In Contention

Category: Daily

  • ‘King’s Speech’ rules UK box office

    “Tailored largely for the international audience for whom the internal politics of the Royal Family seem never to lose their mystique or fascination,” I wrote in my October review of “The King’s Speech.”

    I guess I have to take that back, since the film — which only opened on Friday in its home country — has become a genuine UK box-office phenomenon, as opposed to the specialized success it’s been across the pond.

    The film handily knocked “Gulliver’s Travels” off the #1 spot (bleak times, these) with a weekend gross of £3.52 million. (That’s about $5.5 million, if you like your figures translated, though it goes with saying that UK and US numbers are not comparable.) To put that in context, that’s over four times what another royal-themed prestige drama, “The Queen,” made on only slightly fewer screens back in the autumn of 2006.

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  • Did Armond White rain on the NYFCC parade?

    As regular readers might know, I tend to fall in the less populated “pro” camp when it comes to notoriously cranky New York Press critic Armond White — as much flak as he takes, from bloggers in particular, for his off-kilter tastes and occasionally aggressive writing style, I think he’s one of a select few writers making readers evaluate criticism as an artform, while I frequently find fillets of perspicacity in his more impassioned arguments.

    Dispensing with social niceties in creative print, however, is more endearing than doing the same in person — particularly when you’re representing not just yourself, but a group of professional peers.

    This Gawker report on White’s acid-tongued emceeing of last night’s New York Film Critics’ Circle awards dinner is too stingy with details and heavy on relayed quotes to pass judgment on, but on what’s supposed to be a celebratory communal evening, perhaps backhanded insults to winners and guests alike can wait for one evening. (UPDATE: NYFCC member Lisa Schwarzbaum says as much in her displeased writeup of the proceedings.)

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  • FIRST-HALF FYC: Below-the-line standouts

    For the penultimate installment in our reflection on the most Oscar-worthy achievements from the largely forgotten first half of 2010’s release calendar, I’m backtracking away from the major categories to the place I should perhaps have started: the technical sphere.

    Had I thought to start this column 20-odd weeks in advance of nomination day, I could have given each craft category the attention it deserves — though if I’m being honest, picking five outstanding Best Sound Editing contenders from the year’s first six months wouldn’t be the easiest of tasks.

    As it stands, I’ve arrived at an admittedly drastic compromise: singling out five individual technical contributions, across the range of categories, that made a particularly strong impression. With such a doubly curtailed brief, the list of painfully excised honorable mentions inevitably runs very long indeed, so I’ll jump straight in with a few of them.

    As much as “Shutter Island” didn’t work for me as a whole, it delivered considerable rewards as a craft showcase: I was particularly tempted to include Dante Ferretti’s art direction, which will likely find its way to Oscar recognition without my help.

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  • CONTEST: Screenplay giveaway!

    How badly do you want to own the shooting scripts of four of this year’s hottest Oscar contenders?  Well, HOW BADLY?

    We’ve got copies of “Black Swan,” “Inception,” “127 Hours” and “Toy Story 3” to give away this week.  I should have saved that “tell me a story” thing for this, so instead, to riff on the Haiku contest, I thought I’d just be completely ridiculous and introduce a — wait for it — LIMERICK CONTEST!

    That’s right, a limerick contest.  In case you’re unaware of the qualities of a limerick, refresh yourself here.  In a nutshell, though, five lines with an aabba rhyme scheme.  For example:

    There once was a guy with a blog
    Who felt it a daily slog
    But oh what fun
    To almost be done
    With a season that’s become a fog

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  • January winner predictions

    After taking a stab at winner predictions early last month, it seemed now would be a good time to re-assess.  Only three adjustments, though — for Best Picture, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score.  I’ll try my hand at another set post-nominations.

    Best Picture: “The Social Network”
    Best Director: David Fincher, “The Social Network”
    Best Actor: Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech”
    Best Actress: Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
    Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, “The Fighter”
    Best Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfeld, “True Grit”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: “The Social Network”
    Best Original Screenplay:     “The King’s Speech”

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  • 1/11 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Sony’s campaign price tag, Cotillard preggers, Cameron on Hollywood’s “story crisis”

    • $55 million…for an Oscar? [New York Post]

    • Move over Natalie Portman.  Marion Cotillard is carrying, too. [Us Weekly]

    • Are Golden Globes speeches always better than the Oscars? [Movieline]

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  • ‘King’s Speech,’ ‘Social Network’ among ASC nominees

    Well, I was expecting this to drop tomorrow, but the ASC nominees have been announced (catch them at The Circuit), and there are a couple of surprises.

    Okay, well, Jeff Cronenweth getting in for “The Social Network” isn’t a complete surprise, as I mentioned this morning we should watch out for him here.  But Danny Cohen making the cut for “The King’s Speech,” despite the fact that the film has an intriguing visual quality, is a bit unexpected.

    The rest is as we would have thought, though Robert Richardson missing is less of a shock than Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod Mantle getting the shaft.  I think Cohen gets bumped in favor of something else, though.

    Though maybe Cronenweth is in a precarious position, seeing as the ASC is quicker to nominate digital work than the Academy.  The rest, I should think, are solid.

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  • Douglas and Yauch are beating it

    Lost in all the general Oscar discussion as of late is some great news on two fronts.

    You might recall Oscilloscope higher-up and Beastie Boy rapper Adam “MCA” Yauch was diagnosed with cancer in his salivary gland a year and a half ago.  Recently it was falsely reported that he was cancer-free, but he has come out to clear the record but also assure everyone he’s hopeful in the wake of the lump’s removal.

    Meanwhile, Michael Douglas, who was hit with throat cancer some months back, says his tumor is gone and he’s on the road to recovery.

    Neither is out of the woods yet, obviously, but it’s great to hear that things are moving in a positive direction.  We certainly wish Yauch and Douglas a speedy recovery.

    [Photo: Getty Images]

  • “Where is no QUARK on my BEND it!”

    I still say that if you honestly can’t understand what Jeff Bridges is saying in this movie, I have no choice but to think you’re 95 years old.  Nevertheless, this is hilarious (courtesy of College Humor):

  • AMPAS narrows makeup category to seven

    I’ve been noting for a while now that “Barney’s Version” could be a sleeper in the Best Makeup category due to some impressive aging.  The film joins six others today as a bake-off finalist.  The only film missing that I’m currently predicting is “Shutter Island,” so replace that with “The Way Back” (which I was predicting once upon a time), and that’s my bet.

    The finalists:

    “Alice in Wonderland”
    “Barney’s Version”
    “The Fighter”
    “Jonah Hex”
    “True Grit”
    “The Way Back”
    “The Wolfman”

    Another potential sleeper is “The Fighter,” buy the way.  The work on Melissa Leo is pretty impressive.  Keep up with the race at its dedicated page here.

    [Photo: Sony Pictures Classics]

  • Peter Yates (1929-2011)

    11 years after his last theatrical feature (and far longer since the last one anyone saw), the passing of British director Peter Yates likely won’t leave much of a dent on contemporary audiences. Not knowingly, anyway — though his innovative visual and editing schemes in the iconic 1968 Steve McQueen thriller “Bullitt” helped change the shape of the prototypical Hollywood action sequence. It was, of course, his quieter work on “The Dresser” and “Breaking Away” that landed him four career Oscar nominations. But since those, along with that car chase from “Bullitt,” are all being amply covered in the obits, I thought I’d spotlight a more neglected pleasure: his frisky 1972 caper “The Hot Rock.”

  • Helena Bonham Carter slights her own performance

    In last week’s episode of Oscar Talk, one reader cheekily asked Anne and Kris which probable nominee they would most like to see out of the running. After much hemming and hawing, Anne landed upon Melissa Leo, while Kris stumped for (or against, rather) Annette Bening.

    While I’d co-sign neither of those choices, it’s just as well Kris didn’t choose that evening to cold-call me on the podcast, since I could easily have whined for hours on end about other contenders — and Helena Bonham Carter, widely seen as a shoo-in for her turn as the eventual Queen Mother in “The King’s Speech,” would have topped the list.

    An inoffensive wallpaper performance to some, it struck me as distractingly twitchy, mannered work against the crisp, unfussy teamwork of leads Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.

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  • Quotable

    I’ve been trying to track one of these down for a while now, but it turns out the buggers are just too big to ship.  Nevertheless, nice to know I’m in print at the Oxford Circus tube station and the like for Londoners to have a gander.  And hey, too big to ship kind of matches the quote, no?  Click for a larger version if you like:

  • Predict the ASC nominees

    Now that the DGA has spoken, something to pass the time.  Tomorrow the crafts guilds continue to roll out the season as the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) offers its picks for the best work behind the camera in 2010.  This is perhaps my favorite of the below-the-line categories, so I thought I’d offer up a lengthy preview.

    The Society is usually good for 80% when it comes to Academy crossover with its nominees. Sometimes you get a 5/5, sometimes a 3/5, but generally it’s 4/5. The trick is figuring out what the oddball selection will be. But let’s see what’s looking good for a nod, first.

    Leading the way this time around, like most years, would have to be Roger Deakins. His work on “True Grit” will likely win him an Oscar and the road there could very well begin with a win from the Society. He seems to be papa bear these days. Chalk it up.

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  • Russell, Hooper make DGA slate

    And it is as it should have been expected.  The question now is, will it match Oscar’s five 100%?

    It’s worth noting that “True Grit” is a late bloomer and the DGA have had ballots since late November.  If they went in early, and seeing as you can’t send screeners to the membership, it’s possible a number of voters didn’t see it before submitting.  But these are a strong five and I don’t know who would drop out.

    The instinct for some is Tom Hooper, but there’s no reason to think that would happen, honestly.  It’s doing just fine.  David O. Russell is the one a lot of people didn’t expect to see here, so that might be a decent call.  But his nomination today should be enough to dispel the notion that a shaky industry rep would keep him out of the game this season.  Or is it?

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  • Updates to The Circuit

    Just a note, a few goings-on at The Circuit.  First up, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists have gone with “The Social Network” as the year’s best.  The North Texas Film Critics Association (Dallas-Fort Worth wasn’t good enough?) opted for “Inception.” Speaking of which, Christopher Nolan’s film predictably dominated the Visual Effects Society’s list of nominees.

  • Bridges abides

    Greg Ellwood has done a pretty solid job of summing up Saturday night’s event at The Paley Center in Beverly Hills.  The evening featured the debut of “Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides,” a new installment in PBS’s “American Masters” documentary series, directed by Gail Levin.

    The film is incredibly in-depth.  By the time the credits roll, even if you think you know most everything there is to know about the actor (seeing as his “Crazy Heart” push last year turned over just about every stone), you walk away feeling like part of the family.

    The 90-minute film includes interviews from Bridges’s brother and sister, Beau and Lucinda, filmmakers Peter Bogdanovich and Terry Gilliam, actors John Goodman and Cybil Shepherd and many more.  It digs in on his peripheral art (painting, pottery, music, etc.) and basically just keys you in to what makes the guy tick.

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  • 1/10 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Bridges didn’t give a bleep, Reznor on ‘Tattoo,’ Is Portman overexposed?

    • Joel Coen says Jeff Bridges didn’t give a BLEEP about living up to John Wayne’s legacy in “True Grit.” [The Race]

    • Trent Reznor discusses his next scoring gig: David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” [The Playlist]

    • Gregg Kilday writes up the Best Picture race as he sees it. [Hollywood Reporter]

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