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« October 2007 | Main | December 2007 »
Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 19:51:34
It looks like I picked a decent weekend to be away from the Little Rock moviegoing scene. "Awake" starring Jessica Alba and Hayden Christensen opens nationwide. Yuck. In much better news, Matt Smith's Market Street Cinema has "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke. It's directed by Sidney Lumet. Critics love it.I'll check back in next week.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - 14:57:48
The awards continue for Little Rock native Jeff Nichols and his film "Shotgun Stories." This morning, the film an Independent Spirit Award nomination for the best film made for less than $500,000. Here's a link to the full list of nominees.OSCAR UPDATE II - NOVEMBER 27, 2007
The big news of the week is that "Charlie Wilson's War" starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman screened in Los Angeles. Long considered a Best picture lock (and dare we say frontrunner), the film received luke warm reception from hot bloggers David Poland, Jeff Wells and Kris Tapley. The film is directed by Mike Nichols from a script by Aaron Sorkin. While the film stumbled, Philip Seymour Hoffman's stature as a Best Supporting Actor nominee is bolstered considerably. It's too early to write it off as a Best Picture nominee, but like last year's "Flags of Our Fathers," expectations were probably too high, which means that barring a masterpiece, the film had nowhere to go but down. Just how far down is the question.
I also got a review from a friend of a friend for "Atonement," Joe Wright's film adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel. "It was okay," he wrote. We'll see.
"American Gangster" got a huge push because of strong box office numbers. If the films above it truly stumble, as it appears they have, "American Gangster" could be a consensus pick. However, I still won't count out "No Country for Old Men." On Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in Little Rock, the 250 seat theater showing the film was packed. People complained about the ending, so I'm told.
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" opened to some wicked positive reviews. This is a film, like "City of God" a few years back, that could really make an impression on the Academy. Watch for it coming to a theater near you.
Frank Langella is getting some serious love for his role in "Starting Out in the Evening," a small film based on the novel by Brian Morton. A.O. Scott gushed over it, and Lou Leminick at The New York Post has jumped on the bandwagon too. Langella's one of those guys whose always been around, but never nominated for much of anything including an Oscar. The Best Actor race is crowded, but if he's as good as these guys say, I like him sneaking in. Oscar loves an older first-timer.
The Best Actress race seems to be a bit stagnant. Marion Cotillard's stock has cooled. Angelina Jolie faces obvious over-exposure issues. Which leaves Julie Christie, likely bolstered because of the recent news surrounding the husband of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner (her husband has Alzheimers and met a companion in his care facility). If this drives the Academy to see "Away from Her" again (it's been on DVD for several months), she stands to gain considerably. Watch out for Laura Linney in "The Savages." She could make a late season surge. Ellen Page ("Juno") and Helena Bonham Carter ("Sweeney Todd") are contenders as well.
Buzz seems to be consolidating around Cate Blanchett for Best Supporting Actress. Her role as one of six Bob Dylan's in Todd Haynes' film "I'm Not There" reeks of Oscar. Not to take anything away from her, but this category is weak. Real weak.
Keep it coming. The viral marketing efforts for "The Dark Knight" continue with the launch of a series of websites, including this one of The Joker. Kris Tapley over at Red Carpet District asks is this "the longest running best supporting Oscar campaign in history?" I've suggested on several occassions that Heath Ledger's role as The Joker in Chris Nolan's new film could be Oscar bait. It sounds a bit absurd, what with not having seen a scene and all, but Ledger's a genuine talent who feels absolutely perfect for this role.
Sunday, November 25, 2007 - 10:42:36
MOVIEGOER REVIEW: ENCHANTED
For the last decade or so, The Walt Disney Company has been associated with mighty and loud blockbusters. "Pirates of the Caribbean," "National Treasure" and a partnership with action producer Jerry Bruckheimer seemed to reshape, if not erase, the Disney image once held by dedicated moviegoers. Long gone were the magical mixed animation and live action films of my youth. "Mary Poppins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" weren't the films kids or adults wanted anymore. If it is wasn't big and expensive it wasn't worth it.
Until now. "Enchanted," a throwback fairy tale about a soon-to-be princess lost in New York is old school Disney. Starring the elegant Amy Adams, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden and Patrick Dempsey (we all know him best as McDreamy on television's "Grey's Anatomy"), the film is a Snow White tale, fresh with a wicked stepmother and a poisonous apple.
It begins with traditional two-dimensional animation and finds its way to live action when Adams' Giselle is rudely pushed down into a water well. When she crawls out of a manhole in Times Square she finds McDreamy and the sparks begin to fly.
Adams, who exploded onto the scene with her infecting sweetness in 2005's "Junebug" for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, channels that same goodness in this role, one that is far more complex and requires her to sing.
It's an award-worthy performance, and the comparisons to Julie Andrews are practically impossible. Much like Ms. Andrews, Adams takes a film aimed at children and young adults and makes it grand, expanding its appeal to people of all ages. It takes a special actor to do that, and this film proves just how special Ms. Adams is.
"Whether it precedes a biographical film or a historical drama, "Based on a true story" has come to convey several, often contradictory, ideas simultaneously to wary filmgoers: The events about to transpire on screen really happened, to the very people you're about to see, at the same time, and to the same end." - - Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post.
“For me the whole movie is the streets . . . Because that’s where all the promise and potential is. That’s the romance. That’s the hope. That’s where single women walk out the door every day, and they just don’t know what is two steps away.” - - Sarah Jessica Parker on the "Sex and the City" movie currently filming in New York.
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