In Contention

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  • You are here: ‘Catfish’ and ‘Social Network’

    I was instructed very early on by studio friends who saw “Catfish” during Sundance, when it was still looking for a buyer, not to read anything about it.  I have, as a result, instinctively dodged every bite and nugget about the film over the last few months, so much so that you all probably knew more about the film than I did when I walked into the Arclight for last night’s final press screening (I’m also good at procrastinating).  And after all, it’s been a sponsored Twitter trending topic for a few days now.

    What I saw was an absolutely brilliant piece of filmmaking that is staggering when considered in the year of “The Social Network.” It’s a study of the here and now with just as much focus and an even greater emotional context (if you’re looking for it).  And whether it sought to be or not, the film is just as defining of where we are as a society as David Fincher’s effort.  Releasing it two weeks before “The Social Network” is also brilliant marketing strategy.

    After the jump, I am going to talk about “Catfish” in extensive detail.  There will most certainly be SPOILERS, and I urge you (unless you couldn’t care less, of course) not to click through until you’ve had a chance to see the film.  (The poster even implores, “Don’t let anyone tell you what it is.”)  That’s about as clear as I can be in the way of a warning.  I’d also stay out of the comments section if you want to steer clear of spoilage.  So, if you’d like to proceed…

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  • Sony adds Almodóvar’s ‘Skin’ to 2011 slate

    No surprise at all, this, given that Sony Pictures Classics has distributed Pedro Almodóvar’s last five features in the US, but the specialty outfit has already started beefing up next year’s prestige lineup by acquiring the Spanish auteur’s next outing, “The Skin That I Inhabit.”

    We first reported on the film, which is currently in production, in May. (Back then, it was billed as “The Skin I Live In,” which is a considerably less clunky translation than the one they’re currently going with, I must say.) As much as any new Almodóvar piques my interest, this one has me particularly intrigued for two reasons.

    First, it’s the director’s first collaboration with former male muse Antonio Banderas in 20 years, and second, it’s reportedly a Gothic-flavored revenge thriller — a welcome shift in direction after “Broken Embraces” found him in something of a creative holding pattern.

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  • TIFF: Lionsgate picks up ‘Rabbit Hole’ for 2010 Oscar season

    Man, Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions are getting ON IT this year.  First Roadside rolled out the early buzz on “Winter’s Bone,” then it picked up Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful.” Soon after, Lionsgate announced a fall release for Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” and grabbed Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” through Roadside for a 2011 release.

    Well, now it looks like Lionsgate is wrapping up its acquisition of John Cameron Mitchell’s “Rabbit Hole,” which drew praise for Nicole Kidman (a potential nominee now), Aaron Eckhart and Dianne Wiest (welcome to the supporting actress line-up) at the fest.

    Talk about having a full plate all of a sudden.  Deadline’s Mike Fleming reports that “the plan is to jump right into this year’s Oscar race by releasing  the picture  before year’s end. They will take advantage of a career performance by Nicole Kidman as a mother who loses her child.”  So add one more to “the year of the woman.”

    What more is there to add to that?  Congrats on a healthy slate of contenders and let the games begin.

    [Photo: Buzznet]

  • ‘Love & Other Drugs’ poster

    We’re all still waiting to see what kind of an effort Edward Zwick’s “Love & Other Drugs” might be.  From the trailers we’ve seen so far, it looks like a frothy comedy with dramatic stylings.  Early word on Anne Hathaway has been positive throughout the year.  A new poster has been released and it’s properly suggestive, I suppose.  It’s actually  been out there for a week or so now, but I’ve been waiting for a higher quality image.  Have a look after the jump and tells us what you think.

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  • Zimmer, Pfister, ‘Toy Story 3,’ ‘Iron Man 2’ kick off the season

    The first awards of the Oscar season have been announced for Carlos de Abreu’s Hollywood Film Festival.  Hans Zimmer will get some love for his “Inception” score, while Wally Pfister will be recognized for his work behind the camera on the film.  Meanwhile, “Toy Story 3” and “Iron Man 2” have been singled out for exemplary animation and visual effects respectively.  Check out last year’s list of winners here.  The press release, in part:

    The 14th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, presented by Starz, are pleased to announce that composer Hans Zimmer, will be given the “Hollywood Film Composer Award,” cinematographer Wally Pfister, A.S.C., will receive the “Hollywood Cinematographer Award,” Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story 3,” directed by Lee Unkrich and produced by Darla K. Anderson, will receive the “Hollywood Animation Award,” and Paramount Pictures’ “Iron Man 2” and visual effects supervisors Ben Snow and Janek Sirrs will receive the “Hollywood Visual Effects Award.”

    “We are honored to have these exceptionally talented artists honored for their outstanding work and creative vision at this year’s festival,” said Carlos de Abreu, Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards.

    The festival and awards will mark their return on October 20 for a week long series of screenings, competitions and awards. The Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 25, 2010.

    [Photo: MovieMaker]

  • Dishing ‘Social’

    Devin Faraci, formerly of CHUD, and CNET.com’s Caroline McCarthy talk “The Social Network” on G4’s Attack of the Show:

  • 9/16 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Jacki Weaver talks “Animal Kingdom” downunder. [New Zealand Herald]

    • Rowan Joffe on how he conceived “The American” as “an almost parodic contemporary Western.” [Movieline]

    • Mark Romanek on music videos vs. movies. [Wall Street Journal]

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  • LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 1975 and 1976

    Catch up with the idea behind this series here.

    These two years offer two of the best slates of Best Picture nominees ever in my opinion. ’75 of course belonging to the second ever winner of the top five awards, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” I’ve got no qualms with that particular film, but for my money, “Barry Lyndon” is inch perfect, every frame.

    1976 is viewed as one of the biggest Oscar travesties of all time. “Rocky” beating out films like “Network,” “Taxi Driver,” and “All the President’s Men” doesn’t sit well with most cinephiles. Guess what though, “Rocky” is in my top five films of all time and totally deserved it. Don’t listen to the haters, Sly!

    Stallone would join Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles as the only people nominated for acting and writing the same film at that time. Lina Wertmuller would also make history as the first female ever nominated for Best Director, possibly taking Marty Scorsese’s spot.

    The underdog box office champion winning top honors didn’t help the broadcast from becoming the lowest rated ever, and the first to last longer than three and a half hours.

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  • ‘The Fighter’ trailer

    In yesterday’s “what could be the frontrunner” rant, one of the titles I noted could really change things up by year’s end is David O. Russell’s “The Fighter.” Every indication I’ve received is that it’s a powerful piece of work and that Christian Bale is outstanding (so much so that a lead actor push was considered at one point).  Well the trailer has just launched via Apple and it looks like a high gloss prestige pic that could absolutely strike the right chord.  Check it out by clicking the link below or watch an embed after the jump.

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  • ‘The Social Network’ interactive trailer

  • TIFF: Invasion of The Boss

    How do you follow up a massively successful, iconic, generation-defining album like “Born to Run?”  How to even attempt to approach that level of stratospheric impact?  Well, Thom Zimny’s documentary “The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town” made its way to Toronto last night to help answer those questions, and I knew I could count on The Wrap’s Steve Pond to be there, front and center, with a hell of a breakdown of the event (which probably had the biggest draw of the fest), the screening and Springsteen’s onstage “Mavericks” discussion with Edward Norton.

    Most fascinating is the fact that the conversation (naturally) dealt with the impact of cinema on Springsteen’s work.  “Martin Scorsese once said that the artist’s job is to get the audience to care about your obsessions,” he said.  He called the small-town America of the 1960s and the rumbling underneath which Bob Dylan bubbled to the surface “Lynchian.”  He counted the “dark, bloody” pictures of the 1970s as an influence, as well as the work of John Ford, and he outright called his albums “cinematic,” which is difficult to argue against.

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  • TIFF: Lionsgate/Roadside grabs ‘Conspirator,’ Hawkins belle of the ball, Black’s melodramatic upbringing

    It seems Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” has become the first significant sell of Toronto (a few things have been picked up here and there already).  Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions (which is really stepping it up this year) have nailed down the domestic rights, but go ahead and strike the film from your longlists.  It won’t be released until the spring, Deadline’s Mike Fleming reports.

    Meanwhile, Patrick Goldstein sat down with Sally Hawkins, who has three films at the festival in “Never Let Me Go,” “Submarine” and “Made in Dagenham.” Andrea Riseborough is in two of those films (as well as “Brighton Rock”) and has been getting similar notices, but it’s Hawkins who could really make a dent on the season.

    In his piece, Goldstein offers that for him, “what makes [‘Made in Dagenham’] work so well is that it doesn’t treat its story as a weighty political screed.”

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  • ‘The Tourist’ trailer

    Sony recently announced a December release date for Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s English language debut “The Tourist,” starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. It’s likely o be a commercial play (that will nevertheless be an SEO dream for webmasters), but the recently debuted trailer showcases a delightful performance from Depp. Check it out at Yahoo! Movies by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.  (Believe it or not there was actually a press release issued Monday announcing the upcoming launch of this trailer.  Soon enough it’ll be the press release announcing the press release.)

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  • 9/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Anne Thompson sits down with Golden Lion winner Sofia Coppola, from Venice. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Patrick Goldstein on Hollywood’s on-going lover affair with mobster cinema. [The Big Picture]

    • Pete Hammond concurs with the Oscar buzz surrounding “The Social Network” after a slew of screenings in New York and Los Angeles. [Deadline]

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  • Schemers trying to control their little worlds

    It’s intriguing that two of the most press shy entrepreneurs of the internet age – Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker – have suddenly participated in two dense magazine profiles this month.  It’s almost as if there was a film depicting key moments in their lives set for imminent release and they want to set the record straight.  Oh…

    Really, though, I was struck reading this Vanity Fair profile of Parker that the character described is perhaps a bit more interesting than the more simplistic character Aaron Sorkin wrote in “The Social Network.” In the film, Parker is portrayed by Justin Timberlake as a paranoid, mean-spirited misfit.  A misfit (and party animal) he may be, but Parker is lauded in the piece as a “higher being,” “generous” and “loyal,” and frankly comes off as something of a saint.

    The writer does mention that Parker reached out to potential sources to smooth out his image, but even still, the accounts of generosity become a bit too consistent to ignore.  Parker works well as an antagonistic figure in the film, mind you, but I think an instance of some of this would have added a nice layer of depth to the character.  After all, Zuckerberg sure is dealt with in complex hues, and is all the more fascinating for it.

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  • ‘For Colored Girls’ trailer

    Ever since Lionsgate announced a November 5 release date for Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls,” talk has circulated around an expected Oscar campaign. A set of posters dropped recently that went a long way toward showcasing the female acting talent on display. But is it a contender? Could one of these ladies (or the film itself) slide into the race? Or should we expect the usual from Perry? Lionsgate did a fine job launching “Precious” on the same release date last year, but it also had a headwind coming out of the Sundance and Cannes film festivals.  We’ll have to wait and see.  The new trailer for Perry’s film, released today at Yahoo! Movies, is at the very least handsomely mounted. Have a look by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.

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  • Step away from the Blair

    Regular readers (or Twitter followers) may have gathered by now that Peter Morgan isn’t my favorite high-end screenwriter on the scene — I’ve found his recent run of factional biopics, resulting in a pair of Oscar nods for “The Queen” and “Frost/Nixon,” increasingly smug and samey, and was pleased to see him attempting something a little different in Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter.”

    Going on the mixed Toronto reception for the latter film, the jury is still out on whether Morgan’s flirtation with fiction — spiritually-tinged fiction, no less — has actually been successful. Either way, it would appear that Morgan is quite ready to return to his comfort zone, and more specifically, to his longstanding hobby-horse, Tony Blair.

    Morgan has now dramatized the career of the former British prime minister in three separate projects — with “The Queen” sandwiched by TV films “The Deal” and “The Special Relationship” — each of them giving actor Michael Sheen an opportunity to fine-tune his Blair impersonation.

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  • TIFF: Riseborough on the, uh, rise

    As Kris mentioned earlier, reaction out of Toronto to Rowan Joffe’s “Brighton Rock” has, so far, been on the guarded side, though it has found admirers — Time Out’s Tom Charity among them. Still, however the film lands, it does at least appear to confirm the arrival of Andrea Riseborough, the 29 year-old Brit who is something of a ubiquitous presence at this year’s fest, with supporting roles in “Never Let Me Go” and “Made in Dagenham” boosting her profile.

    It’s the plum role of Rose — the merits of which I discussed in Page to Screen — in the Graham Greene adaptation that is getting her noticed, however. You might remember that Kris had her in his Supporting Actress predictions until distribution doubts forced her out, but early notices suggest he was onto something. Writing for The Guardian, David Cox suggests that in Joffe’s adaptation, “Brighton Rock” emerges more as Rose’s story than anyone else’s, and that Riseborough carries the film mightily:

    [W]hether Joffé intended it to or not, Andrea Riseborough’s breathtaking performance as Rose soon overwhelms the drama. To say her achievement deserves an Oscar would be somehow to demean it.

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