In Contention

Category: Daily

  • More announcements from TIFF

    Toronto International Film FestivalPaul Dano and Zooey Deschanel are to be featured in “Gigantic” with John Goodman in a supporting role. In “Lovely Still,” acting icons Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn portray two seniors who find love late in life struggling with the baggage that comes with a life so long lived.

    “Lymelife” looks interesting, a film seen through the eyes of a young boy, portrayed by Rory Culkin, and what happens when an outbreak of Lyme disease hits a small town. Alec Baldwin portrays the boy’s loud mouth father with strong support from Cynthia Nixon, Timothy Hutton and Kiran Culkin in a film executive produced by no less than Martin Scorsese.

    One of the more intriguing films of the fest will be the US film, “The Stoning of Soraya M”, a study of an Iranian woman falsely accused of adultery which is a crime punished with death by stoning. Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo stars in the film.

    Mark Ruffalo is back in town with more than one film, co-starring with Ethan Hawke in “What Doesn’t Kill You” about two friends looking out for one another in a tough Boston neighborhood. The film was produced by filmmaker Rod Lurie, who’ll be in the thick of the Oscar hunt this year with his own “Nothing But the Truth.”

    The other titles include “Rain” from the Bahamas, “Cold Lunch” from Norway, “Vacation” from Japan, “Apron Strings” from New Zealand, “Better Things” from the United Kingdom, and “Daytime, Drinking” from South Korea.

  • More Eastwood…

    These must be hard times for anyone who doesn’t like Clint Eastwood, and I realise that we at In Contention aren’t doing much to reduce the saturation. But with two pictures coming up in the space of four months, and a massive retrospective at the BFI Southbank (formerly the National Film Theatre, for those of you who haven’t been in London recently), he is – again – the man of the moment.

    To tie in with the retrospective, the UK press has been awash with Eastwood coverage, but this piece in last week’s Independent was only just brought to my attention, and rather nice it is too. It’s more in line with the idolising tone of Sight and Sound’s recent profile than Alex Cox’s hastily executed contrarian view in the New Statesman (a missed opportunity, to say the least). Writer James Mottram doesn’t really have anything new to add, but in true Independent fashion, it’s considered and thorough, with a nice sprinkling of typically pithy Clint quotes. This one in particular raised a smile:

    Now he is 12 years into his second marriage, to former journalist Dina Ruiz, some 35 years his junior. And with seven children by five different women, it’s no surprise that he says: “I still feel film-making is the second most fun thing to do.”

    (more…)

  • First look at ‘The Burning Plain’

    As I mentioned in my Venice preview, “The Burning Plain,” the directorial debut from screenwriter extraordinaire Guillermo Arriaga, is one of my most anticipated titles of the year. Now a new series of images from the film has been revealed – check them out here.

    Not much to be gleaned from them that you hadn’t suspected already – it’s clearly an intimate piece focusing on actors rather than visual fireworks, and Charlize Theron is in dressed-down (but still beautiful) mode. The synopsis provided indicate that Arriaga is playing typically complex structural games:

    “The Burning Plain” weaves together two storylines taking place in the past and present. Kim Basinger will play Gina, the mother of Charlize Theron’s character as seen in childhood. Theron will play Sylvia, who tries to find common ground with her parents after a turbulent childhood. The two narratives eventually converge.

    So far, so good. Meanwhile, the announcement that the film will also play at Toronto only emphasises that this is one to watch. Arriaga has yet to misfire in my view – incidentally, his novel, “The Night Buffalo,” is excellent too.

    We all know by now how great an actress Theron can be when she connects with her material, and Basinger, rather like her ex-husband, is a more interesting character player than she ever was a star. (I’ve squeezed the former actress into my list of predictions – you can take a look at them here.) Here’s hoping the momentum keeps building.

  • ‘Valkyrie’ changes tack

    Well, I’ll be. In what appears to be Tom Cruise Week in showbiz newsland, the most surprising development is the return of the long-suffering “Valkyrie” to the 2008 release slate. Bryan Singer’s WWII thriller, a project that has been maligned virtually from the get-go, will now bow on US screens on 26 December.

    That will go some way towards raising public and critical expectations for the film – which honestly couldn’t have been any lower after MGM shifted it to the February graveyard shift months ago. However, I wonder whether it can be saved. As Kris has pointed out before, the script isn’t much to write home about (regrettably so, since Chris McQuarrie can be a hell of a writer) and that trailer that mysteriously started doing the rounds in April or so didn’t really set many pulses racing.

    Most of all, I think Tom Cruise may ironically be the film’s trickiest selling-point – I simply have no idea how many people out there will pay to see him carry a film these days. There’s no denying he’s a massive media presence (as the “Tropic Thunder” hoopla has made abundantly clear), but there comes a point sometimes where the roles of celebrity and movie star are no longer synonymous. Of course, he could turn it all around if he and the film are actually – gasp – good, but he could just as easily be on the cusp of becoming the Michael Jackson of screen acting. “Valkyrie” will be an interesting litmus test to see if audiences still want to see him as someone else.

    Why the scheduling change, incidentally? The studio seems to be playing the gosh-darn-ingenuous card there, with sources saying it’s a “purely commercial” decision made after positive test screenings. The awards season is “not a factor,” apparently. Actually, I believe them – though I wonder if that isn’t a hint of an admission that the film isn’t award-worthy. We shall see.

    Finally, I had to chuckle at the other stated motivation for the move: that MGM believes the film to be a “holiday pic.” Nothing says Christmas like Nazis, right?

  • Speaking of comic book lists…

    …this one is pretty lame.  Though #8 is a big “YES” in my book.  Who has the rights anyway?  Paramount?  Can’t remember.

  • The Reel Geezers ride the ‘Express’

  • New ‘Body of Lies’ trailer drops

    The latest trailer for Ridley Scott’s “Body of Lies” is a giant step up from the first crack Warner marketing took at it.  It simultaneously injects complexity and amplifies the scale of the pic.  The concentration on the DiCaprio/Crowe dynamic is certainly front and center here, showing us more of the material Crowe has to chew on.

  • ‘Che’ and ‘Porno’ among 20 new films announced for Toronto

    Benicio Del Toro in CheJohn hasn’t addressed this yet, so I’ll put it out there…

    Variety’s Anne Thompson is reporting on 20 new films added to the line-up of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Following suit with yesterday’s New York fest news, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” (listed as “Part One” and “Part Two” for Toronto) will make the trip up north.

    Other special presentations of note include Rian Johnson’s “The Brothers Bloom,” Richard Linklater’s “Me and Orson Welles,” Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” Kevin Smith’s controversial “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain” (could be Oscar bait for actress Charlize Theron), Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” and Marc Abraham’s “Flash of Genius” (which could be an awards vehicle for Greg Kinnear).

    The big news, however, seems to be that Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” will not be heading to the fest. Here’s Thompson on that front:

    Clint Eastwood’s Cannes Fest entry “Changeling,” which will be the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival, will not be at Toronto because there was uncertainty about new mother Angelina Jolie’s availability to participate in a gala premiere. “We would have loved to have had Clint Eastwood,” said Bailey, “but the only way to present the movie in a big way was as a gala with Eastwood and Jolie.”

    Basically, the Toronto crew can’t star-fuck, so they’d rather not show it. Gotcha.

    Anyway, read all about the new additions here. The full line-up will be unveiled next Tuesday.

  • Alex Cox rips into Clint Eastwood…but why?

    Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of DollarsWhen I was in London over the summer, a friend landed a position at New Statesman magazine, so I became familiar with the periodical. I enjoyed it’s dry, slightly askew view of the world (and it fit my friend’s outlook like a glove). It also seems a perfect fit for this somewhat lifeless op-ed from multi-hyphenate Alex Cox regarding Clint Eastwood’s debt to filmmakers Sergio Leone and Don Siegel.

    A wandering, seemingly aimless swath of prose that eventually comes to the conclusion that Eastwood has become an uninteresting filmmaker, Cox spends much of his word count praising Leone’s work in The Man with No Name trilogy. He’s on board for Eastwood when discussing the actor’s shrewd decision to pare down much of his dialogue in the films, but he jumps ship immediately when Eastwood’s falling out with the director is discussed.

    Here’s a taste:

    Resisting the usual actor’s temptation to expand his role and to increase his share of the dialogue, Eastwood took a red pencil to the script. Something like 90 per cent of his scripted dialogue was eliminated. What remained counted: “Now, if you’ll just apologise to my mule . . . like I know you’re gonna . . .”

    But the shoots for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) were longer, and – at times – dangerous, as when Leone wanted Eastwood and Eli Wallach to crouch near a bridge that was to be blown up.

    Originally Leone had planned to have Volontè appear in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but he fell heavily for Wallach’s charms and cast him instead. Wallach’s character, Tuco, dominates the film to such an extent that both Eastwood and Van Cleef tend to become his foils. Eastwood wasn’t interested in this development. It was the last time he and Leone worked together.

    (more…)

  • Hell of a thing

    George Clooney in Batman & RobinSo…I was watching Joel Schumacher’s “Batman & Robin” on TBS last night (I know…I’m so sorry). Midway through, this line of dialogue between Michael Gough’s Alfred and George Clooney’s Bruce Wayne stuck out as an incredibly insightful blip in Akiva Goldsman’s otherwise wretched attempt at a fourth installment in the franchise:

    Death and chance stole your parents. But rather than become a victim, you have done everything in your power to control the fates. For what is Batman if not an effort to master the chaos that sweeps our world, an attempt to control death itself?

    It’s the sort of line that would have been at home in the Nolan brothers’ insightful, rich adaptation, an adaptation that probably deserves more Oscar attention than any other aspect of “The Dark Knight.” Very curious.

    Of course, the moment is sullied not 120 seconds later with this keeper:

    My name is Freeze. Learn it well. For it is the chilling sound of your doom.

    Cue the Coolio blacklight embarrassment. Sigh…

  • Robert Downey Jr.’s ‘Dark’ diss

    Robert Downey Jr. at the premiere of Zodiac in February 2007

    My whole thing is that that I saw ‘The Dark Knight’. I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’ I loved ‘The Prestige’ but didn’t understand ‘The Dark Knight’. Didn’t get it, still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I’m like, ‘I get it. This is so high brow and so f–king smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’ You know what? F-ck DC comics. That’s all I have to say and that’s where I’m really coming from.

    Well…

    (Courtesy: Moviehole)

  • ‘Duchess’ website has an eye toward the threads

    www.theduchessmovie.comParamount Vantage has always been a safe haven for the crafts cateogries when it comes to the Oscar season.  Each year, the Vantage Guilds website showcases the below-the-line stuff that consistently gets the short end of the coverage stick.  (We harp on this a lot around these parts).

    With that in mind, the studio has launched an official website for Saul Dibb’s upcoming film “The Duchess.”  And as a part of the interactivity, there is a special section spotlighting Michael O’Connor’s costume designs, which could be a formidable contender for the film this year if nothing else.

    There’s also an extremely informative section called “Discover” that could keep you busy for quite a while…if Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire does it for you, that is.  There’s tons of stuff about “the Empress of Fashion” and plenty to indicate a strong push for the design aspects of the film.

    The trailer is also included (see below), as well as the usual media bells and whistles.  Give it all a look here.  And I suppose now’s as good a time as any to remind the readership that Gerard Kennedy’s weekly “Tech Support” column will launch on Thursday, September 4.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLRoimyj9BE

  • Woah…’Thunder’ isn’t doing too shabby…

    (from left) Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller in Tropic ThunderThis kind of surprises me.  I don’t know how long it’ll stay in the 80 percentile, but I kind of thought we’d see more assessments along these lines than the review highlights Ryan Adams has cherry-picked over at Awards Daily.  But there’s certainly more where that came from.

    Seriously, a film like this, I’d expect an up-in-arms deconstruction from every self-important critic in the country.  The protest controversy seemed like it would be fuel for that fire, but I guess it’s gone in a different direction.

    Curious.

    Not that I bother with the collective at Rotten Tomatoes or that I read — well — pretty much ANY critics anymore.  The art form is so stale, so lacking in the perspective it had not five years ago.  More often than not I just don’t bother.

    But good on ’em for finding some joy in this little farce.  It has its flaws, but it’s solid and even smart here and there and I’m obviously a fan of Tom Cruise’s antics, so bring on some more positive assessments.

  • ‘Brothers Bloom’ poster

    Like Brian, I was a big fan of 2006’s “Brick.”  It was easily the most underrated film of the year and announced the arrival of a considerable talent in writer/director Rian Johnson.

    The wunderkind’s latest, “The Brothers Bloom,” could be something special, but given the ambition, it also has all the makings of a sophomore slump.  Time will tell, though I’m more amped for his “Bloom” follow-up, “Looper.”

    Anyway, Rope of Silicon has landed the new poster from the film, as well as two additional stills featuring Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz.  Here’s a look at the one-sheet:

    Summit Entertainment\'s The Brothers Bloom

    Honestly?  I don’t think I like it.  There’s something incredibly pedestrian about it.  And it’s certainly not as striking as the materials for “Brick” (here, here and here).  But you have to sell the pic, so I’m generally fogiving of stuff like this.

  • Logo

    Many of you may have been aware that over the past year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been systematically yanking the “Oscar” name and likeness from a number of websites.  Sasha Stone’s Oscarwatch was the first to go (now Awards Daily) and upstarts like The Oscar Igloo have also made a switch (now Awards Circuit).

    (The Academy definitely set the legal wheels in motion on Stone’s site, but I can’t be sure on the Igloo folks, who may have been off the AMPAS radar completely.  Ditto fan-oriented sites such as EverythingOscar.com.)

    Well, this month the Academy has taken further steps, setting its sights on In Contention and, namely, the Oscar silhouette that has so identified itself with the site’s logo since the dot-com launch in July of 2006.  And in the way of compliance (though what choice is there?), we have yielded to the Academy’s wishes and conjured up a new look for the logo.

    Really, it’s all for the best because that old red slash, however identifiable, has become tired in the editor’s view.  And with some special ideas in store for post-Oscar season in 2009, the AMPAS strong arm has frankly expedited a move that was a long time coming.

    So, I want to give a special thanks to graphic designer Dan Crook for whipping up the new banner.  I like the slickness of it, the iconic grab factor of the black streak.  I hope you’ll grow to feel the same way.

    And before I forget, I want to again acknowledge the work of Claes (a.k.a. Grizzly) for his assistance on the old logo’s look.  It got a lot of mileage, and all good things come to an end.  He’s been M.I.A. for over a year, but wherever you are, thanks chum.

    To the memories:

    To the memories

  • NYFF reveals full line-up

    Mickey Rourke in The WrestlerThe full schedule of the 46th annual New York Film Festival was released today.  indieWIRE has the scoop.

    The big showcase I’m looking forward to is, of course, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” (which I touched on yesterday).  But also landing in the Big Apple will be Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling,” Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Che.”

    Time will tell if the latter remains distribution-less after a North American bow.  Something tells me, given Soderbergh’s tenacity, that it will.

    I’m also interested in Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” (with an “h” this time), which was a considerable favorite at this year’s Cannes fest, as well as Wong Kar-Wai’s “Ashes of Time Redux.”  Despite a personal distaste for the Chinese helmer, this project has a special something keeping my interest piqued.  Ari Folman’s Canne fave “Waltz with Bashir” will also make the trip.

    And then there is Steve McQueen’s “Hunger,” a meditation on the IRA hunger strike that made Bobby Sands a national hero in Northern Ireland.  I spent a weekend in Belfast while I was overseas this summer and remember coming across a giant wall mural of Sands, part of a guided tour with one of his former compatriots who also participated in the protest.

    I’ve been hearing fantastic things about Michael Fassbender’s performance in the film.  He dropped an amount of weight that supposedly makes Christian Bale look obese in “The Machinist.”  It might be one of the lowest flying turns on the awards radar so far, and if IFC Films can spin a valiant campaign around the actor, watch out.

    Check out the full roster of NYFF titles here.  The festival begins September 26 and runs through October 12.

  • Peter Gabriel’s road to Oscar

    Peter GabrielI just spent a pleasant four minutes watching Peter Gabriel’s ground-breaking “Sledgehammer” video from 1985, which Patrick Goldstein smartly linked to recently at The Big Picture.

    It’s one of those things…I haven’t watched “Sledgehammer” since the early 90s, when MTV still had a fingertip’s grasp on relevance.  Those weekend music video countdowns were the stuff of legend when I was a kid.  Two days counting down the top 100 videos of all time?  Forget about it, I parked it in front of the tube for the duration.

    “Take on Me,” “Thriller,” “Vogue,” “Losing my Religion,” “Need You Tonight,” “You Might Think,” “Money For Nothing” and perhaps the last truly great music video of an era that crashed and burned with Hype Williams and the like, “Virtual Insanity.”  “Sledgehammer” held court in the greatest of company, always in the top five or six.

    Goldstein is responding to a recent Fred Goodman story in the New York Times regarding Gabriel’s innovative thinking, not only in the creative sector, but in the business sector.  Consider Goodman’s lede:

    When Charles Grimsdale, a British investor, started the Internet music venture OD2 in 1999, he had a hard time persuading large record companies to license their music. But when he approached the rock musician Peter Gabriel about putting his music catalog online, he got a very different response: Mr. Gabriel was not only willing, he also wanted to take a stake in the company.

    And here’s Goldstein:

    At 58, Gabriel is a graybeard by pop music standards, but he’s been incredibly far-sighted in his ability to anticipate huge changes brought about by new technology. In 1999, when record companies were still trying to protect their lucrative CD business by preventing fans from downloading music on the Internet, a British investor couldn’t persuade any record labels to license their music catalogs to his new Internet venture, called OD2. When he contacted Gabriel, the artist not only offered up his catalog of songs but promptly invested in the company itself, which later sold for $40 million.

    Gabriel is at the forefront of Oscar talk this year for his work on Pixar’s “WALL-E.”  Specifically, his closing credits tune “Down to Earth” could be in the derby for Best Original Song.

    However, the Academy has shown a tendency of shying away from tracks relegated to a film’s credit roll, opting instead for songs that work organically with their respective films, paying close attention to how they are utilyzed, not simply the merit of the tunes themselves.

    Then again, an argument could be made that the closing credits sequence of “WALL-E” carries a narrative weight that is imperative to the story.  (You can give it a listen over the “WALL-E” trailer here.)

    In any case, I wonder if the industry goodwill reflected in Goldstein and Goodman’s pieces could go a long way for Gabriel during the season.  His is a vigorous creative spirit that deserves whatever accolades might be bestowed.

    Soon enough we’ll get the Best Original Song chart up and rolling.  Still waiting on contenders to show themselves.

  • Behind the scenes of Henry Selick’s ‘Coraline’

    Every time I walk into the comic book store lately I feel the urge to pick up Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline.” I haven’t done so yet (mainly because I’m buried in so many other books at the moment), but it’s an interesting tale that could make a fabulous feature film.

    Henry Selick is, of course, doing just that and Rotten Tomatoes has secured a behind-the-scenes look at the film. Focus Features is set to distribute “Coraline” in February of next year, but there is still an outside shot at an Academy-qualifying run in 2008 if the film is finished in time. It would enter into the animated feature derby with “WALL-E,” perhaps Sony Classics’ “Waltz With Bashir” and DreamWorks SKG’s “Kung Fu Panda” (which is just asking to be kicked to the awards curb).

    Next year, the competiton looks to be Pixar’s “Up,” Walt Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” and Focus’s own “9.” Perhaps Robert Zemeckis’s “A Christmas Carol” will turn the tide for motion capture for the animators, but I doubt it.

    “Coraline” is currently set for release on February 6, 2009.