23 Şubat 2015 Pazartesi
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For a while, during the broadcast of the 87th Academy Awards broadcast, which I watched at the Rialto Theater in Raleigh (pictured above) last night, I was getting every category right as per my predictions posted last Friday. But my winning streak ended approximately halfway through after 14 Oscars were given out, when my pick for Best Editing, BOYHOOD, was beaten out by WHIPLASH. After that I lost 4 others (see below) including the biggest one, Best Picture.
I was happy that BIRDMAN and its director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, won (the film was my #2 favorite of 2014), but I was really rooting for BOYHOOD, and Richard Linklater to take home the gold because I thought it had the slight innovative and emotional edge going for it.
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As for the show itself, first-time host Neil Patrick Harris did a good job starting with his intro - “Tonight we honor Hollywood's best and
whitest -sorry brightest” - and the opening song and dance number (especially the Jack Black bit) was one of the stronger ones of recent years, but he wasn't given the best material to work with, something many are blaming on Oscar Head Writer Greg Berlanti, who's so not a comedy writer.
I enjoyed Lady Gaga's tribute to the 50th anniversary of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, the “Everything is Awesome” (from the otherwise snubbed THE LEGO MOVIE) production number (featuring amusing appearances by Tegan and Sara, The Lonely Island and Questlove!), and the acceptance speeches by Julianne Moore, Patricia Arquette, IDA director Pawe? Pawlikowski (glad this win may get more people to see the striking IDA), and director Iñárritu in particular.
But I wasn't a fan of NPH's running gag about his Oscar predictions being sealed in a briefcase, locked in a clear box onstage, with his recruiting previous Oscar winner Octavia Spencer to keep her eyes on it throughout the show - the supposed pay off really didn't result in big laughs. I also was disappointed that Joan Rivers, who I tweeted “was in a lot of films, even directed one (a big flop but it starred Oscar fave Billy Crystal)” and SNL's Jan Hooks, who also appeared in a lot of movies including a pivotal part in PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE, were left out of the In Memorium segment.
Anyway, here's the 5 Oscar predictions that I got wrong:
Best Picture: BIRDMAN
Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne.
Yes, Keaton was robbed, but Redmayne's humble giddiness at winning was a little touching and funny, and his performance as Stephen Hawking in THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING was solid, even if I wasn't so hot on the film. But, again, yeah, it would've been really sweet for the 63-year old Keaton to have finnally gotten that bigtime recognition.
Best Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Best Editing: WHIPLASH
Best Original Screenplay: BIRDMAN
Besides BIRDMAN, the other big winner of the night was THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, which won 4 Oscars. Now, those I got right.
Well, that's it for this year's Oscars. 19 of of 24 wasn't so bad, and I got a few surprises. Now back to watching movies for fun and not for sport.
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21 Şubat 2015 Cumartesi
Now playing at a indie art house near you:
MR. TURNER (Dir. Mike Leigh, 2014)
Timothy Spall, best known as Peter Pettigrew aka Wormtail in the HARRY POTTER series, grunts, groans, and gropes his way through Mike Leigh’s 12th film, a biopic about 19th century English Romantic landscape painter, printmaker, and watercolor master J.M.W. Turner.
Spall’s seventh film with Leigh, which is the third period piece for the director (TOPSY TURVY, also featuring Spall, and VERA DRAKE were the others), concerns the final third of the controversial artist’s life during the very stuffy, snobby Victorian age.
Spall’s Turner, who we first see in silhouette on the horizon capturing the Dutch countryside on his canvas, spends his time between masterpieces tending to his ailing father (Paul Jesson), occasionally taking sexual advantage of his housekeeper/assistant (Dorothy Atkinson), and travelling to the English seaside village of Margate where he has a secret life loving his landlady (Marion Bailey).
There is also the matter of his extremely angry ex-mistress (Ruth Sheen) and their two grown-up daughters, who Turner neglects while telling others that he has no family.
Although intricately constructed and politely paced, the first half of the film can be a bit of a slog, but it’s worth sticking with as there are many rewards in the concluding chapters.
Although he pisses off the prissy critics of the day and even the Queen, Turner is presented as a misunderstood pioneer who foretold the abstract impressionalism movement of the early 20th century, was welcome to the invention of the camera, and is fascinated when his friend, scientist Mary Somerville (Lesley Manville) shares with him her experiments with an optical prism.
It is clear throughout that Leigh, who wrote the screenplay, is not only attempting to recreate the era via immaculate costumes (which got an Oscar nom) and sets, but is also using the big screen as a canvas to recreate Turner’s paintings via Dick Pope’s vivid cinematography (which also got a well deserved nomination).
Leigh’s fine film also got a nomination, again deserved, for its score composed by Gary Yershon, which while restraining itself from the customary historical epic sweep, gives a gentle grace to some of the film’s greatly affecting quiet moments.
Spall’s performance is Oscar worthy itself, even if most people might only experience the grotesque grumbling of an ornery curmudgeon. The Shakespearean-trained actor brings both great pathos and an animalistic appetite to the role which is impossible to ignore – even though the Academy did. That Spall studied and actually learned to paint, much like Ed Harris did in POLLACK, no doubt enhances his very lived in portrayal.
MR. TURNER is a very pretty and witty, but it certainly is a trifle too lengthy. Many of its vignettes could be trimmed - the fact that it’s an hour into it before his father dies indicates how long it is before the movie gets going – and some of its shots, as beautiful as they are, could’ve been shorter.
But overall, it’s the best of the British Oscar bait biopics out this season (take that, THE IMITATION GAME and THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING!). It will most be appreciated by Leigh fans, and those who love movies about art and artists. As I’m a big fan of both of those myself, you can see where I stand.
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20 Şubat 2015 Cuma
Yep, here we go again. The 87th Academy Awards Ceremony is this Sunday, February 20th, so it's time for Film Babble Blog's official predictions to be posted.
Now, last year I got 21 out of 24 right - my best score ever - but this year I find myself really wanting to be wrong about some of these. I would love some surprises, some upsets, to shake things up this time. I want to see first-time host Neil Patrick Harris quipping between categories about some unexpected thing that just happened. Even NPH says he's “hoping for a scandal.”
Anyway, on to my picks which go something like this:
1. BEST PICTURE: BOYHOOD
This is battling it out with BIRDMAN (which I wouldn't mind winning as I loved it too), but my money is on Richard Linklater's 12 years in the making epic about life, love, and time. It was my #1 favorite film of 2014 so I'm way biased, but it feels so right.
2. BEST DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater for BOYHOOD
3. BEST ACTOR: Michael
Keaton for BIRDMAN
I'm biased here too because I love Keaton and thought he did an incredible job as actor Riggan Thompson/Birdman. Hard to believe the guy has never been nominated before - I think he should've been for CLEAN AND SOBER back in '88. Eddie Redmayne for his performance as Stephen Hawking in THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING seems to be the major competitor, but, c'mon! It has to Keaton
4. BEST ACTRESS: Julianne
Moore for STILL ALICE
5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: J.K.
Simmons for WHIPLASH
6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Patricia
Arquette for BOYHOOD
And the rest:
7. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Adam Stockhausen & Anna Pinnock for THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
8. CINEMATOGRAPHY: BIRDMAN
9. COSTUME DESIGN: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
10. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: CITIZENFOUR
11. DOCUMENTARY SHORT: CRISIS HOTLINE: VETERANS PRESS 1
12. FILM EDITING: BOYHOOD
13. MAKEUP: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
14. VISUAL EFFECTS: INTERSTELLAR
15. ORIGINAL SCORE: THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
16. ORIGINAL SONG: “Glory” from SELMA - I'd actually prefer “Everything is Awesome” from THE LEGO MOVIE to win because I'm not a big fan of Common's song, but SELMA should at least win something. Then again THE LEGO MOVIE got snubbed too so we'll see.
17. ANIMATED SHORT: FEAST / Dark horse: THE DAM KEEPER
18. LIVE ACTION SHORT: THE PHONE CALL
19. SOUND EDITING: AMERICAN SNIPER
20. SOUND MIXING: WHIPLASH
21. ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
22. ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: THE IMITATION GAME
23. ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: BIG HERO 6
24. BEST FOREIGN FILM: IDA
There's no way I'm going to do as well as last year, so like I always say: Tune in Monday to see how many I got wrong.
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17 Şubat 2015 Salı
I haven't done one of these posts in a while, but as a few of today's new releases on Blu ray and DVD are notable Oscar-wise, I thought I'd give it another go.
First up, there's Alejandro González Iñárritu's BIRDMAN, which is going neck and neck with Richard Linklater's BOYHOOD in the Best Picture race right now. Whichever film takes home that coveted Academy Award next Sunday night, Michael Keaton deserves to win Best Actor for his dual role as actor Riggan Thompson and his alter ego, his gravelly voiced inner Birdman. Edward Norton and Emma Stone also received nominations, as did cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki for his amazing camerawork that captured the narrative in extremely immersive extended takes. If you haven't seen it, it's definitely one to catch up with before this Sunday. Available in both single disc Blu ray and DVD editions. Read my review from last October.
Special Features: A 33 minute behind the scenes featurette entitled “Birdman: All Access” (subtitled “A View from the Wings”), A Conversation with Michael Keaton and Alejandro G. Iñárritu (14 min.), and Gallery: Chivo's On Set Photography (3 and a half min.)
Another Best Picture nominee, James Marsh's Stephen Hawking biopic THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, which I hope doesn't win anything, drops today in 2-disc Blu ray and single disc DVD sets. Don't get me wrong, Eddie Redmayne as Hawking and Felicity Jones as his wife Jane (whose book the film is based on) put in performances that are charmingly solid, but the film itself a bland piece of Oscar bait. Special Features: Commentary by Marsh, Deleted Scenes, and a 7 minute featurette (“Becoming the Hawkins”).
Bill Murray's turn as the title character in Theodore Melfi's ST. VINCENT (not to be confused with the art rock singer/songwriter) didn't get an Oscar nomination, but it's a likable lark nonetheless (my review). Melissa McCarthy and Naomi Watts also star in the comedy drama about Murray's schlubby, boozing Brooklynite befriending his 12-year old neighbor (Jaeden Lieberher). Special Features: An almost 20 minute featurette, “Bill Murray Is St. Vincent: The Patron Saint of Comedy,” consisting of the Q&A session from the Toronto International Film Festival with Writer/Director Melfi, Murray, McCarthy, Watts, Chris O'Dowd, and Lieberher; and a bunch of brief deleted scenes.
It was a real surprise to me that Steve James' excellent Roger Ebert biodoc LIFE ITSELF (my #3 film of the year) wasn't nominated for Best Documentary, but that shouldn't stop the film from making lots of new fans as it releases today in both single disc Blu ray and DVD editions (it's also available for digital download on all major online platforms, including Amazon, iTunes, Youtube, and Google Play). Read my review from its theatrical release last summer). Special features: Over 20 minutes of deleted scenes (essential viewing for Ebert fans), an almost 11 minute interview with director James, “AXS-TV: A Look at LIFE ITSELF” (2 min.), the Sundance Tribute from when Ebert posthumously received the Sundance Vanguard Award in June 2013 (7 min.). Those last two bits of bonus material have a lot of shared footage with the actual film so they're less essential.
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's killing Kim Jong-un action-comedy THE INTERVIEW (doesn't the controversy over this look even sillier now?), the Farrelly Brothers' 10 years in the making (not really) sequel DUMB AND DUMBER TO, and Paul Schrader's horrible Nicholas Cage thriller DYING OF THE LIGHT (I've seen it and yes, the 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes doesn't lie).
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16 Şubat 2015 Pazartesi
Now playing at a multiplex near you:
KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE
(Dir. Matthew Vaughn, 2014)
In Matthew Vaughn’s fifth film, an adaptation of a graphic novel series by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar, the writer/director outfits the world of James Bond in the cartoonish formula of his KICK ASS films. That is to say, there’s a lot of stylized violence with a high body count, a ton of glib one-liners, and constant attempts at meta-commentary.
A suave, dapper Colin Firth (when is he not suave and dapper?) stars as gentleman spy Harry Hart (codename: Galahad), a member of “an independent, international, international intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion.” Firth is well cast as the mannered British badass, and at first, especially in a scene where he lays out a bunch of brutal youths in a pub, it's a blast to see him in the part.
The slick scenario concerns Firth’s Hart recruiting Taron Egerton as Eggsy, the son of one of his late colleagues, for the elite squad, but first the young London street-tough has to compete with a bunch of smug, better-bred candidates, and, of course, one friendly female (Sophie Cookson), for the same position.
A lisping Samuel L. Jackson plays the super villain they’re training to defeat, an internet billionaire named Richmond Valentine who’s planning on wiping out most of the world’s population through a mind-controlling cellphone app.
For roughly half of this film’s running time I was going along with its poppy charm, but a scene in which Firth, affected by the villain’s violence-inducing app, goes on a murderous rampage and slaughters a church full of hate-spewing, redneck fundamentalist Christians in Kentucky (clearly modeled on the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas) set to the four-minute guitar solo in Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Free Bird,” really lost me.
The in-your-face unfunniness there sadly set the tone for the rest of the film, which involves the customary infiltration of the enemy’s secret lair (located inside a snow-covered mountain), and much more gratuitous murder in the form of hundreds of heads exploding in the form of rainbow-colored fireworks.
None of this is as witty, clever, or exciting as it wants to be. James Bond satires, homages, or imitations have been around as long as the iconic series itself, and after the likes of Maxwell Smart, Derek Flint, Matt Helm, Johnny English, Austin Powers, and dozens of others have done it to death, KINGSMAN brings nothing new to the table.
Even CARS 2’s secret agent subplot that had Michael Caine voicing an Aston Martin had more Bondian bite than this. Caine is also on hand here as the head of the Kingsman, bringing a little gravitas to the proceedings but not much else. Also along for the ride is Sofia Boutella as Jackson’s henchwoman Gazelle who has CGI-ed bionic blades for legs (one of the few entertaining elements on display), Mark Strong as the Kingman’s gadget and weapons specialist (you know, like Bond’s Q?), and Mark Hamill (yes, that Mark Hamill) as a British climate scientist that Jackson kidnaps early on.
It’s a fine cast, but Vaughn and frequent collaborator Jane Goldman’s screenplay isn’t equipped with enough flashy fun for a whole film. What starts out as a tongue-in-cheek spy comedy romp ends up resembling a rowdy kid just sticking its tongue out at these well worn conventions. And that's about as funny as Jackson's lisp, which sure didn't make me laugh.
KINGSMAN is only a good popcorn picture until the popcorn runs out - the cringe-worthy church scene being where that happened for me.
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12 Şubat 2015 Perşembe
Now playing at art houses, and a few multiplexes near me:
STILL ALICE (Dirs. Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland, 2014)
Julianne Moore is a front runner to win the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Alice Howland, a Columbia University linguistics professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, in this touching, emotionally stirring drama opening today at an indie art house near you.
As this is Moore's fifth Academy Award nomination, it does indeed feel like it’s her time, but she really deserves it as this the best work I’ve ever witnessed yet from the actress who hails from my home state.
We first meet Moore’s Alice, her research scientist hubby John (Alec Baldwin), and some of their family - their doctor son Tom (Hunter Parrish), lawyer daughter Anna (Kate Bosworth), and her nice-guy husband Charlie (Shane McRae) - as they are celebrating her 50th birthday at a posh New York restaurant. Except for a brief instance of confusion, Moore appears vibrant and happy among her loving spouse and grown-up, well to do children.
Then we see her giving a speech as a guest lecturer at UCLA, in which she blanks on a certain word. After she returns home, she panics because gets lost during her routine run around an area that’s normally well known to her, the Columbia campus.
These lapses of memory disturb Alice so fearing she has a brain tumor, she visits her Neurologist in serene scene that captures Alice in an unbroken close-up answering her unseen doctor’s questions. He asks her to have a loved one, her husband or a close relative accompany her the next time she comes in, but she doesn’t feel this is necessary when she returns.
The neurologist, now seen as Stephen Kunken (THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, The Affair), tells her that after tests, including a PET Scan, the symptoms sadly corroborate that she has early-onset Alzheimers, and the news hits Alice and her husband hard.
The shaken couple gather together their son and daughters, which also includes Kristen Stewart as the youngest, an aspiring Los Angeles-based actress, to tell them about their mother’s diagnosis, and to let them know that there’s a 50 percent chance that each of them could inherit the gene.
From there we experience Alice’s devastating progression into what she calls “hell” – “It feels like my brain is fucking dying!” A painful subplot has her recording an iBook video for her future self to find in which she gives instructions to swallow a bottle of pills in order to commit suicide.
A large portion of the film concerns the relationship between Moore’s Alice and Stewart’s Lydia. Now, I understand there’s lots of hate out there for Stewart, but having no bias myself (largely, I bet, from not having seen any of the TWILIGHT movies), I thought she did a really good, genuinely affective job here.
Early in the film it is established that Alice disapproves of her daughter’s decision to pursue acting. Later, when the mother’s mind is failing, she attends a play Lydia is performing in and when the family meets up after, Alice has forgotten that this woman she watched on stage is her daughter. Moore’s reaction, along with Stewart’s processing of what’s happening, when Bosworth informs her mother who she’s talking to is one of the most moving moments I’ve seen this last year on screen.
In another affecting scene, Alice tries to explain her ordeal to Lydia: “I’ve always been so defined by my intellect, my language, my articulation, and now sometimes I can see the words hanging in front of me and I can’t reach them and I don’t know who I am and I don’t know what I’m going to lose next.”
Based on the bestselling debut novel by Lisa Genova, STILL ALICE is not to be confused with any sort of Lifetime disease of the week TV movie melodrama. Directors/writers Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s sharply written screenplay features a tightly crafted narrative with an intensely real feeling tone; there’s no schmaltzy sentiment, nor any pandering creepiness. Even Ilan Eshkeri’s spare score, mostly made of quiet piano tinkling, is tastefully unobtrusive.
Moore and Baldwin have displayed great chemistry as a couple before on Tina Fey's NBC sitcom 30 Rock, but they are real, fully fleshed out people here not those comic concoctions, and they are as convincing as can be. Baldwin braces himself for the worst with his wife’s predicament, with none of his trademark smugness present. It’s a soft spoken, and affectionate performance, that ranks with his best, albeit in a small sideline role to the tour de force that Moore delivers.
Although this year has other worthy candidates, including Marion Cotillard for TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT and Reese Witherspoon for WILD, for what Moore pulls off in STILL ALICE, put me down for pulling for her to win.
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6 Şubat 2015 Cuma
This last week hasn’t been a good one for me in the big ass 3D CGI-ed fantasy film dept. I had the displeasure of donning the annoying plastic glasses for screenings of two duds: The Wachowskis’ newest sci-fi flick JUPITER ASCENDING, and Sergei Bodrov’s medieval adventure SEVENTH SON, both opening today at a multiplex near you.
Despite admiring the first MATRIX movie, and enjoying segments of CLOUD ATLAS (co-directed by Tom Tykwer), I can’t say I’m a big fan of The Wachowskis’ canon. Yet I appreciate that they do have a distinct, undeniable vision, and the fact that their latest isn’t based on a book, graphic novel, video game, or any pre-existing entity of any kind did appeal to me.
But the story, involving Mila Kunis as Jupiter, a lowly maid scrubbing toilets in Chicago who learns that she’s alien royalty, never came together amid its strained set-pieces and overly talky passages.
Channing Tatum, sporting pointy ears and eyeliner as he’s a “splice” of wolf and man, plays Kunis’ protector/love interest. Tatum, whose appearance reminds me of John Candy’s half man, half dog SPACEBALLS character, seems to not have completely shaken off his stoical Marc Shultz persona from FOXCATCHER, which leads to some charisma-less exchanges with Kunis.
Eddie Redmayne, Oscar nominee for his role as Stephen Hawking in THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (itself nominated for Best Picture), plays the villain, Balem Abrasax, who wants to kill Kunis and harvest the earth – what else? The Wachowskis have surely taken a queue from STAR TREK in making their villain all Shakespearian, and Redmayne, whose every line of dialogue is either whispered or screamed, left no piece of scenery unchewed.
A centerpiece action sequence over the skyline of Chicago – Tatum has these anti-gravity boots you see – was one of the most cluttered and unexciting chases I’ve seen in a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of cluttered and unexciting chases in the last several years.
Sadly, The Wachowskis’ effort here recalls the worst of sci-fi fantasy in film; the intergalactic cities, landscapes, and costumes are nearly identical to the imagery and aesthetics of the lame ass STAR WARS prequels, and the cosmically convoluted scenarios are straight out of the notorious king of sci-fi flops, BATTLEFIELD EARTH.
JUPITER ASCENDING is a generic looking space opera that is without gusto or invested invention. Worse of all, Kunis looks really bored. That might be me just projecting, because I know I sure was.
Now quick, before it leaves my brain, let me see what I remember of Bodrov’s SEVENTH SON, which I just saw last night but is evaporating rapidly. Based on Joseph Delaney’s young adult novel “The Spook’s Apprentice” (I can see why they changed that), the film stars newcomer (well, new to me) Ben Barnes as the seventh son of a seventh son who joins the grizzled Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges in another very “undude” later day role) in hunting down a witch queen played by an energetic but not entirely convincing Julianne Moore. Here’s hoping this misappropriation of her talents doesn’t overshadow her vastly more essential, and Oscar nominated work in STILL ALICE (opening in my area on Feb. 13th).
Now I love Bridges, and seeing him reunited with his BIG LEBOWSKI co-star Moore did give me a little bit of a charge, but his character, a crochety blend of Gandalf and Rooster Cogburn, isn’t very imaginatively written or acted. The old coot even mumbles “fuckin’ witches” when exiting the room at one point. Maybe after winning the Oscar for TRUE GRIT, the guy decided he doesn't need to try anymore. Hence crap like R.I.P.D. and this.
Barnes, with his bedhead and spare stubble that makes him look like an indie rocker or a boyfriend on Girls, has little or zero presence. He blends into the background of battles with witches that turn into dragons, and is even upstaged by Bridges’ ogre servant (John DeSantis).
Awful special effects, the badness of which is enhanced by the fiercely unnecessary 3D conversion; atrocious dialogue, sloppily edited swordplay, and incompetent pacing make SEVENTH SON a dreadful, dreary slog. Even their attempts to scare with random monsters, dragons, ghosts, and even a bear screaming right in-your-face didn’t keep me from almost nodding off.
So, that’s two genre pictures that really didn’t gel for me, getting released in the cinematic off season of February. As that’s roughly four hours of bloated CGI-saturated fantasy blather that I’m so glad is over, here’s hoping neither will be successful enough to spawn a sequel.
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