In Contention

Tag: The Social Network

  • “The Winklevoss twins and I are childhood friends. They say they’re the real founders of Facebook.”

    Well, if you say so.

  • Evening Standard Awards go their own way

    “What is it about the British?” a reader asked in one of last week’s comment threads. “They can’t quite make a film of current topical interest or [sic] lacks some historical or classical literary backdrop to give it a sense of importance.”

    The comment is one of many “typical British film” jabs I’ve read since “The King’s Speech” asserted itself as the Oscar frontrunner, and it would have annoyed me no end even if I wasn’t part-British myself: to boil down an entire national cinema to awards-baiting prestige period fare is as unfair and ill-informed as suggesting that Hollywood only makes Michael Bay movies.

    In the last 24 hours, however, two sets of honors have acted as handy rebuttals to this narrow perception of UK cinema. I’ll devote an individual post to Time Out’s tremendous 100 Best British Films list later today, but last night’s London Evening Standard Film Awards, to which I was lucky enough to be invited, were a welcome celebration of the kind of diverse, adventurous British artistry — ranging from sci-fi to comedy to experimental indies — that idle BAFTA voters can’t be bothered to nominate.

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  • At gunpoint

    Stolen outright from John Lopez’s recent, level-headed write-up of the campaign circus as it stands now.

  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

    This year’s race for Best Adapted Screenplay has seemingly been the most predictable of the year. One script has dominated the precursor circuit and the name behind that script is as worthy as ever given his contributions to the medium over the years.

    I’m not particularly a fan of this slate. One script is an interesting experiment that doesn’t fully land as a piece of screenwriting, another is a near word-for-word adaptation of a novel (which is fine, but credit where it’s due) and another, frankly, made for the most overrated film of the year. But the two that seem to be duking it out for the win are worthy and deserve to be here, in my opinion, so I have little room to complain.

    The nominees are:

    “127 Hours” (Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy)
    “The Social Network” (Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin)
    “Toy Story 3” (Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich)
    “True Grit” (Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
    “Winter’s Bone” (Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini)

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  • WGA awards ‘Inception,’ ‘Social Network’

    I’ve been a bit tied up this afternoon and haven’t gotten to this yet, but indeed, the WGA has awarded “Inception” and “The Social Network” with its screenplay honors this year.  Color me a little surprised by the original screenplay win for Christopher Nolan, but Aaron Sorkin had a pretty clear ride to this win, I think.

    No, I don’t think Nolan’s win means anything for Oscar.  Seidler has that in the bag and would have had this if the work was eligible, BUT, I’m very happy for Nolan.  It’s a much better ending than if the indie had swooped in for some love, as most were expecting.  And I still think said indie is the one in Seidler’s rear view.  But for now, I raise a glass to ingenuity through spectacle.

    The Art Directors Guild awards are also tonight, but I have to run out.  So I imagine you’ll come across the news at some point.  No guild awards next weekend, but the following week will bring the CAS, ACE and ASC.  It’s almost over.

  • Boyle and Beaufoy and werewolves, oh my

    The best part of this evening for me wasn’t Aaron Sorkin and Ben Mezrich winning an award for “the best adaptation of the printed word into film” (for a work that is debatable as an adaptation in the first place).  It was probably talking with finalist Simon Beaufoy about his latest script.

    Some of this has made the rounds in the UK, but apparently it’s a werewolves-in-gangland-LA script adapted from an epic poem, “Sharp Teeth,” about same from Toby Barlow.  Seriously.  Picture “Boyz N the Hood” where Doughboy and his crew turn into savage dogs at night.  And it’s a potential project for Danny Boyle to direct.

    Beaufoy told me about ride-alongs he has taken with LAPD officers in Compton and Watts in the way of preparation.  As a screenwriter, he says he prefers to observe quietly, but the cops he was riding with would insist, quite comically (as he describes it), on perpetrators spending a couple of minutes chatting with him at every bust.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘King’s Speech’ marches on

    • “The King’s Speech” continued its cruise through phase two of the season with a widely unexpected Directors’ Guild victory…

    • … and scooped top honors at a surprise-free Screen Actors’ Guild Awards ceremony.

    • Following this brace of wins, this week’s Off the Carpet column said what we were all thinking: the race is over.

    • Meanwhile, in his Long Shot column, Guy concluded that the royal biopic was likely the film to beat all along.

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  • Predict the WGA and Scripter winners

    This weekend brings a couple of screenwriting competitions: the WGA Awards and the USC Scripter Award ceremony.  I might as well give you some space to predict.

    My bet on WGA is “The Kids Are All Right” for original, but it does seem like an open race.  I consider it the spoiler possibility for Oscar, but if “The King’s Speech” were eligible here we all know it would likely win.

    Meanwhile, the adapted field is a little easier.  I think Aaron Sorkin will coast to a win for “The Social Network.” These are writers voting, after all (and not a mish-mash of disciplines like the DGA).  It won’t be as easy on Oscar night, given the broader spectrum of voters, but I think tomorrow night should be simple enough.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 51 — The new frontrunner, Santa Barbara tributes and panels, potential Oscar upsets

    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.

    It’s been a little over a week since last we left you, and to say the least, plenty has happened in that stretch. We’re both back in Los Angeles after some festival bouncing and have a number of things to chew on so let’s see what’s on the docket today…

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  • Joyce Carol Oates on ‘The Fighter’

    On the occasions that they donate some space to the medium, the New York Review of Books can be a source of pretty world-beating film criticism — and from some unexpected voices, at that. A few months ago, I featured Zadie Smith’s matchless essay on “The Social Network,” but if that film’s media ubiquity made it an obvious topic for an intellectual outsider, it’s a delightful surprise to see the venerable American Joyce Carol Oates (herself the author of pugilism tome “On Boxing”) taking on “The Fighter.”

    Better yet, she addresses David O. Russell’s boxing biopic with more seriousness and sensitivity than many a well-versed film critic; the film opens today in the UK, and has been greeted by a disappointingly large number of polite but unenthused reviews, many of them carelessly citing a TV aesthetic.

    Oates argues for “The Fighter” as a “directorial homage” of sorts to “Raging Bull,” but sees an elegiac conflict in an underdog story that more have likened to the straight-up feelgood storytelling of “Rocky.”

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  • Phase two campaign messages give it their best shot

    I’ve been, unintentionally, taking note of the various tactics this year’s Best Picture hopefuls have been using as phase two barrels ahead and members have ballots in hand.

    The smartest stroke, I think, was The Weinstein Company following up the “Some Movies You See, Others You Feel” campaign with a “Find Your Voice” push for “The King’s Speech.” It’s obviously two-fold.  Yes, it indicates the narrative of the film, but it also works wonderfully in a “don’t let anyone tell you what to vote for” kind of way.

    Meanwhile, Sony is perhaps reaching a bit to find its own campaign voice for “The Social Network,” as “One Movie Connects Us All” is a bit faux-profound.  Show of hands of who’s mother isn’t on Facebook?  But that making-of documentary (which is available online, on demand and came in disc form in the trades this week) was certainly a smart play.

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  • 2/4 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Entering the final stretch, Hawkes on being the underdog, last ‘Network’ hurrah?

    • Pete Hammond on campaigns entering the final stretch, voters with ballots in hand. [Deadline]

    • Anne Thompson discusses Oscar voting procedures and more with AMPAS president Tom Sherak. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Jen Yamato talks being the underdog with “Winter’s Bone” star (and Oscar nominee) John Hawkes. [Movieline]

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  • THE LONG SHOT: It was always you

    “Let me get this straight. The one’s about a precocious computer geek who’s also a bit of an asshole.”

    “Yeah.”

    “And the other’s about King George VI.”

    “Yeah.”

    “And King George VI has a disability.”

    “Well, he has a stutter. I mean, it’s not crippling or anything — ”

    “But it’s an obstacle that needs to be overcome.”

    “Yeah.”

    “And I assume, at the end, he does. And becomes King.”

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  • Could there be another ‘Network’ dagger lurking?

    I’m really not trying to drop another grenade on the season here, but I was wondering recently about surprises this year and whether there are more in store.  And one undeniable shock would be an upset in the Best Adapted Screenplay race.

    Some would point to “True Grit” or “Winter’s Bone” as the likely runner-ups to Aaron Sorkin’s all-but-assured win, but if members are voting with their heart in the Best Picture field, why not in the screenplay races, too?  In “Toy Story 3,” I think you’ve got the makings of a real spoiler.  It’s a wonderful close to a beloved series and, look at that, it has “story” right there in the title, waiting to be capitalized upon in advertising.  (That one’s free, Disney flacks.)

    In all likelihood, the Academy will feel comfortable sticking with the Best Animated Feature (and potentially Best Original Song) fields as a way to recognize this film and franchise, but if they wanted to spring for more, this would be the place.  And Michael Arndt, an Oscar already in tow, isn’t some unknown newbie making his way through the season.  When it comes to screenplays, the Academy at large simply thinks about dialogue before all else.  That’s the extent of sweeping understanding of the form.  And Sorkin has that in spades, so the smart money, no question, is on “The Social Network.” I’m just saying the smart money was also on David Fincher once upon a time.

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  • The Bagger in-studio with Reznor/Ross

    A little difficult not to be totally envious of Melena Ryzik’s recent trip to Trent Reznor’s crib/studio to talk “The Social Network” with the Nine Inch Nails front man and his composing partner, Atticus Ross:

  • 2/3 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Animated feature speculation, Cameron says Nolan was robbed, ‘Network’ doc online

    • Carolyn Giardina floats the possibility of “How to Train Your Dragon” beating “Toy Story 3” for Best Animated Feature with nothing but those (not unexpected) Visual Effects Society wins to justify it. [The Race]

    • James Cameron thinks Christopher Nolan should have been nominated for Best Director this year. [Hollywood Reporter]

    • Steve Pond explains the voting procedure of the five categories not on the ballots that went out yesterday. [The Odds]

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  • 2/1 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Wolverine, Iron Man to present, ‘Superman’ snub “reverse McCarthyism,” Franco’s class

    • Greg Ellwood shrewdly notes potential motive to announcing Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) first as presenters at this year’s Academy Awards. [Awards Campaign]

    • Tom Hooper and Geoffrey Rush respond to the notion of cutting “The King’s Speech” to appease a PG-13 rating. [Inside Movies]

    • “Master Class: Editing James Franco…with James Franco meets on Thursday afternoons weekly.” [Movieline]

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Game over, man

    It’s not really a question anymore, is it?

    I submit that, quite possibly, it never was.  Unfortunately, the shrieking in some quarters this year, under cover of “fighting the good fight,” has led to a mocking at the very notion that any film other than the critics’ champion could win the Oscar for Best Picture.  It’s been unnecessarily nasty in that way.

    At the end of the day, it really goes beyond critics vs. the Academy, though.  It comes down to micro vs. macro, I think.  The critics organizations are a bunch of tiny groups of people.  Get 5,000, 6,000, 10,000 people together, the odds begin to favor “The King’s Speech.” It’s simply the film that survives the scrutiny of a broader spectrum of opinion.  “Most generally agreeable.”  It always was.

    The unfortunate thing now — and if you’re watching, some are already doing an about face on their own positive opinion of Tom Hooper’s film — is that the fallout will be insufferable.  Suddenly “The King’s Speech” will be a blight on Academy history and that talking point will be regurgitated ad nauseam.  It already is.  And that’s just sad, because it’s a very good film that doesn’t deserve to be taken to task in the wake of another film’s failed (and overstated) awards season expectations.

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