In Contention

Tag: Exit Through the Gift Shop

  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 49 — Final pre-nod discussion

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    We’re moving into the last weekend before the Academy’s big nominations reveal on Tuesday. Anne is calling from Sundance, where the festival is just gearing up, leaving me alone in LA to my devices. But there are a number of things to address in these final pre-nod hours, so let’s see what’s on the docket today…

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  • Banksy joshes Guggenheim in Cinema Eye speech

    Yesterday I dug through the 15 documentary feature short-listers to offer an idea of how that race might turn out.  Over the weekend, the perceived heavy of the crowd, “Exit Through the Gift Shop” (which is the most awarded doc of the year), was taking down yet another prize at the Cinema Eye Honors.  Director Banksy was not on hand to deliver his speech, natch, but the film’s producer, Jaimie D’Cruz, read it to the crowd and Matt Singer was on the ready with a recorder.  Here’s the speech:

    Now’s not the time for long, rambling speeches. I’ll leave that for the director of ‘Waiting for Superman.’

    I’d like to thank the Cinema Eye awards. It’s great to be recognized by people who are so obsessed with the documentary genre — in other words people who are even more socially retarded than myself.

    I guess some of you may be getting a bit suspicious about me. How can you know that this award is real? But I’d like to categorically assure you that this evening’s awards are not being staged by actors for a parody I’m making about film awards.

    I’d like to thank anyone who worked on the movie. Almost all of them did a great job. And I’d like to dedicate this award to anyone out there who’s ever looked at the state of this world and thought: “I can’t just stand idly by and watch this happen. I need to get it on tape.” Thank you and have a good evening.

    [Photo: Producers Distribution Agency]

  • FIRST-HALF FYC: Best Picture

    For the past eight weeks, I’ve been spotlighting nomination-worthy names,  in all major Ocar categories, from the first half of the US release calendar. Today, we close out the series with an alternative January-to-June Best Picture 10, though it comes a week after ballots closed — timing was never my strong suit.

    A look at this category on the Oscar side of things proves why I felt this series of columns necessary in the first place. Of the films currently being mooted for a place on the Academy’s Best Picture list, only two — “Toy Story 3” and “Winter’s Bone” — were released prior to July 2010. If the latter does wind up making the cut, it raises hope that small-scale indies can override voters’ perilously short memories. If it doesn’t, well, we must just accept that the first six months of the year contained no Oscar-worthy adult drama. Or, you know, not.

    There’s no doubting nine of the films on my list below are wild long-shots to show up in Tuesday’s nomination announcement — indeed, several of the titles aren’t present on the Academy’s list of eligible productions.

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  • A look at Oscar’s 15 documentary feature hopefuls

    While Guy has been surveying the foreign field, I’ve been diving in elsewhere.

    It has been considered a banner year for documentary filmmaking. So naturally, the Best Documentary Feature race has been an interesting one to watch since the season’s early days.  Two months ago the Academy announced 15 finalists (whittling it down from 101 eligible titles) still alive in the race for this year’s doc Oscar. Branch members will now select five nominees from the remaining hopefuls, which will be announced as part of the Academy’s big reveal Tuesday.

    Even if there are a number of examples that didn’t make the list but probably should have, those 15 films largely make for a sound representation of a great year for the form. I spent the last couple of weeks revisiting some and saddling up to others for the first time, so it seemed worth it to offer up my thoughts on each and my perspective on the race.

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  • Updates to The Circuit

    A couple of things this morning. First, the Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association has come out of clear, blue (fabulous) sky to dish out their honors — and “I Am Love,” therefore, joins the minimal chorus of Best Picture critics award winners.

    Meanwhile, “Exit Through the Gift Shop” won the top prize at last night’s Cinema Eye Honors, but Lixin Fan’s “Last Train Home” took home the most trophies with three.

    Speaking of which, check back later today as I’ll have an in-depth look at the 15 docs shortlisted for Oscar.

  • ACE springs for Best Picture frontrunners

    Guy rightly noted yesterday a seemingly “whatever” coagulation of the guild awards circuit into “easy-to-recall season staples.” If you were hoping the American Cinema Editors (ACE) would put an end to that, keep dreaming.

    Of course, ACE historically skews as populist and inside-the-box as the DGA set, which is why the two are often coupled for maximum tea leaf importance when forecasting Oscar. But one at least hoped for a “District 9”-level statement of “we like stuff that has no chance of winning Best Picture,” but it wasn’t to be.

    The “surprise,” for most, will likely be Pamela Martin joining the guild party for “The Fighter,” but given the givens, it’s not such a left-field pick. Season heavy, boxing film (which does well with editors), etc. She’ll probably be an Oscar nominee, too, but I must say, it’s a shame the year’s best job at the Steambeck, “Shutter Island,” was ignored here after an early below-the-line guild showing.

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  • DGA announces documentary nominees

    Two days after revealing their feature film nominees, the Directors’ Guild of America has named their five selections in the documentary category. It’s a list that mostly lends credence to the presumed Oscar frontrunners, with one notable exception: Chinese director Lixin Fan, whose lavishly acclaimed debut “Last Train Home” was left off the Academy’s 15-title documentary shortlist, to the dismay of many a critic.

    Fan isn’t the only first-timer to crack the DGA’s list: war journalist Sebastian Junger and photographer Tim Hetherington made the cut for their gutsy foray into filmmaking, “Restrepo.” Notably, if not surprisingly, absent is “Exit Through the Gift Shop” director Banksy — the Guild was never likely to tap a celebrity outsider who won’t even identify himself, and I suspect the Academy will have similar reservations.

    Meanwhile, note the three overlaps between the PGA and DGA lists, “Client 9,” “Waiting for Superman” and “Inside Job,” with only the last-named film also scoring with the Writers’ Guild. Just in case you hadn’t spotted the one to beat. Check out the nominees at The Circuit.

    [Photo: National Geographic Entertainment]

  • 1/7 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Exit’ credit complaint, Rudin’s PGA record, tequila and that ‘Black Swan’ lesbian scene

    • Does a complaint about uncredited art used in “Exit Through the Gift Shop” lend credence to the veracity of the film? [The Carpetbagger]

    • Tim Appello on “Black Swan”‘s supposedly tequila-laced lesbian scene. [The Race]

    • The narrative on Peter Weir this year continues to be about the unfortunate fact that he’s part of a dying (if not dead) breed. [The Wrap]

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  • Watching and waiting: Guy’s best and worst of 2010

    What kind of year was 2010 at the movies? You tell me. It’s virtually impossible to find one yardstick to measure 365 days of cinema for a collective audience whose interests seem ever more segregated.

    If your film interests are covered largely by the multiplex, chances are 2010 was an unusually unrewarding year for you, challenging even Hollywood’s standard quota of déjà vu — unless, of course, you’re an animation fiend, in which case there was a broad enough range of carefully crafted work to keep you happy.

    If you tend to bypass the mall on your way to the arthouse, however, there was any amount of adventurous indie and world cinema, both newly unveiled and backlogged from previous years, to chew on — if, of course, you’re privileged enough to live in a regrettably narrow radius. And if you’re an Academy voter sifting through the crop of generously campaigned prestige fare, 2010 looks rather like the usual, only a little more so.

    For me, 2010 was both immeasurably improved and somewhat complicated by the festival circuit — access to which is a luxury I shall never take for granted, but also one that inevitably skews my sense of how the film yearbook reads in the real world. When you’ve had access to most of the big-ticket winter warmers by early autumn, and when the likes of Cannes afford you a head start of many months or even years on certain international art films, things rather lose their shape.

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  • 1/5 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Paltrow and “singer-as-Oscar-bait,” 80 years of THR, questioning Bening’s, er, overdueness

    • Larry Getlen on Gwyneth Paltrow in “Country Strong” and the “singer-as-Oscar-bait phenomenon.” [New York Post]

    • The this year’s Oscar hopefuls who got their starts as child actors. [Variety]

    • In celebrating THR’s 80th anniversary, Todd McCarthy picks the 80 greatest Hollywood moments. [Hollywood Reporter]

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  • FIRST-HALF FYC: Best Director

    With precisely three weeks to go until Oscar nomination morning, we continue to flag up worthy work from 2010’s first half, much of it lost (or, indeed, never present) amid the crush of more recent awards contenders. You know the January-to-June drill by now: beyond that, we can get as far-fetched as we like.

    I certainly did this week, as my field of Best Director suggestions betrays the extent to which foreign arthouse fare rules the quality ranks in the early months of the year, while American studios save their prize ponies for summer. For this ballot to pan out, the Academy would have to overcome their usual resistance to subtitles several times over, while making history twice by nominating two women and a documentary filmmaker. Not much to ask, is it?

    Speaking of women, by the way, it bears repeating that opening months of the year were strong ones for female filmmakers: between the likes of Debra Granik, Jessica Hausner and Mia Hansen-Løve, all of whom were closely considered, I could have cheerfully assembled a ladies-only field.

    Finally, before I get into my picks, I should add that while many (certainly the Academy itself, on recent form) see the Best Picture and Director categories as interchangeable, I don’t quite work that way — as often as they inevitably overlap, sometimes a director’s formal ambition and achievement burns a little brighter than the whole.

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  • Guardian shortlists 10 titles for Best First Film

    When I was filling out my ballot for indieWIRE’s 2010 critics’ poll, Best First Film was perhaps the category I spent the longest time deliberating over — as unremarkable as the year has been in other respects, the amount of scrappy new directorial promise surging up through the cracks has been both unusually high and unusually prominent.

    Excitingly, much of this fresh filmmaking energy has been on the non-fiction side of things — something reflected in The Guardian’s newly announced shortlist for their annual Best First Film award. Four of the 10 films selected are documentaries after a fashion, even as they play with the boundaries of the format. (One of them, of course, turns out to be wholly a performance piece.)

    Included, of course, is Kris’s #1 film of the year, as is the film I eventually settled on for my indieWIRE vote. The list follows the UK release calendar — hence the inclusion of a 2009 title and the exclusion of, say, “Animal Kingdom” — but it’s a fine selection nonetheless.

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  • “The film’s power comes from the fact it’s all 100% true.”

    During the 12/10 top 10 podcast, when I spoke on the two documentaries that made my list this year — “Catfish” and “Exit Through the Gift Shop” — I made a point of noting that I’m taking the films at face value.  They are films that spark a natural sense of suspicion, especially in the case of the latter given that it is directed by prankster street artist Banksy, but I’m content to take them for what they claim to be (while feeling that, if fake, they are even more brilliant).

    All These Wonderful Things documentary hound A.J. Schnack recently interviewed Banksy about his film.  When the question of authenticity pops up, the debuting filmmaker states explicitly that the film is “100% true,” though of course he would.  But it’s an enlightening discussion for other reasons.

    For instance, Banksy says he’s very unpopular in his community at the moment for the attention paid to Mr. Brainwash, whose derivative, pointless, cookie-cutter “art work” becomes a narrative and thematic focus for the film.  There’s also his perspective on documentary filmmaking (“Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock are very punk to me,” he says.)  Great stuff.

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  • Best in show 2010: the year in superlatives

    The week, and with it, the bulk of my 2010 coverage, draws to a close today with a look at the best of the best. I’m offering up a personal list of superlatives, including most Oscar categories and some other fun fields thrown in for good measure. A tradition at this point.

    There will be plenty going on next week, though, despite travel and the holidays. As always, we’ll be at your disposal. But allow me to put a tidy bow on the year here and keep forging ahead…

    Best Picture
    “Exit Through the Gift Shop”

    Best Director
    Mike Leigh, “Another Year”

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  • If I had a ballot

    The year is winding down.  Today, as part of the week’s on-going year-in-review specials, I’m offering up my annual “if I had a ballot” post.

    In years past I’ve tended to defer to studio campaigns for category placement, but this year I figured, “Screw it.”  After all, if I actually had a ballot I could call the shots.  So I have.

    You’re familiar with my Best Picture line-up by now.  I’ve opted out of the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary categories because there are a few films I’d rather have seen before making that call, but otherwise, it’s the usual Oscar fields with an ensemble category tacked on.

    Feel free to post up your own selections, if you have them, in the comments section below.  And remember to check back Friday as I close up shop on 2010 with my list of superlatives.  For now, check out my personal ballot after the jump.

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  • Likability: the best films of 2010

    I don’t quite know how to peg 2010.

    On one hand it has felt like a weak year. On the other hand, I’ve enjoyed quite a few films. Maybe the story lies in that sentence: “enjoyed.” There were precious few films that really rocked me, but plenty that were a nice enough experience.

    If you listened to Friday’s Oscar Talk, then you know my top 10. But before publishing it in this space, allow me to walk through the many films that fell short, starting at the top with Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine.” Here is an honest depiction of a relationship in crisis with performances that hit the mark. It wears its soul on its sleeve.

    The Coen brothers’ dip into the western genre, “True Grit,” was a straight-forward piece of flavorful filmmaking much appreciated for its restraint, while similarly, Ben Affleck’s “The Town” didn’t attempt reinvention of the wheel while forging a resonant character study in a genre film’s clothing.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 44 — The top 10 films of 2010 (x2)

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    It’s the middle of the season, critics’ awards are set to unleash next week, the guild announcements are right around the corner, the holidays are breathing down our necks and it couldn’t be a busier time of year. There’s plenty to discuss, but Anne and I are nevertheless straying from the usual format this week…

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  • ‘Waste Land’ wins IDA feature award

    Lucy Walker and company’s film beat out fellow AMPAS doc short-lister “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” The other winners at The Circuit.