In Contention

Category: Daily

  • Bingham on the rise

    You probably notice I write about Ryan Bingham plenty, even though his successful Oscar season has come and gone.  But you know what?  Sometimes you meet guys n this racket who are real and genuine and, above all, kind, and when someone like that has talent like this, you just want to see him succeed.  And if you do what I do, you want to write about it.

    Bingham and his band The Dead Horses played a sold out show last night at the El Rey on Wilshire.  I’ve only seem him perform in a more intimate capacity (and we were robbed of the chance to see him grace the stage at the Kodak Theatre last year), so seeing him shred it to a capacity crowd was a special sight.

    I kind of consider him a latter day Springsteen.  His songwriting has taken huge leaps with the latest album, “Junky Star,” and he brings the energy like few contemporaries.  And the sky could be the limit.  We’re watching a superstar on the rise.

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  • Art Directors’ Guild wins for ‘Swan,’ ‘Speech,’ ‘Inception’

    In a busy night for industry awards, the Art Directors’ Guild also dished out their trophies yesterday. “Inception” claimed its second Guild prize in one night as it triumphed in the Fantasy category — fending off fellow Oscar nominee “Alice in Wonderland,” which would be a surefire winner for “most art direction,” in the process.

    I’m pleased the elaborate-but-ugly stylings of the latter film weren’t rewarded, though I’m struggling to get critic Mike McCahill’s description of “Inception”‘s production design as resembling a “revolving Best Western” out of my head.

    The other two categories were more predictable, as “The King’s Speech” took Period honors, while “Black Swan” triumphed in the Contemporary field — a win that places at least some balm on the wound of last week’s Oscar snub. (Rewatching Darren Aronofsky’s film a few days ago renewed my dismay that the Academy’s bias against modern-day work in this category struck again: I just can’t see how Stuart Craig’s work on the latest “Harry Potter” chapter is more inspired than Thérèse DePrez’s intricately coded melding of stage, domestic and psychological spaces.)

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  • Clean sweep for ‘Dragon’ at Annie Awards

    (Sorry we’re a bit late getting to this — Kris had more exciting plans for the evening and I like to sleep sometimes.)

    It’s a shame one can’t talk about “How to Train Your Dragon”‘s success at the Annie Awards without dragging politics into it. There are those of us who think it legitimately deserves to beat “Toy Story 3” on its own merits, and the sense of entitlement that comes from many of the protests on Pixar’s behalf isn’t appealing.

    But as when DreamWorks’s “Kung Fu Panda” upended “WALL-E” at the awards two years ago, there’s no way not to view this, to a large extent, as an anti-Pixar vote. If you’re not aware of the behind-the-scenes drama, this is it in a nutshell: last summer, Disney and Pixar withdrew from the International Animation Film Society-Hollywood, which organizes the awards, in protest at the voting procedures that enabled that aforementioned 2008 upset. (That Disney/Pixar had still taken the top prize in 13 out of 18 years, including last year’s win for “Up,” didn’t make them any less huffy.)

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  • WGA awards ‘Inception,’ ‘Social Network’

    I’ve been a bit tied up this afternoon and haven’t gotten to this yet, but indeed, the WGA has awarded “Inception” and “The Social Network” with its screenplay honors this year.  Color me a little surprised by the original screenplay win for Christopher Nolan, but Aaron Sorkin had a pretty clear ride to this win, I think.

    No, I don’t think Nolan’s win means anything for Oscar.  Seidler has that in the bag and would have had this if the work was eligible, BUT, I’m very happy for Nolan.  It’s a much better ending than if the indie had swooped in for some love, as most were expecting.  And I still think said indie is the one in Seidler’s rear view.  But for now, I raise a glass to ingenuity through spectacle.

    The Art Directors Guild awards are also tonight, but I have to run out.  So I imagine you’ll come across the news at some point.  No guild awards next weekend, but the following week will bring the CAS, ACE and ASC.  It’s almost over.

  • Boyle and Beaufoy and werewolves, oh my

    The best part of this evening for me wasn’t Aaron Sorkin and Ben Mezrich winning an award for “the best adaptation of the printed word into film” (for a work that is debatable as an adaptation in the first place).  It was probably talking with finalist Simon Beaufoy about his latest script.

    Some of this has made the rounds in the UK, but apparently it’s a werewolves-in-gangland-LA script adapted from an epic poem, “Sharp Teeth,” about same from Toby Barlow.  Seriously.  Picture “Boyz N the Hood” where Doughboy and his crew turn into savage dogs at night.  And it’s a potential project for Danny Boyle to direct.

    Beaufoy told me about ride-alongs he has taken with LAPD officers in Compton and Watts in the way of preparation.  As a screenwriter, he says he prefers to observe quietly, but the cops he was riding with would insist, quite comically (as he describes it), on perpetrators spending a couple of minutes chatting with him at every bust.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘King’s Speech’ marches on

    • “The King’s Speech” continued its cruise through phase two of the season with a widely unexpected Directors’ Guild victory…

    • … and scooped top honors at a surprise-free Screen Actors’ Guild Awards ceremony.

    • Following this brace of wins, this week’s Off the Carpet column said what we were all thinking: the race is over.

    • Meanwhile, in his Long Shot column, Guy concluded that the royal biopic was likely the film to beat all along.

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  • Predict the WGA and Scripter winners

    This weekend brings a couple of screenwriting competitions: the WGA Awards and the USC Scripter Award ceremony.  I might as well give you some space to predict.

    My bet on WGA is “The Kids Are All Right” for original, but it does seem like an open race.  I consider it the spoiler possibility for Oscar, but if “The King’s Speech” were eligible here we all know it would likely win.

    Meanwhile, the adapted field is a little easier.  I think Aaron Sorkin will coast to a win for “The Social Network.” These are writers voting, after all (and not a mish-mash of disciplines like the DGA).  It won’t be as easy on Oscar night, given the broader spectrum of voters, but I think tomorrow night should be simple enough.

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  • Joyce Carol Oates on ‘The Fighter’

    On the occasions that they donate some space to the medium, the New York Review of Books can be a source of pretty world-beating film criticism — and from some unexpected voices, at that. A few months ago, I featured Zadie Smith’s matchless essay on “The Social Network,” but if that film’s media ubiquity made it an obvious topic for an intellectual outsider, it’s a delightful surprise to see the venerable American Joyce Carol Oates (herself the author of pugilism tome “On Boxing”) taking on “The Fighter.”

    Better yet, she addresses David O. Russell’s boxing biopic with more seriousness and sensitivity than many a well-versed film critic; the film opens today in the UK, and has been greeted by a disappointingly large number of polite but unenthused reviews, many of them carelessly citing a TV aesthetic.

    Oates argues for “The Fighter” as a “directorial homage” of sorts to “Raging Bull,” but sees an elegiac conflict in an underdog story that more have likened to the straight-up feelgood storytelling of “Rocky.”

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  • Phase two campaign messages give it their best shot

    I’ve been, unintentionally, taking note of the various tactics this year’s Best Picture hopefuls have been using as phase two barrels ahead and members have ballots in hand.

    The smartest stroke, I think, was The Weinstein Company following up the “Some Movies You See, Others You Feel” campaign with a “Find Your Voice” push for “The King’s Speech.” It’s obviously two-fold.  Yes, it indicates the narrative of the film, but it also works wonderfully in a “don’t let anyone tell you what to vote for” kind of way.

    Meanwhile, Sony is perhaps reaching a bit to find its own campaign voice for “The Social Network,” as “One Movie Connects Us All” is a bit faux-profound.  Show of hands of who’s mother isn’t on Facebook?  But that making-of documentary (which is available online, on demand and came in disc form in the trades this week) was certainly a smart play.

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  • Best Original Song performances are back

    The Academy’s Twitter feed just noted the following:

    You heard it 1st: Best Song performances are back for 83rd #Oscars! Gwyneth Paltrow set to sing…more on the way.

    To which I say: Great.  It was grossly disrespectful, I thought, to suddenly jerk them from the telecast last year (and if you heard some of the things being said of the nominees — by the telecast’s producers — behind the scenes last year, you might have been riled up a bit, too).  I think Ryan Bingham missed out on a great opportunity to reach a global audience with one of the best winners in that category in some time.

    But anyway, obviously they see having someone like Gwyneth Paltrow perform on the show (as she did recently on the CMT awards) as a ratings asset.  Ditto Mandy Moore (who will be performing “I See the Light” with Zachary Levi and Alan Menken).  A.R. Rahman will do “If I Rise” with Florence + the Machine (no Dido) and Randy Newman will be there to belt out “We Belong Together.”

    Check out the Oscar Guide to Best Original Song here.

    [Photo: Screen Gems]

  • 2/4 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Entering the final stretch, Hawkes on being the underdog, last ‘Network’ hurrah?

    • Pete Hammond on campaigns entering the final stretch, voters with ballots in hand. [Deadline]

    • Anne Thompson discusses Oscar voting procedures and more with AMPAS president Tom Sherak. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Jen Yamato talks being the underdog with “Winter’s Bone” star (and Oscar nominee) John Hawkes. [Movieline]

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  • Could there be another ‘Network’ dagger lurking?

    I’m really not trying to drop another grenade on the season here, but I was wondering recently about surprises this year and whether there are more in store.  And one undeniable shock would be an upset in the Best Adapted Screenplay race.

    Some would point to “True Grit” or “Winter’s Bone” as the likely runner-ups to Aaron Sorkin’s all-but-assured win, but if members are voting with their heart in the Best Picture field, why not in the screenplay races, too?  In “Toy Story 3,” I think you’ve got the makings of a real spoiler.  It’s a wonderful close to a beloved series and, look at that, it has “story” right there in the title, waiting to be capitalized upon in advertising.  (That one’s free, Disney flacks.)

    In all likelihood, the Academy will feel comfortable sticking with the Best Animated Feature (and potentially Best Original Song) fields as a way to recognize this film and franchise, but if they wanted to spring for more, this would be the place.  And Michael Arndt, an Oscar already in tow, isn’t some unknown newbie making his way through the season.  When it comes to screenplays, the Academy at large simply thinks about dialogue before all else.  That’s the extent of sweeping understanding of the form.  And Sorkin has that in spades, so the smart money, no question, is on “The Social Network.” I’m just saying the smart money was also on David Fincher once upon a time.

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  • ‘In a Better World’ trailer

    Following “Incendies” on Tuesday, we have another trailer today for a Best Foreign Language Film nominee seeing a 2011 domestic release: Susanne Bier’s “In a Better World” (which also won the Golden Globe).  I’ll get into the film more in-depth when the Oscar Guide makes its way to the category, but for now, I have to say it’s a stirring, brilliant movie, relevant and engrossing in the most human ways.  Seek it out when it comes to a theater near you.  Click on the image below to see the trailer, via Yahoo! Movies, or watch an embed after the jump.

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  • The Bagger in-studio with Reznor/Ross

    A little difficult not to be totally envious of Melena Ryzik’s recent trip to Trent Reznor’s crib/studio to talk “The Social Network” with the Nine Inch Nails front man and his composing partner, Atticus Ross:

  • ‘Crazy’ ‘Bone’ ‘Network’

    I guess this whole episode is worth posting, given the Oscar relevance throughout.  After the nervous-as-hell tone Eisenberg and Lawrence set (endearingly, sure), it was nice to have Bingham there to smooth things out on clean-up:

  • 2/3 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Animated feature speculation, Cameron says Nolan was robbed, ‘Network’ doc online

    • Carolyn Giardina floats the possibility of “How to Train Your Dragon” beating “Toy Story 3” for Best Animated Feature with nothing but those (not unexpected) Visual Effects Society wins to justify it. [The Race]

    • James Cameron thinks Christopher Nolan should have been nominated for Best Director this year. [Hollywood Reporter]

    • Steve Pond explains the voting procedure of the five categories not on the ballots that went out yesterday. [The Odds]

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  • Oscar nominees

    Bingham just Tweeted this pic of his Jay Leno appearance tonight.  If you can’t tell, that’s Jennifer Lawrence off to the side.  And I think you know the gentleman next to Leno.  Nifty:

  • ‘Cold Weather’ trailer

    Here’s a welcome breath of fresh air amid the oppressive mechanics of Oscar season. Some of you might remember that my personal Top 10 of 2010 featured a few films only hitting US theaters this year — and here’s the first of them. Aaron Katz’s “Cold Weather,” a bracing fusion of gentle indie shuffle and playful noir leanings, opens on Friday, and I implore you to take a chance on it. Apple has a shiny new trailer that does a neat job of reflecting the film’s brittle atmospheric charms, if not its cockeyed humor. (It also offers a taste of the year’s most strikingly original score.) Check it out by clicking on the image, or watch the embed after the cut.

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