In Contention

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  • Gray and Elise the pick of ‘For Colored Girls?’

    Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” has been a question mark on our Oscar lists for some time, but even those pessimistic about the film itself can see potential in the film’s vast, and formidable, female ensemble — if there is to be any kind of awards play for the film, it’ll be the actors who spearhead it.

    A couple of weeks ago, word spread that Kimberly Elise looks to be the standout performer in the group, and a feasible contender in a still wide-open Best Supporting Actress race — 12 years after the actress was the subject of similar (if ultimately fruitless) talk for her work in “Beloved.” Recently, we heard that Thandie Newton could be the film’s second possibility. However, Jeff Wells quotes an inside source who has seen (and loved) the film, and names a far less expected standout: singer Macy Gray. Here’s his enthusiastic endorsement:

    [I]t’s the real deal — maybe too conceptually out there for safe, old, mainstream white Academy tastes, but the performances range from good (Janet Jackson, Loretta Devine) to great (Phylicia Rashad, Thandie Newton) to pretty much masterful (Kimberly Elise, Macy Gray).

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  • What Eduardo Saverin learned from ‘The Social Network’

    You know Eduardo Saverin, the Facebook co-founder played by Andrew Garfield in “The Social Network” who won an undisclosed sum of money when he sued Mark Zuckerberg and still kept his name on the masthead of the site, yet we haven’t really heard from him on the matter?  Well, he finally broke his silence in — where else — a blog.

    Serving as a guest blogger for CNBC, Saverin took the opportunity to shine a light on what the film says about forward momentum in an entrepreneur-driven society rather than nitpick factual accuracies and inaccuracies.  In so doing, he may have made the most convincing case for considering David Fincher’s work “the film of a generation,” to toss out Peter Travers’s quote one more time.

    What is a generational film, anyway?  It was a question posed by Bill Cody at Rope of Silicon earlier this week.  I wonder.  Sometimes such classifications feel like little more than hyperbole, but it seems a lot of people really want to believe it when it comes to “The Social Network.”

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  • INTERVIEW: ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ producer Bonnie Arnold

    Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, Bonnie Arnold was a product of the Watergate generation of journalists, fired up by the state of current political affairs. She sought her undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia and soon took off to grad school at Boston University, where some dabbling in broadcasting was enough to light a fire of passion for the film business.

    “I got an internship at WGBH and started to get a little taste of what was going on and what other jobs might be available,” she says over lunch on the DreamWorks campus (as they call the Google-esque environment, with its health initiatives, yoga classes and mind-settling landscaping) in Glendale, California. That job led her back to a job in Atlanta with a television station and producer David Picker, who was working on the first season of “American Playhouse.” As soon as she set foot on location, Arnold knew this business was for her.

    “The minute I saw what went on behind the scenes of a film production, any menial job on that set was exciting to me,” she says. “Now it seems there are film commissions in every city in every state in the country. At that time there just weren’t. But Atlanta being a major airport, and Burt Reynolds bringing a lot of work there, Georgia’s a big state with mountains and the beach, there were a lot of advantages. I felt like I could be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.”

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Cinematography — Volume II

    Today we take a look a second look at, well, certainly the most “cinematic” of categories: Best Cinematography. As I like to say, cinema is born out of the camera and those who wield these devices enrich our films more than a few words written here could possibly say. From capturing mood, lighting and atmosphere to telling the story visually and creatively, our cinematographers truly are artists in every sense of the word.

    Naturally, “pretty” films, war films and Best Picture nominees all have a knack for doing particularly well in this category.

    Now that the trailer for “True Grit” has reached the internet, I surely cannot be the only person asking…is this the film that will finally bring Roger Deakins his Oscar?  He has eight nominations (four for Coen brothers films), tragically winning zero times. The photography looks amazing, and the film is exactly the sort that would seem to excel in this category. That the film also looks like a bigger Oscar player across the board (more than I was originally expecting) is merely icing on the cake.

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  • Obama meets with the ‘Waiting for Superman’ kids

    In one of the round-ups this week I mentioned the White House visit that has been a nice bit of publicity for the “Waiting for Superman” cause (also discussed at length in today’s Oscar Talk podcast).  Below is a brief video of the meeting, which has been making the rounds.

  • International ‘Black Swan’ teaser posters

    Okay, now we’re talking. By now, you should be quite familiar with the US one-sheet for Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” — an attractively demure (and unexpectedly snow-white) design that coyly masks the sexy, shadowy craziness served up by the erotic ballet thriller. Now, however, a set of four international teaser posters have landed via Empire — and they certainly aren’t hiding the crazy. Love the alternately Expressionist and Art Deco flourishes and the stark, uniform color palette (though if they were really channeling the film, that red would be replaced with blush-pink). My favorite among the quartet previewed above — check ’em all out after the cut.

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  • Toasting the DVD release of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’

    If you haven’t heard by now, Paramount Pictures is launching full speed into a Best Picture campaign for the animated hit “How to Train Your Dragon,” and why not?  When you’re talking about Pixar-level acclaim and a highly respectable box office take, it’s worth it to test those waters.

    A lovely soiree last night toasting the forthcoming Blu-ray and DVD release of the film was an early stop on that journey.  Last year you’ll recall the studio put together a similar event for the “Star Trek” home video release.

    The party was held at the new Red O restaurant on Melrose and among those in attendance were DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg and voice talents Craig Ferguson and America Ferrera.  Ferrera was a delight to chat with, eager to dive into the recently announced sequel.  I also had a nice talk with her fiancee, Ryan Piers Williams, a film buff and himself a filmmaker (Edinburgh hit “The Dry Land”).  The film’s directors, Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, were also in the crowd, as well as, randomly, actor Robert Forster.  Mostly though it was a room full of BFCA, LAFCA and HFPA members, so the aim was clear.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 36 — London fest, ‘Carlos,’ foreign film race, NC-17 for ‘Blue Valentine,’ ‘All Good Things’ and more with special guests Guy Lodge and Peter Knegt

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    This week we’re happy to be joined by In Contention’s own Guy Lodge and indieWIRE‘s Peter Knegt, both calling from London where the London Film Festival has just kicked off. Plenty to chew on with four voices on the mic so let’s see what’s on the docket…

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  • ‘Country Strong’ poster

    Shana Feste’s  “Country Strong” is, along with “Burlesque” and “Nowhere Boy,” one three “musicals” up for consideration in the HFPA’s comedy/musical category.  Perhaps it will be good for an original song nomination, or maybe Gwyneth Paltrow will be impressive enough to find her way through a tough lead actress field.  We’ll know soon enough.  We got a look at the trailer a few weeks back and today, the poster.  Have a look at the full image after the jump.

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  • 10/15 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: An unpolished ‘Hereafter,’ women dominate doc shorts, CGI in story-driven contenders

    • Melissa Silverstein on female dominance in the documentary shorts field. [Women and Hollywood]

    • Turns out Clint Eastwood filmed an early, unpolished draft of Peter Morgan’s “Hereafter.”  Well…it shows. [Vulture]

    • Speaking of which, David Cohen spotlights the impact of digital wizardry on that story-driven film as well as Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.” [Variety]

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  • LONDON: Never let me in

    In a year that has seen me give over more of my time than is strictly sensible to covering the Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Edinburgh programmes, there’s something oddly disconcerting about attending a festival in my home city.

    Admittedly, the atmosphere is dampened by the fact that many of the London Film Festival’s biggest drawcards this year are films I already caught at, well, Cannes, Venice and Berlin — I feel rather as if I’ve betrayed the fest that’s been my cinephile lifeline for five years. More than that, however, when your thoughts between screenings are peppered with grocery lists, doctor’s appointments and other everyday intrusions, it’s hard to feel you’re at a festival at all.

    Yet a festival the LFF most proudly is, and a large one at that, incorporating over 170 new(ish) features, plus formidable retrospective and short-film sidebars. The advantage of having got a head start with many of the most anticipated gala screenings (“Black Swan,” “Another Year” and the like) is that I’ve been afforded time this year to seek more buried treasure.

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  • ‘All Good Things’ trailer

    Last week we got our first look at the striking poster for Andrew Jarecki’s “All Good Things.” Today we’re treated to a VERY well-assembled trailer that should help get people to see the film.  Unfortunately it’s all in service of a total misfire, but, well, I’ll save that for tomorrow’s Oscar Talk.  Check out the trailer via Apple by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.

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  • THE LONG SHOT: What becomes of the broken-hearted?

    (A day later than usual — apologies.)

    After the London Film Festival raised its curtain last night with a typically flashy European premiere for Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go,” this morning’s papers and breakfast TV reports have been busy with chatter about what Britfilm’s two it-girls, Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley, were wearing; how the next Spider-Man (that is, The Artist Formerly Known As Andrew Garfield) is settling into his red-carpet duties; and what the whole event promises about the beleaguered British film industry’s ability to, well, throw fancy parties.

    Something far fewer people have been talking about, however, is the film itself. That’s no great surprise: after securing eagerly awaited world premieres — “Frost/Nixon” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” — for their last two opening nights, London fest organizers dropped the ball slightly by picking a film that bowed at Toronto last month and has already opened in the States. You can’t expect the same level of excitement for a gift that has already been opened by someone else, even if the ribbon has been retied.

    Still, the air surrounding “Never Let Me Go” was not merely one of used goods, but of damaged goods at that: yesterday morning’s press screening was characterized by a near-palpable cloud of lowered expectations, as tepid-to-respectable reviews and fizzling box-office from across the pond foretold a high-class shrug of a movie. “That’s going to get Oscar nominations?” a critic in the row behind me asked as the end credits rolled; his tone translated the question as, “Yeah, good luck with that.”

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  • ‘Toy Grit’

    This is actually kind of awesome.  It takes a lot for me to really care about a mash-up these days.  It seems they’re a dime a dozen.  But we’re starting to get more and more clever ones each year, and this blend of “Toy Story 3” and “True Grit” is great.  Check it out by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump. after the jump (and thanks to Zack for sending it in).

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  • Carrey kills in ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’

    I really can’t sing the praises of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s “I Love You Phillip Morris” enough.  It’s a shame the elusive film, which has been sitting on a shelf waiting for a release for some time, has taken this long to see the light of day, because it’s a delightful romp with genuine dramatic hues.  And it probably features Jim Carrey’s finest performance to date.

    The thing about Carrey — who I’ve admired through thick and through thin — is that there has always been something self-aware about his work.  I think he has been magnificent in everything from “The Truman Show” to “Man on the Moon” to, certainly, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” And the latter is where he seemed to finally be settling into a groove as a thespian more than a performer.

    Nevertheless, in virtually all of his dramatic performances to date (especially his work in the ill-received “The Majestic”), he seemed to be watching himself with a third eye, which inevitably held him back.  In “I Love You Phillip Morris,” all of that is gone.  He’s never felt so organic and believable as a character and he legitimately deserves to be a part of this year’s awards discussion.

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  • Nolan tapped for Modern Master Award in Santa Barbara

    Pete Hammond originally reported this news yesterday and the press release dropped shortly thereafter, but “Inception” director Christopher Nolan will receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s highest honor — the Modern Master Award — in January.  Here’s the release, in part:

    Established in 1995, [The Modern Master Award] was created to honor an individual who has enriched our culture through his/her multi-faceted accomplishments in the motion picture industry. Nolan joins an illustrious group of past recipients including Michael Douglas, Jodie Foster, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Diane Keaton, Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges, Peter Jackson, George Clooney, Will Smith, Cate Blanchett, Clint Eastwood, and James Cameron.

    “Every one of Nolan’s films has set a new standard for the film community, with Inception being the latest example,” comments [SBIFF Executive Director Roger] Durling. “Nolan was the natural choice for this year’s SBIFF’s Modern Master Award.”

    Standing out as one of the greatest minds in cinema, Nolan consistently pushes the boundaries of both filmmaking and storytelling. Demonstrating great versatility throughout his career, he has masterfully taken on the challenges of film as a director, writer, producer, editor, and cinematographer. His films have achieved immense success at the box office, drawing some of the largest profits in history, while at the same time they are recognized and renowned for being intellectually sophisticated and a challenge for all audiences alike.

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  • Weinstein issues statement regarding NC-17 for ‘Blue Valentine’

    In case you missed the news, the MPAA slammed Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine” with a bewildering NC-17 rating last week.  The best guess is that a somewhat intense (though by my measure, not all that eyebrow-raising) oral sex scene was the culprit.

    I’ve heard that Cianfrance will not make any further edits to the film so now The Weinstein Company will be appealing the decision.  This morning, Harvey Weinstein issued the following statement:

    We want to express our deepest gratitude to our colleagues in the industry and in the media for their recent outpouring of support for Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine after the film surprisingly received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. We are taking every possible step to contest the MPAA’s decision. We respect the work of the MPAA and we hope, after having a chance to sit down with them, they will see that our appeal is reasonable, and the film, which is an honest and personal portrait of a relationship, would be significantly harmed by such a rating.

    [Photo: The Independent]

  • 10/14 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Eisenberg could bump Damon, Pike’s break-out year, assessing Best Actor

    • Nathaniel Rogers gets delightfully painstaking with Oscar trivia, notes that, should Jesse Eisenberg be nominated for Best Actor, he’ll boot Matt Damon from the list of top 10 youngest nominees in the category. [The Film Experience]

    • Speaking of which, Damon has the directing bug and continues to bone up on the ins and outs via collaborations with Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese and the Coens. [The Big Picture]

    • Roy Greenslade sings the praises of “Made in Dagenham.” [The Guardian]

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