In Contention

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  • Narrowing it down

    Over at Awards Daily, Sasha Stone has taken it upon herself to whittle down the Best Picture race to a brisk 11-title list, and it makes for sobering reading:

    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “The Dark Knight”
    “Doubt”
    “Frost/Nixon”
    “Gran Torino”
    “Milk”
    “Rachel Getting Married”
    “The Reader”
    “Revolutionary Road”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”
    “The Wrestler”

    I can’t be the only person looking down that list and gloomily wondering, “Is that it?” (I suppose some might argue for “Australia” still, but even the positive early reviews don’t give me a great feeling.) Sadly, not only is Stone probably right, but she’s still being relatively generous — I would strike “Rachel Getting Married” off the list without too much hesitation. Meanwhile, the level of hype centering on Clint Eastwood’s Best Actor campaign for “Gran Torino” has me wondering whether those who have seen it don’t deem it Best Picture material. (I remain among those unpersuaded by the film’s trailer.)

    It seems to me that “Doubt”‘s chances of a Best Picture nomination depend entirely on how much award steam it gathers in the acting races, while “The Reader” remains a puzzle to me — it has the right credentials, the trailer looks solid, but why don’t I sense more excitement around it? Harvey Weinstein is still struggling to regain his golden touch at the Oscars, and it remains to be seen whether that early bout of bad press over the film’s release-date kerfuffle will linger.

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  • Karger predicts paydirt for ‘Button’

    A couple of weeks ago, Dave Karger revealed that he’d seen “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” offering a single “wow” as his response. He now feels able to expand on that slightly, though “wow” is still his general gist:

    “Button” is an Oscar movie with a capital O, with jaw-dropping production values, a soaring romance, and terrific performances, particularly from supporting-actress candidate Taraji P. Henson as Benjamin’s de facto mother. Even if Brad Pitt doesn’t make it into the tough Best Actor race (the likes of Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio may squeeze him out), I still can see “Button” racking up as many as 11 nominations, which could very well be the highest tally for any film this year. Once the film opens on Christmas day, I guarantee we’ll all be talking about one thing: whether or not “Benjamin Button” made you sob.

    Nothing that most of us weren’t suspecting anyway, but nice to see it in black-and-white. I’m interested to see that he confirms the chances of presumed contender Henson, after some vague whispers elsewhere that Tilda Swinton might be one to watch in the category. And I agree that, even if his film is a frontrunner, Brad Pitt is up against it in the Best Actor race. (After all, an Oscar juggernaut needn’t always pull its leading man with it — just ask Joseph Fiennes or Leonardo DiCaprio.)

    To me, it looks increasingly as if all “Benjamin Button” has to do is be merely good, and it will likely score at the Oscars by sheer default in this weird season. (Incidentally, why stop at eleven nods? I count thirteen, excluding Best Actor. I’m not saying it will get them all, but surely the possibility is there.)  I’m really looking forward to Kris’ thoughts once he — finally — sees the whole picture.

  • WEEKLY WRAP: Big guns unveiled, docs shortlisted, Saviano speaks

    A big week, this, in which the covers were finally lifted off some heavyweight titles. Here’s what we were talking about:

    • And speaking of those heavyweights, Kris ran hot on “Revolutionary Road,” but cool on “Australia” …

    • … while being offered a frustratingly truncated glimpse of “Benjamin Button.”

    • The Academy announced their 15-strong shortlist for Best Documentary Feature, and emerged with credibility largely intact, in my opinion.

    • We were fortunate enough to chat to the incredible Roberto Saviano of “Gomorrah” fame…

    • … as well as the charming Rosemarie DeWitt, our pick of the “Rachel Getting Married” ensemble.

    • Roger Ebert either picked the brain of an Academy insider, or made some bold predictions of his own. Interesting either way.

    • This week’s Off the Carpet column played the waiting game.

    • Tech Support got musical this week, with a look at the composers in the hunt for gold this year.

    • We examined the horses (or lack thereof) in the Comedy/Musical races at the Golden Globes.

    • This week’s edition of The Lists delved into the embarrassment of cinematic riches that was the 1970s.

    • “The Wrestler” finally got a poster and an impressive trailer.

    • We contemplated next year’s BAFTA awards, wondering whether homegrown winners will again dominate proceedings.

    • The Best Picture debate over “The Dark Knight” continues apace.

  • Thumping ‘Slumdog’ soundtrack to be released

    Cover of Slumdog Millionaire original motion picture soundtrackThank God.  I was hoping Fox Searchlight would find a way to market this amazing material.  It worked well for them last year, albeit in the grungy, alt-rock vein.  But the music in “Slumdog Millionaire” is like a two-hour celebration, and it’s dying to be collected.

    The track listing, from MTV, has a lot of the A.R. Rahman stuff, of course (all of it exciting).  But M.I.A. pops up on there as well.  “Paper Planes” is put to great use in a montage that you wish would never end mid-film.

    The final track, as expected, is “Jai Ho,” the Bollywood number Searchlight is hoping will make some noise in the Best Original Song category.

    Check out the full story at MTV.  Here’s the track listing:

    1. “O… Saya” Performed by A R Rahman & M.I.A.
    2. “Riots” by A R Rahman
    3. “Mausam & Escape” by A R Rahman
    4. “Paper Planes” Performed by M.I.A.
    5. “Paper Planes” DFA REMIX Performed by M.I.A.
    6. “”Ringa Ringa” by A R Rahman featuring Alka Yagnik & Ila Arun
    7. “Liquid Dance” by A R Rahman featuring Palakkad Sriram & Madhumitha
    8. “Latika’s Theme” by A R Rahman featuring Suzanne
    9. “Aaj Ki Raat” Performed by Sonu Nigam, Mahalaxmi Lyer & Alisha Chinoi
    10. “Millionaire” by A R Rahman featuring Madhumitha
    11. “Gangsta Blues” by A R Rahman featuring BlaaZe & Tanvi Shah
    12. “Dreams on Fire” by A R Rahman featuring Suzzanne
    13. “Jai Ho” by A R Rahman featuring Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah & Mahalaxmi Iyer

  • WB scores available at awards site

    In the wake of the James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer’s disqualification no less.  But fuck it, it’s a fantastic piece of work and you can listen to the whole damn thing at the Warner Bros. awards site, so rise up and feel the righteousness.

    The ‘Gran Torino’ score has been tossed up as well, an expectedly low-key composition by Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens.

  • Eastwood to receive yet another accolade, this time at Santa Barbara Fest

    Clint EastwoodThe press release, in part:

    Clint Eastwood has been selected to receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s highest honor, The Modern Master Award, it was announced by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. The Tribute will take place on Thursday, January 29, at the historic Arlington Theatre.

    The Modern Master Award is the highest honor presented by SBIFF. Established in 1995, it was created to honor an individual who has enriched our culture through his/her accomplishments in the motion picture industry. Past Modern Masters recipients include Michael Douglas, Peter Jackson, Jodie Foster, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges, Diane Keaton, George Clooney, Will Smith, and Cate Blanchett.

    Comments SBIFF Director Roger Durling, “Clint Eastwood is inarguably one of our greatest directors, one of our greatest producers and one of our greatest actors ever – to call him a Modern Master is simply an understatement.”

    We in the press will finally be getting a look at “Gran Torino” in a little over a week, by the way. In fact, Monday screenings of Oscar hopefuls will push the “Off the Carpet” column to Tuesdays for the next two weeks. I’ll post a reminder of that on Monday.

    But with this news in mind, I find myself, more and more, seeing the Best Actor race as Sean Penn vs. Clint Eastwood. Penn’s performance has the power to be his second Oscar, in my view, and Eastwood’s role is going to rip a few hearts to shreds. Mickey Rourke is phenomenal in “The Wrestler,” but I’m beginning to sense that his award will be the nomination. A pat on the back and a “welcome home.”

  • “You treat a queen like a whore and a whore like a queen. You can’t go wrong.”

  • 11/21 Oscarweb Round-up

    Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky• Lisa Rosen talks to Sally Hawkins about “Happy-Go-Lucky.” [The Envelope]

    • Tom O’Neil wonders whether Hugh Jackman’s title as “sexiest man alive” in People mag will be costly.  I think the film did him in before the honor, but that’s me. [Gold Derby]

    • Jeffrey Wells is on board for “Revolutionary Road.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Anne Thompson comments on the woes of digitally projected films this season.  The lesson?  Just get a print ready and to hell with those of us in the press that might seem impatient. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • New York Mag keeps us up to date on the “ups” and “downs,” wonders if Kate Winslet is moving in on Meryl Streep.  She is. [Vulture]

    • Carrie Bell reports from a star-studded screening of “Doubt,” gets reactions to the film’s Oscar buzz. [Entertainment Weekly]

  • ‘Button’ didn’t happen

    Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(Alright, I’m coming back to this item now that I don’t have to deal with iPhone-posting.)

    Tonight’s screening of “The Curious Case at Benjamin Button” was supposed to be a great night for producers Kathy Kennedy and Frank Marshall (correction appended — it was a late night, apologies).  They introduced the film as a project 18 years in the making, a true labor of love, and the crowd of press, guild members and industry types sure was excited.

    About a half hour into the screening, D.P. Claudio Miranda had had enough.  Apparently a color channel on the digital projector was faulty and wasn’t going to be fixed any time soon.  The image looked washed out but in a stylized way, so none of us really noticed.  But it was painful for Miranda to watch.  Publicists put the call into director David Fincher, who was on his way to the theater for a post-screening Q&A, and he made the decision: pull the plug.

    The audience was understandably agitated.  “Come on, it looks beautiful,” one chimed in.  But they all knew Miranda would have felt terrible showing his film in that fashion (and talking to some who’d see the film already, there was a considerable difference, as well as a sound quality issue afoot).  “Don’t do it,” another guy said, siding with Miranda and clearly a below-the-line guy that gets it.  When your art and your craft is compromised out of the gate, it’s better to cut your losses.

    The good news is, I hear the same thing happened to “The Pianist” and “Dances with Wolves” for their first big industry screenings.  So maybe you do get a second chance to make a first impression.  The SAG screening went swimmingly over at the Arclight, by the way, so there is that.  But on the whole, what a bummer.  Next to “The Dark Knight,” this had become my most anticipated film of the year.

    All of that said, I think we liked what we saw.  And after just 30 minutes, I’m pretty sure the film will take the Oscars for Best Makeup and Best Visual Effects walking away.  Pure magic.

    Saturday we’ll all get a second chance.  These things happen, I guess.

  • Moments

  • In the round

    I don’t know why exactly, but the “roundtable” format of interviews that crops up a lot during awards season often strikes me as rather less fascinating than it’s meant to be. Unless the panel is very smartly chosen, I find the discussion tends to veer towards back-patting and faintly smug in-jokery, rather than stimulating argument between widely differing creative forces.

    Maybe I’m just blasé. But on reading the Hollywood Reporter’s two recent “Oscar Roundtables” with six screenwriters and six producers that THR thinks are likely to figure in the Oscar race, I couldn’t help being disappointed that, despite the level of talent involved, they didn’t have that many interesting things to say between them. (I’d go so far as to say that the best soundbite is quoted from the not-present Charlie Kaufman.)

    The selected writers are Jenny Lumet (“Rachel Getting Married”), Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”), Thomas McCarthy (“The Visitor”), John Patrick Shanley (“Doubt”), Andrew Stanton (“WALL-E”) and J. Michael Straczynski (“Changeling”). I have a hard time imagining the latter two will score writing nominations, but the race is young, I suppose.

    Writers can be pretty insufferable when talking about their “process” — I know, I am one. So there’s the usual semi-serious comparing of hours spent at the computer, feverish notebook scribbling and messy first drafts, but there isn’t much discussion of the specific screenplays and films at hand. McCarthy seems to be the most reticent of the group, only entering the discussion halfway through. A shame, really, as I’d venture that he’s possibly the best writer of the lot.

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  • Finally — ‘The Wrestler’ trailer

    As anticipated earlier this week. Great trailer. Greater film. That Springsteen theme actually brings a lump to my throat.

    Click here if you want it in pretty Apple form.

  • The first time??

    Hugh Jackman in Australia

    He’s talking about his latest movie — Australia, Baz Luhrmann’s epic romantic adventure set against the backdrop of a massive WWII-era cattle drive — and his lead role as an enigmatic figure known only as the Drover. But, come on: Doesn’t the guy have, like, a real name?

    “Ah,” the 40-year-actor replies with the playful purr of a cat that recently dined on a tasty canary, “I can’t reveal that, my friend. That is a very , very good question — no one’s asked me that one, yet — but I can’t reveal it. He’s known as the Drover because, basically, that’s his job. And it’s a very fitting name, because he’s an outsider, and he’s known for what he does best. Which is being a drover — or, if he were an American, a cowboy. And he’s just so synonymous with what he does that that’s all he’s ever been known as. But as for his name — well, of course, I do know. But I can’t reveal what exactly will happen there.”

    From the latest issue of Cowboys & Indians magazine, featuring a cover story interview with Hugh Jackman.

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Original Score — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionMusic is one of few of the “tech” awards cited by the Academy that tends to result in passionate discussions among moviegoers, including non-cinephiles. Awarded in the Best Original Score category, the film music composer has one of the most difficult and lonely jobs in filmmaking. Almost always arriving at the end of the editing stage, and typically the most expendable element of the mixture, he or she has to fashion music appropriate to the mood and, hopefully, serve as a nice commentary for the on-screen goings-on.

    AMPAS musicians tend to have their favorites, however. This is notoriously one of the most insular branches (though it has warmed up slightly in recent years). It also tends to award music that features prominently in the films. Subtle scores rarely find a home here.

    A cardinal rule of this category is “never bet against John Williams.” The 45-time nominee has been recognized for all but two eligible years since 1976! Having been ineligible for two consecutive years now, Williams would seem a good bet this year for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” The music was notable and he was nominated for all the predecessors in the series. That having been said, for some reason I’m still not convinced of this. Perhaps that’s because of the strength of other contenders.

    Thomas Newman is another favorite – an eight-time nominee — though he is still awaiting this first statuette. He could very well double-dip this year with “Revolutionary Road” and “WALL-E.” The former seems like it could be a big player this year, while music was absolutely pivotal in the latter. Newman was a double nominee for “Little Women” and “The Shawshank Redemption.” (Newman is also credited as a songwriter on “Down to Earth” from “WALL-E,” so he could even be up thrice this year!)

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  • Gearing up for ‘Ben’

    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” will go before the press at large tonight at a couple of screenings here in Los Angeles, and I find myself feeling that pre-screening giddiness for probably the first time this year.  Things will be fairly quiet from me the rest of the day, but Gerard will be putting up a new Tech Support column in a few hours.  Check back around 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. for a “Button” reaction.

  • 11/20 Oscarweb Round-up

    Simon Beaufoy• Kim Voynar talks to Simon Beaufoy about adapting “Slumdog Millionaire.” [Movie City News]

    • Patrick Goldstein hearts “Australia,” but suggest it is “perhaps too ambitious for its own good.” [The Big Picture]

    • John Horn surveys the Oscar season films from the perspective of studio (read: dollar) appeal. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Tim Gray wants to rob hard-working professionals of their day of televised glory. [Variety]

    • Actors mimicking political elite this season. [Variety]

    • One more comeback story for Mickey Rourke. [Variety]

    • Stuart Levine on the art of the Oscar clip. [Variety]

    • And an eye on the music races. [Variety]

  • ‘Coraline’ trailer debuts

    And very lovely it looks, too. You’d expect a marriage between Henry Selick, Neil Gaiman and Focus Features to be on the classy side of the spectrum, and so it appears to be here.

    February still seems to me like a curious month to open this kind of product, but I’m guessing if the film lives up to its promise, it’ll be an early contender for the 2009 Animated Feature Oscar. Dive in:

  • REVIEW: “Australia” (**1/2)

    20th Century Fox's AustraliaGod bless Baz Luhrmann.  There are few directorial talents with the energetic potential he brings to his projects.  Danny Boyle comes to mind.  On good days, Fernando Meirelles does as well.  But one thing each of these filmmakers capitalizes on through their complicated sense of visual storytelling is the power of intimacy in the scripts they set out to film.

    Somehow, Baz Luhrmann forgot about that.  Not that he wouldn’t be capable of tacking a project as ambitious as “Australia,” but at least right now, it has proven to be simply too much movie for the filmmaker at this stage in his career.

    Visceral satisfaction it has.  Larger than life characterizations are its forté.  If you’re willing to let it, you’ll probably be swept off your feet.  But somewhere in the ambition, Luhrmann loses a grip on his own talents, producing something that is a considerable mess.

    “Australia” is really two movies smashed together.  The 165-minute run time becomes taxing if only because each thread is so haphazardly meshed with the other.  It is all the more ironic considering the film is, at heart, about the power of storytelling.

    The first half details the arrival of Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) to the Outback and her husband’s property at Faraway Downs.  She comes to the territory with a mind to sell off the land and bring her husband back home to England, but soon discovers the wicked and thieving ways of local beef baron King Carney (Bryan Brown) and his flunky Neil Fletcher (David Wenham).

    There to meet her at the boat in the seaside burg of Darwin is the Drover (Hugh Jackman), a rough-and-tumble cowboy cut from the same cloth as Clint Eastwood’s many characterizations.  (Drovers move livestock across large distances, real cattle drive type stuff.)  A blue collar guy to say the least, with an impeccable physique that Luhrmann never shies away from displaying (and never fails to leave one feeling the need to do a few crunches), the Drover works with and lives among the indigenous peoples of the country: the Aborigines.

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