In Contention

Tag: Seven Pounds

  • 1/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    Will Smith• Kim Voynar responds to the foreign shortlist. [Movie City News]

    • Pete Hammond wonders if “The Dark Knight” in dicey waters with the “Reader” surge coming on strong. [Notes on a Season]

    • Tom O’Neil thinks keeping the Oscar presenters a secret until the big night is a mistake.  Eh, I dig it. [Gold Derby]

    • Paula Schwartz catches up with Clint Eastwood at the National Board of Review awards. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Nirpal Dahliwal on why “Slumdog Millionaire” could have only been made by a westerner. [The Guardian]

    • The Press Association gets some Obama inauguration comments from Will Smith at the “Seven Pounds” red carpet across the pond. [The Independent]

    • The only nomination “The Dark Knight” will share with “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” all year long: the Publicist Awards. [Variety]

  • 12/22 Oscarweb Round-up

    Marisa Tomei• The “Seven Pounds” dogpile continues. [/Film]

    • Ditto Baz Luhrmann and “Australia.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Regarding Luhrmann, Peter Bart warns the director away from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gasby.” [Peter Bart]

    • David Gritten talks to Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy about critics’ favorite “Slumdog Millionaire.” [Daily Telegraph]

    • Donna Freydkin spends some time with Marisa Tomei, makes this site’s editor insanely jealous. [USA Today]

    • Reed Tucker looks into Brad Pitt’s love affair…with David Fincher. [New York Post]

    • Mark Olsen spends some time with the Laurent Cantet regarding French Oscar entrant “The Class.” [Los Angeles Times]

    • On the “disturbing tendency” to portray Nazis in a sympathetic light on the big screen as of late. [The Times]

  • Oh dear

    The annihilation of “Seven Pounds” continues apace, with a crucifying NYT review from A.O. Scott:

    Frankly, though, I don’t see how any review could really spoil what may be among the most transcendently, eye-poppingly, call-your-friend-ranting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-just-to-go-over-it-one-more-time crazily awful motion pictures ever made. I would tell you to go out and see it for yourself, but you might take that as a recommendation rather than a plea for corroboration. Did I really see what I thought I saw?

    Ouch. With a Metacritic score hovering at 35, do we have our annual fallen-prestige-film Razzie contender right here? Memo to Gabriele Muccino: return to Italy, strip things back and make another “The Last Kiss” to remind people why Hollywood was excited to have you in the first place.

  • 12/18 Oscarweb Round-up

    Rosario Dawson• Ken Turan proves how really out of touch he is.  [Los Angeles Times]

    • David Poland defends “Seven Pounds” two years after being in the tank for Gabriele Muccino and “The Pursuit of Happyness.” [The Hot Blog]

    • Wow.  And it’s not even April Fool’s Day. [The Sun]

    • David Carr responds to the uber-cool special edition “Dark Knight” soundtrack. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Dave Karger sits down with the cast of “Doubt.” [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Another list of the year’s worst.  Mine tomorrow. [Daily Telegraph]

    • What, no byline?  Anyway, SOMEONE chatted it up with the lovely Rosario Dawson. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Christopher Campbell runs down the worst 5 Oscar hosts. [Spout Blog]

  • 12/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    Will Smith• Nathaniel Rogers goes back to the well with some updated Oscar predictions. [The Film Experience]

    • Charles McGrath writes up the upcoming “Revolutionary Road” release. [New York Times]

    • Philip French remembers a bleak year in cinema. [The Guardian]

    • Similarly, John Horn notes the box office success of some challenging films this holiday season. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Speaking of challenging films, Andrew O’Hehir talks to Steven Soderbergh about “Che.” [Beyond the Multiplex]

    • Susan King, meanwhile, talks to Brian Goodman about his life-turned-movie in “What Doesn’t Kill You.” [Los Angeles Times]

    • Andy Serkis comes out from behind the CGI masks of his most famous performances into acceptance as a fine actor. [The Times]

    • Donna Freydkin chats it up with “Seven Pounds” star Will Smith. [USA Today]

    • Glenn Kenny on Hollywood finally turning classics into digital masterpieces. [Popular Mechanics]

  • Lumenick dive-bombs ‘Seven Pounds’

    Will Smith in Seven PoundsJeez…this might get ugly:

    This diabetes-inducing reunion with director Gabriele Muccino (“The Pursuit of Happyness”) also didn’t score any nods from the easily persuaded Broadcast Film Critics Association, not to mention any awards from the L.A. or New York film critics (there were lots of snickers when somebody jokingly nominated Smith at yesterday’s NYFCC meeting, which gives you an idea of the critical reception “Seven Pounds” is likely to receive when it opens, wide, a week from tomorrow). Sony has reportedly embargoed all reviews, even those in the trades, until opening day, supposedly to protect the “mystery” of the fractured narrative. I received some criticism on other blogs for supposedly revealing “spoilers” in our year-end wrap-up in The Post on Sunday, but really, as some commenters on those same blogs pointed out, I wasn’t giving away anything that couldn’t be deduced from looking at the trailers or a careful consideration of what the title “Seven Pounds” is actually referring to. Even with the world’s biggest star, “Seven Pounds” is going to be a very tough sell without nominations or good reviews — it didn’t even make uber quote-whore Shawn Edwards’ 10-best list, which includes “The Express,” “Miracle at St. Anna” and “The Secret Life of Bees” — and an ending … well, I’ll let you figure it out for yourself.

  • 12/7 Oscarweb Round-up

    A.R. Rahman• Pete Hammond reports on the week that was, including a lively “Seven Pounds” Q&A session. [Notes on a Season]

    • Jeff Wells responds with a second-hand swipe at the film. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • And Steven Zeitchik breaks embargo, writes up a positive assessment. [Risky Biz Blog]

    • Tom O’Neil points out how Oscar success for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” could finally be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s warm Hollywood welcome. [Gold Derby]

    • Hat-tipping A.R. Rahman’s collaboration with M.I.A. on the “Slumdog Millionaire” soundtrack. [Vulture]

    • David Carr talks to “Doubt” scribe and helmer John Patrick Shanley. [New York Times]

    • Heath Ledger wins his first award of the season. [New York Daily News]

    • Roger Ebert offers up the 25 best films of the year. [Chicago Sun-Times]

    • The Times goes longer. [The Times]

  • Weird feeling…

    Seven PoundsThe race is pretty much here, in front of our faces.  Last night and Wednesday night, “Seven Pounds” finally went before the press at large.  We can’t write about the film yet, however.  T.L. Stanley does a nice job of reporting last night’s hilarious Q&A session with the film’s principles here.

    Basically, all secrets are out on the season; all mysteries are solved.  Yet I’m staring at a blank BFCA ballot, due in two days, and I can’t decide what I liked this year.  So call me at a loss as to what the AMPAS will truly go for.

    This is, without a doubt, the most unconventional Oscar season we’ve ever seen.  Personally, I think we’ve got six real contenders.  And the five I’m predicting are slowly gelling into “the knowledge.”  Maybe.  But I stopped being “sure” of things long ago.  I’m bracing myself for anything.

    The LA critics will speak up on Tuesday and the Gotham crew will chime in the next day.  I’m betting on lots of “Slumdog” love on this coast.  No idea what’ll happen back east.  But by the time everyone starts to go off on holiday, maybe…maybe…the picture will begin to clear up for us all.

  • Column? We don’t need no stinking column.

    Turns out I don’t have the time to dig into a full column this week like I had hoped.  I’ll have to get into my thoughts on “Gran Torino” and “Seven Pounds” another time, but I do feel the need to note one thing in this week’s charts: “The Dark Knight” leaping into the Best Picture fray.

    I still don’t feel completely comfortable with this.  It was a coin flip on whether to take “Frost/Nixon” or “Revolutionary Road” out of the mix.  Meanwhile, no one seems to be hearing passionate murmurs from the Academy on the Caped Crusader.  So maybe I look like I’m pulling my punches here, but with the consistency of disappointment this year, I just feel like the door is opening for something that strays this much from AMPAS tradition to find its way in.

    That said, there are things at work here that should be taken into account.  Like the international stake Warner Bros. has in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” for instance, owning every territory but North America.  The studio is even taking out some of the Oscar ads you’re seeing for the film.  So perhaps chips are being rationed toward a film like “Button” that will need the box office boost of awards season rather than a film like “The Dark Knight,” which has made more than its fair share of dollars.

    This is all fodder for another column at another time.  But for now, I can’t dive in appropriately.  So I’ll just leave you with the charts.  This time next week I’ll have seen the full slate of contenders and the National Board of Review will have come and gone.  Then it’s LAFCA, NYFCC and onward into the season.  Slowly, it will unfold.

    Main Category Charts
    Technical Category Charts
    The Contenders
    Oscar Prediction Archives

  • Out and about

    Mostly silence on my end today.  I’m pushing the Oscar column to tomorrow due to a screening of “The Reader” this morning.  Might as well get one more under my belt before tackling an update.  This time next week “Gran Torino” will be out of the way, then it’s up to Sony when they want to drop the curtain on the season’s offerings.  As far as I know, no “Seven Pounds” screenings have been announced.

    I’ll touch base briefly with a “Reader” reaction around noon-ish, then back again in the evening.

  • 11/19 Oscarweb Round-up

    Kate Beckinsale• David Poland misses the stylistic point of “Revolutionary Road.” [The Hot Blog]

    • Anne Thompson is on the right track, though. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Dave Karger digs into the Oscar prospects of the elusive “Seven Pounds.” [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Pete Hammond covers the week in screenings, much of which you’ve already read here.  But he gets more second-hand gossip that Clint Eastwood knocks it out of the park in “Gran Torino.”  Press-at-large screenings start in two weeks. [Notes on a Season]

    • Michael Ordoña talks to Nicole Kidman and Baz Luhrmann (the L.A. Times are getting the royal Fox treatment lately) about “Australia.” [The Envelope]

    • Tom O’Neil talks “Nothing But the Truth” with star Kate Beckinsale. [Gold Derby]

    • Someone call the medic, Grandpa is hearing voices. [Peter Bart]

  • OFF THE CARPET: Getting to know you

    Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary RoadThis is the first season I can think of, at least since I’ve been covering this crazy beat on the west coast, that studios have become so terrified by the media that guild screenings are preempting press screenings with such consistency.

    Some have whined about “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” screening for SAG 10 days before the media at large gets a look (with the usual brand of entitlement that turns the stomach).  Others actually snuck into the screening, surely freaking out a few publicists desperate to unfold the film at their own pace (and the pace dictated by the meticulous David Fincher).  I’m just waiting.

    Plenty have taken the altered ending story behind “Australia,” not to mention the film being held from the press until two weeks before it opens, as a sign that the movie is in trouble.  I’m just waiting.

    Lots of anticipation has suddenly been blown into “The Reader”‘s previously deflated balloon.  I’m just waiting.

    But I have to say, seeing a couple of the year’s contenders last week with big industry audiences proved to be just the breath of fresh air this incredibly stifling season needed.

    (more…)

  • Oscar column? Ha.

    Nothing to show for myself yet again this week.  I swear, in seven days time, I’ll get my act in gear on that front.  But without something to push the passion, it’s kind of hard not to let other committments take hold.

    After AFI, some think “Doubt” has a Best Picture shot, others don’t.  I haven’t heard much from the peanut gallery on “Defiance,” which is odd — you’d expect the usual clawing over ourselves to be “first!”  I dug it.  I think it’s in the conversation.  But hey, there are still mysteries to behold.

    Which brings me to it: break out the films already.  This is the worst bout of Oscar foreplay we’ve suffered through in a LONG time.  “Revolutionary Road,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Australia” and “Seven Pounds” need to stop playing peek-a-boo and man up already.  Am I wrong here?

    Anyway, updated charts next time around.  Truthfully, they wouldn’t have changed much today if I did have a column in me.

  • OFF THE CARPET: Who we are, who we want to be

    (from left) Josh Brolin and Toby Jones in W.In the last few weeks, drama has persisted in the yet-to-be-heated Oscar season.  Producers are debating exhibitors in public and mid-summer opinions of awards-caliber product are being revisited — in some cases disavowed — as more and more viewers get their peeks.

    On the positive side, two studios have launched the screener circuit with indie films they hope can muster some remembrance, while the foreign film news bite barrage has come to a close with the qualification deadline.  But there isn’t much to go on in terms of assessing the season, not a lot in the way of tangible grist for the mill.

    Lots of smoke, very little fire.

    In part, that should explain a lack of predictions updates here at In Contention, shifting and sliding for no reason.  And indeed, this week’s update isn’t a massive overhaul — or even an overhaul — beyond putting a few things into context here, trimming the fat there.  But as I set out to update our projections this week, I became more and more aware of 2008’s striking theme of self-reflection this Oscar season.  And hey, it seemed as good an idea for a column as any.

    (more…)

  • ‘Seven Pounds’ trailer removed, BUT…

    …Brad Brevet has his own embedding do-hickey over at Rope of Silicon, so you can still see it there.  Hopefully he won’t get a cease and desist for my linking to him, but there we are.  Sony apparently jerked the YouTube embed down due to “copyright infringement.”

    I finally watched it, by the way (been so busy this morning I couldn’t stop to take a look earlier).  I’m comfortable saying I have no friggin’ idea what the film is about.

  • ‘Seven Pounds’ trailer

    Finally something from the upcoming Will Smith/Gabriele Muccino film: