In Contention

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  • Golden Globe predictions

    The Globes come back tonight in all their boozning and schmoozing glory.  There are a few parties going on during and after the show, but I have to say, I’m tempted to pack it in, watch a few football games and catch the awards on the couch.  It’s been a busy week.

    Anyway, here’s my stab at predicting the winners.  I’m hearing a few unexpected names might pop up.  Have your say as well in the comments below.  My guesses:

    Best Picture (Drama): “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Picture (Comedy/Musical): “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
    Best Actor (Drama): Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”
    Best Actor (Comedy/Musical): Dustin Hoffman, “Last Chance Harvey”
    Best Actress (Drama): Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
    Best Actress (Comedy/Musical): Meryl Streep, “Mamma Mia!”
    Best Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr., “Tropic Thunder”
    Best Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
    Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Screenplay: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Animated Feature: “WALL-E”
    Best Original Score: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Original Song: “Down to Earth” from “WALL-E”

  • Oscar watch 2009: Paul Greengrass talks ‘Green Zone’

    Matt Damon in Green ZoneIt’s no secret that Paul Greengrass’s “Green Zone” is one of my most anticipated films of 2009.  Part of a slew of Universal product that could find itself in the running for Oscar this time next year, the film is a loose adaptation of Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s best-selling “Imperial Life in the Emarald City” and hopes to break the recent streak of popularly challenged dramas reflecting the conflict in Iraq.

    L.A. Times journo John Horn has filed a brief but interesting back-and-forth with Greengrass about the production, which has been in the editing lab for nearly a year because of the amount of footage the director has shot on location around the globe.  Starring Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear and Amy Ryan, “Green Zone” might just be the film to bring audiences into the cinematic Iraq War discussion — or maybe it won’t.

    I’m also looking forward to Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” this year, which grabbed major raves in Toronto last September.  Here’s a bit from Horn’s piece:

    “It is not a movie about Iraq,” Greengrass said on the London set of his film last spring. “The hope is to make a strong, contemporary thriller that is set in Iraq. Thrillers thrive on extremity, and there is no more extreme environment than immediate post-invasion Baghdad,” he said. (Indeed, the cinematographer’s slate used during production titled the film not “Green Zone” but “Green Zone Thriller.”)

    The film follows Roy Miller (Damon), a warrant officer leading a team of 18 Army soldiers searching for weapons of mass destruction in late 2003, just after the American-led invasion.

    Instead of a cache of deadly chemicals, though, Miller’s team finds disorganization and ineptitude, and Miller soon grows desperate.

    “It’s a race against time to find those weapons,” the 53-year-old British filmmaker says. “It’s a race against time to catch Saddam Hussein. It’s a race against time to establish essential services. And it’s a race against time to win the confidence of the Iraqi people.”

    Check out the rest here.

  • New Yorker Eustace Tilley ‘Watchmen’ cover

    New Yorker cover design

    Designed by pop artist Marcus Parcus for The New Yorker’s Eustace Tilley cover design contest.  From the mag’s website:

    Eustace Tilley appeared on our first cover, in 1925, and has returned for nearly every anniversary issue since. Create your own version of our iconic dandy by January 15, 2009, for a chance to win and be featured in a slide show curated by The New Yorker’s art editor, Françoise Mouly.

  • Contest winners!

    Congratulations to Eunice, Rob, Justin Gonzalez and Jordan Raup for winning this week’s trio of contests!

    The haiku competition brought in the most entries.  It was the easiest to enter but it showed a love for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” amongst our readership to say the least.  Before mentioning the two winners, I have to give shout outs to Andrew L., for telling the whole story of the film with a series of haikus, and EVE, for writing all of her haikus backwards as well as forward.  Very creative.  But ultimately I settled on entries from Eunice and Rob:

    What if winter comes,
    In the spring of discontent?
    What then, happens next?

    How sad life would be
    To die without the chance to
    Reminisce of Youth

    The “Dark Knight” contest, meanwhile, brought in a slew of contestants.  I was impressed by a number of Batman memorabilia collections (props to Diego ortiz for organizing his collection in the shape of a Bat) and wardrobe ensembles.  But the winner became clear early on.  It takes some dedication to commit the Bat to your skin for life, and Justin has the ink to prove it:

    Dark Knight tattoo

    And finally, Jordan was quickest to the punch, correctly answering our “WALL-E” triva question on the origins of the film way back in the summer of 1994.

    Congratulations once again to the winners!  Emails will be sent shortly requesting mailing addresses.

  • If nominated, will Clint win Best Actor? I think so…

    Clint Eastwood in Gran TorinoThough it ain’t over till it’s over, I think the five nominees for best actor have all but been decided.  Come nomination morning, I expect to hear the names of Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn, Frank Langella, Mickey Rourke and Richard Jenkins.

    Of course I have no way of knowing if this is how things will end up, but I have a pretty good feeling (which means nothing). Left off the list will be Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which will garner the most nominations of any film, and Leonardo DiCaprio for “Revolutionary Road,” a brilliant, dark and troubling masterpiece, destined to be re-discovered in years to come as perhaps the best film of the year and certainly DiCaprio’s best work to date.

    Eastwood is in partly because he is Eastwood and partly because he does fine work. The role is tailor made for him in the manner Rooster Cogburn was written for John Wayne in “True Grit,” which won The Duke his only Oscar back in 1969. Eastwood gets to growl, cuss and throw out all sorts of racist comments in portraying a nasty old son of a bitch who turns out to have a heart. For anyone who has ever met or spoken to Eastwood, they will realize this character is light years away from the man, making it a startling performance.

    I am so tired of reading that he is playing himself. Sure he is portraying an extension of himself.  All actors do that (and always have), but Eastwood is also portraying a variation on the sort of role that made him famous. Could Walt be “Dirty Harry” after retirement? Damned straight he could and perhaps this is why the film has been greeted so warmly in some quarters, because the reviewer sees Eastwood’s character as an older version of Harry, a much loved character from years gone by, and a reimagination of his screen iconography.  It is sort of like seeing an old friend again.

    Well…sort of.

    If nominated, Eastwood will be a major threat to win the award. In fact, no, I’ll just say what Kris has been saying for a few months, now that I’ve gone back to the film a third and fourth time: if nominated, Clint WILL win.

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  • 1/10 Oscarweb Round-up

    Nicole Kidman in Australia• “Milk” composer Danny Elfman has signed on to score “Terminator Salvation.”  Eh. [MTV]

    • Jeffrey Wells keeps the quoted-out-of-context game running with that Nicole Kidman “squirm” story. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Regarding said story, Michael Cieply reports it properly, indicating the “perils of candor.” [The Carpetbagger]

    • Alicia Lozano writes up the resurrection of the Golden Globes. [The Envelope]

    • Tom O’Neil has some backstage interviews from Thursday’s Critics’ Choice Awards. [Gold Derby]

    • Anne Thompson reports on Oscar hopes from the AFI Awards. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • T.L. Stanley stakes a claim for her Golden Globe bets. [Gold Derby]

    • Guy Adams has a preview of the upcoming Globes, with a bit about that Anne Hathaway win slip-up. [The Independent]

    • Exciting times for indieWIRE: a new design and, apparently, a newly imagined site is on the horizon. [indieWIRE]

  • Contests closed

    Thanks everyone for participating in the contests.  We already have one winner declared in the “WALL-E” giveaway.  I’ll announce the winners in the “Dark Knight” and “Benjamin Button” contests over the weekend.

  • Nice lede

    Freida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire

    On a hot summer night last June at the L.A. Film Festival’s opening night party, I ran into Picturehouse President Bob Berney, an independent film whiz and great awards campaigner. We talked about the imminent demise of his company (merged into Warner Bros. and then dumped), but he mentioned the possibility of releasing one more film, an oddball title he really liked that the defunct Warner Independent had produced but now those at (big) Warners admitted they didn’t know what to do with. It was the cinematic equivalent of leftovers and problematic because it was small and partially in the Hindi language.

    When I asked him if the movie, which I had never even heard of, “Slumdog Millionaire”, had any awards potential, he said probably not, proving once again that nobody knows nothing, even as savvy a guy as Berney, who brilliantly guided Charlize Theron and Marion Cotillard to Oscars.

    From Pete Hammond’s recent “Notes on a Season” column.

  • Agreed

    Because this was an embarrassing moment to many of us.

  • INTERVIEW: Marisa Tomei

    Marisa TomeiI’m coming around to Marisa Tomei rather late in the publicity game this year.  I didn’t make it to Venice or Toronto and we just haven’t crossed paths here in L.A. during this exhausting — as always — Oscar season.  But the first thing I have to ask is if she feels the pressure yet.

    A studio can run an artist ragged this time of year, especially when they’re on the cusp of an Oscar nomination.  And that’s a position Tomei undoubtedly finds herself in as we move into the new year and her performance in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” continues to light up the circuit.

    “I’m getting there,” she says of the approaching fatigue factor.  But you wouldn’t know it from the energy that still pops.  Those bright brown eyes are as beautiful as you’d expect, of course, and that laugh is infectious.  She’s fresh off a much-needed holiday vacation — back east for Christmas and home in L.A. for new year’s, quiet and with depressurizing on the mind.

    When she comes over to the table she takes a moment to speak to a fellow celebrity sitting adjacent to us before popping open the menu and declaring, “I’m gonna eat.”  What was going to be maybe a half-hour discussion over coffee turns into almost an hour of talk over lunch, topics ranging from her early passion for acting to her attempt at going back to college at one point in her career to, of course, the process of creating Cassidy, the “stripper with the heart of gold” at the center of “The Wrestler.”

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  • Best ‘Button’ TV spot of the year…

    …maybe the best TV spot of the year period.  Though it could have been longer.  I’m sure you’ve all seen the commercial featuring Arcade Fire’s “My Body is a Cage,” but in case you haven’t, I’m including it below.

    It’s a shame the film came up nil last night.  I spoke to Eric Roth this morning, who’s taking it all in stride.  Of course, he’s been on both sides of the situation, seeing “Forrest Gump” rack up win after win in 1994, only to watch “The Insider” go ignored in category after category five years later.  But as Jared Harris told me last night, the good thing is there will be plenty more opportunities as the season moves along.

  • Quick, for the researchers

    Anyone know if there’s ever been a performance in a specific category to win the most critics awards yet fail to receive an Oscar nomination?

  • CONTEST: Win a batch of ‘WALL-E’ goodies!

    For those participating in the “Dark Knight” contest, keep those entries coming.  Lots of dedicated souls have already chimed in.  I’ll close up shop on that one at midnight tonight, but for now, here’s your chance to win some “WALL-E” swag.

    Three items in the batch: a lovely paperback FYC picture book featuring images from the film and press quotes throughout (more of a media exclusive than a retail item), a nice compact copy of the film’s screenplay by Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon, and a copy of the 3-disc collector’s edition DVD.  That’s got to have more than a few “WALL-E” fans out there chomping at the bit, so here’s the contest:

    Tell me in at least 1,000 words why “Bolt” is infinitely better than “WALL-E.”

    Kidding!  Okay, here’s the real contest: a trivia question!

    In what year were the initial seeds for “WALL-E” planted (no pun intended), who were the filmmakers in on the discussion and what other films were conceptualized during the same conversation?

    First to answer correctly wins the lot.  Ready…GO!

    WALL-E contest

  • Art Directors Guild Nominees

    The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonPeriod Films
    “Changeling”
    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “Doubt”
    “Frost/Nixon”
    “Milk”

    Fantasy Films
    “The Dark Knight”
    “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”
    “Iron Man”
    “The Spiderwick Chronicles”
    “WALL-E”

    Contemporary Films
    “Burn After Reading”
    “Gran Torino”
    “Quantum of Solace”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”
    “The Wrestler”

    Alright, so more surprising guild love for “The Wrestler.”  Very interesting.  But I’m rather shocked at the “Hellboy II” Snub in fantasy.  On the whole, though, does this clear anything up in this category?  I’ve been confused all year long.

    I’d say “Button,” “Skull” and “Slumdog” for the wins.

  • DGA discrepancies with AMPAS are not uncommon

    Frank Darabont on the set of The MistThe announcement of this year’s DGA nominees has left the sense that the races for Best Picture and Best Director are over.  Not so.  While the guild and Academy line up most of the time, and have a decent track record with the directing branch, we must not forget the years that proved otherwise.  This could be such a year.

    Ask yourself how many times the Best Picture category has lined up perfectly with the nominees for Best Director?  Please also be aware that the DGA has awarded their prize sometimes to directors not even nominated for an Oscar: Ron Howard for “Apollo 13” and Steven Spielberg for “The Color Purple” to name a couple.  So while the race is certainly clearer, it is by means over.

    I still believe Woody Allen stands a strong chance for being nominated for “Vicky Christina Barcelona,” just as I believe that Darren Aronofsky could sneak in for “The Wrestler.”  But who gets snubbed?

    Gus Van Sant, Christopher Nolan, Ron Howard, David Fincher and Danny Boyle are worthy nominees all, most deserving of their attention and potential award.  But who of those esteemed five could the Academy allow to slip away?  It’s a tough call.

    I hate to say it, but I think Fincher is the most likely snub.  A stunning film to be sure, and likely the major nominee recipient…just as “The Color Purple” was in 1985.  My gut tells me Fincher might get the shaft only because he’s been on that side of things before, and the others are just too hard to ignore.  That said, let’s not forget that Ron Howard has been a victim of this sort in the past, for his finest work in fact, “Apollo 13.”  And Nolan is in some dicey waters, though I doubt he could be the victim of the blockbuster mentality that haunted Spielberg for “Jaws” (and much of his career).

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  • Kevin Bacon makes the rounds

    Kevin Bacon in Frost/NixonAs “Frost/Nixon” continues to pop up as a formidable guild contender this awards season, I must say, despite my personal appreciation for the effective drama, I’m a little surprised.  It isn’t the expert craftsmanship of “Slumdog Millionaire” or the creative explosion of “Synecdoche, New York,” obviously, but it is a solid, well-constructed piece of work nonetheless.  And it is apparently reaping the benefits of being one of the few films of the year that is simply easy to watch.

    Well, one of the elements from the film that stood out to me more than any other was Kevin Bacon’s subdued performance as Nixon chief-of-staff Col. Jack Brennan.  Bacon is probably the ultimate “Wall of Shame” actor for the Academy, still waiting on his first nomination despite two decades of solid, effective work.  In a sense, his career is an interesting mirror of the film he stars in this year, a fine-tuned machine that isn’t overly miraculous but is inarguable all the same.

    Bacon remains one of my all time favorite interviews.  Probably my favorite interview.  We spoke once nearly five years ago when he was campaigning for “The Woodsman,” a 2004 drama starring Bacon as a pedophile trying to cope in society that should have earned the actor more kudos than it did.  What was supposed to be a 20-minute discourse turned into nearly an hour of discussion, and for me, just a kid in college hammering out a piece for another outlet, it was the bee’s knees.  He couldn’t have been cooler or nicer, offering plenty of advice for a film school grad hoping to poke his way into the business some day.

    With that in mind, I was happy to stumble upon this Daily Telegraph interview with the actor, who hasn’t received a lot of press for his work in “Frost” this year.  Less an example of good writing from journo Nigel Farndale than a case study in letting the subject tell the story, it does a wonderful job of casting the Hollywood particulars to the periphery in favor of concentrating on Bacon the man more than Bacon the actor.

    There are plenty insightful asides regarding Bacon’s family life, his philosophy of raising children, his insistence on living away from the fray in New york, etc.  Farmdale scatters the piece with this nugget or that regarding roles in “Footloose,” “JFK,” “Mystic River” and “A Few Good Men,” but mostly, its a character study of Bacon himself.  There was, however, this interesting remark concerning his adeptness at portraying military types on the screen that I thought I’d spotlight:

    “I don’t think I could cut it in the army but, hey, it was never going to arise. I’m an actor. I play marines. I’ve had them say ‘you could do it’ and I say ‘trust me, I could not’. I don’t think I have the marine mentality.”

    He gesticulates with his fork, conducting the conversation with it. ”But I don’t question my manliness. That’s not something I struggle with. One of the fun things about being an actor is that you can put yourself in situations where you test yourself.”

    As we all do if given the chance, Farndale asks about the infamous “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” a game I should have to explain to anyone reading these words, but in case I do, click here.  Bacon’s response was inspired, I thought:

    Take me out of it and the idea of connectivity is kind of beautiful. A powerful, small world idea that says that whatever you or I are doing will affect other people down the road, for good or ill.

    It’s a great interview.  Check out the rest here.

  • 1/9 Oscarweb Round-up

    Michael Sheen• Patrick Goldstein is happy to NOT talk Oscar at an Oscar party. [The Big Picture]

    • Jeffrey Wells somehow reads “backlash” into a harmless, truthful quote. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • David S. Cohen considers the awards gala glut in the face of economic troubles. [Variety]

    • Tom O’Neil chats it up with “Last Chance Harvey” star Dustin Hoffman. [Gold Derby]

    • Jeremy Kay on films looking for the ticket sales boost of Golden Globe recognition. [The Guardian]

    • Brad Brevet calls Razzie founder John Wilson out on some dubious comments. [Rope of Silicon]

    • Christina Patterson sits down with “Frost/Nixon” star Michael Sheen. [The Times]

    • A brief back-and-forth with the critics’ choice for Best Young Actor Dev Patel. [Daily Telegraph]

  • A night at the Critics’ Choice Awards

    Sean Penn at the 14th Annual Critics\' Choice AwardsIt’s an event that keeps on getting better and better, a little awards show that’s escalated into one of the hallmarks of the film awards season, whether the “we’re one of the best Oscar predictors” stuff is annoying or not (which it is).

    The night had a number of surprises, but in a sense, one of those surprises became a foregone conclusion half-way through the show.  The whole room could tell — “Slumdog Millionaire” was going to walk away with the first clean BFCA sweep since “A Beautiful Mind” in 2001.  Nothing for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”  Nothing for “Frost/Nixon.”  Nothing but the usual for the slowly-becoming-silver-medal-bound “The Dark Knight.”

    Two big wins for “Milk” were nice.  Sean Penn’s victory as Best Actor might have been inevitable, even though Mickey Rourke’s portrayal was probably the year’s most critically acclaimed of the year.  I couldn’t help keeping an eye trained on Mickey two tables over, one of the wandering cameras crammed in his face as Penn delivered his acceptance.  Clearly the “Wrestler” gang was a bit disheartened, nabbing only one win — for Bruce Springsteen’s title track.  But Fox Searchlight was beaming nonetheless with it’s five “Slumdog” trophies.

    I did as much mingling as the two minute commercial intervals would allow, but I did manage to finally meet the lovely Kate Beckinsale, nominated tonight for her criminally underseen performance in “Nothing But the Truth.”  She’s a real sweetheart, happy for the few pockets of support she’s been able to find for the film, which was essentially avalanched by the Yari bankruptcy last month.  There’s still Santa Barbara in a couple of weeks.

    I have to say, being in the middle of Heath Ledger’s standing ovation was somewhat emotional.  The win wasn’t surprising in hindsight, but as Laura Dern was opening the envelope, I couldn’t help but think the idea of major awards was suddenly a pipe dream for this performance.  But it all went away quickly and Christopher Nolan gave a touching, spot-on acceptance speech on behalf of the actor.

    (More, plus the full list of winners, after the jump.)

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