• Devin Faraci goes on the road with Chris Morris and his film, “Four Lions.” [Badass Digest]
• Brian Truitt talks “Back to the Future” with Lea Thompson, 25 years later. I always forget it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. (AWESOME.) [USA Today]
• Bruce Springsteen talks the making of “Darkness on the Edge of Town” at the London premiere of “The Promise.” [The Guardian]
• Across the pond, Deborah Orr on a 15 rating due to harmless swearing weighing down an uplifting film like “Made in Dagenham.” [The Guardian]
• A feature biopic is in the works about “The Cove” activist Ric O’Barry. [Deadline]
• The deadline for animated feature submission nears. [Oscars.org]
I sometimes wonder what Louis Psihoyos might have been able to convey to a massive television audience if Fisher Stevens hadn’t bum-rushed the microphone when “The Cove” won Best Documentary, and/or Oscarcast producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic hadn’t decided to play Psihoyos off before he had a chance to speak up (all on account of a harmless banner Ric O’Barry unspooled and held on high).
In any case, the film has been on DVD for some time now and has found a modest audience, but it’ll have its prime time television debut this Sunday, August 29. Animal Planet will premiere the film at 9:00pm EST, so tell a friend.
Meanwhile, as Guy reminded us yesterday and Anne and I discussed this morning, the documentary feature category is looking like a race for the ages this year. What do you think will be left standing when the awards dust clears at the Kodak in February?
[Photo: ScienceNewsBlog]
I didn’t realize it had been fully six months since I saw “The Cove” beginning to end until I sat down to watch it again this evening at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara. The screening was in honor of the film’s receiving the Sir David Attenborough Award, given annually to a film exhibiting excellence in nature filmmaking. Roger Durling and his staff couldn’t have tapped a more worthy recipient this year.
The film remains a rock solid punch to the stomach, bringing tears at least two or three times throughout. It is indeed one of the best films of 2009, but looking back at my top 10 list, I feel like it could have been higher. There was a time when I considered it the best film of the year, period, and there are still times that I think it deserves that consideration.
It went over like gangbusters with a crowd that definitely didn’t know what kind of an emotional experience it was in for. One woman jumped up and hustled to the back, crying, during one pivotal sequence. And the applause hit, just as it should, during activist Ric O’Barry’s final act of heroism seen in the film, a television strapped to his chest exposing to the International Whaling Commission the dark truths going down in a little harbor village in Japan.
Wrapping up my perspective on the year today, a personal list of superlatives, Oscar categories and other silly nonsense.
Swing back around on Monday for the ultimate wrap-up, my list of the best films of the decade.
Best Picture
“A Serious Man” (Focus Features)
Best Director
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, “A Serious Man”
Best Actor
Sharlto Copley, “District 9”
Best Actress
Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Ben Stiller has been vocal about his support for the dolphin slaughter documentary “The Cove.” This I knew, but until I actually read through the Ric O’Barry interview we linked in this morning’s round-up, I didn’t realize he played a key role in getting the film a screening at the Tokyo International Film Festival, but that’s just what happened. According to O’Barry:
The Tokyo Film Festival has a green theme this year, but they weren’t showing “The Cove.” Ben Stiller and his friends, who have been supportive of the film, called up and complained about how unfair this was. The Japanese people have a right to know. Now there are four to five Japanese distributors fighting over the film.
Did I miss this nugget? I knew festival brass had given in and allowed the film to screen (offering the limp excuse that the line-up hadn’t been finalized and that the decision was never final — remember, the fest has a “green” theme this year). But I didn’t realize Stiller got involved. Good on you, guy.
Yesterday I opened my heart regarding Louie Psihoyos’s documentary “The Cove,” so it’s understandable that I’d be eager to see what the local outlets have in the way of media coverage as the film moves further into its limited run.
Unfortunately, this Rachel Abramowitz story at the Los Angeles Times isn’t particularly insightful and covers a lot of the same behind-the-scenes material revealed in the film, but it nevertheless serves as a pretty good primer for those interested in the project. In particular, Abramowitz talks to Psihoyos about the covert mission at the film’s center, which transforms the picture into something of a thriller, the seams of documentary filmmaking seemingly disappearing, making way for a compelling narrative.
I think it’s important to characterize this film properly, because I’ve talked to a couple of people in the last few days who express an ambivalence to see it because of personal reasons, unable to handle the depictions of dolphin slaughter. That scene is held until the end and is all of maybe three or four minutes. It’s used effectively as the climax to a riveting espionage tale. This is not a gruesome picture. You can handle it. Trust me. Go see it.
After week after week of missed opportunities to see Louie Psihoyos’s harrowing documentary “The Cove,” I finally got around to it last night at the Arclight (one of only two theaters currently showing the film in Los Angeles). I was absolutely floored. Devastated, rocked, affected — it’s the reason films are made.
I won’t get into a proper review now since the film is in release and plenty of opinion pieces have already landed, but I haven’t felt so galvanized by a cinematic experience in a long time. And as opposed to last year’s “Dear Zachary,” which was equally effective but left the viewer with an inevitable feeling of helplessness, “The Cove” has me wanting to empty my wallet, quit my petty job, detach myself from all amenities and actually DO something.
It got me thinking, too. This month’s Oscar update obviously places a bet on Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” to benefit from the expanded Best Picture category. But I think the Academy has a real opportunity to move the needle on a serious issue by shining its spotlight on Psihoyos’s film.
• The forthcoming release of “Julie & Julia” delays author Julie Powell’s follow-up book. [New York Observer]
• Seth Rogen takes “Entourage” (which is slowly jumping the shark this season) and its creators to task. [Movieline]
• Going to Comic-Con? Download the official iPhone app. [Apple]
