In Contention

Tag: Miracle at St. Anna

  • My picks for the 10 WORST films of the year

    Emile Hirsch in Speed RacerAs always, this list was no trouble to write.  There is always an abundance of bad films in a given year.  I tend to go for the films that should have been stronger, that had a good director or fine actors, but still came out smelling like sewage.  There’s no excuse for that.

    1. “88 MINUTES”
    It only felt like 88 weeks.

    2. “10,000 BC”
    What really needs to be said?

    3. “THE LOVE GURU”
    And again…is there anything I can say?

    4. “THE HAPPENING”
    Shyamalan continues to disappoint.

    5. “SEX AND THE CITY”
    Great looking girls with money bitching about their poor lives…awwww.

    6. “MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA”
    Spike Lee’s war epic, horribly acted by a central character with an annoying child…stupid and boring. Worse, Lee’s own racism was never more evident.

    7. “THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL”
    Just bloody awful.

    8. “MEET DAVE”
    More from Eddie Murphy as his career spins round and round the toilet bowl.

    9. “SPEED RACER”
    ???

    10. “BANGKOK DANGEROUS”
    Cage can act…so why doesn’t he??

    (Check out my list of the year’s best here.)

  • LONDON: ‘Three Blind Mice,’ ‘Nights and Weekends,’ ‘Lazy Days,’ ‘Kala’

    So today was the first full day of London Film Festival action, after last night’s premiere of “Frost/Nixon” kicked off proceedings. With a raft of fair-to-respectable reviews (as you know, I was firmly in the “meh” camp), Howard’s film didn’t land with quite the bang I’m sure the festival organisers were hoping for, but it was still a notable coup — and they have the comfort of more tried-and-tested titles to come.

    Today’s fare was more low-profile, with the biggest event being the UK premiere of Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna,” which arrives at the festival as damaged goods. Perhaps tellingly, it wasn’t screened for the festival press, and after a long day of film-watching, I couldn’t muster up the energy for tonight’s screening. I’m not particularly bothered — I’ll catch it one of these days. (Here’s Kris’ withering review, to jog your memory.)

    As I’m restricted by time (not to mention a hellish head cold), I can’t offer full reviews on everything, but what follows are my impressions of four titles that screened earlier today.

    In my view, the best film of the day (and likely to remain one of the best of the festival) was, easily, writer-director-actor Matthew Newton’s “Three Blind Mice” (***1/2), a baldly funny, ultimately devastating study of male insecurity from Down Under that I already highlighted in my festival preview.

    The film follows three naval officers as they embark on a boozy, debauched night of shore leave before shipping out to Iraq the next morning. Randy alpha male Harry (Newton) is the leader of the night’s entertainment, ordering prostitutes and drinks with equal abandon; more reluctant are strait-laced Dean (Toby Schmitz), seeking time alone with his fiancee, and emotionally frail Sam (Ewen Leslie), whose secret escape plans are sparked by an encounter with free-spirited waitress Emma (Gracie Otto).

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  • 9/29 Oscarweb Round-up

    Michael Cera• A happy ending of sorts for Matilda Rose in the wake of Heath Ledger’s death. [Agence France-Presse]

    • Kenneth Branagh is in talks to direct “Thor.”  Weird, but badass. [Variety]

    • Tom O’Neil traces Paul Newman’s frustrating quest for Oscars. [Gold Derby]

    • James Rocchi talks to “Miracle at St. Anna” director Spike Lee. [Cinematical]

    • The Los Angeles Times have hired an east coast outsider and called it awards coverage.  Well, we wish him well. [The Envelope]

    • Nikki Finke primises to report all the “juicy backstory” on the Rudin/Weinstein situation — because she’s a journalistic disgrace. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

    • “Quantum of Solace” will have more product placement than any Bond film before it. [The Independent]

    • Mark Olson grills Jonathan Demme on “Rachel Getting Married.” [Los Angeles Times]

    • Meanwhile, Susan King takes on “Rachel” screenwriting Jenny Lumet. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Chris Lee gets some quality time in with Leonardo DiCaprio re: “Body of Lies.” [Los Angeles Times]

    • Michael Cera: heart throb. [Newsweek]

    • Or, Michael Cera: almost famous. [New York Times]

    • Greg Kinnear dishes on his roles in “Flash of Genius” and “Ghost Town.” [Associated Press]

    • Bill Maher Q&A’s it up on “Religulous.” [New York Post]

    • And again, with director Larry Charles in tow. [New York Times]

    …okay, I gotta cut it off there.  Tons of items out there today.

  • 9/25 Oscarweb Round-up

    The Godfather• Jeffrey Wells talks with legendary Oscar-winning lenser Gordon Willis about “The Godfather Restoration.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Talia Shire discusses same with Alex Simon and Terry Keefe. [The Hollywood Interview]

    • Nikki Finke shits herself with weird fury over the Condon/Mark Oscar news from yesterday, finally admits she has testicles. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

    • Patrick Goldstein responds to it all, giving that nut-bird credence as a result. [The Big Picture]

    • Tom O’Neil thinks Will Smith would be a fantastic Oscar host.  Naaahh. [Gold Derby]

    • Lynette Rice gets the rumors started with Ricky Gervais as a possibility. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Roger Moore could care less about his Bond legacy. [The Independent]

    • Michael Moore’s election year freebie. [New York Times]

    • Three films that broke through the “chick flick” barrier. [Test Pattern]

    • Spike Lee and “Miracle at St. Anna” own the local paper this week, starting with a big overview/interview from Tom Roston… [Los Angeles Times]

    • …then a spotlight on hottie starlet Valentina Cervi… [Los Angeles Times]

    • …and finally, John Horn takes the opportunity to wonder whether audiences will care about WWII films this season, with four films yet to come. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Scott Bowles gets a first look at Ridley Scott’s “Body of Lies.” [USA Today]

    • 10 literary classics to turn into blockbusters. [Spout Blog]

  • 9/24 Oscarweb Round-up

    Harvey Weinstein• David Poland adds a nice perspective to yesterday’s nothing “news” about Weinstein vs. Rudin. [The Hot Blog]

    • Patrick Goldstein sticks his toe in the scuffle as well. [The Big Picture]

    • Ditto Brad Brevet. [Rope of Silicon]

    • 10 things you need to know about “The Wrestler.” [Vulture]

    • Jeffrey Wells thinks “Miracle at St. Anna” is a poblem movie because he didn’t get an invite. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • When will Hollywood start feeling the credit crunch? [The Guardian]

    • Keira Knightley could be lined up to play F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Zelda Sayre. [The Independent]

  • ‘Miracle at St. Anna’ added to London fest lineup

    Just, you know, FYI. Curiously, the addition of Spike Lee’s film means they’re bumping “Rachel Getting Married” into a slightly less high-profile slot. Weird, since we all know which film has more heat in the wake of the festivals.

    Though I’m not very excited about “Miracle,” any expansion of the programme is encouraging to see. Now if they could just wrangle “The Wrestler,” I’d be most grateful.

    Check out further programme modifications here.

  • MySpace is now a Spike Lee joint

    Filmmaker Spike Lee is hoofing it online to get his new film “Miracle at St. Anna” out to the masses, “by any means necessary.”  He’s launched a brand new MySpace page that has the trailer for the film and a few clips as well.  Ah well, despite the movie, I gotta add him as a friend, right?  He’s Spike!

    Here’s his intro video:

    My review of the film. And John’s.

  • 9/10 Oscarweb Round-up

    Spike Lee• Journos continue to catch up with the two-week-old narrative: Toronto isn’t an Oscar playground this year.  [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Anthony Breznican, thankfully, tries to come at it from a slightly different perspective. [USA Today]

    • James Rocchi sits down with Darren Aronofsky for some choice words in Toronto. [Cinematical]

    • Jeffrey Wells is in the tank for Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • David Poland cranks out a beaming assessment of “The Hurt Locker” as well, with some great words for “Slumdog Millionaire” on the side. [The Hot Button]

    • Noah Forrest sits down with Neda Armian, producer of “Rachel Getting Married.” [Movie City News]

    • Gill Pringle kicks back with Seth Rogen across the pond. [The Independent]

    • Always looking for fresh angles, Michael Cieply comes at Toronto from the perspective of its music showcases this year. [New York Times]

    • In a poorly headlined (if you ask me) Oscar forecast, David Germain rounds up awards quotes from heavies such as Christian Bale, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio. [Associated Press]

    • Spike Lee sets his aimless sights on the Duke, in case you don’t get the point the first time early on in “Miracle at St. Anna.” [New York Post]

    • Has James Franco signed on to an Oscar trajectory with the Gus Van Sant-produced “Howl?” [The Hollywood Reporter]

    • Who the hell honestly thinks Rod Lurie was attempting to tell the actual Valerie Plame story, and therefore, “distorted” anything?  Stupid… [Spout Blog]

    • Anne Thompson reports from party central in Toronto. [Thompson on Hollywood]

  • “An Oscar-less Toronto” — but not for Searchlight

    Anybody who’s kept even half an eye on film news recently knows by now that, compared to previous years, the consecutive Venice and Toronto festivals have done little to illuminate the Oscar race. (Unless, I suppose, you were one of those predicting major glory for “Miracle at St. Anna.”)

    The Hollywood Reporter adds their verdict to the pile here, quoting an executive as declaring the fest “an Oscar-less Toronto.” There’s little new perspective in the article, but it’s a handy enough precis. They do think one race has benefited from the festival:

    But the festival might have helped clarify at least one category: the best actress race. The beneficiaries have been Anne Hathaway in Jonathan Demme’s dysfunctional-family drama “Rachel Getting Married”; Sally Hawkins in “Happy-Go-Lucky,” the Mike Leigh film about a chipper young schoolteacher; and, if Searchlight chooses to make an awards push for her, “The Secret Life of Bees” star Dakota Fanning.

    Hmmm. It’s not as if Hathaway and Hawkins weren’t deemed contenders before Toronto. (The Golden Globes may as well drop the other three slots for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical, right?) And Dakota Fanning? With those reviews? Yeah, right.

    In any case, as they acknowledge, Searchlight has other priorities now, having nabbed the two hottest Toronto titles:

    The lone film that has emerged as a genuine standout is Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” which went in as a question mark and will leave as a contender in pretty much every major awards category. To a lesser extent, Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” also is generating awards talk, though its cast is entirely unknown.

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  • Top 10 F-bombs of all time

    Andre Rivas has posted a great new top 10 list over at Rope of Silicon: The top 10 F-Bomb movie moments.  It’s impossible to argue with the #1 position, of course, but with all the Spike Lee talk lately due to “Miracle at St. Anna,” I took a minute to play the “25th Hour” sequence.

    It probably stands as one of the director’s most impassioned moments.  It might even be his most fully realized work to date, a five minute diatribe against all the people and neighborhoods of New York City before Edward Norton’s Monty Brogan actually looks into the mirror he’s been shouting at the whole time and finds the clarity of perspective.

    If only Spike could find his way back to this place of zen.  Because when he’s firing on all cylinders, he’s one of the masters:

  • OFF THE CARPET: Indies on the march

    (from left) Evan Rachel Wood and Mickey Rourke in The WrestlerMaybe mid-way through the Toronto Film Festival, two things are strikingly clear: Darren Aronofsky has the goods with “The Wrestler” and Danny Boyle’s streak of successful versatility at the helm continues with “Slumdog Millionaire.”

    Both films, which enjoy pre-Toronto success at Venice and Telluride respectfully, are also evidence that surprises will happen this time of year.  And with an uncharacteriztically level playing field in Toronto this year, we should be thankful they are getting a fair shake.

    One of them is set for distribution, however, while the other is waiting out a buyer.  But will “The Wrestler” find a home and see a release in 2008 or will an awards-heavy distributor pick it up and save it for a rainy day in 2009’s awards season?

    Both options are on the table, it’s just a matter of who bites first, and what they bring to the table.

    On the horizon, everyone is awaiting their post-Toronto peeks at films like “Australia,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Milk” (landing a trailer this week) and “The Soloist.”  David Fincher’s 20 minutes of footage from “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” may have been caught off guard by over-zealous bloggers in Telluride, but the damage may not have been as considerable as some may have thought.

    Speaking of “The Soloist,” chatter is making its way out of the Paramount camp that Robert Downey Jr. is outstanding as LA Times columnist Steve Lopez and hopes are high for a Best Actor nomination.  And as far as “Milk” is concerned, prognosticators may have the wrong idea going in as to which supporting performance has the awards-worthy chops.  More on that at a later date.

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  • TORONTO: ‘Burn After Reading,’ ‘Appaloosa,’ ‘Miracle at St. Anna’

    Ed Harris in AppaloosaRough day on the legs yesterday, a lot of walking.  Five films. One of them I will watch on DVD in the luxury of my room tonight, so four that I am running to, but hey, these are films I want to see, which always helps, right?

    I scanned the local papers for reaction to Thursday’s Gala of “Passchendaele” first thing yesterday.  The reviews seem to be fair in their honesty; no one thinks the film is a masterpiece but no one is tearing it apart either. The real news seems to be the demonstrators outside of Roy Thomson Hall protesting our government’s recent announcement of massive funding cuts to the arts.

    Dumb, dumb, dumb.  When will they learn that a culture without art ceases to be a culture?

    Anyway, I arrived at the first screening and took my seat only to overhear a distressing conversation (a dangerous part of this job) between two American film critics. One said the festival had lost its identity this year because its programmers have not brought in any Oscar contenders, unlike last year when four of the five best picture nominees played here.

    I was stunned by his arrogance and ignorance. How could he possibly make that statement? The Oscar nominations…as far as I know…are not announced until January. Perhaps he is forgetting that this festival was created to celebrate the art form.  That films that went on to Oscar attention was just icing on the cake. And who is to say many of the films here may not head in Oscar’s direction? And so what…SO WHAT (??!!) if they do not?

    Perhaps they have forgotten their own identity as film critics and why they took up the job: to write about great films, big and small, Oscars or not.

    (Reviews after the jump.)

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  • REVIEW: “Miracle at St. Anna” (**)

    Touchstone Pictures\' Miracle at St. AnnaSpike Lee knows how to mount a natural tension behind the camera. He knows how to create powerful scenes. He knows how to weave theme and yes, even subtext into his narratives. But more often than not he fails to put these gifts together in a successful piece that gets out of its own way and provides a complete experience.

    “Mircale at St. Anna” isn’t the nosedive that “Bamboozled” takes half-way through. It isn’t the vibrant mess of “Mo’ Better Blues” and it sure isn’t the ineptitude and stylized aggression of “Inside Man.” Indeed, it is probably the filmmaker’s most unique effort in a number of years. But despite a few sequences that remind the viewer of the skill and artistic ability of its director, it is mostly a narrative strung along and together by poor performances (at least one of them awful) and unfocused screenwriting.

    The story begins in Manhattan in the present day. A murder in a post office. Casual, but purposeful, and full of mystery. A giant stone head, a relic, discovered in the perpetrator’s home. The intrigue on high so much that we can forgive the out-of-place and unnecessary, “Pilgrim, we fought for this country, too” that the character spoke not five minutes earlier (a typical on-the-nose Lee aside but also entirely out of keeping with the character’s motivations).

    A reporter is digging at the truth. “I know who the sleeping man is,” the shooter tells him. We’re hooked; what will the flashback have in store to explain all of this peculiarity?

    Not a whole hell of a lot, as it turns out. We’re zapped back in time to World War II in the countryside of Italy. The Buffalo Soldiers division, a group of African American soldiers referred to as an “experiment” by one blatantly racist commander played by Robert John Burke, will be our company throughout.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Make way for the little guys…or not

    Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting MarriedIt may be Labor Day, but the work at hand is breathing down our necks. So it is that we come to the first weekly Oscar column of the new awards season.

    Though to be frank with you, I’m beginning to wonder whether we’ll be able to keep the conversation going, much less interesting on a weekly basis as we push through the last four months of the year. I knew going in to this year that it was going to be a somewhat low-key season, and my own worst fears have been founded in a number of pre-Toronto screenings of films that will be discussed in a week’s time, films leaving me cold, irritated or otherwise just unconvinced.

    I don’t sense a lull on the level of 2005 by any means, but I do get the feeling that after two solid years of cinematic goodness, 2008 could just be one of those “rebuilding” years, to steal a sports term and painfully attempt its application here. It’s interesting (and telling) that my two favorite films of the year are a stoner comedy and a superhero adaptation respectively (though the latter obviously has a legion of fans banking on major awards success…more on that later).

    The most intriguing component for me is the playground that Toronto will provide for a bevy of independent and genuinely smaller product. The heavy-hitters (or, at the very least, the presumed heavy-hitters) are incomplete and not prepared for fall fest unveiling (aside from “Frost/Nixon,” which has already been seen and seems to be riding a wave of confidence at Universal).

    But efforts like Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky,” Jonathan Demme’s “Rachel Getting Married,” Vicente Amorim’s “Good,” Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain,” Rian Johnson’s “The Brothers Bloom,” Richard Eyre’s “The Other Man,” etc. — true indies with a fighting chance to turn some heads — won’t have to suffer in the shadows of big studio films angling for the press of an Oscar season starting gun.

    Meanwhile, Cannes entries such as Fernando Meirelles’s “Blindness,” Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York,” Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” get an uninhibited second chance in front of festival audiences. Ditto Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling,” in the case of the New York fest.

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  • POLL: Which recently off-his-game director do you expect to hit paydirt this Oscar season?

    Vicky Cristina Barcelona director Woody AllenIt’s been a couple of weeks since we introduced a new sidebar poll — tons going on, apologies. But suffice it to say, “The Dark Knight” beat out eight other highly regarded comic book films to be the readers’ choice for best all-time in the genre. No shock there, though it took more votes than I anticipated overall.

    This week, with the rush to anoint Jonathan Demme a prodigal son returned following the debut of the “Rachel Getting Married” trailer, I thought it would be fun to suss out what readers think of a few filmmakers testing the awards waters with new product this season after a number of missteps in recent memory.

    The aforementioned Demme is coming off of a couple of largely ignored documentaries and forgettable narrative entries such as “Beloved,” “The Truth About Charlie” and, to a lesser extent, “The Manchurian Candidate.”

    Woody Allen, meanwhile, is stepping up to the plate with “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” a critical fave out of Cannes following years of missteps since “Sweet and Lowdown” (save for “Match Point,” which had its followers).

    Spike Lee hasn’t exactly turned the heads of awards-giving bodies all that much for some time, though he looks to dive back into the fray with “Miracle at St. Anna,” and Jim Sheridan is coming off the miscalculation of “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” with the Susanne Bier remake “Brothers.”

    So…tell us in the poll.  Which of these recently off-the-mark helmers has the best shot at reclaiming former glory with his resepective awards hopeful this season?

  • Wells joins the guessing game

    In response to Tom O’Neil’s contender shortlist that I discussed yesterday, Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere has come up with his own list of Best Picture frontrunners – and predicted also-rans. (O’Neil has since significantly amended his list, by the way – wisely removing “Blindness” and “Synecdoche, New York” from Best Picture consideration, and adding some titles including, bizarrely, “Mamma Mia!” Meanwhile, names like Tommy Lee Jones, Rachel McAdams and Kristin Scott Thomas enter the actors’ mix.)

    Wells’ top choices include “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (which he describes as “not the front-runner,  but the contender with the best script”), “Milk,” “Doubt,” “Gran Torino,” “Frost/Nixon,” “W” and “The Visitor.” “W” is a predictably contentious selection; I certainly know a few people who would disagree with his assertion that it “works on the page.”

    Rather more fun is Wells’ rundown of the titles that he thinks don’t have a prayer, which he breaks down as follows:

    “Appaloosa” (possibly worthy Ed Harris western but New Line leftover status dooms it); “Burn After Reading” (a dry Coen brothers goof, not an Oscar film); “Body of Lies” (I know nothing about this brilliant Middle Eastern spy thriller that would qualify it as Oscar bait); “Changeling” (Best Actress nom for Angelina Jolie but the film, while dramatically solid and well made, just isn’t stratospheric enough); “The Dark Knight” (are Tom and Pete having us off?); “Defiance” (an Ed Zwick World War II movie about Russian-Jewish resistance guerillas…hello?); “Mamma Mia!” (all right, that’s enough); “Miracle at St. Anna” (a Spike Lee movie in which a bank teller is shot by an old guy having a memory seizure?) and “Vicki Cristina Barcelona” (can’t and won’t happen).

    I must say I agree with him on most counts there – in particular, I’ll be somewhat surprised if “Miracle at St. Anna” and “Defiance” even turn out to be good films, let alone Best Picture possibilities. I can’t help thinking, though, that some little picture that’s slipped through all these lists will sneak up on us later this year. We sure weren’t talking about “Juno” a year ago.

  • ‘Miracle’ headed to Toronto

    This flew under my radar yesterday, but the Toronto International Film Festival has added a few more films to its Septmber line-up, including Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna.”  The press release has more.

  • ‘Miracle’ trailer — a week late, I know…

    I finally watched this trailer for Spike Lee’s upcoming “Miracle at St. Anna” over the weekend. It’s been out and about for at least a week now, but I decided to wait a bit as I am in the middle of James McBride’s novel at the moment. Sometimes one prefers the imagination. I knew once I laid eyes on the trailer, my ideas of what was happening in the book would be replaced by Lee’s vision of them, at least in part.

    The book is oddly structured to say the least, though I’ll hold off on offering an considerable comment for the moment. But Lee seems perfectly suited to the material; it’s a project I think will make him stretch somewhat (a welcome notion amid the same old behind the scenes antics from the filmmaker).

    That said, the trailer plays a little flat. I can’t put my finger on why. I’m left with an incredible “So what?” feeling.  As if some of the pieces of the puzzle are missing that would make me sit up and say, “Yeah, I want to see that.”  The last line is great, though.

    Anyway, have a look. Touchstone is set to distribute, not the most awards savvy studio. 42 West is also working on the pic (along with, as usual, countless others):

    httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=YXvxFNIcVX8