Gurus o’ GIobes Gold: Dec 10, 2010

The only real action in the Oscar race this week is The Gurus moving The Town into the Top Ten.

Most of today’s Guru output looks at The Golden Globes, the award given out by 80something 80somethings and Dick Clark. The Gurus take measure like Mizrahi of all of the top 8 categories, which at The Globes, doesn’t include screenwriting or directing… though 11 Gurus have come up with 18 candidates in one category, which says it all!

12 Weeks To Oscar: The Battle Of Black Swan

Realistically, we’re looking at 15 movies or less that are real candidates for those 10 Best Picture slots. And within that, there are a bunch that simply cannot win. They just aren’t walking that walk.

I’m interested in discussing 4 kinds of films that are in the race and the films that are representing them.

Critics Top Tens 2010 (as of Dec 9)

The first Top Ten lists of 2010 are coming in. For the next couple of weeks, MCN will be updating daily as we aggregate lists from all parts of the critical community.

With just 6 lists in, Nolan and Fincher are duking it out for the top slot…

MW on Movies: The Tourist, The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Fighter

This is a city we’d probably all like to visit, and it’s shot here by director-co-writer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and cinematographer John Seale, with all the color and the luster they can, uh, muster. (Without fluster). A huge advantage, that.

Which The Tourist then sort of squanders.

Box Office Hell — December 9

Aside from a bit of dissent over how big the box office draw for Johnny Depp-Angelina Jolie starrer The Tourist will be, our pundits are pretty much in agreement this week. Voyage of the Dawn Treader looks to win the weekend while Tangled, Harry Potter and the tenacious Unstoppable should round out the top five.

Review – True Grit (2010) (Spoiler-Free)

True Grit is a movie about bold lions who are sometimes righteous, sometimes not. They pay for their self-righteousness in tangible ways that, perhaps, are not so comfortable for audiences. They leave aside their righteousness when it suits. They step beyond animal boldness, reactive and immediate, and sometimes decide to play God.

MW on DVDs: Restrepo, Inception, The Grapes of Wrath, Shrek Forever After … and more

PICK OF THE WEEK: BLU-RAY Restrepo (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.; Sebastian Junger/Tim Hetherington, 2010 (Virgil) Restrepo is a documentary about the war in Afghanistan that’s beautifully shot and terrifyingly convincing. The color photography is crisp and clear. The subjects, a platoon of American soldiers in the mountains, are amazingly candid. The directors —…

The DVD Wrap: Inception, Restrepo, Videodrome, Cronos, Strictly Ballroom … and more

Inception: Blu-ray Normally, I wouldn’t recommend watching a background featurette before checking out the main attraction first. The summer smash, Inception, demands a bit more work on the part of the viewer than most movies, though, and to fully enjoy the experience, some preparation is advised. This isn’t to imply the only people capable of…

Voynaristic: The Kids Are (Not Quite) All Right

I realize it’s not the popular thing to say, but I’m going to go out on a limb and tell you that I finally got around to seeing The Kids Are All Right and it was just … all right. Look, it’s not a bad film, by any means. In fact, it may even be a pretty good film. But the best film of the year? Or even in the top ten best films of the year? Not quite.

Frenzy on the Wall: All Good Things Is Almost a Great Thing

Capturing the Friedmans was a monumental movie experience for me, because the documentary focused on a fascinating case that just so happened to have occurred in my hometown. I can’t tell you what an oddly transporting experience it was to see streets and houses that I passed by every day, given new meaning because of…

Gurus o’ Gold: True Grit Week – Episode Two

The last of the Gurus has checked in and the battles remain tight. “True Grit Week,” saw film at #4, up from #7 last week, and Top 5 slots for all three of the main actors actors and the Coens in Screenplay & Director. With 100% of Guru districts reporting, Annette Bening and Natalie Portman are within 2 points of one another in Best Actress. Duvall and Bardem still can’t crack the Top 5 in Actor. And we’ve sorted Original and Adapted Screenplays.

Weekend Box Office Report — December 5

The newcomer arrived from the re-constituted Relativity Media with the martial arts actioner The Warrior’s Way. It barely squeaked into the top 10 with an estimated $3 million. Industry trackers hadn’t expected much for the picture but even their estimates were pegged significantly higher at roughly $5 million.

Friday Estimates — December 4

The weekend kicks off pretty much as anticipated, with Tangled looking to unseat Harry Potter from the top of the box office chart. Love and Other Drugs is doing better than expected at this point, while Megamind lags a bit behind.

Review: Black Swan

You wouldn’t know it from its Rotten Tomatoes rating, but Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, Black Swan, was probably the most divisive film at Toronto. Perhaps it was because in the days leading up to the fest we kept hearing such different things about it: Some rumors said it was a callback to the visually compelling,…

DP/30: The Black Swan Series

30 minutes chats with most of the Black Swan Team. Please be aware of spoilers, as the end of the film is discussed in most of the interviews. Screenwriter Mark Heyman and Choreographer/Actor Benjamin Millepied, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Vincent Cassel, Natalie Portman, and Darren Aronofsky

Box Office Hell — December 2

This weekend our pundits predict a post-Thanksgiving slump, with Harry Potter finally getting enough of a lag to allow Tangled a weekend in the top slot. Meanwhile, newcomer The Warrior’s Way eats leftovers with Megamind and Unstoppable.

MW on Movies: Black Swan and I Love You Phillip Morris

Black Swan
Who makes crazier art movies — about more agonized characters, trapped in more nightmarish fixes — than Darren Aronofsky? David Lynch, Bong Joon-ho and Roman Polanski, maybe — but precious few others. A specialist in tales of the brilliantly sick and the sickishly brilliant, Aronofsky has spun, with disorienting intensity, barmy movie stories…

13 Weeks To Oscar: Movies and Pundits and Airs, Oh My!

“Have you heard that Mimsie Starr
Just got pinched in the Astor bar?
Well, did you evah?
What a swell party this is!”

DVD Geek: The Last Of The Mohicans, The Director’s Definitive Cut

Mann exhibits a dazzling command of the knowledge he gained while preparing the film and shares many historical insights, from esoteric trivia to far-reaching explanations of the political conflicts both among the Europeans and the indigenous Americans. And his sense of perspective is always exceptional. “The past is a lot closer than we think.”