Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Linklets

And the Winner Is... following the Oscar race on Twitter. This is quite comprehensive it is
Esquire interview with Sherlock Holmes's Robert Downey Jr. Amazing photoshoot
Paste Magazine 25 Best Docs of the Aughts. The Gleaners and I wayyyy too low
MovieLine Mad Men power rankings, a recap with an angle. A hoot



MNPP dreams of Jake Gyllenhaal's ostrich impression
Indie Wire 20 Films to compete for 5 Best Animated Feature Oscar spots. I want everyone to remember I assured 5 nominees right from the beginning of the year despite all the "there's not enough" naysayers. Toot Toot (my own horn)
Old Hollywood Marlene Dietrich. So quotable
The Advocate interviews Tom Ford on the eve of that directorial debut A Single Man which I'm seeing tomorrow. Wheeeee
In Contention thinks Dion Beebe's got the cinematography Oscar this year for Nine

Finally... have you heard of this website SoundWorks Collection? They'll be doing bi-weekly profiles for this year's Oscar contenders in sound. That could prove interesting since it's a category that's often still like a foreign language to most civilians (that's us).

SoundWorks Collection Promo from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.



There's not much coverage for 2009 yet but they do have one up on Up from earlier this year which could well figure into the sound categories as animated films do from time to time.

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4 comments:

Billy D said...

Woohoo, can't wait to see your reaction to A Single Man. Have you seen this review on imdb? It perfectly captures all my worst fears for this movie, and seems entirely plausible, but I'm trying to reserve judgement:

"Tom Ford's vanity project turns Christopher Isherwood's novel of loss and grief into one long Calvin Klein commercial. The film is so concerned with surface gloss, it's like a parody of the type of film you'd think a fashion designer would make. There is a fussiness over art direction and costuming that always draws attention to itself, but which often doesn't feel right for the characters or even the period (Julianne Moore wears a op-art style dress that didn't come in till several years later, the little girl next door wears ridiculously elaborate dresses to play outside).

There are endless slow motion shots of flowing gowns and macro close ups of eyes (and more importantly eye make up) that are utterly meaningless, apart from Ford going: "Look, isn't that pretty!". From Almodovar, to Todd Haynes, to The Bad Seed, Ford steals visual motives from seemingly every queer movie ever made, without tying them to his themes. The film never flows, because Ford's camera constantly leers at fabric, mascara or modernist teak furniture.

As to the performances, Julianne Moore gives good fag hag and can this type of role in her sleep now and Colin Firth does his detached Englishman thing and displays a dry wit that makes the occasional moment work. Every other male in the movie looks distractingly like a contemporary cat walk model.

Ford thinks he gives you high art here, but all he comes up with is curdled camp."

Glenn said...

Yeah, when I did my year-in-advance predix I just assumed there'd be five because there were so many titles and you can always add 5 on top of titles that nobody has ever heard of.

That Twitter list is interesting, but so many of them aren't verified as even being real so it's hard to tell if Quentin Tarantino's one is actually him or just some bored idiot in Wisconsin.

Deborah said...

Good doc list but they left off my favorite documentary EVER; Trembling Before G-d.

Nate Tyson said...

I'm so glad people remember The Gleaners and I. Such a lovely film.