In Contention

Tag: Demian Bichir

  • Summit hits the ground running with first screener of the season: Chris Weitz’s ‘A Better Life’

    Deadline’s Pete Hammond already reported that this was imminent, but since it arrived on my doorstep this morning, it seemed worth conveying here. Summit Entertainment is first out of the gate this year with FYC screeners aimed at drawing attention back to Chris Weitz’s “A Better Life.”

    I was a big fan of Weitz’s film, which hit the counter-programming slot this summer, particularly Demián Bichir’s affecting lead actor performance (which Mark Harris recently spotlighted in his first on-going season column). You’ll recall I spoke to Weitz about the film back in June, around the occasion of the film’s Los Angeles Film Festival bow. He noted at the time that he was very keen on pushing for some year-end kudos recognition for Bichir.

    I started to get worried that the film would be lost in the shuffle after it failed to find much life at the box office. But Summit is really smart to push this out there now, after such campaigns for Melissa Leo (“Frozen River”), Jacki Weaver (“Animal Kingdom”) and Fox Searchlight’s “Once” in recent years got a big leg up by being first on the doorstep. Oscar recognition will be tough but I definitely think some Indie Spirit attention could be in the cards. Any awards season attention at all is a big win, of course, as it just means more people will see the film.

    (more…)

  • Mark Harris joins the discussion with fringe lead actor picks

    Two years ago author and journalist Mark Harris wrote what I think is one of the most salient Oscar season observances ever squeezed out of this unnecessary corner of the web. I always look to him for one of the most above-the-fray, but smart and informed, perspectives on a given season. And this piece over at Grantland is a great example, too.

    He reduces these early days of the awards season to the echo-chamber they’ve come to represent. And I don’t count myself out of the insanity he cuts everything down to with this precise paragraph:

    If you’re like most moviegoers, or most Academy voters, you don’t attend any of these festivals. So “buzz” is really code for a two-way conversation conducted between a handful of awards handicappers eager to anoint or dismiss potential contenders, and a handful of studio publicists and independent firms who are listening for the dog-whistle frequency that tells them that somebody thinks their movie might be in the running.

    (more…)

  • INTERVIEW: ‘A Better Life’ director Chris Weitz

    Filmmaker Chris Weitz has taken a ride on a rather inconsistent career path since making a splash (along with brother Paul) with 1999’s “American Pie.” He followed that raunchy comedy with the critically mauled Chris Rock starrer “Down to Earth” before bouncing back with the beloved intimate romantic comedy “About a Boy.” He then fled to the arms of big budget filmmaking with 2007’s “The Golden Compass” and last year’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” This year brings an effort hearkening back to the character-driven work of his early career, “A Better Life,” which premieres at the Los Angeles Film Festival next week.

    The film could be read as a riff on Vittorio De Sica’s “The Bicycle Thieves,” though transplanted in Los Angeles with a heavy dose of Mexican-American culture. But it’s unfair to hold it up to that agreed-upon masterpiece of neorealist cinema. Yes, the films share some plot details — “A Better Life” tells the story of an undocumented Mexican landscaper who purchases a truck and equipment to start his own business, hoping to make a better future for him and his street-smart son, only to have it stolen — but it is a successful piece of slice-of-life dramatic filmmaking that was a breath of fresh air for Weitz after his blockbuster detour.

    (more…)

  • AFI FEST: ‘Hunger,’ ‘Che’

    Benicio Del Toro in CheFour days and three screenings into the 2008 AFI Fest, I’m one-for-two and looking to add to the “win” column as much as possible in the next week.  It hit me this afternoon, though, that no two films could be better suited to an introductory update from the festival, two exercises in subverting the conventions of the biopic.  One succeeds, one fails, but both maintain a certain spirit that you don’t find in the work of many filmmakers today.  And interestingly, both are set for distribution by the always courageous IFC Films.

    Let’s dive in…

    “HUNGER” (***1/2)
    Who the hell is Steve McQueen anyway?  Talk about bursting onto the scene out of nowhere — with what could have been an unfortunate namesake — and carving a spot for yourself that no one will soon dispute.  “Hunger” is one of the year’s best films, a curiously intimate dissection of the blanket, no wash and hunger protests of IRA prisoners held at HM Maze Prison in Lisburn, Northern Ireland in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

    Spearheaded by a committed (to say the least) performance from Michael Fassbender, the film may be the most visually dynamic effort to hit cinemas in 2008.  McQueen deservedly won the Caméra d’Or (for best first feature) at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, but a case might have been made for a technical citation for lenser Sean Bobbitt.  He captures the most mundane and intimate moments with an epic craftsman’s touch, guided no doubt by McQueen’s own preoccupation with lingering in this most uncomfortable — and unfortunate — of settings.

    (more…)

  • PAGE TO SCREEN: “Che” by Peter Buchman

    Page to Screen at In Contention“To the people of Santa Clara, this is Commandant Che Guevara. The enemy would have us live in fear. But it is they who should be afraid. Because the power of the people is irresistible. Blockade the streets. Open your homes to rebel soldiers. And if you have a gun, pick it up. If there was ever a time to fight for your liberty, that time is now.”

    Consider myself a former believer in the church of Steven Soderbergh. When the director won his much deserved Oscar for “Traffic” I thought for sure we were seeing the emergence of one of the most important American directors in quite some time. And then what happened? The movies he was making — the “Ocean’s” trilogy, “Bubble,” “The Good German” and more — all sounded so interesting and promising on paper, and in the opinion of this writer, all ended up entirely soulless and lacking.

    So I have been cautiously anticipating the Che Guevera one-two punch of “The Argentine” and “Guerrilla.” You’ll have to forgive me (but I’m sure you’ll understand) if I certainly wasn’t in anticipating Peter Buchman’s scripts. He debuted with “Jurassic Park III” (how the hell do you get to start your career with a “Jurassic Park” movie?!) and followed it up with the excruciating “Eragon.” Not exactly the man I’d select for this task, to be certain.

    But thankfully, “The Argentine” and “Guerrilla” — collectively, “Che” — are far superior works than Buchman’s previous two scripts. What we have here are handsomely crafted pieces that are easily malleable for a director like Soderbergh to reconstruct the way he wants, which according to the reviews I’ve read, seems to be exactly what he’s done. Scenes from “Guerrilla” appear in the first half of the film (what I presume will be “The Argentine” section), predominately Guevera’s famous speech at the United Nations in New York City.

    (more…)

  • TORONTO: ‘Che,’ ‘The Wrestler’

    Benicio Del Toro in CheTwo masterpieces, one right after the other.  This was the day I had been waiting for.  I caught Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” today, all four hours and 20 minutes of it.  It’s a glorious achievement from a brilliant mind, one of the few directors who seeks to challenge himself constantly.  “Che” is audacious and bold filmmaking because not everyone will like it or even understand it perhaps.  Soderbergh digs deep into the mind of a brilliant man and allows us a lucky glimpse.

    Moments after the film ended, with barely a moment to regroup, I saw Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” — and now I understand what all the fuss is about.  If Mickey Rourke is not nominated for Best Actor for an Academy Award, there really is no justice.  But Hollywood can be quite the unforgiving town…

    (Reviews after the jump.)

    (more…)