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July 02, 2008
2008 Half-Way Over Grading Scale
I was waiting to see Wall-E to post this, and gladly saw it yesterday so I feel like a half-way best of list is warranted (in EW-inspired form). I'm skipping the commentary, because figuring out this order was work enough, but quickly regarding Wall-E, I was mesmerized. There are so many complexities to the film's many layers (robot love story, homage to Chaplin-era silent film, commentaries on the environment and utilitarian societies, and the way they play with gender between the two robots at the center of the story... its pretty amazing), but its so graceful aesthetically and narratively you don't at all feel overwhelmed. Pixar's growing filmography truly challenges any era of animated feature films in terms of consistency or pretty much any complimentary aspect, as they churn out exceedingly brilliant films year after year (if you just ignore the slightly under-par Cars). Bring on Up. Anyway, Wall-E tops my list, just as Ratatouille did a year ago. The list has all 30 2008 releases I've seen, and includes films I've seen at festivals that have an announced 2008 release date coming up. Glancing at it, particularly the top bunch, its pretty gay and Canadian, but I swear its not biased. Films from either of those groups (unless they involve Sarah Polley) have been getting much play on personal lists as of late. 1. Wall-E | A Regretfully missed (as of today): Wanted, The Edge of Heaven, Chop Shop, Flight of the Red Balloon, Bigger, Faster Stronger, Young@Heart Opening within weeks and eagerly anticipated (make what you want of this, particularly with the third one): The Dark Knight, Hellboy II, Mamma Mia!, Pineapple Express
June 11, 2008
Emmy Ballots
For whatever, reason the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has the actual ballots for the upcoming Emmy nominations posted online. As I not-so-eagerly anticipate a giant list of disappointments when the nominations come out, some already are clear on the ballot, which lists all submitted performers. Though there are some interesting brightspots: the SNL performers are being considered in acting categories this year (meaning Amy Poehler could be nominated alongside Vanessa Williams or Jenna Fischer in the supporting actress category), and its nice to see no one wasted any money submitting Jim Belushi for best actor in According To Jim. One other notable non-entry was Katherine Heigl, who removed herself from consideration after winning last year so that her co-workers could have better shots (you weren't gonna win anyway, so nice PR move). But though this isn't Emmys fault - its likely HBO or even the show itself that decided this - how come so few Wire folk are in the running? I see Dominic West, Wendell Pierce, Michael K. Williams and Andre Royo on the list, arguably the season's MVPs, but only a small percentage of the deserving cast members? But why is Domenick Lombardozzi (Herc) in there and not Sonja Sohn or Lance Reddick or Aiden Gillen? None of them will get a nod anyway, as The Wire has never received nods for series or acting, which goes in line with the Emmys complete ignorance of most shows I ever really love. Of the "10 most personally influential series" I listed here last week, one three (Sex and the City, Arrested Development and Seinfeld), ever won a series award, and of my top 5, only one was even nominated. May 28, 2008
10 Most (Personally) Influential Television Series
Because of the unexpected excitement I'm feeling re: this weekend's impending Sex and the City movie (and the fact that I am one episode away from finishing The Wire, which I'm saving for a Wire themed Friday night gathering, where were all drinking raw eggs in beer), I couldn't help but wonder: How much has television shaped my existence? Mostly because I need a break from editing ye ol' thesis, I did the following as a fun exercise in television nostalgia and reflection: Ranking series in terms of how influential they were at the time, or even now. Don't take it too seriously, and maybe just watch the clips, after the jump. May 04, 2008
Holy Inflation
The following is the list of the 20 highest opening weekends of all time, including #10, Iron Man, which made a shitload the past 3 days. I'd imagine by summer's end, at least 3 or 4 more 2008 titles will be on the list. Though I suppose its not a surprise, despite no increase actual ticket sales, the oldest film on the list is 2001's original Harry Potter. In fact, only 3 films (1997's The Lost World at #25; 1999's Star Wars - Episode 1 at #39; and 1999's Toy Story 2 at #49) are in the top 50 that are not 00'd. And if you want some 1980s action you have to go all the way back to #114, when the original Batman sits. 1 Spider-Man 3 $151,116,516 5/04/2007 May 03, 2008
Summer Movie Box Office Predictions
I figured since I've neglected the "box office" category for months now and every box office nerd around is eagerly awaiting Iron Man's summer kick off opening night numbers (including myself), I'd offer my top 20 moneymakers of the summer predictions. I'm guessing it will be somewhat similar to last summer, where 5 films dominated with $290 million+ and another 10 or so did very good business as well. Only I'd guess it will be a little less top heavy this time around, with one massive #1 (Indiana Jones), and another 5 $250-300 million types (Wall-E, Hancock, Dark Knight, Iron Man, Narnia). But that's pretty easy to guess. The harder guesswork is in the disappointments. I'd wager The Incredible Hulk, Wanted, The Love Guru, The Mummy 3 and Speed Racer will all fall below expectations, while X-Files and Hellboy 2 won't do much better than their middle-ground hit successors. The last few summers have taught two important points. Yes, there will be blockbusters. But there will also be comedies and woman-oriented films that will make some notable change as well. Though I already suggested The Love Guru will fail (it looks horrible, and Mike Myers is not the draw he once was, I think), but I'd imagine Step Brothers, Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express, You Don't Mess With The Zohan and Get Smart will all do decent business. Thunder looks like the standout, but Brothers' trailer seems to suggest it brings the funny way more than Semi-Pro did, and might mark yet another Ferrell comeback. The other three might all fall slightly below expectations, but all in the $100 million+ range. Sandler's films almost always hit the $100, even though its toward the bottom of that range more and more. Pineapple is not as accessible as Knocked Up or Superbad, and is the shakiest of them all, but it the presence of Rogen and a damn good trailer should help. And since the ladies (and gays) have so little to-themselves options (please note how very, very few summer movies have a female at top billing), I can't imagine Sex and the City doing poorly, even if it blows. Mamma Mia should see a near-Hairspray success too, but that is very much based on whether or not its good or not. Sleepers usually need good reviews. Anyway, here's my top 20:
1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2. Wall-E 3. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian 4.The Dark Knight 5. Iron Man 6. Hancock 7. Kung Fu Panda 8. The Happening 9. Tropic Thunder 10. Sex and the City: The Movie 11. Step Brothers 12. Get Smart 13. The Mummy 3 14. The Incredible Hulk 15. Mamma Mia! 16. Pineapple Express 17. You Don't Mess With The Zohan 18. Wanted 19. The X-Files 2 20. Speed Racer March 31, 2008
"Stop" Loses
Despite aggressive youth-oriented marketing and an MTV brand, Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss didn't make much of a play at the box office, taking in $4.5 million for a so-so average of $3,505. Personally, I didn't expect anything more. Its reviews were good but not great (which is better than most Iraq themed films as of late can say), and though pretty and buzzy, its cast is not exactly filled with household names. Either way, though, Loss has a shot of becoming the second highest grossing narrative Iraq War (the latter one, not the H.W. Bush one, which has found mild success in Three Kings and Jarhead) film. The list so far... 1. The Kingdom $47,536,778 If one needs any further indication that the presence of movie stars don't mean shit anymore (unless of course Will Smith is involved), this is it. Despite the presence of Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon, Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Robert Redford, John Cusack, Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Jessica Biel, Susan Sarandon and Jake Gyllhenhaal, the unpleasant themes and disinterest of the American moviegoing audience won over. The combined gross of all of these films doesn't even equal what "disappointment" 10,000 B.C. has taken in so far. February 22, 2008
Final Oscar Predictions
Final Oscar predictions and some commentary is up on the main indieWIRE website. My "if i could choose who i want to win" are included here after the jump. I fear this blog might be facing a bit of an identity crisis once this weekend's over...
Anticipation 2008
Essentially because I'm too lazy to make one myself, I'll alert you to Nat Rogers and friends' collaborative list and discussion of their 15 most anticipated 2008 releases. Save for some rearranging (and dropping of Mr. Potter, as he's not really my thing), my own wouldn't have been much different, and any commentary certainly would have lacked in comparison. Check it out, or if you're too lazy, I posted the basic list below: #1 Synecdoche, New York February 04, 2008
A Sign of the Times...
TOP WEEKEND THEATER AVERAGES 1 Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour | $42,459 | 2008 Obviously due to inflated ticket prices.. only TWO pre-2000 releases are in the top 20: 1999's The Blair Witch Project, and the 17 year champ, 1983's Return of the Jedi. But seriously.. this Hanna Montana thing is pretty insane. It wasn't like it was even close... $7,000 more than Spiderman 3 and now the "film" also holds records for Best Super Bowl Weekend Opening and Film With Fewest Screens To Ever Debut At #1 January 10, 2008
The List of Lists
Awardsdaily.com alerted me to They Shoot Pictures' incredible (and beautifully organized) list of the top 250 films of this decade as chosen by a variety of film critics, now updated to include 2007. Though no 2007 releases made the top 10, There Will Be Blood, No Country and Zodiac (in that order) hit the top 25. Kill an hour and check it out.. The top ten teaser below: 1. In the Mood for Love December 29, 2007
2007 Playlist
After the joy of creating my cinematic top 10 a few days back, I decided to take a stab at a lesser-qualified list, music. I love year-end music lists because it gives me the opportunity to go download a few dozen songs I missed from the year to keep me going through the generally drab group of releases that happens in market-low January and February. Though certainly as much a part of my life as film, I've never felt particularly informed on music. But my iTunes suggests, its there for me everyday, and 2007 found a good thousand tracks added to my iTunes library. My music tastes are pretty much across the board, and are heavily influenced by a half dozen people in my life who seem constantly informed on artists and bands that become everyone's favourite a year later. I basically taste test their tastes, as well as the tastes of some blogs and magazines I read on a semi-regular basis, and this results in what I listen to during the 20 hours a week or so I spent walking or in transit. The list that follows is nothing out of the ordinary. It varies drastically from true artists whose entire albums could have made a top 100 list to manufactured pop sluts whose album found more of a place in my iPod rotation than I had expected. Its loosely representative of said library's "most listened" function, though I decided to exclude artist repeats (or else Feist would have five songs in my top twenty), and tinkered with the rankings (the pop-hook-that-makes-you-repeat-it qualities of songs like Rihanna's "Umbrella" made it the unchallenged #1 most-listened), to create a good representation of the 25 songs that found themselves in heavy rotation in my 2007 ears.
2. Beck - Time Bomb 3. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly 4. Feist - 1234 5. Rihanna - Umbrella 6. Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks 7. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends 8. Spoon - You Got Yr Cherry Bomb 9. M.I.A. - Paper Planes 10. Amy Winehouse - Rehab / Britney Spears - Radar 11. Nine Inch Nails - My Violent Heart 12. Bloc Party - I Still Remember 13. Rilo Kiley - Silver Lining 14. Pink feat. Indigo Girls - Dear Mr. President 15. Bjork - Earth Intruders 16. Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby 17. Tegan & Sara - Back In Your Head 18. Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position 19. Jimmy Eat World - Here It Goes 20. Kylie Minogue - 2 Hearts 21. Of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse 22. Lily Allen - Smile 23. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Down Boy 24. Bright Eyes - Four Winds 25. Mary J. Blige - Just Fine Multiples from artists that deserve a slot despite my "rules": The Arcade Fire - Intervention; Feist - I Feel It All & My Moon, My Man; Britney Spears - Piece of Me; LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum; M.I.A. - Jimmy; Lily Allen - LDN; Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good; Bloc Party - The Prayer; Nine Inch Nails - In This Twilight; Bjork - Innocence December 27, 2007
There Will Be Ten
Its difficult to argue with Dargis' claims, but although these lists are essentially an artificial exercise, they are and always have been a whole lot of fun for me to read and to write, and do provide genuine recommendations to whoever reads them. They are as problematic as any kind of competitive criticism, from the Academy Awards on. Maybe also because they quickly grow outdated. Looking back on last year's list, I'd already like to rearrange them in hindsight. But I am also reminded of how great this year's films were. I wonder if the film that was #6 last year would even have a shot at the top 15 in 2007. So what I'm getting at is this: Ranking, summarizing and thematizing the films of 2007 is an unusually daunting task. And perhaps that is mostly due to its undeniable excellence more than the problems of list-making in itself. This excellence unfortunately makes for about a dozen or more worthy films miss out on the artificial celebration of top tendom. Sarah Polley's "Away From Her" and Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" are likely the closest calls, both deeply moving (but vastly different) explorations of human illness. While Polley's quiet intimacy is, in a way, no match for Schnabel's visuals, both left me in an emotional place only a great filmmaker can bring me. Though many disagree, I loved Noah Baumbach's ode-to-dysfunctional-sisterdom "Margot at the Wedding," and while it might have irritating in its tendency to try soo hard to be clever, Jason Reitman's "Juno" is a very challenging film not to adore at least a little bit. Also notable were the fantastic coming-of-age skinhead flick "This is England," magically animated Iran-France co-production "Persepolis," and David Cronenberg's intense "Eastern Promises," featuring a truly incredible performance from my Viggo. Even the usually lackluster summer season brought many surprises from Hollywood's money factory that I have few negative things to say about, from Judd Apatow's mainstream comedy classics, "Superbad" and "Knocked Up," the best threequel ever, Paul Greengrass's explosive "The Bourne Ultimatum," and the definative feel-good film, the shockingly well-pulled off "Hairspray". And though certainly not feel-good, Hollywood's other big movie musical of the year, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is also quite worthy. While it may not have fulfilled my sky-high expectations, you have to admire Tim Burton's vision and Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter's demonic energy. But all those films fall into "also-ran" status (today at least, perhaps in a year's time repeat viewings will propel them), and the ten that managed to make it exceeded them for a wide variety of reasons. Year-end articles seem to be highlighting the "I'm gonna keep my baby" trilogy of "Juno," "Knocked Up" and "Waitress," the now-unquestionable return of the Hollywood musical, and the plethora of Iraq films (and their overwhelming financial failure). The films I've centered out seem to provide an antithesis to these themes: Christian Mingui's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," the year's best and most unlikely thriller, rawly portrays abortion in 1980s Romania and reminds women like Juno just how imperative her right to choose is; John Carney's truly magical "Once," which cost just $150,000, managed to show up two of the best big Hollywood musicals in years by proving how innocent filmmaking still can be; Paul Thomas Anderson's masterful and intensely ambitious (though not as ambitious as Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There," though not nearly as flawed either) "There Will Be Blood," could be coupled with the Coens' "No Country For Old Men" and Sidney Lumet's "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead" as 2007's cinematic triad of greed, each playing homage to Hollywood past to perhaps metaphorically represent today's society better than any of their contemporary Iraq-themed counterparts, and also showing us three auteurs, each at vastly different stages of their careers, and each at the very top of their game. The rest of my list is quite the hodge podge, from the best Pixar film ever (quite the proclamation) to the dark comic counterpart to "Away From Her" to a misunderstood fable about a man and his sex doll. Together they brought me 12 hours of cinematic bliss, and ranking them brought me yet another. The complete list (with ordered also-rans after the jump):
December 21, 2007
Quotes of the Year
One of my very favourite blogs, New York Magazine's Vulture had a very fun group of '07 celebrity quotes up today (accompanied by that photo). My personal favourite:
"I'm the Ali of today. I'm the Marvin Gaye of today. I'm the Bob Marley of today. I'm the Martin Luther King, or all the other greats that have come before us. And a lot of people are starting to realize that now." —R. Kelly The rest after the jump » Continue reading "Quotes of the Year"Not-Quite-Year-End Limited Release Box Office Report
Heading into a weekend that is likely going to give a serious boost to a lot of platform releasers (Juno and Atonement most notably), I figured I'd take a quick look at where the limited releases of 2007 currently stand. The following are, as of last weekend, the only 2007 releases to have opened in a traditional limited release and made over $10 million (with perhaps Sicko's inclusion pushing it, and The Lives of Others coming off a Oscar push from last year): Of films already in release, Juno, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Atonement all certainly seemed poised to join this list. Last year, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen both topped $50 million; The Illusionist, Babel and Pan's Labyrinth all topped $30 million; while eleven other titles crossed $10 million, meaning 8 more titles than 2007 has with one month remaining. Its quite possible 2007 could offer an incredible last minute push, especially with No Country quickly rising ($50 million+?) and Juno likely to do the same, and releases like There Will Be Be Blood still coming... I'll be really curious to see what happens. But as it stands right now, while 2007 is likely about to be talked about as remarkable year for films, especially many of the ones I just listed, it also could be a year when none of them really made any money. indieWIRE Poll
Check out the results of the massive indieWIRE year-end critics poll (for which I spent a good many hours ensuring the spelling of Anamaria Marinca, among others). 106 critics voted in 9 categories, with There Will Be Blood topping 5 of them (!). Heres the top 20 films of the year as per the poll, but click the link for hours of list pleasure: December 12, 2007
59 Eligible Oscar Songs
In the category that has pissed me off more than any other, I breathed some fresh air today when the 59 eligible songs (listed after the cut), included Once's "Falling Slowly" and "If You Want Me", both of which has bene subject to some but-the-Frames-did-it-first confusion. Now, all you need to do, Oscars, is nominated them, get them to perform, and give them the award. Do this and I'll forgive you for Phil Collins beating Aimee Mann and the South Park song. Seriously. » Continue reading "59 Eligible Oscar Songs" | |
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