Tag: Barack Obama
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1/28 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Puig hearts Bardem, eclectic slate of tune nominees, Bettany’s ‘Speech’ regret
• Claudia Puig writes a love letter to “Biutiful” star (and Best Actor nominee) Javier Bardem. [USA Today]• Geoff Boucher and Rebecca Keegan note the eclectic flair of this year’s Best Original Score nominees. (More on those later). [The Envelope]
• The Coen brothers: the cartographers of cinema. [The Guardian]
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10/12 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Obama with the ‘Superman’ kids, handicapping the docs, ‘Debt’ delayed
• President Obama met with children featured in the film “Waiting for Superman” yesterday. [Associated Press]• Handicapping this year’s documentary feature Oscar race. [Vulture]
• Dave Karger explains his Gurus choices, calls “Love & Other Drugs” (one of his predicted Best Picture nominees) one of the sexiest films he’s seen in years. [Oscar Watch]
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Hollywood, Johannesburg
In January 2005, exactly one week after I left my birth town of Johannesburg to study film in the brighter lights of London, Darrell James Roodt’s earnest AIDS drama “Yesterday” became South Africa’s first Oscar nominee in the Best Foreign Language Film category.Only a month later, the rather better “uCarmen eKhayelitsha” took the Golden Bear at the Berlin fest; again, the country’s first production to take top honors at one of the major festivals. And only a year later, Gavid Hood’s “Tsotsi” went one better than “Yesterday” by taking the Oscar.
By this time, I was beginning to wonder if the movie gods were sending me a sign that I’d picked the wrong country: South Africa’s film industry seemed poised for a crossover explosion. That didn’t quite happen. Hampered by the usual financial constraints of a third-world industry, the country went back to its steady output of provincial lowbrow comedies and not-quite-there dramas, few of them seen beyond its own borders.
Almost five years later, however, something interesting is starting to bubble there again — but this time, it’s not South Africa’s own industry making waves as much as an international cinematic preoccupation with the country and its stories.
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What doesn’t kill you…
You know that episode of “Weeds” during season 3, when Mary-Louise Parker’s Nancy Botwin gets a tattoo of a u-turn sign as a symbol of strength against a former adversary of the same name? That kind of sums up why I want this Barack Obama socialism poster, fashioning the Commander-in-Chief after Heath Ledger’s Joker in “The Dark Knight,” hanging on my wall. I’m screwy like that. Over at The Guardian, by the way, Ben Walters does a pretty good job of shooting down the effort being made here by those suddenly on the outside looking in.
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Jolie tops female-powered Forbes list
I must say I’m always somewhat fascinated by the annual Forbes 100 Most Powerful Celebrities list, not least because I’ve never really understood how they arrive at it.I have no doubt the financial publishing behemoth has some sort of intricate formula that factors in earnings and media exposure to somehow arrive at a rank order, but as a total idiot in such matters, I remain bewildered by a list that compares the wholly disparate (to me, at least) achievements of such figures as Rush Limbaugh, Ryan Seacrest and Roger Federer.
But compare them they have, and this year’s number-crunching informs us that Angelina Jolie is officially the most powerful celebrity in the world.
I suppose I won’t argue with that: while I wouldn’t call Jolie the most influential actress in the game at the moment (surely that title goes to Meryl Streep in her newfound incarnation as summer-movie titan, which landed her at #64 on Forbes’ list), “celebrity” is a very different animal, and the number of magazine covers Jolie graces weekly at a newsagent’s near you speaks for itself.
Clearly that kind of exposure is a more crucial factor in Forbes’ estimation than earnings, as I’d reckon Jolie’s personal fortune is meagre compared to that of runner-up Oprah Winfrey. Interestingly, the top four spots in the list are held by women, which belies more than a few media perceptions.
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1/20 Oscarweb Round-up — INAUGURATION EDITION
“Inauguration Edition,” of course, is code for “there’s precious little movie-related talk out there right now, so forgive the slim pickings.” Here goes:• Yet another take on “how to fix the Oscar telecast.” Hey, I like Jack Nicholson. [Hollywood Reporter]
• Patrick Goldstein wonders how the Obama presidency may impact on Hollywood. [The Big Picture]
• An in-depth interview with the fascinating Gus van Sant. [The Guardian]
• EW launches a countdown of the Top 100 Worst Oscar Snubs. Good idea, but can we please ditch the fussy multi-page format? [Entertainment Weekly]
• Nat Rogers and his posse offer up some hilarious pre-nomination thoughts. [The Film Experience]
• Nick Davis, member of said posse, continues his intelligent (and exhaustive) rundown of the year’s best. [Nick’s Flick Picks]
• Meryl Streep thinks “Mamma Mia!” owes its success to Hollywood’s neglect of the female audience. Ladies, you have other choices. [Daily Telegraph]
• Finally, Tom O’Neil wonders if Mariah Carey is Oscar-bound. Uh… right. (Like I said, slim pickings, people.) [Gold Derby]
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Tuesday is bigger than movies
Way off topic for a moment, but I am Canadian, proud of my country, happy to be here, though I confess to having always been fascinated with American history and politics. There are many friends of mine in the United States and I enjoy visiting whenever I can. Cocoa Beach, Florida is a popular destination for my family and Los Angeles is always great fun.I was four when JFK was killed and vaguely remember my parents being visibly upset at something around that time. As I grew older I was most aware, and deeply saddened when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and watched the train carry RFK home, tears streaming down my cheeks for reasons I did not understand. Watching Nixon resign was bittersweet because I always believed he had it in him to be a great President (and indeed proved to be a great Statesman), and watched with great interest when George Dubya was “elected” in 2000.
Never in my lifetime did I expect an African-American to be elected President of the United States. There would always be too much racial hatred, too much anger, too much prejudice. What a pleasant shock to find that was not true, that people really wanted a change. To quote “2010”: “Something’s happening…something wonderful.”
We are in the midst of witnessing history this week, seeing something extraordinary. In remarkable recognition of what might have been, Obama’s own children stated it would have been just as exciting to have seen Hilary Clinton win and a woman lead the United States.
I am staying home Tuesday because I want to see history as it happens. And I welcome Obama’s chance to take America into the next stage of their greatness.
And I have every confidence he will do just that.
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1/15 Oscarweb Round-up
• Kim Voynar responds to the foreign shortlist. [Movie City News]• Pete Hammond wonders if “The Dark Knight” in dicey waters with the “Reader” surge coming on strong. [Notes on a Season]
• Tom O’Neil thinks keeping the Oscar presenters a secret until the big night is a mistake. Eh, I dig it. [Gold Derby]
• Paula Schwartz catches up with Clint Eastwood at the National Board of Review awards. [The Carpetbagger]
• Nirpal Dahliwal on why “Slumdog Millionaire” could have only been made by a westerner. [The Guardian]
• The Press Association gets some Obama inauguration comments from Will Smith at the “Seven Pounds” red carpet across the pond. [The Independent]
• The only nomination “The Dark Knight” will share with “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” all year long: the Publicist Awards. [Variety]
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INTERVIEW: Dustin Hoffman
He doesn’t seem like Dustin Hoffman for some reason. He sounds like Dustin Hoffman. He looks like him. But there aren’t really any traces of his decades-long assemblage of characters. And he’s got an approachability that seems somehow uncommon for a star of his stature.But there he is, piecing together a sandwich with arugula, veggie cheese, spicy mustard and wheat bread as he recalls his first major interview with Studs Terkel over 40 years ago. Terkel has passed recently, which brought the topic to the fore.
“It was Chicago, right after ‘The Graduate,’” Hoffman says. “I went into his office and he had floor-to-ceiling books and everything, you know. The office looked like him. He turns the tape recorder on and it was an intricate and intensive interview that probably went on for over two hours. We shook hands and he said, ‘Let me just check’ — and the tape didn’t work. It had been blanked for some reason. So he says, ‘You wouldn’t mind doing it again?”
So it was that we kicked off our own two-hour conversation, one steering in and out of his legendary career, briefly touching on the particulars of his latest film, “Last Chance Harvey” (now playing in limited release and for which Hoffman received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor), but mostly wandering from this mundane particular to that.
He has a fondness for iron furniture, a number of antiques peppering his Brentwood offices. A large Italian “Midnight Cowboy” poster hangs in the lobby, but I’m caught off guard by the food and drink spread in the hallway as we move into his personal office. The dainty dishes and cutlery seem to clash with the casual air of the actor before me.
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WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Doubt,’ Danny Boyle and a bit of politics
In a week in which there were more important things going on than the movies (an outlandish notion, I know), these were nevertheless some of the highlights:• Several takes from the AFI Fest, including disappointment in “Doubt” …
• … but hearty cheers for “The Wrestler.”
• We caught up (twice) with the thoroughly delightful Danny Boyle, both in London and in L.A.
• Meanwhile, Dennis Hopper was also feeling chatty.
• In the wake of the reprehensible passing of Proposition 8, we wondered if “Milk” could have made a difference.
• We bade farewell to Mr. Michael Crichton. Rest in peace.
• “Australia” got a new trailer and a new poster. Smashing. Can we see it now, pretty please?
• Listing the greatest English-language directors at work today. Debate, as ever, was heated.
• Tech Support surveyed the horses in the Best Film Editing race.
• Oh, you might have heard that the United States has a new president. The right one, at that.
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11/5 Oscarweb Round-up
• Tom O’Neil and Pete Hammond take aim at Dave Karger’s Oscar predix. [Gold Derby]• Peter Bart praises Sean Penn’s performance in “Milk,” says it soars to the top of the kudo list. [Peter Bart]
• Xan Brooks picks five films President elect Obama should check out now that he’s headed to the White House. [The Guardian]
• Plus, it’s not too early to start pondering actors who might take on the role of Obama on the big screen. [Premiere]
• Peter Knegt writes up the early days of the 2008 AFI Fest. [indieWIRE]
• T.L. Stanley sits down with “Elegy” star (and Best Supporting Actor hopeful) Dennis Hopper. [Gold Rush]
• Anthony Breznican talks to Kate Winslet about her potential one-two Oscar punch this year. [USA Today]
• Dave Karger picks three unsung performances that deserve an Oscar push (he’s always good with these). [Entertainment Weekly]
• Appalling. “Milk” takes on a whole new importance. [Los Angeles Times]
