Better late than never. What do you want, I’ve been hangin’ with the OTHER Searchlight crew all night. Exclaim or complain in the comments below if you like.
Tag: DGA
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Tom O’Neil…here’s your sign
Really, is there any reason to “jump off a cliff” and predict a DGA victory for David Fincher tomorrow night? Other than the usual hopes of perceived (but fluke-ish) brilliance, I mean.
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OFF THE CARPET: From the horse’s mouth
The last two weeks have been a leaf blower to the debris an awards season can accumulate. Individuals with some real say in the ultimate Oscar picture have finally gone on the record, painting a rather clear picture of the industry’s favorite films of 2008.But before diving into the realities of the various guild announcements, it is probably worth touching upon the gleeful diversions of the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globe Awards.
These are the two culminating critics soirees, capping off the annual critical kudos sprint through December and early January. Both proudly declare themselves Oscar harbingers but only one seems to find itself decided from a critical mindset (even if that mindset is still warped by pegging a zeitgeist). The other is, as always, a drunken time amongst industry friends that goes its own way.
But dare I say it, this year the HFPA may have actually raised the bar for the Academy. After years of embarrassing nominations announcements and sometimes bewildering winner choices, the group awarded a slate of contenders last night that stuck out as noble and, shockingly, novel.
Can the Academy’s membership reach out to Mickey Rourke and meet him half way like he has clearly done this season to an industry that has shunned him for so many years? Can they find a way to spread the kudos love while an inevitable “Slumdog” sweep pushes through the evening of February 22?
Moreover, can AMPAS have the balls to follow in the HFPA’s footsteps with a double win for Kate Winslet, arguably deserving this year and a move that would be inarguable as a hell of an apology for years of Oscar losses? The actress joined Sigourney Weaver last night as one of only two actresses to win a pair of Golden Globe awards for film performances in one evening. Your move, Oscar.
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DGA discrepancies with AMPAS are not uncommon
The announcement of this year’s DGA nominees has left the sense that the races for Best Picture and Best Director are over. Not so. While the guild and Academy line up most of the time, and have a decent track record with the directing branch, we must not forget the years that proved otherwise. This could be such a year.Ask yourself how many times the Best Picture category has lined up perfectly with the nominees for Best Director? Please also be aware that the DGA has awarded their prize sometimes to directors not even nominated for an Oscar: Ron Howard for “Apollo 13” and Steven Spielberg for “The Color Purple” to name a couple. So while the race is certainly clearer, it is by means over.
I still believe Woody Allen stands a strong chance for being nominated for “Vicky Christina Barcelona,” just as I believe that Darren Aronofsky could sneak in for “The Wrestler.” But who gets snubbed?
Gus Van Sant, Christopher Nolan, Ron Howard, David Fincher and Danny Boyle are worthy nominees all, most deserving of their attention and potential award. But who of those esteemed five could the Academy allow to slip away? It’s a tough call.
I hate to say it, but I think Fincher is the most likely snub. A stunning film to be sure, and likely the major nominee recipient…just as “The Color Purple” was in 1985. My gut tells me Fincher might get the shaft only because he’s been on that side of things before, and the others are just too hard to ignore. That said, let’s not forget that Ron Howard has been a victim of this sort in the past, for his finest work in fact, “Apollo 13.” And Nolan is in some dicey waters, though I doubt he could be the victim of the blockbuster mentality that haunted Spielberg for “Jaws” (and much of his career).
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DGA nominees
I think we’re locked and loaded, folks…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”What more is there to add at this point? This is where John Shanley needed to show up if there was any more hope for “Doubt.” This is where Darren Aronofsky needed to stake a claim if there was any Best Picture juice in “The Wrestler.” Ditto Stephen Daldry and “The Reader,” I guess. But with this, I think the consensus has become overwhelming and a bit difficult to ignore.
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1/8 Oscarweb Round-up
• Patrick Goldstein waxes on about why he thinks “WALL-E,” “The Reader” and “The Wrestler” will be Oscar losers (for Best Pic). [The Big Picture]• Peter Bart observes Oscar campaign “combat fatigue” at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. [Peter Bart]
• Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard talk to KCRW’s Jason Bentley. [KCRW]
• David Carr does some pre-DGA speculating. [The Carpetbagger]
• Tom O’Neil takes a stab at predicting tonight’s Critics’ Choice Awards. [Gold Derby]
• While a few online mag staffers take a stab at the Globes. [Premiere]
• In praise of Clint Eastwood’s…face. [Slate]
• Xan Brooks wonders what the point of the People’s Choice Awards is. [The Guardian]
• Rebecca Hall gets some much-deserved ink across the pond for popping up on the BAFTA Best Newcomer shortlist. [Daily Telegraph]
• Howard Feinstein talks to “Man on Wire” director James Marsh. [indieWIRE]
• John Horn on the perils of high-brow cinema in the marketplace. [Los Angeles Times]
• Esther Walker says “Revolutionary Road” will change the obscurity of Richard Yates. [The Independent]
• Kevin Maher talks to Liev Schreiber about the action hero redefining of his career as of late. [The Times]
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Guessing the DGA
So, 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?
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Don’t go changin’
Typically Monday is “Off the Carpet” day, but I see absolutely zero reason to touch the charts this week. The only races that are shaping up to be interesting are a couple of the performance fields, and the technical categories will be up in the air until we start hearing from the guilds (ADG kicks it off on Friday, ACE a week from today).
In the meantime, my predicted five Best Picture nominees have not changed in over a month. Coincidentally (or fatefully) they are the same five films chalked up for nods by the PGA this morning, and most likely, the same films that will pop up Thursday when the DGA announces.
So, no column or chart update this week.
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12/17 Oscarweb Round-up
• Jeff Wells knows how to fix “Valkyrie” after the fact. [Hollywood Elsewhere]• John Campea suffers through the worst films of the year. [The Movie Blog]
• Scientists claim that real-life relationships can’t live up to those in the movies. [Daily Telegraph]
• Rob Turbovsky says biopics are hijacking real life for narrative gain. [Rope of Silicon]
• David Poland spends 30 minutes with “Che” star Benicio Del Toro. [The Hot Blog]
• Kelley L. Carter reports from Monday night’s rainy “Revolutionary Road” premiere. [USA Today]
• Roger Ebert gets lifetime honorary membership in the DGA. [Associated Press]
• Reed Johnson covers the making of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” [The Envelope]
• Mark Olsen, meanwhile, catches up with David Kross and his coming of age in “The Reader.” [The Envelope]
• Tom O’Neil finally gets around to why Hugh Jackman is the perfect choice for Oscar host. [Gold Derby]
• Dave Karger makes a sound argument for the Best Picture exclusion of “Doubt” and “Revolutionary Road” with 42 West honcho Cynthia Swartz’s stretch for a counter argument based totally on things that…haven’t happened yet. [Entertainment Weekly]
• Karina Longworth lists the top 10 unreleased films of the year. [Spout Blog]
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‘Che’ — no respect in the precursor circuit so far
“Nothing if not the movie of the year,” wrote Scott Foundas in LA Weekly.“One of the best films of the year,” declared Roger Ebert.
“A great movie,” says J. Hoberman of the Village Voice. “Che is a thing to be experienced.”
“The film that places Steven Soderbergh in the ranks of the masters,” raved Amy Taubin at Film Comment.
“An experience you won’t forget,” said Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. “Benicio Del Toro gives a magnificent performance. No one who cares about organic film acting will want to miss it. He keeps you riveted.”
And finally, “Del Toro gives a soulful and charismatic performance,” according to A.O. Scott of The New York Times.
So, with all this critical approval, why is Soderbergh’s film “Che” not being appropriately considered among the year end critics awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and, therefore, not being discussed as a favored Oscar contender? Here is a magnificent achievement from a world class filmmaker that breaks down the conventions of mainstream cinema (which he knows all too well) and challenges the audiences with its deliberate pacing and involving character study. Unhurried, Soderbergh is telling a story in great detail with perhaps the greatest detail being an astounding performance from Del Toro.
I have long championed this film since seeing the four-and-a-half-hour cut at this year’s Toronto fest. But here in December, I find myself struggling to understand why such a masterful film is not a part of the discussion, and moreover, why critics on each coast did not take the opportunity to put it in the conversation with their annual awards announcements.
I am incensed that Soderbergh, already an Oscar-winning director, is not being mentioned as a potential nominee again for this singular achievement. It’s certainly not mainstream cinema on any level, and it takes a great investment from the viewer of course, but once the film began, I found myself pulled in by the superb performances and cinematography. As did a number of esteemed critics. So what gives?
Surely SAG and the DGA will come forward and recognize this work for what it is? “Che” was stronger than at least half the Golden Globe nominees. Soderbergh created a masterpiece and so few perople actually know about it. It’s shameful.
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‘Button’ didn’t happen
(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.
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10/21 Oscarweb Round-up
• Jeffrey Wells passes along further second-hand indication that “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is the one to beat this year. [Hollywood Elsewhere]• Steven Zeitchick responds to the suddenly wide open acting races. [Risky Biz Blog]
• Some folks think Robert Downey Jr. can’t score a Best Supporting Actor nomination…emphatically. I beg to differ, but that race is weird at the moment. [Vulture]
• Tom O’Neil wonders how what happened to the AMPAS hopes of “W.” But I’m not so sure it was ever a “hot Oscar player.” [Gold Derby]
• John Anderson profiles Milos Forman, set to be feted by the DGA. [Variety]
• The Carpetbagger, David Carr, goes inside the mind of Charlie Kaufman. [New York Times]
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Clint Eastwood — anything he does grabs Oscar’s attention
Let me begin with something very personal, something I prefer not to do in this column. Movies have not mattered much this past week, as my wife of 18 years, the love of my life was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. This Thursday we journey to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto to allow the finest surgeons in the country to go in and take the tumor out, with the hope she does not have to have chemotherapy or radiation. There is a chance I could lose her, and that I couldn’t bear. The past few days have been a blur, and yet it is her who urged me back to the computer, with a gentle, “You can’t let the movie writing stop because of this…please…write…” God I love that girl. She is at this moment snoozing behind me as I write this.Later this year we will see the release of “Changeling,” the latest from Clint Eastwood who over the last 16 years has become one of the finest directors working in movies. Now seriously, had anyone ever told me in the 70s that one day I would be celebrating the works of Eastwood the director by writing a book about him and his work, I would have laughed in their face at the thought.
Dirty Harry, the man who acted with apes, becoming a world class director? Yet here we are in 2008 and Eastwood has won two Academy Awards for Best Director, twice been honored by the Directors Guild of America, and won countless critics prizes for his work. Revered by actors, beloved by the studios for whom he works, and respected by his colleagues, he has quietly risen to the very peak of the directing world, sitting alongside Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. His films have the lean feel and look of the best work of John Huston and Howard Hawks to whom story was paramount.