In Contention

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  • Is ‘Australia’ really in the Academy’s wheelhouse?

    I haven’t hidden the fact that I’m in the tank for Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia,” or at least I hope to be — when we’re eventually allowed to see it. It is, bar none, my personal most-anticipated title of the next two months, sink or swim.

    I am, however, beginning to get nervous about its Oscar chances, as troublesome buzz circulates about its down-to-the-wire editing and last-minute narrative changes. The Academy tends to shy away from anything that might be perceived — deservedly or not — as a grand folly, preferring works that play the publicity game a little safer.

    A part of me has thought for some time that, should “Australia” overcome the naysayers, it could be welcomed by voters as a return to the more “traditional” model of Best Picture winner — sweeping, romantic, period-set and controversy-free — after four consecutive years of honouring bleak, un-pretty and (relatively) modern-day works. It’s argument that can also be made in favour of another unseen film widely presumed to be the one to beat: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

    However, over at The Film Experience, Nat Rogers makes an excellent point to the contrary, suggesting that the romantic epic is less of an Oscar ‘gimme’ genre than we tend to presume:

    My initial instinct, minus any research, was that Oscar loves to be romanced by beautiful people in period finery, their love story intertwined with famed world events. But is that really true? Perhaps it’s just that early Oscar champion “Gone With the Wind” casts a really long shadow …

    Oscar isn’t always in the mood for retro loving. But even when they aren’t, the films can quite often emerge with Best Actress and Costume Design nominations and a stray nomination of some other sort. “Australia”‘s chances in a wide array of categories clearly hinge on how deep audiences fall into reciprocal love with Kidman’s aristocrat and Jackman’s cattle driver.

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  • RIP Mama Africa

    It may not be strictly movie-related — though she did enjoy a couple of screen appearances, most notably in Darrell James Roodt’s “Sarafina!” — but I can’t let the passing of the great Miriam Makeba go unacknowledged. As a Grammy-winning musician, influential political activist and all-round symbol of a country’s hopes, she was treasured not only by South Africans like myself, but by the world at large.

    It is interesting — and not a little fitting — that Makeba died performing for another noble cause: she collapsed on stage after performing at a benefit concert in Italy for Roberto Saviano, the author (and co-screenwriter) of “Gomorrah,” whose work in exposing the workings of the Naples mafia has put his own life in danger. That Makeba, after all she has accomplished for her own people, was prepared to work for this cause too is really a measure of the woman.

    The various obits are full of clips of “Pata Pata” and “The Click Song,” but I love the purity of her voice and urgency of the storytelling on this 1966 performance of “Khawuleza.” If you’re not moved by this, something is wrong with you.

  • POLL: ‘The Wrestler’ — Best Picture nominee?

    Here’s the deal.  I left “The Wrestler” off of the Best Picture poll from two weeks ago (which had “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Milk” leading the way).  It wasn’t because of the film’s quality.  Quite obviously, I loved the film.  But it is very bleak and very small and, in the way of editorializing, I clipped it from the contenders.  I just figured it too unlikely a scenario.

    Well, over the weekend I’m told Fox Searchlight is “going for it” on the Best Picture front on this film, which had its U.S. debut at AFI Fest last week.  I’m also told the film is receiving standing ovations at guild screenings, though one can’t be sure if that enthusiasm is focused more on Mickey Rourke’s stunning portrayal than it is the film as a whole.  But regardless of that, the studio is getting serious on the more-than-just-the-performance front.

    So, with that in mind, I thought I’d right the wrong of the last poll and offer up “The Wrestler” and its Best Picture fate to the readership.  Very simple question: Do you think the film will receive a Best Picture nomiantion?  Tell us in the sidebar poll!

  • Oscar column? Ha.

    Nothing to show for myself yet again this week.  I swear, in seven days time, I’ll get my act in gear on that front.  But without something to push the passion, it’s kind of hard not to let other committments take hold.

    After AFI, some think “Doubt” has a Best Picture shot, others don’t.  I haven’t heard much from the peanut gallery on “Defiance,” which is odd — you’d expect the usual clawing over ourselves to be “first!”  I dug it.  I think it’s in the conversation.  But hey, there are still mysteries to behold.

    Which brings me to it: break out the films already.  This is the worst bout of Oscar foreplay we’ve suffered through in a LONG time.  “Revolutionary Road,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Australia” and “Seven Pounds” need to stop playing peek-a-boo and man up already.  Am I wrong here?

    Anyway, updated charts next time around.  Truthfully, they wouldn’t have changed much today if I did have a column in me.

  • AFI Fest Jury Awards

    AFI Fest 2008The AFI Fest Jury Awards were dished out yesterday, and I don’t know if it says more about me or the awards that I’m just getting a post up today.  The winners:

    INTERNATIONAL FEATURE COMPETITION
    Grand Jury Prize: “Acne”
    Special Mention:     “Nirvana”

    INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
    Grand Jury Prize: “Kassim the Dream”
    Special Mention:     “The Last Days of Shishmaref”

    INTERNATIONAL SHORTS COMPETITION
    Grand Jury Prize: “The Legless Boy Cannot Dance”
    Special Mention:     “The Apology Line”

    AUDIENCE AWARDS
    Feature: “A Necessary Death”
    Documentary Feature: “Kassim the Dream,” “The World We Want”
    Short: “Busco Personas: The Faces of Columbia’s War”

  • News item of the day: Batman sues Christopher Nolan

    ISTANBUL – The mayor of Batman, a city recently under scrutiny due to unsolved murders and increasing rates of female suicides, will sue the director of the movie “Batman” movie.

    Not a superhero with supernatural abilities, or a person wealthy enough to buy high-tech toys to fight evil, but a simple human being named Hüseyin Kalkan, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party mayor of the southeastern city of Batman, declared war against his city’s namesake superhero, Batman.

    “The royalty of the name ‘Batman’ belongs to us … There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us,” Kalkan told to the Doğan news agency. Batman is a centuries old city, taking root in the Neolithic age but becoming significant when oil was found in the region at the end of 1940s. Almost a decade before that, Batman was created as a comic hero. Kalkan is going to sue Christopher Nolan, the director of the latest Batman movie “The Dark Night,” not DC Comics, the creator of the superhero.

    No commentary is really needed.  Check out the rest here.

  • No time for a proper review, but…

    …I really liked “Defiance.”  To my mind it might be Ed Zwick’s finest film since “Legends of the Fall,” largely because he’s busied himself with more-trite-than-usual material for the last few years.  It isn’t a grand slam more so than a steadily guided ship and for the most part, it works.

    I’m heading out the door, but viewers will start trickling out of the film in a few hours, so I thought I’d better go ahead and get a quick assessment up.  The real surprise, given the peculiarities of the season, is that the film has successfully remained under embargo for the last three weeks.  But for now, I’ll say that Eduardo Serra’s photography is absolutely gorgeous, reminding of the picturesque qualities John Toll made his own in the 1990s.  The winter scenes in particular really pop and there is one shot, slowly telegraphing the fate of a noble steed, that will surely end up on my “best shots of the year” column this season.

    James Newton Howard’s score, meanwhile, assisted by the lovely violin brilliance of Josh Bell, is destined for an Oscar nomination.  It’s nice to see him having fun with strings this year (the music in “The Happening” was the only reason to sit through the film).

    As for performances, Daniel Craig is solid, Liev Schreiber gets the showy role and pulls it off nicely, but I was strangely taken by Jamie Bell’s work here.  His was the most believable portrayal of the lot and he certainly had less to work with than anyone else.  He brings a quiet power and reminds us yet again that he’s going to be a superstar someday.  Soon.

    Anyway, shitty to leave it at that, but I have to run.  I’ll get up a proper review or short take soon enough.

  • Anthony Dod Mantle — it is time

    Anthony Dod MantleI don’t generally throw myself full force behind a contender with the kind of FYC spirit I’m about to project.  We all have our favorites and we all hope this person or that will finally get the recognition deserved, but it’s a different thing to full on advocate.  But today, I just can’t help myself.

    Watching “Slumdog Millionaire” a second time Friday night as part of the AFI Danny Boyle tribute, I was taken once again by the urgent nature of the film’s visual style.  It’s a direct reflection of Boyle’s energetic attitude toward life and the cinema, of course.  But it’s also the result of wonderful creativity from cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle.

    Boyle says he first took notice of Mantle’s work on the Dogme classic “Festen.”  The two first collaborated on television’s “Strumpet” before moving into daring digital territory with the modern zombie classic “28 Days Later,” and then Mantle moved back to his Dogme roots, taking on projects for Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier with a little Boyle thrown in between (2004’s “Millions”).

    I never much responded to the supposed revelation that was Dogme, so Mantle first caught my eye with “28 Days Later” and especially with Kevin Macdonald’s “The Last King of Scotland,” where I suddenly felt the earth move under the weight of a new talent’s insistence on a refreshingly vigorous intimacy with his photography.

    Much like Harris Savides, Cesar Charlone or Rodrigo Prieto, Mantle is finding himself moving in and out of the independent market with eye-popping work that can go unnoticed in the wake of the postcard photography that tends to be singled out during the awards season.  But his work is alive, crackling with immediacy and actively creative in the service of story, never more so than in “Slumdog Millionaire,” Boyle’s latest vibrant contribution to the silver screen.

    The time has come for Mantle to be recognized for the innovation he lends not only this film, but the trade itself.  I fully expect “Slumdog” to find a home in numerous categories, but if I could insist consideration of just one aspect of its elaborate below-the-line construction, it would be for Mantle’s contribution.  What fierce life he has captured here.

  • INTERVIEW: Mickey Rourke

    Mickey Rourke at the Los Angeles premiere of The WrestlerMickey Rourke fucked up his career.  Who am I to say that though?  I don’t get to chastise the guy, pass judgment, even comment really.  It’s a cliche to say it, so why not be specific otherwise: Mickey Rourke had some shit to work out.  Who doesn’t?

    He looks at you with stone eyes that seem to betray the early moments of a blackout.  But after another look, it’s clear that he’s focused.  He’s walking a straight line to spite his former self these days, even if it means lighting up in a non-smoking room to get through the unfamiliar terrain of a major film awards push.  Because fuck it, right?

    His pet chihuahua, Loki, moves slowly about the room, using what senses are still available to her after 17 long years, like some externalized representation of Mickey’s busted professional life.  But she’s still here, isn’t she?  So is Mickey.

    He’s the kind of guy Bob Dylan calls up in the middle of the night with a modest, “Hey, it’s Bob.”  He’s the kind of guy who can tell you he and Bruce Springsteen lost touch for 13 years and mean it.  His fight-ravaged hand cracks after a forceful handshake.  “Everything’s still crackin’.”  With a smile, no less.

    Everything could seem like a name drop but somehow becomes an honest, bard-like story of purpose.  He repeats himself.  Maybe he forgets, maybe he wants to make his point.  Maybe he can’t believe it himself — stories of self-destruction or good fortune — so he has to hear himself say the words again.  Introspection seems to come forth like the memorized therapy over a decade on the couch will give you.  But the necessity of that hard work comes through.  This is just where he is for the moment.

    He’s a steward of the truth and takes his work bringing that truth to bear quite seriously.  He won’t even waste time on a biography because he can’t get into his associations with the Hell’s Angels and John Gotti, so why bother?  It wouldn’t be true.

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  • Why ‘Che’ is a great film, but not Oscar material

    CheMost biographical films tend to play like sort of a “greatest hits” of that person’s life, and sadly much of the negative of that life is left out. Sir Richard Attenborough is most guilty of this with “Gandhi,” his hugely overrated epic about the Mahatma, who did everything short of walking on water in the film. The man was human, and by all historical accounts, had his issues, yet not one of them is in the film.

    Hollywood has been making biopics like that years. Anyone remember the final moments of “Man of a Thousand Faces,” the story of Lon Chaney, the great silent screen actor as portrayed by James Cagney?  Despite a pretty decent performance, the movie is ruined by a howler of an ending in which a dying Chaney scribbles “Jr.” beside his name on his make-up kit, thereby giving his son his blessing to go into the business.

    Anyone who knows anything about the two Chaneys knows that senior did NOT want his boy anywhere near the movie business. “Gable and Lombard” and “W.C. Fields and Me” anyone? Jeez Louise, what a terrible pair of films with no connection to the lives of the subjects within.

    In recent years biopics have gotten marginally better with “Malcolm X” and “Nixon” leading the way from directors that refused to candy coat their subjects and allowed them to be portrayed warts and all. Of course, Martin Scorsese did this with “Raging Bull,” but the entire point of his film was about a man forever shadow boxing with his own demons, unable to find decency within himself.

    I quite liked what Meryl Streep and Sam Neill accomplsihed with their characters in “A Cry in the Dark,” never romanticizing them or allowing them to become overly likable for the audience. That sort of realism, to me, is exciting. To see real life people portrayed with their flaws.  It’s real, accurate, truthful.  This humanizes them.  This makes them people, not things.

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  • REVIEW: “Last Chance Harvey” (***)

    Overture Films\' Last Chance HarveyRemember “Falling in Love?” I wouldn’t blame you if you don’t. A modest join-the-dots 1984 romantic drama charting the will-they-won’t-they courtship between two married New York commuters, it should never have gone beyond the dimensions of a TV screen…

    …but for the fact that the two commuters happened to be played by Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep. So sensitively crafted were their performances, and so effortless and infectious their chemistry, that they alone made the film worthwhile.

    Watching “Last Chance Harvey,” the sophomore feature from British writer-director Joel Hopkins, I couldn’t help but be reminded of “Falling in Love.” The comparison isn’t entirely fair — “Harvey” is a bit smarter and more acutely observed — but both films are essentially slender, undemanding constructions designed principally to showcase two great actors riffing off each other.

    In the case of “Harvey,” the actors in question are the appealing September-December duo of Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, and the pairing proves immediately irresistible.

    The contrivances of Hopkins’ screenplay and his prosaic filmmaking approach are of little consequence once it emerges that this is a star vehicle, plain and simple. On those terms, it’s a bull’s-eye, one that is bound to register strongly with an audience starved of relationship stories concerning anyone over the age of 40.

    Following their spring release “The Visitor,” a similarly low-key, mature-audience-skewing success, new outfit Overture Films is cunningly slipping “Last Chance Harvey” into theaters in late December, in the hope of awards success for the stars. Given the strength of the performances and the film’s winning charm, it’s a move that could well pay off.

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  • 11/9 Oscarweb Round-up

    Warner Bros. Pictures' Watchmen• Steve Weintraub has a sweet four-video series on Ben Burtt’s process for creating the sounds of “WALL-E” and the “Star Wars” films.  Worth a look if you’re into the tech arena like we are. [Collider]

    • Bad news for Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia.”  A forced happy ending. [News.com.au]

    • Cherry Jones gives her approval of Meryl Streep’s turn in “Doubt.” [Gold Derby]

    • But elsewhere, the odds are being stacked against the film. [Vulture]

    • Dave Karger and Missy Schwartz discuss the season’s most unknown commodities: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Revolutionary Road.” [Oscar Watch]

    • Brad Brevet finds some striking similarities between the new “Watchmen” poster and an old “Dark Knight” international one-sheet. [Rope of Silicon]

    • In the midst of AFI Fest, John Horn gets some quality time with “Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Meanwhile, Anne Thompson responds to a second “Slumdog” screening. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • The new gadgetry of Bond. [New York Daily News]

    • Amy Raphael profiles Kelly Macdonald as “Choke” lands across the pond. [The Guardian]

    • Also in the U.K., Toby Jones continues to stir the waters with below-the-radar portrayals. [The Times]

    • Deborah Solomon cranks out a Q&A with “Frost/Nixon” director Ron Howard. [New York Times]

    • Jeffrey Wells defends the violence of Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” against the potential ignorance of the foreign film committee. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

  • International ‘Australia’ poster

    New and slightly improved, if you ask me — though I still think they missed an opportunity to go for an all-out 1940’s throwback design. (Thanks to Stale Popcorn for pointing it out.)

  • ‘Up’

  • Italy leads the charge at European Film Awards

    Proof positive that 2008 is a banner year for Italian cinema: Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” and Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo,” both masterpieces of a very different stylistic ilk, lead all nominees for the European Film Awards, with five nominations apiece.

    Joing them in the hunt for Best European Film are “The Class” and “Happy-Go-Lucky,” which makes four of my favourite films of the year in the list. Rounding out the nominees in that category are “Waltz With Bashir” and “The Orphanage,” neither film one to be sniffed at either.

    By any standards, that’s one hell of a group — I would be very surprised if the eventual five Oscar nominees for Best Picture match that collective quality. I’d be hard pressed to pick a personal favourite, though my gut says the Italian nominees will split the vote, and the wonderful “The Class” will emerge victorious.

    Four of those six reappear in the Best European Director category, with Steve McQueen (“Hunger”) supplanting Mike Leigh as the British nominee in that race. More puzzlingly, Leigh is also absent in the Best European Screenwriter category — curious, since “Happy-Go-Lucky” strikes me as more of a writerly achievement than the nominated “Waltz With Bashir.”

    More thoughts, and a full list of nominees, after the cut.

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  • New ‘Torino’ poster, original song and other WB FYC updates

    Warner Bros. Pictures\' Gran TorinoI was just perusing the Warner Bros. awards site and was greeted with an array of updates I wasn’t aware of.  First and foremost, there is the new “Gran Torino” poster image to the left here (click for a slightly larger image).  I dig it as much as the first poster, maybe even a little more.

    Second, in the “for your consideration” section for the film I noticed there is an original song in play, written by Jamie Callum.  I have no idea what it’s called yet, but it’s worth keeping an eye on given how painfully weak that race is this season.

    It’s also interesting that Warners is apparently choosing not to push any actor for awards consideration outside of Clint Eastwood.  I would have expected at least a modest push for Bee Vang, who has a great role opposite Eastwood for much of the script.

    I also noticed that Dave Johannson has been added to Nick Schenk with a “story by” credit.  The film’s IMDb page also reflects this.  Apologies if this was already out there, but it’s the first I’m hearing of it.

    Over on the “Dark Knight” side of things, you get a nice sampling of James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer’s kick-ass score, as well as a similar rundown of FYC declarations and even a link to the screenplay.  Very cool.  Soon there will be a “score” section and a “making of” section, but right now there’s a section with scattered images from the film, most of them new to my eyes.  I love this one:

    Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

    Check out the rest at the official Warner Bros. 2008 awards website.

  • ‘Wrestler’ poster on the red carpet

    Someone was explaining to me today what the one-sheet for Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” looks like, and I thought it sounded pretty cool.  Then I scoped out some red carpet pics of the premiere last night during the AFI Fest at Grauman’s Chinese Theater and there it was, propped up for the world to see.  I think Entertainment Weekly will be getting a print exclusive in due time, but for now, you can check it out for yourself over Rourke’s right shoulder below.  I really dig the Dave Ansen quote: “Witness the resurrection of Mickey Rourke in Darren Aronofsky’s deeply affecting film.”

    By the way, that piece I was hammering out at the Four Seasons, I’ll have it up over the weekend.  Rourke is a hell of an interview, an odd mixture of intimidation and warmth — much like his character in Aronofsky’s film.

    Mickey Rourke at the Los Angeles premiere of The Wrestler

  • “If you don’t have good dreams, you got nightmares.”