In Contention

Category: Daily

  • Zellweger sings Dylan in ‘My Own Love Song’

    Back in 2008, I professed myself less than ecstatic at the prospect of “My Own Love Song,” the first English-language effort from “La Vie en Rose” helmer Olivier Dahan, in which Renée Zellweger plays a wheelchair-bound country singer on a road trip with her eccentric best friend Forest Whitaker, in search of her long-lost son. (I believe my exact words may have been: “This could literally be the worst film of all time.”)

    The film opens in France next week, and while the trailer (after the cut) suggests I may have been a tad overdramatic, I can wait a very healthy amount of time to see it. I suppose we might be forced to endure a measure of Oscar chatter for Zellweger — “ZOMG it’s the female ‘Crazy Heart!’” — but the film is really looking to make a splash in the Best Original Song category.

    The Playlist reports that Bob Dylan (a former Oscar champ for the 2000 “Wonder Boys” cut “Things Have Changed,” in case you forgot) has composed no fewer than 16 original songs for the film. One of them, “Life is Hard,” is performed in the film by Zellweger, and features quite prominently in the trailer.

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  • Record box office for Oscar shorts

    Early in my Oscar-watching days, long before the advent of YouTube or VOD, the short film awards represented little more than a chance to get ahead in the Oscar pool by sheer guesswork.

    With no means of viewing the nominees, and the field of awards coverage considerably less comprehensive than it is today, you’d do well to find out what the shorts were about, much less whether they were any good. In the end, you picked the title that most caught your fancy, and hoped for the best.

    For most casual viewers, of course, the short film awards still mean little more than a handy bathroom-break opportunity in the telecast. But for serious awards-watchers, there’s less of an excuse these days to be uninformed: clips of the nominees (and sometimes even the entire films) are readily available online, while Shorts International and Magnolia Pictures have screened an annual program of the nominees in theaters for the last five years.

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  • ‘Life During Wartime’ trailer and poster

    Todd Solondz’s loose, recast sequel to “Happiness” was, for me, one of the pleasant surprises of last autumn’s festival circuit — more focused and astringently funny than his last two features, it’s also about as humane a work as the now middle-aged enfant terrible is capable of conceiving. Fans of all actors in the formidable ensemble will be duly rewarded: Ciaran Hinds is my pick, but Allison Janney turns in the sharpest performance of her career.

    This British trailer gives a reasonable idea of what to expect: the film is too mannered and sour to win many new converts, but Solondz acolytes should get in line. The UK release is next month; IFC is making Americans wait until the summer. My review from last year’s Venice fest here. Great poster after the cut.

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  • ‘Robin Hood’ to open Cannes

    More of a handy PR opportunity than an actual festival honor, Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood” has secured the opening night slot at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival on May 12, two days ahead of its US and UK release date.

    Like last year’s Cannes opener, “Up,” the film will premiere out of competition, affording it the lustre, but not the critical pressure, of a festival berth. That said, the slot is no guarantee of prestige — in 2006, Cannes programmers were taken to task when Ron Howard’s widely derided “The Da Vinci Code” was selected to open the fest. Here’s hoping Scott fares a little better.

    “Up,” of course, broke something of a curse attached to Cannes’s opening night, which in recent years has showcased disappointments more often than not — in the years when festival directors haven’t courted blockbusters, the slot has housed in-competition flops like “Blindness” and “My Blueberry Nights.”

    I can’t see “Robin Hood” lending the fest the same hip cache that last year’s Pixar pic did, making it something of a conservative choice. But who cares — let’s get to the competition titles already.

  • Mulligan set for ‘My Fair Lady’

    Between Carey Mulligan and Mia Wasikowska, it seems the industry has no need for other 20-something actresses — they’ll divvy up all the plum parts between them.

    Days after Mulligan’s name was connected to the English-language remake of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” comes the news that she’s to play Eliza Doolittle in the long-mooted remake of “My Fair Lady.”

    Almost two years ago, it was announced that a new version of the 1964 Best Picture winner was in the works, with Keira Knightley and director Joe Wright in the frame. Some games of musical chairs have apparently been played since then — John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love”) in now in the director’s chair, while Emma Thompson is on script duty.

    At last night’s premiere for the “Nanny McPhee” sequel, Thompson confirmed that Mulligan — with whom she co-starred, of course, in “An Education” — is on board, adding that she “would love” Hugh Grant to fill Rex Harrison’s Oscar-winning shoes as Professor Henry Higgins.

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  • Russian trailer for ‘The Illusionist’

    A tip of the hat to Twitch for digging up a Russian trailer for Sylvain Chomet’s “The Illusionist,” which I reviewed out of Berlin last month. Calling it my favorite film of 2010 is faint praise at this stage, but I’ll be surprised if 10 more films come along to top it. Either way, it’s certain to be in the animation awards discussion if/when it secures a US distributor.

    This trailer is oddly structured, to say the least, but you should get some idea of the visual splendor on offer.

  • Bullock calls for real comedy

    Sandra Bullock in All About SteveIt’s not like one needed a further reason to hop on the “We Love Sandra Bullock” train in this of all weeks, but the actress obligingly provides one anyway in this highly enjoyable Guardian interview with John Patterson. Speaking of the genre that has become her bread and butter over the years, she offers these rather forthright words:

    Usually comedy is only available to us ladies in the romantic comedy. That’s why I hate romantic comedies. I want to make comedic-comedies – let’s get back to being funny!

    There are so many things to like about this statement, only one of them being that it’s absolutely true. She may have predictably made her Oscar breakthrough by crossing over to “respectable” middlebrow drama, but Bullock is one of our most gifted screen comediennes, possessed of wit, timing and physical performance ability surplus to the requirements of the lame comedic vehicles she is usully given.

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  • Ubiquitous

    Mia WasikowskaWhen I heard today that Mia Wasikowska had landed the lead in Cary Fukunaga’s upcoming adaptation of “Jane Eyre” for Focus Features, my first thought was, “Well, who else?”

    Not that there aren’t other suitable young actresses who could ace the part. But 20 year-old Australian Wasikowska seems to have hit a sweet spot in the Hollywood casting game. A year ago, few who didn’t watch HBO’s “In Treatment” had heard of her; today, she seems to be nabbing every plum role going in her age bracket.

    Two years ago, Ellen Page’s name was linked to this latest dusting-off of the Charlotte Brontë chestnut; the eventual casting of Wasikowska suggests that even young Hollywood has its minute generational shifts.

    Not that I’m complaining about Wasikowska’s sudden rise. I was as impressed as everyone else by her tangy work as a suicidal teen in “In Treatment,” and was pleased to see that promise completely followed through with a precise, perceptive turn as the daughter of Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in Lisa Cholodenko’s deserved festival hit “The Kids Are All Right.”

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  • Happy St. Patrick’s Day

    A favorite from a favorite:

  • IFC previews its wares

    Isabelle Huppert in White MaterialDo you live in New York? Lucky you. I say that for many reasons, but chief among them right now is that you can attend this weekend’s Focus on IFC Films mini-festival, in which the dedicated indie distributor previews a selection of their upcoming theatrical and VOD titles at Brooklyn’s BAMcinématek.

    I mention this principally as another excuse to plug my favorite film 0f 2009, Claire Denis’s “White Material.” IFC acquired U.S. rights to this staggering Isabelle Huppert-led study of post-colonial Africa last month, and will introduce it under their banner on Friday night.

    Other films in the lineup include Ken Loach’s “Looking for Eric,” which I reviewed upon its UK release last June, Ji-woon Kim’s batty Korean spaghetti western “The Good, The Bad, The Weird,” which I thoroughly enjoyed at the London fest in 2008, and Elia Suleiman’s “The Time That Remains,” which I briefly reviewed in October.

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  • Anton Corbijn blogs ‘The American’

    If only for the names involved, Focus Features’ thriller “The American” is one of my more anticipated films of 2010 — George Clooney stars, Rowan Joffe (who had a hand in my best-of-decade contender “Last Resort,” and also has “Brighton Rock” coming up this year) writes and, best of all, Anton Corbijn directs.

    Corbijn’s 2007 Ian Curtis biopic “Control” was a remarkable debut — though it felt less like an introduction than an extension of the director’s iconic work in the realms of photography and music video. I’m interested to see how he fares with a glossier genre piece. Blogging the shoot over at Focus’s site, he’s posted some production stills — they look a little like outtakes from one of his Depeche Mode videos, but that’s fine by me.

    The American

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  • Fincher and Mulligan for ‘Dragon Tattoo?’

    Noomi Rapace in The Girl With the Dragon TattooAs hard as it is to imagine the button-cute Carey Mulligan festooned with body art and facial piercings, kicking all kinds of corporate ass, it’s an intriguing possibility we must now consider.

    Over the past few days, the newly-minted Oscar nominee’s name, along with that of director David Fincher, has been connected with the much-fancied Hollywood remake of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” Nothing has been confirmed, but Fincher and Mulligan would be a suitably A-list fit for a project that already boasts Scott Rudin as producer, with a script by Steven Zaillian.

    The original Swedish thriller, based (in case you’ve been living under a rock these past few years) on the first part of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling “Millennium” trilogy, just opened in the UK to sturdy business for a foreign-language title, and lands Stateside on Friday.

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  • Was that so hard?

    As a film-poster enthusiast, one of my bigger headscratchers from last year was why, with so many vivid stills to work with, the publicity team behind “The White Ribbon” couldn’t devise a one-sheet that didn’t look either fan-made or positively medicinal. Leave it to Australia’s Jeremy Saunders to finally cobble together a real poster — nothing revolutionary, just clean, crisp design:

    The White Ribbon

  • No pressure

    Variety

    UPDATE: It gets worse: Joshua Newton quotes Variety president Neil Stiles as saying “No one takes these reviews seriously,” and that the paper plans to cease reviewing altogether this year.

    EARLIER: After firing most of their chief critical staff, just one week after it came to light that they’d suppressed a negative review in order to appease a film’s well-moneyed producers, Variety hasn’t been much of a friend to the struggling art of film criticism lately.

    Amazingly, however, in this NYT take on the situation, the powers that be at the venerable trade paper find ways to make themselves look even worse. I refer to this stunning foot-in-mouth statement from editor Tim Gray, as he attempts to smooth over the Robert Koehler-“Iron Cross” fiasco:

    Of the “Iron Cross” go-round, Mr. Gray said he removed the [Robert Koehler’s] review from the Web after a lawyer for the director and producer, Joshua Newton, objected, but reposted it after viewing the film and deciding to “stand by the review as it was written.”

    The line between church and state, wrote Mr. Gray, remains as firm as in Sime Silverman’s day. “There is no advertising influence or pressure on the editorial independence of our reporting.”

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  • Apparition adopts Sundance pic ‘Rileys’

    Kristen Stewart in Welcome to the RileysFresh off their first Oscar win (Best Costume Design for “The Young Victoria”), fledgling distributor Apparition has picked up a well-regarded Sundance indie that could end up buttressing their 2010 awards campaign for Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.”

    “Welcome to the Rileys,” a domestic drama starring James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo as bereaved parents and Kristen Stewart as the teenage prostitute who comes between them, marks the sophomore directorial outing for Jake Scott, son of Sir Ridley. (His sister Jordan, by the way, made a respectable debut last year with “Cracks.” Busy family.)

    Variety reports that Apparition and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group have finalized a seven-figure deal on the film, with a view to an autumn release.

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  • ‘Please Give’ trailer and poster

    This trailer for Nicole Holofcener’s latest breezy ensemble dramedy lets slip the film’s biggest laugh upfront, but it gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect. As I said in my Berlin review last month, the film is bright, slight and intelligently acted, but I must confess I haven’t given it a moment’s thought between then and now. It opens April 30.

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  • Everything old is new again

    I heard word last year that Larry Clark was remaking Neil Jordan’s “Mona Lisa,” but had no idea whether it was really going ahead or not. This promotional one-sheet design from All City Media, found on their spiffy new website, suggests that it might be. However the film turns out — if at all — the poster, at least, is eminently frameable.

    Mona Lisa

    Two more intriguing teases from All City (including one for my most anticipated film of 2011) after the cut.

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  • The weary kind

    Thanks to the concerned (or hopeful?) couple of readers who emailed to ask if I had “retired,” but I’m still around, and will chime in this weekend. After a season of nearly six months, you’ll have to forgive me for feeling a little like Faye Dunaway here, in my favorite Oscar-related photo of all time. Except I don’t have an award to show for it.

    Faye Dunaway, the morning after her Oscar win, 1977