In Contention

Blog

  • A soupçon of ‘Broken Embraces’

    Thanks to Nat Rogers for pointing out this new teaser for Pedro Almodovar’s upcoming Penelope Cruz-starrer “Broken Embraces.” I do mean “teaser,” by the way — it’s under 30 seconds long, with no betrayal of dialogue or plot — but if, like me, this is your most anticipated film of 2009, you take what you can get.

    This much we can tell: it’s lush. If “Volver” was a joyful, humanist showcase for the tinderbox screen charisma of its leading lady, this appears to be its (and Cruz’s) nastier, noir-ier bookend, furthering Almodovar’s ambition to construct her as this generation’s premier Euro screen goddess. I. Can’t. Wait.

  • Curiouser and curiouser

    I have to say, it’s a stroke of luck that the most predictable Oscar race in some years at least happens to conicide with the most unpredictable Oscar ceremony. It’s as if Bill Condon and Laurence Mark knew that they had to pull out all the stops in reconfiguring the show to make up for a slate of nominees that could not have been more cautious. The few hints that have been dropped so far (including a radically altered stage design) suggest that, whether it sinks or soars, something very different is in store.

    Pete Hammond has written an interesting piece in which he considers the information we have so far, and wonders what bearing this year’s ceremony might have on the Oscarcast’s long-term future. He acknowledges the canniness of Condon and Mark’s semi-veiled strategy thus far (suggesting, I suspect  accurately, that the “leaked” news of Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron as presenters was in fact calculated to lure in younger viewers), and drops this tantalising bit of gossip:

    Oscar director Roger Goodman has worked with the new producers the past few weeks. A friend who sat with him the other night at the Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony said Goodman was characterizing Condon as a certified genius.

    OK, maybe this is a lot of hype. But … Oscar-nominated producer, Bruce Cohen said he had heard the same kind of talk.  He mentioned that Condon and Mark had presented their plans for the show to the academy’s board of governors two weeks ago and the board was blown away. If you can wow this crowd, you must be on to something.

    (more…)

  • Burn!

    The Bagger can’t trade his Simms tuxedo for sackcloth just now, because he’s in the middle of things. But he’s always thought of his part-time Oscar gig as a way to crack wise and go all smarty pants without constantly making all those ugly phone calls that real reporting entails. Sort of like working at Slate.

    David Carr’s recent bitch slap to Slate’s Timothy Noah and a piece dedicated to calling for the Bagger’s (and his Oscar coverage’s) head.

  • Last minute jitters

    Waltz with BashirI’ll have a post up later today running a comb through my final predictions.  Tomorrow we’ll showcase all contributor picks (as well as the “Who deserves it?” poll results), but for now, I thought I’d share my pain with the readership.

    By pain, I mean last minute jitters, those creepy, crawling, gut-twisting thoughts that leave you in a haze over what to pick in this category or that, even if a frontrunner is staring you in the face.  There are a number of categories doing this to me this year.

    First and foremost, I’ve been on the precipice of picking a “Slumdog” sweep for nearly two weeks now.  Nathaniel Rogers has been bold enough to go there, but I haven’t allowed myself (yet) to think the Academy will vote for the film in the Best Sound Editing field.  However, as a multi-nominated sound mixer friend told me, members generally just vote for their favorite film throughout the crafts categories (much to his own chagrin many times over).

    I also found out last night that the only films that reached the Cinema Audio Society in screener form were “Quantum of Solace” and…”Slumdog Millionaire,” which makes their vote a bit difficult to chalk up as comprehensive.  Maybe “The Dark Knight” and “WALL-E” are still very much in the mixing race and the Best Picture frontrunner will lose both statues.  But this is just one example of the insanity that flows through my mind this time of year.

    Another thought is all the bad “Reader” press lately and how that may or may not affect Kate Winslet’s chances of a win in the lead actress category.  Many have chalked Meryl Streep up as the competition, but there have been murmurs for some time that Melissa Leo is a prized commodity in this field.  Sasha Stone is spit-balling the possibility today as well.  She’s got people like Dustin Hoffman out there singing her praises.  And her film is a welcome point of variety in a slate of expected nominees (both here and in the original screenplay category).

    (more…)

  • POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST PICTURE

    And we come to the last category…have your say in the sidebar poll.

  • 10 years later

    Gene Siskel

    Gene died ten years ago on February 20, 1999. He is in my mind almost every day. I don’t want to rehearse the old stories about how we had a love/hate relationship, and how we dealt with television, and how we were both so scared the first time we went on Johnny Carson that, backstage, we couldn’t think of the name of a single movie, although that story is absolutely true. Those stories have been told. I want to write about our friendship. The public image was that we were in a state of permanent feud, but nothing we felt had anything to do with image. We both knew the buttons to push on the other one, and we both made little effort to hide our feelings, warm or cold. In 1977 we were on a talk show with Buddy Rogers, once Mary Pickford’s husband, and he said, “You guys have a sibling rivalry, but you both think you’re the older brother.”

    From Roger Ebert’s recent appreciation of Gene Siskel, who died 10 years ago tomorrow.

  • 2/19 Oscarweb Round-up

    Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler• I’m just now stumbling onto this site, but if you weren’t keen to the controversy surrounding Jerry Lewis receiving the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, here’s a hub with everything laid out for you. [TheTroubleWithJerry.net]

    • With Kate Winslet and Marisa Tomei in mind, Rachel Abramowitz wonders if nudity = Oscar glory. [The Envelope]

    • Patrick Goldstein on the bleak Oscar advertising picture. [The Big Picture]

    • Rex Reed blasts the stage designs of the 81st Annual Oscar telecast. [New York Observer]

    • David Poland captures a few frames of Loki Rourke’s recent existence. [The Hot Blog]

    • Steve Pond reports that Matilda Ledger will receive daddy Heath’s Oscar…if he wins, that is. [Associated Press]

    • LOL. [Oscars Leaked]

  • Keeping it low-key, Hollywood style

    As one of this year’s nearly-nominated figures recently remarked to me (and I’m sure they’ll forgive me for quoting them): “The best place to enjoy the Oscars has to be at home in PJs, wrapped up in many a duvet with a large mug of sweet tea … a look which I doubt I could have quite pulled off on the carpet.”

    It’s a philosophy I subscribe to as well — though admittedly one’s celebration options are somewhat limited when when the Oscarcast takes place in the wee small hours of the morning. However, it seems that this year, many of Hollywood’s finest could discover for themselves the low-key, home-made delights of home Oscar parties, as the economically panicked industry scales back on the famously lavish post-ceremony bashes, limiting the guest lists and dropping the accoutrements. As Variety reports:

    Balancing modesty with glitz is no easy task, but award season veterans are definitely seeing some changes this year. Saturday’s seventh annual Night Before party at the Beverly Hills hotel benefitting the Motion Picture & Television Fund is cutting out the gift bags, and it is not holding the Friday night pre-event as in years past.

    After more than a decade at Mortons (and then no party last year), Vanity Fair has moved to the Sunset Tower for its viewing and after-party. The mag says the “invitation list has been cut down considerably,” but a permit filed with the city of West Hollywood said there would be between 800 guests over the course of the evening.

    OK, so they’re not suffering that modestly. But apparently Elton John’s AIDS Foundation dinner will have no after-party, while entourages and security will be denied entry. That’s slumming it, by Hollywood standards. Seriously, though, I’m glad to see the industry taking reality into account to some extent. It’s all about the movies, after all, or it should be — so if the glossy magazines have to make do with fewer Oscar-bash celeb snaps to choose from this year, that’s no bad thing.

    Meanwhile, if any stars feel like hopping across the pond and joining me for my traditional post-ceremony breakfast — I do great blueberry pancakes — I can make some room on the guest list.

  • Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wrestler” gets a music video

  • TECH SUPPORT: Final predictions

    Tech Support at In ContentionAfter six months of Tech Support previews and interviews, the films have arrived, the nominations have been announced and the guilds, the critics and BAFTA have all announced their preferences.  Today we take a final look at the races before the envelopes are opened on Sunday.

    BEST ART DIRECTION
    After guild and BAFTA wins, I would say “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” has cemented its frontrunner status in this category. Spanning decades of the 20th Century, Donald Graham Burt’s production design was impossible not to notice and gave us gorgeous backdrops for its character’s predicaments.

    The other nominees all have the odds stacked against them, whether similar work has been seen before (Michael Carlin’s “The Duchess” and Kristi Zea’s “Revolutionary Road”), is just not showy enough (Nathan Crowley’s “The Dark Knight”) or the nominee is otherwise along for the ride (James Murakami’s “Changeling”).

    Will win: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Could win: “The Duchess”
    Should win: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

    (more…)

  • Ang Lee takes on ‘Pi’

    Few film projects in recent years have come with as formidable a chain of prospective directors attached than Fox 2000’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s bestselling 2002 Booker Prize winner “Life of Pi.”

    First M. Night Shyamalan was on board — which, admittedly, might have been a more appealing prospect five years ago. The next name attached was a considerable step up: “Amelie” helmer Jean-Pierre Jeunet would have been a pretty natural fit for Martel’s brand of surreal whimsy. I seem to recall Alfonso Cuaron being mentioned in connection with the project at one point too. Like I said, an impressive roster.

    In the end, however, it looks like Ang Lee will ultimately accept the challenge, and I do mean ‘challenge.’ For those of you unfamiliar with the novel, it’s an allegorical fantasy about a shipwrecked Indian boy who survives by sharing a raft with a Bengal tiger, among other wild animals. It’s a tricky film premise to say the least, but Lee has proved time and again that he knows his way around delicate, potentially uncinematic literary source material. I think his visual grace and lightness of touch is just what is required here. Smart choice.

    I do love how busy Lee is keeping himself, compared to many other auteurs of his calibre. “Lust, Caution” is a fresh, searing memory still, and it was only a few months ago that we heard he was beginning work on “Taking Woodstock,” an ensemble piece centred around the eponymous music festival. With that film already wrapped and due for release in August (perhaps a title set for discussion in our upcoming 2009 Oscar preview), Lee is ready to move on, with yet another wholly different proposition for his filmography. Good on him.

  • Mickey Rourke’s pet chihuahua Loki dies

    Loky with Mickey Rourke at the 2008 Venice International Film FestivalUPDATED: Okay, here’s Rourke’s statement.  And I’m getting conflicting info on the spelling of “Loki.”  All the news outlets are using an “i” but I saw a “y” on her collar last year.  Weird.  I guess I’ll take it from the owner, who had this to say:

    Loki is deeply missed but with me in spirit. I feel very blessed that she fell asleep peacefully in my arms.

    EARLIER: Anyone who’s been on the “Wrestler” beat this year and had the chance to talk to Mickey Rourke has probably also had the chance to meet Loki, the actor’s pet chihuahua who suffered a stroke recently and has been recovering ever since.

    Sadly, the door was shut on Loki yesterday as the adorable 18-year-old K9 you probably remember from Robert Rodriguez’s “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” left this mortal coil and scurried on to a better place.  E! Online broke the news.

    Now’s as good a time as any to share a Loki story.  It was October, at the Four Seasons hotel here in Los Angeles.  I was set to interview Rourke and was waiting for him to finish up with another journalist when this creature with a bloated gut (which needed to be drained) waddled up to me, struggling to see through her cataracts-inflicted eyes.  She seemed a bit down, not sure what to do with herself without her master for a half-hour.

    In walks Rourke and before he turns the corner so I can see him, I hear his voice: “Hey porkchop!”  Loki livens up immediately and moves — as fast as she can — over to the iconic actor, who announces that he’s starving and needs to eat something before we start the interview.

    Rourke comes over to the table and sits down, preparing for yet another bombardment of queries, breaks open a baked potato and starts eating.  “I need some carbs,” he says, before finishing his portion and lifting Loki up to finish off what was left.  The meal a distant memory based on the specks of starch left on the plate, Loki walks in a couple of circles on the table before collapsing right next to my audio recorder for the duration.  And boy could she snore.

    Mickey went on to tell me how earlier in the afternoon they had lost the dog in the hotel’s pool area.  His publicist confirms that the actor was indeed quite upset.  “I was ready to burn this place down,” Rourke said jovially.  He loved that dog.

    Rest in peace, Loki.

    Mickey Rourke with Loky

  • MTV’s 2009 Oscar montage starring Josh Horowitz

  • POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST DIRECTOR

    Closing in…tell us in the sidebar poll.

  • Christian Bale vs. Peter Griffin

    Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in…

  • 2/18 Oscarweb Round-up

    Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road• Dave Germain digs into Oscar’s history of scene-stealers, joined this year by Viola Davis and Michael Shannon. [Associated Press]

    • Erika Kinetz, meanwhile, keeps at the same old “Slumdog Millionaire” story that has grown stale over the last few weeks. [Associated Press]

    • Ryan Adams eschews the usual “top 10 list” and instead cranks out a list of the 30 films that mattered to him the most in 2008. [Awards Daily]

    • Sasha Stone, meanwhile, begins building her annual predictions chart from info scattered across the Oscarweb. [Awards Daily]

    • Noah Forrest’s last minute consideration of “Slumdog Millionaire”‘s stranglehold on the season. [Movie City News]

    • Nathaniel Rogers kicks off his annual Oscar Symposium, with Erik Lundegaard, Karina Longworth, Ed Gonzalez, Timothy Brayton and yours truly. [The Film Experience]

    • David Carr isn’t impressed by this year’s John Singleton-directed Oscar trailer. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Elizabeth Snead talks to legendary “Revolutionary Road” costumer Albert Wolsky. [The Envelope]

  • Not so very shocking

    Dave Karger has posted a list of ten potential “shockers” that he thinks could (however faintly) foreseeably shake things up on Oscar night.

    Many of them have been raised before, and are suitably fanciful. Though I’ve said before that there is a logical case to be made for Melissa Leo leapfrogging both Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep to the Best Actress award, it’s safe to say that the odds are firmly stacked against that happening. Meanwhile, while the “‘Benjamin Button’ goes 0-for-13” theory has been floated around before, it’s difficult to see how it could lose all three of the technical awards in which it is deemed a lock. So those outcomes would certainly count as shocking in some measure.

    Some of Karger’s ideas would definitely be upsets, but not necessarily “shockers.” As I’ve written before, I’m joining him on the same limb in predicting a Best Foreign Language Film win for “The Class” — but that category is so prone to upsets, it’s almost more of a surprise when things go according to plan. And I know I’m not the only one seriously considering Viola Davis in the frequently topsy-turvy Best Supporting Actress category — she’s not the favourite, sure, but it wouldn’t be a jaw-dropper of Marcia Gay Harden proportions.

    Some of Karger’s supposed “shockers,” however, wouldn’t even count as upsets to me. He lists both the possibility of “Slumdog Millionaire” making a clean sweep of nine awards, and “The Dark Knight” getting only one statuette — which are really co-dependent on each other, since the sound awards, as far as I can see, represent “TDK’s” only other shots at victory. (Cinematography, I think, sailed with the ASC.) And since “Slumdog” just nabbed the CAS award, would that be so very unexpected?

    The one on Karger’s list that really surprised me, however, was a Best Actor win for Mickey Rourke. It’s well-known by now that this is a neck-and-neck battle to the finish between two beloved performances that have evenly split the major Oscar precursors. In the latest Gurus of Gold chart, Penn leads Rourke by a single vote. I think we can honestly say by now that either result would not be a surprise at all. Now Frank Langella … that would be a shocker.

  • Again, uh…

    Following yesterday’s thrilling/indifferent/perplexing (adjust according to age) revelation that Robert Pattinson is a likely presenter at Sunday’s Academy Awards, Sasha Stone has excavated some further hints as to who to expect on stage — and it seems Beyoncé Knowles, “High School Musical” tweens Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, as well as young “Mamma Mia!” duo Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper could all be in the mix.

    Beyoncé is a bona fide megastar and has been a regular fixture at the Oscars for some years now, so that at least makes sense. But what’s with the excessive pandering to the (pre)teen demographic? Do that many of them really watch the Oscars? Maybe they do — I’m just asking.

    But isn’t the inclusion of one pretty-but-sexually-unthreatening vampire a sufficient nod to the demographic? Efron on his own could be bearable, but let’s not kid ourselves into pretending that Hudgens, Seyfried and Cooper are movie stars just yet.

    With names like these, perhaps the whole “secret presenters” thing was just a ploy to avoid scaring us off.