Thompson on Hollywood

IMDb's Col Needham Responds to Clooney's Top 100

George Clooney recently listed the 100 best movies from 1964-1976, his favorite period. IMDb founder Col Needham checked his IMDb vote history (up-to-date of course) and did his own advanced title search: I've seen a total of 764 movies from this range and included below are the 41 which I have rated 9/10 or 10/10 on IMDb; the list is in reverse chronological order but my 10/10s are: Jaws, Network, Once Upon a Time in the West, Taxi Driver, Carrie, The Godfather, High Plains Drifter, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and From Noon Till Three, All the President's Men.

By Anne Thompson
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October 20, 2011 1:11 AM
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Alexander Payne Talks The Descendants, Clooney, Next Black and White Film, New Trailer

Features

Of all the fall movies, the one that hit me in the solar plexus, made me laugh and cry, and struck me as a likely Oscar contender in multiple categories, was heartfelt low-budget comedy The Descendants (November 18), Alexander Payne’s return to the screen, after winning best original screenplay (with Jim Taylor) for 2004’s Sideways. “Alexander should make more movies,” George Clooney told me at Telluride. Of course he should, but this is the one Payne was able to get made. And it was worth the wait. (Here's my Telluride review.)

By Anne Thompson
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October 18, 2011 4:23 AM
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Film Independent's November LACMA Film Series Lineup Adds Clooney, Fassbender

Elvis Mitchell is booking movies with speakers for his weekly Film Independent at LACMA showings. He's basically doing the same thing any number of subscription film series are doing, he's just inviting the public to buy tickets to see many films that will be available at commercial cinemas or on Netflix followed by Q and As with the likes of George Clooney and Michael Fassbender. I have booked The Descendants for Sneak Previews, for example.

By Anne Thompson
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October 13, 2011 7:42 AM
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Weekend Box Office: Real Steel Clobbers Ides of March; Dolphin Tale, Moneyball and 50/50 Show Legs

DreamWorks delivered another hit to distributor Disney as Real Steel dominated its weekend box office rivals. George Clooney's political drama The Ides of March, in fewer theaters, got off to a solid start. Meanwhile, holdovers Dolphin Tale, Moneyball and 50/50 all showed good legs. Kinsey Lowe reports.Real Steel hammered to the top of the weekend fight card with an estimated $27.3 million and boosted Hugh Jackman with a rare hit outside the X-Men and Wolverine franchises. The movie performed more strongly than had been expected going into the weekend thanks to a 27% Saturday bump from Friday's gross.

By Kinsey Lowe
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October 9, 2011 4:55 AM
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Oscar Talk: Clooney Leads Best Actor Field, Davis Leads Best Actress, Carnage Non-Contender

In this week's Oscar Talk podcast, In Contention's Kris Tapley and I debate Roman Polanski's NYFF-opener Carnage, which fails to improve on the play and is not going to be an Oscar contender, we agree, although I think it's an upscale crowd-pleaser. (My updated Oscar Chart is here.)

By Anne Thompson
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October 7, 2011 5:44 AM
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Weekend Preview: Ides of March, Real Steel, The Way, Dirty Girl, War Doc Hell and Back Again

The star power of this weekend's leading men -- George Clooney and Ryan Gosling of political drama The Ides of March and Hugh Jackman of amped-up sci-fi actioner Real Steel -- will make a dent in Dolphin Tale and Moneyball's current top spots. In the indiesphere, Mateo Gil's Blackthorn takes a bite out of Butch Cassidy legend, while Emilio Estevez's The Way aims to inspire and Abe Sylvia's reedited Dirty Girl attempts to push indie girl Juno Temple into leading lady status. In the mood for something French? Phillippe Le Guay's The Women on the 6th Floor is a charming trifle. Powerful war documentary Hell and Back Again is scoring the best reviews; it's indieWIRE's pick of the week.

By Sophia Savage
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October 6, 2011 5:40 AM
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Clooney's Favorite Films Inspire Mini Movie Trailer Marathon: From President's Men to The Sting

Happy Monday from George Clooney! He's shared his 100 favorite films (from 1964-1976, "the greatest era in filmmaking by far"). Among the collection (which he's gifted to friends for Christmas) are the following classics (it won't surprise you that Clooney has good taste): All The President's Men (also a favorite of Aaron Sorkin's), American Graffiti, Badlands, Bonnie & Clyde, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, Chinatown, A Clockwork Orange, Cool Hand Luke, Dog Day Afternoon, Easy Rider, The Exorcist, Godfather I & II, The Graduate, Harold and Maude, Jaws, Last Tango in Paris, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Midnight Cowboy, My Fair Lady, Network, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rosemary's Baby, The Sting, Taxi Driver and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. If that list doesn't make you want to have a movie marathon, what possibly could? It also makes one wonder what happened to the art of the movie poster. We've put together a mini-marathon of their trailers below. You're welcome:

By Sophia Savage
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October 3, 2011 5:32 AM
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Oscar Talk: Ides of March's Clooney vs. Gosling vs. Hoffman, Supporting Categories

Now that we've both seen George Clooney's political thriller The Ides of March, Kris Tapley and I dig into not only Oscar prospects for that film, but the list of supporting players in contention for this year. We also debate the respective box office fates of Drive and Warrior as well as how success in theaters impacts a film's awards chances. (CORRECTION: Yes, Clooney won best supporting actor for Syriana and not Good Night, and Good Luck.)

By Anne Thompson
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September 30, 2011 4:15 AM
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Descendants, Clooney, Streep Top Gurus 'O Gold Oscar Rankings

The Gurus have spoken. Post-festivals, Alexander Payne's The Descendants (1) has taken over the frontrunner spot from Steven Spielberg's unscreened period war adventure War Horse (2). Interestingly, Spielberg was considering submitting the film to Venice but decided not to do so. He usually likes to wait until the last possible minute to show his films. It's better NOT to be at the head of the pack, anyway. The Descendants' George Clooney (1) is also at the front of the Best Actor race.

By Anne Thompson
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September 27, 2011 5:10 AM
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Toronto Wrap: Best of Fest, Oscar Boosts, Winners and Losers

The trick with the fall film festivals is to gauge expectations going in vs. what was actually achieved. Various distributors launched their fall slates, and watched with pleasure or horror at how their movies were received by audiences and critics. Oscar contenders either moved forward in the awards race, or were pushed back. Other indies hoped their films would be picked up by the right distributor in time for this year's Oscar race. Some were, some weren't. It's tough for films that have already debuted at other festivals to pick up new momentum, although the press will bank features for release. The biggest noise goes to the new players, always.