Clearly the little kid in the hat was (a) feeling under-appreciated and wanted some attention, or (b) was indicating to the audience and the producers that he thought little of Back to the Future III and that people who felt otherwise knew what they could do. Either way this is one of the most blatant “why did they leave this in?” shots since the young kid in the cafeteria who plugged his ears before Eva Marie Saint shot Cary Grant in North by Northwest.
“I don’t know what I’m allowed to say about Inception,” Leonardo DiCaprio recently told a junket journalist for the Philippine Inquirer.
“It’s Chris [Nolan] delving into dream psychoanalysis and, at the same time, making a high-octane, surreal film that came from his mind. He wrote the entire thing, and it all made sense to him. [But] it didn’t make sense to many of us when we were doing it. We had to do a lot of detective work to figure out what the movie was about.”
To me DiCaprio’s statement as almost an iron-clad guarantee that Inception is going to be far-reaching, multi-layered and generally a kick-ass ride. Actors involved in ambitious films by major directors always say they found the plot perplexing. A big-name actress said the exact same thing to me last summer on the set of a big-budget espionage thriller. A TCM page on North by Northwest says that “according to biographies on Cary Grant, during production the star repeatedly expressed confusion over the film’s plot, which he found implausible and unclear.”
I was irritated earlier this afternoon at the absolute refusal of the L.A. Times/Envelope Oscar-preference software to allow me to buy a few shares of Christoph Waltz stock, but that’s forgotten now. It vanished from my head the minute I saw the great-looking design of the L.A. Times All Stars rundown of choices and…uh, stock picks. It’s the coolest-looking thing I’ve been a part of, visually, in any medium. I feel genuinely honored and gratified to have been included.
Some of the most gifted screenwriters in the business sorta kinda dropped the personality ball this morning. The goal of any participant in a panel discussion is to inject some energy and perhaps a little unruly pizazz into the proceedings. But this morning’s “It Starts With The Script” discussion, moderated by Indiewire columnist Anne Thompson, never got off the ground, much less got my pulse racing.
How’s this for a great angle and a great photograph? I would have shown up at the rear of Santa Barbara’s Lobero theatre for the the pre-discussion photo op, but nobody told me it was happening.
It was comprised of intelligent chatter from some very bright and accomplished people, of course, but there were no energy surges, no pop-goes-the-weasel moments, no jokes, no disputes…almost toothless.
The participants included The Hurt Locker‘s Mark Boal , Up In The Air‘s Jason Reitman, Precious adapter Geoffrey Fletcher, (500) Days of Summer co-writer Scott Neustadter, It’s Complicated‘s Nancy Meyers and Star Trek co-writer Alex Kurtzman.
You go to these things looking for a little Chris Matthews-type energy, some old-fashioned Crossfire action…whatever. Questions and teasers and provocations that might lead to sparks of some kind, a little contentiousness, a touch of the old no-you’r’e-wrong-and-here’s-why, etc.
In all candor, I believe this to the most intriguing photo of Nancy Meyers that I’ve ever taken.
Who cared/knew/gave a shit about Dear John, the Amanda Seyfried-Channing Tatum drama that kicked Avatar to the curb yesterday, and is expected to earn $35 million by Sunday night?
I had the tracking that pre-told the tale, but I couldn’t be bothered with all the SBIFF razmatazz and running around.
London’s National Film & Television School has created a tart comedy short — Mr. Pixel Mrs. Grain: A Never-Ending Love Story — that offers “a humorous illustration of the benefit from both worlds of film and digital.” Fine and good, but the grain monks folded their tents and went into hiding after Martin Scorsese more or less sided with the HE view. Game over.
Last night Pete Hammond briefly mentioned Gun Shy, my favorite Sandra Bullock-produced film of all time, and then dropped it. Bullock said nothing (i.e., let’s move on), and had little to add when I mentioned it at the after-party. “Some of us really loved that film,” I said. “Elvis Mitchell did handstands over it in his N.Y. Times review.” This is how good but under-appreciated movies die on Netflix — even their producers are ready to sweep them under the rug.
There’s always a vague sense of tredipation in the Arlington Theatre press seat area before celebrity interviews begin. After doing their red-carpet photography, the swaggering paparazzi stroll down the aisle and look to occupy the front-row seating that’s right in front of the stage. This sometimes includes the seat I’m sitting in. Every now and then one will look at me with my Canon S515 and my Canon Elph around my neck and say, “Are you holding this for someone?” (Translation: “Are you some kind of dilletante photographer? May I please sit there? I matter more than you.”) I always say to them, “I’m just sitting here, bro…I’m press like you.” (Translation: “Nice try, asshole.”)
On-stage celebrity interviews at the Santa Barbara Film Festival are always smooth and briskly paced (i.e., once the celebrity takes the stage) and professionally presented and all. But they always proceed in the same fashion. This is an okay thing — most of us find comfort in a certain amount of repetition and familiarity — but it would be nice if someone came along and said, “This is working okay but let’s come up with a looser approach.” I don’t know what I’m talking about but it might be cool if the audience could ask questions, or if the celebrity walked into the audience area with a mike and roamed around as ne/she speaks to different folks. Kind of a David Letterman-type deal.
My son Jett tells me that my disinclination to edit results in some of my video clips being trite. I don’t have the extra hour or two to slick these things up. I try to edit in the camera as it’s happennig.
I was reminded of three or four things during last night’s Santa Barbara Film Festival tribute to Sandra Bullock. One, she’s whip-smart but uncomplicated — she had a clean and concise answer for every question thrown her way, but she’s not into soul-baring. Two, she worked long and hard to prove her way out of the romantic-comedy prison she felt trapped in about ten years ago. Three, she didn’t want to portray her Blind Side character (the real-life Leigh Anne Tuohy) because she felt she was an unrealistic construct — but she changed her mind after meeting her.
Sandra Bullock, Pete Hammond onstage during last night’s Arlington theatre tribute —
Margo Barbakow, Bullock, SBIFF board chief Jeff Barbakow during the tribute after-party at Barbakow’s Montecito mansion.
I’ve tapped out a summary of the films I’m intending to put into the 2010 Oscar Balloon but without acting nominations, which no one ever knows anything about until they happen. Here’s how the list looks as we speak — suggestions/critiques are welcome. Nearly 60 films of some apparent distinction, or so it would appear.
BEST PICTURE
True Grit (Paramount, d: Joel and Ethan Coen; Inception (Warner Bros.), d: Chris Nolan; Fair Game (Zucker/Participant), d: Doug Liman; The Conspirator (Wildwood), d: Robert Redford; The Social Network (Sony/Columbia), d: David Fincher; Hereafter (Warner Bros.), d: Clint Eastwood; Green Zone (Universal), d: Paul Greengrass; Biutiful (Focus Features), d: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu; How Do You Know? (Sony/Columbia), d: James L. Brooks; Tree of Life (Apparition), d: Terrence Malick; The American (Focus Features), d: Anton Corbijn; Black Swan (distributor), d: Darren Aronofsky; The Way Back (Paramount), d: Peter Weir; London Boulevard (distributor), d: William Monahan; The Descendants (distributor), d: Alexander Payne; Somewhere (distributor), d: Sofia Coppola; Betty Ann Waters (Fox Searchlight), d: Tony Goldwyn, Oliver Stone‘s Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. (19)
HIGH INTRIGUE / ELITE POPCORN
Eat Pray Love (distributor), d: Ryan Murphy; Rum Diary (distributor), d: Bruce Robinson; Phillip Noyce‘s Salt; The Expendables (Lionsgate); Greenberg (Focus Features), d: Noah Baumbach; You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (distributor), d: Woody Allen; David Gordon Green‘s Your Highness (Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, etc.); Tony Scott‘s Unstoppable; Todd Phillips‘ Due Date w/ Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan, Jamie Foxx; Rabbit Hole (Fox Searchlight), d: John Cameron Mitchell; Lee Unkrich‘s Toy Story 3; Jon Favreau‘s Iron Man 2, Tim Burton‘s Alice in Wonderland, Ridley Scott‘s Maximus Hood, Matthew Vaughn‘s Kick-Ass, Aaron Schneider‘s Get Low; Mark Romanek‘s Never Let Me Go (Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield); Love and Other Drugs (distributor), d: TKTKTK; Mother and Child (distributor), d: Rodrigo Garcia; Rowan Joffe‘s Brighton Rock (distributor, w/Sam Riley); Roger Michel‘s Morning Glory (Paramount, w/ Harrison Ford); Jim Loach‘s Oranges and Sunshine (w/ Emily Watson); Tom Hooper‘s King’s Speech (w/ Helena Bonham Carter). (28)
PLUS: Buried; Blue Valentine; Please Give; Triage, Untitled Mike Leigh project. (5)
PLUS: The Special Relationship (d: Richard Loncraine), Cast: Dennis Quaid, Michael Sheen, Hope Davis, Helen McCory; The Town (d: Ben Affleck) — Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Chris Cooper; 3 Backyards (d: Eric Mendelsohn) — Embeth Davidtz, Edie Falco, Elias Koteas, Rachel Resheff, Kathryn Erbe; Tamara Drewe (d: Stephen Frears) — Gemma Arterton, Dominic Cooper, Roger Allam, Luke Evans, Bill Camp; The Debt (d: John Madden) — Sam Worthington, Helen Mirren, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, Martin Csokas; Burlesque (d: Steve Antin) — Cher, Christina Aguilera, Stanley Tucci, Kristen Bell, Alan Cumming. (6)
Hotshot director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Kinsey, Gods and Monsters) is reportedly developing and co-writing a proposed half-hour series for HBO called Tilda, about a Nikki Finke-styled Hollywood blogger.
If Condon and co-writer Cynthia Mort base their character too closely on Finke they’ll be stuck with a hugely unappealing character, to say the least — thorny, indifferent to the Catholic-church aspect of movie-watching, vindictive tendencies, curiously hermetic, cut off from the Seinfeld-like aroma of average human experience, etc.
I wouldn’t watch a half-hour series about a Finke-like character with a gun to my head. I would suggest that Condon-Mort focus on at least two other Hollywood blogger types for the sake of balance. I’m just spitballing here, but one prototype could be a middle-aged male blogger with a thoroughly Catholic movie-love theology who blends criticism and reportage with doses of attitude and personality, and who couldn’t give a shit about what agents have signed which clients. And also — you tell me — a Patrick Goldstein-like L.A. Times columnist who knows he’s going to be laid off sooner or later and realizes he has to start his own online column and basically switch horses, but who has to shoulder heavy financial responsibilities.
“Black films looking to attract white audiences flatter them with [a] kind of stereotype: the merciful slave master,” African-American author Ismael Reed writes in today’s N.Y. Times.
“In guilt-free bits of merchandise like Precious, white characters are always portrayed as caring. There to help. Never shown as contributing to the oppression of African-Americans. Problems that members of the black underclass encounter are a result of their culture, their lack of personal responsibility.
“It’s no surprise either that white critics — eight out of the nine comments used on the publicity Web site for “Precious” were from white men and women — maintain that the movie is worthwhile because, through the efforts of a teacher, [Gabby Sidibe‘s character] begins her first awkward efforts at writing.
“Redemption through learning the ways of white culture is an old Hollywood theme. D. W. Griffith produced a series of movies in which Chinese, Indians and blacks were lifted from savagery through assimilation. A more recent example of climbing out of the ghetto through assimilation is Dangerous Minds, where black and Latino students are rescued by a curriculum that doesn’t include a single black or Latino writer.
“By the movie’s end, Precious may be pushing toward literacy. But she is jobless, saddled with two children, one of whom has Down syndrome, and she’s learned that she has AIDS.
“Some redemption.”
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