August 05, 2007
Matt Damon, BOURNE to run.June 04, 2007
UNITED 300 Wins MTV Prize
Go Tell The Spartans...
MTV challenged viewers to create movie trailers spoofing their favorite films of the year, and the results may not have been, overall, as polished as the best mashups of 2007. But the clear frontrunner was the polished and borderline offensive UNITED 300, which had the Spartans fight back against German (!) terrorists who'd taken over commuter flight.
Director Andy Signore, in his acceptance speech, was quick to deflect charges of bad taste, dedicating the trophy both to Zack Snyder and Frank Miller's graphic novel thriller and those who'd fought back against real life tyranny.
April 04, 2007
Peabody Wins: Spike's New Orleans Doc, Showtime's BROTHERHOOD
The Peabody Awards are a short list of the best in TV, radio and news public affairs -- public service -- works. Many of these titles are available on DVD -- others are available for free download on the TV and radio network websites.
No suprise to see the Peabodys recognize HBO's WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE, Spike Lee's heartbreaking and passionate cry for justice for the city of New Orleans. And the cable net's much-awarded costume drama ELIZABETH I, with Oscar winner Helen Mirren as the warrior queen, also gets a nod.
It's great to see Showtime's BROTHERHOOD, a moody, complex drama of an Irish-American family with crime and political ties, getting some recognition. The show's second season will start production soon. THIS AMERICAN LIFE, the radio series from WBEZ/NPR, recently made the jump from sound to vision - it, too, is on Showtime.
February 21, 2007
Foreign Language: PAN & Scan the Oscar Nominees
In the New York Times, Caryn James looks at the global politics of the films nominated foreign language category -- which must have been a relief from musing for 1000 words about Anna Nicole Smith's fame or speculating harshly about why Angelina Jolie appeared to be "haughty" at the Golden Globes (it turned out that Jolie's mother was terminally ill; maybe she didn't feel like parroting the usual red carpet conversation.)
The Boston Herald's film critic and entertainment reporter Stephen Schaefer reminds Oscar pool voters that Academy members can vote in this category only if they sign an affadavit certifying that they've seen five nominated films. ”With a voting pool that could number in the hundreds – out of a approximately 5,800 voting members – this makes predicting the winner a wild card."
February 07, 2007
Oscar Nominated Short Doc: RECYCLED LIFE
Spotlight on Oscar Nominated Short Doc
RECYCLED LIFE
Director: Leslie Iwerks
Producer: Mike Glad
Running Time: 38 minutes.
From Reuters via TV Guide:
http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Entertainment-News/Article/Default.aspx?idx=126194:
Watch for RECYCLED LIFE, the short documentary that Leslie Iwerks made with producer Mike Glad at the Academy Awards on Feb. 23 -- it's one of the finer socially concerned nonfiction films you'll see this year. The director's surname, Iwerks, is familiar to film buffs, but I don't think we'll see her-- or her Oscar nominated documentary -- get much airtime on Entertainment Tonight: her movie's concerned with trash and death, and lacks celebrities and easy uplifting endings.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Director Leslie Iwerks doubts any of her fellow Oscar nominees had spiders in their trousers while filming, nor would they find dead babies, animal carcasses, bubbling gases and an unbearable stench on location.But that was the reality of working in Central America's largest garbage dump for four years to make "Recycled Life," nominated for best documentary short.
The dump in Guatemala City is a giant crater where thousands, including children, eke out a living by recycling garbage and foraging for food. Whole families have subsisted on the dump, generation after generation, for the last 60 years.
One of the people featured in the film, Hanley Danning, died January 18 in an automobile accident in Guatemala City. (An obituary runs today in the Boston Globe.) Danning, a native of Yarmouth, Maine and a 1992 graduate of Bowdoin College, visited Guatemala in 1997 to learn Spanish. She decided to stay on to help those scavenging for food in the Guatemala City dump.
If RECYCLED LIFE wins the Oscar in its category, Iwerks will be the third generation in her family to win an Academy Award. Her grandfather was Oscar-winning animator Ub Iwerks (credited with bringing Mickey Mouse to life in the Disney cartoons), and her father, Don Iwerks, won a lifetime Academy Award for his contribution to motion picture science and technology.
"Iwerks has made a posthumous tribute to Denning and put it on the DVD along with the 38-minute documentary. A portion of the proceeds with go to Denning's organization, Safe Passage (safepassage.org)."
Continue reading "Oscar Nominated Short Doc: RECYCLED LIFE" »
January 24, 2007
Academy Awards 2007: Short-Shrifted
I spent about ten minutes reading through the nominations and being shocked. Then I had to go. No DREAMGIRLS for Best Picture....I don't get it. [Major analysis in next day Los Angeles Times.]
ACTING
Come back in a decade, thirtyish actors. Quota's been filled. No room for:
Christian Bale, THE PRESTIGE, as a magician whose sleight of hand makes his own life disappear. (Edward Norton, another of this year's screen magicians in THE ILLUSIONIST is apparently too young, and too prolific with his subtle, strong performances to score enough votes--the same goes for Matt Damon (THE DEPARTED) and Derek Luke (CATCH A FIRE), who convinced me that there had to be a second, South African actor, an older man, and not the same Derek Luke, American kid, whom I'd seen in BIKER BOYZ a couple of years ago. How cool for Leonardo DiCaprio, who's outstanding in both THE DEPARTED and THE BLOOD DIAMOND, to be nominated.) But bad for...
Adam Beach, FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, as the most traumatized of the Iwo Jima Marines, the man who's destroyed as much bigotry as by what he saw during and after he served in WWII.
Michael Sheen, THE QUEEN, as a youthful, scheming/sly politician named Tony Blair - a man who seems to have a little crush on a mysterious older woman: the ruler of Great Britain.
Also missed:
Laura Dern, INLAND EMPIRE, who continues to explore uncharted territory as an actress, in the role (roles?) of a lifetime in David Lynch's psychological thriller.
Bill Nighy, the English sex god of un certain age in NOTES ON A SCANDAL, as the husband and father and the one character who says what's the audience's mind: "What the hell were you thinking?"
Best Pictures, Not In English
Unfortunately for these foreign-language film entries, there were 61 submissions and at least a dozen titles that'll be more memorable than the Best Picture nominees. Keep an eye out for:
TEN CANOES, Australia (Palm Pictures)
THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING, Egypt
BLACK BOOK, The Netherlands (Sony Pictures Classics)
REPRISE Norway
VOLVER, Spain. (Sony Pictures Classics)
BABEL
It's going to win, isn't it? And I still won't like the vague voidyness of the script. But I did love the way film's director, Alejandro González Iñárritu cracked the best joke in California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's face to start off his Golden Globe acceptance speech ("I swear I have my papers in order, Governor" before waxing eloquent about movies, communication, bridging differences in language through film.
January 12, 2007
WGA Finds Decembrist Movies Revolting
The Writers Guild of America Announced its nominations for 2007 and Mark Harris of Entertainment Weekly notices something strange about the list: no December releases. What's up with that? He thinks it's because WGA members don't receive DVDs --they're supposed to see films in theaters or at guild events.
The nominees include
Original Screenplay
BABEL, Written by Guillermo Arriaga. (Paramount Vantage)
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, Written by Michael Arndt (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
THE QUEEN, Written by Peter Morgan (Miramax Films)
STRANGER THAN FICTION, Written by Zach Helm,. (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
UNITED 93, Written by Paul Greengrass (Universal Pictures)
Adapted Screenplay
BORATCultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham & Dan Mazer, Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Peter Baynham & Anthony HineS & Todd Phillips, Based on a Character Created by Sacha Baron Cohen (Twentieth Century Fox)
THE DEPARTED,
Screenplay by William Monahan, Based on the Motion Picture Infernal Affairs, Written by Alan Mak and Felix Chong (Warner Bros. Pictures)
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, Screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna, Based on the Novel by Lauren Weisberger. (Twentieth Century Fox)
LITTLE CHILDREN, Screenplay by Todd Field & Tom Perrotta, Based on the Novel by Tom Perrotta. (New Line Cinema)
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, Screenplay by Jason Reitman, Based on the Novel by Christopher Buckley. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
January 08, 2007
Oscar Mysteries of the Mayans
Who were the ancient Mayans?
Why did their empire fall?
Within the next ten days, we'll know the answer to an even bigger question: will APOCALYPTO defy expectations and earn any Academy Award nominations?
Mel Gibson's heart-removing historical adventure movieis up for just one award so far this season -– a Hollywood Foreign Press Association Golden Globe for best foreign language film. (The HFPA gives out its prizes on Jan. 15.)
The various guilds, though, have been properly awed by APOCALYPTO's visual splendor -- the captives' journey into the dying Mayan metropolis is spectacular. Director of photography Terry Semler has been nominated for an A.S.C award. The evocative hair and makeup -- including those otherworldly, PREDATOR meets SHOWGIRLS headdresses on the villains -- Best Makeup? (It's on the Academy's award shortlist
What do you think: Is there any hope for some violent Mayan mime and dance number during number during the Oscar broadcast? )
Or will this man be the last to rock a radical hairstyle on the red carpet? In 2002, THOTH, the Central Park/street performer from Sarah Kernochan's Oscar winning short subject documentary (2001), agressively entertainmed the arriving nominees from A BEAUTIFUL MIND and MOULIN ROUGE. Most of them looked quite alarmed. When his name – the film's name – was announced, I'm pretty sure he bounded onto the stage, fiddle in hand, with the audience still wondering who the hell he was. Thoth will live forever in Chuck Workman montages.
December 22, 2006
Film Comment: 'The Departed' Tops Critics Poll
Another year end critics poll: Film Comment surveys film writers and critics, asking for twenty top films and the 10 best movies still unreleased in the U.S.
Martin Scorsese's Boston-set crime drama THE DEPARTED led critics picks, followed by Romanian Academy Award submission THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU, and the old-but-new Melville noir ARMY OF SHADOWS.
Here's a poll in which an early 2006 release (TRISTRAM SHANDY) wasn't forgotten, and cool pop movies like CASINO ROYALE make a strong showing.
What's up, though, with the unreleased film list? Many of the unreleased titles are scheduled for North American theatrical distribution in 2007.
Spike Lee's searing New Orleans documentary, WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE, shown on HBO in September, was probably seen by more people than some of the top 20 movies -- and it's now on DVD. (The six-hour documentary played at Toronto Film Festival, but only after it had debuted on HBO
December 21, 2006
Indiewire Critics Poll: Love for LAZARESCU
The annual Village Voice film critics poll moves over, with Dennis Lim and Michael Atkinson, to Indiewire, and the No. 1 film is a surprise: THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU, a Romanian drama about life and death in a hospital.
Explore the whole poll, starting with the list of films, directors and performances that earned the most votes.
Here are the critics who participated. Movie City Indie guy Ray Pride and me, Justine Elias, are in there.
December 11, 2006
Film Critics Vote For Men With Guns, Lady With Crown
Boston film critics go gangster, Los Angeles' like hell in the Pacific, the New York online critics bowed to a Queen. New York's - after five ballots -- went for UNITED 93.
Here are the four movies that the major critics' groups went for (See David Polands chart for full details.)
UNITED 93: New York, Washington, D.C.
THE DEPARTED: Boston.
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA: L.A.
THE QUEEN: N.Y. Online
But there's one movie that that film critics agree on: ARMY OF SHADOWS. Made in 1969 but released in the U.S. only this year, this is a dark, uncompromising WWII thriller about the exploits of a band of French resistance fighters in German-occupied Paris. Director Jean-Pierre Melville died in 1973 at the age of 1955, but many of his films are available on DVD and VHS through Rialto Pictures. Army of Shadows is booked at Manhattan's Film Forum from Dec. 29-Jan. 11 and moves to Symphony Space in January for the Thalia Film Classics series; check the Rialto website to see which other cities will get it.)
Continue reading "Film Critics Vote For Men With Guns, Lady With Crown" »
December 08, 2006
NYTimes On Bloody Serious Oscar Movies
Break out the formal wear and the surgical scrubs. The fight for Academy Awards is a "bloody one," writes the always- sanguine David Carr of the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/movies/07viol.html?em&ex=1165726800&en=595ca621b40371ba
“These are bloody, serious times," said David Thomson, film historian and author of “The Whole Equation,” among other books. “There are extraordinary cruelties out there in the real word — bodies hung on bridges, Daniel Pearl being murdered — and I think that’s why torture has come into our entertainments in a serious way. There is a truthfulness to it that audiences seem to be responding to.”
July 25, 2006
Belated 'Crash' Diss From William Macy
William Macy knows acting. See him in TNT's truly unsettling summer series NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES, as a private detective who's rewriting his life from within the pages of a pulp novel, see him his new movie EDMOND, an adaptation of David Mamet's least-produced, most fascinating play. So it's interesting to hear a great actor -- and sometime teacher of acting -- critique other performers.
This week he spoke to Michael Musto of the Village Voice
"Beyond Crash's great acting and self-assured filmmaking," he said, "a lot of the scenes were not true, they were manipulative. You're thinking, 'Why are these people acting this way?' " Adds Musto: To win an Oscar, I guess.
'Crash' Feud: Everyone Still Racist, Unpaid
Sharon Waxman, the New York Times' ace film business reporter, writes about the ongoing feud among the makers of CRASH, the winner of the 2005 Academy Award for Best Picture.
When the movie's name was announced, it seemed as though half the audience rushed the stage to celebrate the independently produced movie's upset win over BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. Not just the mob of producers, but a slew of actors, too -- Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle (among others) who'd deferred their paychecks. The movie was made for $7.5 million and has grossed $180 million worldwide -- not bad for a grim, talky, repetitive message movie. You'd think everybody would be pleased to get the message out -- and be paid fair and square for contributing, right?
Wrong. As the New York Times piece reveals, the producers are still fighting over credit, and those who deferred salary haven't been paid at all.
Here's a choice quote from an unnamed agent or manager for one of those concerned. (Remember, if the actors don't get paid, their reps don't get paid for they work they did.)
“You’d think that for a movie that won best picture, what you would do is write the actors a check against their profits, or you give them a car, or something,” said a representative for one of the leading actors, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his client had barred him from speaking on the record. “That would be the classy thing to do.” He added: “The money is dribbling in. It’s almost offensive how little money it is.”
Not as offensive as racism, Mister.
July 10, 2006
Oscar's Foreign Language FUBAR Fix
To movie fans, a certain wild-guess category on the annual Oscar poll is known as "Best Foreign Film."
But the real name, since The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences noticed that non-American and UK films had crossed over into the US market, has been "Best Foreign Language Film" or more precisely, a movie "produced outside the United States with a predominantly non English language soundtrack."
There are so many things wrong with "Rule 14" that it's hard to take a deep breath and remember the great films that have won the big prize: LA STRADA (Italy, 1956), CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS, (Czechoslovakia, 1967), -Z- (Algeria, 1969), THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS (Italy, 1971), DAY FOR NIGHT (France, 1974), THE TIN DRUM (West Germany, 1979).
But too many nominated films - and un-nominated ones - never made it to Oscar night because they violated one of the category's many strictures that the production, language - and the majority of the funding and cast and crew - originate from the nominating country. It may seem a small point to those of us who live in a big country and don't get out much, but so many of these movies are about refugees, war, crossing borders -- it seems ridiculous not to recognize many film industries are more international than our own. It's not cheating to get money from more than one country, or to speak multiple languages.