In Contention

Category: Daily

  • Wow

    Just … wow. From The Wrap:

    Todd McCarthy, who has been writing at Daily Variety for 31 years, was fired on Monday along with two other critics, as the trade elected to cut costs and move to freelance reviews.

    [McCarthy says,] “Everyone’s going to speculate, and all I can say, It’s the end of something. What that is I don’t know. I know what it means for me. I’ve been fiercely and proudly reviewing at full speed since all the cutbacks. I made sure we had no slippage in our festival coverage and film reviewing, I’ve worked hard in recent times to make sure nothing slipped. The reviews have been the most unchanged part of Variety, period. Forever.

    What a sour note to follow the Oscars with. How Variety can call itself the leading trade voice in the business and not retain a staff film critic is something I don’t quite understand, but there you have it. Commiserations all round.

  • Michael Moore on ‘Hurt Locker’ politics

    Michael MooreOne of the most common lines (usually used in praise) on our newly-crowned Best Picture winner is that it’s deliberately apolitical, taking no sides in the Iraq conflict as it aims simply to present the soldier’s experience on the ground. Kathryn Bigelow herself dismissed that as something of a misconception in a recent interview with Steve Pond:

    I guess my feeling is that graphic portrayals of innocent children killed by bombs, and soldiers incapable of surviving catastrophic explosions … I think that’s pretty clear. And then also, to add to that, the movie opens with a quote, “The rush to battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” So it’s definitely taking a very specific position.

    Blogging last night on the Oscar race, Michael Moore says much the same thing — less tacitly, of course, than Bigelow:

    The truth is “The Hurt Locker” is very political. It says the war is stupid and senseless and insane. It makes us consider why we have an army where people actually volunteer to do this. That’s why the right wing has attacked the movie. They’re not stupid — they know what Kathryn Bigelow is up to. No one leaves this movie thinking, “Whoopee! Let’s keep these wars going another 7 years!”

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  • The gift, not the wrapping

    Kathryn Bigelow in The Hurt LockerLike a Tiffany engagement ring presented in a Happy Meal box, sometimes the most beautiful gifts come in really cruddy wrapping. And such was the case with last night’s Academy Awards ceremony.

    On the one hand, the show managed to delight (if not surprise) me with one of the unlikeliest sweeps in Oscar history, making history in more ways than one — and for a film that just happened to be my favorite U.S. release of the year. I can’t say that about every (or any) Oscar show I’ve watched in my lifetime. On the other hand, this remarkable turn of events was merely the silver lining to a confounding debacle of a ceremony, one of the most lazily conceived, sloppily staged and lumpenly paced efforts I’ve witnessed in two decades of Oscar-watching.

    I’d dearly love to bring a sunnier perspective on the matter than that of Kris, but just as we were in near-complete agreement on our predictions (save for, ahem, Best Animated Short), I can only echo every gripe he expressed in last night’s wrap-up. Unlike many others, I wasn’t the greatest fan of Bill Condon and Laurence Mark’s streamlined, revue-style reboot of the Oscars last year, but it had a tonal consistency and moved at a clip that last night’s show could only dream of.

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  • ‘Iron Man 2’ trailer

    And now for something completely different…

  • Nicolas Chartier’s Oscar acceptance speech

    I stumbled across this at YouTube this morning and thought I’d share.  “The Hurt Locker” producer, as you know, was locked out of the Kodak by the Academy, punishment for EmailGate.  He attended a private viewing party for the film last night with friends and someone was shrewd enough to take a video, so if you’re interested, here are his sentiments and his list of thank yous:

  • Forgotten

    I don’t know if anyone else felt the same way, but the “In Memoriam” segment last night felt extremely flat to me.  It’s not to say that it should be full of flavor and pizzazz.   Quite the contrary.  But there was just something sterile about the whole James Taylor sing-over same-old that didn’t sit well.

    And then, they forgot to include Bea Arthur and Farrah Fawcett, which is a shame.  There were probably more.  But we remember you here!

    (from left) Bea Arthur and Farrah Fawcett

  • Ratings were up

    Ben Stiller at the 82nd annual Academy AwardsDespite concern over how the telecast might be perceived, it turns out ratings got a boost this year, according to this Rick Kissell Variety story.  Much of that is being attributed to the presence of popular films like “Avatar,” but I think it’s also worth pointing out the role of hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin may have played here.  Their chemistry may have been a must-see for many.

    Writes Kissell:

    Oscar appears to have driven the “Avatar” express to strong numbers Sunday, with preliminary local-market scores suggesting ratings for the Academy Awards on ABC will come in up by double-digit percentages vs. last year. As a result, the show figures to have moved north of 40 million viewers for just the second time in five years…

    According to Nielsen’s local overnights, which measure viewership in 56 of the nation’s largest markets, the “82nd Annual Academy Awards” averaged roughly a 27.4 household rating/41 share from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. ET, up a meaningful 20% vs. last year’s 22.9/36.

    I still love the irony of the ultimate Best Picture winner in the face of all this clamoring for popular appeal.  And, I might add, it became a perfect symbiosis.  “The Hurt Locker” got to win in front of a large audience that will now give it a look.  Maybe it all worked out in the end.

    Check out the rest at Variety.

  • Congratulations to our pool winners!

    Rogelio Tec was the big winner in our Oscar pool, correctly guessing 20 of the 24 categories and dominating the tie-breaker by guessing the show’s length within two minutes.

    Dillon Green and Kevin Manganaro are the runners-up, also guessing 20 each, so I’ll offer up a prize for you guys, too.  If you’re reading, please email me with your contact information.

    Thanks to everyone for participating and to the guys at Awards Picks for a truly great Oscar season service.

  • Breznican backstage

    (from left) Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock backstage at the 82nd annual Academy AwardsAnthony Breznican (who, by the way, won the Publicist Guild’s reporter of the year prize Friday) gave us a wonderful behind-the-scenes take on the Academy’s pre-nomination proceedings at USA Today back in early February, and he’s back this morning with a first-hand perspective from backstage at the Kodak last night.

    Here’s a taste:

    As [Mo’Nique and Geoffrey Fletcher] walked down the corridor to the elevator that would take them to the pressroom, Robin Williams jumped in front of them to lighten the mood, making “swish, swish, swish” noises as he swept an invisible broom in front of her slow walk.

    “It’s curling, curling!” Williams said, finally getting Mo’Nique to laugh out loud.

    Check out the rest at USA Today.

  • 3/8 Oscarweb Round-up (Oscar hangover edition)

    Kathryn Bigelow at the 82nd annual Academy Awards• Melissa Silverstein with a personal reflection on those four words: “the time has come.” [Women & Hollywood]

    • Anne Thompson gets a nice soundbite from “Logorama” director Nicolas Schmerkin backstage: “It took longer than ‘Avatar.’  It took more directors than ‘Avatar.’” [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Paola Singer sits down with Best Foreign Language Film winner Juan Jose Campanella. [Speakeasy]

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  • Drama continues well into the Oscars

    OscarsFrom Salon, RE: that bizarre documentary short acceptance speech mishap:

    What happened was the director and I had a bad difference over the direction of the film that resulted in a lawsuit that has settled amicably out of court. But there have been all these events around the Oscars, and I wasn’t invited to any of them. And he’s not speaking to me. So we weren’t even able to discuss ahead of the time who would be the one person allowed to speak if we won. And then, as I’m sure you saw, when we won, he raced up there to accept the award. And his mother took her cane and blocked me. So I couldn’t get up there very fast.

  • ‘The Hurt Locker’ takes 6 Oscars, including Best Picture

    Jeff Bridges at the 82nd annual Academy AwardsOh, let’s start with the positive.  The irony of the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner of all time coming in a year when the Academy did everything it could (right down to a hopelessly baiting horror film montage) to shove the Oscar telecast toward populist appeal couldn’t be more delicious.  Much of the season was deceptively tame, but a final week push from all sides (including within) to unseat the perceived frontrunner either came too late or simply didn’t work.

    “The Hurt Locker” claimed six trophies, including Best Picture, Best Director and best Original Screenplay.  The latter became perhaps the tightest race of them all as The Weinstein Company worked aggressively to secure a prize for Quentin Tarantino, but again, it either came too late or didn’t work.

    Kathryn Bigelow’s war saga wasn’t even daunted by its perceived competition as “Avatar” managed only three wins, for Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography.  Only one of those races included competition from “The Hurt Locker.”

    The biggest surprise of the night, no doubt, was Geoffrey Fletcher’s Best Adapted Screenplay win for “Precious,” an award that seemed to be pre-ordained for “Up in the Air” scribes Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner.  How often we forget the Academy can be as unpredictable as not.  And Fletcher, by the way, is the first African American winner of a screenplay Oscar.  “Precious,” meanwhile, was one of three films (along with “Crazy Heart” and “Up”) to win two Oscars, and it seemed to receive a lot of respect and admiration in the room.

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  • Oscar night open thread

    Oscars

    I want to say it’s been a truly wonderful season because of this community.  No matter how much I’ve moaned about the length of the circuit or my eventual crash in endurance, I never tire of getting up every day and delighting in the particulars of the season with like-minded friends, so thank you.

    For now, the floor is yours.  I’m hosting the annual Casa de Tapley Oscar fiesta, so I won’t be around these parts.  Use this space to dish the red carpet, talk about the show, cheer/bitch about the winners, etc.  I’ll likely have some comments throughout the night on Twitter if you’d like to follow me there.  And be sure you lock in your pool predictions at Awards Picks by 7:59pm EST.  Happy Oscars!

  • Academy Idol?

    There’s plenty of trepidation about this year’s Oscarcast, a number of industry-ites expecting the worst while, of course, hoping for the best.  We’ll know in a few hours, but I got a note today from someone on the inside of all of this that is, well, I don’t know:

    This change to “And the winner is…”, along with Shankman’s quote on the Bart/Guber show about the Oscars being the best-dressed reality competition show doesn’t bode well when you hear about the first shot tonight, which is meant to be the curtain opening to reveal either the eight Best Actors and Actresses, or possibly the 16 nominees if they include Supporting, all lined up on stage like contestants on AMERICAN IDOL.  The big idea at work here could be AMERICAN IDOL.

    Gulp?

  • If YOU had a ballot

    Colin FirthTonight’s the big night, and as we close in on the final hours of the 2009-2010 film awards season, I thought I’d offer up this list (another one!), which reflects how you, the readership, would like the night’s festivities to go.  These are the results of the daily polls that accompanied our Oscar Guide series during the second phase of the season.  Thanks for participating.

    Best Picture: “The Hurt Locker”
    Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
    Best Actor: Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
    Best Actress: Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”
    Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
    Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, “Precious”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: “Up in the Air”
    Best Original Screenplay: “Inglourious Basterds”

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  • Ranking the categories

    The Hurt LockerAh, Oscar lists — the gift that keeps giving. I’m not going to ape Kris’s impressive ranking of all the nominated features: we’d have the same #1, for starters, and we’re agreeing on far too many things these days. So here’s something else to play with.

    I’ve had a number of emails asking me how I would rank the 10 Best Picture nominees, were I filling out the preferential ballot. I was happy to oblige, but then went a little crazy and applied the same process to all the other races. Hey, Oscar day comes but once a year: get your geek on. With that, my personal Oscar ballot, in full preferential order:

    Best Picture
    1. “The Hurt Locker”
    2. “A Serious Man”
    3. “An Education”
    4. “District 9”
    5. “Inglourious Basterds”
    6. “Up in the Air”
    7. “The Blind Side”
    8. “Up”
    9. “Avatar”
    10. “Precious”

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  • Oscar day nuggets: Bigelow and Boal

    Kathryn Bigelow and Mark BoalPlenty of interesting Oscar-related floating around the web on the last day for any such discussion, but two pieces related to tonight’s principal “Hurt Locker” hopefuls stand out.

    Kathryn Bigelow’s likely win tonight will probably prompt some over-optimistic speculation in some quarters about the future of female directors in Hollywood. With that in mind, the L.A. Times’s Rachel Abramowitz seeks to keep those hopes in check with some sobering stats of present-day industry inequality that one Oscar can’t fix on its own:

    Although successful female directors appear to have gained higher profiles of late, the actual percentage of top films directed by women has remained static for 25 years at 7% to 9%, according to an annual study of women writers, directors, and producers of the 250 top-grossing films of the year by the Center for the Study of Women in Film and Television at San Diego State University.

    For instance, neither Warner Bros., the world’s largest studio, nor Paramount Pictures hired a single female director last year, while Walt Disney Studios and Universal Studios hired just one apiece. No woman has ever been hired to direct an event picture with a budget of more than $100 million, the kind of film most valued by the Hollywood machine.

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  • Why ‘Lebowski’ will win Bridges the Oscar

    Jeff Bridges in The Big LebowskiSpot quiz: how many award mentions did Jeff Bridges receive for his inspired comic turn in “The Big Lebowski” 11 years ago?

    If you guessed anything other than a single Satellite Award nod for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical, you’d be wrong. (That’s right, even the Golden Globes preferred Robin Williams in “Patch Adams” to The Dude.) Today, however, it ranks as possibly the most beloved creation in a beloved actor’s career, the character’s nickname having become Bridges’ own in a few short years.

    In a nice EW piece, Owen Gleiberman explains why that performance was never going to catch the Academy’s eye — yet at the same time, is partly responsible for his all-but-inevitable win for “Crazy Heart” tonight. Likening the scenario to disguised career-achievement Oscars for Al Pacino or Kate Winslet (or, more contentiously, Sandra Bullock), Gleiberman nonetheless thinks it’s this one 1998 performance that seals the deal for him.

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