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“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 [...]
THE LONG SHOT: It was always you
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:52 pm · February 3rd, 2011
Filed in: The Long Shot
THE LONG SHOT: When you’re strange
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:05 pm · November 24th, 2010
(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 [...]
Filed in: The Long Shot
Super ‘There Will Be Blood’ video game
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:53 pm · November 2nd, 2010
It’s not exactly a booming news day and I’m slow to get back into the groove after a weekend away, so forgive the frivolity of this. I thought it was kind of awesome. Although, I have a beef. This looks closer to an 8-bit thing than a 16-bit thing, and 16-bit is necessary if you’re [...]
Filed in: Daily
THE LISTS: Top 10 Oscar nominee fields
Posted by Guy Lodge · 12:47 pm · January 26th, 2010
In exactly one week’s time, we’ll have a brand new list of Oscar nominations to pore over, pick apart and eventually file away in our subconscious with the other 81 editions of this annual collective. For Oscar geeks, nomination day is in many ways more exciting than the ceremony itself, celebrating a broader spectrum of [...]
Filed in: The Lists
LAFCA picks the top 10 films of the decade
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:20 am · January 12th, 2010
You can never have too many of these, right? Right? Right? 1. “Mulholland Drive” 2. “There Will Be Blood” 3. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” 4. “Brokeback Mountain” 5. (tie) “No Country for Old Men” and “Zodiac” 6. “Yi Yi” 7. (tie) “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and “The Lord of the [...]
Filed in: Daily
Guy’s top 50 of the decade: #31-40
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:00 pm · January 3rd, 2010
Yesterday, I began my countdown of my 50 favorite — do note that last word, I hesitate to say “best” — films of the 2000s. Today, we creep up another ten rungs on the ladder. I wrote this in my introduction to the list yesterday, but it bears repeating: don’t read too much into the [...]
Filed in: Daily
12/14 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 7:02 am · December 14th, 2009
• In case you missed this morning’s announcement, “Inglourious Basterds” and “Nine” led the field of BFCA nominees. [In Contention] • Frank Rich op-eds a love letter to “Up in the Air.” [New York Times] • Steve Pond painstakingly assembles a primer on how many votes a contender needs for an Oscar nomination per category. [...]
Filed in: Daily
Lists, lists, lists
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:25 pm · December 10th, 2009
I don’t feel anywhere near ready to present my Best of 2009 list, much less my Best of the 2000s one, yet — too many movies to watch, re-watch and contemplate before the brutal culling and shuffling of titles can begin. Still, a lot of critics and bloggers are clearly more organized than me — [...]
Filed in: Daily
THE LONG SHOT: Don’t look back in anger
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:20 pm · November 11th, 2009
For all the movement in the awards game this week – Jeff Bridges leap-frogging into contention, the animation race swelling to five nominees, “Precious” continuing to gather momentum – my head hasn’t really been in it this week. That’s partly because we’re all still making blind prognoses until four unseen juggernauts – “Nine,” “Avatar,” “The [...]
Filed in: The Long Shot
Tarantino on ‘There Will Be Blood’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:12 am · August 29th, 2009
From that Sky Movies stuff, which yielded Tarantino’s top 20 films released since 1992: (Courtesy: The Film Experience)
Filed in: Daily
Which films will be remembered in 50 years?
Posted by John Foote · 9:33 am · August 14th, 2009
It is nothing new for a film to be released, find no audience, no critical favor, and disappear to be discovered by a new generation and raised to the level of masterpiece. In fact, this has been going on since the silents. Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece “City Lights” was released four years after the advent of [...]
Filed in: Daily
Keeping score
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:09 pm · March 15th, 2009
By now, “Watchmen” has been assessed and widely shat on from a large array of angles, but one voice I didn’t necessarily expect to pipe in was that of classical music critic Tom Service. Writing for the Guardian, Service praises the film’s “carefully conceived” use of existing music, particularly the heavily intertextual use of Wagner, [...]
Filed in: Daily
Cesar nods include ‘Class,’ ‘Loved,’ Swinton
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:57 am · January 24th, 2009
Now here’s a set of nominations I can get behind. As I may have mentioned before, 2008 was all about the rejuvenation of French cinema for me, with Gallic productions occupying a quarter of my year-end Top 20, including the two poll spots. So it’s hardly surprising that I’m immensely pleased by the list of [...]
Filed in: Daily
‘Slumdog,’ ‘Torino’ win big at NBR
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:19 am · December 4th, 2008
The National Board of Review has announced its list of winners for the 2008 awards season and Fox Searchlight’s “Slumdog Millionaire” is the big champ, taking down three awards including Best Film and a tie for Best Adapted Screenplay with Eric Roth’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Dev Patel also won the award for [...]
Take that, Oscar: Grammy nominates ‘Dark Knight’ duo
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:24 am · December 4th, 2008
The Academy’s petty disqualification of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s score for “The Dark Knight” from Oscar contention has already caused much gnashing of teeth on these pages, so here’s something to compound the embarrassment. It seems the Grammy voters are rather less fussy. Zimmer and Howard’s work was nominated yesterday in the category [...]
Filed in: Daily
S&S names ‘Hunger’ best of 2008
Posted by Guy Lodge · 9:07 am · December 1st, 2008
Sight & Sound’s annual Top Ten is, for my money, one of the most intelligent and respectable of all critics’ lists, and this year’s is no exception. Revealed in the magazine’s just-out January 2009 issue, the list is drawn from a poll of 50 international critics, including such heavyweights as Kenneth Turan, Amy Taubin, Armond [...]
Filed in: Daily
Some suggestions for Special Edition DVDs
Posted by John Foote · 6:51 am · September 23rd, 2008
Every week, much to the delight of my children, several packages arrive at my door containing DVDs, movies that are not yet released in the home market that I am expected to review. Tough work, ain’t it? Seriously, I would do what I do just for the free movies. That said, I have followed the [...]
Filed in: Daily
Had to share
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:45 pm · August 21st, 2008
I don’t know if this has popped up elsewhere before, but reading through the nominees for the upcoming World Soundtrack Awards at /Film (which include “WALL-E”‘s first nod of the year), I totally fell in love with this shot of “There Will Be Blood” composer Jonny Greenwood melded with a scene from the flick. Check [...]
Filed in: Daily
