Playing Catch Up

It’s been a busy month, hence the lack of updates, but here’s a brief wrap-up of some films I've caught over the past month. Just a quick note before I get started: It appears the Academy has reversed their decision, and now the score for The Dark Knight is eligible for Oscar consideration. It seems the minor outcry has woken up the Academy members – at least this time around.

Quantum Of Solace

Picking up right where Casino Royale ended, the next installment of the retooled James Bond series continues with the previous film’s dedication to realism and kinetic set pieces. Unfortunately, in picking up the same storyline, Quantum Of Solace never really feels like its own film. Where Casino Royale re-introduced Bond in a new setting, with a Bond girl of substance and a compelling story, Quantum Of Solace goes over the same thematic ground, and even with two new Bond girls, can’t seem to escape the shadow of the previous film. That said, it’s an enjoyable, and fast moving two hours with some fantastic action sequences.

Let The Right One In

Forget Twilight – the vampire film of the year is a little gem from Sweden called Let The Right One In. Directed with great restraint by Tomas Alfredson, the film concerns the relationship between a bullied boy and his neighbor who happens to be a vampire. And that’s about all I’m willing to say about the film. Let The Right One In is the rare horror film that offers depths far beyond its genre trappings and offers more to the viewer the less he or she knows about the film going in. It is a welcome reprieve from the torture pictures that mark American horror films these days, and proves that “mature horror film” isn’t a contradiction in terms.

Synecdoche, New York

Charlie Kaufman, best known for his narratively complex screenplays such as Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and Adaptation directs his first feature with Synecdoche, New York. Once again pondering his favorite thematic territory of identity, Kaufman’s film follows the life of playwright of Caden Cotard as he mounts his life’s work, a nameless play in endless rehearsal that ultimately consumes him. Philip Seymour Hoffman gives another great performance in the lead role, that takes his character from midlife to death, through various crises and romantic entanglements. While Kaufman’s script is fascinating in its execution, particularly in the latter part of the film as various realities fold in on each other, it never offers the emotional punch the material requires. And that prevents this otherwise very good film, from being truly great.

The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three

With a remake slated for release next summer, starring Denzel Washington, John Travolta and James Gandolfini, there is no better time than now to visit the original. Released in 1974 and starring Walter Matthau as the charmingly cranky Lt. Garber, The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three is a taut thriller, with a simple premise: four heavily armed men have hijacked a subway car, and unless they are paid $1 million in an hour, hostages will start dying. There are no romantic subplots here or political messages – just a simple race against time, with 1970s New York City in all its color – both literally and figuratively – providing the backdrop. It’s a classic, old school thriller as Matthau works desperately to save lives and figure out who the mastermind is behind the heist. A quick bit of trivia: Quentin Tarantino borrowed the color naming system the bad guys use in this film for his film Reservoir Dogs.

There has been some inquiries as to when my best films of the year will be announced. As many of the Oscar contenders are just hitting theaters now, I will be seeing as many as I can over the coming weeks in order to cover as much ground as possible before I name my favorites. I'm aiming to have my ten best list online in the week leading up to the Oscars in February.

Hearing Benjamin Button

One the most anticipated films of the year, and one that I have been eagerly awaiting, is David Fincher's epic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. The film chronicles the life and love of a man who, "born under unusual circumstances", ages backward. The film is already garnering Oscar buzz, and an early push is beginning for Alexandre Desplat's score. The French composer is one of the most innovative forces in Hollywood right now, and is best known by cinephiles for his stirring work on Jonathan Glazer's criminally underrated film, Birth. Warner Brothers, have launched their "For Your Consideration" site for British film critics that provides a quality stream of Desplat's score. In addition to the well received trailers for the film, it's yet another small, but exciting sampling from the film.

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button opens on Chirstmas Day.

Silent Knight Update

The good people over at Cinematical have compiled their own list of outrageous Oscar disqualifications throughout the years. Check it out here.

Silent Knight

The Academy rules for Oscar consideration are usually more complicated than they need to be, and often end up shutting out valid nominees because of arbitrary rules. Last year, one of the more high profile rulings went against Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, for his score to Paul Thomas Anderson's highly acclaimed film There Will Be Blood. The Academy decided that Greenwood's score which ran a total of 35 minutes (and contained some of his 2006 composition "Popcorn Superhet Receiver") was not distinguishing enough from the other 45 minutes of pre-existing music that was also used for the score. At the end of the day, the startling effect of Greenwood's score on the film - that many reviews noted and, logically, should be the only factor in deciding if a film merits a shot at being given an Oscar nomination – was shrugged off for nonsensical technical reasoning.

And this year, more idiocy arrives from the Academy as the score for the biggest film of the year, The Dark Knight, has also become disqualified for consideration because too many people were given writing credits. That's right, too many people were involved for their liking. This is more inane reasoning from the Academy that completely ignores the fact that collaborative score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, is one of the better compositions this year. The paranoia inducing "A Little Push" was in itself another dimension to Heath Ledger's already icon-making performance as The Joker, and one of bravest pieces of music found in a mainstream film of any year.

As the Academy each year wonders why the audiences are dropping for the televised ceremony maybe they should consider stopping these petty, semantic politics and let the films speak for themselves. The audience wants to know that the films that are being nominated are there for the right reasons, not because they managed to navigate their way through the thicket of the ever-changing Academy rulebook and made nice with the right players in the upper reaches of the Academy's boardroom.

For Your Consideration: Bill Irwin

Before Rachel Getting Married arrived in theaters, it rode on a wave of buzz praising first time screenwriter Jenny Lumet's script and Anne Hathaway's turn as struggling drug addict, Kym. I caught the film over the weekend, and Lumet's writing and Hathaway's performance are definitely worthy of accolades, however, it's Bill Irwin's turn as Paul, the father caught in the middle of a family ripped apart by various tragedies, that really captured my attention.

Irwin has had a career that has varied from his Tony Award winning role as George in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf on Broadway, to his induction into the International Clown Hall Of Fame for his extensive circus and comedy work. Oddly, it's his physical comedic skills that allow Irwin to give a richness to the character of Paul that is essential in communicating the pain that has gripped the family. While Paul is busy fussing over the family and the preparations for his daughter's wedding, the pain he feels is worn for the entire film on his fractured face, which looks like it will fall to pieces at any moment and in the nervous movements as he tries to ensure everyone has everything they need. Irwin has no big lines or big speeches, but ends up with one of the most devastating moments of the film, and where another actor would've played it large, Irwin slumps and retreats, defeated, without a word spoken.

While the Academy loves big meaty, scenery chewing parts, Irwin does something much more difficult. He envelops and finds the essence of a role that on paper doesn't offer much to work with. He gives Rachel Getting Married its wrecked, trembling heart and allows the audience to hope, along with Paul, that somehow it will be pieced back together.

For your consideration: Bill Irwin for Best Supporting Actor for Rachel Getting Married.

Finding Che

This summer, Steven Soderbergh’s epic Che, a biopic of the iconic revolutionary, arrived at the Cannes Film Festival. Presented as a single film with an intermission, and running a staggering four hours, it received mixed reviews from critics, but universal praise (and an award) for Benecio Del Toro’s performance in the title role. As summer began turning into fall, the film was still searching for a North American distributor. The high price tag ($8-10 million), the lengthy running time and the subtitle factor (as the film is largely in Spanish) seemed to keep buyers away, though the film quickly sold rights for other foreign territories. Finally, after screening at the Toronto Film Festival in September, IFC announced they had picked up North American distribution rights for the film.

Last week, they finally unveiled how they will be rolling out the film to theaters, and it couldn’t be any more complicated if they tried. Here’s a timeline:

December 12th – A one week only, Oscar qualifying run will start at the Zeigfield in NYC and the Landmark in LA. The film will be digitally projected, and shown as a single 4 hour film (with a 30 minute intermission). Everyone who attends screenings this week will also receive a program.

January 9th – The film returns to NYC and LA, but in two separate parts, Che (Part 1) and The Argentine (Part 2).

January 16th and 22nd – Both films expand into the “Top 25” markets

January 21st – The film debuts in standard and HD on IFC’s video-on-demand service (presumably in two parts)

Sometime in the future – An exclusive Blockbuster video release (details forthcoming)

I understand that a four-hour Spanish film about a political figure isn’t exactly an easy sell, but IFC needs to get out of this Blockbuster exclusivity nonsense quickly. It brings nothing to the table for them. IFC generally deals in indie or arthouse films, and that crowd largely wants nothing to do with Blockbuster, choosing better and more widely stocked specialty shops or going online with services like Zip (in Canada) or NetFlix to buy and rent movies.

Soderbergh’s Che is easily one of the most anticipated and ambitious cinematic events of the year. However, if you’re not in one of the top 25 markets (if anyone knows what they are, please tell me), near a Blockbuster or have access to IFC’s video on demand service (place a checkmark beside all three of those for me) finding Che is going to be quite difficult.

A Dream Realized

Congratulations, Barack Obama. Congratulations, America. A monumental step forward from what was just a dream forty five years ago.