Commentary and the list after the jump.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Oscars Visual FX Finalists: Love of Teal & Orange Light Shows Continues Unabated
The Academy's visual effects branch has released its list of finalists for the eventual nominations. For the first year the category will be five-wide. It had always been limited to three nominees in previous years. Given how much of modern cinema is f/x driven, the expansion makes sense. But their finalist-list only serve to remind us that the category, which is technically called Achievement in Visual Effects really ought to be retitled Biggest Computer Generated Imagery. It's hard to find 5 worthy* nominees from this list, isn't it?
Commentary and the list after the jump.
Commentary and the list after the jump.
Distant Relatives: The Spirit of the Beehive and Pan's Labyrinth
Robert here, with my new series Distant Relatives, where we look at two films, (one classic, one modern) related through a common theme and ask what their similarities and differences can tell us about the evolution of cinema.
Érase una vez...
There was a young girl in the civil war-torn Spainish country, very alone in the world, her mother hung up with a new lover, all she had was the flights of often frightening fantasy brought on by amazing tales. It is surprising the similarities between Victor Erice's 1973 Spirit of the Beehive and Guillermo Del Toro's 2006 Pan's Labyrinth. Both have young raven-haired girls as protagonists. Both take place in the same decade in the same country and ask how their protagonists can comprehend and cope with the danger and unrest of their very similar situations. And in that, they are not surprising. Artists have been musing at the inner lives of children in trouble since, well, forever.
There was a young girl in the civil war-torn Spainish country, very alone in the world, her mother hung up with a new lover, all she had was the flights of often frightening fantasy brought on by amazing tales. It is surprising the similarities between Victor Erice's 1973 Spirit of the Beehive and Guillermo Del Toro's 2006 Pan's Labyrinth. Both have young raven-haired girls as protagonists. Both take place in the same decade in the same country and ask how their protagonists can comprehend and cope with the danger and unrest of their very similar situations. And in that, they are not surprising. Artists have been musing at the inner lives of children in trouble since, well, forever.
Comment Party. "We've Got Choreography!"
Which Academy Awards category that doesn't exist should?
...Stunts? Ensemble? Casting? Which nonexistent category do you wish they'd invent?
You know that if they still had Best Dance Direction (1935-1937 RIP) or some such choreography prize, that Benjamin Millipied who dances, acts, and choreographs Black Swan (as well as romancing Natalie Portman offscreen) would be in the running for an Oscar.
For more on Millipied, check out his Out Magazine interview.
ANYWAYYYY.. Oscar categories that don't exit. Discuss.
*
...Stunts? Ensemble? Casting? Which nonexistent category do you wish they'd invent?
You know that if they still had Best Dance Direction (1935-1937 RIP) or some such choreography prize, that Benjamin Millipied who dances, acts, and choreographs Black Swan (as well as romancing Natalie Portman offscreen) would be in the running for an Oscar.
For more on Millipied, check out his Out Magazine interview.
“My curiosity goes a lot further than just the ballet world... my body has a certain amount of knowledge that has nothing to do with ballet.”Given his modelling, off ballet interests, Portman dating, and now acting, maybe we'll be seeing more of him after Swan? For someone who can leap so high in the air, Millipied's official site is weirdly horizontal --- scroll scroll scroll across not up or down.
ANYWAYYYY.. Oscar categories that don't exit. Discuss.
*
Jeremy Renner. Kirsten Dunst. It's "All Good..."
Shone prefaces his list claiming that he doesn't believe in "great acting" at least not the way it's commonly defined by the Oscars.
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Yes, No, Maybe So: "Real Steel"
"Hey Hey Hey, Hugh Jackman is in the house!!!"Real Steel opens in October 2011. A weird time for a summer movie to open. Except that it's a parody of a summer movie and not an actual summer movie, right? Right. Thought so. What? It's not? ohno. LOLZ
In Shawn Levy's Real Steel, Hugh Jackman builds giant boxing robots to carry on in his manly sweaty boxing footsteps. He now runs a boxing club for robots or something. Or maybe he just visits and trains them? Anthony Mackie plays some sort of mic-wielding emcee.
(omg. please let him battle Eminem again as, like, a cameo subplot. That'd be so sweet.)
So let's give Real Steel the Yes, No, Maybe So™ Film Experience trailer treatment.
Please don't try too hard Jackman. Please don't shout "Bring it!" any more. Or maybe whisper it or sing it if you're contractually obliged to deliver the line. That is all.
____- Signed, a concerned Jackmaniac
P.S. ...who would really like you to do a movie musical before you are 80 years old. WHEN?! Stop making stupid movies.
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"I'm Awesome!"
_____love, The Bening
P.S. Or "Love The Bening." Both punctuations work, my fans.
Unsung Heroes: The Editing of Exit Through the Gift Shop
Michael C. back again from Serious Film. It's time to wrap up the first season of Unsung Heroes and I thought what better way to do that than to focus on a film that's still in the 2010 conversation while there's a chance to upgrade its status from "unsung" to "frequently honored".
The editing of Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop would be a long shot even if it didn’t come from a documentary. The fact that it does puts its chances for recognition outside of a guild award somewhere just shy of nonexistent. Too bad since I saw no more effective use of montage at theaters in 2010, communicating a variety of complicated ideas while on the surface telling a simple, compelling narrative.
If you didn’t know anything about how awards voters marked their ballots you might logically assume that documentaries would have a big advantage in the editing categories due to the challenges they present. After all, fiction films have the advantage of working from a set script while non-fiction movies are handed the task of sculpting a narrative out of the raw material of real life. That was certainly the case with Gift Shop, which is drawn from the archives of a man who shot video compulsively, every day, for the better part of a decade. (the truth of this, like most of the film, is open to debate, but there was undoubtedly a wealth of material to sort through) That ninety of the sharpest minutes of the year were fashioned out of this vast ocean of footage is stunning.
It’s a testament to the skill of editors Chris King and Tom Fulford that accusations of the film being a hoax are so widespread. It’s hard to believe that the sloppiness of real life could yield results that put the vast majority of Hollywood productions to shame. Nobody is going to accuse a boring, flat documentary of being staged. Big ideas about art aside, this film moves. It’s got energy and zip. The dismal blockbusters from last Summer would have been fortunate to match half of this film's energy.
Gift Shop juggles so many separate strands so skillfully we don’t realize how much they packed into the narrative until we think back on it. It is introduced as a character study of eccentric art world gadfly Thierry Guetta, and on that level it is fascinating enough. It adds to that a portrait of an artistic movement with rare intimacy and understanding of its subject, and then peppers in enough character beats to make the stunning story twists of the last third believable. That it then tops it all off with an in depth meditation on the nature of art is what elevates this to a special level of achievement. I didn’t expect a doc about street artists to deepen my understanding of what separates a good artist from a bad one, but that’s what it did. Anybody who looks at graffiti and sniffs, “How could that be art?” could well find the answer here.
We've seen the same dynamic repeated in this series in which work that falls outside the conventional wisdom of what is award worthy goes unnoticed. I thought it would be worthwhile for the season finale of Unsung Heroes to recognize something that still had hope of finding larger recognition. So have at it voting bodies. Open your minds when you mark those ballots. Don't just mark Waiting for Superman because it seems important. And while you're at it, take another look at the production design of Black Swan, the score of The Social Network, and the cinematography of Somewhere. Make my job hard. Season 1 of Unsung Heroes:
Paths of Glory, Punch-Drunk Love, Dumbo, Duck Soup, In Bruges, The Descent, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Big Lebowski, Ratatouille, Election, The 25th Hour, Rob Roy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Pulp Fiction
12 Hungry Films (Plus: Black Swan Geek-Out)
My Oscar charts are in terrible need of reassessment but I've been devoting all my hours to working on the new website. It's a hungry beast. So, in the interim, you should check out my new article at Tribeca Film where I wonder about the 12 pictures that seem to have the most heat going into balloting season. 8 films have looked to be fairly settled for Best Picture nods for a couple of months now (The Social Network, 127 Hours, The Town, The Kids Are All Right, Toy Story 3, The King's Speech, Inception and Winter's Bone) but the problem is that there are 4 newer, and thus shinier, December pictures that want in (Black Swan, True Grit, The Fighter and Another Year). 8 + 4 ≠ 10 so something's got to give. Which films are most vulnerable? And will the Globes upset expectations, as they are prone to do, propping up a 13th or 14th option?
Many of you (here and offblog) have told me that I've been underestimating Black Swan's Oscar capacity and I tend to agree; just haven't had time to update the charts. Next week everything will need a major overhaul anyway given the busy awards calendar.
<-- Beautiful Barbara Hershey. Will any critics group acknowledge her unsettling maternity in Black Swan?
I had the pleasure of attending the Fox Searchlight holiday party earlier this week here in NYC and though four films were being honored, Black Swan was sucking up the oxygen. Otherwise James Franco was consistently surrounded by well wishers, journalists, and other industry types and Conviction's Sam Rockwell (see 'best in show' article) and Juliette Lewis (our fab interview) were in high spirits and on their way to a charity event after the party.
I had a geeky fanboy moment with Darren Aronofsky, who I had to share with a few other critics since he was so in demand for conversation. After thanking him for a filmography that's always worth writing about (a huge plus whether you consider the individual films follies or masterpieces), the group conversation somehow turned to top ten lists. He actually teased me about how high Black Swan would place in mine. 'Top ten? That's it?' he asked in mock disappointment. 'What, does that mean, like, #9? These things are important.' Funny guy who one expects would be über serious in person; blame those obsessively dramatic films that we've dramatically obsessed over for the past decade.
Finally, me being me, you can probably guess that I made a B line for Barbara Hershey the second I arrived. I had to tell her how great it was to see her in something high profile again and then we chatted briefly about some 80s movies. (Hannah and Her Sisters and The Last Temptation of Christ are, as it turns out, the movies people stop to talk to her about the most.) I brought up A World Apart and Shy People "It's not even on DVD!" she exclaimed about the latter. I co-miserated. I didn't bore her with this next bit but I consider it a huge failing of our modern film culture that even if you win Best Actress at Cannes (Twice!) your films can sometimes vanish from view entirely.
When I said goodbye I told her that I hoped her phone is ringing off the hook post Black Swan. "Not yet." she replied.
Sheesh, what's a girl got to do for Hollywood to recognize her gift? Casting directors need to jump on that. She's still beautiful at 62 (Black Swan downplays this, given the terror implicit in her role, but in person it's a different story) and still a fine actress. Not that anyone should have doubted her ability after that special '84-'88 run, the Oscar nomination for Portrait of a Lady (1995) and this Swan dive into a major portrait in miniature. How can she pack so much into so little screentime as Erica Sayers? It's all there from lost dreams, to shut-in enabled demons through to the total negation of self. She's emptied herself out to make room for vicarious living through Nina. It's just too tragic that even her vicarious living is self sabotage, she's projecting failure every chance she gets.
*
<-- Beautiful Barbara Hershey. Will any critics group acknowledge her unsettling maternity in Black Swan?
I had the pleasure of attending the Fox Searchlight holiday party earlier this week here in NYC and though four films were being honored, Black Swan was sucking up the oxygen. Otherwise James Franco was consistently surrounded by well wishers, journalists, and other industry types and Conviction's Sam Rockwell (see 'best in show' article) and Juliette Lewis (our fab interview) were in high spirits and on their way to a charity event after the party.
I had a geeky fanboy moment with Darren Aronofsky, who I had to share with a few other critics since he was so in demand for conversation. After thanking him for a filmography that's always worth writing about (a huge plus whether you consider the individual films follies or masterpieces), the group conversation somehow turned to top ten lists. He actually teased me about how high Black Swan would place in mine. 'Top ten? That's it?' he asked in mock disappointment. 'What, does that mean, like, #9? These things are important.' Funny guy who one expects would be über serious in person; blame those obsessively dramatic films that we've dramatically obsessed over for the past decade.
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| Glory of the 80s: Barbara Hershey's consecutive Cannes Best Actress Wins |
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| "You sweet girl." |
Sheesh, what's a girl got to do for Hollywood to recognize her gift? Casting directors need to jump on that. She's still beautiful at 62 (Black Swan downplays this, given the terror implicit in her role, but in person it's a different story) and still a fine actress. Not that anyone should have doubted her ability after that special '84-'88 run, the Oscar nomination for Portrait of a Lady (1995) and this Swan dive into a major portrait in miniature. How can she pack so much into so little screentime as Erica Sayers? It's all there from lost dreams, to shut-in enabled demons through to the total negation of self. She's emptied herself out to make room for vicarious living through Nina. It's just too tragic that even her vicarious living is self sabotage, she's projecting failure every chance she gets.
It's the role, isn't it? I knew it would be too much for you. I knew it.*
*
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Today's Must Watch: 14 (Silent) Character Types
Oh to have the New York Times arts budget. They've asked 14 actors to recreate classic character types in 1 minute segments and the results are at turns breathtakingly gorgeous (Natalie Portman), funny (James Franco), exciting (Javier Bardem), questionable (Jesse Eisenberg?) and sometimes plain old garden variety awesome (Tilda Swinton's Falconetti?) Yes please.
But my favorite might be Jennifer Lawrence's screaming victim.
Watch all 14 here (also starring Vincent Cassell, Chloë Moretz, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall and Lesley Manville.) It'll only take you 14 minutes!
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| Tilda Swinton |
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| Noomi Rapace |
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| Anthony Mackie |
But my favorite might be Jennifer Lawrence's screaming victim.
Watch all 14 here (also starring Vincent Cassell, Chloë Moretz, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall and Lesley Manville.) It'll only take you 14 minutes!
*Live Blog* The Hollywood Reporter's Actors Roundtable
Y'all remember when I did this for the ladies so I figure it's twin-time. You have to have both pieces of a matching set. Not that I'm looking forward to this one as much. Impress or surprise me fellas! You're not actresses so you have to work harder to provide Film Experience jollies. (If you have time to watch the full video it's at the bottom of the post.)
1:00 Robert Duvall (Get Low) tells a rambling story about becoming an actor and reveals "my brothers were both professional singers." The Duvall Brothers, eh? I so wanna hear that record. Would it be like the Osmonds except with less smiling?
3:00 The discussion turns to acting as a rewarding profession. Colin Firth (The King's Speech) picks up this Duvall baton.
4:00 The first laugh of the hour comes from Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) who pats Firth on the back. Right then.
6:03 Firth is still talking three minutes later but the thing that struck me here is realizing how young Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) is. He just turned 30 two weeks ago. I never think about this but seeing him in this context I'm suddenly like 'oh, yes. baby star' Sometimes I forget that though actresses are regularly giant stars in their 20s, the male actors take longer to ascend.
7:00 This is funny. The reporters try to lead Firth to name projects he hated.
3:00 The discussion turns to acting as a rewarding profession. Colin Firth (The King's Speech) picks up this Duvall baton.
"You get to play all your life. Most people have to grow out of it. The fantasy thing stays alive which is wonderful. It can be a little hard on the people living with you..."He then reveals the dangers in staying a child when you're a grown-up. Those who do get very susceptible to external matters of fame; they become needy about attention and far too giddy if someone pats them on the back.
4:00 The first laugh of the hour comes from Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) who pats Firth on the back. Right then.
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| Blazing young star and seasoned professional. |
6:03 Firth is still talking three minutes later but the thing that struck me here is realizing how young Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) is. He just turned 30 two weeks ago. I never think about this but seeing him in this context I'm suddenly like 'oh, yes. baby star' Sometimes I forget that though actresses are regularly giant stars in their 20s, the male actors take longer to ascend.
7:00 This is funny. The reporters try to lead Firth to name projects he hated.
It's Top Ten Time! (Not Here, But Elsewhere.)
Setting aside for a moment the personal view that people rush too quickly into naming their favorites every year (usually well before the annum is over) I do love reading a good top ten list. When those lists are from magazines, they have a long lead excuse so let's enjoy them.
The L Magazine, a local NYC offering ("the L"is a subway), has released their Best Films of 2010 and as usual there's a lot to argue with. For instance, Mark Asche lulled me into a state of hipster foreign-film auteurism before clobbering me by honoring Woody Allen at the end. Did not see that coming given the rest of the list and, what's more, I'd call You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger Woody's nadir if I hadn't failed at successfully erasing all memories of The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Hollywood Ending. Where is Lacuna, Inc when I need them? Nicolas Rapold, like Asche, leads with Carlos but then has to go and throw in Oki's Movie. Someone please point me to a review of this that explains its worth. I remain perplexed that some cinephiles go apeshit for a movie that is so anti-cinematic; it all but refuses visual interest. "I'm just gonna leave this camera here and not for a brilliantly composed one shot either but just because I can't be bothered to think visually. There! Deal with it." And so it goes throughout the lists with the mix of "yes, good point." and "wtf?" but what would Top Ten Season be without that? Dull, that's what.
The most eccentric list belongs to Benjamin Strong who starts with Godard and ends with... Splice? The most surprising list is the most mainstream (they don't often go hand in hand) coming from Jesse Hassenger who mixes geek-causes, Oscar hopefuls, mainstream comedies... and Greenberg. Noah Baumbach's miserable middle-age protagonist is totes the new mascot for L Magazine appearing on five of the six lists. I liked the movie quite a bit, especially Greta Gerwig's deliciously unactressy actressing if you get me, but I'm not sure I follow all the top ten / awards enthusiasm. Not sure it clears those "best" hurdles, though it's definitely a worthy effort.
Finally, you should all head over to Anthony Lane's top ten list at The New Yorker. He's long been one of my favorite writers, no matter what he happens to think of any particular movie. He's just so damn readable; an expert at the turn of a phrase, the offhand quip and the skillful resolution. My favorite part is this awesome "divisive/unifying" double feature since I deeply love both of 'em.
What? You still want more? You're insatiable with list lust. Here's a few more.
The most eccentric list belongs to Benjamin Strong who starts with Godard and ends with... Splice? The most surprising list is the most mainstream (they don't often go hand in hand) coming from Jesse Hassenger who mixes geek-causes, Oscar hopefuls, mainstream comedies... and Greenberg. Noah Baumbach's miserable middle-age protagonist is totes the new mascot for L Magazine appearing on five of the six lists. I liked the movie quite a bit, especially Greta Gerwig's deliciously unactressy actressing if you get me, but I'm not sure I follow all the top ten / awards enthusiasm. Not sure it clears those "best" hurdles, though it's definitely a worthy effort.
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| I Am Love, a succulent dish. |
Finally, you should all head over to Anthony Lane's top ten list at The New Yorker. He's long been one of my favorite writers, no matter what he happens to think of any particular movie. He's just so damn readable; an expert at the turn of a phrase, the offhand quip and the skillful resolution. My favorite part is this awesome "divisive/unifying" double feature since I deeply love both of 'em.
But go read the whole thing for takes on Winter's Bone, A Prophet, Dogtooth and more.
What? You still want more? You're insatiable with list lust. Here's a few more.
- rjrucker's "top ten (so far)" I guess I egged him on.
- Awards Daily dissects Peter Travers awards whoring list.
"Hoist My Spanks Up!" The Ever-Delightful Queen Helen Mirren Speaks Out.
Behold: Helen Mirren at the Women in Hollywood event. Once she's done re-revelling in Halle Berry's Oscar win (Berry must have preceded her onto the stage), she brings us to the now with this smackdown of Hollywood's relentless and innate sexism.
You don't often hear celebrities getting pointed about the hand that feeds them. Like...
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You don't often hear celebrities getting pointed about the hand that feeds them. Like...
I resent having witnessed in my life the survival of some very mediocre male actors and the professional demise of some very brilliant female ones...So do I, Helen, so do I. But alas... it's not just Hollywood's fault. The audience has to be held accountable too, don't they? Which tail is wagging which dog exactly?
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Box Office Blather: Unstoppable Potter and the 127 Tangled Swans
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| No, not that BOB. |
One should probably discuss it weekly (and not on Wednesday? Shut it. I'm late.) if only to be more "in the world" and less hermetically sealed in one's own bubble, he said to himself while gazing at his navel in his 360º mirror.
In all seriousness this is a problem. I sometimes stare at box office charts and think "'The Warrior's Way'? What the hell is that?" And, bear in mind, I think and write about movies 7 days a week so these blind spots can be problematic. And yet, when you live in a big city and you have options you don't always notice what's playing in thousands of theaters when you can obsess over something like Black Swan which is playing in just over a dozen. Thus one stays sealed in one's bubble.
Box Office Blather Bakers Dozen
("Bobbed!"...why do I need names for everything? It's a sickness)
- Tangled (2nd week) $21.6 [cumulative: $96.5] -55%
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1 (3rd week) $17 [cumulate: $244.5] -65 %
- Burlesque (2nd week) $6.1 [cumulative: $26.9] -48%
- Unstoppable (4th week) $5.9 [cumulative: $68.7] -47%
- Love and Other Drugs (2nd week) $5.6 [cumulative: $22.5] -42%
- Megamind (5th week) $4.9 [cumulative: $136.6] -60%
- Due Date (5th week) $4.1 [cumulative: $90.8] -42%
- Faster (2nd week) $3.9 [cumulative: $18.2] -53%
- The Warrior's Way DEBUT $3.0
- The Next Three Days (3rd week) $2.5 [cumulate: $18.3] -45%
- Morning Glory (4th week) $1.6 [cumulative: $29] -54%
- 127 Hours (5th week) $1.6 [cumulative: $6.6] -5%
- Black Swan DEBUT $1.4
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Five x Five
Then fuck you, Jack Outlaw Vern on Animal Kingdom 'Australia's answer to Goodfellas'. Hilarious as always, that Vern.
Tom & Lorenzo "Kristin Chenoweth had a gayer Saturday night than we did."
The Onion "Oscar Contenders" It's all about the killer punchline.
SteveMartinToGo every so often I forget how much I love Steve Martin and then I remember while laughing. Usually I have this weird split second where I don't laugh. And then I start laughing.
Pajiba Why comic actors keep making such terrible movies. Oh, wait. This isn't funny. It's just about the funny. It's kind of sad actually.
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| The day WINGS won the first Oscar -hey, we discussed that one! |
5 News Bits of Note
Oscars.org I'm going to love this Oscar countdown stopping in on each ceremony. Wheeee
Backstage Blogstage They're going to let the Glee cast graduate in 2012. Smart move for longevity (if the phenom show can manage longevity that is.)
Bad Ass Digest Cate Blanchett will remain Galadriel (The Hobbit casting)
Artforum it's not really "news" unless you wait for it each year and I do: John Water's Top Ten List: Jackass 3D, Dogtooth and more...
Movie|Line must-read interview with Jesse Eisenberg. He's a great candid interview but saying...
It’s hard to kind of attribute any kind of personal success to [it]. I just feel that I’ve been better in other things, so the fact that there’s so much attention on this movie in some ways is a bit jarring to me. Because I wonder what will happen if I’m not involved in something as great as this... the reception is not in accordance with what I felt I produced....probably isn't the best way to secure oneself an oscar nomination.
Just sayin'.
The King's Weakness
Michael C here from Serious Film.That low hissing you may have heard coming from the Hollywood area over the last week is the sound of the air leaking out of Tom Hooper's The King’s Speech and its status as Oscar frontrunner. That’s the trouble with leading the pack. Any indication you’re not steamrolling the competition is instantly seized upon as proof that you are nothing but a lot of well-orchestrated studio hype, and before you know it voters are mentally test driving the image of David Fincher holding an Oscar to see how it feels.
So what is tripping up the King? It’s not simply that its current chief rival, The Social Network, has staked out an early dominance in the critical awards circuit. Being the critics darling can be helpful, as it surely was for The Hurt Locker, but just as often it's a sign that a film will end up an Oscar bridesmaid. Films like Sideways or Lost in Translation garnered critics prizes by the bucketful and they couldn’t so much as ding the Oscar favorites for their respective years.
My hunch is that more people are seeing the film and finding that it's not clearing some basic hurdle. To be perceived as a viable Best Picture winner a film has to connect to some grand emotional current, to make it about more than the nuts and bolts of the story. It’s not enough to be an amusing story well told, which is where it appears The King’s Speech is landing, despite all its prestigious trappings.
Sure, Speech has big ideas around the periphery, the ones about Colin Firth finding great recesses of strength at the crossroads of history, and so on. But at heart it really is just the story of poor Bertie overcoming his bizarre childhood to conquer his stutter, and a stammer vanquished does not a Best Picture Oscar make. The fact the Churchill is wheeled on and off a few times for the occasional portentous line doesn’t automatically lend the story significance. It’s an anecdote.
In other years that might be enough, but Hooper's film is up against an assortment of movies that do reach that deeper plane. 127 Hours, quibbles with the film aside, made you ask how much you would be willing to sacrifice for life. That rock was every obstacle, every fear Aaron Ralston ever faced. The Social Network, contrary to scuttlebutt about how cold it is, really lands those themes about loyalty and friendship in a way that stays with the viewer. David O. Russel’s upcoming The Fighter packs an enormous emotional wallop with many of the same ideas King’s Speech was circling: casting off the limitations instilled by your family and taking control of your own destiny. Maybe I’m wrong and Speech can coast to victory on being pleasant and well-crafted, but Hooper’s film certainly has its work cut out for it holding off the threat of more resonant films.
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Monday, December 06, 2010
My Favorite Thing About "The Fighter" Is...
I saw The Fighter last week and didn't even deliver a "this is all the time I have" 7 word review. I have more than 7 words on this one though what follows is not a traditional review. The first thing I tweeted was...
It still applies. Yep, Christian Bale is doing his best work ever in the co-lead role of Dicky Eklund (Let's call it The Fighters) or at least his best since American Psycho (2000). Barring Geoffrey Rush's mutant power (awards magnetism) the "supporting" Oscar is most definitely Bale's to lose. And this is an important distinction: It'd be his to lose even without his baity penchant for putting his health at risk to dwindle down to anorexic nothingness for a role. This is his third time doing so. We hope it's the last.
But what's my favorite thing about The Fighters other than him?
I guess it'd be the way Melissa Leo (playing the mother to both fighters) and Christian Bale are always believably in sync as mother/son. They're practically twins with their darting hollow eyes, perpetually nervous body language and emotionally vampiric yet super vibrant energy. Would that more actors would co-author such compelling familial bonds while playing at "family". What's more, Bale and Leo have mastered the weird arms-length charisma of charming people who are simultaneously completely off-putting. Alice Ward and Dicky Eklund are the type of people you can't help but want to hang out with... but from a very safe distance, with plentiful escape routes.
No, no. it's not that. That sympatico style is great but it's not my favorite thing about the movie.
Also worth loving is the everyman mundanity of Amy Adams and Mark Wahlberg, a somewhat perverse use of their combined star power. (Though they both have it, they're more recognizably "human" and thus smaller than giant film stars, here and elsewhere). Charlene (and Adams who plays her) and Micky (and Wahlberg who plays him) are constantly drowned out by the cacophony of Much Bigger Personalities surrounding them. It's hilarious how often they both just shut right down in the center of a scene with an 'I give up' pout. And they're the "Stars" for lack of a better word!
No, no.
The best element has to be the idiosyncratic humanity that director David O. Russell keeps breathing into the proceedings. By all rights, The Fighter ought to feel far more generic than it does; make no mistake, this is a "true story" inspirational sports biopic. Russell keeps finding ways to vary the tone, play with the moodswings (even perpetually "on" people like Alice & Dicky have quiet days) and have fun with the framing, which generously allows the orbiting cast members to contribute to the movie as well (the standout being Jack McGee as Alice's impressively sturdy husband George). Sports movie fans won't like the film quite as much, one suspects, since the boxing scenes are arguably the most generically executed part.
And then there's the subplot involving the making of the unflattering HBO documentary on Dicky "High on Crack Street" (1995). Dicky willfully deceives himself about it but the doc scenes gives the film tremendous tragicomic boost.
There's also a choice scene in which Micky & Charlene go to the movies and... well, I don't want to spoil it.
Oh wait, I know.
My favorite thing is the clown car chorus of Dicky & Micky's trashy big haired sisters (John Waters will be green with envy). There are so many of them. They're the most abrasively comic gaggle of sisters since the perpetual assault of Adam Sandler's siblings in Punchdrunk Love.
Or. Well...
The best thing might be the way The Fighters manages to slide so easily into David O. Russell's undervalued filmography even though it's much less original than his other films. When some auteurs make stabs at mainstream genres or popular appeal they lose themselves. Such is not the case here. Russell is still in love with the juggling act of impossibly noisy mixes of disparate acting styles (Flirting With Disaster, I Heart Huckabees), he's still fond of Oedipal undercurrents (Spanking the Monkey, Flirting...), he can still turn a film on a dime from comedy to 'wait, that's not funny' disturbing (Three Kings, Huckabees) and he's still just about the only director who Mark Wahlberg should ever work with (though, that said, "Micky Ward" has nothing on Wahlberg's Kings or Huckabees performances... the character's too much of a cypher this time.)
But no, it's not that. It's... NO.
No. No. No. You have to stop somewhere.
Needless to say, The Fighter is incredibly watchable. It's a solid good time at the movies. More importantly, it's a total K.O. for fans of Bale, Leo and O. Russell. A-/B+
It still applies. Yep, Christian Bale is doing his best work ever in the co-lead role of Dicky Eklund (Let's call it The Fighters) or at least his best since American Psycho (2000). Barring Geoffrey Rush's mutant power (awards magnetism) the "supporting" Oscar is most definitely Bale's to lose. And this is an important distinction: It'd be his to lose even without his baity penchant for putting his health at risk to dwindle down to anorexic nothingness for a role. This is his third time doing so. We hope it's the last.
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| A Tale of Two (Half) Brothers |
But what's my favorite thing about The Fighters other than him?
I guess it'd be the way Melissa Leo (playing the mother to both fighters) and Christian Bale are always believably in sync as mother/son. They're practically twins with their darting hollow eyes, perpetually nervous body language and emotionally vampiric yet super vibrant energy. Would that more actors would co-author such compelling familial bonds while playing at "family". What's more, Bale and Leo have mastered the weird arms-length charisma of charming people who are simultaneously completely off-putting. Alice Ward and Dicky Eklund are the type of people you can't help but want to hang out with... but from a very safe distance, with plentiful escape routes.
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| Melissa Leo's on fire. |
Also worth loving is the everyman mundanity of Amy Adams and Mark Wahlberg, a somewhat perverse use of their combined star power. (Though they both have it, they're more recognizably "human" and thus smaller than giant film stars, here and elsewhere). Charlene (and Adams who plays her) and Micky (and Wahlberg who plays him) are constantly drowned out by the cacophony of Much Bigger Personalities surrounding them. It's hilarious how often they both just shut right down in the center of a scene with an 'I give up' pout. And they're the "Stars" for lack of a better word!
No, no.
The best element has to be the idiosyncratic humanity that director David O. Russell keeps breathing into the proceedings. By all rights, The Fighter ought to feel far more generic than it does; make no mistake, this is a "true story" inspirational sports biopic. Russell keeps finding ways to vary the tone, play with the moodswings (even perpetually "on" people like Alice & Dicky have quiet days) and have fun with the framing, which generously allows the orbiting cast members to contribute to the movie as well (the standout being Jack McGee as Alice's impressively sturdy husband George). Sports movie fans won't like the film quite as much, one suspects, since the boxing scenes are arguably the most generically executed part.
And then there's the subplot involving the making of the unflattering HBO documentary on Dicky "High on Crack Street" (1995). Dicky willfully deceives himself about it but the doc scenes gives the film tremendous tragicomic boost.
There's also a choice scene in which Micky & Charlene go to the movies and... well, I don't want to spoil it.
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| David O. Russell loves a rangey ensemble. |
My favorite thing is the clown car chorus of Dicky & Micky's trashy big haired sisters (John Waters will be green with envy). There are so many of them. They're the most abrasively comic gaggle of sisters since the perpetual assault of Adam Sandler's siblings in Punchdrunk Love.
Or. Well...
The best thing might be the way The Fighters manages to slide so easily into David O. Russell's undervalued filmography even though it's much less original than his other films. When some auteurs make stabs at mainstream genres or popular appeal they lose themselves. Such is not the case here. Russell is still in love with the juggling act of impossibly noisy mixes of disparate acting styles (Flirting With Disaster, I Heart Huckabees), he's still fond of Oedipal undercurrents (Spanking the Monkey, Flirting...), he can still turn a film on a dime from comedy to 'wait, that's not funny' disturbing (Three Kings, Huckabees) and he's still just about the only director who Mark Wahlberg should ever work with (though, that said, "Micky Ward" has nothing on Wahlberg's Kings or Huckabees performances... the character's too much of a cypher this time.)
No. No. No. You have to stop somewhere.
Needless to say, The Fighter is incredibly watchable. It's a solid good time at the movies. More importantly, it's a total K.O. for fans of Bale, Leo and O. Russell. A-/B+
Links. Episode #∞
Noupe interesting overview of current movie poster design trends.
Black Book interviews the lovely Farran of 'Self Styled Siren' on classic movie blogging.
Go Fug Yourself "Unfug or Fab" catches up with Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban-Kidman.
Cinema Blend Emma Stone gone blonde for Spider-Man's "Gwen Stacy".
Back Stage Blog Stage Rob Reiner wants to make the stage musical Next to Normal into a movie. He wants this badly.
Low Resolution makes a case for an undersung Twilight player Jackson Rathbone. Wait, what? "It's seriously that shallow of a post. I can't defend it." Hee.
Pussy Goes Grrr looks back at Pedro Almodóvar's Matador and King Vidor's Duel in the Sun.
Oscar buzz Cinema Blend Winter's Bone collected two more trophies at the Torino Fest. It's all about the little wins.
New York Mag Speaking of that Ozarks drama. It tops David Edelstein's top ten for the year though he gives over 36% of the list to documentaries. You know, I liked Winter's Bone a lot (bullseye B+) but I admit that I don't quite get how it's winning "#1s" in so many places. Was no one else bothered, for example, by how pristine white that banjo is at the end? It's as if it had just been picked up from the store brand new at top price. Nitpickers unite!
The Hollywood Reporter 5 films nominated for Best Movie at the Annies (for animation): Tangled, The Illusionist, Toy Story 3, Despicable Me and How to Train Your Dragon. Of course two of them will have to go at the Oscars since there'll be only 3 nominees (my predictions). You may remember that Disney and Pixar dropped their support of the Annie awards this summer over disagreements on the way films were honored and the makeup of the nominating body which is said to be highly populated by Dreamworks employees.
Disney/Pixar got their Annie nominations in the top categories, but not elsewhere. For instance, the "Best Character Animation" category is entirely Dreamworks and "Animated Effects" is 80% Dreamworks. I worry that the Dreamworks-bias of the Annies will end up reflecting badly on any potential wins How to Train Your Dragon receives which is a real shame as it's such a worthy feature.
TV.
Parabasis looks back on Season 1 Buffy, and the balance between stand-alone vs. serial stories.
blastr Frank Darabont fires the writing staff of The Walking Dead. Weird way to celebrate the first season of a huge hit, right? (Not that I think it's very well written what with the paucity of interesting characters.)
Have you seen this making of preview of HBO's Game of Thrones? As stated before, I think it's an ideal property for television as it's so sprawling in scope, longform in plotting and character development and ensemble driven in every way. But I still worry about the sets, costumes and the budget.
I have a real problem with wigs in fantasy movies. Must get over that. They distract me. It's the Storm in X-Men problem. I'm supposed to be seeing hair and I see wig. Gemma Jackson is the production designer (Oscar nominated for Finding Neverland). The costume designer is Michele Clapton who hasn't done anything on this scale previously though she's worked on recent UK television events like The Diary of Anne Frank and The Devil's Whore.
Swan dive? Finally, there seems to be a small but growing contingent of people who are not as impressed with Black Swan as the rest. Will they be burned at the stake in our internet film culture which doesn't value actual discussion so much as the dogpiling of raves and pans as if there is only ever one opinion worth having on any movie? Here are three thoughtful non-rave reviews worth discussing from Bryant Frazer, Nick Davis, Kenneth Turan and Timothy Brayton all of which fall into the "It has it's moments but..." category.
If you'd like more "!!!" instead, since most seem to be feeling that way, try the recent raves from His Eyes Were Watching Movies and Serious Film.
Black Book interviews the lovely Farran of 'Self Styled Siren' on classic movie blogging.
Go Fug Yourself "Unfug or Fab" catches up with Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban-Kidman.
Cinema Blend Emma Stone gone blonde for Spider-Man's "Gwen Stacy".
Back Stage Blog Stage Rob Reiner wants to make the stage musical Next to Normal into a movie. He wants this badly.
Low Resolution makes a case for an undersung Twilight player Jackson Rathbone. Wait, what? "It's seriously that shallow of a post. I can't defend it." Hee.
Pussy Goes Grrr looks back at Pedro Almodóvar's Matador and King Vidor's Duel in the Sun.
Oscar buzz Cinema Blend Winter's Bone collected two more trophies at the Torino Fest. It's all about the little wins.
New York Mag Speaking of that Ozarks drama. It tops David Edelstein's top ten for the year though he gives over 36% of the list to documentaries. You know, I liked Winter's Bone a lot (bullseye B+) but I admit that I don't quite get how it's winning "#1s" in so many places. Was no one else bothered, for example, by how pristine white that banjo is at the end? It's as if it had just been picked up from the store brand new at top price. Nitpickers unite!
The Hollywood Reporter 5 films nominated for Best Movie at the Annies (for animation): Tangled, The Illusionist, Toy Story 3, Despicable Me and How to Train Your Dragon. Of course two of them will have to go at the Oscars since there'll be only 3 nominees (my predictions). You may remember that Disney and Pixar dropped their support of the Annie awards this summer over disagreements on the way films were honored and the makeup of the nominating body which is said to be highly populated by Dreamworks employees.Disney/Pixar got their Annie nominations in the top categories, but not elsewhere. For instance, the "Best Character Animation" category is entirely Dreamworks and "Animated Effects" is 80% Dreamworks. I worry that the Dreamworks-bias of the Annies will end up reflecting badly on any potential wins How to Train Your Dragon receives which is a real shame as it's such a worthy feature.
TV.
Parabasis looks back on Season 1 Buffy, and the balance between stand-alone vs. serial stories.
blastr Frank Darabont fires the writing staff of The Walking Dead. Weird way to celebrate the first season of a huge hit, right? (Not that I think it's very well written what with the paucity of interesting characters.)
Have you seen this making of preview of HBO's Game of Thrones? As stated before, I think it's an ideal property for television as it's so sprawling in scope, longform in plotting and character development and ensemble driven in every way. But I still worry about the sets, costumes and the budget.
I have a real problem with wigs in fantasy movies. Must get over that. They distract me. It's the Storm in X-Men problem. I'm supposed to be seeing hair and I see wig. Gemma Jackson is the production designer (Oscar nominated for Finding Neverland). The costume designer is Michele Clapton who hasn't done anything on this scale previously though she's worked on recent UK television events like The Diary of Anne Frank and The Devil's Whore.
If you'd like more "!!!" instead, since most seem to be feeling that way, try the recent raves from His Eyes Were Watching Movies and Serious Film.
Monty the Film Critic
Despite being named for a movie star, my furry son rarely pays any heed to movies. The only thing he enjoys about DVDs is the reflected light they throw on the walls.
But this morning his paws sifted through a stack of Fox Searchlight screeners and he was suddenly all opinionated. He immediately claimed Danny Boyle's 127 Hours for his own. Moments later -- my god how I wish I had been filming -- he pulled that flick closer, then shoved Hilary Swank's Conviction right off the couch!
I am not making this up.
Later he used Never Let Me Go as a mattress which is as good a use as any for the movie.
all recent oscar articles | return to main blog
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*
But this morning his paws sifted through a stack of Fox Searchlight screeners and he was suddenly all opinionated. He immediately claimed Danny Boyle's 127 Hours for his own. Moments later -- my god how I wish I had been filming -- he pulled that flick closer, then shoved Hilary Swank's Conviction right off the couch!
I am not making this up.
Later he used Never Let Me Go as a mattress which is as good a use as any for the movie.
all recent oscar articles | return to main blog
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*
Sunday, December 05, 2010
The King's Acceptance Speeches Begin
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| King and Queen of the BIFAs |
The smear campaign or truth-telling depending on how you view these things has also begun but the Oscar buzz isn't letting up any time soon.
After the jump the complete BIFA winners list with commentary.
Take Three: Emily Watson
Craig here with Take Three. Today: Emily Watson
Take One: Upstairs 0 - Downstairs 1
The Academy often doubles up with their supporting ladies – i.e. Weaver and Cusack for Working Girl, Farmiga and Kendrick for Up in the Air, and so on. It was true also for 2001’s Gosford Park's Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith. I always thought a third should’ve been added. Watson delivered five-star service and, for me, the film’s best performance by a country (house) mile. She played Elsie, the knowing, spirited maid that doomed homeowner Sir William (Michael Gambon) liked to see doing plenty of overtime.
Among the film's interviewing mini-plots, Elsie’s narrative was an intriguing red herring, a side dish. But then Gosford Park wasn’t really about the murder as much as it was about class. Watson had plenty.
Altman’s film was packed wall-to-wall with high-level thesping and hidden somewhere in the pack was Watson effortlessly showing everybody up. Mirren was great, Smith very good, but Watson's was the most likeable, instinctive and vibrant turn. In Gosford Park Watson proves adept at making familiar type seem fresh and altogether vital. She’s always believable on screen. Mirren’s emotional resolution was Gosford Park’s sad closer, but Watson sent the film off on a more optimistic note.
Take Two: Staring death in the face
We were all was vicariously looking out for Watson’s character Reba McClane in Red Dragon (2002). Given the circumstances, somebody needed to. Reba was the blind co-worker dubiously romanced by heavily-tattooed serial killer Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes). Falling for the mentally-suspect mother’s boy was a mistake, sure, but appearances can be deceptive and Reba didn’t have the foresight. Their shared outsiderdom brought them together but with one major difference: he was madder than a box of frogs, she wasn’t; he went around watching other people’s home videos, gluing folk to wheelchairs then setting them on fire and eating paintings, she didn’t.
Watson was spot on in the role offering no concession to cliché, no unnecessary dwelling on the “disability” aspect, no life-affirming monologues. Instead she provides solid, amiable character acting. Her final moments, wondering aloud to Edward Norton whether she “drew a freak”, are brief but minutely heartbreaking. Watson turned a shopworn character, twice mislabelled a victim, into a full-bodied person, coloring her in with nuanced detail. Reba wasn’t just a pitiable blind girl. She was refreshingly knowing, slightly cynical and believably vulnerable in ways we don’t normally see.
Take Three: Hard times, clean hands
Grandiose, revisionist westerns made with lyrical verve, riper than thou character names and terse dialogue aren’t ten a penny these days, so it's best to relish them when they roll around. Ace Aussie oddity The Proposition (2005) was one of my films of 2006; Watson made my best actress list. Martha Stanley, the homely, nervy wife to Ray Winstone’s Captain was quietly electrifying. Here was a woman ill-adjusted to frontier lief, stuck in the (out)back of beyond in a godforsaken 1800s town built on violence. This delicate English flower wilted in the heat of the Australian desert. Emily's Martha gradually hardens to all that death and dust, but never accepts it. She’s one of writer Nick Cave’s best creations: like a doomed heroine in one of his murder ballads, but fleshed out and allowed to cautiously flourish.
Even though Martha was on the periphery of all the manly action, Hillcoat’s camera is still attentive to her. Through Watson’s beautifully underplayed performance we are granted access to her inner thoughts. When she overhears of her husband’s betrayal (concerning the flogging of a man believed to have raped and murdered her only friend), we not only witness her utter disbelief in cutaway, but the scene itself ends on her exhausted yet defiant stride out of her isolated house. Her blue-brown dress is at elegant odds to the expansive, harsh desert terrain she heads towards.
Watson's performance is a set of emotive actions finely woven together. Watch the way she inspects her water-withered hands in the bath as she talks of her grief, the way her deathly dream virtually obliterates her own waking perception of events, how her brittle defiance turns to resigned revulsion during the flogging scene and, in the brutal climax, her frozen terror. The reality of how hard a slog life was for Martha is etched all over Emily's face.
Three more key films for the taking: Breaking the Waves (1995), Hilary & Jackie (1998), Punchdrunk Love (2002)
Take One: Upstairs 0 - Downstairs 1
Among the film's interviewing mini-plots, Elsie’s narrative was an intriguing red herring, a side dish. But then Gosford Park wasn’t really about the murder as much as it was about class. Watson had plenty.
Watson in Gosford Park
Altman’s film was packed wall-to-wall with high-level thesping and hidden somewhere in the pack was Watson effortlessly showing everybody up. Mirren was great, Smith very good, but Watson's was the most likeable, instinctive and vibrant turn. In Gosford Park Watson proves adept at making familiar type seem fresh and altogether vital. She’s always believable on screen. Mirren’s emotional resolution was Gosford Park’s sad closer, but Watson sent the film off on a more optimistic note.
Take Two: Staring death in the face
Watson in Red Dragon
Watson was spot on in the role offering no concession to cliché, no unnecessary dwelling on the “disability” aspect, no life-affirming monologues. Instead she provides solid, amiable character acting. Her final moments, wondering aloud to Edward Norton whether she “drew a freak”, are brief but minutely heartbreaking. Watson turned a shopworn character, twice mislabelled a victim, into a full-bodied person, coloring her in with nuanced detail. Reba wasn’t just a pitiable blind girl. She was refreshingly knowing, slightly cynical and believably vulnerable in ways we don’t normally see.
Take Three: Hard times, clean hands
Watson in The Proposition
Even though Martha was on the periphery of all the manly action, Hillcoat’s camera is still attentive to her. Through Watson’s beautifully underplayed performance we are granted access to her inner thoughts. When she overhears of her husband’s betrayal (concerning the flogging of a man believed to have raped and murdered her only friend), we not only witness her utter disbelief in cutaway, but the scene itself ends on her exhausted yet defiant stride out of her isolated house. Her blue-brown dress is at elegant odds to the expansive, harsh desert terrain she heads towards.
 |
| Watson in the bath |
Watson's performance is a set of emotive actions finely woven together. Watch the way she inspects her water-withered hands in the bath as she talks of her grief, the way her deathly dream virtually obliterates her own waking perception of events, how her brittle defiance turns to resigned revulsion during the flogging scene and, in the brutal climax, her frozen terror. The reality of how hard a slog life was for Martha is etched all over Emily's face.
Three more key films for the taking: Breaking the Waves (1995), Hilary & Jackie (1998), Punchdrunk Love (2002)
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