Kathryn Bigelow picked up yet another significant trophy over the weekend: she won the Directors Guild of America's Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for The Hurt Locker - and thus becomes the first woman to win the award.
In tasting victory, she beat her ex-husband, James Cameron. The win is doubly (or indeed trebly) significant because the Oscar noms are out later on Monday; she will feature among the noms, and history reveals that only twice in the past 10 years has the DGA winner not gone on to win the Oscar.
Thus at this stage, the key fight for Best Film and Best Director appears to be between Cameron and Bigelow and their respective movies. Ahead of the noms, I'd venture Jeff Bridges will win Best Actor, while Sandra Bullock will surprise everyone with Best Actress. It's hard to see Christoph Waltz being beaten for Best Supporting Actor, but I suspect another upset in Best Supporting Actress simply because Precious is too depressing for the Academy - so look to Vera Farmiga in Up The Air to take it.
Meanwhile, another astonishing hold both in the US and abroad means Avatar has soared beyond the $2bn mark; $2.5bn now seems a real possibility.
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Review: The Road
The Road. What can you say? First, it is one of the bleakest mainstream films yet made, almost bereft of hope. Second, it is beautiful to look at.
Let’s deal with the bleakness. The film wantonly revels in its apocalyptic misery. I understand that the film is a very faithful adaptation of the book – and thus that bleakness is inherited from its source. However, those I know that have read the book bemoan the emotional detachment of the film – a detachment not experienced when reading the book.
This detachment is not the result of poor performances from its principal cast; indeed, Viggo Mortenson and Kodi Smit-McPhee are excellent, as the father-and-son survivors of some unexplained extinction level event. Their road trip south to the east coast is peppered with frightful and violent encounters (mostly with cannibalistic fellow survivors).
These encounters, the deprivation and loneliness pile on the misery and affect the father and son (we never learn their names – almost as if, with the death of society, names no longer matter) in different ways. While the father is outwardly stoic, he is in truth more scared than the boy, his drive to survive without succumbing to evil makes him deeply cynical and distrusting of strangers. The boy is the innocent, naïve, incorruptible, curious, and kind alter-image of his father.
This duality (experience and innocence, if you’ll forgive the reversal) and the final scene carry a heavy undertow of Blake’s angelic view of the child, and an almost overt Christian subtext. The boy is hope. That final scene unleashes a cruel irony: that the society, the belonging, that the father and son have been chasing has in fact been shadowing them all along even as they have unwittingly run from it.
It’s worth comparing Avatar’s sledgehammer eco-message and its mish-mash of world faiths, with The Road’s lean, mean warning to us all: if our eco-system dies, so does our humanity.
However, that is a very hard pill to swallow. This film really is so terribly bleak. It’s worth noting that the director, John Hillcoat, was hand-picked for the film after its producer had seen Hillcoat’s The Proposition – a film almost as bleak as this. The leaden dread is reinforced by the score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (neither know for uplifting material!).
But The Road is beautiful to look at; Javier Aguirresarobe’s cinematography (both the colours, the compositions, and the choice of lenses) is astounding - this backed by brilliant production design mean what’s left of the world is horribly real. Many of its images burn into the brain, there to stay. Given this, the film should be an immersive experience – but that detachment remains.
I simply can’t score this film. It’s not that it’s bad – it isn’t! It’s just not of my world. I have no desire to see it again. And yet the film’s stark warning remains…
Let’s deal with the bleakness. The film wantonly revels in its apocalyptic misery. I understand that the film is a very faithful adaptation of the book – and thus that bleakness is inherited from its source. However, those I know that have read the book bemoan the emotional detachment of the film – a detachment not experienced when reading the book.
This detachment is not the result of poor performances from its principal cast; indeed, Viggo Mortenson and Kodi Smit-McPhee are excellent, as the father-and-son survivors of some unexplained extinction level event. Their road trip south to the east coast is peppered with frightful and violent encounters (mostly with cannibalistic fellow survivors).
These encounters, the deprivation and loneliness pile on the misery and affect the father and son (we never learn their names – almost as if, with the death of society, names no longer matter) in different ways. While the father is outwardly stoic, he is in truth more scared than the boy, his drive to survive without succumbing to evil makes him deeply cynical and distrusting of strangers. The boy is the innocent, naïve, incorruptible, curious, and kind alter-image of his father.
This duality (experience and innocence, if you’ll forgive the reversal) and the final scene carry a heavy undertow of Blake’s angelic view of the child, and an almost overt Christian subtext. The boy is hope. That final scene unleashes a cruel irony: that the society, the belonging, that the father and son have been chasing has in fact been shadowing them all along even as they have unwittingly run from it.
It’s worth comparing Avatar’s sledgehammer eco-message and its mish-mash of world faiths, with The Road’s lean, mean warning to us all: if our eco-system dies, so does our humanity.
However, that is a very hard pill to swallow. This film really is so terribly bleak. It’s worth noting that the director, John Hillcoat, was hand-picked for the film after its producer had seen Hillcoat’s The Proposition – a film almost as bleak as this. The leaden dread is reinforced by the score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (neither know for uplifting material!).
But The Road is beautiful to look at; Javier Aguirresarobe’s cinematography (both the colours, the compositions, and the choice of lenses) is astounding - this backed by brilliant production design mean what’s left of the world is horribly real. Many of its images burn into the brain, there to stay. Given this, the film should be an immersive experience – but that detachment remains.
I simply can’t score this film. It’s not that it’s bad – it isn’t! It’s just not of my world. I have no desire to see it again. And yet the film’s stark warning remains…
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Avatar beats Titanic
Avatar has done it! Titanic is now only the second most successful film of all time.
Avatar's $3.2m take on Monday in the US was enough for it to overtake the doomed liner. Its total stands at $1,858m, according to Boxoffice Mojo. It will easily cross the $2bn barrier by the first weekend of February. The figures are unprecedented, but those premium ticket prices and the development of more major movie markets with more screens than Titanic could be shown on 12 years ago means this is no apple-with-apple comparison.
The only question now is: will Oscar be convinced? With the nominations not due until 2 February, there is still a long way to go, but while Avatar took the Golden Globe, Inglorious Basterds took the SAG and most recently The Hurt Locker took the PGA, pitching itself back into the fight after leaving the Globes with nothing.
Avatar's $3.2m take on Monday in the US was enough for it to overtake the doomed liner. Its total stands at $1,858m, according to Boxoffice Mojo. It will easily cross the $2bn barrier by the first weekend of February. The figures are unprecedented, but those premium ticket prices and the development of more major movie markets with more screens than Titanic could be shown on 12 years ago means this is no apple-with-apple comparison.
The only question now is: will Oscar be convinced? With the nominations not due until 2 February, there is still a long way to go, but while Avatar took the Golden Globe, Inglorious Basterds took the SAG and most recently The Hurt Locker took the PGA, pitching itself back into the fight after leaving the Globes with nothing.
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Avatar: oh so close to the record
Avatar finished this weekend just $2m shy of taking Titanic's all-time box office record. The blue people came oh so close to besting the ship disaster's $1,842.9m.
Its US take this weekend dropped just 16% on the previous weekend, realising a haul of $36m - and thus Avatar becomes the first film to stay at Number 1 for six weeks since Titanic 12 years ago; which ultimately did 15 weeks!!! Now that is clearly a record that will never be beaten, or at least Avatar won't beat it, because even if it stays at Number 1 until the end of February (and that is unlikely), it will face Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland on the first weekend in March.
Avatar's US take now stands at circa $552.8m, beating The Dark Knight, and second only to the doomed ship of course. Its worldwide total now stands at circa $1,840m as Avatar has now amassed $1,288m internationally, beating Titanic's previous record of $1,242m. The latest issue of Screen International highlights the film's performance in the world's top 20 markets: France went through the $100m barrier more than a week ago, while Russia, Germany, the UK and China will all surely follow in the next fortnight as Avatar's totals in those countries range from $88m to $75m.
In many developing markets, Avatar has substantially improved on Titanic, Russia being the prime example: just $5m for the ship, and $88m for the smurfs. South Korea is another: $17m for the liner, and $70m for the blue.
Its US take this weekend dropped just 16% on the previous weekend, realising a haul of $36m - and thus Avatar becomes the first film to stay at Number 1 for six weeks since Titanic 12 years ago; which ultimately did 15 weeks!!! Now that is clearly a record that will never be beaten, or at least Avatar won't beat it, because even if it stays at Number 1 until the end of February (and that is unlikely), it will face Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland on the first weekend in March.
Avatar's US take now stands at circa $552.8m, beating The Dark Knight, and second only to the doomed ship of course. Its worldwide total now stands at circa $1,840m as Avatar has now amassed $1,288m internationally, beating Titanic's previous record of $1,242m. The latest issue of Screen International highlights the film's performance in the world's top 20 markets: France went through the $100m barrier more than a week ago, while Russia, Germany, the UK and China will all surely follow in the next fortnight as Avatar's totals in those countries range from $88m to $75m.
In many developing markets, Avatar has substantially improved on Titanic, Russia being the prime example: just $5m for the ship, and $88m for the smurfs. South Korea is another: $17m for the liner, and $70m for the blue.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
BAFTA 2010: noms announced
As ever, BAFTA goes its own way: the nominations for 2010 are led by Avatar, An Education and The Hurt Locker with eight noms each, but behind those three favourites are a number of surprises.
In the Outstanding British Film category, Education is up against Nowhere Boy (up for four awards), Moon (two noms in total), Fish Tank and In The Loop. Unfortunately, Katie Jarvis's terrific debut turn in Fish Tank is not recognised - unforgiveable!
District 9 picked up 7 noms, but not Best Film. Inglorious Basterds secures a Best Director nom for Best Director but doesn't feature on the Best Film list.
The Actor and Actress categories are eclectic: Clooney v Bridges v Firth v Renner v Serkis (for playing Ian Dury); and Mulligan v Saoirse Ronan (for the Lovely Bones) v Gabourey Sidibe (for Precious) v Streep v Audrey Tatou (for Coco Before Chanel).
The Supporting categories are equally independent: Actor features Alec Baldwin and Stanley Tucci alongside the established favourites; while Actress highlights the performances of Anne-Marie Duff and Kristin Scott Thomas in Nowhere Boy.
And Nine? Locked out of every major category...
In the Outstanding British Film category, Education is up against Nowhere Boy (up for four awards), Moon (two noms in total), Fish Tank and In The Loop. Unfortunately, Katie Jarvis's terrific debut turn in Fish Tank is not recognised - unforgiveable!
District 9 picked up 7 noms, but not Best Film. Inglorious Basterds secures a Best Director nom for Best Director but doesn't feature on the Best Film list.
The Actor and Actress categories are eclectic: Clooney v Bridges v Firth v Renner v Serkis (for playing Ian Dury); and Mulligan v Saoirse Ronan (for the Lovely Bones) v Gabourey Sidibe (for Precious) v Streep v Audrey Tatou (for Coco Before Chanel).
The Supporting categories are equally independent: Actor features Alec Baldwin and Stanley Tucci alongside the established favourites; while Actress highlights the performances of Anne-Marie Duff and Kristin Scott Thomas in Nowhere Boy.
And Nine? Locked out of every major category...
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Avatar madness continues
Like a monster, Avatar continues to consume everything in its path. Like Jim Cameron's terminator, it absolutely will not stop until we are all dead!
As Monday was MLK Jr Day in the US, Avatar was able to rake in another $11.6m at the box office, pushing it through the $500m barrier; only The Dark Knight ($533.3m) and Titanic ($600.8m) remain ahead of it. In the UK, its three-day weekend take was £5.5m - higher than its second weekend and only slightly lower than its third weekend, and up 16% on the fourth weeked; it currently stands at £49.3m.
With the Golden Globe wins putting extra wind in its sales (like it needed it!), Avatar could gain further from BAFTA and Oscar noms (and wins) in the next six weeks. Boxofficeguru puts it at $1.62bn worldwide as of 18 January, while Boxofficemojo puts it at $1.64bn as of the same date. Titanic's record of $1.83bn should be obliterated by Sunday night.
Its performance, especially the legs its displaying, is simply unprecedented. If it doesn't beat all Titanic's key records, I'll be very surprised. $2bn must be well within its reach - and higher realms are still possible...
As Monday was MLK Jr Day in the US, Avatar was able to rake in another $11.6m at the box office, pushing it through the $500m barrier; only The Dark Knight ($533.3m) and Titanic ($600.8m) remain ahead of it. In the UK, its three-day weekend take was £5.5m - higher than its second weekend and only slightly lower than its third weekend, and up 16% on the fourth weeked; it currently stands at £49.3m.
With the Golden Globe wins putting extra wind in its sales (like it needed it!), Avatar could gain further from BAFTA and Oscar noms (and wins) in the next six weeks. Boxofficeguru puts it at $1.62bn worldwide as of 18 January, while Boxofficemojo puts it at $1.64bn as of the same date. Titanic's record of $1.83bn should be obliterated by Sunday night.
Its performance, especially the legs its displaying, is simply unprecedented. If it doesn't beat all Titanic's key records, I'll be very surprised. $2bn must be well within its reach - and higher realms are still possible...
Monday, 18 January 2010
Avatar wins Globes, sets sights on all-time No.1
This weekend was a big one for Avatar: it picked up the two big Golden Globes (Best Drama and Best Director for James Cameron) and once again dominated the global box office to such an extent that the question is when, not if, it will break Titanic's key records.
While Avatar is a box office behemoth the likes of which we won't see for another generation, its success did not suggest to me that the HFPA would go for it - but go for it they did. The question now is: will Oscar do the same? I hope not...
The Golden Globes held some other surprises, notably: Sandra Bullock winning Best Actress in a Drama; Jeff Bridges beating George Clooney to the Best Actor in a Drama; and all the Comedy category winners (The Hangover, Meryl Streep and Robert Downey Jnr).
Elsewhere, the Globes went with the form book: Christoph Waltz ad Mo'Nique continuing their winning ways in the supporting slots; Jason Reitman's and Sheldon Turner's Up In The Air script looks like a lock now for the Oscar; and Up and White Ribbon winning the animated and foreign movie awards respectively.
At the box office, Avatar had another incredible weekend: another $41.3m in the US and $125m (current estimates) internationally. As I write this, Avatar will be passing through the $500m barrier in the US - and it very clearly now has the legs to beat Titanic's $600.8m. Internationally, its current total of $1.1bn is just $100m short of Titanic's total - and it could pass that by Friday this week! The question now is: how far can Avatar go? £2bn?
While Avatar is a box office behemoth the likes of which we won't see for another generation, its success did not suggest to me that the HFPA would go for it - but go for it they did. The question now is: will Oscar do the same? I hope not...
The Golden Globes held some other surprises, notably: Sandra Bullock winning Best Actress in a Drama; Jeff Bridges beating George Clooney to the Best Actor in a Drama; and all the Comedy category winners (The Hangover, Meryl Streep and Robert Downey Jnr).
Elsewhere, the Globes went with the form book: Christoph Waltz ad Mo'Nique continuing their winning ways in the supporting slots; Jason Reitman's and Sheldon Turner's Up In The Air script looks like a lock now for the Oscar; and Up and White Ribbon winning the animated and foreign movie awards respectively.
At the box office, Avatar had another incredible weekend: another $41.3m in the US and $125m (current estimates) internationally. As I write this, Avatar will be passing through the $500m barrier in the US - and it very clearly now has the legs to beat Titanic's $600.8m. Internationally, its current total of $1.1bn is just $100m short of Titanic's total - and it could pass that by Friday this week! The question now is: how far can Avatar go? £2bn?
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
LA's top 10 films of the noughties
David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive has been named Film of the Decade by the LA Film Critics Association.The 13-strong top 10 list (don’t ask me!) makes for interesting reading:
1. Mulholland Drive
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
4. Brokeback Mountain
5. No Country For Old Men/Zodiac
6. Yi Yi
7. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days/The Lord Of The Rings trilogy
8. Spirited Away
9. United 93/Y Tu Mama Tambien
10. Sideways
Curiously tied in 11th are Children Of Men, Talk To Her and Wall*E. The Incredibles makes 13th, ahead of Memento. The Hurt Locker is 25th, ahead of The White Ribbon.
Clearly the films that touched the LA critics were mostly pretty bleak…
BAFTA 2010: longlist revealed
The longlist for the BAFTAs has appeared – and An Education leads, being listed in 17 categories. Next best is Inglorious Basterds with 15. The Hurt Locker features on 12 lists, ahead of Avatar on 11. Notable listings include: both Clint Eastwood movies, Gran Torino and Invictus, making both the Best Film and Best Director lists, and the man himself making the Best Actor list for Gran Torino; Up is listed for both Best Film and Best Animated Film; Meryl Streep is listed twice in Best Actress for It’s Complicated and Julie & Julia; and Zachary Quinto’s turn as Spock gets him on to the Best Supporting Actor list.
The surprise loser is Nine: it’s highest profile listing is for Marion Cotillard for Best Actress…
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Awards season: the front-runners
With Awards season about to get in full swing, it's time to look at the favourites - and the big question is not whether Avatar will win Best Film (if it does, I'll never go to the cinema again), but whether Kathryn Bigelow will become the first women to win Best Director at the Oscars...The Golden Globes announce their winners on Sunday (17 January), followed swiftly by the BAFTA noms on 21 January, the Oscar noms on 2 February, the BAFTA winners on 21 February, and finally the Oscars winners on 7 March.
The latest issue of Screen International features an analysis of the winners of the 20 major awards events so far - and that analysis suggests some heavily-backed favourites.
The most successful film so far is The Hurt Locker, with 10 wins; only Up In The Air can offer any resistance with 5 wins. Director of The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow, dominates her category with 15 wins; Jason Reitman, for Up In The Air, and QT, for Inglorious Basterds, offer only token opposition with 2 wins apiece.
Best Actor sees George Clooney securing nine wins for Up In The Air, with The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner taking 4. Surprisingly, Morgan Freeman, as Nelson Mandela in Invictus, has only secured 1 win.
Best Actress is a fight to the death between Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan, with 7 and 6 wins apiece for Julie & Julia and An Education respectively.
Best Supporting Actor is dominated by Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds - he has secured 18 wins - while Best Supporting Actress is similarly dominated by Mo'Nique in Precious with 16 wins (token resistance comes from the brilliant Anna Kendrick in Up In The Air).
Best Documentary is a fight between The Cove (8 wins) and Anvil! (5 wins), while the Best Animated Film is weighted in favour of Up, with 12 wins.
This Awards season could be anyone's - it really is an open field. And Avatar? It was named Best Film by New York Film Critics Online...
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Review: Avatar
Avatar is now the second most successful film of all time (in pure dollar box office terms) – and thus James Cameron owns number one (Titanic) and number two – and marks another great leap forward for special effects, but is it actually any good?Well, let’s be clear, Cameron certainly hasn’t spent the last 12 years polishing the script!! The story, such as it is, recalls so many films and books that it would be far too time-consuming to list those ‘influences’. If one was to be kind, one would suggest Cameron is using ‘classic’ stories and plot staples (as George Lucas did so well with the Star Wars IV: A New Hope); however, if one was to be unkind, one would suggest Cameron is apparently bereft of any original thought!
As for the dialogue, it never hits the heights of Aliens or the Terminator movies – in fact, in places, it plumbs some new depths.
The film’s pro-environment and anti-imperialism stances are somewhat undermined by Cameron’s woolly liberalism (it’s OK to slaughter in self defence and if you’re saving the planet – at least Arnie in T2 wasn’t allowed to kill anyone…) and his inverted racism: the majority of the mercenaries are white red-necks with no redeeming values whatsoever, while the Na’vi are saints and so at one with nature that they come across as a bunch of hippy do-gooders (and needless to say they don’t operate a democracy…) – and they certainly appear, in tribal terms at least, to be a mixture of every ‘worthy’ indigenous people that the White Man has oppressed.
But of course, they can’t succeed on their own – the hero White Man must turn traitor to his own people to save his adopted Na’vi, and in so doing become their god. Jim: that’s all so tiresome!!!
But, and it is a big but, the film’s 2 hours 42 minute-run time flies by. It is generally well edited, exposition is largely unintrusive, the action set pieces are played for maximum effect, and the effects (especially in 3D) are simply breath-taking – and Sam Worthington continues to make a name for himself (after Terminator 4) as a thoroughly dependable, everyman hero who grounds any script in gritty reality.
Worthington’s first brush with the wildlife (the emphasis is on the wild) on Pandora is as breathless and nail-gripping as chase sequences get – I was pushing myself further and further back into my chair to escape the beasties. And in that typical Cameron way, just when you think a set-piece has topped out, he then goes and trumps it.
Indeed, the attack on the Na’vi’s Hometree is pretty bloody astonishing, ranking up there with the Ride of the Valkyries attack in Apocalypse Now!, anything by Ridley Scott, and Cameron’s own sinking of the Titanic. The impact and aftermath of this attack vividly and chillingly, but apparently accidentally, recalls 9/11.
Cameron’s long-established interest in hardware continues in Avatar – you get the sense he understands the essential physics and science that make every item of technology in his movies work: guns work in particular, mechanical ways, while air-borne/space craft can only do what is physically possible. And this sense benefits the action set-pieces. Indeed, the air-borne/space craft are also clearly developed from previous such craft designs in Aliens and the Terminator movies.
And just as the Abyss and T2 were only possible thanks to improved FX technology, so Avatar marks another step-change. There really are no hokey effects in this movie, no obvious blue screen moments – at times you feel that you can reach out and touch this other world.
Over time, some Cameron themes have waned: women rarely play pro-active, strong, independent roles in his films any more like they did early on (Sarah Connor, Ripley, and Lindsey Brigman in The Abyss for example), and the female roles (as much as the male roles, I admit) are under-written in Avatar.
But that is clearly not a problem for the millions that have gone to see it. Not withstanding that its box office records are in part driven by the premium ticket prices charged for IMAX and 3D screenings, Avatar nevertheless proves people will find the money for pure escapism in the depths of recession and bad weather – film it and they will come.
And that statement proves the power of cinema – and of James Cameron.
If I have a message for Cameron, it is this: take your cues from your former wife Kathryn Bigelow and the likes of Paul Greengrass – it is possible to make visionary, muscular action movies deep with meaning.
Finally then, a score is called for. There is so much to enjoy – and so much that is unforgivable in a film that started life 12 years ago. Cameron has filmed four of my favourite movies, and that’s the benchmark he’s up against, so…
Score: 6.5/10
Sunday, 3 January 2010
The Golden Stans 2009
2009 is over, so it’s time to award The Golden Stans. In ’09 I saw 68 movies, 61 of which qualify to compete for these, er, ‘prestigious’ awards. Some categories were easily judged and awarded, others were considerably tougher.
Original Score is the first award. In fact it’s a double award as it recognises not only the score, but also the sound effects as well: using both to tremendously scary effect, summoning forth hell itself, was Christopher Young and the sound team on Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell.
Next up is the Cinematography Award – and it’s fought out by: Claudio Moranda for his work on Benjamin Button; Hoyte van Hoytema for Let The Right One In; Barry Ackroyd for The Hurt Locker; and Giora Bejach for Lebanon. Each has fair claim to the award, but in the end I’m handing it to Ackroyd for The Hurt Locker.
The Adapted Screenplay is a simple win for John Ajvide Lindqvist and his adaptation of his own novel, brilliantly condensing the story while retaining the strong sense of time and place, and the characterisation that made Let The Right One In such a great experience.
The Original Screenplay Award is also an easy victory for Up, Bob Peterson and Pete Docter collecting the gong.
Now, on to the big six awards, starting with Best Supporting Actress. The nominees easily secured their places on the shortlist, partly thanks to their excellence and partly reflecting the lack of strong supporting roles for women. The list looks like this:
Cate Blanchett/The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Vera Farmiga/Up In The Air
Anna Kendrick/Up In The Air
Juno Temple/Cracks
Debra Winger/Rachel Getting Married
Rosemarie de Witt/Rachel Getting Married
This is a tough one, each actress with a rightful claim to the award: la Blanchett suffers stoically in Button; Farmiga and Kendrick play opposite sides of the same coin in Up In The Air to startlingly realistic effect; while the naked spite, bitterness and love evident in the performances of Temple, Winger and de Witt are hard to ignore. However, there has to be a winner and that, by a nose from her co-star, is… Vera Farmiga in Up In The Air.
The Best Supporting Actor shortlist pretty much wrote itself too:
Jackie Earl Haley/Watchmen
Michael Fassbender/Fish Tank
Alfred Molina/An Education
Peter Sarsgaard/An Education
JK Simmons/Up In The Air
Liev Schreiber/Taking Woodstock
It may say something about the movies of 2009 that this shortlist leans heavily towards the tragi-comic and the plain comic performances – the only truly ‘dramatic’ role is Fassbender’s turn in Fish Tank. Haley nails Watchmen’s anti-hero Rorschach, Molina enjoys one of his best roles in An Education, while Sarsgaard makes for a first class cad, Simmons damn near steals Up In The Air while on screen for just five minutes, and Schreiber is a funny but human cross-dresser at Woodstock.
For all his perfect comic timing and humanity, Molina is nevertheless deprived victory by the tour de force from… Michael Fassbender in Fish Tank.
Ten women made the longlist for Best Actress, but only six can make the shortlist, and they are:
Bae Doo-Na/Air Doll
Anne Hathaway/Rachel Getting Married
Katie Jarvis/Fish Tank
Carey Mulligan/An Education
Ksenia Rappaport/The Double Hour
Kate Winslet/The Reader
Winslet’s Oscar-winning turn seems so long ago (I saw The Reader on 4 January – a year ago as I write), but it retains its power. Jarvis and Mulligan both carry their movies with seeming ease, holding their own against seasoned professionals with aplomb, and completely convince the audience. Rappaport delivers one of the great surprise femme fatale performances yet committed to celluloid, and Hathaway casts aside any doubts about her skills. And Doo-Na is just plain innocent and other-wordly at the same time.
There must be some doubts about the ‘revelatory’ perfs of Jarvis, Mulligan and Rappaport, while I’m not so easily swayed as the Academy when a beautiful woman (Winslet) makes herself plain. Thus, it’s a fight between Hathaway and Doo-Na, and for succeeding when cast so viciously against type, the winner is… Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married.
11 men made the longlist for Best Actor, but the 6 that made the shortlist are:
George Clooney/The Men Who Stare At Goats, and Up In The Air
Clint Eastwood/Gran Torino
Sean Penn/Milk
Brad Pitt/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Sam Rockwell/Moon
Filippo Timi/The Double Hour, and Vincere
So, let’s pick them off, one by one: Rockwell delivers a career-best performance ad continues to reinforce his position as the greatest character actor of his generation; Eastwood, ever serving his preferred role of director, both mimics and satirises his most famous screen persona; Pitt has never been better than in Button, but upon reflection there’s still a little of the cypher about his character that scores him down; Penn was excellent as Harvey Milk, but the film’s deeply episodic nature plays against him; Clooney deployed his effortless screen charm to devastating effect in Up In The Air, and reinforced his position as one of cinema’s great facial muggers in Goats; and finally Timi is brilliant as two very different characters - the resourceful patsy in Double Hour and the mania of Mussolini in Vincere.
Ultimately, the fight is between Clooney and Timi, and the winner is… Filippo Timi in The Double Hour and Vincere.
The Best Director shortlist is longer than any other category simply there is so much great work to acknowledge:
Tomas Alfredson/Let The Right One In
Kathryn Bigelow/The Hurt Locker
J Blakeson/The Disappearance of Alice Creed
Giuseppe Capotondi/The Double Hour
Pete Docter and Bob Peterson/Up
David Fincher/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Sam Raimi/Drag Me To Hell
Jason Reitman/Up In the Air
All eight nominees show complete mastery of their art, especially the more genre-focused directors – Alfredson, Blakeson, Capotondi and Raimi. Fincher produced his most mature work to date, Bigelow was as muscular as we have come to expect but with real passion and meaning this time, and Reitman handled the many moods of Up In The Air so very well.
But there is only one winner, well two actually, and they are… Pete Docter and Bob Peterson for the thrilling combination of sorrow, hope and joy that is Up.
Finally, we reach the big one: Best Film. There follows an alphabetical list of 15 films I truly enjoyed in 2009:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Damned United
The Disappearance of Alice Creed
The Double Hour
Drag Me To Hell
An Education
Gran Torino
The Hurt Locker
Lebanon
Let The Right One In
Looking For Eric
Micmacs
Moon
Star Trek
Up In The Air
It’s pleasing to note five ‘small’ British films on the list (Damned, Alice Creed, An Education, Eric and Moon) and future genre classics like Let The Right One In, Drag Me To Hell, The Double Hour and the almost sickeningly intense Lebanon. Star Trek was probably the second-biggest crowd pleaser of the year, just a hair ahead of Micmacs. Gran Torino really should have made the Oscar list a year ago, while Oscar’s big loser (Button) will stand the test of time far better than its then-competitor Slumdog. 2010’s Oscar contenders, Hurt Locker and Up In The Air, are great cinema.
But, in the end, nothing got close to the pure emotional punch of Up. That opening 10 minutes is stunning, and simply to recall it brings a lump to the throat – but that is not the sum of the film: the sustained character development, the brilliant comic timing and editing, and perfect voice-casting all add up to a modern screen classic. And thus Up is the winner of the Golden Stan for Best Film 2009.
Roll on 2010!
Original Score is the first award. In fact it’s a double award as it recognises not only the score, but also the sound effects as well: using both to tremendously scary effect, summoning forth hell itself, was Christopher Young and the sound team on Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell.
Next up is the Cinematography Award – and it’s fought out by: Claudio Moranda for his work on Benjamin Button; Hoyte van Hoytema for Let The Right One In; Barry Ackroyd for The Hurt Locker; and Giora Bejach for Lebanon. Each has fair claim to the award, but in the end I’m handing it to Ackroyd for The Hurt Locker.
The Adapted Screenplay is a simple win for John Ajvide Lindqvist and his adaptation of his own novel, brilliantly condensing the story while retaining the strong sense of time and place, and the characterisation that made Let The Right One In such a great experience.
The Original Screenplay Award is also an easy victory for Up, Bob Peterson and Pete Docter collecting the gong.
Now, on to the big six awards, starting with Best Supporting Actress. The nominees easily secured their places on the shortlist, partly thanks to their excellence and partly reflecting the lack of strong supporting roles for women. The list looks like this:
Cate Blanchett/The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Vera Farmiga/Up In The Air
Anna Kendrick/Up In The Air
Juno Temple/Cracks
Debra Winger/Rachel Getting Married
Rosemarie de Witt/Rachel Getting Married
This is a tough one, each actress with a rightful claim to the award: la Blanchett suffers stoically in Button; Farmiga and Kendrick play opposite sides of the same coin in Up In The Air to startlingly realistic effect; while the naked spite, bitterness and love evident in the performances of Temple, Winger and de Witt are hard to ignore. However, there has to be a winner and that, by a nose from her co-star, is… Vera Farmiga in Up In The Air.
The Best Supporting Actor shortlist pretty much wrote itself too:
Jackie Earl Haley/Watchmen
Michael Fassbender/Fish Tank
Alfred Molina/An Education
Peter Sarsgaard/An Education
JK Simmons/Up In The Air
Liev Schreiber/Taking Woodstock
It may say something about the movies of 2009 that this shortlist leans heavily towards the tragi-comic and the plain comic performances – the only truly ‘dramatic’ role is Fassbender’s turn in Fish Tank. Haley nails Watchmen’s anti-hero Rorschach, Molina enjoys one of his best roles in An Education, while Sarsgaard makes for a first class cad, Simmons damn near steals Up In The Air while on screen for just five minutes, and Schreiber is a funny but human cross-dresser at Woodstock.
For all his perfect comic timing and humanity, Molina is nevertheless deprived victory by the tour de force from… Michael Fassbender in Fish Tank.
Ten women made the longlist for Best Actress, but only six can make the shortlist, and they are:
Bae Doo-Na/Air Doll
Anne Hathaway/Rachel Getting Married
Katie Jarvis/Fish Tank
Carey Mulligan/An Education
Ksenia Rappaport/The Double Hour
Kate Winslet/The Reader
Winslet’s Oscar-winning turn seems so long ago (I saw The Reader on 4 January – a year ago as I write), but it retains its power. Jarvis and Mulligan both carry their movies with seeming ease, holding their own against seasoned professionals with aplomb, and completely convince the audience. Rappaport delivers one of the great surprise femme fatale performances yet committed to celluloid, and Hathaway casts aside any doubts about her skills. And Doo-Na is just plain innocent and other-wordly at the same time.
There must be some doubts about the ‘revelatory’ perfs of Jarvis, Mulligan and Rappaport, while I’m not so easily swayed as the Academy when a beautiful woman (Winslet) makes herself plain. Thus, it’s a fight between Hathaway and Doo-Na, and for succeeding when cast so viciously against type, the winner is… Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married.
11 men made the longlist for Best Actor, but the 6 that made the shortlist are:
George Clooney/The Men Who Stare At Goats, and Up In The Air
Clint Eastwood/Gran Torino
Sean Penn/Milk
Brad Pitt/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Sam Rockwell/Moon
Filippo Timi/The Double Hour, and Vincere
So, let’s pick them off, one by one: Rockwell delivers a career-best performance ad continues to reinforce his position as the greatest character actor of his generation; Eastwood, ever serving his preferred role of director, both mimics and satirises his most famous screen persona; Pitt has never been better than in Button, but upon reflection there’s still a little of the cypher about his character that scores him down; Penn was excellent as Harvey Milk, but the film’s deeply episodic nature plays against him; Clooney deployed his effortless screen charm to devastating effect in Up In The Air, and reinforced his position as one of cinema’s great facial muggers in Goats; and finally Timi is brilliant as two very different characters - the resourceful patsy in Double Hour and the mania of Mussolini in Vincere.
Ultimately, the fight is between Clooney and Timi, and the winner is… Filippo Timi in The Double Hour and Vincere.
The Best Director shortlist is longer than any other category simply there is so much great work to acknowledge:
Tomas Alfredson/Let The Right One In
Kathryn Bigelow/The Hurt Locker
J Blakeson/The Disappearance of Alice Creed
Giuseppe Capotondi/The Double Hour
Pete Docter and Bob Peterson/Up
David Fincher/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Sam Raimi/Drag Me To Hell
Jason Reitman/Up In the Air
All eight nominees show complete mastery of their art, especially the more genre-focused directors – Alfredson, Blakeson, Capotondi and Raimi. Fincher produced his most mature work to date, Bigelow was as muscular as we have come to expect but with real passion and meaning this time, and Reitman handled the many moods of Up In The Air so very well.
But there is only one winner, well two actually, and they are… Pete Docter and Bob Peterson for the thrilling combination of sorrow, hope and joy that is Up.
Finally, we reach the big one: Best Film. There follows an alphabetical list of 15 films I truly enjoyed in 2009:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Damned United
The Disappearance of Alice Creed
The Double Hour
Drag Me To Hell
An Education
Gran Torino
The Hurt Locker
Lebanon
Let The Right One In
Looking For Eric
Micmacs
Moon
Star Trek
Up In The Air
It’s pleasing to note five ‘small’ British films on the list (Damned, Alice Creed, An Education, Eric and Moon) and future genre classics like Let The Right One In, Drag Me To Hell, The Double Hour and the almost sickeningly intense Lebanon. Star Trek was probably the second-biggest crowd pleaser of the year, just a hair ahead of Micmacs. Gran Torino really should have made the Oscar list a year ago, while Oscar’s big loser (Button) will stand the test of time far better than its then-competitor Slumdog. 2010’s Oscar contenders, Hurt Locker and Up In The Air, are great cinema.
But, in the end, nothing got close to the pure emotional punch of Up. That opening 10 minutes is stunning, and simply to recall it brings a lump to the throat – but that is not the sum of the film: the sustained character development, the brilliant comic timing and editing, and perfect voice-casting all add up to a modern screen classic. And thus Up is the winner of the Golden Stan for Best Film 2009.
Roll on 2010!
2009 box office review
While 2009 saw a pitched battle at the box office between the boy wizard, transforming robots and dinosaurs for overall honours, the year’s stand-out commercial victors book-end the year: the unexpected critical and commercial success of Slumdog Millionaire at the start and Avatar’s offensive on BO records at the end of the year.Slumdog was the little film that could and did: an astounding £31.6m take in the UK (staying in the weekly top three chart for nine straight weeks!) helped it to an international take of $221m; this coupled with its US take of $141.3m put it in the top 15 worldwide. However, the only top 10 chart it made of the four below was the UK (in fourth).
Avatar has been posting ridiculous numbers in the fortnight since its release. Figures to 1 January 2010 put it second in the US on $308.8m, fifth in the UK with around £27m, fourth internationally on $525.3m, and fourth worldwide at $834.1m. By the time you read this, it will have passed the $1bn; the only question is how much further it can go. Avatar’s numbers have been helped by 3D and IMAX screenings, which command a higher ticket price than standard screenings. Indeed 3D and IMAX contributed significantly to most major hits this year: Harry Potter 6, Transformers 2, Ice Age 3, Up, Star Trek and Monsters vs Aliens to name a few.
Overall champion in the UK and worldwide was the boy wizard: £51m at home and $934m from planet Earth. It posted third in the US and ‘only’ second internationally behind surprise mega-hit Ice Age 3. The dinosaurs pic just beat its predecessor in the US, but elsewhere grew so much that its international take was up 50% on the previous instalment. It was second in the UK.
Transformers 2 was top in the US on $402.1m, and third worldwide on $835.3m. It was fifth in the UK and international markets as well.
Setting Avatar to one side (as a very special case), the two-best non-franchise, non-event movies were Up and The Hangover – two of the year’s best reviewed ‘original’ films.
Given its premise, Up seemed a hard sell, but the brilliance of the script and its execution created hugely positive word of mouth, helping it to third in the UK on £34.3m, fourth in the US, sixth internationally and sixth worldwide on $702.8m.
The Hangover was almost as unprecedented a hit as Slumdog, showing astonishing legs in the US to pull in £277.3m for sixth place, and it even made eighth in the UK (ahead of Star Trek). However, comedy never travels well in foreign markets, so its worldwide take was only good enough for ninth at $467.3m.
Star Trek suffered the same fate as The Hangover: well reviewed and massively popular (more so than any Trek film before it at $257.7m), it simply carries little weight abroad, outside of the UK (ninth on £21m), and thus did not cross the $400m barrier worldwide.
Illustrating the established importance of the international market are the performances of Angels & Demons and The Night At The Musuem 2. Both of these pix under-performed domestically compared with their previous instalments, but performed well enough to make the international top 10 list on $357.6m and $236m respectively.
The international market place also welcomed the fourth Terminator pic, generating $247m (nearly double its US haul). 2012, the disaster movie of 2009, skewed very heavily towards the international market: 78% of its worldwide take of $746.4m came from outside the US.
UK top 10
Harry Potter 6 £51m
Ice Age 3 £35m
Up £34.3m
Slumdog Millionaire £31.6m
Avatar £27m
Transformers 2 £27m
New Moon £26m
The Hangover £21.6m
Star Trek £21m
Monsters vs Aliens £21m
US top 10
Transformers 2 $402.1m
Avatar $308.8m
Harry Potter 6 $302m
Up $293m
New Moon $285.9m
The Hangover $277.3m
Star Trek $257.7m
The Blindside $200.9m
Monsters vs Aliens $198.4m
Ice Age 3 $196.6m
International top 10
Ice Age 3 $690.4m
Harry Potter 6 $632m
2012 $583.7m
Avatar $525.3m
Transformers 2 $433.2m
Up $409.8m
New Moon $391.3m
Angels & Demons $357.6m
Terminator 4 $247m
The Night At The Museum 2 $236m
Worldwide top 10
Harry Potter 6 $934m
Ice Age 3 $886.8m
Transformers 2 $835.3m
Avatar $834.1m
2012 $746.4m
Up $702.8m
New Moon $677.2m
Angels & Demons $486m
The Hangover $467.3m
The Night At The Museum 2 $413.2m
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