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I Don't Like the Look of 'Babies'
Filed under: Documentary, Focus Features, Trailers and Clips
I've always had an unreasonable aversion to little children. I know, I was once one myself, all screaming and shouting and laughing and otherwise being adorably obnoxious and obnoxiously adorable. But now, I get tense just sitting next to one at a restaurant, and especially in a movie theater, like they're time bombs of noise waiting to go off. (Where's Jeremy Renner when you need him?)With that being said, I'm bothered by the prospect of a documentary called Babies regardless, because... well, just look at the trailer after the jump (courtesy of Yahoo.) Could there be any topic less demanding for a doc than to watch four conveniently multi-cultural babies spend their first year out of the womb? And the way that tagline on the official website seems to relish the fact: "Everybody loves Babies." Really?
'Nine', 'Up in the Air' Lead Satellite Award Nominations
Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Music & Musicals, Awards, Quentin Tarantino, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Oscar Watch
There are a few good reasons to hate on the Satellite Awards. First of all, we really don't need any more end of the year movie and television honors. Second of all, the Satellites seem to be little more than a knock-off of the Golden Globes, which are already pretty unnecessary. Third, they happen way too early, missing out on seeing and thereby qualifying perhaps the biggest film of the year (Avatar). But over the years I've come to appreciate the Satellites and their bestowing organization, the International Press Academy, for their constant surprises when it comes to nominating and awarding unlikely films and talent. Just look at some of last year's acting winners: Richard Jenkins; Rosemarie DeWitt; Ricky Gervais; Michael Shannon.
Now check out this year's nominees, which continue to prove that IPA voters like to go at least slightly against the grain. Okay, so there are a lot of predictable titles in the lot, including Up in the Air and Nine, which leads with 11 nominations. Yet there are some films I don't expect to be recognized by the Golden Globes, let alone the Oscars, such as The Maid and The Stoning of Soraya M., both of which feature in the Best Actress (Drama) category.
400 Screens, 400 Blows - Doc Flock
Filed under: Documentary, Columns, 400 Screens, 400 Blows
Lately I have been looking at some of my year-end awards screeners, mainly the documentaries. My critics' group votes for the year's best documentary; we each vote for our top five and then vote again from the top five finalists. It's not easy to figure out this year's front-runner as of yet, and most of the contenders have been huge yawners. For several years in a row, the big award-winners have always been about war in some form, either WWII or the more recent wars in the Middle East. But this year I have detected grumblings of ennui from the other critics, an ennui that i started developing years ago. This year the favorites appear to be a bit more lighthearted in tone, as well as more local in theme. Rowdy movies like Anvil: The Story of Anvil, Capitalism: A Love Story (52 screens) and Food, Inc. (5 screens) for example have captured the hearts of my colleagues.
The Academy threw a monkey wrench in the works when they announced their shortlist of 15 films that they would be considering for Oscar nominations. Following their bizarre rules, it was an odd list; it included many titles that no one has seen, and it eliminated many of the favorites, including Tyson (prompting an interesting response from director James Toback), Good Hair (38 screens), The September Issue (13 screens), It Might Get Loud (11 screens), Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg (10 screens) and More Than a Game (46 screens). The list also eliminated a couple of my favorites, both lively and spirited: Kirby Dick's Outrage and Not Quite Hollywood, about the history of Australian exploitation cinema.
Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Deals, Box Office, Distribution, Cinematical Indie, Trailers and Clips
Indie Roundup gathers a selection of indie film news from the past seven days and offers a peek ahead to what's coming.
Deal. Do not despair that the first month of the new year will be filled solely with the expansion of award contenders. Distribution rights in the US for Sweetgrass have been acquired by The Cinema Guild, according to indieWIRE, and the documentary will open at Film Forum in Manhattan on January 6, followed by a rollout across the country.
Directed by Ilisa Barbasch and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Sweetgrass "follows the last sheepherders to trail their flocks up into Montana's Beartooth mountains for summer pasture," per its official synopsis. After debuting at the Berlin Film Festival last year, the doc played the festival circuit quite successfully, picking up positive critical notices. Check out the splendid trailer in all its quiet, chud-chewing glory after the jump.
Online / On-Demand Viewing. Debuting on demand next Sunday, Clarkworld paints a portrait of filmmaker Bob Clark. Best known for his perennial holiday favorite A Christmas Story, Clark also made the groundbreaking Porky's, which set the tone for all raunchy teen comedies to come, and the significant slasher pic Black Christmas, another flick that was a trendsetter (or at least ripped off at will). Director Deren P. Abram talked with Peter Billingsley (former child star turned filmmaker), Kim Cattrall, Jon Voight, Denise Richards, Mary Steenburgen, John Saxon, Scott Baio, and other people who weren't even in any of his movies! We have the trailer for this one after the jump, too, which makes for an interesting contrast with the one for Sweetgrass. Look for the movie on cable systems via Cinetic FilmBuff.
After the jump: box office talk; trailers for Sweetgrass and Clarkworld.
Oscar Snubs? Extortion Plot? Do Tell!
Filed under: Documentary, Awards, Celebrities and Controversy, Oscar Watch
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Are members from the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences being paid to short list some films over others? That's what it sounds like director James Toback was alluding to when he spoke to the New York Times recently about how his buzzed-about documentary, Tyson, was left off the Academy's short list along with several other notable documentaries from the past year. Toback told the Times that at some point during the selection process he experienced something he puts "fully in the category of extortion", adding that he did not go along with it.
Speaking on behalf of the documentary branch -- which Toback refers to as "some tiny, dirty covert weirdly protective group" -- chairman (and filmmaker) Rob Epstein said, "I have no idea. It certainly hasn't come before me." Among some of the critically acclaimed docs snubbed this year are Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story, the awesome Anvil! The Story of Anvil, and The September Issue. This year's documentary short list was narrowed down to 15 finalists from 89 possible contenders. So, yeah, obviously you're going to see some fantastic films miss the cut, and, subsequently, some pissed off filmmakers, but it's a pretty bold move for Toback to go and claim extortion, don't you think?
'Jackass 3-D' is Happening
Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Paramount, RumorMonger
Back in 2007, our own Christopher Campbell (who's back on staff, baby!) told us that, back in 2006, a third Jackass film seemed like a sure thing in the wake of Jackass: Number Two. Steve-O told Howard Stern then that they'd begin shooting at the start of 2008...Cut to 2009, and the Paramount slate for 2010 in our inbox happens to list a Jackass 3-D, with a release date to be determined. Johnny Knoxville and company don't seem too busy of late, and even with the eye-popping added dimension, this sounds like a relatively cheap production to give the go-ahead to. If Wikipedia is to be believed (I know), Bam Margera confirmed in a much more recent interview for a Finnish newspaper that filming would begin this January around the world.
Since there's really not all that much else to report on this yet, let me just assure you that my pals in the Twittersphere are a bit more psyched to have their gag reflexes back in working order than I might be:
"please be true, please be true, please be true" ... "Party boy's testicles bouncing off our foreheads." ... "there is a God in heaven, and he LOVES me!" ... "Ohpleaseohpleasepohpleaseohplease..." ... "This would make up for anything that goes wrong in the next 10 years."
Yep, there's still an audience.
[Thanks to Brian O. for helping round things out.]
Oscar's Documentary Shortlist: No 'Anvil,' No 'Capitalism'
Filed under: Documentary, Awards, Oscar Watch
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences documentary committee has watched the 89 eligible docs that were submitted and whittled the field down to 15 finalists, from which the five Oscar nominees will be chosen. But before we even get there we gotta talk about the snubs. Notably absent from the shortlist are Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story and the highly praised Anvil! The Story of Anvil, which last month earned the distinction of being the first "for your consideration" screener sent to Academy members this year. Last year's best-reviewed documentary, Man on Wire, went on to win the Oscar; Anvil! holds that title this year (98% at Rotten Tomatoes), but it's not even going to be nominated.
Other noteworthy titles not among the top 15: Tyson (about the boxer, not the chicken company) and The September Issue (about Anna Wintour and Vogue magazine). Michael Jackson's This Is It and Chris Rock's Good Hair didn't hit theaters until October, qualifying them for next year's documentary category -- for docs, the eligibility period is September-August, not January-December. (This Is It might not be eligible anyway, since Academy rules forbid films that are "essentially unfiltered records of performances," which could apply here.) The highest-grossing documentary of the year, Earth, isn't eligible because it was mostly repackaged material that had already aired on TV.
The complete shortlist is after the jump.
'Young@Heart' Sings Its Way to Narrative Film
Filed under: Documentary, Music & Musicals, Deals, Scripts
Remember that super-cute and super-rocking senior documentary Young@Heart, which hit screens last year? It's becoming a feature film, and The Hollywood Reporter posts that Working Title has found a new scribe in Will Reiser (I'm With Cancer). The rights had originally been bought back in 2007, and writer Bob Nelson had written a draft, but now, much like their senior subjects, the project is getting a new jolt of life.As I hope you know by now, the film follows a chorus of senior citizens (average age of 80) who came together and toured -- not singing "old folks" songs for retirement homes, but all-out mainstream concerts featuring modern hits and classics from the likes of The Clash, Coldplay, and James Brown. The documentary dipped into their performances and their lives (some passed away during production).
Can you think of any movie that could be more fun on the big screen? Think about the senior-aged talent and Hollywood, and then imagine them rocking out. It would make that scene in The Wedding Singer look like nothin'. Betty White. Cloris Leachman (and New York, I Love You co-star Eli Wallach). Andy Griffith. Adam West. Anne Meara. The list goes on and on. This could be epic, and of course, I'm probably getting my hopes up way too high, but just think of the possibilities. What older stars would you like to see on the big screen, belting out rock tunes? Rock out to this clip and weigh in below.
Indie Roundup: Swanberg Sex, Veterans Day Docs
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Deals, Box Office, Distribution, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie
Indie Roundup is your guide to what's new and cool in the indie film world.
On-Demand / Online Viewing. Love him or find him irritating, he's practically a category unto himself now. Joe Swanberg continues to explore the endlessly fascinating topic of twenty-something romantic relationships in Young American Bodies, a web series now on IFC.com. Season 4 debuted on Monday at IFC.com, and future episodes of the five-part series will premiere on a weekly basis. If you're a Swanberg fan, you'll want to check it out: it expands on his vision of sex and everything that leads up to it and follows afterward: elusive, kinda real, kinda fake, pretty messy.
In honor of Veterans Day, SnagFilms presents a selection of films appropriate for the occasion, covering a national shrine in Arlington: Field of Honor, dangerous missions in Baghdad Bound: Devil Dog Diaries, remembering the Battle for Midway, and so one. Truly, there's something for everyone to discover among the documentaries showcases. Similarly, Hulu has two films of interest: Jerabek, the tragic story of U.S. Marine Ryan Jerabek, and When I Came Home, which covers the troubling issue of homelessness among veterans.
Also newly available online: the enchanting "banjo player goes to Africa" doc Bela Fleck: Throw Down Your Heart (on iTunes) and a close-up (sorry) view of artist Chuck Close (also on iTunes).
Deals. As always, our friends at indieWIRE has been tracking recent acquisitions. The latest: romance My Year Without Sex (Strand Releasing, due spring 2010); drama The Good Heart, with Brian Cox and Paul Dano, directed by the very talented Dagur Kari (Magnolia Pictures, due next year); and social satire The Joneses, with David Duchovny and Demi Moore (Roadside Attractions, due spring 2010).
After the jump: more than Precious at the box office.
Lil' Wayne's 'The Carter' Doc Heads Straight to DVD
Filed under: Documentary, Music & Musicals, Fandom, Home Entertainment, Trailers and Clips
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Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to catch a screening of Lil' Wayne's The Carter while attending the Sundance Film Festival, and going in I had no idea what to make of it. I wasn't all too aware of (nor did I really care for) Lil' Wayne or his music, and so I was somewhat surprised to find a really heady documentary about a man who on one hand was extremely passionate about his craft, but on the other was extremely addicted to all kinds of drugs. It was almost as if the drugs were fueling his music, so much so that you'd be hard pressed to find one scene in the film where Wayne isn't either smoking a joint or drinking his "syrup", which is some sort of codeine-based liquid that he needs to be drinking while performing in order to maintain a constant buzz.
Yes, I'll admit the film was rather fascinating on a variety of different levels, and I was somewhat disheartened to learn that Wayne was preventing the doc from being released because he wasn't happy with the outcome -- an epiphany he probably had during a rare three-minute sober period. However, a court has since denied Wayne's attempt to block the film's release, and now QD3 Entertainment will send The Carter straight to DVD on November 17th (you can pre-order your copy over here). Regardless of your musical tastes, The Carter is a very entertaining look inside the world of an iconic drug-addicted work-a-holic who lives and breathes a constant high, be it through drugs or his music.
Read a snippet from my review and watch the trailer after the jump.
Chris Weitz to Direct Two-Part 'Breaking Dawn' Finale?
Girls on Film: The Academy's Shallow Actress Pool_thumbnail.jpg)
Alec Baldwin Becomes Latest to Threaten Retirement
The First 'Iron Man 2' Poster Appears!
The Return of Jessica Alba?
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