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  • The other Max on ‘Wild Things’

    Spike Jonze and Max RecordsMax Records, the 12 year-old actor who, by handy coincidence, plays young Max in “Where the Wild Things Are,” gives pretty good interview. He talks here to the LA Times about the book, the film and his frankly awesome hobby, which consists of the following:

    Me and my friends like to wrap mattress film and duct tape around PVC piping and then make foam weapons out of it that we have big foam battles with.

    Great kid. Back to the film itself, he has a matter-of-fact response to voices from some quarters suggesting that the film is too adult in sensibility:

    It depends on the kid.  There are parts of it that are pretty intense. When I was 7 years old, I could not have seen this movie.  It would’ve scared me.  But my younger brother, who’s now 7, could’ve seen this a year ago.  It depends on the kid.

    Sometimes it takes a 12 year-old to speak common sense. More here.

  • Should Lee Daniels tread more carefully?

    Lee DanielsBased on an unexpected blanking in the Gotham Award nominations, plus the lingering resentment in some quarters over Mo’Nique’s reluctance to play the publicity game, talk has surfaced this week of a “Precious” backlash. I’m not buying it until there’s a larger press reaction to the film upon its release — if it receives further anti-consensus pans along the lines of Ed Gonzalez’s, perhaps.

    Either way, according to Patrick Goldstein, director Lee Daniels isn’t helping matters with some cocky statements that could rub some Academy voters the wrong way. His assertion that “‘Precious’ is so not Obama … so not P.C.,” in the film’s recent NYT spread, strikes me as a harmless bit of bluster, while I’m not sure why anyone but the most conservative bluehairs would be concerned by him describing himself as “a little homo … a little Euro … a little ghetto.”

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  • The Great Performances: 1997

    Jodie Foster in Contact1997 was a great year for actors, but a tough year for Oscar; how do you choose when there are so many deserving nominees?

    It’s that age-old issue that some award-worthy performances are going to be left out, which though unfair and sad, is very much part of the Academy Awards and frankly what makes the whole thing interesting for us.  The Best Actor field ended up largely a battle of the old boys.  The acting warriors from the 1970s gave some of their finest performances in 1997, and four of the five nominees for Best Actor had been icons for 20 years.

    In fact the Academy could have allowed the one upstart to slip past and nominated Al Pacino in “Donnie Brasco,” which was the actor’s best work in years. As it was Pacino was by-passed in favor of young Matt Damon in “Good Will Hunting,” who found himself going toe-to-toe with Robert Duvall in “The Apostle,” Jack Nicholson in “As Good As It Gets,” Dustin Hoffman in “Wag the Dog” and Peter Fonda in “Ulee’s Gold.”

    I first saw Duvall’s performance at the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival and have written about it many times since.  He won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s Best Actor award, and then the National Society of Film Critics’ honor, but the Mayor of Hollywood stood in the way of Duvall’s second Oscar.

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  • 10/23 Oscarweb Round-up

    Unforgiven• Pete Hammond follows up on the Academy’s foreign screenings, plus more. [Notes on a Season]

    • Like me, Steven Zeitchik senses a little “Slumdog” in “Precious.” [Risky Business]

    • David Poland catches some intriguing similarities between the recently released “Invictus” and a number of other posters from Eastwood flicks. [The Hot Blog]

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  • INTERVIEW: Michelle Monaghan

    Michelle MonaghanOf all the actors I’ve spoken to over the years, I do not remember having such a great time as I did with Michelle Monaghan, currently on screens in “Trucker” and generating some awards chatter for her work. The actress is funny, honest, refreshingly frank and grateful for her career, unaffected by her fame, and a genuinely nice gal, still obviously remembering the lessons she learned growing up surrounded by working class values.

    She laughs often and it is a deep, infectious laugh that seems to surge right through the phone line.  What she has achieved in a very short time is special indeed, and despite having no training as an actor, she may be one of the finest American actresses of her generation; she is certainly the best I’ve seen this year.

    Monaghan has been visible on the American film scene since earning strong reviews for her riveting performance in “North Country” in 2005, with Oscar winner Charlize Theron, which she followed with “Mission: Impossible III” a year later, more than holding her own opposite Tom Cruise. Her performance in “Gone Baby Gone” was remarkable, resonating with a great deal of sadness, and she ran around the blockbuster “Eagle Eye” with Shia LaBeouf, managing to find an actual character amid the fluff.

    The girl can act, and she is getting better with each film.  Her turn in “Trucker” is astonishing.

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  • REVIEW: “The White Ribbon” (***1/2)

    The White RibbonLondon Film Festival

    With apologies to Pete Townshend, the kids are most certainly not alright.

    Such is the message we seem to be gleaning from the cinema of 2009, as a vast range of unrelated titles – “Precious,” “Coraline,” “Dogtooth,” “Antichrist,” “Fish Tank,” even “An Education” – appear united in visiting the physical and/or psychological damage wrought upon children by either obliviously or maliciously neglectful parents, in some cases planting the seeds of trauma for further generations.

    No film this year, however, addresses the matter with more thematic exactitude and near-scientific scrutiny than Michael Haneke’s grimly riveting “The White Ribbon,” a film which differs from the ones previously mentioned by taking an entire community, as opposed to a solitary family, as its allegorical subject. More expansive in its focus than any previous Haneke work, it nonetheless surprises with the intimacy of its gaze and the social responsibility of its treatise.

    Eternally fascinated by human behaviour, yet never a director much associated with the humane – his trademark chilliness reaching new heights (or depths, if you prefer) with last year’s “Funny Games” remake, which treated its papery characters with even more diagrammatic dispassion than the 1997 original – Haneke finally marries these two approaches here, empathizing with its considerable ensemble of characters even as it dissects them.

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  • AMPAS scares up sound experts for horror presentation

    PoltergeistIf you’re into the below-the-line filmmaking process (which we attempt to spotlight as best we can throughout the season in our weekly Tech Support column), then this is for you.

    The Academy will be sponsoring an event call “The Sound Behind the Image III: Real Horrorshow” on Thursday, Ocotber 29, or one week from today.  The event will be held at AMPAS headquarters in the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre over on Wilshire.

    “The program explores the art and technology of sound in motion pictures and the vital role it plays, specifically, in horror films,” according to the press release.  Sound editor David E. Stone (“Reservoir Dogs”) will play emcee to the festivities.

    Three-time nominee Mike Mangini (“Aladdin,” “The Fifth Element”) and two-time nominee Richard L. Anderson (“Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Daylight”) will offer a presentation on the sound effects and design of Tobe Hooper’s 1982 horror classic “Poltergiest” (for which Anderson was nominated).

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  • ‘The Cove’ premieres at Tokyo fest amid controversy

    The CoveThanks to Steve Pond’s round-up this morning, we’re pointed to the AFP’s story concerning the Tokyo Film Festival premiere of “The Cove,” which took some doing to happen, you’ll recall.

    The film, of course, stirred a controversy immediately in the town of Taiji, but the line of copy noting that “film makers [are] accused of covertly shooting footage using divers and hidden cameras” kind of makes me laugh out loud, I have to say.  Accused?  It’s there for you to see!

    Naturally, the Taiji fisheries cooperative has written a letter of protest in defense of the barbaric slaughtering of dolphins (which, beyond a mere animal rights issue, becomes a health concern, as you see in the film).  An official notes in the letter that the cooperative has “heard that the film includes factual errors, and so we may take some sort of action, including legal steps, if we watch it and find problems.”

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Visual Effects — Volume II

    Sharlto Copley in District 9As more films have been unleashed, the race for the visual effects Oscar now appears clearer than it did three months ago.  I’m starting to feel the race for the final three will really be down to a handful of films.

    As I explained in August, a shortlist of seven films will be announced in December or January.  After the branch screens the films, the three nominees will be announced on the same day as all the other categories.  We can expect the nominees to be big budget films – and also big hits, which is why how they perform on release is so important.

    Summer titles such as “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” strike me as highly unlikely to survive to the year’s end.  Nor do I believe “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” will able to distinguish itself enough from its predecessors, only one of which was nominated here.

    Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are” did not have the reliance on visual effects that I thought would be necessary for a nomination and I frankly doubt its chances. “Watchmen,” on the other hand, has slightly more potential in my opinion but still remains almost too innovative for a berth here.

    The two summer films which I do fully expect to be in the running had very different critical reception – though I’m not sure if that will determine their fate in this category.  I felt significantly dumber after watching “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” That said, the box office was nothing short of massive, as were the effects.  It’s certainly still among the top contenders.

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  • ‘Invictus’ poster

    Invictus

    (Courtesy: Yahoo! Movies)

  • New ‘Road’ poster

    The Road

    (Courtesy: Yahoo! Movies)

  • 10/22 Oscarweb Round-up

    Adam Shankman• Steve Pond takes note of an Oscar milestone regarding Adam Shankman: the first tweeting Oscarcast producer! [The Odds]

    • Tom O’Neil stirs the pot, says there might be a “Precious” backlash in the works. [Gold Derby]

    • He does so in response to Lou Lumenick, who wonders whether Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey are hurting the film. [Lumenick on Film]

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  • I agree to the letter

    Q: Why Did Amelia Earhart disappear in 1937?
    A: To avoid being embarrassed by the movie about her 72 years later.

    Q: Can three horrible fake accents equal one irredeemable movie?
    A: You bet ya.

    Q: What’s the difference between Amelia and two hours of uninterrupted sleep?
    A: The latter is uninterrupted.

    From David Poland’s skewering of “Amelia” following a screening this evening.  I’ll dig into the film in Friday’s Oscar Talk, but the only movie I’ve seen this year that is worse is “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.”

  • Lee Daniels and ‘Precious’ get a healthy NYT Mag word count

    Lee DanielsAs Guy points to the changing face of the typical “Oscar movie,” I’m reminded of a number of Oscar-related conversations as of late.  One question keeps popping through the “What can crack the 10” debate, and that is, “What can actually win?”  Of course, going into the season, the films to beat seem to be “Precious” and “Up in the Air,” based on impressive festival cred.  But other titles have been popping up as possibilities, too.

    “The Lovely Bones” certainly seems like an across-the-board player.  And if it lands a slightly unexpected PG-13 rating (it’s looking like it might), then it could prove even more accessible (i.e., commercially successful) than one might have anticipated.  The emotion of the narrative may just be gravy after that.

    I get the feeling that, of the other two unseen giants, “Nine” could prove a little too “been there, done that.”  But I think “Invictus,” if it delivers, could land a zeitgeisty message of healing a nation after years of political unrest that might prove irresistible to the Academy (from a McCain supporter, no less).

    In truth, however, I keep coming back to “Precious,” with just the right level of art house appeal, social consideration and dramatic flare to make good on its current frontrunner status and survive the season.  And this recent Lynn Hirschberg profile on director Lee Daniels in The New York Times Magazine is stuffed with insights and asides that make the bet feel safer and safer.

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  • THE LONG SHOT: What is an “Oscar movie” these days?

    George Clooney in Up in the Air“God, that thing’s just going to shit Academy Awards out of its ass next year, isn’t it?,” I overheard a journo behind me remark to his companion, as I made my way out of the “Up in the Air” press screening on Sunday. “It’s such an Oscar movie.”

    Two things struck me as interesting about this throwaway remark, both relating to the lack of care with which both Oscar pundits and “serious” film lovers tend to regard the Academy Awards.

    The first was that, isolated and in print, the guy’s words appear dismissive of “Up in the Air,” yet they actually capped a mostly enthusiastic response to the film. His tone dipped almost apologetically as he applied the “Oscar movie” label, as if it somehow sullied an otherwise fine effort.

    More to the point, however, the remark seemed indicative of the transitive stage the Academy Awards seem to be in at the moment, as simultaneously resistant and vulnerable to industry change as the protagonist of Jason Reitman’s film – and facing a similar crisis of purpose. For 15 years ago – if not necessarily 15 years before that – “Up in the Air” wouldn’t have been decreed an “Oscar movie” at all.

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  • Tarantino’s love letter to ‘Bright Star’

    Abbie Cornish in Bright StarQuentin Tarantino is obviously quite the epistolarian. Just yesterday, I mentioned the sincerely admiring letter that he wrote to controversial “Kinatay” director Brillante Mendoza, praising the brutally violent and widely unpopular Filipino film for its daring and authenticity.

    Evidently, that wasn’t the only letter QT wrote in his Cannes hotel suite. And while it’s not unexpected that he’d support a fellow provocateur like Mendoza, some might be surprised to hear that he’s equally passionate about Jane Campion’s “Bright Star,” which I flipped for earlier this week.

    UK site Moviefone unearthed the following gushing note (written, like the Mendoza letter, in red ink) from Tarantino to Campion:

    My favorite film of yours … I don’t like period pieces like that. I loved this!!! Never has heartache been so realistically and movingly portrayed as Abbie taking to her bed … The lovers kisses … Abbie and Ben … touching … Brilliant. I loved it!!! Love – Your fan – Quentin Tarantino.

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  • John Lasseter to receive Selznick Award from PGA

    John LasseterThis is turning into quite the year for John Lasseter. A little over a month ago, he and his fellow Pixar directors were honored with the career-achievement Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Now comes the news that Lasseter has been named the 2010 recipent of the Producers Guild of America’s highest career honor, the David O. Selznick Achievement Award.

    Lasseter is the first animation producer to receive the award, which was last handed earlier this year to Michael Douglas. Previous recipients include Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, Roger Corman, Clint Eastwood, Jerry Bruckheimer, Dino De Laurentiis, Robert Evans, Billy Wilder … the list is long and intimidating. The award will be presented at the PGA Awards ceremony on January 24.

    Congratulations, then, to Lasseter — it’s a splendid feather in his cap, and a further omen that this might be the year that Pixar finally cracks the awards-season big league. Industry goodwill for the studio really couldn’t be any higher at the moment.

    Press release soundbites after the cut.

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  • Smooth ride for ‘Up in the Air’ continues in UK

    Vera Farmiga and George Clooney in Up in the AirI’m always interested to see how the more hyped Hollywood contenders for Oscar glory play in Britain, largely because there are few hard-and-fast rules for determining what will take UK critics’ (and audiences’) fancy.

    Last year was a case in point: audiences here shrugged off “Milk,” while “The Wrestler” became a mini-phenomenon — though neither film offers an obvious inroad for a foreign audience. And who could have predicted that “Changeling” would find safe critical haven (not to mention a slew of BAFTA nods) with the Brits, despite receiving a kicking at home?

    So I was curious to see how “Up in the Air” fared with the British press following its London premiere on Sunday, given that it’s a film with quite an American outlook. However, the universality of its recession-minded story has evidently carried through, as early reviews are uniformly warm.

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