After his death earlier this month, I wondered aloud why no one had ever made a biopic of chess champion Bobby Fischer. Certainly his enigmatic character, his vile side, and his chess genius made him a natural subject. His opponent at the World Chess Championship, Boris Spassky, was a relatively outspoken Russian and a near dissident who might have been in the gulag if his chess hadn't made him a prominent hero of the Soviet state. Their clash was a high-profile Cold War episode, surrounded by intrigue, suspicions of bizarre plots, Fischer's wild antics, and world power. Then you have Fischer's post-match vanishing act and decades of insane anti-US, anti-semitic ramblings. That doesn't even account for the life of Fischer's mother, a devout fellow traveler monitored by the FBI. A lot of great material.
Well, apparently this is the blog that gets deals done. Universal Pictures has announced it will produce Bobby Fischer Goes to War, an adaptation of a fascinating book about the Fischer-Spassky match by David Edmonds and John Eidinow. They've tapped Kevin MacDonald to direct. Great choice. Damn near perfect. He's a very good director with a strong taste for 1970s Cold War political dramas - The Last King of Scotland and One Day in September, about Idi Amin and Munich, respectively. He should do a great job.
I'm thinking Sam Riley for Fischer, although with MacDonald on board, it could be James McAvoy. Spassky, that I have not yet figured out.
Couldn't be more excited about this.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Lawrence of Arabia in Plano
For all Dallas-area readers, you can watch Lawrence of Arabia tonight at The Angelika in Plano. I've seen it on a big screen twice. It's an experience that I highly recommend. The best film ever about walking.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Big films, small roles
The Los Angeles Times has an article naming five jobs of great casting small roles in nominated films. I'll second all of them.
Once: The Madness Stops
"Falling Slowly" reportedly has been ruled eligible for the Best Original Song category at the Academy Awards. Smart.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
For Dallas-area horror fans
The Screening Room, the Dallas Morning News' movie blog, reports that a screening of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead will be shown at the Inwood Theatre Feb. 21 as part of the second annual AFI Film Festival. Cool.
Bon Voyage, Sean Young
I've always felt badly for Sean Young and her history of bizarre (alleged) behavior. (Alleged, I say, because I wasn't actually there with Joel Schumacher (correction: Tim Burton) to see her appear in her homemade Cat Woman outfit. I've just read about it.) We wish her well as she enters rehab after her latest episode, drunkenly heckling The Diving Bell and the Butterfly director Julian Schnabel at the Directors Guild of America ceremony. Best of luck, and we'll always have Blade Runner.
Random Lebowski quote of the day
"Say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism. At least it's an ethos." Walter Sobchak, on nihilists.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Metropolitan cast for Cloverfield
How much better would Cloverfield be if we replaced the cast of Abercrombie models with less than zero to say with the cast of Whit Stillman's Metropolitan? Instead of having the rescuers running across town to rescue a Paris-wannabe, they could be going to save the incredibly lovable and vulnerable Audrey. Now there's someone worth saving. Chris Eigeman could be spouting ironic, absurdist observations about being trapped in a monster movie. Tom could be pontificating on Lionel Trilling's take on Godzilla, because of course he hasn't actually seen the movie. Why see the movie, when reading the criticism gives you both the filmmaker's view and the critic's view? The super-nerdy one could be analyzing the effect of the monster attack on the Urban Haute Bourgeousie. Women trying to escape across the Brooklyn Bridge in ball gowns. It would be so much better.
Once faces Oscar probe
Just as complaints are rising about the musical nominations for the Academy Awards, the Academy is looking at perhaps reversing the one thing it definitely got right when considering the musical categories - nominating "Falling Slowly" from Once as Best Original Song. Versions of the song appeared twice on albums that predate the release of Once - one album by The Frames, one by nominees Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. The defense is that the song was recorded for the the movie during its production, which pre-dated the release of the two albums. The defense ought to be that it was the best song that appeared as an integral part of a film this past year and it would be a travesty if it did not get nominated - and win.
The other thing that this points out is that the rules stink. I understand that you don't want an Antonio Banderas-Penelope Cruz duet cover of "All You Need is Love" receiving a nomination. But I would almost take that eventuality over a rule that would disqualify this amazing song, one that is integrally tied in to the plot and performed by the original singers. This rule would almost certainly disqualify all the songs in Singin' in the Rain (and maybe did - I haven't checked the history.), most of which had been around since the 1920s and had been used in earlier movies. Is that really what the rules should be doing?
If this goes through, I can only hope that the August Rush song somehow also gets disqualified and two more Enchanted songs enter the race. Having four or five songs from the one same Disney movie would be the fate that this category deserves.
UPDATE:
David Carr, the New York Times' Oscar blogger, has more information, as do his posters. They seem to think the songs were commissioned for the movie, but when the prospects for getting it off the ground looked bad, Hansard went on and started playing it as part of his various musical projects. Then the movie project got back off the ground.
Again, this is nibbling over what appears to be a bad rule that doesn't reflect the reality of current songwriting for film. Perhaps the Academy needs to analyze less the wheres and whens of the origin of "Falling Slowly" and analyze more whether their rules are disqualifying what should be perfectly eligible songs and scores. The Academy needs to figure out what it wants these awards to represent, what it doesn't want it to represent, and re-write the rules accordingly.
BTW, a thank you to poster Pinko Punko for pointing this issue out in the comments to my other post, before it was formally an issue.
The other thing that this points out is that the rules stink. I understand that you don't want an Antonio Banderas-Penelope Cruz duet cover of "All You Need is Love" receiving a nomination. But I would almost take that eventuality over a rule that would disqualify this amazing song, one that is integrally tied in to the plot and performed by the original singers. This rule would almost certainly disqualify all the songs in Singin' in the Rain (and maybe did - I haven't checked the history.), most of which had been around since the 1920s and had been used in earlier movies. Is that really what the rules should be doing?
If this goes through, I can only hope that the August Rush song somehow also gets disqualified and two more Enchanted songs enter the race. Having four or five songs from the one same Disney movie would be the fate that this category deserves.
UPDATE:
David Carr, the New York Times' Oscar blogger, has more information, as do his posters. They seem to think the songs were commissioned for the movie, but when the prospects for getting it off the ground looked bad, Hansard went on and started playing it as part of his various musical projects. Then the movie project got back off the ground.
Again, this is nibbling over what appears to be a bad rule that doesn't reflect the reality of current songwriting for film. Perhaps the Academy needs to analyze less the wheres and whens of the origin of "Falling Slowly" and analyze more whether their rules are disqualifying what should be perfectly eligible songs and scores. The Academy needs to figure out what it wants these awards to represent, what it doesn't want it to represent, and re-write the rules accordingly.
BTW, a thank you to poster Pinko Punko for pointing this issue out in the comments to my other post, before it was formally an issue.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
DGA goes Coens
Last night, Joel and Ethan Coen won the Best Director award from the Director's Guild of America. So now we know pretty well who will win the Oscar as well. The onslaught of guild awards puts such a damper on Oscar season. The suspense, or what there ever has been of it, gets killed off once these announcements get publicized. I could do without the smaller awards.
Friday, January 25, 2008
State of Grace
Grace Is Gone [PG-13]
Grade: B
John Cusack’s performance in Grace is Gone is a big stretch. Not just for him, but for me.
Having grown up watching him and being used to his always young visage, it’s a shock to the system to see him as a graying father, pudgy and in Adam West glasses, stuck in a sales manager job to keep his two daughters feeding. His character, Stanley Philips, was finally removed from his beloved army life for bad eyesight. From the way he treats his employees, you sense his longing for his old profession.
He met his wife, Grace, in the military. This being wartime, she has shipped out to the deserts of Iraq, leaving the family in her husband's overwhelmed care. When word comes that Grace has died on a mission, Stanley slumps onto the couch in grief. Soon military representatives are knocking on his door with forms. And it won’t be long before he must tell his two daughters that their mother won’t be around to see them grow up.
Fearing that learning of their mother’s death will rob his two daughters of their innocence, he doesn’t tell them. He huddles the family into the car and heads for an impromptu vacation to a theme park, to give them one last gasp of un-fractured youth before it shatters.
Director James C. Strouse's debut effort was widely hailed at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, and it’s only now making its way into a true release. This is one of the few of the Gulf War films that works simply because it doesn’t revolve around temporal political concerns but everlasting emotions. The film has vulnerability to spare, as the strict father deals with his guilt and regrets and clumsily feels his way into the motherly role. It’s not the type of film that I would personally pay to see. Just not up my alley. But I respect it for its care and its decency.
Grade: B
John Cusack’s performance in Grace is Gone is a big stretch. Not just for him, but for me.
Having grown up watching him and being used to his always young visage, it’s a shock to the system to see him as a graying father, pudgy and in Adam West glasses, stuck in a sales manager job to keep his two daughters feeding. His character, Stanley Philips, was finally removed from his beloved army life for bad eyesight. From the way he treats his employees, you sense his longing for his old profession.
He met his wife, Grace, in the military. This being wartime, she has shipped out to the deserts of Iraq, leaving the family in her husband's overwhelmed care. When word comes that Grace has died on a mission, Stanley slumps onto the couch in grief. Soon military representatives are knocking on his door with forms. And it won’t be long before he must tell his two daughters that their mother won’t be around to see them grow up.
Fearing that learning of their mother’s death will rob his two daughters of their innocence, he doesn’t tell them. He huddles the family into the car and heads for an impromptu vacation to a theme park, to give them one last gasp of un-fractured youth before it shatters.
Director James C. Strouse's debut effort was widely hailed at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, and it’s only now making its way into a true release. This is one of the few of the Gulf War films that works simply because it doesn’t revolve around temporal political concerns but everlasting emotions. The film has vulnerability to spare, as the strict father deals with his guilt and regrets and clumsily feels his way into the motherly role. It’s not the type of film that I would personally pay to see. Just not up my alley. But I respect it for its care and its decency.
My Quantum of Solace theme song
Much of the blog world has been brimming with opinions about the title for the James Bond movie set for release in November, Quantum of Solace. One of the foremost complaints is that the phrase could not possibly fit into a theme song. I thought I would put that fiction to rest. Besides touching on the concept set out in a 1960 Ian Fleming short story, I believe I’ve touched all the important bases for a Bond theme song – mystery, romance, death, and the ever-so-subtle insinuation of sado-masochism.
You can help me work on it. You can even post your own.
When I say Quantum of Solace,
You say, “What does that mean?”
Love, and the choices betweeeeee-een-eeeen.
When love’s cold traps befall us,
You say, “How does that go?”
The price you don’t knowwwwwwwwwww.
Innnnnnn the dying embers
of love’s chilled caress.
Looking for a touch of comfort
In a world that owes you less.
A quant-um of solace
In a fire set ablaze
A quantum of solace
In a fire set ablaze
When secret worlds stall us,
You say, “What should I think?”
Serve me your poooooi-soned driiiiiiink.
When death comes to call us,
You say, “What can I do?”
In six feet, you kneeeew-ew-ewwww.
Loooooooooove comes and goes
in the small - est a - mounts.
Our lashing bodies still smoulder
But it’s the thought that really counts.
A quant-um of solace
In a fire set ablaze.
A quantum of solace
In a fire set ablaze.
You can help me work on it. You can even post your own.
When I say Quantum of Solace,
You say, “What does that mean?”
Love, and the choices betweeeeee-een-eeeen.
When love’s cold traps befall us,
You say, “How does that go?”
The price you don’t knowwwwwwwwwww.
Innnnnnn the dying embers
of love’s chilled caress.
Looking for a touch of comfort
In a world that owes you less.
A quant-um of solace
In a fire set ablaze
A quantum of solace
In a fire set ablaze
When secret worlds stall us,
You say, “What should I think?”
Serve me your poooooi-soned driiiiiiink.
When death comes to call us,
You say, “What can I do?”
In six feet, you kneeeew-ew-ewwww.
Loooooooooove comes and goes
in the small - est a - mounts.
Our lashing bodies still smoulder
But it’s the thought that really counts.
A quant-um of solace
In a fire set ablaze.
A quantum of solace
In a fire set ablaze.
Untraceable unwatchable
Untraceable
Grade: D
It had to happen.
The meeting of torture porn and tech-sploitation films. Like peanut butter and chocolate, Ernie and Bert …. you know, that whole thing.
Although with Untraceable, it’s really more like the un-Sesame Street combination of arsenic and hemlock. With the same sick taste and punch. A fate that doesn’t seem so bad when you spend several minutes watching a person turned to a skeleton with battery acid. This Internet-aided thriller is a few patches of witty dialogue and one Diane Lane away from being a complete server meltdown.
If this sounds like the sort of crime that usually pesters your local police force, it may mean that your town has lost its sicko. And you’ve given him to Portland, Oregon. That’s where an FBI agent (Diane Lane) on the Internet crimes beat has been tipped to a Web site called killwithme.com.
As psychopaths go, this one sure has ambition. His web site has a slick little logo, and his computer expertise makes his Web site untraceable to those trying to track it. He starts by torturing and killing a cat online, but soon he’s upgrading to human beings. The setup has this sick little kick – the speed of the torture accelerates as more and more Internet users tune in to watch.
So there are plenty of ugly deaths by concrete, battery acid, and acid injection. The movie has the nightmare aspirations of the torture porn films like Saw, but it sets it against the morality and shock quotient of everyday normalcy. Of course when it comes down to it, the film talks out of both sides of its mouth. The killer will give a long pontification on the moral depravity of the Internet audiences that tune in. Yet the film is more than happy to engage in that sort of gore. This is less of an artistic statement than a lawyerly evasion. Please stop us before we do this terrible thing again.
Diane Lane is near the top of the list of middle-aged female performers who has never seen the roles that she deserves (Ashley Judd, make room). You know that unmarried forty-something career woman seeking satisfaction in her life? Lane, who has been playing wounded wives since I can remember, and she plays that person with such natural self-possession. Then again, Lane has a long history of dipping into schlock, and you kind of wonder if she enjoys it. If she enjoys Untraceable, then she’s the only one.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
If you had "Quantum of Solace" in the office pool
The Bond 22 project finally has a name. The Broccolis finally revealed the name to be Quantum of Solace. That is one of the handful of remaining Bond titles created by Ian Fleming. It should send 13-year-old boys who are mainly interested in ... well, what 13-year-old boys are interested in ... scrambling to the dictionary. That's a good thing. It's not just a unique title among action films. It's pretty unique among most films. Imagine ("Rambo 17: Quantum of Solace.") It promises to keep the grittier but still fanciful direction of Casino Royale, and, since you have to explain it, it promises at least one intelligent conversation during the run time of the film.
Song and Score: the wrong note
With a renewed focus on the quality of the film rather than the quality of the promotional campaign, this year’s Oscar nominations seem to have many singing a happy song.
However, two of the categories hitting sour notes are those races spinning the tunes – Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Both contests are already facing criticism that could rise to a crescendo. At heart are potential issues of style, age, power, purpose, and the role of music in the enjoyment of a film.
Initially, the five nominees for Best Original Score have attracted much of the ire. What many enthusiasts feel should be the front runner, Jonny Greenwood’s score for There Will Be Blood, failed to secure a nomination. The reason is a little mysterious. It was ruled ineligible last week for allegedly taking portions from other pieces of music, including a BBC concert by Greenwood two years ago. Thus, following the theory, it was not original to the motion picture, and therefore not eligible. Certainly the powers-that-be believe they’re rightfully upholding the rules. Yet some feel the claim is a bit of a specious technicality that too easily overlooks the "Score" part in favor of the less important "Original" part.
With the disappearance of Blood, it is the score to Atonement, by Dario Marianelli, that has taken over the mantle of the supposed favorite. (For the record, of the other nominees, I only remember the Michael Clayton soundtrack making any impression.) While most scores exist as various shades of symphonic wallpaper – and those are the good ones, the ones that do not knock you over with saccharine – Atonement’s score has the virtue of noticeably building tension during the movie’s first half. Its success is cleverly heightened with the (presumably simulated) rising clacks of a typewriter that pierces through the melody. Masterfully done and thematically cogent.
With that in mind, why do I have a bad taste about this score? Certainly not for its elegance. Rather, for ruining the movie’s ending, and thereby greatly harming the product. In a moment that can only work if it is suffused with ambiguity, its rising string cues overwhelm you with the perfume of unearned nobility, killing any sense of underlying possibilities. It’s the most fraudulent ending I’ve seen in a while, and the score functions as the nut of the lie. For all the musical sophistication, I have a hard time forgiving this transgression.
Compare that effect to another great score, one that also failed to get nominated. Perhaps, like the film itself, the score to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, proved too unorthodox, too minimalist for Academy voters. However, I do not think any score this year has as commandingly served its film’s (in this case, twilit) mood. Which raises the question, do voters judge film scores primarily as freestanding pieces of music, or as integrated elements in the overall collaborative effort of great cinema? I don’t know the answer, but it needs to be the latter. And if it were the latter, Jesse James should be in.
While I have disagreements and dissenting opinions about the Original Score contest, the Best Original Song category is an outright mess, bordering on a national travesty. If the writers strike scuttles the ceremony, we can at least count ourselves fortunate that we won’t have to sit through three songs from Enchanted, with overly theatrical production numbers numbing our souls. The unexpected domination of songs from the Disney live-action, princess-out-of-water fable is a little … strange. I’ve made my share of wisecracks about the whole of Hollywood listening to the soundtrack over and over on their iPods. But more realistic theories abound. A friend of mine thinks everyone knew they were going to vote for one Enchanted song, but no one knew which one would be the consensus choice. So they ended up with three. If I were betting on what happened – and this is only my speculation – it would be that Disney’s promotion people did a steroid-sized job of getting their songs into the ears of the voters. It’s the Oscar season equivalent of overdoing the cream and the clear and batting .471 with 94 home runs.
The Enchanted domination means that only one song from Once, the terrific “Falling Slowly,” received a nomination, when frankly all five spots justifiably could be taken up by the songs of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Likewise, many feel that Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder’s hypnotic contributions to Into the Wild, ignored by the Academy, eminently deserved a nomination. Granted that his soul-rattling cover of Indio's "Hard Sun" isn't eligible. That “Original” thing, again. But there were certainly other quality possibilities. The exclusion of these songs by the Academy in favor of Disney singalongs makes the Grammys look progressive.
I don't think it should escape notice that all of the alleged snubs involve musicians (Cave, Ellis, Vedder, Greenwood, Glen Hansard) who are coming to the movie-score business from the angle of 1990s alternative/indie music. Is it an issue of reactionary Academy voters not being with-it enough to vote for younger voices and newer musical approaches? Is it a matter of networking, reputation, and skins on the wall? Or is it a matter of younger fans overrating their musical heroes? Is the wisdom of age tempering the enthusiasm of relative youth? I think the Academy needs to open itself to new people and new ideas.
However, two of the categories hitting sour notes are those races spinning the tunes – Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Both contests are already facing criticism that could rise to a crescendo. At heart are potential issues of style, age, power, purpose, and the role of music in the enjoyment of a film.
Initially, the five nominees for Best Original Score have attracted much of the ire. What many enthusiasts feel should be the front runner, Jonny Greenwood’s score for There Will Be Blood, failed to secure a nomination. The reason is a little mysterious. It was ruled ineligible last week for allegedly taking portions from other pieces of music, including a BBC concert by Greenwood two years ago. Thus, following the theory, it was not original to the motion picture, and therefore not eligible. Certainly the powers-that-be believe they’re rightfully upholding the rules. Yet some feel the claim is a bit of a specious technicality that too easily overlooks the "Score" part in favor of the less important "Original" part.
With the disappearance of Blood, it is the score to Atonement, by Dario Marianelli, that has taken over the mantle of the supposed favorite. (For the record, of the other nominees, I only remember the Michael Clayton soundtrack making any impression.) While most scores exist as various shades of symphonic wallpaper – and those are the good ones, the ones that do not knock you over with saccharine – Atonement’s score has the virtue of noticeably building tension during the movie’s first half. Its success is cleverly heightened with the (presumably simulated) rising clacks of a typewriter that pierces through the melody. Masterfully done and thematically cogent.
With that in mind, why do I have a bad taste about this score? Certainly not for its elegance. Rather, for ruining the movie’s ending, and thereby greatly harming the product. In a moment that can only work if it is suffused with ambiguity, its rising string cues overwhelm you with the perfume of unearned nobility, killing any sense of underlying possibilities. It’s the most fraudulent ending I’ve seen in a while, and the score functions as the nut of the lie. For all the musical sophistication, I have a hard time forgiving this transgression.
Compare that effect to another great score, one that also failed to get nominated. Perhaps, like the film itself, the score to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, proved too unorthodox, too minimalist for Academy voters. However, I do not think any score this year has as commandingly served its film’s (in this case, twilit) mood. Which raises the question, do voters judge film scores primarily as freestanding pieces of music, or as integrated elements in the overall collaborative effort of great cinema? I don’t know the answer, but it needs to be the latter. And if it were the latter, Jesse James should be in.
While I have disagreements and dissenting opinions about the Original Score contest, the Best Original Song category is an outright mess, bordering on a national travesty. If the writers strike scuttles the ceremony, we can at least count ourselves fortunate that we won’t have to sit through three songs from Enchanted, with overly theatrical production numbers numbing our souls. The unexpected domination of songs from the Disney live-action, princess-out-of-water fable is a little … strange. I’ve made my share of wisecracks about the whole of Hollywood listening to the soundtrack over and over on their iPods. But more realistic theories abound. A friend of mine thinks everyone knew they were going to vote for one Enchanted song, but no one knew which one would be the consensus choice. So they ended up with three. If I were betting on what happened – and this is only my speculation – it would be that Disney’s promotion people did a steroid-sized job of getting their songs into the ears of the voters. It’s the Oscar season equivalent of overdoing the cream and the clear and batting .471 with 94 home runs.
The Enchanted domination means that only one song from Once, the terrific “Falling Slowly,” received a nomination, when frankly all five spots justifiably could be taken up by the songs of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Likewise, many feel that Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder’s hypnotic contributions to Into the Wild, ignored by the Academy, eminently deserved a nomination. Granted that his soul-rattling cover of Indio's "Hard Sun" isn't eligible. That “Original” thing, again. But there were certainly other quality possibilities. The exclusion of these songs by the Academy in favor of Disney singalongs makes the Grammys look progressive.
I don't think it should escape notice that all of the alleged snubs involve musicians (Cave, Ellis, Vedder, Greenwood, Glen Hansard) who are coming to the movie-score business from the angle of 1990s alternative/indie music. Is it an issue of reactionary Academy voters not being with-it enough to vote for younger voices and newer musical approaches? Is it a matter of networking, reputation, and skins on the wall? Or is it a matter of younger fans overrating their musical heroes? Is the wisdom of age tempering the enthusiasm of relative youth? I think the Academy needs to open itself to new people and new ideas.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Ledger update
What is up with the investigation into the death of Heath Ledger? The answer is, who knows?
The initial autopsy turned up inconclusive, and the medical examiner will await the results of a toxicology report. Those can take a week or two. Reports are running around about a $20 bill on the floor near Ledger's body. Did it have cocaine residue (pant, pant)? Well, last I heard on the radio, the answer was no. And I'm not sure drug residue on money in a Bohemian neighborhood would necessarily mean all that much, anyway. Authorities allegedly have found six different kinds of prescription medicines in the apartment.
Meanwhile, there's this kinda interesting AP report filling in some of the alleged blanks. Mary-Kate Olsen re-enters the picture here. According to the article, the massage therapist phoned Mary-Kate using Ledger's cell phone after she came upon the cold body. Mary-Kate sent over some of her security guards to assist, according to the report. Their arrival at the scene, about the same time as the paramedics, might account for yesterday's confusion about the ownership of the apartment.
The initial autopsy turned up inconclusive, and the medical examiner will await the results of a toxicology report. Those can take a week or two. Reports are running around about a $20 bill on the floor near Ledger's body. Did it have cocaine residue (pant, pant)? Well, last I heard on the radio, the answer was no. And I'm not sure drug residue on money in a Bohemian neighborhood would necessarily mean all that much, anyway. Authorities allegedly have found six different kinds of prescription medicines in the apartment.
Meanwhile, there's this kinda interesting AP report filling in some of the alleged blanks. Mary-Kate Olsen re-enters the picture here. According to the article, the massage therapist phoned Mary-Kate using Ledger's cell phone after she came upon the cold body. Mary-Kate sent over some of her security guards to assist, according to the report. Their arrival at the scene, about the same time as the paramedics, might account for yesterday's confusion about the ownership of the apartment.
Makeup needs making down
Prior to the death of Heath Ledger, yesterday's Hollywood news was filling up with Oscar coverage, including great merriment at the nomination of Norbit in the Best Makeup category. I'm still trying to figure out who there is out there watching Norbit and thinking, "Geez, that's great makeup." And are they the same people listening to the Enchanted soundtrack on their iPods?
While many have figured out ways to poke jokes at this nomination, I think it raises a deeper existential question about the Best Makeup category. Such as, should the Best Makeup category exist? Is there any more extraneous Oscar category out there? If quality performance in the discipline is so rare that you need to use Norbit to fill out the nominations, is it really that essential to the filmmaking process?
While many have figured out ways to poke jokes at this nomination, I think it raises a deeper existential question about the Best Makeup category. Such as, should the Best Makeup category exist? Is there any more extraneous Oscar category out there? If quality performance in the discipline is so rare that you need to use Norbit to fill out the nominations, is it really that essential to the filmmaking process?
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
DH Ledger tribute
A tribute to Ledger over at one of my outlets, Dark Horizons. I'll leave it with them to write the tribute. I've tried writing one, but not knowing the man, I could not write an essay that wasn't repetitive. Suffice it to say that his talent will be missed.
Deconstructing Heath Ledger
There is going to be a lot of psychoanalyzing Heath Ledger's recent roles. Fans will look back and try to decode his characters and find "hints" of turmoil. A lot of this will revolve around his version of The Joker in the upcoming The Dark Knight.
I'll start with his recent role in I'm Not There, where he plays an actor (maybe sorta Bob Dylan) who goes through the whole arc of a troubled marriage, ending with the emotional turmoil of divorce and separating from his children.
Does that role mirror his break-up with Michelle Williams and the concommitant distance from his young daughter? Was he attracted to this role, maybe as a matter of therapy? Did Todd Haynes think he would fit the casting? There's a theory that all casting good casting contains an element of veiled biography. For now, it is all speculation.
I'll start with his recent role in I'm Not There, where he plays an actor (maybe sorta Bob Dylan) who goes through the whole arc of a troubled marriage, ending with the emotional turmoil of divorce and separating from his children.
Does that role mirror his break-up with Michelle Williams and the concommitant distance from his young daughter? Was he attracted to this role, maybe as a matter of therapy? Did Todd Haynes think he would fit the casting? There's a theory that all casting good casting contains an element of veiled biography. For now, it is all speculation.
Heath Ledger, Rest in Peace
Today comes shocking word of the death of Heath Ledger, Academy Award nominee for Best Actor for his role in Brokeback Mountain. He was found dead in a Manhattan apartment, in what is being speculated to be a drug-related death. More to come.
UPDATE:
According to a report on the Web site of Editor and Publisher, the apartment belonged to Mary-Kate Olsen. Its report cites The New York Times.
UPDATE:
New York Times calling it a possible suicide.
UPDATE: The New York Times now reports New York police have reversed their previous report and now say that the apartment did not belong to Mary-Kate Olsen.
UPDATE:
According to an AFP report, Ledger's family is describing his death as an "accidental passing." If so, that would rule out suicide, but it also can mean more possibilities than it might at first seem. Interesting. We'll see how this goes.
UPDATE:
According to a report on the Web site of Editor and Publisher, the apartment belonged to Mary-Kate Olsen. Its report cites The New York Times.
UPDATE:
New York Times calling it a possible suicide.
UPDATE: The New York Times now reports New York police have reversed their previous report and now say that the apartment did not belong to Mary-Kate Olsen.
UPDATE:
According to an AFP report, Ledger's family is describing his death as an "accidental passing." If so, that would rule out suicide, but it also can mean more possibilities than it might at first seem. Interesting. We'll see how this goes.
Some initial Oscar praise
- The Oscars are much healthier in terms of quality than they were seven or eight or ten years ago. Much more in tune with quality and critical tastes. While I'm personally middling on a couple of Best Picture nominees, all five films were looked upon well by critics overall. In short, there are no true embarrassments here.
- The Best Actress nominees, with Linney and Blanchett, were somewhat unexpected and showed a streak of independence and admiration for a pair of top-quality actresses. Last night, I was bemoaning the fact that Blanchett, the best actress of her generation, had only one measly Best Supporting Actress Oscar to her name. At least she's nominally in the ballgame this year.
- Casey Affleck's nomination for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was expected due to other award nominations, but its completion deserves praise, because it was not a favorite at the start of the year.
- The Best Actress nominees, with Linney and Blanchett, were somewhat unexpected and showed a streak of independence and admiration for a pair of top-quality actresses. Last night, I was bemoaning the fact that Blanchett, the best actress of her generation, had only one measly Best Supporting Actress Oscar to her name. At least she's nominally in the ballgame this year.
- Casey Affleck's nomination for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was expected due to other award nominations, but its completion deserves praise, because it was not a favorite at the start of the year.
Some initial Oscar gripes (because we live in a society of complaint)
- Is it finally the year when we just give up the fraud and change the name from Best Director (or Best Achievement in Directing) to "Best Guy or Gal who Directed a Best Picture-Nominated film, plus One Other Guy We Happen to Like." I like the job that Jason Reitman has done, both with Juno and Thank You for Smoking. I've said about Michael Clayton that if it were directed by an established French auteur rather than some guy named Tony Gilroy. everyone would be gushing over it (more than they already are). That unfolds into a compliment. I think. In fact, I think there's a decent argument for a Gilroy nomination.
Still, Juno and Clayton are both primarily script movies, with Clayton having the additional benefit of There Will Be Blood's cinematographer Robert Elswit (plus strong performances). Did the director's work here measure up to more director-oriented projects by Todd Haynes, Andrew Dominik, David Fincher, Mira Nair, Tim Burton, John Carney, etc.? Did Clayton or Juno have the same signature of personal vision sprouting from the director's chair? I'm not convinced in either case.
- The music categories are a wasteland. I'll probably write a full post on this later today or tomorrow. Best Original Song has three songs from Enchanted and a single song (I presume, "Falling Slowly") from Once. Do Academy members really sit around and listen to Disney movie songs on their iPods? This makes the Grammys look progressive. Meanwhile, the scores are the typically anonymous orchestral scores. I said that if Atonement got a nomination I would slit my wrists. I was exxagerating. I'm still here.
- The Thin Man. Citizen Kane. Lawrence of Arabia. Chinatown. Ratatouille. One of these scripts is not like the other. Did this "Little Train that Could" story for culinary-minded mice really get a screenplay nomination?
Still, Juno and Clayton are both primarily script movies, with Clayton having the additional benefit of There Will Be Blood's cinematographer Robert Elswit (plus strong performances). Did the director's work here measure up to more director-oriented projects by Todd Haynes, Andrew Dominik, David Fincher, Mira Nair, Tim Burton, John Carney, etc.? Did Clayton or Juno have the same signature of personal vision sprouting from the director's chair? I'm not convinced in either case.
- The music categories are a wasteland. I'll probably write a full post on this later today or tomorrow. Best Original Song has three songs from Enchanted and a single song (I presume, "Falling Slowly") from Once. Do Academy members really sit around and listen to Disney movie songs on their iPods? This makes the Grammys look progressive. Meanwhile, the scores are the typically anonymous orchestral scores. I said that if Atonement got a nomination I would slit my wrists. I was exxagerating. I'm still here.
- The Thin Man. Citizen Kane. Lawrence of Arabia. Chinatown. Ratatouille. One of these scripts is not like the other. Did this "Little Train that Could" story for culinary-minded mice really get a screenplay nomination?
2008 Oscar nominations
Here are the ones that I care about. I'll add some of the others when they come in convenient press release form. Plenty to discuss here, and I plan to as the day goes on.
Best Picture:
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Juno
Michael Clayton
Atonement
Best Actor:
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Laura Linney, The Savages
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Ellen Page, Juno
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Best Supporting Actress:
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Amy Ryan, Gone, Baby, Gone
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Best Supporting Actor:
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Best Director:
Ivan Reitman, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Seamus MacGarvey, Atonement
Janusz Kazminski, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Best Picture:
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Juno
Michael Clayton
Atonement
Best Actor:
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Laura Linney, The Savages
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Ellen Page, Juno
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Best Supporting Actress:
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Amy Ryan, Gone, Baby, Gone
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Best Supporting Actor:
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Best Director:
Ivan Reitman, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Seamus MacGarvey, Atonement
Janusz Kazminski, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Monday, January 21, 2008
If I picked them ....
Here's my choices. A couple of changes made that represent minor shifts in opinion. I haven't seen a few of the women's acting favorites. No conspiracy. Just peculiarly did not happen.
Best Picture
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Zodiac
No Country for Old Men
The Namesake
Once [OUT: I’m Not There]
Best Actor
Sam Riley, Control
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Christian Bale, Rescue Dawn [OUT: Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men]
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Best Actress
Naomi Watts, Eastern Promises
Tabu, The Namesake
Tang Wei, Lust, Caution
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
Keira Knightley, Atonement
Best Supporting Actor
Robert Downey, Jr., Zodiac
Chris Cooper, Breach
Brad Pitt, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Best Supporting Actress
Julie Mann, Knocked Up
Marketa Irglova, Once
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Marie-Josee Croze, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [OUT: Rose Byrne, Sunshine]
Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Martin Ruhe, Control
Harris Savides, Zodiac
Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Best Director
Andrew Dominik, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
David Fincher, Zodiac
Todd Haynes, I’m Not There
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Best Picture
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Zodiac
No Country for Old Men
The Namesake
Once [OUT: I’m Not There]
Best Actor
Sam Riley, Control
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Christian Bale, Rescue Dawn [OUT: Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men]
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Best Actress
Naomi Watts, Eastern Promises
Tabu, The Namesake
Tang Wei, Lust, Caution
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
Keira Knightley, Atonement
Best Supporting Actor
Robert Downey, Jr., Zodiac
Chris Cooper, Breach
Brad Pitt, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Best Supporting Actress
Julie Mann, Knocked Up
Marketa Irglova, Once
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Marie-Josee Croze, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [OUT: Rose Byrne, Sunshine]
Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Martin Ruhe, Control
Harris Savides, Zodiac
Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Best Director
Andrew Dominik, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
David Fincher, Zodiac
Todd Haynes, I’m Not There
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Oscar nomination predictions
Here's what I expect tomorrow morning ....
Best Picture:
No Country for Old Men
Juno
Michael Clayton
There Will Be Blood
Zodiac
The first three are near-locks. TWBB should have enough. The fifth is up for grabs. I get a feeling that it will be a surprise. Everyone seems to think Into the Wild or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Maybe the box office success of Charlie Wilson's War makes that the surprise. Maybe Atonement gets British help to recapture the nomination that was presumed to belong to it.
Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
Ryan Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl
Those were the Screen Actors Guild nominees, plus Depp, minus Emile Hirsch. These are all good performances. But, heavens, is Sam Riley's performance in Control ever missing.
Best Actress
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Ellen Page, Juno
Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart
Keira Knightley, Atonement
A ho-hum field. Pretty much everybody's list. Cate Blanchett's I'm Not There performance ought to be a lead (and she's good in Elizabeth, too), but it ain't. No worries. The best actress of her generation is in her late 30s with only a supporting actress win. How are there so many more exciting actresses out there than men but still so few appropriately interesting roles?
Best Supporting Actor
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Casesy Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Can't argue too much here. Like every year, you can tick off a list of ten or fifteen performances that you justifiably sub in. And this year that's just Zodiac and Jesse James. Would like to find a spot for Robert Downey, Jr. for Zodiac, but I don't want to knock out the favored Affleck to do it. I'm just glad that people have apparently seen through Paul Dano, who gets eaten alive by Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. (For the record, Pitt, Schneider, Downey, Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Chris Cooper, Tony Kebbell, Steve Zahn, Tommy Lee Jones, J.K. Simmons, Jason Bateman (loved him in The Kingdom), Paul Rudd, Ben Foster, someone from Before the Devil, etc. )
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Ryan, Gone, Baby, Gone
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Kelly MacDonald, No Country for Old Men
I figure that being the Oscar favorite often means that you get surprise nods in some of the weaker fields, hence MacDonald. If it turns out to be Jennifer Garner for Juno, I'll barf. Not because she does a bad job, but because a hundred actress could have played the role as well. The other possibility would be Catherine Keener for Into the Wild, with a better performance than any of her recent nominations. Justice demands Marie-Josee Croze for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, who had to act against a camera for most of her screen time and did so with a sense of passion, insecurity and secrecy. But this is the Oscars.
Best Director
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
David Fincher. Zodiac
Sean Penn, Into the Wild
Somehow, I think there will be a surprise or two. Juno and Michael Clayton are not strong in this category. Schnabel will grab one of those spots. A third spot could shift with whatever the fifth Best Picture slot becomes. So I followed my earlier surprise BP prediction and put in Fincher. Penn has more skins on the wall than Gilroy, nevermind that Gilroy's film is better.
Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Seamus MacGarvey, Atonement
Janusz Kasminski, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
May lightning strike them down for failing to nominate Harris Savides for Zodiac and Martin Ruhe for Control.
Best Picture:
No Country for Old Men
Juno
Michael Clayton
There Will Be Blood
Zodiac
The first three are near-locks. TWBB should have enough. The fifth is up for grabs. I get a feeling that it will be a surprise. Everyone seems to think Into the Wild or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Maybe the box office success of Charlie Wilson's War makes that the surprise. Maybe Atonement gets British help to recapture the nomination that was presumed to belong to it.
Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
Ryan Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl
Those were the Screen Actors Guild nominees, plus Depp, minus Emile Hirsch. These are all good performances. But, heavens, is Sam Riley's performance in Control ever missing.
Best Actress
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Ellen Page, Juno
Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart
Keira Knightley, Atonement
A ho-hum field. Pretty much everybody's list. Cate Blanchett's I'm Not There performance ought to be a lead (and she's good in Elizabeth, too), but it ain't. No worries. The best actress of her generation is in her late 30s with only a supporting actress win. How are there so many more exciting actresses out there than men but still so few appropriately interesting roles?
Best Supporting Actor
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Casesy Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Can't argue too much here. Like every year, you can tick off a list of ten or fifteen performances that you justifiably sub in. And this year that's just Zodiac and Jesse James. Would like to find a spot for Robert Downey, Jr. for Zodiac, but I don't want to knock out the favored Affleck to do it. I'm just glad that people have apparently seen through Paul Dano, who gets eaten alive by Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. (For the record, Pitt, Schneider, Downey, Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Chris Cooper, Tony Kebbell, Steve Zahn, Tommy Lee Jones, J.K. Simmons, Jason Bateman (loved him in The Kingdom), Paul Rudd, Ben Foster, someone from Before the Devil, etc. )
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Ryan, Gone, Baby, Gone
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Kelly MacDonald, No Country for Old Men
I figure that being the Oscar favorite often means that you get surprise nods in some of the weaker fields, hence MacDonald. If it turns out to be Jennifer Garner for Juno, I'll barf. Not because she does a bad job, but because a hundred actress could have played the role as well. The other possibility would be Catherine Keener for Into the Wild, with a better performance than any of her recent nominations. Justice demands Marie-Josee Croze for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, who had to act against a camera for most of her screen time and did so with a sense of passion, insecurity and secrecy. But this is the Oscars.
Best Director
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
David Fincher. Zodiac
Sean Penn, Into the Wild
Somehow, I think there will be a surprise or two. Juno and Michael Clayton are not strong in this category. Schnabel will grab one of those spots. A third spot could shift with whatever the fifth Best Picture slot becomes. So I followed my earlier surprise BP prediction and put in Fincher. Penn has more skins on the wall than Gilroy, nevermind that Gilroy's film is better.
Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Seamus MacGarvey, Atonement
Janusz Kasminski, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
May lightning strike them down for failing to nominate Harris Savides for Zodiac and Martin Ruhe for Control.
Sock Is Crap (aka Oscar Picks, by Hannibal Lecter), last update
I know, I promised to reveal these Oscar pick anagrams slowly over time. Sorry, but it didn't work out that way. But with tomorrow's Oscar announcement. here they are. I've had some change of opinions, which I'll address in the next post.
By the way, I stumped myself on one of my Best Actress picks. I can't remember who it is.
Best Picture
Me
O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
CIA Zod
Zodiac
Hens Make Tea
The Namesake
Hermit Note
I’m Not There
No One Fry Colt Round Me
No Country for Old Men
Them
A No-Halt Mill Cycle
Michael Clayton
Eat Not Men
Atonement
No One Fry Colt Round Me
No Country for Old Men
Her Billed Web Tool
There Will Be Blood
Dost Ewe Deny
Sweeney Todd
Best Supporting Actress
Me
Jane Mulin; Puked Conk
Julie Mann; Knocked Up
Been Sorry; Hens in U.S.
Rose Byrne, Sunshine
Tag, Move Air Lark; Cone
Marketa Irglova; Once
It Dials In Town; A No-Halt Mill Cycle
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
So As Nine Roar; Eat Not Men
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Them
Can’t Chat, Belt; Hermit Note
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
It Dials In Town; A No-Halt Mill Cycle
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
I Am A Rise, Tom; Owned! You Braked For The Evil Deeds
Marisa Tomei, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Real Job is Out; He Swills On Raw Air
Julia Roberts, Charlie Wilson’s War
So As Nine Roar; Eat Not Men
Saoirse Ronan; Atonement
Best Cinematography
Me
A King’s Red Ore; O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Hit! Ream! Run!; Corn Lot
Martin Ruhe, Control
Driver’s Ash, Sir; CIA Zod
Harris Savides, Zodiac
A King’s Red Ore; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men
Brews Lite Rot, Her Billed Web Tool
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Them
A King’s Red Ore; O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Driver’s Ash, Sir; CIA Zod
Harris Savides, Zodiac
A King’s Red Ore; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men
Gave SEC Summary; Eat Not Men
Seamus MacGarvey, Atonement
Brews Lite Rot; Her Billed Web Tool
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Best Supporting Actor
Me
Jerry Bowed To One; CIA Zod
Robert Downey, Jr., Zodiac
Coors Cipher; Be Arch
Chris Cooper, Breach
Britt Pad; O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence
Brad Pitt, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Rob Hallhook; It Held in Tow
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Brave Dime Jar; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Them
Brave Dime Jar; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Monk Wins Toil; A No-Halt Mill Cycle
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
Rob Hallhook; It Held in Tow
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Undo A Lap; Her Billed Web Tool
Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood
A Pill Of My Four Shy, Hip Men; He Swills On Raw Air
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War
Best Actor
Me
Early Is Me; Corn Lot
Sam Riley, Control
Aye! Flaky Feces; O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
O My Semen Jolt; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men
Gone Cool Grey; A No-Halt Mill Cycle
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Easy, Dallied Win; Her Billed Web Tool
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Them
Gone Cool Grey; A No-Halt Mill Cycle
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Hens Zinged To Lawns; I Can Arrange Gas, Tim
Denzel Wasnington, American Gangster
O My Semen Jolt; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men
Easy, Dallied Win; Her Billed Web Tool
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Jenny Po, Phd.; Dost Ewe Deny
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Best Director
Me
Did More Wankin; O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence Andrew Dominik, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Jan Doe, The Conal Net; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Diver Chin Fad; CIA Zod
David Fincher, Zodiac
Then Soy Dad, Hermit Note
Todd Haynes, I’m Not There
Loan-out Pander Shams, Her Billed Web Tool
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Them
Burn It, Tom; Dost Ewe Deny
Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd
Loan-out Pander Shams; Her Billed Web Tool
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Hi, Jot Grew; Eat Not Men
Joe Wright, Atonement
Jan Doe, The Conal Net; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Sly Tit Décor; I Can Arrange Gas,
Tim Ridley Scott, American Gangster
Best Actress
Me
Omits A Want; Poems Rest In Ears
Naomi Watts, Eastern Promises
Abut; Hens Make Tea
Tabu, The Namesake
Wingate; Usual Tin Cot
Can’t Chat, Belt; Hermit Note
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
A Right Kinky Eel, I; Eat Not Men
Keira Knightley, Atonement
Them
Just Here, L’ici; Who Are For May
Julie Christie, Away from Her
I Am Torn, Ol’ Radical; Erase No Liver
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Can’t Chat, Belt; The Glazed Hoe Beat In Leg
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
A Right Kinky Eel, I; Eat Not Men
Keira Knightley, Atonement
A Rent-A-Home Blancher; Dost Ewe Deny
Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd
By the way, I stumped myself on one of my Best Actress picks. I can't remember who it is.
Best Picture
Me
O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
CIA Zod
Zodiac
Hens Make Tea
The Namesake
Hermit Note
I’m Not There
No One Fry Colt Round Me
No Country for Old Men
Them
A No-Halt Mill Cycle
Michael Clayton
Eat Not Men
Atonement
No One Fry Colt Round Me
No Country for Old Men
Her Billed Web Tool
There Will Be Blood
Dost Ewe Deny
Sweeney Todd
Best Supporting Actress
Me
Jane Mulin; Puked Conk
Julie Mann; Knocked Up
Been Sorry; Hens in U.S.
Rose Byrne, Sunshine
Tag, Move Air Lark; Cone
Marketa Irglova; Once
It Dials In Town; A No-Halt Mill Cycle
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
So As Nine Roar; Eat Not Men
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Them
Can’t Chat, Belt; Hermit Note
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
It Dials In Town; A No-Halt Mill Cycle
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
I Am A Rise, Tom; Owned! You Braked For The Evil Deeds
Marisa Tomei, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Real Job is Out; He Swills On Raw Air
Julia Roberts, Charlie Wilson’s War
So As Nine Roar; Eat Not Men
Saoirse Ronan; Atonement
Best Cinematography
Me
A King’s Red Ore; O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Hit! Ream! Run!; Corn Lot
Martin Ruhe, Control
Driver’s Ash, Sir; CIA Zod
Harris Savides, Zodiac
A King’s Red Ore; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men
Brews Lite Rot, Her Billed Web Tool
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Them
A King’s Red Ore; O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Driver’s Ash, Sir; CIA Zod
Harris Savides, Zodiac
A King’s Red Ore; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men
Gave SEC Summary; Eat Not Men
Seamus MacGarvey, Atonement
Brews Lite Rot; Her Billed Web Tool
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Best Supporting Actor
Me
Jerry Bowed To One; CIA Zod
Robert Downey, Jr., Zodiac
Coors Cipher; Be Arch
Chris Cooper, Breach
Britt Pad; O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence
Brad Pitt, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Rob Hallhook; It Held in Tow
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Brave Dime Jar; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Them
Brave Dime Jar; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Monk Wins Toil; A No-Halt Mill Cycle
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
Rob Hallhook; It Held in Tow
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Undo A Lap; Her Billed Web Tool
Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood
A Pill Of My Four Shy, Hip Men; He Swills On Raw Air
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War
Best Actor
Me
Early Is Me; Corn Lot
Sam Riley, Control
Aye! Flaky Feces; O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
O My Semen Jolt; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men
Gone Cool Grey; A No-Halt Mill Cycle
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Easy, Dallied Win; Her Billed Web Tool
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Them
Gone Cool Grey; A No-Halt Mill Cycle
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Hens Zinged To Lawns; I Can Arrange Gas, Tim
Denzel Wasnington, American Gangster
O My Semen Jolt; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men
Easy, Dallied Win; Her Billed Web Tool
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Jenny Po, Phd.; Dost Ewe Deny
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Best Director
Me
Did More Wankin; O, Do Sassy Bras Jaw John’s Ear, Orbit For a Time, Trade The Essence Andrew Dominik, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Jan Doe, The Conal Net; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Diver Chin Fad; CIA Zod
David Fincher, Zodiac
Then Soy Dad, Hermit Note
Todd Haynes, I’m Not There
Loan-out Pander Shams, Her Billed Web Tool
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Them
Burn It, Tom; Dost Ewe Deny
Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd
Loan-out Pander Shams; Her Billed Web Tool
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Hi, Jot Grew; Eat Not Men
Joe Wright, Atonement
Jan Doe, The Conal Net; No One Fry Colt Round Me
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Sly Tit Décor; I Can Arrange Gas,
Tim Ridley Scott, American Gangster
Best Actress
Me
Omits A Want; Poems Rest In Ears
Naomi Watts, Eastern Promises
Abut; Hens Make Tea
Tabu, The Namesake
Wingate; Usual Tin Cot
Can’t Chat, Belt; Hermit Note
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
A Right Kinky Eel, I; Eat Not Men
Keira Knightley, Atonement
Them
Just Here, L’ici; Who Are For May
Julie Christie, Away from Her
I Am Torn, Ol’ Radical; Erase No Liver
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Can’t Chat, Belt; The Glazed Hoe Beat In Leg
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
A Right Kinky Eel, I; Eat Not Men
Keira Knightley, Atonement
A Rent-A-Home Blancher; Dost Ewe Deny
Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd
The King holiday selection
The King holiday is usually stocked with at least one release targeted to an African-American audience. Last year, for instance, it was a rather likable dance movie called Stomp the Yard. Was there one this weekend that I'm just not thinking of? Or was the only image of African-Americans this weekend the group of looters who show up out of nowhere in the middle of Cloverfield? I mean, with one possible exception, it's a Wonderbread Wonderland except for the looters.
Cloverfield nauseating to others, too
Gotta love the sign at the AMC Stonebriar pictured in this review of Cloverfield by another local film blog. It was a Dramimine sort of experience for me, too, but not necessary from the shaky camera.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Bobby Fischer
The death today of U.S. chess grandmaster/Cold War icon/paranoid cable installer Bobby Fischer begs the question, why hasn't someone made a biopic? Sure, Searching for Bobby Fischer touches on his myth. Yet no one has gone the full measure. It's very natural material, somewhat like A Beautiful Mind without an escape hatch. There are few weirder stories. The youngest ever chess grandmaster, high IQ genius, and high school dropout. American icon and Cold War hero in a game that few Americans understood at the time. Reclusive figure of mystery. Anti-semitic Jew who removed his tooth fillings because he thought they were being used by the KGB to spy on him. This thing begs for the script. I suppose, though, that getting the authorization from the man, much less working with the man, would have been a tangle. You never like to see anyone go, but perhaps his death will make it an easier project.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Nuke this monster
Cloverfield [PG-13]
Grade: F
A towering seaborne creature attacks the cast and set of a W.B. network youth drama during the filming of its very special New York episode. The ground shakes. Buildings crumble. The Statue of Liberty loses its head with one good swack. Dazed by the swift fury and desolate anarchy of the cratering city, a group of marginal actors falls back on what comes naturally to marginal actors – overperforming an emotionally vapid, damsel-in-distress plotline and hoping to survive until the director finally yells, “That’s a wrap.”
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Cloverfield, the Godzilla movie for the YouTube age. Not only does the monster smash acres of Manhattan skyline and bring us the head of Lady Liberty. The thing totally ruins a pretty kick-ass farewell party, as well. Not only a destructive mutant, he’s a party pooper, too. As confused young drunkards pour into the street, as one pal records the whole thing allegedly on a camcorder, a group of friends track through the surreal maze of gunfire, monsters, and corpses, looking for one guy’s girlfriend trapped in a tipped apartment building. Will they live? Will they find love? Will the cameraman ever put the damn thing down for a minute? Find out in this very special episode …
Are audiences ready for a movie that demolishes New York? I have good news for those who aren’t. This doesn’t strike me as New York. Not really. There are no old people. No ugly people. No tired. No poor. No huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Director Matt Reeves and producer JJ Abrams (ABC's “Lost”) have rub-a-dub scrubbed this Big Apple of all but its most beautiful inhabitants, and you suspect that Martin Scorsese doesn’t make it out alive. If you leave the theater wondering about the motivation for the wrath of the monster, perhaps he was disappointed with his plastic surgeon.
I don’t instinctively mind the handheld, amateur cameraman conceit. But when you make that choice, as Reeves and Abrams have done, you raise certain expectations of a realistic, verite experience. Instead, Cloverfield is like watching a “reality” show pieced together by control freaks. Its style seems meticulously combed and picked over. Yet with all the fuss, the movie still badly misses a satisfying level of authenticity.
Cloverfield has no real-to-life dead space. No weird side trips. No dead ends. Quiet moments get lanced by cell phones. Small silences exist only to compress the gases of eventual activity. For allegedly being recovered by the government from a pile of rubble, the video has been curiously well edited for pace, its characters expertly burned down to the plotline. No moments are there to bore, to breathe in, to exist with only the idea of existence in mind.
Is it wrong to complain about a monster movie’s acting? Not in this case. With its verite promises, this one needs a particular kind of performance. Stars are out of the question. So you should use fresh up-and-comers who blend in easily, or non-actors entirely. Instead, Cloverfield casts inexperienced actors of limited bearing, seemingly culled from all of the nation’s best hair salon advertisements, and asks them to convince you that a big, bad monster really is upturning tankers and busting bridges in New York harbor. You never feel these are anything more than hungry, pretty wannabes running through an acting school exercise. Compare this cast to the pitch-perfect anonymity of United 93, and it doesn’t compare.
There’s no halfway with Cloverfield. Either you dig in or you don’t dig it at all. There’s no way to say how any one person will react to it and its corporately endorsed, J. Crew hipness. (Sheesh, is this country in need of a counterculture, or what? ) Its 9-11 metaphors are so menial that I nearly failed to mention them. If it sounds like I’m pooping this party, it may be the one common thing that the monster and I have in mind.
Grade: F
A towering seaborne creature attacks the cast and set of a W.B. network youth drama during the filming of its very special New York episode. The ground shakes. Buildings crumble. The Statue of Liberty loses its head with one good swack. Dazed by the swift fury and desolate anarchy of the cratering city, a group of marginal actors falls back on what comes naturally to marginal actors – overperforming an emotionally vapid, damsel-in-distress plotline and hoping to survive until the director finally yells, “That’s a wrap.”
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Cloverfield, the Godzilla movie for the YouTube age. Not only does the monster smash acres of Manhattan skyline and bring us the head of Lady Liberty. The thing totally ruins a pretty kick-ass farewell party, as well. Not only a destructive mutant, he’s a party pooper, too. As confused young drunkards pour into the street, as one pal records the whole thing allegedly on a camcorder, a group of friends track through the surreal maze of gunfire, monsters, and corpses, looking for one guy’s girlfriend trapped in a tipped apartment building. Will they live? Will they find love? Will the cameraman ever put the damn thing down for a minute? Find out in this very special episode …
Are audiences ready for a movie that demolishes New York? I have good news for those who aren’t. This doesn’t strike me as New York. Not really. There are no old people. No ugly people. No tired. No poor. No huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Director Matt Reeves and producer JJ Abrams (ABC's “Lost”) have rub-a-dub scrubbed this Big Apple of all but its most beautiful inhabitants, and you suspect that Martin Scorsese doesn’t make it out alive. If you leave the theater wondering about the motivation for the wrath of the monster, perhaps he was disappointed with his plastic surgeon.
I don’t instinctively mind the handheld, amateur cameraman conceit. But when you make that choice, as Reeves and Abrams have done, you raise certain expectations of a realistic, verite experience. Instead, Cloverfield is like watching a “reality” show pieced together by control freaks. Its style seems meticulously combed and picked over. Yet with all the fuss, the movie still badly misses a satisfying level of authenticity.
Cloverfield has no real-to-life dead space. No weird side trips. No dead ends. Quiet moments get lanced by cell phones. Small silences exist only to compress the gases of eventual activity. For allegedly being recovered by the government from a pile of rubble, the video has been curiously well edited for pace, its characters expertly burned down to the plotline. No moments are there to bore, to breathe in, to exist with only the idea of existence in mind.
Is it wrong to complain about a monster movie’s acting? Not in this case. With its verite promises, this one needs a particular kind of performance. Stars are out of the question. So you should use fresh up-and-comers who blend in easily, or non-actors entirely. Instead, Cloverfield casts inexperienced actors of limited bearing, seemingly culled from all of the nation’s best hair salon advertisements, and asks them to convince you that a big, bad monster really is upturning tankers and busting bridges in New York harbor. You never feel these are anything more than hungry, pretty wannabes running through an acting school exercise. Compare this cast to the pitch-perfect anonymity of United 93, and it doesn’t compare.
There’s no halfway with Cloverfield. Either you dig in or you don’t dig it at all. There’s no way to say how any one person will react to it and its corporately endorsed, J. Crew hipness. (Sheesh, is this country in need of a counterculture, or what? ) Its 9-11 metaphors are so menial that I nearly failed to mention them. If it sounds like I’m pooping this party, it may be the one common thing that the monster and I have in mind.
Worth a buck
Mad Money [PG]
Grade: C
In recent years, I’ve developed a strong allergy to Diane Keaton.
Maybe she's always clogged my nose. Her comic energy fits well in some of the early Woody Allen movies, but I’m not the biggest fan of Annie Hall. There’s little in the Godfather films that a hundred actresses couldn’t do.
In recent years, in films like the wretched The Family Stone and the putrid Because I Said So, she invariably plays the overbearing mother hen, weaving between nagging petulance to schmaltzy fluff, with a bad habit of breaking into spontaneous karaoke renditions of Motown songs that no one wants to hear. Sometimes you wonder if she chooses roles based less on quality than whether or not they look fun to make.
Among these films, Mad Money is relatively sufferable. Not outstanding, by any means. But at least her mother’s-little-helper screen persona evolves into something halfway watchable for stretches. She’s helped by a cast that bonds well over a half-interesting plot that, for once, has nothing to do with the female marriage fetish.
Keaton plays the housewifing half of a married couple drowning in bills after her husband (Ted Danson) loses his corporate job. Moving into the job market, she finds that motherhood, middle age, and a comparative literature degree do not a hot job prospect make. Soon, she takes a job beneath her upper middle class bearings, as a cleaning lady at the Federal Reserve bank in Kansas City.
The bills are hardly going to be paid by scrubbing toilets. So soon she’s plotting with a couple of fellow workers (Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes) to steal worn-out Ben Franklins marked for destruction. Hey, the stuff’s heading for the trash heap, anyway. They figure out a way to beat the bank’s security system, and soon their cabinets, closets, and toilets are growing green. But it’s the built-in human security system of greed and overconfidence that they find harder and harder to beat.
The movie takes too long to tell its story, and the rather simple robbery gambit doesn’t really justify the length and wait. That said, the film forms a likable vibe and camaraderie among its three female leads that’s more genuine than it feels like it ought to be. The feminine focus lets Danson do something he can do majestically – lay on the couch and let rip with a string of riotous lines. A perfect role for him, and he's the movie's real (scene) stealer.
Even more comforting is that the film isn’t completely empty. It at least pays lip service, if not quite cold hard cash, to the love of money being the root of all evil, and to the way that a small crime transforms into a major criminal enterprise when people can’t put the brakes on their greed and desire to consume.
Sure, it’s not Sartre. But at least it got me through a Diane Keaton screening. There’s something to be said for that.
Grade: C
In recent years, I’ve developed a strong allergy to Diane Keaton.
Maybe she's always clogged my nose. Her comic energy fits well in some of the early Woody Allen movies, but I’m not the biggest fan of Annie Hall. There’s little in the Godfather films that a hundred actresses couldn’t do.
In recent years, in films like the wretched The Family Stone and the putrid Because I Said So, she invariably plays the overbearing mother hen, weaving between nagging petulance to schmaltzy fluff, with a bad habit of breaking into spontaneous karaoke renditions of Motown songs that no one wants to hear. Sometimes you wonder if she chooses roles based less on quality than whether or not they look fun to make.
Among these films, Mad Money is relatively sufferable. Not outstanding, by any means. But at least her mother’s-little-helper screen persona evolves into something halfway watchable for stretches. She’s helped by a cast that bonds well over a half-interesting plot that, for once, has nothing to do with the female marriage fetish.
Keaton plays the housewifing half of a married couple drowning in bills after her husband (Ted Danson) loses his corporate job. Moving into the job market, she finds that motherhood, middle age, and a comparative literature degree do not a hot job prospect make. Soon, she takes a job beneath her upper middle class bearings, as a cleaning lady at the Federal Reserve bank in Kansas City.
The bills are hardly going to be paid by scrubbing toilets. So soon she’s plotting with a couple of fellow workers (Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes) to steal worn-out Ben Franklins marked for destruction. Hey, the stuff’s heading for the trash heap, anyway. They figure out a way to beat the bank’s security system, and soon their cabinets, closets, and toilets are growing green. But it’s the built-in human security system of greed and overconfidence that they find harder and harder to beat.
The movie takes too long to tell its story, and the rather simple robbery gambit doesn’t really justify the length and wait. That said, the film forms a likable vibe and camaraderie among its three female leads that’s more genuine than it feels like it ought to be. The feminine focus lets Danson do something he can do majestically – lay on the couch and let rip with a string of riotous lines. A perfect role for him, and he's the movie's real (scene) stealer.
Even more comforting is that the film isn’t completely empty. It at least pays lip service, if not quite cold hard cash, to the love of money being the root of all evil, and to the way that a small crime transforms into a major criminal enterprise when people can’t put the brakes on their greed and desire to consume.
Sure, it’s not Sartre. But at least it got me through a Diane Keaton screening. There’s something to be said for that.
I hate January
If January seems like a blah movie period to you, imagine a film critic who actually has to go and witness the frickin' movies. Just a lot of various degrees of mediocre that no one really wants to see, punctured every once in a while by the outright turkey. Someone wake me in March or so. At least that's a dumping period that usually turns up an interesting gem or two.
Young corporate officer heros
I will have my review of Cloverfield up sometime shortly after midnight. Assuming I'm awake then. But I have this question that's sparked by the movie.
The closest thing to a main character that the film has is a twentysomething corporate type who just got promoted to vice president. His love goes toward a beautiful, wealthy, vapid, debutante-style semi-girlfriend.
Now I have no real bone with twenty-something corporate types. Many of them are fine people, I'm sure, who do volunteer work on the weekend and everything.
But when the hell did young people start rooting for them at the movies?
When did movie heros stop being loners and rebels who had to be called on to save the system? OK, it's true that that model is still around, and will be in evidence in The Dark Knight this summer, for instance. But for the life of me, I can't remember the last time that a young executive was the hero of an action movie.
Is this the start of a trend?
The closest thing to a main character that the film has is a twentysomething corporate type who just got promoted to vice president. His love goes toward a beautiful, wealthy, vapid, debutante-style semi-girlfriend.
Now I have no real bone with twenty-something corporate types. Many of them are fine people, I'm sure, who do volunteer work on the weekend and everything.
But when the hell did young people start rooting for them at the movies?
When did movie heros stop being loners and rebels who had to be called on to save the system? OK, it's true that that model is still around, and will be in evidence in The Dark Knight this summer, for instance. But for the life of me, I can't remember the last time that a young executive was the hero of an action movie.
Is this the start of a trend?
The five best lines from The Big Lebowski
1) "The Little Lebowski Urban Achievers, yes, and proud we are of all of them." - Maude
2) "For your information, the Supreme Court has roundly rejected prior restraint." - Walter
3) "I still jerk off manually." - The Dude, in reply to Jackie Treehorn's description of the computerized pornography of the future.
4) "It's good to know he's out there - The Dude - takin'er easy for all us sinners." - Sam Elliott.
5) "Your Revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski! Condolences! The bums lost!" - The Big Lebowski
2) "For your information, the Supreme Court has roundly rejected prior restraint." - Walter
3) "I still jerk off manually." - The Dude, in reply to Jackie Treehorn's description of the computerized pornography of the future.
4) "It's good to know he's out there - The Dude - takin'er easy for all us sinners." - Sam Elliott.
5) "Your Revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski! Condolences! The bums lost!" - The Big Lebowski
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
My dream date: Diablo Cody
So last night, I dreamed that I had a date with Diablo Cody. Of course ouside of immediate family, no one in my dreams actually look like they are who they are. But it was her nonetheless. Anyway, it was no big whoop. We just hung around her place, shot the bull. I'm pleased to report that while it started slowly, it seemed to go OK after awhile. I think things are looking good for a second date.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Golden Globes? Yawn. I'm getting around to it.
By the way, I didn't comment on the Golden Globes the other night. Mainly because I didn't watch. If there are no hokey jokes and stars humiliating themselves, what's the point? For the record, I don't see Atonement getting the win at the Academy Awards. I'm not sure that I even see it getting a nomination, given the lack of nominations from the guilds - DGA, PGA, SAG, etc. It just doesn't seem like the movie professionals whose votes ultimately matter are digging it.
Of course, I live in Dallas. What do I know. I'm reading, not hearing.
Of course, I live in Dallas. What do I know. I'm reading, not hearing.
Cloverfield tonight
Tonight, I get my look at Cloverfield, maybe the only anticipated film for the next couple of months. I'm not a Lost fan, and I was mezzo-mezzo on Mission Impossible 3. So I may be a good canary in the coal mine on this one. I won't be raving about the movie because I'm a huge JJ Abrams guy.
Either way, It's nice to have a movie to look forward to so early in the season.
Either way, It's nice to have a movie to look forward to so early in the season.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Kick this bucket
The Bucket List [PG-13]
Grade: D
My cup of (dis-) spirits just can’t seem to runneth over for The Bucket List.
While some critics are attacking the movie as if up on a Bran Flakes box of fiber, I feel like reaching for the Metamucil. Sorry. My joints are simply too wobbly for bashing too often. I have better things to defile with my still youthful vinegar.
The Jack Nicholson-Morgan Freeman six-months-to-live vehicle is many negative things – smirking, unrealistic, short on insight. Yet, in the grand scheme of things, it’s a fairly harmless piece of wish fulfillment for the Bingo set. There are more pressing things to hate. You have to choose your battles.
The movie revolves around a friendship developed by two cancer patients. Nicholson plays Charlie, a wealthy loner and health care magnate. He owns the hospital in which he rests. The staff has stuck him, grumpily, with an unwanted roommate. That would be Freeman’s Carter, a mechanic with a fondness for history and fortune-cookie wisdom from other cultures.
The tokens of friendship here are chemotherapy, vomiting, and gin rummy. When both men are stamped with an expiration date, they write down all the things they want to do before they kick the bucket. Then they set out across the globe – Hong Kong, the Pyramids, the Himalayas – to do them.
Most films starring Nicholson nowadays become a referendum on his personality. He doesn’t want to be a product of his environment, he explains in The Departed. He wants the environment to be a “product of me.” That can be said for his acting style, such as it remains. Still, Nicholson’s doing-jigsaws-in-the-tower persona successfully lowers expectations. When he doesn’t break out in some random act of cosmic insanity, we’re surprised, because we’ve forgotten he’s a human being. Probably.
Freeman contributes his deep voice, easy manner, and not much else. If he puts forth only mild energy, perhaps he’s taking the cue from the film’s stodgy stunts. For instance, a classic-car race around an oval makes you worry more about their dentures than their bodies.
The film’s can-do, can’t-take-it-with-you spirit, however contrived, is fairly amiable. But it lacks a darker side and spiritual depth. It’s a movie about mortality that has only lip service for God and death. Those are the missing elements that would have turned this geriatric tourist trap into the long, strange trip that it should have been.
Grade: D
My cup of (dis-) spirits just can’t seem to runneth over for The Bucket List.
While some critics are attacking the movie as if up on a Bran Flakes box of fiber, I feel like reaching for the Metamucil. Sorry. My joints are simply too wobbly for bashing too often. I have better things to defile with my still youthful vinegar.
The Jack Nicholson-Morgan Freeman six-months-to-live vehicle is many negative things – smirking, unrealistic, short on insight. Yet, in the grand scheme of things, it’s a fairly harmless piece of wish fulfillment for the Bingo set. There are more pressing things to hate. You have to choose your battles.
The movie revolves around a friendship developed by two cancer patients. Nicholson plays Charlie, a wealthy loner and health care magnate. He owns the hospital in which he rests. The staff has stuck him, grumpily, with an unwanted roommate. That would be Freeman’s Carter, a mechanic with a fondness for history and fortune-cookie wisdom from other cultures.
The tokens of friendship here are chemotherapy, vomiting, and gin rummy. When both men are stamped with an expiration date, they write down all the things they want to do before they kick the bucket. Then they set out across the globe – Hong Kong, the Pyramids, the Himalayas – to do them.
Most films starring Nicholson nowadays become a referendum on his personality. He doesn’t want to be a product of his environment, he explains in The Departed. He wants the environment to be a “product of me.” That can be said for his acting style, such as it remains. Still, Nicholson’s doing-jigsaws-in-the-tower persona successfully lowers expectations. When he doesn’t break out in some random act of cosmic insanity, we’re surprised, because we’ve forgotten he’s a human being. Probably.
Freeman contributes his deep voice, easy manner, and not much else. If he puts forth only mild energy, perhaps he’s taking the cue from the film’s stodgy stunts. For instance, a classic-car race around an oval makes you worry more about their dentures than their bodies.
The film’s can-do, can’t-take-it-with-you spirit, however contrived, is fairly amiable. But it lacks a darker side and spiritual depth. It’s a movie about mortality that has only lip service for God and death. Those are the missing elements that would have turned this geriatric tourist trap into the long, strange trip that it should have been.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Going to voice mail
One Missed Call [PG-13]
Grade: D
For finding out that she has just one day to live, Beth Raymond seems to be taking it all rather well.
What would you do if that sudden revelation were thrust upon you, by a cell phone no less? No climbing Machu Picchu? No jetting off to Paris for filet mignon? Perhaps she’s too young, or too pretty, or too female to have hidden a bucket list in the living room drawer. Or perhaps, as in other schlock horror movies like One Missed Call, she’s too involved in the business of becoming a corpse. And so Beth (Shannyn Sossamon) slithers into a dank duct, flashlight in hand, marching to the plot like a dutiful horror trooper.
One Missed Call is part psychological thriller and part supernatural Nancy Drew story. It’s not the singlemost wretched quiver of stabbed-through-the-heart horror clichés you’ll ever sit through. But it’s far from the best, either.
Like some horrible digital-age chain letter that takes the part about bad luck too seriously, her friends are being killed by a chain of messages left on their cell phones. Each message comes in their own voice, always from the last dead duck’s cell phone, always at the time of the recipient’s death. Not that this chain seems like much of a loss. You don’t suspect that any character has any human relationships outside of the people onscreen. With some of the chilly acting, you also wonder if they’re about to hit room temperature or if they’re already there.
The difficulty for horror films is that they act as their own self-parody. Even filmmakers have come to accept this. The cinematic language has rotted to the point where you can’t read a film’s intentions clearly. Is your spine supposed to tingle or your lips to laugh? There’s far too much of this – too many confusing signals between the screen and the audience. But at least the garners some sort of response – a jump here, a chill there – which I cannot deny.
Grade: D
For finding out that she has just one day to live, Beth Raymond seems to be taking it all rather well.
What would you do if that sudden revelation were thrust upon you, by a cell phone no less? No climbing Machu Picchu? No jetting off to Paris for filet mignon? Perhaps she’s too young, or too pretty, or too female to have hidden a bucket list in the living room drawer. Or perhaps, as in other schlock horror movies like One Missed Call, she’s too involved in the business of becoming a corpse. And so Beth (Shannyn Sossamon) slithers into a dank duct, flashlight in hand, marching to the plot like a dutiful horror trooper.
One Missed Call is part psychological thriller and part supernatural Nancy Drew story. It’s not the singlemost wretched quiver of stabbed-through-the-heart horror clichés you’ll ever sit through. But it’s far from the best, either.
Like some horrible digital-age chain letter that takes the part about bad luck too seriously, her friends are being killed by a chain of messages left on their cell phones. Each message comes in their own voice, always from the last dead duck’s cell phone, always at the time of the recipient’s death. Not that this chain seems like much of a loss. You don’t suspect that any character has any human relationships outside of the people onscreen. With some of the chilly acting, you also wonder if they’re about to hit room temperature or if they’re already there.
The difficulty for horror films is that they act as their own self-parody. Even filmmakers have come to accept this. The cinematic language has rotted to the point where you can’t read a film’s intentions clearly. Is your spine supposed to tingle or your lips to laugh? There’s far too much of this – too many confusing signals between the screen and the audience. But at least the garners some sort of response – a jump here, a chill there – which I cannot deny.
Anti-D is back!
I'm back. Hopefully.
My apologies. I've been in and around bed for a number of days. But I'm feeling better now.
My apologies. I've been in and around bed for a number of days. But I'm feeling better now.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Charlie Wilson's Hit!
Everyone might be talking about the upstart success of that little generational mis-stereotype Juno. But fewer people are talking about the less talked about success of Charlie Wilson's War. I wasn't that positive on the film, but I can see why someone who doesn't have as intimate of a knowledge of the true story (I've read the highly amusing book) would potentially enjoy the film.
I was walking through a mall in the days prior to the film's release, and a 50ish mom was walking next to her late teen daughter. We passed a kiosk and she motioned to it, implying her interest. I had a strange feeling that the film might do well at that point. Given the small weekly drops in business, it seems to be performing to that expectation.
I was walking through a mall in the days prior to the film's release, and a 50ish mom was walking next to her late teen daughter. We passed a kiosk and she motioned to it, implying her interest. I had a strange feeling that the film might do well at that point. Given the small weekly drops in business, it seems to be performing to that expectation.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Once for Christmas
I received the soundtrack to Once for Christmas. Listening to it, you realize how underrated is "The Hill" (the piano song during the break in the recording session, I believe). As good as "Falling Slowly" and "If You Want Me." Listening to the soundtrack really is like recapturing a bit of the movie's beauty.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Zodiac on an Oscar push?
Zodiac, my second favorite film of the year, is finally attracting the Oscar attention that it deserves. Unfortunately, it's starting up at the last possible moment. But better late than never. Particularly for James Vanderbilt's wonderful script, which got a nomination for a Scripter Award last week. I'm very happy to see this. Vanderbilt's script smoothly incorporates tons of potentially dry investigatory facts whilec cultivating its narrative, artistic and comedic sensibilities. Which is my way of saying, "Good job."
Diane Keaton
So I went into tonight's screening of Mad Money without knowing a single thing about it. If I had known one thing about it, that Diane Keaton was involved, I might have skipped. Don't take anything that I'm about to say as a negative toward the movie. My response might surprise you, but I have to save it until next week. It's just that, I can't stand her. She's simply one of those actresses that doesn't work for me. Roughly ever. I like The Godfather, of course, but keep a stopwatch on it. I wouldn't bet on anything more than five minutes of screen time. I've never gotten very far into Annie Hall. I've never understood her appeal.
Of course, much of the distaste stems from recent efforts like The Family Stone and the risible Because I Said So, where she seems so distressingly natural at playing the overbearing mom. But if you're outlining the basics of the Diane Keaton movie ... it must have a young woman for her to dominate and a husband to nitpick. IT must have a scene where she loses it (preferably more than one). And most of all it must have a scene where she and a couple other younger women sing along girlishly to a Motown song.
Of course, much of the distaste stems from recent efforts like The Family Stone and the risible Because I Said So, where she seems so distressingly natural at playing the overbearing mom. But if you're outlining the basics of the Diane Keaton movie ... it must have a young woman for her to dominate and a husband to nitpick. IT must have a scene where she loses it (preferably more than one). And most of all it must have a scene where she and a couple other younger women sing along girlishly to a Motown song.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Unlikely cinematic relatives
I was thinking about 2005's Pride and Prejudice the other day. It occurred to me, what are the chances that Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn would procreate, and the first two pies out of the oven would turn out to be Keira Knightley and Rosamund Pike? Something does not compute.
What are your favorites mismatched family members, the ones that you just can't imagine actually being relatives?
What are your favorites mismatched family members, the ones that you just can't imagine actually being relatives?
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