In Contention

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  • ‘Che’ trailer hits

    A trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s “The Argentine” (the first half of his “Che” epic, which received mixed reactions at Cannes this year but certainly has its devotees) has landed on YouTube. James at Cinematical points the way, but get it while it’s hot. Not that there’s a studio involved that could yank the trailer down, but I don’t imagine this was an intentional leak.

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAsyGJbuU9Q

    It’s certainly not good news that the film hasn’t secured U.S. distribution as far as the upcoming awards circuit is concerned. We struck the film from the record (well, the charts in any case) a month ago because that grim feeling is starting to set in. “Che” may have to live to fight another day in 2009.  But this should be enough to whet your appetite in the interim.

  • Melissa Leo: could she be a frontrunner?

    So far, 2008 hasn’t presented a surfeit of cast-iron Best Actress contenders. (Consider that by this time last year, we all knew Marion Cotillard and Julie Christie were locks.)

    Angelina Jolie seems to have been installed as the de facto frontrunner since Cannes, but I’m not really buying it – her performance has some high-profile detractors, and I’m not sure many people feel she’s earned entry into the double-champ club. Sally Hawkins would be in if I had my way, but as Kris has pointed out, the performance can be divisive. For the rest, we only have unseen prospects to contemplate.

    Into this blurry picture comes 47 year-old character actress Melissa Leo, playing a broke single mother who gets involved in illegal immigrant trafficking in zero-budget Sundance champ “Frozen River.” She is currently riding a wave of unanimous critical adulation that is swiftly translating into Oscar buzz. Over at Awards Daily, Sasha Stone has been supporting her enthusiastically, bluntly stating:

    The great Melissa Leo … is going to be among those left standing by the year’s end if anyone with half a brain is paying attention. Her performance WILL stand out among the performances of this year, male or female.

    This is no blogosphere conjecture either: Leo is getting significant press coverage, most notably a major profile in the New York Times, which notes the “thrill” of watching Leo get “enough room to explore one of the complicated, surprising women she’s so good at sketching in smaller roles.”

    (more…)

  • The Guardian fires the starting gun

    No particularly new insights to be gleaned from this, but when a Limey paper declares awards season to be officially on, you know it’s here.

    Guardian writer Jeremy Kay glosses over the upcoming Venice and Toronto festivals, picking out some awards potential from the lineup. He begins by trumpeting the Best Actor chances of Mickey Rourke, rumoured to give a “standout performance” in Darren Aronofsky’s surprise entry “The Wrestler,” which I discussed yesterday. Elsewhere, however, Kay finds little to chew on in the lean American lineup:

    The Venice lineup of US entries is skimpy this year because the writers strike in the first quarter slowed down production. As a result the studios are holding back some of their big guns until later in the year because otherwise, well, they wouldn’t have much to get excited about come November and December. Mueller and his team previously announced that the Coen brothers’ dark CIA comedy Burn After Reading will open the event and, while an Oscar win for a comedy is about as unlikely as a snowstorm in July, it would take a brave pundit to bet against Joel and Ethan, who won three statuettes for No Country For Old Men back in February.

    Well, it’s a theory. Meanwhile, I’m quite confident to bet against the Coens – the Academy rarely feels obliged to reward newly-crowned directors for their follow-up efforts. (Just ask any number of recent winners: Sam Mendes, Ron Howard, Peter Jackson, Ang Lee… ) And “Burn After Reading” doesn’t exactly look like Oscar fodder. (Of course, neither, in a different way, did “No Country for Old Men.” Who knows what these guys like anymore?)

    (more…)

  • Depp as the Riddler? Hoffman as the Penguin?

    Johnny DeppYeah, consider the source: the National Enquirer.  But apparently these two names are swirling around the casting debate for the sequel to the box office shattering “Dark Knight.”

    (Actually…there’s no source on the Depp bit.)

    Thanks to reader Ronn for passing in the information.  You all know my Bat allegiance, so I’ll use just about any nugget as an excuse to spout off at the mouth on this subject.  Personally, I’m not big on either of these choices, though Hoffman could put a certain bent on Oswald Cobblepott that would be interesting.  His name has always been in the cards, though.

    The point is, these types of rumors go crazy right around this time: post release of a successful film that’s bound to have another installment on the way.  Last time it was Crispin Glover and Jude Law as potential candidates for the role of the Joker (with the former actively campaigning for the part).  Then Christopher Nolan surprised us all with an out-of-the-box, unanticipated name and voila: potential Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

    My thoughts on casting the rest of the series are already on the record, but here’s two more names, grist for the mill, do with it what you will.

    Thanks again to Ronn.

  • The Reel Geezers review ‘Dark Knight’

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUTrh2ueqtU

  • Heatin’ up

    I don’t know if any of our readers are die hard NFL fans like yours truly, but I wanted to post this Reebok “Join the Migration” commercial that caught my eye on “NFL Live” a moment ago.  Great concept, nicely achieved, I love the separate teams trudging through these almost expressionist examples of hometown environments.  Very cool.  Check it out:

    httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=W-mmGIIE3xk

    And while I’m at it, I might as well toss up that uber-sweet Michael Mann-directed “Leave Nothing” spot from last year’s season:

    Just a few more days until the first kick-off of the pre-season.  Ooh, mama.  Ooh, mama.

  • A mark against Robert Downey Jr. in ‘Thunder’

    Paramount Pictures' Tropic ThunderI missed David Poland’s review of “Tropic Thunder,” which was published on Monday. Predictably, it’s a negative assessment. Poland hasn’t liked anything this summer beyond “Speed Racer” and “hancock” (which might say it all right there), but as usual, he goes to great lengths to make his point.

    The only real awards possibilities for the film have seemingly been for Robert Downey Jr., who gets the most laughs out of the trailers we’ve seen and has even earned some “O” word whispers in some quarters. But Poland seems to think the opportunity was wasted:

    Even Downey, who is so game and always looking for subtle touches, is stuck playing one note for much of the film. You know the note… it’s in every ad. He’s a white guy in black face. Okay… funny idea. But is it really funny for more than two acts of a movie? Isn’t the idea of writing such an inherently flawed character to push that character’s buttons in different and interesting ways through the entire film? Isn’t having an actor of Downey’s quality an opportunity to do something really interesting? Or are you, as an audience, satisfied by that same joke told 10 different ways?

    This, of course, flies in the face of Jeffrey Wells’s recent praise for the film and the performance, declaring Downey “amazing” and the performance an “Oscar-level thing.”

    I’ll make up my own mind when I see the film tomorrow night. I think it could go either way and has plenty to do with Ben Stiller’s handling of the material. I’ve found myself a fan of his work behind the camera more often than his work in front of it, but anything with Robert Downey Jr. in it seems to be gold this year, so we’ll see.

    Read the rest of Poland’s “Tropic Thunder” review here.

    In a separate take, John Campea of The Movie Blog had this to say on Downey’s portrayal out of Comic-Con:

    We all expected Robert Downey Jr. would knock it out of the park, and he doesn’t disappoint. He’s always working the character so much that even the most mundane lines that come out of his mouth make you smile. When he switches from “black” to Australian it’s pure gold.

    Perhaps Poland will be in the minority on this.

  • Tom-O ‘can’t quit’ the Academy’s insults

    (from left) Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback MountainI have to admit, I got a chuckle out of Tom O’Neil’s latest diatribe against the AMPAS.  Mainly, I just like to see him riled up, but he does have a point here.  Regarding the recent press release for the Academy’s upcoming screening of “Brokeback Mountain,” Tom had this to say:

    Am I the only person who finds the headline of a recent Oscars news release outrageous? While announcing the latest film to be screened in its “Great to Be Nominated” series at the AMPAS headquarters in Beverly Hills, the news release proclaims “Academy Can’t Quit ‘Brokeback Mountain.’” That’s a pathetic attempt of someone in the academy’s media office to be cutesy-pootsy and it’s offensive considering how cruelly academy members roughed up the gay cowboys two years ago.

    To begin with, I don’t think now, nor did I think nearly three years ago that the Academy “roughed up” the Ang Lee film that is clearly so beloved (I loved it too, so no hater-haters, please).  They certainly weren’t beholden to honoring the film with their top prize just because of its impressive precursor streak, and indeed, more often than not, the AMPAS shows that it will not be told what to do on Oscar night.

    I also am a supporter of the unfairly maligned “Crash, but I don’t feel like going there.

    That said, Tom has a point.  Let’s face it, the “Great to Be Nominated” series is an insult on its face no matter what film is screening.  I know the Academy thinks it is doing a service to the films it ignored throughout the years, but mostly it’s just digging away at wounds, some of them fresh, some of them scabbed over.

    Anyway, more from Tom:

    Now the academy says it “can’t quit” “Brokeback Mountain.” Oh, yeah? “Can’t quit” is an intense romantic phrase from the film professing undying gay love. What the academy really gave “Brokeback Mountain” two years ago was the equivalent to a gay-bashing. After the “Crash” upset, scores of academy members confessed to me that they “just couldn’t” vote for the gay film. Most of the academy members I spoke to admitted they didn’t even watch their DVD screener….

    Now if the academy really “can’t quit” “Brokeback Mountain,” why doesn’t it go back and give it the top prize it deserved in 2005? By invoking that phrase, AMPAS only insults the film further while proving how really clueless it can be sometimes.

    You can check out his full rant here.

  • ‘Buzz’ pages…

    For lack of a better term (and one I admit to stealing from my friend Sasha Stone…hope she doesn’t skewer me on that front)…but yes, we’ve been slowly working toward crafting separate pages for each of the major films expected to be in Oscar contention within the next few months. You can find a number of them already linked in the predictions sidebar.

    In these pages, we’ll be collecting the requisite information (director, cast, writers, etc.), as well as various “buzz” articles from around the web (and, certainly, from within In Contention). The hope is that we can put together a one-stop-shop for each film that will be in contention, and you can just peruse the buzz pages for any stories or blurbs you might miss along the way.

    Hey, it’s better than linking to the IMDb pages like we’ve been doing for years upon years. We’re tired of sending you away!

    But seriously, hopefully this will keep the masses informed and serve the Web site as a nice hub for all the Oscar information that tickles your fancy. Films will always be linked to the buzz pages in the sidebar and, slowly, we’ll start getting everyone to link to them within the body of our posts as well.

    And while I have your attention, a quick FYI: the server change is moving slower than I expected, but as of now, I anticipate the new Oscar update to land on Monday, August 4. Nothing much has changed, really, just some shifting and sliding for the most part. So be on the lookout for that. And Brian’s “Page to Screen” column begins Tuesday, August 5.

    We’re gettin’ close!

  • Plugging away: John’s new book

    Cover of Clint Eastwood: Evolution of a FilmmakerSome of you may know that our own John Foote, in addition to toiling away in the life of a film critic and educating the next generation of Canadian filmmaking talent at the Toronto Film School, is also an author.

    His most recent release is “Clint Eastwood: Evolution of a Filmmaker,” which is available now at Amazon.com and through the publisher, Greenwood Publishing Group.  Many of the posts he has written about the director have no doubt been informed by much of the research he has put into this project.

    Next up, John has a contract with Greenwood to write a book about director Steven Spielberg, so be on the lookout for that when it comes down the pike.  And if I’m not mistaken, he has also written an unpublished book about actor Robert Duvall (who we all know he cherishes as the screen’s greatest thespian).  Here’s hoping he can get that one into the hands of someone willing to distribute it to the masses.

    Exciting stuff all around.  Congrats, John.  Now…send me a copy already.  Autographed.  And that’s Kris, with a “K.”

    (Seriously…bravo.)

  • And often, the Academy gets it right…

    United Artists' Midnight CowboyAs much as I rant about some of the bizarre choices made by the Academy, let’s be fair…there are times when they are right on the money.

    The AMPAS allowed for an embracing of the New American cinema with their awards for Best Picture and Best Director for “Midnight Cowboy” in 1969, and only they had the courage (and the smarts) to recognize that “The Godfather Part II” was a superior film to the first in handing it the same two trophies. They had awarded “The Godfather” Best Picture two years earlier, but much of the precursor circuit (and all of the critics groups) largely ignored the sequel, opting instead for films such as “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and “Chinatown,” among others.

    The five awards betsowed on “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1975 are among the group’s best choices ever, in particular the honors for actor Jack Nicholson and director Milos Forman.

    Though far too often dismissed as a chick flick, “Terms of Endearment” was a marvelous slice of life that the Academy embraced with five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Director. By the way, is it not odd that first time winner James L. Brooks has never again been nominated in the directing category again, despite two Best Picture nominees in “Broadcast News” and “As Good As It Gets?”

    I remember cheering loudly the many wins for “Amadeus,” “Out of Africa” and “Platoon” three years in a row, and though I believe “Goodfellas” is a better film, I was pleased to see a western, “Dances with Wolves,” win seven Oscars.

    No arguments from me between 1991 and 1993, with “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Unforgiven,” and “Schindler’s List” all most deserving winners. And though I prefer “Pulp Fiction,” I understand why “Forrest Gump” took the top prize in 1994.

    Bravo, too, to the Academy for honoring “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” a bonafide movie masterpiece, and again the following year for “Million Dollar Baby.”

    So you see, for all my bitching (and we all do it…come on), I concede that the Academy does, from time to time, nail the best.

  • ‘W’: bush league?

    Josh Brolin is George W. Bush in WI need to tread gently here and if offend that is not my intention…at all.

    I am not an American but I’ve always been fascinated with American history and politics. While I would never presume to know more about America than its own people, I must admit I struggle with the idea of George W. Bush as president for many of the same reasons Americans do. All of the previous individuals who have held office in my lifetime possessed intelligence — it burned in their eyes — but I do not see that in President Bush at…all.

    Time Magazine did a feature about a year or so ago asking whether or not Bush was the worst US President in history and I believe he won by quite a margin.  Is he fodder enough for a film?  Should it be right now? Should it be directed by Oliver Stone?

    (more…)

  • Venice puts cinema ahead of stars

    There are some major surprises in the competition lineup for next month’s Venice Film Festival, not the least of which are the global flavour and soberness of the lineup itself. In previous years, the Lido has proved a launchpad for starry, surefire awards vehicles (“Atonement” and “Michael Clayton” both made successful bows there last year, while recent festival hits include “Far From Heaven,” “The Queen” and Golden Lion winner “Brokeback Mountain.”)

    Looking down this year’s list, it’s difficult to find much that has quite the same cache – and the competition looks all the more intriguing for it. Artistic director Marco Mueller has commendably narrowed the English-language contingent, and has taken greater risks within that selection, most notably nabbing an unexpected “wet premiere” (as in straight from the lab) of Darren Aronofsky’s latest, “The Wrestler.”

    The film, about a retired pro wrestler struggling to make a comeback, sounds like an interestingly low-key change of pace for Aronofsky after his beautiful folly “The Fountain” (another Venice debutante) fell foul of pretty much everyone two years ago. This project finds the former wunderkind working from someone else’s screenplay for the first time, which could prove a healthy change, and there are some interesting changes of the guard elsewhere too – most notably swapping regular cinematographer Matthew Libatique for the exciting Maryse Alberti (continuing what might be a banner year for female DPs). With an almost too perfectly cast Mickey Rourke in the lead, and support from the ever-terrific Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood, a warm festival reception could put this on the Oscar charts.

    There will be fewer megastars parading the Venice carpet than in previous years, but when one of them is Charlize Theron, how many do you need? Together with Kim Basinger, she will be at Venice to promote the competition title that, together with the new Miyazaki, I’m personally most excited about: Guillermo Arriaga’s helming debut, “The Burning Plain.”

    (more…)

  • Bond chooses ‘Another Way to Die’

    Well, I said I would remain guarded when the rumour mill stated that Duffy was “almost certain” to sing the long-discussed theme song for “Quantum of Solace.” And rightly so. After a drawn-out process in which seemingly everyone in the pop universe but Michael Jackson was at one point in the running, the producers have finally announced their selection. And I, for one, did not see this coming.

    Alicia Keys. And Jack White. Together.

    Yep, in what will be the first ever duet in the 22-song history of Bond themes, the soul diva (who was, in fact, deemed the frontrunner for the gig a few weeks ago) and the blues-rocker will collaborate on “Another Way to Die.” (Now wouldn’t that have been a better title for the film?) The White Stripes and Raconteurs frontman is writing and producing the track, and will also – oddly – play drums. (Is Meg busy or something?)

    Now I know this sounds hypocritical coming from me, since I pretty much slated Keys as a potential Bond chanteuse, but this pairing has me excited. Keys has a terrific voice; it’s her bland songwriting of late that has bothered me. White’s writing should hopefully push her into more dangerous musical territory, and the fusion of her lush throwback sound with his more elemental style sounds like a good fit for an old-school film franchise that’s undergone a very contemporary makeover.

    At the very least, the song should be interesting. (And I haven’t said that about a Bond theme in some time.) And the team-up has the right balance of familiarity and critical cred to prove, potentially, rather Oscar- friendly. It’d be nice to have a Brit involved, but you can’t have it all.

    Smart choice, 007.

  • Changing servers

    Things will be slow and/or funky around here for the next couple of days.  The spike in traffic resulting from the switch to daily coverage during the off-season has forced me to change servers.  It’s a good thing, but a process, so bear with us for a few.

  • Rick Baker talks ‘Wolf Man’

    Benicio Del Toro in The WolfmanCapone of Ain’t It Cool News cornered makeup effects artist Rick Baker at Comic-Con yesterday to discuss the upcoming Benicio Del Toro starrer “The Wolf Man.” It’s a dream project for the prosthetics wizard behind films such as “The Nutty Professor,” “Dr. Suess’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Planet of the Apes” and Capone got some solid quotes out of the guy.

    Like this bit about how Baker seems to have felt somewhat slighted on the set by those who, in a nutshell, don’t understand that he’s the shit:

    …it was sometimes strange how I was treated…sometimes they would shoot scenes using my work when I wasn’t even there…Other times when I was there if I try to look at the monitor, someone would literally stand in my way and block it. On other films, I’m usually right there side by side with the director at the monitor. It was strange…Maybe I’m just getting too old to do this anymore. I mean, I love making these movies, but if it’s going to be like this from now on…

    And this aside regarding the return of practical effects as a staple for filmmakers shunning the abuse of CGI:

    I think CGI absolutely has a place in filmmaking. I dabble in it myself; I like creating shit. But when I sought out this job, I actually did a makeup test on myself, just put the applications on my face and videotaped it and sent it in… It certainly easier to get better performances from the actors using more practical effects. If they’re supposed to be looking at some awesome landscape or some other kind of environment, and all they’re seeing is green screen, you notice the change in the acting, like with the last three STAR WARS films.

    It’s a solid interview well worth the read.  This is, after all, the guy who put the Best Makeup Oscar on the map when the award was created specially for his work in “An American Werewolf in London.”  Personally, seven years later, I’m still shocked he was snubbed for his work in “Planet of the Apes.”

    And if “The Wolf Man” is a dream job for him, you better believe it’ll be a dream movie for fans of his handiwork.  Suffice it to say, 2009 has a bona fide contender for Best Makeup waiting in the wings.

  • Robert Duvall: the screen’s greatest, ignored too often

    Robert Duvall“There are two greats in America right now.  The first is Brando, whose best work is behind him, and the other is Robert Duvall.”

    Legendary acting guru Sanford Meisner said those words in the 1960s.  He trained Robert Duvall at the Nieghborhood Playhouse in the late 1950s and early 1960s before the actor’s screen debut in “To Kill a Mockingbird” as the children’s boogey man and savior Boo Radley. In the years since, Duvall has given some of the greatest performances captured on film, yet stands in his seventies now with just a single Oscar to his credit, a Best Actor trophy for his country and western singer in 1980’s “Tender Mercies.”

    There are many, myself included, who consider Duvall the most purely gifted actor in American cinema.  He’s always lacked the leading looks to harness the roles often awarded to other players. Instead he has toiled quietly yet effectively as a character actor, often playing second fiddle to bigger stars and stealing the film more often than not.

    (more…)

  • Stop the insanity!

    Too much.