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  • 12/26 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Jamie Bell and Daniel Craig in Defiance• Bob Tourtellotte spends a minute with Sam Mendes. [Reuters]

    • David Poland responds to the week’s “Watchmen” wowser. [The Hot Blog]

    • Jeffrey Wells re-runs his thoughts on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Joel Stein wants it understood that Jews still run Hollywood, m’kay? [Los Angeles Times]

    • Lisa Marks responds. [The Guardian]

    • Kim Voynar considers the adapting of a dramatic work from an inherently undramatic source with Edward Zwick’s “Defiance” in mind. [Movie City News]

    • David Carr gives you a chance to cast your vote. [The Carpetbagger]

  • Hoffman’s holiday hilarity

    I just caught this over at Hollywood Elsewhere.  BRILLIANT.  Check back tomorrow, by the way, for an interview with Mr. Hoffman:

  • Ho, Ho, Ho? Try Ha, Ha, Ha

    Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

    (Courtesy: /Film)

  • Merry Christmas

    For those who celebrate today’s festivities, enjoy the day.  We’re checking out for a spell.  Feel free to chat about whatever you like in this space.

  • The reindeer droppings just hit the fan — Fox wins ‘Watchmen’ battle

    Billy Crudup in WatchmenIt won’t be a Merry Christmas in Burbank this year:

    In a surprise ruling, a federal judge in Los Angeles said he intended to grant 20th Century Fox’s claim that it owns a copyright interest in the “Watchmen,” a movie shot by Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures and set for release in March.

    The decision was disclosed in a five-page written order issued on Wednesday. Gary A. Feess, a judge in the United States District Court for Central California, said he would provide a more detailed order soon.

    Fox has been seeking to prevent Warner from releasing the film. The superhero adventure, based on the “Watchmen” graphic novel, is being directed by Zack Snyder (who also directed “300”) and has shaped up as one of most eagerly anticipated releases for next year.

    A Warner spokesman, Scott Rowe, declined to comment on the ruling and the studio’s plans…

    “Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture,” the ruling said.

    The rest. And catch up on the story as it’s been reported here and here.

  • The Bagger on the Joker

    Heath LedgerI missed this earlier this morning, but it looks like The Carpetbagger is going back to the “Dark Knight” well this holiday eve:

    But regardless of what goes into it, what came out of Mr. Ledger in “Dark Knight” was stone amazing. If part of acting — and it’s clear we are just guessing here — is making what is inside a character visible on the outside, then Ledger hit one hard in that movie. The Bagger doesn’t care from “Batman,” but what Ledger did in that film, taking a malevolent clown’s rococo world-view and exposing the gears, was something to behold. We all believed that Joker in the movie, we all understood his vicious take on the world. There’s been more than a few times in the last few days when the Bagger has heard that maniacal laugh in his head and thought of the man who inhabited on a movie set.

    Check out the rest here.

  • Christmas Eve-ah

    WALL-E

    (Headline stolen outright from The Hot Blog.)

  • INTERVIEW: Michael Shannon

    Michael Shannon in Revolutionary RoadIf you’ve seen James Marsh’s “Man on Wire,” then you know of Philippe Petit’s dazzling tight-rope walk between the towers of New York’s World Trade Center on the morning of August 7, 1974.  What you probably don’t know is that while Petit was criss-crossing back and forth between the towers for roughly 45 minutes, Michael Shannon was coming into the world down in Lexington, Kentucky’s Good Samaritan Hospital.

    “I don’t think it means anything,” Shannon says.  But it’s certainly an interesting aside to the Oscar season, drawing a connection, however meaningless, between these two contenders, one of them a thoroughbred frontrunner, the other deserving of that consideration but strangely under the radar this year.

    I get a call from Shannon to kick off the morning.  It seems he’s somewhat stranded at the hotel and will be late meeting me over at Hugo’s on Santa Monica Blvd.  I later find out he was industrious enough to grab a cab rather than wait on a studio-provided car, probably the east-coaster in him.  “Don’t worry,” he says.  “I’m going to make sure we get a full hour.”

    When Shannon walks into a room, his striking height seems to command at least a glance in his direction.  A couple of brunching patrons stare for a bit, sure that they’ve seen him in SOMETHING before.  And for a number of years, Shannon has been that kind of actor — the hard-working sort that AMPTP has certainly disavowed as SAG tries to find some sort of plan for sustaining the acting middle-class throughout the industry.

    You’ve seen him in “Pearl Harbor,” “Bad Boys II,” “World Trade Center,” “Bug” and any number of bit roles that call for the unusual image he cuts.  But you’ve never seen him like he is in “Revolutionary Road,” a two-scene wonder of a performance that cuts the the very core of a narrative already concerned with getting at the hardest of truths.

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  • Mickey Rourke on Letterman

    From last night’s show:

  • Why (and how) I became a film critic

    Robert Duvall in Apocalypse NowI think this is important to state right now.  Why do Kris, Guy, Gerard, Blake, Brian and I do what we do? How did we get on this path?  Obviously, I cannot speak for them, but here’s my story and some insight into why I love film, and how deeply that love goes.

    Though my education on film began at the age of seven in a small Ontario village called Seagrave (where I live now), the actual “eureka” moment came in August of 1979, 10 minutes after walking out of the first Toronto showing of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.” For the previous three hours I had sat and watched Coppola’s surrealistic exploration of Vietnam, its images haunting me throughout. I was numb as I sat down on the street bench a few feet from the theater entrance.

    At the age of 20, I was an acting student hoping to become a film actor, but at that moment I had been galvanized in some way I could not fully explain. For years I had consumed all things cinema, seen everything I could, set my alarm to watch the late, late shows and wrote my own reviews, which I kept in a large binder.  Somehow I knew right then that acting was not for me (I was never really any good).  I wanted to write about film.

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  • 12/24 Oscarweb Round-up

    Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire• “The Headless Woman,” “Night and Day” and “Tony Manero” head up a list of the year’s best undistributed titles. [indieWIRE]

    • Speaking of lists, here’s one of cult and campy holiday flicks. [Cinematical]

    • Josh Horowitz goes toe-to-toe with David Fincher. [MTV]

    • Slow down, Hoss.  Lou Lumenick thinks Dev Patel is going to beat Heath Ledger to the Oscar punch?  Anything for the clicks I gues. [Lumenick on Film]

    • David Edelstein considers nine Oscar contenders, from “Revolutionary Road” to, uh, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” [New York Magazine]

    • Dustin Hoffman storms out of an interview with Dave Karger…all in good fun. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Rachel Abramowitz spends some time with the actor as well…my own interview should be on the way soon enough, by the way.  It’s been ages since we sat down together. [Los Angeles Times]

  • ‘Button’ on the rocks?

    Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonSasha Stone over at Awards Daily points us to Roger Ebert’s two-and-a-half star review of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and I have to say, it’s a pretty rough assessment.  Scattering his piece with notions like “[t]he movie’s premise devalues any relationship” and “[g]iven the resources and talent here, quite a movie might have resulted,” Ebert finally closes with this swipe at the film:

    According to the oddsmakers at MovieCityNews, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is third among the top five favorites for best picture. It may very well win. It expends Oscar-worthy talents on an off-putting gimmick. I can’t imagine many people wanting to see the movie twice. There was another film this year that isn’t in the “top five,” or listed among the front-runners at all, and it’s a profound consideration of the process of living and aging. That’s Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York.” It will be viewed and valued decades from now. You mark my words.

    I can’t help but consider the fact that Ebert’s tastes are typically comparable to the Academy’s.  Might this reaction and some of those “it lacks a soul” quips begin to eat away at the armor?  Or can it sustain with voters siding with, say, James Rocchi’s opinion that the film “isn’t about a man who lives backwards or a woman who lives forwards … Get past the plot, the pitch, and the technique, and you can see it as a reminder that all we can do is live now.”

    Personally, I have a lot of respect for the film and certainly the effort.  After a couple of viewings, I saw it as one of the year’s best.  But I completely understand the arm’s-length feeling some viewers are taking away from it and, again, can’t help but wonder what, if anything, that might ultimately mean for Oscar.

    It’s an intriguing question popping up this season.

  • ‘State of Play’

    I saw this trailer go up on Yahoo! Movies earlier tonight but I’ve been waiting for a YouTube copy.  Well, here it is, and despite a somewhat pedestrian feel, I’m really looking forward to it.  Kevin Macdonald is a promising talent (and he went through his share of trouble on this shoot, I gather).  Hopefully it shapes up:

  • A couple of Bat bites for the geeks

    (from left) Heath Ledger and Ritchie Coster in The Dark KnightPerusing Bill Ramey’s Batman-on-Film website today (a must-read for any Bat-fan), I cam across two interesting nuggets regarding Christopher Nolan’s franchise.

    The first was actually a link to this Backstage piece from Halley Bondy, kind of a question and answer session with “The Dark Knight” producer (and Nolan’s wife) Emma Thomas strictly focused on Heath Ledger.  Here’s a bit about buzz of a posthumous Oscar for the actor:

    It would definitely be a triumph for us if Heath wins an Oscar. Obviously things have changed in that he’s not here, but nothing has changed in that we hope he’s going to be recognized for his work. I think Heath really enjoyed what he did on the film, so I don’t think awards are that big of a deal for him. Knowing that he was doing something great was, I think, enough. We certainly told him how great he was, so I hope he knew it.

    The second item was an original piece of reporting from a Batman-on-Film reader regarding the five deaths connected to Harvey Dent at the end of “The Dark Knight,” something I, frankly, have never thought about before.  From a recent screening and Q&A session:

    Big fan of the site. Just to give you some feedback on the event, I..asked…‘Towards the end of the film, Com. Gordon mentions covering up 5 deaths in relation to Harvey Dent. Who are these 5 people, including the 2 cops?’ Mr. Nolan’s response was ‘I will answer this question. Just not today.’ Which I must admit was amusing and frustrating at the same time.”

    Hmmm…

  • POLL: Does ‘Revolutionary Road’ deserve the precursor shaft?

    We need a new poll.  The last one might have helped turn this place into a “Dark Knight” vs. “WALL-E” battlefield, but with that in mind, I should point out the results were “The Dark Knight” by a hair.

    But with John’s recent piece on the season’s snubbing of “Revolutionary Road,” aside from some notices here and there from critics groups and the HFPA, and with the film opening in two days (so you’ll all have your own opinion on it), I thought I’d ask the readership: Is the film getting the shaft this Oscar season?

    This is the time for a film that is dwindling to turn on the afterburners and leap back into the thick of it, so give your answer some serious thought.  Does “Revolutionary Road” deserve more consideration than it’s received or does it belong in the also-ran column it seems to be headed toward?  Tell us in the sidebar poll!

  • Anyone else oddly looking forward to this?

    Land of the Lost

  • Voila! Viola Davis the talk of the Internets

    Like I said in yesterday’s “Off the Carpet” column, despite my feelings for “Doubt,” I would never take anything away from Viola Davis’ stunning performance, coming into her own as an actress to reckon with after putting out solid work for years.

    Sasha Stone has collected some positive marks for the actress over at Awards Daily, while Tom O’Neil chats it up with Ms. Davis at Gold Derby.  Here’s a video:

  • THE LISTS: My top 10 perennial must-watch Christmas movies

    Bill Murray in ScroogedTis the season, no?

    I found it rather perplexing that, with In Contention being on the scene for three Christmas seasons already, we’ve never set about putting together the obligatory “best Christmas films” list.  Well, I’m setting out to amend that oversight this holiday week with such a collective, but I don’t have the heart to call it a “best” list per se, so I’m giving it a different angle.

    Every year I have a few staples of the season that make their way into my DVD player or, in some instances — gasp! — my VCR, like new friends come home to visit before going back on the shelf for another 12 months stretch.

    Typically, I just can’t feel right about the holiday season without taking in the films on this list at least once.  They’ve slowly gelled into my “must-watch” Christmas movie list for various reasons: reminiscence, unavoidable television programming, uniqueness in the face of the typical seasonal film glut, etc.

    While there are a handful of classic, well-made staples that would be agreeable to the masses as far as quality is concerned, I think everyone’s list would be different when it comes to this kind of thing.  With that in my, my list of the top 10 perennial must-watch Christmas movies should give you some insight into who I am.

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