Posts Tagged ‘The Soloist’

Page 4

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

AFI | John Anderson | Jackie Cooper | Dallas Ft. Worth Film Critics | Houston Film Critics | Drew McWeeny | Joe Morgenstern | Stephen Schaefer | Betsy Sharkey | Dana Stevens

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John Anderson
IndieWIRE

1 Fantastic Mr. Fox
2 Precious
3 Food Inc
4 Star Trek
5 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
6 The Hurt Locker
7 The Windmill Movie
8 Bronson
9 Burma VJ
10 The Messenger
Link to the List

DFW Film Critics

1 Up in the Air
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Precious
4 Up
5 An Education
6 A Serious Man
7 Inglourious Basterds
8 District 9
9 Avatar
10 Fantastic Mr. Fox
Link to the List

AFI

1 Coraline
2 The Hangover
3 The Hurt Locker
4 The Messenger
5 Precious
6 A Serious Man
7 A Single Man
8 Sugar
9 Up
10 Up in the Air
Link to the List

Houston Film Critics

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Up in the Air
3 Star Trek
4 Precious
5 Inglourious Basterds
6 Up
7 (500) Days of Summer
8 Avatar
9 Invictus
10 District 9
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Betsy Sharkey
Los Angeles Times

1 Up in the Air
2 Precious
3 The Hurt Locker
4 The Beaches of Agnes
5 Fantastic Mr. Fox
6 An Education
7 District 9
8 Bright Star
9 A Single Man
10 Two Lovers
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Jackie Cooper
WPGA-TV

1 Avatar
2 Nine
3 Brothers
4 The Hurt Locker
5 The Blind Side
6 Inglourious Basterds
7 Invictus
8 Star Trek
9 The Last Station
10 The Damned United
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Dana Stevens
Slate

1 Adventureland
2 The Beaches of Agnes
3 Crazy Heart
4 Drag Me To Hell
5 Fantastic Mr. Fox
6 The Hurt Locker
7 In the Loop
8 Lorna’s Silence
9 The maid
10 Ponyo
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Stephen Schaefer
Boston Herald

1 An Education
2 Inglourious Basterds
3 Up in the Air
4 Two Lovers
5 The Hurt Locker
6 The White Ribbon
7 Precious
8 Brothers
9 The Young Victoria
10 Avatar
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Joe Morgenstern
The Wall Street Journal

1 The Hurt Locker
2 An Education
3 Avatar
4 Crazy Heart
5 District 9
6 Precious
7 Sin Nombre
8 Summer Hours
9 Up in the Air
10 Where the Wild Things Are
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Drew McWeeny
HitFix

1 Enter the Void
2 Where the Wild Things Are
3 Inglourious Basterds
4 Fantastic Mr. Fox
5 A Serious Man
6 District 9
7 World’s Greatest Dad
8 Up in the Air
9 Avatar
10 In the Loop

Page 3

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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Kathleen Murphy
MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Inglourious Basterds
3 A Serious Man
4 Liverpool
5 Bright Star
6 35 Rhums
7 Summer Hours
8 Still Walking
9 Up in the Air
10 Bad Lieutenant
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Mary Pols
MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 The White Ribbon
3 Up in the Air | Adventureland
4 Up | Coraline
5 A Serious Man
6 Beaches of Agnes
7 Where the Wild Things Are
8 The Messenger
9 Fantastic Mr. Fox
10 An Education
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James Rocchi
MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Fantastic Mr. Fox
3 The White Ribbon
4 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
5 A Serious Man
6 In the Loop
7 Up in the Air
8 The Messenger
9 The Maid
10 The Brothers Bloom
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Glenn Whipp
MSN

1 The Hurt locker
2 Fantastic Mr. Fox
3 Up
4 A Serious Man
5 Where the Wild Things Are
6 Tulpan
7 Bright Star
8 Coraline
9 35 Shots of Rum
10 In the Loop
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Peter Debruge
Variety

1 In the Loop
2 The Sun
3 Avatar
4 Summer Hours
5 The Cove
6 Two Lovers
7 Antichrist
8 Ponyo
9 District 9
10 Sugar
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Steve Erickson
Gay City News

1 The Limits of Control
2 Fantastic Mr. Fox
3 The Sun
4 Duplicity
5 Tokyo Sonata
6 Import Export
7 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
8 Police, Adjective
9 Night and Day
10 The Headless Woman
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Susan Gerhard
SF360.org

1 Three Monkeys
2 Tokyo Sonata
3 Tyson
4 Where the Wild Things Are
5 35 Shots of Rum
6 The Maid
7 (500) Days of Summer
8 District 9
9 An Education
10 Funny People
Link to the List

Robert Horton
The Herald

1 A Serious Man
2 You, the Living
3 Inglourious Basterds
4 Up
5 The Hurt Locker
6 Summer Hours
7 35 Shots of Rum
8 Liverpool
9 Sunshine Cleaning
10 Duplicity
Link to the List

J.R. Jones
Chicago Reader

1 Summer Hours
2 The Hurt Locker
3 You, the Living
4 In the Loop
5 The Baader Meinhof Complex
6 The Class
7 Goodbye Solo
8 World’s Greatest Dad
9 Fantastic Mr. Fox
10 The Maid
Link to the List

Eric Kohn
IndieWIRE

1 Sita Sings the Blues
2 Two Lovers
3 The Girlfriend Experience
4 The Hurt Locker
5 Humpday
6 Medicine for Melancholy
7 Adventureland
8 A Serious Man
9 Tony Manero
10 In the Loop

Kathleen Murphy | Mary Pols | James Rocchi | Glenn Whipp | Peter Debruge | Steve Erickson | Susan Gerhard | Robert Horton | JR Jones | Eric Kohn

Page 2

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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Richard T. Jameson
MSN

1 A Serious Man
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Taking Woodstock
4 35 Shots of Rum
5 Bright Star
6 Liverpool
7 Up in the Air
8 Inglourious Basterds | Public Enemies
9 (500) Days of Summer
10 Bad Lieutenant
Link to the List

Don Kaye
MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 A Serious Man
3 District 9
4 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
5 In the Loop
6 An Education
7 Inglourious Basterds
8 Coraline
9 The Road
10 Up in the Air | Watchmen
Link to the List

Anne Thompson
IndieWire

1 Red Cliff
2 Bright Star
3 A Serious Man
4 A Prophet
5 Up
6 Summer Hours
7 Coraline
8 The Hurt Locker
9 Up in the Air
10 An Education
Link to the List

Shawn Edwards
FOX-TV

1 The Hangover
2 Avatar
3 Nine
4 (500) Days of Summer
5 Precious
6 Where the Wild Things Are
7 Up in the Air
8 District 9
9 Up
10 The Soloist
Link to the List

Anthony Lane
New Yorker

1 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
2 Cloudy…Chance of Meatballs
3 Coraline
4 Fantastic Mr. Fox
5 Gommorrah
6 Star Trek
7 The White Ribbon
8 Up
9 Up in the Air
Link to the List

Richard Corliss
Time Magazine

1 Princess and the Frog
2 Up
3 Fantastic Mr. Fox
4 The Hurt Locker
5 Up in the Air
6 The White Ribbon
7 A Single Man
8 Of Time and the City
9 District 9
10 Thirst
Link to the List

Dave McCoy
MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 A Serious Man
3 The White Ribbon
4 Fantastic Mr. Fox | Where the Wild Things Are
5 Bad Lieutenant
6 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
7 In the Loop
8 Still Wallking
9 The Maid
10 Taking Woodstock
Link to the List

Kim Morgan
MSN

1 Inglourious Basterds
2 Bad Lieutenant
3 A Serious Man
4 Antichrist
5 Observe and Report
6 Fantastic Mr. Fox
7 Thirst
8 The Hurt Locker
9 The Road
10 Broken Embraces
Link to the List

Jim Emerson
MSN

1 A Serious Man
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Liverpool
4 35 Shots of Rum
5 Inglourious Basterds
6 The Headless Woman
7 Police, Adjective
8 Summer Hours
9 The White Ribbon
10 Goodbye Solo / The Limits of Control / The Informant! / Watchmen / Fantastic Mr. Fox
Link to the List

Sight & Sound

1 A Prophet
2 The Hurt Locker
2 35 Shots of Rum
4 The White Ribbon
5 Let the Right One In
6 Up
6 White Material
8 Bright Star
8 Antichrist
10 Inglourious Basterds

Anne Thompson | Shawn Edwards | Anthony Lane | Richard Corliss | Sight & Sound | Jim Emerson | Richard T. Jameson | Don Kaye | Dave McCoy | Kim Morgan

Page 1

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Link to the List

Phil Villarreal OK! Magazine

1 (500) Days of Summer
2 Inglourious Basterds
3 Precious
4 Crazy Heart
5 A Serious Man
6 Me & Orson Welles
7 Princess & the Frog
8 Were the World Mine
9 Up
10 Up in the Air
Link to the List

Kristopher Tapley In Contention

1 A Serious Man
2 Up in the Air
3 Antichrist
4 The Cove
5 Avatar
6 Precious
7 An Education
8 Mary & Max
9 Bronson
10 The Lovely Bones
Link to the List

Lou Lumenick New York Post

1 Up in the Air
2 Up
3 A Serious Man
4 Inglourious Basterds
5 Avatar
6 Invictus
7 Precious
8 Fantastic Mr. Fox
9 In the Loop
10 Ponyo
Link to the List

Kyle Smith New York Post

1 Inglourious Basterds
2 Up
3 Fantastic Mr. Fox
4 Watchmen
5 Funny People
6 Up in the Air
7 An Education
8 In the Loop
9 Of Time and the City
10 Shall We Kiss?
Link to the List

Stephen Holden New York Times

1 Up in the Air
2 The White Ribbon
3 Still Walking
4 The Messenger
5 35 Shots of Rum
6 The Hurt Locker
7 The Headless Woman
8 An Education
9 Summer Hours
10 Disgrace
Link to the List

Peter Travers Rolling Stone

1 Precious
2 Up in the Air
3 The Hurt Locker
4 An Education
5 Up
6 Where the Wild Things Are
7 A Serious Man
8 District 9
9 (500) Days of Summer
10 The Messenger
Link to the List

David Denby New Yorker

1 The Hurt Locker
2 The White Ribbon
3 The Messenger
4 Funny People
5 Adventureland
6 Up
7 The Last Station
8 Me and Orson Welles
9 Fantastic Mr. Fox
10 Up in the Air
Link to the List

National Board of Review

1 An Education
2 (500) Days of Summer
3 The Hurt Locker
4 Inglourious Basterds
5 Invictus
6 The Messenger
7 A Serious Man
8 Star Trek
9 Up
10 Where the Wild Things Are
Link to the List

Austin Film Critics

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Star Trek
3 Up
4 A Serious Man
5 Up in the Air
6 Avatar
7 Inglourious Basterds
8 District 9
9 Where the Wild Things Are
10 Moon | The Messenger
Link to the List

Sean Axmaker MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 A Serious Man
3 Inglourious Basterds
4 Summer Hours
5 Of Time and the City
6 Police, Adjective
7 Still Walking
8 Liverpool
9 Up in the Air
10 Where the Wild Things Are

Phil Villarreal | Kristopher Tapley | Lou Lumenick | Kyle Smith | Stephen Holden | Peter Travers | David Denby | National Board of Review | Austin Film Critics | Sean Axmaker

The Top Ten Chart for January 21, 2010

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

225 Critics. 239 Films.

The Top Ten Chart for January 12, 2010

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

225 Critics. 239 Films.

The Top Ten Chart for January 6, 2010

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

132 Critics. 161 Films. 30 New to the List.

The Top Ten Chart for January 2, 2010

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

102 Critics. 151 Films. 30 New to the List.

The Top Ten Chart for December 29, 2009

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

74 Critics . 125 Films. 20 New to the List.

The Top Ten Chart for December 23, 2009

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

54 Critics. 104 Films.

The Top Ten Chart for December 20, 2009

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

Wilmington on DVDs: Race to Witch Mountain, The Soloist, The Astonishing Work of Tezuka Osamu, and more…

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Race to Witch Mountain (Two Stars)
U. S.; Andy Fickman, 2009

Ex-wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (no relation to wrestler-actor Tor Johnson or the late Van Johnson) is a (more…)

ShoWest Sampler: Animation, 3-D and the new Woody Allen Film

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

LAS VEGAS — It’s been rumored here that the annual ShoWest soiree, as sure a harbinger of spring as any returning robin, soon could go the way of such once-storied conventions as COMDEX, VSDA, NATPE, NAB, Summer CES and E3.

The computer industry’s “geek week,” as COMDEX became known, once brought 200,000 conventioneers to this city, making room vacancies as scarce as Megabucks winners. Two years later, it disappeared completely. After the Summer CES, held each June in Chicago, was overwhelmed by the demands of an electronics industry in which shelf life was measured in months, not years, the only segment that continued to make things interesting spun itself off as the Electronic Entertainment Expo. That once rowdy convention, like VSDA and NATPE before it, now has deflated to the point where it could be held in a phone booth.

The only success story in the world of conventions lately has been the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, which is held simultaneous to the increasingly less fun Winter CES. Given the ready availability of freely available pornography on the Internet, though, it, too, might have gone the way of the dodo bird, if organizers hadn’t opened the exhibition floor and awards show to the public.

ShoWest became famous mostly for the largesse shown by Hollywood studios to North American theater owners. In the days before a handful of chains owned the majority of theaters and multiplexes, distributors would compete for the right to deliver the greatest number of celebrities to banquets and show the best product reels. There was nothing quite like it, even at Cannes or during Oscar week.

When video revenues began to overtake theatrical box-office, the same distributors who financed ShoWest made VSDA the best show in town. After such operations as Blockbuster and Hollywood began to dominate the mom-and-pops – and organizers became embarrassed by the growing adult-video sideshow – VSDA nearly disappeared entirely. Ditto, syndicated-television’s annual love fest, NATPE, which saw its value to broadcasters fall to Fox, UPN, the WB and the cable networks. The National Association of Broadcasters’ tech show, held each April in Las Vegas, hasn’t been the same since it let the software jockeys and post-production nerds steal the thunder from actual broadcasters.

For the last five years at ShoWest – or ever since “digital” became a buzzword in Hollywood — equipment-producing companies have attempted to assume the role once reserved for the studios. Smaller studios and production companies have partnered with such firms to put on a good show for the punters, but they couldn’t command the same star power as the larger entities. This week, the near-absence of gala studio-funded banquets and tchocke-filled goodie bags was more apparent than ever. If it weren’t for the excellent quality of movies that were previewed here, the death knell might already have sounded.

This isn’t to say, however, that that movie business is about to pull up stakes and move to some Third World country, where negotiators for SAG, AFTRA and the Writers Guilds would be shot on sight. No, as we learned this week, too, box-office revenues worldwide soared another 5 percent in 2008, bringing the grand total to $28.1 billion, and U.S. ticket sales already are tracking 8 percent better than those last year. Ducats now average $7.18 a piece and the number of screens with 3-D capability is nearing 2,000. Considering that some international markets have yet to emerge from the bedsheet-on-the-wall era of movie exhibition, the upside remains great.

Still, the MPAA seemed so embarrassed by its member studios’ willingness to overspend in the face of a worldwide economic crisis that, for the first time in 20 years, it refused to divulge industry estimates on production and marketing costs. That wasn’t the reason provided by the lobbying organization’s boss, Dan Glickman, for not revealing the every expanding numbers, of course. Last year, the average total cost was $106.6 million, up $6.3 million from 2006. Those are Bernie Madoff numbers … sometimes for the same payoff for investors.

By comparison, the estimated budget for the Best Picture-winning Slumdog Millionaire was $15 million, and its best publicity came from positive word-of-mouth. Milk was limited to the same amount of money, while Frost/Nixon and The Reader were allowed about $35 million. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million, not taking into account what it may have cost to market the picture (the industry average in 2007 was $36 million) after it was finished. To date, Slumdog has logged a domestic box-office gross of $137 million, while Button is plugging along at $127 million.

Even so, the MPAA reportedly has been faulted by some members for not scoring the same tax incentives and infusions of money from President Obama’s stimulus package as other, more troubled industries. In the face of such a public diss by easily bought legislators – many of whom still see Hollywood as suburb of Havana — it probably wouldn’t have been prudent for the studios to lavish even more money on rubber chicken, celebrity lineups and souvenir T-shirts at ShoWest. Alas, it was fun while it lasted.

That said, though, much of the reason exhibitors continue to attend ShoWest is to get sneak previews of the movies they’ll be showing in their theaters from March until Christmas. By all outward appearances, they weren’t disappointed.

As usual, Monday night was reserved for screenings of upcoming independent pictures. Several years ago, My Big Fat Greek Wedding was introduced to exhibitors at this forum and, ever since, they’ve come here looking to re-capture lightning in a bottle. Bill Milner’s heartfelt dramedy, Is Anybody There?, in which  a retired magician (Michael Caine) mentors a death-obsessed 10-year-old boy, drew packed audiences back-to-back, and Kathryn Bigelow’s harrowing  Iraq war story, The Hurt Locker, also attracted much attention. Stephan Elliott’s lavish period adaptation of the Noel Coward rom-com, Easy Virtue was as much fun to watch for its beautiful rural setting as the all-star cast (Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth). Kristopher Belman’s documentary profile of LeBron James, More Than a Game, followed the Cleveland Cavalier star’s rise from the playgrounds of Akron to the NBA Pantheon, with the accent on the friendship he forged along the way.

For the next two days, though, the future of 3-D would dominate most of the discussion … just as it had last year, after The Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour blew the hinges off the box-office. Last weekend’s dynamite numbers for DreamWorks Animation’s Monsters Vs. Aliens — 56 percent of its nearly $60-million haul came from 3-D venues, even though they represented 28 percent of the 4,000 theaters showing the movie – gave exhibitors hope that their investments in digital projection systems might pay immediate dividends.

If that report didn’t provide enough cause for optimism, Disney/Pixar introduced a slate of 17 3-D projects that had everyone in the standing-room-only crowd dizzy with anticipation. A generous preview of Pixar’s first 3-D animated feature, Up, promised blockbuster numbers, as did news of plans to re-release Toy Story and Toy Story 2 as a digital 3-D double-feature for a two-week engagement in early October (along with a trailer for next summer’s Toy Story 3). Snippets from those movies, and the dance scene from a re-formatted Beauty and the Beast, came next, as did a peek at Pixar’s new series of animated shorts, Cars Toon, and a delightful scene from the 2-D, hand-drawn, The Princess and the Frog, set for a Thanksgiving 2009 release. Also in the pipeline are animated features from Jerry Bruckheimer, Robert Zemeckis, Tim Burton and a sequel to Disney’s 1982 ground-breaker, Tron.

At Tuesday’s luncheon presentation, Sony Pictures Animation previewed its September 3-D release, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The feature was adapted from Judi and Ron Barrett’s popular children’s book, in which a hapless scientist creates a rocket that, when shot into the sky, makes food fall from the clouds like rain.

Another stereoscopic feature, The Battle for Terra, imagined a futuristic battle for survival on a planet invaded by desperate Earthlings. The peaceful world is populated by humanoids who look like guppies, crossed with dolphins, and whose advanced technology might have been designed by Jules Verne or H.G. Wells.

Warner Bros., usually a competitor for the title of most-lavish banquet, this year was content to preview Terminator: Salvation, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Hangover and Sherlock Holmes, for which Robert Downey Jr. made a guest appearance.

Downey would be seen later that evening, as well, alongside Jamie Foxx and Catherine Keener, in Paramount’s The Soloist. Another full house greeted director Joe Wright and writer Susannah Grant’s already much-hyped drama, which was based on a series of columns by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez. In addition to demonstrating that exhibitors enjoy watching movies as much as their customers – only they’re far more polite and appreciative of serious fare — The Soloist delicately alluded to the very real possibility that a decimation of newsrooms, even at the nation’s most important papers, could prevent stories like that of homeless musician Nathaniel Ayers from being published. It’s unlikely that the same impact would have been felt if Lopez were required to condense his reporting in a blog or Twitter, before it ran full in the Times, as is the current trend.

Wednesday began with a low-key presentation by Sony, during which exhibitors were teased with previews of Ron Howard and Tom Hanks’ sequel to The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons; The Ugly Truth,  a rom-com with Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler; Julia and Julia, in which Meryl Streep portrays Julia Child; the Peter Jackson-produced sci-fi thriller, District 9; Harold RamisYear One; and Tony Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Attendees also were pleased to hear that the studio had committed to the resuscitation of its Ghostbusters and Men in Black franchises.

Among the live-action pictures showcased were the Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds rom-com, The Proposal, in which a much-hated publishing diva is forced, by fear of deportation, to marry her much younger assistant. The plot thickens when the city girl makes a pre-nuptial visit to his Alaskan hometown, where relatives played by Betty White, and Mary Steenburgen seriously test her resolve. Bullock looks quite a bit younger than her 44 years, so the purported age gap between her character and Reynolds’ isn’t nearly as wide as it should have been. Still, their chemistry is good, and The Proposal is the best comic vehicle Bullock has had in memory.

It was mentioned at one point during the convention that The Cove could appeal to many of the same people who made March of the Penguins such a hit. It would be a mistake to advance that theory in the documentary’s marketing campaign, though, as what happens to unsuspecting dolphins in their visits to a Japanese fishing region more accurately resembles the aquatic equivalent of genocide. In it, a group of western activists travel to the Japanese coast to reveal the deeply hidden secret of the almost daily dolphin harvests in a cove near Taiji. It’s where the country’s whaling industry has been memorialized and trained dolphins actually have been imported to entertain tourists. Also indicted and found guilty are the Japanese government officials who knowingly fed mercury-tainted seafood to students, bought votes at international trade gatherings and actively promoted the idea that whales and dolphins were “pests,” responsible for depleting the world’s fish inventory. The Cove is a powerful documentary, but I can only hope that cooler marketing heads prevail.

The week’s final screening was Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, a fractured romantic fairy tale that suggests the filmmaker’s four-picture European sojourn might have helped him see his beloved New York with fresh eyes. In it, grumpy Larry David plays a misanthropic physicist – and, of course, Allen’s newest alter ego – who gives up his research after a divorce and failed suicide attempt. After dinner, one night, he’s confronted by a blond waif who’s run away from her Mississippi home and is in desperate need of a meal and couch on which to sleep. Even though Evan Rachel Wood’s character touches all of his raw nerves, they embark on the unlikeliest of relationships. Things get even crazier when the girl’s estranged parents (Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr.) arrive in New York, a year later, separately, and experience culture shock. Often hilarious, Whatever Works is set for a June release.

Among the more entertaining aspects of any ShoWest was a tour of the exhibition floor, where theater owners could deal directly with purveyors of everything from floor polish and lighting strips, to genetically advanced popcorn and infinitely more gummy snacks. If the effects of the recession on the movie business could be seen anywhere in Las Vegas this week, it was here. Hardly any new treats were introduced by concessioners and the number of booths seemed diminished from last year’s show.

This meant the delightful cacophony of smells, sounds and tastes was sadly reduced, as well. Nowhere was the absence felt more succinctly than the booth annually maintained by Chicago’s Eisenberg Gourmet Frankfurters. In years past, people would wait in line for a half-hour for the opportunity to enjoy an Eisenberg hot dog or Polish sausage.

Last year, apparently, ShoWest organizers tried to reduce congestion around the booth, by asking the company not to offer traditional garnishes. Tragically, this week, the Eisenberg reps were manning the same location, but both the hot dogs and their magnetic aroma were missing, along with the relish and mustard. If corporate belt-tightening were to blame – “no comment” was the only explanation proffered – then, truly, the impact of the recession on show business must be more serious than box-office numbers would suggest.

– Gary Dretzka
April 3, 2009

Best Actor, Best Actress Chart

Thursday, February 19th, 2009
BEST ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Sean Penn – Milk
SAG, BFCA
(45%)
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
HFPA
(45%)
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon (5%)
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor (3%)
Brad Pitt – Benjamin Button (2%)



BEST ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Kate Winslet – The Reader
HFPA, SAG
in Ssppt
(30%)
Meryl Streep – Doubt
SAG
BFCA tie
(30%)
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
BFCA tie
(25%)
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
(15%)
Angelina Jolie – Changeling (0%)



BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
SAG, BFCA, HFPA
Your Oscar Winner (99%)
Josh Brolin – Milk
Phillip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Robert Downey, Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road



BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona (50%)
Viola Davis – Doubt (40%)
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler (10%)
Amy Adams – Doubt (0%)
Taraji P Henson – Benjamin Button (0%)

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Chart

Thursday, February 19th, 2009
BEST PICTURE
Picture – Studio
Slumdog Millionaire
FxSch
PGA, SAG, BFCA, HFPA
Your Oscar Winner (50%)
Milk
Focus
The most passionate Phase II push… but it ain’t Crash and Slumdog ain’t Brokeback (5%)
Frost/Nixon
U
(5%)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Par
(3%)
The Reader
TWC
(2%)



BEST DIRECTOR
Director – Film
Comment
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
BFCA, HFPA,
DGA
Your Oscar Winner (85%)
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (6%)
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon (4%)
Gus Van Sant – Milk (3%)
Stephen Daldry – The Reader (2%)



BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
Wall-E
Andrew Stanton
Jim Reardon
Peter Doctor
(50%)
Milk
Dustin Lance Black
WGA (46%)
Happy-Go-Lucky
Mile Leigh
(2%)
Frozen River
Courtney Hunt
(1%)
In Bruges
Martin McDonagh
(1%)



BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
Slumdog Millionaire
Simon Beaufoy
BFCA, HFPA,
WGA
Your Oscar Winner (85%)
Frost/Nixon
Peter Morgan
(7%)
Doubt
John Patrick Shanley
(5%)
The Reader
David Hare
(2%)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Eric Roth
(1%)

4 Days To Go, That Obscure Sense Of Surprise

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

And so, we are at the end.

For a year of predictable outcomes, it is actually fairly remarkable how many major awards seem to be up for grabs at this late date.

I don’t think many people expect Slumdog Millionaire to get anything less than 6 Oscars, including Picture, Director, and Screenplay. But in the Top 8 categories, Rourke vs Penn, Winslet vs Streep vs Hathaway vs Leo, Cruz vs Davis, and Stanton vs Black are all still uncertain in many minds. Add Slumdog’s three and Heath Ledger as locks and you have half the top awards in play.

It’s the rarest kind of Oscar stat these days… one that doesn’t seem to have been written about endlessly… that in five of the last ten years and in the last four years in a row, the Best Picture winner has been nominated in one or no acting categories. (Slumdog, No Country For Old Men, The Departed, Crash. Lord of The Rings)

So much for the mythology of the Actor’s Branch controlling the Academy.

It’s not just the Best Picture winner. This year, four of the five nominees have just one acting nominee or less. Only Milk managed two. The most actor-nominated film was Doubt, with four, count ‘em, four nominees… and no Best Picture nod. In fact, the only other nomination for the film was for John Patrick Shanley’s Adapted Screenplay from his own play… which was – by his reckoning- more a work of adapting as a director than as a writer.

Last year, four of the five nominees scored just one acting mod each… and the big get, three, for Michael Clayton. The big “actors’ movies” that didn’t get BP nods, besides Clayton, were Into The Wild, Gone Baby Gone, American Gangster, and The Savages… each of which managed only one acting nod.

Go back one more year and again, 3/5 of the nominees had one acting nod or less… and just two each for the other 2… all fours nods in Supporting.

It’s been nine years since a Lead Actor win for the Best Picture. And while Million Dollar Baby was just five Oscars ago, it was the only example of the Lead Actress winning in the last eleven years.

Go back a little further and the lead actors winning for best pictures is not so rare; Crowe for Gladiator, Spacey for American Beauty, Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love, Hanks in Forrest Gump, Foster in Silence of the Lambs, Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy, Hoffman in Rain Man… that’s seven times in thirteen years. The only lead male in the Best Picture to even be nominated in the last seven years was Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby.

And while Slumdog may be written off as an anomaly with its 17-year-old lead, along with the Crash ensemble and the Rings ensemble, others overlooked are nothing close to unknown: Tommy Lee Jones, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Richard Gere.

But really… look at it… the last four years… all ensemble movies. Big stars in a couple… not so much in the other two… but ensembles have won. Is that good news or bad news for Nine? Who knows? Really, neither. It’s not really news. It’s just a curious statistic. And those change all the time.

But back to this year…

Even after you crack the Top 8, there is still a lot to ponder. Will things sway more to Batman or Ben Button… or with they come out dead even… or will they get rocked by underdogs.

Even in Foreign and Doc, there seem to be clear frontrunners in Waltz with Bashir and Man on Wire, but with a much smaller group of voters qualifying to vote for these in the finals (likely under 500 for each), you never know. Sony Classics is putting up the strongest fight against their own film with The Class, a film that’s grown in profile as we’ve come closer to a vote. And while Man on Wire was the top grosser of the five nominees and the only one to crack the MCN Top Ten List Chart’s Top 30 (at #9), the small voting group could lead to anything… and there are big emotional connections around some of the other films while Wire is a beautiful piece of filmmaking and a great story, but not a heart-tugger.

And then there is the show itself…

Which neither I nor this website is going to work to spoil for anyone.

It would be a mistake to expect too much.

And it would be a mistake to not pay close attention.

It would be a little silly of anyone to argue too intensely that the Oscars were ever a pure, innocent celebration of the best work of the preceding year. The stakes were, indeed, much, much lower. It was less of a marketing machine. But every major wanted its piece of the action and by 1936 (Year 6), there were a dozen Best Picture nominees (and the film won Best Actor and Actress). In 1945, they went to the five Best Picture format. In 1953, the show was first televised. That was two years before this year’s producer, Bill Condon was born.

And I think that is a real point to make.

Condon grew up in some realm of the modern Oscars. His memories, however rose-colored, have led to a passion for the event. He, like his entire generation, grew up on what was in the theaters and what ended up on network television and much later in its life, on local stations. I don’t know what films he watched over and over and over again on the television set. (Who knows? Maybe he didn’t watch much TV.) For me, it was The Little Rascals, the Blondie series, Penny Serenade, and, starting in my pre-teens, the Saturday night line-up on CBS, which was replaced by the ABC line-up, which was replaced by the NBC line-up, and so on…

But every year, it was the Oscars. For me, I think the first one where a Best Picture that I had seen in first run, before the show, was The Sting in 1974. I was 9. That was also the year of The Streaker. I think I missed the 1975 Oscars. The only “Best Picture” I would have seen before the show was The Towering Inferno. The other four films (Godfather 2, Chinatown, The Conversation, Lenny) would be the baseline for my film education for decades to come. I didn’t see Barry Lyndon in first run, but I did see One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest twice before it was nominated. That would become the norm. By the next year, I was deeply invested in Network winning… which it did not. The 1978 Oscars were the first group of films I remember watching over and over and over again on HBO.

There are not a lot of other things that I have done every year for 33 years.

Condon was 18 for the Oscars show I first remember watching. He probably remembers the years with no host (1969 – 1971). He surely remembers the six years after that with no fewer than 4 hosts each year. Charlton Heston and Rock Hudson in ’73, John Huston in ’74, The Rat Pack in ’75, Gene Kelly in ’76, Beatty and Pryor in ‘77. Then Carson… then Crystal. There were others in between and since, but it’s always been some form of flailing with various levels of success.

But there was something that really did feel special in those years. The hosts were real life icons. They were not just members of the industry, they WERE the industry.

Who IS the industry right now? That is one of the prime questions that Mr. Condon & Mr. Mark will try to answer on Sunday night. Is it this month’s hottest star… the senior circuit… the stars of Condon’s youth, of my youth, of a 30seomthing’s youth, of Watchmen… the stars of tomorrow?

If their answer is close enough to right, the show will be the party we all wanted to be at and got to watch on TV. If not, then it will be another show with some memorable reactions when people win, some great sets, so big moments and some disappointing moments. Respect will be paid. The thrill of the winners will be the most important drama of the night.

We all keep watching and waiting for that tingle in the spine because it matters so much and it matters not at all… but you can’t fake that tingle when it happens.

Here’s to the tingle!

– David Poland
February 19, 2009

20 Weeks to Oscar: 2 Weeks To Go, Who Let The Dogs In?

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Ladies & Gentlemen… children of all ages… seven Oscar nominees who really didn’t go into this season expecting to be attending the Academy Awards…

Viola Davis.
Courtney Hunt.
Richard Jenkins.
Scott Hamilton Kennedy.
Melissa Leo.
Martin McDonagh.
Michael Shannon.

All deserving.

All appreciating.

With nothing much to write about, no major upsets being seriously considered by anyone who knows much, and Michael Cieply at the NY Times apparently intent in reducing the paper of record to the Paper of Gossip before Nikki Finke can get her fangs into show night spoilers, this is where we really should be focusing.

I think we can say with 85% certainty that none of these Luck-Feeling (and Deserving) Seven are going to take home an Oscar of their own this year and 98% certainty that no more than one might score an upset. But that’s not the point.

Oscar is a celebration of the cinematic form. It is, in reality, a horse race. But like watching the Kentucky Derby each year, the beauty of that massive beast running at full speed, muscles flexing, rhythmically pushing forward… forward, it is more beautiful than all the odds-making, pre-game show, mint-julip-drinking, big hat-wearing, wealth-flaunting junk that makes it feel like a Calcutta whorehouse with the best landscaping ever.

Which performing monkeys will stop these seven on the red carpet on that Sunday night? And how quickly will their interview end if Angelina Jolie is willing to say, “Hello, I’m Angie,” for a second of shoulder-bearing airtime?

It’s not to say that Angie doesn’t matter. Or that these nominees are more deserving of love or attention than any other. But do you remember how exciting Ellen Page, Casey Affleck, Amy Ryan, and Tamara Jenkins, among others, were last year? Ryan Gosling, Penelope Cruz, Jackie Earle Haley, and Michael Arndt a couple of years ago? Terrence Howard, Rachel Weisz, Amy Adams, Bennett Miller, and Josh Olsen before that?

A couple of these folks are nominated again this year. Some are working towards their next big moments. One had a small role in one of last year’s big comic book movies while another is the central character in this year’s coming comic book sensation and another has written Toy Story 3, next year’s mega-Pixar film. A couple are moody and trying to figure out what they really want from this industry. And a few have found quiet opportunities involving television to keep paying their bills as they hold out for top notch work.

These people are the industry’s future.

Not every underdog is going to become a pillar of the industry. Of course. But these are the hungry people who, while getting the highest honor in the business, are still ready to bring themselves to the work with the best intentions and the hope of even higher highs.

I know… people want pretty pictures. And Michael Shannon is not as good an interview as George Clooney. But we should celebrate him and the others all the more for their lack of artifice… not because they are “above it,” but because they are artists reaching for more in this game.

Give Viola Davis that charming role.

Get Melissa Leo in that spaceship that’s going to save the world.

Talk Martin McDonagh into writing Ocean’s 14.

Figure out how the Coens will get Shannon into a leading role.

Let Courtney Hunt make a thriller for Sony.

Give Scott Hamilton Kennedy the money for his next doc, HBO.

And let Richard Jenkins just keep working… he was doing really well before this (and deserved a nom for North Country) and should keep doing the fine work he does. May all great character actors someday find their Tom McCarthy (who also brought us Peter Dinklage, who still works in unexpectedly complex and strongly written roles all the time).

Yeah… I am looking forward to Meryl and Downey being funny, to Danny Boyle being gracious, to the moment when Kate Winslet either gets her long-deserved Oscar or waits until next time (Paul Newman isn’t such a bad landmark to emulate, Kate), to seeing how they handle Heath’s win, and surely to a surprise or two.

But my heart will be with these underdogs… and some others who will lose… and some who will win… my heart will be with the passion of it all… even the passions of those behind the scenes of this year’s show.

It hasn’t been one of the great years at the cinema, but there is never a bad time to celebrate great work, whether it wins or loses a statue. The drama that matters most is the drama that will last with us for years and years to come.

– David Poland
February 5, 2009

Best Actor, Best Actress Chart

Thursday, February 5th, 2009
BEST ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Sean Penn – Milk
SAG, BFCA
(45%)
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
HFPA
(35%)
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon (15%)
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor (3%)
Brad Pitt – Benjamin Button (2%)
BEST ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Kate Winslet – The Reader
HFPA, SAG
in Ssppt
(35%)
Meryl Streep – Doubt
SAG
BFCA tie
(35%)
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
BFCA tie
(25%)
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
(3%)
Angelina Jolie – Changeling (2%)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
SAG, BFCA, HFPA
Your Oscar Winner (99%)
Josh Brolin – Milk
Phillip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Robert Downey, Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona (60%)
Viola Davis – Doubt (25%)
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler (10%)
Amy Adams – Doubt (3%)
Taraji P Henson – Benjamin Button (2%)

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Chart

Thursday, February 5th, 2009
BEST PICTURE
Picture – Studio
Slumdog Millionaire
FxSch
PGA, SAG, BFCA, HFPA
Your Oscar Winner (50%)
Milk
Focus
The most passionate Phase II push… but it ain’t Crash and Slumdog ain’t Brokeback (5%)
Frost/Nixon
U
(5%)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Par
(3%)
The Reader
TWC
(2%)
BEST DIRECTOR
Director – Film
Comment
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
BFCA, HFPA
Your Oscar Winner (85%)
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (6%)
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon (4%)
Gus Van Sant – Milk (3%)
Stephen Daldry – The Reader (2%)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
Wall-E
Andrew Stanton
Jim Reardon
Peter Doctor
(55%)
Milk
Dustin Lance Black
(40%)
Happy-Go-Lucky
Mile Leigh
(2%)
Frozen River
Courtney Hunt
(2%)
In Bruges
Martin McDonagh
(1%)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Writer(s) – Film
Comment
Slumdog Millionaire
Simon Beaufoy
BFCA, HFPA Your Oscar Winner (85%)
Frost/Nixon
Peter Morgan
(7%)
Doubt
John Patrick Shanley
(5%)
The Reader
David Hare
(2%)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Eric Roth
(1%)



Best Actor, Best Actress Chart

Thursday, January 29th, 2009
BEST ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Sean Penn – Milk
SAG, BFCA
The most competitive major award of the night… but Penn has the weight of Langella and the stunt of Rourke, which makes him a 40% frontrunner
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
HFPA
Just keeps winning stuff… a 30% chance
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon Seemed like a lock early on, but suffers from being the supporting role to unnominated “Frost”… 25%
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor (3%)
Brad Pitt – Benjamin Button (2%)



BEST ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Kate Winslet – The Reader
HFPA, SAG
in Ssppt
She’s waited through 5 prior nominations… past due… but still so young that it may not turn the trick… also, her lack of support for the film doesn’t make it easier and winning 2 awards for supporting may work against her. (40%)
Meryl Streep – Doubt
SAG
BFCA tie
The veteran. Someone should be reminding the voters that she also made many love her in a silly, smash hit musical this year. (40%)
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
BFCA tie
The strongest dark horse… but she hasn’t really asked for it (17%)
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
Wins on Saturday… looks beautiful and gracious on Sunday (2%)
Angelina Jolie – Changeling Great on the red carpet (1%)



BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Actor – Film
Comment
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
SAG, BFCA, HFPA
Your Oscar Winner (99%)
Josh Brolin – Milk
Phillip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Robert Downey, Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road



BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Actress – Film
Comment
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona The big threat was Kate Winslet. After years of being “the pretty girl with a castilian lisp,” Cruz has emerged as an American star in her own right and has this one coming. (60%)
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler Coming on strong in the second act of her acting career. Would be great if this lead to some movie leads. (20%)
Viola Davis – Doubt A great rising actor, an overnight success after a decade or so. Perhaps the best thing that will come of this nomination is that Hollywood will see her in a broader light and she will get a wider range of roles. (15%)
Amy Adams – Doubt (3%)
Taraji P Henson – Benjamin Button (2%)