In Contention

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  • What was the debut of the year?

    Chances are it’s not a prize that studios are going to mount furious campaigns for, but the Guardian First Film Award has the classiest slate of nominees I’ve seen all year. Not so much an award as a nice little citation in their year-end Film&Music edition, their critics have drawn up a list of the ten best directorial debuts from the last 12 months, and have invited their readers to vote for the winner.

    They’re going by the UK release schedule, which is why you have 2007 fare like “Persepolis” rubbing up against more recent releases on the list. (And why “Waltz With Bashir” or “Synecdoche, New York,” surely the year’s most discussed freshman effort, aren’t on it.)

    So the ten are: “Caramel” (Nadine Labaki); “Control” (Anton Corbijn); “Eden Lake”  (James Watkins); “In Bruges” (Martin McDonagh); “I’ve Loved You So Long” (Philippe Claudel); “The Orphanage” (Juan Antonio Bayona); “Persepolis” (Vincent Parannaud and Marjane Satrapi); “Shotgun Stories” (Jeff Nichols); “Unrelated” (Joanna Hogg); “Water Lilies” (Céline Sclamma).

    Not much American content there, but hey, that’s the kind of year it’s been. I haven’t yet seen “Eden Lake” or “Unrelated,” I’m afraid to say, but besides that fact, I can’t argue too much with any of these inclusions. (Clearly I’m getting too sanguine.) What would you vote for? What have they left out?

    I’m still trying to break a three-way tie in my head between “Control,” “Persepolis” and “I’ve Loved You So Long,” which you may remember I kind of liked. (I’m just happy for an excuse to use the “Control” poster as illustration — seriously, has there been a better one in the last couple of years?) Check out all the details, and vote if you’re so inclined, here.

  • Could an earlier ‘Milk’ release have killed Prop 8?

    Sean Penn in MilkI find myself just now making sense of the passing of Proposition 8 here in California, an appalling measure that, however naive it may be to admit, I really thought had no chance of passing.

    Well, it has.  Homosexual couples are banned from exchanging vows like the rest of the country, and beyond rage and outright disgust, I’m left saddened and somewhat unable to fully enjoy Obama’s convincing victory.

    What the hell is wrong with this country when one of the most liberal states in the union, a battleground, in fact, for gay rights, passes such a despicable pieces of legislation?  But more to the point of our beat here at In Contention, I’m left wondering whether an October release for “Milk” could have made a difference.

    A large portion of the film is dedicated to the fight against Proposition 6, a 1978 ballot measure that would have cost homosexuals working as educators their jobs.  Their careers were at stake 30 years ago.  Yesterday, it was their right to wed — and with wicked political conniving, the proponents of Prop 8 made this year’s fight about school in the end, just like Prop 6.  “They’ll teach gay marriage in schools,” ignorant imbeciles would scream.  “They’ll tell my son it’s okay for a man to marry a man.”  Well, “they” would be right, but that’s beside the point.

    Writing in The New York Times over the weekend, Jesse McKinley covered some of this terrain:

    In many ways, the battle sparked by this latest proposal echoes the one that inspired Mr. Milk’s most famous crusade.

    “It’s surreal,” said Cleve Jones, a veteran civil rights activist who is portrayed by a curly headed Emilie Hirsch in the film. “It’s like there’s a 30-year cycle.”

    Call it life imitating “Milk,” or vice versa, but the parallels between the campaign chronicled in the movie and the real-life battle over Proposition 8 are striking. Social conservatives pitted against gay activists? Check. A Republican governor (and former movie star) siding with gay Californians? Check. Close polls, a nationally watched campaign, the potential for heartbreak?

    Check, check, check.

    But, again, that was the weekend.  Now, it’s the day after.  And I can’t help but wonder what “Milk” might have meant for today’s cause, if anything, had it landed in the marketplace last month.

    Some of the film’s most inspiring and, indeed, captivating moments come during the sequence that details the Prop 6 fight.  Consistently, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn’s career-best portrayal) makes the point, to paraphrase, “We have to make them understand that they know us.”  That message, I think, might have carried a lot of heft if voters had made it to the polls four weeks later.

    But I’m not a studio head and I don’t make these decisions.  A studio’s priority is, of course, to shareholders, and “Milk” is likely to make more money in its current release plan than something earlier in the season.  But you can’t help but wonder what might have been.  And you can’t “give ’em hope” after the fact.

  • Michael Crichton, author of ‘Jurassic Park,’ dies at 66

    Michael CrichtonI truthfully wasn’t even aware that Crichton was struggling with cancer.  But apparently, the awful disease has taken him from us.

    I remember being charged on Crichton’s work after seeing “Jurassic Park” in 1993.  Sure, he already had fans from the days of “The Andromeda Strain,” “The Great Train Robbery” and, later on, “Disclosure,” but the dinosaurs that caught the film-going world’s imagination first drew me to the author’s work.

    I picked up “Sphere” (which blew my mind), “Congo” and “The Lost World” immediately.  It was painful to see his works ravaged by the film industry, but he made his mark on the small screen with “ER” (one of the most successul shows of all time) and the original treatment that became “Twister” (part of a mid-90s glden age for action movies).

    The last time I was really entranced by a Crichton novel was “Airframe” in the late-90s, a project that has failed to make the move to the big screen to date, despite attracting talent like Richard Donner and Sigourney Weaver over the years.  I never picked up “Timeline” (though I saw Donner’s awful film) or “Prey” (though it proved to be a constant airport temptation).  Perhaps his work on an old script, “Westworld,” will still make it to the screen with the help of “Shattered Glass” scribe and helmer Billy Ray.

    The last Crichton novel published was 2006’s “Next,” a genetic research thriller that, like so much of his work, didn’t seem satisfied merely telling a story.  Crichton was always more interested in the cautionary aspects of his yarns and how they might be better capture the zeitgeist.

    For me, a one-time fan and perhaps likely to dive back in with this sad news, Crichton will be missed.

  • Rousing Best Actor race shaping up

    Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonIn a year I maintain to be disappointing, I must confess that the sprint to the finish is looking more and more exciting all the time, with an exceptional crop of actors vying for Best Actor nominations. This could very well be the year that Clint Eastwood wins an acting Oscar, or that the previously washed-up Mickey Rourke wins for “The Wrestler.”

    At this writing I have 12 actors who could potentially land in the field of play, though in fairness, four of the films have not been widely seen and I am going on the buzz and speculation within the industry right now.

    There seems to be a lot of belief that Richard Jenkins, a wonderful character actor who has been around forever, could land a nomination for “The Visitor.”  He came back into the public eye as the dead father in HBO’s critically acclaimed “Six Feet Under” and has been working consistently ever since.  This year he did a nice job as the heart and soul of the Coen brothers’ “Burn After Reading.”  If the studio can mount a decent campaign and keep him in the minds of the voters, he may nab a nomination.

    But he could easily be left out. Remember Michael Douglas in “Wonder Boys”? After the film’s November re-release for awards consideration helped him win the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Actor, everyone was stunned when he failed to land a nomination with the Academy.

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  • 11/5 Oscarweb Round-up

    Barack Obama• Tom O’Neil and Pete Hammond take aim at Dave Karger’s Oscar predix. [Gold Derby]

    • Peter Bart praises Sean Penn’s performance in “Milk,” says it soars to the top of the kudo list. [Peter Bart]

    • Xan Brooks picks five films President elect Obama should check out now that he’s headed to the White House. [The Guardian]

    • Plus, it’s not too early to start pondering actors who might take on the role of Obama on the big screen. [Premiere]

    • Peter Knegt writes up the early days of the 2008 AFI Fest. [indieWIRE]

    • T.L. Stanley sits down with “Elegy” star (and Best Supporting Actor hopeful) Dennis Hopper. [Gold Rush]

    • Anthony Breznican talks to Kate Winslet about her potential one-two Oscar punch this year. [USA Today]

    • Dave Karger picks three unsung performances that deserve an Oscar push (he’s always good with these). [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Appalling.  “Milk” takes on a whole new importance. [Los Angeles Times]

  • And with that, onward…

    The final politics-oriented posts of the year have trickled down this evening, I swear.  First thing tomorrow, it’s back to movies, Oscar and all the crazy things Hollywood.

  • Praise

    Barack Obama to be next President

  • Election jibber jabber

    Have at it in this space.  Though I have to say, I’m terribly frustrated with the conservative coverage of CNN.  I understand the networks dropped the ball eight years ago, but Wolf and company are calling states 30 and 45 minutes after they’ve been called elsewhere.  It’s difficult to watch something when you feel like you’re missing the news, so I’m making good use of DirecTV’s “election mix,” much like I enjoy multiple games on Sundays.  MSNBC seems to be calling stuff with a little more haste, while Fox News, believe it or not, is finding a happy medium.

    Also, a friend just mentioned an important point.  How much does the choice of after-election party venue say about each respective candidate?  Seriously, a posh, comfy hotel versus a community atmosphere and braving the cold?

    Regardless, Ohio and Pennsylvania pretty much makes it game over, no?

  • Hang your head, Britain

    It’s at moments like this that I would like to point out that I’m not really British. Yes, I live there. Yes, I have a British passport and a somewhat malformed British accent. But I was born in South Africa and hold those last two items in a South African flavor too. For the moment, at least, I’m calling myself South African.

    The reason for the cultural distancing? Well, it has something (okay, everything) to do with the fact that “Mamma Mia!” is on course to become the highest-grossing film of all time in the UK.

    It is currently sitting in second place, with £67.4 million — with the record £69 million gross of “Titanic” only a heartbeat away. It will more than likely happen — 16 weeks into its run, recently released “singalong” versions (shudder) are giving it renewed life.

    Words fail me. True, I can’t stand “Titanic” either. But at least it was a massive, self-mythologising event of a movie, one that broke some ground in the industry (if not in the artform) and represented a clear ‘moment’ in pop culture history. It was a film, in other words, whose stature and influence befitted such records.

    “Mamma Mia!”, on the other hand, has Meryl Streep belting “The Winner Takes It All” on a pastel-hued Greek island, like the floor show at some ghastly Sandals resort. If this is any cultural representation of the current British generation, we’re as confused as we are doomed.

    And you thought America was the only country whose credibility was at stake today.

    On a side note, it’s interesting to draw a parallel here with “The Dark Knight.” With Christopher Nolan’s film devouring the US box-office this summer, there have been calls for the Academy to fall in line with public tastes and consequently recognise its significant cultural achievement with a Best Picture nomination.

    By that rationale, should the Brits start lobbying BAFTA for a “Mamma Mia!” sweep, come February? It only seems fair, complicating factors of crapness aside.

  • “I have doubts!”

    Meryl Streep in DoubtTo bring it back to Oscar talk for a moment, the first curiosity is that people are still talking about the film when asked to refrain from doing so until an actual print is shown, but that aside, Dave Karger presents the case again (to back up his top 3 assertion in the recent issue of Entertainment Weekly) that John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” is heading for a Best Picture nomination.  He remarks:

    It’s looking fairly likely that four of the film’s actors—Streep, Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis—will earn acting nominations for their work in the movie. Since the Academy Awards began, 22 films have received four or more acting nominations. All 22 of them also made it into the Best Picture race. So for now, Doubt‘s got Oscar history on its side. But if one member of its acting quartet begins to lose momentum (Adams is probably the shakiest of the four, since her role is the least showy), then I could very easily end up being dead wrong.

    I won’t go into my thoughts on the film yet, no matter how much the chatter makes me want to (especially since I’m beginning to suspect I have a minority opinion — at least among those who’ve seen it so far).  But suffice it to say, I think all this rationalizing might be a touch off base.  One, probably two of the actors are secure.  Of the others, one needs publicity to keep an eye on the ball (brief but powerful, as expected), while one needs the coattails of major awards attention.  We’ll see.

  • Did anyone just see Rick Sanchez dismantle Joe the Plumber?

    UPDATE (3:59 p.m.): Ask and ye shall receive (thanks to Dan Crooke for pointing it out):

    EARLIER: Holy shit, Joe might want to see if his balls are intact.  That was brutal.  I hope it pops up on YouTube ASAP.

  • Packing it in

    There are three AFI tribute screenings tonight, for Heath Ledger (“Ned Kelly”), Sydney Pollack (“They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”) and Anthony Minghella (“The Talented Mr. Ripley”).  I was going to go to at least the Ledger film, maybe the Minghella (haven’t seen either in a while).  Then I was going to sit down and transcribe the two hours of wonderful conversation I enjoyed with Dustin Hoffman at his West L.A. office yesterday.  Then I was going to hammer out a Tuesday list.  But I really just want to embibe and sit in front of the boob-tube, maybe finish watching “Recount” (which I never caught over the summer).  It could be a nail-biting day.   So I’m going to go easy on myself.

    Hey, you do the same.

  • Take the Dark Knight’s lead

    Vote!

  • Today

    Vote NO on Prop 8

  • 11/4 Oscarweb Round-up — ELECTION EDITION!

    Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon• Tom O’Neil thinks there is a conspiracy to portray “Changeling” as a flop. [Gold Derby]

    • David Poland is as mad as hell about embargo crashing and he’s not going to take it anymore… [The Hot Blog]

    • …right after Patrick Goldstein says, “Screw it, here goes…” [The Big Picture]

    • Anne Thompson passed along some gossip concerning “The Reader.” [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Peter Knegt writes up the approaching season with the Sony Classics hat-trick in mind. [indieWIRE]

    • Sylviane Gold looks at the history of “Frost/Nixon,” from screen to stage to screen. [New York Times]

  • It’s Monday night

    Washington Redskins

  • I don’t have the energy for this right now…

    Yeah, I mean, I agree.  And yeah, I get it.  It’s all pretty stupid.  But after two or three solid weeks of journalistic drama to sort through and a genuine fatigue of all the harping, I basically don’t give a shit.  Movies.  Just give me the damn movies and everyone shut the hell up already.

  • Remembering cinema’s Bush years

    As the world prepares to bid farewell to George W. Bush following tomorrow’s election, I came across an apt article in the new edition of Sight and Sound, in which critic Michael Atkinson evaluates how the Bush presidency affected American film, and how the period might be interpreted by future film historians. As always with S&S pieces, it’s not available online, but it’s an insightful (and occasionally contentious) piece worth tracking down if you want to give a cinematic spin to your sense of closure.

    As has been noted before, Atkinson believes that the sense of public panic and political insecurity that  characterised the presidency has been most clearly manifested in the resurgence of the superhero movie:

    It’s easy to imagine that in a decade or two, the Bush years will be viewed as the discouraging ebb in the pop-cult continuum when everyone from eight to 80 was excited about ‘super powers’ … Clearly, a preadolescent bout of night terrors required succour, producing a trend that’s bound to date as badly as the Spielbergian blue light and Rambotics of the 1980s.

    This is the kiddie-escapist paradigm tinctured with memories of 9/11; today, the vigilantes in primary-colour tights we hanker for don’t confront the conjectural fears of the Cold War, but the all-too-tangible, falling-bodies verities of the new millennium. In “The Dark Knight,” Christian Bale’s Batman has to wrestle, as the Bush administration didn’t, with the necessity of being perceived as evil for the sake of what’s construed as the common good.

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