In Contention

Tag: Gran Torino

  • Column? We don’t need no stinking column.

    Turns out I don’t have the time to dig into a full column this week like I had hoped.  I’ll have to get into my thoughts on “Gran Torino” and “Seven Pounds” another time, but I do feel the need to note one thing in this week’s charts: “The Dark Knight” leaping into the Best Picture fray.

    I still don’t feel completely comfortable with this.  It was a coin flip on whether to take “Frost/Nixon” or “Revolutionary Road” out of the mix.  Meanwhile, no one seems to be hearing passionate murmurs from the Academy on the Caped Crusader.  So maybe I look like I’m pulling my punches here, but with the consistency of disappointment this year, I just feel like the door is opening for something that strays this much from AMPAS tradition to find its way in.

    That said, there are things at work here that should be taken into account.  Like the international stake Warner Bros. has in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” for instance, owning every territory but North America.  The studio is even taking out some of the Oscar ads you’re seeing for the film.  So perhaps chips are being rationed toward a film like “Button” that will need the box office boost of awards season rather than a film like “The Dark Knight,” which has made more than its fair share of dollars.

    This is all fodder for another column at another time.  But for now, I can’t dive in appropriately.  So I’ll just leave you with the charts.  This time next week I’ll have seen the full slate of contenders and the National Board of Review will have come and gone.  Then it’s LAFCA, NYFCC and onward into the season.  Slowly, it will unfold.

    Main Category Charts
    Technical Category Charts
    The Contenders
    Oscar Prediction Archives

  • 12/1 Oscarweb Round-up

    Christian Bale in Public Enemies(Back from vacation and ready to roll.  Thanks to Guy for keeping the ship sailing during the holiday.)

    • A first peak at what will likely be one of next year’s serious contenders: Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies.” [Empire]

    • TV spotting “Gran Torino” with a little outside-the-beat commentary. [/Film]

    • Carl DiOrio reports on the surprisingly successful box office numbers of “Milk.” [The Hollywood Reporter]

    • Peter Knegt, meanwhile, talks with “The Times of Harvey Milk” helmer Rob Epstein about his 24-year-old documentary and Gus Van Sant’s take on the politician this year. [indieWIRE]

    • And Cristy Lytal catches up with the real-life Cleve Jones (played by Emile Hirsch in Van Sant’s film). [Los Angeles Times]

    • I almost feel this isn’t worth linking, but there isn’t a lot to choose from this morning: Marc Lee rounds up a couple of Oscar blog quotes to assess Kate Winslet’s Oscar hopes.  Are they paying him for this? [Daily Telegraph]

    • Scott Bowles tracks down Bryan Singer and Tom Cruise at the Burbank airport to discuss the risky business of “Valkyrie.” [USA Today]

  • Karger narrows it to eight

    For this week’s edition of Entertainment Weekly, Dave Karger has boiled down the Best Picture race to a mere eight horses. The no-surprises list reads as follows:

    1. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    2. “Slumdog Millionaire”
    3. “Frost/Nixon”
    4. “Revolutionary Road”
    5. “Doubt”
    6. “Milk”
    7. “The Dark Knight”
    8. “Australia”

    Nothing much to comment on, really. Karger remarks that, in the wake of “Milk”‘s rapturous critical reception, he would now move it further up the chart. Meanwhile, he considers dropping “Australia,” presumably in favour of one of his runners-up, “The Reader” or “Gran Torino.”

    However you shake it, though, it still makes for a pretty yawnsome list of the usual suspects. He’s probably right, of course. But is it too late to jazz up the competition with a fresh contender? “The Wrestler?” “Happy-Go-Lucky?” Hell, I’ll settle for “WALL-E” at this point. Go on, Academy, surprise us. Please.

  • 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.

    (more…)

  • Goldstein singles out ‘Gran Torino’ scribe

    After being kept under wraps for so long, word is finally starting to emerge on Clint Eastwood’s presumed awards contender, “Gran Torino.” Dave Karger already expressed his approval of Eastwood’s performance a few days ago, and now Patrick Goldstein also gives the film a firm thumbs-up.

    Calling it “a heartfelt portrait of human redemption,” Goldstein also suggests that it “couldn’t (be) a nicer swan song” for Eastwood’s acting career, as has widely been reported. What he seems most impressed by, however, is the film’s screenplay — and he’s shocked to discover it’s a fledgling feature effort by unknown writer Nick Schenk:

    The script was so well crafted and understated (and the credits went by so fast) that after seeing the picture, I immediately called Bill Gerber, one of the film’s producers, to find out which one of the many A-list screenwriters who must always be knocking down Eastwood’s door had penned the story. “Are you sitting down?” Gerber asked. He had quite a surprise. The writer, Nick Schenk, who lives in Minnesota, had never sold a feature script in his life. In fact, the only writing work Schenk had done was for “BoDog Fight,” a mixed martial arts TV show, a game show called “Let’s Bowl” and some comedy sketches collected in a DVD called “Factory Accident Sex.” (“That title doesn’t exactly help my career, does it?” Schenk jokes.)

    (more…)

  • Clint Eastwood growls through the opening of Best Original Song contender

    Gran TorinoI like Clint.  I really do.  I’m sticking up for him against all this timidity regarding his “cranky old guy” performance in “Gran Torino” because I know the role is something special.  Despite considering his recent string of success to be the most overrated era of any filmmaker’s career, I’m glad he’s out there making movies.  In the face of sudden disgust with his latest film, “Changeling,” I went to bat for him and even thought it to be his best work in quite a while.

    Basically, I’m no Clint basher.  But even I have to stop and wonder why the hell he’s singing in the opening verse of this Best Original Song contender for “Gran Torino.”  Suddenly I have the ole’ Adam Sandler sketch in my head: “There all gonna laugh at you!”

    Have a listen…if you dare (apologies for the crude recording…had to do it manually and I’m knee deep in holiday packing):

    [display_podcast]

  • First set of winner predictions

    Clint Eastwood in Gran TorinoBefore the holiday I thought I’d make my first calls on the year’s Oscar winners.  Bear in mind we don’t even have a list of nominees yet and anything can happen.  I think around this time last year I was predicting “Into the Wild” for across-the-board wins and it only managed two nominations at the end of the day, so, grain of salt and all that.  I just like to go on the record around this time, so here we go:

    Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Actor: Clint Eastwood, “Gran Torino”
    Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, “Doubt”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Original Screenplay: “Milk”
    Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Cinematography: “Defiance”
    Best Costume Design: “The Duchess”
    Best Film Editing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Makeup: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Music – Original Score: “Defiance”
    Best Music – Original Song: “The Wrestler”
    Best Sound Editing: “The Dark Knight”
    Best Sound Mixing: “The Dark Knight”
    Best Visual Effects: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Animated Feature Film: “WALL-E”
    Best Documentary Feature: “Man on Wire”
    Best Foreign Language Film: “Captain Abu Raed”

  • You can’t stop what’s coming

    John Wayne in True Grit (left) and Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino (right)

  • Oscar column on the way

    Just a note to say it hasn’t slipped my mind. I know some folks get testy when I don’t get that sucker up but fast. With “The Reader” screening yesterday and “Gran Torino” next Monday, I’ve pushed the “Off the Carpet” columns to Tuesdays for these two weeks. It’ll be up shortly.

  • 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]

  • Out and about

    Mostly silence on my end today.  I’m pushing the Oscar column to tomorrow due to a screening of “The Reader” this morning.  Might as well get one more under my belt before tackling an update.  This time next week “Gran Torino” will be out of the way, then it’s up to Sony when they want to drop the curtain on the season’s offerings.  As far as I know, no “Seven Pounds” screenings have been announced.

    I’ll touch base briefly with a “Reader” reaction around noon-ish, then back again in the evening.

  • Narrowing it down

    Over at Awards Daily, Sasha Stone has taken it upon herself to whittle down the Best Picture race to a brisk 11-title list, and it makes for sobering reading:

    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “The Dark Knight”
    “Doubt”
    “Frost/Nixon”
    “Gran Torino”
    “Milk”
    “Rachel Getting Married”
    “The Reader”
    “Revolutionary Road”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”
    “The Wrestler”

    I can’t be the only person looking down that list and gloomily wondering, “Is that it?” (I suppose some might argue for “Australia” still, but even the positive early reviews don’t give me a great feeling.) Sadly, not only is Stone probably right, but she’s still being relatively generous — I would strike “Rachel Getting Married” off the list without too much hesitation. Meanwhile, the level of hype centering on Clint Eastwood’s Best Actor campaign for “Gran Torino” has me wondering whether those who have seen it don’t deem it Best Picture material. (I remain among those unpersuaded by the film’s trailer.)

    It seems to me that “Doubt”‘s chances of a Best Picture nomination depend entirely on how much award steam it gathers in the acting races, while “The Reader” remains a puzzle to me — it has the right credentials, the trailer looks solid, but why don’t I sense more excitement around it? Harvey Weinstein is still struggling to regain his golden touch at the Oscars, and it remains to be seen whether that early bout of bad press over the film’s release-date kerfuffle will linger.

    (more…)

  • In the round

    I don’t know why exactly, but the “roundtable” format of interviews that crops up a lot during awards season often strikes me as rather less fascinating than it’s meant to be. Unless the panel is very smartly chosen, I find the discussion tends to veer towards back-patting and faintly smug in-jokery, rather than stimulating argument between widely differing creative forces.

    Maybe I’m just blasé. But on reading the Hollywood Reporter’s two recent “Oscar Roundtables” with six screenwriters and six producers that THR thinks are likely to figure in the Oscar race, I couldn’t help being disappointed that, despite the level of talent involved, they didn’t have that many interesting things to say between them. (I’d go so far as to say that the best soundbite is quoted from the not-present Charlie Kaufman.)

    The selected writers are Jenny Lumet (“Rachel Getting Married”), Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”), Thomas McCarthy (“The Visitor”), John Patrick Shanley (“Doubt”), Andrew Stanton (“WALL-E”) and J. Michael Straczynski (“Changeling”). I have a hard time imagining the latter two will score writing nominations, but the race is young, I suppose.

    Writers can be pretty insufferable when talking about their “process” — I know, I am one. So there’s the usual semi-serious comparing of hours spent at the computer, feverish notebook scribbling and messy first drafts, but there isn’t much discussion of the specific screenplays and films at hand. McCarthy seems to be the most reticent of the group, only entering the discussion halfway through. A shame, really, as I’d venture that he’s possibly the best writer of the lot.

    (more…)

  • 11/19 Oscarweb Round-up

    Kate Beckinsale• David Poland misses the stylistic point of “Revolutionary Road.” [The Hot Blog]

    • Anne Thompson is on the right track, though. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Dave Karger digs into the Oscar prospects of the elusive “Seven Pounds.” [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Pete Hammond covers the week in screenings, much of which you’ve already read here.  But he gets more second-hand gossip that Clint Eastwood knocks it out of the park in “Gran Torino.”  Press-at-large screenings start in two weeks. [Notes on a Season]

    • Michael Ordoña talks to Nicole Kidman and Baz Luhrmann (the L.A. Times are getting the royal Fox treatment lately) about “Australia.” [The Envelope]

    • Tom O’Neil talks “Nothing But the Truth” with star Kate Beckinsale. [Gold Derby]

    • Someone call the medic, Grandpa is hearing voices. [Peter Bart]

  • OFF THE CARPET: Getting to know you

    Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary RoadThis is the first season I can think of, at least since I’ve been covering this crazy beat on the west coast, that studios have become so terrified by the media that guild screenings are preempting press screenings with such consistency.

    Some have whined about “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” screening for SAG 10 days before the media at large gets a look (with the usual brand of entitlement that turns the stomach).  Others actually snuck into the screening, surely freaking out a few publicists desperate to unfold the film at their own pace (and the pace dictated by the meticulous David Fincher).  I’m just waiting.

    Plenty have taken the altered ending story behind “Australia,” not to mention the film being held from the press until two weeks before it opens, as a sign that the movie is in trouble.  I’m just waiting.

    Lots of anticipation has suddenly been blown into “The Reader”‘s previously deflated balloon.  I’m just waiting.

    But I have to say, seeing a couple of the year’s contenders last week with big industry audiences proved to be just the breath of fresh air this incredibly stifling season needed.

    (more…)

  • New ‘Torino’ poster, original song and other WB FYC updates

    Warner Bros. Pictures\' Gran TorinoI was just perusing the Warner Bros. awards site and was greeted with an array of updates I wasn’t aware of.  First and foremost, there is the new “Gran Torino” poster image to the left here (click for a slightly larger image).  I dig it as much as the first poster, maybe even a little more.

    Second, in the “for your consideration” section for the film I noticed there is an original song in play, written by Jamie Callum.  I have no idea what it’s called yet, but it’s worth keeping an eye on given how painfully weak that race is this season.

    It’s also interesting that Warners is apparently choosing not to push any actor for awards consideration outside of Clint Eastwood.  I would have expected at least a modest push for Bee Vang, who has a great role opposite Eastwood for much of the script.

    I also noticed that Dave Johannson has been added to Nick Schenk with a “story by” credit.  The film’s IMDb page also reflects this.  Apologies if this was already out there, but it’s the first I’m hearing of it.

    Over on the “Dark Knight” side of things, you get a nice sampling of James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer’s kick-ass score, as well as a similar rundown of FYC declarations and even a link to the screenplay.  Very cool.  Soon there will be a “score” section and a “making of” section, but right now there’s a section with scattered images from the film, most of them new to my eyes.  I love this one:

    Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

    Check out the rest at the official Warner Bros. 2008 awards website.

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Film Editing — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionNo matter how good the storyline, plot, acting, photography and other elements of a film may be, any poorly edited film will be difficult to watch, understand and enjoy.  An editor has the task of not only finding the appropriate length of a film but also putting together scenes so they flow coherently, both visually and story-wise.

    This is a category where I often feel “most” editing is confused with “best.”  I wholeheartedly agree that it is challenging to coherently put together a film with lots of action, musical scenes or a non-linear narrative – the sorts of films typically nominated in this category. Though I personally feel that often the most accomplished editing can be seen in the relaxed creation of appropriate pace and tone, stealth editing that goes unnoticed.

    This is also, happily, not a field that tends to bring back past nominees at the expense of newbies.  Few working editors have more than four career nominations and at least two to three newcomers seem to be nominated every year.

    Historically, this category has had an incredible crossover with Best Picture.  Though in recent years, that has changed, the last three years having had only a 2/5 crossover with the big category. Last year’s winner, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” is a very rare example of a winner that was not even nominated for Best Picture.

    (more…)

  • On Eastwood: for the haters

    Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino18 months ago I began researching my book “Clint Eastwood: Evolution of a Filmmaker” after signing a three book deal with Greenwood Press in the United States. This was it, my life-long goal, writing books on film and getting paid to do it. Eastwood was my choice, a director I greatly admire, but who I found along the way is not exactly admired by all. In fact there are some who are openly hostile towards Eastwood and his films, as we have found in recent days.

    What I admire, beyond the sheer artistry and the deceptive simplicity of his films, is the manner in which he forged his directing career, using his stardom to get the films he wanted to make into production. Yes he would agree to a fourth Dirty Harry IF the studio agreed to fund “White Hunter Black Heart,” his thinly disguised study of John Huston and the shooting of “The African Queen.”  Et cetera.

    Studying Eastwood’s films, I watched an artist growing, always taking new chances, fearless of a challenge, and with each new film, learning.  Even when the film tanked, there was a lesson to be learned. Eastwood himself says the lesson of the terrible “The Rookie” was simply, “Never make a film because you are bored and have nothing to do…ever.” As far back as his first film, “Play Misty for Me,” the talent was most evident as was the courage. Imagine Eastwood, the world’s biggest box office star, known for kicking ass as Harry Callahan, pitching to the Universal brass his love story “Breezy” with William Holden and Kay Lenz.

    Even I remember the shock of seeing “Bird” knowing it was directed by Eastwood and being stunned by the style of the film, the brilliance of the lead performance and the powerful story being told.

    But moving beyond his past accomplishments, which I’ve covered at length in this space before, I have to say I have been looking forward to both of Eastwood’s films this year, and have little doubt he will find himself in the Oscar race again.

    (more…)