In Contention

Blog

  • WTF with the giant fireball thing??

    With “The Social Network” picking up yet another award last week (for Best in Show at the Golden Trailer Awards), Ryan Adams at Awards Daily asked for personal picks for favorite trailers.

    There are a number that spring to mind for me. I maintain that the first “Pearl Harbor” trailer (link), with the score from “The Thin Red Line,” was absolutely masterful. The “Alien” trailer (link) is in many ways more unsettling than the actual film, while just two years ago, whoever pieced together the tease for the Coens’ “A Serious Man” (link) knew what was up.

    Even more recently, the trailers for “Black Swan” (link) and David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (link) dazzled, while the “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” trailer that dropped last week reminded me of how tightly constructed the one for “A Single Man” (link) was. But the truth is, when I think of movie trailers and their power to seize your attention, I’m taken back some 15 years to a sci-fi film and a tease that had me more intrigued than whatever film I was about to watch. And it contains the single greatest image ever used to sell a film, in my opinion (the final shot). Since it ties in nicely today, I figure I’ll offer it up after the jump.

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  • BOX OFFICE: ‘Transformers’ way out in front

    Yes, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” inevitably took the top spot this holiday weekend, but there is cause for serious sadness. “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” crossed the billion dollar mark worldwide. I weep. But “Midnight in Paris” is just a few mil away from being Woody Allen’s highest grossing film ever, so there’s that.

    (Courtesy: Exhibitor Relations)

  • Remembering Ernest

    Another anniversary, this one considerably sadder. Ernest Hemingway (my favorite author) put a shotgun to his head 50 years ago today.

    Celebrate his life and times by digging into “The Old Man and the Sea” (literature’s great life metaphor outside of Job) or “For Whom the Bell Tolls” once more today. Or hit the cinema for “Midnight in Paris” and Corey Stoll’s pitch-perfect characterization of the man (and the myth).

    A few weeks back there was a fascinating piece in London’s Independent digging into the psychology of it all. A.E. Hotchner chimed in in the New York Times yesterday. NPR jumped on today. There’s more out there, I’m sure.

    I’ll pay my respects once again at Papa’s house in Key West in November when I’m there for my 30th birthday. No one nailed it like he did, in my opinion, the purity of language on the page. Maybe E.B. White.

    [Photo: Melawend]

  • ‘A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,’ a decade on

    It was June 29, 2001. I was in film school. I opened the local paper, read my friend, the film critic’s, review of “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,” Steven Spielberg’s distillation of a project he and legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick had developed together for years.

    I was nervous. I had, for one, hit a post-adolescent anti-Spielberg stretch (which I fully own as childish, but attribute in part to my feelings on the “Saving Private Ryan” vs. “The Thin Red Line” situation of a couple of years prior). Like any cliched film school student, I was a Kubrick obsessive. I wanted this to come off without a hitch.

    The review was positive. Not an all-out rave, but enough to really get my hopes up. I hit the first matinee of the day, bells on, ready. The film washed over me and it didn’t connect. Something felt off. I heard the film, but I didn’t listen to it (to paraphrase, of all things, “White Men Can’t Jump”). So I adopted early on an attitude toward the film that I soon would understand as limited even if it wasn’t ill-considered.

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  • Tell us what you thought of ‘Larry Crowne’

    I have not seen Tom Hanks’s “Larry Crowne” and probably won’t for some time, I imagine. But it’s opening today (nicely counter-programmed against the big robots) and I guess some readers might have something to say about it, so fire away if you get around to it.

  • 10 years ago this weekend

    I’m thinking I’ll write something formal up tomorrow, as this film and I have enjoyed quite the journey over the past decade. For now, I’ll let the beautiful work of Janusz Kaminski tell the tale.

  • Coppola coming to the Con

    I’m a bit down on Comic-Con this year. I’m just not all that excited, and nor are the studios, as a number of them seem to be pulling out of the annual preaching-to-the-choir festivities. And TV is taking over more and more, which isn’t a bad thing, but I just can’t keep up with the small screen these days. I’ll be on hand for a day or two, though. (The LA Soundgarden concert on July 22 will bring me back, however.)

    In any case, Francis Ford Coppola will be in Hall H this year to unveil footage from his new film “Twixt.” I hope he knows what he’s getting himself into. Here’s the press release, in part:

    Francis Ford Coppola will be presenting portions of his upcoming film TWIXT at a panel discussion on Saturday, July 23…[he] describes the film as, “one part Gothic romance, one part personal film, and one part the kind of horror film that began my career.”

    Coppola has a unique new approach to the presentation of the film that will incorporate live music by acclaimed independent performance artist Dan Deacon. Deacon will attend Comic-Con with Coppola to help demonstrate the interactive experience of the film. The film incorporates both 2-D and 3-D elements…

    On attending Comic-Con Coppola says, “I fondly recall meeting the Comic-Con audience years ago when I brought them my DRACULA film. That experience made me not want to miss this chance to return with TWIXT.”

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  • East-coasters on the theology of ‘The Tree of Life’

    Last week you’ll recall we covered the west coast leg of “Insights, Inspirations and Impact,” a philosophical and religious panel discussion of Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.” Fox Searchlight has made a few clips from the New York leg available and I thought I’d post those up for further digestion. So…SPOILERS.

    First you’ll hear from David Silverman, president of American Atheists (and a perspective I was bummed we didn’t get in Los Angeles). He takes umbrage with what he perceives as a “Christian ending” (deeming the setting “heaven,” as many have, which I don’t think is so cut and dry). He also makes the mistake of thinking a Job analogy is inherently religious. I would call it inherently human. (A Buddhist later offered the counter-point that he didn’t view the film as wholly Christian given its depiction of evolution.)

    Second you’ll hear from George Lavoo of The School of Visual Arts, who makes the shrewd point that, in the landscape of filmmaking engineered toward a very specific reaction, “The Tree of Life” is the rare film that eschews manipulation.

    Check out both clips after the jump.

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  • ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ international teaser trailer

    Tomas Alfredson’s “Let the Right One In” follow-up “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” is a film I’ve very much looking for. On paper, it looks like a dream, and judging by the freshly premiered international trailer (courtesy of The Guardian), the film appears to be a tightly wound potboiler that might electrify this Oscar season. Focus Features will be distributing and I think Gary Oldman could have a decent shot at that elusive first Oscar nomination. Check out the international teaser by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.

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  • ‘Tree of Life’ contest winner!

    Thanks to everyone for participating in last week’s contest to win an official poster for Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.” It was the usual healthy crop of possibilities, but I was most taken by Jackson’s sweet, streamlined entry, which wonderfully captures the director’s work, I think:

    Characters dissolve
    In the majestic landscape
    Of human nature

    So Jackson, if you’re reading, send me a line at ktapley@incontention.com and we’ll get you your prize.

  • ‘War Horse’ teaser trailer

    A Spanish version of this leaked earlier tonight, but I wanted to wait until something official dropped. And…chalk up your early frontrunner (for better or worse). The saccharine appears to be in place and the prestige is painted on thick. More next week when we offer up the year’s first set of predictions, but for now…pretty. Check out the trailer for Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” via the film’s official YouTube page by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.

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  • On the sound of ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’

    I think “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” will be back for the full trio of Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects at the Oscars this year, after the franchise’s second installment managed only one of those. The sound work in particular is once again top notch, one of the most carefully sculpted and edited aural experiences I’ve heard in a theater.

    Erik Aadahl, Peter Devlin, Jeff Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Ethan Van der Ryn, among others, were all back to their respective duties creating the soundscape of the film, and as always, the Soundworks Collection has done a wonderful job bringing that task to light.

    In an accompanying interview of the featurette (which you can check out after the jump), Russell says, “It’s the most ambitious sound film I know, without question, I’ve ever been a part of,” and that’s a pretty bold statement for a guy with his resume.

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  • ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ trailer

    It must be tricky to pull off a sub-title for a franchise that already features a colon, but anyway, this is a terrible trailer. It’s aimed at the “Fast Five” crowd, what with the glitz and Eminem, which immediately cheeses down the series (a series I kind of dig, to be honest), and that’s before we get to the terrible structure (What’s with the random Renner plot point beat?). And nothing about this seems to indicate that an artist like Brad Bird is at the wheel, but whatever. That’s marketing for you. Check out the trailer for “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” at Yahoo! Movies by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.

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  • Tell us what you thought of ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’

    I ducked out to Vegas for the weekend, so no box office or “Cars 2” reaction threads. Sorry. But yesterday I caught “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” with most of the press corps and I had a blast. The action begins to melt your face in the final hour to a numbing degree. The screenplay is naturally all over the place. But it’s a full-on ride with beautifully realized 3D and, as always, impeccable sound design. I’d say it’s my favorite of the series, but I’d love to hear your thoughts. The film opens tonight at 9pm screenings in order to get a massive jump on the weekend (expect a trillion dollars in the bank by the time the fireworks hit Monday). So head on back here with your take when you get around to it this week.

  • No refunds

    Passed along via Twitter by Christopher Misch (originally posted by a guy named Joe Meyers) snapped at the Avon Theatre in Stamford, CT:

  • ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ trailer

    I’ll be updating Oscar shenanigans with some predictions and charts in a week and a half, and in them, you’ll see that of all the superhero movies this year, I’m counting on “Captain America: The First Avenger” to be the one that registers much at all with the Academy. We’ll see if that pans out, but for now, the final trailer has been released via Yahoo! Movies, and it has some impressive strokes. Check it out by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.

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  • On the ballots wasted under new Best Pic rules

    Since the Academy announced its latest mathematical tweak to the Best Picture category last week, few have taken against the adjustment in principle — in a race notionally about “best,” it seems fair that films liked by many but loved by few should be left out, even if there’s no clear way of knowing which films that might hinder. (Many are taking it for granted that the new system would have spared us a “The Blind Side” nomination last year — but can we be so sure that fewer than 1 in 20 voters named it their favorite film of the year? I’m not.)

    The downside of the change, as The Wrap’s Steve Pond explains, is that the new-model Best Picture slate will likely end up representing a smaller portion of Academy members than the previous one. The beauty of the old system, which redistributed the votes of those members whose top choices hadn’t made the cut, is that nearly every ballot wound up contributing to the final list of nominees. Even if a member’s vote eventually went to, say, his fifth-favorite film, he still exerted a measure of influence on the outcome — encouraging for voters whose ballots are dominated by less Oscar-friendly fare.

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  • Discussing the theology of ‘The Tree of Life’

    Fox Searchlight is really outdoing itself on “The Tree of Life.” When the studio picked up the title last year, I knew it was in caring hands. But I never really expected such pristine handling every step of the way.

    Tonight Searchlight held bi-coastal panel discussions with religious and non-religious leaders to discuss differing perspectives and interpretations of the theological themes within the film. “Insights, Inspirations & Impact” was the name of the program, and I was on hand for the Landmark Theatre discussion in West L.A. this evening.

    The panelists included Sister Rose Pacatte of the Pauline Center for Media Studies, Dr. Robert K. Johnston of the Fuller Theological Seminary and author of “Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue”; Rabbi David Wolpe of the Sinai Temple (a bit of a celebrity in his own right); Scott Young, executive director of the University Religious Conference at UCLA; Jihad Turk, director of religious affairs at the Islamic Center for Southern California; and Jim Hosney, Professor of Literature at the American Film Institute. The panel was moderated by spiritual author Erwin Raphael McManus.

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