In Contention

Tag: Julie & Julia

  • Get a clue

    Meryl StreepThere are so many things wrong with this Digital Spy piece about the Best Actress race, it’s difficult to know where to begin. Article writer Marcell Minaya seems to have filched gossip columnist Roger Friedman’s recent (largely baseless) statement that the category is bereft of contenders, and disguised it as Academy insider talk:

    The Oscars executives have allegedly been struggling to form a list of best actress nominees.

    An Oscar insider said: “It’s only just dawning that there’s a distinct lack of potentials in the best actress category. It’s been a pretty lacklustre year for movies in general but it seems that no one wrote any decent lead roles for women … There are many to choose from when it comes to supporting actresses but very few in the lead.”

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 1 — Best in show so far, campaign strategies, festival preview and “the 10”

    Oscar TalkWelcome to the first installment of Oscar Talk, a (hopefully) weekly podcast between myself and Anne Thompson, newly of indieWIRE.  We spend some time getting our feet wet in this introductory kudocast, but among the topics on the rundown:

    • Films screened thus far with the best Oscar profile heading into the awards season, including “The Hurt Locker,” “Up” and even some discussion on “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

    • Meryl Streep’s performance in “Julie & Julia,” what Anne calls “the story of the summer,” and how Streep succeeds into her 60s where her contemporary actresses have not.

    • Oscar’s controversial move to 10 and what how we think it will affect the awards landscape.

    • The rise of indie studios such as Overture Films, Summit Entertainment and Apparition.

    • Shifting philosophies of Oscar campaign strategies

    • Paramount bumping “Shutter Island” to 2010.

    • All things “Avatar”: the new trailer, “Avatar” Day, etc.

    • A festival preview as Anne runs down her list of anticipations at Toronto.

    And then we ran out of steam.  For now.  I runs close to 40 minutes, but we had plenty to discuss in this first edition. We’ll whittle it down by half that in future installments, I’m sure.

    Have a listen below.  (Audio?  How novel!)  We’ll try to do another one from Telluride but the more consistent stuff will probably pick up in a month or so.

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  • Did Michelle Monaghan just enter the Best Actress race?

    Michelle Monaghan in TruckerI haven’t seen James Mottern’s “Trucker,” which had a world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and was praised in many quarters, most agreeing that Michelle Monaghan’s lead performance was awards caliber.

    Ironically, the press release (published in part after the jump) quotes The Hollywood Reporter’s Roger Friedman front and center just a few days after he bemoaned what he perceived as a weak year for Best Actress contenders.

    The strongest contenders right now look to be Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia,” Carey Mulligan in “An Education” and, sight unseen, Hilary Swank in “Amelia.”  If enough voters see “The Burning Plain,” Charlize Theron certainly has a shot.  But the bubble is big on this race, I’ll give Friedman that.

    Monterey Media has decided to release the film up for an October 9 release, right in the middle of the awards season.  We all know surprise contenders show up sooner or later.  Maybe we’re looking at our first one right here.

    A snippet of the press release after the jump.

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  • 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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  • Streep sells

    Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia!I may have said a while back that Meryl Streep is the most bankable actress in the business at the moment (despite her lowly ranking on the Forbes 100), but I didn’t quite mean it in this way.

    “Julie & Julia” may not be performing at quite the same level as “Mamma Mia!” or “The Devil Wears Prada,” but it still marks the third time in four years that Streep has successfully spearheaded a healthy piece of mainstream counter-programming amid the testosterone-fueled dross of summer.

    With Nancy Meyers’s “It’s Complicated” looking to apply that same populist Midas touch to the Christmas season, that’s a pretty remarkable track record for any woman in the business, much less one in her sixties.

    But this article by Jonathan Romney in today’s Independent takes Streep’s commercial viability even further, and outside the movie theater, by pointing out the peripheral economic effects of her recent hits, in departments ranging from the music industry to the leisure sector.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘District’ shines

    District 9*All historic figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Internet hype doesn’t always translate into box office success, but “District 9” was able to live up to the buzz and debut with a strong $37 million and the top spot this weekend. For a film that cost a reported $30 million to make, this is obviously a huge win for Sony and one of the bigger surprises of the summer. As a buddy succinctly put it in a tweet: “’District 9’ might be the only movie this year I want to see that I didn’t know I wanted to see six months ago.”

    Credit the fantastic marketing and an interesting/original concept in a summer-friendly genre for the success. The first two weeks of August are typically robust but then the month just dies and only two movies released past the 14th of the month have debuted higher than “District 9” (“Freddy vs. Jason” and “Mortal Kombat”). Audience reception is fantastic so I can see this one sticking around enough to reach $85 million or so. Now, who else is going as Wicus with a prawn arm for Halloween?

    “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” takes second place after a 59% drop to $22.5 million. That actually could have been worse so Paramount will take it. The running total is already $98.8 million and that’s enough to encourage the inevitable sequel. Might I suggest the title “G.I. Joe: The Recasting of Channing Tatum?”

    Third place goes to “The Time Traveler’s Wife” with $19.2 million. I’ve got nothing to say about this because quite frankly, this movie bores me. I like Rachel McAdams so I wish she’d hurry up and make a movie that looks halfway tolerable again.

    “Julie & Julia” dropped a respectable 38% to $12.4 million and that should be the largest drop it experiences during its run. No other direct competition comes into play until “All About Steve” after Labor Day so I expect Meryl and Amy to be the number one choice for adult females for a while.

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  • 8/12 Web Round-up

    Cover of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger• Kevin Kelly digs into the J.J. Abrams “Dark Tower” project. [Cinematical]

    • In honor of “Julie & Julia,” 10 blogs that could be movies. [Film School Rejects]

    • Liam Neeson walks his first red carpet since the death of wife Natasha Richardson. [Associated Press]

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  • 8/10 Web Round-up

    Hayao Miyazaki• Charles Burress chats up legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki. [Los Angeles Times]

    • John DeVore goes fly fishing in Vermont for the “A River Runs Through It” Blu-ray junket. [Premiere]

    • A.O. Scott wraps up the summer with a tired old argument against the dumbed down summer movie season. [New York Times]

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘G.I.’ dough

    G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra*All historical figures are adjusted to today’s dollars

    Paramount secured what is likely to be the last blockbuster opening of the summer with “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” this weekend. For a film that was plagued with bad buzz a few months ago and was withheld from most critics, a $56.2 million start is a fantastic result and on par with other kid-friendly action films like “Fantastic Four” and the early August start of “XXX.”

    Of course, legs will be atrocious and a total gross of around $120 million is the likely tipping point, but Paramount will be more than happy to take that to the bank along with solid international grosses. It may not be a “Transformers”-like success, but the studo must have known Stephen Sommers is no Michael Bay. And Marlon Wayans is no Shia LaBeouf.

    Sony’s “Julie & Julia” had a solid bow in the runner-up spot with $20.1 million on nearly half the screens of “G.I. Joe.” To be honest, I thought it would be bigger, but this is a film that could definitely play well through Labor Day. Reviews are good enough and older audiences are the only demographic left who don’t necessarily rush out on opening weekend. “Mamma Mia!” only debuted with $27.8 million en route to a $144.1 million finish, let’s not forget. Forget 3D, perhaps this was the film to usher back smell-o-vision.

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  • 8/5 Web Round-up

    G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra• Tom O’Neil wonders whether “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” is Razzie-bound. [Gold Derby]

    • Devin Faraci, meanwhile (one of the “easy marks” Paramount screened the film to over the rest of the nation’s critics), comments on the “No ‘Joe’” brouhaha. [CHUD]

    • And Steve Weintraub talks to the film’s screenwriter, Stuart Beattie. [Collider]

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  • Poland, Julie, Julia, bon appetit

    I literally agree with every single word he has to say here:

    (Courtesy: The Hot Blog)

  • OFF THE CARPET: Whittling further as convention flees

    Max Records in Where the Wild Things AreAnother month, another step closer to the awards season.  As the summer winds down and the industry slowly begins to square itself with the off-season’s bombshell Oscar news, the picture becomes a little clearer.  Kind of.

    Universal Pictures, in a move speculated upon endlessly by now, shuffled two of its contenders — Paul Greengrass’s “Green Zone” and Joe Johnston’s “The Wolf Man” — off to 2010.  As Anne Thompson shrewdly noted in a recent item, the decision likely has everything to do with a numbers game.  The studio has experienced a rocky two quarters this year and things aren’t necessarily looking up.  Some think, in the case of “The Wolf Man,” the shift was made to avoid another box office misfire in 2009 (as by now, with push after push, the film is beginning to smell fishy).  Others say the “Green Zone” shift had a lot to do with “The Hurt Locker”‘s release pattern.

    Whatever the case, the evacuations change the Oscar landscape ever so slightly, giving us just a few more talking points in the vacuum of August before we have anything of value worth discussing when the fall festival season hits in less than a month’s time.

    Universal is now left with two critically divisive, commercially dubious titles in Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” and Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” to hawk for awards consideration, effectively (if you’re asking me, though I realize no one is) taking the studio out of the game this year — or, at the very least, making the hill steeper.

    But taking note of the studio awards landscape, it doesn’t seem to me that anyone else is on surer ground.  As I look out at the many contenders and the campaigns being prepared for them, it appears the entire industry will be dealing with unconventional approaches and product to go along with the new changes in the Best Picture category (and all the headache that comes with them) this season.

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  • 8/3 Web Round-up

    Steven Miessner• Steven Miessner, the Academy’s white-gloved “keeper of the Oscars,” dead at 48. [USA Today]

    • Steve Weintraub talks “The Princess and the Frog” with directors Ron Clements and John Musker (at Comic-Con). [Collider]

    • The unmade films of Stanley Kubrick, including “Foucault’s Pendulum,” “Napoleon” and “Perfume.” [Empire]

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘Funny’ money

    Funny People*All historical figures are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    It was no laughing matter at the box office this weekend as Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” opened at the top spot with a disappointing $23.4 million. Not only is that lower than both “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up,” but it’s also the lowest figure to top this particular summer weekend since “A Time to Kill” in 1996. Don’t forget that “Virgin” and “Knocked” cost $26 million and $30 million, respectively, while “Funny People” carries a price tag of $70 million.

    Bottom line: this film didn’t perform like an Adam Sandler summer comedy at all. This is a guy who has opened six low-brow comedies in the summer months and had an average debut of $46.0 million. “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” opened with $38.5 million, for Pete’s sake. Even his notorious misfire “Little Nicky” opened to $21.4 million. So no matter how Universal wants to spin this, it’s not pretty. It dropped from Friday to Saturday, indicating that fanboy rush and word of mouth is not going to be great enough to keep it in theaters much longer than Labor Day.

    I think a $65 million finish is the best-case scenario and Apatow has officially lost his “cancer subplot” and “two-hour-plus running time” privileges. And you can kiss those Best Original Screenplay chances goodbye.

    “G-Force” fell 46% to third place and $17.1 million. The guinea pigs already have $66.5 million in the bank so go ahead and mark your calendars for “G-Force 2” in July 2011. And just to reiterate, no matter how bad or good you think “Funny People” is, it’s a filmmaker with a distinct voice trying something a little different and people soundly rejected it in favor of films like this.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Festivals, foxes and funny people

    Adam Sandler in Funny People• In the week’s most dramatic news, Universal rather cleared its awards slate by bumping both “The Wolf Man” and Paul Greengrass’s “Green Zone” to 2010.

    • Against expectations, we were won over by Meryl Streep’s latest bid for that elusive third Oscar, “Julie & Julia.”

    • The Venice Film Festival unveiled a typically well-planned lineup, with “The Road” and Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” leading the American charge.

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  • Back East with the ladies of ‘Julie & Julia’

    Meryl Streep in Julie & JuliaEarlier in the week I offered up my (surprisingly) positive assessment of Nora Ephron’s “Julie & Julia,” a shrewdly adapted narrative that features two of my favorite performances of the year from Meryl Streep (as famed chef Julia Child) and Stanley Tucci (as her loving husband, Paul).

    Today in the pages of USA Today, Susan Wloszczyna has caught up with Ephron, Streep and co-star Amy Adams for a frothy little interview from New York.  She even sets the quaint mood early on with a lead describing “a picture-perfect summer’s day at the Blue Hill restaurant at Stone Barns, a bucolic foodie mecca about an hour’s drive from Manhattan in Westchester County.”  She then proceeds to structure the piece like a recipe (but of course), including the proper asides from the conversation here and there.

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  • SHORT TAKE: “Julie & Julia” (***1/2)

    Julie & JuliaIt’s probably a little cliche to lead a review of Nora Ephron’s “Julie & Julia” with a phrase like “I’m not wired for movies like this.”  It ends up being a back-handed compliment to the film and doesn’t exactly illuminate why it’s a successful piece of work, but that is, nevertheless, the first thought that popped in when, to my surprised delight, I found myself falling in love with it.

    Cleverly adapted from two novels by Ephron (Julie Powell’s “Julie & Julia” and Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme’s “My Life in France”), the film moves along at an airy but focused pace for an hour and a half or so before losing that momentum going into the third act, but along the way, it provides the expected showcase for a controlled Meryl Streep performance that couldn’t have been more “on.”

    In some ways, it’s becoming almost unsettling, the acute level of precision with which Streep can flesh out a character.  Almost as if something’s off, like the paranoid feeling that seeps in when things are too “good.”  As chef Julia Child, Streep manhandles the role and makes it her own, exuding passion, dedication and a well-rounded personality that we’ve only truly known as a performance of sorts on TV throughout the years.

    The film parallels the story of Child’s culinary awakening in Paris (accompanied by her loving husband, Paul Child, played by Stanley Tucci) with that of Julie Powell, living a modest but unfulfilled life in Queens and stumbling onto a raison d’être in Child’s cookbook.  Powell, annoyed at her knack for never finishing what she sets out to do, commits to cooking every recipe in Child’s book over the course of one year.

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  • Warm notices for Streep in ‘Julie & Julia’

    Meryl Streep in Julie & JuliaEven before anyone had laid eyes on Nora Ephron’s “Julie & Julia,” I felt fairly confident in predicting the critical response: nice, unremarkable film dominated by a broadly entertaining, larger-than-life turn from Meryl Streep.

    And so it has come to pass. The trade papers are united in their lukewarm feelings on the film itself, while Streep comes in for the expected praise for a showy star turn a showy star role. (Meanwhile, poor Amy Adams gets predictably, if charitably, sidelined, despite her joint billing.)

    Variety’s Justin Chang is harshest on the film, calling it “overstuffed and predigested … a slick, presumptuous vanity project,” but has nothing but kind words for Streep’s “delightfully daffy” performance:

    Doing her formidable best to counteract (the film’s) drawbacks is Streep, whose 5-foot-6 frame makes her an imperfect physical match for the 6-foot-2 Julia, but who proves more than up to the challenge of tackling this beloved celebrity’s equally outsized personality. Delivering an elegant approximation of the woman’s distinctly flutelike vocal pitch and endearing mannerisms, Streep abundantly conveys the warmth, rich humor and joie de vivre so evident in Julia’s TV appearances and her writing.

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