It’s always illuminating to hear from various smart folks around the web and I feel grateful that they indulge my needling questions week after week; after all, it isn’t like any of the have any time to spare. I figure, the more intelligence we can bring to the table the better.  This week we’re pondering the Governors Awards, the bad economy on the Oscar race and getting a sneak peek into what might make a few of our contributors’ top ten lists.

The participants (in random order):

Susan Wloszczyna, USA Today
Craig Kennedy, Living in Cinema
Damien Bona, Inside Oscar
Ryan Adams, Awards Daily
Pete Howell, The Toronto Star
Scott Foundas, Film Comment
(and newly appointed Associate Programmer, The Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Kristopher Tapley, In Contention
Anne Thompson, Thompson on Hollywood at Indiewire
Steve Pond, The Odds at The Wrap
Nathaniel Rogers, The Film Experience
Edward Douglas, Oscar Warrior at Coming Soon
Gregory Ellwood, Hitfix
Tom O’Neil, The Envelope
Scott Feinberg, And the Winner Is…

1. The Governors Awards are over. We’re now looking at an Oscars broadcast without them. How big of a mistake do you think this was, or do you think it is a good idea and that it will streamline a bloated telecast? On the other hand, The Oscars are now competing with shows like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. Is this the first sign of the “dumb and dumber” Oscars soon to come?

Read the rest of this entry »

From one of the best films of the year featuring one of the best performances of the year – with commentary by Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal.

The thing about Michael Moore and the Academy – they have kind of been there, done that.  When people say to me, “Of course it wasn’t nominated; it was bad,” that means nothing.  They have their own particular tastes, especially their Doc branch, which is notorious for choosing films in a bubble.    AJ Schnack knows the scene a whole lot better than I do — here is what he had to say about the Oscar doc short list:

In my mind, the Academy’s list solidifies BURMA VJ, THE COVE and FOOD, INC. as frontrunners for the nomination – with perhaps a battle between THE COVE and FOOD, INC. for the award.

FOOD, INC. remains the only film that’s nominated at the Cinema Eye Honors, the Gothams and the IDA Documentary Awards.  All three films are up for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking at the Cinema Eye Honors, which are set to be announced January 15 – just before the Oscar ballots are due.

What strikes me about The Cove and Food, Inc. is that they are both clearly activist documentaries that will hopefully bring attention to something we all need to think about a little bit more.  Both are going to cause much friction with big business.  Just wait until Food, Inc. starts making some noise.

Read the rest of this entry »

They won’t matter because Twilight has a built-in audience.  Trust me, every kid I know is going to see it and they haven’t read, nor do they care a lick, about what the critics or the bloggers think.

This is your Twilight open thread.  Have at it.  As for me, I’m stuck seeing it since I have an eleven year-old who also believes the movies (and the books) are bad but feels compelled nonetheless.

Posted by Julie at the Cleveland Leader, Clint Eastwood will join Barack Obama, Tom Brady, Chris Pine and the three stars of The Hangover  (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis) for the Men of the Year issue, which will split up covers and hit news stands in December.  Eastwood says of his new film Invictus:

“The world needs this kind of story nowadays. It’s just…everybody’s so screwed up. It seems like our country’s in a kind of morbid mood, because of the recession or whatever. We’re becoming juvenile as a nation. The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits.

Owen G.’s A- review of Nic Cage in Bad Lieutenant says, for once, the mannerisms fit the role:

Except that Cage is now doing his operatic bug-eyed intensity thing because the role actually calls for it. As Terence McDonagh, a homicide cop who is always high on coke and heroin, Cage walks with a crooked slouch and a barely visible tilt of the head; he gives this rogue officer a touch of Igor. McDonagh whips himself into adrenalized states beyond doubt or fear, but he also uses his addictions to be a better cop. He’s a crackhead undercover agent in hell.

And Ebert’s four star review (we already knew he loved the film out of Toronto):

No one is better at this kind of performance than Nicolas Cage. He’s a fearless actor. He doesn’t care if you think he goes over the top. If a film calls for it, he will crawl to the top hand over hand with bleeding fingernails. Regard him in films so various as “Wild at Heart” and “Leaving Las Vegas.” He and Herzog were born to work together. They are both made restless by caution.

So there you have it.  Yet another actor to consider in this very crowded race.  The Oscar race is truly a Darwinian exercise when a category is as crowded and competitive as this one – if there were twenty slots, no problem filling them.  But with only five?  Films that are more beloved may trump singular performances in badly reviewed, or “just okay” films.  But beloved actor in great performance can trump all.  Where does Nic Cage fit into this?   One thing is for sure about this film and this actor: he’s getting a strong push by the studio, which, in this case, will make all of the difference.

The category for Sound at the Oscars has always been somewhat of a mystery.  Everyone has their own theory as to why certain films are recognized for Sound and others aren’t.  Some say “the loudest movie always wins.”  Others think a musical takes it every time (this is true 9 out of 10 times).  Still others are convinced they actually know what makes good sound and what makes bad sound.  Do they know more than the Academy voters?  The Sound branch does the nominating, but when it comes to voting on the winners — who’s to say Dakota Fanning can tell what sounds better than Warren Beatty?

Enter SoundWorks, a website that devotes itself to Sound:

The goal for the SoundWorks Collection is simple; we are dedicated to profiling the greatest and upcoming sound minds from around the world and highlight their contributions. The SoundWorks Collection is produced by Director Michael Coleman of Colemanfilm Media Group in a partnership with MIX Magazine, several audio focused college schools and programs, and the support of the online sound community worldwide.

Now that it’s Oscar season, SoundWorks is going to present a film’s Sound every two weeks until March 2010 and will release a new sound for film profiles for films such as “2012″, “Where The Wild Things Are”, “Terminator Salvation”, “The Princess and the Frog”, “Invictus”, “Inglorious Basterds”, “Watchmen”, and “Star Trek”.

Gad, how does Oprah keep it straight: lady’s face ripped off by a chimp, Sarah Palin, “two time Oscar winner Daniel Day Lewis!”

by John Villeneuve

With the films, A Prophet and The White Ribbon, can AMPAS continue to ignore the best that this art form called cinema can aspire to? Can they smugly rationalize to themselves that they may see the merits in such films, yet, for whatever feeble reason, toss them to the junk heap while coddling mediocrity? Should they be allowed, without consequence, to promote their ignorance and irrelevance? No.

Not long ago this body of “arbiters?”, “number crunchers?”, “artists?” awarded the Best Song Oscar to a documentary for the first time in their history. A song which included the phrase, “I’ve been asleep, and I need to wake up…NOW!”. Hmmmm, somehow that resonates. A documentary, with a progressive song, that embraced our evolutionary times. It’s akin to Plato’s proverbial man who has melded new knowledge with the ancient, and, now, is ready to leave the cave.

You may have guessed that this is a rant, a primal scream of sorts, but this shriek is not intended to evoke allegiance to progress. Nor is it a Darwinian raspberry blown in the face of Intelligent Design. Fuck it…I can’t lie. It is! Do I want to be provocative? Hell yes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Breaking News Press Release:

Beverly Hills, CA (November 18, 2009) — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards®. Eighty-nine pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

• The Beaches of Agnes, Agnès Varda, director (Cine-Tamaris)
• Burma VJ, Anders Østergaard, director (Magic Hour Films)
• The Cove, Louie Psihoyos, director (Oceanic Preservation Society)
• Every Little Step, James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo, directors (Endgame Entertainment)
• Facing Ali, Pete McCormack, director (Network Films Inc.)
• Food, Inc., Robert Kenner, director (Robert Kenner Films)
• Garbage Dreams, Mai Iskander, director (Iskander Films, Inc.)
• Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders,  Mark N. Hopkins, director (Red Floor Pictures LLC)
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, directors (Kovno Communications)
• Mugabe and the White African, Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey, directors (Arturi Films Limited)
• Sergio,  Greg Barker, director (Passion Pictures and Silverbridge Productions)
• Soundtrack for a Revolution,  Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, directors (Freedom Song Productions)
• Under Our Skin, Andy Abrahams Wilson, director (Open Eye Pictures)
• Valentino The Last Emperor,  Matt Tyrnauer, director (Acolyte Films)
• Which Way Home, Rebecca Cammisa, director (Mr. Mudd)

It’s coming any minute now, but in the meantime, our pal AJ Schnack over at All These Wonderful Things has taken a stab at films he thinks might make the cut.  Food, Inc. is the current frontrunner, according to AJ (then that automatically means Oscar ignores it. Juuuuuust kidding).  It is the only film, says AJ, “to have scored nominations in the top category at the Cinema Eye Honors, the Gothams and the IDA Documentary Awards.”

The docs that are our radar so far this year, therefore making them the least likely choices by the Academy, ahem, would include: Anvil! The Story of Anvil, It Might Get Loud, The Cove, We Live in Public, and of course, Capitalism: A Love Story (I dare them to shut that one out).  AJ also thinks Tyson, and several other titles that don’t yet have any buzz.

As Nikki Finke foretold:

Beverly Hills, CA (November 18, 2009) — Hamish Hamilton will direct the 82nd Academy Awards^® telecast, show producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman announced today. It will be Hamilton’s first time directing the Oscar show.

“Hamish is a first-rate live-show director who will bring enthusiasm, experience and a fresh eye to the table,” said Shankman. “He’s also a master of working with all of the latest technology in television production, which speaks to the kind of cutting-edge show Bill and I are planning.”

“Adam and I know that having Hamish at the helm will give us the right style and energy for the show we want to produce,” added Mechanic. “And his approach definitely won’t feel like ‘business as usual.’”

(click to enlarge)

“My name is Jake, and I was cloned under unusual circumstances…”

(via ComingSoon)

Who doesn’t love or need a little revenge fantasy to get us through this life?  We can’t do much about it when we read on the news some toddler’s been sold for prostitution and shoved in a trunk to die, or a young girl was snatched from a street corner and held prisoner to a man who raped her repeatedly for many years.  We just have to read about it after the fact.  2009, though, presents revenge fantasy as raw food.  First, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds toys with the possibility of gathering the worst Nazis into a theater and watching them burn, and now Peter Jackson …

If you haven’t read the book this counts as a spoiler.

…says he indulged the agony of one of the main characters in The Lovely Bones after a test audience said they felt dissatisfied in how he met his demise.  He also says this about his well-deserved Oscar win for ROTK:

“I do feel I don’t need to prove anything anymore. But winning and even being nominated for an Oscar is still an enormous privilege and big thrill,” he said.

“The great thing about having won is that you do feel, no matter what happens in your career now, you’ve always got that Oscar and it’s a nice thing to wake up to in the morning and go to the office and see them sitting there on the shelf.”

As far as the spoiler goes, I’m guessing this news was floated because there were murmurs of Jackson returning to the editing room – and whenever people hear that (despite how many great films have gone through the same process) they assume the worse.  Jackson told the Guardian, “We got a lot of people telling us that they were disappointed with this death scene, as they wanted to see [the character] in agony and suffer a lot more,” said Jackson. “We had to create a whole suffering death scene just to give people the satisfaction they needed.”