Posts Tagged ‘Army of Shadows’

MW on Movies: Army of Shadows, The Social Network, Hotel Terminus … and more

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

PICK OF THE WEEK: BLU-RAY


 
Army of Shadows (Four Stars)

France; Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969 (Criterion)

Melville’s finest, most real and most personal film was not one of his nonpareil gangster movies, though, as you watch it, it often feels like film noir swallowing up the world. It’s this great grim tale of the WW2 Resistance based on Joseph Kessel’s novel, starring Lino Ventura as the stoic Resistance leader “Gu“ Gerbier, and Simone Signoret, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassell and Serge Reggiani among his comrades and combatants.

Melville adapted the novel, drawing on his own years with the Resistance. The superb cinematography is by Pierre Lhomme. The movie is full of jailbreaks and gun battles and hairsbreadth action scenes, but it’s not done in a typical, sensational, melodramatic manner.

It doesn’t get your motor racing in the usual way. Army of Shadows transpires in a gray world, bleak, chilling, full of the shadows of the title, where night is often falling, or has already fallen. And it’s done in a manner that suggests men (and a woman) who know they will die, who are dead already, but still stubbornly refuse to submit.

Most movie horror is false, however entertaining. Here is true fear, inexorable, deadly, as tight and unsmiling as the face of Gu, sizing up his chances of living another ten minutes. (In French, with English subtitles.)

Extras: Commentary by film historian Ginette Vincendreau; Interviews with Lhomme and editor Françoise Bonnot; Archival footage and interviews with Melville, Kessel, cast members and real Resistance veterans; the short “Jean-Pierre Melville and ‘Army of Shadows‘” (2005); documentary short “Le Journal de la Resistance” (1944); Booklet with two fine essays by Amy Taubin and Robert O. Paxton, and excerpts from Rui Nogueira’s book-length interview “Melville on Melville.”

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PICK OF THE WEEK: NEW & BLU-RAY/h3>
The Social Network (Four Stars)

U.S.; David Fincher, 2010

The Social Network — David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin‘s high-style, computer-wise tale of flashy programs and dirty deeds behind the 500 million-user Internet hookup phenomenon Facebook (or at least their version of it) — has definitely become this year’s top thing in award-caliber, critic-certified, “must-see” movies, winning end-of-year film prizes like mad, one after the other: from New York, Chicago, L. A., and Boston to, last weekend, the National Society of Film Critics. And it’s the primo generator right now, of Oscar buzz, and all kinds of comparisons to classics from Shakespeare to Citizen Kane. Another Shakespeare? Another Kane? Actually, it’s not.

But all that buzz is fine with me. This is the kind of movie they actually should be spending those ultra-million dollars or so to make in Hollywood. It’s a brainy, jazzy, cool, impudent, contemporary-hip, ultra-savvy, wired-in, high velocity show that races you through the beginnings of Facebook (hatched in a Harvard dorm by an angry sophomore named Mark Zuckerberg), through its mushroom-like growth on the web and resulting big-bucks corporatization, through all the human eggs you had to break to make this computer-hit omelet, and finally (via actual court transcripts), into the flurry of law suits, Rashomon-ish multiple viewpoints and bitter recriminations that almost inevitably exploded when its net worth hit the billions, and there was loot to be grabbed, and lawyers to pay.

The Social Network is almost wickedly entertaining, and it does something most movies don‘t these days. It celebrates smartness. It gives us protagonists who are phenoms and prodigies of brain power rather than of sexiness, guts or toughness. (That’s part of why so many critics like it so much.)

The Mark Zuckerberg of the movie — whose real-life model apparently, and understandably, doesn’t like what he saw here — is a perpetually frowning, utterly irreverent, empathy-challenged, hoodie-clad techno-geek of nearly non-existent social skills and a nearly bankrupt couth account — a low-conscience, seemingly unrepentantly mean number-cruncher and people-user who arrogantly believes he’s smarter than almost everyone else around him, and whose only saving grace may be that he’s actually, maybe, sort-of right.

Then again, what’s “smart?“ Brains, intellect, or genius, maybe should be defined as a bit more than hatching a lucrative concept, writing a great computer program, and putting a billion in your bank account. (The source for Sorkin’s screenplay is a Ben Mezrich book, written almost concurrently, called The Accidental Billionaires. ) Genius may actually be involved with something more scientific, artistic, mystical: with perceiving the ultimate, penetrating the great mysteries of life, reaching the multitudes, touching the soul of the happy few, or even improving the lot of humankind. Shakespeare. Citizen Kane.

But, in the top fillip of The Social Network’s many, many ironies, we see that maybe Mark and his fellow web movers and shakers — and the whole new social-communal wrinkle that they‘ve been chosen to dramatically represent — don’t really “need” things like empathy, sympathy, what we’d call humanity. This guy’s got something more tangible: a dynamite idea, a way to hook up 500 million Facebook “friends,” and get advertisers to cough up truckloads of cash. Ironically (of course), all this is accomplished by a super-dweeb who alienates everybody in person, including his date and the guy who used to be his best friend.

Social Network starts with its very best scene: a fictional encounter in a Cambridge bar between glaring, fast-talking, self-aggrandizing Mark (played to perfection by modern movie geek-in-excelsis Jesse Eisenberg) and an ironic (naturally), knowing brain-babe named (fictitiously but appropriately) Erica Albright (Rooney Mara). Mark is trying to impress Erica, his current serial-date, with his I. Q., his talk-back panache, and his possible impending campus social triumphs, maybe election to the “final club.” He wants to wow her with sheer words-a-minute. In the dim, chatty little bar where it looks like so many quick hot fucks have been hatched, he keeps trying to drown her in verbiage, lashing back at her parries, pulling out his stud credentials and his coitus curriculum vita.

Her scathing response is to tell him that he may think she’s breaking up with him now because he’s a geek, but it’s actually because he‘s an asshole.

Incensed, he stalks out of the bar, and back to his dorm room — and hurls himself into a classic miffed geek’s techno-revenge. Mark disses Erica on-line, hacks into the Harvard dorm files, appropriates the girl student photos and sets up a nasty little website called FaceMash, in which horny losers or sex bullies, or just plain lonely guys, like himself, get to ogle the photos and rate who’s hot and who’s not. This site proves so popular, it crashes the university’s computer system. Hot stuff? Actually, it’s not.

The exploit also draws flack from the university, as well as the attention of two well-connected Harvard student society, twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss — played by the very well-connected 6’5” actor Armie Hammer, with the help of Fincher’s digital aces and actor/body double Josh Pence. The Winklevosses, and their business guy Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) want Mark to create a Harvard variant on other popular student computer social networks of the day at other colleges. He agrees, then joins with his best (maybe only) friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), to start planning and programming what eventually became, without the Winklevosses, Facebook.

Not so fast. The Winklevosses sued. Others sued. Eventually, even best buddy Eduardo sued — after he got slicked out of his top CEO slot upon the arrival of just the kind of snazzy techno-stud who’d appeal to a jilted geek like Mark: Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake). Parker, the guy behind Napster, nudges out Eduardo after offering a priceless suggestion (changing the name “The Facebook” to simply “Facebook”) and bringing a promise of dough, babes, lines of coke, incredible success and magnums of champagne (not necessarily in that order), luring Mark to Palo Alto. The real Sean Parker apparently doesn’t like his film portrayal here either. A shame. After this movie, for a while, he seemed to me like a mix of the best of Mother Theresa, Elvis, Warren Buffet and Spider-Man. (Just kidding. Actually, he’s not.)

All that suggests the litigious format in which we get most of the rest of the story: flashback-laced dramatizations of the college and court hearings spouting up around the various suits, charges and counter-charges ignited by all that rancor and all that moola. Who’s lying? Who’s right? Who knows? Who cares? As with the current movie Howl, which mined high drama and bawdy comedy out of the Allen Ginsberg “Howl” obscenity trial transcripts, The Social Network often uses actual court transcripts as its dialogue source, which means we may be hearing actual lies — or actual truth. The important thing though, is that it’s all actually entertaining.

With Sorkin’s dialogue and transcripts crackling like “His Girl Friday” on fire, and the revelations (true or made-up) popping like a private eye’s unvarnished notes, and with every scene steeped in director Fincher‘s trademark fancy menacing noir moodiness, the rest of “Social Network” proves definitively that you don’t have to pull a gun to thrill an audience.

It’s never quite as entertaining though, as that first, terrific, entirely fictional kiss-off scene in the bar. Watching The Social Network and reading the sometimes extravagant comparisons it’s generated to Citizen Kane and Shakespeare, not to mention Paddy Chayefsky, Twelve Angry Geeks, and John Hughes, I began to wonder if the current movie strategy of presenting every fact-derived movie drama, fictionalized or not, with the real names of real people — like Shakespeare’s Holinshed-fed historical plays, but not like Kane, which turned William Randolph Hearst into Charles Foster Kane, Marion Davies into Susan Alexander, and mixed Hearst’s history promiscuously with Welles’ own — isn‘t actually more trouble than it‘s worth.

We know, by now, that most docu-dramas mix fact with fiction, memoir with fantasy, and we’re aware that a movie like “The Social Network” is not the evening news — though actually, it’s probably more accurate, clear-eyed and less biased than Fox. So why not adopt Kane’s tactics?

I guess it’s because Zuckerberg is a star, and Facebook is a big brand name, and that’s part of how you sell movies. But I actually expected something more Kane-ian than what I got — expected to see Sorkin and Fincher mix more of the speed, snap and fact-drenched format of the Internet with their classic rapid-fire Hollywood social-dramatic story-telling. Maybe a quick bio of every character, a brisk low-down on every new situation, lots of background, lots of updates, lots of zipping back and forth. Whiz. Bang. But though “The Social Network” does some of that, it’s pleasantly old-fashioned in some ways. Happiest of all is its dependence on Sorkin’s dialogue, and on the high quality acting of its absolutely zero-cool cast.

Eisenberg makes Zuckerberg both pathetic and a little scary, never more so than in the show’s first scene and last shots — and he also makes the guy believably brilliant, a convincing innovator. Mara comes up with one of the ten greatest squelch scenes in movie history. (Unhappily she sort of vanishes from the movie afterwards, and so does Zuckerberg’s sex life, a mistake.)

Garfield makes you feel for a CEO, quite an achievement these days. I nominate Timberlake for “Bad Influence of the Year“ honors. Hammer pulls off a tour de force of digital twinnery; maybe he should now play Indiana‘s 6’5” Van Arsdales, Tom and Dick, in the ultimate inspirational tall twin sports bio. (Just kidding; he did a super job.) Doug Urbanski is believably mean and revoltingly snobbish, as then-Harvard president, Larry Summers. As Eduardo’s girlfriend Christy, Brenda Song is a song, and so is Dakota Johnson as Amelia.

Network director David Fincher seemed to give vent to almost every surrealist, artsy, fantastic impulse he had, when he put Brad Pitt, in Benjamin Button in reverse-rewind — and he’s been plunging us into psychological dread and horror ever since 1992‘s Alien3. Fincher is a real movie stylist, and Fight Club and Benjamin Button are both about as well-visualized as a modern movie can be. But here, Fincher takes a step back, lets Sorkin and the script and actors take over more. It shows how much easier it makes a director’s job when he has good material.

Something bothers me about Social Network though, and I’m not just trying to be perverse, and pick on a favorite. Social Network deserves its plaudits, deserves all these prose-poems of aesthetic orgasm it’s been getting. It’s a hell of a show. But Mark needs more of a back-story, especially a family back-story. Family and class count heavy in many success stories, as Armie Hammer would be the first to tell you. I think it’s wrong to put Mark on his own. Also, the payoff doesn’t seem as exciting to me as the buildup, the climax less of a knockout than I wanted, especially from any movie described by some as the new Kane. Citizen Kane could eat this movie for lunch. That’s okay. Kane cuts most other movies down to size as well, even great ones.

The Internet has changed us though, and one of the major alterations of consciousness is that these screens and their communications make us feel we’re not alone, when we are — and then realize that actually, we’re never alone. Ideas and words keep us going; all the ideas, and all the people out there are a great pool in which we can all swim.

The Social Network, almost a great movie, tells us that people and society have been changed by the computer age, in those ways and others — and also that, in some destructive ways, they’re still the same. It tells us implicitly that empathy matters more than millions of friends. But though that conclusion edifies and entertains, it doesn’t really dazzle us, or blind us with the light.

And I can’t help feeling that a lot of the audience may still misinterpret Mark the way an older audience misread and made a hero of “Wall Street‘s” “Greed is Good” huckster prince Gordon Gekko — that they’ll make more of a hero than an anti-hero of “Mark,“ because he’s smart, because he’s rich. Sorkin actually was offered and turned down the “Wall Street Money Never Sleeps” assignment, and maybe he was worried by that possibility of Gekko taking over again. In a society that worships moola as much as ours, it’s an occupational hazard.

This movie doesn’t entirely escape the pitfalls of success, and the perception of success, though it certainly tries to. For some, Social Network will be a cool show about a kid who made a billion. Actually, it’s not.

Extras: Commentary by Fincher; Commentary by Sorkin and the cast.

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PICK OF THE WEEK: CLASSIC/h3>
Hotel Terminus (Four Stars)

France: Marcel Ophuls, 1988 (Icarus)

Hotel Terminus gives us a look at a human monster — at his inescapable cruelty and undeniable monstrousness, and at his sometimes troubling humanity.

In the course of Marcel Ophuls’ classic four and a half hour documentary, Ophuls casts a cool, wide-open eye on the notorious WWII Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie — the bad cop who ruled Lyon, his slice of Vichy, with an iron fist, sent many Jews and Resistance fighters to their deaths, and, after the war, was a wanted fugitive for decades. Then, in the ‘80s, Barbie was extradited from his long time hiding place in Bolivia and brought back to France for trial.

Ophuls, a calm and suave, occasionally impatient, but relentless interrogator, never confronts Barbie directly; a prisoner now himself, and out of reach. But Ophuls interviews numerous people who knew and know Barbie (or “Sonny,“ as his boyhood friends called him) during his years of infamy: victims, witnesses, officials petty and large, lawyers, spies, French, Americans, Germans, ex-Resistance fighters, possible collaborators, rationalizers who want us to forget the past and fierce critics and enemies who will obviously never forget it.

The movie is shot as a series of conversations, abetted by archive material: a mystery story with Ophuls as the detective and the audience as his Watsons. And it unfolds so steadily, so quietly, with such endlessly inquisitive assurance, that its many moments of truth become all the more wrenching.

One of the most interesting of the Hotel Terminus interviewees is with Jacques Verges, Barbie’s unflappable, calm Euro-Asian defense lawyer — and an ex-leftist and supporter of the Algerian revolution. Another is Rene Hardy, the French Resistance leader and possible turncoat, suspected by his old colleagues or delivering his legendary Resistance comrade Jean Moulin to Barbie — and a man whom we see now near the end of his life, defending himself, recalling a deadly past that once gave meaning to that life, and now perhaps condemns it.

Hardy was the author who wrote the WWII novel Bitter Victory, about a cowardly officer who takes credit wrongfully for an act of heroism — and he also co-wrote the screenplay of Nicholas Ray’s movie adaptation, which starred Richard Burton and, as the duplicitous officer, Curt Jurgens. (Bitter Victory is the film that inspired the young French critic Jean-Luc Godard to say “Truth is blinding…and the cinema is Nicholas Ray.“)

The movie grips you throughout, for all 267 minutes. Barbie himself becomes, in the course of the film’s many revelations, a perfect example of the bourgeois beast and assassin, the “good family man” and cold-blooded functionary who tortures and murders for a living — and who is good at his job.

Unhappily, there are men, and women, like this, around us still, and only the fact that the fascists and killers aren’t in charge prevents them from plying their trade. It’s not a job perhaps that some of them would have chosen, or that they like. But, like Klaus Barbie, they do it. They do it. (This film has been available from Icarus for a while; it‘s an essential artifact of the last century‘s horrors.) (In French, with English subtitles.)

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PICK OF THE WEEK: BOX SET/h3>

The Films of Rita Hayworth

U.S.: Various Directors, 1944-53 (Columbia)

She was so beautiful she made your hair stand on end, made your heart race, made your dreams blaze up.

Rita.

One of the two great pin-up girls of World War II, in the famous shot that shows her kneeling in lingerie on a bed, she adorned the bunks and planes and knapsacks of many a soldier, sailor or flier, and even the A-bomb dropped on Bikini. (The other supreme pin-up, of course, was Betty Grable in a swim suit, bottom jutting, smiling over one shoulder.) Rita was the Goddess of Columbia in the ‘40s: a tall, leggy, auburn-haired musical deity who didn‘t sing, but danced up a storm, and who cared anyway?

She was born Margaret Cameron (“Rita”) Cansino in Brooklyn. But she became Rita Hayworth of Hollywood. You Were Never Lovelier was the title of one of her Columbia hits, and it fit her. She married a businessman named Edward Judson, who helped make her famous. Then she married Orson Welles (who put her, blonde, in the film noir flop-turned-classic The Lady from Shanghai) and Aly Khan, the millionaire Muslim playboy, who made her a world-wide tabloid sensation, and then a producer named James Hill, who put her in Separate Tables.

She grew old — all Goddesses grow old, if they‘re lucky — but she was still beautiful.

The movies grew less frequent. She began to forget her lines. She had Alzheimer’s. She died, at 68. Rita…

But all Hollywood Goddesses can come back, can live again. On screens. In our dreams. On TV. And so does Rita in at least two films in this box set, both directed by Charles Vidor: in Gilda, which was another great noir and her all-time greatest role, and in Cover Girl where she and Gene Kelly whirl and embrace, immortal in dancing shoes.
So don’t cry for Rita. Don’t feel bad. Wherever she is, she’ll always be smiling at us, kneeling on that bed, looking brazenly and sweetly from the wall of that bunk of that proud WWII sailor — who knows he‘s got the prettiest girl in the world, staring down at him.

Included: Cover Girl (U.S.; Charles Vidor, 1944) Three and a Half Stars. The movie that made Rita Rita. She’s a gorgeous show dancer, partner of Gene Kelly and Phil Silvers, who’s picked as a star cover girl (the movie is also full of real ones) and beckoned by bright lights and rich suitors (Lee Bowman, Otto Kruger) and wise-cracking dames (Eve Arden, natch.)

Kelly and his young choreographer-partner Stanley Donen did the dances, which includes one number in the street that strongly suggests the later Singing in the Rain (cop and all) and another that’s an all-time Kelly classic: the great, hair-raising, double-exposed “Alter Ego Ballet,“ where Gene dances with himself. (He never had a better partner, not even Rita or Fred.)

Tonight and Every Night (U.S.; Victor Saville, 1945) Two and a Half Stars. Based on the real-life story of the Windmill, the famous London music hall theatre that never closed during the Blitz, this considerably altered version has plenty of dancing space for Rita. With Janet Blair, Bowman, and Florence Bates.

Gilda (U.S.; Vidor, 1945) Three and a Half Stars. Rita’s all-time peak came when she strutted on stage in a Buenos Aires casino/night club in a black clinging gown and told the crowd — including bitter, love struck casino manager Glenn Ford, and suave, evil casino owner (and her husband) George Macready — to “Put the Blame on Mame.” Wow! Rita at her sultriest and most goddess-y, Ford at his most neurotically masculine, Macready in what may (as much as Paths of Glory) be the ultimate George Macready performance.

This is the greatest Rita Hayworth movie. And, like Rita’s Welles outing in Lady from Shanghai, it might be one of the greatest noirs, if it didn’t have that weird ending where Macready goes away for a while and the plot stalls. In the end, who cares? And who cares if she’s dubbed? She’s a knockout. This is Rita, sex, noir, the movies. And Mame, of course…

Miss Sadie Thompson (U.S.: Curtis Bernhardt, 1953) Three Stars. Of the three famous movie versions of W. Somerset Maugham’s classic South Seas Island immorality play Rain — Raoul Walsh’s 1928 silent Sadie Thompson with Gloria Swanson, Lionel Barrymore and Walsh himself, as lusty hooker Sadie, the obsessed preacher and Sadie’s sailor-lover, Lewis Milestone’s 1932 Rain, with Joan Crawford, Walter Huston and William Gargan, and this one, with Rita, Jose Ferrer and Aldo Ray — this may be the least, although it’s robust, racy and entertaining. But the story always seems to play well, and it does once again.

Salome (U.S.: William Dieterle, 1952) Two Stars. Put the blame on Salome. As played by Rita, she’s a hip-swinging doll. Stewart Granger’s soldier is noble and Roman. Charles Laughton‘s Herod is horny and hammy old king. Judith Anderson as his wife, is a pit of evil. And Alan Badel as John the Baptist has a head for framing. You‘ll be surprised here at who finally demands that Herod give them the head of John the Baptist, or give head to John the Baptist or Salome, or whatever.

Somebody thought The Dance of the Seven Veils would be good Hayworth material (you won’t believe that when you see it, either), and the result was this biblical clunker. Don’t let the cast and director fool you. It’s truly bad.

Extras: Hayworth talks by Marty Scorsese (on Gilda), Baz Luhrmann (on Cover Girl and Gilda), and Patricia Clarkson (on Miss Sadie Thompson and Tonight and Every Night. All good. Nobody had guts enough to speak up for Salome, but I hear if you play it backwards, you’ll hear Charles Laughton saying “John the Baptist is dead.” .

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OTHER CURRENT AND RECENT DVD RELEASES/h3>

LENNONYC (Three Stars)

U.S.: Michael Epstein, 2010 (American Masters/New Video)

John Lennon and Yoko Ono in New York City in the ’70s, and their fight to stay here, in the U. S., despite a government (the Nixon Administration and their heirs) that seemed hell-bent on booting them out. Very pro-John of course, but what‘s wrong with that? A sad story, well-told, from the breakup of the Beatles (a tragedy too, as far as I’m concerned) to the swan song of “Double Fantasy.”

The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story (Three Stars)

U.S.: Jeffrey C. Sherman, Gregory V. Sherman, 2010 (Walt Disney)

The strange family saga of Robert and Richard Sherman, two brothers who supplied words (Bob) and music (Dick) to some of the most joyous and well-liked family pop tunes ever, including the ebullient score (“Spoonful of Sugar,” “Jolly Holiday,” “Feed the Birds” and the Oscar-winning Chim-Chim-Cheree“) to Disney’s “Mary Poppins” — who were beloved pets of walt himself, but who throughout their lives, didn’t jell emotionally and often couldn’t get along — and were eased out by the Disney brass that immediately followed Walt’s death. Directed by two more Sherman boys, Jeff and Greg, it’s an oddly moving show, full of beguiling pop history.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars (Three Stars)

U.S.: Byron Haskin, 1964 (Criterion).

The special effects are pretty cheesy — lovably so — but this engrossing, sometimes touching red planet translation of Daniel Defoe’s castaway classic, by director Byron (The War of the Worlds) Haskin and writer Ib (The Angry Red Planet) Melchoir, is one of the more science-savvy and smart of the pre-2001 science fiction epics.

Paul Mantee stalwartly plays Commander Kit Draper, who crash-lands on mars with Mona the monkey and faces worse problems than Crusoe, including the seeming lack of oxygen and water and the presence of marauding space ships. Adam (Batman) West has a scary scene as Kit’s co-pilot, Dan McReady, and Vic Lundin is this movie’s Friday, a space man slave who looks like an Inca warrior from the TV Star Trek. Shot in Death Valley and on soundstages, it nevertheless looks great — except for those damn attacking space ships.

Extras: Commentary by screenwriter Ib Melchoir, Mantee and others; audio interview with Haskin; featurettes, screenplay excerpts, music video, trailer.
(Criterion Collection)

The DVD Wrap: The Social Network, Army of Shadows, Dances with Wolves, Raging Bull … and more

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

The Social Network: Blu-ray

Depending upon whom one asks, Facebook is 1) 500 million friends and friends of friends who pretend to care desperately about their friends’ pets and bowel movements (or is that Twitter?), 2) a convenient way for parents to spy on their kids while they’re away at college, or 3) a massive data base of potential customers that can be sold to companies too cheap to create one of their own.

Facebook’s unlikely evolution from brainchild of an amoral Ivy League dweeb to multibillion-dollar phenomenon is the focus of Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher’s wonderfully entertaining movie, The Social Network. In a rare Hollywood trifecta, the film is sitting on top of most year-end critics’ polls; odds-on favorite to win a bushel basket full of Academy Awards; and already in the black. While it’s true Social Network has yet to pass the $100-million barrier at the box office, it cost half that to make and stands to make a killing in DVD and Blu-ray.

Apart from the presence of Sorkin and Fincher’s names in the credits, it was nearly impossible six months ago to imagine that anyone could make a film about Facebook that was even remotely amusing … interesting, sure; entertaining, no. As stories regarding addictions go, networking is about as provocative as caffeine and a million times less stimulating. After all, Facebook’s bedrock appeal was to collegians desperate for a tool that would allow them to separate the wheat from the chaff of Boston’s dating pool. It spread like wildfire from one Ivy League school to another and, nearly as fast, to all manner of public and private institutions.

Eventually, the network would be co-opted by large corporations and Boomer parents, but that’s another story altogether. Sorkin chose to forgo all the boring “likes” and cutesy photos of dogs and babies, in favor of sex, drugs and cutthroat litigation. It allowed Fincher to re-imagine dusty old Harvard as a breeding ground for potential Fight Club franchisees and, perhaps, the odd serial killer. At other times, Social Network resembles Wall Street in a beanie.

As drawn here, Faceback founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is the kind of exceedingly bright, if socially inept kid who craves acceptance by the cool guys, but on his own merits. He’s not worldly enough to appreciate the fact that, at Harvard, the game is fixed from Day One and the only way dweebs can escape their caste is to provide the sons of privilege with something they value: money, prestige or a hard-on. Math-wiz Zuckerberg caught the attention of the BMOC Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer), whose idea for an Internet-based date-screening service required the algorithms only he could provide.

When Zuckerberg’s hopes for advancement in the college’s social whirl are dashed, he decides to forge ahead on his own with Facebook, ignoring any legal niceties. By the time the full weight of the American judicial system begins falling on Zuckerberg’s shoulders, Sorkin and Fincher already have the audience hooked. The movie’s second half is dominated by the presence of former Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), a force as dark and charismatic as Gordon Gekko. It’s only in comparison to the haughtiness of the twins and ruthlessness behavior of Parker that we sympathize with Zuckerberg, whose own bad behavior we’d like to blame on naiveté … but can’t.

The Blu-ray edition of The Social Network benefits from Fincher’s decision to shoot digitally. It looks and sounds great, and the making-of material in the two-disc set is generous. On the first disc are two separate commentary tracks, one with Fincher alone and the second with Sorkin and cast members. The second disc adds the four-part “How Did They Ever Make a Movie of Facebook?; discussions with Fincher and DP Jeff Cronenweth, editors Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter and Ren Klyce, and musicians Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross; a comparison of music that was scrapped from the soundtrack with the piece that made the final cut; “Swarmatron,” in which Reznor introduces viewers to one of the unique instruments that played a critical role in the film’s soundtrack; and a multi-angle breakdown of shots used in the Ruby Skye VIP Room sequence.

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Army of Shadows: Blu-ray: Criterion Collection

Lots of people thought critics were up to their usual high-brow tricks when they anointed Jean-Pierre Melville’s 37-year-old wartime thriller, Army of Shadows, one of the top films of 2006. That was it was French, subtitled and shot in black-and-white only made readers that much more suspicious. When the fully restored adaptation of Joseph Kessel’s 1943 novel finally made the rounds of American arthouses and debuted months later on DVD, Army of Shadows was widely acknowledged as the masterpiece critics claimed it to be. Now that it’s arrived in Blu-ray from Criterion Collection, there’s no reason for mainstream audiences not to embrace it, as well.

The “shadows” refer to the French Resistance fighters who, in 1942, were seriously outmanned by Vichy stooges and Gestapo thugs. The movement had yet to develop to the point where anyone outside a very small circle of like-minded people could be trusted with knowledge of their underground activities. It explains why the portrait painted Melville, himself a Resistance fighter, was so dark and devoid of broad heroic gestures. Unlike other World War II movies, in which partisans are shown blowing up railroad tracks and outfoxing stupid Nazis, Army of Shadows is far more a psychological thriller.

While even the most basic operations carry with them the threat of torture, at least, Melville also makes palpable the sense of isolation and despair that comes from being forced into employing the same tactics against traitors as the Nazis would use against them. As bleak as it sometimes feels, though, Army of Shadows is as exciting as it is illuminating.

The leader of the resistance fighters, Phillipe Gerbier, is portrayed by Lino Ventura, who looks more like an accountant or lawyer than a soldier. Certainly, he doesn’t resemble a man nimble enough to escape capture several times. Simone Signoret is unforgettable as Mathilde, a woman who can sneak into places a man couldn’t and knows she would face the same torture if arrested. Army of Shadows wasn’t shown in American and many other markets until 2006. In fact, a controversy in France over the favorable portrayal of the exiled Charles De Gaulle helped derail the film’s success upon its release in turbulent 1969.

The pristine Criterion Blu-ray adds commentary by film historian Ginette Vincendeau; interviews with cinematographer Pierre Lhomme and editor Francoise Bonnot; a restoration demonstration by Lhomme; on-set footage and excerpts from archival interviews; a profile of Melville, “L’armee des ombres”; the 1944 documentary “Le journal de la Resistance”; an interview with Simone Signoret and Lucie Aubrac, who was an inspiration for Mathilde; “Ouvrez les guillemets,” excerpts from an episode of the popular French television series in which former members of the Resistance recall their activities; theatrical trailers; and a booklet featuring essays and an interview with Melville.

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Dances with Wolves: 20th Anniversary Edition: Blu-ray
Raging Bull: 30th Anniversary Edition: Blu-ray

For all the abuse heaped upon Kevin Costner, there’s no questioning his willingness to take great chances as an actor, director and producer. At a time when his handlers would have been content to see him reprise romantic lead roles in thrillers and comedies about over-the-hill jocks, Costner elected to throw the dice on a three-hour epic western. Apart from the odd “revisionist” or Brat Pack oater, the genre was dead. In addition to telling a remarkable story, though, the actor/producer/star of Dances With Wolves endeavored to create something in which Native American actors could inhabit key roles and 25 percent of the dialogue would be in Lakota, a language not even co-star Graham Greene understood.

Costner’s future projects would be greeted with bouquets and brickbats almost in equal measure, but Dances stood alone as a gamble that paid off for everyone. Within the western genre, he would go to appear as the title character in Lawrence Kasdan’s Wyatt Earp; star in, co-produce and direct the splendid Open Range; and produce the expansive multi-part documentary on Native Americans, 500 Nations. There’s a sequel to Dances With Wolves on the drawing boards, but John Dunbar reportedly will be played by Viggo Mortensen.

The “20th Anniversary Edition” presents the extended cut, with 50 minutes of extra footage, in hi-def and 7.1 audio; commentaries by Costner and producer Jim Wilson, and director of photography Dean Semler and editor Neil Travis; the “in-feature experiences,” “Military Rank and Social Hierarchy Guide” and “Real History or Movie Make-Believe?”; backgrounders “A Day in the Life on the Western Frontier,” the original “Making of ‘Dances With Wolves’” and “The Creation of an Epic: A Retrospective Documentary”; the original music video, featuring music by John Barry; a photo montage with introduction by Ben Glass; poster gallery; theatrical trailer; and TV spots.

Unlike westerns, boxing movies have never gone out of favor with audiences or Oscar voters, and Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull is arguably the greatest of them all. In one of his signature roles, Robert De Niro played the brilliant, if self-destructive pugilist Jake LaMotta in the ring, at home and into retirement. Shot in crystalline black-and-white, Scorsese’s cameras put us in the ring with LaMotta and his opponents, demanding we experience the brutality of the sport at close range and with a clear understanding of the fighter’s primal motivations, including jealousy and blind rage.

Already released once on Blu-ray, the “30th Anniversary Edition” adds the featurettes “Marty & Bobby,” “Raging Bull: Reflections on a Classic,” “Remembering Jake,” “Marty on Film” and Cathy Moriarty’s appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” in 1981. It retains “Raging Bull: Fight Night,” “The Bronx Bull,” “DeNiro vs. LaMotta,” “LaMotta Defends Title” and the commentaries.

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The Narnia Code

If anyone’s terribly disappointed that box-office tallies for the second and third chapters of the on-going Chronicles of Narnia series haven’t matched those for the 2005 original, it’s probably limited to producers who shelled out more than $150 million on each picture. The kids who comprise the target audience for the fantasy/adventure series – adapted from C.S. Lewis’ seven novels for children – certainly haven’t minded returning to the magical kingdom. The budgets didn’t seem unreasonable at the time, I suppose.

The 2009 BBC documentary, The Narnia Code, argues that Lewis’ books were informed not only by his embracing of Christianity and desire to entertain young readers, but also his research into medieval astrology. The key to Dr. Michael Ward’s theory is Lewis’ poem, “The Planets,” in which references to themes in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are echoed. The DVD adds 45 minutes of related material.

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Soul Kittens Cabaret

Tyler Perry became famous for making the leap from producing broadly comic and deliberately heart-tugging stage productions for niche “urban audiences,” to successfully repackaging film adaptations of the same shows for the same audience. In the face of uniformly negative reviews and intellectual condemnation, Perry guessed correctly that fans of Madea and other, more spiritually challenged characters, would be welcomed as much on the silver screen as the boards of the “chitlin’ circuit.”

His first two films – Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea’s Family Reunion — grossed a stunning $50 million and $65 million respectively. Soul Kittens Cabaret won’t do nearly as well, if only because Nicci Gilbert’s musical is going straight from the stage to DVD, and it’s nowhere near as a polished an entertainment. Indeed, it often looks as if someone pointed a video camera at the stage from various angles and left it at that. It needed to be edited down to movie length and the performances are far too stage-bound.

That said, targeted viewers might not mind the 147-minute experience, considering the presence of “American Idol” veteran Fantasia Barrino; the Notorious B.I.G.’s baby-mama, Faith Evans; and Gilbert, former lead singer of Brownstone.

Soul Kittens Cabaret chronicles the journeys of seven women as they attempt to come to grips with the problems usually associated with life in the spotlight. Here, the healing plays out at a Detroit nightclub on the rebound. Barrino plays the women’s Good Conscience, while Evans is her polar opposite. The musical, dance and acting skills of the women entertainers are complemented by the talents of a chorus of handsome young men.

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The Hessen Conspiracy

Billy Zane, who makes movies like Carter used to make Little Liver Pills, gets to look dapper in both an army uniform and tuxedo in The Hessen Conspiracy (a.k.a., The Hessen Affair).

In the wake of the Allied victory in World War II, Zane’s Col. Jack Durant is an American colonel, who, while bivouacked in a German castle, stumbles upon a cache of jewels that once belonged to the royal family. Durant conspires with a beautiful American lieutenant, Kathleen Nash (Lynn Renee), to smuggle the crown jewels into the United States, and, then, decides to steal them back from the mobsters with whom they were entrusted.

The scheme might have gone unnoticed if it weren’t for the intercession of a German princess, who needs the gems for the wedding of her brother to another royal personage. Because the prince had supported the Allied cause, American authorities are anxious to return the jewels to their rightful owner. The post-war setting allows director Paul Breuls to frame the action as a noir thriller. Nicholas Meyer’s name on the screenplay adds luster to the straight-to-DVD story.

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Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey
Masterpiece Contemporary: Framed
Great Performances: Macbeth
Nature: A Murder of Crows

Lovers of Upstairs, Downstairs will be ecstatic to find Downton Abbey playing on their local PBS station or on the new-releases shelves in video stores. As scripted and produced by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park, The Young Victoria), the seven-part “Masterpiece Classic” mini-series chronicles the affairs of the Dowager Countess of Grantham (played with imperious precision by Maggie Smith), her privileged family and a dozen of their servants, who range from impeccably loyal to downright frightening.

As World War I approaches, the matriarch’s son, Lord Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) and American daughter-in-law (Elizabeth McGovern) face the prospect of having their vast wealth and property re-distributed to a distant cousin, the only male heir in the family. The Crawleys’ son was killed aboard the Titanic, leaving a gap that couldn’t legally be filled by one of his three feuding daughters. Meanwhile, the servants are unsettled by the surprise appearance of a valet hired from outside the clan by Crawley.

The daughters could hardly be any more different from each other. One is sexually adventurous, another snooty and the third, a suffragette. Their troubles wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans if it weren’t for the fine ensemble cast and their ability to make us care about family squabbles and back-stabbing employees. Many viewers will conclude that the real star of the series is the mansion itself, magnificent Highclere Castle, in Hampshire. If something like that isn’t worth fighting to keep, nothing is. The DVD represents the original un-edited UK version of the program. It includes a pair of background features.

The charming romantic comedy, Framed, is a co-production of the BBC and PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre Contemporary series. It imagines what might happen if a flood caused by obsolete plumbing threatened the treasures being housed in the National Gallery. Instead of panicking, curator Quentin Lester (Trevor Eve) borrows a page from World War II history books for a solution.

To escape the Blitz, dozens of valuable paintings were boxed and shipped by truck to a slate mine in Wales. It worked once, so why not? Given the possibility of terrorist action during the transfer, security officials are put on high alert. On television, there’s nothing quite as insecure as a secret being kept from the residents of a tiny village. In Framed, it’s the remote Welsh town of Manod. Before the curator is free to breathe a sigh of relief over the successful transfer, though, locals deduce there’s art in them thar’ hills.

Before long, teacher Angharad Stannard (Eve Myles) has Lester hosting art-history lessons for her students and adults in the community. Normally, this sort of a scenario wouldn’t offer enough entertainment to fill the average British sitcom, let alone a movie. Writer Frank Cottrell Boyce, a frequent collaborator with Michael Winterbottom, introduces storylines involving an amusing heist and celebration the community’s naïve artists. There’s nothing here the whole family couldn’t enjoy together.

Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood star in Rupert Goold’s updating of Macbeth under the BBC/PBS “Great Performances” banner. This time around, the setting is post-World War II Eastern Europe, where treachery and paranoia have reached epidemic levels. The period and place lend themselves well to the “Scottish Play,” whose bleak tone matches the emotional climate of most countries trapped behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Lady Macbeth could stand her own against Stalin, certainly. Both of the lead actors are terrific. Stewart has been nominated for a 2011 SAG Award for his portrayal of the overly ambitious king.

It would be difficult to imagine a timelier documentary than A Murder of Crows, part of PBS’ “Nature” series. At a time, when flocks of birds literally are falling from the skies in Arkansas and other places, it’s important to understand just how fragile is the environment for crows, even in the best of times. In fact, only 40 percent of hatchlings born in the wild make it to their first year, while 50 percent of the survivors don’t last a second year. The research is provided by ornithologists from the University of Washington in Seattle and Austria’s Konrad Lorenze Institut. That crows are among the most evolved of birds makes the death rate only that much more alarming.

Other fascinating new releases from PBS: “Secrets of the Dead: Silver Pharaoh”; “Frontline: Death by Fire” and “Frontline: the Spill”; “Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of WWII”; and “Slave Ship Mutiny.”

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Love Hurts
The Freebie

Among the handful of stock male characters available for middle-age actors to play these days is the recently divorced father too emotionally damaged to do anything but feel sorry for himself. In Love Hurts, Richard Grant plays the grieving father and Carrie-Anne Moss the former wife. (And, yes, you’d grieve, too, in the absence of Moss.)

Fortunately for Ben, he has a 17-year-old son willing to arrange a makeover for his dear old dad, who takes to it like a duck to water. Suddenly, Ben is overflowing with vim and vitality, while everyone else struggles to make sense of his nutty behavior. It’s an old story, far better told in previous versions. Besides Moss, the familiar cast includes Jenna Elfman, Julia Voth, Yvonne Zima, Camryn Mannheim, Janeane Garofalo and a bunch of Pretty Young Things.

As the title implies, The Freebie describes what happens when a bored yuppie couple decides to spice up their non-existent sex lives by setting aside a night in which cheating not only is permitted, but it’s also encouraged. Despite the scarcity of orgasms, Annie (Katie Aselton) and Darren (Dax Shepard) seem to be perfectly compatible. A couple’s special at a Nevada brothel probably would have been a better investment than wasting time on a couple of fitful hookups, but that would have been too smart and easy. Ecstasy might have worked the same miracle, without involving innocent bystanders.

What Aselton, who also directed and co-wrote The Freebie, is doing with a self-absorbed dweeb like Shepard is a mystery to me. Knowing that she has ties to the mumblecore crowd explains why the largely improvised dialogue feels so limp and unstructured. Sometimes, a script is just what a picture needs to be successful.

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Funny or Die Presents: Season One
Top Shot: The Complete Season One
Universe: Complete Season 5: Blu-ray
Criss Angel: Mindfreak: Season 6
Greek: Chapter Five: The Complete Third Season
ER: The Complete Fourteenth Season

HBO raided the Internet for its sketch-comedy series, Funny or Die Presents. In its interactive version, followers submit short comic sketches to be graded by other followers. If the bit isn’t deemed funny, it’s killed … simple as that. The good ones are allowed to live for future consumption by browsers. The HBO iteration doesn’t allow for voting, one way or the other. I assume, perhaps incorrectly, the bits that made Funny or Die Presents are the cream of the crop.

The recurring titles include “Space Baby,” in which a toddler mows down bad guys on a space shuttle; “Designated Driver,” which demonstrates the downside of sobriety; “Playground Politics,” in which playgrounds serve as mini-UN’s; and “Drunk History,” in which a boozehound narrates a chapter in American history and familiar stars dramatize it. The others range from bizarre to stultifying.

Just when you think that all of the ideas for new reality shows have been exhausted, one comes along that almost curls your toes. Cable’s Top Shot combines weaponry with history, by pitting teams of sharpshooters against each in such events as shooting a lit fuse from an explosive device; knife-throwing; obstacle courses; and accuracy from various distances. The contestants use all sorts of weapons, from muskets and Berretas, to longbows and slingshots. It’s simultaneously nuts and completely normal … at least for red-blooded American males. The set arrives with additional footage, contestant bios and elimination interviews.

The fifth season of The Universe focuses on the discovery process, whether through telescopes or seeing what happens when a space probe hits a comet or asteroid. Among the chapters are, “7 Wonders of the Solar System,” “Mars: The New Evidence,” “Magnetic Storm,” “Time Travel,” “Secrets of the Space Probes,” “Asteroid Attack,” “Total Eclipse” and “Dark Future of the Sun.” The hi-def photography makes the CGI effects pop, while the interviews with scientists make astrophysics sound routine.

In the sixth season of Mindfreak, Criss Angel demonstrates his ability to jump across the Grand Canyon on a space-age motorcycle; make a crowd of 100 people disappear; levitate 400 feet in the air; and escape while hanging thousands of feet above the ground. In an amazing feat of cross-promotion, Angel attempts to walk up the side of Las Vegas’ Luxor Hotel, where his show with Cirque du Soleil is headquartered. The DVD adds “The Secrets Behind Criss Angel’s Tricks.”

There’s an internal contradiction in the title, Greek: Chapter Five: The Complete Third Season, but the good news comes in knowing that this installment is a full season and not a halfsie. Besides the party-hardy shenanigans and endless quests for passing grades, the DVD package includes “A Study Break With Nora Kirkpatrick,” cast and crew commentaries, a gag reel and “Gotcha!” featurette.

The strike-shortened 14th season of ER started out with a bang – an explosion – and ends with the departure of Stanley Tucci’s officious Dr. Moretti. In between, too much time was wasted on Abby and Luka’s dysfunctional relationship. It seemed as if everyone was anticipating getting lost during the star-studded 15th and final season. The DVD includes unaired scenes and material from a Paley Festival panel discussion.

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Comedy Central Roast of David Hasselhoff
Louis C.K: Hilarious

If anyone ever deserved to be roasted by a small army of take-no-prisoners comedians it’s David Hasselhoff. In fact, the world’s most famous TV lifeguard (male) provided them with too easy a target. He proved to be beyond embarrassment, even with his daughters sitting in the audience. Naturally, the bulk of the insults were inspired by Hasselhoff’s much publicized drunken behavior and inexplicable popularity outside the U.S. Roastmaster Seth MacFarlane really doesn’t add much to the proceedings, but the Hoff proves a juicy target for Baywatch vets Pamela Anderson, Traci Bingham, Nicole Eggert and Gena Lee Nolin, and such roast regulars as Greg Giraldo, Gilbert Gottfried, Lisa Lampanelli and Jeffrey Ross. I’m not quite sure what Hulk Hogan and George Hamilton have in common with the guest of honor, but their presence is welcome.

At the ripe old age of 43, Louis C.K. may finally be ready for stardom. His FX sitcom, Louie, is his most accomplished TV project yet, while his standup material, including the material in Hilarious, is of a consistently high level. The balance between the personal and political also was honed to near-perfection.

Best Actor, Best Actress Chart

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
BEST ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Forrest Whitaker – Last King Of Scotland (GG/Drama) (BFCA) (SAG)
Peter O’Toole – Venus
Will Smith – The Pursuit of Happyness
Ryan Gosling – Half Nelson
Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond

BEST ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Helen Mirren – The Queen (GG/D) (BFCA) (SAG)
Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada
Judi Dench – Notes On A Scandal
Kate Winslet – Little Children
Penelope Cruz – Volver

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Eddie Murphy – Dreamgirls (GG) (BFCA) (SAG)
Alan Arkin – Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley – Little Children
Mark Wahlberg – The Departed
Djimon Hounsou – Blood Diamond

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls (GG) (BFCA) (SAG)
Cate Blanchett – Notes of a Scandal
Abigail Breslin – Little Miss Sunshine
Adriana Barraza – Babel
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Charts

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

BEST PICTURE

The Departed (BFCA) The Queen Letters From Iwo Jima (Foreign- GG, BFCA)
Little Miss Sunshine (PGA, SAG Ensemble)
Babel (GG)
Babel (GG) The Departed (BFCA) The Queen Letters From Iwo Jima (Foreign- GG, BFCA)
Little Miss Sunshine (PGA, SAG Ensemble)
Little Miss Sunshine (PGA, SAG Ensemble)
Babel (GG) The Departed (BFCA) The Queen Letters From Iwo Jima (Foreign- GG, BFCA)
Letters From Iwo Jima (Foreign- GG, BFCA) Little Miss Sunshine (PGA, SAG Ensemble) Babel (GG) The Departed (BFCA)
The Queen
The Queen Letters From Iwo Jima (Foreign- GG, BFCA) Little Miss Sunshine (PGA, SAG Ensemble) Babel (GG)

The Departed (BFCA)

You think you know any better? I can argue every one of these scenerios wih absolute conviction. And you know what the answer will be?

Me neither.

BEST DIRECTOR

Director – Film
Comment
Martin Scorsese – The Departed (GG) (BFCA) (DGA)
Clint Eastwood – Letters From Iwo Jima
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Babel ((DGA)
Stephen Frears – The Queen (DGA)
Paul Greengrass – United 93

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Writer(s) – Film
Comment
Little Miss Sunshine (BFCA) (WGA) vs The Queen (GG)
Michael Arndt vs Peter Morgan
Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro
Babel (WGA)
Guillermo Arriaga
Letters From Iwo Jima
Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Writer(s) – Film
Comment
The Departed (WGA)
William Monahan
Likely.
Borat
Sacha Baron Cohen; Anthony Hines; Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, Todd Phillips
Notes On A Scandal
Patrick Marber
Little Children
Todd Field; Tom Perrotta
Children Of Men
Alfonso Cuarón; Timothy J. Sexton; David Arata; Mark Fergus; Hawk Ostby

Week Twenty – 3 Days to Go Auld Lang Syne

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Phew…

Almost there…

What’s left to say?

It does matter who wins… mostly to those who win.

The media efforts to rustle up comprehensive coverage this week are painful enough to me more sad than laughable. Someone mentioned a poll of three Academy members in one outlet. Oy.

And so, as it ends, we count our fingers and our toes. We make sure the baby isn’t somehow broken. We get a few thrills, a few disappointments, and a few trips to the bathroom. We pray for Ellen to be funny and for someone to say something that’s really memorable.

All last night, Fox ran promos for “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” and for those of us who are still revving our engines on this, the answer is not a nice one. A 5th grader knows he/she wants ice cream, cake, no bath, and an open bedtime. We have such an abundance of likeable films and likeable people that we don’t know what we want.

The battle for 2008 has already begun, as consultants are pushing their favorite organ monkeys out there to pimp their rides for next year, newspapers are trying to make appointments now to get into the studio offices before awards budgets are set, and the internet set is already plotting on how to get further up the food chain or to find a place to sleep far from the maddening hype.

Me? I have my tickets for Austin, New York, Bermuda, and Dallas. And that’s just March. Woo wee! Different places, different people, and different movies. Thank you to Sid Ganis… for not listening to any of the maniacs who want another month of this endless campaign.

There is only one real question left… who’s going win Best Picture? And Academy members far and wide will make a passionate argument for “what everyone knows.” The only problem is, they all seem to disagree. However, the awards are getting younger this year. I know of at least two people who are taking children under 10 to the show.

I gotta say, I am looking forward to the Independent Spirit Awards more than the Oscars for the first time in a long while. And it’s not just because Yerxa and Berger will get their awards along with the other producers at that event. (Oh… yeah… Indie Spirits are as predictable this year as the Oscars aren’t.) And it’s not for the awards. It’s for the cocktail party of it all. It will, simply, be nice to see a lot of people who really aren’t a big part of the Oscar season. They are on another track… another excellent track. And for the most part, the smiles will be sincere, the hugs warm, and the cocktails cold. Hallelujah.

And that’s really all I have to say about that.

Again… really… I like a whole lot of people who I have met in the course of this season. It has been incredibly civil. And even when I take a swipe at a studio exec, I may be deeply fond of much of his staff. Even in his odd purgatory, Bill Condon has shown the kind of guy he really is (a good one). In his ascendance, Guillermo del Toro remains the guy he is (a good one). In their shyness, the screenwriters have shown the people they are (Morgan and Marber are probably the most social, the Great Monahan the most shy this year.) The Three Amigos really are amigos, even if the Dogma95 crew really wasn’t. There have been a few shitty rumors, but basically, this was a clean season. For all the “season should be longer” bleating, strategy cost many movies their potential awards, more than anything else.

Hell, I even found some of the producers this year to be amongst my favorite people in a season of artists.

What I do know is that I have a bunch of really good films worth watching a few more times. And for as many weak moments as there were in 2006’s films, that is a blessing indeed.

There will be some sort of response to whatever happens on Sunday night. But it’s time to move along. We’ll all be happier after a view months of something different.

I thank you for your attention and input. Have a lovely off season.

Week Nineteen – 10 Days to Go Dead Horse Beating 101

Thursday, February 15th, 2007

The wrap-up, now ten days away from “the envelope please,” of the 2006/07 season really isn’t about the movies. It’s about the frou-frou. It’s about the media plays that failed, the “Oscar bloggers” who had less to do this year than in most, the flight of the Dartees, the laid-back success at Warner Bros, the producers who get Oscars (word has it that all five Little Miss Sunshine producers will be allowed to take the stage at the Kodak if the film wins, by anointment of the Oscar powers that be), the three nominations that Dreamgirls didn’t get, and far too few stories to go around.

But what about the movies?

Well, everyone liked something. Generally, the hate levels were down. And while nothing particularly unexpected is expected a week from Sunday, there really isn’t much opportunity for anything remarkable to happen.

Really… think hard. I know that the Royal You will be royally thrilled if your personal favorite wins a major award or two. But what could possibly happen this year that would blow the roof off the place? The Departed could win along with Marty… but it’s been so about Marty that the occurrence would be “nice.” Little Miss Sunshine could win Best Picture and Best Screenplay… nice. Babel could win Best Picture and Best Score. The Queen could win Actress, Screenplay and… nice. If Letters From Iwo Jima wins anything, it will be a bit of a surprise… but where is the constituency for the film in a nation that hasn’t seen the film?

It will be a nice Oscar ceremony. The biggest danger is that Laura Ziskin will overproduce the show, chasing an audience of under-30s who wouldn’t know to tune in if there was something remotely hip worth watching.

You want a starter list for next year? Here you go …

Charlie Wilson’s War, Che, Elizabeth 2: The Golden Age, Things We Lost In The Fire, The Savages, American Gangster, Margaret, Sweeney Todd, Love In the Time Of Cholera, Reservation Road, The Kite Runner, The Other Boleyn Girl, Youth Without Youth, Synecdoche, New York, Lust, Caution, The Feast Of Love, The Brave One, Margot At The Wedding, Eastern Promises …

… and I didn’t even look that hard.

But 2007 may well be remembered as the year that the Academy unjumped the shark, which is to say, the indulgence of The Season may actually be ready to hit the rear view mirror. Of course, this doesn’t mean that people who smell the potential of victory won’t still lose their mind every year, spending more money chasing a statue than they will ever net on the movie. But for all that is wrong with the system and for all that will always be wrong with this high school beauty contest… the event seems to have forgotten about promoting itself this year and people just voted for movies and performances and work they liked. Short on love… big on like.

Maybe next year only 75% of the contending films will hire the Dartees, suddenly aware that only Cynthia Swartz’ favorite (see Crash, The Queen) will actually get a Best Picture nod out of the hire. Maybe Tony Angellotti will get a reputation for good-mouthing movies. Perhaps Michele Robertson will have a karma reversal, though I don’t know why she would. Maybe Terry Press will be the hot new consultant in town, a Jet to the Dartees’ Sharks. Could Lisa Taback push Harvey or Sony back into the Oscar winner’s circle? Perhaps Karen Fried will see what it’s like when Focus actually has a movie that could work. Could Murray and Ronni and Nadia do anything but keep delivering for their myriad clients? Will Block-Korenbrat and MPRM and BWR merge to make MMBBRKWRR?

And will Alan Nierob leave Mel Gibson after Mel goes on the wagon and starts attending schul? Can Tom Terrific rehabilitate himself? Is John Travolta in a dress just a little too much information? Will Viacom A and Viacom B finally get back together for the sake of the kids? Will Benecio del Toro be next year’s mortal lock for Best Actor? Can Johnny sing? Can Cate Blanchett finally win Best Actress for playing another Queen Elizabeth, her second time at bat?

These are the important questions… right?

Or perhaps we should all spend the next week prepping to really enjoy Oscar night the way we haven’t in a while… a celebration of good movies and good people with a lot of talent. Who wins? Who cares? It’s a joy just to be there!

Sure, there will be some sleepless nights for the poor schlubs (neither poor nor schlubs) who actually have to worry about getting up and making speeches… or worse, not getting up and not making speeches.

Me? I’ll enjoy the prospect of falling in love all over again. Bitch and moan all I want, it’s the love that keeps bringing me back, the hatred in the media that makes me sorry I did, and the movies that linger on that keep reminding me… I was right in the first place. And that’s all that really matters.

Best Actor, Best Actress Charts

Thursday, February 15th, 2007
BEST ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Forrest Whitaker – Last King Of Scotland (GG/Drama) (BFCA) (SAG) He just keeps rollin’ along
Peter O’Toole – Venus Probably not around enough to get the momentum to push out Dada
Will Smith – The Pursuit of Happyness A huge hit but no campagning makes Will a losing boy
Ryan Gosling – Half Nelson He might someday be king of the world
Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond Many more nods to come

BEST ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Helen Mirren – The Queen (GG/D) (BFCA) (SAG) The second true lock.
Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada
Judi Dench – Notes On A Scandal
Kate Winslet – Little Children
Penelope Cruz – Volver

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Eddie Murphy – Dreamgirls (GG) (BFCA) (SAG) Norbit ain’t Shakespeare, but it is a big hit.. another big hit. Feeling more right than before
Alan Arkin – Little Miss Sunshine The serious veteran
Jackie Earle Haley – Little Children The comeback former kid
Mark Wahlberg – The Departed Would be a shocker… but so was the nom, which everyone now seems to feel good about
Djimon Hounsou – Blood Diamond The only one who really can’t win

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls (GG) (BFCA) (SAG) Best Picture miss could have been a problem… but is there really someone who can beat her?
Cate Blanchett – Notes of a Scandal Wonderful performances
Abigail Breslin – Little Miss Sunshine The charmer
Adriana Barraza – Babel Very well liked… will someone give her a job
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel Glamour puss… not an Oscar winner, in spite of a wonderful performance

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Charts

Thursday, February 15th, 2007
BEST PICTURE
Picture – Studio
Comment
The Departed (BFCA) vs Babel (GG) vs
Little Miss Sunshine (PGA, SAG Ensemble)
Most slots curently have two major competitors… this one has three… ask anyone on any day and you will get a different answer or none at all.
Letters From Iwo Jima (Foreign- GG, BFCA)
Rarely have we seemn a darker horse… that actually has a chance to win
The Queen
Seems the least likely… but this year, that is a spot with possibilities

BEST DIRECTOR
Director – Film
Comment
Martin Scorsese – The Departed (GG) (BFCA) (DGA) Your winner. One of two real locks.
Clint Eastwood – Letters From Iwo Jima
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Babel ((DGA)
Stephen Frears – The Queen (DGA)
Paul Greengrass – United 93

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
Little Miss Sunshine (BFCA) (WGA) vs The Queen (GG)
Michael Arndt vs Peter Morgan
These seem to be the two possibilities… but the truth is, one of the others could jump up
Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro
A favorite around town these days
Babel (WGA)
Guillermo Arriaga
Letters From Iwo Jima
Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
The Departed (WGA)
William Monahan
“Rome… lotsa wops, no pizza.” “Wake up and smell the coffin.” Those are the lines that didn’t make it!
Borat
Sacha Baron Cohen; Anthony Hines; Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, Todd Phillips
If voters think of it as a screenplay and not an improv… which won’t be easy
Notes On A Scandal
Patrick Marber
Cuts liek a knife… in other years, a likely winner
Little Children
Todd Field; Tom Perrotta
Some think this is the real threat… but the movie just hasn’t had enough attention lately
Children Of Men
Alfonso Cuarón; Timothy J. Sexton; David Arata; Mark Fergus; Hawk Ostby

Best Actor, Best Actress Charts

Thursday, February 8th, 2007
BEST ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Forrest Whitaker – Last King Of Scotland (GG/Drama) (BFCA) (SAG) Hard to beat with none of the potential competition working for it at all
Peter O’Toole – Venus Back in England after one appearance and a standing ovation
Will Smith – The Pursuit of Happyness Could be a real surprise… but probably not
Ryan Gosling – Half Nelson He could have taken this, but he would have to actually appear to give a shit
Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond Great actor… not his year.

BEST ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Helen Mirren – The Queen (GG/D) (BFCA) (SAG) Yeah.
Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada
Judi Dench – Notes On A Scandal
Kate Winslet – Little Children
Penelope Cruz – Volver

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Eddie Murphy – Dreamgirls (GG) (BFCA) (SAG) Will Norbit sink him for good? One Katzenberg cocktail party probably is not enough to matter
Jackie Earle Haley – Little Children The best story of the year… but did enough people watch the movie?
Alan Arkin – Little Miss Sunshine Could win it
Mark Wahlberg – The Departed Mr. Home Town… he is an interesting dark horse
Djimon Hounsou – Blood Diamond Thanks for playing… see you in a truly great role soon

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls (GG) (BFCA) (SAG) Weird hum around her, again, thanks to no BP nod. But still… not winning would be a real slap in the face
Cate Blanchett – Notes of a Scandal The veteran, but just won
Abigail Breslin – Little Miss Sunshine Really? The adorable kid vs the diva performance?
Adriana Barraza – Babel split
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel split

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Charts

Thursday, February 8th, 2007
BEST PICTURE
Picture – Studio
Comment
Babel (GG)
Love it or hate it… but the “hate its” can’t vote against it, only for something else
The Departed (BFCA)
The adult’s movie movie of the year…. but it’s still a movie based on an Asian action movie
Letters From Iwo Jima (Foreign- GG, BFCA)
If it had enough votes to be nominated, it has plenty of opportuiity to be the shock winner
Little Miss Sunshine (PGA) (SAG Ensemble)
Damaged badly by front runner status… came a week too early
The Queen
The fewest detractors, but still suffers from TV movie comments

BEST DIRECTOR
Director – Film
Comment
Martin Scorsese – The Departed (GG) (BFCA) (DGA) It’s not going away… even if it feels a little anti-climatic at this point
Clint Eastwood – Letters From Iwo Jima
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Babel ((DGA)
Stephen Frears – The Queen (DGA)
Paul Greengrass – United 93

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
Little Miss Sunshine (BFCA) (WGA)
Michael Arndt
The chance to embrace a well-liked film
The Queen (GG) (WGA)
Peter Morgan
A real chance to upset and win
Letters From Iwo Jima
Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis
If the film gets more BP traction, could win in a suprise with only 4 chances for fans of the film to vote for their movie
Babel (WGA)
Guillermo Arriaga
If it wins this, it is surely the BP winner too
Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro
Would be the happiest surprise of the night, which is to say, it’s not impossible that The Love Man would be someone people want to vote for

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
The Departed (WGA)
William Monahan
So many great lines to remember
Borat (WGA)
Sacha Baron Cohen; Anthony Hines; Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, Todd Phillips
Wouldn’t be a shock if it won
Notes On A Scandal
Patrick Marber
A dark dark horse, but… if Borat and Departed split…
Little Children (WGA)
Todd Field; Tom Perrotta
A special movie that will be thought of in other ways first
Children Of Men
Alfonso Cuarón; Timothy J. Sexton; David Arata; Mark Fergus; Hawk Ostby
No real chance here. Enjoy the nod.

Week Eighteen – 17 Days to Go Driving In Neutral

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

Oh, we’re getting close.

Oh, nothing seems to be changing very much.

I am having this weird feeling that the movie no one is talking about is the movie that might shock them all. Explaining it logically, there is one comedy and four dramas. Of the four dramas, the one with the most muscle is Letters from Iwo Jima. Yes, some Academy voters do hate it. Yes, it doesn’t play as well on DVD as it does on a big screen. Yes, it is in a foreign language.

But if you are going to pick one of the four dramas to vote for, which one has a strong universal theme, a major league pedigree, and undeniable serious intent? Iwo Jima.

Of course, that begs the musical question, doesn’t Little Miss Sunshine have a big advantage in a tight race as the only comedy?

Answer: Maybe.

Doesn’t The Departed have a huge advantage by being the film with the highest domestic gross by more than double?

Answer: Maybe.

Isn’t The Queen in pretty great shape as the only movie of the five that really doesn’t have any haters fighting against it?

Answer: Maybe.

Is Babel the BP nominee most like last year’s upset winner, Crash, a series of stories on a theme of communication, featuring strong performances as characters overcome their seeming limitations?

Answer: Maybe.

What we do know is that it is very, very rare for a film to win Best Picture without a Best Director nomination.

What we do know is that the last film that was more than about 10% foreign language to win Best Picture was… well… never.

What we do know is that no remake of another movie has ever won Best Picture.

What we do know is that no film has ever won Best Picture with its only acting nomination being for Best Actress.

So that eliminates all five nominees… so start again…

Or not.

There has been a lot of baby kissing and group hugs in the last week, but aside from a bunch of hype that Little Miss Sunshine had taken some dominant position – hype that might have killed its chances – and Eddie Murphy’s big momma belly in Norbit, nothing much has happened. Everyone keeps talking to their circle of Academy friends and each person seems to get a different answer. A wave of positivity from one person is followed by a list of negatives from another.

And the answer is… we just don’t know.

So why say more when there is so little to say?

(ADDED – The discussion actually does continue on the blog…)

Look for a wave of Oscar profiles on MCN over the weekend. And Lunch With David will feature another Oscar nominee this week and a chat with some very special Oscar envisioning guests.

Best Actor, Best Actress

Friday, February 2nd, 2007
BEST ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Forrest Whitaker – Last King Of Scotland (GG/Drama) (BFCA) (SAG) Way out ahead… far enough to trip
Peter O’Toole – Venus Due in L.A. on Monday… we’ll see
Will Smith – The Pursuit of Happyness Could be a shocker… but not probably available enough
Ryan Gosling – Half Nelson
Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond

BEST ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Helen Mirren – The Queen (GG/D) (BFCA) (SAG) Could lose… if she killed someone with her bare hands
Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada
Judi Dench – Notes On A Scandal
Kate Winslet – Little Children
Penelope Cruz – Volver

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Eddie Murphy – Dreamgirls (GG) (BFCA) (SAG) After winning SAG, in addition to most everything else, looking like the winner
Alan Arkin – Little Miss Sunshine Still alive
Mark Wahlberg – The Departed
Jackie Earle Haley – Little Children The most happy nominee
Djimon Hounsou – Blood Diamond

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls (GG) (BFCA) (SAG) Not being beaten
Abigail Breslin – Little Miss Sunshine
Cate Blanchett – Notes of a Scandal
Adriana Barraza – Babel
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Chart

Friday, February 2nd, 2007
BEST PICTURE
Picture – Studio
Comment
Babel (GG)
22%
Letters From Iwo Jima (Foreign- GG, BFCA)
21.5%
Little Miss Sunshine (PGA) (SAG Ensemble)
20%
The Departed (BFCA)
19%
The Queen
17.5%

BEST DIRECTOR
Director – Film
Comment
Martin Scorsese – The Departed (GG) (BFCA) (DGA) Would be a stunner if he lost
Clint Eastwood – Letters From Iwo Jima
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Babel ((DGA)
Stephen Frears – The Queen (DGA)
Paul Greengrass – United 93

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
Little Miss Sunshine (BFCA) (WGA)
Michael Arndt
Likely winner
The Queen (GG) (WGA)
Peter Morgan
Babel (WGA)
Guillermo Arriaga
Letters From Iwo Jima
Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis
Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
The Departed (WGA)
William Monahan
The likely winner, though Monahan is the most undervalued contributor to this great film.
Borat (WGA)
Sacha Baron Cohen; Anthony Hines; Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, Todd Phillips
Does it tickle the Academy funny bone to vote for it? It’s hard out here for a Kazakh
Little Children (WGA)
Todd Field; Tom Perrotta
Notes On A Scandal
Patrick Marber
Children Of Men
Alfonso Cuarón; Timothy J. Sexton; David Arata; Mark Fergus; Hawk Ostby

Week Seventeen – 24 Days to Go Tick Tock

Thursday, February 1st, 2007

What’s the worst thing that could have happened to Little Miss Sunshine?

As this week’s trendy pick to win Best Picture, LMS could easily be being set up to take a fall as it reaches the final leg of the race. It’s wondrously amusing to see people who screamed that Crash could never win last year take up the cause of the movie with no directing nod (not that it doesn’t deserve one) and the gimpy leg in Oscar eyes that is being a comedy. (For the SAG screamers, please note that the guild is 50/50 in the last decade, honoring Sideways, Gosford Park, Traffic, The Full Monty, and The Birdcage with the ensemble award in that period.)

On the flip side, no one really knows.

On the third side of this freaky coin… no one really cares.

It is the oddest turn in a rather unusual year, actually. With 24 days to go, after months of pretty much knowing that we would be close to exactly where we are, we have an Oscar season looking for a focus. And the driver that will bring baldy home hasn’t shown itself yet.

Final Oscar ballots went out yesterday, so it is all about to come together, like it or not. And of course, we will never know exactly what happens in the accounting office of Boring, Anal & We Know More Than You Do. But it sure feels like the ultimate Oscar Best Picture – is out there for the picking.

And like recent presidential elections, the real question is not where the committed voters are. The Babel lovers will vote for Babel again, The Friends of The Departed will know where they are inking, and so on. But where will the Dreamgirls votes go? Where will the very self-serious United 93 crowd head?

And keep this in mind… unlike the nomination process, where the notion of “We’ll give this nomination to this film to make up for it not getting this nomination” is a false notion, given that the nominations happen in branches, in the last round people are voting across the board. And indeed, when you are about to ink in the fourth or fifth vote for your favorite, a twinge of “how about giving one to them” can kick in.

More than in a long time, this is not a black and white battle. All of the movies nominated have lovers and haters… but mostly likers.

It’s possible to make 20 different legitimate arguments along the lines of, “Letters From Iwo Jima, Babel, and The Queen split the serious vote, The Departed loses a little to both those and on the light side to Little Miss Sunshine, so LMS wins,” or “Letters From Iwo Jima is the only serious picture with prestige talent and people are finally looking at it,” or “The hardcore serious goes Letters/Babel and the hardcore movie joy people go Sunshine/Departed, splitting both and letting The Queen be the easiest choice for the undecided middle.”

But the truth is, no one really knows.

And did I mention, no one really cares?

This will be the second lowest grossing group of films in the recent era of Oscar Best Picture nominees… after last year’s. But I would argue that even last year had more attractions, with George Clooney, the rising superstar Reese Witherspoon, a national discussion over Brokeback Mountain, a controversial Spielberg movie, and talk of a major last minute upset. This year… really… think about it… with Nicholson, Pitt, and Carrell without nominations, DiCaprio nominated for the lame Blood Diamond, what are people tuning in for? There is no film that is even eligible to win any more than six Oscars!

Will Smith has been working on I Am Legend, so the potential upset there has little media impact on tune in. Peter O’Toole, much as we love him, hasn’t had a hit in 25 years and hasn’t been around. Forest Whitaker deserved an Oscar for Bird, but he, too, hasn’t been a key part of a hit movie’s cast in 20 years. Helen Mirren is a fantastic actress and has never appeared in a movie that grossed over $42 million. Is someone going to tune in to see Al Gore? Are performances by (we hope) Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson going to draw anything?

When the ratings drop 12% this year, as a second straight year of low-grossers, fewer stars, and the women-only celebrity of Ellen DeGeneres in the host slot (the Jon Stewart hire boosted male viewership last year) have their effect, it won’t be the record low for the telecast. But it will the second straight year of a major drop.

And ironically, this is a show where, yet again, the shortened Oscar season is helping the Academy members think more independently, not less. Logic did dictate that Dreamgirls get nominated if only to improve viewership and the celebrity quotient. And if the film “replaced” Babel or Letters Form Iwo Jima, this would have made it the highest grossing group of BP noms on nomination morning since Lord of the Rings by almost $100 million, making the group more comparable to the years of Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan.

That said, they didn’t think that way. You have to go back 18 years to find a movie that was nominated with a smaller gross than Letters From Iwo Jima’s nomination morning’s $2.6 million. (That would be My Left Foot’s $2.1 million in 1989.) And still, that group of nominees had grossed more than this year’s group going into nomination morning.

If you look at the campaigns, you really can’t point a finger at the process working one way or the other. Team Warners went with the full Michelle Robertson zen technique on both The Departed and Letters From Iwo Jima (not always their preference, but a necessity given the players). Searchlight has a new team aboard with the same captains and ran their game in a very classic Searchlight fashion, spending on the Little Miss Sunshine release and then the DVD release in a way coordinated with their awards ad buys. Cynthia Swartz and 42 West led Team Miramax to the promised land on The Queen, with a relentless campaign that spent all season long, in spite of borderline numbers for the film up until the noms. And former Searchlighter Megan Colligan led Paramount Vantage to a Babel nod with a run that started at Cannes and just kept chugging along, turning a blind eye (well, an askance eye) to the many, many naysayers (including me).

None of these five nominees had a cakewalk. None was ever the frontrunner, in spite of endless media hype for some at some times. But they stayed the course and got their noms (deserved all around) and one will take home the Oscar for Best Picture.

And what have we learned?

Nothing, really.

I think we learned more about the media this year than about anything else. And this year was a shark jumper for the media in much the way the Gangs of New York debacle was for Harvey Weinstein. It’s never been the same since they got caught with their fist in the cookie jar. (Like the old folk tale, Harvey had too many cookies in his hand and wouldn’t release enough to get his hand out before the flashbulbs went off.)

This award season may well be remembered as The Year The Blog Rose. But it will surely be remembered more accurately as The Year Mainstream Media Imitated The Web, Sucked At It, And Spent A Lot of Time Trying To Cover Their Tracks By Attacking What They Failed To Match. Even the wonderful David Carr – and I truly adore that guy – has gotten some Hollywood jungle fever, taking a misstep that he would surely chide any other veteran reporter for … mistaking the news for opinion and opinions for news. (Of course, he outcharms us all in the process and I look forward to reading him on this beat for years to come. Like Scott & Dargis, his is untraditional, but entirely stimulating in a way completely worthy of the paper of record.)

But Traditional Media doesn’t suck in any inherent way. There are some mad skills on display there. But the line between the old and the new forms of media is not about reporting. It’s about tone. And it’s about how the media connects to the people they serve. But that is really another column…

And hopefully, by next week, that mysterious, elusive thing will show itself and the picture will start to clear up. And if not… there’s always February 25.

Best Screenplay

Thursday, January 25th, 2007
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
Little Miss Sunshine (BFCA) (WGA) Likely Sunday bone after big Saturday wins
Babel (BFCA) (WGA) Back-Up
The Queen Longshot
Letters From Iwo Jima Could possibly ride a wave
Pan’s Labyrinth Great get

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
Borat (WGA) Could actually win this
The Departed (WGA) Still strong, could be consolation prize
Little Children (WGA)
Notes On A Scandal
Children Of Men

Best Actress

Thursday, January 25th, 2007
BEST ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Helen Mirren – The Queen (GG/D) (BFCA) (SAG) One category with no surprises
Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada (GG/C) (SAG)
Judi Dench – Notes On A Scandal (SAG)
Kate Winslet – Little Children (SAG)
Penelope Cruz – Volver (SAG)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls (GG) (BFCA) (SAG) Still likely to be the lock
Abigail Breslin – Little Miss Sunshine (SAG)
Cate Blanchett – Notes of a Scandal (SAG)
Adriana Barraza – Babel (SAG)
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel (SAG)

Best Actor

Thursday, January 25th, 2007
BEST ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Forrest Whitaker – Last King Of Scotland (GG/Drama) (BFCA) (SAG) Looking like a machine
Peter O’Toole – Venus (SAG) Could surprise…. health/appearances will matter
Will Smith – The Pursuit of Happyness (SAG) Could come up with a win
Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond (Supporting – SAG) Not for The Departed
Ryan Gosling – Half Nelson (BFCA) (SAG) Good on ThinkFilm… a movie star if he wants to be one

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Alan Arkin – Little Miss Sunshine (SAG) Stronger for the run of noms
Eddie Murphy – Dreamgirls (GG) (BFCA) (SAG) Weaker for the loss of Best Picture
Mark Wahlberg – The Departed Could get interesting
Jackie Earle Haley – Little Children (SAG) Thrilled beyond belief this morning
Djimon Hounsou – Blood Diamond (SAG) Pleased to be here

Best Director

Thursday, January 25th, 2007
BEST DIRECTOR
Director – Film
Comment
Martin Scorsese – The Departed (GG) (BFCA) (DGA) Your winner
Clint Eastwood – Letters From Iwo Jima (BFCA) Could be your shocker… but would have to be in BP too
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Babel ((DGA)
Stephen Frears – The Queen (DGA)
Paul Greengrass – United 93 The most expensive nomination in history (one of two for the film)

Best Picture

Thursday, January 25th, 2007
BEST PICTURE
Picture – Studio
Comment
Babel (GG) (PGA) (DGA) (SAG) Suddenly the one to beat
Little Miss Sunshine (PGA) (DGA) (SAG) The little yellow bus that could
Letters From Iwo Jima A real threat to pull the rug out from everyone… Pic, Director, Screenplay
The Departed (PGA) (BFCA) (DGA) (SAG) Needs to find a reason to rise
The Queen (PGA) (DGA) Happy to be here

Week Sixteen: 31 Days to Go And Now For Something You’ll Really Like … Again?!?!

Thursday, January 25th, 2007

And now, we start the 2007 Oscar season again for the last time…

Yes, Phase II (post-nom time, as it is called) 2007 may be the most wide open race in memory. The last time we were looking at as many of the 5 nominees that could really win was the year of Gladiator, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Chocolat. Of course, what was very different that year was that all but one of the movies (Chocolat) either had or were on their way to crossing the $100 million mark. And the films all had a significant number of nominations.

This year, as I wrote a few days ago, the 9 open categories aside from The Top Eight (Picture, Director, Acting, Writing) have a total of 6 nominations from this year’s five Best Picture nominees. What does this mean? Maybe nothing. Or maybe it means that Academy members continue to vote their minds and that none of the Big Five was as well crafted as other pictures, like 6-time nomineePan’s Labyrinth.

Ironically, this also indicates – to me, at least – that the shorter season remains a very positive influence. Members, especially in their branch votes, have seen a lot of the films and made independent minded choices. Another month of marketing seems quite unlikely to lead to a wider group of choices, but instead, more time for the bigger pictures to push for more.

The odd circumstance of the spread voting makes it very, very possible that Dreamgirls will continue the role of being a top Academy film, sans Best Picture, and win more or as many Oscars as any other film. Think about it. Hudson, Murphy, Song, and say, Sound Mixing. There are only a couple of films with enough total nominations to get four wins. If people assume that Jennifer Hudson still wins Best Supporting Actress – and do any of us feel like assuming much of anything this week? – that takes Babel down to 5 opportunities, Little Miss Sunshine down to 4 and leaves The Departed and The Queen at 5 and Letters from Iwo Jima at 4.

Speaking of The Queen, last year’s super-stat was Cynthia Swartz’s “no film ever won Best Picture without an editing nomination.”

Stats are made to be upended. And if any year is not going to comply with stats – however expected most of what has happened so far remains – this seems to be the one. But if you take on Ms. Swartz’s clever analysis, which leaned towards Crash and away from Brokeback Mountain last season, it leaves only The Departed and Babel in the running for the win.

Paramount Vantage’s favorite Phase I Oscar start was that 28 times there have been two Supporting Actress candidates from the same movie. This was prophetic, as Babel got nominations for both Rinko Kikuchi and Adrianna Barraza. Beyond getting in, the stat gets fuzzy. This has happened five times in the last 20 years. Only in the case of Chicago did the film go on to win Best Picture. In one other case, the film was nominated for Best Picture (Working Girl). And in the other three cases, there wasn’t even a BP nod (Almost Famous, Bullets Over Broadway, Enemies, A Love Story).

Other stats working against the nominees include the fact that only one film has ever won Best Picture without a directing nod, Driving Miss Daisy. Does that mean the disqualification of Little Miss Sunshine? Oh yes… and it’s been 29 years since the last comedy, Annie Hall, won Best Picture.

Even after overcoming the lack of guild support, is it really possible for Letters From Iwo Jima to move to the winner’s circle with no acting nominations and only one branch nod aside from the directors, the writers, and sound editing?

As for The Departed, when was the last time a remake won Best Picture? 1956 with Marty, a remake from a TV version of the same.

Of course, my position is and has been that Phase II is a different race than Phase I. Once the field has been narrowed to five, the dynamic shifts. And there are a whole new set of questions to answer.

Will Warner Bros spend big on Letters From Iwo Jima now, even though they never really saw this film as having much commercial potential? A push could pay off handsomely if the film actually won. But if it doesn’t, it is good money thrown away after already achieving the nomination.

How much deeper in the hole will Paramount and Paramount Vantage go on Babel in order to race. Again, the nomination actually puts the film in position to come within $10 million of breakeven after ancillaries. With an extraordinary success in DVD, they could break even. But any additional millions in spending to chase the win would all be lost if they didn’t win.

The campaign for The Departed has been very laid back. Will that change? Will Mark Wahlberg, now Oscar nominated, finally feel like he is appropriately valued by the studio? (Recall problematic moments at the junket and premieres.) The re-release might pay for itself. But is a strategic shift forthcoming?

The Queen will continue to expand and spend. But with Sheen out, leaving the same central trio on the campaign trail, with Mirren still an apparent lock, how can they ramp things up any further?

And we all know that Little Miss Sunshine will continue its “Little Best Picture” push. But how hard? And can they overshoot the mark?

The media involvement in all this remains at issue. As the media negativity on Dreamgirls spread to the New York Times and Variety, did it have some effect on the missed nominations? Who knows?

My theory on how the noms went is that there may not have been any first ballot nominees this year. With six strong candidates – which include Dreamgirls, and now, obviously, Letters From Iwo Jima – 14% each (6% short of a nomination) is 84% of the vote, leaving 16% for all the other films out there. I don’t think that many people doubt that any of these six titles managed 14% of the vote. Then, in the second round, counting #2 votes, all the nominees could well have gotten in. If ever there was a year where it feels this way, this is it. And indeed, others could have been in when #2 votes were counted, but came up short of the Top 5.

Looking at the final vote, start with that same 14% times 5 and that’s 70% of the vote. Where will the other displaced 30% go? That, my friends, is the rub. And that is where is might be a fight or it might be already close to settled.

Does Little Miss Sunshine have a unique advantage as the one non-drama?

Does The Queen have every one of the 400 British Oscar voters votes that it didn’t get the first time lined up now?

Does the box office dominance of The Departed make it more attractive?

Is Babel the Crash of this year… and if so, will the filmmakers blush?

Does the Eastwood Mystique and a very serious, contemplative, war related story make Letters From Iwo Jima a potential winner?

The bottom line is that there is both more and less of a race right now than appears on the surface to exist. And the media influence is both more and less significant than it appears to be.

One problem I have with the daily analysis, both online and in Traditional Media, is that there tends to be a sporting event mindset. If you lose, the quarterback sucks. If you win, he’s the best ever. The only play that counts in many minds is the last play. And most of all, there is this ongoing insane notion that the Academy equals an objective analysis of the best films of the year. A nomination means that the movie is better than the other movie… or the lack, that there is worse. But of course, that is just self-indulgence at its best.

My rule remains the same… if you want to make that argument, be consistent. If the Academy left out Dreamgirls because “they just didn’t think it was that good,” then it also left out United 93 and Pan’s Labyrinth for the same reason. If the Golden Globes are unimportant because Dreamgirls didn’t get nominated in spite of winning the most Globes, it was equally irrelevant for Babel, which did get nom’ed. And if you think all five nominees “deserved” or “didn’t deserve” to be nominated this year… the same will be true next year and forever.

The only think that really changes, for a lot of writers, is their personal opinion. When David Carr finds himself apologizing for believing Dreamgirls would win Best Picture, does it matter to anyone whether he was 50 votes off of this nomination or 1000 votes? There is no objective standard for analysis. And apologizing – or taking any of this personally – is idiotic. And the Bagger, a very smart guy, will surely learn this lesson if he chooses to continue on this beat in years to come. This is not a zero sum game.

Also, for all the talk about December being out of favor as a launching pad and the murmur about Crash’s May launch, it should be pointed out that Little Miss Sunshine’s July 26 launch was the earliest this year, with Letters From Iwo Jima’s Dec 20 launch the latest. One went out on the last days of Sept and two went in October. So is late Sept/early Oct the new Oscar hot zone? Of course not. Oscar is in the details, not the release date. Some movies would have been better off in December and others better off in October. Every film needs its own strategy. Period.

Finally, a side note. The nominations as they connect to the MCN’s Top Ten Chart turned out to be numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8. This is the second straight year when all the BP noms were in the Top Eight of critical consensus. Interesting. Another stat to rip up in the years to come. But as I have long written, the media’s primary involvement in the Oscar season is to narrow the field. And once again, it seems they have.

If you are curious, last year #7 (and the fourth highest ranked in the group of noms) won. That correlates to Little Miss Sunshine this year. Shrug.

(Thursday, 6:39p – Column Corrections – As sometimes happens, there are some stats that I got wrong this morning… and thanks to some committed, interested readers, here’s a chance to correct them. I thank all of you who sent e-mails.

1. Ordinary People (1981), Annie Hall (1978), and Grand Hotel (1932) won in the past without Best Editing nominations.

2. As I researched it last night, I left Dame duo Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren’s double Supporting Actress noms for Gosford Park off the list of films that had that phenomenon in the last 20 years.