In Contention

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  • Musings on a third ‘Dark Knight’ viewing…masterpiece?

    Christian Bale in The Dark KnightSo once with the press, a second on my own, and a third time last week with my 16-year-old daughter, and still the film enthralled me from beginning to end. In fact, I probably liked it more this time than I did the previous two, realizing as the film’s mighty power rolled over me that I was watching something truly spectacular, the likes of which we have not seen for quite some time, and are not likely to see again.

    Here is a film, a work of art that is also a movie, a great ride for the mainstream audiences seeking nothing more and a reward for those who are.  For we film maniacs who like our films to have substance, “The Dark Knight” is loaded with it: Christian Bale’s tortured hero, Heath Ledger’s deeply troubled Joker, Aaron Eckhart’s truly decent man corrupted by loss and the Joker’s twisted games, Michael Caine’s wise and warm Alfred, and the heart of the film, Gary Oldman as James Gordon, who alone understands the Dark Knight’s sacrifice for the good of his city.

    The action sequences are stunningly choreographed, but Nolan is aware that his film must have much more. He gives the picture a mood and tone that is perfect for the screenplay, he guides his actors with a delicate hand, allowing them to inhabit the characters, and he understands not only his subject, but his audience’s expectations.

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  • POLL: What’s your favorite Danny Elfman score?

    Another slow news week yields another fun-ish poll rather than something a little more interesting.  Oh well.

    In any case, with yesterday’s item about Danny Elfman taking up scoring duties on Joe Johnston’s “The Wolf Man” and some light Oscar discussion around the composer, I thought I’d ask for your favorites.  It’s difficult to put the right list together, and inevitably, some of the Tim Burton stuff has to go to make room for things like “Dick Tracy” that really deserve to be on a list of 10 (well, nine plus an “other” option).

    So have at it in the poll.  What’s your favorite Danny Elfman score?  Feel free to discuss his work below.

  • Brilliant casting item of the day…

    Michael Keaton as Ken (of Ken and Barbie) in “Toy Story 3.”  Awesome.

  • Perennial Oscar snubee Danny Elfman gets another shot at missing the list with ‘Wolf Man’

    Danny ElfmanIt really is a shame that Danny Elfman hasn’t received the proper amount of recognition for the consistently screwed-up music branch of the Academy.  Well over two decades of quality work and three measly nods…neither of them for his top tier efforts.

    This is a guy who put together probably the greatest film score of all time (and kudos to Andy Trudeau for agreeing with me).  At the very least he’s carved a spot as one of the most prolific (if at times derivative) composers in the industry, instantly recognizable and always working the thematic context of the films he scores.

    Anyway, I just stumbled across the news that Elfman will be scoring Joe Johnston’s “The Wolf Man” (via /Film).  Personally I think it’s an awesome choice and a natural fit for Elfman.  I don’t know what sort of quality we can expect from the film, though.  Johnston took up the reins on the flick after Mark Romanek walked and makeup artist Rick Baker has already done his share of bitching about the on-set experience.  But I thnk we can all agree Elfman will elevate the atmosphere with his generally epic and creative work.

    Before “The Wolf Man,” by the way, will be  Gus Van Sant’s “Milk.”  Elfman was nominated in 1997 for Van Sant’s “Good Will Hunting,” so maybe lighting will strike again.  Maybe.

  • God bless the committed…

    SinkTitanic.com

  • Could a preemptive DVD release bolster ‘Visitor’ star Richard Jenkins in this year’s Best Actor race?

    Richard Jenkins in The VisitorAs you may have noticed, Anchor Bay Entertainment has announced that “The Visitor,” my mid-year pick for best film, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 7th. I’ve long argued that films, especially very good ones, are bolstered in the Awards race by their DVD release and this could be a starting gun for this mid-year gem.

    Richard Jenkins, the lead actor in the film and its most inimitable aspect, is relatively unknown in the derby. While he’s appeared in more than 50 films (recently in “Step Brothers”), Jenkins hasn’t had much of a presence on the awards circuit. His only award nomination to date is an Independent Spirit Award tip for his role in “Flirting with Disaster.” He’s already picked up two awards for his role in “The Visitor” at Method Fest and the Moscow International Film Festival.

    At its peak, “The Visitor” was running in only 270 theaters across the United States. It stayed in general release for only 13 weeks, yet it grossed almost $10 million. Compare that, for example, to “The Dark Knight,” which was released in 4,366 theaters.

    In what I anticipate to be a competitive Oscar season, an early fall DVD release might be the great equalizer for “The Visitor” and for Jenkins, especially. To find his way into the final five for Best Actor he’s going to have to outpace Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jamie Foxx, Frank Langella and Leonardo DiCaprio — major names all around, with other contenders right on the outskirts.

    One thing that might go to Jenkins’s benefit is that he clearly gave the best first half performance. Mainstream publications like The New York Times ran feature stories about him, and, of course, the film received glowing reviews from critics. But as we all know from the dozens of independent films that receive similar recognition each year, early buzz and critical acclaim isn’t enough to push a film or its lead actor out in front.  It takes passion.  And the kind that lasts.

    Enter the DVD. Smartly released in October, will it give Academy members a chance to see it without having to sort through the hundreds of other DVDs that will arrive on their doorsteps in late-December and early-January? If they do, I suspect they’ll have the same reaction I did: Richard Jenkins gave one of the finest performances of the year.  And that might be enough to propel him into the final five.

  • The top 15 greatest foreign language films ever

    Nosferatu the VampyreI thought I’d respond to some harking in a recent post about my tendency to lean toward domestic cinema.  The assumption seems to be that I don’t care for foreign language cinema, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

    One of the great joys of attending a film festival is to seek out films from other countries, to learn what one can about their cultures through their brand of cinema and to understand that art, in any form is really not so different around the globe.

    I discovered foreign language film at a very young age thanks to a local rep cinema that constantly played movies like “Breathless,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Wild Child” and “Rules of the Game.” The first time I went to see “Breathless” I was 13 and was thrilled by this “new” experience of reading subtitles and watching something that seemed so different to me. Of course as I matured I realized that what seemed new was the artistic vision of a different culture.

    The old theater ran some films directed by the great Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray: The Apu Trilogy. For the first time I saw what extraordinary realism could be created on the screen. I remember when “The Tin Drum” was banned in Ontario (stupid, stupid, stupid). I headed down to Buffalo to see it…loved it.

    I remember the first time I saw a film directed and written by Lina Wertmuller, who was huge in the 1970s for a short time, as well as my discovery of Ingmar Bergman and Bernardo Bertolucci as well, Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini, their films forever seared into my mind.

    Now back to the reason for posting this entry: Do I prefer North American cinema? Shoot me, but yes I do, because it is what I was raised on, what I am used to.

    Random asides on some of the greats…I believe Ingmar Bergman is overrated, and though I have enjoyed a few of his films, I certainly do not believe everything he makes is a masterpiece. His work, the two exceptions on this list below, strikes me as pretentious and over-intellectualized.

    Though Jean-Luc Godard did something rather extraordinary with “Breathless,” I have not liked much of anything else he has directed, some of it nothing more than artistic masturbation.

    I think it is somewhat sad that so few foreign language films actually make it to these shores, however.  But on with the list…

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  • …but will anyone release it?

    Steven Soderbergh's Che

    (Courtesy: Rope of Silicon)

  • Touchdown in Houston

    No this ain’t football talk. Apologies on the content drought from my end. Travelling, family, friends, bridezillas and all the drama they entail.

    I notice tonight that Anne Thompson has beaten me to the Viggo Mortensen story I was looking forward to cranking out tomorrow. Oh well, it’s worth it just that SOMEONE is writing it. “Good” presenting itself in the festival landscape makes Mortensen a prime commodity if “The Road” and “Appaloosa” didn’t already sell you.

    Speaking of which, Robert Parker’s novel is making for a nice and breezy (if somewhat cliched) in-flight read. I’ve pushed through well over 100 pages since Raleigh.

    What’s most striking is the relationship between Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, the nuances, the wordless conversations, the ease of the chemistry. If Mortensen and Ed Harris can carry that much across on screen we’ll all be in for a treat.

    But more on that when I finish the book.

    Back in L.A. midnight-ish. Things should be back to normal next week. Thanks to John and Guy for keeping things moving around here.

  • Beyond the biopic

    Halfway through watching the recently uncovered trailer for Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon,” I felt my stomach sinking with involuntary dread, and it took me a beat or two to figure out why.

    The problem didn’t appear to be the film itself; in fact, the relatively zippy trailer promises something somewhat tighter and wittier than I’ve been expecting from the odd (to my eyes) pairing of Ron Howard and Peter Morgan.

    No, what had me grimacing in anticipation of things to come were the glimpses we are offered of Frank Langella as Tricky Dick – a showcase that, in the space of two minutes, manages to tick so many Academy boxes that Langella could probably nab a nomination for the trailer alone.

    The studied gait, the mannered vocal cadences, the escalating, booming rage in his confrontations with Michael Sheen’s David Frost (anyone want to lay bets on the “when the president does it, it is not illegal” clip being used in the Best Actor presentation on Oscar night?) … all the elements appear to be in place for the kind of superficially impressive inhabitation of celebrity that has lately dazzled the voters on a yearly basis.

    Let it be said, I’m not dismissing Langella’s performance – he may be very good indeed. (Though now that The Guardian has pointed out the vocal similarities between Langella’s Nixon and Sean Connery, that discordant parallel will remain firmly lodged in my brain.) And after a long career with two recent near-misses at an Oscar nomination (“Good Night, and Good Luck” and the wonderful “Starting Out in the Evening”), I could hardly begrudge the man some recognition.

    But at the same time, if someone were to issue a moratorium on rewarding biopic performances for the next decade or so, I would be right on board. For the last ten years running, at least one of the four winning performances each year has been a portrayal of a real-life figure. Daniel Day-Lewis just broke a three-year biopic run in Best Actor category; over in Best Actress, a mere two of the last nine victors played fictitious characters.

    I’m not so contrary as to assert that none of them were deserving, but I don’t mind admitting that I’m a little fatigued. More than that, I’m exasperated at how easily, and consistently, impressed the Academy has been by this particular trick.

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  • Obama/Biden

    I’m Iphone-filing from a dicey signal area in Charlottesville, Virginia, but I wanted to comment on what will obviously be the news item of the weekend.

    I honestly have been expecting Evan Bayh for at least as long as I had formerly expected Sebelius. But the ultimate choice was really the obvious one throughout. The challenge now is Biden’s “he’s not ready” stuff, of course. Hopefully the campaign won’t be afraid to give the obvious response: we’ve got a balanced ticket now.

    I’m pretty excited. The convention promises to be a good time for the hopeful. And Warner’s keynote (they love him out this way) will likely be the starting point for a post-Obama party and a galvanizing moment for it’s future.

    Good things.

  • New ‘Appaloosa’ stills — Jeremy Irons!

    Warner Bros. released a slew of new pics from Ed Harris’s “Appaloosa” today, including this rockin’ shot of Jeremy Irons:

    Jeremy Irons in Appaloosa

    Check out the gallery for more.  This film can’t get here soon enough!

  • Will Spielberg turn his attentions to ‘Lincoln’ after withdrawing from ‘Chicago 7?’

    Abraham LincolnSteven Spielberg announced quite some time ago, a year and a half at least, that he planned to make a biography of President Lincoln with Liam Neeson as the 16th American President. Excited about this right away, I sat and waited, and waited, and waited, while he did the latest Indiana Jones film (no argument, it was fun) and then moved on to “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” or so it seemed.

    Word is that he has not withdrawn from the Lincoln project.  I am hoping he goes at it with a vengeance.  Liam Neeson was announced as Lincoln with Sally Field as his wife Mary Todd. They seem like roles of a lifetime for each.

    When Spielberg throws himself into an important film, there is no stopping him, as we have seen with “Empire of the Sun,” “Schindler’s List,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” and “Munich,”etc. “Lincoln” sounds to me the stuff of legend, a film that could be for the ages and might bring the man his third Oscar for directing. Hopefully this one is on the near horizon for him. The story is fascinating and deserves proper treatment. He was a great man who fought to unite the nation and treat all men as equals, with a tragic home life, and finally the victim of an assassin’s bullet.

    Please Mr. Spielberg, get to “Lincoln”.

  • T.L. Stanley calls for a stop to the ‘Thunder’ madness

    I hadn’t checked in with T.L. Stanley’s ever-entertaining blog for a while, partly because she hasn’t been dealing with that much film-related content lately. But here she offers an amusing take on the breathless awards prognostications floating round the blogosphere for decidedly non-prestige titles:

    Not sure what’s more off-the-wall these days: Web-fueled discussions that try to advance some non-Oscar performances for the major award, or blog chatter handicapping the race based on movies that no one has seen. It could be a draw.

    Well, we’re all guilty of the latter – otherwise there’d be precious little to write about for half the year. But she has a point on the former, and it comes into focus when she addresses the Best Supporting Actor rumblings around Robert Downey Jr.’s performance in “Tropic Thunder.” Stanley, for one, ain’t buying:

    The latest to catch our eye has been the meta-moment call for a best supporting actor nod for Robert Downey Jr. for his blackface actor/soldier in “Tropic Thunder.” Not that we didn’t love him — not that we don’t always love him — but we can come to no other conclusion than that the awards drive itself is satire, as in, you guys must be kidding … In no way is that an Oscar performance, zeitgeist-catching and guffaw-inducing though it was.

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  • ‘Religulous’: Variety is a believer

    Concerns have been expressed on this site that Larry Charles’ and Bill Maher’s “Religulous” would emerge as an exercise in left-leaning smugness, taking potshots at easy, cherry-picked targets to equate faith with absurd naivete. Certainly, the jokey, swiftly-edited trailer didn’t do much to shift this feeling.

    But Variety’s review of the film paints a decidedly different picture. Going so far as to call it “brilliant (and) incendiary,” they describe the film as a study that, while not neglecting its obvious comic angles, tackles its subject with appropriate profundity and inquisitiveness:

    To the film’s credit, Maher never engages in Michael Moore-style gotcha tactics, but rather asks questions that raise more questions, in the form of a Socratic dialogue. To believers expecting a blind hatchet job, this will prove both thought-provoking and a bit disarming; skeptics may be surprised (as Maher is) by the occasionally smart replies to his queries.

    Though the review does make reference to Maher’s occasionally flip comic tactics (contradictory subtitles accompanying interviews, and the like), the critic seems a little taken aback by a solemn conclusion to the film:

    Ending minutes, though, will catch auds up short: Suddenly, the laughs die down, and as in his closing monologues on “Real Time,” Maher turns deadly serious with a final statement that will stir raging arguments in theater lobbies.

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  • Had to share

    I don’t know if this has popped up elsewhere before, but reading through the nominees for the upcoming World Soundtrack Awards at /Film (which include “WALL-E”‘s first nod of the year), I totally fell in love with this shot of “There Will Be Blood” composer Jonny Greenwood melded with a scene from the flick.  Check it out:

    Johnny Greenwood

  • Foreign film race begins… get ready to groan

    Variety carries details of the first official entry that I’ve heard of in the Best Foreign Language Film derby – Denmark has put forward “Worlds Apart,” from director Niels Arden Oplev. The country has a pretty good track record in this category, having won back-to-back in the 80’s with “Babette’s Feast” and “Pelle the Conqueror,” while Susanne Bier’s popular “After the Wedding” nabbed a nomination two years ago.

    “Worlds Apart,” which has already secured US distribution, is a small-scale pic focusing on a teenage Jehovah’s Witness forced to make a difficult choice when she falls in love with a non-believer. It all sounds terribly earnest, but that’s right up the Academy’s alley when it comes to this category. Reviewing the film at the Berlin festival back in February, Variety called it a “provocative, well-turned drama,” and speculated that a US remake could be on the cards.

    Apparently, the Academy has invited 96 countries to enter the race this year, with the submission deadline looming large on October 1. They should be looking to regain some credibility in this category after the embarrassing fiasco of last year’s race, which saw a banner year for world cinema reduced to the most tepid slate of foreign-language nominees in recent memory, as landmark pictures like “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days,” “Lust, Caution” and “Persepolis” were, one by one, either snubbed or disqualified.

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  • ‘Coraline’ featurette

    Still waiting to find out whether this one will be finished for an Oscar qualifying run in December.

    I must say, I didn’t realize Neil Gaiman sent Henry Selick a manuscript 18 months before the book was published.  Looks like he wanted this to be on the screen early on and had his ideas from the start.  Check it out.