Month: December 2008

David Poland says “some strong pushback” has been manifesting against Australia, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt and Revolutionary Road in the Best Picture talking wars. But for pushback to happen a film it has to have made generated big expectations to begin with, no? In this sense Australia was absolutely never in the game. You could feel this weeks before it opened. And then it was shown and a fair number of people lost their minds.

The Button pushback is real. It was instantly detectable starting with those closely-watched-and-reported-on L.A. and N.Y. screenings. It’s a Best Picture nominee, for sure, but beyond that…

There is nothing but favoring wind right now for Slumdog Millionaire and Milk, it seems, and for whatever reason no one seems to be picking away at Frost/Nixon — it’s the older-viewer default choice. I was struck the other day by the precision of a sentence in a Frost/Nixon review by New Yorker critic David Denby — “I can’t escape the feeling that it carries about it an aura of momentousness that isn’t warranted by the events.” But there are no nip-nip-nippers out there saying this.

But whatever pushback may be out there against Revolutionary Road is so fundamentally lame, childish and bordering on pathetic — “It’s too gloomy” — that I feel sullied by the mere mention of it. A friend actually said that “people don’t want to watch a movie like this because of the economy”…God! I’ve seen Revolutionary Road three times and felt enveloped by a feeling of unusual poignancy with each sit. Sam Mendes gives it such poise, drawing each scene to such a fine point. And that Thomas Newman score keeps giving me the willies in a good way. RR may be the strongest deep-down penetration of the year for me.

Who exactly constitutes the alleged pushback against Doubt? Based on what lingering disappointments, exactly? Based on what unsatisfying element? This Glenn Kenny review pushes back against the pushbackers quite nicely

Lance Hammer‘s Ballast, Jonathan Demme‘s Rachel Getting Married and Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River each scored six nominations among the 2009 Film Independent’s Spirit Award noms, announced this morning.

HE winner picks are as follows.

HE’s Un-Nominated Best Feature Choice: The Visitor HE Runners-up: Frozen River, Rachel Getting Married, The Wrestler, Wendy and Lucy and Ballast.

HE’s Best Director Award: Tom McCarthy, The Visitor. Runners-Up: Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married; Courtney Hunt, Frozen River; Ramin Bahrani, Chop Shop; Lance Hammer, Ballast.

No call on Best First Feature as I haven’t seen all of these : Afterschool (Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin, Josh Mond); Medicine for Melancholy (Barry Jenkins, Justin Barber); Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, Anthony Bregman, Spike Jonze, Sidney Kimmel); Sleep Dealer (Alex Rivera, Anthony Bregman); and Sangre De Mi Sangre (Christopher Zalla, Per Melita, Benjamin Odell). Charlie Kaufman deserves respect for throwing caution to the wind and reaching for the sky.

HE’s John Cassavettes Award winner: In Search of a Midnight Kiss (Alex Holdridge, Seth Caplan, Scoot McNairy). Runner-ups: Prince of Broadway (Sean Baker, Darren Dean); Take Out (Sean Baker, Shih-Ching Tsou); The Signal (David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry, Alexander Motlagh); Turn the River (Chris Eigeman, Ami Armstrong).

HE’s Best Screenplay Award: tie between Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York) and Woody Allen (Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Runners-up: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck (Sugar); Howard A. Rodman (Savage Grace); Christopher Zalla, (Sangre De Mi Sangre)

HE’s Best First Screenplay Award: Dustin Lance Black (Milk). Runners-up: Jenny Lumet, Rachel Getting Married; Lance Hammer (Ballast); Courtney Hunt (Frozen River); Jonathan Levine (The Wackness).

HE’s Best Best Female Lead: Melissa Leo, Frozen River. Runners-Up: Summer Bishil, Towelhead; Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married; Tarra Riggs, Ballast; Michelle Williams, Wendy and Lucy.

HE’s Best Best Male Lead: Richard Jenkins, The Visitor. Special Surprise Merit Badge: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker. Runners-up: Javier Bardem, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Sean Penn, Milk; Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler.

HE’s Best Best Supporting Female Lead: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Runners-up: Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married; Rosie Perez, The Take; Misty Upham, Frozen River; Debra Winger, Rachel Getting Married.

HE’s Best Best Supporting Male Lead: tie between James Franco, Milk, and Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker. Runners-up: Charlie McDermott, Frozen River; JimMyron Ross, Ballast; Haaz Sleiman, The Visitor.

HE’s Best Cinematography Award: Harris Savides, Milk. Runners-up: Maryse Alberti, The Wrestler; Lol Crawley, Ballast; James Laxton, Medicine for Melancholy; Michael Simmonds, Chop Shop.

HE’s Best Documentary Award: Man on Wire, James Marsh. Runners-up: The Order of Myths, Margaret Brown; Up the Yangtze, Yung Chang; Encounters at the End of the World

Werner Herzog; The Betrayal, Ellen Kuras & Thavisouk Phrasavath

HE’s Foreign Film Award: Gomorra, Matteo Garrone. Runners-up: The Class, Laurent Cantet; Secret of the Grain; Abdellatif Kechiche; Hunger, Steve McQueen; Silent Light, Carlos Reygadas.

I can’t do anymore…that’s it.

Or, in the parlance of “the Bagger,” Visitor “tchotchke.”

HE’s tech guy Brian Walker wants to do what he can to resolve the Typekey problems, but he says he needs to know more than just “it’s not working.” If anyone wants to describe in some detail what happens when they’ve tried and failed to post a response, it’ll probably help matters. I for one am able to post responses to what others have written, although I had some trouble a week or so ago. If Typekey keeps bugging out I might have to purchase a new program.

Nine or ten months ago Kevin Spacey declared himself an avid fan of 19 year-old singer Leon Jackson, who came out of nowhere a year ago after winning the grand prize on The X Factor, a British-styled American Idol show. Here‘s Jackson’s latest music video (no embed code) — a tune called “Creative.”

Spacey obviously responded to the guy because he’s a 21st Century Bobby Darin — an old-school big-band crooner in the finger-snapping, martini-sipping tradition of Harry Connick, Jr., Jamie Cullum, Michael Buble, Vic Damone, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra.

Jackson is striking because his voice sounds much deeper and “older” than you might expect from a young skinny guy. (And short — he looks to be Darin- or Sinatra-sized, to go by the videos and photos.) And because he’s six months younger than my older son, Jett. His sound is a little schmaltzy for me, but within its particular sphere and fan base big-band crooning is apparently happening in a big way. In England, Canada, and, I’m guessing, here, although I don’t know anyone who’s a big fan. Okay, I know one.

I wrote Jett, who’s something of a trendy music-phile, and asked his opinion of Jackson. I assumed he’d have one, being a temporary resident of England and all, but he hasn’t heard his stuff, so that tells you something. Here‘s a page with Jackson’s music videos.

“My life is all about music,” Jackson says on his site. “I’m learning to play the guitar, writing songs and just immersing myself in music. I’m obsessed with contemporary jazz and my heroes are Harry Connick Junior, Jamie Cullum and of course, Michael Buble who has been such an amazing champion for me. I feel like I’ve lived 20 years in the past year because I’ve learnt so much and I can’t wait to get out there and let everyone know what I’ve been doing.

“I’m so grateful for every moment of my life. Every now and again I just stop and close my eyes to check it’s all real when I open them again.. I want to make every second count.” Good attitude. Bright future.

Saw it in Toronto, knew right away it was fine and solid, can’t write about it until tomorrow.

“One of the highest tides in its history brought Venice to a virtual halt, rekindling a debate over a plan to build moveable flood barriers in an effort to save the lagoon city from high tides,” says an AP story posted by the N.Y. Times at 4:19 pm.

“City officials said the tide peaked at 61 inches, well past the 40-inch flood mark, as strong winds pushed the sea into the city. Alarms went off at 6:37 a.m. to alert citizens, but many residents were taken by surprise because authorities had initially not forecast such a high water level.

“In St. Mark’s Square, one of the city’s lowest points, tourists tried to stay dry by hopping on cafe tables and chairs sticking out of the water. The water was so high that someone rowed a small speedboat across the wide square.”

A guy named Jameison just replied to my “Five Against The Rest” post, saying that I seem to be “still confused as to the fact that these charts reflect predictions as opposed to favorites.” And I said no, no, no to that. No longer!

“The favorites, for now, are the people and movies that Oscar prognosticator types like, believe in and vote for. Got it? The columnists, journalists and bloggers do a lot to set the stage, determine and lay down the perimeter wire, create the conversation, ignite the buzz. So to hell with that “let’s try and predict how those wonderful and fascinating Academy people might vote” mentality. The hell with it!

“I know as much if not more than your average Academy person does about what’s good and what isn’t and what will live on, and what people like myself and Poland and O’Neil and Carr and Stone and Faraci and Thompson and Hammond and Cieply and Tapley and Feinberg and Goldstein say and write counts to some extent (perhaps not a whole lot but certainly to some extent) in the ultimate configuration of nominees and winners. Along with the critics groups and the guilds, of course.

“So screw the tea leaves for now, okay? As far as I’m concerned there is only set of standards that matter right now, and those are my own and those who toil away at this racket and live with the passion of it four or five months out of the year. We are here, we care, we know what we know (and that ain’t hay), we believe, we are the champions.

Until, that is, the game changes shape with the voices of others. I realize, of course, that I try to discern the thinking and the sentiment out there as much as anyone else, but voices like ours count. To what extent is a matter of conjecture. But I hate the idea of being one of a number of sheep in the pasture going “baaah! baaah!”

In a Reuters interview that ran last Friday, Bolt voicer John Travolta said he “probably should have said yes” to making Frank Darabont‘s The Green Mile and yes to An Officer and a Gentleman. But I gave Richard Gere and Tom Hanks a career!” Is there any serious-minded Hanks film that is remembered with more revulsion than The Green Mile? I’m asking.

The Gold Derby Buzzmeter members who are standing up and showing support for The Visitor‘s Richard Jenkins as Best Actor are three — myself, The Envelope‘s Pete Hammond and N.Y. Post critic Lou Lumenick . The Gurus o’ Gold supporters are Indiewire‘s Eugene Hernandez and USA Today‘s Suzie Woz (on top of the double-voting Lumenick and Hammond). A total of five supporters out of the 16 who contribute to the Guru/Buzzmeter charts.

Clint Eastwood‘s Gran Torino (Warner Bros., 12.12) shows to select media tonight in Los Angeles at 8:30 pm (with a little meet-Clint cocktail party happening an hour before). It’s screening in Manhattan tomorrow, Wednesday, Friday and next Monday. The word will be filtering down pretty clearly by Wednesday, particularly about whether Clint is a Best Actor contender or not.

Valkyrie has been shown to some people in Los Angeles and it’s not a problem, I’m hearing. “It’s no Ishtar,” as a non-journalist put it last week. “It’s much better than anybody is right now thinking.” “A smart, crisp and efficient conspiracy thriller,” another guy says. “Like 36 Hours or Night of the Generals — one of those other WW II conspiracy thrillers that does its job, open and shut…bang. Bryan Singer is a very sharp director who knows exactly what he’s doing.” One guy told me that Tom Cruise‘s performance is a problem; another guy said he’s fine. “Very well acted by Terrence Stamp, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Clarice von Houten,” says guy #2.