MCN Originals Archive for January, 2011

Sundance Dispatch: It’s a Wrap

Another Sundance Film Festival has wrapped, and I have to say, it was a helluva good year to be in Park City. The logistical nightmare of the P&I line the first five or so days of the fest was a serious pain in the ass, but overall I’d have to say this year’s Sundance programming…

Read the full article »

Gurus o’ Gold: Oscar Nominations (Pt 3 of 3)

The third group of Oscar nominations, as seen by The Gurus. None are unanimous, though Song and Score come closest.

Group 1 | Group 2 | Group 3

Read the full article »

20 Weeks Extra: Could There Be One More Turn?

After becoming the favorite for Best Picture in just the last week, does The King’s Speech now have a lock on the win? Or is the another spin coming?

And when those who aren’t so happy about the turn of events look for a comparison, which on sticks best? Rocky? Ordinary People? Or maybe something else…

Read the full article » 15 Comments »

The Weekend Report: January 30, 2011

The debut of the ExoRcIsT-lite The Rite possessed the top of the weekend box office charts with an estimated $14.7 million. In another soft film going frame the other national opener The Mechanic ranked fifth with an $11.1 million bow.

Read the full article » 1 Comment »

Friday Estimates — January 29

A pair of newcomers, The Rite and The Mechanic, hold first and third position as we head into the weekend, with No Strings Attached holding court in second place. Meanwhile, the awards contenders try to capitalize on post-Oscar nom buzz to squeeze out a few more bucks at the box office.

Read the full article »

Gurus o’ Gold: Oscar Nominations (Pt 2 of 3)

Eight more categories in from The Gurus. The only unanimity in this group is in Animation. The tightest races are Foreign Language and Editing. The last categories tomorrow.

Read the full article » 6 Comments »

Wilmington on Movies: The Rite and Nora’s Will

The Rite (Two and a Half Stars) U.S.; Mikael Hafstrom, 2011 Exorcism movies are intended to scare the hell out of you, and The Rite is a classy, but forgettable example. Purporting to tell us a true story, about the devilish experiences of a Chicago priestly novitiate — the not-that-sure-of-his-vocation Michael Kovack (Colin O’Donoghue), who…

Read the full article » 1 Comment »

Gurus ‘ Gold: Oscar Nominations (Pt 1 of 3)

The Gurus are putting together their votes in all Oscar categories. Five of the Top 8 categories have unanimous votes for the frontrunners. And the other 3 are also pretty one-sided. On Thursday, we’ll see if the rest of the ballot looks less settled in the eyes of The Gurus.

Read the full article » 29 Comments »

The DVD Wrap: Red, Secretariat, Broadcast News, White Wedding, and more …

 Red: Blu-ray There are so many holes stitched into the fabric of Red, it would make a wedge of Swiss cheese turn green with envy … or is that mold? No matter, because the whole point of Robert Schwentke’s comic thriller is to enjoy watching a veritable over-the-hill gang of retired CIA agents – played…

Read the full article » 1 Comment »

DVD Geek: The Town

At one point in the movie, the robbers put on uniforms to escape detection because, Affleck explains, “People see a uniform and not a person. I always wondered about that until we had to shoot the piece going to the train on the end, and I actually decided to take the subway from where we were to South Station, where the train was, wearing this outfit, and not a single person said anything to me.” Except one old woman, who came up to ask him for directions.

Read the full article »

Wilmington on DVDs: Army of Crime, Nowhere Boy, Red, The Naked Kiss And More …

Army of Crime is one of those movies that takes history — in this case, the saga of the French Resistance in World War II — and makes it come blisteringly alive. The film also shines a light on a great contemporary French filmmaker who, apart from festivals and art-houses, has been somewhat ignored and neglected here in the U.S.: Robert Guediguian.

Read the full article »

Oscar Nominations Day

“This is a big surprise. I don’t agree with the concept of awards ceremonies, but I’m prepared to make an exception for the ones I’m nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me.”

The List of Nominations
Nominee Reactions
Nominations by Film
Nominations by the Numbers
The Nominations Sidebar

Read the full article »

Oscar Morning Coming Down

There are a few surprises from the Oscar nominations, but they are limited.

Roadside Attractions is the happiest group this morning, scoring for Winter’s Bone in Best Picture and getting in not only the expected Jennifer Lawrence nod, but John Hawkes too. And the even bigger get… Bardem. Academy members should be thankful that Roadside kept pushing so hard for him and that he spend the holidays telling his story at screenings. Had he not been nominated, it would have been a black eye for the organization. Still, a real big deal, given how scared people were of that film.

Perhaps the biggest single surprise is one that was left out. Christopher Nolan NOT getting nominated for Inception when some (confused) people actually thought he could be an upset winner is a shocker. It also dampens the WB hopes for the film winning Best Picture.

Read the full article » 169 Comments »

Frenzy on the Wall: If I Had a Ballot 2011

I’m going to give my picks for the Oscars in the major awards, as if I had an actual ballot. Since the Academy cannot be trusted to make the right decisions and will probably make the safe choice whenever possible, it’s fun to give my perspective. Needless to say, I don’t see the Academy sending me a ballot anytime soon.

Read the full article » 5 Comments »

Weekend Report: January 23, 2011

Zonk Went the Strings of My Heart  The debut of rom-com No Strings Attached led weekend box office sales with an estimated $20.3 million. It was the session’s only national debut in what proved to be a depressed marketplace. Also new were several late year Oscar hopefuls. The endurance saga No Way Back struggled to…

Read the full article » 1 Comment »

Yesterday @ Sundance

Reviews of Pom Wonderful presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (to SPWAG and SPC), Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Interrupters, new DP/30s with the cast of MMMM, We Were Here, Buck, and Catechism Cataclysm… with the director and cast of Like Crazy, their first since the film’s sale, due up later this morning. All in…

Read the full article »

Friday Estimates — January 22

Newcomer rom-com No Strings Attached, starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher, leads the box office pack as we kick off the weekend, while The Green Hornet and The Dilemma battle it out for the place position. Meanwhile, the awards contenders jostle for their own piece of the box office pie.

Read the full article »

Covering Sundance

Reviews of Kaboom and Silent House by Kim Voynar, previews by Ray Pride, plus video reviews, endless tweeting and more on MCN’s Sundance page.

Read the full article »

Sundance Day 1: The Bear Went Up The Mountain…

A shuttle filled with Sundance-bound travelers. IPhones bing, tinggg, jing, bongggg. (Withstanding the text of time.) The sound-swarm is like a Brian Eno app on an iPad, like Bloom or Trope. It’s not until halfway up into the mountains, as the gray sky cracks blue over a crest up ahead, higher up, that a biz…

Read the full article » 1 Comment »

MCN Originals

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon