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  • The honorary Oscars: “A dying ritual”

    Lauren BacallAs I’ve said before, I’m dismayed by the Academy’s decision to relegate the honorary Oscar winners to a separate, untelevised ceremony, which will take place next Saturday. Even more than the inflation of the Best Picture nominees, it’s a move that betrays desperate self-doubt and compromise on the Academy’s part.

    Meanwhile, they only rubbed salt in the wounds by making such roundly well-received choices for this year’s honorees: few would disagree that the likes of Lauren Bacall and Gordon Willis are  well due for Oscar recognition, so it truly insults the recipients (not to mention film fans in general) to deny them a public moment in the spotlight.

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  • ‘Fish Tank,’ ‘Woman Without Piano,’ ‘Ajami’ honored at AFI

    AjamiLife came calling earlier this week, so unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it to as many AFI Fest screenings and events as I had hoped.  I did catch Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” however (a bizarre, confusing misstep with a wonderful performance from Heath Ledger) and “Everybody’s Fine” (D.O.A.).

    I also caught the tribute to Christopher Plummer, who makes it known that he doesn’t want to discuss “The Sound of Music” in interviews, but given the tribute setting, poor Scott Foundas had to bring it up, right?  After some mumbling, Plummer finally shouted, with an uncomfortable smile, “Why did you ask me that?!”  I thought said tribute could have run a little longer than 20 minutes, but it was a modest event plugged in just before the festival screening of “The Last Station.”

    Anyway, the festival has announced this year’s New Lights Competition award winners, a designation that “was created to acknowledge and honor vital, groundbreaking films by first and second time feature filmmakers from around the world,” according to AFI. Andrea Arnold’s “Fish Tank” and Javier Rebello’s “Woman Without Piano” shared the honor.

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  • Gurus on the march

    Gurus o' GoldIt’s been so long since I actually ranked the Best Picture contenders (given that we did away with the charts some weeks back), that when I sat down to do so for this week’s Gurus o’ Gold update at Movie City News, I really didn’t know which way was up.  It’s liberating to stop thinking about things in reductive terms, but I gave it a go, as did 14 other pundits, and this is what we came up with.  Sasha Stone also has charts from past years up for comparison.

    It seems like USA Today’s Anthony Brenican is the only guy who got his votes in after the big “Crazy Heart”/Jeff Bridges news, but suffice it to say the film would likely be a bit higher on the Best Picture chart and certainly Bridges and Gyllenhaal would be formidable in the lead actor and supporting actress fields.

    “Up in the Air” is leading the pack, though “Precious” isn’t that far behind.  My top 10 matches the Gurus’ exactly, except rather than Quentin Tarrantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” I’ve placed a bet on James Cameron’s “Avatar” (which sits at #11 on the chart).  Intriguingly, Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are” is close to the bubble, at #12.  I’d say that’s too high, frankly, but critics adore the movie.

    Head on over to Movie City News for the full spread.

  • 11/6 Oscarweb Round-up

    Helen Mirren in The Last Station• Celebrating 20 years of “Wallace and Gromit,” Google style. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

    • Jeffrey Wells says believe the hype on Helen Mirren’s performance in “The Last Station.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • “The Cove” receives a record-tying seven Cinema Eye nominations. [Cinema Eye Honors 2010]

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  • Same-but-different trailer for ‘It’s Complicated’

    Handily coinciding with its two male stars’ big news this week, the second trailer for Nancy Meyers’ romcom mostly overlaps with the first, with a few added flourishes.

    Despite having never liked a Meyers confection before, something about this one is working for me. Steve Pond has a mole who says the film is “absolutely terrific,” though of course that means little. Either way, mature audiences are going to turn out in droves for this.

  • ‘Crazy Heart’ gets a release date

    Jeff Bridges in Crazy HeartFox Searchlight Pictures has settled on a December 16, 2009 release date for Scott Cooper’s “Crazy Heart,” which I wrote up yesterday.  Here’s the synopsis from the studio.  Nothing you don’t know, but at least it’s “official” verbiage:

    Four-time Academy Award® nominee JEFF BRIDGES stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film CRAZY HEART from writer-director Scott Cooper. Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart.

  • REVIEW: “A Christmas Carol” (***1/2)

    A Christmas CarolFilmmaker Robert Zemeckis’s allegiance to performance-capture technology these last few years has begun to wear thin for some.  But the fascinating thing to note is an artist improving his craft before our very eyes over the course of three separate productions.

    “The Polar Express” in 2004 didn’t hit the mark for a great many, the “uncanny valley” of its characters’ glossy, somewhat lifeless expressions a considerable liability.  But it was the beginnings of a new process Zemeckis was bound and determined to master.

    “Beowulf” in 2007 was a big step forward, though the director perhaps got a little carried away with consistent, gimmicky elements meant to emboss the 3D aspect of the film.  But you could see the improvement.

    A typical complaint of the technology is that it comes off a bit arbitrary, or that it drowns out the work of actors.  But the value of the process that is too hastily dismissed is that it allows an artist to tell a story in ways rather unfathomable under traditional filmmaking techniques.

    With “A Christmas Carol,” a performance-capture adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic tale, Zemeckis proves that point explicitly.  And as far as refining his medium of choice goes, I have to say he’s close.  VERY close.

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  • Carey goes for the de-glam vote

    Mariah Carey in PreciousMariah Carey is clearly well-versed in Oscar strategy. Or, at least, one strategy in particular: the “uglying-up” route that has won kudos for multiple attractive actresses (Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Marion Cotillard et al) “brave” enough to shed makeup and/or don prosthetics for their art.

    I say this because Carey currently seems to be telling anyone who will listen about the makeunder she endured for her extended cameo in “Precious.” To the New York Times, she recently gushed, “People say to me, ‘You’re so ugly in this movie,’ and I take that as a compliment,” before revealing how Lee Daniels ordered her to remove her blush. (Quelle horreur!)

    Meanwhile, she tells Us Magazine that she “drank some ugly juice” to achieve her level of “hideousness” in the movie. And in case we hadn’t got the idea, she reiterates in an interview in today’s LA Times that she’s unable to so much as look at her “hideosity” on screen.

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Art Direction — Volume II

    Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious ManWhen I first addressed the race for Best Art Direction in August, I spoke of how the branch tends to favor period pieces and fantasy films. Considering the research involved in the former and the often showy creativity on display in the latter, this is hardly surprising.

    That said, I often feel badly for exceptional contemporary films that have been slighted here in the past. Examples from this decade immediately popping to mind include David Wasco’s tremendously clever sets for “The Royal Tenenbaums” and Alex McDowell’s ultra-realistic airport design on “The Terminal.”

    While many of the titles in contention are the same over two months later, the race has nevertheless undergone some significant changes. Primarily this is because many of the films have opened, been unveiled at festivals and/or revealed glimpses via trailers and other materials.

    At the top of the list, still, is Rob Marshall’s “Nine.” John Myhre won this category on both of his previous two collaborations with Marshall. Dabbling in the world of Fellini seems like the perfect opportunity to grab his fifth nomination.

    While the “Sherlock Holmes” trailer has been around for a while, the verdict is still out on the latest film from Guy Ritchie – a director whose work to date has hardly been typical AMPAS fodder. Nevertheless, Sarah Greenwood has been nominated twice before for capturing period England, Joe Wright’s “Pride & Prejudice” and “Atonement” doing the trick. She’ll be doing the same here, albeit on a much larger scale. A nomination seems a distinct possibility in my opinion.

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  • Fascinating look at voicing ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’

    Yahoo! Movies has an awesome exclusive look today behind the scenes of Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and the unusual process by which he and his team of actors recorded voices for the film.  Check it out:

  • The odd couple

    I … have no words. Let’s hope that Oscar campaign for “London River” picks up steam, shall we?

    poster for Dead Man Running

  • Insight within madness

    Armond WhiteFurther to yesterday’s discussion of the film’s critical reception, Armond White’s furious pan of “Precious” is already gaining notoriety for its more attention-seeking flourishes.

    It’s hard to find much justification for his claim that “Norbit” and “Marci X” are “excellent” films about the black experience, and his suggestion that the film is being principally championed by “patronizing white folk” is a cheap provocation.

    But look past his trademark perversity, and there’s sincere, articulate anger in the review that deserves to prompt debate, even if you couldn’t agree less:

    Perry and Winfrey may think Precious is serious, but Daniels is hoisting his freak flag. He gets off on degradation. Flashbacks to Precious’ rape contain a curious montage of grease, sweat, bacon and Vaseline. Later, he intercuts a shot of pig’s feet cooking on a stove with Precious being humped while her mother watches from a corner. Another misjudged scene recreates De Sica’s B&W Two Women—a half-camp trashing of motherhood that compounds the problem of cultural alienation. So does the film’s Ebonics credit sequence and the scene of Precious rotating amidst a bombardment of success icons—Martina Arroyo, MLK, Shirley Chisholm—to which she either relates or is ignorant. This incoherence should not pass for sociology.

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  • Andrea Bocelli, Paul McCartney join the race for Best Original Song

    Andrea BocelliCatching up with Robert Zemeckis’s “A Christmas Carol” last night (which I absolutely adored), I noticed the film featured a tune called “God Bless Us Everyone” by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.  Might we have a new contender for Best Original Song?

    Each of Zemeckis’s prior performance-capture efforts included original songs — Josh Groban’s “Believe” from “The Polar Express” and Idina Menzel’s “A Hero Comes Home” from “Beowulf” — but I hadn’t yet heard of the track featured in the new film.  The song is what you might expect, a festive vocal power hymn, the first cue over the closing credits and, therefore, eligible.

    But not a likely nominee, I suppose.  “Believe” made the cut in 2004, but that was before the new voting process.  Where the track is situated will probably not prove intriguing enough to warrant serious consideration.  But nevertheless, it’s a new hopeful in a category that is already more competitive than normal.

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  • 11/5 Oscarweb Round-up

    A Christmas Carol• Anthony Breznican on the opening of “A Christmas Carol” and the early holiday grab. [USA Today]

    • Dissecting “Amelia”‘s troubled road to the screen. [Hollywood Reporter]

    • Hugh Jackman gives newly tapped Oscar hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin his blessing. [Vulture]

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  • ‘A Single Man’ poster

    Talk about a missed opportunity. The film boasts one of the year’s most unique visual sensibilities and the best they can do is slap Tom Ford’s trademark lettering over an already-ubiquitous still? And call me cynical, but are they trying to hide the fact that it’s about a gay man? Anyway, thanks to Glenn for pointing it out.

    A Single Man

  • Mo’Nique on Ellen

    Thanks again to KBJr. for passing it along:

  • Just to get it off my chest

    Gabby Sidibe, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Katie Jarvis, Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tilda Swinton and Penelope Cruz; some would say Abbie Cornish, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Michelle Monaghan, Emily Blunt, Audrey Tautou and Zooey Deschanel; potentially Marion Cotillard, Saoirse Ronan, Meryl Streep (again) and Natalie Portman — this is NOT a weak year for lead actress performances.

  • Kinda awesome, kinda weird official Jim Carrey site

    Thanks to Cinematical for the tip here.  Click the image below to enter the world of JimCarrey.com.  Very…strange.  Tons of Flash:

    JimCarrey.com