In Contention

Category: Daily

  • In defense of ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’

    Brad Brevet, over at Rope of Silicon, likes “Happy-Go-Lucky.” A lot. And like me, he’s a bit perturbed by some of the hostile criticism that has been lobbed at the film, and its protagonist Poppy in particular — such as Jeff Wells’ wildly off-base (to my mind) accusation that the film is guilty of “emotional fascism.”

    In response to such critiques, Brevet has written a smart, thoughtful defense of the film. (I praise it not only because he quotes extensively from my own review, though that’s an obvious point in its favour. Ha ha.) The core of his argument is that the film is less an isolated character study than it is a study of its own audience, and how they respond to character:

    Happy-Go-Lucky was hardly about any of the characters in the film as much as it was about the audience watching the film. Taking that into consideration, film critics are perhaps the absolute best audience for this film. Critics of any sort can be cynical and jaded creatures and when confronted with someone that is altogether happy despite not having an abundant amount of wealth or status (i.e. Hollywood reasons to be happy) it annoys the cynical sort.

    I say this in general terms and without direction of blame or accusation, but it is what comes out of judging art as a profession. Why else would the most trying times for the film’s central character be met with the most glowing responses? As Lodge said, the character hasn’t changed … As much as Poppy may want to change the folks she encounters inside the film she ultimately ends up changing the people watching.

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  • By now you’ve surely seen the ‘Notorious’ trailer…

    Derek Luke in Notorious…if not, educate yourself below and rejoin the conversation in a minute.

    First off — how come I didn’t realize this film was in the works?  And with that in mind, why to I have a weird feeling I did know this film in the works, but thought it was a weird dream or something?  I don’t know.

    I think this is a story that has always had a lot of potential, to be quite honest.  It also has a lot of potential for playing, quite knowingly, to a crowd that wants something easily consumable and with a kickin’ sound track.  It could be both, who knows?  A January release date says little to me about a film like this, given the urban appeal and the fact that films like this tend to only do well really early in the year, a nice break from the heavy drama of awards season.

    I dig Derek Luke’s look as Sean Combs and I’m eager to see what Jamal Woolard can do with this.  Could be arresting stuff.  Could be merely passable imitation.  But there are some talented people involved here, so maybe.  Just maybe.

    Have a look.  Frankly, I think this trailer kicks ass:

  • James Franco profiled by Gus Van Sant in Interview Mag

    Cover of October 2008 issue of Interview MagazineI’ve been meaning to cancel my subscription to Interview Magazine for months upon months, probably years at this point.  I always forget until I get a new issue, then it gets tossed onto a stack on the shelf and I forget again.  But there’s always an interesting one-on-one and the closer we get the the awards season each year, the more pertinent the interviews become.

    Case in point, this month’s issue features the cover story: “James Franco by Gus Van Sant.”  It’s a solid Q&A between the star and director of “Milk” respectively, but I particularly liked the lede:

    Seven years ago he played James Dean in a television biopic, tinting his hair and squinting his eyes to Rebel Without a Cause-like perfection.  Ever since, the temptation has been to peg him as a good-looking young man felled by the moody blues.  While it’s a fact of life that no one can ever really know what lies beneath the surface of another, the Internet can help narrow the field of possibilities.  Lo and behold, Generalissimo James Edward Franco: a merry prankster, and the latest on-screen love interest of Sean Penn.

    The Oscar campaign begins.

    There are also interviews with Oliver Stone and Anna Paquin, by the way.  More at Interview’s website.

  • ‘Gomorrah’ is in — do we have a frontrunner?

    Well, as speculated a few hours ago, Italy has announced their submission for Best Foreign Language Film. And, to the surprise of precisely nobody, they have gone with Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” — the sprawling, breathlessly acclaimed portrait of Naples mafia life that was arguably the breakout hit of May’s Cannes festival. (It received the runner-up prize.)

    It’s almost impossible to declare frontrunners in this category, given the foreign film committee’s wilful voting habits. Still, it’s safe to say that “Gomorrah” is the most anticipated and discussed contender to officially enter the race so far.

    Whether it will prove too bleak and violent for the blue-hair voters is difficult to predict — they acknowledged the edgy brilliance of “Amores Perros” in 2001, but since then, they’ve been unable to stomach the likes of “City of God” or last year’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days.”

    Based on the unanimously good word for the film, I’ve long been predicting that “Gomorrah” could even score breakout noms in the Best Director and Adapted Screenplay categories (a la “City of God”), but that was when I imagined Italy picking the more parochial “Il Divo” as their foreign-language entry. As it is, they’ve chosen the title with more crossover potential — it’ll be interesting to see what momentum Garrone’s film can build from its New York Film Festival screening.

    For my part, I’m seeing the film at its UK premiere this Sunday — hopefully to be followed by a Q&A with Garrone. I can’t wait.

  • 9/24 Oscarweb Round-up

    Harvey Weinstein• David Poland adds a nice perspective to yesterday’s nothing “news” about Weinstein vs. Rudin. [The Hot Blog]

    • Patrick Goldstein sticks his toe in the scuffle as well. [The Big Picture]

    • Ditto Brad Brevet. [Rope of Silicon]

    • 10 things you need to know about “The Wrestler.” [Vulture]

    • Jeffrey Wells thinks “Miracle at St. Anna” is a poblem movie because he didn’t get an invite. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • When will Hollywood start feeling the credit crunch? [The Guardian]

    • Keira Knightley could be lined up to play F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Zelda Sayre. [The Independent]

  • Naming and shaming

    I think it’s fair to say that Jack White and Alicia Keys’ Bond theme (which so disappointed yours truly) is not going down all that well.

    So much so that Popjustice, one of my personal favourite websites, is seeking retribution.

  • Editing honors for ‘Dark Knight,’ ‘Iron Man’

    One of the more oddly timed awards ceremonies of the year,  the Hollywood Post Alliance Awards revealed their nominees yesterday. (Variety has a report and full list of nominations here.)

    Amid the awards for lesser-recognised arts like colour grading and compositing, I was interested to see that they have a Best Film Editing category. Mashing together work from late 2007 and 2008, the nominees emerged as Lee Smith for “The Dark Knight,” Jay Cassidy for “Into the Wild” and Dan Lebental for “Iron Man.”

    Interesting that Cassidy is the only late-2007 Oscar nominee to reappear here. (For me, the finest editing achievement of last year was “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” but maybe it wasn’t rugged enough for their liking.) I highly doubt we’ll see “Iron Man” in the Oscar lineup in this category, but “The Dark Knight” is looking like a real contender.

  • ‘Three Monkeys’ joins the Foreign Film mix

    Nobody who was paying attention at Cannes will be surprised that Turkey has selected Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Three Monkeys” as their entry in the foreign-language derby.

    The film was one of the critical sensations of the festival back in May and was many pundits’ pick for the Palme d’Or — it wound up with the Best Director award. Just to jog your memory, here’s a rave from the ever-reliable Jonathan Romney:

    An ostensibly routine noir-style psychological thriller vaults into the realms of high art in “Three Monkeys” … For the first time, Ceylan really involves himself in narrative complexity, spinning a subtly-twisty yarn with echoes of such crime writers as Simenon and James M. Cain … the smallest amount of trimming could well turn an exceptional film into a near-perfect one.

    I have been excited by this for some time. Ceylan’s 2002 film “Uzak (Distant)” is one of my favourite films of the decade so far, a work of visual wonder and immaculate storytelling grace. While wildly acclaimed, his follow-up, “Climates,” did less for me — it was exquisitely rendered, but on a narrative and thematic level, Ceylan seemed to me to be treading water. So I like the idea of this move into more genre-tinged territory. It’s one of my must-sees at the upcoming London Film Festival.

    I suspect the film may prove a little too resolutely arthouse for the frequently auteur-shy Foreign Film committee, but no matter. As when Mexico selected Carlos Reygadas’ bold, beautiful and thoroughly Academy-unfriendly “Silent Light” last year, I applaud Turkey for the bravery of their selection.

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  • ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ added to London fest lineup

    Just, you know, FYI. Curiously, the addition of Spike Lee’s film means they’re bumping “Rachel Getting Married” into a slightly less high-profile slot. Weird, since we all know which film has more heat in the wake of the festivals.

    Though I’m not very excited about “Miracle,” any expansion of the programme is encouraging to see. Now if they could just wrangle “The Wrestler,” I’d be most grateful.

    Check out further programme modifications here.

  • Israel picks the animated ‘Waltz’ for its foreign Oscar contender

    A website called cinemascope is reporting that Israel has chosen Ari Folman’s “Waltz with Bashir” to represent the country in the foreign film Oscar race.  Very wise.  Nice to see animated films getting this kind of an awards push, what with “Persepolis” repping France last year.  Let’s just hope “Waltz” doesn’t get the shaft like “Persepolis” and “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” last year from a majorly disfunctional branch of the Academy.

    Guy, by the way, has been doing a nice job of wrangling the foreign film news lately, so keep it hear as updates keep coming.

  • Gurus back on the scene

    It looks like David Poland beat The Envelope to the punch again this year with his collective of Oscar prognosticators, the Gurus o’ Gold.  I’m back on the team again this year after missing the boat last time around.

    Poland has done away with the Gurus 2.0 experiment, which was an interesting look at what the peripheral awards sites were thinking.  I guess he decided it better to whittle it down to a refined list of guessers, while The Envelope’s thing is having casting a huge net.  There are pros and cons of each approach, but at this point in the year, we’re all guessing anyway.

    I was surprised to see “Slumdog Millionaire” make it into the Best Picture predicted five with so much authority.  And despite my recent change of tack on the major category hopes of “The Dark Knight,” I certainly wasn’t anticipating a tie for #6.

    (The Gurus’ top 10 predicted Best Picture hopefuls with commentary after the jump.)

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  • The battle over ‘The Reader’

    Cover of Bernhard Schlink\'s The ReaderThe news that Scott Rudin and Harvey Weinstein are in a tug-of-war over the release date of “The Reader” isn’t really news at all.  We were talking about this over a month ago, back when it seemed Rudin had won the debate.  But the pieces slowly fell into place and a 2008 release became a reality, so here we are.

    The problem: the film isn’t finished yet.  That’s all well and good.  Neither is “Revolutionary Road” or, last I checked, “Milk.”  The issue with “The Reader” is that it likely won’t be finished by the time Weinstein wants to release the film, and that is where the efforts of those involved could go to waste at the whims of an awards-hungry big-wig desperate for a major Oscar contender for the first time in four – count ’em – four years.

    What’s worse — or at least could be perceived as worse — is the notion floating out there that Weinstein is banking on good will for “Reader” producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack.  Both filmmakers passed away earlier this year.  Steven Zeitchik aludes to this in his Hollywood Reporter piece.

    Zeitchik has a lot of smoke but not much fire, though, since both Weinstein and Rudin declined commen.  And he’s likely peddling anonymous quotes from publicists on one side or the other — sentiments we’ve all heard, and probably from the same publicists.

    My guess, at the end of the day (and as one of Zeitchik’s sources concludes), is that Weinstein wins the battle.  He’s proven recently enough that he’ll push something down the collective AMPAS throat if he doesn’t have the goods (Sienna Miller in “Factory Girl.”)  It’s that insatiable awards appetite.  The tragedy this time around isn’t that he won’t have the quality, though, but, more likely, that he’ll have an incomplete product that could have been better serviced.  We’ll see how it turns out, but here’s a look at Zeitchik’s collection of a month-and-a-half’s worth of rumors:

    Weinstein is pushing for a December release for the movie, which director Stephen Daldry is working on in post. The romance set in postwar Germany and based on Bernhard Schlink’s novel already has buzz from strong test screenings, though there are post elements left to be completed…

    Rudin, however, has been lobbying hard for a 2009 release. The producer already has two Oscar candidates — “Revolutionary Road,” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Winslet as a married couple in the 1950s, at Paramount Vantage, and the Broadway transfer “Doubt,” toplining Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, at Miramax — and a third would mean he is vying heavily against himself.

    The producer faced a similar scenario last year when his “No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood” competed against each other for Oscar kudos.

    The fact that Winslet stars in both “Revolutionary Road” and “The Reader” would mean the actress too could wind up competing against herself.

    The rest.

  • On the economy

    Two things, since it’s a relatively quiet morning so far and I’m catching up on a lot here and there.

    First, the economy talk is crippling for many, including myself.  It’s tough to wrap one’s head around even the simplest Time Magazine cover story, let alone the most in-depth Wall Street Journal piece.  But staying true to form as one of the good guys, Ron Paul has laid out the particulars in the most easy-to-consume manner I’ve yet to come across in this CNN op-ed.  Give it a read if you’re interested in making sense of it all.

    Second, last night, David Letterman broought Bill Clinton on to discuss a few things, but key among them was the economic crisis.  It was an awesome three-segment visit that gets a bit dizzying in the language from time to time, but, again, in true Clinton form, he laid it all out in consumable terms for the most part.  But basically, it was just a damn fine interview and the audience was silent throughout, clearly taking it all in.  I haven’t found a YouTube clip yet, but again, if you’re interested, poke around for it and I’m sure it’ll turn up.

    Now, back to Oscar stuff…

  • ‘W.’ TV spot

    Bad quality, but here it is.  And a different one here.  I’m starting to sense a Best Actor nod for Josh Brolin is more in the cards than initially expected.  But that script.  I don’t know, maybe it’ll all come out in the wash:

  • Some suggestions for Special Edition DVDs

    United Artists' Heaven's GateEvery week, much to the delight of my children, several packages arrive at my door containing DVDs, movies that are not yet released in the home market that I am expected to review. Tough work, ain’t it? Seriously, I would do what I do just for the free movies.

    That said, I have followed the history of DVD very closely and the manner in which several studios double dip with their releases. Most recently we have “The Godfather Restoration,” which is superb, but represents the third such DVD release for these films. The first came in 2001, The Godfather Trilogy, and then each film was released on its own so folks not wanting Part III could pass (sorry Kris).

    Another film that went through many incarnations before the Ultimate Collector’s Edition was “Blade Runner,” though last year’s final release should be the final release. Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” went through several variations before coming to us in the ultimate edition, minus, of course, “Hearts of Darkness,” the splendid doc about the film’s making. What might have been cool is to see some footage of Harvey Keitel as Willard (if it exists).

    But it all leads me to wonder which films out there deserve a double disc/special edition release.

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  • ‘O’ Horten’ among further Foreign Film entries

    Leading a quick roundup of some recent entries in the Best Foreign Language Film race, Norway has unsuprisingly selected Bent Hamer’s absurdist comedy “O’ Horten” as their pony. The film garnered a number of followers at Cannes and Telluride, with Variety declaring it a “warm and gently humorous divertissement.”

    I was a big fan of Hamer’s previous films “Kitchen Stories” and “Factotum,” the latter a sadly underexposed Charles Bukowski adaptation that featured a career-best performance from Matt Dillon. I’m looking forward to “O’ Horten”; I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in the final shortlist, at least.

    Other titles joining the mix (that we haven’t already reported) include:

    “Taare Zameen Par,” from India, starring and directed by Aamir Khan, a 2001 nominee for “Lagaan”;

    “Last Stop 174,” from Brazil, a Toronto entry from Bruno Barreto, a 1997 nominee for the brilliant “Four Days in September”;

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  • 9/23 Oscarweb Round-up

    I'm not talentless!• Does the Governor really deserve to top a list of the 10 most talentless people in Hollywood? [The Movie Blog]

    • Richard Rushfield hangs out at the Emmys’ Governor’s Ball. [The Envelope]

    • Fans ask Daniel Craig the questions. [The Guardian]

    • Logan Hill’s four “must see” films at this year’s New York Film Festival. [New York Magazine]

    • Chuck Palahniuk’s five favorite films. [Rotten Tomatoes]

    …and that’s about it…lots of Emmy talk out there, though (not personally interested).

  • POLL: How do you feel about Bond’s missing catch phrases in ‘Quantum of Solace?’

    In this morning’s Oscarweb round-up, we linked to a story in London’s Independent newspaper about the upcoming 22nd installment of the James Bond franchise, “Quantum of Solace.”  It appears director Marc Forster and company have opted to exclude the infamous catch phrase, “Bond. James Bond.” from the film’s script.  Also getting the cut is the “shaken, not stirred” aside that we all know and love.  It’s an unexpected departure that could have a few fans up-in-arms…or not.

    So in this week’s poll, I thought I’d ask the readership: is this a travesty or no big deal at all?  Tell us in the sidebar poll!