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Best Achievement in Film Editing All of Us Strangers

Weekly Commentary: Lafca has only been handing out prizes for editing since 2012. Out of the past 11 winners, six became Oscar nominees with one winner among them – “Gravity” (2013). Interestingly, last year’s Lafca recipient “Aftersun,” was the first narrative...

(From left) Jeffrey Mackenzie Jordan, Colman Domingo in Rustin Image: Parrish Lewis/Netflix Bayard Rustin is not a household name in the same way that Martin Luther King, Jr. or John Lewis are in regards to the civil rights movement, though given the man’s contributions, he certainly should be.

(From left) Jeffrey Mackenzie Jordan, Colman Domingo in RustinImage: Parrish Lewis/Netflix

Bayard Rustin is not a household name in the same way that Martin Luther King, Jr. or John Lewis are in regards to the civil rights movement, though given the man’s contributions, he certainly should be. Credited with introducing Dr.

When it comes to predicting the Oscar winner for Best Film Editing, you can’t go wrong by looking for the movie with the most cuts. Past winners “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2008), “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2016), “Ford v Ferrari” (2020), “Dune” (2022) and last year’s champ “Everything Everywhere All at Once” included high-octane action sequences with frenetic cutting. A slew of winners — including “Saving Private Ryan” in 1999, “Black Hawk Down” (2002), “The Hurt Locker” (2010), “Hacksaw Ridge” (2017) and “Dunkirk” (2018) — have been war pictures. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2024 Oscar predictions for Best Film Editing.)

Oscar voters also embrace film editors who skillfully juggle multiple storylines, as was the case with “Traffic” (2001) and “Crash” (2006). And they like films that expertly inter-cut music with images, such as “Cabaret” (1973), “Chicago” (2003), “Whiplash” (2015), “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2019) and 2021 winner “Sound of Metal.” Special effects extravaganzas like “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2004) and “Gravity” (2014) won by...

An early morning screening of “Rustin” started on a rousing note over the weekend at the Telluride Film Festival. With a surprise recorded message, the 44th U.S. President Barack Obama greeted the audience with a personal speech, with his and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions having produced the historical biopic about the key figure of a momentous slice of American Civil Rights history. Obama saluted Bayard Rustin, the fearless architect of 1963’s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, who “recognized injustice and stood up against it.”

Playwright and filmmaker George C. Wolfe’s “Rustin” is an ideologically stirring celebration of that recognition and the fight which followed leading to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. It’s also a gracious acknowledgment of the work, determination and resilience grassroots activism takes to hit the ground running with vision and fire in the belly, as well as the joys...

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is known to most Americans for Martin Luther King’s galvanizing “I Have a Dream” speech. That oratory milestone appears in Rustin, but from the perspective of the title character. He wasn’t in the spotlight that August day in 1963, but Bayard Rustin was the visionary conceptualizer and day-to-day driving force of one of the largest political rallies in American history. A riveting Colman Domingo, reteaming with director George C. Wolfe after Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, inhabits the role of a fascinating man whose name and story should be more widely known.

Working from a screenplay by Julian Breece (When They See Us) and Dustin Lance Black (When We Rise), Wolfe has made an admiring but nuanced feature that doesn’t aim for biopic completism or cause-and-effect formula. And though it doesn’t entirely avoid the awkwardness of explanatory mode, those moments are few,...

In 2002, the world was looking at M. Night Shyamalan. His 1999 film "The Sixth Sense" was more successful than anyone could have expected, grossing over 670 million worldwide on a 40 million budget. It would go on to be nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (for Haley Joel Osment), Best Supporting Actress (for Toni Collette), Best Screenplay, and Best Editing (for Andrew Mondshein). Shyalaman's follow-up to "The Sixth Sense," 2000's "Unbreakable," was not quite as well-received. But it did receive generally positive reviews, and it accrued a following of fans interested in exploring...

The post Joaquin Phoenix Had a Tense Scene in Signs That Made M. Night Shyamalan Laugh appeared first on /Film.

When it comes to predicting the Oscar winner for Best Film Editing, you can’t go wrong by looking for the movie with the most cuts. Past winners “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2008), “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2016) and “Ford v Ferrari” (2020) included high-octane action sequences with frenetic cutting. And a slew of other champs — including “Saving Private Ryan” in 1999, “Black Hawk Down” (2002), “The Hurt Locker” (2010), “Hacksaw Ridge” (2017) and “Dunkirk” (2018) — have been war pictures. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2021 Oscar predictions for Best Film Editing.)

Oscar voters also embrace film editors who skillfully juggle multiple storylines, as was the case with “Traffic” (2001) and “Crash” (2006). And they like films that expertly inter-cut music with images, such as “Cabaret” (1973), “Chicago” (2003), “Whiplash” (2015) and “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2019). Special effects extravaganzas like “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2004) and “Gravity” (2014) won by deftly blurring the lines between the real and the fantastic.

Historically, a...

It’s the 20th anniversary of “The Sixth Sense,” a success that took everybody by surprise, including the filmmakers. Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan had made only two films, “Praying With Anger” and “Wide Awake,” which barely made a ripple in theaters. However, Variety reported Aug. 9, 1999, “In a surprise ending to rival the film’s twisty plot, Buena Vista’s supernatural thriller ‘The Sixth Sense’ stunned prognosticators by snatching the weekend box office title from odds-on favorite ‘The Blair Witch Project.’ The Bruce Willis starrer opened to an August record $25.8 million, according to studio estimates.” A month later, Variety declared it the “Sleeper of the Summer,” and said amid all the films with big marketing budgets and the studios’ newfound fascination with internet promotion, “Sixth Sense” had an old-fashioned reason for success: “This film has spectacular word of mouth,” Marc Pascucci, senior VP of marketing for Loews Cineplex U.S., told Variety.

Meet Barry Seal (Tom Cruise), a Twa pilot and family man who became a drug smuggler for the Medellín cartel, led by Pablo Escobar (Mauricio Mejía). The Louisiana-born Seal ran narcotics, guns and money between Central America and an airport in Mena, Arkansas in the late Seventies and early Eighties – then the CIA recruited him as an informant so he could keep doing it and bring them back key intel in the War on Drugs. It's lucrative work if playing both sides against the middle doesn't get you killed.

It's all true – but so what?...

When an ancient evil rises up to seek revenge on our world, relive the epic saga in The Mummy, unleashed onto Digital on August 22, 2017, and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand on September 12, 2017 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Packed with over an hour of special bonus content, experience never-before-scene footage and hidden secrets The Mummy has within with stars Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Russell Crowe, and Jake Johnson.

Now you can own The Mummy on Blu-ray. We Are Movie Geeks has four copies to give away. All you have to do is leave a comment answering this question: What is your favorite movie about Mummys? (mine is Blood From The Mummy’S Tomb!). It’s so easy! Good Luck!

Official Rules:

1. You Must Be A Us Resident. Prize Will Only Be Shipped To Us Addresses. No P.O. Boxes. No Duplicate Addresses.

2. Winners Will Be Chosen From All Qualifying Entries.

When an ancient evil rises up to seek revenge on our world, relive the epic saga in The Mummy, unleashing onto Digital on August 22, 2017, and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand on September 12, 2017 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Packed with over an hour of special bonus content, experience never-before-scene footage and hidden secrets The Mummy has within with stars Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Russell Crowe, and Jake Johnson.

An ancient evil is unleashed after centuries of captivity and her lust for revenge threatens to destroy the world in The Mummy, a spectacular saga coming to Digital onAugust 22, 2017 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray™, DVD and On Demand on September 12, 2017 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible franchise, Top Gun) battles the ultimate evil in a breathtaking version of the legendary and mystical monster that has captivated and terrified humankind for centuries. With more than...

These fugitives on the run aren’t innocent young lovers. Still wanted for anti-war violence from years before, an ex-radical couple struggles to remain free just as their children become old enough to think for themselves. Screenwriter Naomi Foner and director Sidney Lumet’s fascinating movie is a sympathetic look at an untenable lifestyle.

Running on Empty

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1988 / Color / 1:85 enhanced widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date June 27, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Christine Lahti, River Phoenix, Judd Hirsch, Jonas Abry, Martha Plimpton, Ed Crowley, L.M. Kit Carson, Steven Hill, Augusta Dabney, David Margulies, Lynne Thigpen, Bobo Lewis, Daniel Dassin.

Cinematography: Gerry Fisher

Film Editor: Andrew Mondshein

Original Music: Tony Mottola

Written by Naomi Foner

Produced by Griffin Dunne, Amy Robinson

Directed by Sidney Lumet

1988 suddenly seems much farther in the past than it did just a few months ago. The small town high school in Running on Empty has a dedicated, classically trained music teacher on the payroll. He earns enough to afford a rather nice house. The public school system is not being undermined, with all the wealthy students going to new kinds of exclusive, alternative schools siphoning off public money. We all have our own ideas about what ‘making America great again’ means, I suppose.

It doesn’t happen any more, but we used to read about ex- radicals from the Vietnam War days surfacing to turn themselves in. Not that many were directly involved in violent acts, but some had lived for decades under assumed identities, while their wanted photos were posted down at the Post Office. Some of them tried to raise families.

“We are all outlaws in the eyes of America.

Everything they say we are, we are.

. . . And we are very proud of ourselves.”

— The Jefferson Airplane

Naomi Foner’s Running on Empty is basically a ‘what comes next?’ chapter in the lives of former political public enemies like The Weather Underground. An unusual family is on the lam. The parents are militant radicals from the Nixon years, who went underground when one of their bombs maimed a janitor. Now they are nearing their forties, and must move from town to town whenever they think the Feds have picked up their trail. The couple chose their life and has accepted the consequences, but where does that leave their growing children, who are likewise forced to live like gypsies under assumed names?

I should think that this good movie would have a tough time in today’s market. If the online mob harps on Wonder Woman for promoting non-traditional values, what would they make of a movie ‘glorifying terrorism?’ Half of America still wants to see Jane Fonda strung up by her thumbs, and death threats for ‘enemies’ singled out on the web are now routine. Our channels of information are so jammed with stories elbowing each other for attention, I don’t think anybody could rouse the general public to even consider the problems of this kind of fugitive. Who has time for scurrilous pleas for sympathy for ‘undeserving’ people, when the public responds better to patriotic pieces about veterans . . . or cute animals?

Always watching for signs of F.B.I. surveillance, young Danny Pope (River Phoenix) alerts the rest of his family through pre-arranged signals. Annie and Arthur Pope (Christine Lahti & Judd Hirsch) abandon their jobs, their belongings and even their dog and flee to a new state with Danny and their other son Harry (Jonas Abry). With new identities they start new lives. Arthur and Annie find off-the-books employment as a cook and a medical receptionist and the boys are enrolled in school with ‘previous transcripts on the way.’ We see the unusual preparations that must be made, with secret arrangements so that any family member can alert the others if they’re found out; we also see that the family is supported to some degree by a network of post-radical (or still radical?) sympathizers, such as a doctor (David Marguiles) who tends to political fugitives. But the Popes are cut off from their own families. Annie’s disapproving father (Steven Hill) can only see her in an extraordinary circumstance arranged by a third party. Potential trouble comes when former comrade Gus Winant (L.M. Kit Carson) drops by. He’d like to sleep with his old flame Annie, and is carrying guns in the assumption that Arthur will agree to rob a bank with him. But a more troubling problem is closer to home. Young Danny has inherited his mother’s musical talent, and his teacher Mr. Phillips (Ed Crowley) is encouraging him to apply to Julliard in New York. Danny is also stuck on Phillips’ teenage daughter Lorna (Martha Plimpton), a girl to whom he might be ready to commit. As far as Arthur is concerned, Danny can’t do any of those things because his first duty is to help his family in the undercover life. Annie doesn’t know what to do. If she leaves her son behind, she may never see him again.

Practically speaking, Running on Empty will only play well to a certain segment of the public. Are you the kind that sympathizes with draft deserters that fled to Canada, or the kind that wants to hand them long terms in prison? The Popes aren’t victims of injustice, at least not directly; they knew what they were doing when they went militant, and the injuries they caused can’t simply be dismissed as youthful idealism. They are also hopelessly associated with fanatics they inspired, like the Sla. And there’s no statute of limitations on armed insurrection. I think almost all of the radical fugitives that went underground are now accounted for. Some served prison time and others got off because courtroom prosecutions would reveal or publicize the government’s own illegal doings. Running on Empty dramatizes what might have been reality for just a few of these ‘outlaws in the eyes of America.’ Some radicals reportedly found it easy to live undetected while still on various Most Wanted lists. Others found ways to turn themselves in, square themselves with the authorities and re-commence academic lives interrupted years before to oppose the government. *

Running on Empty is a fascinating show, with a cast that clearly had to work hard to make their characters believable. Christine Lahti puts up with her bossy, security-minded husband. He himself gets drunk one night and starts shouting his real name loud enough to wake the neighbors. Judd Hirsch and director Lumet know that these can’t be ordinary people. He doesn’t try to make them Ozzie and Harriet types, somehow (sniff!) trapped by their youthful mistakes. No, they’re still promoting various Union and social justice causes here and there, although Arthur must back away whenever he becomes visible enough to appear in a news photo. Every year they celebrate a birthday to Sam, the man struck by their bomb. It’s not a joke, but a ritual so they won’t forget their crime.

At the center of the movie is the cult actor River Phoenix, who graduated briefly to good roles after his appearance as an adolescent space voyager in the fantasy film Explorers. Phoenix is excellent as Danny, a kid raised to never let down his guard. The show begins with Danny detecting a plainclothes tail and executing what must be ‘escape plan 9.’ The family is out of town in a matter of minutes. Danny’s a sensitive, smart guy. If he plays by the rules, he must keep himself a complete mystery to his new girlfriend Lorna. The boy is committed to his family, but feels the pull to go off on his own, where a decent future awaits. In a way, it’s not a situation wholly unique to these former radicals. This must happen all the time when someone breaks away from a strongly structured family, or a religious cult.

The movie’s tension level doubles when Danny takes the forbidden step of telling Lorna everything. How many of us living normal lives (well, reasonably normal lives) could trust our sweethearts with such a volatile secret: “I and my whole family are fugitives from justice. Anybody helping us is a potential accomplice. Just by letting you know, I’m putting you in legal jeopardy. Will you turn me in, or become a criminal with me?”

At this age Martha Plimpton might remind one of a teenage Lauren Bacall. A survivor of Goonies, she is featured in what I think is the best Cannon film, Shy People. Plimpton and Phoenix have several worthy melodramatic romantic scenes to play, and they’re excellent together.

With the ace director Sidney Lumet in charge the strange relationships seem credible, even when the flaky, reckless Gus Winant breezes through. The former radical patriot is now nothing but an outlaw bum. In a nice choice, Gus is played by L.M. Kit Carson, the original fake counterculture hero in the classic experimental faux-documentary David Holzman’s Diary. With dangerous idiots like Gus on the loose, the Popes can’t even consider themselves part of a noble creed. Some of their old colleagues are indeed armed and dangerous.

I don’t think the Popes would stand a chance of evading the cops in today’s security state. One can no longer simply find the name of a dead infant and apply for a new birth certificate and passport. The Popes aren’t hiding in a shack in the woods, but are out and about in the public, working and rubbing elbows with schools and doctors. I guess that back in the 1980s Arthur could become a cook and Annie a receptionist without references, but it’s less likely now, when one can’t buy bubble gum without leaving a data trail. Traffic and security surveillance cameras are now everywhere. Billions of smart-phone photos are taken at public gatherings, and routinely posted on the web. A high-level security agency could be (is?) scanning the web with face recognition software.

Sidney Lumet wrote that his movies Running on Empty and Daniel had the same theme: “Who pays for the passion and commitment of the parents?” This is an even-handed and insightful drama. Lumet made a wide range of great entertainments, and some of the best- ever ‘New York Jewish Liberal Movies.’ He’s also one of the few directors who could take on fundamentally controversial material like this, and continue to maintain a busy career.

The Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray of Running on Empty is a good encoding of what was already a very good Wac Mod disc from just two years ago. The improved picture and sound reveals the expected quality of a top Sidney Lumet product. The small town we see is very attractive, a political landscape completely different from the corporate/banking rapacious wasteland of last year’s Hell or High Water. ‘Radicals unselfishly trying to stop a war in 1971’ is still anathema, while Mr. and Mrs. U.S.A. now considers it justifiable for ‘radicals to selfishly try to rescue their ruined finances.’

Madonna is on the soundtrack for a scene in Daniel’s music class. The final James Taylor song Fire and Rain works extremely well in context: “. . . and I always thought that I’d see you again.”

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor,

Running on Empty Blu-ray rates:

Movie: Excellent

Video: Excellent

Sound: Excellent

Supplements: none

Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? Yes; Subtitles: English (feature only)

Packaging: Keep case

Reviewed: June 21, 2017

(5451empt)

* I remember a major case from 2001. A radical who had evaded capture for thirty years finalized arrangements to turn herself in, after a delicate negotiation aimed at running her quietly through the legal system to let her get on with her life. She was reportedly not personally responsible for any violent acts, and under her assumed identity had worked for decades in a socially productive job. I followed her story for a couple of days in the newspaper . . . and then 9/11 happened. In the storm of security-minded post-attack chaos that followed, her story thread just vanished from the media-scape. I don’t have a clue what happened to her next. The timing couldn’t possibly have been worse for a former Enemy of the State.

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It looks like studio insiders are starting to point the finger at Tom Cruise for all of the faults in The Mummy. The movie was supposed to be the big awesome film to launch Universal Pictures' Dark Universe. These movies would build a monster universe that would also include Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, and more. Unfortunately, the movie didn't do as well as the studio hoped and the critics haven't been too kind to it either.

According to Variety, The Mummy ended up being "a textbook case of a movie star run amok." The report goes on to say that Cruise had “excessive control” over the creative direction of the story.

"Universal, according to sources familiar with the matter, contractually guaranteed Cruise control of most aspects of the project, from script approval to post-production decisions. He also had a great deal of input on the film’s marketing and release strategy,...

It’s been in theatres for just one week, but the post-mortem on The Mummy has already begun. Having arrived with almost entirely negative reviews, the big budget franchise opener from Universal has greatly underperformed at the box office – prompting many to ask where the finger of blame should be pointed. Somewhat unusually, comments are now being made by people involved with the film, laying the responsibility at the door of both the studio, and the star – Tom Cruise.

According to Variety, Cruise took control of every aspect of the production – even going so far as to bring in writers to perform a script overhaul that expanded his leading role, and bringing his regular editor, Andrew Mondshein, into the post-production process while he oversaw the cutting of the final movie. While Universal has praised the “commitment and dedication” of Tom Cruise, it is, perhaps, the comments of Supervising Art Director...

Production has begun in southwest France on The Hundred-foot Journey, based on the best-selling novel by Richard C. Morais. Starring Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren, and directed by Oscar nominee Lasse Hallström, the film will be released on August 8, 2014 in the U.S.

In The Hundred-foot Journey, Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) is a culinary ingénue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, the Kadam family, led by Papa (Om Puri), settles in the quaint village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France. Filled with charm, it is both picturesque and elegant – the ideal place to settle down and open an Indian restaurant, the Maison Mumbai. That is, until the chilly chef proprietress of Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin starred, classical French restaurant run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), gets wind of it.

Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant a hundred feet from her own...

Lushly photographed and handsomely mounted, "Swept From the Sea" is a visual treat, radiating with incandescent seascapes and majestic swatches of the jagged coast of Cornwall.

Alas, all this brilliance amounts to mere preciousness in a narrative sunk by literal melodrama and a plodding pace. Receiving its gala at the Toronto International Film Festival, this Phoenix Pictures production is alternately enthralling and disappointing.

Inspired by a Joseph Conrad short story, the saga centers on two misfits who endure the stony rigors of the Cornish coast and its icy-hearted inhabitants. They are Amy (Rachel Weisz), a servant girl considered "simple" by the villagers, and Yanko (Vincent Perez), a Russian washed up on the shores following a shipwreck.

Amy has been an outcast all her life and has retreated into an inner world, nourishing it with romantic escapades along the beach where she collects cast-off treasures. Her solitary existence is altered considerably when Yanko washes up on shore: She is initially the only one to offer him kindness.

While Tim Willocks' screenplay is scrupulously attentive to plotting, it is also maddeningly thin. Every movement is noted, including the predictable ones, which compose nearly the whole of the picture. The narrative is, woefully, a paint-by-numbers composition as we watch the townsfolk in lock step isolate and ostracize the young Russian, despite his eagerness to please and wholesome industry.

If ever there was a story in need of subplot, this fills the bill. Its skeletal narrative structure is underdeveloped in terms of ambiguity, irony or any but the most obvious complications. In short, director Beeban Kidron has etched, albeit with a sumptuous visual palette, a transparent and ultimately unaffecting film.

Still, former still photographer Kidron is masterful in her framings and use of light. The Cornwall coast is captured in all its majesty and yet, because of the skimpy screenplay, Kidron's compositions never rise to the level of visual correlatives.

The performances are solid throughout, with the shining stars being the supporting players. While Perez exudes both a vitality and kindness as Yanko and Weisz is properly subdued as the introverted Amy, there is little spark to their portrayals. It's Ian McKellen as a pompous but wise local doctor and Kathy Bates as a perceptive spinster who conjure up the most flesh and blood in this oils-and-canvas production.

SWEPT FROM THE SEA

Phoenix Pictures presents

With the participation of the Greenlight Fund

A Tapson Steel Films production

A Beeban Kidron film

Producers Polly Tapson, Charles Steel,

Beeban Kidron

Screenwriter Tim Willocks

Inspired by Joseph Conrad's "Amy Foster"

Executive producers Garth Thomas,

Tim Willocks

Director of photography Dick Pope

Production designer Simon Holland

Music John Barry

Editors Alex Mackie, Andrew Mondshein

Costume designer Caroline Harris

Associate producer Devon Dickson

Color/stereo

Cast:

Amy Foster Rachel Weisz

Yanko Gooral Vincent Perez

Mr. Swaffer Joss Ackland

Miss Swaffer Kathy Bates

Dr. Kennedy Ian McKellen

Mr. Smith Tony Haygarth

Mrs. Smith Fiona Victory

Running time -- 114 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...