In Contention

Tag: John C. Reilly

  • OFF THE CARPET: Strong year for double-dippers

    We find ourselves right in the middle of the big Toronto press junket, er, film festival, where 200-plus films are landing, many of them as world premieres, and the landscape of this year’s Oscar race is really beginning to take shape.

    As I looked out at the various films in play this year, it suddenly occurred to me that, perhaps more than ever, there are a lot of double-dipping actors and actresses in the hunt. Not all of these performances are or will be awards bait necessarily, but there could still be cases for more than a few saddling up to dual nominations this year.

    At the top of that list would have to be Brad Pitt. After already giving what many believed to be his best performance to date in Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life,” the paparazzi-hounded star found himself the recipient of a lot of great ink for his work in “Moneyball” when it screened in Toronto at the end of the week. Wisely, Fox Searchlight will be planning a supporting actor push for the actor in Malick’s film, which is both practical (given his clear lead in the other film), and organic (given that, at least in my opinion, he is supporting to Hunter McCracken’s lead in “The Tree of Life”).

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  • REVIEW: “Carnage” (**1/2)

    Venice Film Festival

    When the title of Yasmina Reza’s acclaimed 2006 play “God of Carnage” was given a haircut in its transition to the screen, it was hard to read what — if anything — the change implied about the film to come.

    On the one hand, “Carnage” sounds pithier and more aggressive, removing the safety net of metaphor from a text already pretty unreserved in its examination of upper-class ugliness. On the other, shearing the title of any theological implications (though the play’s less-than-incendiary speech in which the titular phrase was coined survives intact) smacked of caution: would Polanski’s treatment blunt Reza’s scalpel, selecting some of the play’s less arguable social transgressions while leaving more troublesome ones on the stage? Or did Polanski simply like the one-word title better?

    As it turns out, the mixed signals were a red herring either way: the newly godless “Carnage” stints neither on the bilious wit the play spewed on stage, nor the formality of its construction, which takes an hour to excavate raw animosity and dysfunction from yards of swaddled politesse. It is, in the final event, very much the play that critics and audiences swarmed around from its Paris debut in 2006, and such fans’ relative satisfaction or disappointment with it will hinge largely on their individual response to the wholly refreshed cast.

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  • REVIEW: “We Need to Talk About Kevin” (****)

    Cannes Film Festival

    Lionel Shriver’s 2003 bestseller “We Need to Talk About Kevin” is a rare pop novel indeed: a nippy, low-comfort social essay that lures readers into messily untied arguments on topical subject matter the talk-show circuit would have far less trouble resolving. It might have made for a cluttered, stentorian film about things, particularly as the novel’s candid, epistolary format — a series of unreturned letters from an emotionally paralyzed wife and mother to her absent husband — lends itself to reams of dense, subtext-securing voiceover.

    That knowledge makes the already graceful cinematic language of Lynne Ramsay’s film adaptation (the Scottish director’s third feature, and her first in a regrettable period of nine years) all the more remarkable: altering not a jot of narrative detail, Ramsay and co-writer Rory Kinnear have ingeniously hollowed out Shriver’s wordy text into a largely tacit, imagistic memory collage that substitutes sound and vision for dialogue as extensively as possible. The woman who had a similarly unlikely literary hit, Alice Sebold’s “The Lovely Bones,” taken out of her hands by commercially-minded producers has exacted her revenge in the most rewarding of ways.

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  • CANNES CHECK: ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’

    The director: Lynne Ramsay (United Kingdom)

    The talent: Reigning arthouse-crossover queen Tilda Swinton leads the cast of Scottish director Ramsay’s third feature; filling the other two key roles are John C. Reilly, shifting gears from his recent run of comedy roles, and 18 year-old Ezra Miller, an effectively gangly presence in “Afterschool” and “City Island.”

    Ramsay adapted Lionel Shriver’s 2003 novel with British actor (and first-time writer) Rory Kinnear, while the film’s long list of producers and executive producers includes Steven Soderbergh and Luc (son of Nicolas) Roeg. Oscar-nominated DP Seamus McGarvey (“Atonement”) is on lensing duty, breaking Ramsay’s early-career partnership with Alwin Kuchler. Most excitingly of all, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood extends his select but impressive film-scoring CV (“There Will Be Blood,” “Norwegian Wood”).

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  • Rockwell talks ‘Conviction,’ other choices for Kenny Waters, destroyed footage

    Backstage’s Jenelle Riley recently moderated a post-screening Q&A with “Conviction” star Sam Rockwell and a few interesting nuggets surfaced during the chat.

    First and foremost, I was always under the impression that Rockwell was the first choice for the role of Kenny Waters in the film.  But as he reveals here, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly dropped out of the part along the way.  It leaves you wondering what the film might have been like.  I think either actor would have been intriguing but Rockwell brings a real charm to the character that might have been lacking otherwise.

    But most crushing, I’d say, is the fact that 16 hours of crucial footage was apparently destroyed by an airport x-ray.  Can you imagine?  And it sounds like it was intense material as Rockwell says it was probably the hardest thing he’s ever done to go back and res-hoot all of that stuff.

    It’s worth a look and listen.  Head on over to Backstage to watch or check out the embed after the jump.

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  • Malick’s ‘Thin Red Line’ shines on Criterion Blu

    If you’re sitting there right now, reading these words, killing time, nothing much to do this afternoon, do yourself a favor — go out and buy the new Criterion Blu-ray release of Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line.”

    I’ve been delighting in this top 10 all-timer all week, probably my most anticipated home video release since, oh, “Batman” hit VHS during the holidays in 1989?  Naturally, there is no on-screen involvement from Malick, but there is plenty to explore.

    First, let’s start with the film itself.  John Toll’s gorgeous, mesmerizing photography pops with crystal clarity as, finally, his work on the film gets the treatment it deserves.  The sound is also striking (though let me know if I’m the only one who notices it pop in suddenly over the title screen), the mix of elements and Hans Zimmer’s score truly immersive.

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  • 9/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Anne Thompson sits down with Golden Lion winner Sofia Coppola, from Venice. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Patrick Goldstein on Hollywood’s on-going lover affair with mobster cinema. [The Big Picture]

    • Pete Hammond concurs with the Oscar buzz surrounding “The Social Network” after a slew of screenings in New York and Los Angeles. [Deadline]

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  • The Great Performances: 2002

    Chris Cooper in Adaptation2002 was probably one of the greatest years for performance excellence in film history, from leading actor right through all the supporting players. They could have easily nominated 10 actors in each of the four acting categories, and still missed some.

    Though Adrien Brody won the Oscar for “The Pianist,” which was a huge shock, I have always felt that Jack Nicholson gave one of his finest performances in “About Schmidt.” I suspect he and Daniel Day-Lewis in “Gangs of New York” may have split the vote in some way, allowing for Brody’s win.

    Michael Caine was up for “The Quiet American” after that film scored with critics at many precursor fests, and Nicolas Cage was the fifth nominee in “Adaptation.” Great performances all, deserving performances all, but there were so many other noteworthy turns.  Like Robin Williams’s chilling performance in “One Hour Photo” as a deranged photo lab worker obsessed with a family. Equally brilliant was Leonardo DiCaprio as the young fraudster in “Catch Me If You Can” while Tom Cruise gave one of his very best performances in Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report.”

    One of the year’s very best films, “Road to Perdition,” contained one of the year’s best leading performances from Tom Hanks, as a lethal killer on the run from his own mob.  And though I loathe the work of Richard Gere, I must confess he did some of his finest work in “Chicago,” winning a Golden Globe for his performance, but no Oscar nod.

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  • The Great Performances: 1999

    Terence Stamp in The Limey1999 was a strange year.  And it’s hard to believe a full decade has slipped past since.  There were some great award-winning performances, to be sure, but there seemed to be just as many not nominated that certainly should have been.

    Ten years later, I remain stunned that Reese Witherspoon was not nominated for her brilliant work in “Election” as a pathologically ambitious, grasping social climber student doing anything it takes to head up the student council in Alexander Payne’s astute and black comedy.

    Witherspoon won the National Society of Film Critics award for Best Actress, besting eventual Oscar, LAFCA and NYFCC champ Hilary Swank in “Boys Don’t Cry.” What made Witherspoon’s work so incredible was that we all must have known a Tracy Flick during our high school days, and the actress created such an accurate depiction.

    Swank was a most deserving winner for her superb performance, winning over nominees, Annette Bening in “American Beauty,” Janet McTeer in “Tumbleweeds,” Julianne Moore in “The End of the Affiar” and Meryl Streep in “Music of the Heart” (perhaps the perennial Oscar favorite’s least accomplished nominated performance).

    Bening’s performance was brilliant, she won the Screen Actors Guild award for it, and though there seemed to be a swell of support for her as Oscar night approached, there was no denying Swank for her career-altering work.

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  • SHORT TAKE: “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” (***)

    Columbia Pictures\' Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky BobbyI’m no fan of Will Ferrell’s comedic sensibilities in the slightest, but “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” is probably the best film of his typical mold to hit screens yet.  I know “Anchorman” has its devoted, and “Old School” was apparently good enough in the eyes of Bravo to make it to an obscenely high position on their recent (awful) list of the best comedies of all time.

    But “Talladega Nights” has the right mixture of peripheral comedic brilliance that Ferrell has needed for some time, to off-set that “me, me, me” schtick that hasn’t worked since Jim Carrey started talking out of his ass.

    Nothing in the way of a full review here, but a few thoughts can’t hurt.  Not only does John C. Reilly prove himself something of a hilarious comedic sideman once again (playing a similar character to his “Days of Thunder” role, only this guy ate paint chips as a kid), but he at times beats Ferrell at his own game.  Gary Cole, meanwhile, is becoming the master of the extended cameo yuk-yuk.

    Sacha Baron Cohen (along with on-screen hubby Andy Richter) gives enough reasons to slap your knee – and expect him to blow up even more once “Borat” hits cinemas, giving the actor a nice one-two punch this year).  It’s always great to see Pat Hingle on screen, no matter how inconsequential the part, and Amy Adams…Amy Adams has just…never been sexier.  It’s like a new breed.  Subjective, of course…

    Ferrell is what you would expect, though he really nails that southern fried cluelessness that has become it’s own standard.  Once “Stranger Than Fiction” releases in November, showcasing acting chops that ought to turn a head or two, the Golden Globe nominee will have potentially started the crossover that can be a painful process for comedians, bridging the gap to dramatic tendencies.  We’ll see how that flies with the critics and public at large.

    In the meantime, go out and enjoy a laugh or two when “Talladega Nights” hits theaters next weekend.  I’m fairly certain the appeal will be there for Ferrell fans, but this viewer, not one to jump in line for the comedic stylings of the Saturday Night Live alumn, was pleasantly surprised by some nice goofball entertainment.  Take it for what it’s worth.