In Contention

Tag: Man on Wire

  • INTERVIEW: Michael Shannon

    Michael Shannon in Revolutionary RoadIf you’ve seen James Marsh’s “Man on Wire,” then you know of Philippe Petit’s dazzling tight-rope walk between the towers of New York’s World Trade Center on the morning of August 7, 1974.  What you probably don’t know is that while Petit was criss-crossing back and forth between the towers for roughly 45 minutes, Michael Shannon was coming into the world down in Lexington, Kentucky’s Good Samaritan Hospital.

    “I don’t think it means anything,” Shannon says.  But it’s certainly an interesting aside to the Oscar season, drawing a connection, however meaningless, between these two contenders, one of them a thoroughbred frontrunner, the other deserving of that consideration but strangely under the radar this year.

    I get a call from Shannon to kick off the morning.  It seems he’s somewhat stranded at the hotel and will be late meeting me over at Hugo’s on Santa Monica Blvd.  I later find out he was industrious enough to grab a cab rather than wait on a studio-provided car, probably the east-coaster in him.  “Don’t worry,” he says.  “I’m going to make sure we get a full hour.”

    When Shannon walks into a room, his striking height seems to command at least a glance in his direction.  A couple of brunching patrons stare for a bit, sure that they’ve seen him in SOMETHING before.  And for a number of years, Shannon has been that kind of actor — the hard-working sort that AMPTP has certainly disavowed as SAG tries to find some sort of plan for sustaining the acting middle-class throughout the industry.

    You’ve seen him in “Pearl Harbor,” “Bad Boys II,” “World Trade Center,” “Bug” and any number of bit roles that call for the unusual image he cuts.  But you’ve never seen him like he is in “Revolutionary Road,” a two-scene wonder of a performance that cuts the the very core of a narrative already concerned with getting at the hardest of truths.

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  • The Sans weigh in

    Francisco and Diego, that is. Anyone else think there are a tad too many critics’ awards floating around out there? Seriously, what do they all mean? New York, Los Angeles, Boston and the National Society are the only ones that really register with me… maybe Chicago, if I’m feeling generous.

    The rest really kind of blur into one, particularly when they elect the same winners over and over again. Anyway, you won’t be surprised to hear that the San Franciscans went for “Milk” in a big way, while San Diego continued the lovefest for “Slumdog Millionaire.”

    The San Francisco picks:

    Best Picture: “Milk”
    Best Director: Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
    Best Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk” & Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
    Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
    Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Supporting Actress: Marisa Tomei, “The Wrestler”
    Best Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, “Milk”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Morgan, “Frost/Nixon”
    Best Foreign Language Film: “Let the Right One In”
    Best Documentary Feature: “My Winnipeg”
    Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister, “The Dark Knight”

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  • ‘Slumdog,’ ‘WALL-E’ tie for top honors with Beantown critics

    Two ties from the Boston crowd, actually.  In big categories.  Have some balls.  Take a stand.  Anyway, Sally Hawkins gets yet another boost, while “Man on Wire” remains the only (boringly) undefeated contender so far.

    Here’s the list:

    Best Picture: (tie) “Slumdog Millionaire” and “WALL-E”
    Best Director: Gus Van Sant, “Milk,” “Paranoid Park”
    Best Actor: (tie) Sean Penn, “Milk” and Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
    Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
    Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
    Best Screenplay: “Milk”
    Best Cinematography: “Paranoid Park”
    Best Documentary: “Man on Wire”
    Best Foreign-Language Film: “Let the Right One In”
    Best Animatd Film: “WALL-E”
    Best Film Editing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best New Filmmaker: Martin McDonough, “In Bruges”
    Best Ensemble Cast: “Tropic Thunder”

  • WEEKLY WRAP: Jackman hosting, Globes puzzling, Hawkins rising

    • After months of speculating, we finally have an Oscar host … and his name is Hugh Jackman. Bouquets all round.

    • Obviously, the Golden Globe nominations were the week’s biggest news. They offered their usual dose of wacky surprises — principally the near shut-out of “Milk.”

    • Sticking with the Globes, we got some of the nominees’ reactions here, before offering a subjective take on the rights and wrongs of this year’s slate.

    • Elsewhere in the precursors, the Los Angeles Film Critics threw up the most unexpected — and contentious — pick of the awards race so far, handing their top prize to “WALL-E.”

    • Their New York counterparts played it safer, giving Best Picture to “Milk,” but they had their own surprise package in the shape of “Happy-Go-Lucky.”

    • Meanwhile, the latter film’s star, Sally Hawkins, emerged as a genuine threat in the Best Actress race, taking awards from both groups. We interviewed her here.

    • The Broadcast Film Critics announced their nominations — which were more interesting for what they left out (“Revolutionary Road” in particular) than what they kept in.

    • In a rare mea culpa from the Academy’s music branch, the disqualification of “The Dark Knight”‘s score was thankfully reversed.

    • We chatted to the man who has so far enjoyed the smoothest ride through awards season: “Man on Wire” helmer James Marsh.

    • As the prospect of an acting victory for Clint Eastwood hovers in the background, this week’s edition of The Lists examines which noteworthy actors have won for less notheworthy work.

  • INTERVIEW: ‘Man on Wire’ director James Marsh

    James MarshIt’s a rare achievement, but through the ups and downs the last fortnight’s precursors, one film has failed to miss a beat, landing gongs from the New York, Los Angeles and Washington critics, as well as the NBR and the British Independents, not to mention Indie Spirit and BFCA nominations.

    That film would be “Man On Wire,” James Marsh’s crisp, witty and ultimately very moving documentary about Philippe Petit, the charismatic French performance artist who in 1974 committed the so-called “artistic crime of the century” — an illegal tightrope walk between the Twin Towers of the New York’s World Trade Center. Despite being what some might have seen as a niche project, it has emerged as one of the most acclaimed films (a Metacritic score of 89 speaks for itself), not to mention one of the top-grossing documentaries, of the year.

    Marsh, for one, admits to being a bit taken aback to his film’s dizzying trajectory. “It‘s both a thrill and a surprise,” he tells me on the phone, taking a breather from the deadline-driven editing of his new film. “It’s a great, hopeful story, but there’s such a tragic connotation to those buildings now that I wasn’t sure how audiences would respond to it.”

    By avoiding any 9/11 discussion in the film, however, Marsh was keen to keep the focus on themes of art and ambition, and he believes this is what so many viewers have connected with in the material. “It’s a fairytale, really,” he elaborates. “A real, true movie premise about achieving the impossible. Philippe is an adventurer, a superhero made flesh and blood. I love that what he did was in a way kind of pointless — it’s beauty for its own sake. And I love that audiences appreciate that.”

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  • ‘Rachel,’ ‘The Wrestler’ were close; Cruz, Hawkins sit pretty

    Mickey Rourke in The WrestlerAs I suspected, “Rachel Getting Married” and “The Wrestler” were right in the thick of today’s NYFCC voting.  As he does annually, Tom O’Neil runs down the inside scoop on the particulars of the vote.  He gets his info from the New York Post’s Lou Lumenick.

    Apparently “Rachel” was nipping at the heels of “Milk” for Best Picture, while Mickey Rourke came in a relatively close second for Best Actor honors in “The Wrestler.”   Robert Seigel’s script for the latter was also in the conversation, landing in third place.  It’s nice to see Kate Winslet was also in the running for Best Actress (for “Revolutionary Road”), albeit in fourth place.

    The only mentions for “The Dark Knight” were a second place showing for Heath Ledger and a third place showing for Best Cinematography, while the only landslide win looks to have been “Man on Wire” for Best Documentary, 20 points ahead of “Waltz with Bashir.”

    Entertainment Weekly’s Dave Karger, meanwhile, shrewdly points out that “in the last seven years, 11 actors have been recognized by both organizations (LAFCA and NYFCC) and all 11 eleven went on to score Oscar nominations as well.”  The peculiarity bodes well for Penelope Cruz and Sally Hawkins, Karger says, and I’m inclined to agree.

  • ‘Milk,’ ‘Happy’ win big with NYFCC

    Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-LuckyThe Best Picture victory for “Milk” is going to be the lede for most people as far as today’s New York Film Critics Circle awards is concerned, but the bigger story is “Happy-Go-Lucky,” which finds itself right back in the thick of the Oscar conversation.

    The group handed Mike Leigh and Sally Hawkins honors for Best Director and Best Actress respectively for the film.  This marks the second award in as many days for both.  Leigh won the screenplay award yesterday with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Hawkins was also singled out for her performance.

    But back to “Milk,” I was a little surprised to see the film do so well here, also taking honors for Best Actor (Sean Penn) and Best Supporting Actor (Josh Brolin).  It’s a slightly more populist opinion from a crowd that likes to be fringe, though Jenny Lumet’s screenplay win for “Rachel Getting Married” was anything but a shock.

    Penelope Cruz continued her expected steamroll through the Oscar season with yet another supporting actress win (she won with LAFCA as well), while “WALL-E” surprised no one with a victory as Best Animated Film.  Meanwhile, Anthony Dod Mantle, who came in as a runner-up with the L.A. critics for his work behind the camera on “Slumdog Millionaire,” happened to walk away with the honor today.

    “Man on Wire” took honors for Best Documentary, while “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” won for Best Foreign Film.

    It was yet another day of snubs for “Revolutionary Road,” which turned up with zero nominations from the BFCA and no mentions from the L.A. critics.  And a film that has suddenly become a real threat as the first major precursors have begun to arrive, “The Dark Knight,” hit an expected roadblock with the Gotham crew, finding no love in any category.  Slightly more surprising, however, is the lack of recognition for Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler.”  But I have a hunch it was in the hunt throughout, maybe just coming up short in this category or that.

    (Full list of winners after the jump.)

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  • The docs you aren’t considering

    Whenever an awards shortlist is announced, people will inevitably spend as much time, if not more, pondering its omissions as they will its inclusions. And so it has been this week, in the wake of the Academy’s announcement of the 15 titles shortlisted for Best Feature Documentary.

    Some are curiously kvetching that Bill Maher’s sporadically amusing but ultimately pedestrian “Religulous” got slighted, instead of commending the Academy for looking beyond the obvious. Others (including yours truly, admittedly) are puzzled that the excellent “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” didn’t make the cut, while some are surprised that last year’s winner in the category, Alex Gibney, was frozen out this time. (Well, had “Gonzo” been half the film “Taxi to the Dark Side” was, he might not have been.) And then there’s “American Teen” and “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” and … well, you get the idea.

    The conclusion to draw from this is twofold. First of all, in this category, name recognition isn’t always a deciding factor. Second of all, and more simply, the shortlist is, even with these high-profile exclusions, a markedly strong one. Boiling it down to fifteen titles was clearly a harder task than one might have guessed.

    I’m not sure enough people are recognising the breadth and the depth of the competition in this category. Amid the various reactions I’ve read to the shortlist, I’ve noticed the same small handful of contenders coming to the fore: “Standard Operating Procedure” from previous champ Errol Morris, “Encounters at the End of the World” from the long-slighted Werner Herzog, Sundance victor “Trouble the Water,” and the film widely deemed the one to beat, “Man on Wire.”

    I’m less convinced. Yes, they’re all highly acclaimed conversation pieces. (Well, almost — Morris’ film appears more polarising than the rest.) Yes, they all have enjoyed comparatively prominent releases. But, like the notoriously wilful Best Foreign Language Film category, this category doesn’t always reward a high profile. For every time they’ve embraced a populist frontrunner like Michael Moore, they’ve ignored a supposed shoo-in. Just ask, well, Errol Morris and Werner Herzog — both previously snubbed for some of their most lauded work.

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  • ‘Hunger,’ ‘Bruges’ lead British Independent nominees

    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 more daring: Best Film justly went to “This Is England” over “The Queen,” while Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker — gasp — lost to the unknown leads of Andrea Arnold’s “Red Road.”

    So it is this year that the nominations feature one doozy of a snub: while the top prize, Best British Independent Film, features such obvious contenders as “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Hunger,” Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky” is nowhere to be found. Ditto Best Director and Best Screenplay — the omission particularly galling when the likes of (gack) “Son of Rambow” made the cut. Did Leigh run over the voters’ dogs or something? Sanity at least prevailed in the acting categories, where Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan and the wonderful Alexis Zegerman all made the cut.

    Zegerman’s category, Best Supporting Actress, is an indication of how slim the pickings were this year: nods for the mediocre likes of Hayley Atwell in “The Duchess” and Sienna Miller in “The Edge of Love” don’t suggest a very deep pool of nominees. Meanwhile, Kristin Scott Thomas’ mention for the fun but flimsy trifle “Easy Virtue,” which I saw this morning at the Festival, is clearly an indirect nomination for her ineligible awards-bound work in “I’ve Loved You So Long.”

    Still, there’s plenty to cheer about here, not least the impressive showing for Martin McDonagh’s superb “In Bruges,” which jointly leads the field with “Hunger,” both films receiving seven nominations. The inevitability of the nominations for “Hunger” and “Slumdog Millionaire” doesn’t make them any less deserving, and “Man on Wire” is a pleasingly left-field choice in the top category.

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  • ‘Ballast’ tops list of Gotham Indie award nominees

    BallastThe Gotham Independent Film Award nominees have been announced (note the change in moniker this year), and Lance Hammer’s Mississippi drama “Ballast” leads the pack with four nominations.  Six films received two nominations apiece, including Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York,” Jonathan Demme’s “Rachel Getting Married” and Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

    One film that might have popped up had it been eligible was Gus Van Sant’s “Milk,” but the film was not ready to screen for IFP in time.

    These are the first set of film awards nominations of the 2008 season, kicking off the campaigns for more than a few potential Oscar contenders, including actresses Rosemarie DeWitt, Melissa Leo and Rebecca Hall, each of them nominated in the Breakthrough Actor category.  The documentary race also includes a number of Oscar hopefuls, “Man on Wire,” “Trouble the Water” and “Encounters at the End of the World” among them.

    The frontrunner at this point is probably the bread-winner of the nomiantions process: “Ballast.”  But I have a feeling “The Visitor” could spark enough support to surprise in the end.  Also nominated for Best Feature is Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” the film’s only mention.

    The awards will be held on Tuesday Decmber 2 at New York’s Cipriani Wall Street.

    (Full list of nominees after the jump.)

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  • LAFF closes: Sundance hits score again

    I must admit, the Los Angeles Film Festival hasn’t always been on my radar in the past, but its stature seems to be growing from year to year. This year’s edition wrapped up on Sunday, with the jury prizes going to Sean Baker’s “Prince of Broadway” in the narrative feature category, and to Darius Marder’s “Loot” in the documentary section.

    Just as significant, however, in a festival that boasts “The Audience is King” as its slogan, are the audience awards. Here, a pair of films that already took audience awards at Sundance earlier this year repeated the feat: Jonathan Levine’s “The Wackness” took the gold in the narrative section, while James Marsh’s Brit documentary “Man on Wire” won the international audience award. In the documentary category, Sacha Gervasi’s “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” emerged victorious. A summary and full list of awards can be found here.

    The former two have had buzz building around them for months; indeed, earlier in the year, I had Levine’s oddball character comedy on my Best Original Screenplay list until the category got a bit crowded. Still, one to keep an eye on, particularly at the Spirit Awards. Meanwhile, “Man on Wire,” a study of Philippe Petit’s law-defying 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers, has me very excited for its UK release next month. I’d be tempted to predict an Oscar nomination for the film, which also won a Grand Jury prize at Sundance, but the Academy can be sticky about non-US docs.

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