Craig's MovieBlog

Movie of the Decade?

Bill Simmons from ESPN (aka The Sports Guy) has opened up a poll to try and determine the Movie of the Decade.  Here’s his list:

• Almost Famous (2000)
• Brokeback Mountain (2005)
• Cast Away (2000)
• The Dark Knight (2008)
• The Departed (2006)
• Gladiator (2000)
• The Lord of the Rings (2001)
• No Country for Old Men (2007)

Fine movies, all of them, and Almost Famous is a personal favorite, but are any of those really the best movie from the last 10 years? 

My friend over at Yes MSG emailed me about the Sports Guy’s poll, and that set me off.  I spent the next hour on IMDB, researching Oscar nominations, and rummaging through the archives of my old box office and movie review site (you know, from when I used to actually go and see movies).  I sent him my thoughts, and then Yes MSG responded inline, so I’ll try to represent that all below.  His responses are in red. 

Enjoy… and let us know – what movies did we miss? 

====================================================

Well, thanks.  The next hour is shot for me.  You’ve got me going…

Almost Famous (2000) is up there.  It’s pretty fantastic.  The Departed (2006) is in the conversation.  And you know what?  The first Pirates of the Caribbean (2002) movie was pretty freaking great as a mainstream, genre-breaking, fun movie.  The sequels ruined people’s memory of how good the first one was.

I guess it’s been a relatively weak decade.  It’s arguable that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy was the best movie achievement for the decade…  not kidding.  Or maybe it’s a Pixar movie like Finding Nemo (2002) or The Incredibles (2003).

On my list of movies that have to be in the conversation:

• Almost Famous (2000) – will have to see it again; don’t care for Kate Hudson, but will stick it out.  Plus, my first internet business was selling online the www.fugit-about-it shirt.  Didn’t go so well.
• Traffic (2000) – good, but a complete knock off of a German movie so really cannot give it high marks – maybe Best Adapted 2000s movie ;)
• Memento (2001) – My #1.  Forgot about this and loved it. Still don’t know if he ever killed anyone or not.
• Finding Nemo (2002) - yep
• Lost in Translation (2002) – too artsy for me I guess; I never understand these indies, but at least it meant that Sophia stopped acting
• Mystic River (2002) – too painful for me; Tim Robbins taking a knife in the gut – ooh.  No rewatchability for me; more avoidability.  But yes, well done.
• Pirates of the Caribbean (2002) – that was a fun film – made me a Depp fan. Have you seen Public Enemies?
• Sideways (2003) – Yep, entertaining too.
• Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) – Clooney at his best again
• Little Miss Sunshine (2006) – funny cause Rick James never so well represented.
• The Departed (2006) – Too, Marty deserves an Oscar for me, and Jack mailed it in as Jack.  Loved Leo though.  And you can never get enough Vera Farmiga!
• Michael Clayton (2007) – excellent film.  That, my friend, is why you have a blog.  The scene at the end where he gets her to offer $10M was fantastic.  And any movie that gives Danny Noonan another shot is OK with me.
• Juno (2007) – Entertaining, but as the Sports Guy would say, so underrated it became overrated
• The Dark Knight (2008) – What am I missing?  Why don’t I like these?  The first two X-Men were better – sure, not as ‘deep’ – but more entertaining, and I have a huge mancrush on Hugh Jackman

Movies I love that I would not call the “Movie of the Decade”:

• Billy Elliot (2000) – yes, any movie where an Irish kid can dance and is not kneecapped by the IRA is a keeper
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) – All I can say is Hell Yeoh!
• Gosford Park (2001) – saw it, the Murder of the guy with the knife? That was good.
• Moulin Rouge! (2001) – did not see it and usually cannot stand Nicole Kidman; so overrated she is overrated.
• Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) – did not see it; Gong Show goes CIA?
• Igby Goes Down (2002) – The other Culkin?  Did not see it.
• Narc (2002) – Also did not see this, even though I DRV’d it and had it on my ‘to watch’ list for like two years.
• The Incredibles (2003) - Excellent
• Garden State (2004) – again, a bit indie for me, but Braff and Portman is the best Jew hookup since, well, David and Bathsheba (at least as I imagine Bathsheba)
• The Constant Gardener (2005) – LeCarre always depresses, but very good.
• Syriana (2005) – could have been a bit less convoluted but good too.

It is certainly not Crash (2005) or Million Dollar Baby (2003).  Hated those movies with a passion…  pandering, obvious garbage.  – agree.  Swank taking a header into the stool was silly.  Clint should know better.

If you put a gun to my head, it’s Memento or Michael Clayton for me.  CraigBe and Yes MSG right there on this!

Life Does Go On

The loss of Sydney Pollack is incredibly sad.  The world has chimed in with their loving thoughts: Roger Ebert, Ray Pride, David Poland, Jeff Wells, Anne Thompson, the LA Times, the New York Times, and so on.  The world is worse off without him.  Even if I just thought of his recent roles in The Sopranos, Entourage, and Michael Clayton, I'd feel that the entertainment world would have lost someone special.  Fortunately for us, Sydney Pollack gave us so much more, directing Tootsie, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, Out of Africa... and even producing The Fabulous Baker Boys, Sense and Sensibility, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Iris, Cold Mountain, and on and on.  He was a powerhouse.

I had the opportunity to meet him a few years ago at the annual Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley.  I was a measly peon, there to support a non-entertainment executive, but I felt that I just had to go speak to Mr. Pollack during a down moment.  As you would expect, he was warm, generous, friendly, funny, engaging, and a good listener, even to a person who was clearly the least important person in the room.

I liked these quotes from his friends and colleagues:

George Clooney: "Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better.  A tip of the hat to a class act. He’ll be missed terribly."

Robert Redford: "Sydney’s and my relationship, both professionally and personally, covers 40 years.  It’s too personal to express in a sound bite."

I'm selfishly using this opportunity with the loss of Sydney, to also express why I stopped writing for a few weeks.  My heart truly wasn't in it, due to my family's own recent loss, making the entertainment world seem appropriately insignificant.  A few weeks ago, we received some tragic news.  In a horribly shocking, violent, awful moment, we lost our friend and family member, Kevin - a husband and father of two beautiful little girls, and my brother-in-law.  My heart hurts every day with the thought of Kevin, his wife, his girls growing up without him, and my kids not being able to play with "Dodo" anymore.

We are incredibly lucky though, in that Kevin's family is surrounded by hundreds of family and friends who love them and will support them through whatever it takes, whatever they need.

This is beginning to sound cliche and tacky.  I think I now understand Mr. Redford's hesitancy to put his true thoughts about Mr. Pollack in a sound bite.  At times like this, I wish I was a more elegant author.

We miss you, Kevin. 

We miss you, Sydney. 

And for me, it's in ways that are so different, I just don't have the words...

Predicting Tonight's Oscars

I've been super busy, family, work, life, honest to blog... blah, blah, blah, so I apologize for the lack of writing.  I'm about to take the kids out, but I figured I had to get a few chicken scratches out before tonight's big ceremony. 

Can't wait for Jon... but let's keep the strike jokes to a minimum - most of the country doesn't care.

Anyway, I wrote about this a while back, but here are my predictions (not what I want to win... what I think will win) for the categories that we care about:

Best Picture: No Country For Old Men will win - I'm feeling 100% confident about this one.

Best Director: The Coen Brothers, No Country For Old Men again - Super high confidence... 100%

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood.  Clooney would have had a shot in any other year that DDL didn't perform.  Confidence = 98%

Best Actress:  This is a total mystery to me.  I'll pick Julie Christie, Away From Her, but it could easily go to Marion Cotillard, who apparently has been making a big late push, and maybe they split the vote and give it to Juno's Ellen Page.  Confidence = 35%

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men.  This is done and done Friend-o.  Confidence = 100%

Best Supporting Actress: Another wide open one.  The critics love Amy Ryan and Cate Blanchett, but no one saw those movies and Cate literally just won for The Aviator when she played a real person.  I think Tilda Swinton gets this.  She's put up a great body of work already, the Academy gets to give a nod to Michael Clayton (which will unfortunately lose everywhere else), and it was one of the three phenomenal performances in my favorite film of the year.  Still... confidence = 60%

Best Original Screenplay: I still think Diablo Cody for Juno will win this, but I'm wondering if she's lost some ground to Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton, just because I'm not sure the Academy wants to put her up onstage (you know... the whole former stripper thing), but it's really the one script that everyone talked about all season.  Confidence = 85%

Best Adapted Screenplay: It seems like the Coens should get this, but I'm still wondering if there's enough sentiment to give something to There Will Be Blood.  I'm picking No Country For Old Men, but I'll put it at 75% confidence.

The Mainstream Oscar Nominations

The headlines will go to There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men (and rightfully so) for leading the field with 8 nominations each.

However, each year, I like to go through the 8 mainstream categories (Picture, Director, Acting, Writing) and redo the tallies, just so it's easier to see whether a film racked up a bunch of nominations thanks to categories lie Best Costume Editing by a Farm Animal.  Anyway, here's the new list... if you're only looking at the 40 nominations from the mainstream categories:

Michael Clayton - 6
Juno - 4
No Country for Old Men - 4
There Will Be Blood - 4
Atonement - 3
Away From Her - 2
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - 2
The Savages - 2
American Gangster - 1
Charlie Wilson's War - 1
Eastern Promises - 1
Elizabeth: The Golden Age - 1
Gone Baby Gone - 1
I'm Not There - 1
In the Valley of Elah - 1
Into the Wild - 1
La Vie en Rose - 1
Lars and the Real Girl - 1
Ratatouille - 1
Sweeney Todd - 1
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - 1

Oscar Nominations - Craig's Thoughts

Overall, no complaints.  This has been a very, very strong year, but if they have to cancel an Oscar ceremony due to the strike, this is the one.  The box office of the Best Picture nominees are staggeringly low (save Juno), so ratings will be down this year anyway.

Best Picture
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Into the Wild, Sweeney Todd, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly get shut out here.

Best Actor
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

Tommy Lee Jones is the surprise here, meaning Emile Hirsch gets left out.  Also no James McAvoy...

Actress
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno

I guess I understand why people don't want to nominate Angelina Jolie for A Mighty Heart, but Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth 2?  C'mon people...  that's just lazy.  And what did Kiera Knightley do to piss off the Academy so badly?  I guess that's how Cate and Laura Linney snuck in.

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James...
Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War
Hal Holbrook, Into The Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

Yep, sounds right.  Nothing surprising here.

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

I'm just gonna say it.  Ruby Dee is the only African American nominated in a major category.  Happy day after MLK day.

Best Director
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

Holy crap - I can't believe Juno and Michael Clayton snuck in here!  (Doing a little happy dance...)  So Sean Penn is out, Joe Wright can't get a nomination even with Atonement's tracking shot that people couldn't shut up about, and Tim Burton is still on the outside looking in.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Christopher Hampton, Atonement
Sarah Polley, Away from Her
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

Yep - nice surprise for Sarah Polley, but this is going to the Coens.

Best Original Screenplay
Diablo Cody, Juno
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Brad Bird, Ratatouille
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages

Sounds about right.  All the best picture nominees are accounted for in the writing categories (even Atonement)

Tracking Oscar Season

I've updated my page tracking the various year-end awards, and trends are definitely emerging.  The Oscars don't always (or ever) hold to this form, since we're tracking film critics instead of actual Oscar voters, but seeing wave after wave of the same people winning these awards must affect the way voters might think.

Almost nothing has changed since before the holidays, with the Big Board looking like this:

_____________________________________________

Best Picture: No Country For Old Men over There Will Be Blood (17-3).  I guess the only thing that can stop this film is if lots of people go to see it, and have the same reaction to the last 20 minutes that I did.  Namely, "huh"?  If Juno or Michael Clayton can pull off an upset, I'd be stoked... but I don't see it happening.

Best Director: The Coen Brothers over Paul Thomas Anderson (15-4).  This one is done.  I think they've got it in the bag.  If Tim Burton and Sweeney Todd push themselves over the edge, I'd be shocked.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis over George Clooney (12-5).  DDL could win an Oscar any time he steps in the ring.  It's almost not fair.  By the way... could someone tell Paramount Vintage to OPEN THIS DAMN MOVIE IN SEATTLE SO I CAN SEE IT?!?!?  Cool - thanks.  Also, does it mean anything that Johnny Depp received no critic awards and no SAG nomination?  Just throwing that out there.

Best Actress:  Here's where the biggest only change took place - Julie Christie over Ellen Page (11-9).  Julie Christie was dominating before the holidays, but Juno's current box office momentum sent Ellen Page soaring up into what might be the only battle of the evening.  Marion Cotillard could still win, but she's not really on this radar screen.

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem over Casey Affleck (15-3).  I think this one is done too.  Even people who didn't love this movie know in their hearts that Bardem's performance was devastatingly terrifying.

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan over Cate Blanchett (14-4).  Even though this looks like a blowout, in my heart I believe that this one is still open, simply because I think approximately 4 people around the country have seen Gone Baby Gone and I'm Not There combined, and no one had heard of Amy Ryan before this film.  Does the combination of a previously unknown actress in a film that no one saw scream Academy Award winner to you?  I can definitely see Tilda Swinton pulling off an upset here.

Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody (Juno) will win this.  I wish I could give it to Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton, but it's not to be.  Original Screenplay usually goes to the quirky film that gets the Best Picture nomination, but not the win (Pulp Fiction, Sideways, Lost in Translation, Almost Famous, etc.).  You know... for the kids.

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Coens again seem to own this, with the only real competition coming from Paul Thomas Anderson.  It would be interesting if they wanted to recognize both films this year, giving Picture and Director to No Country for Old Men, but giving Screenplay to There Will Be Blood.  Hmmm....

Roger Ebert's Top 10 of 2007

Caught Juno today.  Pretty darn perfect if you ask me... or Roger Ebert:

1. Juno
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
4. Atonement
5. The Kite Runner
6. Away From Her
7. Across the Universe
8. La Vie en Rose
9. The Great Debaters
10. Into the Wild

Conspicuously Missing: Sweeney Todd, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, Charlie Wilson's War, The Savages, American Gangster, Zodiac, Once, etc...

We Have Terrible, Terrible Taste

Alvin and the Chipmunks made $45 million this weekend.  This tells me two things:

1. We, as a country, are idiots and have terrible taste.
2. This movie, in one weekend, made more money than No Country for Old Men, or Michael Clayton will make in their entire runs (which is no surprise).  However, it will also make more money domestically than The Golden Compass.  Why is this interesting?  Because The Golden Compass cost a whopping $180 million to produce (before marketing) while Alvin cost "only" $60 million.

I'm re-reading that last sentence, and I'm having a hard time comprehending that someone actually decided to spend SIXTY MILLION DOLLARS making an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, and even more astoundingly, that investment is going to pay off.  I'm going to eat some shards of broken glass...

I Watch Stuff says, "With a $45 million weekend, it's finally the definitive proof that there is no God."

Bill Simmons Agrees With Me

Thank goodness... I thought it was just me:

"By the way, if somebody has a good explanation for the last 25 minutes of [No Country for Old Men], I'd love to hear it. Everyone at my theater applauded when it was over, like something special had just happened. Meanwhile, I was sitting there going, "Wait, it's over? What the hell just happened?" Without spoiling it, from the moment we see a hotel pool for the first time, the wheels come off so fast that it's like Norv Turner took over for the Coen Brothers. So frustrating. If you see one movie this year, go see Michael Clayton, George Clooney's movie about a second-year NFL receiver who kills more than 200,000 fantasy teams. Just kidding. It's fantastic."

Michael Clayton - My Favorite of 2007 So Far

I can't emphasize enough how much I loved Michael Clayton.  When I make a movie, I want Clooney and Sydney Pollack involved... and probably Tony Gilroy.  Three-dimensional characters, terrific dialog, amazing visual and sound editing (watch the layers of almost any scene, as you're seeing one thing but hearing another). 

My favorite moment?  Clooney and Tom Wilkinson are arguing in a Milwaukee jail, verbally jabbing back and forth at each other, getting more and more heated, until Wilkinson finally pronounces, "I am Shiva, the God of Death."  There's a pregnant pause, and this seems to be the dramatic moment that everyone remembers.

Me though?  I remember the next line.  Michael Clayton, ever the pragmatist, responds almost sarcastically:

"Let's get out of Milwaukee first, and then we'll talk about it."

Loved it.

Sigh...

First I was depressed last week by Anne Thompson's piece on how Michael Clayton isn't making money at the box office, but I didn't want to write about it just yet.

But today, Hollywood Wiretap and the Los Angeles Times are both covering the issue on a broader scale.  No independent films are making money, and the major studio dramas are struggling also.  Here's a sampling, in no particular order:

In the Valley of Elah	Warner Independent	$6.6 million
Lars and the Real Girl	MGM	$0.3 million
The Hunting Party	MGM/Weinstein	$0.9 million
Sleuth	Sony Pictures Classics	$0.1 million
Reservation Road	Focus	$0.04 million
Lust, Caution	Focus	$2.1 million
Rendition	New Line	$4.1 million
Things We Lost in the Fire	Paramount/DreamWorks	$1.6 million
The Darjeeling Limited	Fox Searchlight	$3.8 million
Gone Baby Gone	Miramax	$5.5 million
Into the Wild	Paramount Vantage	$6.5 million
Elizabeth: The Golden Age	Universal	$11.8 million
Michael Clayton	Warner Bros.	$22.7 million
The Assassination of Jesse James...	Warner Bros.	$2.2 million
Eastern Promises	Focus	$16.9 million

There are plenty of excuses reasons for this - poor marketing, too many dramas in the mix, piracy, NC-17 ratings, some of these films haven't gone wide yet (but they won't if they don't perform well when they launch), poor reviews, and of course the easy way out: the depressing state of the world, "the war in Iraq, the housing slump, global warming, the fires..." says the LA Times.  What?  No Halo 3 to blame?  I enjoy pointing at the dumbing down of society, and we're all too busy at home worrying about Britney's kids and watching Dancing with the Stars or Deal or No Deal, but I think that's a scapegoat as well.

The theory that holds the most water to me, is that they are victims of their own success, causing a glut of films that were only attractive to limited audience already:

"Companies such as Miramax did so well that almost every entertainment conglomerate started its own specialty division, and a range of independent financiers, such as Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, also jumped into the fray."

It's also going to be crucially important for studios to keep costs low and perhaps think about this business model differently if there's a much more crowded market for competition.  There used to be a formula detailing how to platform release a film like Brokeback Mountain, The Queen, or even My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but with a limited audience, limited theaters and screens, and a much wider set of options for that small audience to choose from, studios may have to redefine what success means on this smaller scale.

Thank goodness Wild Hogs made $168 million and a sequel is on the way.  Shoot me.

UPDATE: Jeff Wells has jumped into the fray:

I slipped into a preview screening of [Before the Devil Knows You're Dead] last night. It was showing to a group of KCET subscribers -- an older, fair-minded group that likes adult prestige films -- and you just could feel the lack of excitement in the room as they walked out. You could cut it with a knife. They'd just seen one of the year's absolute best and most of them were thinking "hmmm, downer....not very uplifting!"

Michael Clayton Trailer

If you're already weary of the Spidey, Shrek, and Pirates 3 films, you're in luck because here comes the serious stuff.  Check out George Clooney in the trailer for Michael Clayton which looks a bit like Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action, but seems compelling nonetheless.

But... am I the only one who thought Julia Roberts and Liam Neeson were in a movie of the same name about 10 years ago?

Also, is Clooney looking more like Taylor Hicks, or am I completely losing my mind?