Archive | February, 2008

BARRY’S GOT MOVES!

29 Feb

ATWI… INTERVIEW SERIES *BRETT MORGEN*

29 Feb

<center><b><i>ATWI</i>… INTERVIEW SERIES *<u>BRETT MORGEN</u>*</b></center>


Sundance director Geoffrey Gilmore, Sundance founder Robert Redford, and Chicago 10 director Brett Morgen at the film’s opening night screening on January 18, 2008

Earlier this week, I spoke with the Oscar-nominated director Brett Morgen, the documentary filmmaker behind On the Ropes (1999), The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002), and most recently Chicago 10 (2/29, Roadside Attractions, trailer), which opened the Sundance Film Festival in January and will be released nationwide tomorrow. (A podcast of our conversation is below…)

Chicago 10 focuses on the protests surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the demonstrators who were brought to trial as a result, but if you ask Morgen, “It’s not really a film about ’68. It’s a film about today.” In an effort to break away from the staid format of many documentaries and present these events to another generation “in a very visceral way,” Morgen made the somewhat controversial decision to divide the film between the usual archival footage and rotoscope animation, as recently seen in Richard Linklater’s Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. To provide the voices of the principal figures in the trial of the Chicago 10 (including Abbie Hoffman, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, attorney William Kunstler, etc.) in the film’s animated sequences, he assembled a remarkably accomplished group of actors, including Hank Azaria, Dylan Baker, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Wright and the late Roy Scheider, in his final performance.

While the transitions between the archival and animated sequences can be somewhat jarring, and while—despite Morgen’s protests—it is a bit strange for a film about the 1968 Democratic National Convention to essentially ignore some of the major events surrounding it (the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., first and foremost), Chicago 10 is a completely unique, powerful, and moving film that packs in a great deal of information about the personalities and motivations of the Chicago 10, and does not struggle at all to retain interest for its nearly two hour runtime.

To give a listen to my chat with Morgen, click below…

 

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PADAM, PADAM…

26 Feb

The following video just came to my attention—I find to be very cute and poignant, especially in light of how things eventually turned out. Recorded on January 23, 2008, it candidly captures French actress Marion Cotillard as she nervously awaits, quietly watches, and then excitedly celebrates her Best Actress Oscar nomination for La Vie En Rose. This moment started the road to her historic Oscar win last night, and quite possibly to a long and magnificent career. Congratulations to Marion, her publicists, and the entire Picturehouse team that worked tirelessly to arrive at this unlikely but obviously well-deserved outcome.

alt : http://www.youtube.com/v/WKjeaEubxag&rel=1

AND SO IT BEGINS AGAIN…

26 Feb

<center><b>AND SO IT BEGINS AGAIN…</b></center>


AN ILL-ADVISED LOOK AHEAD AT SOME POTENTIAL PLAYERS IN AWARDS SEASON 2008

Nobody is more ready than I am to put the 2007 awards season in the rearview mirror… and nobody is more anxious for the 2008 awards season to begin, either!

At this time, we obviously have very little information upon which to base any discussion of what the awards landscape may look like—not only have none us seen the films, but some of them have not yet even gone into production! That being said, one can—and many do—venture an ‘educated guess’ as to what and who some of the prime suspects may be by considering a few key criteria of a film, or what I like to call its ‘pedigree’: (1) release date, (2) subject matter, (3) on-screen and behind-the-scenes talent, (4) historical precedent, (5) buzz about and excitement for its release.

Clearly, this ‘formula’ is anything but fool-proof—some movies don’t live up to expectations (Lions for Lambs, Rendition) and some exceed them (Juno, Gone Baby Gone)—but most of the time our early Best Picture suspicisions are validated with at least some nominations, if not wins (Cold Mountain, Munich, Atonement). Therefore, purely for fun, here is a rundown, in alphabetical order, of the films that I suspect will be key players in the 2008 Oscar race, with my best-guess final five listed at the end…


APPALOOSA (TBA, New Line)
Oscar nominated actor Ed Harris adapted, directed, and co-stars in this western with Oscar nominee Viggo Mortensen as a marshal and deputy in the Old West who attempt to restore order to a town that is suffering under the rule of a ruthless rancher (played Oscar winner Jeremy Irons) who murdered the previous marshal and deputy. The new lawmen arrest the rancher, but hired guns help him escape, prompting a long pursuit that leads to an inevitable showdown. Will the marshal return to the young, piano-playing widow (Oscar winner Renee Zellweger) who has won his heart, or will evil prevail?


THE ARGENTINE and GUERILLA (both TBA, Focus Features)
Under the watchful eyes of Oscar winning director Steven Soderbergh, Oscar winning actor Benicio Del Toro brings Che Guevara back to life in these two films—think Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima… only Communist! In the first film, Guevara and Fidel Castro lead a band of Cuban exiles who in 1956 overthrew of U.S.-friendly Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Early photos of and buzz about Del Toro hint that his performance may be one for the ages. (Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno and Benjamin Bratt also star.) In the second film, which I see as less likely, Guevara travels to New York City to address the United Nations.


AUSTRALIA (11/14, 20th Century Fox)
This epic film reunites Moulin Rouge director Bazz Luhrmann and Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, along with fellow Aussie Hugh Jackman, in a story of one woman’s personal struggle intersecting with a national struggle during World War II after the Japanese, shortly after bombing Pearl Harbor, began bombing Darwin, Australia. The script was penned by Oscar winner Ronald Harwood. The essential question: will this be what Cold Mountain was or what it could have been?


BLINDNESS (8/8, Miramax)
City of God director Fernando Meirelles directs this big screen adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago‘s popular novel about a tragic illness that afflicts all but one member of a small town. It stars past Oscar nominee Julianne Moore (who is long overdue for a win), Mark Ruffalo (who is long overdue to be a star), Gael Garcia Bernal, Danny Glover, and Sandra Oh.


BODY OF LIES (10/10, Warner Brothers)
 The first time Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe worked together, Scott earned a Best Director nomination, Crowe a Best Actor win, and their film, Gladiator, won Best Picture. The second and third times were for A Good Year and American Gangster, and neither got any Oscar love. This fourth film, adapted from David Ignatius‘ novel about a journalist injured in the ongoing war in Iraq who is then hired by the CIA to track down and kill an al Qaeda terrorist, may get them back on track… particularly since Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio is also involved. Then again, this year’s Oscar nominees show the Academy has little taste for Iraq-related features, so who knows?


THE CHANGELING (11/7, Universal)
 Directed by Clint Eastwood, this mystery film stars Oscar winner Angelina Jolie as the mother of a kidnapped child. When the child is returned home, it quickly becomes apparent that it is not the same child that went missing. Oscar nominees John Malkovich and Amy Ryan also star. The film sounds a tad too supernatural, but would Oscar-magnet Eastwood really waste his time on something unworthy?

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (12/19, Paramount)
David Fincher is one of the most talented directors of his generation, and this may be the vehicle to finally demonstrate that to a wide audience. Oscar winning screenwriter Eric Roth adapted F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story of a man who starts aging backwards, Brad Pitt stars as the man, and Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton are also along for the ride. The tone Fincher takes with the film—too serious? too lightweight?—will determine whether or not it has the stuff Oscars are made of.

DEFIANCE (TBA, Paramount Vantage)
Oscar winner Edward Zwick directs this original screenplay of three Jewish brothers—Daniel Craig (of James Bond fame), Liev Schreiber, and Jamie Bell—who escape from Nazi-occupied Poland into the forests of Belarus, where they join the Russian resistance. Zwick’s past drama/war films have been received by the Academy both warmly (Glory) and coldly (The Last Samurai), so it’s a gamble, but a film about the Holocaust and the resistance movement has a lot of potential.

DOUBT (12/5, Miramax)
John Patrick Shanley, the noted playwright and Oscar winning screenwriter (Moonstruck), has penned the script and directed his Pulitzer Prize winning play Doubt for the big screen, with Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Oscar nominee Amy Adams headlining an impressive cast. The story, set at a Catholic school in New York in 1964, centers around a nun who suspects a priest of abusing a young black student, and must now decide how to respond. It film raises serious questions about religion, morality, and authority that could either prove compelling… or preachy, like this year’s dud Lions for Lambs. It will all come down to how well Shanley can truly ‘adapt’ his work for a different medium… with the assistance of producer Scott Rudin, its prospects look bright.

FROST/NIXON (TBA, Universal)
Peter Morgan, who recently won accolades for writing The Queen, here adapts his own Broadway smash-hit into a film directed by Oscar winner Ron Howard and starring actors’ actors Frank Langella and Michael Sheen (both from the play). The film recounts a series of dramatic post-Watergate interviews that ex-President Richard Nixon granted to British television reporter David Frost. (The film also features Kevin Bacon, Matthew Macfayden, Oliver Platt, and Sam Rockwell.)

MILK (11/TBA, Focus Features)
In a bio-pic that is sure to provoke controversy and attention, Oscar winner Sean Penn will be portraying Harvey Milk, the civil rights activist whose election as one of San Francisco’s city supervisors made him the first openly-gay man to hold a prominent political office, and who was struck down in his prime by an assassin’s bullets. The team behind American Beauty are producing, Oscar nominee Gus Van Sant is directing, and the rest of the cast includes Penn’s Into the Wild protegee Emile Hirsch and No Country‘s Josh Brolin, both among the snubees of the 2007 awards season, as well as Diego Luna, Victor Garber, and James Franco as Milk’s lover.

THE READER (12/12, The Weinstein Company)
Studio chiefs Bob and Harvey Weinstein must be foaming at the mouth—for the decade-plus they ran Miramax, they picked up Oscars like most of us pick up groceries, but since they went independent they have struggled mightily. This sounds like their return to form, though, as it re-pairs The Hours Oscar nominated writer David Hare, director Stephen Daldry, and producer Scott Rudin, and stars two of the best actors in the business, Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, both of whom are both long-overdue for Oscars. Set in post-WWII Germany, it is the story of a young man’s decades-long obsession with an older woman coming to a head during a war crimes trial.

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (12/19, Paramount Vantage)
Richard Yates‘ admired debut novel from 1961 (one of Time magazine’s 100 best since 1923) is finally being brought to the screen in a film produced by Scott Rudin, directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes, and starring Kate Winslet (Mendes’ wife) and Leonardo DiCaprio, together again for the first time since their characters went down and they shot up with Titanic. Eleven years later, they are portraying a young married couple in 1950s suburban Connecticut whose hopes and dreams of an above-average life (at a time when most hoped to be average) are painfully thwarted, throwing their family into chaos. Oscar winner Kathy Bates also stars.

SEVEN POUNDS (12/12, Sony)
Two-time Oscar nominated actor Will Smith is back in the race for the first time since The Pursuit of Happyness (2005). He has re-teamed with the director of that film, Gabriele Muccino to tell the story of a guilt-stricken man on the verge of suicide who is inspired to try to begin life anew thanks to a meeting with a caring woman (Rosario Dawson). In the course of attempting to make amends for the past and find meaning in the future, he changes the lives of seven strangers. Woody Harrellson and Barry Pepper also appear.

THE SOLOIST (TBA, DreamWorks)
Oscar nominated screenwriter Susannah Grant (Erin Brokovich) wrote a script based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, who was a violin prodigy before developing schizophrenia and winding up homeless and living on the streets of Skid Row. Joe Wright has directed Oscar winner Jamie Foxx as Ayers and Robert Downey, Jr. as the Los Angeles Times columnist who discovered him and told the world his story. Oscar nominee Catherine Keener and Tom Hollander also appear.

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (TBA, TBA)
 Oscar winner Charlie Kauffman, argubaly the most talented writer in the business today, both wrote and—for the first time—directed this film, which stars Oscar winners Philip Seymour Hoffman and Dianne Weist, Oscar nominees Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Emily Watson, and Michelle Williams, and the long-overdue Hope Davis and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Kauffman’s films (most notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) are known for their eccentric charms, and this one will probably be no exception—it centers around a theater director (Hoffman) whose life is crumbling around him as he mounts his latest production.

THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE (11/TBA, New Line)
The Notebook screenwriter Jeremy Leven has adapted another romantic comedy. This film will star Rachel McAdams (who got her big break on the former film) and Eric Bana as a married couple with a slight problem… he has a gene that causes him to involuntarily travel in time. Obviously, this could very easily be The Lake House, but a part of me thinks it might be something special, especially considering that both stars are among the most talented young people in the industry.

THE YOUNG VICTORIA (TBA, TBA)
Oscar winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) would seem to be in his element penning another British period piece, this time focusing on the early years in the life and reign of Queen Victoria, who rose to the throne at the age of 18, guided the British Empire at its height, and reigned for 64 years until her death—which was the longest period of any British monarch until Queen Elizabeth II surpassed it in 2007. It is rumored that Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada), overseen by French director Jean-Marc Vallee, has delivered a remarkable performance. Rupert Friend (Pride and Prejudice) portrays her husband, Prince Albert, Oscar winner Jim Broadbent, Oscar nominee Miranda Richardson, and Paul Bettany also appear in the film, and it is of great note that Martin Scorsese and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, are among the film’s producers.


If I had a gun to my head, I would guess that the five Best Picture nominees will wind up being Australia (20th Century Fox), Defiance (Paramount Vantage), Frost/Nixon (Universal), The Reader (The Weinstein Company), and Revolutionary Road (Focus Features), with The Young Victoria (TBA) as my alternate, and The Reader edging out Revolutionary Road (Winslet v. Winslet?) for the win. Granted, all of this will probably look very funny when we get to that point many months from now…

‘MAKE YOUR CASE!’ WINNERS

25 Feb

I want to thank all of the readers who took the time to write and submit arguments on behalf of their favorite nominee for the first annual ATWI… “Make Your Case!” contest. After careful consideration of all seventeen entries—each of which was impressive—I have determined that the 2007 winner is Corey Beasley for his case on behalf of No Country for Old Men for Best Picture, and the runner-up is Vance Gillis for his case on behalf of The Bourne Ultimatum for Best Editing. Congratulations to both, who will receive some very swag donated by the studios.

“JUNO YOU’RE NUTS, RIGHT?”

24 Feb

<center><b>“JUNO YOU’RE NUTS, RIGHT?”</b></center>

A friend snapped this pic of me on a Juno hamburger phone at around 7:30am this morning in the newsroom of ABC’s New Haven affiliate moments after I shared my prediction of a Juno upset on the air. Fear not, No Country fans… I emphasized to viewers that Chigurh & Associates are the prohibitive favorites, and that I am well aware that this is an unlikely, way-out-on-a-limb projection… but I just couldn’t stop myself. (Perhaps I’ll use this same phone to make some apologies—or, hopefully, field them—later tonight!)

OSCAR RESULTS LIVE!

24 Feb

<center><b>OSCAR RESULTS <u>LIVE</u>!</b></center>


Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose) celebrates her Best Actress upset win at 10:09pm EST

11:45pm EST
Best Picture
presented by Denzel Washington
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (Miramax)
THOUGHTS And so it is. Stewart flops. So do too many of my projections. (An off year for sure—no excuses. I apologize.) And it turns out to be a very welcoming country for Old Men, after all.

11:41pm EST
Best Director
presented by Martin Scorsese
ETHAN COEN, JOEL COEN (No Country for Old Men)
THOUGHTS Special moment. Funny, too… Ethan: “I don’t have a lot to add to what I said earlier… thank you.” Now for the moment of truth…

11:40pm EST
Montage of past Best Director winners… now, Marty will coronate the Coens, right?

11:30pm EST
Best Actor
presented by Helen Mirren
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS (There Will Be Blood)
THOUGHTS My man. Oscar #2 for DDL, eighteen years after his first. Classy speech. (I feel a little badly for Paul Dano, since Paul Thomas Anderson and Dylan Frasier got mentions, but not him.)

11:29pm EST
Montage of past Best Actor winners precedes this year’s distribution of the award. It’s gotta be Day-Lewis according to everything we know, right? Still, a piece of me agrees with Tom O’Neil that his loss in 2002 and the love for Clayton might indicate Clooney has a better shot than we’ve been giving him. Let’s see…

11:24pm EST
Best Original Screenplay
presented by Harrison Ford
DIABLO CODY (Juno)
THOUGHTS Standing ovation in some parts of the auditorium! Amazing!! I’m so, so happy. And there’s a cutaway to Ellen and Jason. And, fighting tears, a touching closing line from the ex-stripper: “Most of all, I want to thank my family for loving me for exactly who I am.” If, as is likely the case, this is the end of the road for Juno, it has been a privilege to vicariously tag along for the well-deserved ride.

11:23pm EST
Stewart introduces Ford for Original Screenplay, and the legend of Cody should be solidified right now…

11:15pm EST
Best Documentary Feature
presented by Tom Hanks
TAXI TO THE DARKSIDE
THOUGHTS The good folks at THINKFilm must be very excited as their film about Abu Ghraib wins the category tonight. (Could it do so again a year from now when Errol Morris’ excellent SOP: Standard Operating Procedure is in the race? Methinksso.)

11:14pm EST
Best Documentary Short
presented by Tom Hanks
FREEHELD
THOUGHTS Nice. Now, big question… can Michael Moore get invited back to the podium over the Iraq/Afghanistan movies after the antics of his last trip? Oddly, his film is sort of the least controversial nominee this year. Smart money says No End in Sight, but I’ve got a feeling not…

11:11pm EST
Jon Stewart teasingly introduces two-time winner Tom Hanks, who has “no business being here.” Then, a super unusual but very cool move… letting American troops in Baghdad present the nominees for and winner of Best Docu Short. Puts things in perspective. And the winner is…

11:09pm EST
Best Original Score
presented by Amy Adams
DARIO MARIANELLI (ATONEMENT)
THOUGHTS The front-runner holds up and Atonement finally has something to show for its seven nominations… this will probably be it, though.

11:08pm EST
Amy Adams (who is getting a lot of airtime tonight) discusses a few great Original Scores of the past before introducing the five nominees for 2007…

11:01pm EST
Hilary Swank here to introduce the “In Memoriam” montage. Heath first or last? I’m thinking last. Let’s see… Nice applause for Jack Valenti, Michelangelo Antonioni, Suzanne Pleschette, Deborah Kerr, huge for Ingmar Bergman, and finally… Heath… big applause. Somehow, I feel like Antonioni and Bergman deserved a separate tribute. And the failure to include Scheider is despicable—there’s no good reason to have a January 31st cut-off date.

10:59pm EST
Best Cinematography
presented by Cameron Diaz
ROBERT ELSWIT (There Will Be Blood)
THOUGHTS Too bad that Deakins canceled himself out, but this was also extraordinary work.

10:57pm EST
Jon Stewart just brought back out Marketa Irglova to finish her speech. I don’t care how poorly the rest of his night is going… he just redeemed himself in my mind. Now Cameron Diaz. Who has had several weeks to prepare to present Best Cinematography. And still can’t say “Cinematography.”

10:48pm EST
Best Original Song
presented by John Travolta
“FALLING SLOWLY” (Once)
THOUGHTS YES! I love it.

10:44pm EST
“The versatile and handsome Patrick Dempsey” (awkward intro) introduces “So Close,” the final nominated song from the film in which he starred with Amy Adams, Enchanted. Cool set and set-up. This should be a slow-dance song for some time to come. Good for Amy Adams for getting out there and dancing along… oh, wait… that’s not Amy Adams, but a look-alike redhead. They almost had me fooled there. Wait… is it her?? I got another look at the girl and I’m wondering again. Anywho, Johnny Travolta is out there to present the award for this category now. It’s gotta be “Falling Slowly,” right?

10:42pm EST
Best Foreign Language Film
presented by Penelope Cruz
THE COUNTERFEITTERS (Austria)
THOUGHTS Good for them for picking the right one of these five… one small step back towards dignity after snubbing Persepolis and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days earlier…

10:41pm EST
Jon Stewart… I love the guy, but he is flatlining. Now, to present Foreign Language, the person you get when Sophia Loren is busy, Penelope Cruz…

10:31pm EST
Nicole Kidman, looking somewhat Bohemian, is here to introduce 98 year old art director Robert Boyle, this year’s Honorary Oscar winner. (Cameron Diaz is paying attention?!) What a classy guy… great tux and great line after the standing ovation: “That’s the good part of getting old… I don’t recommend the other.”

10:27pm EST
Best Editing
presented by Renee Zellweger
CHRISTOPHER ROUSE (The Bourne Ultimatum)
THOUGHTS The Bourne Ultimatum: 3. There Will Be Blood, Juno, Atonement, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: 0. We report, you decide. Not that this wasn’t deserved… lots of quick cuts, etc. Roderick Jaynes, RIP. No Country implications, beyond the fact that the Coens will not tie the record of 4 wins in one year for one individual?

10:22pm EST
Captain Jack! Nicholson, with sunglasses, introduces 79 years of Best Pictures. Now if only people would watch a few of these from before, say, 1980…

10:18pm EST
Colin Farrell, of all people, introduces the magnificent Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova to perform their song “Falling Slowly” from Once… it’s a cool set, incidentally, and they seem to be enjoying the moment and knocking it out of the park. Big, big applause. If they don’t end up winning this award, I may have to kick in the television.

10:09pm EST
Best Actress
presented by Forest Whitaker
MARION COTILLARD (La Vie En Rose)
THOUGHTS Here-here! Rarely have I been so pleased to be wrong—good for the Academy for watching a movie with subtitles, taking a chance on a newcomer over a beloved veteran (who has already won and seemed happy to lose to this great rising talent tonight), and telling all of us with the stats (only two foreign actors in foreign language films, Sophia Loren in Two Women and Roberto Benigni in Life Is Beautiful, had previously won) to go screw ourselves. (Note: I equally adored Ellen Page and am sorry she lost, but I’m sure she’ll be back many times, and I’m sure I’ll be rooting for her every one of them.)

10:04pm EST
Best Sound Mixing
presented by Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (Kirk Francis, Scott Millan, David Parker)
THOUGHTS SON OF A BITCH! (Kevin is seen clapping politely as the winners walk up the aisle… privately, he’s gotta be thinking “The third film in a series earns the first nomination for the series and wins over me! What next?!” I really feel terrible for him…)

10:01pm EST
Best Sound Editing
presented by Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (Karen Baker Landers, Per Hallberg)
THOUGHTS Big upset… sorta. It won the guild award, but come on… over No Country and Transformers? Anyway, PLEASE DON’T DENY O’CONNELL in a moment…

10:00pm EST
Stewart gives “The Baby” to Jolie… flat. Now Dame Judi Dench and Halle Ber–Rogen and Hill.

9:53pm EST
This is Amy Adams’ song, but Kristin Chenoweth is a hot little package (and the Jamaican guy is pretty cool) and gives a wicked… er… solid rendition of Enchanted‘s best song “That’s How You Know,” so you’ll have no argument from me. More importantly, we have a potentially super-cool moment on the other side of this break: can 20-time nominee and 0-time winner Kevin O’Connell finally win the Best Sound Mixing category? Coming shortly…

9:49pm EST
Sid Ganis (sorta) peels back the veil of the Oscar process… about as cute a piece as it could be… Jon Stewart’s joke about “superdelegates” comes up short. Now, back to business… wait… Miley Cyrus? I totally don’t get what all the excitement is about… but, then again, I’m not a thirteen year old girl.

9:46pm EST
Best Adapted Screenplay
presented by James McAvoy, Josh Brolin
ETHAN COEN, JOEL COEN (No Country for Old Men)
THOUGHTS The boys are up on the stage for the first time, having averted a Diving Bell or There Will Be Blood upset.… expect to see them again.

9:44pm EST
Now the allegedly “always fantastic” Jessica Alba (oh, cute play on The Fantastic Four?) puts people to sleep with a recap of the Scientific Technical Awards. Now James and Josh (ahem, conflict of interest?), two funny guys, do a nice routine before presenting Adapted…

9:35pm EST
Best Supporting Actress
presented by Alan Arkin
TILDA SWINTON (Michael Clayton)
THOUGHTS The Michael Clayton surge is! (So far.) She’s a lovely woman and I’m happy for her… disappointed, though, to hear her say again that she’s giving her award to her agent—the people who just gave it to you don’t like to hear that, man! I must say, though, that I feel very badly for the terribly deserving Amy Ryan (looking very lovely tonight) and the long overdue Ruby Dee (ending SAG’s five year streak of corresponding with this category’s winner). Cate’s got her Oscar already (so much for the ‘double-nominee-must-win-one theory,’ by the way) and Saoirse has plenty of time (back for Lovely Bones next year?), but those first two… it’s a shame they have to go home emptyhanded.

9:32pm EST
Best Animated Short
presented by Barry B. Benson (voice of Jerry Seinfeld)
PETER AND THE WOLF
THOUGHTS See my statement one category below. Now a cute segment previewing the Best Supporting Actress category, up next…

9:28pm EST
Best Live Action Short
presented by Owen Wilson
LE MOZART DES PICKPOCKETS
THOUGHTS A very cute, Chaplinesque short! Sick as it may seem, I get more satisfaction out of correctly calling the short categories than almost anything. Now the voice of Jerry Seinfeld as Barry B. Benson from Bee Movie… seems sort of inappropriate to me, seeing as the movie was not nominated and this is just further promotion for it after way too much already. Anyway…

9:22pm EST
Stewarts shows us a montage on binoculars in the movies… a taste of what we might have seen during the Oscars show had the writers’ strike not been resolved. Mild laughs. Then “Bad Dreams: An Oscar Salute.” Milder. Now, fortunately, sexy Keri Russell is out to introduce the nominated song “Raise It Up,” which was performed in August Rush, a film in which she starred. A choir from the Impact Repertory Theater of Harlem delivers a rendition that lives up to David Carr’s recent hype. (The little girl kinda freaks me out… big voice from a small girl, huh?) Now Owen Wilson. Nice to see him out and about again…

9:19pm EST
Best Supporting Actor
presented by Jennifer Hudson
JAVIER BARDEM (No Country for Old Men)
THOUGHTS Well-deserved, and No Country stays on track. (I can’t help but feel for poor Hal Holbrook, though.) Bardem has a nice moment speaking to his mother from the podium in Spanish…

9:13pm EST
Stewart makes a funny tribute to/crack at Blanchett, counting among her many roles this year the pitbull in No Country. Then introduces a nice montage of past Best Supporting Actor winners in advance of the presentation of that category’s honor. Gotta love Cuba Gooding Jr.’s moment. Anyway, here comes J-Hud…

9:11pm EST
Best Art Direction
presented by Cate Blanchett
SWEENEY TODD (Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo)
THOUGHTS And the upsets keep comin’… bad news for There Will Be Blood, and more bad news for Atonement.

9:09pm EST
Best Visual Effects
presented by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
THE GOLDEN COMPASS (Michael Fink, Ben Morris, Bill Westenhofer, Trevor Wood)
THOUGHTS Another substantial upset… these guys are as shocked as they should be. Not good news for the other Transformers contenders, sadly… Now, Cate Blanchett comes out… looking pretty fine.

9:06pm EST
Cute joke about what those at the show do during breaks: make snotty remarks about what we’re wearing at home. And now, somehow, “The Rock” has made it to the Oscar podium…

9:02pm EST
Second ‘Oscar icon’ segment features Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Jones says she “wasn’t around” when Douglas won his honor… to quell any doubts, he clarifies, “Well, you were born…”

8:59pm EST
Lovely Amy Adams is out there solo performing “A Happy Working Song.” You gotta give her credit… this is a long way from dinner theater in Colorado! She does a nice job… sorta popping out of her dress, incidentally.

8:57pm EST
Best Makeup
presented by Katherine Heigl
LA VIE EN ROSE (Jan Archibald, Didier Lavergne)
THOUGHTS A stunned (and stunning) Cotillard gasps and covers her face with shock at this well-deserved honor for the artists. (A loss here would not have boded well for her prospects… she’s still in the game.)

8:54pm EST
Best Animated Feature
presented by Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway
RATATOUILLE (Disney)
THOUGHTS No surprise here… nice to see nice-guy Brad Bird pick up #2. So, question: is this the beginning or the end of this film’s night? Look out for Screenplay, Original Score, etc. Heigl comes out and says she is “unbelievably nervous.” She’s not joking…

8:51pm EST
Stewart jokes about ‘new media’ by watching Lawrence of Arabia on his iPhone. Next pair of presenters are an odd couple.

8:47pm EST
Clooney is trotted out to introduce montage to try to put the importance of 80 years of Oscar into perspective.

8:43pm EST
First ‘Oscar icon’ snippet features Barbra Streisand reminiscing about her 1968 Best Actress Oscar win… er, tie, with Katherine Hepburn. (No mention is made of the fact that Streisand only tied because Gregory Peck waived a membership rule to allow her to join the Academy early, enabling her to vote for herself…)

8:41pm EST
Best Costume Design
presented by Jennifer Garner
ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE (Alexandra Byrne)
THOUGHTS Wow… award #1, upset #1. So much for the mesmerizing power of Atonement‘s green dress. It’s not that the costumes weren’t great, but people watched this movie?

8:32pm EST
East-coaster Jon Stewart warmly welcomed back by west-coasters. Requisite strike reference leads into joke, “Welcome to the makeup sex.” Jokes about cancelation of Vanity Fair Oscar party “out of respect for the writers,” but says they might better show respect by actually inviting writers to the party! No Country, Sweeney, and There Will Be Blood… “Does this town need a hug? All I can say is thank God for teen pregnancy!” Teases Bardem about merging Hannibal Lecter’s murderessness with Dorothy Hamill’s haircut. Teases Julie Christie about making a movie featuring a woman who forgets her husband… Hillary Clinton’s favorite movie. Yom Kippur joke. “Even Norbit got a nomination… too often, the Academy ignores movies that aren’t good.” “We have big stars here! Johnny Depp is here. Harrison Ford is here. Dennis Hopper is here… I only say that so Dennis knows where he is!” Refers to Diablo Cody… “She used to be a stripper, now she’s a Hollywood screenwriter… I hope she’s enjoying the paycut.” His stripper name? Olympia Dukakis. On box-office failure of Iraq war movies: “If we stay the course, they will turn around.” First political joke to connect: “Oscar is 80 this year… which makes him automatically the front-runner for the Republican nomination.” Liberal Hollywood tease: asks if they’ve examined the candidates and pick the Democrat they’ll vote for. Goes on a little too much about obstacles of name Barack Hussein Obama… until saying “we all remember the 1944 campaign of Gaydolf Titler.” Overall, so-so-at-best opening monologue. Now, to present the first award, Jennifer Garner, who is looking hot. Cool montage introducing the nominees. And the winner?

8:30pm EST
And we’re off! Opening CGI montage takes us on a car ride through the history of Hollywood and the movies.

THERE WILL BE OSCARS!

24 Feb

<center><b>THERE WILL BE OSCARS!</b></center>

Ready or not, here it comes! The 80th Academy Awards will be presented this evening at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. The Oscar show, hosted by Jon Stewart, will air on ABC beginning at 8pm EST/5pm PST. (If you’re in Connecticut and up early, you can also tune in to ABC throughout the 7am-8am hour to catch my final analysis of the major categories.)

I will be live-blogging here throughout the show, so keep refreshing your browsers—having already read my final projections, you’ll be able to read my minute-by-minute reactions/analysis and share yours with me (and thousands of readers) in the ‘Comments’ section!

As always, it should be a fascinating and fun night for those of us who follow the awards race religiously. Enjoy it, thank you for your support of the site during the 2007 awards season, and I hope to see you back with us when the 2008 awards season gets underway… on Monday!

NOTE: For time-sensitive inquiries, email scottfeinberg[at]hotmail[dot]com and I’ll do my best to respond quickly.

THE BUZZ ACCORDING TO… *JEFFREY WELLS*

23 Feb

<center><b><i>THE BUZZ ACCORDING TO…</i> *<u>JEFFREY WELLS</u>*</b></center>

With just 48 hours until the Oscars, a few major question marks remain, so I thought it would be a great time for another installment of The Buzz According to…, our podcast series of conversations that I have with various experts (prognosticators, critics, voters, etc.) about the state of the race.

The guest for this third edition (recorded this evening) is Jeff Wells, whose Hollywood-Elsewhere.com is among of the most widely-read blogs on the film industry. Over the course of our half-hour conversation, we compare notes about the possibility of a Juno or Michael Clayton upset; the recent surge of Juno-hate in the blogosphere; the prospects of young Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose) against veteran Julie Christie (Away from Her); the wide-open Best Supporting Actress race; and even the shorts categories.

You can hear it all if you CLICK HERE. Many thanks to Jeff, and I hope you enjoy our chat.

THE FIRST ANNUAL ATWI…
“MAKE YOUR CASE!” CONTEST

22 Feb

<center><b>THE FIRST ANNUAL <i>ATWI</i>…<br /> “MAKE YOUR CASE!” CONTEST</b></center>

MAKE YOUR CASE!
2007 Academy Awards Contest

WHY DOES YOUR FAVORITE NOMINEE DESERVE TO WIN MORE THAN ANY OTHER?!

MAKE YOUR BEST ARGUMENT IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW (IN A PARAGRAPH OR TWO) FOR A CHANCE TO WIN COOL MOVIE-RELATED SWAG!

A PANEL COMPOSED OF MYSELF, A FILM CRITIC, AND A FILM PROFESSOR WILL REVIEW ALL ENTRIES AND DETERMINE A WINNER AND RUNNER-UP.

THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE A BOX OF COOL MOVIE-RELATED SWAG, INCLUDING T-SHIRTS, POSTERS, A JUNO HAMBURGER PHONE, AND MORE, AND THE RUNNER-UP WILL RECEIVE SOME T-SHIRTS AND A JUNO HAMBURGER PHONE!

WHEN YOU SUBMIT YOUR COMMENT, BE SURE TO TYPE IN YOUR FULL NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS (THE LATTER OF WHICH WILL ONLY BE VISIBLE TO ME) SO THAT WE CAN CONTACT YOU IN THE EVENT THAT YOUR ENTRY IS CHOSEN.

ONLY ONE ENTRY PER PERSON IS ALLOWED—WE WILL BE CHECKING IP ADDRESSES AND MONITORING FOR PLAGIARISM!
(ANY COMMENTS ON THIS POST THAT ARE NOT AN ENTRY WILL BE DELETED.)

SUBMISSIONS WILL CLOSE AT THE START OF THE OSCARS SHOW.

BEST OF LUCK!

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