In Contention

Tag: David Fincher

  • Guessing the DGA

    Directors Guild of AmericaSo, with SAG, PGA and ASC out of the way, and with WGA still to come in a matter of hours, I guess it’s worth mentioning that the big daddy guild is announcing tomorrow: the Directors Guild of America (DGA).  Now’s as good a time as any to take a stab at guessing the nominees…

    The DGA has been one hell of an Oscar Best Picture barometer for the last decade or so.  Last year was the first real hiccup as the guild only nailed three of the eventual five nominees with their director choices.  2006 saw one misfire (but we all still figured “Dreamgirls” was in around this time two years ago).  Then it was four years in a row five-for-five until we have another hiccup, Ridley Scott making it in for “Black Hawk Down” and Christopher Nolan (in the mix again this year) for “Memento.”

    After that, the general trend was four-for-five with some 100 percents thrown in here and there, but you get the picture.  This is, more often than not, quite the prognosticative (that’s so not a word) guild.  With the PGA clearly establishing a consensus of sorts (not that those five films haven’t been the obvious contenders for weeks upon weeks), I see no real reason to get creative right now, so I’m going with the following:

    David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”
    Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”
    Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
    Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

    There are only two filmmakers that I think have a shot of cracking this quintet: Woody Allen for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and, perhaps more so, Darren Aronofsky for “The Wrestler.”  John Patrick Shanley and “Doubt” showing up would truly shock me and Andrew Stanton is not eligible for “WALL-E,” so the field is rather thin.

    What are you thinking?

  • 1/6 Oscarweb Round-up

    Jamie Callum• Patrick Goldstein busts Miramax’s balls for fudging a “Doubt” praise quote. [The Big Picture]

    • David Poland analyzes the top 10 collective for Oscar tea leaves. [The Hot Blog]

    • Sam Thielman reports from the NYC Lincoln Center Q&A with David Fincher… [Variety]

    • …and Lane Brown gives the director some more grief for his “charm offensive.” [Vulture]

    • Alex Billington has Jamie Callum’s “Gran Torino” music video (and the balls to state “those of you that have seen this by now know that it’s actually a great movie.”) [First Showing]

    • Paula Schwartz reports from the New York Film Critics Circle awards with a few embarrassing quotes from the always entertaining Rex Reed. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Todd Martens touches on Bruce Springsteen’s favor to Mickey Rourke and Darren Aronofsky. [Pop & Hiss]

    • Anita Singh sits down with “Slumdog Millionaire” star Dev Patel. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Susan King previews the Palm Springs International Film Festival. [The Envelope]

    • Chrissy Iley chats it up with Frank Langella. [The Sunday Times]

  • ‘Milk,’ ‘Slumdog,’ ‘WALL-E’ nominated by Vancouver critics

    Josh Brolin in MilkThe Vancouver Film Critics Circle have dished out their list of nominees, three per category, and “Milk,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “WALL-E” filled out the group’s Best Film ballot.  “Milk” and Philippe Falardeau’s “C’est pas moi, je le jure!” led the nominations tally with four mentions each.

    David Fincher showed up in the Best Director category for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” while Fernando Meirelles’s all but forgotten “Blindness” managed three performance nominations, all in the “in a Canadian film” fields.

    The nominees:

    Best Film
    “Milk”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”
    “WALL-E”

    Best Canadian Film
    “C’est pas moi, je le jure!”
    “Heaven on Earth”
    “The Necessities of Life”

    (More after the jump.)

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  • 1/2 Oscarweb Round-up

    David Fincher• David Poland looks at the race nine weeks out from the angle of release marketing and strategy. [Movie City News]

    • Nathaniel Rogers is knee deep in his annual (extensive) year in review features.  Read it.  Now. [The Film Exerience]

    • Jeffrey Wells passes on some notes from a friend making some dubious comparisons between “Milk” and “Braveheart.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Old news you’ve probably read by now, but Tina Brown’s latest foray into the world of journalism proves just how much of a disreputable rag it can be. [The Daily Beast]

    • David Usborne is quick to dive in the mud with the hacks and bring a respectable UK outlet down there with him. [The Independent]

    • Joe Queenan chats with Mickey Rourke across the pond. [The Guardian]

    • Anne Thompson seems to think a Christmas release hurt “Revolutionary Road”‘s Oscar chances. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    Dave Karger takes a stand with some late-December Oscar predictions. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • David Carr speaks up for “Iron Man” over “The Dark Knight,” calls the latter’s third act a “mess.”  Oy. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Tom Roston sits down with “Defiance” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” star Liev Schreiber. [Los Angeles Times]

    • As a David Fincher retrospective cranks up in the Big Apple, Dennis Lim looks back over the director’s career to date. [New York Times]

    • Patty Rhuke spotlights the similarities between “Forrest Gump” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” comparisons certain parties involved would probably rather go away. [USA Today]

  • Pitt, Fincher do Charlie Rose

  • Blast from the past

    Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel review the first Fincher/Pitt collaboration in September of 1995:

  • 45? Holy…

    Brad PittI never really keep up with actors’ ages or anything, but jeez, Brad Pitt is five years away from the half century mark?  Amazing.

    Anyway, Reed Johnson recently profiled the actor for the Los Angles Times regarding his role in David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”  Here’s a bit from the actor on growing older:

    “Once you hit 40, you start reexamining the math of it all,” says the actor, who turned 45 on Dec. 18. So far, he indicates, the pluses and minuses are adding up just fine. “I’ll trade wisdom for youth any day,” Pitt says.

    And digging at the heart of the film’s thesis:

    “[The film is] a tragedy in the sense that any love involves loss, and that’s the risk you take,” Pitt responds. “And the greater the love, the greater the loss. I certainly feel that now with the woman I’m with, and the children that I have. But whatever the course may be, this time together is extraordinary.”

    A nice piece.  Check out the rest here.

  • 12/24 Oscarweb Round-up

    Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire• “The Headless Woman,” “Night and Day” and “Tony Manero” head up a list of the year’s best undistributed titles. [indieWIRE]

    • Speaking of lists, here’s one of cult and campy holiday flicks. [Cinematical]

    • Josh Horowitz goes toe-to-toe with David Fincher. [MTV]

    • Slow down, Hoss.  Lou Lumenick thinks Dev Patel is going to beat Heath Ledger to the Oscar punch?  Anything for the clicks I gues. [Lumenick on Film]

    • David Edelstein considers nine Oscar contenders, from “Revolutionary Road” to, uh, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” [New York Magazine]

    • Dustin Hoffman storms out of an interview with Dave Karger…all in good fun. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Rachel Abramowitz spends some time with the actor as well…my own interview should be on the way soon enough, by the way.  It’s been ages since we sat down together. [Los Angeles Times]

  • 12/21 Oscarweb Round-up

    Kåre Hedebrant in Let the Right One In• Jeff Wells is still peeved at the critical snubs of “Revolutionary Road,” aside from a few exceptions. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Tom O’Neil and Michael Musto debate the likely Best Picture victor. [Gold Derby]

    • Another un-bylined Calendar piece.  What gives?  Anyway, David Fincher is talking to somebody about “The Curious case of Benjamin Button.” [Los Angeles Times]

    • Alonso Duralde spotlights the year’s best, sans Oscar bait. [MSNBC]

    • John Hiscock chats with “Rachel Getting Married” star Debra Winger.  Anyone wondering, half-way through the season, why anyone was crazy enough to think she had an Oscar play? [Daily Telegraph]

    • Jenni Miller digs into the role of a stripper with critical kudos champ Marisa Tomei. [Premiere]

    • Bryan Appleyard talks “The Reader” with director Stephen Daldry. [The Times]

    • “Let the Right One In” tops David Ansen’s list of the year’s best.  Nice.  Beware a cop-out tie at #10, though. [Newsweek]

  • The costume design of ‘Benjamin Button’

    Costume design sketch from The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonParamount Pictures has put together a brilliant little FYC site for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” that I’m just now getting around to, fit with the usual bells and whistles: downloadable screenplay, score samples (God Alexandre Desplat’s work is gorgeous), clips and interviews, etc.  You can enter the site by clicking on the ad at the top of the page here.

    I always look for proper care and consideration for the crafts of this film or that each season.  It’s our mandate, as long-time readers know, that those names get the same exposure as the biggest of stars.  Paramount Vantage always does a nice job of that with its Vantage Guilds website, but more and more, other studios are following Vantage’s example.

    For instance, on the “Button” site, there is a nice little gallery of costume design sketches from Jacqueline West’s portfolio, with screen test photos to go along with the ultimate look of the apparel in the film.  It gives you a nice cross section of the work and a look at its journey from the hypothetical to the tangible.

    And indeed, West’s work on the film is quite lovely, a much more thorough and certainly more varried array of threads than you might expect.  Cate Blanchett’s red dress from a key scene in the film has popped up in at least one Q&A.  Director David Fincher used some CGI nit-picking to amp up the red and add to the experience of the scene’s emotional beats.  But that’s not to take away from what West has done, which is outfit a hell of an epic with a beautiful wardrobe that walks the line between reality and fantasy nicely and understands that dichotomy, one that lies at the heart of the film.

  • ‘Slumdog,’ ‘Torino’ win big at NBR

    Clint Eastwood in Gran TorinoThe National Board of Review has announced its list of winners for the 2008 awards season and Fox Searchlight’s “Slumdog Millionaire” is the big champ, taking down three awards including Best Film and a tie for Best Adapted Screenplay with Eric Roth’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”  Dev Patel also won the award for Breakthrough Performance by an Actor.

    That tie for adapted screenplay does little to separate those two competitors at this point, both in that category and in the big race, which most concede is neck-and-neck at the moment.  David Fincher also took the NBR’s Best Director award.

    The immediate point of interest is the love for “Gran Torino.”  Clint Eastwood seized the Best Actor trophy, perhaps the first in an upcoming slew of awards for the actor’s swan song performance, perhaps simply indicative of the NBR’s affinity for Warner Bros. product.  Nick Schenk won the award for Best Original Screenplay, which will lead many to think this film is a major Oscar player.  Hmm…

    Another interesting tid-bit: Paramount Vantage was virtually shut out of the proceedings, with only a single mention for “Defiance” in the NBR top ten.  Nothing for “Revolutionary Road.”  But it is worth pointing out that “There Will Be Blood” was completely shut out of the group’s awards last year, and we all know how that turned out.

    I think calling Viola Davis’s admittedly stunning performance in “Doubt” a “breakthrough” is a bit of a stretch considering how long the actress has been in the game, but the definition of that award shifts from year to year it seems.

    And finally, after James Franco slipped into the Indie Spirit Award nominations for his supporting performance in “Milk,” Josh Brolin walks away with the win today in the same category.  Who knows how it will turn out for Oscar?  My bet is still on Brolin, who had a banner year with his performance here and in “W,” not to mention the left-over goodwill for his work in multiple films last year.

    (Full list of winners after the jump.)

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  • McPaper catches up with Pitt and Fincher

    (from left) Brad Pitt and David Fincher(I use the Mcmoniker with love, Scotty.)

    Scott Bowles caught up with David Fincher and Brad Pitt, the respective director and star of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” over the weekend.  It’s a typical profile piece in many ways but I thought Bowles did a nice job digging into the relationship these two guys have.

    Up around the top he offers:

    Since Pitt and the director met 15 years ago, they have become close friends — and crucial components in each other’s professional lives.

    Fincher provides Pitt gravitas. He may have received an Oscar nomination for his role in Twelve Monkeys, but Pitt is the first to acknowledge that his dramatic chops are more recognized in Fincher’s Se7en and Fight Club.

    Pitt, in return, bestows Fincher inordinate clout. For a guy who has never made a blockbuster, Fincher is able to make the movies he wants, glum endings and all, thanks in part to his friendship with the most famous actor on the planet.

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  • Early winner predictions, part 2: Yours and mine

    Well, Kris was brave enough to stick his neck out and venture some winner predictions, so I thought I’d follow up on that — with the strict caveat that, while nobody knows anything, I frequently know even less.

    So my own predictions are after the cut. I don’t think them informed enough to place on a main page, but in the interests of diversity (and maximum egg-on-face potential), there they are. I was interested to see that, judging from the impressive response to Kris’ initial post, you readers and I are of a like mind in several areas. I specifically waited until after I’d drawn up my own foolhardy picks before looking at yours, and was surprised by some of the parallels that emerged.

    So let’s take a look at how you voted, shall we? I see some enterprising commenter on Kris’ post has already collated the data and drawn up percentages, and short of drawings up bar graphs and pie charts, I wouldn’t want to compete with that kind of specificity. (Seriously, I wouldn’t.) But even without getting mathematical, some trends are clear.

    In the top category, I expected to be in a significant minority picking “Milk,” but you have it breathing hotly down “Benjamin Button’s” neck as the frontrunner, with 11 and 13 votes respectively. A mere two of you side with Kris in picking “Slumdog Millionaire,” which, obtuse creature that I am, makes it the smarter choice in my mind. And yet, thrilled as I would be to see Team Boyle onstage come Oscar night, I can’t quite go there. Right now, “Milk” ticks too many boxes: dazzling reviews, emotionally charged, politically relevant, a more accessible effort from a long-revered filmmaker. It makes almost too much sense to me.

    Things are less tight in Best Director, where David Fincher enjoys over half your votes, with Danny Boyle and Gus van Sant (my choice) neck-and-neck for second place.

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  • 11/25 Oscarweb Round-up

    David Fincher• Jeff Wells is a fan of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” but he’s not sure it’s a Best Picture slam dunk for this reason or that.  I’d be inclined to agree with him if that guild screening on Saturday hadn’t gone over so well. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Meanwhile, Tom O’Neil takes a (probably unfair) swipe at David Fincher’s Q&A etiquette.  It’s true, he’s not the sort to get all cerebral for you like a pet monkey, and it’s true, that chilliness might affect him and the film, but don’t all the greats share these traits? [Gold Derby]

    • An ambitious list: the top 100 movies based on books. [The Movie Blog]

    • Wow, a feature on the return of an Oscar blogger.  But I guess the Bagger is that special breed that deserves the copy.  Call it blogger envy. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Having actually seen the film now, Dave Karger jumps on the gravy train for Clint Eastwood’s performance as a Best Actor contender.  Mostly he’s reporting everything we told you in our script review a few months back, though.  Gruff character but with a great arc that’ll leave them crying, etc., etc. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • T.L. Stanley joins the tiny chorus of “Australia” cheerleaders.  Maybe it’s not that tiny, but I haven’t heard from them much this week. [Gold Rush]

    • John Horn, meanwhile, features director Baz Luhrmann. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Patrick Goldstein dissects “Frost/Nixon” scribe Peter Morgan. [The Big Picture]

  • ‘Button’ reviews run hot and, well, cold

    UPDATED: Slow on the uptake again, the Hollywood Reporter finally offers the unqualified rave we’ve been awaiting. Gushing praise in all departments, including a big thumbs-up for Pitt (“his most impressive outing to date”). Blanchett, meanwhile, “illuminates the screen.” No issues with digital or emotional aloofness to be found.

    EARLIER: A couple of days ago, in the midst of his generally positive take on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” Kris mentioned that the work felt “strangely cold.” It was an observation rather than a criticism, and Kris suspected he may be in a minority.

    Well, reading the first few reviews, it would appear that he isn’t. Todd McCarthy’s near-rave for Variety describes the film as “richly satisfying” but also “emotionally cool,” blaming the film’s extensive CG work for a slightly distancing effect:

    Fincher spends 13 minutes short of three hours telling this unique man’s life story, and the time goes by easily, with no sense of dawdling, waste or indulgence. The film evinces a sure hand that maintains narrative confidence, steadiness of tone and a mature awareness of the temporal nature of life’s opportunities and the fleeting quality of happiness.

    Still, for what is designed as a rich tapestry, the picture maintains a slightly remote feel. No matter the power of the image of an old but young-looking Benjamin, slumped over a piano and depressed about his fading memory and life; it is possible that the picture might have been warmer and more emotionally accessible had it been shot on film.

    McCarthy also appears to share Kris’ view that Cate Blanchett is the more dominant presence in the film:

    In all his physical manifestations, Benjamin is a reactor, not a perpetrator, and Pitt inhabits the role genially, gently and sympathetically. Blanchett’s Daisy is the more volatile and moody one and, after bluntly revealing the selfish impetuousness of Daisy’s youthful self, the thesp fully registers both the passion and insecurity of the mature woman.

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  • ‘Button’ drops (UPDATED with audio)

    Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonUPDATED (5:30 p.m.): Alright, now that I’m home and away from the shuffle, I can unfold some further thoughts on this.  Judging by the mood of the room — mostly guild members and industry types, a lot of press folks have decided on the 6:00 screening — the verdict is a big thumbs up.  Lots of positive thoughts dished about all around.

    I spoke briefly with Kathleen Kennedy, who has seen this project go up and down, back and forth for 18 years.  We talked about the visual effects in the film and how refreshing it is that this innovative work came within such a cerebral and affecting story.  “Jurassic Park” (which she also produced) has held the industry effects crown for 15 years, and now, a new leap forward.  Though director David Fincher has said from the start that he and his crew weren’t particularly sure whether they could pull it off, Kennedy took solace in her filmmaker’s professionalism.

    “When you bring in a director like Steven [Spielberg] or David [Fincher], you trust their instincts when it comes to that stuff,” she said.  “They come along with this giant tool box and they know which tool to use for this or that.”

    I also chatted with Eric Roth for a good while, screenwriter-to-screenwriter type stuff.  He really did work wonders with this story, and picking his brain for the reasons behind this decision or that can be a lot of fun.  One of the odd reactions I took away from the film, however, was that the work felt strangely cold.  I wasn’t sure whether I meant that in a good way or a bad way, and surely, people were crying their eyes out over this thing, so I might be in a minority.  Perhaps it’s my youthful cynicism, who knows, but I thought Fincher brought an arm’s length approach to the emotions in the film and I wanted Roth’s reaction to that.

    Of course, Roth doesn’t particularly agree with my take.  Indeed, he was right in the middle of telling me how the bathroom was filled with sobbers after the screening when a beautiful young lady walked up to us and told him how much the movie had affected her.  But he took my comment in stride.

    “Fincher is the kind of director that brings you right up to the point of sentiment and then brings it back,” he said.  “There’s something to be said for that I think.”

    (More, plus audio of tonight’s Q&A, after the jump.)

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  • ‘Button’ didn’t happen

    Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(Alright, I’m coming back to this item now that I don’t have to deal with iPhone-posting.)

    Tonight’s screening of “The Curious Case at Benjamin Button” was supposed to be a great night for producers Kathy Kennedy and Frank Marshall (correction appended — it was a late night, apologies).  They introduced the film as a project 18 years in the making, a true labor of love, and the crowd of press, guild members and industry types sure was excited.

    About a half hour into the screening, D.P. Claudio Miranda had had enough.  Apparently a color channel on the digital projector was faulty and wasn’t going to be fixed any time soon.  The image looked washed out but in a stylized way, so none of us really noticed.  But it was painful for Miranda to watch.  Publicists put the call into director David Fincher, who was on his way to the theater for a post-screening Q&A, and he made the decision: pull the plug.

    The audience was understandably agitated.  “Come on, it looks beautiful,” one chimed in.  But they all knew Miranda would have felt terrible showing his film in that fashion (and talking to some who’d see the film already, there was a considerable difference, as well as a sound quality issue afoot).  “Don’t do it,” another guy said, siding with Miranda and clearly a below-the-line guy that gets it.  When your art and your craft is compromised out of the gate, it’s better to cut your losses.

    The good news is, I hear the same thing happened to “The Pianist” and “Dances with Wolves” for their first big industry screenings.  So maybe you do get a second chance to make a first impression.  The SAG screening went swimmingly over at the Arclight, by the way, so there is that.  But on the whole, what a bummer.  Next to “The Dark Knight,” this had become my most anticipated film of the year.

    All of that said, I think we liked what we saw.  And after just 30 minutes, I’m pretty sure the film will take the Oscars for Best Makeup and Best Visual Effects walking away.  Pure magic.

    Saturday we’ll all get a second chance.  These things happen, I guess.

  • What does early (and excessive) Oscar hype do to a film’s chances?

    Cover of Entertainment Weekly featuring The CrucibleIn 1996, a fall movie preview of Entertainment Weekly arrived in my mailbox, the cast of “The Crucible” staring back at me on the cover, making clear to me this was going to be THE film of the fall. There were rumors floating within the industry that the film, based on the Arthur Miller play, could conceivably be nominated for 12 or 13 Academy Awards, and it seemed a cinch for at least a Best Picture nod.

    Having directed the play twice, studied it at length in university and being a huge Arthur Miller fan, I was thrilled that the film was finally going to get the intense big screen version it deserve. The 1959 French adaptation was okay, but not enough people had actually seen it. Here was a chance for one of the greatest dramas of the 20th century to make the transition to film with a superb cast, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Joan Allen, Paul Schofield and Winona Ryder.

    Somewhere along the way Fox panicked and released the film late in December, and though Day-Lewis finished second in balloting for the New York Film Critics Awards, the picture never caught fire as it had been predicted to do. Instead it was a dismal box office failure, nabbing only a supporting actress nomination for Joan Allen and an adapted screenplay nod for Miller.

    “The Crucible” is a great film, with powerhouse performances from Day-Lewis, Allen and Ryder, though many critics attacked the latter. But was the film a victim of over hype, or were audiences simply too familiar with the story? What happened?

    The same sort of thing almost happened to Steven Spielberg’s “Munich,” which at this time in 2005 was being touted as not just an Oscar nominee, but the likely winner for Best Picture and Best Director, sight unseen. It opened and was very good, but it wasn’t the searing masterpiece everyone had been hoping for.  And somehow “Crash” won the Best Picture prize.

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