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  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Original Score — Volume I

    The Princess and the FrogAs long as humanity has been recording history, music has been immensely important in society. Not only can it be joyous and entertaining, but it can capture the mood and feel of a time and a place. Cinema has been no exception in this regard.

    The creation of original music for a film is awarded by the Academy in the Best Original Score category. The composer has one of the most difficult and lonely jobs in filmmaking. Almost always arriving at the end of the editing stage, he or she has to fashion music appropriate to the mood of a film.  But when a composer does a magnificent job, the result can be iconic.

    This category tends to awards its favorites. It is notoriously one of AMPAS’s most insular branches (though it has warmed up to newbies slightly in recent years). It also tends to award music that features prominently in the films.  From this vantage point, however, it is always hard to guess which films will find themselves in contention, largely because we have not heard the scores.

    An exception in this regard is Michael Giacchino’s work on Pixar’s “Up.” Giacchino, who was nominated two years ago for “Ratatouille,” has once again composed a soundtrack which can be sad, joyous and suspenseful. The film is likely headed towards a Best Picture nomination, and I suspect a citation here will follow.

    Another animated film which may very well end up in contention is “The Princess and the Frog.” The music is being handled by Randy Newman, clearly beloved by the music branch. I remain skeptical of how this film will be received and, in any event, think that Best Original Song may be the more likely spot to consider for this film. However, Newman’s name means a lot and there are few other favorites in the running this year.

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  • New ‘Trucker’ trailer

    The buzz, manufactured or not, is swirling around Michelle Monaghan’s performance in “Trucker.”  There is plenty of room in the lead actress category, so maybe there’s a play here, I don’t know.  Here’s the new trailer:

  • Can you ever get enough of Polish movie posters?

    Chinatown Fight Club

    More at The Guardian, which is previewing an exhibition of 50 posters at London’s Cinéphilia West.

  • 9/2 Web Round-up

    Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man• “A Serious Man,” a glossary. [Focus Features]

    • Peter Knegt writes up 10 things the fall fests could tell us about the awards season. [indieWIRE]

    • Julian Fellowes talks Robert Altman eight years after “Gosford Park,” bringing back memories (old school Oscar Central readers know). [The Wrap]

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  • Touchdown in Venice

    VeniceGreetings from the cavernous, marble-clad press room of the Venice Film Festival. After a more-frenzied-than-average day’s travelling (thanks to a domino set of transport delays resulting in the kind of mad airport dash usually reserved for rom-com heroes only), I have arrived in Venice in more or less one piece — and if ever a city was designed to melt away the stresses of a rough transit, it’s this one.

    Even in sticky September heat, it’s as unremittingly, broodingly lovely as every postcard, photograph or film scene has ever suggested — as I navigated the shady labyrinth of criss-crossing bridges and canals to my hotel, it was hard not to expect a ghostly tyke in red to pop up a few paces ahead. Or Dirk Bogarde in a Panama hat. At least Helena Bonham-Carter in a carnival mask. But no. Such are the mild letdowns of initially meeting cities through the movies.

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  • Back to Welles

    Christian McKay in Me and Orson WellesIt’s funny how strong festival buzz can be frozen indefinitely as a film jumps through the increasingly complicated hoops of securing distribution — only to be thawed and reheated later.  Such looks to be the case with Richard Linklater’s latest, “Me and Orson Welles” — or, to be more specific, its breakout star Christian McKay.

    A year ago, the previously little-known Brit was the talk of Toronto for his apparently uncanny interpretation of Welles — even critics lukewarm on the film itself had nothing but superlatives for McKay. (Our own John Foote waxed lyrical here, while Eddie Marsan, who plays Welles associate John Houseman in the film, couldn’t stop gushing about the performance during our interview last fall.)

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  • What of Gabourey?

    I’ll get into a review of “Precious” eventually, but for now, I have to just say, I’m stunned — STUNNED — that the Best Actress discussion hasn’t properly included Gabourey Sidibe so far.  In so many ways it is the performance of the year.  In so many ways.

    More later.

  • The five Venice titles I’m most curious to see

    Jared Leto in Mr. NobodyAt the crack of dawn, I board a flight to Italy — so this time tomorrow, if all goes well, I’ll be writing to you from the water-riven city of Venice after having attended a festival screening of John Hillcoat’s “The Road.” It’s both my first visit to the city and my first taste of one of the major film festivals, so it should be an exciting few days all round.

    Venice may lag slightly behind Cannes in terms of glamor and auteur attractions, but it’s arguably the European festival that feeds most into the awards season to come: as recent Cannes winners have remained largely arthouse-bound, Venice has birthed several crossover successes that went on to factor to varying degrees in the race: in recent years, “Brokeback Mountain,” “The Queen,” “Atonement” and “The Wrestler,” among others, saw their buzz begin on the Lido.

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  • Netherlands, Kazakhstan enter Oscar ponies

    Marco Borsato and Andrew Kintu in The Silent ArmyThanks to regular commenter Jonathan for alerting us to the news that The Netherlands has selected Jean van de Velde’s “The Silent Army” as their entry in the Best Foreign Language Film race.

    The film, which played in the Un Certain Regard strand at Cannes this year, is set in East Africa, and follows the plight of a widower on a quest to rescue his young son’s best friend, after the boy is recruited as a child soldier by a rebel army.

    Extensively recut after receiving a critical drubbing in its home country in 2008 (the casting of local pop star Marco Borsato accounting for much of the jeering), the film’s reception at Cannes was improved but still somewhat tepid, with many critics citing excessive sentimentality and political correctness as major debits. (Not that either of those qualities is a disadvantage with voters in this category.)

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  • Beavis and Butt-Head introduce a scene from ‘Extract’

    BRILLIANT:

    I can’t say how much I was those two to be back on the tube. This should be an on-going series, though. “Beavis and Butt-Head present…”

  • Oscar Idol?

    OscarsI’ve been having a number of conversations today about the Academy’s new Best Picture voting rules.  Some see it as further evidence of the organization snuffing out campaigning by leveling the playing field even more (which, if we’re being honest, is bad for AMPAS business).  Others see it as the fairest way of establishing a winner.  I’m somewhere in the middle, but all of that is neither here nor there.  I ran across this comment at The Hot Blog and I just had to share:

    They need to treat the nominees as a top 10 list and not “nominees.” Then, structure the broadcast around the top 10 like American Idol and gradually count down the vote tabs from #10 to #1 throughout the program to create suspense.

    Call me crazy, but this would be brilliant.  I kind of understand the desire to spare the feelings of those who would be “voted off” first.  That’s why the tabulations are destroyed after a few years.  No one wants people to know they were in last place, but come on — the nomination is the victory in many of those circumstances.  And talk about building a viewership.  We’re already inching toward People’s Choice Awards territory as it is, so why not bring all the walls down?

    Thoughts?

  • Let Stanley Tucci’s march through the season begin

    Stanley Tucci in The Lovely BonesOne of the highlights of Nora Ephron’s “Julie & Julia,” which I was quick to point out when discussing the film last month, was Stanley Tucci’s refreshing, heart-warming portrayal of Paul Child Julia Child’s loving husband.  The film is just opening in the UK and a piece in The Guardian has me turning over Tucci’s Oscar prospects more and more.  But not for Ephron’s film, of course.  For Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones.”

    It isn’t the most original idea in the world right now, of course, to consider Tucci a formidable contender as the villain of Jackson’s film.  We’ve had him on the bubble on our charts for a number of months now.  But when I read things like “effortless scene-stealer,” I begin to wonder whether the buzz is collecting at just the right moment.

    David Thomson calls Tucci’s work in “Julie & Julia” opposite Meryl Streep “the great performance in [the film],” and goes on to note the chemistry the two actors have displayed once already in “The Devil Wears Prada.”  He also compares Tucci to James Mason and even proposes a film about the making of “Eyes Wide Shut” with Tucci as Kubrick (I’d line up for it).  While that might be a bit fanciful, the crux of his piece is that Tucci is an actor condemned to supporting roles who knocks them out of the park each and every time.

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  • Scream Awards laud ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Up,’ ‘Let the Right One In’

    Let the Right One InI don’t follow the world of genre-specific awards ceremonies very closely, so I must admit I’d never heard of the Scream Awards before their recent slate of nominations was brought to my attention.

    No prizes for guessing from the name that it’s a horror-focused affair — with separate divisions for fantasy and sci-fi as well. Fan-voted and cheerfully silly, it looks at first glance to follow in the noble tradition of the MTV Movie Awards knockoff, with such prestigious categories as “Most Memorable Mutilation” and “Holy Shit! Scene of the Year.” (Meanwhile, one of the more serious categories is saddled with the moniker “Best Scream-Play.” That’s good stuff.)

    But get past such tongue-in-cheek frivolities — and the predictable spate of nominations for the likes of “Twilight” and “Transformers 2” — and there are some pretty cool selections scattered here and there. It’s heartening to see such a healthy showing for “Let the Right One In” in a people’s-choice institution like this — though not as surprising as the inclusion of Norwegian Nazi-zombie-comedy (there’s a mouthful) “Dead Snow.”

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  • THE LISTS: Top 10 highest grossing films of the decade derived from original material

    Russell Crowe in GladiatorBehold! I give to you the very first edition of The Lists to be based on fact and not opinion — unless you count box office data as the ultimate opinion of the masses.

    The decade is drawing to a close and unless something miraculous happens, the top 10 highest grossing films of the aughts is probably set in stone. At first I thought that would be a fun list to compile, but it turns out to be extremely boring and exactly what you’d expect it to be. If ever there was a doubt that this decade would be defined by anything but franchises, then let me put it to rest here. Number of sequels in the top 10 highest grossing movies of the 1990s: 1. Number of sequels in the top 10 highest grossing movies of the 2000s: 7.

    Audiences have overwhelmingly turned against original product in favor of something, anything with some sort of pre-existing source material, and it has happened over the last 10 years. Of course, I think audiences have always depended on something familiar to get them into the multiplex.  It used to be the reputation of an actor or director that provided that comfort. Now, star power is a thing of the past and brand recognition is the wave of the future. Of course, there are always a few exceptions to the rules, and so I’ve compiled this list to celebrate some of the films that were able to permeate the public consciousness and earn the right to be called a blockbuster the hard way: by being original (relatively speaking).

    First, some caveats. A film like “The Passion of the Christ” is technically an original screenplay but obviously is based on stories from the Bible and carries an enormous built-in “fanbase,” so it was not considered for this list. I also decided to exclude animated films because if I didn’t, 50% of the list would be dominated by Pixar titles and that’s no fun either. In the interest of fairness, though, I will post the top 10 including animated films in the comments section.

    One final note. If I did a similar chart for the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the number one film would also actually be the highest grossing film of the decade. For the 2000s, the number one film on this chart is the 32nd highest grossing overall film.

    Oh, and all the numbers are adjusted to today’s figures, as always.

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  • How would Marvel reimagine Disney heroines?

    Here’s Pocahontas, “The Lion King”‘s Nala and “Aladdin”‘s Jasmine.  Check out Jeffrey Thomas’s blog for more:

    Marvel Disney

  • Phillips/Scott gear up for ‘At the Movies’

    (Courtesy: Hollywood Elsewhere)

  • 10 most anticipated films of the season

    No fanfare.  A legitimate installment of The Lists on another topic will drop from Chad later today, but here’s what has me stoked:

    1. “Up in the Air” (Paramount Pictures)
    2. “Avatar” (20th Century Fox)
    3. “The Tree of Life” (Apparition)
    4. “Where the Wild Things Are” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
    5. “A Christmas Carol” (Walt Disney Pictures)
    6. “Invictus” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
    7. “Capitalism: A Love Story” (Overture Films)
    8. “2012    ” (Sony Pictures) –> guilty
    9. “Precious” (Lionsgate)
    10. “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” (Sony Pictures Classics)

    You?

  • 9/1 Web Round-up

    Jason Reitman• The most complete blow-by-blow explanation of the Academy’s new rule change your likely to get.  Still — the nominee thing… [Film School Rejects]

    • Ever the professional, Nikki Finke is just pissed no one told her first. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

    • Anthony Breznican sits down with “Up in the Air” director Jason Retiman for a little pre-Toronto back and forth. [USA Today]

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