In Contention

Tag: Cinejabber

  • CINEJABBER: Just enjoy the show

    So, it’s been a big week of announcements here at In Contention, and next week, a bigger week of changes. The current plan is to have the new digs off the ground on Tuesday, so we’ll have Monday to say our goodbyes. But it occurred to me I haven’t offered up a Cinejabber space for you to cut loose about any and everything in quite some time. So, let’s do that before we go.

    I’m stoked that we’re going out with a bang on our “tell us what you thought” posts, as the “Drive” discussion is easily our most engaging and lively one yet. I saw the film again last night (I’m guessing it’s the first opening night film I’ve taken in in three years). It’s such a brilliant piece of work. I hope it does well this season.

    I had lunch this afternoon with the soft-spoken and, following engagement on a studio film and the Toronto grind of last week, rather exhausted Bennett Miller. He’s very passionate about the themes and the main character of the film, as I knew he had to be, given how dense it is. One thing he said really stuck out: “Brad [Pitt] told me, ‘I’m proud of this movie, and I’m proud of it for how hard it was.’” Indeed, it was a “beautiful nightmare” getting “Moneyball” made, but Miller ended up giving the material a delicate touch and one that allowed it to work on his terms within the studio system. He’s proud of it for that, too. But more on all that later.

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: The light bulb’s getting dim

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    Well.  Here we are.  It’s probably going to be kind of difficult to use this weekly open thread for anything other than Oscar chatter, given tomorrow’s festivities, but here’s the space nevertheless.

    The Oscar Guide has been another lovely success this year and I thank everyone for the discussion and voting.  It’s come to be a nice way, for me, anyway, to fully consider things during phase two while ticking off the calendar days, eyes on the prize the whole way.  Tomorrow I’ll post what would essentially be the In Contention readers’ ballot, the results of our daily polls.  You can dive back in and revisit the categories here.

    Today brings the Independent Spirit Awards, moving back to the beach in Santa Monica after trying downtown out for a year.  I’ll be on hand, but it will be TV-delayed, so if you want the winners first hand, follow me on Twitter.  Show begins at 2pm PT.

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: Where is my mind?

    The ACE Eddies and CAS awards are tonight, the MPSE awards tomorrow, the Costume Designers Guild Tuesday, the Indie Spirit Awards a week from today, the Oscars next Sunday. I think I see a checkered flag in the distance.

    I don’t have much for you here this week, but you know the drill. Open thread. Happy Saturday.

  • CINEJABBER: Hey now!

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    This week flew by, I thought. Hopefully the next two will, too.

    This is the first weekend without football in months.  I don’t know what to do with myself.  Maybe I’ll catch up on those non-Oscar-related Netflix discs that have been waiting patiently for me to have the time?  Read a book?  Get the hell away from my computer for a day?  I don’t know.

    I’ve randomly been revisiting The Larry Sanders Show lately.  It started out as some nostalgia to pass the time online the other day and eight episodes later, it looks like I might just push through all of it.  Great TV, and a landmark for that breed of comedy.  Any fan of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” owes it a debt.

    The Oscar Guide has been coming along well. Thanks for participating in our daily polls. With that in mind, I thought I’d post the short category polls again this weekend, seeing as Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International released their package of nominees into theaters this weekend. If you get a chance to see them and still want to vote, now’s your opportunity. I’ll post them up again next weekend, too.

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: The test of time

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    I was talking with a friend this week about “the test of time,” as it were.  She posited, as have many, that “The King’s Speech” is not the film we’ll remember 10 years from now.  I don’t know that “The Social Network” is either, frankly, but I also don’t subscribe to the law of time’s judgment when it comes to these things, either.

    The film I’m likely to remember most this year?  The one that occupies my mind more than most?  If I’m being honest?  “Biutiful.” I have a lot of respect for what’s going on with that film, but I still believe it has inherent flaws that keep it from a certain pristine quality.  Flaws that won’t take on new characteristics with time.

    I think it’s become a bit facile to go there so quickly.  “Time will tell.”  Etc.  I actually think time can kill a film.  Just look at the revisionism of films that lost the Best Picture Oscar to admittedly greater works.  The haze of hindsight is not always a great lens to look through, and the inherent subjectivity of this stuff means, to me, you’re best bet is an educated take in the moment.

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: SBIFF

    I’m bouncing from this to that in Santa Barbara this afternoon. iPhoning this in. But here’s your weekly open thread.

  • CINEJABBER: Find a happy place

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    Three more days.  And then it’ll be five more weeks.  This season is unrelenting.

    It’s also more of a mud-slinging affair behind the scenes than I’m used to.  At least people are more vocal about the mud-slinging than normal (because let’s face it, Oscar campaigns are a bit dirty by necessity).  All eyes are pointed toward inevitability, and inevitability so seemingly secure that it would actually be an embarrassment for the frontrunner to come up short at this point.

    But I’m not going to talk about that.  I’ll save that mumbo-jumbo for the Oscar columns.  Cinejabber is for solace.  And brain leakage.  So let’s see…

    I’ve been pushing through my final predictions and have to say the most troubling categories are below-the-line areas, as usual.  Best Original Score is the biggest head-scratcher, while Best Costume Design is a little troubling, too.  But I’m inching toward that place of, “Screw it, that looks good enough.”

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: (insert headline here)

    Nothing to say or add this weekend.  I turn the floor fully over to you.  Open thread.  Go!

  • CINEJABBER: Where’s the exit?

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    A busy week that one was.  And an even busier one on the way.  DGA and VES Monday, ASC Tuesday, Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and ACE Friday, Golden Globes Sunday — whew!  And today we’ll have the National Society of Film Critics put a bow on the critics awards circuit (well, save for the Iowa Film Critics, but…)

    It’s almost like I’m ready for a vacation again already, though maybe that’s because the holiday “break” wasn’t much of a break for me at all this year.  It’ll all be over in T-minus 50 days.  (50!)

    The Rudin/Steinfeld thread was a hit thanks to a lot of smart discussion from you guys yesterday.  Props to you for that.  And speaking of “True Grit,” Paramount has thrown together a preview screening of the PBS “American Masters” featuring Jeff bridges with a Q&A and reception to follow this evening.  Yep, the circuit is officially creeping into my weekends.

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: Should auld acquaintance be forgot?

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    Welcome to 2011.

    I’m back in Los Angeles (missed the crazy weather on this side of the country) and happy to be home after a two-week vacation that really turned out to be anything but.  Such is life.  And the season is waiting to take hold once more with guild announcements starting Tuesday, so I better put my game face back on.

    There isn’t much to offer in this space today, though if you’re interested, I took a number of Jack and Cokes straight to the face on my flight last night, celebrated the new year three times (time zone changes) and took to Twitter to live-Tweet “Inception” for a solid two and a half hours.  Twas fun.

    I revisited the “Alien” franchise during the holiday, taking in the glorious Blu-ray box set.  That’s a must own, I have to say.  And there’s this “Aliens vs. Predator” video game on PS3.  If you haven’t played it, give it a whirl.  There’s something badass and ninja about creeping around as an alien taking out marines.  You can play as the Predator, too.  Awesome.

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: Another year over and a new one just begun

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    Granted, Christmas isn’t universal, but is anyone making it to this page between the turkey and ham and mistletoe and Darlene Love?  If so, we thank you for squeezing IC into your holiday craziness (though we all know you’re just ducking the relatives for a few minutes).

    I don’t have much to chew on for you, though I suppose 2008’s collective of my favorite Christmas films is always good fodder around this time of year.  I just watched “Jingle All the Way” again earlier this week.  Every time, I can only ask myself, “Why did I do that?”

    BUT, if you haven’t delighted in this one, I suggest you Netflix Instant watch that sucker NOW.

    Anyway, I’m in snow-covered Ohio with the future in-laws (and having grown up as an only child, seeing a tree with four kids’ worth of presents underneath is a unique sight to say the least).  I was stoked to be met with a White Christmas for, I think, the first time in my life.  And the drive up from North Carolina: GORGEOUS.

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: Back east

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    I’m in chilly North Carolina for two weeks, fingers crossed for snow tonight.  And I have little-to-nothing to offer in this space, but these posts aren’t for me anyway.  So, you know the drill.  Open thread.  Enjoy the weekend.

  • CINEJABBER: My dear, we’re still goodbying

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    I totally just rolled out of bed.  And yes, if you’re keeping score at home, it’s past noon.  These last two weeks have owned my soul.  That’s how I feel right now. —————————>

    But it’s nice to have at least laid the foundations for wrapping 2010 up with yesterday’s top 10 list reveal.  I’m happy that was a success and that everyone seems to have enjoyed the podcast.  And thanks to Joe Rogan for the linkage.

    I probably spend way too much time deliberating my list every year.  I try to be as honest with myself as I possibly can but everything just turns to mush by December.  The films that really spoke to me always find room and bubble up to the surface, though, and so the further I spin away from having settled on the collective, the better I feel about it and the more I think it represents my subjective interpretation of an interesting year of film product.  But more on that Monday.

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: Peace settled across the galaxy

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    It’s been a busy week.  It’s snowing back home and boy do I wish I were there for that, but I’m spending the afternoon on the phone with the “True Grit” crew, so I can’t complain.

    It’s like the Oscar Season Film Festival in my house these days as I push through the remaining screeners of films that slipped through the cracks all year.  In some cases three films in a day.  Finally last night I watched something top 10 worthy (to say the least), but there’s still quite a few to push through, all in preparation for Friday’s top 10 podcast.  (Trying to cover all bases.)

    I’m such a perfectionist about stupid stuff that I literally sat down and racked my brain last night trying to decide what was honestly my favorite cartoon character from childhood (for the on-going Facebook movement against child abuse).  I mean, is Batman considered a “cartoon character?”  Yeah, there was the animated series, but still.  Then I thought maybe Beavis and Butt-Head, but that’s early 90s and late middle school, so it doesn’t really fit “childhood.”

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: DIY

    I’m spent.  Have at it.  Open thread.

  • CINEJABBER: Way out in the water, see it swimming

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    The photo to the right represents the early haul on screeners this year.  Usually this time of year I find myself delighting in second and sometimes third viewings of this or that, but oddly enough, I still have some catch-up to do.

    I’m glad the documentary field has been narrowed down, so I can focus on a smaller group, but there are even a number of films from earlier in the year that I haven’t bothered to put in the player yet.  What is it?  Laziness?  Lack of interest?  Too busy?  I don’t know.  My mind is gone.

    It’s a weirdly sluggish year on the whole as advertising has held off until late November/early December for the most part.  This time last year we still had three films to see.  With “TRON Legacy” going before junket press in the last few days, we’re left with just one film to bow: “True Grit.” So Jeff Bridges gets to crash the Oscar party two years in a row.

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: Not enough room in this town

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    It’s been a hell of a week.  The busiest, for me, of the season so far.  Much of that is owed to AFI Fest, but the campaign machinery is really clicking.

    Sony Classics sent out screeners of “Get Low” to Academy members this week, right on the heels of Robert Duvall coming into town to make the usual rounds.  Which actually brings me to an observation/point/complaint.  Give me some feedback here, if you don’t mind.

    First and foremost, it’s understood that publicists are doing their jobs by squeezing talent into small windows for multiple journalists, but I’m not alone in feeling that the consistent lack of any real exclusivity is beginning to grate.  Every time I go to another interview, I’m bumping into David Poland and his camera crew, offering a wave and chatting with Steve Pond, catching up with Tom O’Neil, etc.  A few days later, we all have similar interview items up.  And the point is less about what I want and more about what you, as the reader, get.

    (more…)

  • CINEJABBER: Close but no Jack

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    What a coup it would have been if Jack Nicholson really was the first guest on “Conan.”  Shame on Movieline for not catching Andy Richter’s joke and getting my hopes up for the actor’s first talk show interview in nearly four decades.

    Caught up with AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”  Narratively, familiar.  Aesthetically unique at times but I couldn’t settle into it.  It felt like there was no sense of pace.  And I’m getting pretty trigger happy on bailing on shows lately.

    I need to catch up on docs.  A stack of them waiting for me when I can ever find the time.  It’s pitching season for publicity to say the least.

    Speaking of which, coffee with Ben Affleck later today says Warner Bros. is swinging buzz on “The Town” back around and looking for opportunities to stay in the conversation leading up to the film’s DVD release.  After that, the season will have its say on the matter.

    (more…)