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?
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