Craig's MovieBlog

Independent Spirit Award Nominations

...and Award Season is here!

If you've got a budget under $20 million, then you too can be an Independent Spirit Nominee.  I've cut-and-paste a few of the categories below, and you can read David Poland's analysis here.  By the way, look at all the amazing films that were first-time screenwriters (Juno, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, etc.)

Best feature
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
I'm Not There
Juno
A Mighty Heart
Paranoid Park

Best director
Todd Haynes, I'm Not There
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages
Jason Reitman, Juno
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Gus Van Sant, Paranoid Park

Best screenplay
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages
Fred Parnes & Andrew Wagner, Starting Out in the Evening
Adrienne Shelly, Waitress
Mike White, Year of the Dog

Best first screenplay
Jeffrey Blitz, Rocket Science
Zoe Cassavetes, Broken English
Diablo Cody, Juno
Kelly Masterson, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
John Orloff, A Mighty Heart

Best female lead
Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart
Sienna Miller, Interview
Ellen Page, Juno
Parker Posey, Broken English
Tang Wei, Lust, Caution

Best male lead
Pedro Castaneda, August Evening
Don Cheadle, Talk to Me
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Savages
Frank Langella, Starting Out in the Evening
Tony Leung, Lust, Caution

Best supporting female
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Anna Kendrick, Rocket Science
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Margot at the Wedding
Tamara Podemski, Four Sheets to the Wind
Marisa Tomei, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Best supporting male
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Talk to Me
Marcus Carl Franklin, I'm Not There
Kene Holliday, Great World of Sound
Irrfan Khan, The Namesake
Steve Zahn, Rescue Dawn

Charlie Wilson's War Finally Previewed

Universal finally showed Charlie Wilson's War to the press last night, and you can read what Jeff Wells, David Poland, and Kris Tapley thought of it.  The words "abridged," "cut and re-cut, "good but not great," "likeable," "terrific," and "Phillip Seymour Hoffman is a God... can do no wrong" keep coming up.  Sounds like a mixed bag but net-positive in the end.  I'm just wondering, when was the last time we had Oscar bait that was only 97 minutes long?

Jon Stewart to Host Oscars

Excellent.  I think Ellen is great, I think Chris Rock is a brave choice, and I think Steve Martin is sublimely brilliant... but I do love my Jon.

Now, people absolutely have the right to disagree, but this article by Nikki Finke is just plain mean.  To wit, here's a quote from her review the last time he hosted:

"Then he sets up what starts out like a winner, noting how 'a lot of people say this town is too liberal...out of touch with Mainstream America...a moral black hole where innocence is obliterated in an orgy of sexual gratification and greed...' But then he ends with, 'I don't really have a joke here.' Why not, for chrissakes? Didn't this gig pay you to write punch lines?"

Um, Nikki?  That is the punch line.  Someone has lost their sense of humor somewhere along the way methinks.

Grace is Gone Trailer

Well that's just about the saddest thing I've ever seen in my life.  I'm only posting it because it feels like, if he plays the game right, and doesn't piss off the wrong people... John Cusack might have a shot at Best Actor this year. 

I think the challenge will be getting enough voters to see the film, given that it's an independent effort, and the topic is just incredibly painful.  I can't imagine choosing to go to a movie to feel this way.  But hey, Terms of Endearment made money...

Oscar Predictions - 2007

I guess I should throw my hat in the ring.  I feel bad about it though - this is the first year in (I don't know how long) that I haven't seen all the Best Picture contenders.  In fact, I still haven't seen The Queen, Letters from Iwo Jima, or Babel... Now that I look at the nominees again, I haven't seen any of the Best Actor films, none of the Best Actress films, and only one of the Best Director films (The Departed).

I suck.  I need more babysitters.  I shouldn't even call myself a film blogger.  Wait, I don't call myself that.  But still... this is embarrassing.

I do follow the industry closely though, watching trends, paying attention to who everyone else is picking, and I gotta say... this is going to be an interesting race because for the first time since 1995 (Braveheart) or maybe 1991 (The Silence of the Lambs), there is no obvious favorite for Best Picture.  Sure, there have been upsets (Crash over Brokeback Mountain, Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan), but leading up to the big night, there was always one film that seemed to have it in the bag.  This year, that is absolutely not the case.  As William Goldman says, "no one knows anything."

Having admitted that I now know as much (or as little) as everyone else, here are my picks for the big categories.  Note that this is who I think will win, not who I necessarily want to win:

• Best Picture: Babel, but I absolutely think The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Little Miss Sunshine all have a legitimate shot at the title.  For the first time I can remember, I can honestly say I have no idea what's going to happen here.  As far as I can tell, Dreamgirls or United 93 might still have a shot.  ;)
• Best Director: Martin Scorsese, finally... and this won't be close.
• Best Actor: Forrest Whitaker, but Peter O'Toole could easily, easily take this.  It's dead even.
• Best Actress: Helen Mirren, in a blowout.
• Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy, but Alan Arkin is a huge Academy favorite, while Murphy isn't personally well-liked, and Jeff Wells has been running a campaign against him.  Also, it's arguable that Mark Wahlberg had the most memorable role of all the supporting actors.
• Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson is still the favorite, so I'll go with her.  The Babel women will split their votes, Cate Blanchett just won this two years ago, but don't be suprised to see something wacky happen in this category with Abigail Breslin (a la, Anna Paquin, Marisa Tomei, Whoopi Goldberg, Mira Sorvino, etc.).  I mean, can an American Idol contestant really win an Oscar?  They've won Grammies...

One note that just came to me... If Peter O'Toole beats Forrest Whitaker, and Alan Arkin beats Eddie Murphy, and Abigail Breslin beats Jennifer Hudson, will there be racism cries throughout the Academy?  Just putting that out there as food for thought.

Oh, and Best Original Screenplay will be Little Miss Sunshine (wait, maybe The Queen), and Best Adapted Screenplay will be The Departed.

In case you're still looking, here's an Oscar ballot for you to make your picks with.  Have fun at the show!!!

Oscar Surprises in the Telecast?

Nikki Finke's blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily, has some interesting notes about changes to this year's Oscar broadcast.  I guess some might consider these spoilers, but seriously, if someone told you what the opening act was going to be, would that upset you?  It's not like we'll be revealing who's going to win Best Picture, or who will be most inappropriately dressed (fingers crossed for Abigail Breslin...).

Well, if that kind of news would upset you, stop reading now.

For the rest of you, head over to her Eight Spoilers on Oscar Telecast post, but I do have some thoughts on a few of them below.

• She says that the biggest news will be who is presenting the Best Director Oscar this year (Spielberg, Coppola, and Lucas), but my guess is that four hours into the broadcast, and given the collective age of those three men, most of the world is simply going to yawn.  These days Borat would get a bigger response.  Since this is the year when Martin Scorsese is finally going to get his Oscar, I guess they want to do something special.  To me though, if you really want to do something interesting, when they announce his name, he should be presented his Oscar from Clint Eastwood, Roman Polanski, Kevin Costner, Barry Levinson, and Robert Redford, the 5 directors who beat him for each of his previous nominations.  And then Marty gets to go all Mark "Dignam" Wahlberg on them onstage.
• Her favorite update is that each of the three songs nominated from Dreamgirls, will be sung by a Dreamgirl other than the one that sang it in the film.  Wow - another change that three people will notice...
• She also reports that unlike previous years, where the awards for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress come almost immediately, they are going to save them until the final 1/3 of the show.  Well, that should save some stress for people on the West Coast who struggle with the 5pm broadcast, since now there is absolutely no reason for to watch the first 3 hours of the show.  I mean, while I couldn't be more interested in Best Original Score or Best Art Direction and Best Sound Editing or Best Live Action Short (not!), I'm not sure the rest of the world feels the same way.

Next Year's Oscars?

If you're bored of this year's race already (the big night is almost here), then check out Variety's take on the 2008 event.

My Head Hurts Just Thinking About It

Last week, Defamer reported that "The London Film Critics' Circle awarded The Queen its top British film and director awards, United 93 best film and director, and Volver best foreign film." 

They also said that this makes no sense whatsoever, and I think I would agree if my head didn't hurt so much.  Let's break this down:

• Okay, so they're in London.  Got it. 
• The Queen is the top "domestic" film for them.  Good, got it. 
• Then they announce that United 93 is the best film of the year.  Got it.  Please note that this American film would be "foreign" to them.  Keep that in mind for the next bullet.
• Then they announce that Volver is the best foreign film. 

Huh?!?!?  I honestly don't know if they think United 93 or Volver is the better film. 

This reminds me of the Grammy categories of Best Song, Best Album, and Best Record.  I still can't figure those out.

Fast Times at Oscar High

I was talking to a colleague of mine last night about the nominations, and he gave me a dose of amazing insight.

If Forest Whitaker wins, he will be the third cast member of Fast Times at Ridgemont High to win an Academy Award, after Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage.

That cast was phenomenal, wasn't it?  I wouldn't be surprised to see Jennifer Jason Leigh win an Oscar before her career is over... and hey - Judge Reinhold is due for a comeback soon isn't he?   ;)

And then this morning I was thinking... there's another person related to that movie with an Oscar:  writer Cameron Crowe received his award for writing Jerry Maguire Almost Famous.

There is no way that anyone connected to that film way back in 1982 had any idea of the talent they had on their hands.

Oscar Tips and Tricks

Variety compiled a few bullets of Oscar trivia, which I'll just post below, because for some sick reason, I just can't get enough of this stuff:

With his eighth acting nom, for Venus, Peter O'Toole is a winner either way. If he wins, great; if not, he goes down in the record books as the actor with the most noms without a win (he was previously tied with Richard Burton).

With her 14th nom, Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada) furthers her lead for most nominated actor ever. Runners-up are Jack Nicholson and Katharine Hepburn, with 12 apiece.

Kevin O'Connell, nommed for sound mixing in Apocalypto, scores his 19th nom. He furthers his status as the Academy's most nominated individual who, so far, hasn't won. Distant runners-up are composer Alex North and art director Roland Anderson, at 15 each.

Dreamgirls is the first live-action film to have three of its songs nominated. Two animated films can lay claim to the same record: The Lion King in 1994 and Beauty and the Beast in 1991.

I Need to Wake Up from An Inconvenient Truth is the first song from a docu to be nominated since More from Mondo Cane was up for the award in 1963.

Alan Arkin has gone 38 years since his last nom --1968's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter -- the same amount of time Jack Palance spent between Shane in 1953 and City Slickers in 1991. Henry Fonda is still the title holder at 41 years between acting noms.

With Little Children, Kate Winslet, 31, becomes the youngest actress to garner five noms. She has made 19 movies. Previous record holder was Olivia de Haviland, who secured her fifth at the age of 33. By that time -- 1950 -- she had made 33 films.

Oscar Nominations

When was the last time the leader in nominations (Dreamgirls) couldn't get nominated for Best Picture or Best Director?  Dreamgirls received 8, but 3 were for Best Song, followed by Babel with 7.

When was the last time that 9 of the 10 actor and actress nominees were NOT from one of the Best Pictures?  Let me put that another way... of the 5 Best Pictures, they only spawned 1 Actor or Actress nomination (Helen Mirren, The Queen).

When they said the field was wide open this year, I really had only thought of that in the Best Picture race, but the breadth of the field this year, the distinction between the Best Picture nominations and the rest of the nominees has never been more vast.

Are you telling me that Leo was better in Blood Diamond that he was in The Departed?

Check out the Best Actor nominees - outside of Blood Diamond, none of those movies received any other major nominations, no other actors, not best picture, no screenplay, nothing.  Just bizarre...

Does anyone else realize that Kate Winslet is about to lose her 5th Oscar nomination in 11 years?  Or that Meryl Streep is about to lose for the 12th time?  At least she has two wins... unlike Ms. Winslet.

Here we go...

BEST PICTURE
Babel
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93

BEST ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forrest Whitaker, The Last King Of Scotland

BEST ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on A Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Babel
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Borat
Children Of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes On A Scandal

Funniest Post from Jeff Wells Ever

Enjoy:

"The Central Ohio Film Critics have named Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men the year's best film, but handed the Best Director prize to The Departed's Martin Scorsese. The Northern, Southern, Southeastern, Northwestern and Southwestern Ohio Film Critics have yet to be heard from."

Viewer Mail

From a reader:

So called Best picture?  Well I don't know but it seems to me that racism is alive and well in the movie industry.  I won't say what race I am but the fact that Dreamgirls had limited openings on Christmas Day with an official opening to all theaters on Jan. 19th 2007 seems a bit strange!  Heaven forbid a Jewish producer; DreamWorks and an all black cast take 1 place in revenue. I personally witnessed packed crowds (mainly white over 50) fighting for tickets and only after the limited seating had sold out did they settle for other features.  Yet despite the opposition and distribution control placed on Dreamgirls by the powers in Hollywood it still managed to do 9 million and take 7th place with both hands tied behind its back!  I wonder what it would have done on a fair playing field?  Well the more things change the more they stay the same. We won't even talk about Borat!

My response:

Lots and lots of movies open on limited screens over the holidays to create demand, and then widen their screencount.  They do this to qualify for the Oscars by releasing in LA and/or NYC during 2006, but then build momentum throughout the months of January and February which are closer to the Oscars, hoping to affect how votes are cast. 

This happens every year, especially for movies that are aiming for Academy Awards.  Go back and look at the release patterns for Chicago, Syriana, Gangs of New York, The Hours, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Million Dollar Baby, etc.... even films this year like Volver, Children of Men, and Notes on a Scandal are all being released the same way, and none of them have predominantly African-American casts.

Frankly, I think it's exciting from a racial perspective that you claim that there are "white" packed crowds who want to see this film.  That is enough for me to be optimistic.

But seriously... you think people with all the clout of Spielberg, Katzenberg, and Geffen are going to be "controlled" by some sort of master controller somewhere?  C'mon... this is nothing more than a PR team strategically releasing a film for the Oscars.

Happy new year,

Craig

The Departed Has Caught Up

Scorsese's crime thriller has tied United 93 for the most Best Picture awards in the Oscar pre-season.  It's becoming obvious that he'll win Best Director this year (I hope), but I'm having a hard time seeing The Departed with the Oscar for Best Picture, regardless of how much I loved it.  I can definitely see the Academy handing its award to United 93 however...

Latest Academy Awards Tracker is here

Sometimes, Someone Else Just Nails It

A few weeks ago, when the official Oscar poster was released, I read a few comments about how exciting it was.  I wasn't impressed, but not in a jaded, cynical way (my norm), but I just couldn't put my finger on why I was so nonplussed.

Then, someone else said it for me.  Both on Jeff Wells' Hollywood Elsewhere and on Movie Marketing Madness, they hit the nail on the head. 

The quotes they used are all quotes that I'm just plain sick to death of.  I mean, come on... haven't you seen this montage of quotes edited together in some Academy Award ceremony about 60 times already?

Find something original... I mean, "Show me the money"?  Really?  Even "you had me at hello" or "help me, help you" might have been better if they absolutely had to have something from Jerry Maguire.  Although, I would have been really impressed if they went with, "a real man wouldn't shoplift the pootie from a single mom."    ;)

I will admit to liking that they included, "No, if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving."