In Contention

Tag: Martin Scorsese

  • A toast to ambition

    It’s fascinating to me, the similarities between Leonardo DiCaprio’s two 2010 endeavors, Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” and Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” (which I will review in short time).  The themes and considerations in both have the same blood pumping through their veins.

    I’m talking about ideas of repressed trauma, avoidance of reality, the impact of children on a psychology, the kinds of things you don’t often see handled delicately, if at all, in blockbuster entertainment.  It’s a profound coincidence, really, one that further reveals an ambition in DiCaprio’s career choices that shouldn’t go without commendation.

    I think his work in “Shutter Island” is more powerful, more complete, more assured.  And despite ignorant jabs accusing the actor of being “stuck in a Scorsese rut” as of late, he and the 40-year veteran have managed to make each collaboration unique and fresh.  And by the way, he’s very much up to the task under Nolan’s helm as well.

    So mark this as an appreciation.  DiCaprio has always been a forward thinker, never content to rest on laurels or take an easy paycheck.  He doesn’t get enough credit for that.

  • Ebert versus the third dimension

    By now, you may have read Roger Ebert’s lengthy nine-point diatribe against 3D in Newsweek — it has certainly generated a substantial amount of online conversation in the last few days.

    On the face of it, as a declared 3D agnostic myself, I should be pleased with the article: when a “Clash of the Titans” proves the technology a potential artistic liability as emphatically as “Avatar” suggests the opposite, 3D needs to be both argued for and argued with.

    I fear Ebert, however, has slightly let the opposing side down: his piece is impassioned and sincere, but for every viable point he makes — and there are several — there’s another that is short-sighted, obstinate or just tautological: however much you may agree, it’s difficult to accept “it adds nothing to the experience” and “it’s a waste of a dimension” as separate claims in a serious argument, as opposed to simple whining.

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  • Scorsese and Herzog venture into 3D

    If you can’t fix it, you’ve got to stand it. And so it is, apparently, with me and 3D.

    As I’ve written before, I’m not a big fan of Hollywood’s favorite rediscovered gimmick. As a gee-whiz novelty — expertly embellishing the odd genuine event film like “Avatar” — it works a treat. As a now-regular moviegoing ritual — awkwardly grafted onto dreary blockbusters like “Clash of the Titans” and “Alice in Wonderland,” making them even more invasive and exhausting than they need to be — it’s rapidly becoming an irritant. And until some genius fashions 3D glasses that can fit comfortably over an existing pair of spectacles, I’ll remain hostile.

    Clearly, however, I’m going to have to find a way to love the third dimension, as it continues to seep outside the effects-driven blockbuster box, and even into the arthouse. The gentrification, if you will, of 3D took a forward leap this week with the news that both Martin Scorsese and Werner Herzog will be shooting their next projects in 3D.

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  • REVIEW: “Shutter Island” (**1/2)

    Shutter Island

    Berlin International Film Festival

    (EDIT: Star rating adjusted upon consideration.)

    To filch an aphorism from Mike Skinner, “Shutter Island” represents of continuation of Martin Scorsese’s decade-long quest to find the hardest way to make an easy living.

    If that sounds like a jab, it’s not. Since the self-amusing personal statements of “Kundun” and “Bringing Out the Dead” perplexed far more than they pleased, Scorsese has weaved over to the middle of the road, flirting with broad Oscar-bait and crowdpleasers (successfully marrying the two in “The Departed”) while playfully maintaining an auteur’s consistency of theme and aesthetic.

    It’s a tricky game to play, and when the elements align, it can work to smashing effect — as in “The Departed,” a nifty pop movie-movie winkingly intended as the prototypical “Scorsese film” that casual cinemagoers attributed to him, but that he’d never actually made.

    When they don’t, however, you get “Shutter Island,” a film awash with beauty and trademark stylistic flourishes, attached to a narrative that he never seems all that into. A near letter-faithful adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s pulpy source novel, itself something of a genre lark for the author, it surprises principally by offering more intrigue as a Scorsese picture than as an entertainment. As an artistic investigation of B-movie construction, it has all the impeccable craft, and a measure of the cinephile intelligence, of “The Departed” or “Cape Fear”; but a lot of the fun is missing.

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  • Paramount and Lionsgate do it up pre-Globes

    Tobey Maguire in BrothersThere will be a number of post-Golden Globes parties tonight — Summit, Warner Bros., Fox, Weinstein, etc. — but a pair of studios did it up Saturday night in honor of their nominees.

    First at the Chateau Marmont, Paramount toasted its stable with a star-studded, paparazzi-snapping affair.  Actually, it wasn’t the least bit comfortable.  Talk about over-invited.  In the inner sanctum, surrounded by Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Benicio Del Toro, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Mike Tyson (who wasn’t on the list, but would you turn him away?), George Clooney, Chris Pine, Tobey Maguire, etc., breathing, let alone moving more than two inches, was a chore.  Jason Reitman was on hand early on but had to take off for the LAFCA gala before long.  Luckily, he missed that fire hazard.

    I got a few seconds with Farmiga, who was excited to say hello to Scorsese again.  Anne Kendrick and her beau Edgar Wright smartly made their way to a secondary room at one point where we had a nice chat.  Wright was, of course, being hit up by “Scott Pilgrim” queries left and right.  From the youngsters, that is.  The crowd was largely, shall we say, octogenarian.  Plenty of HFPA and Academy members scattered throughout.  And Kendrick, bless her heart, didn’t even want to talk about the “O-word.”

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  • 1/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    Martin Scorsese• Anne Thompson sits down with “Food, Inc.” director Robert Kenner. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Scott Foundas talks “Public Enemies” with Michael Mann six months post-release. [LA Weekly]

    • Peter DeBrudge on how Cecil B. DeMille Award recipient Martin Scorsese’s career has been shaped by early relationships. [Variety]

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  • 1/7 Oscarweb Round-up

    Sam Rockwell in Moon• Geoff Boucher sits down with “Crazy Heart” star Jeff Bridges (with an awkward accompanying photo to boot). [Los Angeles Times]

    • Speaking of Boucher, congrats to him, Anthony Breznican, Susan King, Scott Mantz and Sharon Waxman on their ICG nominations. [Hollywood Reporter]

    • Some desperately needed practical perspective on the “Moon” screener matter. [The Hot Blog]

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Avatar’ leads, ‘Nine’ falls, more lists

    Sam Worthington in AvatarThere was no wrap last Friday, what with Christmas capping a dead calm news week. So here are the highlights of the last fortnight:

    • Off the Carpet returned from its Christmas vacation to survey the current state of the race — advantage “Avatar.”

    • The Long Shot considered the varying fortunes of the quartet of December releases once labeled the Big Four.

    • After much deliberation, Kris laid out his ten favorite films of the decade that was.

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  • The most memorable Oscar moments of the decade

    Martin Scorsese at the 79th annual Academy AwardsThe first time I stumbled into this labyrinth of Oscar coverage and analysis, it wasn’t a labyrinth.  It was a handful of dedicated Oscarphiles and movie fans.  It was Thanksgiving break, 2000, and I discovered Sasha Stone’s Oscarwatch (now Awards Daily).  At the time, it was such an interesting, novel endeavor.  No one was really doing this, at least from the angle she was doing it.

    Well, what a difference a decade makes.

    Over at Awards Daily, Stone lays out her 10 most memorable Oscar moments of the decade.  For me, the biggest moment was George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Steve Spielberg calling out Martin Scorsese’s name at the 2007 ceremony.  To say nothing of the fact that his win for Best Director and his film, “The Departed,” taking Best Picture, capped off the tightest race of the decade, seeing Marty hold that statue, finally — it would make any Oscarwatcher slightly emotional.  His name was finally removed from the rank of the unrecognized.

    Of that particular moment, Stone agrees, writing that “seeing Martin Scorsese finally win after two crushing losses was the high point thus far of my experience Oscar watching.”

    What were your Oscar moments of the decade?

  • De Niro, DiCaprio, De Mille, De Scorsese

    The pres release, in part:

    Golden Globe winners Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio will present the Cecil B. DeMille Award to Martin Scorsese at “The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards” on Sunday, January 17. The show, hosted by Ricky Gervais, will be broadcast live coast to coast on NBC (5 to 8 pm PT, 8 to 11 pm ET) from The Beverly Hilton.

    “The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards” will be seen in more than 160 countries worldwide and is one of the few awards ceremonies that span both television and motion picture achievements.

  • ‘Shutter Island’ to premiere at Berlin fest

    Leonardo DiCaprio and Michelle Williams in Shutter IslandDoesn’t it feel like an eternity ago that we were talking about the possibilities for “Shutter Island” in this year’s Oscar race? I’m still sulking, frankly.

    Still, compensation for the delay arrives in the shape of some European festival prestige: Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s Gothic thriller will play out of competition at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival in February.

    Of course, Berlin audiences won’t be the first to lay eyes on the film: it recently had a “surprise” screening at Butt-Numb-a-Thon in Texas. Impressions are scattered around the net if you care to seek them.

    Also in the lineup is Roman Polanski’s latest, “The Ghost Writer” — a political thriller adapted from a Robert Harris novel, starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan. Unlike Scorsese’s film, Polanski’s will be in contention for the Golden Bear.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Reflections, early predix, animated contenders

    Coraline• Kris boldly offered some early winner predictions … I (and you) followed.

    • AMPAS unveiled the official list of 20 animated feature contenders, guaranteeing five eventual nominees.

    • This week’s Off the Carpet column picked through the leading Best Supporting Actor contenders.

    • In The Long Shot, we reflected on a handful of the Academy’s better moves this past decade.

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  • Martin Scorsese to receive DeMille Award at Golden Globes

    Martin ScorseseThe Hollywood Foreign Press Association has just revealed that the annual Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement will be presented to Martin Scorsese at the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony on January 17.

    Anyone, anywhere, have a problem with this? Didn’t think so.

    You may remember that Scorsese himself presented Steven Spielberg with the award earlier this year, so they’re not exactly digging very deep for their honorees, but sometimes the obvious choices are the right ones. In any case, the Globes have quite a few names to catch up on: prior to Spielberg’s citation, the last full-time filmmaker (as opposed to actor-turned-director) to receive the honor was Alfred Hitchcock in 1975.

    So congratulations to Scorsese, whose DeMille Award will join his Golden Globe bookends for “Gangs of New York” and “The Departed.” His presentation joins Ricky Gervais’s hosting on the list of reasons to look forward to the ceremony even more than usual. (And hey, kudos to the Globes for still actually, uh, televising their honorary awards.)

    Full press release after the cut.

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  • What scares Martin Scorsese … and me

    Deborah Kerr in The InnocentsTomorrow, of course, is Hallowe’en — an institution more treasured in the US than it is on my side of the ocean, where it’s principally another excuse to get drunk. (But hey, this year I’ll be getting drunk while wearing a silly hat. Progress!)

    One aspect of the holiday that travels well, at least, is the celebration of horror cinema: Pinewood Studios, for example, is hosting a drive-in double-feature of “The Omen” and “The Shining” on the world’s largest cinema screen.

    Meanwhile, horror DVD marathons will take place in living rooms around the world, so Martin Scorsese (whose own upcoming film looks to have its share of jolts) has helpfully provided his own playlist of the 11 scariest horror films of all time for The Daily Beast:

    1. “The Haunting” (Robert Wise, 1963)
    2. “Isle of the Dead” (Val Lewton, 1945)
    3. “The Uninvited” (1944)
    4. “The Entity” (Sidney J. Furie, 1981)
    5. “Dead of Night” (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1945)
    6. “The Changeling” (Peter Medak, 1980)
    7. “The Shining” (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
    8. “The Exorcist” (William Friedkin, 1973)
    9. “Night of the Demon” (Jacques Tourneur, 1957)
    10. “The Innocents” (Jack Clayton, 1961)
    11. “Psycho” (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

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  • How ‘Up in the Air’ factored in the ‘Shutter’ bump

    George Clooney in Up in the AirVariety’s Pamela McClintock was written a detailed piece examining the financial ins and outs of the recent postponing of “Shutter Island,” coming to the conclusion — as did Kris following the announcement — that the move is purely a practical one on the part of Paramount chief Brad Grey. Quite simply, she explains, the film stands to make more of a profit in February, free from the expense of awards-season marketing.

    But while everyone has picked up on how the move potentially improves the fortunes of Paramount awards hopeful “The Lovely Bones,” McClintock suggests that it is Jason Reitman’s increasingly buzzy “Up in the Air” that is a more significant factor in this conversation. In picking Reitman’s far smaller film over Scorsese’s as a 2009 Oscar pony, the studio has pragmatically opted for the title that is cheaper to market — and to campaign:

    Unofficially, Par has decided to throw its support behind George Clooney dark comedy and awards hopeful “Up in the Air,” directed by Jason Reitman. That film isn’t yet dated. Rumors are that it will be released in early December, but Par says a date won’t be decided upon until after the film makes its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

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  • Paramount moves ‘Shutter Island’ to 2010

    (from left) Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter IslandThis is a stunning development.  It seems Paramount has decided to move the release date of Martin Scrosese’s “Shutter Island” from October 2009, a mere two months away, to February 2010.  The move reflects a similar last minute decision to move “The Soloist” out of last year’s fall slate to the Spring 2009 frame.  Nikki Finke has the scoop.

    The obvious answer here is money.  An awards campaign was certainly in the cards for “Shutter Island,” and those aren’t cheap.  But while “The Soloist” ultimately opened and was revealed as less than Oscar-caliber, Scorsese’s film has been testing really well and was expected to be a big 2009 awards player.

    Still, these are tough times.  Everyone’s looking for ways to cut back and deal with the here and now and obviously, an Oscar campaign just didn’t seem fiscally responsible for a studio that will already have two major hopefuls in Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” and Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones.”

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  • Slamming Scorsese for staying out of the trenches

    Martin ScorseseI was thinking along these lines last week when I read Martin Scorsese’s open letter to LACMA.  The director was speaking out against the closing of a 40-year-old weekend film program at the museum due money matters.  But here’s what Tom Gregory had to say about the matter at The Huffington Post:

    Martin Scorsese’s open letter to LACMA’s head Michael Govan is flawed. Mr. Scorsese has never been a member of, or financially supported LACMA in anyway. Ever. Not a dime. Nada. Zip. His L.A. Times letter is an example of a bankrupting trend across California and America. Everyone wants to complain, but no one wants to pay. In LACMA’s thirty plus years, the institution has received scant money from the film industry, certainly none commensurate with capacity and responsibility.

    Los Angeles is entitled to a film program, but in a city where so many have prospered from the industry’s fruits, the dearth of monies from Hollywood is shameful. We should be celebrating the LACMA’s massive leaps forward. The Broads, the Resnicks, Wallis Annenberg, the Koticks, the Ahmansons and scores of others have been faithful to the institution, but it’s always the same LA names. Where is the high-profile film community? With their endorsement, LACMA’s film program could soar.

    Agree?  Disagree?  Discuss.

  • 8/13 Web Round-up

    Charlyne Yi• Todd Gilchrist talks to “The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard” star Jeremy Piven. [Cinematical]

    • Anthony Breznican has the scoop on Charlyne Yi and “Paper Heart.” [USA Today]

    • Who’s your favorite cinematic psychopath? [Talking Movies]

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