Film Experience Blog

Oh to have the New York Times arts budget. They've asked 14 actors to recreate classic character types in 1 minute segments and the results are at turns breathtakingly gorgeous (Natalie Portman), funny (James Franco), exciting (Javier Bardem), questionable (Jesse Eisenberg?) and sometimes plain old garden variety awesome (Tilda Swinton's Falconetti?) Yes please.

Tilda Swinton

Noomi Rapace

Anthony Mackie

But my favorite might be Jennifer Lawrence's screaming victim.


Watch all 14 here (also starring Vincent Cassell, Chloë Moretz, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall and Lesley Manville.)  It'll only take you 14 minutes!

"Let's Pollute"

The Academy have revealed the finalist list for Oscar's Best Animated Short category. Depending on how voting goes we'll see anywhere from three to five nominees. But the lucky names will be drawn from this entertaining list.

• The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger (Bill Plympton Studio)
• Coyote Falls (Warner Bros)
• Day & Night (Pixar)
• The Gruffalo (Magic Light Pictures)
• Let's Pollute (Geefwee Boedoe)
• The Lost Thing (Passion Pictures Australia)
• Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Sacrebleu Productions)
• Sensology (GAGNE International LLC)
• The Silence Beneath the Bark (Lardux Films)
• Urs (Filmakademie Baeden Wuerttemberg)

You guys. I'm so not (quite) ready for this. It's only November 1st and in English language cinema we've already had at least three awards lineups outside of the film festivals: NY's Gotham Awards, Australia's AFI, and now BIFA... which translates to the British Independent Film Awards.

BIFA considers Oscar-buzzing Lesley Manville as "Supporting"

It will surprise virtually no one that the Oscar hopeful Brit films like The King's Speech (and all of its actors), Made in Dagenham and Another Year are in play for various prizes. It may surprise some that the indifferently received Never Let Me Go, the divisive Kick-Ass, and the largely undiscussed Brighton Rock received multiple nominations as well.

A complete list of nominees (with Oscar-adjacent comments) follows after the jump but I shan't clog the main page with these über long lists that each awards groups hands out.

The Oscar Prediction Pages are all finally revised and updated.

Costumes
This morning I was thinking about the costume designers who may be in play. Like many of the Academy's branches, costume designers can be a bit insular about who they nominate (though no group is anywhere near as "final club" elitist as the composers) but one previously unnominated designer I hope they consider is Louise Stjernsward who did the costuming for Made in Dagenham.

The period work in the film (late 60s England) doesn't seem unduly fussed over, which is a plus for a film that's aiming for a light touch on a serious topic. And it's one of those movies where the costumes actually play an important plot role once or twice, as in this red number we see Sally Hawkins wearing below. She's on her way to a very important meeting and she's borrowed the dress to look higher class. It's a touch too big on her.


The film also has quite a broad range of costumes on display since we have businessmen, factory workers at work and on their days off, politicians (Miranda Richardson, left), a swimsuit photoshoot (center) and even lots of undergarment on ever shape and size of woman since the women in the Dagenham factory regularly strip down to work, given the heat.

It seems like it must have been a big project for Stjernswad, but a hugely enjoyable one.


Documentary Shorts
Here is the trailer for one of eight Documentary Short finalists, Sun Come Up, which looks at the refugees of climate change. It looks gorgeous and sad.


Sun Come Up Trailer from Sun Come Up on Vimeo.

Oscar Prediction Pages: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Foreign Films, Costume Design, Animation & Documentaries, Visual Categories and Aural Categories

I'm so behind on movie news and readings. It will take me a week to catch up. I'm also aware that I need to revamp the Oscar predix this week. Where to even begin? Links.

IndieWire TIFF completes their lineup. I haven't been posting about TIFF much because I'm so depressed I'm not going. Maybe I'll find someone to cover it for me... [hint. hint]
NY Post will The Walking Dead be a hit for AMC? I do wonder how anyone can make the zombie story fresh these days. This looks exactly like all the rest of them, barring the horseback travel. When will entertainment's zombie addiction end?
Coming Soon a big screen adaptation of the app/game Angry Birds? I have now heard everything. This would only work as claymation. Oh god please not glossy CGI for this property.


Nick's Flick Picks His 2009 Honorees continue with Screenplays. Better late than never, especially with the intriguing but concise writeups.
Cinema Blend video of Viggo and Fassbender in costume and makeup for the new David Cronenberg picture. Oooh, can't wait to see them in action together.
Marc Malkin Meet Kurt's Glee boyfriend
PopMatters "like touching the dead" another rave for Ken Russell's The Devils (1971). I really wish they'd put this on DVD. It really is amazing in scope and the world so needs it right now given that the global addiction to religion is more dangerous than ever these days.
The Ausselio Files creative tension on the set of Diane Keaton's HBO project Tilda
Freckle Face The Musical Yes, Julianne Moore's children's book is now a stage musical. They start singing and dancing in early September
We Are Movie Geeks Readers near St. Louis, MO? You might want to check out the Black Expo later this very week. Movie legends Pam Grier (!), Louis Gossett Jr and Mario Van Peebles are all appearing.

<--- yay it s p amp a the filmmaker and his only real male muse have reunited they ve started shooting span style="font-style: italic;">The Skin I'm In (2011). Here they are on a break.

Cinematical offers strange speculation about why Penélope Cruz is not in Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I'm In which just started shooting. Um... how about, Pedro's just using a different girl this time? He does that sometimes. Nothing in P's filmography suggests she'd be uncomfortable with nudity, sex scenes or anything Pedro would ask of her really.
Moviehole Apparently Joss Whedon is aware that people are worried that there are no women in The Avengers. He assures there will be. Um, extras don't count. If you don't have The Wasp or Scarlet Witch, you have a sausage fest, plain and simple.
The Playlist First look at Uma Thurman in Ceremony. I hope this is a hit for her.
Joblo DeNiro, Norton and Jovovich get their Stone poster. I'm falling asleep.
Dial P for Popcorn more Black Narcissus images.

Please someone tell me they watched Narcissus specifically due to all this cheerleading we're doing. Blogging must not be in vain! Speaking of... Tomorrow's "Best Shot" episode is Bring It On. Are you joining us?

Finally, I saw this short at this tumblr where the author said "oh my little heart!! cute/sad shakes" and there's no saying it better. Unfortunately I can't tell you who said so. If I don't save things immediately on tumblr I never see them again. (I don't understand tumblr at all. So disposable it is!)

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

My favorite part is the 'lint puppy'. I would've teared up if my ducts worked properly. One of the undeniable truths of our modern online world is that it has blown out whole new walls as window. There's just so much creativity from so many folks to discover.
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Though the headline may come as a shock, it's true... and not unprecedented.

I'm not sure what today's teen and 20somethings know of Joan Collins if anything. Her sister Jackie, the romance novelist, seems to have stayed in the spotlight a bit more this past decade. But anyone who lived through the 80s just heard the opening theme of Dynasty trumpeting in their head. Ms. Collins was a 20something starlet of the 50s who migrated to television, peaking as a 50something with a Golden Globe win as bitchtastic icon "Alexis Carrington Colby" and the series becoming the #1 TV show in the land shortly afterwards. Alexis terrorized the feebler entities (i.e. everyone) on that soap for eight years. She was nominated at the Globes six consecutive times. Emmy voters didn't like the powerhouse serial as much, giving Collins and the show only won chance at the Actress and Series statue (needless to say they lost).

Now in 2010, Collins has won her first acting prize in ages. The New York International Film Festival (this city has so many mini festivals I can't keep track) screened a creepy comedic short called Fetish (2010) in which Collins plays a faded star in conflict with a talk show host (played by Charles Casillo who also wrote the screenplay). The audience was apparently wowed by her deglammed nuanced portrait.


Now, you can't win Oscars for performances in short films, but the short itself is playing Oscar qualifying festivals so maybe you'll hear more of it later in the year? I'm reading conflicting reports but it's on the long-short side, if you will, coming in somewhere between 25-30 minutes.

I hadn't thought of Collins in a good while until earlier this year when I began reading Star. She's a major figure in the early parts of that Warren Beatty bio. Yes, she was his lover. "Who wasn't?" you shout snarkily in unison. But listen. There are lovers and then there are LOVERS. And Collins was the latter sort, and a crucial figure in foisting the young and impossibly pretty Warren Beatty upon the world in 1961. So crucial, in fact, that she shows up in the very first paragraph of the first chapter of that book.


But I wander...

I hope to catch up with this Fetish film soon. Congratulates to "The Bitch" herself, who, at 77, could maybe somehow possibly if-she-wants-to drift back into the pop culture atmosphere again. Who knows?

If you'll allow me a train of thought digression, this news reminded me of a passage in Quentin Crisp's amazing book How To Go the Movies (1984) . I'm quoting a big chunk but it's too wonderful not to. Crisp is discussing the fall of the studio system (and the unfortunate rise of television). Joan is name checked.

"..in fact it provided a stable atmosphere in which an actress could perfect her skills with at least some assurance that they would be used. Her studio would carry her through at least one flop, and by the time her contract was well under way, she had usually acquired her own secretary, her own makeup artist --in some cases, her own camera man. In other words, a leading lady became a kind of queen bee attended by five or six drones who had no other function than to enhance her assets and conceal her defects. No wonder so many of them became permanent stars. What keeps a woman young and beautiful is not repeated surgery but perpetual praise. They were eternal mistresses of their public. In deference to the art directors of their films, they changed their costumes occassionally, but only as ballerinas wear tights and tutus to remind us that they are first and foremost classical dancers but, if spoken to nicely, will don a turban to show that for the moment they are the playthings of cruel Turks. A movie star never deprived her public of the thrill of instant recognition at her first appearance on the screen.

This happy predictability no longer prevails. Now, every new picture is a desperate gamble, deafeningly publicized, with its mounting costs broadcast like news of a forest fire. If a film fails, even though its star may have been judged by the critics to have been the only good thing in it, when her name is mentioned, some movie mogul will growl, "Isn't that the broad that costs us thirty-four million dollars?" In these circumstances, actresses have decided to be different people in different roles; they have taken to acting -- a desperate measure indeed.

Though television has wrought all this havoc in Hollywood, it is no real substitute for the movies. It has its star; it has Miss Collins, who remains through all vicissitude of plot the last of the "vamps." If she ever appeared on any screen, large or small, as a nice home girl, the world would come to an abrupt and ignominious end."

From what we hear of Fetish, she is less cartoonishly vampy than before, but still not exactly a sweet wallflower. The world will keep spinning... for now.
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cinema
Self Styled Siren terrific piece on memorable movie costumes. The Siren writes beautifully. My favorite write-ups are those for Breathless and Strangers on a Train.
Dennis Cozzalio has an amazing piece about the 35th anniversary of Robert Altman's Nashville, one of the best movies ever made.
Boy Culture on the new Burlesque stills and out writer/director Steve Antin. I'm excited for this movie but also fearful that it'll just be the Christina Aguilera show. That would be epically disappointing given the rest of the cast list: Cher, Tucci, Cumming, Bell.
Cinema Blend Viggo & Fassbender on the set of David Cronenberg's Freud/Jung picture Dangerous Method. Can't wait. So excited to see two of today's best actors in character.
Cinematical Neil Gaiman is sick of vampires.

movie stars
I Need My Fix Jude Law in the Czech Republic. Apparently Sadie Frost is writing a book about their marriage. Uh oh.
Old Hollywood Ernest Hemingway to Marlene Dietrich. Awesome quote.
Diva Asia Apparently Gong Li is now divorced. I'm not that concerned with her marriage. I just want her in some incredible movies again. Like something as good as Ju Dou? That's too much to ask, right? I can dream.

a Buffy moment
Flickr Holy Hellmouth, this "Buffy Alphabet" is awesome thus far.
Low Resolution has a three-part incredibly detailed interview with one of the writers on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you love Buffy you'll want to read it.

just for fun
pop licks "Best Headline Ever?" Maybe it is. It is pretty vivid.
Chateau Thombeau "Been There" hee x several.

....and because it's just amazing, the video "Big Bag Big Boom" by Blu.

BIG BAG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Doesn't this short render all future videogame movies obsolete?

This weekend when you see Toy Story 3 --it's safe to assume you'll be there? -- you'll first see a new Pixar short called Day & Night (2010). Don't be surprised if it wins an Oscar on February 27th, 2011. I don't want to spoil one second of the short because it's so inventive, fun and technically /conceptually strong. It's often all of those things simultaneously. You're in for a treat.

Despite Pixar's reputation as an Oscar hog, they're more Streep than Hepburn; They're nominated frequently but they win less than people have imagined.

Unless you're talking about animated features in which case, yes, yes, they win that a lot. They've won it 5 out of its 9 years. But they also lose ridiculous contests like Monsters, Inc vs. Shrek... despite the math being Monsters, Inc > Shrek by 1000 to 1. Argh. That one will haunt me forever.

Pixar Shorts Oscar History
Winners: Tin Toy (1988), Gerri's Game (1997), For the Birds (2001). They win the animated short category but once a decade.
Nominees: Luxo Jr (1986), Mike's New Car (2002, the only one of their shorts using movie characters to be nominated), Boundin' (2003), One Man Band (2005), Lifted (2006), Presto (2008)
Ignored: The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. (1984), Red's Dream (1987), Knick Knack (1989, one of my personal favorites), Jack-Jack Attack (2005), Mater & The Ghostlight (2006), Your Friend the Rat (2007), Partly Cloudy (2009)

Do you prefer "Daffy" or "Donald"? I can't say I've ever been much of a fan of either of the famous Ducks (maybe Howard, briefly, in the 80s). Maybe sea fowl just aren't my thing? I was, however, totally into Chip & Dale (and chipmunks) as a child. So here's seven minutes of funny Toy Tinkers (Best Animated Short Film Nominee, 1949) starring all three to start your morning:



Here's a list of the ten best Donald Duck cartoons from a real fan. And if you've never seen Donald's only Oscar-winning short, Der Fuehrer's Face (1942) you can watch it on YouTube.

The Disney and Warner Bros characters used to get Oscar nominated a lot in the Animated Short category. In the past couple of decades the closest thing we have to a perennial in that category is Wallace & Gromit or Pixar as a studio, if that counts, though their characters don't repeat.

You know what I think is a crying shame as animated short films go? That Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) didn't really become a franchise. Disney made three short films with the characters after that blockbuster hit: Tummy Trouble, Rollercoaster Rabbit and Trail Mix-Up though none were nominated at the Oscars. They had the misfortune of arriving in that stretch of a dozen years or so when there were never more than 3 nominees in that category.
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Madonna was once both adored and reviled as "The Great Appropriator" so I suppose it's only fair that Lady Gaga borrows from her. When I first heard "Alejandro" I kept thinking 'Oh, Ok. Gaga has to have her own "La Isla Bonita," too.' And then she went and collaborated with frequent Madonna iconographer Steven Klein for the music video.



So even though Klein is shamelessly borrowing from his own past work here, the wonderful thing about Gaga is that, like her spiritual pop empress predecessor, she's her own artist, too. This makes the appropriation palatable as well as fun... until crazed fans start giving her credit for everything. [But that's another funny subject matter entirely.] I mean even Madonna didn't invent the chameleon approach to pop stardom, though her fans, like Gagas, also tried to give her credit for it at the time.

Doesn't that "what on earth will they wear/look like next?" thing go directly back to Bowie? Or is it earlier than that. Paging pop historians???


So mark my words. Someday soon -- let's say within the next 3 years -- Gaga is going to have her Madonna "Live to Tell" moment wherein she totally shocks the world, not with a new provocative look but by showing up with a demure, classic one. It'll get everyone talking as much as any diet coke can hair rollers ever did.


So, my point is this: Clumsy homage/ripoff like the kind that Christina Aguilera does in "Not Myself Tonight" when she plagiarizes both Madonna and Gaga *shudder* is not fun at all and should be looked down upon. But riffing on the work of others in a new context or with a fresh twist is totally fun and what many great artists do.

We see this in feature films all the time, too. Both of the best shots in Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces are arguably inspired by other work: There's that white sheet shrouded sex scene (Margritte) and that moving emotional climax with the hands caressing the static image (which I'm hearing is a Godard reference... but it totally works in the Almodóvarian context). A couple weeks ago we chatted briefly about the various A grade riffs on Ingmar Bergman's Persona (Lynch's Mulholland Dr and Altman's Three Women). And everyone knows that the wildly popular Quentin Tarantino is all about referencing other movies. But whether or not we recognize the references --I often don't with Tarantino since the genres he loves most are weak spots for me -- great artists reference past work only in the service of making their own fresh visions.

The only real issue with doing this is when the new artist acts as if it's completely and 100% their invention. Which is why it was a shame that Beyonce's otherwise awesome and awesomely ubiquitous "Single Ladies" video didn't have a "thank you Bob Fosse" attached to it, for example.


So, I can't help but think about Madonna the entire way through"Alejandro" maybe because of the Catholic imagery. I see "Alejandro" like so: Madonna's men in cone bras helping hot blond divas masturbate (Like a Virgin, Blonde Ambition Tour), women topping men suggestively in dance choreography (Express Yourself, Blonde Ambition Tour) and catholic girls obsessing over funerals and death in snowy black and white ("Oh Father") plus a couple choreographed bits from "Human Nature" and "Express Yourself" all get tossed into the Gaga/Klein blender and come out the other end as an angry military puree. Here the woman isn't topping men with a flirtatious feminism but actually appears to be penetrating them rather more subversively like a man would. And instead of just obsessing at the coffin and weeping for her dead loved one, the girl is actually leading the funereal procession. And the cone bras become guns. Bang Bang.

I'm not sure I've ever fully registered the sheer amount of aggression in Gaga's art before. But after the mass murder of "Telephone", the crispy end-gag in "Bad Romance" and the poisoned Skarsgaard in "Paparazzi," and this, it's abundantly clear. Suddenly those silly rumors about Tarantino wanting to work with her that sprung up when she used Kill Bill imagery for "Telephone" make more popcultural sense. Gaga is out for blood!

Unfortunately this new video is too effortfully mounted and grave to be half as fun as her previous outings and it also feels more derivative. Will she ever top the exquisite aesthetic control, hilarious sight gags and awesome choreography of "Bad Romance"? That said, even though I'm unmoved by this new work, I really love Lady Gaga and remain thrilled that someone is taking the music video format so very seriously again and has the fanbase to back up that particular passion. It had been a long while since each music video premiere felt so "NEW SHORT FILM!" headline worthy.

Three final errant thoughts...


On a shallow film referencing note, can I just say that I absolutely hate beautiful men with perfect bodies. It's entirely unfair that anyone can stay "hot like Mexico" while sporting Moe's Three Stooges 'do. Entirely unfair.

How much do you love that lyric "you know that I love you, boy | hot like Mexico"? Well, I love it more than you do. Genius.

This final image is thrilling and for some reason it makes me desperate to shove Lady Gaga into a time machine and make her do a video with James Bidgood or Ken Russell in the 70s, Almodóvar in the 80s or maybe Pierre et Gilles or Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet in the 90s.

The latest commercial/film in Marion Cotillard's Dior deal is out. (How much are they paying her anyway?) It's a 16 minute whatsit from the inimitable David Lynch called "Lady Blue Shanghai"


Given that the film contains grainy dv shots, ominously loud ambient soundscores, a nervous girl walking down empty corridors, overlapping image bleed and red curtains, it's Lynchian with a capital L. But parodically so?

In some ways it plays like a distant cousin of INLAND EMPIRE, a lightweight cousin with a heftier clothing allowance. Cotillard has her talents -- I like the way she handles one of those absurdly obvious Lynch questions "who knows what's inside that bag?" -- but nobody will ever top Laura Dern for her facility at embodying Lynch's psychotic break story beats in all their humor, danger and weird sincerity. Give or take Laura Palmer.



For what it's worth the film is more beautiful to look at on the Lady Dior site. I have no idea who her co-star is here. It says "with Gong Tao" but a search brings up nothing by way of an actor or model with that name.

I love that modern corporations have taken to employing acclaimed auteurs for longform commercials (a nice way for them to make extra money while audiences ignore their filmographies to buy tickets to the latest CGI film) but I doubt anything will ever top The Hire (2000-2001, starring Clive Owen) in this particular realm of filmdom. Those were such gems.



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* Further reading on this Lynch project at /Film and The Financial Times

if you missed part one

I have a small window of time in Tribeca duties so I must wrap the unfortunately brief Nashville Film Festival coverage.

New Directors Competition
This is the jury that I served on along with Lou Harry A&E editor of the Indianapolis Business Journal and actor Brian O’Halloran who you’ll remember from Clerks. It's interesting to watch so many debut features back to back because patterns do emerge in regards to strengths and weaknesses within first efforts. The jury discussions were yet another reminder – as if I needed one covering the Oscars so closely each year – that one man’s treasure is another man’s… anyway, the discussions were lively and fun but so much disagreement! We ended up not spreading the wealth much because we were very divided about our slate of films and even the individual achievements within the films. Our two winners were both films with small casts performing tiny character implosions.

• Grand Jury Prize: Michael Mohan’s One Too Many Mornings
  I passed over this one at Sundance due to the title and description. My loss. Memorably shot and very well acted (not usually a strength in no budget indies), this black and white comedy brings two old friends together who are both having major life crises, though they're probably not the best sources of comfort or advice for one another. Alcoholism and male commitment problems aren't exactly fresh topics in film but it's all in the execution. There's enough idiosyncratic detail, smart filmmaking and sideways humor to keep this vivid and engaging. I'd eagerly take a second film from any of the people here which to me is a major test of a debut.
  
• Honorable Mention: Paul Cotter’s Bomber
  In this dramedy, a quick-tempered son takes his angry dad, a former airforce pilot, and chatty fussy mother on an anxiety-ridden roadtrip. Their vacation agenda is unclear but the father definitely has one. Bomber is a great title, because its clever beyond its literal meaning once you think over the film and the screenplay's construction.
  
• Best Actor: Anthony Deptula, One Too Many Mornings
  
• Best Actress: Eileen Nicholas, Bomber
  

Documentaries
I normally only catch a couple of doc titles so naturally I miss any fest winners. I saw City of Borders, an intriguing documentary about a gay bar on the border of Israel and Palestine. It gets good mileage from the depressing irony that the only community that seems to be cohabitating quite peacefully (the gay community) is the community that is reviled on both sides. I also caught the button pushing Cleanflix, about the idealogical/legal war between Hollywood directors and the Mormon entrepeneurs who reedit DVDs to clear them of dirty words and sex scenes (and small bits of extreme violence) to sell or rent them to people who can't handle such content. This documentary must have had a large budget because film clips are expensive to license but Cleanflix is loaded with hilarious examples of before/after sequences. My favorite was a scene from The Big Lebowski which entirely cuts out Bunny Lebowski (Tara Reid) but leaves in the dialogue addressed to her and reactions to her absent dialogue. So weird! Anything to avoid her aggressive bikini clad propositions, I suppose. The Cleanflix company even edits torture porn like the Saw series but draws the line at Brokeback Mountain 'for moral reasons'.

Here's to fucked up value systems!!!

Interestingly enough, I was speaking with the director of a small midwestern film festival after the movie and he asked what side I thought the movie was on? I said "Hollywood's obviously, 'my side'". He had the exact opposite reaction, believing the film came down firmly on the side of the Mormons, his side (though he doesn't share their fear of sex & swear words). Curious. The film gets a bit off track in its final act following the sex-crimes related incarceration of one of the many players in the 'scrub those dirty films' clean business! Oh the humanity.

• Grand Jury Prize: Marshall Curry’s Racing Dreams
• Honorable Mention: Taggart Siegel’s Queen of the Sun
  

Music Competition

• Grand Jury Prize: For Once in My Life
• Honorable Mention: For the Sake of the Song: The Story of Anderson Fair

Shorts Competition
I caught only one shorts compilation but aside from Applaus (see previous post) it was the highlight of my Nashville viewing experience. I'm nutty for the work of Jamie Travis so I knew I had to see the program "The Complete Works of Jamie Travis." I'd only previously see his Patterns Trilogy (trailer) which is one of my most favorite films filmobjects ever. The visually gifted gay Canadian is in demand these days making commercials (he says they like his crisp sense of color) but hopes to make a his first feature soon. The Patterns Trilogy, which charts the obsessive imagined (?) relationship of neighbors Pauline (Courtenay Webber) and David (Christopher Redman), is a weird blend of horror, surrealism, musical, romance and drama but the rest of his shorts (The Saddest Boy in the World, Why the Anderson Children Didn't Come To Dinner and his latest, The Armoire) are all about miserable children who are living outside of our typical reality in one way or another. He's basically a genius.

• Documentary Short: The Rauch Bros' Q&A
  
• Doc Short Honorable Mention: TG Herrington’s Mr. Okra
• Live Action Short: Jamie Travis's The Armoire
• Live Action Short Honorable Mention: Roland Honeycutt Jr.'s Dwight David Honeycutt for Conway School Board
• Animated Short: Chris Landreth’s The Spine
• Animated Short Honorable Mention: Nick Cross’s Yellow Cake
• Experimental Short: Joseph Ernst’s Feeder
• Experimental Short Honorable Mention: Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s A Letter to Uncle Boonmee
  If that last title, sounds familiar it's because Apichatpong has expanded the short into a feature and it'll be playing at Cannes next month
  

Specials
I was there to watch Carter Burwell receive his Career Achievement Award in Film Music (writing briefly about his True Grit score -- did you want to hear more about that interview? I couldn't tell from the limited comments.) but heard about these other prizes after the fact.

• NAHCC Award for Hispanic Filmmaker: Javier Fuentes-Leon, Undertow (previous reviewed from Sundance)
  
• GLBT Film: Leanne Pooley's The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
  The artistic director of the fest really wanted me to see this one. Oops. You can't see everything.
  
• Rosetta Miller-Perry Award for Best Black Filmmaker: Mario Van Peebles, Black, White and Blues
• Best Film by a Woman Director: Jac Schaeffer, TiMER
  This romantic comedy has a fertile if ridiculously implausible sci-fi premise (humans are implanted with devices that countdown to the moment when they'll meet their life partner) but whatever problems it has in dealing with its premise, it almost makes up for with pleasant charm. Of course it helps that it pandered to me specifically as soon as its opening scene. I should explain: TiMER reunites Buffy's hilarious demons Anya (Emma Caulfield) and Hafrek (Kali Rocha) in the opening scene! Schaeffer spoils me. Schaeffer must be a Buffy fan and I thank her sincerely for her good taste. For what it's worth -- since other Buffy fans will be curious -- Caulfield acquits herself well as a movie lead. I think she was absolutely Emmy win worthy as Anya (but who in the doctor/lawyer/cop-loving Academy was ever going to vote for a love-hungry money-loving vengeance demon?) and she deserves to work a whole helluva lot more than she does.
  

Do you miss me when I'm away? I'm feeling needy. Say something!
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LOL



I absolutely love the musical score (so perfect) and that we get a cameo from Lesley Ann Warren at the end. And that her tittaes are less perky, haha. Surely you know how I feel about Lesley Ann Warren.

In semi-related news, here's another short film entry in her actual endorsement deal (for Dior) that we first told you about in last May. This time she's singing (yay!) and getting sahxy in a hot red dress. Yum. No, I'm not ready to consider my feelings about La Vie En Rose. Leave it be!

In case you haven't seen it...

Klik hier om het video filmpje te bekijken
thanks to pullquote for heads up

I was a little bit sad for The Lady & The Reaper which is so enjoyable and funny. But Logorama is fun too. Incidentally that losing Spanish short is why these two made it back to the Oscars.


But Antonio lost the Oscar. What a world. Wasn't marrying Melanie Griffith punishment enough ? Oh I kid, I kid. They made it work, huh? 13+ years now.

<--- Sandra Bullock goes Na'Vi. I made this just because. What's wrong with me?

You want the final predictions, don'cha? I may panic and change one or two of these on Saturday night @ 8 PM (if I don't change anything by then, these are final final). I'm still toying with calling Meryl Streep over Sandra Bullock for example in Best Actress. That's not because I want to be different but because I genuinely feel it's possible. The only award Sandra won that Streep didn't was SAG (and Streep had just won that the year before. Were they likely to repeat? But herewith my predictions on what and who will going to win the biggest movie prize of all on Sunday night.

It's also your last 24 hours to vote on the readers polls so have at them.

And for those who asked. I have updated the pages for Supporting Actress and Lead Actress to reflect that feature y'all love so much "how did they get nominated?"

Finally, here's the Spanish animated short that I'm rooting for (and predicting) for Best Animated Short. It's called La Dama y La Muerte and it was produced by Antonio Banderas. Whaddya know? I lurve the design of the Gaston-like doctor and his identical nurses. And there's plenty of good visual jokes. Cerebrus! But, that said, the short film categories are always so tough to predict...

It was only five years ago when the Australian Film Institute Awards reached their most sad and pathetic moment. 2005, the year that will live in infamy for followers of Australian film, produced only one (ONE!) film that the AFI felt worthy enough to award. Cate Shortland's Somersault was nominated for and won every.single.category. The really sad thing is that it probably deserved to win them all, which says more about the slate of Aussie films that year than anything else.


This year's AFI awards, however, are a much different story. 2009 has been a stellar year for Australian cinema - perhaps the best ever - and my country's version of the Oscars (as they like to be called) certainly showed why.

Samson & Delilah's creator Warwick Thornton walked away with three of the AFI's glass statues winning for Best Cinematography (he has been a cinematographer for 25 years prior to directing S&D), Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay. The film also took hope Best Film for producer Kath Shelper (who I've seen loitering around the comment sections here at The Film Experience!) Australia's entry into the Best Foreign Language Film category at next year's Academy Awards also won for Best Sound and the film's two stars, Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson, took the Young Actor Award.

Robert Connelly's Balibo took the honours for Best Actor (Anthony LaPaglia), Best Supporting Actor (Oscar Isaac) and Best Adapted Screenplay. Rhonda Epinstalk herself, Rachel Griffiths, won a Best Supporting Actress gong for her role in Rachel Ward's directorial debut Beautiful Kate. Frances O'Connor, she of constant almost-fame in America, won her first AFI Award from five nominations for her role in Ana Kokkinos' Blessed. Kokkinos couldn't direct a good movie if it fell into her lap, and Blessed was no different, but O'Connor has a scene - and anyone who has seen it will know which one - that ranks as one of the most emotionally devastating scenes you're ever likely to see. She deserved the prize for that scene alone.

And what happened to Baz Luhrmann's Australia? Well, it was snubbed for nominations in the top categories, but took home trophies for Costume Design, Production Design and Visual Effects as well as a special AFI in honour of it's astronomical box office. All good for a night's work, I say.

What do these wins mean for Samson & Delilah's Oscar hopes? Not much at all, sadly. Three years ago Ten Canoes won the big prize, but wasn't able to make any headway in the Foreign Language league. Adam Elliot's Mary and Max, a shortlisted title for Best Animated Feature, was nominated for several awards, including Best Film, but failed to win any. Meanwhile The Cat Piano and Miracle Fish won Best Animated Short and Best Short Fiction Film respectively. Both are on Oscar's shortlist and shouldn't be ignored. Check out The Cat Piano below, I guarantee you'll love it!

Over the next few weeks, about a million tiny critics organizations will shout "Best!" The British Independent Film Awards have announced, following the Gothams and NBR across the pond. It's well underway. It shan't stop any time soon.


British Independent Film Moon
Director Andrea Arnold, Fish Tank
Debut Director Duncan Jones, Moon
Screenplay In the Loop
British Short Love You More
Best Foreign Film Let the Right One In

• Big night for Duncan Jones's Moon. David Bowie's son sure built up a lot of goodwill with this first feature. That follow up is going to be tricky, though. How to live up to those expectations?
  

Actress Carey Mulligan, An Education
Actor Tom Hardy, Bronson
<--- Supporting Actress Anne-Marie Duff, Nowhere Boy
Supporting Actor John Henshaw, Looking for Eric
Most Promising Newcomer Katie Jarvis, Fish Tank

• Only one of these is going on to Oscar citations for various reasons -- sometimes as simple as no distribution in the States -- but it seems like quite a strong list. And quite a young list, too. Mulligan is 24, Jarvis is only 18 and Hardy and Duff (Mrs. James McAvoy) are in their 30s. A lot of younger actors and actresses made great strides this year, didn't they?
  

Achievement in Production Bunny and the Bull
Raindance Award Down Terrace
Technical Achievement Bright Star's cinematography Greig Fraser
Documentary Mugabe and the White African
British Short Love You More
Best Foreign Film Let the Right One In

• I'd love to think that Greig Fraser has a clear shot at an Oscar nomination. His contribution to Jane Campion's poetic romance went a long way in making the film the rich and delicate beauty it is. But I've learned never to assume that newbies are locks with Oscar's below-the-line branches. Those branches can be stingy with new talents and protective of the establishment players. Or at least that's sometimes how it feels from the outside. On a more obscure note I have to say "hurrah" for the win for Love You More (pictured). That's the short that I fought for in jury deliberations at the Nashville Film Festival. It's an expertly tight story of a budding sexual relationship revolving around the purchase and play of a vinyl single by the Buzzcocks. Great great short and it doesn't surprise me in the least that the artist/director Sam Taylor-Wood is already on to feature film acclaim. She followed Love You More with Nowhere Boy, which was also honored by BIFA. Good night for her. No word on when that picture is opening in the States update: The film has the instant global hook of Beatles mania (the film is about John Lennon's adolescence) and will be released by the Weinstein Company next year.
  

Finally, since critics organizations usually hand out a couple of honorary type awards, I assume to get stars at their end of year dinner parties, actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Sir Michael Caine (both of them entirely bereft of past honors, poor things) and journalist Baz Bamigboye were also lauded.
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tuesday thursday top ten: for the listmaker in me and the listlover in you

What follows is a reworking of a post originally published in 2007. It's two years later and you know what that means: Pixar has given us two more classics. UP brings their feature film count to ten. You know what Ten means: Top Ten Time!


Cars (John Lasseter, 2006) 117 min.
Pixar's only dud. Chief among its problems: the anthropomorphics were forced. Let me get this straight: Cars as bugs on windshields of cars as cars who act like humans and they even sleep in hotels for cars -- What? What? It's not quite Shark Tale in the realm of painful "they're just like us!" pandering but it's not 'good' either. I would give it a second chance except it's also Pixar's longest feature... too long by about 23 minutes. Thankfully, they seem to have reversed their bloated running time trending. It peaked here and began coming back down to 90 minute levels.
Best character: n/a
Oscar noms: 2 (Original Song and Animated Feature)


09 A Bug's Life (Lasseter & Andrew Stanton, 1998) 96 min.
Not as memorable as the other films but a solid entertainment.
Best character: Heimlich "finally, I'm a beautiful butterfly!"
Oscar noms: 1 (Score, Musical or Comedy)



08 Finding Nemo (Stanton & Lee Unkrich, 2003) 100 min.
Pixar's biggest hit and the appeal is obvious. It's consistently funny and it looks like a million billion bucks. And I'm not just talking about the color palette (fish were such a brilliant subject for an animated film) but the intermittently serene bliss of the uncluttered frame. Animated films tend to overstuff and err on the side of visual and narrative chaos, desperate that the littlest eyes in the audience might wander. Pixar is more confident than that (though I could've done without some of Nemo's lamer gags like "surfer" turtles. 'Whoa')
Best character: Dory, possibly the best celebrity voice casting ever for a toon. In non-Pixar efforts the casting is usually only about the marquee value of the name. Pixar almost always does right by casting. It's character first. Ellen DeGeneres's whole comic persona serves the fish and not the other way around.
Oscar noms: 4 (Animated Feature*, Score, Sound Editing, Original Screenplay)

Toy Story 2 (Lasseter, Unkrich and Ash Brannon, 1999) 92 min.
The last time I made a Pixar list I asked if it was as great as some claim? But unfortunately I didn't seek an answer for myself. I loved its basic story concept but I don't remember it well.
Best character: They're mostly holdovers but I do remember that that Barbie sequence was bananas.
Oscar Noms: 1 (Score). 1999 was the year that prompted the Academy to create an animated feature category, which became an official category in 2001. The collective critical response to Toy Story 2, The Iron Giant and Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke which were all released stateside in 1999 was basically along the lines of 'these animated movies are as good as any live action movie'. AMPAS decision seemed like a good move at the time, but now the category has become a ghetto preventing films as rich and lauded as WALL•E from landing in the Best Picture category where they belong.


06 Up (Pete Docter & Bob Peterson) 96 min.
This ranking might be too high or too low. But the film is brand spanking new. I'll need time to settle with it... float back down to earth. I always feel high in the sky after a Pixar... even the ones that don't include helium balloons. Our Vodcast Review
Best character: Carl Fredricksen. I love how square his face is, how it ages and how expressive it remains throughout the film, despite being as boxed up as his life in his old house.
Oscar noms: We'll know in January 2010. I'm going to guess three (Score, Animated and one Sound categories)

Monsters, Inc. (Docter, Unkrich and Lee Silverman, 01) 92 min.
One of the most underrated films of 2001, arguably the best cinematic year of the decade. How can this be underrated when it made hundreds of millions and people generally like it, you ask? Because they should love it. It's got all the Pixar strengths in abundance: inventive screenplay, memorable characters, complicated gags, glorious production design. Those people (including Academy voters) who thought Shrek was better? They're monsters! My screams when it lost the Oscar could power Monstropolis for a year.
Best character: Boo
Oscar noms: (Original Song*, Animated Feature, Score, Sound Editing)

04 Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 07) 111 min.
Left the movie theater with a huge smile on my face... interrupted only by an occassional shudder from the heebie-jeebies. You know, hundreds of rats... in a kitchen... touching food! Pixar is totally gourmet. You always feel that the films are crafted with great skill and love. They make a mint but it's plain as day that's not their soul purpose. It's not an assembly line. One hopes this anti fast-food approach eventually rubs off on the increasingly soulless direct to DVD Disney.
Best character: Gusteau
Oscar noms: 5 (Animated Feature*, Score, Sound, Sound Editing, Original Screenplay)


03 Toy Story (Lasseter, 95) 81 min.
I'm not sure if it's the 99th best film of all time as the AFI claims but I'm glad animation is represented on that list. We were both excited to see it as we were ahead of the populace on the Pixar curve. I don't remember how I obtained it but I had a bootleg VHS tape of all of the Pixar shorts that had been made before they risked going into features. I had already converted my whole family to the cult of Pixar and even considered buying stock in the company went it first went up for sale even though I was a poor college student (Oh, to have done so). As long as I live I will never forget the first time I saw the film. I went with my brother. The moment that lifted it into a complete comedic classic was 'The Claw' My brother and I literally hurt from laughing. That's a good kind of pain.
Best character: Buzz Lightyear
Oscar noms: 3 (Score, Original Song, Screenplay... and a special Oscar for John Lasseter for making it all happen)

02 The Incredibles (Bird, 2004) 115 min.
From my top ten of 2004 review: "I saw The Incredibles three times within the month of its opening. And every time something else opened the following month that only looked sort of appealing I thought to myself. "Self, you can always go and see The Incredibles again"
... Gah. Pixar is so awesome. Group hug!


Best character: Elastigirl. She keeps this family together... and not just with those rubbery arms that can literally do so.
Oscar noms: 4 (Sound Editing* Animated Feature*, Sound Mixing, Original Screenplay)

01 WALL•E (Stanton, 08) 98 minutes
One of the best pictures in recent years from any medium or genre. Since it's still fresh in mind I'm guessing we've discussed it enough for awhile. I was wild for it as you know. See my annual awards for further proof.
Best character: Read my ode to EVE here if you missed it.
Oscar noms: 6 (Animated Feature*, Score, Original Song, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Screenplay)

Next up for Pixar? I hope they don't spoil their status as "most consistent studio on the planet" but they're moving into two pictures a year now, instead of one. When Disney sped up in the mid 90s, things started going downhill.


2010: Toy Story 3 which will be directed by Lee Unkrich, who is finally getting his own movie after co-directing three of their giant hits.
2011: Newt about the last remaining male and female blue footed newts... who hate each other and Pixar's first fairy tale (moving into Disney's realm, eh?) The Bear and the Bow
2012: Brings a weird double feature: the one I'm least excited about, Cars 2, and the one I'm most excited about John Carter of Mars. The latter will be a real departure for the studio, a sci-fi adventure / adaptation that's not specifically aimed at children. UPDATE: Apparently Andrew Stanton is being essentially "loaned out" for this one and it won't be a proper Pixar film after all. Live action. Barsoomia is tracking the project closely.

Pixar shorts top ten, a bonus list. Here's my top ten.

1. For the Birds (Ralph Eggleston, 2000) 3 min. Oscar winner
   
2. Knick Knack (Lasseter, 1989) 4 min.
   
3. Boundin' (Bud Lucky and Roger Gould, 2003) 5 min. Oscar nominee
   
4. Tin Toy (Lasseter, 1988) 5 min. Oscar winner
   
5. Geri's Game (Jan Pinkava, 1997) 4 min. Oscar winner
   
6. Luxo Jr (Lasseter, 1986) 2 min. Oscar nominee
   
7. Lifted (Gary Rydstrom, 2006) 5 min. Oscar nominee
   
8. Presto (Doug Sweetland, 2008) 5 min. Oscar nominee
   
9. Red's Dream (Lasseter, 1987) 4 min.
   
10. One Man Band (Mark Andrews and Andrew Jimenez, 2005) 4 min. Oscar nominee
    

Which was your first in theaters? Which film has shifted the most in your opinions about it over the years? How would you rate them on a scale of dud to all timers? Or are you, like Armond White, tired of hearing about their awesomeness? If so, how soon do you think a backlash will happen?

related post: UP Vodcast
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