In Contention

Category: Daily

  • Getting out of hand?

    I know I haven’t seen the film yet, and I know it’s IMDb users we’re talking about, but do we really think that “WALL-E” ought to be considered one of the top six films of all time?

  • ‘Mamma Mia!’ “sharp” and “hilarious” says The Times

    In the first review of the musical adaptation “Mamma Mia!” (a claim they make loud and clear in the headline), The Times of London has tossed out a glowing assessment of what frankly looked to be one of the eye-sores of 2008, from this end.

    There’s plenty of praise for Meryl Streep, who is likely on the way to a Golden Globe nomination for her work.  Hugo Rifkind has this to say:

    Streep is the real star here, and she does serious acting, too, investing a cliff-top rendition of The Winner Takes It All with far more teary gravitas than should be possible for a song that contains the line: “I figured it made sense/ building me a fence”.

    I also liked this blurb:

    Streep slams wonky, wooden shutters and leads her mob of bridesmaids, ageing sluts and lumpy Greek peasant women on a rampage through that sleepy village like a sun-kissed, middle-aged parody of Cyndi Lauper.

    Check out the rest.

    There is also this interview with “Mamma Mia!” creator Judy Craymer charting the journey of the musical from stage to screen.  Here’s a look:

    Hollywood came calling years ago, but Craymer, [Phyllida] Lloyd and the writer, Catherine Johnson, refused to sell the rights. If Mamma Mia! was going to become a film, they were going to do it when they wanted and on their terms. Hollywood invariably wants Hollywood directors and producers but, miraculously, they managed to keep hold of the film themselves. The feat becomes even more unlikely when you consider that none of them had ever done anything remotely on the scale of a Hollywood movie before. But faced with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, Universal decided they wanted the film enough to take it.

    The rest.

  • Half-way there: The best and worst of the year so far

    We’ve reached the mid-way point of 2008, a year that truly seems to be speeding along (or is it just me?).  That means it’s time to assess what’s come down the pike over the last six months as our contributors make their picks for the best and worst cinematic offerings of the year so far.

    If you want my thoughts on the Oscar potential of these and other releases from the first half of the year, check out this week’s Off the Carpet column.

    Note: With Gerard, Guy and me being in the UK at the moment, neither of us has had a chance to see “WALL-E” yet.  Press screenings won’t happen until later in the month and it finally opens out here on July 18.

    In Contention’s picks for the best and worst of the year after the jump!

    (more…)

  • Nolan wanted the Joker ex nihilo

    Batman-on-Film.com’s Bill Ramey is probably the biggest Batman fan this side of…well, me.  He made the trip from Texas to Los Angeles over the weekend to see “The Dark Knight” and participate in the film’s junket, scoring a nicely in-depth interview with director Christopher Nolan.

    Here’s the money quote, describing Nolan’s philosophy on whether to include much in the way of an origin story for Heath Ledger’s Joker character:

    I felt very strongly that when you take these extraordinary characters — in the movies, I’m talking very much about the movies here. But you take these extraordinary characters and the more you find out about them — where they came from and all — the less interesting they become. And that’s very true to me of say Hannibal Lectre (sic) or Darth Vader. You know when we first saw them onscreen, they were fully formed and an absolute. Unlike Batman — who I wanted very much to explore his origin and where he came from — with heroes it’s just different. But with villains, it’s the opposite. So with The Joker, I wanted present him as an absolute, an agent of chaos and anarchy.

    Read the rest here.  They do love the Batman-on-Film Web site (11 years running) at Warners and on the Bat crew, I can tell you that.

  • LAFF closes: Sundance hits score again

    I must admit, the Los Angeles Film Festival hasn’t always been on my radar in the past, but its stature seems to be growing from year to year. This year’s edition wrapped up on Sunday, with the jury prizes going to Sean Baker’s “Prince of Broadway” in the narrative feature category, and to Darius Marder’s “Loot” in the documentary section.

    Just as significant, however, in a festival that boasts “The Audience is King” as its slogan, are the audience awards. Here, a pair of films that already took audience awards at Sundance earlier this year repeated the feat: Jonathan Levine’s “The Wackness” took the gold in the narrative section, while James Marsh’s Brit documentary “Man on Wire” won the international audience award. In the documentary category, Sacha Gervasi’s “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” emerged victorious. A summary and full list of awards can be found here.

    The former two have had buzz building around them for months; indeed, earlier in the year, I had Levine’s oddball character comedy on my Best Original Screenplay list until the category got a bit crowded. Still, one to keep an eye on, particularly at the Spirit Awards. Meanwhile, “Man on Wire,” a study of Philippe Petit’s law-defying 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers, has me very excited for its UK release next month. I’d be tempted to predict an Oscar nomination for the film, which also won a Grand Jury prize at Sundance, but the Academy can be sticky about non-US docs.

    (more…)

  • ‘WALL-E’ Best Pic talk

    This Nikki Finke item is three days old at this point, but I’m just stumbling upon it (I avoid her like the plague).  It brings up the ole’ “can an animated film get a Best Picture nomination” thing again.

    Here’s a bbit of insight about a potential campaign in the works:

    I’m told that Disney and Pixar are going to push hard for a Best Picture Oscar nomination for Wall-E on the basis of its anti-toon moody darkness and rave reviews by critics who matter. Certainly many toons have tried for that high honor over the years, and then settled for “just” a recently added Best Animated Feature nod. Only one animated movie has made it into the most competitive Academy Award category — Disney’s Beauty And The Beast in 1991 — but, alas, didn’t win.

    I don’t want to say “it won’t happen,” because I always have hope, but this is an interesting item considering the reality of the animation Best Pic possibilities embraced by some of the individuals in charge of marketing them.  That’s all I’m sayin’.

  • Goldenthal to score Mann’s ‘Enemies’

    Exciting news.  This is without a doubt my most anticipated film of next year.  The press release, in part, on Goldenthal jumping on board:

    Oscar-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal (Frida) has been signed to score Universal Pictures’ action-thriller from acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann, Public Enemies. Currently shooting in Chicago, Public Enemies stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in the incredible story of criminal folk hero John Dillinger (Depp), whose wave of bank robberies and the subsequent FBI manhunt, commanded by J. Edgar Hoover and run by Special Agent Melvin Purvis (Bale), fascinated the nation in the 1930s.  The film also stars Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, Giovanni Ribisi, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, Rory Cochrane, Stephen Lang, David Wenham, Stephen Graham, Channing Tatum, and Jason Clarke.  It arrives in theatres in July 2009.

  • ‘Cheri’ to be released in 2009

    In response to the most recent Oscar update I received a note from Miramax publicity this afternoon, regarding Stephen Frears’s “Chéri.”  It seems the film is staying in 2009, narrowing the studio’s awards hopefuls to Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky” and John Shanley’s “Doubt.”

    The critically thumped “Blindness” is still lingering as a possibility, while Julian Jarrold’s “Brideshead Revisited” needs to overcome the widespread opinion that Evelyn Waugh’s novel has already been filmed definitively.

    As for the current Oscar charts, I’ll update them at some point this week to strike “Chéri” from the record.  Tell a friend.

  • In Paris…

    …and I just finished a Royal with cheese:

    httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=SLtwFugudZE

    Also, I must have a “Le Chevalier Noir” poster.  MUST.  Pics to follow.

    Happy Sunday (and I swear the “Dark Knight’ chatter will die down around here soon).

  • Batman vs. Batman vs. Batman vs. Batman

    A…W…E…S…O…M…E:

  • Sayin’ it now

    With reviews trickling down for “The Dark Knight” in the last 24 hours or so, everyone seems to be going out of their way to hail Heath Ledger’s performance as Oscar caliber, perhaps even sporting the chops to win the award posthumously.

    Of course, we’ve been all over that scenario for months here at In Contention, but it’s occured to me now that Warner Bros. might have a case to push this apparently epic portrayal for all it’s worth.

    I’m talking about a nomination for Heath Ledger in the Best Actor category.

    Stranger things — indeed, similarly atypical scenarios — have certainly happened.  The easiest excuses remain Lee Marvin in “Cat Ballou” and Johnny Depp in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”  If a genre performance comes along that is so earth-shattering, or perhaps not even that so much as a head-spinner that demands critical attention and adoration, the Academy seems willing to comply in those often heated lead races.  Why not this year?  Why not this performance?

    By all accounts, Ledger seems to be blowing his co-stars off the screen.  More than simply chewing the scenery, it appears he is gnawing on the film stock, owning the film and every meaningful aspect of it.

    Respect might well be demanded in a manner we didn’t expect — perhaps Mr. Ledger will go into the Oscar books a two-time nominee for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.

    More in the charts on Monday.

  • Coming next week…

    Just a heads up: Monday we’ll offer up a brief midway point article charting each of our contributors picks for the best and worst films of the year so far.  Also, a month has flown by since the last Oscar update, and so it’s time for some nipping and tucking.  Stay tuned.

  • Counting down the best of Pixar

    In honor of today’s release of Walt Disney/Pixar’s “WALL-E” (it seems we’re sticking with the hyphen), the gang at New York Magazine’s Vulture blog have offered up a countdown of the best films in Pixar’s consistently impressive portfolio.

    I have to say, I share their opinion that “The Incredibles” simply…isn’t all that.  I was on the bandwagon for “The Polar Express” back in 2004, but comparisons aside, the film never hooked me the way it did the rest of the film-going community.  And that says a lot, given my comic geek roots.  It’s a nice film, but a little flat.

    Their pick for the studio’s greatest work is a slightly unconventional choice: “Monsters, Inc.”  I confess I actually haven’t given it a second look since 2001 (what became the year of “Shrek”), but I’ve been meaning to pick up a copy for a number of years now.

    My choice is far and away “Finding Nemo,” the only animated film ever to land in my top five for a given year (#3 in 2003).  But I do love the “Toy Story” films.

    Here’s their list:

    1. “Monsters, Inc.”
    2. “Finding Nemo”
    3. “Toy Story 2”
    4. “Ratatouille”
    5. “Toy Story”
    6. “A Bug’s Life”
    7. “The Incredibles”
    8. “Cars”

    I obviously haven’t seen it yet, but it’s looking more and more like “WALL-E” will top everyone’s list in due time.

    Speaking of “WALL-E,” Sasha Stone at Awards Daily has put up her first State of the Race column this week, focusing on the film, its awards potential and the political message supposedly within.  Take a look:

    Wall-E begins its run at midnight.  Some peripheral chatter is focused on it being not kiddie fare or it being a target for conservatives for having a “message.”  If the message ends up being that we as a culture have a disease of consumerism and that it will end us in pathetic ruin, that is not a great leap in logic.  Look around.

    But if the conservatives do start whining about it that only means its Oscar chances shoot through the roof, as if they haven’t already.  We have here a “too big to ignore” film, a Schindler’s List of the animated feature category and if anything is to take it down it’s only going to be a shocker at the box office, an extremely unlikely scenario.

    Read the rest here.

  • Campea on ‘Knight’

    Our pal John Campea over at The Movie Blog is back in Los Angeles after some time back home in Toronto this summer, and right out of the gate he’s slapped up a review from last night’s screening of “The Dark Knight.”

    It’s a glowing assessment to say the least, and at one point John says he was ready to call the film one of the best cinematic endeavors of the last three or four years.  But John’s getting old, what can I say — and the length of the film kind of got to him a bit.

    To each his own.  But I doubt there will be too many people upset with the apparent direction the final act takes (in the way of bridging over to the eventual third film).

    It’s worth noting that John structures his reviews in a very accessible way.  His site is and has always been a film site, a great community of movie lovers with no pretensions.  Keep that in mind as I offer his load-busting assessment of Heath Ledger’s performance:

    One of the things I was preparing myself for was how over hyped the performance of Heath Ledger was going to be. Since he passed away, I knew he’d be getting rave reviews out the ying (sic) yang no matter what and I’d be frowned upon if I said any different. But holy mother suck puss face… HEATH LEDGER DESERVES AN OSCAR NOMINATION FOR HIS PERFORMANCE AS THE JOKER… no… I’m not even kidding in the least. I was totally, 100% blown away like nothing I’ve ever seen in a comic based movie before.

    And the closer:

    Holy crap did Two Face look WICKED!!!

    Then he gets into why the length bothered him, etc.  Check out ther rest here.

    I haven’t seen any other reviews drop yet, but I’m sure we’ll start seeing them throughout Friday and into the weekend, when the junket screenings start to land.  Be on the lookout.

  • ‘WALL-E’ or ‘WALL*E?’

    Just curious.  I’ve been going with the hyphen, and I’m certainly not going to cut and paste the dot every time.  Some outlets are going with the asterisk.

    What say you?  Ooh…new pointless poll perhaps?  Yeah, I think so.

  • Battersea featured in ‘Dark Knight?’

    This one is a stretch, I know — and many of you could care less.  But I can’t escape “Dark Knight” news no matter where I turn.  Seriously, I just click on a link to a random news story about the revitalization of London’s Battersea Power Station, and there it is, staring me in the face.

    The Batman films are always valuable for their design elements, but I didn’t know this monolith — perhaps best known from the cover of Pink Floyd’s “Animals” (an image replicated two years ago in “Children of Men”) — was going to be featured in the film.  But it seems that’s the case.

    I can, like, see Battersea from my kitchen.  Very cool.

    Carry on…

  • “A duel between two powerful lone wolves”

    Yeah, Opie actually called it that.  A bit much, but anyway…

    Guy already passed along the news this morning that Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon” will open the 52nd annual London Film Festival on October 15.  But I also stumbled onto this preview/interview with Howard at The Times of London that offers a little more insight than the Screen International story.

    Here’s more from the director:

    Peter Morgan calls it a thinking person’s Rocky and I agree with him…I loved the audacity of the story, this famous British guy being turned down by the US networks and then cobbling together his own network to clobber the Americans with their own stick. It’s just this tremendous act of entrepreneurial courage.

    And some key lines from Ben Hoyle’s copy:

    The stage play of Frost/Nixon opened at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden, London, in August 2006 before transferring to the West End and later Broadway. Howard said that he read the script early on in the initial run. When he discovered that a frantic bidding war for the film rights was already under way, “I jumped on a plane to London with my wife and went to see it.” What he found was “one of the best theatre experiences of my life”…

    Critics adored the performances but some complained that Morgan had oversimplified the story, playing fast and loose with the interview transcripts and suggesting that the interviews sealed Nixon’s ignominy in the minds of the American people…Both Morgan and Howard empha-sise that Frost/Nixon is an impression of what happened in and around the interviews, not a docudrama.

    Check out the rest here.

  • Exclusive ‘Dark Knight’ set piece footage on ET

    I know, I know.  The Batman stuff is coming fast and furious.  Being out of the loop in Britain (re: press screenings) is pushing the site’s coverage of the film into the fanboy anticipatory realm, but I’m okay with that.  Kind of reminds me of the old days.

    Here’s a look at one of the big action set pieces of the film, which Entertainment Tonight showed exclusively last night:

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVWg0KHZl4E