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« September 2006 | Main | November 2006 »
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - 07:31:42
Dana Stevens on 'Babel'
Babel has great expectations for itself: It wants to be a movie about big ideas and big emotions at the same time. Aided by gorgeous locations and classy trappings (cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto, theme music by Gustavo Santaolalla), it succeeds for the most part, and in the process makes Crash, another recent film with converging stories and a multicultural cast, look like an undergraduate term paper on race relations.
Here's the full review from Slate.
Soderberg ready to begin Che Guevara films
Both films pick up after the formative Guevara years captured in the Walter Salles-directed "The Motorcycle Diaries" in 2004.
First film, "The Argentine," begins as Che and a band of Cuban exiles (led by Fidel Castro) reach the Cuban shore from Mexico in 1956. Within two years, they mobilized popular support and an army and toppled the U.S.-friendly regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista.
The second film, "Guerrilla," begins with Che's trip to New York, where he spoke at the United Nations in 1964 and was celebrated in society circles.
Benicio Del Toro will play Guevara, and Javier Bardem, Franka Potente and Benjamin Bratt are in talks to play key roles. Producer is Laura Bickford, who began working on the project with Del Toro and Soderbergh right after they made "Traffic" together.
Stuart Levine has praise for 'Volver,' Penelope Cruz
His latest and one of his best movies, “Volver,” is a great starting point for anyone unfamiliar with Almodovar’s immense body of work. If foreign-language titles scare you away, be not afraid. Almodovar’s films are similar to reading a great book, both tragic and funny at the same time, yet with colorful and vibrant pictures to accompany the text.
And what beautiful pictures they are. “Volver” stars Penelope Cruz, one of Almodovar’s stable of Spanish actresses he uses on a rotating basis (more on that later). The film captures both Cruz’s sculptured beauty and her movie-star qualities. There may not be a more gorgeous woman on the planet than Cruz, and her performance here is certainly Oscar worthy.
OK, I've been ignoring this
Sacha Baren Cohen as a legitmate awards season contender? I thought the piece would have been about his performance in Borat, but it's not. It's for his performance in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Here's a "For Your Consideration" piece from Stuart Levine writing for MSNBC.com
There may be no greater dialogue this year than Girrard taunting the crowd with the bankruptcy of American culture, which, he says, has only given the world “George Bush, Cheerios and the Thigh Master.” When asked what the French have given the world, he trumps the bar with, “Democracy, Existentialism and the ménage a trois. ” Coming five years after “freedom fries,” it’s a breath of fresh air.
A new Stanley Kubrick script
Stanley Kubrick never threw anything away. On the other hand, he didn’t have much of a filing system, and when he moved — permanently, it turned out — from Hollywood to London in 1962, a great many things went astray. Among them was the sole copy of a film treatment called “Lunatic at Large,” which Mr. Kubrick had commissioned in the late ’50s from the noir pulp novelist Jim Thompson, with whom he had worked on “The Killing,” a 1956 bank-heist story that became his first successful feature, and then on 1957’s “Paths of Glory.”
Bobby
Saw the trailer last night before Catch a Fire. Wow. It's an impressive cast and looks great. Here it is.
More screeners
Studios sent screeners of Half Nelson out to Academy voters this week. Ryan Gosling is an outside shot for a nomination. His performance is outstanding.
Little Miss Sunshine has been in the Academy's hands for a few weeks now and will arrive on DVD for the general public in December.
World Trade Center and United 93 are also out there. Tom O'Neil of the L.A. Times says United 93 is everywhere in Hollywood.
This is a smart strategy. With Flags of Our Fathers struggling at the box office, studios need to capture on the opening. Keep and eye out for United 93 and Little Miss Sunshine. One of these films may surprise and take that 5th nomination spot, which I think is now up for grabs.
'The Queen'
Wordplay
Box Office
Freida Lee Mock
Annette Bening on NPR
Borat
Volver
'The Jane Austen Book Club'
'Superman' returns
American Gangster
Political Play of the Week
Jack for Best Supporting
More Oscar chatter
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu on NPR
'Babel' the EW cover story
Buzzmeter, without the fuzzy math
Buzzmeter
Somebody's been listening
A.O. Scott on 'Babel'
Manohla Dargis pans 'Catch a Fire'
Karen Martin chats with Philip Noyce
Walking out of a movie
Mad props
Philip Martin weighs in on 'Catch a Fire'
'Dreamgirls' trailers
'Come Early Morning'
This weekend
More on 'Catch a Fire', 'Babel'
Lee, Scorsese, Stone share NYU roots
British Independent Film Awards
What I have argued
What to make of 'Babel'
Up next for Coens, Clooney
Tom O'Neil rants about Gotham Award nominees
Critics vote
Gotham Awards
Will 'Flags' have to pay for its Oscar nod?
Catch a Fire
Interview with Joey Lauren Adams
Oscar Fever
Early reviews of 'Babel'
Continuing to understand 'Flags'
David Denby on 'Babel'
Movie Club
Sunday . . .
Amy Berg on The Treatment
Buzzmeter
What does this mean?
Film Factory in New Orleans
Ian McEwan's 'Atonement'
AFI to honor Pacino
David Edelstein likes 'Flags'
Dana Stevens and Anthony Lane should hang out
Best foreign pic
More nominations for the brothers Renaud
There must be something
Moviegoer shunned (shameless self promotion)
Philip Martin gives 'Flags' luke warm reception
Mark it down(?)
Where's my Sherrybaby?
Trailers for two anticipated films
Friday
A.O. Scott approves of 'The Prestige'
Manohla Dargis on 'Flags of Our Fathers'
Buzz Bissinger in LR
Jesus Camp
Owen Gleiberman on 'Flags of Our Fathers'
Annette Bening
Time weighs in on 'Little Children'
Brad Pitt, Oscar?
Christopher Nolan
Top 10 WWII films
"Bad" movies I love
Q & A with George Clooney
Leo goes green
What's in your queue?
My review of 'The Departed'
Have you heard of 'The Hoax'?
Peter Travers on 'Flags of Our Fathers'
Responding to comments
Christian Bale
Anthony Lane on 'Marie Antionette'
Best Picture buzz building for 'The Pursuit of Happyness'
Coming soon
Sunday . . .
Kick back and listen
Revisiting the Polanski case
'Little Children' director Todd Field on NPR
I reviewed 'The Departed' this week for the AR Times
P. Martin starts sketching out a Top 20
High praise for Annette Bening in 'Running with Scissors'
'Running with Scissors': great acting, outrageous story
Early reviews for 'The Prestige': thumbs down
David Poland of Movie City News carves up 'Flags of Our Fathers'
Eastwood and Brokaw talk 'Flags of Our Fathers'
Roger Ebert gives 'The Queen' 4 stars
'Little Miss Sunshine' campaigns for Oscar
Nothing good
Philip Martin weighs in on Blade Runner, All the Kings Men
Responding to comments
Women, good films and the NY Film Festival
Maybe 'Marie Antionette' isn't so bad after all
Speaking of Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert hopes to be back for Oscars
20 weeks to Oscar
L.A. Times Tom O'Neil on Oscar snooping
What I'm seeing this weekend
If you like Ridley Scott
Revising my Top 20 to see
Rolling Stone's Peter Travers digs 'Little Children'
Variety doesn't care for 'The History Boys'
Talking with Martin Scorsese
I bet you didn't know
A Mighty Heart
Jason Katzman says 'The Departed' deserves best pic
Hollywood's best baseball players
EW staffers confess to great films they just didn't get
What's in your queue?
Todd Field podcast
Kennedys get on board 'Bobby'
Early reviews for 'Flags of Our Fathers'
Latest from Terry George
Letters from Iwo Jima
David Edelstein doesn't bbq 'Marie Antionette'
Real New York movies
David Denby likes 'Little Children'
Where's my Sherrybaby?
The week ahead
Robin Williams for President?
Chatting it up with Altman and Keillor
Lots of 'Departed' coverage in Today's Dem Gaz
Philip Martin weighs in on the Oscar race
Philip Martin gives 'The Departed' an A
Scorsese movies
AP raves about 'Little Children'
Keep the comments coming
L.A. Times Carina Chocano on 'Little Children'
Lead or Supporting?
Armchair critic has support for his speculation
What the critics are saying about 'The Departed'
NY Times critic cranky about N.Y. Film Festival
Manohla Dargis weighs in on 'The Departed'
The Departed
Richard Roeper gives early Oscar predictions
Big weekend ahead
All this Nicholson talk
Kate Winslet, deserving of the Oscar?
More praise for Nicholson, The Departed
Washington Post on Whitaker's Amin
Trouble in Babel - land?
Reds
AFI Film Fest
Responding to comments
Clooney says Oscar for Cate Blanchett
Leo vs. Leo?
Writing Boston
Favorite Boston-based movie
The movie everybody loved but me
Why 'All the King's Men' tanked
What's in your queue?
Sunday morning . . .
Fall Preview
Halloween plans?
See anything good this weekend?
Opening this weekend
Half Nelson
Following Tony Kushner
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