Sideways Dominates 2004 Film Awards
More and more critics' awards are coming in, and the Golden Globe nominations are in as well.Read more
At GreenLake Presybterian: Let's Talk About the Movies of 2004
You could sit and read dozens of "Year's Best" lists in the next few weeks, or you could just skip all of that and pencil this date onto your calendar: January 9th, 2005.
I'll be at GreenLake Presbyterian Church in Seattle to talk to anyone that cares to listen about what the films of 2004 say to us about ourselves, our culture, where we're hurting, what we're hoping for, and what we value. I'll talk about what was worth seeing, what wasn't, what's worth seeing again, and what I'm trying to forget.
And I'll ask you to share a bit about something you saw on the big screen this year that was meaningful to you.
January 9th. Sunday evening. 6:00 PM.Read more
New York Online Film Critics Awards - 2004
The first group of critics have delivered their film awards for 2004. (The National Board of Review members aren't exactly critics.)
New York Online Film Critics Awards
PICTURE
Sideways
DIRECTOR
Martin Scorsese (The Aviator)
ACTOR
Jamie Foxx
ACTRESS
Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake)
SUPPORT ACTOR
Thomas Haden Church (Sideways)
SUPPORT ACTRESS
Laura Linney (Kinsey) (tie)
Cate Blanchett (The Aviator) (tie)
SCREENPLAY
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Charlie Kaufman)
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
The Motorcycle Diaries
DOCUMENTARY
Broadway: The Golden Age (tie)
Supersize Me (tie)
ANIMATION
The Incredibles
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Hero (Christopher Doyle)
BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR
Topher Grace (P.S.; In Good Company)
DEBUT DIRECTOR
Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace)
TOP NINE FILMS
1. Sideways
2. The Aviator
3. Before Sunset
4. Hero
5. Kinsey
6. Bad Education
7. The Incredibles
8. The Motorcycle Diaries
9. House of Flying Daggers
Ocean's Twelve - "Recess" for the Stars
It's hard to come away from Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Twelve without a bad taste in your mouth. After all, it appears that immensely talented individuals have channeled gobs of money into a high-profile project that a) has little or nothing of substance to offer, and b) appears to be packed end to end with famous people who wanted an excuse to celebrate their own popularity and coolness.
But then again, both films are thoroughly entertaining, and this new one provokes a thousand laughs. I was at once put-off by the cleverness-for-cleverness' sake and impressed by director Steven Soderbergh's relentlessly dazzling style.
If you're going to go see it, read as little as possible about it before you do.Read more
Report: The Voice of Aslan is...
... Bryan Cox.
(At least, that's what Ain't It Cool News is reporting.)
I'm thrilled.
Cox has a big, booming, rough voice. He never wastes one line of dialogue. His voice has so much more character, personality, and complexity than the large-but-dull voices usually employed for characters of commanding authority.
I was afraid they'd go for a voice that would be instantly recognizable to the moviegoing public, but Cox is lesser-known than James Earl Jones (who's already played a Lion King) and Sean Connery (who proved with Dragonheart that he should never voice a big animated character again (because, really, who wasn't thinking about Sean Connery every time he spoke)?
I have little doubt that when Cox growls, we will feel that hot lion breath on our faces, and something in even the bravest soul will tremble.
Deicide Dumped from Phillip Pullman adaptation
So, Chris Weitz is withdrawing all references to God and the church from his adaptation of Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass.Read more
Fun Facts About Kinsey
While the mainstream press writes off the Kinsey-backlash as merely a sign of paranoia and hysteria from conservatives, those who are paying attention are having quite a chuckle over the facts that the movie ignores.
Thanks to Kathy Shaidle's Relapsed Catholic:
"The Rockefeller Foundation eventually shut off its spigot of financing for the Kinsey Institute during the early 1950s, not because this was the McCarthy era and Kinsey's findings were associated with communism as the movie claims (in fact, Kinsey voted Republican and purged his institute of suspected leftists), but because professional statisticians had by then thoroughly discredited his research."
The thing is, if Christians did scientific research the way Alfred Kinsey did sex research, there would be an uproar about how those Christians are full of crap, how they don't use their brains, how they're breaking all the rules.
But because popular culture WANTS to believe Kinsey's claims, nobody's bothering to challenge his shoddy research.
Here's more on the subject (via Relapsed Catholic):
"Kinsey’s statistics were so seriously flawed that no reputable scientific survey has ever been able to duplicate them. (...) "the December 11, 1949, New York Times, W. Allen Wallis, then chairman of the University of Chicago’s committee on statistics, dismissed 'the entire method of collecting and presenting the statistics which underlie Dr. Kinsey’s conclusions.' Wallis noted, 'There are six major aspects of any statistical research, and Kinsey fails on four.'"
The Lovers on the Bridge (1991)
With amazing performances and some bizarre spectacles, Leos Carax's The Lovers on the Bridge a paints unforgettable (if not exactly admirable) pictures of wild romance.
Plunging us into a the difficult and unpredictable lives of the homeless in Paris, Carax shows us an ugly, cruel world that is full of betrayals. Romantic love and passion are upheld as the best hope for a fulfilling life, and its characters pursue this with a passion, believing it should be attained no matter what.
And what characters: Denis Lavant plays Alex, a homeless man who resembles one of the cavemen from 2001, roaming around Pont-Neuf breathing fire... literally. (He's a fire eater.) He falls into a stormy romance with an artist who is going blind, played by Juliette Binoche, who we are expected to believe could live as an overlooked homeless woman.
Anyone who thinks that romantic love will be the way to satisfaction and fulfillment is setting themselves up for disappointment. Romantic love is a step, an experience that can point the way toward selflessness, compassion, and meaningful sacrifice. But the movie wants our hearts to break for these two lost individuals as they fumble toward ecstasy. For all of its impressive excess, the whole affair feels rather empty. This may come from its failure to offer us a thoughtful exploration of its characters' stories. But everything is staged at such extremes, it hinders thought. It's a performance art slideshow set to music that's turned up to "11."
As Charles Taylor wrote in his review at Salon,
There's no denying that some of [Carax's] images are exquisite, but they aren't tied to anything narratively or emotionally. "I don't really write scripts," Carax told Kehr. "I make notes, and then, when we're at the point of finding the money, I pretend to write a scenario."
And yet, while it's difficult to take seriously, The Lovers on the Bridge is worth a look for the strength of its throw-caution-to-the-wind performances by Lavant and Binoche, who deliver something more along the lines of a stunt exhibition at a circus than acting, and for some truly awe-inspiring cinematography and spectacle. Have you ever been water-skiing at night through a fireworks show? That's just one of the marvels you'll see here, one of the metaphors for the exhilaration of finding someone who loves you.
The folly of its desperate duo may inspire some compassion, helping us see beyond the alarming violence of their romance to the stories behind their pain. As we watch these two desperate, damaged human beings throw themselves at one another, we see recklessness and selfishness. But we also see the beginnings of wisdom as they learn to care for someone besides themselves.
But overall, The Lovers on the Bridge feels like the work of a flamboyant art student who thinks that he can illustrate a profound love story by firing cannonballs of paint at a canvas. The explosions are spectacular, but in service of what, exactly?
My weekend In Good Company in L.A.
I just returned from L.A., where I had an opportunity to participate in a press conference with writer/director Paul Weitz, asking him questions about one of the most enjoyable mainstream comedies of the year, In Good Company, which stars Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, and Scarlett Johansson.
I also had the privilege of tossing a couple of questions at Quaid and Grace.
And I had the fantastic, inspiring experience of getting better acquainted with many of my fellow religious-press film critics.
I'll post something more detailed about this soon, but suffice to say that if you liked Weitz's previous film About a Boy, you'll probably like this one. It's an engaging, amusing, and ultimately edifying tale about ethics in business, about the value of a good family, and about investing yourself in what you believe in. Quaid and Grace have good chemistry, and both provide strong performances. If it weren't for an unfortunate twist that takes pre-marital sex as if it's a fun and diverting activity, it would be on my year's best list. As it is, it's a flawed but entirely worthwhile film.
I stayed at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. It was my third visit to that hotel. And let me tell you, the place is like Disneyland. You walk in and see your favorite characters. I sat down in the restaurant and, lo, there was Liam Neeson chatting with someone across the room. The next day, I was taking an elevator down several floors, and who should step in and share the ride but Adam Sandler. I thanked him for Punch-drunk Love, and he seemed surprised, as if he doesn't often get appreciation for THAT movie.