Thompson on Hollywood

Oscar Talk: 2010 Ten Best Lists, from "Another Year" to "Winter's Bone"

On Oscar Talk this week, as promised, Kris Tapley and I count down, defend and debate our rather diverse and distinctive top ten films of 2010. While we both include The Social Network and Toy Story 3, we agree to disagree on one of my faves, Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right and Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, which Kris admires. Notable omissions from both lists: 127 Hours, Rabbit Hole, Blue Valentine, Get Low, The Town, Inception, The Fighter and The Ghost Writer.

By Anne Thompson
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December 10, 2010 8:14 AM
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Polanski's Ghost Writer Scores Six at European Film Awards

The European Film Awards are not predictive of Oscars. But six wins for The Ghost Writer moves the film to the top of the screener pile. Maybe some folks will watch it now. One of my favorite films of last year, it shares with Shutter Island and The Town a formal elegance and control. These films are well-made across the board. But they are also genre films, accessible and fun--as opposed to high art. That is the question. This is no The Pianist. Summit is pushing the movie for awards consideration.

By Anne Thompson
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December 4, 2010 9:52 AM
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Starry Night at Governors Awards Fete: Coppola, Wallach, Brownlow and Controversial Godard

Walking into the second annual Academy Governors Awards reception, I was gobsmacked by who was milling in front of the photographers at the entrance. 12-year-old Elle Fanning posed with her Somewhere co-star Stephen Dorff and The Ghost Writer's Olivia Williams; George Lucas was chatting up Godfather stars Robert Duvall and James Caan, as Sofia, Francis Ford Coppola and his wife of 48 years, Eleanor, greeted Peter Fonda.

By Anne Thompson
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November 14, 2010 11:18 AM
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Scorsese and DiCaprio Talk Shutter Island, Aviator, Gangs of New York, Sinatra, Hugo Cabret

While Shutter Island is likely to earn several technical Oscar nominations, the fact that Paramount wrangled Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio for a satellite interview at L.A.'s Egyptian Theatre for award season promo purposes is news. Academy voters always take Oscar-winner Scorsese (The Departed) seriously, and the movie is a gorgeous exercise in period style. DiCaprio, who has three noms under his belt and no wins, probably has a better shot at a best actor nom for contender Inception, although that too is a stretch, partly because the actor makes these roles look too easy.

By Anne Thompson
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November 14, 2010 9:47 AM
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Production Watch: Dark Knight Rises (in 2-D), Aronofsky's Machine Man, Goodfellas TV Prequel

- The Dark Knight Rises for Chris Nolan, but his villain is still unclear: whoever it is (and it's NOT the Riddler), Heath Ledger's Joker will be impossible to top. By playing it safe with the title, Warner Bros. is betting that box office numbers will match those of Nolan's second Batman installment ($1 billion worldwide). Nolan confirmed the title and his successful resistance to 3-D to his usual journo source, LAT's The Hero Complex.

By Sophia Savage
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October 27, 2010 5:39 AM
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Scorsese and DiCaprio: A Retrospective

As part of Paramount's Shutter Island awards campaign, the American Cinematheque is mounting a two-day (Nov. 13-14) retrospective of director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio's partnership, from Gangs of New York and The Aviator to The Departed and Shutter Island. All four films will screen and DiCaprio (in person) and Scorsese (via satellite) will participate in a conversation on November 14.

By Sophia Savage
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October 22, 2010 9:00 AM
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Oscar Talk: Diane Lane vs. Annette Bening vs. Julianne Moore, Inception, Hereafter, The Way Back

There's still a long way to go in the Oscar race. Kris Tapley and I debate whether Secretariat is this year's mainstream Blind Side, Diane Lane is this year's Sandra Bullock, Julianne Moore and Annette Bening will both make it for The Kids Are All Right, and if Chris Nolan's Inception, John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole, Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, Pixar's Toy Story 3, Peter Weir's The Way Back, and Clint Eastwood's Hereafter have a shot at the top ten.

By Anne Thompson
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October 9, 2010 1:39 AM
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King, Schlessel, Berney Talk FilmDistrict, Plan to Release Depp's Rum Diary, London Boulevard

When a market contracts, it offers opportunities to fill the void. As expected, having imported Sony heavyweight Peter Schlessel as president, producer Graham King of GK Films, backed by his financing partner Tim Headington, is pushing forward to fill the current distribution gap with FilmDistrict.

By Anne Thompson
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September 27, 2010 12:19 PM
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GQ Remembers Goodfellas, Affleck Defends I'm Still Here

- Celebrating Goodfellas' twentieth birthday (September 19, 1990), GQ interviews nearly sixty of the film's cast, crew and "noteworthy admirers." GQ calls it "one of the most endlessly rewatchable American movies ever made," and dubs it the "greatest gangster film of all time." Here's a taste from their interviews: Ray Liotta (Henry Hill): For twenty years now, there's not a day that goes by that I don't hear somebody mention GoodFellas. Unless I stay home all night. It's defined who I am, in a sense.

By Sophia Savage
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September 22, 2010 5:00 AM
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Boardwalk Empire: Best TV Pilot of 2010 and Third-Best Scorsese Movie of This Century

I have ordered my TiVo Season Pass to Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter's Boardwalk Empire, which starts on HBO tonight. TOH critic Tim Appelo has already seen it. "(Steve) Buscemi and (Michael) Pitt have roles to kill for, their best career catapults yet," Appelo writes in his rave review:In the Scorsese-directed kickoff episode of Boardwalk Empire (HBO, Sundays 9 pm), the nude flapper floozy Lucy (Paz de la Huerta) flops her boobs at the camera, bouncing atop Atlantic City gangster Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (Steve Buscemi), and bellowing nasally, “GIDDYAP, COWBOY!” “Stop with the ‘cowboy’ shit!” snaps Nucky.