In Contention

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  • Three cheers for Marisa Tomei

    One of the wearying things about the sheer multitude of critics’ awards (next up: the Northwestern Topeka Women Film Critics Society awards) is that there is dispiritingly little variety in their picks. I love “Man on Wire” too, but it’s hardly the only award-worthy documentary out there. Ditto “Let the Right One In” in the foreign-language field, or various other names we’ve been hearing an awful lot of this past fortnight.

    So it’s worth noting when one organisation throws up a different name to stem the unanimous tide in a certain category, and even more so when others latch onto it, forming something of a counter-wave.

    Such is the case with Marisa Tomei, whose wonderful performance in “The Wrestler” has garnered no fewer than three critics’ prizes (San Francisco, San Diego and Phoenix) in the past 24 hours — an intriguing new mini-trend in a category that has hitherto been pretty much one-way traffic for Penelope Cruz. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that makes Tomei and Cruz the two most lauded Supporting Actress contenders, surging ahead of Viola Davis.

    Granted, they’re not the most high-profile awards, but I’m still pleased by this turn of events — and not just because it shakes things up a little. Tomei’s performance in “The Wrestler” is a beautifully judged, lived-in portrayal, an exemplary supporting performance in that she reflects and responds to Mickey Rourke’s powerhouse lead turn without ever feeling the need to show off against him.

    Flashy scene-stealing performances, like Cruz’s admittedly dazzling turn in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” tend to hog the attention in the supporting races, so I’m glad to see some factions acknowledging Tomei’s humbler, more delicate work. She would get my vote.

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  • New to DVD, the real Frost/Nixon Watergate interviews

    Frost/Nixon: The Original Watergate InterviewsAs Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon” continues to step up during the film awards season this year, it might be worth noting that Liberation Entertainment has gone to the trouble of putting together a hell of a study guide: “Frost/Nixon: The Original Watergate Interviews,” currently available on DVD.

    Patching together the Watergate portion of Sir David Frost’s legendary four-part interview session with the former Commander-in-Chief, the DVD captures a moment in time that was of course expanded to an edge-of-your-seat drama by playwright Peter Morgan two years ago.

    One thing that I paid attention to, seeing as I’ve never taken the time to view these interviews in the past (and certainly wasn’t around for their original airing), was Nixon’s unmitigated manipulation, reminding me of Robert McNamara’s peculiar obssession with control in Errol Morris’ sublime “The Fog of War” from 2003.  It also adds a whole other perspective to Frank Langella’s performance on stage and screen, clearly an embodiment of Nixon the idea rather than Nixon the man (because a straight impersonation of the man’s disposition from the interviews would have been perhaps overly awkward and flat).

    The piece runs roughly an hour and a half, with introductory and intermission commentary from Frost himself.  There is also, of course, Frost’s book, “Frost/Nixon: Behind the Scenes of the Nixon Interviews,” if you really want to be completest.

    Here’s a trailer for the DVD:

  • And the critics just keep on coming

    Thanks to AwardsDaily, ever on the ball, for pointing out yet another set of critics’ awards, this time the Phoenix Film Critics Society. Somebody stop the madness!

    Anyway, more gongs for “Slumdog,” “Let the Right One In,” Danny Boyle, Sean Penn, Heath Ledger zzzzzzzzz…

    Sorry, dozed off there. But hey, any “In Bruges” love is good love. The full (and very long) list after the cut, including such exciting categories as Best Live-Action Family Film. Enjoy:

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  • At least he didn’t have to duck a shoe…

  • Don’t forget the Motor City

    Ha. Allow me to bask in the glory of that headline for a moment. No? Okay.

    Anyway, a concerned reader emailed to point out that the Detroit Film Critics Society announced their own nominees (that’s right, not just awards, but nominees) a few days ago. Even considering the bewildering array of critics’ awards that I was just talking about, I must admit I was not aware that Detroit had its own gongs. Good for them, but still — nominees? What’s the point?

    Anyway, the list is after the cut. Their best call? Eddie Marsan. Their worst? Nominating Amy Adams in place of Viola Davis. Their weirdest? The “Best Newcomer” category, which pits writer-director Martin McDonagh against five actors. Not so much a case of apples and oranges as, say, bananas and puppies. Winners to be announced Friday.

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  • 12/16 Oscarweb Round-up

    Jeff Goldblum• Jeff Wells shows his annual true colors, wants to know who should be taken down a peg of the agreed-upon Oscar contenders. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Tom O’Neil reports on a leaked Academy screener. [Gold Derby]

    • David Carr boils the season down to a couple of “mortal locks.” [The Carpetbagger]

    • Todd Longwell profiles NBR award-winning “Gran Torino” scribe Nick Schenk. [Hollywood Reporter]

    • Xan Brooks says his heart goes out to newly chosen Oscar host Hugh Jackman, whose hands are certainly full. [The Guardian]

    • Susan Wloszczyna catches up with “The Wrestler” star Mickey Rourke on the set of “13.” [USA Today]

    • Chris Sullivan profiles “Che” star Benicio Del Toro. [The Independent]

    • One reason might be because you’re an editor-in-chief and would be moving into the territory of your publication’s critics, but what do I know? [Peter Bart]

    • Christopher Campbell calls for some notice for “Milk” supporting actor Diego Luna. [Spout Blog]

    • Bilge Ebiri talks to Jeff Goldblum about his role in “Adam Resurrected,” among other things. [Vulture]

    • Dave Karger could chat all day with “Last Chance Harvey” star Dustin Hoffman. [Entertainment Weekly]

  • The Sans weigh in

    Francisco and Diego, that is. Anyone else think there are a tad too many critics’ awards floating around out there? Seriously, what do they all mean? New York, Los Angeles, Boston and the National Society are the only ones that really register with me… maybe Chicago, if I’m feeling generous.

    The rest really kind of blur into one, particularly when they elect the same winners over and over again. Anyway, you won’t be surprised to hear that the San Franciscans went for “Milk” in a big way, while San Diego continued the lovefest for “Slumdog Millionaire.”

    The San Francisco picks:

    Best Picture: “Milk”
    Best Director: Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
    Best Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk” & Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
    Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
    Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Supporting Actress: Marisa Tomei, “The Wrestler”
    Best Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, “Milk”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Morgan, “Frost/Nixon”
    Best Foreign Language Film: “Let the Right One In”
    Best Documentary Feature: “My Winnipeg”
    Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister, “The Dark Knight”

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  • Better quality…SNIKT!

  • Critics, critics, critics…

    I’ve been out all day long so I haven’t been able to post, let alone comment on the array of awards that were dished out today (beyond the Golden Satellites).  Luckily, Sasha Stone and Ryan Adams are, as always, on top of it, so check out their posts regarding the St. Louis winners (topped by “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), the Southeastern Film Critics nominees (with a top 10) and the Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards (with high marks for “Slumdog Millionaire”).

    Tom O’Neil also has some brief commentary on the multitude of kudos at Gold Derby.  Just nevermind the unnecessary Sean Penn swipe.

    Truthfully, it’s all running together in my head now.  Too many to count.

  • Runnin’ on empty: the best films of 2008

    Javier Bardem and Rebecca Hall in Vicky Cristina BarcelonaJust to say it once more, because I’ve certainly brought it up enough, 2008 was not a good year for film-goers.

    That’s an incredibly subjective quip, of course, but I certainly found myself struggling with the level of quality on display with each and every screening, the oasis of the Oscar season ultimately proving to be a trickster mirage on the horizon as contenders ultimately fell flat or disappointed in various ways. And suddenly, we’re two weeks away from 2009.

    Who let the goods out?

    But a year lacking broad quality can be a fun “Where’s Waldo” for the impassioned film lover, and so it is that I found some truly wonderful, praise-worthy work from a number of driven and creative filmmakers this year. But a peculiarity began to arise as I sifted through the year’s offerings: What a load of downer cinema.

    I first noticed it in the documentary offerings, heavier on morose subject matter than any other year I can remember. Depictions of the horrors of Katrina, the passionate life and tragic death of a Neil Diamond impersonator, the work of a journalist obsessed with his own inevitable suicide, the nation’s stance on the death penalty, the life and times of a child molester, a heart-breaking family drama in St. John’s, Newfoundland, a national economy on life support, despicable soldier etiquette at our global detention facilities -– it is hardly surprising that the most well-received documentary of the year is a celebration of an “artistic crime” in James Marsh’s “Man on Wire.” But how odd that the genre’s resident cynic, Werner Herzog, was responsible for one of the few other positive doc titles that made the rounds this year?

    Moving into the realm of fiction, even the usually jubilant folks at Pixar couldn’t help but crank out their most sobering film to date, a cautionary tale wrapped in the guise of a love story that conveyed a creepy sense of inevitability despite a hopeful denouement.

    I bring these observations up for a reason, and that is to add some perspective to the list you’ll find below. 2008 was a bellwether for me personally as I began to let the idea of “best” as a definitive slip away and become something more akin to a solid if flexible representation of the times, and how those times affect the viewer.

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  • Could Woody Allen be a surprise Best Director nominee?

    Woody Allen at the 2002 Academy AwardsIn 1994, Woody Allen’s masterful “Bullets Over Broadway” was not really on anyone’s charts as a potential Oscar nominee. A very funny film about a playwright who enlists a gangster to help him bring life and reality to his play, it was one of Allen’s best works with hysterically funny performances from John Cusack, the great Dianne Wiest (who won an Oscar), Chazz Palminteri, Jennifer Tilly, Jack Warden, Mary Louise Parker, Rob Reiner, Jim Broadbent, and Tracey Ullman. The film premiered here at the Toronto International Film Festival with excellent reviews, but it seemed overshadowed that season by Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,” without question the movie of the year.

    The day the Academy Award nominations were announced, as expected, “Forrest Gump” and “Pulp Fiction” dominated, but in a huge surprise, Allen’s film was up in seven categories including Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Palminteri), Best Supporting Actress (Weist and Tilly) and a couple of technical awards.

    I have always believed the film to be one of Allen’s funniest and finest films, with beautifully created characters and knockout performances throughout. Wiest is miraculous as a manipulative diva seducing the director/writer portrayed by Cusack because she knows it to be the only way to create a better character for herself. Her “don’t speak” becomes more and more insane throughout the film.

    I have always felt the film was robbed of a Best Picture nomination, likely edged out by “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” but it really did not matter as “Forrest Gump would dominate the ceremony.

    This year, Allen has directed and written a critically acclaimed film in “Vicky Christina Barcelona,” with a powerhouse performance from Penélope Cruz (the Oscar frontrunner), and solid work from Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, and Scarlett Johansson (two of them Golden Globe nominees). The film is funny, sexy and dangerous, both vintage Allen, but also a newer, darker Allen, a director evolving.

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  • In case you care…Golden Satellite winners

    Talk about spreading the wealth…

    Best Film (Drama): “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Film (Comedy/Musical): “Happy-Go-Lucky”
    Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Actress (Drama): Angelina Jolie, “Changeling”
    Best Actor (Drama): Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”
    Best Actor (Comedy/Musical): Ricky Gervais, “Ghost Town”
    Best Actress (Comedy/Musical): Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
    Best Supporting Actor: Michael Shannon, “Revolutionary Road”
    Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt, “Rachel Getting Married”
    Best Original Screenplay: “The Visitor”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: “Frost/Nixon”
    Best Art Direction and Production Design: “Austrailia”
    Best Cinematography: “Australia”
    Best Costume Design: “The Duchess”
    Best Editing: “Iron Man”
    Best Original Score: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Original Song: “Another Way to Die” from “Quantum of Solace”
    Best Sound (Editing and Mixing): “The Dark Knight”
    Best Visual Effects: “Australia”
    Best Foreign-Language Film: “Gomorrah”
    Best Animated or Mixed-Media Film: “WALL-E”
    Best Documentary: (tie) “Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer” and “Man on Wire”

  • Building a sinister reality

    Matteo Garrone

    “I was interested in showing a different point of view than ‘ The Godfather’ or ‘GoodFellas,’ ” he says. “These movies are the models for these people, but their real lives are different. We wanted to develop the confusion between reality and fiction. They act like they’re in an American action movie”…

    “The movie I think has a kind of anthropological value,” Garrone says. “It was important to reinvent the imagery of the criminal without glamorizing. We chose very carefully every face in the movie.

    From Michael J. Ybarra’s 12/14 story on Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah.”  More on Garrone’s film later this morning, I assure you.

  • 12/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    Will Smith• Nathaniel Rogers goes back to the well with some updated Oscar predictions. [The Film Experience]

    • Charles McGrath writes up the upcoming “Revolutionary Road” release. [New York Times]

    • Philip French remembers a bleak year in cinema. [The Guardian]

    • Similarly, John Horn notes the box office success of some challenging films this holiday season. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Speaking of challenging films, Andrew O’Hehir talks to Steven Soderbergh about “Che.” [Beyond the Multiplex]

    • Susan King, meanwhile, talks to Brian Goodman about his life-turned-movie in “What Doesn’t Kill You.” [Los Angeles Times]

    • Andy Serkis comes out from behind the CGI masks of his most famous performances into acceptance as a fine actor. [The Times]

    • Donna Freydkin chats it up with “Seven Pounds” star Will Smith. [USA Today]

    • Glenn Kenny on Hollywood finally turning classics into digital masterpieces. [Popular Mechanics]

  • ‘Dark Knight’ and ‘Slumdog’ lead list of Chicago critics nominees

    Nothing in the way of major surprises, but I’m stoked for the “Let the Right One In” love.  The rundown:

    Best Picture
    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “The Dark Knight”
    “Milk”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”
    “WALL-E”

    Best Director
    Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”
    Andrew Stanton, “WALL-E”
    Gus Van Sant, “Milk”

    Best Actor
    Clint Eastwood, “Gran Torino”
    Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”
    Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”
    Sean Penn, “Milk”
    Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”

    Best Actress
    Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
    Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
    Angelina Jolie, “Changeling”
    Melissa Leo, “Frozen River”
    Meryl Streep, “Doubt”

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  • An Oscar contender, as you know, is a lot like gravity…

    The Dark Knight

  • Just a reminder

    There will be no Oscar column tomorrow, though I may get around to a chart update later in the evening.  Instead, tomorrow morning be sure to watch for my annual “best of the year” column, if you, you know, care about those things.  It’s been hard chipping away all the crap this year, but I think I’ve settled on a list I’m quite content to call the year’s best.  Until then…

  • The absurdities of ‘The Dark Knight’

    The Dark KnightEven as a clear fan of the film, I have to say this cracked me up:

    Wait, so the Joker really orchestrated that big truck chase just so that he could get caught and go to prison, then he could kidnap that guard and grab his phone to make the call to set off the bomb he’d previously sewn inside the henchman in the next cell? That would kill the guy who stole the mobsters’ money, thus enabling him to … er, what? Heath Ledger’s Joker may have been a psychopath, but he had a nerdish capacity for forward planning.