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16 articles
Secret's Out.
21 hours ago
Jose here with a look at the most pleasant surprise in the Oscar nominations.
Last night I had the opportunity to see The Secret of Kells (my review here).
Like almost everyone bored to death by how predictable the Oscar nominees were turning out, the mention of this film, that seemed to come out of nowhere, among the Best Animated Feature nominees rang beautifully in my ears.
I have to confess that before I saw it, I was expecting it to be one of those awful decisions AMPAS makes in this category (remember the Simpsons being snubbed in favor of another penguin movie a few years ago?) but now it amazingly turns out that it's one of the most satisfying, almost groundbreaking, decisions the Academy has taken.
Those who feel like it stole Hayao Miyazaki's spot, I have to say they're quite wrong. If a movie was to be »
- Jose
Modern Maestros: Quentin Tarantino
5 February 2010
Robert here, continuing my series on great contemporary directors. I figured this would be as good a time as any to take a look at one of this year's Best Director nominees. No, he probably won't win the Oscar this year, but history may look upon him more kindly than any of his fellow nominees, especially as a real titan of his generation. He's a rock star director, and like him or hate him, you can't deny his influence.
Maestro:Quentin Tarantino
Known For: Highly structured, stylized, talky and violent movies.
Influences: Jean-Luc Godard, Sergio Leone, and anyone who ever made a Kung-Fu film.
Masterpieces: Pulp Fiction is the easy answer, but in pop-culture years that was eons ago. How about the Kill Bill movies.
Disasters: none
Better than you remember: Jackie Brown is already a "better than you remember" classic.
Awards: A couple Best Screenplay Oscars (excuse me, one Best Screenplay Oscar, »
- Robert
Best Supporting Actor Babies
5 February 2010 12:12 AM, PST
Babies as in... when they were young.... when it all began.
For my weekly column at Towleroad I ended up in some sort of retro mental loop, obsessing about how the careers of the nominees kicked off. I restricted myself to Best Supporting Actor or I would've been typing for hours.
I also admit a wee perverse desire to see Dear John but so far I've stayed strong.
If you've seen any of the supporting actor nominee's debut movies, please speak up. I don't remember Matt Damon being in Mystic Pizza at all. Do you?
* »
- NATHANIEL R
Today Show and The Hurt Locker
4 February 2010 10:30 AM, PST
Saw this on Awards Daily and had to share here. Since I rechristened the war film The Sexy Locker a few weeks ago, I find that I'm even more fond of it. I suppose this is why we give our loved ones nicknames... terms of endearment, if you will, to place it closer to the Oscar vernacular. And you need a little warm and fuzzy when you're dealing with the cold hard tick-tock realities of bombs and perpetual near death experiences.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
I love how Kathryn Bigelow is totally gracious about all the "first woman" and "ex-wife" business that comes with the Oscar media circus, but is smart and confident enough to sidestep it simultaneously. She never brings it up herself (and don't be fooled: it would help her win if she fully embraced it) but just acknowledges »
- NATHANIEL R
Best Picture and The Oscars. Same As It Ever Was?
4 February 2010 9:57 AM, PST
In the end, didn't we basically end up where we always do with Best Picture: a mix of message movies, epics, dramas and war films. Same as it ever was only more diversely populated. We definitely did not end up where we usually do with Best Director: a woman, white men of different generations, a gay black man? It's still kind of amazing, right?
Things that got AMPAS all hot and bothered this year: the color blue and/or flying (Avatar, Up, Up in the Air), race (Avatar, Blind Side, District 9, Precious), thinly disquised allegories (Avatar, District 9, The Hurt Locker), young girls coming-of-age (An Education, Precious), existential crises (A Serious Man, Up in the Air), war (The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds) and illiteracy (Precious, Blind Side, Basterds).
Things that AMPAS dated but couldn't commit to: race dramas that didn't star aliens, Sandra Bullock or illiterate black kids (Invictus »
- NATHANIEL R
Actors and Actresses: Stats, Careers and Trivia
4 February 2010 8:58 AM, PST
Now that we have our lucky twenty (no double dippers this year) in those twenty most coveted positions for movie actors, let's do a little rundown. We'll go factual and then opinionated.
most frequently honored: Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia) with 16 nominations and 2 wins. She's been nominated for 37% of her screen appearances.
least frequently honored: Captain Von Trapp himself, Christopher Plummer (The Last Station). This is his first nomination from 51 years on the silver screen.
widest stretch of honors: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) received the first of his five nominations way back in the 1971 race starring in Best Picture nominee The Last Picture Show, beating Streep to her first Oscar notice by seven years.
youngest: Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), a Leo, is 24. She's also two and a half months younger than Carey Mulligan (An Education), a Gemini.
oldest: Plummer, a Sagittarius, turned 80 this past December.
most represented star sign: rowwwwr, »
- NATHANIEL R
Map of the Oscar World
4 February 2010 8:56 AM, PST
The map below is courtesy of yours truly, Nathaniel. Don't say The Film Experience doesn't work its ass off. We work all the blogging angles. It appears that after year's of Australian dominance Canada wants revenge! And that's just one story embedded herein. You can find out where the Precious players were born, see that Kathryn Bigelow and Jeremy Renner were in close proximity long before they made The Hurt Locker The Sexy Locker, and note how lonely Penélope Cruz looks all by herself in Spain. There's so much to see.
View The 82nd Academy Awards in a larger map
Feel free to share this map with your friends. Send it. Tweet it. Digg it. IMDb recommend it. If you love something, set it free etcetera...
Do you have any films or stars born within arm's reach? I'll keep editing it if people feel like they need more. Which movies »
- NATHANIEL R
California Mountain Link
3 February 2010 6:44 PM, PST
MTV Kill Bill 3? Daryl Hannah shouldn't tease me this way. I love Elle Driver too much to breathe properly when she's mentioned.
My New Plaid Pants "The Golden Trouser Awards" I love these every year. So fun
Cinema Blend reminds us why Avatar isn't really the #1 movie of all time. There's more than one reason. There's a few.
Bright Lights After Dark on James Cameron's signature motif: The Artificial Body.
Deadline Hollywood Terrence Malick to start filming his Tree of Life follow up already? No movies for decades and then four in a twelve/thirteen year span? What invader snatched his body?
By Ken Levine a tribute to the resilience of actors. It's hard out there. (This sorta puts those Oscar nominations into perspective. As in: just even being in the conversation, even if you were eliminated early on. That's gold)
Cinema Styles really hates Up. But has truly thought the position out. »
- NATHANIEL R
Ten Talking Points ~ Inspired By the Best Picture Titles
3 February 2010 2:00 PM, PST
Continuing my weekly Oscar column at Tribeca Film, I've riffed on the titles of this year's Best Pictures for "talking points" from Oscar's problem with comedies, it's love of education and the grand tradition of calling the 'snubs'. The annual announcement of the Oscar nominations always offers up plenty of fodder for discussion. But before we get there, travel back in time with me to June 2009 when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS for short) made a canny if questionable PR move: after 66 years of a 5-wide Best Picture shortlist, the 2009 film year would bring us 10 (!) Best Picture nominees. That announcement reinvigorated Oscar buzz—so many people were talking about the Academy Awards last June** it felt just like February. But it’s way too soon to tell if the decision has reinvigorated Oscar itself. That’s a more complicated prospect, and you need more than one »
- NATHANIEL R
Curio: George Clooney Oscar Doll
3 February 2010 1:37 PM, PST
Alexa from Pop Elegantiarum here with some handmade Oscar fun. Last month I was convinced that Up in the Air was a lock to win Best Picture; now I'm not so certain. Despite that, or maybe because of it, I think I want to have this George Clooney paper doll handy on Oscar night, if only to have his sexy reaction shot at the ready.
Janelle Rene has really captured him in all his suave charm. He comes in his own popcorn box (why is that scene from Diner coming to mind?).
He also comes with flowers (so you can pretend he's your date), a cigar, martini, screenplay (the next Alexander Payne?) and an Oscar statuette (so you can give him his own after Jeff Bridges wins).
Even better, Janelle is donating 20% of her proceeds to Hope For Haiti Now! Buy him here.
»
- Alexa
The Oscar Nominations ...At Last
2 February 2010 6:41 AM, PST
Fuller commentary coming this evening. For now, just the list. The extra long wait this year... did it pay off for you with exciting reveals or only delay the inevitable disappointment? All reactions are welcome...
Best Picture
“Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
“The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
“District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
“An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
“The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
“Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
“A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
“Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
“Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers
Best Director“Avatar” James Cameron
“The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
“Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
“Up in the Air” Jason Reitman »
- NATHANIEL R
Oscar Predictions ~ Final
1 February 2010 6:48 PM, PST
My life just isn't cooperating with timely prediction-making this past month.
Here are the final predictions for tomorrow morning's nominations. In the end I just went with worst case scenario for the final Best Picture slot... the one I could easily see going to about 7 different movies. I figured it was between Nine more typically Oscarable than its competitors... even if everyone decided they hated it after the initial rounds of precursors supported it. (If everyone really hates it, who exactly was voting for it initially? It's a serious question. And my presumption is that not everyone hates it), District 9 (doing very well in the guilds but totally abnormal as a Bp pick), Crazy Heart (which doesn't feel big enough but which definitely has some momentum), The Hangover (which has defied odds thus far), The White Ribbon (remember when foreign films used to become Best Picture contenders?) and I »
- NATHANIEL R
Don't Set The Alarm, You Guys
1 February 2010 3:14 PM, PST
Ja from Mnpp here, with a look at five people who should probably sleep in tomorrow when the Oscar nominations are announced.
Beyonce, for snarling and snapping her neck in Obsessed
Either of these two blocks of wood, New Moon
Anne Hathaway, Bride Wars - I love ya Annie, but you have to be reminded like when you rub a dog's nose in its business when it does its business on the floor. Bride Wars is bad business on the floor, girl.
Eli Roth, Inglourious Basterds - He'll probably give the speech for who ever wins an award for Basterds anyway since that's been the routine this season - and I like looking at him so I haven't much minded - but I think it's safe to assume his name's not getting engraved on any acting statues any time this year. On my bedpost, that's another matter. (Call me, Eli! »
- JA
Why Bulgaria Might Become an Oscar Winner.
1 February 2010 3:13 PM, PST
Jose here with a take on the Foreign Language Film Oscar race.
The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner (read my review here) not only has the coolest name in AMPAS' foreign film shortlist, it might also go ahead and get Bulgaria its very first Oscar win.
First we must consider that this whole post might be irrelevant come Tuesday, but for now indulge me while I explain why I think this movie might make it to the final five and snatch the damn thing.
The movie doesn't have even have a Stateside release date yet (except for a film festival in Florida) but I've read many articles that proclaim they'd nominate the film merely because of its awesome title. AMPAS of course can't do that, because the people who vote for this category need to have seen all the movies.
Fortunately for them, they won't have to do that much thinking, »
- Jose
Vanity Fair "Dolls"
1 February 2010 1:12 PM, PST
It's that time of year again. Vanity Fair refers to these nine actresses as "dolls" and we're certainly not here to dispute their smooth porcelain loveliness (the median age here is 23 and they're all lily white). But when I hear "dolls" now I think of only the Dollhouse, and I'm wondering just what "imprints" we're dealing with here. Which one of these girls is actually a savage killer? Or skilled in all positions of the kama sutra? Or a hostage negotiator? Or a genius computer programmer?
But more importantly, which of them will seem like a big "duh" for the cover treatment seven or eight years from now and which will be like a, "who...what now?". If you click on the Vanity Fair label below you can see past investigations of this Hollywood Issue's covergirls (and boys).
Abbie Cornish. Kristen Stewart. Carey Mulligan. Amanda Seyfried. Rebecca Hall. Mia Wasikowska. »
- NATHANIEL R
Sundance Winners
31 January 2010 7:50 PM, PST
Nathaniel's on the road so I don't think he has the time to post the winners from this year's Sundance film festival. I hope y'all have been following Nathaniel's Sundance writings and you'll recognise some of the names from the winners list. Debra Granik took home top honours for her film Winter's Bone, which has people crying "Frozen River!" Frozen River was my #1 film from 2008 so if Bone gets anywhere close to being as good as that one then I will be happy.
For me, however, the bigger news was that David Michôd's Melbourne-set crime saga Animal Kingdom took home the World Cinema Jury Prize. Last year that very prize was won by The Maid, so hopefully you'll see Animal Kingdom pop up at more festivals and maybe even at your local cinema (NY/La only, natch) some time over the next year. Kingdom has big buzz down here »
- Glenn Dunks
16 articles
