In Contention

Tag: Revolutionary Road

  • “Only murderers” and “I’m glad it’s you”

    These are the clips that likely assured the late Paul Newman a place alongside the supporting crop of contenders in 2002.  Stalwart, sincere, living inside the character with an eerie warmth.  Despite my spoken allegiance to “Hud,” I chose to remember Newman this morning by watching “Road to Perdition” for the first time in a number of years.  Criminally underrated, it is the shining beacon in Sam Mendes’s arsenal that gives me hope for “Revolutionary Road.”  Moreover, it contains a Newman performance for the ages, a subtle but meaningful display from an undeniable legend:

  • 9/27 Oscarweb Round-up

    Josh Brolin in W.• Anne Thompson reports that Paramount Vantage will officially debut the “Revolutionary Road” trailer on Sunday’s episode of “Mad Men.”  Very smart. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • The toughest journalist gigs in cinema. [Time Out]

    • In the introductory post of his long in the works awards blog (welcome to the fray), Pete Hammond bangs the drums for Dustin Hoffman in “Last Chance Harvey.”  Overture will have a tough enough time with one Best Actor hopeful, though, let alone two. [Notes on a Season]

    • Tom O’Neil rounds up a bunch of thoughts from the Oscarweb regarding potential Oscar hosts. [Gold Derby]

    • Steven Zeitchick gets excited about the foreign film race. [Risky Biz Blog]

    • Michael Cieply and Charles Solomon shed light on a credit dispute among the principles of Universal’s animated endeavor “The Tale of Despereaux.” [New York Times]

    • John HIscock spends some quality time with “Appaloosa” star Viggo Mortensen across the pond. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Oscar winner Helen Mirren is set to take on the role of an Israeli Nazi hunter with “Shakespeare in Love” director John Madden at the helm. [The Independent]

    • Anthony Breznican gets a first look at Oliver Stone’s “W.” [USA Today]

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Cinematography — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionToday we begin our in-depth looks at the individual crafts categories.  I’m a sucker for starting with my favorite: Best Cinematography.

    The art of film is reliant on the motion picture camera and those men and women who lend their talents behind the lens.  The Director of Photography is in charge of charge of capturing the director’s vision on film, not only by ensuring mood through lighting, thematic comment through juxtaposition, etc.  This work has to be done in tandem with the director, which makes it not surprising that many cinematographers and directors work together frequently.

    This category tends to award “pretty” films.  Big epics and gorgeous landscapes frequent the nominated five each year, as do war films and anything generally considered a labored task in this department.  That is not to say such efforts have a monopoly on this category –- just that they are especially apt to be nominated.

    Last year it was sad to see Roger Deakins lose for the sixth and seventh times on the same evening. I cannot deny that Robert Elswit -– a longtime favorite of mine –- was an excellent choice for “There Will Be Blood,” but the great Deakins is once again searching for his first statuette!  He will be back in contention this year, lensing Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary Road.” This film clearly has Oscar in its sights.  While I still remain skeptical on how it will be received overall, Deakins will almost certainly be in contention should the film deliver in the slightest.

    Deakins will also be lensing “Doubt” this year, which also has the potential to be a major awards player.  Though I’m doubtful (no pun intended) about its chances in this category.

    In what would be a historic nomination, Mandy Walker will likely be in contention for Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia.”  She would be the first ever woman nominated in this category.  Yes, that’s right.  No woman has ever been nominated for Best Cinematography in 80 years of Academy history.  Lurhmann’s films are always visually spectacular and this effort in particular fits in perfectly with the sorts of epics usually nominated in this category.

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  • At last, ‘Revolutionary Road’ trailer

    Minus the banal yammering of Mary Hart smothering it all.

    Still pretty, still powerful, still promising. DiCaprio looks particularly good here, I think.

  • Finally getting excited about 2008…

    Sean Penn in MilkNot a whole lot has piqued my cinematic interest this year. “The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” are the happy pre-festival-season exceptions. But even with Toronto not yielding a whole lot in terms of Oscar frontrunners, I am finding more and more to be excited about in the coming months and expect an intense race for that little golden guy. Here are the six (well, seven…you’ll see) most anticipated of the year for me, at this stage…

    “The Road” (John Hollcoat)
    Is anyone else as pumped for this as I am? After reading the book in three days, imagining Viggo Mortensen in a number of the scenes and Robert Duvall as the old man, I can’t wait. If Mortensen does justice to the character (and I think he will), he is in for an Oscar nod, the second in a row for the actor.  And the film itself could be a dark horse contender for Best Picture and Best Director. The Academy has shown some courage these last few years embracing dark subjects, and this one is certainly dark.  Though the book ends with a ray of hope for humanity. Here’s hoping they capture the intensity and raw realism of the novel.

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  • 9/18 Oscarweb Round-up

    Val Kilmer in Batman Forever• Nathaniel Rogers just can’t seem to get excited about “Appaloosa.” [The Film Experience]

    • Dave Karger, meanwhile, sits down with Ed Harris to talk about the film.  GREAT interview. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • With westerns on the mind, Kyle Rupprecht recounts the best modern entries in the genre. [Moviemaker Magazine]

    • Sasha Stone cherry-picks some of Nancy Kriparos’s wonderful Toronto coverage in case you missed the finer points. [Awards Daily]

    • Is Val Kilmer going to be the next Governor of New Mexico??  I just like how the piece constantly reminds you that he played Batman, both in the headline and through a quote from Bill Richardson.  [The Independent]

    • Sam Adams talks to “Duchess” star Ralph Fiennes. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Patrick Goldstein, meanwhile, talks to director Gary Fielder about how Jim Brown made “The Express” work. [The Big Picture]

    • Want a bleacher seat for the Oscar arrivals? [Oscars.org]

    • Scott Bowles gets Stacey Snider and our old pal Chad Hartigan on the record regarding the “Titanic” reunion set to unfold in “Revolutionary Road.” [USA Today]

    • Kevin Kelly gets a nce sit-down with “Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow. [Spout Blog]

  • Another poster — ‘Revolutionary Road’

    I’ll reserve my opinion and turn it over to the readership for the verdict, though I’m pretty sure I know the answer:

    Paramount Vantage's Revolutionary Road

  • Best Actor race looking tight as always — expect surprises

    Leonardo DiCaprio in Revolutionary RoadThe Best Actor category tends to be one of the more crowded categories come Oscar time, and 2008 looks to be no exception. To be sure, there are a handful of frontrunners as usual, but hovering behind them are another group, more than eight who could easily sneak in and nab a nomination. Last year Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for his powerful work in “The Valley of Elah,” a richly deserved nod, but completely unexpected by the majority of prognosticators.  I remember smiling when I heard his name read, but it was a huge surprise.

    I would expect something similar this year, as we have some of the great  actors and potentially stunning performances in contention.

    The obvious frontrunner at this point is Mickey Rourke, basking in the attention being given to “The Wrestler.”  His performance is nothing short of miraculous, an astounding piece of acting, and it is great to see him back in the fold.  But when it comes to winning the award, I have to say: not a chance. Rourke is intensely disliked in Hollywood.  He’s seen as someone who basically spit on the industry to walk away and become a boxer. As a friend close to Rourke said, “A lot of people were happy when he left and don’t want this guy back.”

    Frank Langella looks to be terrific in the trailers for “Frost/ Nixon.”  He has always been a great actor, better known for his stage work than film, though in the last few years he has become a formidable presence on the big screen. I remember seeing him as “Dracula” both on stage and on film in the late 1970s and hoped he would go far. He did, just not in the movies, until recently.

    Kris has Michael Sheen down as a lead actor possibility as well, and I agree. It’s one of those “Amadeus” situations where one performance cannot exist without the other. There is a strong chance that if the film and the actors are terrific, both of them will be nominated, though Langella certainly has the showier role of the two.

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  • THE LISTS: Top 10 performances you’re underestimating

    Every year it seems there are a number of performers in the thick of an Oscar hunt that don’t get the same attention as the expected heavy-hitters.

    It’s no surprise, of course, that Oscar prognostication would lean toward the anticipation of what lies ahead, unseen, unproven.  The mystery stays in tact, if for precious few moments.  But a number of nominated actors and actresses, year after year, tend to bank on the underestimation of the masses, allowing those heavy-hitters to fall by the wayside and provide just the opportunity they were waiting for all along.

    Here, then, is an attempt to shine a light on 10 stealthy contenders that seem to be flying low on the radar so far this season:

    Richard Jenkins in The Visitor10. Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”
    At the moment, “The Visitor” star Richard Jenkins might seem like the obvious bet for a list such as this.  But with Overture Films planning an Oscar campaign for the character-actor-turned-leading-man and a year increasingly giving credence to smaller films, this gem of a performance from way back in the first quarter of the year could find room to make a move.  A prime DVD release date will keep the film fresh in voters’ minds and perhaps divert some of the attention away from the Brad Pitts, Sean Penns and Frank Langellas for a spell.

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  • Fuller ET ‘Revolutionary Road’ trailer

  • First look at ‘Revolutionary Road’

    Thanks to Nick Plowman for pointing out this brief taster of “Revolutionary Road,” arguably the most prestigious-on-paper of the upcoming Oscar bait.

    I found the footage too haphazardly edited to get much of a feel for the film, but we can safely say that it looks lovely, with Roger Deakins offering his trademark burnished sheen, and that DiCaprio and Winslet seem to be on form. I’ve already expressed my hopes for the film; this keeps them afloat.

    And the use of Nina Simone’s version of “Wild is the Wind” in the background is unimpeachably classy.

  • 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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  • New shot from ‘Revolutionary Road’

    From the August issue of Empire Magazine:

    Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road

    Speaking of Empire, they’ve put together a hilarious new list: The Stupidest Character Names. I have to say, they got the #1 choice dead on. But screw ’em for sticking John Matrix up there.

  • Can ‘Revolutionary Road’ be too good for film?

    It’s a slow month for news, so I understand that film bloggers’ minds can wander. I sympathize with that. But even taking that into account, Jeff Wells’ recent post outlining his doubts over the upcoming ‘Revolutionary Road’ struck me as pretty tenuous. Wells’ essential argument is that the film’s stumbling block looks to be the sheer brilliance of Richard Yates’ source novel:

    The more formidable the reputation of the book that’s been made for the big screen, the greater the odds that the film will have problems of one kind or another. The motto, in short, is that it’s not the beauty of the prose but the strength of the bones that counts.

    Truthfully or not, fairly or unfairly, that’s the general belief. And given this, it’s hard not to feel a little queasy about Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary Road,” the forthcoming Leonardo DiCaprio-Kate Winslet drama that’s based upon Richard Yates’ hugely respected novel about suburban middle-class malaise in the 1950s.

    In response, let me begin by offering offer a subjective, by-no-means comprehensive selection of exceptions to Wells’ stated theory – literary adaptations that are in equal proportion of greatness to their source material. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” for one. “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” is another. “To Kill a Mockingbird” was okay, and “A Clockwork Orange” didn’t totally suck either. “The Grapes of Wrath,” “LA Confidential,” “Tess,” “Trainspotting,” “Kes,” “Howards End” … you get the idea.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Calm before the storm

    Sean Penn in MilkThe season is upon us.  One month from today the industry’s first major stepping stone on the way to the Kodak Theater will arrive in the form of the Toronto International Film Festival: 10 days of put up or shut up by a number of the year’s prospective contenders.

    Oddly enough, however, there will be a few considerable no-shows at this year’s festivities.  In a business increasingly proving the precariousness of an early “frontrunner” status, studios and publicists seem to be slowing the machine down…but a few hands have been forced this season.

    Heavily anticipated entries like “Revolutionary Road” and “Milk” will be absent at Toronto next month.  Neither is expected to be ready, actually.  Sam Mendes has been hard at work on “Farlanders,” while Focus Features would probably prefer to take the slow road after emerging from Toronto as the “frontrunner” in 2005 and 2007, but ultimately coming up short on Oscar night.

    This is probably for the best on both.  Gotta maintain those expectations.  Early raves are as dangerous as early pans.

    Meanwhile, the lineup is currently littered with modest independent efforts that depend on the festival circuit to find their groove: “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “The Other Man,” “Rachel Getting Married,” “The Secret Life of Bees,” etc.  The major stuff — so far — seems to be steering clear.

    Regardless, we’ve got one more month of full blown speculation before the season begins to settle into a tangible state…so let’s get to it.

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  • Deakins on the web

    OK, it seems to have been around for a few years, so a lot of you are probably aware of it already, but I’ve only just discovered the great Roger Deakins’ website.

    It’s a pretty bare-bones affair, but there’s some fascinating stuff on it nonetheless. I for one am gobsmacked at how this prolific man, between shooting some of the most significant films of the past few years, somehow finds time to answer so many queries in the forums section. You have to wade through a lot of drivel there, as does Deakins – there are a depressing number of people out there who see fit to ask one of the most gifted DPs alive such probing gems as, ‘How is Leo and Kate’s acting in “Revolutionary Road?”‘ (Only without the correct spelling and capitalisation.)

    Dig around, however, and there’s a wealth of technical information and insight for fans and filmmakers alike. As if that weren’t enough, he’s posted some of his lighting diagrams too, including ones for “No Country for Old Men” and “The Man Who Wasn’t There.”

    Finally, for those who can’t get enough pretty pictures, he’s put up some of his photography work too. (I’d pay good money for a print of that “Rain Begins” shot.) The man’s a true artist.

  • Variety ponders the season at the mid-way point

    We’ve already been over what a thin year it’s been so far for Oscar candidates – or good films at all, for that matter. Now Variety has come to the same conclusion. In his mid-year awards-season study, Timothy M. Gray goes so far as to say that “the past six months have offered fewer potential contenders than any January-June period in memory,” and wonders if we’re seeing a return to the days when the Oscars were dominated by winter releases from the majors.

    Indeed, Gray only finds one title from the first-half of the year that he thinks has main category potential: Overture Films’ “The Visitor,” the prospects of which I discussed extensively yesterday. I’m not sure I’d boil down an entire half-year to a sole film (“In Bruges,” anyone?), but I agree that “The Visitor” has a real campaigning advantage:

    Keep an eye on Overture’s “The Visitor”: Lead actor Richard Jenkins has rightly earned awards buzz, but the film has many other virtues (Thomas McCarthy’s script and direction, the other performances, etc.). McCarthy, a talented actor in his own right, has crafted an actors’ movie — a character study with current-event concerns — that will play well on DVD, so late-year mailings could pay off.

    (Indeed, the more I think about the film’s position in the awards derby, the more it reminds me of a certain tiny spring release from last year: “Away From Her.”

    Looking forward into the rest of 2008, Gray ends up pondering most of the same questionmarks that we all are, including the following questions:

    Will the early buzz sustain for Disney-Pixar’s “Wall-E” and WB’s “The Dark Knight” and Heath Ledger?

    What effect will the Clint Eastwood double whammy — November’s “Changeling” and the December bow of Warner Bros.-Village Roadshow’s “Gran Torino,” in which he stars as well as directs — have on kudos? Similarly, Scott Rudin, who was in the winner’s circle with “No Country,” has two December openers — but will he have a third with “The Reader,” whose opening date is not yet set?

    Benicio Del Toro won Cannes’ actor award for Steven Soderbergh’s “Che,” but will it find a U.S. distrib this year and, if so, in what form will the two-part film be released?

    And then there are … other questions. In the last few years, the song category has been dominated by tunes that were production numbers (as opposed to those end-credit or background songs). So does this bode well for Disney’s “High School Musical 3” and Focus’ “Hamlet 2”? (If the song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” can win, there may be hope for the latter pic’s “Rock Me Sexy Jesus.”)

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  • Early predix: Nat Rogers pipes in

    So the ever-worthwhile Nathaniel Rogers at The Film Experience has joined in the predictions game – check out his thoughts here. Like many others, his list has “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” ruling the roost with eight nominations, with “Defiance,” “Doubt,” “Milk” and “Miracle at St Anna” rounding out the Best Picture list.

    The latter is a particularly interesting choice – one wonders whether the controversy-shy Academy voters will be put off by Spike Lee’s increasingly ridiculous quarrel with Clint Eastwood. Of course, January is a long way off, and if “Miracle at St Anna” turns out to be great, chances are this whole debacle will be forgotten by then. I fear it will not – but with “Changeling” not making his Best Picture list, Nat clearly sees Spike having the last laugh here.

    Elsewhere in Nat’s list, most of the usual suspects are present. I’m particularly pleased to see that he shares my faith in a Best Actress nomination for Sally Hawkins (“Happy-Go-Lucky”) – I’m going to be banging this drum all year, so get used to it. Nat, meanwhile, is evidently beginning the campaigning early for Michelle Pfeiffer in “Cheri,” going so far as to call her a “legendary actress.” I admit there won’t be any complaining from me if she finally cops a statuette.

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