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  • Listen to Ryan Bingham’s ‘The Weary Kind’ from ‘Crazy Heart’

    Ryan BinghamOne of the first things I mentioned when I stumbled out of that dark theater on the Fox lot a few weeks ago, following a screening of Scott Cooper’s last minute awards entry “Crazy Heart,” was that I couldn’t get the final song, “The Weary Kind,” out of my head.  Today I’m happy to offer it up for your listening pleasure.

    The song is prime material for the Best Original Song category because of its implementation in the film.  (MILD SPOILERS) Jeff Bridges’s newly sober Bad Blake character, reflecting on his ups and downs and finally sitting down to pen a new tune, rattles through the chords and comes up with a powerful ditty for his former protege, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell).  Finally we get the full number in a concert sequence that leads into the closing credits.

    In my opinion, this is the frontrunner of the category.  There are a pair of “Nine” songs on its heels, however, and who knows what turf the tracks from “The Princess and the Frog” will claim, but this stand-out from a wonderful soundtrack is sure to prove instantly moving for many.  Have a listen below (in an official version performed by Ryan Bingham, who co-wrote the song with T Bone Burnett).

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  • INTERVIEW: Willem Dafoe

    Willem DafoeI have thought about little else since seeing Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist” at TIFF a few months ago.  The astonishing, beautiful images are in my head once a day, the performances have never strayed from my mind. At this writing I still do not know if I liked the film, but I do feel it is an important work of art that makes tough demands on the audience, as all fine art should.

    The subject matter is difficult, the images tough, the well-documented graphic imagery very hard to watch, and the characters not particularly likable.  Yet I was drawn into the film.  I cannot remember in the history of the cinema a more profound portrayal of grief and all its agonies than what Von Trier has given us here.

    This kind of brutally honest acting takes a great deal of courage, but Willem Dafoe has always been a brave actor, willing to do just about anything it takes to get to the heart of his characters. Twice he has been nominated for an Oscar, the first time for his doomed Elias in Oliver Stone’s “Platoon,” the second as Max Schreck, maybe a vampire, maybe not, in “Shadow of the Vampire.”

    In between he has given an array of superb performances, topped by his astonishing turn as the conflicted Messiah for Martin Scorsese in “The Last Temptation of Christ,” one of the most controversial films of the 1980s. Dafoe has never shied away from playing dislikable characters, such as his hateful Bobby Peru in “Wild at Heart,” but he can also be shockingly gentle, as we saw in “Tom and Viv.” He is the complete movie actor: as comfortable in blockbusters like “Spider-Man” as he is in independent cinema such as “Antichrist.” All he asks for is a challenge.

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  • 11/23 Oscarweb Round-up

    Bill Murray on the set of Fantastic Mr. Fox• Dave Karger cusses with “Fantastic Mr. Fox” star Bill Murray. [Oscar Watch]

    • Owen Gleiberman whines about the snubbing of inferior documentaries, fails to recognize the solid slate of short-listed films we ended up with. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Nicolas Rapold talks to the principals of “The Last Station.” [New York Times]

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  • Quartet tapped for Santa Barbara’s Cinema Vanguard honor

    Peter Sarsgaard in An EducationThis marks the first time four honorees have been chosen for the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s Cinema Vanguard Award.  The press release, in part:

    The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will honor Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Stanley Tucci and Christoph Waltz with the Cinema Vanguard Award at the 25th edition of the Fest, which runs February 4-February 14, 2010, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. The Tribute will take place on Friday, February 12, 2010.

    The Cinema Vanguard Award was created in recognition of an actor who has forged his/her own path – taking artistic risks and making a significant and unique contribution to film. In previous years, this award was first bestowed on Ryan Gosling and last year to Kristin Scott Thomas.

    Comments Durling, “This group of supporting actors encompasses the best of the best; their roles have made us love them as well as hate them, sometimes all at the same time. I am so pleased to have all of them together, in one place to celebrate them and thank them for the cinematic treasures they have created.”

  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘Twilight’ning strikes again!

    The Twilight Saga: New Moon*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Well, that happened.

    “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” proved the franchise was no one-hit wonder by opening with $140.7 million over the weekend, breaking numerous records in the process. The $72.7 million pulled in on Friday is a new single day record, leaving “The Dark Knight” in the dust.

    The November opening weekend record of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is disintegrated. The two days Chris Weitz’s film took to reach $100 million equals the fastest on record. The weekend figure is the fifth-biggest debut of all time and the per-theater average is the fourth-best for a film on over 4,000 screens.

    All that is to say that the “Twilight” franchise has now aligned itself with the biggest and brightest of all box office stars. Any conversation that includes Batman, Spider-Man and Jack Sparrow must now include Bella and Edward.

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  • The Dude abides

    Snapped Tuesday afternoon over lunch at the Four Seasons.  Interview to come, maybe next week/over the holiday.  Fascinating discussion on “The Contender,” “Starman,” “Heaven’s Gate,” etc., including, of course, plenty of talk about “Crazy Heart.” Stay tuned.

    Jeff Bridges

  • Making the werewolves of ‘New Moon’

    I’m only posting this because it cracks me up how, I don’t know, disinterested Chris Weitz appears at the beginning of this clip (courtesy of MakingOf).  “One more big pay day before hanging it up.  Just get through it.  Go through the motions.”  Probably the wrong read, but anyway:

    And this thing bitch-slapped “The Dark Knight”‘s opening day record with something like $70 million. Sadness…

  • Short Oscar hopeful ‘The Cat Piano’

    Chalk “The Cat Piano” up as a nominee pronto. Probably the win, too. EVERYONE loves that short.

    So says regular reader Glenn in the comment thread on the Best Animated Short Oscar shortlist. Having now watched this 8-minute Australian gem in all its noir-tinged, Nick Cave-narrated splendor, I can’t disagree. Take a look.

  • AMPAS announces shortlisted animated shorts

    The Cat PianoVia press release:

    • “The Cat Piano,” Eddie White and Ari Gibson, directors (The People’s Republic of Animation)
    • “French Roast,” Fabrice O. Joubert, director (Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films)
    • “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty,” Nicky Phelan, director, and Darragh O’Connell, producer (Brown Bag Films)
    • “The Kinematograph,” Tomek Baginski, director-producer (Platige Image)
    • “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte),” Javier Recio Gracia, director (Kandor Graphics and Green Moon)
    • “Logorama,” Nicolas Schmerkin, producer (Autour de Minuit)
    • “A Matter of Loaf and Death,” Nick Park, director (Aardman Animations Ltd.)
    • “Partly Cloudy,” Peter Sohn, director (Pixar Animation Studios)
    • “Runaway,” Cordell Barker, director (National Film Board of Canada)
    • “Variete,” Roelof van den Bergh, director (il Luster Productions)

    You can watch one or two of these on YouTube I think.  Anyway, thoughts?  Anyone?

  • WEEKLY WRAP: Doc shortlist, honorary Oscars and more

    Lauren Bacall at the 2009 Governors' Awards• The shortlist of contenders for the documentary Oscar was announced, surprising many — we dug into it a little.

    • The season’s first Oscars were handed out, as Lauren Bacall, Gordon Willis, Roger Corman and John Calley were celebrated at the Governors’ Awards.

    • This week’s Off the Carpet column broke down the wide-open Best Original Screenplay race.

    • The Long Shot lived up to its name, spotlighting a few of the season’s most deserving outsiders.

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  • The Great Performances: 2001

    Gene Hackman in The Royal TenenbaumsIn one of the weakest years in memory, not just for performances but for great films, 2001 saw Denzel Washington and Halle Berry knock “two birds out with one stone,” as the former declared on Oscar night, as two African Americans won the top acting prizes for the first time ever.  And it was difficult to argue with either.

    Washington was superb in “Training Day,” clearly loving his role as crooked cop Alonzo, walking the line without ever going over the top, blowing everyone off the screen. In many ways it was a make-up award for his having lost for “Malcolm X” in 1992 to Al Pacino’s ranting work in “Scent of a Woman” and perhaps, though lesser so, for his loss for “The Hurricane.”

    Berry gave a raw, sexually charged performance in “Monster’s Ball,” one of such searing truth and rage you could never look away from the screen. Robert Duvall called her performance the finest by an American actress he had ever seen and was not the least bit surprised when she won the Oscar for Best Actress.

    My question remains: Should Denzel Washington have won over the non-nominated performances of Gene Hackman in “The Royal Tanebaums” or the vastly under-appreciated Jack Nicholson in “The Pledge,” one of his finest recent performances? Don’t think so.

    There was a lot of love shown to Tom Wilkinson for his heartbreaking work in “In the Bedroom” as well as Russell Crowe (again) for his performance in “A Beautiful Mind,” which eventually won the Best Picture Oscar. I was very surprised that Sean Penn was nominated for his performance in “I Am Sam” because though I consider Penn one of the greatest actors in the history of the cinema, his work in that film represents one of the very few times I could “see” him acting.

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  • Could Baldwin be a sure thing for ‘It’s Complicated?’

    Alec Baldwin in It's ComplicatedSince I made my first Oscar nomination predictions in early June, I’ve had a weird hunch about Nancy Meyers’s “It’s Complicated” being something of a surprise package in the race.

    Now while I’ve known all along that Best Picture and Best Actress nods for the film were in the extreme wild-card class of prediction, a Best Supporting Actor nod for Alec Baldwin always felt comfortably right to me. Well-loved character actor, successful career reinvention, showy comic role in a probable December hit … all that’s needed is for the performance to be terrific, and the work is done.

    Over the months, Baldwin has crept onto more pundits’ predictions lists, with the news of his Oscar hosting gig being taken as a good or bad omen from various angles. Now Jeff Wells quotes two industry insiders who’ve seen the film, and say Baldwin not only has a nom in the bag, but potentially even a win:

    A non-vested writer-director guy told me this afternoon that he can “absolutely confirm” that Baldwin is the shit in Meyers’ film and a prime candidate for Best Supporting Actor. A vested party who nonetheless tends to be blunt said Baldwin is “a lay-down hand for a nom, Jeff. And he could win. Total breakout performance. Bet on it.”

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  • Define “extortion”

    A few hours ago, we mentioned James Toback’s allegations of “extortion” within the Academy’s doc branch being responsible for the failure of his film “Tyson” to make the Oscar shortlist. I wrote that the lack of detail provided made it difficult to know how seriously to take him.

    As it turns out, the answer is: not very. Steve Pond has done a little digging, and come up with the following:

    [The] Academy’s executive director, Bruce Davis, tells theWrap that Toback’s “concern was that one of the documentarians voting to pick the shortlist bore him a grudge and should have recused himself/herself from the balloting.”

    The accounting firm, he says,” quoting PwC’s report, “has assured us that ‘no single voter was responsible for [“Tyson”’s] failure to make the shortlist….’”

    Thus ends the very brief conspiracy theory. Sour grapes, anyone?

  • ‘Nine’ gets big response from SAG

    (from left) Penelope Cruz and Daniel Day-Lewis in NineRob Marshall’s hotly anticipated movie musical adaptation “Nine” played before a jam-packed SAG Nominating Committee crowd at the Pacific Design Center Wednesday night, and judging by the response, we’ve got a real player on our hands.

    Of course, one can never tell with these things.  Especially SAG Nom Comm, which tends to be a bit, shall we say, star-drunk when it comes to these seasonal screenings.  The evening’s Q&A boasted most of the cast — Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard — so it was inevitable that standing ovations would occur.

    But even still, given the mood of the crowd, I’d say they sincerely ate it up.  One guy even said the film was better than “8 1/2” (make of that what you will) before asking a question about Fellini when the session was turned over to questions from the audience.  And everyone was certainly in awe of the stars (or their careers, at the very least — gee, I’m cynical.)  It seemed that nary an opportunity to applaud was missed.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 11 — Doc feature short list, ‘That Evening Sun,’ Governors Awards and ‘Basterds’ on the march

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk, your weekly kudocast featuring yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood.

    On the docket today:

    • Anne and I discuss the week’s big Oscar news, the revelation of 15 short list contenders for the Best Documentary Feature category, including discussion of snubs, talk on those we’ve seen and some fleeting expectations on how things could shake out.

    • With “That Evening Sun” making its way to limited release, we briefly touch on the film and Hal Holbrook’s wonderful leading performance.

    • The Governors Awards took place over the weekend, and Anne was in attendance.  She gives us some inside perspective on the festivities.

    • Quentin Tarantino is back on the awards circuit with “Inglourious Basterds” facing an imminent DVD release.  We talk again about the film’s Oscar chances and the potential for another populist film, “Star Trek,” duking it out with the war romp for a spot in the 10.

    Have a listen to this week’s podcast below, with Lauren Bacall’s Honorary Oscar acceptance speech leading the way.  As always, you can subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.

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    Subscribe to Oscar Talk

  • Toback charges Oscar doc committee with “extortion”

    James TobackAs I wrote yesterday about the Best Documentary Feature shortlist, I didn’t think the list’s much-ballyhooed omissions were indicative of much more than the rather particular tastes of one Academy branch. That, and perhaps an inclination to shine a light on worthy, but lower-profile, work.

    Not everyone feels the same way, however — not least James Toback, director of one the most surprisingly slighted titles, “Tyson.” Speaking to the New York Times, Toback (a one-time Oscar nominee for his “Bugsy” screenplay) has made some rather astonishing insinuations about “irregularities” in the voting process:

    At a time when the validity of even presidential elections is questioned, Mr. Toback said, “how is some tiny, dirty covert weirdly protective little group within the Academy going to be immune?”

    Pressed for details, Mr. Toback said only that he had experienced something connected with the selections process, “which I put fully in the category of extortion that I did not go along with.”

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  • Stunning

    Do you know how many people saw The Assassination of Jesse James?…You and seven other people. Paul Blart grossed nearly $200 million worldwide. I’ll take Paul Blart all day, every day.

    –Producer/financier Ryan Kavanaugh in a recent Esquire profile.  Does this make anyone else PROFOUNDLY sad?  Are guys like this and other hedge fund types really going to pan out as the future of this industry?  December 21, 2012 can’t get here soon enough if that’s the case.

  • FRIDAY FORECAST: Bad ‘Moon’ rising

    Taylor Lautner in The Twilight Saga: New Moon*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    It’s Edward and Bella’s world and we’re just living in it. The film to beat for the Holiday season is “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” and fans finally got their chance to lay eyes on it tonight at midnight. Twi-hards have been lining up and breaking advance ticket sales records on Fandango so there’s no question that the film will be big. But how big?

    The original film opened just 52 weeks ago and earned a surprisingly huge $69.6 million. Prognosticators knew that the book had fans but there was little evidence to suggest a figure that size, particularly because new distribution outfit Summit Entertainment was the studio putting it out. The $36 million it took in on opening day was the 17th biggest Friday ever and represented more than half of the weekend take. If the fanboy rush was that big for the original, you can imagine how frontloaded the sequel is going to be.

    Some sort of record will probably be broken this weekend as the film unloads on a massive 4,024 screens nationwide with round-the-clock showtimes. “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is the current November opening weekend champ at $115 million and that isn’t totally out of the question. Neither is the $67.2 million opening day record by “The Dark Knight” completely safe, although I’m not quite bold enough to predict that big a Friday for Chriz Weitz’s film.

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