In Contention

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  • Guy’s top 50 of the decade: #41-50

    Tang Wei in Lust, CautionHere we go. I’ll reserve a more complete intro for the final part on Wednesday, but a quick word on the compilation of the list that will unfold over the next five days.

    When, several months ago, I began the long, occasionally maddening but not altogether unpleasant process of sifting out the best films of the last ten years, I thought reducing a decade’s work of high-quality cinema – the first time I’ve really been of an age to attempt such an exercise – to a mere 10 films seemed an impossibility.

    So I rather naively decided that a Top 50 – the equivalent, if you will, of a decade’s worth of Best Picture nominees (though not equally allocated by year) – seemed a less punishing task. More room for the films I love, less fretting about inclusions, happy days.

    And then a funny thing happened.

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  • ‘Avatar’ vs. ‘Air’ an Oscar battle of film culture significance?

    George Clooney in Up in the AirBy now, most seem to think the eventual Best Picture race (before nominations have even been announced, mind you) will be a wicked battle between James Cameron’s “Avatar” and Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air.” The cases for the latter as frontrunner were made before the former began smashing box office records.  The cases for the former have been made in the wake of critical and commercial success.

    And each film, make no mistake, has an angle on this thing.  It’ll just come down to which angle represents what tickles the Academy’s fancy NOW, and timing could be a major factor.  But there is something else to consider.  Which angle represents the film culture Hollywood wants to put forth and claim as its own?  What statement does the group, at large, wish to make?

    That’s what Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman is getting at when he writes that this perceived two-horse race is a case of “Old School script-driven Classic Hollywood vs. New Age post-script 21st Century Entertainment.”  And he might not be far off the mark.

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  • Neither here nor there, BUT…

    …I just realized that only two films have held the pic slot above the Best Picture predictions in the right sidebar all year long. Those two films? “Amelia” and “Nine.”

  • Why I’m backing the Basterds

    Diane Kruger in Inglourious BasterdsMy wholly serious (if not stone-set) prediction earlier this week that “Inglourious Basterds” would take the Best Picture Oscar, along with three other statuettes, prompted more discussion than I thought it would. (I sure am glad this many people weren’t paying attention when I predicted a “WALL-E” win last year.)

    The pundit who got the most pleasure out of my guess was, of course, Tom O’Neil — who called it for “Basterds” back in November. Like most, I thought he was off his rocker at the time. Now, I humbly concede he might have been onto something.

    I happily submit that my idea may be wildly off-base, but it’s not underthought. To clarify that, here are 10 reasons I’m going with “Basterds” — one for each nomination I expect the film to get.

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  • UK poster for ‘A Prophet’

    This has been hanging about for a while, but I noticed it for the first time in the new issue of Sight & Sound that just landed on my doorstep. Clean, elegant, robust … I like it. The film, in case you missed my list, is my #3 of 2009. Put it at the top of your must-see list when it lands in a few weeks’ time.

    A Prophet

    [Source: Empire Online]

  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Avatar’ leads, ‘Nine’ falls, more lists

    Sam Worthington in AvatarThere was no wrap last Friday, what with Christmas capping a dead calm news week. So here are the highlights of the last fortnight:

    • Off the Carpet returned from its Christmas vacation to survey the current state of the race — advantage “Avatar.”

    • The Long Shot considered the varying fortunes of the quartet of December releases once labeled the Big Four.

    • After much deliberation, Kris laid out his ten favorite films of the decade that was.

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  • Loose threads

    Rinko Kikuchi in The Brothers BloomOn the technical side of things, is anyone as uninspired as I am by the apparent frontrunners for Best Costume Design?

    I bow to no one in my admiration for the genius of Sandy Powell, but the Easter egg-colored wardrobe of “The Young Victoria” is routine work by her high standards. That hasn’t stopped most picking her as the one to beat, given the Academy’s recent penchant for royal frills in that category.

    Another two-time winner, Colleen Atwood, has more awards heat for “Nine” than “Public Enemies” — a situation really not borne out by her flashy but familiar work in the former film. And it’s obvious that Anna B. Sheppard knows her WWII duds inside-out, but does she serve up anything new in the admittedly well-dressed “Inglourious Basterds?”

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  • Forever delayed

    Some of you have asked when my own “Best of the Decade” list will land. (Needless to say, it’s flattering to know that my ramblings are actually anticipated in some quarters!) Well, fear not — it’s on its way.

    I have planned a Top 50 in five parts, the first installment of which will go up tomorrow. I had planned to get started earlier, but assorted connection problems while on holiday in Ireland — not to mention the consequences of last night’s New Year’s Eve celebrations — threw my scheduling off. Still, I suppose it makes sense to let the decade end before taking its measure. Tune in tomorrow.

  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 16 — ‘Nine’ stumbles, so cui bono? Plus ‘Avatar’ as frontrunner and forecasting the films of 2010

    Oscar TalkWelcome to the first installment of Oscar Talk of 2010 and, indeed, of the new decade. Oscar Talk is your weekly kudocast between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood.

    It’s been two weeks since we dug into the Oscar race in this space. Here’s what’s on the docket today:

    • Rob Marshall’s “Nine” has landed in theaters and been both critically and commercially dismissed, so the question is: Is it out of the Best Picture race? Anne and I discuss potential replacements if that’s the case.

    • From the bottom of the list to the top, we talk frontrunners. Is “Avatar” the one to beat? Which films are threatening that position?

    • Speaking of which, could Zoe Saldana be in the mix for a lead actress nomination despite perceived CG bias? Anne puts forth the general narrative, but I think that’s a bit defeatist. Rules are broken every year.

    • Finally, a new year a new list of anticipations. Anne and I run through a big list of films we’re most looking forward to in 2010.

    You can listen to this week’s podcast below, with Robert Burns’s “Auld Lang Syne” leading the way. Cheesy, I know.  And as always, you can subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.

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    Subscribe to Oscar Talk

  • My most anticipated films of 2010

    InceptionAnnually I put together a hasty list of my most anticipated films of the New Year on January 1.  I got rid of the pomp and circumstance around the perennial post a while back and just stuck with the list.  But a couple of things…

    I’m not sure if Kevin Macdonald’s “The Eagle of the Ninth” will make it to theaters in 2010, but that would definitely be a consideration.  And it’s difficult not to be interested in product from major filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Peter Weir and James L. Brooks, but, alas, they didn’t speak up for me when putting this together.

    Typically, the blockbusters will show up in numbers on something like this, because for me, that’s what I tend to anticipate.  When art seems to be skillfully married to commerce (like my #1 selection — which is most people’s #1 selection), all the better.  But it’s tough to really know what the art house product could have in store until we’re in the thick of the year.

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  • Online Film Critics nominate

    Best Picture
    “The Hurt Locker”
    “Inglourious Basterds”
    “A Serious Man”
    “Up”
    “Up in the Air”

    Best Director
    Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
    Neill Blomkamp, “District 9”
    James Cameron, “Avatar”
    Joel & Ethan Coen, “A Serious Man”
    Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”

    Best Actor
    Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
    Sharlto Copley, “District 9”
    George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
    Joaquin Phoenix, “Two Lovers”
    Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”

    Best Actress
    Mélanie Laurent, “Inglourious Basterds”
    Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
    Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire”
    Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”
    Tilda Swinton, “Julia”

    Check out the rest at our Precursor Circuit page.

  • 1/1 Oscarweb Round-up

    Zoe Saldana in AvatarHappy New Year!

    • Jeffrey Wells wants a Best Actress nomination for “Avatar” star Zoe Saldana. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • David Poland calls for the same, amid a number of other history-making Oscar moments that could be in the cards this season. [Movie City News]

    • Steve Pond finds a nifty way of revealing his top 10 list: via official AMPAS ballot. [The Odds]

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  • 10…9…8…7…6…

    Happy New Year!It’s almost that time.  I’m having a modest gathering at the homestead tonight, contrasting strongly with the 12-head Thanksgiving feast and the week-long trip to New York that dominated the last two holidays.  But before I go about entertaining, before the clock ticks to zero, a few things.

    It’s been a good year, and a good decade.  My 20s dominated the frame, so I’ve either learned a lot or have a lot to learn, depending on your perspective.  I’ve enjoyed cultivating a readership and a place of conversation for movie lovers and I’m happy (and feel incredibly lucky) to have done it on my terms throughout.  There are people much more qualified than me looking for work.  It’s difficult not to take note of that and keep things in perspective.

    From poorly-designed, unrefined beginnings with the Oscar Central brand in the first part of the decade to the business In Contention has become, I’ve seen a lot and learned even more.  But I know, as always, there is a road ahead, and the dawning of a new decade begins to illuminate that fact: there is always a road ahead.

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  • TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: The crafts of ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’

    Jude Law in The Imaginarium of Doctor ParnassusTerry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” is the latest entry in the director’s long history of wondrous, fantastical worlds. The film might be best remembered as containing Heath Ledger’s final performance. But Gilliam’s rich imagination is also seen in the work of below-the-line craftspeople who brought his world alive with splendid visuals and a rich color palette.

    Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini, production designer Anastasia Masaro, original designer David Warren, costume designer Monique Prud’Homme and composers Jeff and Mychael Danna all had pivotal roles in bringing the work to life on screen. I recently spoke to each them about their contributions to the film.

    Without any doubt, the experience of working with Gilliam had an immense impact on the crew. Jeff Danna describes the helmer as “a dream come true for a composer – he understands, reads and plays music, which very few directors do, but he doesn’t try to take over our job.” Danna says Gilliam is clear about want he wants and will “make noises…all sorts of crazy stuff to describe what he’s looking for musically.”

    Masaro agrees that Gilliam will stop at nothing to get at his vision. “He likes to work in chaos,” she says.  “You can see his ideas from film to film to film and what you have to do is carry your aesthetic but work within his framework.”

    Warren describes Gilliam as being very appreciate of the crafts crew on his films.  “He knows what film will look like in his head,” Warren says.  “He’s obviously very visual. He follows certain details into obscene proportions, such as ‘What’s that spoon going to be made out of?’”

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  • Karger goes out on a limb for ‘The Messenger’

    Woody Harrelson in The MessengerIn the last week or two, the buzz for Rob Marshall’s “Nine” has, undeniably, plummeted.  It took a while for it to get to that point.  The first screening was held nearly a month and a half ago in New York, after all.  But enough goodwill and a certain lazy expectation that the below-the-line elements would pull the film across (guilty) kept it in the Best Picture mix.

    No longer.  The chips are finally hitting the table and the writing on the wall seems to indicate that the film will join “The Lovely Bones” as one of the biggest awards casualties of the season.  But which film will replace it in the line-up?  That has been the point of discussion (and will again for Anne and I in tomorrow’s Oscar Talk).  And Dave Karger has placed his bet on Oren Moverman’s wonderful war drama “The Messenger.”

    If this happens — and that’s a big “if” — then, in my view, it will be a validation of what a switch to 10 Best Picture nominees could (and should) be.  But films like “The Messenger” don’t exactly bring up ratings numbers, so I’m sure AMPAS brass would rather something like “Star Trek” or “District 9” capitalize on “Nine”‘s misfortune.  Still, this is an amazing little film that deserves this kind of serious acclaim and status.

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  • The most memorable Oscar moments of the decade

    Martin Scorsese at the 79th annual Academy AwardsThe first time I stumbled into this labyrinth of Oscar coverage and analysis, it wasn’t a labyrinth.  It was a handful of dedicated Oscarphiles and movie fans.  It was Thanksgiving break, 2000, and I discovered Sasha Stone’s Oscarwatch (now Awards Daily).  At the time, it was such an interesting, novel endeavor.  No one was really doing this, at least from the angle she was doing it.

    Well, what a difference a decade makes.

    Over at Awards Daily, Stone lays out her 10 most memorable Oscar moments of the decade.  For me, the biggest moment was George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Steve Spielberg calling out Martin Scorsese’s name at the 2007 ceremony.  To say nothing of the fact that his win for Best Director and his film, “The Departed,” taking Best Picture, capped off the tightest race of the decade, seeing Marty hold that statue, finally — it would make any Oscarwatcher slightly emotional.  His name was finally removed from the rank of the unrecognized.

    Of that particular moment, Stone agrees, writing that “seeing Martin Scorsese finally win after two crushing losses was the high point thus far of my experience Oscar watching.”

    What were your Oscar moments of the decade?

  • Ebert names ‘Synecdoche’ the decade’s best

    Philip Seymour Hoffman in Synecdoche, New YorkI’m happy to see the Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert is bold enough to tap something like Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” as the best film of the decade.  His list on the whole is rather singular, I found, which is also refreshing.

    Of his number one pick, he says:

    “Synecdoche, New York” is the best film of the decade. It intends no less than to evoke the strategies we use to live our lives. After beginning my first viewing in confusion, I began to glimpse its purpose and by the end was eager to see it again, then once again, and I am not furnished. Charlie Kaufman understands how I live my life, and I suppose his own, and I suspect most of us. Faced with the bewildering demands of time, space, emotion, morality, lust, greed, hope, dreams, dreads and faiths, we build compartments in our minds. It is a way of seeming sane.

    That’s a wonderful way of summing up the work of Charlie Kaufman, who I recently called the “filmmaker of the decade.”  His is perhaps the most penetrating and insightful work in the medium today.  Check out the rest of Ebert’s list here.

  • Rendered irrelevant

    At the start of the decade, movie stars were hit by a giant tidal wave. By the end, they had been stomped on by giant robots and kicked into a flaming abyss. Over the past 10 years, digital spectacles have become a bigger draw than famous actors.

    The lede on Anthony Breznican’s USA Today story wrapping up the decade in movies.  Great minds think alike.