Todd McCarthy‘s annual Cannes forecast piece contains some fresh info but for the most part mentions a lot of the same films previously listed by Screen Daily‘s Mike Goodridge in a 2.11.09 speculation piece. The official slate of Cannes ’09 films will be announced on 4.23. McCarthy and Goodridge have both listed Pedro Almodovar‘s Broken … Read more
Yesterday an HE reader named Ephemerinko called me out on being too conventional in my choices about what to see at the big film festivals. “I’d like to see you take more chances, “he wrote. “True, you gotta kiss a lot of frogs, as they say, but when something pays off there’s no better feeling … Read more
I’ve put some thought today into the Best Picture contenders as well as the apparent second-tier films, and almost no thought whatsoever into the other categories. I’ve mainly just copied and pasted and plopped them into the new 2009 Oscar Balloon. The refinement process begins now. BEST PICTURE (21): Mandela/Playing The Enemy (Warner Bros.), d: … Read more
Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces, Steven Soderbergh‘s The Informant and The Girlfriend Experience, Lars von Trier‘s Antichrist, Cristian Mungiu‘s Tales From the Golden Age, the Coen Brothers‘ A Serious Man, Gaspar Noe‘s Enter the Void, Ang Lee‘s Taking Woodstock, a new Michael Moore documentary, Fatih Akin‘s Soul Kitchen, Michael Haneke‘s The White Ribbon, Ron Howard‘s Angels … Read more
12:40 pm Update: The New York Film Critics Circle has just handed its Best Actor prize to Milk‘s Sean Penn, its Best Foreign Film award to Cristian Mungiu‘s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days , and its Best Documentary award to James Marsh‘s Man on Wire. 11:45 am Update: The New York Film Critics … Read more
Just a reminder that Cristian Mungiu‘s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days came out on DVD last Tuesday, and that those who missed it in theatres…you know the rest. Set the time aside, make some popcorn or order in some pita and hummus, open a bottle of white wine, sit down with a significant … Read more
Lance Hammer‘s austere, somber, incontestably over-praised Ballast has snagged four nominations for the upcoming Gotham Independent Film Awards, which will be held 12.2 at Cipriani Wall Street. The snooty elites have embraced this low-key atmospheric mood piece since it played at Sundance ’08. I saw it there (i.e., at the Eccles) and went “uh-huh…okay…fine.” Cipriani … Read more
The moral undercurrent in Nuri Bilge Ceylan‘s Three Monkeys — a quietly devastating Turkish family drama about guilt, adultery and lots of Biblical thunderclaps — is in every frame. It’s about people doing wrong things, one leading to another in a terrible chain, and trying to face or at least deal with the consequences but … Read more
As the uproar over the exclusion of Cristian Mungiu‘s 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days from the foreign-language “short list” continues to smolder, a thought comes to mind. Instead of ignoring the oversight and stressing the awards and lavish praise that this film has gathered since last May, what if IFC Films, the film’s … Read more
“Tuesday, January 15, 2008 — a date that shall live in Academy Awards infamy,” writes L.A. Weekly critic Scott Foundas in a piece titled “How Do You Say ‘Oscar Scandal’ in Romanian?” He’s referring to the shafting earlier today of Cristian Mungiu‘s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by the Academy’s foreign-language committee. “I’ve … Read more
One of the biggest outrages in the history of the Academy’s foreign film committee — a scandal fed by deficient taste and myopic, mule-like obstinacy — has just happened with the release of the nine-film short list that doesn’t include Cristian Mungiu‘s widely hailed 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days. The people who pushed … Read more
Cheers to the National Society of Film Critics for denying their Best Supporting Actress award to Gone Baby Gone‘s Amy Ryan, and instead handing it over to I’m Not There‘s Cate Blanchett. Somebody bucked the tide! Admire that backbone. On top of which Blanchett deserves. There Will Be Blood took the Best Picture award, and … Read more