Day: June 2, 2013

10 varied films by and about African-Americans (and one directed by a Brit) are coming out between August…actually, make that July and December, a N.Y. Times story is reporting. And many of them are angled at quality-seekers who wouldn’t watch a Tyler Perry flick with a knife at their backs. Michael Cieply has posted a laundry-list story [URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/ 06/02/movies/coming-soon-a-breakout-for-black-filmmakers.html?hp] that calls this slate a significant turn in the road, but he doesn’t indicate which are the pick of the litter and which are the black sheep.

From Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station.

It’s the kind of laundry-list story I can’t stand, Lawrence…the kind that just lies there. But I have to acknowledge, of course, this being a Cieply story, that it’s accurate and well-sourced and that things do seem to be blooming and upticking for black filmmakers. A rennaisance of sorts. The mining of richer, broader material.

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Post-Cannes, here are my Best Picture predictions as things now stand…and what do I know? David O. Russell‘s American Hustle is still #1 because the script is sharp and tight and because smilin’ Russell is an effing machine gun — he’s on his game and due and everyone knows it. #2 is J.C. Chandor‘s All Is Lost — one of the most audacious, aesthetically ballsy survivalist dramas ever made, and with a major comeback, career-high performance from Robert Redford. And #3 is Joel and Ethan Coen‘s Inside Llewyn Davis, a major American piece-of-time folkie art film that will stand the test, and which you’ll want to see a second time. That was my first thought, at least.

Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street is #4 because…I don’t know exactly as I haven’t read the script, but I know that people have been slip-sliding into an “okay, all right, what else can you show us?” attitude about the Scorsese-DiCaprio partnership. Richard Linklater‘s Before Midnight has to be a Best Picture contender…it has to be. (What’s the argument against it? That it’s too good, too real, too well-written and well-acted?) And then comes John Lee Hancock‘s Saving Mr. Banks (Kelly Marcel‘s script is quite good), Paul Greengrass‘s Captain Phillips, George Clooney‘s Monuments Men and Bennett Miller‘s Foxcatcher.

I’m not enough of a fan of Alexander Payne‘s Nebraska to predict a Best Picture nomination, but on the other hand I’m not opposed to the idea. And let’s not forget Ryan Coogler‘s Fruitvale Station, which has the heat and could vault ahead of Hancock-Scorsese-Clooney-Greengrass.

I would normally complain about the cropping of 1.33 16mm color footage down to 1.50 or thereabouts (or is it 1.66?) but I’ll let it slide this time. Just think of all that Brylcream on each and every guy’s head (except for the baldies) and each and every head covered and half-suffocating under a hat. Think of all the millions who were laughing and struggling and eating steamed potatoes and peach ice cream when this film was shot, and who would be shot, starved, bombed or incinerated to death over the next six years. And if you wanted to get away from it all, all you had to do was pay 25 cents to see Only Angels Have Wings…”who’s Joe?”