In Contention

Category: Daily

  • I can already see it becoming a problem

    Regarding “Guerrilla.” Take note of the second “r.” I’ve made the mistake already myself. A few times. FYI.

  • Variety sizes up the competition…again

    It looks like they’re spinning their Oscar wheels again over at that other film awards haven of mine.

    I say “again” because Justin Chang put together a very thorough year-in-advance rundown not two months ago, which was already wading further out into the waters than you’d expect from the Hollywood trade.

    This week — actually flying under my radar because I haven’t expected Oscar stuff out of Award Central in a while — it’s Pamela McClintock, eying the release date plays of various fall contenders as an angle on which to hang yet another look ahead. I came across the link via Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere.

    The usual suspects are rounded up: “Frost/Nixon,” “Revolutionary Road,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” etc. But there are a couple of new pics of note.

    For instance, I didn’t include John Hillcoat’s “The Road” (based on the Cormac McCarthy novel) on my own year-in-advance take because there was still some questiona s to whether it would be a 2008 release at the time. The Weinstein Company has it set for a Nov. 26 bow. And I also didn’t spotlight the Greg Kinnear starrer “Flash of Genius,” because quite frankly, it didn’t come up in discussions with Universal publicity brass, so I figured why bring it up? Both films are featured by McClintock.

    Anyway, the story isn’t much beyond a taking stock sort of thing, but it’s Oscarweb news nonetheless. Check it out.

  • Reading “W”

    Boy, they sure are leaning on some hyperbolic recent dubya lore to push this thing along. I’m only about 50 pages in or so and already more than a few things turn me off about this script, but I’m also somewhat surprised that writer Stanley Weiser has gone the way of presenting Bush in such a deep character study.

    I’ll probably write up a “Page to Screen” article later in the fall. But I’m definitely looking forward to Josh Brolin in this role.

  • Poland calls ‘Speed Racer’ a “masterpiece”

    speedracer1.jpgWell, as usual, he doesn’t come right out and say it, but his implications are obvious.

    This film looks like an absolute headache to me, and considering the Wachowski brothers have not created something that caught my fancy since the first installment of “The Matrix” nine years ago, I’m not holding my breath here. Poland’s endorsement is also no shock given that he has gone into the well for the Wachowskis over and over and over again. I guess if you can find genius in “The Matrix Reloaded” and “V For Vendetta,” you’re bound to find it in what looks, on the surface, to be a bubble gum time warp and nothing more.

    But wait, there are family values!

    I doubt it’s that deep, but David likes what he likes. As do we all. See for yourself.

  • Boy, if you hated ‘Donnie Darko’

    southlandtalesrockface1.jpgAnd I did. But Jesus, I put myself through Richard Kelly’s “Southland Tales” last night and really, truly, it might be the worst film I’ve ever seen.

    No one wants to be the last guy to show up to a smack down, so I won’t get into all the whys and what fors on this unqualified mess. Plenty have had their say on the matter. But never has a film exhausted me to the point of absolute, unmitigated fury. I was literally pissed at how terrible this thing was.

    What is worse, I decided to check out the flick’s Rotten Tomatoes page, and lo and behold, there are fools out there forgiving and, in some cases, justifying the film. Staggering.

    I’ve thought Richard Kelly was the cinema’s luckiest hack ever since I laid eyes on “Donnie Darko” back in 2002 or so. But somehow, he’s developed a fan base because of that film (and even for his work on another train wreck, Tony Scott’s “Domino”). I don’t get trends like this. I never do. But I hope he goes away now and, if he must come back, I hope he beats this wretched muse out of his creativity.

    Poor Rock.

  • Foundas got served

    I never miss an opportunity lately to read up on someone giving LA Weekly critic (or in this case, Village Voice pundit) Scott Foundas his due. Today, its Ryan Adams at Awards Daily, who lays into Foundas’ rather inane stretch for an observation that Paramount Pictures are doing everything they can to keep Iraq out of the promotion for Kimberly Peirce’s “Stop-Loss.” Take a look:

    Whoa! spoiler alert there, Scotty! Stop Loss is about Iraq, you say? Never woulda guessed from the saturation advertising of, um, soldiers in desert camo and stuff. Way to “spill the beans” there, friendo. And yet Foundas believes the same target audience he belittles are so informed that they’ve seen all the Vietnam movies like The Deer Hunter and Coming Home…

    Of course, Adams is biased here. He’s made no attempt to conceal his pre-ordained love for “Stop-Loss” in recent weeks. But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. Give it a read. And if you really want to put yourself through it, check out Foundas’ stretch for a news item at the Voice.

  • Almost there

    shepherd.jpgRobert De Niro’s “The Good Shepherd” has been running on HBO this month. I stopped flipping to watch some of it this evening, kind of caught up in the brief year-ago nostalgia, but mostly transfixed with a film that is so close, yet so far.

    I remember when I first saw the film at the Clarity screening room in Beverly Hills in December of 2006, surrounded by a typically judgmental crowd of HFPA members. I had high hopes. It was, after all, the year’s most anticipated would-be Oscar film, much like 2007’s “Charlie Wilson’s War.” There was a hell of a crew assembled for what sounded like it could be a solid, dense, but meaningful effort. The catch was that I had read Eric Roth’s screenplay some months prior, and “dense” didn’t begin to cover it. I knew this was a script that demanded some sort of device to dig a story, not necessarily bogged down, but still somewhat abstruse, out of the literary and onto the screen in an authoritative manner.

    I had also just finished up a profile of Roth for The New York Times and had grown as fond of the man as I had his work throughout the years.

    (more…)

  • Don’t tread on me

    I’m starting to wonder if a 7-part mini-series was the best way to go on “John Adams.” While there were some great moments with Tom Wilikinson in last night’s third installment, I have to confess, it was largely boring on the whole. Who would go back and re-watch something that tedious?

    The history, thankfully, was accurate enough but they are still hanging their hat on that “Adams sacrificed so much for the country” ho-hum. Four episodes to go. I better see the reasons to hate him and but fast.

    And I want more David Morse. Sure, he was kind of — awkward as Washington. But Washington WAS awkward, so it’s a weirdly perfect fit. Can’t wait to see the story pick up with him once again.

  • Remembering Anthony Minghella

    9759a.jpgI’ve been tucked away on an island for the past week, stuck largely in a news vacuum and certainly free of the bindings of daily internet briefings. But it saddens me to return to the shocking news of Anthony Minghella’s passing.

    The Variety report indicates a brain hemorrhage as the cause of death, though Minghella’s publicists, Leslie Dart, is saying that is not so. Whatever the case may be, we’ve been swiftly relieved of one of the cinema’s most interesting voices, a man with just six films to his credit but all of them representative of the man and his convictions in some way, shape or form.

    I met Minghella just once, in December of 2006 when I moderated a Q&A with him and actress Robin Wright Penn for the underrated “Breaking and Entering” in front of an audience of SAG actors. What I remember of the man is a delicate touch, a soft-spoken manner that still held a certain adoration of truth in expression.

    He took the utmost care and consideration for any query, always ignorant of the stock answer and always intoxicating in his process, in explaining why he saw the world the way he did on celluloid and why he went to the deep and profoundly affecting places that he did in his work. Whatever one’s opinion of his filmmaking, it would be difficult to argue with his conviction.

    And now, he’s gone — taken from us like some cruel joke. I’m proud to say I shared a stage with him. I’m prouder, still, to say I was able to speak with him about his craft.

    If only once.

    You can read producing partner Sydney Pollack’s touching remembrance here, and actress Juliette Binoche’s eulogy poem here.

  • HBO’s “John Adams”

    John AdamsI must say, I’m slightly agitated by the approach HBO’s latest mini-series, “John Adams,” seems to be taking.

    Granted one cannot build a 7-part event around a hero too clearly flawed, but the fact remains that Adams wasn’t exactly the most noble of our founding fathers. Being a journalist, I can’t personally celebrate he of the Alien and Sedition Acts without considerable pause, for instance.

    The first part has been a typical conception: building the main character as an outcast set on the law first, and last. I’m not overly familiar with Adams’ early professional years, but ultimately he was a part of a paranoid Federalist sect that was more terrified of the notion of true freedom than not. The specter of the guillotine had better hang heavy over other portions of the mini-series if I’m to personally take it seriously as accountable in its history.

    And Paul Giamatti’s Adams had better see a swift fall from the grace of this initial entry. (more…)

  • The top 10 shots of 2007: part two

    Today we round out the top 10 shots of the year with the final five.  Check out part one if you missed it.

    Let’s dive in:

    #5

    Michael Clayton

    “MICHAEL CLAYTON”
    Director of Photography: Robert Elswit

    We were completely ripping off New York filmmaking from the 1970s, things like “Klute” and pretty much everything Owen Roizman has ever shot.  But Tony’s sense of these things was not lots of little pieces; he loves making kind of graphic frames that play as long as possible.

    –Robert Elswit

    Robert Elswit had a hell of a year in 2007, finally getting his due from the American Society of Cinematographers who awarded his work in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood.”  There was another film featuring Elswit’s unique signature, however, that flew under the radar for its considerable attention to composition and camera movement: Tony Gilroy’s “Michael Clayton.”

    Much is made of the film’s final sequence, a long shot focused on Clayton as he rides away from the hysteria in his life, desperate for his cab driver to “just drive.”  But a companion shot from earlier in the film was just as arresting, if not more so, as a purposeful point of transition to the second half of the endeavor.  A long tracking shot that never misses a beat, both behind and in front of the camera, the scene detailed is the expert, painfully clinical execution of Arthur Edens, played to an award-worthy T by Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson.

    The final image is steeped in theme, and an initial tracking sequence under Edens’ opening monologue pulls the viewer into the film’s interior world, but this particular shot is so cold as to be frozen in its depiction of something at once gruesome and strangely beautiful, fluid.  I’m not privy to whether it may have been a directorial decision, though I suspect it may have been, but it is the crown jewel in a film packed with precision from Elswit.
    (more…)

  • The top 10 shots of 2007: part one

    Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood2007 was, to my mind, the greatest year for cinematography in a long, long time.  I can’t recall the last time I was so thoroughly impressed with the visual artistry of film after film like I was last year, and I attribute that to the intriguing spark of creativity underway in the film medium as of late.  Newcomers and veterans alike were putting awe-inspiring images on film, some of the seasoned pros besting their already exceptional portfolios.

    I wanted to do something special in the way of commemorating the efforts of these individuals, and so I set out to interview a number of them as the year drew to a close.  Sadly, I was never able to piece those interviews together in a proper story like I would have wanted, but in recent weeks it has occurred to me that it may be just as beneficial to offer up something you don’t regularly see: a personal compilation of the greatest single images from the cinematic year.

    And so it goes that I offer the Top 10 Shots of 2007, a two part piece that will run down what I felt were the best of the best in a year full of exceptional cinematographic work.  Today, I’m running down shots 10 through 6, and tomorrow, we’ll wrap it up with the top 5.  Mixed in you’ll find sporadic comments from the lensers in question, as I feel it only appropriate that I give that small gateway into their process for readers and viewers alike.

    I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did compiling it.

    (more…)

  • What a guy

    Adrien BrodySo I’m on the phone today with Adrien Brody, interviewing him for that New York Times piece I’m putting together on “Hollywoodland.” We’ve had some delays in connecting – the poor guy has been traveling a lot – and we finally got a block of time on the calendar this afternoon, both of us in traffic in our cars (well – I was parking, to be fair).

    “There are many pitfalls in life,” Mr. Brody begins, in response to one of my queries. He then trails off and begins to verbally signify that something is vehicularly amiss on the assuredly crowded New York street he was on. Apparently some poor girl on a scooter went unseen by a cab driver pulling out onto the street, and after what must have been an uncomfortable collision, she was left eating the pavement.

    “Hang on a second, Kris,” Mr. Brody says to me. He then goes to assist in helping the girl and her scooter off the street and give a helpful hand to the entire situation like he was born to do so.

    AB: “You there, Kris?”
    KT: “Yeah, pal. Everyone okay?”
    AB: “Like I was saying…there are many pitfalls in life.”

  • ‘Syriana’ suddenly deemed an original screenplay by the Academy

    This story will break in the trades tomorrow, but here’s the scoop.

    In a rather shocking turn of events, the screenplay for Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana, a Golden Globe winner for Best Supporting Actor Monday night, was apparently classified by the Academy as an original screenplay in a meeting held in mid-December.

    The Academy’s decision, which is obviously a month old at this juncture, was not revealed in any way as awards season accelerated through the last 30 days. Gaghan himself was not even made privy to the classification until today. Meanwhile, his work as writer of the screenplay has seen recognition from the Writers Guild of America in the adapted category, and was also a nominee for the USC Scripter Award which recognizes the writers of heralded adaptations each year in addition to the source material that spawned them. Syriana was even a finalist for the Scripter win along with Capote, a competition that came down to the latter taking the award earlier this afternoon.

    (more…)

  • Best in show 2005: the year in superlatives

    It’s time to really round out the year and offer up my picks for awards in 2005.

    In addition to the typical categories – which finally see their winners announced today – you’ll find some other fun arenas for awards citation. Call it a mish-mash of MTV-Awards-type kudos and other frequently heralded categories we find time to time in various critics’ awards and precursor ceremonies.

    No one is better at this sort of thing than Nat Rogers over at The Film Experience, so I recommend you all take a look at his Film Bitch awards when he dishes them out in the coming weeks.

    These will likely be my last extensive thoughts on the awards season this year, barring any brief comments I may or may not make here and/or there. There will, of course, be one final predictions update before the end of the year.

    It feels good to wrap everything up before Christmas vacation, I have to tell you. But the Oscar season is by no means over, so I’ll be diving right back in once 2006 finally rolls around.

    (more…)

  • If I had a ballot

    Customarily, here in the midst of our year in review, it is time for me to fill out my ballot.

    I do this every year, pretending, for one brief moment, to be one of the 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and fulfilling my own fantasies about who does and does not deserve Academy recognition in their numerous categories.

    Be sure to check back on Friday as we wrap up the “Year in Review” with a list of superlatives. There you will find the respective winners of the categories listed below (given the top ten list you can easily discern Best Picture), as well as a bevy of other random categories for your reading pleasure.

    If I had a ballot:

    Best Picture
    Batman Begins (Warner Bros. Pictures)
    Crash (Lions Gate Films)
    A History of Violence (New Line Cinema)
    Last Days (Fine Line Features)
    March of the Penguins (Warner Independent Pictures)

    (more…)

  • Waxing politique

    Interviewing Viggo Mortensen last Thursday at the Four Seasons brought with it the inevitable political discussion, prompted by my referencing statements the actor had made calling for the impeachment of President Bush in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The following is his political stance and word for word dissection of the administration. Though not pertaining to A History of Violence or film in the slightest, I feel it an important statement that deserves its own coverage. And I agree with every syllable:

    “What I don’t want is just for Bush to be impeached, because the last person I want in charge of the world is Cheney. He’s a total pirate. And this doesn’t have to do with left wing, right wing, it doesn’t have to do with democrat, republican, it’s about honesty. I know that politicians – that’s the way the business is, politics – most of them, at some point or another, act in a two-faced way, by necessity it seems, and that governments generally lie. But what Bush and his backers have done is so far beyond, in terms of lying consistently, over and over again. They’ve taken it to a whole other level, and at the risk of sounding crude, I guess I would ask you this. How can you justify having impeachment proceedings that are costly and extremely distracting to a president that is trying to run the country and deal with things like terrorism? How can you compare having impeachment proceedings against someone for lying about a private sexual encounter or encounters, with a guy who is taking the United States to hell in a hell basket? It’s just unbelievable.

    (more…)

  • Not a moment too soon

    Welcome to In Contention.

    Oscar season is breathing down our necks yet again and here I am, finally in Los Angeles, and not a peep out of me yet.

    I had planned on ducking out of the Oscar race entirely this season for various reasons, but recent activity has caused me to dip my pen back into the awards prognostication ink.

    In Contention will be your one-stop spot for thorough, un-adulterated and above all, objective film awards and Oscar analysis throughout the season, in addition to various film and industry commentary here and there and in between.

    That’s right. I’m back.

    Thanks to Sasha Stone at Oscarwatch for the leg up.

    Starting Monday, August 22, In Contention begins analysis of every category beginning with Best Picture.