In Contention

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Doubt,’ Danny Boyle and a bit of politics

    In a week in which there were more important things going on than the movies (an outlandish notion, I know), these were nevertheless some of the highlights:

    • Several takes from the AFI Fest, including disappointment in “Doubt” …

    • … but hearty cheers for “The Wrestler.”

    • We caught up (twice) with the thoroughly delightful Danny Boyle, both in London and in L.A.

    • Meanwhile, Dennis Hopper was also feeling chatty.

    • In the wake of the reprehensible passing of Proposition 8, we wondered if “Milk” could have made a difference.

    • We bade farewell to Mr. Michael Crichton. Rest in peace.

    • “Australia” got a new trailer and a new poster. Smashing. Can we see it now, pretty please?

    • Listing the greatest English-language directors at work today. Debate, as ever, was heated.

    • Tech Support surveyed the horses in the Best Film Editing race.

    • Oh, you might have heard that the United States has a new president. The right one, at that.

  • Still nobody knows anything

    At least, that’s the message I get from Pete Hammond’s latest column, in which he somewhat half-heartedly claims that the Best Picture frontrunners at this stage are “WALL-E,” “The Dark Knight” and “Changeling.” In that order, apparently — with “Slumdog Millionaire” creeping up behind.

    I realize Hammond has access to more Academy members than I do (not hard, since I know none), but I find that hard to swallow. Of the summer blockbusters, “The Dark Knight” looks to me to have more campaigning momentum than “WALL-E,” though I’m still not predicting it as a nominee. And I can’t see “Changeling” making much headway in the race with such a mixed critical reception. Surely, of the seen contenders, “Slumdog Millionaire” is ahead of all three. What I really learn from this is that Academy members clearly need to see more movies.

    More helpful to me is this tidbit Hammond offers on the Best Foreign Language Film race:

    From what we’ve been told only Germany, Japan and Russia have made any significant impact, with Italy’s Cannes Grand Prix winner, “Gomorra,” getting predictions that it will be one of the final five, despite mixed response from some who frowned on its generous amount of violence. And the Portuguese film “Our Beloved Month of August” was apparently so poorly received that some members were trying to leave before they could “officially” exit and still receive credit for seeing it.

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  • Mickey made me do it.

    Every once in a while you get an interview that inspires you to do…something. Who knows what it is but you know it’s creative. Mickey Rourke is that guy for me, today, here in this moment. I haven’t even left the Four Seasons yet. I find myself at the bar, writing, pen and paper. Pen and paper! Maybe I’ll get the piece up in this space soon enough, but for now, I have to write. I have to.

  • Danny Boyle: 8 things I’ve learned from my career in features

    Danny Boyle on the set of SunshineFilmmaker Danny Boyle is set to be feted this evening by the American Film Institute, but with just eight feature films under his belt, the dynamic director of such milestones as “Trainspotting,” “28 Days Later” and this year’s festival favorite “Slumdog Millionaire” is hardly due for a career retrospective.  He’s still going strong, excited by each new project and willing to take his time on whatever strikes his fancy along the way.  But as “Slumdog” begins to stand out as, perhaps, Boyle’s greatest cinematic accomplishment to date, the director shares with us what he’s learned along the way, film-by-film.

    “SHALLOW GRAVE” (1995)
    “I was very lucky to get a really tight, 90-minute, taut script.  Because you kind of don’t know what you’re doing on your first movie and there’s something wonderful about that.  You can never get back to that innocence.  It’s a good thing to start with a thriller, because you’re not going to have a lot of money and thrillers don’t depend on a lot of money.  I say sort of semi-controversially or provocatively, your first film is your best film, always, because it has that innocence about it, about not knowing what you’re doing.”

    “TRAINSPOTTING” (1996)
    “Take risks is the one I got from that.  Really take risks.  I haven’t always clung to it but I certainly always return to it.  And I love that.  That’s what people go to the movies for.  They don’t go to see what’s acceptable.  That’s television.  John [Hodge] adapted it in a way — it was impossible to adapt, so he didn’t try.  He sort of was inspired by it and went off.  And I love that in adaptations.  It’s really irreverent to the skill.”

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  • Apple’s Set to Screen series: the music of ‘Australia’

  • REVIEW: “The Wrestler” (***1/2)

    Mickey Rourke in The WrestlerAFI Fest

    Darren Aronofsky went back to the drawing board on “The Wrestler,” a film that wallows in nuance, spearheaded by a performance of grace and subtle charisma.

    After “The Fountain” failed to catch on in any meaningful way (though this viewer considered it one of the best films of 2006), the director ravaged by a studio system that condensed his vision to an essence he wasn’t fully comfortable with, Aronofsky took up the reins of the most modest, straight-forward project he’s tackled in 10 years.  The result is as affecting as it is numbing.

    Mickey Rourke stars as Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a one-time head of the class professional wrestler who makes his living (barely) working in the independent circuit.  His body as beat up as Aronofsky’s confidence must have been two years ago (he wears a hearing aid as a result of his work description and the look of a broken mare across his face), Randy is in some ways the ultimate blue collar guy.

    Forget Joe the plumber, we’ve got Randy the wrestler.

    He gets by on what little income he can manage from his stake of this event gate or that, sleeping in his big Dodge van (a Ram, of course) when he isn’t able to meet the rent on his trailer.  His afternoon hang-out is the local dive strip club where he is friendly with Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), over the hill but with a goddess’s body and a heart of gold to match.  She becomes even more attractive, somehow, with the revelation that she has a 9-year-old son, a point of connection for Randy, who has been estranged from his daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood) for many years.

    After an extreme match with a Mick Foley-esque contender leaves Randy a bloody mess, the wrestler suffers a heart attack, the truth tossed into his face like a cold bucket of water: stop wrestling or you’ll die.  That puts a damper on the road to a rematch with The Ayatollah, rekindling the good ole’ days with a former foe who sells cars now in Arizona.  Think Hulk Hogan taking on The Iron Sheik today, 24 years after the electrifying Madison Square Garden showdown that ushered Hogan to stardom.

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  • AFI FEST: ‘Doubt,’ ‘The Good, the Bad, the Weird,’ ‘Gomorrah’

    Song Kang-ho in The Good, the Bad, the WeirdAFI Fest is moving along rather quietly this season.  Most eyes have been turned toward the opening gala “Doubt” and centerpiece screenings like “Che” and “The Wrestler,” while most are probably just waiting for the next big reveal on Sunday as “Defiance” closes us out.  Tonight’s Danny Boyle tribute is sure to draw a crowd, while Michelle Williams and Jeff Goldblum will be here to peddle their Oscar hopes over the weekend.

    The movies are really just last gasps of the festival season at this point, though.  Not a lot of new terrain, but plenty to chew on for a cinephile.  I try to keep up, but I don’t pretend to be as dogged as John and Guy have proved to be.  It takes a special kind of torture.  But AFI is really coming off as a distraction more than anything, what with a number of Oscar hopefuls yet to be unveiled at a time when, generally, all cards are on the table.

    But we’ll push through.  A couple more looks this week:

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  • 11/7 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Ron Howard and Brian Grazer• Jeffrey Wells is basically cool with “Doubt.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Anne Thompson chimes in, too. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Steven Zeitchik draws parallels from this year’s political figures to the films in the Oscar hunt. [Risky Biz Blog]

    • Patrick Goldstein goes after the Oscar bloggers! [The Big Picture]

    • David Poland responds! [The Hot Blog]

    • …now that that’s over…

    • Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are set to receive the PGA’s Milestone Award. [Variety]

    • Anthony Breznican chats it up with James Bond himself, Daniel Craig. [USA Today]

  • U.K. ‘Che’ teaser

    Courtesy of the Telegraph comes this British teaser trailer for “Che,” which makes it look rather more gung-ho and biopic-styled than it really is.

    I’ve been struggling with the two films slightly in the week since I saw them. I was more persuaded by Soderbergh’s vision than Kris, but I’m not sure if I was all that moved. The lack of urgency in the filmmaking may just be carrying over to its staying power in my memory — but then, I was suffering from festival fatigue when I saw them. I really need to rewatch both films in a couple of months to see where I stand.

    Anyway, enjoy:

  • Dream big

    I think, as of today, Deepa Mehta is officially the bravest woman in movies.

    My reason for saying this? Well, she’s only taking on the small task of filming Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children,” a novel so vast in scope and fanciful in tone that no filmmaker has dared touch it since its publication in 1981. Screen Daily reports:

    The film-maker announced the film with Rushdie today, at the eighth annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival following last night’s New York premiere of her latest film, Heaven On Earth.

    The partners will start writing in March and expect to begin production at the end of 2010 on Rushdie’s 1981 allegorical tale about the country of his birth. The story is told through the eyes of Saleem Sinai, one of many characters born at the stroke of midnight on August 15 1947 when India gained independence from the British Empire.

    The idea of Rushdie adapting his own work is intriguing — on the one hand, he has no screenwriting experience, but on the other, “Midnight’s Children” is such a dense, idiosyncratic piece of storytelling that perhaps only he can really unpick it.

    Mehta, meanwhile, is an interesting choice for the material — someone whose work combines keen social awareness with occasionally dreamy visual impressionism. Her Oscar nomination for “Water” notwithstanding, she’s never quite made a completely great film in my eyes, but this could be her moment. A film of “Midnight’s Children” can only be spectacular, whether in its success or its failure. Good luck to her.

  • Official ‘Defiance’ website launches

    Paramount Vantage has launched the official site for Edward Zwick’s “Defiance,” which closes out this year’s AFI Fest on Sunday.

    Throughout the site, you can hear samples of James Newton Howard’s beautiful (and Oscar-bound) score.  You can also dive into the history of the narrative with lots of awesome and informative bells and whistles.  One of my favorite sections is the “Surviving the Winter” tab.  Some of the film’s most stunning photography is shown off during this stretch of the story, likely landing Eduardo Serra his third nomination in the process.

    Beautiful stuff.  Vantage is always great with this kind of thing, using the online experience to really amplify their product.

    Click on the image below to check out the site:

    www.defiancemovie.com

  • I want it

    Joke

    (Courtesy:/Film)

  • INTERVIEW: Dennis Hopper

    Dennis HopperThe voice on other end of the line sounds nothing like the many wild and somewhat insane characters Dennis Hopper has portrayed throughout his career, which now spans more than 50 years. This is a man who has walked with James Dean (his mentor), John Wayne (who affectionately labeled him a “pinko”) and Francis Ford Coppola.

    As a director, Hopper was part of the movement that would bring the New American Cinema into play, closing the 1960s with his biker flick “Easy Rider,” and though he won prizes at Cannes and was hailed around the world, he has rarely directed since.

    Hopper portrayed perhaps the single most terrifying character in a film with his seething work as Frank Booth in David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet.’  The same year he was nominated for an Oscar for his work as the town drunk seeking redemption with his son through basketball in “Hoosiers.”  Even Hopper was stunned that the Academy failed to nominate him for Lynch’s film instead.  He remembers roaring, “HOOSIERS?  You’re kiddin’ me, man” when being told of the nomination. “Blue Velvet” was a film the Academy obviously feared, allowing a single nomination to David Lynch for his dreamy, surrealistic direction of the classic.

    Currently Hopper is celebrating the upcoming DVD release and a low-key Oscar campaign for Best Supporting Actor in “Elegy,” a fine little film in which he portrays the poet best friend of Ben Kingsley’s introspective professor — Sir Ben as Hopper calls him.

    “I was a big fan of Isabel’s [Coixet, the film’s director] work”, he explains. “So when my agent called and said I had an offer to be in a film with Sir Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz, I jumped in. It was a very human story, the sort of film I like to see, and being a big fan of Philip Roth helped me along. The film had comedy and tragedy, and most of all characters I think we can all identify with.”

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  • Dave Karger says Obama’s win could help ‘The Dark Knight’ come Oscar time

    Heath Ledger in The Dark KnightFrom a recent post at EW’s Oscar Watch:

    I thought the sequence involving the two ferries (in which a group of commuters and a group of convicts have the power to blow up each others’ boats but don’t) was a bit too reality-show-ish for my taste. But I know most viewers loved it. Either way, that part of the film speaks to the innate goodness of human behavior. And let’s remember that Oscar ballots are due next January 12, just a week before Barack Obama is inaugurated. It’s safe to say most Hollywood types will also see that event as an example of innate human goodness. All of this only helps The Dark Knight‘s chances, don’t you think?

    Hm.  Nice point.  But the Best Picture chances of “The Dark Knight” are still extremely dependent, as David Poland noted today, on how films like “Revolutionary Road,” “Australia” and “The Reader” pan out.  If those films start to fall by the wayside, then we can REALLY start getting serious.

  • One more thing on Prop 8

    For those of you interested, there is a petition to re-open California’s Proposition 8 that may or may not have an impact.  Passing it along here for you.

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Film Editing — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionNo matter how good the storyline, plot, acting, photography and other elements of a film may be, any poorly edited film will be difficult to watch, understand and enjoy.  An editor has the task of not only finding the appropriate length of a film but also putting together scenes so they flow coherently, both visually and story-wise.

    This is a category where I often feel “most” editing is confused with “best.”  I wholeheartedly agree that it is challenging to coherently put together a film with lots of action, musical scenes or a non-linear narrative – the sorts of films typically nominated in this category. Though I personally feel that often the most accomplished editing can be seen in the relaxed creation of appropriate pace and tone, stealth editing that goes unnoticed.

    This is also, happily, not a field that tends to bring back past nominees at the expense of newbies.  Few working editors have more than four career nominations and at least two to three newcomers seem to be nominated every year.

    Historically, this category has had an incredible crossover with Best Picture.  Though in recent years, that has changed, the last three years having had only a 2/5 crossover with the big category. Last year’s winner, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” is a very rare example of a winner that was not even nominated for Best Picture.

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  • New ‘Tale of Despereaux’ trailer

    I find myself wondering what kind of a shot at a Best Animated Feature nod this film could have. “Waltz with Bashir” is anything but guaranteed, so perhaps something like this could leap-frog into the competition.

    (Also at Yahoo! Movies.)

  • 11/6 Oscarweb Round-up

    Leonardo DiCaprio• David Poland sees the passage of Proposition 8 in California as a marketing opportunity for Focus Features and “Milk”… [The Hot Blog]

    • …before running down the “short race” that is the Oscar season of 2008. [Movie City News]

    • Tom O’Neil and Pete Hammond keep on digging at Dave Karger’s predictions. [Gold Derby]

    • Ari Folman talks “Waltz with Bashir.” [The Guardian]

    • Kevin Days reports on the vintage autos used in Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling.” [Los Angeles Times]

    • More chatter about the Best Picture potential of “The Dark Knight.” [Test Pattern]

    • Martyn Palmer talks “Titanic” with Leonardo DiCaprio and the star’s desire to purge himself of the image the 1997 blockbuster molded for him. [The Times]