In Contention

Category: Daily

  • EDINBURGH: ‘Get Low,’ ‘Restrepo,’ ‘Vacation!’

    My third day in the ‘Burgh (shut up, I have legitimately heard people call it that) wasn’t as film-heavy as the previous one: social commitments and a certain football match between Slovenia and some other country got in the way. Under these circumstances, three screenings — taken together, as disparate a cross-section of the U.S. indie scene as one could ask for — felt like an entirely honorable commitment, particularly when the first (and worst) of them rewarded me with the still-smarting black eye I mentioned yesterday.

    Chalk it up, however unfairly, as a further gripe I have with a would-be Oscar vehicle for Robert Duvall that has been pestering the festival circuit since last fall.

    “GET LOW” (**)

    Oscar-winning short director Aaron Schneider’s feature debut is the kind of prestige production that has critics reaching for adjectives like “handsome” (or, at a push, “elegant”) in the absence of any more compelling emotional connection to the material. If anything, however, the ample visual burnishment on display (it’s no surprise to learn Schneider began his career as an acclaimed cinematographer) only ends up smothering a decidedly minor-key narrative: a folksy slab of mini-Americana that Horton Foote might have penned in a particularly mannered mood, and then binned for lack of consequence.

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  • Craig Brewer’s rock and roll film

    Some time ago I remember an interview or maybe just a bit of director Craig Brewer’s general PR patter that he was interested in making a series of films that reflect various styles of music.  “Hustle & Flow,” for instance, was his “rap film.”  “Black Snake Moan” was his “blues film,” and so on.

    It came back to me immediately after I had the expected kneejerk “huh?” reaction to the news that he’ll be helming the long-gestating “Footloose” remake, but as I thought about it, it totally made sense.  This could be his “rock and roll” movie, and really, what better material to use than this?  A tale of finger-wagging adults warning the kids off of the devil’s music?  Perfect fit, really.

    One thing is certain: Brewer is a much better choice than the parade of potential directors the project has boasted in recent years.  First reactions might be to recoil, but I find myself strangely game for this.

    What about you?

  • Pixar animators = Renaissance masters?

    I’m not saying it — Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones is. In a brief but gutsy blog post, Jones adds an alternative (but still admiring) view to the past week’s pile of love letters to “Toy Story 3,” focusing less on their storytelling and more on their value as fine art pieces.

    In so doing, he concludes that Pixar and its fellow digital animation studios are artistic innovators equivalent not only to the artists of Disney’s golden age, but Renaissance masters like Leonardo da Vinci:

    If you watch the “making of” features on your DVD of the original Toy Story you will be told the story of a modern Renaissance. The Pixar team did not accidentally hit on a new way to make toys apparently come to life on screen. After seeing earlier attempts at digital animation they actively theorised that it was possible to perfect this technology, and to use it to create “real” animated worlds of an intricacy and vitality that would amaze and move audiences in a completely new way … Toy Story and its successors are colossal artistic achievements.

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  • Peter Jackson’s King Kong…again

    I must say, I’m kind of amped for the new Peter Jackson-directed King Kong 360/3D ride at Universal Studios.  The old, classic attraction, you might recall, went up in flames along with much of the historic lot when the area caught fire in the summer of 2008.  Here’s one of the many commercial spots that have caught my eye as of late.  A five-minute making-of featurette after the jump.  More goodies over at Universal’s YouTube page.

    Oh, and here’s a March 4 Geek Tyrant post with details on the ride that I stumbled across with some brief, wholly unrefined Google searching out of sheer curiosity.

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  • Case closed…for now

    I’ve been out scouting potential wedding locations all afternoon, but as a Variety story revealed today, the hub-bub concerning a potential shift to January for the Oscars would apply to the 2012 show, not the upcoming 2011 show.  Which, you know, of course.  I’ve been dealing with it as a kind of abstract idea and figured it was too late in the game for it to happen for the upcoming show, but that doesn’t make all the discussion moot.  We’ll just be putting it on hold for now.

    In the meantime, a few more folks have chimed in with thoughts on the matter.  Anne Thompson thinks it’s all a bunch of silliness (and is rebutted aggressively by David Poland), while Steve Pond gets Bruce Davis on the record in a piece that supports the (CRAZY! INSANE! ASININE!) theory that awards fatigue is, indeed, real.  Go figure.  Gregg Kilday also had some of the same stuff to offer at The Hollywood Reporter.

    The Oscars will air on ABC February 27, 2011.

  • EDINBURGH: ‘The Extra Man,’ ‘Two Eyes Staring’ and others

    My third afternoon at the festival finds me wandering around the premises boasting a still-expanding black eye – not, alas, from a macho fistfight with Patrick Wilson over yesterday’s evaluation of “Barry Munday,” but from an accidental collision with a handrail after sneaking late into a pitch-dark screening theater this morning. The more I try to explain it, the stupider it sounds; perhaps it’s better to let people think I’m a critic who is truly prepared to fight for his darlings.

    Not that such darlings are thick on the ground: yesterday’s slate of five films, each one slightly better than the last, nonetheless turned up no true gems.

    “THE EXTRA MAN” (*)

    It’s a sign of deep-seated trouble in a film when, in spite of an ensemble that includes Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, John. C. Reilly and Celia Weston, it’s Katie Holmes’s appearances that you start looking forward to most. Not that hers is an especially remarkable performance, mind: but playing the kooky, environmentally-obsessed dreamgirl to Paul Dano’s perma-geek protagonist, she’s the only recognizably human element in this insufferably affected society comedy.

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  • Reacting to the Oscars in January

    Nikki Finke’s report last night that AMPAS execs discussed moving the Oscar telecast to January spurred plenty of debate from the readership.  I thought I’d poke around and see what the rest of the blogging community has to say on the matter.

    For starters, David Poland is seeing things the way I do [The Hot Blog]:

    An earlier vote – nominations on, say, January 11, show on January 30, the week between the NFL Conference Finals and The Super Bowl – would put enormous pressure on the TV show producers… but I have to say… the show has been dubious… and lacking spontaneity. This could help bring it back. It would also keep the parade of award shows from boring the world to tears before the one award show that matters lands.

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  • Ruffalo is back with ‘Kids’

    Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right” opened the Los Angeles Film Festival last Thursday night, right across 11th Street from the Staples Center downtown as the Lakers triumphed in Game 7 of the NBA playoffs.  No, they weren’t rioting on Figueroa because the movie’s good, but it IS a solid piece.

    I spoke briefly about it in the 6/11 edition of Oscar Talk, but on the occasion of its recent festival showcase, I wanted to again address what I think is the film’s key ingredient: Mark Ruffalo.

    For me, “The Kids Are All Right” is a return on the investment anyone put into Ruffalo 10 years ago when he first made waves in Ken Lonergan’s “You Can Count on Me.” After the actor frankly seemed incapable of tapping back into that essence for the better part of the decade, his work here makes good on the promise his charisma and raw talent made back in 2000.  Aside from Tahar Rahim’s inarguable work in Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet,” Ruffalo’s is the most refined, natural performance I’ve seen all year.

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  • AMPAS brass debating moving Oscars to January?

    That’s what Nikki Finke is reporting tonight (in the midst of further outlandish bitching about AMPAS executive director Bruce Davis), just hours after a new producer and director were tapped for the ceremony.  And it’s obviously a major decision with a lot of moving parts, but let’s consider this.

    First and foremost, it’s the drum I’ve been banging since the Academy began to get scared about ratings.  Quick fix ideas like adding an animated feature film category nine years ago and, of course, beefing up the Best Picture category to 10 nominees have been attempts at opening the door for popular or blockbuster fare.  The thinking has been, if popular films are nominated, more people will watch the show.

    But that logic has always been flawed at best, a leap of faith that doesn’t address the real reason audiences don’t seem interested in tuning in every March: awards show fatigue.

    Not to belabor a point, but again, by the time the Oscars roll around every year, they’ve already been preempted by the Golden Globes, the ever-expanding Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, three nationally televised, red carpeted kudofests.  The Oscars feel stale, like an afterthought, when they should feel like the gold standard.  The only real answer has always been to get a jump on the stiff competition that has developed in the last decade or so.  Hey, Meryl Streep gets it!

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  • Cohen, Mischer tapped as Oscarcast producers

    What a novel idea, getting a jump on things.  The press release, in part:

    Academy Award®-winning producer Bruce Cohen and acclaimed television producer/director Don Mischer will produce the 83rd Academy Awards telecast, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak announced this evening. Mischer will also serve as the telecast’s director. This will be the first involvement with the Oscar® telecast for both men, though the two worked together on the Academy’s inaugural Governors Awards event in November of 2010…

    “I fell in love with the Oscars as an eight-year-old kid, the night my grandmothers let me stay up to watch for the first time,” said Cohen. “It is a dream come true for me to now be producing the show with the phenomenal Don Mischer, whom I’ve had an incredible time working with in the past. We hope to create a show that celebrates what people around the world love about the Academy Awards year after year – the excitement, glamour and tradition of Oscar Night itself.”

    “During my previous collaborations with Bruce, I have come to know him as a passionate, smart and creative producer, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to now be working with him on the Oscars,” said Mischer. “As a producer and director, I have always been inspired by the live broadcast of major, high-profile events and when it comes to that, it doesn’t get any bigger than the Academy Awards. The Oscars are truly ‘appointment’ television, they’re eagerly anticipated around the world, and they offer a unique opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary artists who take us on a journey every time we step into a movie theater.”

  • ‘The Green Hornet’ trailer

    Hardly awards material here but hey, Christoph Waltz is having fun slumming.  “The Green Hornet” hits screens in January and will probably be a fun distraction.  The presence of Michel Gondry behind the camera would lead you to expect a certain artistic flair, but then again, nothing about this trailer — which debuted at Yahoo! Movies — seems to reflect his sensibilities.  And I guess it was only a matter of time before the new Cypress Hill jam was used in the promotional materials of a high octane-ish actioner.  Anyway, click the image below to see for yourself or check out the embed after the jump.

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  • ‘Inception’ character featurette

    More and more, the drop zone date of July 16 feels like an oasis out there somewhere in the middle of the summer. “Inception” has screened to some long-lead press and will be shown to more Thursday night. I don’t think there’s anyone who isn’t actively anticipating this thing, so how about another trailer/featurette to pass the time?  And we finally get a good look at Tom Hardy!  MSN has the exclusive, so click the image below to have a look, or check out the embed after the jump.

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  • Still waiting…

    Liberal Hollywood is all set to shoot its wad over Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for ‘Superman,’” which held its Los Angeles premiere last night at the LA Film Festival and opens in theaters sometime in the fall.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because if nothing else Guggenheim’s film will start a much-needed conversation.  The decision-makers at Paramount, Participant, Walden, etc., they’re all unlikely heroes for getting the film out there to the widest possible audience.  It’ll be a big kumbaya moment for everyone involved.

    That doesn’t change the fact that the film casts a broad net when it would have been something more as a focused study.  The most effective elements include the revelation of a KIPP schooling program that proves a failed system can be changed, perspectives from four children who clearly want a brighter future and a warranted attack-dog position against the AFT and president Randi Weingarten, as well as the NEA, unions that consistently slow the process of change.

    However, those highlights are a bit overwhelmed by Guggenheim’s addiction to flashy infographics and figures that wash over you rather than landing with impact.  And as someone whose mother was a teacher, I couldn’t help but notice (and with her in attendance, be verbally reminded of) some modest stretching to make the point all the more sensational along the way.

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  • EDINBURGH: ‘Au Revoir, Taipei,’ ‘Barry Munday,’ ‘brilliantlove’

    Arriving at a festival at the halfway mark is a little like turning up late to a party where the food has been eaten and the guests you know are already starting to leave – the night may not be over, but you’re going to have to work your way into it.

    So it was when my train pulled into Edinburgh yesterday afternoon: the comparative glamour of last week’s UK premieres for “The Illusionist” and “Toy Story 3” are old news, the press contingent has already thinned out and one is left to badger those who remain for hot screening tips. Admittedly, I hadn’t really done my homework beforehand: for the first time, I turned up at a festival having only glancingly browsed through the programme.

    Not that that’s too much of a disability at Edinburgh, a festival so thick with new names from the indie sector that most screenings can be seen a lucky dip of sorts: five films in, I’ve only scored once. (With a film is delightful as the first reviewed after the cut, however, once is quite enough.)

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  • No Page to Screen this week

    With the Edinburgh Film Festival occupying my attention this week — more on that in a moment — my weekly Page to Screen feature has gone on vacation too. It’ll be back next Tuesday, with Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go” the topic of discussion.

    As you were.

  • ‘Conviction’ poster

    Last week Fox Searchlight launched the official trailer for Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction,” which elicited, shall we say, strong reactions from the readership.  Today they’ve released a larger version of the poster image that accompanied the trailer.  Take a look after the jump.

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  • 35 years later…

  • Films for my father

    Last year, Kris celebrated Father’s Day with a lovely list of films that are, for him, inextricably connected to his old man. That day has rolled around once again, and because I’m lazy, I’ve resorted to a poster tribute instead. What follows are 10 titles that I have, in my mind, re-dedicated to my own father for one reason or another. Some are old favorites that he introduced to me, others are newer discoveries we made together. One is the first film he ever took me to see on his own, another is the first I took him to see after I’d left the nest. I only chose on the former occasion.

    All are films he’s very fond of, or at least claims to be; I can’t quite say the same, but I’ll keep trying with “Where Eagles Dare.” Happy Father’s Day, Tom.

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