In Contention

Tag: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

  • Guessing the DGA

    Directors Guild of AmericaSo, with SAG, PGA and ASC out of the way, and with WGA still to come in a matter of hours, I guess it’s worth mentioning that the big daddy guild is announcing tomorrow: the Directors Guild of America (DGA).  Now’s as good a time as any to take a stab at guessing the nominees…

    The DGA has been one hell of an Oscar Best Picture barometer for the last decade or so.  Last year was the first real hiccup as the guild only nailed three of the eventual five nominees with their director choices.  2006 saw one misfire (but we all still figured “Dreamgirls” was in around this time two years ago).  Then it was four years in a row five-for-five until we have another hiccup, Ridley Scott making it in for “Black Hawk Down” and Christopher Nolan (in the mix again this year) for “Memento.”

    After that, the general trend was four-for-five with some 100 percents thrown in here and there, but you get the picture.  This is, more often than not, quite the prognosticative (that’s so not a word) guild.  With the PGA clearly establishing a consensus of sorts (not that those five films haven’t been the obvious contenders for weeks upon weeks), I see no real reason to get creative right now, so I’m going with the following:

    David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”
    Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”
    Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
    Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

    There are only two filmmakers that I think have a shot of cracking this quintet: Woody Allen for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and, perhaps more so, Darren Aronofsky for “The Wrestler.”  John Patrick Shanley and “Doubt” showing up would truly shock me and Andrew Stanton is not eligible for “WALL-E,” so the field is rather thin.

    What are you thinking?

  • ASC nominees

    Ralph Fiennes in The ReaderThe American Society of Cinematographers have announced their annual list of nominees, which are:

    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Claudio Miranda)
    “The Dark Knight” (Wally Pfister)
    “The Reader” (Roger Deakins and Chris Menges)
    “Revolutionary Road” (Roger Deakins)
    “Slumdog Millionaire” (Anthony Dod Mantle)

    I’m pleasantly surprised by the “Reader” inclusion.  Though I didn’t care for the film, one of the first things I noted was the sublime photography.  This could carry over to Oscar, but I must say I’m somewhat surprised Eduardo Serra’s beautiful work in “Defiance” was excluded.  Harris Savides, meanwhile, continues to come up short with his peers despite being the best in the game (and many of his peers would say the same thing, which makes it all the more baffling).  And the “Australia” snub is hardly surprising since Mandy Walker’s work never reached the level many anticipated.

    But all this brings me to a question I’ve had racing through my head for some time now: could Claudio Miranda be the one of this lot snubbed of an Oscar nod?  The Academy has shown a bias against digital photography where the guild hasn’t.  “Apocalypto” and “Collateral,” you’ll recall, failed to translate their ASC nomiantions into AMPAS love, so it’s certainly something to consider.

    WGA on the way…

  • Guessing the WGA: the adaptations

    Writers Guild of America Awards(Original screenplay predictions here.)

    The adapted field is a little easier to manage.  But I wouldn’t look to USC’s typically road-less-traveled nominees for much of a barometer for the adapted screenplay race, however.  That’s folly of a different sort.  So we’re left to our own devices.

    Once again, foreign and animated films are not eligible here.  This probably affects “The Class” and “Gomorrah” more than anything else.  I doubt “The Tale of Despereaux” has much in the way of screenplay hopes this season.  Ditto “Let the Right One In,” however vile the idea.

    As mentioned in the originals discussion, the WGA likes its comedies.  “Mean Girls,” “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “High Fidelity” are a few examples of adaptations to make the cut here while missing with the Academy.  The only problem is…there isn’t really an applicable comedy adaptation in the mix.  Had, say, “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” or “Yes Man” been somewhat more memorable, then maybe.  But that’s about all we have to pull from.  So maybe it isn’t a bad thing.  Anything that makes the guessing game a little easier is fine by me.

    I’d say the safest bets here are the two Best Picture frontrunners: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (written by Eric Roth) and “Slumdog Millionaire” (Simon Beaufoy).  And even though I just finished telling you the Scripter nominees shouldn’t matter, I nonetheless think David Hare’s adaptation of “The Reader” might have a strong foothold here, even if it misses with Oscar (which it might not).  Ditto Justin Haythe’s “Revolutionary Road.”

    That leaves a battle of the plays: “Doubt” versus “Frost/Nixon.”  As I said earlier, there is always at least one eventual Best Picture nominee left off the guild’s slate, even if it manages a nomination with AMPAS writers.  My bet is that’s going to be “Frost/Nixon” this year, so chalk one up for “Doubt.”  But I’m not solid on that either, because…

    …the big question mark is “The Dark Knight.”  I think the PGA nomination was a given and I don’t think a SAG ensemble nod should have really been expected.  The Scripter snub was odd, but meaningless in the face of the awards landscape, because it isn’t an industry organization.  So the first real, true, honest-to-God test for this film and its Oscar hopes comes with tomorrow’s announcement.  I’m strangely expecting a snub, one that might carry over to Oscar even if a Best Picture nomination stays in the cards.  But even so, that’s shaky ground to be on.  Only a DGA nomiantion Thursday could right the ship if WGA takes a pass.

    My predictions:

    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Eric Roth; based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
    “Doubt” (John Patrick Shanley; based on his play)
    “The Reader” (David Hare; based on the nivel by Bernhard Schlink)
    “Revolutionary Road” (Justin Haythe; based on the novel by Richard Yates)
    “Slumdog Millionaire” (Simon Beaufoy; based on the novel “Q&A” by Vikas Swarup)

    Other possibilities:
    “The Dark Knight” (Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan; based on characters appearing in DC Comics)
    “Defiance” (Clay Frohman, Edward Zwick; based on the book by Nechama Tec)
    “Frost/Nixon” (Peter Morgan; based on his play)

    What about you?

  • BAFTA longlist

    I’ll wait until this slate of contenders is a wee bit narrower before I start really digging into it, but it looks like the BAFTA favorites are “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Frost/Nixon.”

  • AMPAS narrows the visual effects field to seven

    Iron ManLast month, the Academy whittled the contenders for Best Visual Effects down to 15 hopefuls.  Today, the branch has chipped away at it further.

    And then there were seven:

    “Australia”
    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “The Dark Knight”
    “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
    “Iron Man”
    “Journey to the Center of the Earth”
    “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”

    And from the press release:

    On Thursday, January 15, all members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 15-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration.

    The most surprising omissions are probably “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” and “The Incredible Hulk.”  Maybe “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” if you want to go there, but I don’t.  I can’t believe it made the list of 15, frankly.  And after watching “Hancock” again over the holiday, as well as the visual effects featurette, I was beginning to think it might have a decent shot.  But my guess is that we’re still looking at “Button” and “Iron Man” as sure bets with “The Dark Knight” likely filling in the third and final slot.

    Then again, this show of love for “Hellboy II” could translate to somewhat unexpected nominations both here and in the makeup field.  And I feel like “Journey to the Center of the Earth” has more stroke with this group than many are assuming.

  • ‘Dark Knight’ tops our list of the year’s best

    The Dark KnightIn lieu of a proper Tuesday list, I thought I’d do something a little different this year, since we have a slew of contributors and In Contention is no longer the brain space of just one person.  I polled all our writers for their individual top 10 lists, which you can find detailed after the jump.  But with the lists in hand, I pulled out the trusty abacus and went about the painstakingly in-depth analysis of each to surmise a collective top 10.  The results were interesting.

    No film appeared on all five lists, which is already an accomplishment, I’d say.  Four films appeared on four lists and four on three.  The remaining two films on the collective appeared on two lists.  No film popping up on just one list was taken into account, so you don’t get to march with torches over a “Bolt” inclusion.

    “The Dark Knight” became the obvious victor early on, but Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” came a lot closer than you might think.  I used a simple point system per ranking, but in all scenarios, the number of lists featuring a film was given precedence over points.  This made for a good tie-breaker here and there and, in some cases, caused for this film or that to leap-frog another.

    Consider this my ultimate salute to our contributors who, I doubt I’m alone here, did a bang-up job in 2008.  Here’s to an equally splendid 2009.

    In Contention’s top 10 films of 2008:

    1. “The Dark Knight”
    2. “Synecdoche, New York”
    3. “Slumdog Millionaire”
    4. “WALL-E”
    5. “Milk”
    6. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    7. “The Wrestler”
    8. “Let the Right One In”
    9. “Rachel Getting Married”
    10. “In Bruges”

    Honorable mention: “Gomorrah,” “Hunger,” “Pineapple Express”

    (Individual lists after the jump.)

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  • EXCLUSIVE: Best Makeup contenders narrow to seven

    Luke Goss in Hellboy II: The Golden ArmyThe first bake-off of the season is here, narrowing the Oscar contenders for Best Makeup down to seven.  The finalists are:

    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “The Dark Knight”
    “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
    “The Reader”
    “Synecdoche, New York”
    “Tropic Thunder”
    “The Wrestler”

    No major surprises here.  My predicted three are still in the mix.  In fact, I missed the top seven in my chart by just one, “The Reader” in favor of “Frost/Nixon.”  But the show of support for “The Wrestler” is certainly telling, and perhaps a worthy inclusion, given the attention to brutal battle detail in the pro wrestling flick.

    If there are any surprise omissions, it might be the aforementioned “Frost/Nixon,” or perhaps “W.”  Oh, and “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”  I believe the first installment made it this far.  No go on the considerably less popular sequel.  But on the whole, this process seems to have been organic enough, leaving us with a solid septet.  I could see any combination of three making it in.

  • USC Scripter nominees — ‘Iron Man’ surprises!

    Cover of Tales of Suspense #39Now THAT’s what I call crashing the party.  I don’t know how you nominate “Iron Man” over “The Dark Knight” in a category such as this, but nice to see someone standing up and being original.

    The 2008 USC Scripter nominees are:

    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “Iron Man”
    “The Reader”
    “Revolutionary Road”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”

    I kind of expect Mr. Roth to win here, even if “Button” is beaten out by “Slumdog” at the Oscars.  But we’ll see.  The winner will be announced at the Jan. 30 gala, which I’ll be attending.  If you recall, this will be the first year the USC Libraries will unveil the winner at the actual show.

    As for Oscar, the WGA will be the first true road to the adapted screenplay category.  The guild that stirred up a storm a year ago will announce its nominees on Thursday.  Could “Iron Man” pop up here again?  Time will tell.

  • CONTEST: Win a beautiful ‘Benjamin Button’ coffee table book with your best haiku poem!

    Alright, here’s the first in a string of contests this week, kicking things off with an opportunity to win a copy of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: The Making of the Motion Picture,” a beautiful coffee table book with lovely images throughout in the vein of Taschen collectibles.  Have a look at the Amazon page here.  We’ve got two to give away.

    I wracked my brain over the best way to go here.  I didn’t want another boring caption contest, so I figured I’d get abstract.  HAIKU CONTEST!  Give us your best haiku poem on the perils of aging backwards in the comments section below.  The two best haikus take the prizes.  (And yes, multiple entries are acceptable.)  Make sure you’re singed in with a valid email address so we can notify the winners swiftly, and stay tuned later this week for more contests and giveaways.

    (FYI, haiku contest idea stolen outright from Sasha Stone and Awards Daily.)

    Cover of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: The Making of the Motion Picture

  • PGA nominations announced

    Well, it seems I was off by one.  Could this be the first year ever that the PGA matches with Oscar 5/5?  We’ll soon find out.  DGA on Thursday (the real precursor to watch), as well as the BFCA Awards.

    And the nominees are:

    Motion Picture
    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “The Dark Knight”
    “Frost/Nixon”
    “Milk”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”

    Animated
    “Bolt”
    “Kung Fu Panda”
    “WALL-E”

    Documentary
    “Man on Wire”
    “Trouble the Water”
    “Standard Operating Procedure”

  • ‘Milk,’ ‘Slumdog,’ ‘WALL-E’ nominated by Vancouver critics

    Josh Brolin in MilkThe Vancouver Film Critics Circle have dished out their list of nominees, three per category, and “Milk,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “WALL-E” filled out the group’s Best Film ballot.  “Milk” and Philippe Falardeau’s “C’est pas moi, je le jure!” led the nominations tally with four mentions each.

    David Fincher showed up in the Best Director category for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” while Fernando Meirelles’s all but forgotten “Blindness” managed three performance nominations, all in the “in a Canadian film” fields.

    The nominees:

    Best Film
    “Milk”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”
    “WALL-E”

    Best Canadian Film
    “C’est pas moi, je le jure!”
    “Heaven on Earth”
    “The Necessities of Life”

    (More after the jump.)

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  • Coming up: contest week!

    Now that I’m back from the holidays and getting some things back in order, I’ve decided I’ve got more swag for my own good.  So in the interest of making some space at casa de Tapley, we’re having a week full of giveaways.  So all you “Benjamin Button,” “Dark Knight” and “WALL-E” fans, get your thinking caps on.

    More tomorrow.

  • PGA noms coming next week

    Producers Guild of AmericaThe Producers Guild of America announces its nominees Monday.  Then the DGA wraps up the big three (after PGA and SAG) on Thursday.  I expect “The Dark Knight” is a no-brainer nominee here and the likely winner.  After that, I’d say “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Slumdog Millionaire” are likely, especially in the case of the former, what with producing powerhouses Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall (the former popping up here last year for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” in something of a surprise).

    After that it gets a bit tricky.  I’d be tempted to think “WALL-E” will turn up here like “The Incredibles” in 2004.  Box office + critical acclaim + major awards consideration, all that.  But with the animated category being instituted a few years back, that scenario becomes less likely.

    There isn’t much that screams PGA about “Doubt” or, to a lesser extent, “Revolutionary Road.”  But Scott Rudin did well enough with two films last year.  “Milk” and “Frost/Nixon” might be a decent bets, but surely something will pop up in the way of the unexpected.  I just can’t put my finger on what that will be.  Since the group began a nominations format, the eventual five Best Picture nominees have never been assembled in the PGA collective, and that includes 2002 and 2003, the two years that netted six nominees.

    “Iron Man” popping up wouldn’t be a shock.  “The Wrestler” could be a nice indie call, but I think it’s doubtful.  Ah screw it, I’m going to go with the following, including a “Milk” snub that is most likely a mistake:

    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Ceán Chaffin, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall)
    “The Dark Knight” (Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas)
    “Frost/Nixon” (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard)
    “Revolutionary Road” (Bobby Cohen, John Hart, Sam Mendes, Scott Rudin)
    “Slumdog Millionaire” (Christian Colson, Paul Ritchie)

    What are your predictions?

  • 1/2 Oscarweb Round-up

    David Fincher• David Poland looks at the race nine weeks out from the angle of release marketing and strategy. [Movie City News]

    • Nathaniel Rogers is knee deep in his annual (extensive) year in review features.  Read it.  Now. [The Film Exerience]

    • Jeffrey Wells passes on some notes from a friend making some dubious comparisons between “Milk” and “Braveheart.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Old news you’ve probably read by now, but Tina Brown’s latest foray into the world of journalism proves just how much of a disreputable rag it can be. [The Daily Beast]

    • David Usborne is quick to dive in the mud with the hacks and bring a respectable UK outlet down there with him. [The Independent]

    • Joe Queenan chats with Mickey Rourke across the pond. [The Guardian]

    • Anne Thompson seems to think a Christmas release hurt “Revolutionary Road”‘s Oscar chances. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    Dave Karger takes a stand with some late-December Oscar predictions. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • David Carr speaks up for “Iron Man” over “The Dark Knight,” calls the latter’s third act a “mess.”  Oy. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Tom Roston sits down with “Defiance” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” star Liev Schreiber. [Los Angeles Times]

    • As a David Fincher retrospective cranks up in the Big Apple, Dennis Lim looks back over the director’s career to date. [New York Times]

    • Patty Rhuke spotlights the similarities between “Forrest Gump” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” comparisons certain parties involved would probably rather go away. [USA Today]

  • Is ‘Dark Knight’ an original screenplay?

    Or is this Bob Verini article in the latest issue of Script Magazine just desperately in need of a fact checker?  Normally I wouldn’t bring it up, but crazy stuff like this happens all the time.  Clearly, it’s a case of “based on characters created by,” etc.  But there tends to be a lot of discussion on how much material was original to the piece, and I think it’s fair to say that, while a number of the situations in the film recall installments such as “The Long Halloween” and even “Batman” #1, the Nolan brothers did a great job of manifesting circumstances for their narrative.

    I’ve made some calls, haven’t heard back yet.  My guess is it’s a mistake.  But while we’re talking about it, I can’t help but think Eric Roth’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin BUtton” is so much more an original screenplay than a piece adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story.  I’ve been wondering what might happen with that at the WGA all year long.

    Anyway, I’m somewhat out of pocket today and tomorrow.  Guy should be popping back in from vacation to keep the train rolling before long.  If I don’t make it back here beforehand, everyone have a happy and safe new year.

  • Pitt, Fincher do Charlie Rose

  • My picks for the 10 BEST films of the year

    Angelina Jolie in ChangelingIt’s no secret that I don’t expect 2008 to be remembered as a banner year for cinema, though with that said, there are plenty of exceptional films to be remembered.

    Perhaps 2007 spoiled us and got our hopes up and 2008 brought far too many let downs and disappointments from great filmmakers. Usually when I sit down to write up the year’s best, the first short list stands at around 30, perhaps 35 films that range from very good to great. This year I was at less than 20, and in some cases, I was probably stretching to allow space for this or that.

    But I got it down to 10, so here they are…

    10. “VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA”
    This film was not vintage Woody Allen, as he has grown so much as a director for anything new from him to be considered a throw-back, but it is certainly refreshing Allen.  Sexy and sleek, this film is part of the newest stage in the director’s career, moving away from the comfort and familiarity of New York to an exotic locale with Americans mixing it up and getting into all sorts of bizarre situations.  Penélope Cruz all but burns a hole in the screen with her sensuality in this film, which is terrifying because she just might be psychotic.  Welcome back Woody…we’ve missed you.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Memo to the Academy

    The Academy Awards–MEMO–

    TO: Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
    FROM: Kristopher Tapley

    RE: The ballot you recently received

    Ladies and gentleman,

    As you sit to ponder the year’s best in your various fields of professional expertise, you might find yourself strong-armed into the consensus view 2008’s film product has been whittled down to over the last 30 days.  You might even find yourself at a loss, cramming as much as you can after a year of constantly working with nary a moment to spare a trip to the cinema.  Such last minute jitters can yield an unconsidered and, certainly, lackadaisical approach to your annual responsibilities as AMPAS members.  But I implore you to take your time with this, be measured, and above all, take pen to paper with a level of seriousness.

    While I would never presume to tell you how to go about filling in your respective ballots, I hope you don’t find it too bold of me to offer a few closing words of encouragement and suggestion as we close the book on 2008.  The glut of film awards season fades into a numbing hum you’d perhaps rather ignore until the holidays have run their course, so come back to these words at a later date if you must.  They merely represent the humble opinion of one passionate film lover who believes in the potential of your organization and the ideals it stands for.

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