In Contention

Tag: The Good The Bad and The Ugly

  • Wallach finally gets his

    One of the easiest Honorary Oscars to peg was probably Eli Wallach’s (the recipients were announced this morning).  Many have in fact been waiting and waiting for some kind of AMPAS recognition for the esteemed character actor, and finally, it looks like he’ll get it.  So in honor of that:

  • 7/7 Web Round-up

    Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard in Humpday• Good piece from David Poland about the age-old disconnect between audiences and critics. [The Hot Blog]

    • Marshall Fine implores you to see “Humpday” instead of “Bruno.” Why not see both, I say. [Hollywood & Fine]

    • While we’re on that subject, “Transformers” won the weekend box-office battle after all. Ew. [New York Times]

    • At the mid-year point, Peter Knegt reflects on the indie box-office winners and losers. [indieWIRE]

    • Cute feature, this — a rundown of the greatest credit sequences. Today: “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” [Cinematical]

    • On the web’s smartest new blog, a panel of critics re-evaluate Michael Mann’s “Miami Vice.” [The Auteurs’ Notebook]

    • Pamela McClintock contemplates the implication of the PG rating — after the franchise’s dip into PG-13 waters — for the latest “Harry Potter” effort. [Variety]

    • Speaking of which … my, how they’ve grown. [The Guardian]

  • More Eastwood…

    These must be hard times for anyone who doesn’t like Clint Eastwood, and I realise that we at In Contention aren’t doing much to reduce the saturation. But with two pictures coming up in the space of four months, and a massive retrospective at the BFI Southbank (formerly the National Film Theatre, for those of you who haven’t been in London recently), he is – again – the man of the moment.

    To tie in with the retrospective, the UK press has been awash with Eastwood coverage, but this piece in last week’s Independent was only just brought to my attention, and rather nice it is too. It’s more in line with the idolising tone of Sight and Sound’s recent profile than Alex Cox’s hastily executed contrarian view in the New Statesman (a missed opportunity, to say the least). Writer James Mottram doesn’t really have anything new to add, but in true Independent fashion, it’s considered and thorough, with a nice sprinkling of typically pithy Clint quotes. This one in particular raised a smile:

    Now he is 12 years into his second marriage, to former journalist Dina Ruiz, some 35 years his junior. And with seven children by five different women, it’s no surprise that he says: “I still feel film-making is the second most fun thing to do.”

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