In Contention

Category: Daily

  • 9/7 Oscarweb Round-up

    • The Gurus o’ Gold step up to the plate of a fresh season, each of us picking 15 unranked bets for Best Picture likelihood pre-Toronto. [Movie City News]

    • Jeffrey Wells begs to differ on the notion that Gemma Arterton has a shot at awards success in “Tamara Drewe,” which he calls “the most loathsome film of Stephen Frears’ long and distinguished career.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • “Waiting for Superman” turns up the publicity heat and fuels the public education debate with a big ole’ spread. [New York Magazine]

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  • Godard tells AMPAS what it can do with that Honorary Oscar

    You might recall that, in the wake of auteur Jean-Luc Godard being tapped as on of the year’s Honorary Oscar recipients, the French New Wave pioneer turned up missing.  Well it seems he may have been actively avoiding that phone call from AMPAS brass.

    Godard’s girlfriend, Anne-Marie Mieville, spoke for him in an interview with The Australian, and she didn’t mince words:

    He just told me, ‘It’s not the Oscars’…At first he thought it was going to be part of the same ceremony, then he realised it was a separate thing in November…Jean-Luc won’t go to America, he’s getting old for that kind of thing. Would you go all that way just for a bit of metal?

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  • 9/6 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Jeffrey Wells attempts to sum up the season’s beginnings with his own nuggets of insight regarding Venice and Telluride. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Kelly Reichardt compares “Meek’s Cutoff” to the Iraq War. [The Hollywood Reporter]

    • Reports of paramedics assisting folks stricken by the intensity of “127 Hours.” (Though I’ve heard it was just altitude sickness.) [Thompson on Hollywood]

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  • Don’t be afraid of ‘The Way Back’

    As I write this, I can hear Peter Weir’s “The Way Back” playing at the Abel Gance outdoor cinema screen a block away.  As I passed the massive crowd that turned out for tonight’s screening, it got me thinking about Eugene Novikov’s Cinematical review of the film, which was unfortunately picked up at many outlets following Friday night’s debut.  Unfortunate because it completely misrepresents the film.

    Starting with the first line, Novikov says Weir’s film is “sadistically intent on making you feel as much of its subjects’ physical agony as possible” It’s a struggle, to be sure. This isn’t a happy time in these people’s lives. But there’s nothing here defying convention when it comes to a survival film, so why the hyperbole? And “sadistic” is an unfortunate adjective because it assumes a twisted sort of intention, which isn’t true at all. If Weir is being “sadistic,” then I’d love to hear what Novikov thinks Danny Boyle is doing in “127 Hours.”

    He goes on to say the film is “too straight up harrowing” to get awards traction. Novikov might think the film could have a tough road ahead Oscar wise, but it certainly won’t be because the film is “too harrowing.” There’s nothing here that we haven’t seen a thousand times in a thousand Oscar contenders, and that’s not to say it’s derivative (it isn’t). It simply doesn’t depict the gruesome journey Novikov projects.

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  • The Telluride sprint

    Today is the busiest day for me so forgive the drought on coverage so far.  I saw “The Illusionist” and “Black Swan” this afternoon, sat down with Peter Weir shortly after and I’m now shuffling off to catch “Biutiful.”  But check back later this evening for reactions to all of that and more.

  • Weir on modern indie sector, potential ‘Way Back’ campaign

    Pete Hammond, newly of Deadline, is one of only a handful of people who has seen Peter Weir’s “The Way Back,” premiering here at Telluride in a matter of hours.  He sat down with the director this afternoon and in his piece, he notes how curious it was that the film is slated for a January 21 bow without a one-week Oscar qualifying run.

    Weir told Hammond the film was ready for Cannes but that there was skepticism about whether a market exists for films of this sort.  And an Oscar campaign comes down to money, obviously, which is something Anne and I discussed in this morning’s Oscar Talk.

    The whole interview, though, reads like an unfortunate requiem to the kinds of classic films Weir has built his career upon.  The independent market and business is in considerable flux these days.  The idea that a Weir film was a hair away from going straight-to-DVD is just…depressing.

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  • Lionsgate sets Nov. release for Perry’s ‘For Colored Girls’

    The rumors were swirling around a potential fall release for Tyler Perry’s adaptation of the Ntozake Shange play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the World is Enuf.”  Today, a release dropped announcing a November 5 release.  And, perhaps predictably, the film’s title has been shortened to “For Colored Girls.”

    Guy pondered the awards possibilities of the title a few days back.  Could we have a player on our hands?  It’s the best bet Lionsgate has on its plate, and there are plenty female performances that could have the stuff.  Time will tell.  Check out a new image from the film after the jump.

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  • 9/3 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Joe Morgenstern writes a love letter to Carey Mulligan.  It’s still all happening. [Wall Street Journal]

    • Jennifer Lawrence’s buzz wave makes its way across the pond. [The Guardian]

    • The foreign film submissions are already off to the races, and now the Netherlands (“Tirza”) declares. [Variety]

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  • TELLURIDE: Claudia under the stars

    It’s one of the joys of Telluride, the spirit of communal film-going evident in the outdoor screen set up each and every year in the middle of town.  Tonight, I’m heading back to the room, quite drunk and full after a meal with colleagues, and suddenly: the unmistakable wail of a harmonica.

    There is no way I’m going to hear the sounds of Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West,” to me one of the two best films ever made, and not stop to soak it in.  And under the stars?  In the crisp Colorado air?  Sold.

    Unfortunately, it was the end of the film.  I had no idea that was the choice for tonight’s introductory screening (which dovetails with the Claudia Cardinale tribute scheduled during the fest), but I stopped, grabbed a spot on the grass with the rest of the viewers and watched Harmonica exact his revenge with a big smile on my face.

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  • TELLURIDE: Newmarket picks up ‘Way Back’ for Jan. release

    I have to say, if Newmarket Films isn’t planning an Oscar qualifying run in December for “The Way Back” (and nothing in the release or news stories indicates that it’s in the cards), then it’s quickly off the table as a must-see in the early stages of Telluride.  I’ll see it, mind you (I’ve been very much looking forward to it), but the “Never Let Me Go” world premiere may have just moved to the head of the line for tomorrow morning.

    Anyway, the film is set for release on January 21.  That’s prime launching ground for a film with a qualifying run, so I don’t know, maybe there’s more to it.  Jeff Sneider reports at The Wrap that an individual familiar with the situation says the studio is “still considering” a qualifying run.

    I actually chatted with Weir briefly this afternoon.  Apparently the decision to bow the film at Telluride was somewhat last minute, or at least pretty late in the game (which is why it was probably the biggest surprise inclusion on this morning’s schedule).

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  • TELLURIDE: Settling in with the freshly unveiled line-up

    I’m just settling in here in the Colorado mountainside as the Telluride Film Festival prepares to draw the curtain on its 37th dance tomorrow afternoon.

    As I look over the schedule (I Tweeted the films earlier this morning), I’m seeing plenty to chew on. For starters, the world premiere of Peter Weir’s “The Way Back” is slated for tomorrow night. I was crushed, though, to see it slotted at the exact same time as the world premiere of Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go.” But both will screen plenty throughout the fest, as a tribute to Weir is in store to go along with the former, while Romanek and actress Carey Mulligan are in town to promote the latter.  Author Kazuo Ishiguro will also be here to sign copies of his novel.

    Telluride is preempting Toronto on Romanek’s film, as well as the new Errol Morris documentary, “Tabloid.” Meanwhile, Sylvain Chomet’s animated “The Illusionist” has been playing the festival circuit all year and is definitely near the top of my must-see list.

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  • ‘Black Swan’ still the talk of the Lido

    Two days into the Venice Film Festival, and still the only film I consistently hear people talking about is “Black Swan” — even as the film accrues its share of detractors, it seems Venice fest director Marco Müller has broken the traditional curse of festival curtain-raisers, kicking off this year’s Lido activity with a film people actually give a damn about. (As Variety’s Justin Chang rather succinctly put it on Twitter: “In the battle of opening-night films: Venice 1, Cannes 0.”)

    Meanwhile, its kinship with Aronofsky’s previous feature, “The Wrestler,” has grown from an interesting side-note broken a few days ago into the most recurrent point of discussion around the film; Aronofsky addressed the matter directly in the film’s press conference yesterday, from which USA Today offers this quote:

    The more I looked into the world of ballet, I actually started to see all these similarities to the world of wrestling … They both have these performers that use their bodies in sort of extremely, intense physical ways. Their entire performance is based on intense physicality.

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  • Rachel Portman’s ‘Never Let Me Go’ score available

    I’m heading out to catch my flight for Telluride in a bit, but I wanted to turn your attention to this before I take off.  Rachel Portman hasn’t been in Oscar’s good graces for 10 years now, but she has a hell of an opportunity this year with a beautiful score for Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go.” The album hits stores September 14, but Portman’s compositions were made available on iTunes Monday.  Beautiful, haunting melodies.  A real home run of emotion.  I imagine she’ll be back in the hunt this year.

  • 9/2 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Michael Cieply chats with comeback kid Ben Affleck, whose film “The Town” is set to play Venice this week. [New York Times]

    • Remember when “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” won the Palme d’Or?  Parisian critics would rather not. [The Guardian]

    • Catching up with Julian Schnabel, re: “Miral,” prior to Venice. [Variety]

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  • DreamWorks fires off first FYC ad and site of the year

    I don’t remember there being an earlier “For Your Consideration” ad than September 1 before, but nevertheless, DreamWorks Animation has seized an opportunity to surge out in front of the fray on behalf of “How to Train Your Dragon” with the first ad of the season, as well as the first FYC site.  The ad primes the film for not just an animated push, but an all out Best Picture push as well, and it hits at a time when toon competitor “Toy Story 3” is bringing in record-breaking box office.

    And why not?  It was one of the most critically and popular films of the first half of the year, even if its accomplishments have been eclipsed by Pixar’s this summer.  I sometimes go back and forth on which film I like better.  I’ll bet there are Academy members who’ll be doing the same.  And will Disney be as aggressive with its campaign?  Will the studio even feel a need to be?  Time will tell.

    The ad and site also promote upcoming screenings for the film in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and London, all of them happening in the next two months.  So, start your engines.  It looks like we’re already off to the races.  Check out the full ad after the jump (and note the “visual consultant,” who seems to be making the animated rounds lately.)

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  • ‘The Next Three Days’ poster

    I’ve had my eye on Paul Haggis’s “The Next Three Days” for a few months.  It’s probably not much of an awards play for Lionsgate, though the studio doesn’t have a lot to work with (unless Tyler Perry officially joins the party).  I don’t think we featured the trailer when it dropped a few weeks ago, but it certainly looks like a nice star role for Russell Crowe.  The poster hit today.  Check it out in full after the jump.

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  • Go get ’em

  • ‘Beautiful Boy’ poster

    Yesterday we featured the trailer for official Toronto selection “Beautiful Boy,” which could be an acting play in the awards season for stars Michael Sheen and Maria Bello.  Today we get a look at the poster, which has Sheen front and center.  Check out the full image after the jump.

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