Lev, checking back in. Early mornings and late nights have prevented me from fulfilling my Film Experience duties, so capsule reviews will serve the purposes best. Starting with . . .
The Illusionist which is an achievement in many ways. What makes it so remarkable is its focus on every day sadness. Whereas most animation relies on comedy to engage, Chomet transmits his ideas through small gestures and simple, delicate drama, foregoing laughs for emotion. Every character, plot point, musical cue and lush painting is working in favour of this sadness without ever forcing it or revelling in it; It's a simple story evoked with impassioned feeling . A-
Dustin Lance Black's What's Wrong With Virginia? attempts numerous forays into the group psyche of town and religion but fails. Inconsistency is the word here; Characters come and go, narration is shoved in from different perspectives for no apparent reason. Jennifer Connelly is stuck doing her best Holly Hunter impression, approximating Wanda Holloway without being realistically nuts or even funny. Black, the Director, seems to have little idea how build through composition or montage, but that doesn't excuse Black, the writer, from starting his film with the end. C-
[Editor's Note: Apparently Virginia? is getting critically knocked around quite a lot at the festival. Movie|Line interviewed Dustin Lance Black about the unpleasant response. Good interview]
Predicated upon the intriguing idea of redheads as a discriminated minority, Romain Gavras' Our Day Will Come is an uneven mixture of bold filmmaking and bad decisions. The film stars Vincent Cassel as a psychologist and Olivier Barthélémy as a bullied teen. Clearly the work of a first time director, Gavras has strong ideas that don't always seem thought out as well one would like. Particular moments seem needlessly mean-spirited giving the film a cruel edge that it isn't always justified. Still, it's heady, compelling filmmaking that shouldn't go unnoticed. B-
Of the films mentioned here, Never Let Me Go surely requires the least introduction. Much has been made about plot particulars but they hardly seem worth noting; The sci-fi elements are rooted to a present reality and explained without much fuss which allows the characters to move to the forefront. There's no dwelling on its high-concept premise so it's just one step away from other high-end British productions (not that this is to its detriment). Romanek's form has improved, but the persistent score and unnecessary narration often feel perfunctory. It's the power of the story and performances, particularly Andrew Garfield who takes every gesture and line and tilts it into something unique and devastating, that make Never Let Me Go so emotionally satisfying. B
I'll be back as soon as possible, hopefully with notes on Of Gods And Men, Meek's Cutoff, Blue Valentine and Uncle Boonmee.
Craig here with the next "We Can't Wait. Summer and Beyond" post.
What's Wrong with Virginia Directed by: Dustin Lance Black Starring: Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Emma Roberts, Amy Madigan
Jennifer Connelly on set in Michigan
Synopsis: A drama in which a psychologically disturbed woman (Connelly) who has engaged in a 20-year illicit love affair with a sheriff (Harris), who is running for the state senate, is tested when her son begins a relationship with his daughter (Roberts). Brought to you by: Killer Films and TicTock Studios (producers Scott J. Brooks, Hopwood DePree and Christine Vachon) Expected release date: TBA (late 2010)
Director/Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black working out Virginia's problems
Dustin Lance Black, who last year won an Original Screenplay Oscar for Gus Van Sant's Milk, directs his second feature, which stars Connelly and Harris - who are here appearing in their fourth film together, after Waking the Dead, Pollock and A Beautiful Mind. Connelly may just be on target for her second Oscar nomination next year (and possible win?), that is if it gets a timely release; its credentials (see above) suggest Oscar could well be all over it.And it's apparently being prepped for a premiere at this year's Cannes, too.Van Sant is exec-producing with none other than Lisa Simpson! (Yeardley Smith, who also has a supporting role). Killer Films' Vachon (Far from Heaven, Boys Don't Cry, I Shot Andy Warhol and a whole host of other superb, leftfield gems) has the edgy smarts to make this drama an unmissable awards contender. This all sounds like a bit of an eclectic team all told - and if it's as intriguing and tantalising as it promises, then I'll be excited to see if it all goes right for Virginia.
id My New Plaid Pants Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen onscreen together. For David Cronenberg? And they're playing psychoanalyst giants/friends/rivals Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung? Please let this be as masterfully sick as Dead Ringers! This is the best movie news since The Hurt Locker's Best Picture win. It's even better news than that if the movie is great.
The Playlist Two new Wizard of Oz movie projects and neither of them are Wicked? Okay worst movie news of week. Coming Soon Lone Scherfig (An Education) is moving on from Carey Mulligan and on to Anne Hathaway (!) The movie is a romance called One Day (co-starring Jim Sturgess). MTV Amanda Seyfried will be The Girl With The Red Riding Hood for teen-girl angst obsessed Catherine Hardwicke (thirteen, Twilight).
ego Flaunt Magazine has a feature interview with Vincent Cassell, he of the Monica Bellucci loving, good French movie-making and Eastern Promises closeted Viggo-lust. Regarding the latter: Isn't everyone gay for Viggo... or shouldn't they be?
I bring this up primarily because I always look at Flaunt Magazine in the book stores (pretty pictures!) and I never buy. So I felt a sudden pang of guilt when I got the press release on this new issue. And no, I have no idea why there's an albino peacock on the cover instead of Vincent Cassel. But I like this bit on French cinema
“Things are very different in France,” muses Cassel. “In Hollywood there’s politics; young actors have to do big, stupid movies to eventually be a box office figure and have access to great directors, stuff like that. But in France the market is a little different. In a minute, you know everybody, so you stick to what you like because, otherwise, you won’t be able to come back to it.”
You can see American actors struggling with this all the time. See Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman's frequent trips into films they aren't suited for in order to maintain their fame levels and enormously salaries within the drama-hating reality of the American box-office. Antagony & Ecstasy "in the spirit of whiny, unconstructive criticism" names the 10 worst best picture winners The Awl Apple's subconcious / conscious take-over of the movies and especially Sex & The City
super-ego LA Times Variety lets its best known critics go. Such a different world than it used to be. Pretty soon PR departments will be the only paid opinion-makers... which is something I'm sure The Corporate Machine always wanted. Film Essent defends Jason Reitman post-Up in the Air Oscar loss /Film Clint Eastwood is now the director for that Dustin Lance Black scripted J Edgar Hoover biopic. What a strange combo?!?!
linkage Arts Beat When Woody Met Ingmar. How have I never heard this story before? Love it Low Resolution hilarious take on the latest Twilight: New Moon trailer i09 an interview with a Dollhouse writer on this last great episode Culture Snob describe your taste in horror in 10 movies. Interesting take on a "best" list In Contention Guy Lodge plays contrarian for Precious Some Came Running gets nostalgic for gauzy Jenny Agutter and mack daddy Michael York in 70s 'classic' Logan's Run
This is the time of year when everyone who really loves movies remembers that not all of the best movies of any given year come out in the last two months of the year and it's so annoying that everyone pretends that they do Man Made Movies the online Sam Rockwell Oscar for Moon campaign Attention Deficit Disorderly great piece on The Hurt Locker and Jeremy Renner's Sgt. James
gay-gay-gay Metro Ang Lee on the Brokeback Mountain kiss Queerty Dustin Lance Black (Milk) banned from a college campus in Michigan. He had too many opinions! (omg, we wouldn't want that a college!) Oh Michigan, home state o' mine. I love you but you embarrass me sometimes
Finally... Would you bite into this dead tauntaun cake? Edible intestines for your own intestines. Ewww but Yum! As much as I'm over Star Wars in my own life, I sometimes have nothing but admiration for its staunch fandom. Here's hoping one day people build whole wedding themes and desserts out of their Moulin Rouge! or I Heart Huckabee fandom! That's just two random examples of newer films worth loving and being creative with all the live long day.
Today's one-post-that-really-ought-to-be-two-posts's theme is gratuitous nudity.
Let's start with John Carter of Mars. My disappointment that the film would not be a Pixar animated effort (I was quite excited at the prospect of a 'toon that wasn't for little children and for Pixar to spread their current excellence into other genres) has been somewhat tempered knowing that Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) will be trying his hand at live action (interesting). I like Taylor Kitsch who'll be playing the titular role. Anybody who watches Friday Night Lights knows that there's a nice unforced depth to his acting that you couldn't really see in his cameo in Wolverine. Lynn Collins (also from Wolverine) will play his eventual betrothed Dejah Thoris. Coming Soon reports that Thomas Haden Church may be appearing in the film as well. Since the role is supposed to be very dramatic and Church is a "name" I'm assuming we're talking about a substantial role. Maybe it's Tars Tarkas, the four armed martian warrior who begins the narrative as John's enemy only to become his ally. We're early in pre-production still.
In most depictions of this famous pulp series both John Carter and Dejah are nude or wearing itty bitty teeny weeny strips of cloth. Now, I'm no master swordsman but I feel very safe in stating that it's probably not a good idea to sword fight naked. Only try that if you're a quasi immortal like John Carter. In the book when John Carter first arrives in Mars (transported mysteriously from the Civil War era south) he's completely starkers. One expects that the movie will find a way to cover the hero up throughout, Hollywood cameras being so frightened of nudity, even when the bodies they're looking at are as perfectly sculpted as Kitsch's.
Speaking of perfectly sculpted gratuitous nudity...
As you may have heard elsewhere on the net this weekend, a certain famous "hated" blog posted explicit pictures of Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black (Milk) that were taken in 2006. As one might expect a round of hypocritical judgments and holier than thou proclamations could be heard 'round the net. You see this reaction all the time: bad workplace decisions, bad parenting decisions, bad financial decisions, you name it... any mistake that is or becomes public is followed by faux horror and "what was he/she thinking?!?" as if the chorus of naysayers had never themselves and would never themselves experience a similar lapse in judgment or (in this case) experience a betrayal from a former friend.
I was disheartened to read the judgments... People were even putting Black's activist heroics in the past tense! Do people really think that gay marriage advocacy can't be performed by a person who has sex (GASP! and: um...who doesn't?). So I was happy to read on Pink is the New Blog that Dustin was honored this weekend in California for something else entirely and seems to be handling this invasion of privacy like a pro i.e. apologizing for the right detail and ignoring the rest. Well done. Move on.
P.S. First Diablo Cody and now Dustin Lance Black... since when do Oscar winning screenwriters become celebrities in their own right? And now it's happened in back to back years. Weird, that.
I can't resist a list. I try to resist, I do. Out Magazine just released their list of the 50 most powerful gays in the world. They've judged them on
political clout
cultural resonance
individual wealth
personal profile... whatever that means
I don't know why they couldn't have made it a Top 51 so that I could appear. I mean have they forgotten
How I campaigned for Meryl Streep's birthday to be a Federal Holiday and for her face to be carved into Mount Rushmore and both things came to pass? [shut up!]
How I invented*actressexuality and the blogosphere totally uses the word now?
HA HA HAhaha haha... um, this is not funny. Disqualified!
I didn't understand what 'personal profile' meant anyway.
Maybe if they had a Top 1,000,001 powerful gays and lesbians list, I'd make that one ??? I'm losing the thread. Oh yes, power. And those who have it. Like many a website that thrives on "page views" Out has made the list hard to navigate so that you have to click on 50 different pages to read it. So I've done the work for you. Here are the ranks useful to our purposes here at the Film Experience i.e. people that are involved in movies and/or narrative television. It's not a list of out actors (like that list I made some time ago) but of the very successful / powerful and mostly offscreen movers and shakers.
#10 David Geffen, the G in Dreamworks SKG. Remember that hilarious rumor in the 90s that he was married to Keanu Reeves. HA! The internet is so weird sometimes.
#14 Gus Van Sant, Milk delivery man. I hope he gets another shot at Oscar. It's quite an interesting filmography and singular too, despite all the borrowing from Bela Tarr.
#18 Scott Rudin, Oscar Lust in Humanoid Form. See also: Julie & Julia, Doubt, Revolutionary Road, There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, Notes on a Scandal, The Queen, The Hours, Closer, Iris...
#25 Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter/Oscar winner/ridiculously young looking 35 year old. I'm curious as to how he'll follow Milk up (I'm talking features... not MTV telefilms)
#26 Bryan Lourd & Kevin Huvane, CAA partners. If someone made a movie about CAA it'd probably be as crazy / shady as SD-6 on Alias or possibly the Dollhouse, don't you think?
Neil Patrick Harris in How I Met Your Mother, Dr. Horrible and with his actor boyfriend David Burtka (who was excellent in Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby some years back Off Broadway). Burtka is from Michigan like myself and one of my best friends from high school even knows him *gag* [/name dropping]. Blah blah blah... In short, if NPH were a movie star, I would probably never stop talking about him. You've been spared!
#28 Neil Patrick Harris, TV star. I love NPH but mostly because he sings so beautifully and happens to be hilarious. That said, I haven't seen How I Met Your Mother. I can't do laugh track shows anymore. I honestly can't and I have tried. Even the funny ones make me cringe. 30 Rock, Sex & the City and Arrested Development among others have spoiled me forever. I will laugh when I damn well please, thank you very much, TV suits.
#35 Wanda Sykes. Hilarious diva. Also moonlights as cartoon animals with alarming frequency.
Unprolific Jodie: Only three lead roles this entire decade? Prolific Greg: 1 movie, 6 tv series this decade alone. Writing/producing Green Lantern
#36 Jodie Foster. I'm a smidge annoyed that the gay media keeps saying she's out because she mentioned her partner Cydney once at an industry function. That's technically "out" but if you adjust for the proportional scale of being a household name and one of the most famous respected celebrities on the planet, Jodie is still a stealth lesbian. I also find it hilarious that the article mentions her Leni Riefenstahl biopic. Like that's ever going to happen. That's becoming as funny / fantastical as every new casting announcement for Flora Plum. It's too bad really that she never gets anything off the ground because I'm confident that both those movies would be way more fascinating than the next thriller she'll inevitably agree to star in next.
#38 Tom Ford, He Who Whispers in Naked Keira's Ear. His debut feature as a writer/director A Single Man starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore is due this year. But there's always that fashion icon thang for a safety net. What a safety net, huh?
#47 Greg Berlanti TV man. I once hated him (long story but it involved The Broken Hearts Club) I have since learned the error of my ways and am completely addicted to Brothers & Sisters. He's totally gorgeous and talented. So in a sense, yes, I still hate him.
#49 Simon Halls and Stephen Huvane of PMK/HBH. Their PR firm represents Jennifer Aniston, Julianne Moore, Uma Thurman, Anne Hathaway and Neil Patrick Harris. (4 out of 5 ain't bad!)
Now that I'm done sharing this information I've realized I have no idea what these lists are for. To make mere civilians jealous?
*Technically speaking George Cukor invented it. Or maybe Warren Beatty. But they didn't name it, did they?!
Multiple Men <--- Jezebel has words for Vanity Fair on their self spoofing Erik Lundegaard on the NYT box office coverage and love of Paul Blart. "Dudes: Cover the industry. Don’t cover for the industry." Well played Erik, well played. Mighty God King "If Batman Did Rap Battles" (What's the equivalent of 8 Mile in Gotham City?) Rude but funny. IZ Reloaded How Benjamin Button got his face my internet is where i... has an opinion, yes she does, on Stanley Kubrick Gawker on the controversies surrounding The Kindly Ones. How soon till this latest sexual SS Officer book becomes a movie a la The Reader? Indie Wire wonders what happened to the release of I Love You Philip Morris
Watchmen The Bad and Ugly Matthew Goode to fanboys. Apparently they piss him off. As you may know I lust me some Goode and somehow I had not realized he was Ozymandias in Watchmen. It was the blonde hair, Batman and Robin era costume (nipples!) and presence of people I love even more (Crudup, Wilson and Gugino) that threw me off that trail. I am apparently in the lonely 1.4% of the public who is only somewhat interested in this movie. In other words I want to see it but I'm not salivating after that 15 minutes I saw. NY Post wonders if Zach Snyder is the new Stanley Kubrick. This is why I'm not salivating. Mass preemptive hyperbole just kills my will to live. Especially when it comes to the superhero genre (a genre I enjoy a lot but don't feel the need to say it's masterful unless it actually is). Queerty has a piece on the GLBT elements of Watchmen creator Alan Moore's work. Apparently the gay characters did make the cut in the movie but how will Zach Snyder treat them? On the evidence of 300 I worry...
Milkmen And here's Dustin Lance Black chatting with Oprah last week. His publicist has mad skills. How many screenwriters get invited to do that?
Milk is out next week on DVD... and I urge you again to rent the 1984 Oscar winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk -- make it a marathon double feature. Finally, Sean Penn continues to be more awesome than usual. Popnography lets us know that he's campaigning for a statewide Harvey Milk "day of significance" in California. Go Sean!
Does winning an Oscar make you more beautiful? Or do you already have to be sexy to win? A chicken and egg mystery for you to solve in the comments. Maybe all one needs to be beauteous is the right photographer and airbrushing? (Now it's a chicken / egg / omelette mystery)
I'm asking because I'm still detoxing from all the collective beauty on Sunday.
And yes, I'm cheating a bit to include Masahiro Motoki who is not an Oscar winner. But he is the star of Oscar winning foreign film Departures and he was on stage next to the Oscar. And he did win the Japanese Best Actor Oscar for the performance. That said he doesn't really need the help of the beauty-by-statue-association, does he? Anyone who poses nude for photography books probably feels beautiful without shiny trophies. [Cinebeats has more Motoki enthusiasm]
Departures [official site] which swept the Japanese Oscars even harder than Slumdog Millionaire swept ours, is about a cellist (Motoki) who becomes an undertaker when he finds himself jobless, opens in the U.S. in May, distributed by Regent Releasing.
Here's the trailer, or "a" trailer at any rate.
recent hump day hotties Penélope, Kate and Sean have all been featured in previous seasons (2008, 2007 and 2005 respectively)
To those who are ready to move on: Back to regular cinema soon. Stick around. To those who can never get enough Oscar: I'll wean you away gently until the 2009 contest begins in a month and you know I'll drop the Oscar talk back in when appropriate. Stick around. In short: Stick around.
This Oscar fashion roundup is dedicated to Billy Idol. For apparently Sunday in LA was a "nice day for white wedding". Remember that year when everyone wore champagne dresses to SAG and how irritating it was that all the actresses looked the same? Does Hollywood's army of stylists have spies in each other's camps or are they operating in strict adherence to pack rules. Perhaps they're a lycan society with an Alpha Dog stylist residing somewhere deep in the Hills, howling at the full moon monthly as it reflects off the Hollywood sign.
What was with all the white?
As far as I know Amy Adams is the only star that's about to get married and she was in red!
Rather than do a whole 'nother permanent page at the mainsite I thought we'd just finish the wrap up here with photos. Some of my bests may be your worsts but that's the way it goes with fashion (and acting, actually, as the annual wars over the Oscar shortlists attest)
I'm ignoring the men this time 'round. I didn't mean to and there were lots of sharp dressed men and one handsome boy who could just as easily have been starring in a Gus Van Sant picture as writing it (Dustin Lance Black) but time is short and I really need to put this year's Oscars in the rearview mirror.
I'm not quite sure about this... Actually all of these goddesses look beauteous. But we're not talking A+ Oscar wear. The Doubt actresses (Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Viola Davis) look better as a trio, all earth and fire and well matched. Probably the point... great for photo ops. But apart from each other the outfits were a little busy (Amy... but I actually love the huge necklace) plain (Meryl) or risky (Viola). Perhaps I should explain: I love the gold dress and the woman inside it but unless you're a lock to win, I always think that color is asking for trouble. That statue looms large you know.
It was nice to see Bridget Fonda and Phoebe Cates dolled up again but something is missing in both cases...and not just their careers (har dee har har)
What are you wearing?
Beyoncé's a little teapot, short and stout. Why is she always there? You don't see Amy Adams at the Grammy's every year? Robin Swicord's color choices and pattern (!) are disturbing me... even more than her screenwriting for Memoirs of a Geisha and Benjamin Button did. Heidi Klum usually makes best dressed lists but there was something atrociously busy about this number. Nice color on her (which color isn't?) but all the cut outs and sharp angles and then all the bangles. Any of the elements are okay on their own but all together?, Miley Cyrus has been at the Oscars two years in a row and... I... I... don't understand. Or I don't want to understand. And we'll wrap up with Mary Hart. She never leaves the house without a frozen smile. Even if she forgot to buy a new dress or iron an old one to go with it.
YUMMY...
My choices for best dressed are the always ravishing Nicole Kidman (love the feather and shiny details which rescue this from being another boring white dress, Freida Pinto (Latikaaaaaa!) in blue and that sleeve is a beauty, Leslie Mann because her dress reminds me of a disco ball and I've been totally on a 70s kick (I blame Milk) and there's something about her whole look, hair, attitude and all that screams decadent/sexy/underestimated woman. Amanda Seyfried continues to be awesome, despite Mamma Mia! And finally there's my girlfriend Marisa Tomei. I have nothing to say about the dress but to tell you that Nick describes it perfectly on the upcoming podcast. From the back it's even more deconstruct as if the strap was barely hanging on to itself to keep the entire dress together.
5:00 PMMickey Rourke (a lot more on him if you scroll down), Kerry Washington, Taraji P Henson, John Malkovich, Darren Aronofsky, Debra Winger, Rosemarie DeWitt... lots of famous faces flashing at us, some of them probably trying desperately not to think about the Oscars tomorrow. Ben Stiller is talking at us to introduce our host Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder, Hamlet 2). Why is it that I think Stiller is so funny when he's playing himself and not so funny in actual movie roles? Jokes about "most of us haven't seen these films"... why do I get so much flak for suggesting Hollywood types don't watch all the nominated movies and yet, they themselves joke about it constantly. (sigh) He's joking about how the Oscars are orgies of backpatting for beautiful people. At the indie spirits they're beautiful on the inside instead. People don't seem to think this joke is funny. Neither does the cameraman because they cut to Aaron Eckhart and Jenny Lumet (both classically beautiful, neither apparently amused)
...and then he's on to talking about Penélope Cruz and making lesbian jokes. Weird segueway.
5:10 Jonathan Demme is wearing an orange t-shirt. For a second I thought it had Obama's face stencilled on it. The face being inescapable. Even when we're celebrating movies.
5:20Best Supporting Actor goes to James Franco for Milk.Haaz Sleiman does not win but you can't really types "loses" when the subject looks like this...
<--- (yeah, like that) 5:25Best First Screenplay goes to Dustin Lance Black for Milk, beating Jenny Lumet for Rachel Getting Married (it's going to be a Milk day obviously. But then the Indie Spirits usually end up sucking up to one of the main Oscar nominees. Last year it was Juno for everything). Black gets political and says we can't wait 30 more years for equal civil rights for gay and lesbian citizens. It'll be awesome at the Oscars to hear this spoken aloud (since he'll win there, too).
5:30First Feature goes to Charlie Kauffman for Synecdoche New York. He thinks "best" is "crap"... I think that's a nod to his competitors but the speech is kind of jumbled so who knows. The speech is not circular or full of allusions or depressing or, in short, anything like his movies.
5:32Best Supporting Actress goes to Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She's the only Oscar nominee in this lineup so winning the Oscar isn't the same battle at all. But her speech (she hasn't prepared one is really fun) and I love the story about Woody Allen actually leaving the set to see his dermatologist (new freckle discovery) on the day she was making out with Scarlett Johansson. Debra Winger loves this story too. It's nice to see her laugh. I love that Misty Upham (Frozen River) is all dressed up. At the Spirits!
5:45 John Cassavetes Award goes to ??? I forgot already. This is the type of movie one senses the Indie Spirits exist for. But if they didn't include all the Hollywood stuff nobody would watch the show.
5:55 No fair. No song to introduce Rachel Getting Married. Just a song from the movie.
6:00Documentary goes to Man on Wire. Shortest speech of the night. Basically 'thanks'. It was presented by Batman and a fake Joaquin Phoenix. Kinda funny but I have to admit --you miss a lot when you live blog. I don't even know who that was making the Bale "we're done professionally" jokes. How fresh!
6:05Melissa Leo wins Best Actress for Frozen River. Rachel Getting Married is going to lose everything but great films are their own reward. I'm watching this show with two friends one says "She made her dress from the Golden Girls couch!" The other says "She looks like a Relief Society President" You'll get that if you're Mormon but otherwise you're out of luck. But maybe you know enough about Mormons to know. They're taking over. Mormon raised at least: Amy Adams, Aaron Eckhart, Eliza Dushku, Dustin Lance Black. They're everywhere! When I was a wee tyke the only celebrities who were "a little bit" Mormon (past or present) were Donnie & Marie.
at some point in this presentation Teri Hatcher did a really disturbing "Bitch is Back" number celebrating Wendy & Lucy. I don't think Michelle Williams knew what to make of it but since she isn't exactly a "loud" actor or a "loud" personality it's anyone's guess what she was feeling.
6:11 Some woman won some award. That's all I know. See what I mean about missing things while live-blogging. She's from Seattle. There's some specificity for you!
6:15 I want this to be over.
6:somethingor other Rosie Perez is presenting something and says 'I hate Penélope Cruz.' I love Rosie Perez. Why doesn't Hollywood? 6:29 The Class won foreign film. Yay! So I got to see my silver medal director Laurent Cantet.
6:30 Cinematography goes to Maryse Alberti for The Wrestler. Director Darren Aronofsky accepts. I love that he always says "I'm Darren". For a brilliant auteur he sure doesn't waste a lot of time selling himself. Could you imagine M Night Shyamalan's trademark intro being "Hi, I'm M"?
6:32 Cameron Diaz gives the Robert Altman Award for to Synecdoche New York. Great cast that movie had. I just wish someone else had directed it. I love Kauffman's writing but I feel like his writing is too self-devouring for the same person who dreamt it up and wrenched it out of its creative womb to also try and visualize it. Just my take. Obviously, others disagree.
6:38 Rainn Wilson does a musical number for The Wrestler. I shan't torture you with a photo but Darren Aronofsky and Rachel Weisz find it amusing.
6:42 Laura Dern THE FACE presents Best Actor which goes to Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. I don't know if y'all checked that link the other day about "hair" and Oscar winners but if he wins tomorrow he'll be only the second Best Actor winner ever to win for a long haired role (the only other one was Jon Voight in Coming Home. His speech is on fire and it's spreading. It starts with a tribute to another 80s up and comer who never quite became what he was supposed to become (Eric Roberts -- Julia's brother, yes -- last seen in The Dark Knight) and I have to agree with him there. Someone give Eric another great role. If you've seen Bob Fosse's Star 80 you'll understand Mickey's shout out.
This might be the craziest longest most train-of-thought speech since Ally Sheedy won for High Art.
Update: Here is the whole thing...
To Darren Aronofsky ,who is worried about actors being scared away from working with him because of Mickey's story about how "tough" Darren is:
If they aint got the balls to bring it, then fuck 'em
He's crazy. He totally gets the room going. He cracks Laura Dern and Philip Seymour Hoffman up. He scandalizes Anne Hathaway with a story about wrestler's "banging chicks in the ass in the bathroom". Well done Mickey. This is what the Indie Spirits live for.
6:53 John Waters and quirk queen Zooey Deschanel make jokes about inflated budgets on these so called "indies". It's mildly amusing.
6:54Tom McCarthy wins Best Director of The Visitor. He's worried about following Mickey Rourke. No kidding. I love this guy although I wish the beard would go. He thanks "Dickie Jenkins" Hee. Richard seems very happy for him. And this also means more shots of Haaz.
6:59 Best Picture goes to The Wrestler. I'm happy for them. Darren... Just "Darren" please ... gets a full kiss from Mickey and the cheek kiss from his partner Rachel Weisz. Thank you. Darren calls The Wrestler a "Passion piece. We all bled to get here" It shows. Damn what a movie it is. I hope you've seen it by now. Twice. I'm not even that mad that Rachel Getting Married lost everything tonight. Because at least the awards went to fine films.
programming note: I'll get to the BAFTA's live blogging --well, tape delayed reactions -- later tonight (approx. 10:00 pm EST) I can't pass up a concert with Kristin Chenowith. Wheeeee
Scanners on the ho hum controverseries for this year's Oscars Silly Hats Only the Muriel Awards have begun The NY Post on the New York Times strange sin of omission in regards to one the First Lady of MGM Norma Shearer. As you may have guessed, this is not okay with yours truly Thompson on Hollywood the WGA winners. Stop this Slumdog train, I want to get off. I get that people like it but Best WRITING ??? ... and so often? I weep for our collective discernment skills. P.S. On a totally shallow note: How cute is Milk screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black?
Finally, I love this piece at Bright Lights After Dark that talks about the problem of "craftsmanship" in our prestige pieces. Erich Kuersten gets right at the heart of the problem I couldn't quite articulate concerning overly beautiful films like Doubt or Revolutionary Road ...
Craftsmanship in cinema has become synonymous with stifled - when every aspect of your production -- every crew member-- is doing everything above and beyond to get the script quite right and enable them to win awards. When it's something that's meant to be kind of spontaneous and off-the-cuff, like a two person character drama, or some fly-on-the-wall sort of minor key mood piece, like Doubt or The Valley of Elah, for example, you can see the sterility of the Sundance film school-style stress on crafstmanship vs. say, the ass-over-tit rock poetry of something like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
...It has to do with film schools churning out competent gear-heads eager to show off their expensive educations with key lighting and tracking shots instead of dropping acid and going off to Vietnam or whatever heart of darkness is in vogue this year. People are scared of themselves, and it's just not interesting after awhile watching them avoid the mirror.
"ass-over-tit rock poetry" is a shockingly apt description of ...Woolf, is it not? I love reading Kuersten. And, I should quickly point out, I greatly admire Roger Deakins who is one of the very best DPs in the business. But I think his awesome skill at beauty was wrong for both of those aforementioned films because they needed to be a little uglier to confront. Or at least more dangerous in their aesthetic comportment. Don't you think? *
Words. I love them. And if you're reading maybe you do, too. Or do I provide too many photoshop goodies to for any wordy appeal. Never mind. Blogger has decided photos are off limits today. No illustrations for you. The Writers Guild have announced their nominations for this film year and they go like so...
I knew that Woody Allen would eventually show up. One should never bet against him in the Screenplay races. Remarkably he'd been pretty absent up until now in the precursors. This lineup is bad news for both Jenny Lumet's Rachel Getting Marriedand Courtney Hunt's Frozen River which had been getting precursor attention. After last year's record making Oscar lineup --three female screenwriters were nominated (for Juno, The Savages and Away From Her) --we might go back to an all boys club. No girls allowed. Girls have cooties.
Adapted Screenplay The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Roth (Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord). Based on the Short Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Dark Knight, Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan (Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer). Based on Characters Appearing in DC Comic Books Doubt, John Patrick Shanley. Based on his Stage Play Frost/Nixon, Peter Morgan. Based on his Stage Play Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy. Based on the Novel "Q and A" by Vikas Swarup
Though this race isn't truly competitive, it'll be interesting to see which film Oscar voters will dump should they be in a Kate Winslet picture mood, The Reader and Revolutionary Road being the only possible challengers. Two smart foreign possibilities that don't have a snowball's chance in hell: Let the Right One In and The Class. >sniffle<
Documentary Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story Stefan Forbes, Noland Walker Chicago 10 Brett Morgan Fuel Johnny O’Hara Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson Alex Gibney; from the words of Hunter S. Thompson Waltz With Bashir Ari Folman (see previous post)
Documentary screenwriting awards might sound odd at first glance. Might that skill be much closer to film editing in "shaping" the end product than traditional writing? But still, the shaping must be done so it's good they have this prize. Oscar does not.
And just when you thought this ordeal was over -- a whole post without photos (!) -- here's MY ballot. A couple new FB Awards for you... (drafted shortly before this announcement) because I always have to have a say.