• Pete Hammond joins the speculation that yesterday’s Oscarcast producer announcement bodes well for a Jackman repeat. [Notes on a Season]
• Nathaniel Rogers is awed in the presence of Tilda Swinton at the New Yorker Festival. (Where, apparently, “Michael Clayton” was never mentioned. Huh.) [Tribeca Film]
• David Poland brands the Gotham Awards “meaningless” for not trying to predict the Oscars. I despair. [The Hot Blog]
This morning I highlighted a few areas where the “An Education” team might want to angle for nominations beyond the slam-dunk that is the Carey Mulligan Express. What I forgot to suggest is that the film could theoretically put itself in the hunt for Best Original Song.
You could be forgiven for thinking that the lovely, woozy torch ballad “You’ve Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger” — which features prominently in the trailer, as well as twice in the film itself — is a dusty archive find from the early 1960s.
However, it’s actually a contemporary track co-written and performed especially for the film by 28 year-old British jazz-pop chanteuse Beth Rowley (who appears as a nightclub singer in the film).
Well, we were getting a bit impatient for the names to drop, but finally they have: Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic have formally been named as the producers of the 2009 Academy Awards telecast.
As was the case last year, Oscar bosses have handed the reins to a pair of newcomers. Shankman, a choreographer-turned-filmmaker (not to mention “So You Think You Can Dance” judge) best known for his direction of “Hairspray” and “A Walk to Remember,” and Mechanic, a producer and former Fox chief, seem to represent a pairing of showbiz glitter with old-school industry brass.
This kind of inside-baseball stuff isn’t really my forte, but I will venture a guess that the selection of Shankman indicates a willingness to stick to the musical-inspired, let’s-put-on-show mandate that Bill Condon and Laurence Mark set last year. (In which case Hugh Jackman might return as host after all.) And if Shankman brings the same level of slickness and sincere enthusiasm to this assignment as he did to “Hairspray,” I’m not complaining.
Press release after the cut.
I must say, I’m a little sad to hear that ace NYT journalist David Carr has retired from his position as lead writer for the Times’ seasonal Carpetbagger blog. Site colleagues excepted, he was my favorite Oscar pundit bar none, striking the tricky balance of bringing jaded wit to the silliness of awards season without stooping to easy snark, and it goes without saying that he’s one hell of a writer on any topic that takes his fancy. (Still haven’t read his memoir “Night of the Gun?” Rectify it.)
Still, the Gray Lady hardly lacks for talented scribes, and so it is that we welcome Carr’s replacement, Melena Ryzik, who will take over the blog as of December 1. From the press release:
In addition to being a general assignment culture reporter, Ms. Ryzik chronicles cultural life in New York for the UrbanEye video series, and writes the UrbanEye e-mail, a daily guide to events around town. As the Carpetbagger, she succeeds media columnist David Carr, who originated the blog but is retiring his tuxedo from the red carpet beat after four seasons. He will continue as a media columnist and a general assignment reporter.
At this morning’s press screening for “An Education,” which has its UK premiere at the London Film Festival tonight, I was impressed afresh by what a layered, deceptively gentle and generally terrific little picture it is.
Some have complained that it’s a little too soft, a little too easy — though only its overly pat denouement, for me, merits any such claims — but this is a film that knows its audience, as well as how to sneak more subversive material by them, and deserves credit for its intelligence in doing so.
I’ll admit that this morning, the thought of it actually winning Best Picture crossed my mind, albeit built on a shaky pile of ifs; either way, it strikes me as a genuine Academy film, and for a change, that isn’t meant as an insult.
Some of you may have read my defense last week of Brillante Mendoza’s grimly violent “Kinatay,” a film that provoked mass hostility at Cannes in May for portraying the rape, murder and dismemberment of a young woman in unrelenting detail. Roger Ebert declared it the worst film ever to play at the festival, and the announcement of Mendoza’s Best Director award was roundly booed in the Cannes press room.
For all that, the film does have its champions, and as it turns out, Quentin Tarantino is among them. Thanks to Ben Mortimer at ComingSoon for pointing me to this letter (itself courtesy of Letters of Note) written by Tarantino to Mendoza, congratulating the latter on his Cannes win and pretty accurately nailing why the film works. (For us, at least.) Spelling errors preserved:
Bravo on your diffcult troubling work. Your decission to never dramatize the murder, never indulge in movie suspense…. was bold, daring, and to me, the whole point of making the movie in the first place. I felt it was completely a eyewitness acount of a horroble murder. I believed everything I saw. Your point wasnt to dramatize it. It was to capture it.
The actual document is after the cut, in case you’ve always longed to see QT’s handwriting.
I’m about to head into an LFF press screening of what is possibly my most anticipated film of the year, Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon.” As if my excitement levels couldn’t be any higher, The Guardian points us to this exquisite new trailer for the film. (They’re claiming it’s a world exclusive, though Trailer Addict offers a near-identical one, embedded below.)
I sense it’s a film that will merit a full review, so I hope to cobble one together by end of play today. “Hope” being the operative word.
So this is the song that Brian May was praising to the high heavens. Okie dokie. If this were the mid-1990s, we might be looking at a nomination. But, as it is…nah.
(Courtesy: Vulture)
• Peter Knegt writes up a list of honest-to-God Oscar underdogs, but where’s Tom Hardy? [indieWIRE]
• Peter Bart and Michael Fleming go back and forth on the new Oscar paradigm. [BF Deal Memo]
• Francis Ford Coppola chimes in with cheery news: “The cinema as we know it is falling apart.” [Bloomberg]
You’d be hard pressed to disagree that Alexandre Desplat is pretty much at the top of the game in contemporary film scoring. In addition to his genius (“Birth” looks likely to remain my favorite score of the decade), his prolificity is awe-inspiring. This year alone sees the Frenchman’s name on seven features, running the gamut from “Julie & Julia” to “A Prophet” to “Fantastic Mr. Fox” to the latest “Twilight” installment.
He seems bound to figure in the awards race for one film or another (“Cheri” would be my personal pick so far), so it’s a nice — if not terribly prescient — omen that he just won Composer of the Year at the 9th annual World Soundtrack Awards yesterday, as well as score of the year for his Oscar-nominated work on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
It’s a 2008-leaning list, with “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Reader” also resurfacing, though a Lifetime Achievement Award for Marvin Hamlisch is clearly a nod to “The Informant!”
The awards, handed out by the World Soundtrack Academy in Ghent, Belgium, an educational organization dedicated to the art of film music, don’t carry much weight to speak of, but since we’re having a day of small awards announcements, it’s a fun list of winners to add to the pile. Full list after the cut.
Apropos of nothing really, since the article is a week old and even I have no intention of seeing “Love Happens,” but my friend Jamie — who knows, albeit not very supportively, of my longstanding admiration for Jennifer Aniston — sent me this interesting Independent piece, and I thought I’d throw it out there.
As some of you may have read before, I’ve long held the belief that Aniston is a genuinely gifted actress — and I haven’t had an awful lot of company on that one. Ben Walsh, however, joins me on that limb, saluting her consistently valiant contributions to largely unworthy films:
These cynical, quite often facile films may lack depth, subtlety and, well, imagination, but Aniston never lets anybody down. In fact, now that Meg Ryan appears to have imploded, Aniston is probably – and this is a tad bold – the most gifted American comic actress of her generation. Her comic timing is immaculate and she could muster up playful sexual chemistry with a sideboard. And while her acting range isn’t huge, she’s never less than compelling.
I am presently seeing films at the London Film Festival at a greater pace than I can write them up — expect a round-up of curt (by my standards, at least) capsule reviews either later today or tomorrow.
Some films, however, demand to be reviewed in pairs, as is the case with Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s latest, the frothy action caper “Micmacs,” and Elia Suleiman’s rather more subdued Cannes entry “The Time That Remains,” which I saw this afternoon and yesterday respectively — two polar-opposite films that nonetheless both blend naive physical comedy with a political agenda, to very different tonal effect.
“Micmacs” (**)
As a filmgoer, few things are as dispiriting as the sensation that everyone on screen is having more fun than you — and not being able to join in. Such, I regret to inform, was my experience watching the latest eccentricity from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Amélie,” “Delicatessen”), which floods the screen with inventiveness, enthusiasm and his trademark sepia-stylized visuals — special kudos to Aline Bonetto’s production design — but is so claustrophobic, and so convinced of its own charms, that the narrative is lost somewhere in the bustle.
This is weak sauce, and I know that going in, but it looks like back-to-back weeks without an Off the Carpet column. Two screenings today, suddenly being pulled out of town tomorrow, computer issues, etc. — it tends to get in the way.
In the meantime, some sporadic thoughts:
• “An Education,” “Fish Tank” (which I finally saw this morning as we gear up for AFI Fest) and “Up in the Air” would make for a bizarrely appropriate triple feature.
• With that in mind, I’ve found myself, for better or worse, turning over what the year in film might actually mean this year. It’s folly, of course, and overly reductive, but I always enjoy turning over the year’s themes. Maturity seems to be a big constant. What say you?
• I think what has shaped up to be a handsome year in indie film was let down today by a dubious slate of Gotham nominees.
• Ennio Morricone at the Hollywood Bowl is SO going to rock this weekend. But probably not quite as much as U2 tomorrow night (my first time).
That’s all I’ve got. Predictions have been tweaked. The contenders are here. The floor is yours.
Regular readers will know that Kris and I frequently disagree as to the merits of certain films — and cheerfully so, since a range of opinion is kind of the point of having multiple contributors to a site like this.
But I don’t think our opinions have ever been so sharply opposed as they are over Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” — which has its UK premiere tonight as the Mayor of London’s Gala selection, and which thoroughly enthralled me at this morning’s press screening.
I realize that the film is relatively old news in the States as I write this, but I nonetheless feel compelled to add a rejoinder to Kris’s fair but frosty take from Telluride last month, as for my money, Campion has turned in a rhapsodically beautiful work, a possible four-star effort that sits easily with her finest.
And here…we…go!
I’m on my way out the door and so I can’t fully comment on the just announced list of Gotham Award nominees (which, along with the trickling-in list of Hollywood Film Fest winners, really is making this seem like an Oscar season all of a sudden, no?) But here they are. A handful of other awards/honors were announced a few weeks back.
I’m glad “Sugar” got something, even if it is a lone nomination in the ensemble field. “The Hurt Locker” cleaned up with nominations across the board. “Big Fan” did really well, too. Your thoughts?
Best Feature
“Amreeka”
“Big Fan”
“The Hurt Locker”
“The Maid”
“A Serious Man”
Duncan Jones is quite the intrepid fellow. He has a fairly consistent presence on Twitter, always notifying of the recent ups and downs of his 2009 sci-fi effort “Moon.” (Most recently the film cleaned up at Spain’s Sitges Fantastic Film Festival.) But mostly the director just seems anxious to get the word out on an expertly crafted film that he’s clearly proud of.
So of course a grassroots campaign to land Sam Rockwell a Best Actor Oscar nomination is right up his alley, and as you know, I’m all for it. “Moon” is the kind of film that really needs this kind of dig-your-heels-in effort because, despite working out nicely in Sony Pictures Classics’ conservative (i.e., successful) distribution philosophy, still doesn’t have the reach and blanket exposure that it needs for this kind of thing.
Of course, grassroots campaigns have fizzled out in the past. And if we’re being realistic, there’s probably no chance in hell that Rockwell can get the consideration he deserves; it would take a concentrated screening, wining and dining sort of effort that is just not in the cards. But I like Jonses’s moxie.
Go over to ManMadeMovies for more and sign the online petition if you like. Also: #samrockwelloscar. A fan-made poster for the effort after the jump.
Mira Nair’s latest finally crosses my bow later this evening. We’ll see. We’ll see…