A few weeks ago we told you about the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray Criterion release of Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line,” perhaps one of the most anticipated Criterion announcements yet. The information came with sell sheet cover art, but today we get a look at the actual cover art, and as one would expect, it’s gorgeous. Check out the full image after the jump.
I’ve seen “Inception” twice now and will most definitely be going back for a third helping. And personally, I’m kind of dying to see this thing on IMAX given how much of a truly immersive experience it is. Coming Soon has an exclusive clip of Nolan discussing his thoughts on as much:
Steep, STEEP praise for David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin, director and writer of the upcoming “The Social Network.” The praise comes from New York Film Festival director Richard Pena in announcing the film as the opener of this year’s fest.
From Thompson on Hollywood:
[The film] powerfully captures the spirit of its time…David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin are a director/writer team, like Lumet and Chayefsky before them, that make this movie not only of the moment, but reflective of larger cultural issues as well, and confirm their position at forefront of contemporary cinema.
Now, I’m not saying Fincher and Sorkin aren’t worthy of that. I haven’t seen “The Social Network,” after all. But I sure wouldn’t want to be in their shoes having to rise to the level of that compliment. But then again, I consider “Network” to be the best screenplay ever written. Hey, how about that? “The Social NETWORK.”
Anyway, the new trailer, also from Thompson, after the jump.
A few weeks ago the Academy’s visual effects committee was set to vote on expanding the Best Visual Effects category to five nominees. Today, the rule has officially gone into the books, according to a press release. The rules governing animated feature eligibility have also been altered to make room for films that run at least 40 minutes, rather than 70 minutes, which could allow space for some obscure entries.
The release, in part:
The governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finalized the rules for the 83rd Academy Awards at its most recent meeting (June 22). The most significant change is in the Visual Effects category, which will now feature five nominees rather than three…
In the Animated Feature Film category, the rule governing running time for a motion picture to qualify was changed from at least 70 minutes to greater than 40 minutes, which is consistent with the running time requirements for feature films in all other categories. The running time for a motion picture to qualify as an animated, live action or documentary short film has been and continues to be a maximum of 40 minutes. The previous 70-minute threshold for an animated feature had left a gap for films that ran between 40 and 70 minutes, effectively preventing them from being able to qualify as either features or shorts.
Also, regarding motion capture, new language was put in place to indicate, clearly, that the technique will not be considered animation.
Well, this is a pretty nifty ascent for a director whose seven previous features received not a sniff of an Oscar nod between them. Four months after becoming the first female Best Director winner in Oscar history, Kathryn Bigelow has been named one of three first-time electees to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors.
Joining Bigelow are two other previous Oscar champs: documentarian Michael Moore (I guess AMPAS brass don’t hold a grudge over that acceptance speech) and one of the greatest editors in the history of the medium, Anne V. Coates (“Lawrence of Arabia,” “Out of Sight”). Congratulations all round.
To give you an idea of the exclusivity of the honor, AMPAS has only 43 Governors in total — three for each of their 15 branches (which the exception of Makeup, which has a single representative). Bigelow therefore joins Martha Coolidge and Edward Zwick in leading the Directors branch. Interesting that this long male-skewing branch should now have two female Governors.
In Kris’s thorough rundown of the collected performances in “Inception,” I was both pleased and unsurprised to see rising British star Tom Hardy come in for praise. From the outset, his is the name I’ve been most intrigued by in the film’s formidable ensemble. Hardy has been doing stellar, even stunning, work on stage, TV and on the Britfilm scene — culminating in a British Independent Film Award for “Bronson” last year that should rightfully have been the start of a longer awards trail.
But “Inception” — a minor role in 2001’s “Black Hawk Down” notwithstanding — really marks the actor’s arrival in mainstream Hollywood, and he’s obviously made it an auspicious one. Call it groundwork for his bid for superstardom in George Miller’s revival of the “Mad Max” franchise: he’s an inspired choice to fill Mel Gibson’s shoes, so here’s hoping the rest of the reboot is similarly adventurous.
It’d be exciting to see Hardy become a star, and not merely because he’s a fine actor. His sullen model’s features and inked-up boxer’s physique don’t quite fit Hollywood’s leading-man mold; nor does his messy (and gladly disclosed) backstory of early alcoholism and addiction.
If you’ve ever thought your YouTube videos merit more than a few “ZOMG LOL” comments from bored teenagers with names like “funkychik817,” Kevin Macdonald and Ridley Scott have a proposition for you. In honor of YouTube’s fifth birthday, the filmmakers are collaborating with the video-sharing website producing the first feature documentary composed entirely user-generated footage.
Members of the public are invited to submit videos reflecting an aspect of their daily lives — all of which must be filmed in the 24-hour period of July 24. Macdonald and a presumably large team of editors will sift through the entries and select a “couple hundred” to make up a film titled “A Life in the Day,” which will premiere at Sundance at next year. (Scott will act as executive producer.) Nifty idea — USA Today’s Susan Wloszczyna has more details here.
As a number of people have pointed by asking, my review of Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” doesn’t offer much perspective on the performances in the film. The reason is probably a combination of a few things.
For starters, I wanted to be as careful as possible to write a spoiler-free review that could be enjoyed by those who haven’t seen the film, and whenever I would find myself considering this or that performance, I felt detailed commentary on plot seeping in. So I pulled back. But more importantly, and this is no swipe at the talent on screen, the real star of the film is Nolan and his imagination.
That sounds like a cop out, but it’s not. I really and truly didn’t get a whole lot out of the performances. My favorite is perhaps the least emotional turn of the piece, a steely, confident, at times physically demanding piece of work from an actor I admit rarely does it for me: Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He lays claim to the character you’d probably trust sooner than the rest if you found yourself in these mind-bending circumstances and does it without histrionic swagger. I dug that.
It’s unusual for a Palme d’Or winner to wait this long after Cannes to find to secure a North American distributor — but then, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s death-dreams-and-monkey-ghosts fantasy “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” is a pretty unusual Palme d’Or winner.
You’ll get why it’s such a tough sell when you see it, but that won’t be until spring 2011 for U.S. audiences. It has just been announced that boutique distribution company Strand Releasing — who previously handled Weerasethakul’s features “Tropical Malady,” “Syndromes and a Century” and “Blissfully Yours” — have once again come to the rescue, and will open the film in the quiet half of next year.
Probably the right call: even with the Cannes fanfare, the film is destined to remain an extreme niche item, and would get buried in the late-year crush of more accessible highbrow fare.
Even in the most evenly matched and mutually dependent of ensembles, it seems, some will always be deemed more equal than others. So it is with this summer’s great white indie hope, “The Kids Are All Right.” Since the film bowed at Sundance in January, all its players have been warmly received by critics — but it was Annette Bening, as the more authoritative half of a middle-aged lesbian couple, who initially emerged as the consensus standout and likely awards player.
That’s understandable in many respects. It’s a fine performance, and arguably the film’s most surprising: Bening can be a divisively mannered actor, but this is the loosest and most spontaneous she’s yet let allowed herself to be on screen. It doesn’t hurt that, between the film’s adult characters, hers perhaps tests audience sympathies the least.
But in what is plainly a two-lead film at the very least — for my money, there’s a convincing case to be made for Mark Ruffalo’s intruding third parent as a leading player — people shouldn’t be so hasty to hand out best-in-show ribbons.
Now that the review embargo walls have crashed on “Inception” (though most of what’s out there is web-based media as we’ll wait a while for print reactions), I guess it’s fair to dive into the awards implications of the film. I preferred to stay away from that kind of talk in my review.
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the history of Best Picture nominees is the fact that, on some level, they are fairly undemanding efforts. There’s a pattern of simplicity of narrative, regardless of genre. Now, most seem to think the general positive assessment Nolan’s film has received should be enough to get it into a field of 10 nominees, but I’m a touch skeptical.
“Inception” is anything but undemanding. It’s a cerebral exercise that will have some recalling Robert Downey Jr.’s swipe at “The Dark Knight” a few years ago: “I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.” We all remember Nolan’s superhero epic did not make the cut with five slots. And the thought process for some is, well, it’s time for AMPAS to kiss and make up. Except that’s not the typical AMPAS thought process, and certainly not for a still youngish talent like Nolan.
Last week we brought you the freshly debuted international trailer for Matt Reeves’s “Let Me In,” a remake of 2008’s vampire-done-right yarn “Let the Right One In.” Today, Empire has the exclusive on the first teaser poster. Check out the full sheet after the jump.
It’s fascinating to me, the similarities between Leonardo DiCaprio’s two 2010 endeavors, Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” and Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” (which I will review in short time). The themes and considerations in both have the same blood pumping through their veins.
I’m talking about ideas of repressed trauma, avoidance of reality, the impact of children on a psychology, the kinds of things you don’t often see handled delicately, if at all, in blockbuster entertainment. It’s a profound coincidence, really, one that further reveals an ambition in DiCaprio’s career choices that shouldn’t go without commendation.
I think his work in “Shutter Island” is more powerful, more complete, more assured. And despite ignorant jabs accusing the actor of being “stuck in a Scorsese rut” as of late, he and the 40-year veteran have managed to make each collaboration unique and fresh. And by the way, he’s very much up to the task under Nolan’s helm as well.
So mark this as an appreciation. DiCaprio has always been a forward thinker, never content to rest on laurels or take an easy paycheck. He doesn’t get enough credit for that.
A few weeks ago, I commented upon the scarcity of viable awards contenders released in the last six months, coming to the unsurprising conclusion that there hasn’t been much to, well, comment upon. In the past few days, however, Variety’s Tim Gray and EW’s Dave Karger have revisited the subject … and haven’t come up with very much either.
A common emerging sentiment is that, with such a meagre first-half slate, filling 10 slots on a Best Picture ballot could be a challenge for many voters – and could ultimately result in a decidedly weak nominee field, one with more “Blind Sides” than “District 9s.”
Sasha Stone has challenged this by suggesting that, in what she (if not everyone else) believes will be “a great year for film,” the Academy may end up looking to arthouse or non-summer genre fare to fill the gaps – though, to take two of her listed alternatives, it has to be said that while most critics would be down with “Winter’s Bone” making the list, “Shutter Island” would be a much more contentious nominee.
Happy Independence Day to my fellow Stateside brethren. I was trying to find something nifty on YouTube, but this map from the folks at Hollywood.com is pretty cool. Click on the image to head that way, where you can hover your mouse over your state and find out what movie set there the editors consider tops. My two stomping grounds — Virginia and North Carolina — got “Donnie Darko” (boo) and “Blue Velvet” (nice) respectively.
And oh, why not a couple nifty YouTube clips after all (on the jump).
Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” is 13 days away, though the bulk of reviews will be dropping in 51 hours. How’s that for a countdown?
The score from Hans Zimmer is exciting the same people behind the scenes who saw greatness and potential awards success in his work on “Sherlock Holmes.” It’s already available for pre-order at Amazon, but even though the album doesn’t release until July 13, you can listen to excerpts from the ominous work.
The guys at Nevermind Pop Film went to the trouble of collecting a nifty sampler widget from the tracks available in part at Amazon. It’s a dense work, very unique to Zimmer’s experiences collaborating with Nolan, but I wonder if it will have the same staying power in the awards season as the delightful melodies of “Sherlock Holmes.” Which would speak nothing to quality, mind you.
Have a listen after the jump and judge for yourself.
Yes, the franchise reboot — to be helmed by Marc Webb of “(500) Days of Summer” fame — has finally settled on a leading man, and it’s the 26 year-old, red-haired Brit Andrew Garfield.
I can’t say I saw that coming, but it’s a welcome surprise. I’ve been predicting big things for Garfield for some time: he came fourth on my list of the industry’s best under-30 actors last year. This, however, should accelerate that progress big-time.
Some of you will know him from “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” or “Lions for Lambs,” but Garfield’s most impressive work so far has come in British TV projects (that were nonetheless released theatrically Stateside) “Boy A” and “Red Riding: 1974.”
This year should really announce him as a big screen presence, with hefty roles in both “Never Let Me Go” and “The Social Network” waiting in the wings. It’s interesting that the studios have once more opted for actorly credentials over teen-idol status: Tobey Maguire’s CV was similarly high-end (if a little more advanced) when he first donned the suit in 2002.
2008’s “Let the Right One In” was on plenty top 10 lists, including my own. So the thought of an American remake with “Cloverfield” director Matt Reeves at the helm has been, well, less than appealing. Sight unseen, of course. Judging by the new trailer, though (unfortunately debuting as an exclusive at Deadline with a YouTube embed and no HD option), there seems to be a proper reverence to the material. But who trusts trailers these days anyway? We’ll see. Check out the international trailer for “Let Me In” by clicking the image below or watch the embed after the jump.
