In Contention

Tag: The Kids Are All Right

  • ‘Winter’s Bone’ leads Indie Spirits with 7 nods

    Well, quelle surprise. I’ve been saying for months now that Debra Granik’s solemn Ozark thriller is — even more so than the sunnier, starrier “The Kids Are All Right” — this year’s annointed indie cause in the Oscar race, and this only cements that belief. The film’s impressive showing this morning, coming on the heels of last night’s Gotham Awards triumph, has me more confident than ever that the tiny pic is set to repeat the trajectory “Precious” made last year from Sundance champ to Best Picture nominee.

    A number of its companions in the Best Feature race could join in there too, as the Spirits largely favored big-name fare in the top categories: “The Kids Are All Right” took second place in the nomination count, with five, while “Black Swan” and “Rabbit Hole” (which clearly just missed the cut in the feature race) are just behind with four apiece.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Kicking the tires on the circuit

    On the precipice of December, the season feels at once stale and fresh. We’re in the post-Thanksgiving food coma paradox that hits every year. But things are going to start heating up real soon.

    The last two films out of the gate, “TRON Legacy” and “True Grit” (both ironically starring Jeff Bridges), have already started screening.  SAG ballots are already in the hands of nominating committee members and voting deadlines are approaching for various organizations.

    The circuit “officially” begins Thursday with the always arbitrary National Board of Review announcement. The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association will get a jump on the critics awards once again when they announce one week from today, while the Los Angeles (12/12) and New York online (12/12) and print (12/13) critics will have their say the following week, as well as the BFCA (12/13) and HFPA (12/14).

    The excitement will build to the usual pre-holiday stall and pick right back up on January 4 when the writers and producers guilds announce nominees, followed the same week by the art directors and sound mixers. And the date most will have their eyes on — January 10 — will bring the DGA’s list of contenders. Before you know it we’ll be on a collision course with the January 25 Oscar nominations announcement and things will be mercifully nearing an end.

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  • 11/26 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: The hairy task of ‘Tangled,’ Britain’s Oscar potential, Julianne Moore a best bet?

    • Steve Pond chats with “Casino Jack” star Kevin Spacey. [The Odds]

    • Rebecca Keegan writes up the hairy task of creating Rapunzel in “Tangled.” [24 Frames]

    • Marc Lee thinks it’s looking up for Britain at the Oscars this year. [Daily Telegraph]

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  • 11/25 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Dubbing ‘Tangled,’ ‘King’s Speech’ discourse, Portman talks the trade

    • How did Rapunzel become “Tangled?”  Directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard set the record straight. [Inside Movies]

    • Peter Sciretta posts alternate, unused poster artwork for “Inception.” [/Film]

    • Jenelle Riley talks “The Fighter” with the film’s prickly star, Christian Bale. [Backstage]

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  • THE LONG SHOT: When you’re strange

    (Updated predictions available here.)

    I shan’t often find room for Gaspar Noé’s name in a space ostensibly dedicated to the Oscar race, so bear with me if this seems an unlikely opening gambit, but inspiration for this week’s column began with a conversation about his fluorescent, drug-addled ghost story “Enter the Void.”

    A friend had recently caught up with it, and found herself disappointed: having been promised a psychotropic headfuck, she instead found something more sentimental and less questioning than his previous work. “At this rate,” she muttered aggrievedly, “he’s about 10 years away from a bloody Oscar nomination.”

    That’s a flip exaggeration, of course, but there’s a kernel of truth in it: the Academy likes its enfants terribles most when they’ve passed the teething stage and begin to play nice — or at least safe. There’s a long and illustrious list of adventurous, iconoclastic directors who scored with AMPAS either by putting a leash on their wilder creative instincts or making sly concessions to the mainstream.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 41 — Governors Awards, animated and doc feature shortlists, circuit festivities and remembering Ronni Chasen

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    There have been toasts in honor of talent and in the way of remembrance during this busy, and heartbreaking, week on the Oscar circuit. So as always, there’s plenty to cover. Let’s dive in and see what’s on the docket today…

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  • 11/17 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: The death of Oscar bait, ‘How Do You Know’ nails a PG-13, Moore and Levi on ‘Tangled’

    • Guest blogging for Nathaniel Rogers, Michael C. writes up the apparent death of “Oscar bait” as it pertains to Best Picture winners. [The Film Experience]

    • Steve Pond chats with “The Kids Are All Right” writer/director Lisa Cholodenko. [The Odds]

    • James Cameron discusses his inspiration for “Avatar” (it won’t go away) in an extended collector’s edition clip. [MTV Movies Blog]

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  • Sussing out the HFPA’s comedy/musical field

    In the latest Gurus o’ Gold survey, David Poland asked us all to contribute the usual rankings for Best Picture, added in the supporting actor and supporting actress categories, then popped the question regarding the Golden Globes comedy/musical category.  It’s interesting to get perspective on the latter this (relatively) early in the season.

    A couple of things: First of all, three Gurus included “Toy Story 3” in their ranking, which with Gregory Ellwood’s #1 placement was enough for it to be chalked up at #5 on the collective.  Ever since the HFPA instituted an animated feature category, animated features have been ineligible in the Best Picture categories.  So that’s gone.

    The #6 spot went to “Get Low,” but I’ve confirmed that film as a drama consideration for HFPA, so it won’t be in the mix.  Meanwhile, only Steve Pond and myself included “Nowhere Boy,” which is a film that went over really well with the association and will be competing as a musical.

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  • Carrey speaks out against homophobic bullying

    I admit I haven’t yet got round to seeing the fact-inspired, gay-themed comedy “I Love You, Phillip Morris,” despite it having opened in the UK way back in the youthful glory days of March. (US audiences still have to wait another three weeks.) Reaction from my fellow Brit critics was politely tepid, and I largely forgot about the film until Kris’s highly enthusiastic response re-piqued my interest last month.

    Whether “Phillip Morris” — in which Jim Carrey plays a closeted con man who falls for his prison cellmate — works or not, its long-delayed (the film bowed at Sundance 2009, remember) US presence is welcome.

    In addition to following “The Kids Are All Right” in edging homosexual romance into the mainstream, the film’s publicity run also employs Carrey’s to drive home social messages that, however obvious to most of us, still bear repeating.

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  • THE LONG SHOT: Waiting for the miracle

    (From here on out, my nomination predictions will be updated weekly to coincide with this column. Check them out here.)

    Tweed-coated and steam-breathed, winter formally arrived in my corner of the world this week, and with it the slightly grim realization that just over seven weeks remain of this year.

    I say “grim” not so much because I’m unprepared for the rigors of Christmas shopping or because 90% of my year’s to-do list remains undone—though neither of those truths are helping—but because, from a film perspective, 2010 feels to me like it needs at least another couple of months to find itself.

    Yesterday, I found myself battling with two lists of 10 films: the first, my own provisional best-of-year collective, the second, my revised predictions for the Best Picture Oscar nominees. Neither list, in my experience, has ever had much to do with the other (of course, I’ll take that back should the Academy reveal hidden depths of enthusiasm for, say, “White Material” on nomination morning), but both the rough drafts I wound up with had one thing in common: they’re badly in need of a late-breaking great film or two.

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  • 11/10 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Biutiful’ crew on the circuit, Hooper’s Hollywood education, Weinstein v. Rudin II

    • Anne Thompson ponders how the year’s mainstream studio pics might fare with Oscar. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Patrick Goldstein catches up with Tom Hooper and the director’s Hollywood education. [The Big Picture]

    • Steve Pond dutifully reports from a “Biutiful” post-screening Q&A with members of the crew. [The Odds]

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  • Bening to be honored at Santa Barbara fest

    It’s not exactly a precursor, but the news we just received that Annette Bening is to receive the American Riviera Award at next year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a bullish omen for her Oscar chances.

    The prize, a career achievement award given annually to “an actor who has had a strong influence on American cinema,” has coincided with the Academy Award more often than not in the past five years: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Forest Whitaker and Sandra Bullock all scooped it up on their campaign trails, while it presaged nominations for Tommy Lee Jones and Mickey Rourke. Clearly, festival director Roger Durling and his team think Bening’s hour has come.

    Bening has a good relationship with the SBIFF: she was previously honored with their Montecito Award in 2005. The award will presented on January 28, the second day of the fest — accompanied, as is their custom, by an onstage retrospective and Q&A with the actress. As usual, Kris will be attending the festival to bring you the highlights of the occasion. Press release excerpt after the cut.

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  • Cut straight to the predix

    I spent some time this morning weeding and updating my current nomination predictions, and had planned to introduce them with today’s Long Shot column. As it turns out, LFF wrap-up business, a pair of catch-up screenings (one of them with a Supporting Actress contender who you may have heard sets the screen ablaze) and a backlog of interview transcription meant the column simply didn’t get written. Tomorrow, with apologies.

    In lieu of a column, however, I can at least serve up the predictions — I know how much you folks like to pick at them. Although, by this post-festival stage in the season, certain contenders are beginning to turn concrete, there’s still plenty of room to play with question marks. So once again, don’t take this omission or that against-the-grain inclusion too seriously: when it comes down to it, we’re all just trying things on until the precursors kick in.

    Among the notions I’m flirting with in this update is that “Winter’s Bone” could be this year’s critical indie cause in the race, that the Bening-Moore question may be a moot one to voters watching their screeners for the first time and that they may just take a shine to “The Way Back.” Check out my updated predictions here. (Remember they can always be accessed at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar.)

    [Photo: Sony Pictures Classics]

  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Bone’ boost, category debate, LFF coverage

    (A day later than usual — apologies. Friday night got in the way.)

    • The Gotham Awards served up the first nominations of the season, with indie darling “Winter’s Bone” sitting pretty.

    • With “The Kids Are All Right” and “Another Year” prodding the discussion, this week’s Long Shot column ruminated on a perennial gripe of Oscar pundits: category fraud.

    • News of a high-profile Scorsese-DiCaprio retrospective launching an Oscar campaign for the film re-opened the debate over the merits of “Shutter Island.”

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  • THE LONG SHOT: Categorical denial

    Wild-eyed, table-banging outbursts — sometimes of enthusiasm, more often of outrage — are an essential part of the floor show at any Oscar viewing party, but I’ve rarely seen one more unhinged than a friend’s reaction to Angelina Jolie’s (widely expected) Best Supporting Actress victory at the 1999 ceremony.

    “Who the hell was she supporting?” she yelled, red wine slopping out of her glass as she pointed an accusatory finger at the TV screen. “The woman only went and swallowed the entire film without so much as chewing once, all but elbowed Winona out of every shot, and she’s rewarded for supporting her?” She was practically spitting now, so blind with fury she hadn’t even noticed the raven-haired Miss Jolie snogging her brother. “If that’s her idea of support, what happens when she’s against you?”

    I should perhaps explain that my friend’s love for all things Winona Ryder ran deep, and not a little frightening, in those days; the Academy’s heartless decision not to nominate Ryder for Best Actress that year already meant she was watching the ceremony under duress. So it probably wasn’t the best time to explain that, well, Jolie did have the secondary role in “Girl, Interrupted” and that, unfair world that this is, there was still no law preventing rising young actors from being much better than their first-billed co-stars. So we let her rant, at least until Phil Collins started singing and she had something new to complain about.

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  • ‘Winter’s Bone’ leads the way with Gotham Award nominees

    The nominees for the 20th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards were announced this morning by Elvis Mitchell via live stream and we get a lot of what we’d expect.  Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” received three nominations, including Best Feature, while Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right” received two.  Those were the list-toppers.

    Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” received one nomination, for Best Feature.  The director is also getting an honorary award, however, as previously announced.

    The biggest surprise for me is “Let Me In” nailing down a Best Feature nomination.  I was happy to see Glenn Ficarra and John Requa nail down a Breakthrough Director nomination for the delightful “I Love You Phillip Morris,” and I also caught “The Company Men” last week (the same day as Ficarra and Requa’s film, actually).  It’s a tight piece of work and it’s nice to see John Wells spotlighted in that category, too.

    Check out the full list of nominees after the jump.

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  • 10/15 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: An unpolished ‘Hereafter,’ women dominate doc shorts, CGI in story-driven contenders

    • Melissa Silverstein on female dominance in the documentary shorts field. [Women and Hollywood]

    • Turns out Clint Eastwood filmed an early, unpolished draft of Peter Morgan’s “Hereafter.”  Well…it shows. [Vulture]

    • Speaking of which, David Cohen spotlights the impact of digital wizardry on that story-driven film as well as Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.” [Variety]

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  • 10/6 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Making the case for dual ‘Kids’ nods, FX nabs ‘Social’ rights, Stone up for Stacey

    • On the hunt for “Catfish”‘s Angela Wesselman-Pierce. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes write up the beginnings of the season (with a little quotage from yours truly). [New York Times]

    • Scott Feinberg makes the case for both Annette Bening and Julianne Moore getting nominated for “The Kids Are All Right.” [ScottFeinberg.com]

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