In Contention

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  • THE LONG SHOT: Critical mass

    Guy’s updated Oscar predictions here.

    Just one week on from the first formal awards announcements of the season, the Oscar season may still be taking its first steps, but my personal interest in the precursor trail is nonetheless set to peak this very weekend.

    That, of course, is when the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association weigh in with their selections of the year’s best, showing up the likes of the nominee-naming Washington group as the pretenders they are, while classing up the season with some unapologetically idiosyncratic film smarts.

    Or so we hope – for as much as the major critics’ groups often delight us by throwing caution (and Oscar-soothsaying cred) to the wind with rebellious left-field picks, they are equally capable of falling dully into line behind pre-anointed favourites. I was recently chased by Tom O’Neil’s resurrected Gold Derby site for my NYFCC and LAFCA predictions, and while I’m as game as anyone for a spot of light-hearted, consequence-free punting, the irony of the exercise still nagged away at me: the day I predict either group’s set of winners accurately is the day they’ll cease to matter to me.

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Original Song

    I guess I’ve been pretty hard on the Best Original Song category this year. It’s not like any given year tends to have a deluge of impressive fodder up for consideration or anything, but on the whole, outside of a concentration of contenders that have a fighting chance at recognition, it just seems to be an uninspired lot of tracks in the mix for 2010.

    Before diving into the fray, some quick reminding. The music branch’s rules are always in flux and over the last couple of years they have shifted, perhaps rightly, into a frame of assessing songs as they are used within the context of a given film. Let’s look at the official language from the Academy’s rules and eligibility literature:

    An original song consists of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the motion picture. There must be a clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition (not necessarily visually presented) of both lyric and melody, used in the body of the motion picture or as the first music cue in the end credits.

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  • INTERVIEW: Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese on building the perfect psychosis in ‘Shutter Island’

    *PLEASE NOTE: There will be spoilers of both “Inception” and “Shutter Island” in this two-part interview with actor Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese.

    Audience members flock the stage of the television Academy’s Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood, cameras and signables at the ready, as Leonardo DiCaprio patiently weathers the Black Friday-like storm of appreciation.

    They’ve all just seen “Shutter Island,” many for the first time. During a post-screening Q&A they’ve heard him tell stories of an “anxiety-ridden,” “intense” shoot, of playing through multiple versions of his character for the purposes of creative editing and of his perspective on virtually growing up on camera over the last two decades.

    But they want to be closer. They want to be around greatness, talent, fame: that unmistakable glow of movie stardom.  And yet DiCaprio has made a career of translating his celebrity into precious fuel for an insatiable creative fire. Rather than rest on paycheck laurels of notoriety, he consistently places himself at the crossroads of art and commerce, even putting his money where his mouth is as producer if need be. And two financially successful films that embraced creative risks in 2010 prove that the actor shows no signs of changing course.

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  • 12/9 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: NYT mag’s actors gallery, Crystal’s advice to Oscarcast hosts and closure for Ronni Chasen

    • Fourteen actors acting: A video gallery of classic screen types. [New York Times Magazine]

    • Billy Crystal’s advice to this year’s Oscar hosts: “Look like you want to be there.” [Vulture]

    • “Animal Kingdom”‘s Jacki Weaver on her National Board of Review victory. [Little Gold Men]

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  • Bring on spring already

    Okay, I know we’re all jacked up for the next few months of awards-watching, but would anyone mind if we just fast-forwarded straight to May? I’ll miss the Oscars, but frankly, the winter freeze is getting me down, the movies have petered out, and then I read a Cannes-teasing tweet like this from the ever well-informed Cédric Succivalli. Here it is, short and (very) sweet:

    Almodovar, Despentes, Kar Wai, Malick, Ramsay, Sorrentino, von Trier on their way to Cannes ’11.

    Cédric is a reliable source on all matters Croisette-related — so this would appear to cement the LA Times’s report yesterday of a “likely” Cannes debut for “Tree of Life,” though the film’s festival-shadowing US release date of May 27 was already something of a clue. In that LAT piece, meanwhile, Steven Zeitchik writes that Fox Searchlight plan to market Malick’s long-delayed opus as an “event” befitting its summer status.

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  • “You will bow to Wahlberg power.”

    (I guess I should be a good webmaster and mention: language alert.)

  • FIRST-HALF FYC: Best Supporting Actor

    Only two weeks into my new feature and I’m already a day late — apologies. My laptop (now cured, at least until its next mood swing) will graciously accept the blame.

    If you missed last week’s introductory instalment, the game is a simple one. In the run-up to nomination day, I’m picking five outstanding contenders in each major category in films from the first half of the 2010 release schedule: a period repeatedly neglected by voters in favor of newer, shinier delights. We started with Best Supporting Actress — during which I learned that a lot of you really don’t like Taylor Swift, but you still all saw “Valentine’s Day” — and this week we fill in the male half of the equation.

    Keen as I am on all five performances I dredged up from the January-to-June wilderness, I was somewhat disappointed to note a very similar template forming to last week’s list: one French breakthrough talent, one blockbuster high point, even one star from a particular film. All accidental, I assure you… but to think I complain about “slot” mentality in the Oscar-analysis game.

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  • ‘Blue Valentine’ wins ratings appeal, ‘King’s Speech’ loses

    It’s justice for “Blue Valentine” today as Harvey Weinstein’s appeal of the MPAA’s NC-17 rating has gone through, allowing for the film to receive an R and continue to reap the benefits of this publicity in the industry.  Weinstein showed up personally (a first) to argue the decision and the board overturned its original rating.

    But he was one-and-one, as “The King’s Speech,” which had been rated R for language (specifically a scene in which Colin Firth spouts of the f-word continuously as part of his character’s speech impediment therapy), will not be getting the preferred PG-13.

    I’m really stoked this went through for Derek Cianfrance and company, though.  It came on the heels of a number of stories concerning double standards with perceptions of oral sex in films like “Blue Valentine” and “Black Swan,” and actor Ryan Gosling has certainly been vocal about his feelings on the matter.  The pressure was on, and rightly so.  All is well.

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  • Listen to Tim McGraw and Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘Me and Tennessee’ from ‘Country Strong’

    Continuing this week with a last push to feature a few more Best Original Song contenders we have the featured track from “Country Strong,” namely the Tim McGraw/Gwyneth Paltrow duet “Me and Tennessee.”

    If you ask me, this is an absolutely killer tune.  So no surprise it was written by Paltrow’s husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.  Even being a country track, one can hear Martin’s influence in the fabric of the song and it just rolls.  I love it.  (And you’ll recall Paltrow’s big country coming out party on the CMAs last month.)

    The film being a musical, one would have expected it to be performed on screen.  The Cher/Diane Warren ballad “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” from “Burlesque” is in that kind of position to capitalize on the voting procedure, whereby all contenders are viewed in the context of the given films.  But it’s actually the closing credits cue.  Bummer.

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  • Jovial Bale on ‘The Fighter’

    There have been plenty of Christian Bale interviews hitting the web these days on the heels of “The Fighter” junket recently.  I happened to click on this one at Awards Campaign this morning and was totally charmed so I figured I’d post it up for you:

  • 30 years

  • 12/8 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Karger ranks, Kubrickian directors and Arndy on the genius of the Pixar system

    • Dave Karger takes a stab at ranking the major categories. (Rush above Bale?) [Inside Movies]

    • Anne Thompson talks “Toy Story 3” and the genius of the Pixar system with Michael Arndt. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Which Kubrick-compared director is the most Kubrickian? [Vulture]

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  • Christopher Nolan’s interview with brother Jonathan in the ‘Inception’ shooting script

    If you’ve been itching for more “Inception,” this week will likely be a good one for you.  The DVD/Blu-ray hits shelves today, packed with plenty of features that’ll keep you geek-gasming all the way into the holiday and through awards season.

    One item that’s been on the market for a few months now is “Inception: The Shooting Script.” I received the book in the mail this afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to find a longish 10-page interview with Christopher Nolan as conducted by his brother (and “The Dark Knight” co-writer) Jonathan.

    Okay, it’s not THAT insightful.  And it has a lot of the usual talking points (Christopher) Nolan exhausted on the press tour for the film.  But there are nuggets here and there and it’s pretty cool to have Jonathan conduct the thing seeing as he’s been hearing about the idea from his brother for the last 10 years.

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  • LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 1997 and 1998

    Catch up with the idea behind this series here.

    Before James Cameron was making $3 billion grossing movies, he was stuck directing $2 billion grossing art films that won tons of Oscars. I remember seeing “Titanic” three times in the theater at the age of 15, trying to get Kelly Adams to make out with me. I loved that movie yet still I remember being disappointed that “Good Will Hunting” didn’t take the top prize and that Burt Reynolds came away empty handed as well. We’re never satisfied, are we?

    Billy Crystal hosted and the result was the most watched telecast ever. And if you remember this show, you remember watching an endless segment introducing 70 previous winners. It was the worst.

    1998 gave us the second biggest upset in the last twenty years, when “Shakespeare in Love” took the top prize from “Saving Private Ryan.” At the time, I was outraged, but now I’m more than happy to throw my weight behind the former as a better film. Of course, we all know “The Thin Red Line” is where it’s really at.

    Roberto Benigni may go down in history as the only winner to stand on Spielberg’s chair after hearing his name. Say what you want about his performance, but he remains the only Best Actor winner in a foreign language film and that’s a fantastic achievement.

    So what failed to excite the Academy?

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  • Listen to Carrie Underwood’s ‘There’s a Place for Us’ from ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’

    We’re trickling closer to Thursday’s Tech Support column on the original song race with what’s available to us.  Today it’s a tune I didn’t even know was in the race until a PR blast hit the ole inbox this afternoon.

    It looks like country star Carrie Underwood is the race with “There’s a Place for Us” from “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” putting her in the “Oscar contender” club with fellow American Idol alums Jennifer Hudson (“Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls”) and Adam Lambert (“Time for Miracles” from “2012”).

    I haven’t seen the film yet.  In fact, I never did get around to the second installment of the franchise after being a pretty big fan of the first one.  But I’m told the song is used over the closing credits rather than in the context of the film itself.

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  • INTERVIEW: ‘The Way Back’ actor Ed Harris

    When actor Ed Harris was doing the press rounds for his second directorial effort, “Appaloosa,” in 2008, he was frequently asked who was on his wish list of collaborators. He remembers saying a couple of times that he’d like to work with Peter Weir again because he had such a good time on the 1998 film “The Truman Show” (which yielded the actor an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor). And it wasn’t long after that he got his wish as the screenplay for “The Way Back” came his way.

    “I would have done anything he asked me, whatever it was,” Harris says sipping an iced tea outside his Malibu home. “He’s such a thorough, committed director. It’s like the best teacher you ever had. You enjoy writing a paper for the guy, because you know the feedback is going to enlighten you. It’s going to encourage you. It’s going to make you better. And working with Peter is like that because his attention is so laser-like. You know whatever you’re doing he’s paying attention to. One of the things I like to do as an actor is the specificity of any given character but working with Peter enhances that even more. You’re just aware. It makes you focus on the moment-to-moment reality of what you’re doing.”

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  • On the sound of ‘TRON Legacy’

    For me, “TRON Legacy” is all about what you hear, and how you hear it.  The team at Skywalker Sound did a hell of a job creating a dynamic and unique aural environment.  In my opinion, it’s tops in both sound categories for the year.

    So, naturally, I delighted in the SoundWorks Collection’s recent piece built around the principals on the crew, led by the likes of 13-time Oscar nominated sound re-recording mixer Christopher Boyes and supervising sound editor Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, herself a nominee last year for “Avatar.”

    I’m holding out hope that the Academy at large can recognize this achievement over “Inception,” because it’s frankly a more involved and distinctive piece of work.  Check out the SoundWorks Collection’s focus on the work, featuring interviews with Whittle, sound designer Steve Boeddeker and re-recording mixer Gary Rizzo, after the jump.  (And yeah, there’s some Daft Punk talk.)

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  • 12/7 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Bridges’s terms for ‘Legacy,’ Coppola on ‘Somewhere,’ Gurus take another stab

    • Jeff Bridges to “TRON Legacy” producers early on: “Tell me the things you are going to do that no one’s ever done before.” [The Wrap]

    • Sofia Coppola talks “Somewhere” across the pond. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Jesse Eisenberg on awards season, narcissism and his feelings about an Oscar nomination. [Movieline]

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