The DGA winner

So Eastwood beat out Scorsese for the DGA honor. This means that Marty (the finest living director - if not the greatest American filmmaker of all time) has now been nominated for the DGA six times without winning one - even though he has been awarded their lifetime achievement honor. The only way this is acceptable at the Oscars is if The Aviator does win best Picture. If that happens, and Marty never does win a best director Oscar that puts him in the same class as Hitchcock - directed one best Picture winner but never won the Director Oscar.

27 Days and counting.

Schadenfreude of the Highest Order

I anticipated Hide and Seek quite a bit. I find Dakota Fanning fascinating and disturbing and seeing her paired with De Niro in a horror film appealed to every bad movie instinct I have. The product does not disappoint. For a good hour and fifteen minutes this film is so badly written and obviously directed that I didn't stop laughing. This is the kind of film where the little girl has a cat for no reason other than so that it can jump out providing the audience with a false jolt of fear, and then it can be found drowned in a bathtub. As silly and laugh producing as the majority of the film is, it turns into a depressing exercise in the final twenty minutes. When the big surprise is revealed (and anyone who goes to the movies should be able to figure it out - I can't say much more without wrecking the film and good taste and common courtesy will not allow me to do that, but let's just say if you click here, here and here you will see examples of three other films that use the exact same plot twist) De Niro goes from underplaying to overplaying - and he seems uncomfortable about it the entire time. Much has been written in the last few weeks about the decline of Robert De Niro and while I think his legacy is untaintable - I will say that this is the worst performance he has ever given (and yes this from someone who suffered through the stupefying Analyze That). Dakota Fanning's dead-eye gaze is a frightening thing to behold, but this film is so silly that it only plays well as a comedy in which two talented performers try not to act ashamed of the film they are in. Only one of them succeeds.

Hotel Rwanda

Don Cheadle is really one of the ten best living actors. Anyone not yet familiar with the man's impressive body of work should familiarize themselves with it as soon as possible (Start with Devil in a Blue Dress). He is in theaters, and Oscar nominated for Hotel Rwanda, a film that presents horrific actual events in a very straightforward way. This is a good decision. They let Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo, who plays his wife, communicate the full emotional toll of the overwhelming events they experience. Joaquin Phoenix plays a journalist who, upon photographing the slaughter, tells Cheadle's character that people are going to see the footage think "that's terrible" and then go back to eating dinner. The film understands that this is true. In order to get people to experience the horror and pain, the filmmakers allow the viewer to become emotionally invested in Paul and his wife. This is not groundbreaking filmmaking, but it is always involving thanks to the simple but effective editing and the superb performance by Cheadle. On Oscar night they will play the clip of him slowly losing control of his frazzled emotions while he attempts to tie his necktie. It's a simple, affecting scene - an apt description of the film itself.

One of the best sites on the web

Fametracker posts possibly the best analysis of the Oscar nominations so far.

How powerful is Dakota Fanning?

Well after bringing an entire cable network to its knees, it seems the girl who frightens me more than any other actress alive will scare me even more with the release of Hide and Seek on the 28th and 20th Century Fox if doing everything it can to assist her as the following press release makes clear:

For Immediate Release Contact: Florence Grace
January 25, 2005 (310) 369-5634


FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOX’S 70-YEAR HISTORY,
STUDIO WILL SHIP A MOTION PICTURE WITHOUT A FINAL REEL

EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TAKEN WITH ‘HIDE AND SEEK’ PRINTS
TO PRESERVE PAY-OFF OF FILM’S TERROR-FILLED CLUES


LOS ANGELES… For the first time in its illustrious 70-year history, Twentieth Century Fox will be shipping prints of a motion picture to theaters across the nation without the picture’s final reel. The unprecedented move is part of a major effort to protect the pay-off of the studio’s terrifying suspense-thriller HIDE AND SEEK, starring Robert De Niro and Dakota Fanning.
Fox has taken extraordinary measures to safeguard the critical final reel, which is shipping separately. In addition to shipping the reel separately, security guards will hand-deliver the reel to all playdate theaters across the U.S. As a final security measure, Fox has numbered all final reels.
HIDE AND SEEK opens nationwide this Friday, January 28.
Commented Fox executive VP and general sales manager Richard Myerson: “HIDE AND SEEK is a terrific picture with an ending that everyone will be talking about. To ensure everyone’s enjoyment of the film and to prevent ‘spoilers’, we’ve instituted extraordinary measures. We think it’s worth the effort.”
HIDE AND SEEK, rated “R” for frightening sequences and violence, is about a widowed father who desperately tries to break through to his nine year old daughter when she creates a creepy, maniacal “imaginary” friend with a terrifying vendetta. The film also stars Famke Janssen, Elisabeth Shue, Amy Irving and Dylan Baker. It is directed by John Polson, produced by Barry Josephson, and written by Ari Schlossberg.
Twentieth Century Fox is a unit of Fox Filmed Entertainment, a unit Fox Entertainment.

Oscar Nominations

Here are the Oscar Nominations

Quick takes: Giamatti being left off is a big disappointment but the five nominees are all very deserving so someone worthwhile was going to be left off. I wish it had not been Giamatti.

On the plus side Kate Winslett, both Natalie Portman and Clive Owen, and Before Sunset getting a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination. These all make me very happy.

Schizoid nominations: How does Alan Alda get a supporting nomination for Aviator (which indicates huge support for the film) and yet leave the film off of some categories it needs to be on including Original score, make-up, and visual effects.

Correction to previous post

In the best Supporting Actor category:

Please replace James Garner - The Notebook with Peter Sarsgaard - Kinsey.

Thank you.

Oscar Predictions

Best Picture:
The Aviator
Finding Neverland
Million Dollar Baby
Ray
Sideways

Best Actor:
Leonardo Di Caprio - The Aviator
Johnny Depp - Finding Neverland
Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby
Jamie Foxx - Ray
Paul Giamatti - Sideways
(There is a very good chance either Depp or Eastwood could be dropped for Don Cheadle)

Best Actress:
Annette Bening - Being Julia
Cataline Sandino Moreno - Maria Full of Grace
Imelda Staunton - Vera Drake
Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby
Kate Winslett - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Best Suporting Actor:
Thomas Haden Church - Sideways
Morgan Freeman - Million Dollar Baby
Jamie Foxx - Collateral (Don't be fooled this is a lead performance)
Clive Owen - Closer
James Garner - The Notebook

Best Supporting Actress:
Virginia Madsen - Sideways
Natalie Portman - Closer
Cate Blanchett - The Aviator
Meryl Streep - The Manchurian Candidate (Because the Academy can't help itself)
Sophie Okonedo - Hotel Rwanda (But I'm not thoroughly convinced this will happen)

Best Director:
Martin Scorsese - The Aviator
Clint Eastwood - Million Dollar Baby
Alexander Payne - Sideways
Michael Mann - Collateral
Marc Forster - Finding Neverland

Final Thoughts: Hotel Rwanda is coming on strong and could pick up Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Supporting Actress nods - if so Finding Neverland will take the hit.

Later today: A review of Hotel Rwanda.

A stand-up double

Mr. 3000 is a sports comedy that could have tripped up on every cliché in the book, but instead finds new ways to tell a very familiar story. The most appealing aspect of the story is the natural the character arc for Bernie Mac’s Stan Ross. He stars as a self-absorbed athlete with star-power and ends up learning how to sacrifice himself for others – without really abandoning his egocentric nature. He is a believable twenty-first century sports star who learns to be a better person, not a different person. The supporting characters are all well thought out and played – particularly the silent manager played by the normally verbose Paul Sorvino. You know he is going to say something at some point, and when he does it still turns out to be a pleasant surprise. Bernie Mac can be physically imposing on-screen, but in Angela Bassett he finds a partner with just as much of a physical presence. They are an enjoyable pair – their physicality helps sell the sexual relationship they used to have (and that they rekindle). The baseball footage all feels natural, most especially an excellent sequence early in the film involving a pitcher who throws one high and inside on Ross. Director Charles Stone III manages to stay totally within the bounds of the genre, but his editing skills and his ability to shape likable characters allows him to achieve a first-rate entry in the genre.

Coming on Monday - my annual exercise in public humiliation: Oscar nomination predictions.

The Best Film of 1953

Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby is the work of a director who understands the tools of filmmaking. Eastwood has never been a flamboyant director, but he knows how to get the job done and the older he gets the darker his films become. The film is a melodrama, but it plays at such a reserved emotional tone that it will require an audience to come to it. The film does not grab you by the heart, or even the throat, and while that kind of restraint is admirable it can also be a tad frustrating. The performances are all first-rate. Eastwood has never been better and in Morgan Freeman he has the best partner to play off of. They have a conversation about Freeman's socks that rates as one of the funniest moments of the year - it makes me wish Clint's next film would be a road comedy with the two of them. Hilary Swank is solid as the fighter with a dream - she is believable as both a boxer and as someone who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. I like the film a great deal, but it never hooked me emotionally. I was interested in the characters, but I never really cared about them. It is however the kind of film that Academy members can get behind, and while I am openly rooting for The Aviator to take the best picture Oscar (even though it isn't even in my top 5 for the year) seeing a film this small in scale take the top honor would be a positive step for Hollywood.

A fine critic with a great piece on the best film ever made

Atkinson on Taxi Driver

The power of the thumb

I hope if Roger Ebert ever reads this blog he is not offended that I link to this. I respect the man greatly but this cartoon is just too funny.

If he could direct he would be a triple threat

Kevin Spacey is a gifted actor with the particular ability to play cold, calculating characters. As a director, Kevin miscasts himself in his Bobby Darrin biopic Beyond the Sea. The film is an exercise in hero worship, therefore Darrin never does anything that makes him unworthy of being the subject of such a fawning exercise. From an early age the Darrin in the film claims he is going to be the biggest star in the world, but he almost never has to do anything calculated to win that fame. At every point his natural talent just bursts forth and everyone recognizes what a gift to the world he is and the world falls in line. Show business is a cold and cruel business and I have to believe that if we were shown a Darrin with a calculated sense of what will make him famous - or at least a fairly stereotypical issue about both wanting and being repelled by the public adoration - he would be more believable and compelling. As it stands now Spacey fails to let his audience understand what made Darrin so special, aside from his nearly psychotic Horatio Algar-ish positivity. Only once do we see Darrin go against his natural instincts in order to win his audience. He figures out late in the film how to make his fans accept his new interest in folk music, but he never questions himself. There is no self-doubt in the character and that leaves an audience unable to identify with him.

If the film's only problem were a less than engaging lead character it could still skate by if the production numbers were engaging. Spacey does an outstanding job singing the part. With the exception of "Splish Splash" and "Mack the Knife" he improves on every one of Darrin's songs. The problem, and this is a problem, is that Spacey is no dancer. Spacey the director knows this, however, which leads to all of the dance sequences being filmed as singles with Spacey in the center of the frame - the other dancers partially out of frame so that it is harder to tell how out of step Spacey is with them. Staging a Busby Berkley inspired number and then shooting it in that way is just ridiculous - an adjective that can be used to describe much of the film.

I would like to see Kevin Spacey act in anything, and I'm sure the soundtrack to this film would make for a very entertaining listen, but after Beyond the Sea and Albino Alligator it seems obvious that he has no real feel for how to direct.

SAG Award Nominations

This year's SAG award nominees bode well (mostly) for the Oscar race. These are the most reliable predictors of where the Academy will go, in fact I'll bet the five best actor nominees will be the Oscar contenders, and if that is so we are in for an interesting show.

Best Surprise: Kate Winslett for Best Actress for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. An amazing performance.

Most unexpected surprise: James Garner for The Notebook. He's also getting the lifetime achievement award from SAG this year.

Who gets the biggest momentum boost: Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo and everybody involved with Hotel Rwanda.

Oscar nominations are announced two weeks from today.

From Variety today

"Contract talks between studios and actors unions have broken off with no date set for resumption.
A joint statement issued Sunday evening gave no further details about the negotiations, which had gone on for five days after resuming Wednesday following a three-week break.
"The parties have concluded they cannot reach an agreement at this time," the statement said. "There are no scheduled dates for the resumption of talks."
The current contract for SAGSAG and AFTRAAFTRA with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers doesn't expire until June 30, so there remains nearly six months in which to make a deal without a work stoppage. But the decision to walk away from the table is likely to generate a flurry of production activity in order to stockpile against a possible strike."

What does that mean for you - it means at the beginning of next year a whole lot of hastily thrown together films with not-even-close-to-production-ready scripts wedded to casts that are there only for the money. This is not a good breeding ground for quality movies.

Later - A review of Beyond the Sea.

David Edelstein sets the record straight

Edelstein destroys Armond White once for all with this posting to the movie club:

"John E. Freeland writes to point out that your declaration that "Any class of journalist (or wannabe film critics in the Voice poll) who can contribute matchsticks to erect an edifice saluting Richard Linklater is unworthy of the art form that produced Griffith, Welles, Godard, Kael, and Sarris" overlooks the fact that Sarris named Before Sunset the best movie of the year. So by your lights, even Sarris is unworthy of the medium that produced him!"

Hopefully Armond will have the decency to quit posting to the movie club this year.

Armond White has lousy taste

New York Press critic Armond White has been asked to be involved in this year's Slate Movie Club. In his very first post he wrote about Before Sunset:

"Only one thing became apparent from all this: The passion of the hipster. And it's this, I submit, that ruined most criticism during '04. A good movie like Sideways may be weak rather than great; even its quasi-humanism can be disputed. But let's face it, Sideways is a lot more humane, considered, crafted, and accomplished than that piss-ant vanity production Before Sunset. Any class of journalist (or wannabe film critics in the Voice poll) who can contribute matchsticks to erect an edifice saluting Richard Linklater is unworthy of the art form that produced Griffith, Welles, Godard, Kael, and Sarris. Remember, Linklater in Before Sunset shot Paris like it was Hoboken—or Williamsburg!
Hipster self-righteousness has become a blight on film culture. The Voice poll revealed (or constructed) a disappointing, nationwide urge among film journalists to outsmartass each other. (Yes, I write for New York Press, which some people think of as the Voice's opponent, but these thoughts are not born of competition. I'm aiming at a problem bigger than one publication or institution.) The "victory" of a cliquish, solipsistic—and drab—film like Before Sunset is indicative of a dead-end culture. Coterie thinking passing for free expression. Too many critics—and filmgoers—are now smug about movies without being curious, honest, or imaginative. That's what Before Sunset celebrates."

Normally I wouldn't accuse another critic of terrible taste, but if I'm going to be (indirectly) called smug for being genuinely moved by a film then I think the proper response is to accuse Armond White of having lousy taste.

One of the two worst independent films of the year

So it took until its release on DVD for me to catch up with Napoleon Dynamite. What can I say - it's a remarkable piece of crap. Its contextually massive box office success can only be chalked up to the marketing power of MTV who co-produced the film - probably so that the filmmakers could afford the music cues smattered throughout the film in a vain attempt to add ironic emotion to a film that mocks anybody in the audience for feeling anything other than contempt. The dreadful script contains barely a single moment of dramatic interest, lending the film an inertness that it seems to aspire to. The main character usually has zero motivation - he doesn't want anything much of the time, and when he does figure out something he wants he is just as likely to change his mind in a split second. The only way this film can play well to an audience is if they are laughing AT Napoleon, so basically the film is an exercise in the cinema of cruelty. And worse - it rewards the audience for feeling superior to the characters. Say what you will for cinematic sadists like Lars Von Trier, or even willfully difficult brats like Harmony Korine and Todd Solondz, at least they genuinely have no desire to win their audience over. Jared Hess, the director, wants the audience to love his skills while despising his characters. That's just inhumane. This goes on the short list with Welcome to Mooseport, Van Helsing, Open Water, and The Village as the worst films of the year.

And speaking of year-end lists: I will publish a year's best list as soon as I see the final few films that are trickling around the country. Specifically Beyond the Sea and Million Dollar Baby.

Quaffable but not transcendent

A necessary reality check from A.O. Scott.