Europe agrees on new bailout to help Greece avoid default.
What's your favorite Best Pictures line-up of all time?
Connie Sawyer sees though the hype surrounding The Artist.
J. Hoberman lands gig at Blouin ARTINFO.
Outguess Ebert on the Oscars.
Steve McQueen blames U.S. fear of sex for Michael Fassbender's Oscar snub.
Dan Callahan on the wild orchid that was Gene Raymond.
If some of those prophets who called the nomination for Demián Bichir still see something we don't, then the whispering buzz that the actor is poised to pull the ultimate upset could indeed be true, either because the performance actually warrants it or because, as unabashed cynicism has suggested, voters feel as guilty about the help of today as that of yesteryear. But while the prospect of Bichir building support makes for a great last-minute news story, it's probably about as likely as Brett Ratner being invited to present the Costume Design contenders. And since the great Gary Oldman can't ride the love of the British contingent all the way to a win, it seems this category does come down to a three-man race after all. Continue Reading »
Less a race than a ping-pong match, this year's battle for Best Director has shifted favor from an obvious lock to a popular spoiler and back again, leaving us one more not-quite-certain category to pay attention to on February 26. Not long after The Artist stormed out of Cannes, Michel Hazanavicius established a surge of directorial momentum that hardly let up, its reach even cracking the Indie Spirit lineup, which isn't exactly known to invite the Oscar frontrunner to the party. But as the season stretched on, and a certain genre-defier (kids' flick? Biopic?) began performing exceedingly better than expected, a Picture/Director split seemed more and more probable, with Martin Scorsese potentially benefiting from Hazanavicius's lack of notoriety. A Golden Globe win strengthened suspicions about the Hugo helmer, as did a subsequent tally of 11 Oscar noms for the 3D cineaste fantasy. Could this be the year the Academy honors both men who blew the industry a nostalgic kiss? One of them certainly has the firm voter support to make the generosity possible. Still, as everyone from the DGA to the folks at BAFTA will testify, odds are the rise of Hugo was a mere bump on The Artist's fated path to glory, which now looks like it may encompass Best Actor too. Continue Reading »
After a few initial disappointments in Berlinale's main competition, things gradually began to pick up; even the weather improved, or rather, it was less freezing. Apart from the sensuous Meteora, with its unique blend of fiction, documentary, and animation penetrating the heart of the Greek Orthodox church, many of the entries were beholden to seen-it-all-before narratives. No matter how well done on its own terms, Billy Bob Thornton's Jayne Mansfield's Car was content to follow the well-worn pattern of the dysfunctional-family drama, though it was experimental compared to Hans-Christian Schmid's Home for The Weekend, an extremely familiar exploration of middle-class angst. The key sequences take place during a gathering at Christmas—don't all these family melodramas take place at Christmas?—when the mother tells her publisher husband, and her two sons, one a dentist, the other a divorced writer, that she's decided to stop taking her anti-depression pills. A short while later she disappears, and a search for her is carried out, faintly reminiscent of the futile searches in L'Avventura or About Elly. But there the comparison ends. I found it insupportable. Continue Reading »
It's more than just a little politically chancy but still unavoidable to look at Octavia Spencer's sunny Oscar odds though the filter of co-star Viola Davis's ascendance in the Best Actress category. But if voters are capable of feeling all right with themselves for rewarding Jessica Chastain's miracle year with what most cognizant viewers recognize as one of the least distinguished of her six or seven roles last year, then we don't feel quite as bad regarding Spencer and Davis as a mutually beneficial tag team, a thematic (ahem) salt-and-pepper-shaker duo that makes audiences feel mighty proud about honoring both. If anything, it's Spencer's role as The Help's secret ingredient-wielding Minny Jackson (the maid who knows her value and thus must remind herself "no sass" even when walking up to Chastain's absurdly understanding heiress) that strikes the most direct hit upon the movie's target audience. Davis's Aibileen absorbs an unjust world's every last dribble of shit, but Minny literally excretes it and serves it up with a smirk. In the end, both women get to dress down Bryce Dallas Howard's microcosmic representation of Southern evil, but only one of them has the satisfaction of sending her gagging out of the room. Continue Reading »
Cinephiles everywhere (well, at least the ones who waste time and wishes on the Academy Awards) have been conjuring up the spirits of Sven Nyqvist, John Alcott, Gregg Toland, and James Wong Howe in an attempt to see to an alarmingly overdue Emmanuel Lubezki finally win this category. One would think they wouldn't need to resort to such desperate measures, since not only do The Tree of Life's detractors have to admit the film at its worst still acts as the world's greatest sizzle reel for Lubezki's talents, but there's scarcely a precursor award that hasn't gone his way this year. But so what? Lubezki, now on his fifth Oscar nomination, had every reason in the world to collect in 2006 for Children of Men, but the disappointing, if not unpredictable, win for Guillermo Navarro's work on Pan's Labyrinth made a clear statement: Overall momentum is all that matters in the tech categories. Continue Reading »
At the risk of milking a joke whose teets have been sore for weeks, The Artist's musical score will do just fine without Kim Novak's vote. In the hierarchy of Oscar scandals, which have a way of surfacing every season (just ask THR subscribers), the ire of an old Hitchcock muse is meager compared to blockbuster-bashing emails and history's tackiest FYC ads. So, rest easy, Ludovic Bource, for your rape charges won't take you the way of Herman Cain, and few Academy members will be able to resist the sprightly notes subbed in for Jean Dujardin's dialogue. If anything, The Artist's perfectly legal Vertigo sampling will strengthen that skim-off-the-cream nostalgia, which has yet to relent in its ability to charm the Depends off Novak's peers. Continue Reading »
Is it just us or can the Academy's infatuation with The Artist be felt even in categories where the film isn't nominated? Grant Orchard's The Morning Stroll, about a chicken stopping a passerby on a city street dead in his tracks, first in a time when films were referred to as moving pictures, then in our present day, and finally in a post-apocalyptic tomorrow where zombies have come home to roost, is cute up to the point that its artistry adopts the very ADD it increasingly thumbs its nose at throughout. A sweeter, more quaint vision, Patrick Doyon's Sunday is in essence also a study of human routine, only this one waxes nostalgic on the different world children and adults inhabit without a shred of condescension. Both Terrence Davis and Bill Plympton would love it…and we know how many Oscars each of those filmmakers have. Continue Reading »
It may sound shocking to some that the Harry Potter franchise has never won an Oscar, despite nine pre-2012 nominations being spread across five of the films (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix couldn't conjure a single nod). Perhaps the Academy simply hasn't been able to brush off the pixie dust with which Chris Columbus ushered in the series, or maybe all those wins for 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King left voters feeling like they'd hit their literary-fantasy quota for the next decade. Either way, though Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 adds three more nods, including Art Direction, to the saga's final tally, it looks like Harry and his pals are going to ride their brooms into the history books without one nude gold man in tow. Continue Reading »
Bridesmaids is just glad to be invited, no? A "memorable" quote from the film according to IMDb: "You're like the maid of dishonor." Which makes me, an admitted fan of the film, cringe and feel as if I'm misremembering its high hit-to-miss ratio. Margin Call possibly fares worse, because is a line like "I don't get any of this stuff" a refreshing acknowledgement that market-speak is a language that even stock brokers struggle with or a sure sign that J.C. Chandor was too lazy to do his homework? Also out is Asghar Farhadi's A Separation, which faces the uphill battle of having to appeal to voters resentful of actually having to read the screenplay while watching the film. Then there's Michel Hazanavicius's blasé approximation of a silent film that would have been forgotten and lost to time—or an attic fire—had it been actually made in 1925. The reason The Artist won't win is easy: Continue Reading »
Putting aside the Academy's shocking diss of Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin in this category, I was with Eric here at first: "I guess we should never underestimate this branch's desire to make the category look like it deserves to exist." The branch, after all, passed up Cars 2 and Happy Feet Two, films few seem willing to go out on a limb for—and Winnie the Pooh, well, that wasn't exactly the second coming of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. But after rallying to see the five films that made the final cut, I'm thinking that singing penguins might have actually legitimized this category.
The most delightfully animated feature in this bunch, Kung Fu Panda 2 is still at best a slab of warmed-over holiday seconds, and one whose statistical chance of winning is perhaps smaller than Demián Bichir's. Then you have Puss in Boots, another glossy trifle from the House that Shrek Built that frequently, if shamelessly, brought a smile to the face of this recently anointed cat person. A better dissertation on family than either of them is The Cat in Paris, the wafer-thin but quaint account of a young French girl who discovers that her kitty moonlights as a jewel thief's partner in crime. The film gets my personal vote by virtue of being the most unpretentious and least corporate-looking nominee in the category. Continue Reading »
The Help cleaned up and Jean Dujardin pulled an upset at last night's Screen Actors Guild awards.
In other news of The Artist's march toward Oscar, Michel Hazanavicius beat out Fincher, Allen, Scorsese, and Payne at Saturday's DGA awards.
This year's Sundance Film Festival winners have also been announced.
A look back at the film and art career of the Eiffel Tower, a 122-year-old movie star prepping for her facelift.
Matt Zoller Seitz recaps the latest episode of HBO's Luck.
Over the weekend, Mitt Romney widened his lead over Newt Gingrich.
The Artist didn't get the most César nominations today.
Sasha Frere-Jones peers at Lana Del Rey's fixed image.
Related: Lana has bought the rights to her first "unreleased" record.
Fidel Casto is sometimes right.
The London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony will reflect "people's Games," and hundreds of children will be pulled from ghettos all over the world for the production, says Danny Boyle.
D'Angelo is back.
The 12 worst ways to be killed by Liam Neeson.
John Hawkes chats with Jada Yuan at Sundance.
Anyone who's invested in the preposterous hoopla of Oscarology has suffered at least one headache while poring over the Academy's explanation-resistant math. So to ensure you needn't have the Excedrin within reach, let's keep the voting blather to a minimum and focus on what seem to be the most pivotal factors in this year's top race. First of all, as was the case in the past two years, a solid, conventional roster of five movies has emerged, despite a field that welcomes additional contenders (for the headache-free unwashed, those five are The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, Hugo, and Midnight in Paris). No pundit in the game will tell you those huggable favorites aren't done deals, so best to nudge them aside and hurry along.
Adjusted rules allow anywhere from five to 10 nominees to fight it out for Best Picture, and to test the new system, the Academy held mock recounts for every race over the past decade. Results were scattered, and many years produced more than five finalists, but none were able to pack the entire slate (ergo, fewer sore thumbs like The Blind Side dirtying up the ballot, to say the least). It's conceivable, then, that this year won't go 10-wide either, and the recounts help to justify an eight-nominee total that's felt just right for weeks. There are those who'll tell you the ironclad quintet is as far as the field will go, just as there are those who'll say preferential voting isn't all that different than it's always been. But if one is to accept conventional wisdom that first-place rankings are especially crucial, and that movies have to battle especially hard to join the elite pack, then predictions come down to which films seem believable as voters' picks for 2011's tip-top. Continue Reading »
Historically a haven for the quirk, verve, and humor that can't quite crack the tougher races, the Original Screenplay category will openly welcome a movie like Bridesmaids, which may have a fiery fanbase and a sure shot at Supporting Actress, but isn't about to compete in Best Picture, no matter how hard the mainstream dreamers squint their eyes and pray. The script nom might strike some as a snub-amending bone-throw to a buzz-building comedy, but Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo actually deserve to be in contention for their dialogue-driven hit (unlike The Hangover, another R-rated giggler with Best Pic whispers, to which Bridesmaids is belittlingly compared). Still, pink-clad comediennes with volatile bowels are bound to be outclassed by Midnight in Paris, the Golden Globe and Critics' Choice victor that's all set to squeeze another gold man onto Woody Allen's crowded mantle. Continue Reading »
Recent Comments:
Ranking Oscar's 2012 Nominees
by tangodiva
Understanding Screenwriting #89: Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, The Descendants, My Week with Marilyn, & More
by outsidedog
Ranking Oscar's 2012 Nominees
by Ryland Walker Knight
Oscar 2012 Winner Predictions: Actor
by R. Kurt Osenlund
Whitney Houston (1963 – 2012)
by Andrew Chan