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  • Hey, remember Zeusefer? Who was that masked man?

    OscarThe Oscar coverage game has obviously blown up in the eight years that I’ve been doing it.  What started out as old media writing annual, singular columns dedicated to the race at hand (and generally right just before the show or nominations announcement) eventually gave way to niche-oriented sites headed up by passionate individuals who just wanted to write about movies and the Super Bowl of film.

    The early names were obviously Tom O’Neil, Pete Hammond (via Tom’s site), Sasha Stone and Nathaniel Rogers.  I jumped on board in 2000-2001 and soon, already established writers like David Poland and Jeffrey Wells began to offer up Oscar coverage (seeing the remunerative prospects, no doubt).  Today, any and everyone covers the Oscars, from the amateur fan-site trenches to major media outlets looking to capitalize on advertising potential.

    But there was one guy doing all of this nonsense long, long ago who made a splash then suddenly disappeared.  He ranked the major categories in ever-changing lists of 30 and had studio publicists at their wits end trying to locate and, obviously, influence him.  His name, as we knew him, was Zeusefer, and veteran publicist Reid Rosefelt has written something of a letter to his shenanigans.

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  • December winner predictions

    Meryl Streep in Julie & JuliaI gave this an initial stab nearly two months ago.  I thought I might as well re-visit things.  (And hopefully there won’t be anyone getting their panties in a twist over something as harmless as this.  You know who you are.)

    Best Picture: “Avatar”
    Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
    Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
    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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  • On the shots column

    I keeping getting asked via comments, email and Twitter, so I’ll just save some breath and make a mention here.  Note the last two installments (2007 and 2008) landed in mid-January at the earliest.  Expect the same this year, as I haven’t even begun to assemble all the shots and get the lensers on the horn for commentary.  Patience.

  • 12/28 Oscarweb Round-up

    Michael Jackson in Michael Jackson's This Is It• Pete Hammond can’t let go of this notion that “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” is a Best Picture contender.  A bunch of number 10 slots aren’t going to cut it, Pete.  [Notes on a Season]

    • Adam B. Vary notes the curious absence of Gene Hackman from the silver screen since the 2004 bomb “Welcome to Mooseport.” [Pop Watch]

    • Criminally underrated composer Clint Mansell spills a little on his plans for Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.” [Little White Lies]

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: Box office is a Festivus miracle!

    Sherlock Holmes*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Holy shit. There’s no other way to describe the box office this weekend, which may well go down as the most attended three days on record. Nearly 35 million tickets were sold and three films grossed more than $50 million each.

    The number one movie for the weekend is James Cameron’s “Avatar.” I mentioned in the comments last week that it needed to drop a maximum of 35% to be considered a formidable box office force and a film with working positive word of mouth. Well, it dropped 3% to a virtually identical $75 million.

    $212 mil in 10 days for the film is the 18th highest total for any film after that amount of time and you can expect one more massive weekend and top spot finish on the way. $400 million is a very real possibility now and Fox has to get a lot of credit for convincing audiences that this was a film that you simply had to see or risk being ostracized. (I know from experience.)

    “Sherlock Holmes” came in a very strong second with $65.4 million for the weekend. Only “The Day After Tomorrow” has ever made more money as a non-#1 film, when it was beaten by the second weekend of “Shrek 2” in 2004.  It’s the sixth biggest December debut of all time and the film’s Friday gross set a record for a Christmas Day figure.

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  • Holiday film thoughts

    It struck me that I should probably offer up some space for you all to discuss the latest releases since it’s obviously been a slow-moving week, so if you want to speak up on “It’s Complicated,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Up in the Air,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “Nine” or, God bless you, “The Squeakquel,” have at it here.  I’m on a jet plane back to the West coast tomorrow evening and things will be back to normal Monday.

  • “Happy Christmas your arse, I pray God it’s our last.”

    Except not, because I’ve had a pretty darn lovely Christmas Day here in the Irish countryside: snow on the window ledge, more food and champagne than is medically advisable, and nothing ahead of me but the Boxing Day cricket test on TV and hours of free time to ponder my best-of-decade list.

    Hope your day has given you equal cause for contentment. For now, I give you the song without which no Christmas is really complete. Just in case you missed it.

  • Jai Ho Ho Ho

    A year late with that quip, and I owe it to reader/commenter Adam Smith in any case, but the point being, if yours is a tradition of celebrating today’s holiday, I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable time.  It’s beautiful in New York, snow on the ground in the park, the midtown vibe is all storybook and shit.  I’m having fun.  Things should be back to normal and up to pace next week, but for now, a moment with my favorite Christmas movie:

  • Precursor updates

    Just a heads up, we’ve been keeping track of all the precursor announcements at our Precursor Circuit page.  The latest additions are the London, Phoenix, Oklahoma, Florida and Houston.  I hope everyone’s having a fun and relaxing holiday week so far.

  • Things of beauty: Guy’s best of 2009

    Julianne Moore and Colin Firth in A Single ManThe year of the woman. The year of animation. The year of science-fiction. Depending on who you read (and believe), the final year of the decade has been an awful lot of things.

    If you’re with Kris, it’s also the best cinematic year of the last ten. If you’re with an awful lot of others, it’s quite the opposite. I’ll stop short of rewriting the first page of “A Tale of Two Cities,” but suffice to say it’s been different things to different people.

    What kind of year has it been for me? I think I’ll need another year to figure that out in detail. But as I compiled the list you’re about to read, I happily concluded that it’s been, at the very least, a good one: the 25 titles gathered here were jotted down with minimal brain-racking, with still more fighting from the sidelines.

    None of them are grudging inclusions, either: I sincerely liked most of these titles too much to allow room for popular or critical phenomena that are worthy of respect, but nonetheless didn’t connect with me personally. There was a sufficient range of quality work in 2009 (following a lean 2008) that any film lover could afford to construct his own playlist of future treasures without resorting to consensus.

    Before we begin, a note on the construction of the list. In addition to my Top 10, there are 15 honorable mentions here, five of them singled out for extra consideration. Some of you will quibble that I opt to include international or festival releases that have yet to surface in the U.S.

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  • ‘Hurt Locker’ sweeps Chicago critics’ awards

    Sorry we’re a bit late getting round to this — as you know, Kris and I are in holiday mode this week. Anyway, while the Chicago Film Critics’ Association threw some curveballs in their nominations list, their winners stuck mostly to the status quo.

    When the “status quo,” however, is one of my favorite films of the year, you won’t hear me complaining. The pull of “The Hurt Locker” proved so powerful in the Windy City that it won every category in which it was shortlisted, with writer Mark Boal taking his first prize of the season. Carey Mulligan, meanwhile, was a double winner, beating Gabourey Sidibe in both the actress and newcomer races.

    Full list of winners after the cut; CFCA member Roger Ebert’s report is here.

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  • ‘An Education’ leads London Critics’ award noms

    The London Film Critics’ Circle awards have their cake and eat it by having separate British film categories, in addition to some general fields where the Brits also compete. So UK productions invariably lead the field.

    Allowing for that and other oddities, this is a very pleasing list for the most part. “An Education” seals its status as this year’s British title of choice, with a leading seven nods; “Fish Tank” is close behind, with six. (I think we can count on the former triumphing at the BAFTAs next year.)

    The abundant love for “A Prophet” is probably the most unusual (and exciting) aspect here, while I’m also thrilled to see mentions for Michael Fassbender, Rosamund Pike and Michael Stuhlbarg, among others. (Also interesting: Mo’Nique and Vera Farmiga both cropping up in the lead actress category, with their female co-stars nowhere to be seen.)

    FILM OF THE YEAR
    “Avatar”
    “The Hurt Locker”
    “A Prophet”
    “Up in the Air”
    “The White Ribbon”

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  • Listomania

    Assorted technical problems at my rustic holiday base in Ireland have put me a whole day behind schedule — so my Best of 2009 list will land tomorrow, in lieu of a Long Shot column. With any luck, a best-of-decade collective will follow sometime before the year is out.

    In the meantime, you have Kris’s own rather brilliant 2000s retrospective to keep you entertained. À bientôt.

  • John Woo to receive career award at Venice 2010

    John WooSeems a bit early to be thinking about such matters, given that the 2010 Venice Film Festival is not until September 1, but here’s an early Christmas present for veteran Chinese action master John Woo.

    He will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival, one year after John Lasseter and the Pixar crew received the same honor. (For an artsy festival, this award is taking an interestingly populist bent of late.) Hopefully, I’ll be on the Lido again to observe first-hand.

    The news caps a reasonably prominent year for Woo, whose latest, “Red Cliff,” has a number of admirers. I personally think he has yet to top “Face/Off,” but maybe that’s my inner 14 year-old talking. Press release after the cut.

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  • The best films of a decade

    Tom Cruise in Minority ReportThis column has been the elephant in my living room for months.

    Putting together a list of the year’s best films is easy. It’s fresh. It’s in your mind. It’s, in many ways, the expected culmination.

    Putting together a list of the decade’s best films is a different chore altogether. Yearly rankings fly out the window as a proper gauge, because tastes shift and impacts either dwindle or deepen. Revisiting films is called for, but fitting in the works you missed along the way is also imperative. It can be maddening.

    And the truth is, you can’t see everything. All you can do is try to be as honest about how you feel as you can. And even then, no list can be definitive on a personal level, let alone authoritative.

    And so the whittling begins, and in many ways, the process is the reward. The ultimate collective is a mere reminder of the journey through 10 years of film product. But some things stuck out along the way.

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  • Fair warning

    Things could be a bit quieter around here throughout the week.  I’m off to New York for a week and will update where the mood strikes me, I imagine.  But after tomorrow’s “best of the decade” column, well…just leave a light on for me.

  • R.I.P. Brittany Murphy

    I’ve been waiting most of the morning someone other than TMZ to post a report.  Here’ the LA Times.  Anyway, what do you say about someone who dies at 32?  All sadness.  And the timing, just before the holidays, a week after SNL spoofed her out of nowhere.  What do you say?

  • SUNDAY CENTS: Pandora’s tops

    Avatar*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Alright, let’s get down to brass tacks. “Avatar” is the number one movie of the weekend with a $73 million gross. This is an enormous figure, there’s no two ways about it. It’s the fourth-biggest December debut of all time. It’s the 26th-biggest debut of all time for a non-sequel. It’s the ninth-biggest debut of all time for a film with no previous source material or built-in fanbase.

    A record amount of money was spent on this production with only the reputation of James Cameron as a selling point and it may just pay off. A film like “I Am Legend” can debut in December with $80.6 million and with lukewarm reviews and word of mouth can make it all the way to a $264 million total. With the reception that “Avatar” has received and the inevitable batch of Oscar nominations, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t make $300 million domestically. It would need to match that overseas to even come close to profitability, but that should be no problem as the film already has $150 million in the bank overseas.

    It’s no secret that I thought the film looked stupid. I also would love nothing more than to never have to hear about 3D in movies again. But I also know that any time a film with an original screenplay from a distinct filmmaker can earn this type of money, it’s a good thing for the industry.

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