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“Tailored largely for the international audience for whom the internal politics of the Royal Family seem never to lose their mystique or fascination,” I wrote in my October review of “The King’s Speech.” I guess I have to take that back, since the film — which only opened on Friday in its home country — […]
‘King’s Speech’ rules UK box office
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:27 pm · January 11th, 2011
Filed in: Daily
THE LONG SHOT: British reserve
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:07 pm · October 28th, 2010
“The British are coming!” crowed screenwriter Colin Welland from the Oscar stage in 1982, hoisting aloft his just-awarded awarded statuette for “Chariots of Fire” – and anticipating one of the bigger upsets in the history of the Best Picture race, as the modest British sports drama upended Warren Beatty’s grand political epic “Reds.” His rallying […]
Filed in: The Long Shot
Step away from the Blair
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:46 pm · September 14th, 2010
Regular readers (or Twitter followers) may have gathered by now that Peter Morgan isn’t my favorite high-end screenwriter on the scene — I’ve found his recent run of factional biopics, resulting in a pair of Oscar nods for “The Queen” and “Frost/Nixon,” increasingly smug and samey, and was pleased to see him attempting something a […]
Filed in: Daily
THE LONG SHOT: A little bit of English
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:41 pm · January 20th, 2010
Yesterday, while talking with one of my sane friends whose thoughts drift to film awards perhaps one day a year, the conversation turned to the BAFTAs, which announce the nominations for their 2009 film awards tomorrow. “The BAFTAs, they’re like the Oscars for British films, right?” she asked. “Not quite,” I replied. “They’re open to […]
Filed in: The Long Shot
The Times names Haneke’s ‘Caché’ the decade’s best
Posted by Guy Lodge · 11:30 am · November 8th, 2009
I’m not sure why the British broadsheets are all falling over themselves to publish their ‘best of the 2000s’ lists in early November, but mere days after The Telegraph critics declared Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” the film of the decade, The Times has weighed in with their own Top 100. In their list, a different […]
Filed in: Daily
A new, diminished Miramax era
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 3:20 pm · October 2nd, 2009
I’ll have to just say it: this is sad. Just from a movie-goer, awards-watcher standpoint. Miramax has indeed been “folded-in” at Disney for about a year, as David Poland notes in his characteristic “nothing surprises me” fashion. And Greg Ellwood has put together a nice analysis of the event over at his Awards Campaign blog […]
Filed in: Daily
5/14 Web Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:52 am · May 14th, 2009
• A little news from my homeland: Michael Cieply reports on Durham, North Carolina finally getting its Hollywood day in the sun. [The Carpetbagger] • Revisiting Stephen Frears’s “The Queen” on the basis of entertainment and history. [The Guardian] • Rachel Abramowitz profiles new “Angels & Demons” starlet Ayelet Zurer. [Los Angeles Times] • Director […]
Filed in: Daily
Enough already
Posted by Guy Lodge · 9:51 am · March 26th, 2009
Right, so Michael Sheen obviously ignored my career advice to lay off the biopics for a while. That’s okay. He’s a lot more famous and successful than I am, so I guess he probably knows best. But seriously, a third go-round playing Tony Blair in yet another factional Peter Morgan-scripted project? If you haven’t heard […]
Filed in: Daily
Well, it sure sounds pretty
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:55 pm · November 24th, 2008
If, like me, you’re writhing in frustration at not having seen “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” yet, here’s some minor compensation — you can listen to it instead. The score, that is. As you’re surely aware, it’s by Alexandre Desplat, who happens to be my favourite modern composer. That his only Oscar nomination thus […]
Filed in: Daily
REVIEW: “Frost/Nixon” (**)
Posted by Guy Lodge · 9:17 am · October 15th, 2008
London Film Festival For director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan, “Frost/Nixon” was always going to be a tricky beast to handle. A film adaptation of Morgan’s own stage play that was itself very much about the powers of television, the relationship between text, medium and audience has shifted in ways I’m not sure the […]
REVIEW: “The Queen” (***1/2)
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:39 am · September 2nd, 2006
Stephen Frears is one of the most versatile working directors in the industry. With that versatility comes the inevitable misstep from time to time, sure. But also with it comes a high order of professionalism and a certain amount of confidence that can manifest the most precise of cinematic creations. “The Queen” is just such […]
Filed in: Reviews
