In Contention

Tag: District 9

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Makeup — Volume I

    Christopher Plummer in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus“Make me look good.” While this might seem a vain phrase, in the context of a movie, makeup cannot only make an actor “look good” but it can capture the character and transform the performer, providing invaluable assistance in reaching the “truth” in the portrayal.

    The Academy Award for Best Makeup actually recognizes the individuals who perform both makeup and hairstyling duties. Like Best Visual Effects, this category has only three nominees, chosen from a list of seven finalists which are announced in a bake-off advance.

    While certain names such as Greg Cannom and Rick Baker show up here with frequency, the branch has, especially in recent years, been less averse to new talent. Creation of monsters and other fantastical characters, in addition to aging, tend to be the branch’s preferred accomplishments.

    The successful reboot of the “Star Trek” franchise might very well be leading the way here. Creating the numerous famous characters and, most notably, Eric Bana’s antagonist Romulan Nero, strikes me as the sort of work which this branch embraces.

    Whether a film like “Watchmen” would be seriously considered by the Academy in any category is a matter of great debate. But the makeup was absolutely fantastic and critical to the success of the film. Greg Cannom was on the crew, which has me inclined to consider it seriously here.

    We’re still waiting to see James Cameron’s eagerly anticipated “Avatar,” but one can’t help but wonder if the film’s CGI and performance capture technology will be doing much, if not all of the work normally reserved for makeup.  And the makeup artists on the crew have yet to be widely recognized by the Academy.  Regardless, one cannot deny the success Cameron’s films tend to have in the crafts categories.

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  • 9/9 Web Round-up

    Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum• Roger Deakins, Alexandre Desplat and Colleen Atwood added to Hollywood film fest honorees. [Variety]

    • Matt Damon talks “Bourne 4.” [Empire]

    • Viggo Mortensen planning an early retirement after the release of “The Road?” [Cinema Blend]

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  • MONDAY CENTS: ‘Destination’ Labors to another victory

    All About Steve*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Labor Day is known as the end of the summer season and the void it causes at the multiplexes is the underline to that point. This year was no different as “The Final Destination” repeated at the top of the chart with $15.4 million over the four-day period. Even with an extra day, that’s still a 44% drop from last week, but as you’ll see with “Halloween II,” it could have been a lot worse. The film’s running total has passed $50 million, which means that Warner Bros. is scrambling to invent 5D technology to make the naming of the fifth film more convenient.

    Second place goes to “Inglourious Basterds,” which could very well be number one when actual figures are released tomorrow. Another $15 million takes the cume to $95.2 million and earns the film a place in the top 10 success stories of the summer. Revisionist World War II films are now totally in vogue and “Harold and Kumar Inadvertently Join the Third Reich” is currently on the fast track.

    Third place goes to our first debut of the week, “All About Steve,” starring Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper. To those who thought I was low-balling the film last week I just want t0 say: “Good call.”  Despite a staggering 5% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, the film managed to sucker $13.9 million worth of lonely women and whipped men to the theater. Personally, it’s a rule of mine to avoid films that have a lame pun for a title.

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  • 9/4 Web Round-up

    Spike Jonze• Steve Pond talks to AMPAS executive director Bruce Davis about the Oscars’ “crisis point.” [The Odds]

    • Redefining the cinema alien with “District 9.” [Daily Telegraph]

    • Spike Jonze and his latest gets close to 7,500 words in the Grey Lady. [New York Times]

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  • The Gurus line up for another year

    Gurus o' GoldOver at Movie City News, David Poland has amassed the fifth annual Gurus o’ Gold prognosticating collective (including yours truly once again) and asked for a list of 15 films with the brightest pre-Toronto Best Picture profile.  We also were asked to indicate dark horse underdog actors and actresses, which yielded some interesting results (though some of them shouldn’t really count as “dark horses”).

    The Best Picture chart includes 34 titles (the top 10 republished after the jump) and represents the wild blind stab you’d expect at this point.

    I find myself surprised “Bright Star” is still being considered a formidable contender, but it’s firmly in the top 10.  So is “Precious,” proving out a personal months-old intuition (though nothing’s assured at this point, of course).

    “The Road,” “Amelia” and “Capitalism: A Love Story” are the bubble contenders.  “District 9” and “Star Trek” also have decent showings.

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  • 8/31 Web Round-up

    Ang Lee• With “Luke and Brie are on a First Date” finding its way to an Amazon release, our own Chad Hartigan gets his film re-reviewed. [Spout Blog]

    • Stephen Zeitchik wants to know why Ang Lee can’t catch a break. [Risky Biz Blog]

    • Gregory Ellwood sees (er, hears) awards prospects in Alexandre Desplat’s “Coco Before Chanel” score. [Awards Campaign]

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘Halloween’ suffers ‘Final’ cut

    The Final Destination*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    When it comes to a death match, would anyone bet against death himself? Two high profile horror franchises released their latest installments on the last weekend of the summer and the winner is “The Final Destination.”

    $28.3 million is a new high for the series and proves the value of 3D, at least as far as body parts flying out of the screen are concerned. There’s no other explanation as to why these movies would continually improve since they are, quite literally, the exact same plot done again and again with only the most minor of tweaks. Now the only interesting thing about the series is trying to guess what they’ll call the next movie. “The Real Final Destination: Honest”?

    “Halloween II” could only muster up $17.4 million for third place, which is a steep drop from the original film’s showing, most likely because everybody hated that movie. Rob Zombie seemed to offer nothing but more of the same and if uncomfortable glasses and flying body parts coming straight at me aren’t in the equation, then there’s nothing else to say.

    It’s interesting that the Weinsteins chose to release this only one week after their other big summer film and against competition they should have known they would lose to.

    Sandwiched between those two is Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds.” A respectable 48% drop to $20 million for the weekend and $73.8 million so far means that Tarantino and his film have to be taken a little more seriously by Oscar. I mean, it’s got World War II subject matter, a return-to-form director, critical and public approval, Mike Myers. Three of those four things, the Academy can’t resist.

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Sound Mixing — Volume I

    Star TrekA few weeks ago I analyzed the Best Sound Editing category, which awards the creation and integration of artificially created sound effects.  Today, we look at sound mixing – the overall composition of all the elements of a movie’s soundscape into a singular soundtrack. The re-recording mixers, who do this work during post-production, are rewarded alongside the production sound mixer, who captures the sound on set.

    Loud films tend to be rewarded here, with blockbusters and war films, as well as films heavily reliant on music, popping up more often than not.

    Speaking of which, I’ll start by discussing the only musical that will likely find some wiggle room here this year. I am speaking, of course, of Rob Marshall’s “Nine.” Marshall’s return to the musical genre strikes me as quite likely to score in this category barring the film being a catastrophe.  It’s worth noting that 11-time Oscar nominee Rick Kline is on board, and he’s yet to win a statuette.

    James Cameron’s films have excelled in the sound categories. If his “Avatar” does not have a very interesting and unique soundscape, I’ll be quite surprised. I suspect the film could be more of a showcase for sound effects than the overall mix, I nevertheless anticipate it finding a home here as well.

    Pixar has done very well in this category lately, with three of its last four films scoring nominations. “Up” is likely to one-up (no pun intended) those films by also finding a home in the Best Picture category.  Nevertheless, the film’s sound is not as integral to the film as many of the previous Pixar efforts. A nomination here is certainly very possible. But I’d hardly call it a sure thing.  Vets Tom Myers and Michael Semanick (both from the “WALL-E” team) are on board.

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  • Number nine, number nine…

    $9.99Many of you have already spotted an interesting trend in a number of 2009 films this year: the proliferation of the number nine.

    There is, of course, “District 9,” which is already in theaters.  Any good Oscarwatcher knows about the forthcoming musical adaptation “Nine” from The Weinstein Company and Rob Marshall, a film that could stir confusion when its released three months after Shane Acker’s animated feature “9.”

    Elsewhere, there’s “Cloud 9,” from Andres Dresen and about a golden years affair between a sexagenarian and a septuagenarian.  And one that tends to slip through the cracks in conversations about the trend: “$9.99,” which I saw at the Santa Barbara fest back in January and quite liked.

    With all these nines running around (hey, there’s another one — John August’s “The Nines,” though that released two years ago), some intrepid reporter was bound to cook up a piece.  And so Ari Karpel has in the pages of the Los Angeles Times.

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  • SUNDAYE CENTZ: Glory for ‘Basterds’

    Inglourious Basterds*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    An advertising campaign built around aggressive violence and the reputation of a polarizing director, a late August release date and mixed early word coming out of Cannes were all factors working against “Inglourious Basterds” leading up to its release. All for naught, however, as the film took in a fantastic $37.6 million, marking a new career high for the director.

    Films opening at this point in August simply aren’t supposed to do this well, with the previous high debut on this particular week in the year belonging to “Blade” with $26.1 million in 1998. For The Weinstein Company, this is very welcome news and serves as only the company’s second number one film and first since “Scary Movie 4” in 2006. It is bad news, however, for 2nd grade spelling teachers.

    Interestingly enough, the debut is a near mirror image of last week’s “District 9,” which dropped a very respectable 49% to $18.9 million and second place. The running total stands at $73.5 million and the film continues to generate talk around the water cooler. And by water cooler, of course I mean anonymous virtual chat rooms.

    “The Time Traveler’s Wife” dipped 46%, probably because people realized that a movie about the person who travels through time would have been way more exciting than the movie about the person who sits around waiting for him to come back.

    Tarantino’s old partner in crime, Robert Rodriguez, tried to one-up him with pandering children’s fantasy but “Shorts” came up short (ba-zing!) at $6.6 million and sixth place. Rodriguez loves to throw one of these kids movies in every few years or so and that’s cool, but maybe he should come up with something a little more clever than a rock that grants wishes next time.

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  • Comment of the day

    I’ll never cease to be astounded by the repeated attitude that films nominated for Oscars are all masterpieces. “It was great, but Oscars?…” is something that only makes sense coming out of the mouth of someone with no knowledge of Academy history.

    –BurmaShave in our “District 9” Oscar talk discussion.

  • 8/20 Web Round-up

    Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence• Production designer Rick Carter (“A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,” “Avatar”) to be feted at Hollywood Awards. [Variety]

    • Making the “prawns” of “District 9” look alien but sympathetic. [Hero Complex]

    • Robert Rehme elected to head of Academy Foundation. [The Wrap]

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  • ‘District 9’ to Six

    As “District 9” remains the number-one topic of conversation among American moviegoers, not least for its invocation of the apartheid era, I’m surprised to see a number of prominent critics have either missed or ignored the most obvious of its symbolic historical references: the tragedy of District Six.

    A vibrant, multi-racial residential pocket of Cape Town that was declared “whites-only” in 1966, prompting the forced removal of over 60,000 people and the eventual demolition of the entire area, it stands as one of the key symbols of South Africa’s darkest days — and is plainly the primary touchstone for Neill Blomkamp’s allegory.

    Some have discussed the connection, of course — starting with that title, it’s hardly subtle — but if you weren’t aware, and were grabbed by the film, you might like to do some further research.

    district-6.1

  • Blomkamp on a budget

    (from left) Neill Blomkamp and Sharlto Copley on the set of District 9Speaking of “District 9,” which doesn’t look to go away any time soon, Chris Lee at Hero Complex has just posted a great interview with director Neill Blomkamp, coming at things from the angle of the film’s low price tag of $30 million.  It dovetails nicely with this Film Junk piece, titled “What Hollywood Can Learn From ‘Disctrict 9,’” which makes it a point of mentioning, in case you weren’t aware, that blockbuster budgets are bloated.

    Getting back to Lee’s piece, he goes through a pretty decent laundry list of reasons the budget came in so low on the film, from the ease of implementing CGI with the film’s cinema verite approach, to eschewing a high-salary star in favor of newcomer Sharlto Copley, to hiring locals as extras in order to boost the local economy.  “These were seriously impoverished people,” Blomkamp tells Lee. “Destitute people. The township alone had 70,000 people. But if you hire different groups each day, you get that money into the community.”

    The biggest expense of the production came with the rental of military equipment, Lee says, all of which was borrowed from the United Nations.  I really like the closing quote Lee picks from LA Weekly critic Scott Foundas: “I can’t wait to see what Blomkamp does next and I very much hope he gets even less money to do it.”

  • Getting carried away with ‘District 9’ Oscar talk?

    Sharlto Copley in District 9An acquaintance and AMPAS member who was at the “District 9” Academy screening last week, the one Peter Bart reported as a big success based on applause and overall audience reaction, has written to set the record straight:

    I was there at the Academy “DISTRICT 9” screening and I think people are getting too carried away. The Academy members also saw JULIE And JULIA this past weekend and that was the one that had the best turnout I’ve seen in years to a screening. The turnout for “DISTRICT 9” was pretty good and the reaction was very good, but I don’t think that the overall reaction was that great to be honest.

    The reaction to JULIE AND JULIA was good but a little subdued (I think that they loved the Julia Child segments, the Amy Adams sections less so). During “DISTRICT 9” there were several walkouts (I think that the hand held camera work drove some people nuts and some found the accents a bit hard to understand) . I am saying this, however, as someone who LOVED the film and would be happy to see it nominated frankly, but the fact that this got a phenomenal reaction is someone trying to put too positive a spin on it. Don’t get me wrong I would love to see it happen. The film is that good. We will have to wait and see, I guess.

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  • 8/18 Web Round-up

    Metropolis• “District 9” and the legacy of high-brow sci-fi. [Film School Rejects]

    • Roger Ebert talks “Inglourious Basterds” with Quentin Tarantino. [Chicago Sun-Times]

    • Patrick Goldstein weighs in on the Redbox brouhaha. [The Big Picture]

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  • ‘District 9’ receives most Academy applause in years

    Sharlto Copley in District 9The unexpected fiscal and critical success of “District 9” has stirred the proper awards talk in the right circles.  The film looks to be pretty stiff competition in the nomination races for sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects, perhaps even film editing.  But given the mood of a recent Academy screening here in Los Angeles, as conveyed by Variety’s Peter Bart, one might want to consider the film’s reach elsewhere.

    Applause is a difficult thing to understand in circumstances like this.  Generally, a big ovation at the end of, say, a well-attended press or industry screening, can be chalked up to ever-manipulative publicists doing their part to raise the roof.  But at a screening such as the one this weekend at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, a screening meant specifically for Academy members, the claps take on a different meaning.  I have a friend, AMPAS member, who always says you can place a smart bet on a film’s Oscar chances across the board based on the way applause ebbs and flows during the closing credits.

    If that’s the case, Sony might have stumbled onto a real live Oscar horse for the season.  Because the response was uncharacteristically enthusiastic for the sci-fi summer closer.

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  • In praise of model and practical effects work in ‘Moon’

    MoonThe success of Neill Blomkamp’s “District 9,” (thoughts) and hopefully (eventually), Duncan Jones’s “Moon” (review) has fed into what I’ve been consistently calling a banner year for sci-fi cinema in 2009.  That is, of course, assuming “Avatar” does come along and lay a giant egg in December.

    One of the galvanizing aspects to, well, two of these films, anyway, is the independent focus.  The modestly budgeted aspect that keeps the spirit of high concept indie filmmaking alive.  And in the case of Jones’s film, the use of practical effects free of frivolous CGI is cause for celebration.  At least that’s what Guardian writer Phelim O’Neill is getting at with a recent piece that declares the film’s old-school effects should be a model for today’s sci-fi films.

    In particular, it’s the model work in the film that is so exciting to O’Neill.  There is a humorous “then and now” photo of George Lucas that has made the rounds, the underlying point being that the director lost his creative drive when he began using heavy CGI in the “Star Wars” franchise.  Personally, I think that’s silly, because, well, the “Star Wars” films are bad with models or without them (my opinion).  But there is something about the tangible quality of practical effects that makes the reward of watching a film that much richer.  “Moon” is one level on that scale.  “The Dark Knight” is another.  It doesn’t have to be a money concern. C reatively, it can have a more visceral impact.

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