In Contention

Category: Daily

  • A soupçon of ‘Certified Copy’

    I’ll begin a more in-depth Cannes preview tomorrow, but I’m happy to trail it with this vaguest of teasers for my own most anticipated film of the festival: Abbas Kiarostami’s “Certified Copy,” starring Juliette Binoche. (Thanks to AwardsDaily for the tip.)

  • Almodóvar and Banderas, together again

    Speaking as we just were of actors returning from the wilderness, when was the last time Antonio Banderas starred in a film you had any interest in seeing? (Talk to the hand if your answer contains the word “Shrek.”)

    From strained paycheck jobs like “My Mom’s New Boyfriend” to gruesomely botched prestige projects like “The Other Man” and “Imagining Argentina,” it’s been a lean couple of years for Melanie Griffith’s better half.

    But things are looking up for the Spaniard, who rather improbably hits 50 this year. A role in a Woody Allen film is a pretty hit-or-miss proposition these days, but “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” is easily the toniest thing the actor has been attached to in years — we’ll find out next week at Cannes if the film has the goods.

    More promising, however, is news of a reunion with the director who launched him to stardom in the 1980s — one Pedro Almodóvar.

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  • Paging Rene Russo

    Honestly, the last time the name “Rene Russo” crossed my mind, I was still wearing school uniform and Bill Clinton was still president of the United States. Even then, it was only fleetingly: if you want the last time she was in a film that actually merited a second thought, we’re looking more at the year my voice broke. (Yes, that’d be “Tin Cup.”) How time flies.

    Of course, film history is littered with the swiftly curtailed careers of briefly ubiquitous stars — women in particular, given the regrettable age-40 sell-by date the industry still applies to many actresses. Hey, remember Madeleine Stowe? Andie MacDowell? Penelope Ann Miller? I can’t say Russo’s big-screen absence struck me as especially conspicuous, but Telegraph arts editor Sarah Crompton clearly thinks otherwise.

    Crompton takes the casting of Russo in Kenneth Branagh’s Marvel comic adaptation “Thor” — her first film role in over five years — as occasion for a valentine to the actress, holding her up as a 1990s ideal of “the woman every woman wanted to be,” and mourning a larger absence in the process.

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  • Well worth the read

    Every once in a while, Devin comes up with nuggets like this and all (most) is forgiven.  The gist:

    “You have to know when to go,” The Scream told reporters. “You don’t want to outstay your welcome. In my time I’ve gone from being a weirdly particular cry to film-lover’s in-joke and I don’t want to end up as a distraction or just a rote, meaningless reference.”

    But read the full “press release” for yourself at CHUD.

  • ‘The American’ trailer

    I think the announcement of a September 1 release date was probably enough to assume Focus Features sees more commercial potential than awards prospects in Anton Corbijn’s “Control” follow-up, but it’s worth running the trailer.  Corbijn, you might recall, has been blogging his experience on the film.

  • Ebert versus the third dimension

    By now, you may have read Roger Ebert’s lengthy nine-point diatribe against 3D in Newsweek — it has certainly generated a substantial amount of online conversation in the last few days.

    On the face of it, as a declared 3D agnostic myself, I should be pleased with the article: when a “Clash of the Titans” proves the technology a potential artistic liability as emphatically as “Avatar” suggests the opposite, 3D needs to be both argued for and argued with.

    I fear Ebert, however, has slightly let the opposing side down: his piece is impassioned and sincere, but for every viable point he makes — and there are several — there’s another that is short-sighted, obstinate or just tautological: however much you may agree, it’s difficult to accept “it adds nothing to the experience” and “it’s a waste of a dimension” as separate claims in a serious argument, as opposed to simple whining.

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  • Keaton ready to rock as Ken

    One of the big reasons for me to get excited for Adam McKay’s “The Other Guys” was that Michael Keaton, after suffering through a slew of straight-to-video or otherwise forgettable films, would have a front-and-center performance in what should be a commercially successful film.

    I remain faithful to Keaton despite the lows.  But let’s face it.  The last time he had a theatrical starring role was the deplorable “White Noise” (and before that it was 1996’s “Multiplicity”).  The last time most remember seeing him on screen was probably 1997’s “Jackie Brown.”

    Of course, there was his directorial debut, “The Merry Gentleman,” which opened last year and surely demanded plenty of his time.  And there have been some nice TV offerings (such as “The Company” a few years back and “Live From Baghdad,” which is actually nine years ago at this point).

    Anyway, I was excited when it was announced that Keaton would be working with Pixar again, this time as the Ken doll in “Toy Story 3.” Susan King caught up with the actor recently for a Los Angeles Times piece, and he definitely seems to be having fun with things.

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  • ‘Winter’s Bone’ trailer and poster

    I caught Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” just after Sundance and have little to say about it, really.  In some ways it’s distilled backwoods platitude, but no one can argue against Jennifer Lawrence’s considerable talent (a bandwagon I’ve been on since Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain”).  Still, as I Tweeted recently, I’ll be confused when those who dismissed “Precious” as cliché rally around this as profound.

    Anyway, a lovely new poster has been released.  Check it out below, along with the new trailer after the jump.

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  • Condon reaches out to ‘Twilight’ nation

    I didn’t expect back-to-back posts concerning Bill Condon today, but anyway, one of the more unexpected developments over the last few months was Condon signing on to direct “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn,” the final installment in the fan-heavy “Twilight” series.

    I thought it was totally left-field, given the direction his career has taken since the days of “Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh,” but with HBO’s Hollywood blogger send-up “Tilda” going into production any day, and the Marlon Wayons-starring biopic “Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?” still on deck, it’s rather clear Condon isn’t interested in pigeonholing himself or his career.

    Thinking of it in those terms, I’m game.  Maybe it’ll be the first film from the series I actually watch.

    Meanwhile, /Film (via Thompson on Hollywood) dug up an interesting nugget in all of this, being Condon’s open letter to TwiHards (or TwiTards, depending on your opinion of the series, I suppose).  Check out what the Oscar-winner had to say after the jump.

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  • R.I.P. Lynn Redgrave

    I always thought Lynn Redgrave deserved the Oscar 12 years ago for her work in Bill Condon’s “Gods and Monsters.” Most remember her from her first nominated effort, 1966’s “Georgy Girl.” Redgrave has left this mortal coil.  I tried to find a clip of Condon’s film but this NYT Conversations snippet will do, a candid, if brief, look at the woman:

  • Back in the saddle

    I guess it’s time to get back to work.

    I don’t have a beard to my knees but I do feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle dragging himself out of a nice slumber these days.  May is here.  This Friday kicks off the summer movie season with the release of “Iron Man 2,” while Anne Thompson and I will offer up the first of a handful of off-season podcasts the same day.  Then, next week: Cannes.

    Guy will be covering all the goings on from the Croisette this year, In Contention’s first time at the fest.  And I’m proud to see our festival coverage steadily increasing.  Things get started next Wednesday, May 12, wrapping up 11 days later on the 23rd.  Monday, May 24th will bring the first detailed Off the Carpet column of the new season, fit with my first (still too early) set of official Oscar predictions.

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  • Never knowingly undersold

    Spotted this on the homepage of online retailer Zavvi and had to share. Move over, Mr. Welles.

  • ‘Secretariat’ trailer

    The obvious question being, can it find the same awards season rhythm as “Seabiscuit?” Diane Lane is front and center:

  • Sony Classics adopts ‘The Illusionist’

    Quelle surprise. “The Illusionist,” Sylvain Chomet’s long-gestating follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “The Triplets of Belleville,” has found the US distributor we all knew it eventually would. Sony Pictures Classics today announced their acquisition of the film, which they are readying for an end-of-year release — mirroring the strategy they took with “Belleville” back in 2003.

    In doing so, Sony has all but secured its first Oscar nomination of the 2010 season. “The Illusionist” — a riff on an unproduced Jacques Tati screenplay and handily, for me, the year’s best film so far — is too ravishing an animator’s showcase not to gain serious awards notice, and a late-2010 release should keep it fresh on the radar.

    In the meantime, the film will continue to wow on the festival circuit. It has already been selected to open the Edinburgh Film Festival in June — an ideal choice, given that the film is something of a valentine to the Scottish capital. Check out my review of the film from the Berlinale here, and an early Russian trailer here.

    Full press release from Sony after the cut.

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  • Is Jim Carrey okay?

    I asked that, sincerely, via Twitter yesterday after seeing Tweet after Tweet packed with sentiments such as:

    ETERNITY IS NOT A MEASURE OF TIME!IT’S THE DEPTH OF THIS MOMENT!HEAVEN IS HERE,NOW!FIND IT!FEEL IT!BOING BOING, EVERYBODY!BOING BOING!!! ;^)

    Obviously a number of Carrey’s projects have crashed and burned as of late, most recently the indefinitely stalled release of “I Love You Phillip Morris,” but the guy also broke up with his lady, Jenny McCarthy (confession: all-time favorite Hollywood couple). On the whole, he just seems to be having some weird public breakdown.

    Well, in sizing up Carrey’s career crossroads in a recent Moviefone column, Anne Thompson pegs the star’s professional conundrum thusly…

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  • Pacino talks past roles, ‘You Don’t Know Jack,’ etc.

    From 60 minutes, last weekend. Somehow part 2 of this thing has been obliterated from cyberspace, but I guess there’s some good stuff in here (though youc an view the interview in its entirety at CBS):

  • Center of the universe

    I wasn’t able to participate in Robert Welkos’s Hollywood News piece on the drama of bloggerdom (which was already covered to some extent by LA Magazine three years ago). Travel and a period of self-imposed distance from this circus kept me off the phone, but even if I had answered a few questions, I don’t really know what I could have added in the way of fresh perspective at this point.

    However, one thing caught my eye that is laughable on its face:

    “Mo’Nique was addressing me in her Oscar acceptance speech,” [Gold Derby’s Tom] O’Neil told HollywoodNews. “I had been very critical of her not campaigning when she should have.” O’Neil said after the speech, he received “200 e-mails” congratulating him.

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  • Cannes finalizes Competition lineup, jury

    Those who were hoping that the promised additions to the Cannes Competition selection announced last week would bring some added name appeal to a lineup shorter than usual on star auteurs — particularly in the English-language realm — will be disappointed by today’s announcement. Cease your prayers for “The Tree of Life” to show up … they haven’t been answered.

    Boosting the number of Competition titles to 18 are “Tender Son: The Frankenstein Project,” from Hungarian director Kornél Mondruczó (who also made the lineup two years ago with “Delta”) and Wang Xiaoshuai’s “Chongqing Blues.”

    The latter has been promoted from its initial placing in the Un Certain Regard lineup — which suggests to me that selectors are running thin on options as certain hoped-for candidates have failed to pan out. As it stands, it’s one of the more sober (not to mention shorter) Competition lists in recent memory.

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