Thursday, September 29, 2005

Kate & Cameron take a "Holiday"



This is the kind of news I dream of.

Kate Winslet.

Cameron Diaz.

Same movie.

Finally, something else to look forward to next year. I can barely compile a top 10 most anticipated for 2006 list.

I didn't care for Something's Gotta Give (at all) but I've liked most of Meyers' other films.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

"Kate Winslet is in final negotiations to join Cameron Diaz in Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy "Holiday" for Columbia Pictures.

Negotiations between the actress and the studio had reached an impasse last week over scheduling conflicts. Those conflicts have been resolved, the studio said.

The film marks Meyers' follow-up to the romantic comedy "Something's Gotta Give." "Holiday," which also is written and produced by Meyers, centers on an American woman (Diaz) with man troubles who crosses paths with a British villager (Winslet) with similar problems.

The film begins shooting early next year in Europe and the U.S., with Amy Baer overseeing for the studio.

It has been a busy year for Winslet, who is filming Todd Field's "Little Children" for New Line Cinema and lends her voice to DreamWorks' 2006 animated comedy "Flushed Away." The four-time Oscar-nominated actress, who co-stars in Columbia's December release "All the King's Men," recently spoofed herself in a guest spot on HBO's "Extras."

She is repped by CAA and Dallas Smith of Peters, Fraser & Dunlop."

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Box Office Predictions: Sept. 30 - Oct. 2

1. Flightplan - $12.5m / $44.5m / $74m
2. The Corpse Bride - $11.5m / $35m / $65m
3. Serenity - $11m / $11m / $26m
4. Into the Blue - $8m / $8m / $20m
5. A History of Violence - $7m / $7.5m / $28m
6. Just Like Heaven - $5.5m / $38m / $52m
7. The Greatest Game Ever Played - $4.5m / $4.5m / $22m
8. Roll Bounce - $4m / $13m / $21m
9. The 40 Year Old Virgin - $3m / $101m / $105m
10. Oliver Twist - $2.5m / $2.5m / $9m


into the direct to dvd bin at blockbuster

Friday, September 23, 2005

New Trailer: The Family Stone

Check out that AWESOME poster. LOVE It.

You'll see this if you see the In Her Shoes sneak preview happening this weekend or when you see In Her Shoes when it's released October 7th. Or you could watch it now and not see In Her Shoes. But you wouldn't dare do that to me, would you?

Rachel McAdams. Need I say more?

(Claire Danes, Diane Keaton, Dermot Mulroney, Craig T. Nelson, SJP and Luke Wilson, just in case I need to say more.)



Trailer here.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Oscar Predictions #3 (of 7)

Me talking out my ass...

This will likely be the last set of predictions I leave Munich out of. It is still filming and set for release in 3 months. DreamWorks has done this type of thing before, and the result is usually messy. But it's Spielberg. If the release date still stands next month, I'll put it in some categories. Till then...

Best Picture:
Yes, no Geisha. I'm thinking it will be like The Last Samurai or Road to Perdition and score a lot of non-big nominations. I'm just not feeling it right now. The Family Stone is my alternative. And after seeing that trailer, All the King's Men could get in here, too.

Brokeback Mountain
Good Night. And, Good Luck
Mrs. Henderson Presents
*****The New World*****
Walk the Line



Best Director:
Hey, whodathunk Clooney would get a Director's nod & Screenwriting nod at the beginning of the year? I had him down as Actor for Syriana.

George Clooney - Good Night. And, Good Luck
David Cronenberg - A History of Violence
Ang Lee - Brokeback Mountain
*****Terrence Malick - The New World*****
James Mangold - Walk the Line


Best Actor:
Ledger's Ennis Del Mar will go down as one of the most iconic performances in the history of cinema. (Not one for hyperbole, am I?) Hoffman and Strathairn are the critics' darling. Phoenix gets the actual prize.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Capote
Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain
Viggo Mortensen - A History of Violence
*****Joaquin Phoenix - Walk the Line*****
David Strathairn - Good Night. And, Good Luck


Best Actress:
4 previous winners Vs. Reese Witherspoon. Sidenote: If Phoenix does not win, most likely she won't either. Felicity Huffman won the Emmy which increases her visibility, but the movie Transamerica is supposed to be not so good.

Judi Dench - Mrs. Henderson Presents
Diane Keaton - The Family Stone
Gwyneth Paltrow - Proof
Charlize Theron - North Country
*****Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line*****


Best Supporting Actor:
Not too confident about the first two, but the rest seem okay.

Clifton Collins Jr - Capote
Jake Gyllenhaal - Brokeback Mountain
*****Bob Hoskins - Mrs. Henderson Presents*****
Christopher Plummer - The New World
Peter Sarsgaard - Jarhead


Best Supporting Actress:
Yes, Oscar-nominee Sarah Jessica Parker. You could also see Oscar-nominee Michelle Williams. Jen Lindley and Carrie Bradshaw strike back! I chose Yeoh over Li because, well, I have no idea....

Maria Bello - A History of Violence
*****Shirley MacLaine - In Her Shoes*****
Frances McDormand - North Country
Sarah Jessica Parker - The Family Stone
Michelle Yeoh - Memoirs of a Geisha


Best Original Screenplay:
The Family Stone will likely slip in here.

Crash
*****Good Night. And, Good Luck*****
Match Point
Mrs. Henderson Presents
Walk the Line


Best Adapted Screenplay:
Brokeback owns this. You know they are just dying to give Larry McMurtry an Oscar.

All the King's Men
*****Brokeback Mountain*****
Capote
A History of Violence
In Her Shoes


Best Art Direction:
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
King Kong
*****Memoirs of a Geisha*****
The New World


Best Cinematography:
Brokeback Mountain
Jarhead
King Kong
Memoirs of a Geisha
*****The New World
*****

Best Costume Design:
Casanova
*****Memoirs of a Geisha*****
Mrs. Henderson Presents
The New World
Pride and Prejudice


Best Editing:
Crash
Jarhead
*****The New World*****
Syriana
Walk the Line


Best Sound Mixing:
*****King Kong*****
The New World
Star Wars: Ep. 3
Walk the Line
War of the Worlds


Best Sound Editing:
Jarhead
King Kong
*****Star Wars: Ep. 3
*****

Best Makeup:
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
*****Memoirs of a Geisha
*****

Best Original Score:
Brokeback Mountain
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
The Family Stone
Memoirs of a Geisha
*****The New World
*****

Best Original Song:
Brokeback Mountain
*****Brokeback Mountain*****
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
Crash
In Her Shoes


Best Visual Effects:
King Kong
*****Star Wars: Ep. 3*****
War of the Worlds


Best Animated Feature:
*****Tim Burton's Corpse Bride*****
Chicken Little
Wallace & Grommit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit


Tally:

The New World - 9 Nominations / 5 Wins
Brokeback Mountain - 9 Nominations / 2 Wins
Walk the Line - 7 Nominations / 2 Wins
Mrs. Henderson Presents - 5 Nominations / 1 Win
Good Night. And, Good Luck - 4 Nominations / 1 Win

Memoirs of a Geisha - 6 Nominations / 3 Wins
King Kong - 5 Nominations / 1 Win
A History of Violence - 4 Nominations
Jarhead - 4 Nominations
Capote - 3 Nominations
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride - 3 Nominations / 1 Win
The Family Stone - 3 Nominations
In Her Shoes - 3 Nominations / 1 Win
Star Wars: Ep. 3 - 3 Nominations / 2 Wins
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 2 Nominations
Chronicles of Narnia - 2 Nominations
Crash - 2 Nominations
North Country - 2 Nominations
War of the Worlds - 2 Nominations
All the King's Men - 1 Nomination
Casanova - 1 Nomination
Chicken Little - 1 Nomination
Match Point - 1 Nomination
Pride and Prejudice - 1 Nomination
Proof - 1 Nomination
Syriana - 1 Nomination
Wallace and Grommit - 1 Nomination

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Box Office Predictions: Sept. 23 - 25

1. Flightplan - $24m / $24m / $75m
2. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride - $20m / $20.5m / $65m
3. Just Like Heaven - $10m / $30m / $50m
4. Roll Bounce - $9m / $9m / $28m
5. The Exorcism of Emily Rose - $8m / $63m / $80m
6. Lord of War - $5m / $17.5m / $27m
7. The 40 Year Old Virgin - $4m / $96m / $104m
8. The Constant Gardener - $2.5m / $28m / $33m
9. The Transporter 2 - $2m / $39.5m / $43m
10. Cry Wolf - $2m / $7m / $10m


we already told you, jodie, your daughter got sucked into that shitty julianne moore movie

(joke courtesy of Greg)

Sunday, September 18, 2005

The Festivals Are Over....

Oscar predictions are coming later this week.

Oh, and it looks like I'll be seeing In Her Shoes Saturday, so I'll be doing the countdown to that this week. And perhaps a little coverage the week of October 7th - what shows Cameron will be on, etc. You have to see her on talk shows. Her personality is an acquired taste. I love it.

Thus, with the festivals ending, my coverage of the most acclaimed film of the past two weeks ends until mid November when I start my month-long countdown to Brokeback Mountain. Till then and because I couldn't resist...

EMMY Thoughts...

QUICK PLUG:



GET ARRESTED MONDAY NIGHT AT 8PM!!!!



+Ellen didn't have enough to do, but GOD DAMN was her Oscar hosting "plea" dead on. GO ELLEN!

+The Daily Show clips and Ali G having porn stars as writers - brilliant! So FUNNY.

+The Desperate Housewives were the funniest presenters until Conan. My God. Felicity saying "CLUNK!" had me in stitches. "You guys got a limo?" Such funny ladies. And Marcia looking every bit the ice princess. That might not be acting she does on the show?

+CONAN presenting Comedy Actress to cut the tension. Marcia looked so bitchy. FELICITY HUFFMAN!?!?!? That was a wonderful surprise that I really didn't want to see happen but was so happy when it did. "I'm that actress!" What a perfect speech. So surprised and I loved the enthusiastic reaction from her DH crew. Then, they followed it up with Patricia Arquette. Another nice surprise with a very nice speech. And her husband is Thomas Jane. BONUS!

+Kristen Bell is a cutie. That guy almost dropped her.

+Jennifer Love Hewitt mispronounced Charlize Theron's name. Stupid bitch.

+Who was that guy Hugh Jackman thanked? The young hot one? Is his wife a major beard or is it just me?

+Jennifer Garner looks adorable even with a bun in her oven. Too bad Affleck has to be there. BLECK!

+Lost won two awards. Go JJ.

+Everybody Loves Raymond? Of course. Generic over groundbreaking and original-funny. BOO!

+S. Epatha Merkerson: BEST. SPEECH. OF. THE. NIGHT. I laughed. I cried. I laughed some more.

+Best Dressed: The nominated Housewives but especially....



See, this is the look Julianne Mooer should aspire to. The hair is so simple. Maggie Grace, take note. That shitty overly up-do'd look you had was too much. Cross owns it, baby.

And Alyson Hannigan! The red heads really have it here.


P.S. Angie, we really need to watch EVERY award show together.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

New Trailer: Memoirs of a Geisha

Certainly a visual stunner. But will it be any good?

Go here.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

'In Her Shoes' reaction from Toronto

Now that Brokeback Mountain has screened, here's the "final" word on In Her Shoes:

It's an okay chick flick to "Best Chick Flick since Terms of Endearment!"

The reviews are pretty divisive. No one's calling it a bad movie or even a mediocre one. Variety's review likes the acting and thinks it will do decent biz, but the general feeling is that it's just too conventional. Jeffrey Wells really liked it as did Susan Wloszczyna from USA Today, who suggested that men will like the film as well. Ebert is withholding his thoughts on all films cause he is a tease, but did say that it comes off as "tough and perceptive." He raved MacLaine later saying she should be nominated. As of right now, I think that's probably the only Oscar nomination to come its way, but Diaz and Collette could get Golden Globe noms depending on how much money the movie makes.

I just saw a TV spot for this while I was typing. Yeah, I'll probably love this.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Random Thoughts: Broken Flowers, Skeleton Key

Huh! Darren actually wrote about movies he saw?!?!? GASP!

Broken Flowers - 8/10

The first 20-25 minutes of this movie were pretty awful to sit through. Nothing happens and it's very slowly paced. Once Bill gets on the road, things pick up a lot and the movie comes alive. Murray is wonderfully lethargic, if not quite as great as he was in Lost In Translation and Groundhog Day. The supporting cast is smartly cast and smoothly played by all participants. I particularly liked Sharon Stone, who is a damn fine actress when she wants to be. It's very carefully observed and seems to be the type of movie that would play just as well on the small screen. Don't fret if you missed it in theatres. Jarmush's screenplay deserves an Oscar nomination.

The Skeleton Key - 6/10

I'll start by saying this has about the greatest twist ending in a long, LONG time. Mr. Shyamalan should take note. Actually, he shouldn't. He needs to stay away from twist endings. Not to say I didn't partially see it coming, I did slightly, but it's a wicked doozy of an ending. The movie, in an odd similarity to Broken Flowers, gets better as it goes. Hudson's role really could have been played by anyone. She's not required to do much. She is partially nude in one scene, so there's that for her. I wish there would have been more shots of the swamps of New Orleands and perhaps an alligator. There's not even one. Skeleton Key does at times feel like a rough outline for a better movie. However, I was not once bored and the story was actually involving. That's more than I could say for most movies out right now.

Box Office Predictions: Sept. 16 - 18

1. Just Like Heaven - $24m / $24m / $75m
2. The Exorcism of Emily Rose - $13.5m / $51m / $75m
3. Lord of War - $11m / $11m / $30m
4. The 40 Year Old Virgin - $4.5m / $89m / $98m
5. Cry Wolf - $4m / $4m / $9m
6. The Transporter 2 - $3.5m / $36m / $42m
7. The Constant Gardener - $3m / $23.5m / $32m
8. Red Eye - $2.5m / $55m / $59m
9. Wedding Crashers - $2m / $203m / $206m
10. Venom - $1.5m / $1.5m / $3.5m


just like heaven indeed

Monday, September 12, 2005

Witty, Fast Talking, Sexy & Funny: Updates on TV Women I Love

Tina Fey gave birth to a baby girl!

From Yahoo:

"NEW YORK - This just in: "Saturday Night Live" comedian-writer Tina Fey has given birth to her first child.

Fey, co-anchor of Weekend Update, the fake news desk of "SNL," gave birth Saturday in New York to a daughter, Alice Richmond, an NBC spokesman said Monday.

"Safe, home, happy, thrilled to death," said Marc Liepis, a spokesman for the sketch comedy show. The baby weighed 5 pounds, 5 ounces, he said.

Fey, 35, and her husband, Jeff Richmond, were married in 2001. Fey has been head writer at "SNL" for five years; Richmond is a composer for the show.

She will take a brief maternity leave from "Saturday Night Live," which premieres its 31st season Oct. 1."

SNL's season premiere host is rumored to be Eva Longoria. Maya Rudolph, along with Fey, is also taking a brief leave from the show. Rudolph is pregnant to boyfriend Paul Thomas Anderson (director of Boogie Nights and Magnolia, exec producer of Rudolph's upcoming film A Prarie Home Companion).

And in other season premieres:

GILMORE GIRLS premieres Tuesday night on The WB. It's the first season premiere of the season for TV shows I watch. When we last left those loveable yet oddly Emmy-impaired lasses, Rory had dropped out of Yale and moved in with grandparents Richard and Emily. Lorelai, angry at the betrayal, took comfort from boyfriend Luke who ended up being more understanding and willing to help than Lorelai expected. In return, Lorelai proposed. And season 5 came to a close with that.

Will Lorelai say yes? (She better!) Will Rory and Lorelai remain split for a few episodes. (They supposedly do.) Will Rory end it with bad rich boy Logan? (God, I hope so! I hate that fucker. Rory needs to see the ray of light that is Marty.) And just how will Rory leaving Yale affect my favorite non-Gilmore Gilmore Girls character Paris? Paris better get some screentime. That girl is my favorite.

Watch Gilmore Girls.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Brokeback Mountain In Toronto


































Saturday, September 10, 2005

That Gay Cowboy Movie Won an Award...Or Something

Today: Venice.

Next Week: Toronto.

December: The World.

Here's some pics of the cast in Toronto. Pregnant Michelle Williams looks incandescent. No matter what some people think, I like her. Here's some pics from the press conference. Heath looks very funny in the one. Tehe.

From the BBC:

Ang Lee takes Venice Golden Lion

Ang Lee's gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain has won the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

The film is adapted from a short story by Annie Proulx and stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as love-struck cowboys who have a 20-year affair. Lee beat off competition from 18 other films, such as George Clooney's favoured Good Night, Good Luck. Lee, maker of Oscar-winner Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has won a global reputation as an eclectic film-maker. The Taiwanese director's other films include the comic book blockbuster The Hulk, released last year, and Sense and Sensibility, an adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel.

George Clooney's film Good Night, Good Luck had been the hot favourite among film critics to take the Golden Lion on the last night of the 11-day annual festival. The McCarthy-era film, directed by and featuring Clooney, won best screenplay. Its star David Strathairn won the best actor prize for his portrayal of journalist Edward R Murrow.

The award for best actress went to Italian actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno for her role in the movie La Bestia nel Cuore, a tale of adult siblings scarred by child abuse. She beat off competition from French star Isabelle Huppert and her film Gabrielle, and Gwyneth Paltrow, star of the film Proof. However, Huppert was awarded a special Lion for her outstanding contribution to cinema.

US director Abel Ferrara won the Jury Grand Prix for Mary, starring Juliette Binoche as an actress haunted by the figure of Mary Magdalene after having played her on screen. France's Philippe Garrel won the Silver Lion prize for best director with his Les Amants Reguliers, a story of love in bohemian Paris after the May 1968 riots. The film's photographer William Lubtchanski also took the trophy for outstanding technical contribution. The Marcello Mastroianni award for the best young actor or actress went to Menothy Cesar for Heading South. On Friday, Japan's Hayao Miyazaki was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the festival. The festival finale was a screening of Hong Kong director Peter Chan Ho-sun's Perhaps Love, a rare Chinese musical starring some of Asia's biggest names, including Jacky Cheung and Takeshi Kaneshiro.


I really don't like the way they kept using the term "beat off" instead of "won over." I really don't need to read "Ang Lee beat off George Clooney."

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Summer Box Office

My predictions at the beginning of the summer are in ().

Many grosses are final estimates.

1. Star Wars - $380m ($375m)
2. War of the Worlds - $234m ($250m)
3. Batman Begins - $205m ($235m)
4. Wedding Crashers - $204m ($115m)
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - $204m ($160m)
6. Madagascar - $192m ($215m)
7. Mr & Mrs Smith - $185m ($120m)
8. The Longest Yard - $158m ($98m)
9. Fantastic Four - $153m ($110m)
10. The 40 Year Old Virgin - $98m ($45m)
11. Monster In Law - $84m ($65m)
12. The Dukes of Hazzard - $80m ($40m)
13. Four Brothers - $74m ($33m)
14. March of the Penguins - $72m (N/A)
15. Herbie: Fully Loaded - $65m ($86m)
16. Bewitched - $62m ($100m)
17. Cinderella Man - $62m ($125m)
18. Sky High - $62m ($34m)
19. Red Eye - $58m ($46m)
20. Crash - $54m ($25m)
21. Kicking and Screaming - $53m ($84m)
22. Kingdom of Heaven - $47m ($150m)
23. The Skeleton Key - $46m ($50m)
24. Must Love Dogs - $46m ($38m)
25. Shark Boy & Lava Girl In 3D - $39m ($26m)
26. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - $39m ($42m)
27. The Brothers Grimm - $38m ($48m)
28. The Island - $36m ($85m)
29. The Constant Gardener - $35m (N/A)
30. The Bad News Bears - $34m ($75m)

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Reviews....

Ranked: the movies I've watched since the beginning of August(!):

1. 3 Women - 10/10

2. Dog Day Afternoon - 10/10

3. The Sweet Hereafter - 10/10

4. Flirting - 9/10

5. The Piano - 9/10

6. Raging Bull - 9/10

7. The Last Seduction - 9/10

8. Easy Rider - 9/10

9. The China Syndrome - 8/10

10. Terms of Endearment - 8/10

11. The Constant Gardener - 8/10

12. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore - 8/10

13. The 40 Year Old Virgin - 8/10

14. The War of the Roses - 7/10

15. Red Eye - 7/10

16. Broadcast News - 7/10

17. The Bad News Bears (1976) - 7/10

18. Layer Cake - 7/10

19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 6/10

20. Klute - 6/10

21. Five Easy Pieces - 6/10

22. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - 6/10

23. Rambling Rose - 5/10

24. Must Love Dogs - 5/10

25. Bad News Bears (2005) - 5/10

26. The Ballad of Jack and Rose - 5/10

27. An Unfinished Life - 4/10

28. Fantastic Four - 3/10

Box Office Predictions: Sept. 9 - 11

1. The Exorcism of Emily Rose - $22m / $22m / $60m
2. The 40 Year Old Virgin - $8m / $82m / $98m
3. The Transporter 2 - $8m / $31m / $42m
4. The Constant Gardener - $6m / $20m / $36m
5. The Man - $5m / $5m / $12m
6. Red Eye - $4.5m / $51m / $58m
7. The Brothers Grimm - $3.5m / $33.5m / $38m
8. Four Brothers - $3m / $68m / $74m
9. Wedding Crashers - $2.5m / $199m / $204m
10. March of the Penguins - $2.5m / $66.5m / $71m
11. An Unfinished Life - $2m / $2m / $8m


omg! the career of linda blair awaits me?

Monday, September 05, 2005

To make it even....

A Walk the Line review from Variety. Joaquin and Reese are getting some terrific ink for this baby, with Reese coming off better if only ever so slightly.

From Variety:

"Walk the Line" is a strongly acted, musically vibrant, conventionally satisfying biopic of country/rock/blues legend Johnny Cash and his second wife, June Carter. Absorbing and entertaining, James Mangold's heartfelt feature follows the predictable format for musical bios, encompassing popular singers' performance highs and drug-addled lows, and could have benefited from a rougher edge in line with the main subject's outlaw image. Already being pushed as this year's "Ray," Fox release can look forward to swaggering B.O. generally, especially from Middle America.

It's an exceptional time for biographical performances in Hollywood films, what with Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Capote" and David Strathairn in "Good Night, and Good Luck" already stirring major pre-release excitement. Add to those the lead turns in "Walk the Line." Reese Witherspoon does a sensational job as lifelong performer June Carter, while Joaquin Phoenix gains in conviction as pic builds to put over a very credible Johnny Cash. Their surprisingly good vocal perfs on the many well-known songs are icing on the cake.

Based on two Cash autobiographies and written with input from the couple up to their deaths in 2003, script by Gill Dennis and Mangold spends just enough time on Cash's rural '40s Arkansas youth to establish two keys to his personality: the tragic death of his beloved older brother in a dreadful circle-saw accident, and his father's intransigent disdain for Johnny, whom he saw as his "bad" son. "The Devil did this," Ray Cash (Robert Patrick) rails. "He took the wrong son."

Johnny's Air Force career in Germany is briefly visited to show him buying a guitar and seeing a film about Folsom Prison that inspired him to start composing, which comes in handy a few years later when he rescues a hitherto dud audition for Sun Records' Sam Phillips by singing the song with the renegade lyric, "I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die."

By the time he's 23, in 1955, Johnny has got his first hit, "Cry, Cry, Cry"; he's married to Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin), with one daughter born and more on the way; and he's on a wild boogie-woogie tour with the equally young Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Malloy Payne, looking more like James Dean than like Lewis), Elvis Presley (Tyler Hilton, not bad) and June Carter, a bubbly, sassy performer with personality to spare. Although June is married too, she and Johnny establish a strong, friendly bond in a well-written diner scene that nicely portends the enduring relationship to come.

The tours just keep on comin' over the next few years. When June gets divorced, Johnny begins coming on to her. But when she bolts after he gets too frisky with her onstage, Johnny comes apart, triggering the writing of "I Walk the Line," his indelible evocation of the difficulty of dealing with marriage and outside temptation, something Johnny's not always real good at.

He also succumbs to amphetamine addiction, on top of the boozing and carousing on tour. By the mid-'60s, after a decade of hoping and trying, Johnny finally gets June to bed down with him, but he promptly collapses onstage and goes into a tailspin that includes the implosion of his marriage, financial distress and a general withdrawal.

Despite the constant hopping about to critical moments in Johnny's life, individual scenes are generally convincing, and they're nicely juggled to distribute humor, musical highlights and convulsive confrontations.

Delightful interludes include a disgusted June discovering Johnny and the other boys still on an all-night bender on a bottle-strewn stage one morning before a matinee, and a bit in which Elvis offers Johnny some chili fries.

Giving both Johnny and the picture the strength they need is June's absolutely no-BS attitude toward life. She can't abide Johnny's self-destructive behavior and unwillingness to see things as they are. Still, when he hits rock-bottom, she's there to provide him with a second chance in life if he's willing. Winning and tough, Witherspoon simply could not be better in her most serious, fully elaborated performance to date.

Professional and musical climax comes with the celebrated January 1968 Folsom Prison performance, which is electrifying and sees Phoenix's perf in full flower.

Except for Witherspoon's, Southern accents throughout are on the light side, and same can be said for the film itself, which has a polished sheen where a greater grittiness would have been appropriate. Although this Johnny Cash walks the walk of the Man in Black, it's never entirely clear why he was perceived as more dangerous than his contemporaries, and a bolder, less prefab approach could have helped.

Still, "Walk the Line" moves along in a confident, pleasing way that provides a good feel for its characters and what they went through over the years. Supporting turns are solid and technical work thoroughly pro.


And, Brokeback Mountain's most positive review yet:

From Screendaily:

No newly-arrived Martian would ever guess that the same person had directed Sense & Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Hulk. The most impressive thing about Ang Lee’s creative take on the multiple personality syndrome is the way that each successive experiment feels like the work of a pro that has been mining that genre for years.

Take Brokeback Mountain: the director’s most complete and accomplished film to date comes across as the late masterpiece of an auteur dedicated to chronicling the demise of the American Dream.

A moving, measured, humane love story – and only incidentally a gay one – Brokeback Mountain derives its considerable emotional charge from its eye for details, from its laconic dialogue, from its careful dosing of small but devastating revelations, and from the bravura performances elicited by Lee from his cast – including a revelatory Heath Ledger.

Brokeback Mountain, which plays Toronto after it screening in competition at Venice, demands a certain patience and attention from its audience. But star appeal and Oscar murmurings should propel the film to the top of the indie box-office tables both at home and abroad, while upbeat critical word should draw the attention of more mainstream audiences. The film opens in the US on Dec 9 and in the UK on Dec 26.

The film is a surefire bet for a roster of Oscar nominations, which in addition to nods in one or both of the Best Film and Best Director slots are likely to include Best Actor for Ledger, Adapted Screenplay for Ossana and Schamus’s sensitive adaptation of Anne Proulx’s short story, Art Direction for Judy Becker’s painstakingly researched evocation of the sad provincial underbelly of America in the 1960s and 1970s, and Cinematography for Rodrigo Prieto’s still-photo take on the American West, which turns even the shabby interiors into impersonal landscapes, indifferent to their human inhabitants.

Composer Gustavo Santolalla, another close associate of Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, provides a spare score that caresses the action, sentimentally but mostly effectively, with Cooder-like guitar breaks.

Given the assured result, it’s difficult to understand why the project spent over seven years in development hell before Focus Features took it on: could it really be because a drama about two cowboys in love is still considered a delicate subject for a major studio?

Paradoxically, it is the lack of overt man-on-man action that makes Brokeback Mountain so magnificently subversive: not since Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together has the fact that this love story happens to be between two men been so tangential to a film’s emotional interests or impact.

Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) meet one summer on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming, hired by local ranch boss Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) to protect his sheep from wolf and coyote attacks in their remote upland pasture.

Jack is the fiery one, the impulsive Texan Rodeo rider who is as surprised by his emotions as Ennis but far more open to their consequences. It’s Ennis, though, who is the really memorable character: tough but shy, taciturn, unable to open up or really express his emotions.

But it’s the details that make the writing so spot-on: the way a playful tussle between the two men, after their sexual bonding, turns to a fist-fight as Ennis attempts to slug it out with a part of himself that he is afraid of; the wound-up excitement in the body and face of Ennis on the day he waits – at home, in the company of a wife (Williams) he loves – for Jack’s first visit after a four-year absence.

Rhythmically, the film takes its cue from the slow rhythms of life around these parts: the passing of the seasons, harvest and planting, the time to take the herds up the mountain and the time to bring them down. One is reminded, at times, of Terence Malick’s Days Of Heaven – another nature-soaked film which takes its time, and forces the audience to do the same.

And yet it rarely drags, or seems too long, as there is drama embedded in the apparently inconsequential dialogue, and the way that so much is unsaid, and touches of wry social humour: the increasingly fluffy, dyed hairstyles of Jack’s wife Lureen (Hathaway), the dogged way an ineffectual electric carving knife, as advertised on TV, whirrs away as a token of bourgeois normalcy when everything is so far from normal, or comfortable, or even bearable.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Brokeback Mountain: Premiere Pictures and Variety Review

I love Anna Faris' name in the film! LOL.

Regarding Variety and their reviews, they are seldom raves. 99.99% of the time, McCarthy will name a small list of problems with the film. The main detractor I've noticed some people bring up is the running time of Brokeback Mountain. I predicted a few months back it would be between 130-140 minutes and I was exactly right. *pats self on back* The complaint is that it's too long, but McCarthy observes this problem among Lee's other films none of which I've ever felt were too long. Except for The Hulk, a film I still like.

I read another review earlier today which pitched it as Far From Heaven meets Boys Don't Cry. I really like that. Pretty accurate in opinion. Given the acclaim the entire cast is receiving including the reviews saying how sharp even the smaller characters are drawn, I could see this pulling in some ensemble awards. Is there an award for Breakthrough Ensemble Performance?

Ebert has also seen the film as mentioned at his website, be he is withholding his comments. I don't know what that means. On the other hand, he seems to have really loved Walk the Line. His thoughts on the performances of Joaquin and Reese can be added to the already skyhigh piles of praise lumped on them.


From Variety:

A Focus Features release of a Focus Features and River Road presentation. Produced by Diana Ossana, James Schamus. Executive producers, William Pohlad, Larry McMurtry, Michael Costigan, Michael Hausman, Alberta Film Entertainment. Co-producer, Scott Ferguson. Directed by Ang Lee. Screenplay, Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana, based on the short story by Annie Proulx.

Ennis Del Mar...Heath Ledger
Jack Twist...Jake Gyllenhaal
Cassie...Linda Cardellini
Lashawn Malone...Anna Faris
Lureen Newsome...Anne Hathaway
Alma...Michelle Williams
Joe Aguirre...Randy Quaid
L.B. Newsome...Graham Beckel
Monroe...Scott Michael Campbell
Randall Malone...David Harbour
Alma Jr., age 19...Kate Mara
Jack's Mother...Roberta Maxwell
John Twist...Peter McRobbie

By TODD MCCARTHY

That most chameleonesque of directors, Ang Lee, pulls off yet another surprising left turn in Brokeback Mountain. An achingly sad tale of two damaged souls whose intimate connection across many years cannot ever be properly resolved, this ostensible gay Western is marked by a heightened degree of sensitivity and tact, as well as by an outstanding performance from Heath Ledger. With critical support, Focus should have little trouble stirring interest among older, sophisticated viewers in urban markets, but trying to cross this risky venture over into wider release reps a marketing challenge for the ages; paradoxically, young women may well constitute the group that will like the film best.

In his uneven Civil War-era drama Ride with the Devil, Lee revealed a touch for portraying neglected aspects of Western Americana, a talent he applies and readjusts in an updated context here.

Annie Proulx's 1997 short story movingly compressed the long-arc love story of two loner ranch hands into 30 tight pages. Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana have faithfully and perceptively retained the tone and the particulars of the tale in their screenplay, elaborating mainly in the areas of the separate family lives the men pursue during their long separations.

Precise build-up over the opening half-hour shows the director thoroughly at home with the emotional reserve of his characters and the iconography of the Wyoming setting. It's 1963, and brawny Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and lean Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), who have never met, pose, smoke and brood outside a dusty roadside office before taking summer jobs tending a large herd of sheep for a rancher (Randy Quaid); all this is accomplished without the two uttering as much as a word.

Running the sheep through stunning country up to Brokeback Mountain (pic was shot in Alberta), Ennis and Jack begin to relate, mainly thanks to Jack's relative loquaciousness; he's a Texas boy, has done a bit of rodeo riding and is the more easygoing. In his clenched, tight-lipped manner, Ennis alludes as to his parents' death in a car wreck, his patchy upbringing and education, and his engagement to a young lady.

The job they're on is dull, even annoying, as one of them is supposed to spend nights in a distant pup tent to protect the sheep from predators; the only comfort comes from their conversation and liberal supply of whiskey. One cold and liquor-fueled night, Jack insists Ennis get in the tent with him to keep warm. The snuggling quickly, and roughly, turns into something else. Their primal urges take things to where neither of them has gone before, and they can scarcely digest it or talk about it afterward. "You know I ain't queer," Ennis manages, to which Jack concurs, "Me neither."

But it isn't long before they're at it again, establishing an indelible bond they agree no one else can know about or possibly understand. At summer's premature end, they go their separate ways with just a "See ya' around."

Making all this play in a mainstream-style movie represents a real tight-rope walk for the writers, director and especially the actors. All hands manage it through a shrewd balance of understated emotion and explosive physicality. The young men's pent-up sexuality expresses itself most comfortably through boyish horsing around, but this can also slip over into outright violence, as when they hit each other with bloody results.

The men cope with their perplexing feelings by ignoring them. Ennis marries a sweet girl, Alma (Michelle Williams), and they soon have two daughters. But a quick sex scene in which Ennis flips his wife over on her stomach tells us all we need to know about his true preferences.

For his part, Jack drifts around, marries and has a son with cute Texas girl Lureen (Anne Hathaway), whose respectable parents can't abide the no-account cowpoke.

At long last, Jack lets Ennis know he's coming for a visit, sending the latter into a state of barely suppressed anticipation. When they finally see each other after several years, they can't restrain themselves, kissing passionately where the unfortunate Alma can see them. With the excitement of teenagers, the guys check into a motel to reignite things, and Jack sums it up when he observes, "That ol' Brokeback got us good."

The two thereafter arrange to get away for "fishing" trips periodically over the years, their marriages slowly failing while their bond holds fast. While the more impulsive Jack keeps pushing the idea of taking off and setting up a ranch together, Ennis recalls a devastating childhood incident as a means of ruling this out. Although both men are impaired due to their narrow life histories, it is Ennis who is oddly the most damaged and yet the most pragmatic as to how they can continue their relationship, however unsatisfactorily.

Ultimately, it's a sorrowful story of men lucky enough to connect but forlornly unable to fulfill their characters and live according to their true natures. Unfortunately, the film hits this same note far too often in the latter-going; the point is made well before the yarn plays itself out and, like virtually every Lee picture, this one is too long for its own good.

Both young thesps are game, credible as cowboys and unselfconscious with the verbal and physical intimacy. But while Gyllenhaal is engaging as the more free-wheeling of the two, Ledger is powerfully impressive as a frightened, limited man ill-equipped to deal with what life throws at him. Mumbling, looking down, internalizing everything, Ledger's Ennis at times looks as though he's going to explode from his inchoate feelings. Perf could scarcely be more different from his terrific work in the otherwise negligible Lords of Dogtown, and the combo makes it a dazzling year for Ledger.

Williams gives Alma a quality of slow-burn devastation that is touching, and Hathaway provides an entertaining contrast in wifely disappointment. The numerous small supporting roles are sharply etched, a sign of Lee's sure hand with the material.

The beautiful, rugged locations, which would have roused Anthony Mann, are majestically captured by lenser Rodrigo Prieto. The passing years, from the early '60s to the late '70s, are subtly indicated in the production and costume design, hair styles and gingerly aging makeup, while Gustavo Santaolalla's conventionally supportive score is nicely abetted by a host of period and setting-appropriate tunes.

Camera (Deluxe color), Rodrigo Prieto; editors, Geraldine Peroni, Dylan Tichenor; music, Gustavo Santaolalla; music supervisor, Kathy Nelson; production designer, Judy Becker; art directors, Tracey Baryski, Laura Ballinger; set decorators, Patricia Cuccia, Catherine Davis; costume designer, Marit Allen; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS), Drew Kunin; supervising sound editors, Eugene Gearty, Philip Stockton; assistant directors, Michael Hausman, Pierre Tremblay; casting, Avy KaufmanAvy Kaufman. Reviewed at Telluride Film Festival, Sept. 2, 2005. (Also in Venice, Toronto film festivals.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 134 MIN.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Brokeback Mountain: The Venice Press Reaction and Pictures

To the casual blog surfer, this may seem like a Brokeback Mountain blog. I apologize for neglecting my reviews and other things, but there are reviews and photo call pics rolling in for my most anticipated film. It'll be like this for the next month. Once the festivals end, I'll go back to the regular format and begin my countdowns to Elizabethtown and In Her Shoes. Both of those have some strong early word so I am still excited for other movies. In the meantime...

Brokeback Mountain, to quote what just about every entertainment news source is saying, has taken the Venice Film Festival by storm. Many are firm in their belief that it will win the Golden Lion, essentially the best picture award of the festival. Vera Drake won last year, another movie that was supposedly rejected from Cannes. Stupid, stupid Cannes.

This is exactly the thing I want to hear:

"The entire film is very close to the original novella, but for those who have not read it I will not reveal the heartbreaking ending; suffice to say that Lee and his cast and crew have done the near impossible; they have translated one of the most acclaimed American novellas of modern times onto the screen and deliver something that is on par, if not better, than the work that inspired it and yet is completely respectful of its source material. Someone please convince Ang Lee to keep making films for the rest of his life; it is for works like this that the cinema exists."

Furthermore...

"Brokeback Mountain is something very special: it's a slow burning movie that dares to do what has seemed unthinkable just a few years ago, get under the skin of the Marlboro Man and show him for a small human being that he is. ...It's presented with extreme sensitivity, best seen in the minutely observed portrayals of their wives, played by the megaadorable Michelle Williams and the plain gorgeous Anne Hathaway. Both will probably surprise people with their turns. As will the cumulative effect of the entire movie. Brokeback is good enough to be nominated for Best Picture, let alone win the Golden Lion -- IF the authorities have the nerve to deal with its theme."



From the BBC:
(The BBC website also has footage from the film and some press interviews. There's three scenes shown - the scene where Ennis and Jack part ways for the first time, a scene where Ennis surprises Alma at the Riverton grocery place, and a scene with SPEAKING Lureen talking to Jack about business. Anne sounds really good and looks grown up.)

"There has never been a homosexual cowboy movie," producer James Schamus said.

"We are using the codes and conventions of romance that have always applied to straight people very unapologetically. We don't care if anyone is upset about it."

Lee, however, insisted the gender of his protagonists is immaterial.

"When it comes to love, there is no difference for me between the love I have for my wife and the love a man has for another man."

Regarding other reviews, everyone seems to be wild about Heath Ledger. Jake Gyllenhaal also gets maximum praise, but Ledger has somehow managed to be higher. There are slight reservations about Jack's development, but in my mind, Ennis has always been the lead and Jack is what changes him. Hathaway and Williams also get nice mentions, but the majority of the praise is for Ang Lee. Deservedly so, I fully imagine. The film also reportedly received a long and robust standing ovation.

And finally, from The Hollywood Reporter:

Brokeback Mountain

By Ray Bennett

"VENICE, Italy (Hollywood Reporter) - Everything you ever imagined about the characters of John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in "Red River" or Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott in "Ride the High Country" is revealed candidly in Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," an epic Western about forbidden love.

Anne Proulx's 1997 short story in the New Yorker has been masterfully expanded by screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana to provide director Lee with his best movie since "Sense and Sensibility" in 1995.

Featuring scenes filmed in the fabulous Canadian Rockies of Alberta and boasting a fine cast topped by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, "Brokeback Mountain" will appeal to moviegoers who enjoy grand filmmaking and poignant love stories, whether gay, hetero or otherwise.

The film, which screened in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, follows two men, Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal), and their love for each other that in the hide-bound and traditional world of the American West they must keep hidden, fearful not only of scandal but also for their lives.

Ennis and Jack meet in 1963 when they each show up looking for a summer's work herding sheep on Brokeback Mountain, Wyoming, on land owned by no-nonsense rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid). In order to keep his herd safe, Aguirre is happy to break regulations by requiring one of his men to roam high in the mountains, sleeping rough with no fire, while the other maintains a base camp with a one-man tent throughout the summer and into the fall.

There's nothing romantic about herding huge numbers of four-legged beasts left to range far and wide, and cowboys pretty much have cornered whatever romance there is in rugged outdoor animal husbandry. Riding herd on sheep guaranteed a horseman a hard time in old Westerns, but Ennis and Jack make the most of it, even if their diet is mostly beans.

They don't talk much, but Ennis speaks of being raised by his brother and sister after their parents died in a car crash, and of a woman named Alma he plans to marry. Jack tells of stern parents and working the Texas rodeo circuit. The scenery is breathtakingly gorgeous but their days are hard, with bears and coyotes threatening, and the biting mountain cold, and the two men soon come to rely on each other totally.

One night, Ennis decides to sleep by the fire rather than head off to his lonely post, but in the wee small hours, with the fire dead, he's freezing. Jack yells at him to join him in his tent. A simple human gesture in sleep prompts a frantic coupling that in the cold light of morning each man is quick to dismiss.

The summer ends, and as time goes by Ennis marries Alma (Michelle Williams) and Jack weds Lureen (Anne Hathaway), and they each have kids. The men's shared passion keeps its fire, however, and their affection and need for each other grows. Over the years, they contrive to spend time together back on Brokeback Mountain. Always there is the threat of exposure and the fear it breeds.

Pulitzer Prize-winner McMurtry ("Lonesome Dove") and his recent writing partner Ossana use a large canvas for what is really an intimate story. They develop the secondary characters with great insight and compassion. The women in the lives of Ennis and Jack are given full attention, and the acting, especially by Williams, Hathaway and Kate Mara, as Ennis' daughter Alma at age 19, is deeply affecting.

The fine details of the West are as precise as you would expect from a McMurtry piece, and Lee's adroitness with the excellent cast is on full display, particularly in the brave and moving performances of Ledger and Gyllenhaal.

The dusty towns of Wyoming and Texas are contrasted with the spectacular Canadian Rockies, splendidly filmed by Rodrigo Prieto, and the film benefits enormously from composer Gustavo Santaolalla's melodic and plangent score.

Cast: Ennis Del Mar: Heath Ledger; Jack Twist: Jake Gyllenhaal; Joe Aguirre: Randy Quaid; Alma: Michelle Williams; Lureen Newsome: Anne Hathaway; Alma Jr., age 19: Kate Mara; Alma Jr., age 13: Cheyenne Hill; Cassie: Linda Cardellini; Monroe: Scott Michael Campbell; Fayette Newsome: Mary Liboiron; L.B. Newsome: Graham Beckel; Randall Malone: David Harbour; Lashawn Malone: Anna Faris; Jack's mother: Roberta Maxwell; John Twist: Peter McRobbie.

Director: Ang Lee; Screenplay: Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana; Based on the short story by: Annie Proulx; Producers: Diana Ossana, James Schamus; Executive producers: William Pohlad, Larry McMurtry, Michael Costigan, Michael Hausman, Alberta Film Entertainment; Director of photography: Rodrigo Prieto; Production designer: Judy Becker; Editors: Geraldine Peroni, Dylan Tichenor; Music: Gustavo Santaolalla."


I feel like doing a big 'told ya so' dance right now.

Told ya..

Told ya..

Told ya so!