In Contention

Tag: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

  • Extremely complicated new Buzzmeter launches

    Well, I’m sure Tom O’Neil can finally breathe a sigh of relief, after trying his damnedest to stay ahead of the curb with pundit aggregation while The Envelope’s new Buzzmeter was put together.  Well, it’s finally debuted, and though there are a ton of pundits involved, I find myself wondering if any (or many) of them will get confused or downright agitated by the involved (if impressive) interface.

    That said, the new digs are highly informative, with new members and comments sections for each pundit on their various picks.  I’m slowly making my way through mine, though all my picks are in place for now.  There are about 12 of us chiming in at the moment, with the predicted five Best Picture nominees being “Australia,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Dark Knight,” “Frost/Nixon” and “Slumdog Millionaire.”  I was most surprised by the Best Director placement for Jonathan Demme, but anyway, I expect a number of these things to slip and slide as more and more pundits sign on and commit.

    Check out the new Buzzmeter here.

  • Right to left

    Thanks to commenter Adam for pointing out this blurry glimpse of the “Benjamin Button” one-sheet on /Film. As Kris anticipated yesterday, it employs the same rather bland artwork that appeared on the film’s Apple trailer page — with the added gimmick that most of the text (save for the release date) reads backwards. Geddit?

    It’s kind of a clever trick, but it still looks like a half-arsed design job to me. What is going on in posterville this year?

  • Uninspired ‘Button’ poster art lands at Apple

    Granted, this might NOT be the poster art for the upcoming “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” but generally, when an image like this lands at the official Apple trailer page, it tends to end up on the one-sheet (same deal on the cover of the soundtrack).  Color me disappointed:

    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

  • Is ‘Australia’ really in the Academy’s wheelhouse?

    I haven’t hidden the fact that I’m in the tank for Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia,” or at least I hope to be — when we’re eventually allowed to see it. It is, bar none, my personal most-anticipated title of the next two months, sink or swim.

    I am, however, beginning to get nervous about its Oscar chances, as troublesome buzz circulates about its down-to-the-wire editing and last-minute narrative changes. The Academy tends to shy away from anything that might be perceived — deservedly or not — as a grand folly, preferring works that play the publicity game a little safer.

    A part of me has thought for some time that, should “Australia” overcome the naysayers, it could be welcomed by voters as a return to the more “traditional” model of Best Picture winner — sweeping, romantic, period-set and controversy-free — after four consecutive years of honouring bleak, un-pretty and (relatively) modern-day works. It’s argument that can also be made in favour of another unseen film widely presumed to be the one to beat: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

    However, over at The Film Experience, Nat Rogers makes an excellent point to the contrary, suggesting that the romantic epic is less of an Oscar ‘gimme’ genre than we tend to presume:

    My initial instinct, minus any research, was that Oscar loves to be romanced by beautiful people in period finery, their love story intertwined with famed world events. But is that really true? Perhaps it’s just that early Oscar champion “Gone With the Wind” casts a really long shadow …

    Oscar isn’t always in the mood for retro loving. But even when they aren’t, the films can quite often emerge with Best Actress and Costume Design nominations and a stray nomination of some other sort. “Australia”‘s chances in a wide array of categories clearly hinge on how deep audiences fall into reciprocal love with Kidman’s aristocrat and Jackman’s cattle driver.

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  • 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.

  • 11/9 Oscarweb Round-up

    Warner Bros. Pictures' Watchmen• Steve Weintraub has a sweet four-video series on Ben Burtt’s process for creating the sounds of “WALL-E” and the “Star Wars” films.  Worth a look if you’re into the tech arena like we are. [Collider]

    • Bad news for Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia.”  A forced happy ending. [News.com.au]

    • Cherry Jones gives her approval of Meryl Streep’s turn in “Doubt.” [Gold Derby]

    • But elsewhere, the odds are being stacked against the film. [Vulture]

    • Dave Karger and Missy Schwartz discuss the season’s most unknown commodities: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Revolutionary Road.” [Oscar Watch]

    • Brad Brevet finds some striking similarities between the new “Watchmen” poster and an old “Dark Knight” international one-sheet. [Rope of Silicon]

    • In the midst of AFI Fest, John Horn gets some quality time with “Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Meanwhile, Anne Thompson responds to a second “Slumdog” screening. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • The new gadgetry of Bond. [New York Daily News]

    • Amy Raphael profiles Kelly Macdonald as “Choke” lands across the pond. [The Guardian]

    • Also in the U.K., Toby Jones continues to stir the waters with below-the-radar portrayals. [The Times]

    • Deborah Solomon cranks out a Q&A with “Frost/Nixon” director Ron Howard. [New York Times]

    • Jeffrey Wells defends the violence of Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” against the potential ignorance of the foreign film committee. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Film Editing — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionNo matter how good the storyline, plot, acting, photography and other elements of a film may be, any poorly edited film will be difficult to watch, understand and enjoy.  An editor has the task of not only finding the appropriate length of a film but also putting together scenes so they flow coherently, both visually and story-wise.

    This is a category where I often feel “most” editing is confused with “best.”  I wholeheartedly agree that it is challenging to coherently put together a film with lots of action, musical scenes or a non-linear narrative – the sorts of films typically nominated in this category. Though I personally feel that often the most accomplished editing can be seen in the relaxed creation of appropriate pace and tone, stealth editing that goes unnoticed.

    This is also, happily, not a field that tends to bring back past nominees at the expense of newbies.  Few working editors have more than four career nominations and at least two to three newcomers seem to be nominated every year.

    Historically, this category has had an incredible crossover with Best Picture.  Though in recent years, that has changed, the last three years having had only a 2/5 crossover with the big category. Last year’s winner, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” is a very rare example of a winner that was not even nominated for Best Picture.

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  • I’m SO ‘off the carpet’ this week

    After the online drama of the last couple of weeks, it’s been nice to settle in and get to the actual movies for a change.  The media at large has gotten a look at “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk” and “Doubt,” while features and long lead writers have had their peeks at “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Revolutionary Road.”  A elect few have seen “Defiance.”  The only outstanding variables of the season remain “Australia” (tick-tock) and “The Reader” (with a grand trailer debut late last week).

    We’re getting there.

    An array of interviews and AFI Fest commitments have kept me from really digging into a column this week, but I have adjusted the charts for the time being.  There’s still a lot of guessing going on, even if a number of categories are coming into focus.  But tomorrow’s results really could have an effect on this thing.  We’ll see how it plays out…

    Main Category Charts
    Technical Category Charts
    The Contenders
    Oscar Prediction Archives

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Sound Editing — Volume One

    Tech Support at In Contention Swoosh.  Bang.  Grunt.  Clink.  Crash.

    These sorts of sounds can add a lot to a film’s mood and plot even though they are not recorded during filming and have to be created and mixed in later on.

    The individuals who create these effects are rewarded for their efforts in the category of Best Sound Editing.  The category used to be called Best Sound Effects Editing, which, in my opinion, is a better name.  Supervising sound editors and their teams are generally the individuals rewarded here.

    This category used to only have three nominees but was expanded to five two years ago.  This makes the category somewhat more difficult to predict, though there are five films this year that really strike me as frontrunners.

    Ever since “Monsters, Inc.” scored here in 2001, animated films, particularly those of Pixar, have fared very well.  I’d be very surprised if Andrew Stanton’s “WALL-E” failed to continue that trend.  Sound effects are key to any animated film so many of the sounds have to be created.  There is nothing to be captured while filming because, well…there is no filming!  For Stanton’s effort in particular, the sound effects were especially pivotal given the minimal dialogue.

    Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” was another summer film where the sound effects were crucial to the film.  The explosions, clanks of armour and numerous experiments of Downey all required sound manifestation.  A huge hit and critically respected, the film in really depended on its sound editing and it flowed perfectly into the visual sights.  I’d be quite surprised if it didn’t get nominated here.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Button’ rises, ‘Torino’ surfaces, ‘Doubt’ swoops

    Apologies for the slightly delayed wrap. Much to discuss this week — here are the highlights:

    • With some formerly hot prospects now off the radar, this week’s Off the Carpet column surveys the landscape, and concludes that things look good for “Benjamin Button.”

    • “The Soloist” withdrew as the AFI fest opener; their loss is “Doubt”‘s gain.

    • With a trailer for “Gran Torino” finally emerging, we wonder if Clint Eastwood is the real frontrunner for Best Actor.

    • The Gotham Independent Film Awards unveiled the season’s first set of nominees — good news for titles like “Ballast” and “The Visitor.”

    • More impressions from the London Film Festival, including hot foreign-language contender “The Class.”

    • Still in London, we caught up with “Happy-Go-Lucky”‘s superb Best Supporting Actor contender, Eddie Marsan.

    • This week’s edition of Tech Support put Art Direction in the spotlight.

    • We were in a listmaking mood this week, rounding up some of the most scandalously unnominated actors of this era …

    • … while John Foote reminisced over his personal favourite movie moments.

    • And finally, who should host the Oscars? Our answer may surprise you.

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Art Direction — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionThe Academy Award for Best Art Direction is somewhat of an odd category in that the art director does not actually receive a nomination or statuette.  Rather, the award is given to two individuals with unique roles in the crafting of a film’s sets.  The production designer heads up the entire art department, specifically in charge of set creation and design. The award also recognizes the set decorator, responsible for filling in the sets with details and dressing to bring them to life.

    Much like he costume designers, this branch tends to favor period and fantasy work, surely because such sets naturally draw attention to themselves.  It does tend, however, to be more kind to fantasy than the branch’s costume designing colleagues. It also usually prefers grandiose work and large-scale set pieces.

    Just as I believe is the case in Best Costume Design, Catherine Martin might be leading the way for “Australia” here this year. Martin, who won this category for “Moulin Rouge!” in 2001 and was also nominated for “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet” five years earlier, will have the opportunity to create the interiors – and exteriors – of a rugged Australian outback filled with hubby Baz Lurhmann’s distinct vision.

    Donald Graham Burt has fashioned numerous contemporary films, or films set in the relatively recent past, in his career to date. With “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” he has the opportunity to visually wow us through eight decades of 20th century. The film, at the least, should be visually spectacular so I suspect Burt is looking extremely good for a nomination.

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  • Collecting themselves

    We’ve all heard, over and over again at this point, how much of a grab-your-hanky film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is.  You could surmise as much from reading the screenplay, that’s to be sure, and I keep coming back to the closing words of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story as evidence of the crippling power of the story’s emotional beats.

    Well I just got off the phone with one of the principle performers in the film, an interview for a separate piece at another outlet, and this line crossed my bow:

    Grown men have had to sit there and just collect themselves before they could get up and leave.

    Expectations are pretty much through the roof at this point, no?  Can’t…wait…

  • Too many independents?

    I know I’m just one of many who have been concerned about the future of independent film, following the closing in quick succession of Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures, and the incorporation of Paramount Vantage into the main body of the studio.

    Someone who has a different perspective on matters, however, is Miramax head Daniel Battsek. Screen Daily reports that, in his keynote speech at the London Film Finance Market, he expressed the view that the specialty field is, if anything, overcrowded:

    Asked whether Miramax had been helped by the recent closure of Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse and Paramount Vantage, he replied:

    “Not significantly…the sector of the business was definitely overcooked. There were too many players. There probably still are too many players … Even with the slight reduction of companies operating in this space, there are still too many movies being released. It is very, very difficult to get your voice heard.”

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Holding back

    Meryl Streep in SoubtEvery Oscar season is about managing expectations. Studios, of course, want to keep the murmurs to a minimum whether they have the goods or not because the peril of peaking too early is just as bad as the sting of negative word-of-mouth. Similarly, being “the one to beat” sets a film up to rise to an unfair occasion rather than coming to the table fresh.

    Holding back is a tradition and is even one of two philosophies on the awards season sell. There are those who’ll tell you that, if you have a great movie, you should show it and show it proudly. The other side of the equation believes in the manipulation of when and where opinion will trickle out. It seems every year a train wreck of sorts occurs, and this year, that train wreck was obviously “Frost/Nixon.”

    After landing in London to some mediocre reviews (no one at this site, by the way, ever said the film was bombing with critics across the board), should Universal Pictures have been particularly surprised? Ron Howard, America’s white-bread filmmaking standard exhibiting to the chilly British disposition? It wasn’t going to be a rapturous reception, and with the film having been completed for months on end, holding back until the London festival to give anyone a sanctioned peek raised eyebrows long ago.

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  • 10/21 Oscarweb Round-up

    Charlie Kaufman• Jeffrey Wells passes along further second-hand indication that “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is the one to beat this year. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Steven Zeitchick responds to the suddenly wide open acting races. [Risky Biz Blog]

    • Some folks think Robert Downey Jr. can’t score a Best Supporting Actor nomination…emphatically.  I beg to differ, but that race is weird at the moment. [Vulture]

    • Tom O’Neil wonders how what happened to the AMPAS hopes of “W.”  But I’m not so sure it was ever a “hot Oscar player.” [Gold Derby]

    • John Anderson profiles Milos Forman, set to be feted by the DGA. [Variety]

    • The Carpetbagger, David Carr, goes inside the mind of Charlie Kaufman. [New York Times]

  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Road,’ ‘Soloist’ out, ‘Frost’ stumbles, Ledger buzz

    Busy week, this. Here is how it went down:

    • In the biggest story of the week, the pool of contenders narrowed as “The Road” got bumped to 2009…

    • … followed, in quick succession, by “The Soloist.”

    • The London Film Festival kicked off with “Frost/Nixon,” which got off to a middling critical start. We were underwhelmed.

    • More London coverage here, here and here.

    • As Tech Support ran down the Visual Effects contenders, we got an angle on the tantalising FX for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

    • Heath Ledger’s buzz remains as solid as ever — word went round that a lead campaign was in the works, but they’re staying put in supporting. Good move.

    • More (and still more) foreign film contenders bring the field to a record tally of 67.

    • We responded to the bad “Changeling” buzz with a kinder view, but like everyone else, are looking ahead to “Gran Torino.”

    • And finally, we solve your sartorial dilemmas in time for Halloween.

  • Sweet buzz for ‘Button’ effects

    Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonFresh on the heels of Gerard’s visual effects Tech Support column this morning, I got an email from an industry friend who keeps his eye on the tech races and, indeed, the Oscar races in general.  It seems “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which was always going to be a delicate effects balance, is striking the right chord with those who ought to know.

    Here’s what our source had to say:

    Don Shay, who founded and is EIC of Cinefex magazine, which is more or less the gold standard for folks in the visual effects industry, has already seen “Benjamin Button” and told a mutual friend that it’s as big a leap forward in visual effects as “Jurassic Park” was. Coming from him, that’s a big deal.

    Obviously, the odds for it go even higher if the picture ends up being a sweeper, which I’m betting on as I know two other guys who have seen it in rough shape and both of them – straight shooters and neither of them particularly emotional – were crying at the end.

    I say if you watch that second trailer, and you get all of that sweep and Americana AND you’re crying at the end, it’s going to be a major force.

    When I first talked to Eric Roth about “Button” almost two years ago, he told me director David Fincher was keeping his recipe for the film’s effects close to the vest.  A wise move, considering the finished product could have become lost in its own good intentions.

    But that doesn’t seem to be the case.  With a Los Angeles Times write-up on makeup wizard Greg Cannom still to come and an Industrial Light & Magic feature just waiting to happen, I’d say the below-the-line achievements on the film might be inching it toward consideration as the tech giant of the year.

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Visual Effects — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionWhile cinematographers and film music composers may sometimes find themselves featured in the media more than many of their crafts artist colleagues, the one “tech” discipline awarded by the Academy that often brings people into the movie theaters on its own is visual effects.

    The category is whittled down to three nominees after the year’s content is narrowed to a list of seven “bake-off” contenders. The bake-off finalists consistently give insight into the branch’s thinking even if missing a prediction after their announcement isn’t unheard of. The makeup branch has a similar system.

    An expensive art form, which often involves hundreds of crew members working behind the scenes, the visual effects arena seems to be finding new ways to “wow” audiences every year. The Academy’s branch has tended in recent years to reward computer-generated imagery (CGI) as opposed to classic practical effects actually captured on camera. This category is also usually the home of blockbusters and moneymakers. “The Golden Compass,” last year’s surprising winner, was a very rare nominee considering its disappointing box office. For it to win was even rarer.

    I suspect that Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” is leading the way this year. Immensely critically respected and with fantastic box office to back it up, I’d be quite surprised and taken aback if it failed to get a nomination here. The creation of the title character alone put it in contention. This is not to mention Jeff Bridges’s transformation and the war zone explosions.

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