In Contention

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  • Carrey speaks out against homophobic bullying

    I admit I haven’t yet got round to seeing the fact-inspired, gay-themed comedy “I Love You, Phillip Morris,” despite it having opened in the UK way back in the youthful glory days of March. (US audiences still have to wait another three weeks.) Reaction from my fellow Brit critics was politely tepid, and I largely forgot about the film until Kris’s highly enthusiastic response re-piqued my interest last month.

    Whether “Phillip Morris” — in which Jim Carrey plays a closeted con man who falls for his prison cellmate — works or not, its long-delayed (the film bowed at Sundance 2009, remember) US presence is welcome.

    In addition to following “The Kids Are All Right” in edging homosexual romance into the mainstream, the film’s publicity run also employs Carrey’s to drive home social messages that, however obvious to most of us, still bear repeating.

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  • THE LONG SHOT: Waiting for the miracle

    (From here on out, my nomination predictions will be updated weekly to coincide with this column. Check them out here.)

    Tweed-coated and steam-breathed, winter formally arrived in my corner of the world this week, and with it the slightly grim realization that just over seven weeks remain of this year.

    I say “grim” not so much because I’m unprepared for the rigors of Christmas shopping or because 90% of my year’s to-do list remains undone—though neither of those truths are helping—but because, from a film perspective, 2010 feels to me like it needs at least another couple of months to find itself.

    Yesterday, I found myself battling with two lists of 10 films: the first, my own provisional best-of-year collective, the second, my revised predictions for the Best Picture Oscar nominees. Neither list, in my experience, has ever had much to do with the other (of course, I’ll take that back should the Academy reveal hidden depths of enthusiasm for, say, “White Material” on nomination morning), but both the rough drafts I wound up with had one thing in common: they’re badly in need of a late-breaking great film or two.

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  • Alan Menken gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

    Monday we featured the original song “I See the Light” from Disney’s “Tangled” as part of our “listen to” series.  The original music for the track, and for the film, was composed by Alan Menken, who it’s safe to say, has been there, done that with Oscar.  (His eight statues are a record for living recipients.)

    I’ll be sitting down with Menken to talk “Tangled” and his illustrious career tomorrow afternoon, but it’s worth noting today that he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Fittingly, the ceremony took place out in front of The El Capitan Theatre, where a number of Disney classics screen throughout the year, many of them featuring Menken’s work.  (Not long ago there was a sing-along version of “The Little Mermaid.” I was so there.)

    So congratulations to him for getting this recognition (however political such things may be).  It’s a bit surprising that the guy who wrote tunes like “Kiss the Girl,” “Under the Sea,” “Be Our Guest,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “A Whole New World,” etc., etc. didn’t have his own slice of the Walk.  Well, now he does.

    [Photo: Broadway World]

  • INTERVIEW: ‘The Town’ screenwriter, director and star Ben Affleck

    Actor — and as of late, filmmaker — Ben Affleck makes his way to a cozy corner of Santa Monica’s Casa Del Mar hotel restaurant. He’s coming from a “Dad’s event” at his daughter’s school, he says, propping his feet up on a nearby chair.

    Currently shooting Terrence Malick’s latest film in Oklahoma, the multi-hyphenate has a window for awards season publicity and Warner Bros. seized the opportunity. Affleck’s second directorial effort, “The Town,” has kicked up enough buzz to legitimize an all-out Oscar push, and judging by most reactions to the film, it could be an effort well-rewarded.

    I pass along one such reaction — from actor Robert Duvall, who greatly enjoyed the film — and Affleck’s eyes light up. “Wow, really? That’s great to hear.” He playfully riffs on Duvall’s characteristic voice, adding, “He’s a spectacular personality. A genius.”

    That mixture of humility and humor highlights the majority of our conversation. Affleck is as affable as they come. Perhaps it’s years of navigating the game and knowing how to put his best foot forward with a journalist, but it rings through with authenticity. He’s a guy’s guy with a thoughtful charisma that has served him well over the years, but now he finds himself putting it all to use in the director’s chair. And while he is very appreciative of the success his latest film has achieved, he notes that he came to it apprehensively.

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  • Affleck on working with Malick

    I’ll be posting an interview with Ben Affleck later this afternoon, but as I transcribed and put the pieces in place, it became clear to me that including much on the new Terrence Malick film would be pushing it length-wise.  I didn’t want to keep it all to myself, however, so I thought I’d share Affleck’s brief thoughts on working with a legend down in Oklahoma:

    All I can say is the guy is definitely really private and I don’t want to betray any of that.  Some people don’t mind but he’s not a guy who likes publicity.  What I will say is that it’s for sure a master class.  I’ve worked with a lot of different directors and have always tried to look for something to learn from everybody.

    You don’t have to look with Terry.  Everything you’re hearing and listening to it feels like, ‘God, I never thought of that’ or ‘I wouldn’t have done that’ or ‘I’ve never seen it that way.’  It’s like the best class you had in college or something, where it’s so wonderful to be there, it feels like you’re opening up your mind to see the world in different ways.  And I’ve probably learned more from him now because I’ve directed two movies and I understand sort of the context, I guess.

    More after the jump.

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  • Duvall on Foote, Brando, Oscars and getting better with age

    I haven’t gotten around to writing up my interview with “Get Low” star Robert Duvall yet, but seeing as Steve Pond’s piece at The Odds is pretty much quote-for-quote, it would probably feel redundant. But I had to cut and paste this exchange, because it’s awesome:

    When you did your one take [of the emotional speech at the end of the film], did you feel as if you’d nailed it?

    Yes, sir, I did. Yes sir.

    Tell ’em, Bobby.  That short (if charmingly confidant) answer aside, Duvall is a great conversationalist; despite a reputation for being a bit prickly for journalists, I generally get on well with him.  I thought a couple of bytes worth passing along from our chat, in lieu of a proper interview piece.

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  • Listen to Cher’s ‘You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me’ from ‘Burlesque’

    Cher and the Academy Awards made for an interesting mix over 20 years ago when she took home a Best Actress Oscar for “Moonstruck.” Though it was probably her threads that grabbed more headlines the next day.

    This year, the singer is back in the awards mix, though for her vocal talents (which have never been recognized by the Academy, interestingly enough — though I’m not sure there have been many opportunities).  Cher is part of the ensemble of Steven Antin’s musical “Burlesque” and belts out the power ballad “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” at a key moment in the context of the film.  Cha-ching.

    Not only that, the song was also written by Dianne Warren, who has been nominated for six Academy Awards (going all the way back to “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from “Mannequin”).  And she has yet to win.

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  • 11/10 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Biutiful’ crew on the circuit, Hooper’s Hollywood education, Weinstein v. Rudin II

    • Anne Thompson ponders how the year’s mainstream studio pics might fare with Oscar. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Patrick Goldstein catches up with Tom Hooper and the director’s Hollywood education. [The Big Picture]

    • Steve Pond dutifully reports from a “Biutiful” post-screening Q&A with members of the crew. [The Odds]

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  • ‘Dagenham’ producer protests ‘R’ rating

    The delicate folks at the MPAA have come in for a right old bollocking in the past few weeks, and deservedly so. First came the furore over the baffling ‘NC-17’ rating they awarded “Blue Valentine” — a lemon of a situation that Harvey Weinstein, to judge from the steamy poster unveiled yesterday, has decided to make into lemonade.

    Another of Weinstein’s babies, “The King’s Speech,” also got the brunt of the ratings board’s conservatism when it was slapped with an ‘R’ for a brief torrent of narratively contextualized four-letter words — despite having a fair claim to being the most mild-mannered prestige drama of the year.

    We all know that bad things, like Kardashian sisters, come in threes, so we didn’t have long to wait before the next eruption over MPAA idiocy, and once more, the film at the center of it is a calculatedly inoffensive true-life Britpic. Despite having the kind of cheery inspirational message that young girls and their grandmothers alike can appreciate, feminist dramedy “Made in Dagenham” has received an ‘R’ rating for “language and brief sexuality,” referring respectively to a scattering of f-words and some gentle, clothed innuendo.

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  • AFI FEST: ‘The Fighter’ crashes the party

    I decided to come home and give “The Fighter,” which saw its world premiere at a “secret screening” at AFI Fest tonight, some real thought rather than rushing back to review.  How novel.

    Given the amount of press on hand, one imagines Paramount publicity was besieged with ticket requests following the last minute announcement of the screening yesterday morning, but the film played well to a largely public audience. And by “well” I mean they were kind of swinging from the rafters, as David O. Russell’s film is a mainstream crowd-pleaser through and through.

    There is much to admire about the film. For starters, there’s a unique energy that’s palpable throughout, owed largely to the camera work of DP Hoyte Van Hoytema and, especially, film editing from Pamela Martin. The fights were filmed in a retro early-90s video vein, duplicating the original HBO telecasts of “Irish” Micky Ward’s matches, and they have an energy that crackles. There is the sense of sterile choreography here and there, but for the most part, these scenes are quite uplifting and stand out against the usual boxing sequences we’ve seen over the years.

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  • LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 1989 and 1990

    Catch up with the idea behind this series here.

    We’re almost out of the god-awful 1980’s and into the decade where I came of age. I will say that 1989 brings my very first actual going-to-the-cinema memory, which was seeing “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” I may have gone to the movies before then, but whatever I saw wasn’t that memorable.

    As for the Oscars, “Driving Miss Daisy” won Best Picture in one of the more head-scratching results in recent memory. It’s been a trivia note ever since as the last time a film won the big prize without a Best Director nomination to back it up and it’s unlikely that the feat will be repeated any time soon.

    1990 is another frustrating year for movie nerds as Kevin Costner emerged triumphant with “Dances With Wolves” over Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas.” More notable is the outright snub of “T-U-R-T-L-E Power” in the Best Original Song race. Academy Award nominee Partners in Kryme, anyone?

    Billy Crystal presided over both ceremonies, his first of eight critically beloved times at the helm.

    So what did the Academy completely ignore?

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  • ‘Jane Eyre’ trailer

    Hot on the heels of the lovely poster unveiled yesterday, we now have a trailer for Focus Features’ spring release “Jane Eyre.” The assembly of the trailer is a touch overegged, though I’m reserving judgment — at the very least, cinematographer Adriano Goldman seems to be having the same fun with light and weather that he did in the sunnier climes of Cary Fukunaga’s debut “Sin Nombre.” Meanwhile, I get the feeling that we can pencil in Michael O’Connor (a recent Oscar winner for “The Duchess”) as a repeat Best Costume Design nominee over 14 months from now. Click on the image to check out the trailer at Yahoo! Movies, or watch the embed after the cut.

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  • ‘Blue Valentine’ poster

    Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine” has been very much in the conversation as of late due to an unfortunate NC-17 rating.  The film saw it’s Los Angeles premiere this week as part of AFI Fest and still has well over a month before it opens.  A trailer recently hit, conjuring a lovely and unique atmosphere, and today, courtesy of Yahoo! Movies, we get a peek at the poster.  Check out the full image after the jump.

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  • Ford does Letterman

    I’m not all that high on Roger Michell’s “Morning Glory” or Harrison Ford’s gravelly-voiced portrayal of a curmudgeonly news man, but I enjoyed his sit-down with David Letterman last night.  Part two after the jump.  (Mike Ryan, meanwhile, charts the actor’s response to “Star Wars” questions throughout the years at Movieline.)

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  • Robert De Niro to receive HFPA’s Cecil B. DeMille Award

    The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced the recipient of this year’s Cecil B. DeMille Award.  Via Twitter, no less!

  • ‘The Promise’ reveals art in the trenches

    After sitting there, waiting patiently on my DVR for the past month, I finally got around to “The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town” last night. The film, which tells the in-studio story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s follow-up to the gargantuan success of “Born to Run,” debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and bowed on HBO last month.

    It’s difficult to separate yourself from something that is tailor made for your sensibilities. I’m a massive Springsteen fan. My earliest memory has something to do with “Born in the USA” and playing in the backyard of my babysitter’s house in rural North Carolina sometime in 1984. I came around to really appreciating his work in high school and I’ve seen him live six times in the last decade (three times in NC, twice in LA and once in London). Suffice it to say, I was bound to be interested in this film.

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  • AFI FEST: ‘The Fighter’ sneak attack

    Paramount is showing David O. Russell’s “The Fighter” to press tomorrow night on the lot, but this morning brings a curious announcement that the film will have a “secret” AFI Fest screening tonight.  I may give it a shot.  The press release, in part:

    AFI FEST 2010 presented by Audi announced today that it will screen THE FIGHTER, from director David O. Russell, and starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo, for festival attendees tonight at 9:30 p.m. at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

    Admission to the screening is available to AFI FEST 2010 passholders and the general public through online ticket reservations at AFI.com/AFIFEST and the AFI FEST box office at Hollywood & Highland from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., on a first-come, first served basis. The Rush Line will begin forming at 8:30 p.m. All attendees are invited to walk the red carpet for the screening.

    [Photo: Paramount Pictures]

  • 11/9 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Screenwriting hopefuls, Hooper on fugly ‘King’s Speech’ poster, MPAA shamed

    • Sasha Stone on the season’s screenwriting contenders. [Awards Daily]

    • “The King’s Speech” director Tom Hooper also hates the poster everyone has been knocking. [Movieline]

    • David Poland split screens “The Social Network” star Armie Hammer. [The Hot Blog]

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