In Contention

Blog

  • What doesn’t kill you…

    You know that episode of “Weeds” during season 3, when Mary-Louise Parker’s Nancy Botwin gets a tattoo of a u-turn sign as a symbol of strength against a former adversary of the same name?  That kind of sums up why I want this Barack Obama socialism poster, fashioning the Commander-in-Chief after Heath Ledger’s Joker in “The Dark Knight,” hanging on my wall.  I’m screwy like that.  Over at The Guardian, by the way, Ben Walters does a pretty good job of shooting down the effort being made here by those suddenly on the outside looking in.

    Obama socialism

  • 8/6 Web Round-up

    Nation's Pride• Nikki Finke takes umbrage with the “Nation’s Pride” trailer being used to promote “Inglourious Basterds.” [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

    • Graeme McRanor sits down with “District 9” composer Clinton Shorter. [Jawbone.tv]

    • Top 10 movie pregnancies. [The Film Experience]

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  • R.I.P. Budd Schulberg

    I just came back from one of the most expertly written films of the year (Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain”) to the sad news that one of the great screenwriters of our time, Budd Schulberg, has passed on from this mortal coil.  At 95 years old, he seemed to get everything you can possibly get from life.  He is perhaps best known and remembered for “On the Waterfront,” for which he won an Oscar and gave us the immortal line: “I coulda had class.  I coulda been a contenda.  I coulda been somebody.” He will be missed.

  • There is a God

    A.O. ScottIs there anyone out there whose heart doesn’t leap upon hearing the following news? In an unusual triumph for journalistic ability over boneheaded determination, “At the Movies” is getting a fresh pair of hosts, less than a year after its disastrous makeover. Taking over from the dread Bens, Lyons and Mankiewicz, are the New York Times’ A.O. Scott and The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips. Via Variety:

    “We are thrilled that A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips will be lending their well-respected and influential voices to At the Movies,” said Brian Frons, president, Daytime, Disney-ABC Television Group, who oversees ABC Media Productions, which produces the show. “They are regarded by millions of people as authorities in film criticism and will take the series back to its roots of one-on-one film debate that was established when the show first began with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel.”

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  • The triumph you might never see

    Matthew Newton in Three Blind MiceIn autumn last year, I lost my heart to a miniature Australian gem called “Three Blind Mice.” At the end of a long day of press screenings, I sleepwalked into a theater at the London Film Festival not particularly eager to see a film I knew nothing about. A brief blurb describing it as a zany comedy about three naval officers on shore leave before shipping out to Iraq did little to whet the appetite.

    A few minutes later, I was startled into full consciousness as writer-director-star Matthew Newton’s alternately riotously funny, sombre and shocking study of masculinity in crisis burned up the screen with whip-smart Pinteresque writing and dazzling ensemble work, earning a spot on my “best of 2008” list in the process.

    I wasn’t the only one, either — the entire audience was abuzz with talk of the film after the screening, and it duly claimed the FIPRESCI Critics’ Prize at the festival.

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  • REVIEW: “Inglourious Basterds” (**1/2)

    Inglourious BasterdsQuentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” isn’t as indulgent as “Death Proof” or “Kill Bill: Vol. 2,” but it doesn’t have the filmmaking panache and wit of the moving image to forgive it its sins like “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,” either.  It’s a slightly more contained bout of silliness, but it’s silliness nevertheless.

    The film is trademark bloated Tarantino, featuring scene after scene that could have been curtailed or expedited, which might have significantly affected an off-putting 150-minute running time.  But Tarantino lost his “no” men years ago, while distribution honcho Harvey Weinstein continues to serve as an enabler of sorts.

    So more of the same is what we get.

    But to look deeper at “Inglourious Basterds” is to find a world that might appeal to an angst-ridden child, perhaps.  The rage that courses through its veins is pure, concentrated tantrum, and somewhat passé at that.  After all, what thematic purpose is served by a film — however brazen and even “fun” in its historical revisionism — that takes relentless aim at the Nazis, of all foes?

    The director might have found suitable commentary with a sense of parallel or metaphor, something, anything connecting the on-screen carnage to our own state of pent-up hatred toward foreign aggressors, for instance.  But that doesn’t seem to be visceral enough for Tarantino, who takes glee at a prolonged take of a human head being scalped, or the rat-a-tat obliteration of another under a hail of gunfire.

    Boys will be boys, I guess.  But when will that cease to be enough for Tarantino apologists?

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  • Gilliam talks completing ‘Parnassus’ without Ledger and his defining film moment

    Terry GilliamAt Comic-Con last month, Motion/Captured’s Drew McWeeny was fortunate enough to sit down with director Terry Gilliam for a solid 60 minutes, allowing the conversation to drift from actors like Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt to the Criterion Collection to Gilliam’s latest, the still domestic distributor-less “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” and everything in between.

    The piece is broke up into two parts.  Part one is interesting enough, especially for the mid-interview interruption by some idiot who should have known better, but I think the meat of the piece is in part two, where Gilliam starts to talk the philosophy of cinema and “Parnassus” in particular.

    Gillaim talks at length about the film’s state of disarray after Heath Ledger’s untimely passing in January of 2008, leaving an entire performance to be completed and no easy answers.  He called Johnny Depp first, completely sapped with no idea how to go forward.  Ultimately Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law filled in for Ledger for the character of Tony’s three transformations in the film, but even completing the script at hand was difficult for some on the production.

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  • ‘I Can Do Bad All By Myself’ poster flaunts what Taraji P.’s got

    I Can Do Bad All By MyselfOkay, I can’t stand Tyler Perry’s movies and I think “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” is an awful title (and a film I honestly hadn’t heard of until today), but when Drew McWeeny posted this exclusive poster premiere over at HitFix, my jaw hit the ground and, well, I had to share.

    See, I pretty much fell head-over-heels for Taraji P. Henson last year.  I ran into her constantly throughout the season after interviewing her early on for a Variety profile and the girl has so much spunk it’s hard — uh, difficult — not to feel a primal surge of attraction when she’s around.  Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she’s got a body to die for (and at 39 years old, no less).

    And this poster pretty much spells that out for you.  I say do away with the floating heads, the silly tagline and the cast listing and leave it at sultry Taraji and the credit capsule at the bottom.  It would be more striking that way, less “safe” (because let’s face it, those smiling mugs surrounding Henson pretty much wink at the viewer and say, “It’s okay, this is a Tyler Perry joint.”)  Give me edgy and fierce any day.  And hell, it might even sell me on the title.

    Check out the full poster after the jump.

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  • Quote of the day

    Good work Paramount, not screening G.I. Joe got everyone to talk about it (some twice) and you don’t even have to deal with the reviews.

    Twittered by Brad Brevet of Rope of Silicon.

  • Why not remake ‘Gunsmoke’ as a TV series instead?

    GunsmokeIt’s become gospel that there is no shortage of cribbed thinking and conservative rehashing going on in Hollywood these days.  And now it seems the trend is stretching into the slightly revitalized western genre with CBS Films’ development of a feature film based on the old “Gunsmoke” television series.

    The film recently landed writer Gregory Poirier (he of “Rosewood” and “National Treasure: Book of Secrets”), but as I read through Boris Kit and Stephen Zeitchik’s Risky Biz Blog story at The Hollywood Reporter, I kept wondering why Hollywood doesn’t take the next step here and just revamp the property as a full-blown series once again.

    “Gunsmoke” was filmed at the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio up in Newhall, right outside of Santa Clarita.  I’ve been there a couple of times and the Veluzat brothers, Renaud and Andre, who own the property, are stand-up guys who get a lot of business out of their old town set.  But not many westerns are going through there anymore, beyond the occasional Hallmark Channel entry.  The last time things were booming was back in the “Deadwood” days.

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  • Marrying art and film at Venice

    Steve McQueenOne of the most unique virtues of the Venice Film Festival is that it every two years, it runs alongside the Venice Biennale — the world’s foremost contemporary art showcase, spanning almost 6 months and housing exhibitions from over 90 international artists. The overlap between the film festival and the Biennale can therefore bridge the artforms in some exciting ways.

    As much as I’m looking forward to attending the Venice fest in September, I’m as excited to sample the delights of the Biennale for the first time, not least because two artist-filmmaker hyphenates I really admire will be exhibiting new work.

    Steve McQueen, whose Bobby Sands biopic “Hunger” was one of the great directorial debuts of recent years, will be representing Britain on the international pavilion, has been the talk of the Biennale since unveiling his 40-minute gallery film “Giardini” in June. A cinematic portrait of Venice and its residents in winter composed of minute environmental details — greyhounds lurching in alleys, the roar of distant football crowds — it has drawn ecstatic notices from the art press. I’m keen to check it out.

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  • No reason whatsoever

  • Heist/movie musical short film starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

    (from left) Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-LevittIt seems the folks behind the summer romance “(500) Days of Summer” have been up to some extra-curricular activities as of late.  Director Marc Webb and actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel recently put together a short film inspired by heist cinema and movie musicals that is…frankly kind of pointless.  But it served as a nice exclusive for USA Today and will surely be a delightful diversion for the film’s many fans.

    Here’s a taste of Anthony Breznican’s story:

    Gordon-Levitt plays a stoic man in a neat blue suit, turning to crime in a moment of absolute desperation. Deschanel is the gorgeous, wide-eyed teller, disarming the dangerous man (metaphorically speaking) in a playful, twirling, fox-trotting dance through the stuffy, starkly lit marble lobby. The other dour denizens go about their business unaware.

    Providing the soundtrack: the song Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? by She & Him, Deschanel’s retro-rock duo with musician M. Ward.

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  • 8/5 Web Round-up

    G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra• Tom O’Neil wonders whether “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” is Razzie-bound. [Gold Derby]

    • Devin Faraci, meanwhile (one of the “easy marks” Paramount screened the film to over the rest of the nation’s critics), comments on the “No ‘Joe’” brouhaha. [CHUD]

    • And Steve Weintraub talks to the film’s screenwriter, Stuart Beattie. [Collider]

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  • ‘The Lovely Bones’ trailer

    You can see the full, un-edited (and voice-over-free) version at Apple, or by clicking the image below.  Paramount is pulling the rights violation card on embeds, so I’ve removed the YouTube clip.  Any new embeds will likely be yanked as well, so I won’t bother.

    Having finally taken a look at the full version, I am immediately taken by the overall look of the picture.  Andrew Lesnie’s photography is gorgeous to say the least, and the visual effects could very well find their way into Oscar contention.  Stanley Tucci looks certifiably creepy and could be someone to watch, but on the whole, still, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I got an overall “meh” feeling here. I’ve never read the book, so I’m not champing at the bit like some of the devoted. Maybe that explains it, I don’t know.

    The Lovely Bones

  • ‘Young Victoria’ to close TIFF, Egoyan’s ‘Chloe’ added

    Rupert Friend and Emily Blunt in The Young VictoriaToronto is obviously digging the corsets this year. Weeks after Jon Amiel’s Charles Darwin biopic “Creation” was announced as the opening film of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, fest organizers have revealed that Jean-Marc Vallée’s “The Young Victoria” will close proceedings.

    This choice of bookends gives an odd symmetry to the festival schedule: both films are (or appear to be, since I haven’t seen “Creation” yet) old-fashioned Anglocentric period biopics with minimal buzz.

    The choice of “Victoria” is an unsurprising one, given that Vallée is a hometown boy whose last, considerably more interesting, effort “C.R.A.Z.Y.” won the Best Canadian Feature award at the 2005 festival. But it’s a disappointingly stiff choice for such a prime spot.

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  • Say it isn’t so

    The ObserverSorry for veering away from movies for a minute, but no true friend of journalism can afford not to care about the likely imminent closure of The Observer.

    The world’s first Sunday newspaper, founded in 1791, and still one of the greatest weekly reads in circulation, looks headed for the chop as the Guardian Media Group (owners of The Observer and its daily sister paper The Guardian) begins some recession-induced downsizing.

    Among its numerous other journalistic virtues, the paper is currently home to Philip French, one of the UK’s most venerable film critics, and Lynn Barber, the interviewer par excellence whose life serves as the inspiration for the much-anticipated fall release “An Education.”

    It’d be sad to see such essential writers out on their ear. And my hungover Sunday breakfasts would be a lot less edifying without them and their paper.

  • Ben Stiller vocal about ‘Cove’ support

    Ben StillerCoincidentally, an AMPAS member.  From The Daily Beast’s Buzz Board, dated July 16:

    I just saw The Cove at the Nantucket film festival and was deeply affected by it. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. It’s important, entertaining, suspenseful, moving, funny—everything a movie should be, but happens to be a documentary about the ongoing dolphin slaughter in Japan, a very important subject. But it’s not just about dolphins, it’s about people doing incredible things: Rick [sic] O’Barry, the focus of the movie, has become an instant hero for me: He’s been taking chances and standing up for what he believes in for a long time. After I saw the film, it made me want to literally jump out of my seat and go to Japan to become an activist alongside Rick and his team. I didn’t, because we had a rental in Nantucket for the rest of the month—but still, they managed to do some pretty amazing things over there.