Rolling Stones and Golden Globes

That damned Peter Travers. I have such a hate/love opinion of him. I detest that he insists on recycling so much of the same language in his reviews ("...creeps up and floors you," "...unmissable and unforgettable," "...waves of ravishing romance"), I loathe how he's such a lapdog to anything Oscar bait-y, and I really can't stand his embarassing insistence on pretending he's not totally GAY. And yet, he's one of the few critics whose work I regularly read. The guy has some reliably good taste in movies, which I respect. And, wouldn't you know it, the Rolling Stone reviewer's recently announced Top Ten List of 2008 looks a lot like my soon-to-be-posted lineup. Here it is, with a big ol' gay movie right at the top:

1. "Milk"

2. "Slumdog Millionaire"

3. "The Dark Knight"

4. "Frost/Nixon"

5. "WALL-E"

6. "Revolutionary Road"

7. "The Visitor"

8. "Doubt"

9. "Rachel Getting Married"

10. "Man on Wire"

Also announced this week were the nominations for the Baby Oscars, a.k.a the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards. CHEERS to the Hollywood Foreign Press (HFPA) for mixing the bag a little bit and giving much-deserved recognition to "In Bruges," Rebecca Hall in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," and James Franco in "Pineapple Express." BOOS to the HFPA for snubbing "Milk" out of Best Drama, "Rachel Getting Married" scribe Jenny Lumet out of Best Screenplay, and for giving Angelina Jolie a boost she doesn't deserve -- regardless of what Mr. Travers says. Below are the Golden Globe-nominated flicks in Comedy and Drama, and a link to the other nominees.

BEST PICTURE, Musical/Comedy
"Burn After Reading"
"Happy-Go-Lucky"
"In Bruges" (yay!)
"Mamma Mia!" (bleh!)
"Vick Cristina Barcelona"

BEST PICTURE, Drama
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"Frost/Nixon"
"The Reader"
"Revolutionary Road"
"Slumdog Millionaire"

*For a complete list of nominees, CLICK HERE.

BFCA, LAFCA, WAFCA, and NYFCC Announce Noms, Winners

That's the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association, and the New York Film Critics Circle for those of you who don't dig acronyms. Collectively, the awards and nods from these major critics' groups give major Oscar boosts to some of my favorite '08 films, namely "Milk," "Man on Wire," "Happy-Go-Lucky," Wall-E," and "Rachel Getting Married." They also reinforce Heath Ledger's and Penolpe Cruz's probable dominations in the supporting acting categories.

Stay tuned for more award noms/wins, to be posted as they're announced. It's all leading up to my Year in Review, currently under construction.

BFCA
Best Picture Nominees:

"Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Doubt," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire," "Wall-E," "The Wrestler."
*For a complete list of all other BFCA nominees, CLICK HERE

LAFCA
Best Picture: "WALL•E"
Best Director: Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Best Actor: Sean Penn, "Milk"
Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight" Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and "Elegy"
Best Screenplay: Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Best Foreign Language film: "Still Life"
Best Documentary: "Man on Wire"
Best Animated Feature: "Waltz With Bashir"
Best Cinematography: Yu Lik Wai, "Still Life"
Best Music/Score: A.R. Rahman, "Slumdog Millionaire"
New Generation Award: Steve McQueen, "Hunger"
Best Production Design: Mark Friedberg, "Synecdoche, New York"

WAFCA

Best Film: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Best Director: Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"

Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler"

Best Actress: Meryl Streep, "Doubt"

Best Ensemble: "Doubt"

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"

Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt, "Rachel Getting Married"

Best Breakthrough Performance: Dev Patel, "Slumdog Millionaire"

Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire"

Best Original Screenplay: Jenny Lumet, "Rachel Getting Married"

Best Animated Feature: "Wall•E"

Best Foreign Language Film: "Let The Right One In"

Best Documentary: "Man On Wire"

Best Art Direction: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

NYFCC

BEST PICTURE: "Milk"

BEST DIRECTOR: Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"

BEST ACTRESS: Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky "
BEST ACTOR: Sean Penn, "Milk"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Josh Brolin, "Milk"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

BEST SCREENPLAY: Jenny Lumet, "Rachel Getting Married "
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER: Anthony Dod Mantle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
BEST ANIMATED FILM: "WALL-E"
BEST FIRST FILM: Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"
BEST FOREIGN FILM: "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"
BEST ACTOR: Sean Penn, "Milk"
BEST NON-FICTION FILM (DOC.): "Man on Wire"

Is Beyonce Suddenly an Oscar Contender?

...don't bet on it. But with the pop star's schizophrenic double-disc album, "I Am...Sasha Fierce," climbing the pop charts, and her ensemble vehicle, "Cadillac Records," getting a pretty positive response from most critics, she's peaking at just the right time -- voting time.

In "Records," which chronicles the rise of revolutionary musicians like Muddy Waters in the 1940s, Knowles plays Etta James, going blonde and belting out the aged crooner's immortal ballad "At Last" with gusto. I've not yet seen it, but here's what other critics are saying of Beyonce's work:

"Beyonce...just about burns a hole in the screen with her sultry torment. As a woman who rocked the house but could get no satisfaction, Beyonce does a 'Lady Sings the Blues' in miniature."

- Owen Glieberman, Entertainment Weekly

"As the legendary James, beset by drama and drug addiction, Beyoncé delivers."

- Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

"It's Beyoncé Knowles as Etta James who's the movie's revelation. She's great. She has a terrific voice [and] a gifted singer's capacity for reaching deep into her own emotions with ease, so she hits every song out of the park. What's more, she's a real actress, who brings out James in all her complex shadings - the scalding anger, the pain, the self-hatred, the unwillingness to trust anybody and the helplessness to control her own turbulence."
- Mick La Salle, San Francisco Chronicle

"Knowles, who shines most when singing, captures James' emotional vulnerability and is substantially better than she was in Dreamgirls."
- Claudia Puig, USA Today

Okay, so that last one's a bit of a throw-away but, taken as a whole, that's some pretty good ink for a crossover star who hasn't exactly had the easiest time crossing over (remember "Goldmember?" Yeah, me too). Will she nab a Golden Globe nod like she did for - essentially - playing a version of herself in "Dreamgirls?" It's possible. Even my local film critic - the one who's not me - deemed her a probable Supporting Actress Oscar nominee. With so many other ladies vying for the spot, such a miracle isn't likely but, if it happens, know Your Movie Buddy called it.

Ebert, NBR Announce Their Top Movies

The National Board of Review and America's favorite Movie Answer Man, Roger Ebert, have announced their picks for the best films of 2008. On both lists (Ebert's is an uncompromising, un-ranked Top 20), many of the assumed titles appear. Ebert's, of course, is the better batch, a healthy mix of mainstream fare ("Iron Man," "The Dark Knight"), generally maligned films ("W.," "The Fall"), and lesser-recognized personal favorites ("Chop Shop," "Shotgun Stories"). Ebert remains the most balanced of film critics, unafraid to champion popular titles yet fully aware of the greatness of obscure gems. He's neither smug nor a sellout.

The NBR, on the other hand offers the closest thing one is likely to come to a Golden Globe/Academy preview this early in the game. With all-inclusive accolades for Top 10 Independent Films, Top Foreign Films, Docs, Animated Features, Rising Stars, and Honorable Mentions backing their primary Top 10 (well, 11), you could pretty much fill every category on the Oscar ballot with the whole bunch. That said, it still gives me butterflies. Here are both lists, alphabetically:

EBERT

Ballast

The Band's Visit

Che

Chop Shop

The Dark Knight

Doubt

The Fall

Frost/Nixon

Frozen River

Happy-Go-Lucky

Iron Man

Milk

Rachel Getting Married

The Reader

Revolutionary Road

Shotgun Stories

Slumdog Millionaire

Synecdoche, New York

W.

Wall-E

*Special Jury Prize: My Winnipeg

NBR

*Best Pic: Slumdog Millionaire

Burn After Reading

Changeling

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Dark Knight

Defiance

Frost/Nixon

Gran Torino

Milk
Wall-E

The Wrestler

Blunder Down Under

Last Friday, I ventured to the multiplex to marvel at Baz Luhrmann's eight-years-in-the-making, two-years-in-the-waiting "Moulin Rouge!" follow-up, "Australia." Anyone who reads this blog knows I've been heralding the Down Under "Gone with the Wind" for months (just look here, here, here, and here). As expected, it was big and it was beautiful and it started out an enjoyable ride. But when I (FINALLY) walked out of what had been my most anticipated film of the season, I was crushed by a most tragic feeling: I don't think I ever want to see this movie again. What went wrong?

1. It's way too big for its britches.
I'm not daunted by long running times. Eight more endings and an additional hour in the extended cut of “The Return of the King?” I'm there. Six hours of HBO's grand miniseries “Angels in America?” Sign me up. But if I'm gonna devote that much time to a single piece of work, it'd better be masterpiece material or, at least, continuously entertaining. “Australia” clocks in at 2 hours and 45 minutes but trudges on for what feels like forever. I understand that Luhrmann was attempting to give equal play to three major cornerstones of his native land's history – life in the outback, Aboriginal discrimination, and the under-documented effects of the war on the nation – but, crikey, couldn't he have been a tad more selective in what he chose to show? I love sprawling flicks that have everything, but give me the goods in balance doses and, atop that, choose a flagship storyline. Not seamlessly but suffocatingly, “Australia” is an adventure tale, a gooey romance, a social commentary, a fantasy, a war film, a hackneyed comedy, a melodramatic soap opera...did I miss anything? As the movie nears its elusive end, it's anyone's guess which story thread will be used to tie things up. If Luhrmann threw any more shrimp on the barbie, the screen would go up in smoke.

2. It's cheesy.
One of the heads of “Australia”'s narrative hydra – penned by four screenwriters, including Luhrmann – involves the voodoo-mysticism of the Aborigine people, specifically that of King George (David Gulpilil, above), the teleporting grandfather of Lady Sarah Ashley's (Nicole Kidman) and Drover's (Hugh Jackman) adopted son, Nullah (Oprah favorite Zachary Taylor). The “magic” – which includes, but is not limited to, King George's uncannily omnipresent, flamingo-posed perch above each scene – works to a point, but it fast becomes yet another overindulgence. Usually, Nullah seems to be the only one who notices his grandpa's miraculous materializations. That is, except for us. We see him – a lot. The non-stop arrivals of the character flip him from intriguing to tiresome and cause the culture's incantations to go from mysterious to silly. That's about the time that the film's better half wraps up, via a dizzying and pretentious flash-forward sequence that sails across every landscape of the topographically diverse continent and a honky-dory home-sweet-home scenario that's so sappy/happy I had to make sure I wasn't stuck to my seat. And then disaster strikes.

3. It's rife with cliches.
The easiest thing to love about “Australia” is its out-and-out gorgeousness. The second easiest thing is its unabashed evocation of Hollywood classics. As mentioned, it's every bit David O. Selznick's magnum opus transported to a lower spot on the globe. Unfortunately, it's also lower on the totem pole. Its perpetual homages are charming on the outset, and even into the halfway point: the breathtaking stampede; Jackman's breathtaking, white-suited entrance; the breathtaking kiss in the rain. But the classic soon gives way to the cliche...big time. Brain-slapping stupidities start to herd together like cattle. Once Luhrmann serves up a blockbuster-friendly Japanese attack, his movie turns into every bad actioner in one lump sum. The sidekick-as-martyr bit? Check. The villain's final, futile attempt at vengeance just before death by a supporting character? Check. Off into the sunset? Check. Again, it's clear what the Aussie director is going for: a movie released today that plays like it was made 50 years ago. But, I don't think, in this post-postmodern age of cinema, that one who's serious about film can tolerate so much rampantly banal content in one place – especially not for nearly 3 hours.

“Australia” is not a terrible movie. It's a visually accomplished picture with a strong foundation, a story worth telling, technical wizardry, and fine acting. The skin on those bones is what drags it down, and my trampled expectations are what fuel this critical fire. It saddens and baffles me that a miracle maker like Luhrmann can devise something as wildly and immortally inventive as "Moulin Rouge!," disappear for nearly a decade crafting a subsequent feast, and return with something this overstuffed and trite. The prestigious talent and expansive eye candy present here slow my hand, but they can't stop me from calling “Australia” what it is: an epic disappointment.

3 stars (out of 5) -- but just barely.

Labels and Love

Posters of the Year 2008
A cross. A wire. A trampoline. A clueless president. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple image to convey the mood of a film. When it comes to movie posters, I prefer simplicity and classicism above all, and the best use their images sparingly and appropriately. The art of the film poster is a bit of a lost one these days. Below are my choices for those in 2008 that retained it best.

Honorable Mention:
SEX AND THE CITY
With a logo this iconic, what else do you need? I'll tell you what: flashing lights, plenty of pink, and one of the most unabashedly adorable taglines ever.







And the Rest:

W.
I had a hard time choosing which version to go with here, since there was also that great "misunderestimated" lot floating around that riffed on "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil." I decided on the one above not only because it illutrates the falseness of modern politics in the media but also because it drives home the nearly unanimous notion that Bush was little more than a puppet.

FUNNY GAMES
This film's marketing campaign far exceeded the film itself. The trailer for Michael Haneke's remake of his own sadistic 1997 thriller was perhaps the year's best, and this stirring image encapsulates the helpless fear of its characters with just one tear and one knockout actress' desperate expression.

THE WRESTLER
Half the glory of this propaganda-like one-sheet was its much-anticipated reveal -- the poster itself was a big premiere. The other half consists of a blonde-topped man beaten down by life, a hope-inspiring and action-suggestive array of lights, and an eloquent endorsement of a very Oscar-friendly performance.

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
One of three illustration-only titles on this list, this pink confection is as buoyant as Sally Hawkins' turn as the sprightly Poppy. The version with the actress tossing her hair back is a joy as well, but nothing beats the lightheartedness of the work above.

THE FALL
The only one in the bunch that borders on busy, "The Fall" ranks high because it accurately communicates the fantasy film's wonder and color-filled beauty. Don't know who the heck Lee Pace is? Or Tarsem, for that matter? Who cares? Look at those reds and blues pop.

DOUBT
Few posters have the bravery to go for just black and white and a little selective color (you'll have to take my word on the line-thin inclusion of a small stained-glass window in primary hues), especially when you've got Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as your five-star faces. The simple image has the movie's enigmatic controversy all over it.

BURN AFTER READING
A thrilling homage to the famous work of Saul Bass from the '50s and '60s, this caper-tastic collection of precariously stacked, jagged text and eccentric spy illustrations gets a top spot simply for its classic appeal. It doesn't hurt that the names shown represent one of the year's strongest casts.

MAN ON WIRE
A great example of how critical praise can elevate a poster's impact. Floating at 4,000 feet, the word "exhilarating" (quoted from the NY Times' Stephen Holden) appears to be feeling what it means. And that big, majestic blue sky holds within it the lofty dreams of that tiny speck of a man -- dancing on a wire.

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
In this poster lies all the sexy style of Woody Allen's latest international outing, squeezed into a box that's surrounded by text which almost echoes the endlessly inventive storyteller's signature credit font. It doesn't get much hotter than one gorgeously cropped shot of Penelope, Scarlett, and Javier, and the strategically bisected faces are subtly - or not-so-subtly - indicative of their characters' motives. I would frame this and hang it on my wall.

Want more?
Check out LAST YEAR'S LIST

Happy Thanksgiving

...from Kurtis and April.

Meet Your Heavyweight Contender for BEST ACTOR

Variety is the first to unveil the much-anticipated trailer for "The Wrestler," Darren Aronofsky's character study of an aging professional. . .duh. Looks like some seriously meaty work by lead star Mickey Rourke, who's all but destined to make the final five at this point. This has suddenly become one of the most intriguing looking films of December (at least for me). See for yourself:

The 'Twilight' Zone

(I have to admit, I stole that headline from James Wolcott's Vanity Fair article on the blood-sucking blockbuster. But it's a rather fair game analogy, no? I couldn't resist.)

I've got nothing invested in the massively over-hyped film version of now immortal author Stephenie Meyer's massively successful undead anthology. I'll not be attending any midnight screenings, or twilight ones, for that matter (listen to me, once again, temptation not withstood). In fact, I'm thinking of boycotting this film altogether. If I see one more web site ad banner with Photoshop-ed pics of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson (like the one below), I might just sink my teeth into my laptop's power cord.

Seriously, this bitch is everywhere. Cinema sites can't get enough, Entertainment Weekly is downright obsessed (devoting two of its covers to the flick so far), and even Men's Health has car part-sounding co-star Cam Gigandet as its cover boy. Yet, amidst all this relentless excitement, no one can seem to say anything viable about the quality of the film itself. If the best endorsement Summit Entertainment can dig up about their product is "a full-blown pop culture phenomenon" (from the LA Times), they may as well tell everyone to stay home and watch "Dancing With the Stars."

I'm sure that "Twilight" doesn't reek as bad as, say, "Queen of the Damned," but unless someone gives me a damned good reason to catch this movie (besides the fact that it's wildly popular or that Pattinson looks like a post-mortem James Dean), I'm holding tight to my garlic.

Johnny in Burtonland

A sneak peek at Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's upcoming rendition of "Alice in Wonderland." I'm not really digging the Carrot Top hairdo but the hat is bundles of fun. Ditto the rabbit, even though he looks a little terrified (and rightfully so).

'Christmas Cottage' Cheese

Here's an abomination if I ever saw one:

You read right. Thomas Kinkade, that sentimental sellout of a painter whose glowing renderings of snow-covered vistas now appear on everything from throw pillows to coffee mugs, has made a MOVIE...about HIMSELF. "Christmas Cottage," a straight-to-DVD holiday tearjerker named after one of Kinkade's most rampantly reproduced works, stars "Supernatural"'s Jared Padalecki as Kinkade in his youth and chronicles his rise to become "The Painter of Light" (a title that's even trademarked within the synopsis on the back of the DVD).

What a sinful addition to the already much-tainted holiday movie genre. What a shameful self-promotion from a man who embodies the problem of tasteless American consumerism (on that note, the flick will probably sell like mad). What an unforgivable paycheck project for Peter O'Toole (so much for those eleventh hour Oscar hopes) and Marcia Gay Harden (she can file this one away alongside "Welcome to Mooseport"). What a joke.

OSCAR is Coming

It's November, which means there are only two months to go before Academy prez Sid Ganis and whichever semi-obscure female Oscar winner he's got on hand announce the Academy Award nominations for the year '08.

Last year, this blog went Oscar crazy, and the trend will likely continue in the coming weeks. However, I haven't talked much about 2008/09 Oscar predictions at all, just some light teasing. I've learned the hard way not to set anything in stone before the buzz has reached a fever pitch, so I dare not make any definitive calls until all 12 months have wrapped.

In the meantime, given the buzz I've gathered from watching films incessantly and keeping an ear to the street, here are the names I've been thinking about in regards to the year's second-largest election. Can I even compare the Oscar race to the U.S. presidential race?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Viola Davis, "Doubt"
Rosemarie DeWitt, "Rachel Getting Married"
Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Kate Winslet, "The Reader"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, "Milk"
Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"
Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"
Eddie Marsan, "Happy-Go-Lucky"

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"
Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Meryl Streep, "Doubt"
Kristin Scott Thomas, "I've Loved You So Long"
Kate Winslet, "Revolutionary Road"

BEST ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio, "Revolutionary Road"
Clint Eastwood, "Gran Turino"
Sean Penn, "Milk"
Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler"

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Baz Luhrmann, "Australia"
Christopher Nolan, "The Dark Knight"
Gus Van Sant, "Milk"

BEST PICTURE
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"The Dark Knight"
"Milk"
"Slumdog Millionaire"
"Revolutionary Road"

...And, there you have it. (I'm sure I'll be switching these babies around once the precursors start rolling in. But it feels good to get a batch of predix out of my system.) Stay tuned, kids!

Krispy Kreme

In honor of Election Day, I've provided a clip from one of my favorite political films, Mike Nichols' Clinton send-up, "Primary Colors." The scene, which shows John Travolta's Clinton doppelganger musing over politics in a Krispy Kreme just after more attacks on his character have been released, is alternately fierce (cheers, Emma Thompson), funny, and, most importantly, hopeful. Aren't we all? Enjoy.

Force of Nature

Nominated for 2007's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar but only released stateside this year, "Mongol," a sweeping and stirring account of Genghis Kahn's rise to power, is a thing of beauty. The picturesque multi-regional cinematography by Rogier Stoffers ("Quills") and Sergei Trofimov ("Night Watch," "Day Watch") rivals anything to be seen in '07 or '08.

The old-fashioned epic is also a thing of ferocity, depicting the warlord's formative years from fierce youth to steadfast conqueror, bleeding and suffering along the way. If Russian writer/director Sergei Bodrov and co-writer Arif Aliyev have presented this historic tale accurately, Genghis (formerly known simply as Temujin) endured years of immense hardships before becoming the conqueror that history remembers. Slavery, torture, loss, humiliation, and near-death all befall him -- a lesser man would have surely given up or, more likely, died.

Had Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano, who plays Temujin with a growling physicality, given less of a one-note performance and become more of a force of nature like the film itself, "Mongol" would have been a thing of perfection.

Happy Halloween!

...a day late. Boo!

To celebrate the most cinematic of holidays, I followed up my obligatory, annual viewing of John Carpenter's 1977 classic with "Fear(s) of the Dark," IFC Films' annoyingly titled-but-eye-catching compilation of scary animated shorts from six international filmmakers (call it, the "Paris Je T'aime" of your nightmares).

Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Disciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, and Richard Maguire each supplies his or her own vision of terror; one political, one science-fiction-al, one primal, all rather dismal. Caillou's bit, about an Asian schoolgirl trapped in a terrible dream (above), is one of the more inventive. The best is the piece by Charles Burns, a creepy-crawly tale about humanoid bugs. There's also a nasty aristocrat walking a quartet of even nastier dogs...

"Fear(s) of the Dark" deserves kudos on the grounds that it's enriching stuff compared to, say, "Saw V." It's not very scary; on the contrary, it's usually a joy to look at. Does that mean it fails to achieve what it set out to? Nah. I've just been to one too many haunted houses to be spooked by a couple o' toons.