In Contention

Tag: Sam Rockwell

  • Sam Rockwell’s campaign gears up

    Sam RockwellJust last week we told you about Duncan Jones’s concentrated grassroots effort to nab Sam Rockwell an Oscar nomination for his tour de force performance in “Moon.” It is a film that, unfortunately, came and went at the marketplace, yet was one of the best films of the summer.  And Rockwell, as he’s proven time and again for years now, has the chops and deserves the props.

    Jones has chimed in once again one the matter at his blog, Man Made Movies, and lays out all the Tweeting and petitioning goodness.  You can even buy a T-shirt for the cause.  Don’t you have a new movie to be preparing, Duncan!?

    Seriously, though, it’s worth noting that, in the wake of this, Sony Pictures Classics, as well as Rockwell’s own representation at the publicity firm I/D Public Relations, are getting serious about an Oscar campaign.  It will be an uphill climb because, due to the film being a British production, it isn’t eligible for a number of the awards that might have put it on the domestic radar, such as the Gothams or the Independent Spirits.  The film did, however, show up in a number of high-profile categories when the British Independent Film Award nominees were announced earlier in the week.

    Whether Rockwell nails the honor or not is ultimately beside the point.  “He deserves to be in the conversation,” Sony Classics honcho Michael Barker told me.  “He’s one of these guys like Philip Seymour Hoffman, who we had in films like ‘Love Liza’ and ‘Owning Mahowny,’ where you just said, ‘One of these days [he’ll be nominated].’”

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  • ‘Fish Tank,’ ‘Moon,’ ‘Education’ lead BIFA noms, female directors rule

    Katie Jarvis in Fish TankYou’ve heard me natter on enough for months about how “Fish Tank” is one of the year’s best films — now you don’t have to just hear it from me anymore.

    Andrea Arnold’s lyrical character study of an unhappy Essex teenager (now being dubbed ‘the British “Precious”‘ by some lazy wags) leads the nominations for the British Independent Film Awards, with mentions in a whopping eight categories, including two for 18 year-old sensation Katie Jarvis.

    Once a very niche Transatlantic equivalent to the Indie Spirits, the BIFA Awards are gaining in profile every year, painting a far more revealing picture of the state of the UK film industry than the Oscar-toadying BAFTAs.

    They’re also naming more contenders who go on to feature heavily in awards season: “Slumdog Millionaire” was the belle of last year’s BIFA ball, while this year’s major crossover nominee promises to be “An Education.”

    (More discussion, and a full list of nominees, after the cut.)

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Oscar prods, Gotham nods, ‘Amelia’ clods

    Richard Gere• The Academy finally named the producers for next year’s Oscar telecast, first-timers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic.

    • All of which added weight to the speculation that Hugh Jackman might return as host.

    • The Gotham Awards provided the season with its first set of nominees, though it inspired more talk for its omissions.

    • Chief among those omissions: “Precious,” prompting talk of a backlash, despite generous media exposure positioning it as the one to beat.

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  • Duncan Jones’s grassroots campaign for Sam Rockwell

    MoonDuncan Jones is quite the intrepid fellow.  He has a fairly consistent presence on Twitter, always notifying of the recent ups and downs of his 2009 sci-fi effort “Moon.” (Most recently the film cleaned up at Spain’s Sitges Fantastic Film Festival.)  But mostly the director just seems anxious to get the word out on an expertly crafted film that he’s clearly proud of.

    So of course a grassroots campaign to land Sam Rockwell a Best Actor Oscar nomination is right up his alley, and as you know, I’m all for it.  “Moon” is the kind of film that really needs this kind of dig-your-heels-in effort because, despite working out nicely in Sony Pictures Classics’ conservative (i.e., successful) distribution philosophy, still doesn’t have the reach and blanket exposure that it needs for this kind of thing.

    Of course, grassroots campaigns have fizzled out in the past.  And if we’re being realistic, there’s probably no chance in hell that Rockwell can get the consideration he deserves; it would take a concentrated screening, wining and dining sort of effort that is just not in the cards.  But I like Jonses’s moxie.

    Go over to ManMadeMovies for more and sign the online petition if you like.  Also: #samrockwelloscar.  A fan-made poster for the effort after the jump.

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  • One more parting shot…

    Snapped by Jon Favreau on the Hall H stage during the “Iron Man 2” panel discussion:

    (from left) Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International

    And a taste of Kevin Smith at the Con, where he talks about the fact that the title “A Couple of Dicks” may not hold (My camera lost battery power half-way through.  Apologies):

  • Zowie Bowie talks more ‘Moon’ across the pond

    Duncan JonesIf you happen to be in one of the select markets carrying Duncan Jones’s (aka Zowie Bowie) “Moon” and still haven’t made it out to see it, you don’t know what you’re missing.  The film recently crossed the $1 million mark.  Here’s to many more.

    The film is just landing over in the UK and Jones is owning the publicity thing with his story.  The next stop appears to be this Vicki Reid article in London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, which does a fine job of spotlighting what it is about this film that makes it register so profoundly: it’s focus on character amid all the familiar tropes of the genre.

    With the anniversary of a sci-fi classic already coming this year, and the hope that James Cameron is set to change the game for everyone in December, it’s still so refreshing that a film like this has found a spot between the extremes, destined to be, at the very least, a cult-admired staple of thinking man’s sci-fi.

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  • Summer hopefuls that can go the distance

    Jeremy Renner in The Hurt LockerOver at Examiner.com, Jeff Sneider (you know him around these parts as “The InSneider”) has put together a rundown of the 10 summer movies that have a shot at awards glory.  In my post-Cannes Oscar column I mentioned how dreadfully quiet the first half of the year has been for awards hopefuls.  After all, this time last year we’d already seen “The Visitor” and “WALL-E” as viable contenders, but this year — nothing.

    Sneider is hanging his hat on a number of films he apparently hasn’t seen yet (Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies,” Judd Apatow’s “Funny People,” etc.), but most of the love goes to Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” which I’ll be getting to in due time.  And I can’t say I disagree.  Along with the perennial Pixar entry of the year, Bigelow’s Iraq character study clearly has the stuff if Summit is willing to go there.  It needs to make money first, of course, which is why we’re getting trailers and posters that amp up the action elements.  But it’s Bigelow’s best work ever and features awards caliber performances from Anthony Mackie and especially Jeremy Renner, both of which are mentioned in Sneider’s column.

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  • Space oddity

    MoonIt’s hardly the only intriguing thing about “Moon” — the oddball sci-fi effort that Kris greatly admired earlier this week — that director Duncan Jones is in fact the rather more infamously named Zowie Bowie. Still, you must admit that an intimate space epic directed by the son of Ziggy Stardust has a certain symbolic cache to it; clearly, if the reviews are to be believed, visionary eccentricity (not to mention otherworldly interests) runs in the family.

    I must admit I wasn’t aware of this fact until I read this profile of Jones and his leading man, Sam Rockwell, in the New York Observer. It’s a fun piece, in which the two kindred spirits essentially try to outperform each other in the quirky loner stakes — loneliness being, they agree, the core theme of the film. It also offers some insight into the process behind Rockwell’s reportedly extraordinary dual performance:

    “It became part of this ingredients list of how do I make a film that Sam wants to be in? I know, I’ll make him play all the roles … and write the theme music, too,” Mr. Duncan joked.  It was indeed a challenge for Mr. Rockwell, who had to shoot each scene multiple times, either with a body double or using a Motion Control camera that can replicate body movements identically. Mr. Rockwell would act out the scene, go to hair and makeup to differentiate between the two characters, and then come back to set and do it all over again. It became what the two men described as a kind of dance, having to stick to precise moments to make the scene work—action scenes when the two Sams fight or play Ping-Pong were particularly difficult.

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  • SHORT TAKE: “Moon” (***1/2)

    MoonIn the harrowing finale of Alejandro Amenábar’s “Abre Los Ojos,” actor Chete Lera screams in defiance at the unthinkable events unfolding around him: “I’m real and I have two daughters!”  Falling to his knees, he slowly accepts the gut-wrenching realization that is the film’s final twist.  That idea is front and center in Duncan Jones’s “Moon,” an all-too-rare instance of sci-fi entertainment that understands the value of human emotion in a genre that can often eschew it.

    In what might not be a too-distant future, given the nature of Earth’s depleting resources, energy companies have sought out the cosmos for further profit and power stability.  The film opens with a typical advertisement from one such company called Lunar Industries that sets the scene: mining the planet’s primary source of energy Helium-3 on the far side of the moon is the answer to sustaining our delicate existence.  “Sleep in comfort knowing you’re in our hands,” that kind of thing.  And the sight of giant combines harvesting lunar soil for the isotope is quite an alarming one indeed.

    Sam Rockwell stars as astronaut Sam Bell, a Lunar contractee nearing the end of his three-year stint overseeing the harvesting in what has to be the loneliest job in the universe.  He wakes up, he jogs on his treadmill, he might take a trip out to the combines if something goes awry, but mostly he chats it up with his only company at the outpost: GERTY, a computer system know-it-all voiced by Kevin Spacey in an obvious tip-of-the-hat to Douglas Rain’s HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”  Only the ominous red orb is replaced by a yellow emoticon that gets played up for a laugh or two throughout.

    However, something’s not quite right (but of course).  Sam keeps seeing things: an odd blip of his former self barking out commands on a monitor here, the vague vision of a woman floating out near the combines there.  After a lunar crawler accident sends the plot’s mysteries on an inevitable course, Sam discovers he and GERTY are not alone after all.  The unfortunate realities this new visitor represents are the ideas “Moon” smartly concerns itself with.

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  • ‘Moon’

    I’ve been quasi-fascinated with Duncan Jones’s “Moon” ever since early talk was making its way out of Sundance back in January.  Sam Rockwell really looks to be turning in a special performance and the general anxiety inside me that hopes to see another amazing space film finally stick the landing (Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine” came SO close) has me waiting with bated breath.

    The trailer was released last week and today we get a look at the poster.  Both are below (though forgive the annoying IGN watermark on the trailer, which is apparently on every single YouTube embed.  Gotta raise that awareness!)

    Moon

  • REVIEW: “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (****)

    The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert FordIn 1983, author Ron Hansen crafted a novel that ought to be considered mandatory reading for anyone fancying himself or herself attracted to the western as a genre and as a conveyor of essential truth. A Shakespearean account of betrayal in the old west, Hansen’s masterful sketches revealed deep and vibrant characters that transcended the nickel-book mythology into which they inevitably found themselves woven.

    Twenty-four years later, filmmaker Andrew Dominik has accomplished a visual telling of that story as close to cinematic perfection as you could hope for. At the risk of sensationalism, I would call “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” the most accomplished work of moving imagery committed to film in nearly a decade. It is a staggering piece of true cinematic art.

    The tale is as simple as it is complex, a trait shared by the greatest of western storytelling. Jesse James (Brad Pitt), the infamous outlaw of old, found himself the subject of obsession, fascination and idolatry by the young and ambitious Robert Ford (Casey Affleck). A yearning to touch greatness, or even reside in similar territory, drove Ford to seek out acceptance amongst James and his gang of outlaws in the waning years of the 19th century. A lethal combination of angst, envy, hubris and government sanctioning brought Ford to a place on April 3, 1882 where firing a bullet into the back of James’ skull seemed the logical course of action. And so it was.

    Dominik and director of photography Roger Deakins have framed the legend of James in some instances by blurring the outer edges of the frame. Perhaps the intention is to convey a legend we know little about, given the cloud of mythology that surrounds actuality. But there are depths of reality here that speak to some fairly grandiose truths, and that, I think, is what Dominik is driving at.

    With all the sensationalized accounts, all of the larger-than-life depiction, there is true poetry in the life and death of the outlaw. And there is true poetry in his assassin’s regret. Myth is born out of realism, and Andrew Dominik, an Australian, seems to understand the American western better than any contemporary, and many who paved the way before him.

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