In Contention

Tag: I’m Still Here

  • Revisiting the veracity of ‘Gift Shop’

    With more pundits latching onto the possibility of “Exit Through the Gift Shop” taking an atypical (and for the Academy, potentially awkward) Oscar win on Sunday, the LA Times’s Jason Felch is raking one final comb through the question of the film’s authenticity.

    With Banksy, Thierry Guetta (aka the film’s subject, Mr. Brainwash) and Joachim Levy (a filmmaker and collaborator of Guetta’s threatening to sue Banksy for insufficiently crediting his contribution to the project) all vouching for the truth of the events depicted in the film, no concrete reason has yet surfaced not to take it at face value — but doubts persist, largely because of Banksy’s own established reputation as an artistic prankster.

    Some like to float the theory that Guetta is Banksy — one easily dashed by the former’s public records and the number of journalists who have, in confidence, interviewed the latter over the years.

    (more…)

  • LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: Chad’s best of 2010

    When it came time to choose a snappy title for my year-end retrospective, the one that seemed to fit best is the one given to all my columns at In Contention this year. Oscar and I have shared a mutual disinterest in what the other feels to be award-worthy for a few years now and it doesn’t look like the trend is going to change much in 2011. For those interested, my top 20 last year garnered a whopping three nominations between them (two coming in the Best Animated Feature category).

    If there was any kind of trend or narrative to my taste this year, I guess it would be the rise of documentaries. Nearly 50% of my top 20 is comprised of the medium (including a few hybrids that blur the line), compared to a single entry last year. My guess it has more to do with a growing disenchantment towards lazy screenwriting than a noticeable uptick in quality non-fiction film. Regardless, truth was truly more interesting than fiction for me in 2010.

    Elsewhere, a number of high ranking films have to do with relationships and their struggles, possibly connected to the fact that breaking up with my girlfriend of four years was probably the defining event of my year, personally. Sometimes a movie hits you when and where you need to be hit.

    (more…)

  • 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.

    (more…)

  • Phoenix “apologizes” as Letterman plays it straight

    Joaquin Phoenix made his return to The Late Show last night following his performance art appearance a year and a half ago which made plenty of headlines.  With the reality of “I’m Still Here” out in the open, it made for a “how could you not know” session.  Letterman was reportedly in on the gag but the interview played out like he didn’t know and only assumed it was all just a put-on.  In any case, it’s kind of the closing chapter in a saga that has irritated and amused many.  Here’s the full appearance:

  • 9/23 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Brolin on Stone and Allen, remembering ‘Goodfellas’ and a ‘Boonmee’ how-to

    • In a joint venture with Interview magazine, Roger Ebert corners Casey Affleck on “I’m Still Here.” [Chicago Sun-Times]

    • Kevin Gray talks “Wall Street” and Woody Allen with Josh Brolin. [Vulture]

    • Steve Pond runs a comb through the contenders so far to gauge strengths and weaknesses. [The Odds]

    (more…)

  • Teasing Phoenix’s return to Letterman

    Now that the cat’s out of the bag on “I’m Still Here,” all eyes are on The Late Show tonight where Joaquin Phoenix parks it on David Letterman’s chair one more time. Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, here’s a rather, well, nothing teaser clip of tonight’s appearance, which would have wrapped filming I guess about five ours ago:

    Once the entire appearance is available I’ll try to track down an embed and post it up.

  • 9/22 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Carrey’s Oscar potential, ‘Inception’ with a joystick, demanding to see ‘Beaver’

    • Sasha Stone ponders Oscar possibilities for Jim Carrey in “I Love You Phillip Morris” as the hate-mongering right looks to block the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. [Awards Daily]

    • Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy reunite to celebrate 25 years of “The Breakfast Club.”  Come on, Emilio.  Too cool for school?  (See what I did there?) [People]

    • Christopher Nolan briefly mentions that he’d like to develop “Inception” as a video game (and if you have a film-related news feed then you’ve already seen plenty of webmasters climbing over themselves to re-report this). [Variety]

    (more…)

  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 32 — What’s hot out of Toronto, ‘Social Network’ steals the thunder, ‘The Town’ comes out strong, ‘I’m Still Here’ has no clothes

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

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

    Apologies for the tardiness this time around. Anne has been in transit from Toronto and we kept missing our windows, but she’s back home now and we offer a little more for you to chew on this weekend. Let’s see what’s on the docket…

    (more…)

  • WEEKLY WRAP: Venice winners, Toronto bites, ‘Network’ raves

    • Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” surprised many by taking top honors at the Venice Film Festival; we took a closer look at the Lido winners.

    • Meanwhile, we were considerably less than wowed by the festival closer, Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest.”

    • This week’s Off the Carpet column reflected on the unusual depth of this year’s Best Actress race.

    • A race that subsequently got even deeper as Lionsgate made the biggest acquisition thus far of this year’s Toronto fest: Nicole Kidman’s comeback effort “Rabbit Hole.”

    (more…)

  • Casey Affleck: “Gotcha!”

    Obviously “Catfish” isn’t the only documentary leaving people wondering whether everything we see is legitimate.  Casey Affleck’s “I’m Still Here,” a chronicle of Joaquin Phoenix’s abandonment of his acting career in favor of a passion for, hip-hop has had many puzzled since Phoenix’s awkward appearance on The Late Show over a year ago.  I’ve always felt like it was a put-on but, well, it just never let up.

    Well, Affleck would like to come clean.  The clues have been scattered around since the film bowed in Venice, but in an interview with the New York Times’ Michael Cieply, Affleck says, “It’s a terrific performance, it’s the performance of his career.”  None of it was real, despite Affleck saying he “never intended to trick anybody.”  But the great mystery is settled.

    Whether or not the film is as poignant a study of falling from grace is still up in the air.  We can’t be sure how much the idea that everything happening was real might have affected the numerous negative opinions of the film.  Then again, in Venice, Guy noted that the film “is probably more interesting viewed as an immensely committed, avant-garde performance piece by Phoenix” and “a ragged but grimly compelling essay on our vile celebrity-news culture.”

    In any case, the cat’s out of the bag, and Phoenix will land back on Letterman’s couch — out of character, this time — on September 22.

    [Photo: People]

  • 9/13 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Richard Corliss, clearly irritated by early Oscar buzz, comes down hard on “The King’s Speech” and seems to think it is “bad enough” to win the Oscar for Best Picture. [Time]

    • Colin Firth, meanwhile, responds to said Oscar buzz. [The Hollywood Reporter]

    • Regarding “Let Me In,” Stephanie Zacharek contends “like a piece of great music, a strong movie can withstand multiple interpretations.” [Movieline]

    (more…)

  • 9/8 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Jean-Luc Godard tells the Academy in a “cordial letter” that he may attend the Governor’s Awards if his schedule permits.  AMPAS feels need to convey this to you via press release (because no one wants to look like a stood-up date). [Oscars.org]

    • Launching a new season’s coverage, Steve Pond tries to make his September record 2-0 by predicting “The King’s Speech” for Oscar victory this year. [The Odds]

    • David Poland reassesses the field and warns against getting caught up in festival euphoria. [Movie City News]

    (more…)

  • SHORT TAKE: “I’m Still Here” (**1/2)

    Venice Film Festival

    “This is the moment where the fucking good guy wins,” yells an evidently kite-high Joaquin Phoenix at a hapless member of his entourage, midway through his brother-in-law Casey Affleck’s debatable documentary portrait of the star’s much-publicized career meltdown.

    It’s a little difficult to spot the victory – or, indeed, the good guy – in this and many other such tantrums that pepper “I’m Still Here”: the film can be interpreted in a number of ways, and Phoenix comes off pretty awfully in most of them. Is it all a hoax? More specifically, could Phoenix’s actions – his abrupt 2008 “retirement” from the screen, his intended hip-hop career, his bizarre new American-Apparel-rabbi look – all be an elaborate stunt, and the film somehow not?

    Affleck was predictably unforthcoming in this morning’s press conference: “Elliptical” was his one-word answer when asked how he felt about the allegations of fakery, supported by certain scenes in the film that have obviously been (re)staged. (The closing credits feature a cast list in which not every player is billed as themselves.)

    (more…)

  • 11 days in Venice

    In a few hours’ time, a shiny and sensibly priced orange plane will whisk me off to the city of water, romance and the most expensive fleapit hotels this side of, well, anywhere for my second consecutive dive into the Venice Film Festival. Truth be told, I’m not quite ready for it… a surfeit of pre-travel errands has meant I’m still leafing through the fest’s vast 62-page press screening schedule, still trying to cobble out some semblance of an itinerary.

    A neat, contained festival preview, therefore, wasn’t really on the cards: I tried to narrow things down to a “10 most anticipated” list, but I’m far too hungry for the entire buffet to limit myself to that.

    In its place, then, I offer an indication of what the festival is serving up on a day-by-day basis; not only will you get an idea of when, in the next fortnight, your own horse in this race will come to attention, but you can also see some of the cineaste’s Sophie’s choices that lie ahead of me.

    My scribbly Venice calendar after the cut.

    (more…)

  • ‘I’m Still Here’ trailer

    In case you’re interested in the Casey Affleck documentary about his brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix’s attempt at a rap career and either serious-as-cancer or totally put-on downward spiral, the trailer for “I’m Still Here” has landed at Yaho0! Movies.  But is it just me or is this whole thing all a bit stale already?  How long ago was the Letterman appearance, anyway?  And the weird red carpet interview?  Oh well, check out the trailer by clicking the image below or watch the embed after the jump.

    (more…)

  • ‘I’m Still Here’ poster

    I’m not entirely sure what manner of beast Casey Affleck’s upcoming documentary about his friend Joaquin Phoenix’s 2008 retirement/reinvention/stunt/freakout is: it claims to be a sincere portrait underpinned by mutual understanding between artists, but it could just as well be the latest archly ironic act in this most slow-burning of celebrity pranks. Whether it answers any questions or simply adds more to the list, however, it’s bound to be one of the hottest tickets at next month’s Venice Film Festival, where it will premiere out of competition. (Alongside Casey’s brother Ben’s “The Town” — the Lido likes it some Affleck this year.) It also boasts one of 2010’s loveliest one-sheets, by the great Kellerhouse, Inc. — perhaps the only time the word “lovely” could be applied to the look Phoenix is rocking here.

    (more…)