAFTAs in the last decade, compared to seven Oscars. Needless to say, they are frequently justified. It’s fair to say that this year, several British names will be cropping up in awards lists on either side of the Atlantic, and deservedly so — particularly in the Best Actress category, where thesps like Kristin Scott Thomas, Sally Hawkins and the ubiquitous Kate Winslet are all likely to figure.

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  • ‘Revolutionary’ screening

    I’m not allowed to get into my thoughts on “Revolutionary Road” in any real detail yet, but we’ve got a real Best Picture contender on our hands, one driven to that status by a dynamic blend of powerhouse performances that won’t likely be forgotten any time soon.

    Leonardo DiCaprio, joined on stage right now with director Sam Mendes and the cast for a post-screening Q&A (in front of a massive SAG audience that appears to have enjoyed the film), just described his response to the material as like being “a fly on the wall…I felt embarrassed.” I think that comment sums up both the power of Richard Yates’s incredibly truthful novel and the apparent success with which it has (finally) been brought to the screen.

    More next week.

  • Another official site: ‘Australia’

    Before I duck out here, I have to post something about the updated “Australia” website, which is freshly updated and looking fantastic (thanks to Irene for the tip).  Click the image below to dive right in:

    Australia

  • Sorry for the drought on my end…

    Things have been relatively nuts this week, and for the rest of the day, I’m preoccupied with other matters.  Feel free to use this space to talk about whatever, and I promise to get the round-ups back in order next week, plus a new set of charts and a column on Monday.

  • My stance: ‘The Dark Knight’ will be nominated for Best Picture

    Heath Ledger in The Dark KnightSo much speculation has surrounded the possible inclusion of this tremendous film in the year’s final five.  And though there are those who believe it has no chance of happening, the majority has gradually seen otherwise.

    Where is written that entertaining films cannot be art? Where does it say that a box office smash cannot be a genuinely great film? May I remind everyone that “The Godfather” was a major hit at the box office before it won the Oscar for Best Picture, basking in some of the finest reviews ever written. That said, success can sometimes be the enemy of both the film and the director (ask Steven Spielberg).

    While no one is calling “The Dark Knight” a film on the level of “The Godfather,” it certainly has its own particular brand of appeal and excellence. Made with breathtaking confidence, technical brilliance and spectacular command of the language of the cinema, the film moves constantly, yet director Nolan never allows the spectacle to overwhelm the very intimate story he is telling here.

    His actors are sublime, beginning with the extraordinary performance from Heath Ledger as the Joker, a performance that takes madness to a new level, one that is terrifying in its realism and authenticity. Yet Ledger is surrounded by a strong ensemble, Christian Bale very good as Batman/Bruce Wayne, a troubled, contradictory man at war with himself, knowing the only way he can remain a hero is to appear to be the enemy.

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