Craig's MovieBlog

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

Miscasting Through Photoshop

Again, some of these are just fantastic, but this one just tickled me the right way.

Oscar Recap: What Everyone Else Thought

Before I get to my thoughts, here are a few links I've enjoyed since the end of the show last night.

• David Poland: I disagreed with him about Brokeback Mountain from the get-go, but his post-mortem is excellent today.  I also was thankful for his plea for "civil disagreement."  It's sad that on the internet, and through its anonymity, the hateful vituperation has hit an all time high.
• Jeffrey Wells does a play-by-play: I'm looking for more depth from him later.
• Time Magazine and Richard Corliss cover it as well, although he's ready to nominate George Clooney for President.
• A blistering, incendiary column from Ken Turan and the LA Times.  Wow - a must read.
• Can't go without Bill Simmons...  "Part of me still thinks Jack Nicholson saw "Brokeback Mountain on the winner card, took a deep breath, said to himself, 'Screw it, I hated that movie,' called an audible and said, 'And the Oscar goes to ... Crash!'"
• Box Office Prophets did a live blog, but you currently have to start at the bottom and read up.
• Better Than Fudge wrote a tremendously snarky photo blog with captions.  I'm loving this site more and more every day.

Notes for trivia dorks like me:

• Paul Haggis became the first person to write two consecutive Best Pictures (Million Dollar Baby and Crash).
• For the first time ever, the top 6 awards went to 6 different films.  (Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Walk the Line, Good Night and Good Luck, The Constant Gardener).

Updated Awards Scoreboard

I got back from a few days off, so I've updated the Academy Award scoreboard.  Here are the leaders so far:

• Best Picture: Brokeback Mountain (7 votes)
• Best Director: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain (8 votes)
• Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote (9 votes)
• Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line (5 votes)
• Best Supporting Actor: Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man (4 votes)
• Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, Junebug & Catherine Keener, Capote (4 votes) - tie

Independent Spirit Award Nominees

More to come on this, but for now, here's the link on Movie City News, and here's some analysis of the nominees.

The winners:
Sony Classics – 12 nominations
Magnolia – 7 nominations
Sam Goldwyn – 6 nominations
Focus Features – 6 nominations
Warner Indie – 6 nominations
The Weinstein Company – 3 nominations

The losers:
Miramax – 0 nominations
Lions Gate – 4 nominations… Crash relegated to Best First Feature and a Matt Dillon nod
IFC Film – 2 nominations… Miranda July’s film was a natural lock that was locked out of the top categories.
Paramount Classics – 1 nomination… Terrence Howard and nothing else for Hustle & Flow, Mad Hot Ballroom or Asylum
Picturehouse – 1 nominations… Cinematography for the ‘shoulda been a lock” Last Days

Most nominations:
The Squid & The Whale - 6
Brokeback Mountain - 4
Capote - 4
Good Night, And Good Luck - 4
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - 4

UPDATE: Here are the key nominations:

Best Feature:
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Good Night, and Good Luck
The Squid and the Whale
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Best Director:
Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck
Gregg Araki, Mysterious Skin
Rodrigo Garcia, Nine Lives
Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale

Best First Feature:
Paul Haggis, Crash
George C. Wolfe, Lackawanna Blues
Miranda July, Me and You and Everyone We Know
Mike Mills, Thumbsucker
Duncan Tucker, Transamerica

Best Screenplay:
Ayad Akhtar, Joseph Castelo, Tom Glynn, The War Within
Guillermo Arriaga, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale
Dan Futterman, Capote
Rodrigo Garcia, Nine Lives

Best First Screenplay:
Kenneth Hanes, Fixing Frank
Miranda July, Me and You and Everyone We Know
Angus MacLachlan, Junebug
Sabina Murray, The Beautiful Country
Duncan Tucker, Transamerica

Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams, Junebug
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Happy Endings
Allison Janney, Our Very Own
Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain
Robin Wright Penn, Nine Lives

Best Supporting Actor:
Firdous Bamji, The War Within
Matt Dillon, Crash
Jesse Eisenberg, The Squid and the Whale
Barry Pepper, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Jeffrey Wright, Broken Flowers

Best Actress:
Felicity Huffman, Transamerica
Dina Korzun, Forty Shades of Blue
Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale
S. Epatha Merkerson, Lackawanna Blues
Cyndi Williams, Room

Best Actor:
Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck

Best Documentary:
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Grizzly Man
La Sierra
Romantico
Sir! No Sir!

Oscars 2006

It's November 7th, 2005, and it's very possible that we have not seen a single film that will be nominated for Best Picture.  Sure, there's been Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, A History of Violence, Crash, Jarhead, and Cinderella Man, but there's a good chance that none of those will hit their mark, and all five nominees will come from the remaining pool of movies that haven't yet been released (and there are only 8 weekends left in 2005) to qualify.

Frankly, I think this sucks.  We end up with crappy movies all year long, then the studios cram everything into November and December, but if those films don't get the boost of a nomination, they're gone... dead on the vine.  Good luck seeing them in a theater versus Blockbuster.

Anyway, here's a piece in the New York Daily News from Jack Mathews about the movies to come this year.  Also, I'm including Jack's top 10 hopefuls:

1. Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Eric Bana
2. Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal
3. Memoirs of a Geisha, directed by Rob Marshall, starring Ziyi Zhang and Ken Watanabe
4. The New World, directed by Terrence Malick, starring Colin Farrell
5. The Producers, directed by Susan Stroman, starring Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, and Will Ferrell
6. Mrs. Henderson Presents, directed by Stephen Frears, starring Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins
7. Walk the Line, directed by James Mangold, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon
8. King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson, starring Adrien Brody, Jack Black, and Naomi Watts
9. Syriana, directed by Stephen Gaghan, starring George Clooney and Matt Damon
10. Match Point, directed by Woody Allen, starring Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers

Early RENT Reviews

Now this is getting frustrating.  Two of the films that I was most anticipating for 2005 got slammed by one of the writers I respect the most, David Poland.

Last week, he killed Jarhead, and today, he obliterates RENT.

I need to go see Capote, or Good Night, and Good Luck soon, or I may completely lose it.