In Contention

Category: Daily

  • Stab me in the eye

    I’m over the moon that “Minority Report” and “Collateral” are finally making their way to Blu-ray, and I look forward to owning “Up in the Air,” but I don’t understand why home video departments feel a need to rape and pillage well-considered and often times singular marketing materials in favor of such generic nonsense as this, the kind of artwork you’d expect to find at the bottom of the $5 bin at Wall Mart.

    Alright, no, I get it. Let’s make sure the star’s face is as apparent as humanly possible. But how many more dollars are they really making by sacrificing the visual identity of these films, anyway?

    CollateralMinority ReportUp in the Air

  • Problems with podcast?

    I got a second complaint today that the Oscar Talk podcasts are cutting short at six minutes both at iTunes and on the site.  They seem to work well for me on Firefox and Safari, but is anyone else experiencing anything similar?  Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to understand why the iTunes feed only shows 10 podcasts, to no avail, though.  Sigh…

  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

    Peter Capaldi in In the LoopIn most cases, the adapted screenplay category of a given Oscar race is packed with Best Picture nominees or contenders. This year, however, there was a nice balance of adapted and original screenplays in the Best Picture category, and in fact, of the “top five” films that trickled down throughout the season, three were original and two were adapted, a rarity.

    Regarding the adaptations, things seemed to firm up for a while, but with the various WGA ineligibilities, one couldn’t shake the feeling that a surprise was in the works. At the end of the day, Scott Cooper’s run on “Crazy Heart” came to an unfortunate end, while a fan-fave British comedy found support.

    The nominees are:

    “District 9” (Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell)
    “An Education” (Nick Hornby)
    “In the Loop” (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche)
    “Precious” (Geoffrey Fletcher)
    “Up in the Air” (Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner)

    (more…)

  • The Dude on The Dude

    (from left) Jeff Bridges and Jeff DowdPatrick Goldstein got Jeff Dowd on the record last week, vis a vis Jeff Bridges, and the result is a wonderful dedication to a guy who is frequently considered an American treasure.  Bridges, of course, took on the role of Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski in the Coen brother’s 1998 comedy “The Big Lebowski,” the character largely based on the colorful Dowd.

    There are some lofty turns of phrase throughout, but it’s a beautiful ode, I have to say.  Here is a taste:

    For movie-goers, who have been cinematically blessed watching Jeff Bridges for nearly four decades in 65 movies, “I used to be somebody, now I’m somebody else” is a reminder of how Jeff Bridges has fully inhabited such a wide array of characters and authentically captured their essence with a full palette of shades from light to dark. Bridges has taken us through a mosaic of perspectives of the uniquely American experience.

    Check out the rest at The Big Picture.

  • Giacchino dominates IFMCA Awards

    Kris was wondering what became of the last precursor of the season, the International Film Music Critics Association Awards. Right on cue, you can check out their choices at The Circuit. No surprise that they’re all about Michael Giacchino this year, but nice to see some love for “A Single Man” too.

  • Siding with Sidibe

    Gabourey Sidibe in PreciousAny discussion of this year’s Best Actress category can get so heated, so quickly, I almost hesitate to point you to this, but Nick Davis’s meticulous review of the five nominees is too good not to recommend. No critic I know analyzes performance with quite such consideration and generosity.

    Here’s his case for why Gabourey Sidibe should (not will) take the gold on Sunday:

    [T]he first sign that Sidibe was capable of more arrived in her bored but exasperated truth-telling to her school principal about how she got pregnant: “I had sex, Mrs. Lichtenstein,” she deadpans, illuminating Sidibe’s potential for combing out subtle gradations and conjuring real personality from within the character’s perma-gloom. The obstacle and the near-miracle of the performance from this point forward emerge from the fact that Sidibe has a fairly narrow emotional range in which to work (and she holds with conviction to that narrow range, refusing, for example, to be incongruously elated by the arrival of her child), and yet she nonetheless manages to broadcast when Precious is being mischievous, insolent, self-doubting, superior, distractable, suspicious, morbid, or unrelievedly depressed.

    As for those of you who care only about the battle between Hollywood’s current two favorite leading ladies, he falls on the side of Streep. Wonderful stuff; read the rest here.

  • Bigelow does 60 Minutes

  • 3/1 Oscarweb Round-up

    Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air• Geoffrey Fletcher writes up what Precious (and “Precious”) means to him. [Huffington Post]

    • Donna Freydkin talks to Vera Farmiga, who, by the way, has a lot of support for her nominated performance in “Up in the Air.”  (Just sayin’…) [USA Today]

    • Maggie Gyllenhaal offers a soundbite concerning the whirlwind campaign behind “Crazy Heart” (the campaign that netted her a nomination, mind you). [Vulture]

    (more…)

  • Lynn Barber on making ‘An Education’

    An Education by Lynn BarberI’m not sure why the Wall Street Journal is reprinting a preface to a book that his been in print for over nine months — indeed, I quoted the very same piece in Page to Screen back in July — as fresh content. Still, if you haven’t yet read it, Lynn Barber’s reflection on the journey her memoir “An Education” took to screen is worth a look.

    Among other things, Barber picks up on the counter-intuitive choice of Nick Hornby, Britain’s king of “lad-lit,” to adapt this female-focused story:

    I also learned that the scriptwriter [producer Amanda Posey] had in mind was her boyfriend -– now husband –- Nick Hornby. This made the whole idea more plausible, especially when I met Nick. I found it odd (still find it odd) that this preeminently ‘boy’ writer should so completely understand what it felt like to be a 16 year-old schoolgirl who was on the one hand very bright but on the other very ignorant about the world but, miraculously, he did. He even seemed to understand my parents, which is more than I could ever say myself.

    (more…)

  • Stop the presses: ‘Avatar’ sweeps VES

    ZOMG!  Well, actually, it wasn’t a clean sweep, as “District 9” managed to win in the compositing category (one of many that saw “Avatar” as a multiple nominee).  But it was unsurprisingly dominated by Cameron and company throughout, with six awards going to the blockbuster.  Go to The Circuit to see the damage.

    (from left) Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana in Avatar

    (Also, while I’m at it, any word out there on the International Film Music Critics Association’s list of winners, which was supposed to have been announced Friday?  That’s literally the last precursor left standing at the moment.)

  • CAS springs for ‘Hurt Locker’

    The Hurt Locker

  • ‘The White Ribbon’ wins the ASC award

    The White Ribbon

  • ‘A Prophet’ takes nine César Awards

    Tahar Rahim in A ProphetI know, I know … quelle surprise. One week after taking the BAFTA, Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” obliterated the competition at its home awards ceremony, the Césars. The foreign-language Oscar nominee took a massive nine awards, including honors for Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Supporting Actor.

    Tahar Rahim was a double winner, in fact, adding a breakthrough award to his Best Actor win. (Well, obviously.) Benefitting from the fact that “A Prophet” had no lead actress was veteran star Isabelle Adjani. It’s nice to see a documentary win for the excellent “Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno,” but a Best Foreign Film win for “Gran Torino” is really pushing the Gallic adoration for Clint Eastwood a bit far.

    “A Prophet,” of course, opened Stateside yesterday — if you haven’t seen it yet, rectify that. Read our interview with Audiard here. Full list of winners after the cut.

    (more…)

  • Siding with Sandy

    Sandra Bullock at the 2009 SAG AwardsNathaniel Rogers’s annual Oscar Symposium wrapped last night over at the Film Experience, and I must say I had a great time taking part. The final day’s conversation wandered all over the map, taking in the original score race (I’m not alone in my love for “The Hurt Locker” there), the merits of The Ten and visions of Mo’Nique in “Nine.”

    But it had to end with this year’s most discussed Oscar duel: Bullock versus Streep. And between us, support was fairly evenly split. As a taster, here’s Tim Robey’s reluctant case for the “Blind Side” star:

    Don’t we want Meryl to win her third for a truly epochal performance? … (Make no mistake — I’d happily watch Meryl take the garbage out daily, I love her so, but I really want her to win this thing for absolute top-drawer work.) I don’t think Carey Mulligan is ready to be crowned just yet, and I don’t think it would actually do her career any favours if she was. Sandy, on the other hand, has just the one shot at this, and I say why the hell not. I’ve always liked her. I’d have nominated her for The Lake House! (I’m not joking.) And I agree that her Blind Side performance, while entire skyscrapers away from the Brockovich league her spin-meisters would have us believe, is pretty nimble and watchable, and the only thing that got me through that numbskull movie alive.

    Good stuff all round. If you haven’t been keeping up with the Symposium, read the rest here.

  • ‘Precious’ sweeps NAACP Image Awards

    Morgan Freeman also won.  If you’re so inclined, check out The Circuit for more.

  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Hurt Locker’ BAFTA sweep, minor fracas

    Best Actress winner Carey Mulligan at the 2009 BAFTA Awards• “The Hurt Locker” continued its cruise through the precursors, taking six awards at the BAFTAS.

    • The pile of guild awards grew as the writers, costume designers and sound editors all picked their winners.

    • In our ongoing Oscar Guide series, we broke down the lead actress, documentary feature, documentary short, original score and original song races.

    • Off the Carpet took stock of a quiet season, mainly just counting down the days.

    (more…)

  • A.O. Scott celebrates Meryl Streep

    Meryl Streep in Julie & JuliaJust when it seems as if pundits and critics alike have run out of fresh things to say in praise of Meryl Streep, A.O. Scott comes along with this beautifully written valentine to Oscar’s favorite actor.

    The piece essentially amounts to the longest, most eloquent For Your Consideration ad of the season, but even I — a relative agnostic on the merits of the master’s performance in “Julie & Julia” (more on that in the Film Experience’s Oscar Symposium later today) — was given pause by this very intelligent argument in its favor:

    [T]hese days impersonation is the province of every aspiring biopic star. Ms. Streep’s Julia Child is never anything other than a performance, a fusion of two strong personalities rather than the absorption by one into another. You never forget that you are watching Meryl Streep inhabiting a version of Julia Child, and instead of distracting you from the truth of Julia, this awareness is what enables you to understand her. It is our familiarity with Ms. Streep that makes her exploration of a more private Julia Child both credible and exhilarating. Similarly in her frequent forays into the world of cinematic statecraft, she can be an entirely convincing senator or cabinet secretary while still being, in every syllable and flourish, Meryl Streep.

    Plenty of other quotable passages in the article, but the actress’s legions of devotees will be better off reading and savoring every word. Enjoy.

  • The price of Variety

    Roy Scheider in Iron CrossEver heard of “Iron Cross?” Don’t blame yourself if you haven’t: a Nazi revenge drama from freshman director Joshua Newton, opening in theaters next week, it appears to be notable principally for being the last film of the late Roy Scheider.

    Newton, however, had such high hopes for the film that he talked investors into a $400,000 ad campaign in Variety, enough to buy daily For Your Consideration ads in the trade paper from November to the end of nomination voting in January. Following this, Variety itself selected the film for its screening series aimed at Academy members, alongside far more illustrious awards contenders.

    Must be good, right? Well, Variety’s own critic Robert Koehler didn’t think so in his damning review of the film, which he denounced as “preposterous” and “hackneyed,” among other choice adjectives. A slightly embarrassing result for a film the paper had previously boosted, but as Gawker’s John Cook reports, Variety solved the problem quite easily — by removing Koehler’s review from their website altogether, after “Iron Cross”‘s producers complained.

    (more…)