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Today’s screening of “Shame” was the big note of anticipation for me at this year’s Telluride fest. After bowing in Venice earlier this morning to generally positive praise, my hopes were still high that Steve McQueen made good on the promise of “Hunger” three years ago. And did he ever. I’m tired, at the end […]
TELLURIDE: Michael Fassbender and a tale of two movies
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:54 pm · September 4th, 2011
REVIEW: “A Dangerous Method” (**1/2)
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:50 am · September 2nd, 2011
Venice Film Festival “Do you think they know we’re on our way, bringing them the plague?” So asks Viggo Mortensen’s Sigmund Freud of his younger colleague Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), as the two approach New York City to gift the untreated denizens of America with their equally grueling brands of psychoanalysis, in the closing stretch […]
Filed in: Reviews
OFF THE CARPET: Can the ladies get some support?
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:05 am · October 11th, 2010
A number of people wanted Anne and I to discuss the seemingly thin Best Supporting Actress category on the podcast Friday, but we didn’t get to it. So it seemed an opportune time to dedicate this space to the discussion. One should keep in mind that the race is still in its early days. This […]
Filed in: Off the Carpet
TELLURIDE: ‘Never Let Me Go,’ ‘Tabloid’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:16 am · September 4th, 2010
On the first day of this year’s fest, things are off to an interesting, up and down start. I would bore you with an intro, but it’s late and I’m fading. Let’s get to the reactions… “Never Let Me Go” (**) I went back and read Guy’s summation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let Me […]
Filed in: Reviews
Clips from ‘Never Let Me Go,’ ‘Somewhere’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:24 am · August 31st, 2010
With the fall festival circuit merely hours away (Guy is already getting settling in Venice), we’ve got a pair of clips from two anticipated titles to pass along today. First, there is Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere,” which is exclusive to Venice and features Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning in what isn’t likely to be an Oscar […]
Filed in: Daily
PAGE TO SCREEN: “London Boulevard” by Ken Bruen
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:39 pm · July 13th, 2010
When Oscar-winning screenwriter William Monahan (“The Departed”) brings Irish crime writer Ken Bruen’s 2001 novel “London Boulevard” to screen in his directorial debut, he won’t be adapting the text so much as returning it to its natural source. A short, sharp, deliciously black-hearted thriller that reads not unlike a readymade screenplay in its brisk, dialogue-dominated […]
Filed in: Page to Screen
PAGE TO SCREEN: “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:21 pm · June 29th, 2010
SPOILER ALERT: By necessity, this article must reveal some key plot developments of the novel, though no more than you might have gleaned from the film’s recent trailer. “(T)hough the tears rolled down my face, I wasn’t sobbing or out of control,” writes Kathy, the young female narrator of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel “Never Let […]
Filed in: Page to Screen
‘Never Let Me Go’ trailer
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 4:21 pm · June 15th, 2010
I don’t know anything of the book, but this Mark Romanek adaptation is hotly anticipated by many. After a look at the trailer, I’m still not feeling why, but I’m willing to dive in and see given the talent involved. Obviously lead actress potential for Carey Mulligan. I imagine Keira Knightley has something to chew […]
Filed in: Daily
Romanek begins shooting ‘Never Let Me Go’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:59 pm · April 14th, 2009
Last week, I mentioned how fully in the tank I am for Lynne Ramsay’s upcoming “We Need To Talk About Kevin.” Today, meanwhile, brings updated news of another British-funded adaptation with a mighty literary source, perfect-on-paper cast and exciting filmmaker who has been quiet for too long. The film in question is Mark Romanek’s take […]
Filed in: Daily
Fitzgerald biopic gets an upgrade
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:56 am · January 5th, 2009
I must admit my heart sank last year when it was announced that Nick Cassavetes was slated to direct “The Beautiful and the Damned.” The story of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unhappy, alcohol-fuelled marriage to the Zelda Sayre, the schizophrenic socialite who became the embodiment of Flapper glamour, it should, by rights, make for pretty powerful […]
Filed in: Daily
All in the family: a note on the SAG nods
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:00 pm · December 18th, 2008
I know I shouldn’t get upset. As Sasha Stone over at Awards Daily repeatedly intones, when it comes to awards analysis, “the trick is not minding.” You should coolly observe the trends, learn from them and be guided always by your head rather than your heart. But damn it, I’m only human. I can’t help […]
Filed in: Daily
‘Hunger,’ ‘Bruges’ lead British Independent nominees
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:44 pm · October 28th, 2008
The British Independent Film Awards are an odd, under-the-radar institution that frequently like to avoid the obvious and champion the underdog. Last year, for example, they bypassed the starrier likes of “Eastern Promises” and “Notes on a Scandal” to award their top prize to Anton Corbijn’s magnificent, under-rewarded “Control.” The previous year, they were even […]
Filed in: Daily
9/19 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:13 am · September 19th, 2008
• Peter Sciretta wraps up the Toronto Fest, live from Fantastic Fest. It’s that time of the year… [/Film] • Oscar winner Diablo Cody responds to the haters: “I like my fake name. It’s engraved on an Oscar. Yours isn’t.” [MySpace] • Mark Olsen apparently reported over a week ago that Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt […]
Filed in: Daily
9/16 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:58 am · September 16th, 2008
• Sasha Stone rounds up a few of the foreign language film submissions coming in. [Awards Daily] • Peter Bart seems to think the Coen brothers’ best opening weekend yet for “Burn After Reading” has more to do with turning “cold” into “hot” than with Brad Pitt extracting laugh after laugh in trailers for the […]
Filed in: Daily
9/15 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:34 am · September 15th, 2008
• Anne Thompson offers her perspective on Toronto’s winners and losers. [Thompson on Hollywood] • Nathaniel Rogers digs back into the recent past of the festival’s Audience Award to see what is in store for “Slumdog Millionaire.” [The Film Experience] • Has “The Visitor” begun an award-winning streak that will culminate with Oscar recognition? [Screen […]
Filed in: Daily
REVIEW: “The Duchess” (**1/2)
Posted by Guy Lodge · 10:53 am · September 8th, 2008
There’s a startling scene near the beginning of “The Duchess,” in which the teenaged Georgiana Spencer (Keira Knightley) has intercourse for the first time with her new husband, the much older Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes). Ordered, with dispassionate reserve, to strip naked and lie on the bed, Georgiana trembles with positive terror as her […]
Filed in: Reviews
Let’s hear it for the ladies!
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:18 pm · September 2nd, 2008
Wow, what a damn fine year for lead actress performances. When was the last time you heard anyone say that? I caught some flack recently when I took Meryl Streep off my predicted five nominees in the category. “How can the Goddess miss?” Well, she can, and she has, but regardless, the point is that […]
Filed in: Daily
Shameless
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:54 am · August 28th, 2008
Sitting at a bus stop in London’s Shoreditch at 2am, waiting for the ever-elusive night bus home, I had rather a long time to contemplate the new UK poster for “The Duchess,” Paramount Vantage’s Keira Knightley costume flick… … and my initial reaction was that, to my surprise, I rather liked it. Clean, stark, beautifully […]
Filed in: Daily
