In Contention

Tag: Up in the Air

  • SUNDAY CENTS: A little ‘Princess’

    The Princess and the Frog*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Disney tasted a bit of its old early-1990s magic with the number one finish of “The Princess and the Frog” this week. The hand-drawn toon grossed $25 million after two phenomenal weeks in New York and Los Angeles only. “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin” all had similar Holiday season launches and only “Aladdin” went wide with a bigger total.

    Of course, all three were on far fewer venues than the 3,434 of “The Princess and the Frog,” but this is still a very encouraging figure.  Family entertainment is solid gold during the two weeks around Christmas and a finish well over $100 million should be no problem. These aren’t Pixar numbers, but they at least match up to “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Fox and the Hound” and other second-tier Disney classics. Or is that third-tier?

    “The Blind Side” takes second place with another $15.5 million and cruises past the $150 million mark. Another $3 million and it will pass “Remember the Titans” for the title of highest grossing sports drama since “Rocky.” The $246 million it would need to pass “The Waterboy” for the title of highest grossing football movie may be out of reach, but let’s all pause for a second to digest the fact that “The Waterboy” made $245 million.

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  • AFI announce Top 10 American films of 2009

    Algenis Perez Soto in SugarJeez, give us some breathing room. Anyway, the American Film Institute has revealed their annual selection of the year’s best U.S. titles, and as usual, it’s a pleasingly diverse, idiosyncratic list.

    My heart sings to see Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s marvelous “Sugar” make the cut, at the expense of heavily-hyped titles like “Invictus” and even “Avatar” — Anne Thompson reports the latter got a special citation for technical achievement, though it’s not in the press release.

    From an awards-watcher’s perspective, however, the most interesting inclusion here might be “The Messenger,” whose higher-than-expected precursor profile suggests some may be underestimating its Oscar potential.

    Those looking for correlation with the Academy’s eventual Top 10 should bear in mind that a foreign title like “An Education” isn’t eligible for inclusion here. Even so, I’d say there are plenty of American titles not included here that are more likely to land Best Picture nods than, say, “The Hangover.”

    But that’s the beauty of the list — it’s always a joy to see a set of year-end honors with more on its mind than mere Oscar prognostication. Check out the full Top 10 after the cut.

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  • First wave of LAFCA winners

    I’ll offer some commentary when we have the full list of winners at 2.30, but for now I’ll just convey my astonishment at the competence of my predictions so far. And offer a hearty cheer for Agnes Varda.

    Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
    Runner-up: Peter Capaldi, “In the Loop”

    Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, “Precious”
    Runner-up: Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”

    Best Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, “Up in the Air”
    Runner-up: Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Ianucci and Tony Roche, “In the Loop”

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Avatar’ awe, ‘Bones’ defense, original songs

    Avatar• A little movie called “Avatar” premiered. This week’s Oscar Talk tucked into the film.

    • As “The Lovely Bones” faces a frosty critical welcome, this week’s Off the Carpet column went to bat for the film.

    • We interviewed a quartet of young actors making strides this year: Abbie Cornish, Saoirse Ronan, Ben Foster and Bryce Dallas Howard.

    • In The Long Shot, we examined the animation race — and stood up for under-the-radar contender “Mary & Max.”

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  • 12/10 Oscarweb Round-up

    Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart• John Horn writes up the Hollywood journey of Scott Cooper’s “Crazy Heart.” [Los Angeles Times]

    • On the flashy opening credits sequence from “Up in the Air” with designer Gareth Smith. [MakingOf]

    • Anne Thompson re-visists her old haunt, writes up the possibilities for genre play in this year’s expanded Best Picture field. [Variety]

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  • 12/7 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim at the 80th annual Academy Awards• Dear cry-baby Hollywood conservatives: Al Gore doesn’t even have that Oscar you want back. Talk to Davis Guggenheim. [Top of the Ticket]

    • Editor Sally Menke on how she and Quentin Tarantino “clicked.” [The Guardian]

    • Anne Thompson has 20 questions for “District 9” star Sharlto Copley. [Thompson on Hollywood]

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  • ‘Up in the Air’ wins with D.C. critics

    Um, okay.  So the list of nominations for the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association were announced this morning.  The group’s official website notes that the winners will be announced tomorrow (so…why bother with day-before nominees?).  And now The Wrap is reporting (sans attribution — so I guess via press release) that the winners are as follows:

    Best Film
    “Up in the Air”

    Best Director
    Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”

    Best Actor
    George Clooney, “Up in the Air”

    Best Actress
    Carey Mulligan, “An Education”

    (more after the jump)

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘Brothers’ gloom

    Brothers

    *All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    As I already mentioned, the first weekend in December is a veritable dead zone at the multiplex as audiences start shifting more towards Christmas shopping and making vacation plans. Or maybe they are just too busy having sex. (More people are born in August than any other month.)

    Whatever the reason, business slowed enough for Sandra Bullock and “The Blind Side” to take the top spot in its third weekend. A $20.4 million haul is off 49% from last week but that’s actually a great hold for this frame and the running total now stands at $129.3 million. $200 million seems all but certain at this point and that means it’ll pass the $208 million that “Speed” made to become Sandy’s all time top grossing film.

    I don’t think Oscar will come knocking but she’ll probably land on Entertainment Weekly’s list of Entertainers of the Year and that’s just as desirable, right? Side note: How good is “Speed?”

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  • D.C. critics fire the starting gun, ‘Up in the Air’ dominates

    (from left) George Clooney and Vera Farmiga in Up in the AirThe Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association has kicked off the critics’ kudos season with a most uninspired list of nominations.  I say uninspired because, aside from a random nomination for Maya Rudolph in the lead actress category, there doesn’t seem to be a single damn original bone in the group’s body.

    “Up in the Air” led the way with 8 nominations and is pretty much on track to be the critics’ darling of the year, while “Precious” and “The Hurt Locker” each landed 7 each.  I imagine a similar tally will be attributed to those films when the Oscar nominees are announced.  Which raises the question: Are the D.C. critics trying to emulate AMPAS here?  I never follow them closely, not beyond the requisite announcement posts each year (I tend to get REALLY burned out on all the critics’ awards, frankly).

    But seriously.  They had to see more than 33 films this year, right?  Because out of 70 possible nominees, that’s how many films were spread across the field.  Kind of sad, really.

    Check out the full list of nominees after the jump.  And the group’s list of winners last year here.

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  • Paramount FYC site goes live

    One of the things I always look forward to each year has been the launch of VantageGuilds.com, an FYC site that was geared toward Paramount Vantage’s product and always had great interactive features and wonderful design.  This year, with Vantage gone, we’ve got ParamountGuilds.com, which just went live.

    You can check out some goodies related to “Star Trek” and “Up in the Air” right now.  I’m told the content for “The Lovely Bones” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” will be available next week.  For now, give the image below a click and have a look.

    ParamountGuilds.com

  • WEEKLY WRAP: NBR winners, Spirit nods and Jeff Bridges

    Jeff Bridges• The National Board of Review offered the season’s first major precursors, with “Up in the Air” sitting pretty.

    • The Independent Spirit Award nominations were topped by “Precious” and, more surprisingly, “The Last Station.”

    • Indie award rivals the Gotham Awards, meanwhile, crowned “The Hurt Locker” as the year’s best.

    • Fresh off his Spirit nomination, we served up an extended interview with the great Jeff Bridges.

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  • FRIDAY FORECAST: Thanksgiving leftovers and new turkeys

    (from left) Kate Beckinsale and Robert De Niro in Everybody's Fine*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    Sorry this is a little late, as I’ve been super busy this week. Luckily, it’s one of the slowest box office weeks of the year and there is little to look forward to.

    You can bet the farm that “The Blind Side” will win the weekend for the first time on its third try and continue it’s epic run towards $200 million. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” should be your runner-up and it may get as low as five or six before you see a new film.

    Miramax is going for broke with the drama “Everybody’s Fine.” I thought the studio might start limited and try to trick people into thinking this would be one of those good, Oscar movies but they are sticking a Christmas tree on the poster and getting it into every Regal Cinemas in the country. Will it work? It should finish with $5 million for the weekend.

    In case you don’t know, the weekend after Thanksgiving is always deadly at the box office and studios rarely open worthwhile product. Last year gave us “Punisher: War Zone” at $4.3 million and the year before gave us “Awake” with $6.1 million. How someone pitched an action movie with a catatonic lead character and got it made is pretty incredible and beyond me.

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  • 12/4 Oscarweb Round-up

    Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones• Peter Knegt talks to “Up in the Air” supporting actress hopeful (and newly minted NBR award recipient) Anna Kendrick. [indieWIRE]

    • Stanley Tucci and how to (reluctantly) play a pervert. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Peter Jackson, meanwhile, doesn’t much care about an Oscar campaign but does hope that people look closely at Tucci and Saoirse Ronan’s performances. [Vulture]

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  • ‘Up in the Air’ wins big at NBR

    Anna Kendrick in Up in the AirThe real question with today’s National Board of Review announcement wasn’t who won, but who didn’t win.

    A couple of ties and a list of honorees that seemed to canvas the entire crop of filmmaking product from 2009 adds something of a diluted quality to the proceedings, I must say.  Of course, it is worth noting that major titles like “The Lovely Bones” and “Nine” were not only absent from the list of the group’s top 10 films of the year, but they weren’t visible anywhere, in any category.

    The big winner was Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” which took down Best Film, Best Actor (George Clooney in a tie with “Invictus” star Morgan Freeman), Best Supporting Actress (Anna Kendrick) and Best Adapted Screenplay.

    “Invictus” also did well, nabbing a Best Director citation for Clint Eastwood (someone the NBR has shown, time and again, that they can’t resist) in addition to Freeman’s shared award and a mention in the Freedom of Expression category.

    (More, including a full list of winners, after the jump.)

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  • 12/3 Oscarweb Round-up

    Natalie Portman• Donna Freydkin talks “Brothers” and  transitioning to an adult role with Natalie Portman. [USA Today]

    • Laura M. Holson talks to Tom Ford and others about the former Gucci creative director’s feature film debut, “A Single Man.” [New York Times]

    • Roger Ebert four-stars “Up in the Air.” [Chicago Sun-Times]

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  • 12/2 Oscarweb Round-up

    Paul McCartney• Edna Gundersen talks to Sir Paul McCartney about his musical addition to Kirk Jones’s “Everybody’s Fine.” [USA Today]

    • In praise of the opening sequence of Michael Mann’s “Ali.” [The Auteurs Notebook]

    • Pete Hammond reports from Monday night’s premiere of “Up in the Air.” [Notes on a Season]

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  • 12/1 Oscarweb Round-up

    Roy Scheider in Iron Cross• Pete Hammond reports on a last minute surge to get “Iron Cross,” Roy Scheider’s final film, into Oscar contention. [Notes on a Season]

    • Gregory Ellwood takes note of the season’s box office champs so far: “Inglourious Basterds” and “Up.” [Awards Campaign]

    • Geoff Boucher talks to “Avatar” composer James Horner. [Hero Complex]

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Let it all bleed out

    Saoirse Ronan in The Lovely BonesEvery now and then this season, I’ve sat down and taken on the fool’s errand of deciphering what 2009, the year in film, has been “about.”  It’s silly because a given film year is the result of years and years of preparation and development, so to think a collective thematic consciousness settles in is a bit of a stretch.

    This year alone we have a swift production that at this time last year saw the filmmaker still in the editing suite for his late-2008 entry, while on the other side of the spectrum, a forward-thinking director will finally see the end of a decades-long journey for an anticipated “game-changer.”  Movies come from a thousand different places and a thousand different perspectives.

    Nevertheless, I’ve always come back to one thought on this year’s slate of films: catharsis.  With expected exceptions here and there, in one way or another, the bulk of what we’ve seen on screens in 2009 has very much been about emotional purging, bleeding out the past and, not to be too on-the-nose with the zeitgeist connotations, change.

    Let me illustrate.  The most and the least compelling examples are the best place to start: Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist” and Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus,” respectively.

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