Thompson on Hollywood

Oscar Talk Post-Telluride, Pre-Toronto: Descendants, Shame, Dangerous Method, Albert Nobbs

In Contention's Kris Tapley and I hit a timing snag on Oscar Talk this week, with him three hours behind in Los Angeles and me traveling to the Toronto Fest. We grabbed a shortish Oscar Talk nonetheless, and a cantankerous one, as we disagree on everything, it seems, except the exciting prospect of Eddie Murphy as Oscar host. We can promise you a longer one next week, when we will have seen even more films. We are both bullish on Alexander Payne's The Descendants, argue over Glenn Close's Albert Nobbs, Steve McQueen's Shame and David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method.

By Anne Thompson
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September 9, 2011 6:57 AM
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Telluride Final Catch-up: The Story of Film, Diana Vreeland, Shame, Le Havre

Meredith Brody catches up on her last day in Telluride before heading to Toronto. I had a great last movie day in Telluride, seeing a documentary, two new features, and an hour of Mark Cousins’ 15-hour The Story of Film: An Odyssey, interspersed with two actual meals. But looking back at the jam-packed schedule, I could have assembled several equally exciting programs. I had arranged to meet my friend Hilton Als at 9:15 a.m. for the new documentary Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, before he was to flee the mountain at noon, which meant missing competing screenings of the Israeli film Footnote, the Iranian A Separation, and a 1972 Russian favorite of Tom Luddy’s, Happy-Go-Lucky, by (and starring) Vasili Shuksin, a Russian actor-director whose work I’ve never seen.

By Meredith Brody
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September 9, 2011 6:39 AM
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Telluride Wrap: Pina, La Luna, Alice and Tilda

Meredith Brody wraps up Telluride--and heads for Toronto, which opens Thursday. Finally, Wim Wenders’ Pina, at 9:15 a.m. in the lovely Galaxy theater, which has been specially fitted out with not only top-of-the-line 3-D projection, but a brand-new sound system by Meyer Sound, the best there is.

By Meredith Brody
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September 8, 2011 2:04 AM
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Telluride Film Fest Review: Butter Churns Mixed Response, Not Oscar Contender

The Weinstein Co. threw its comedic political allegory Butter into the Telluride fray as a test balloon to see how it would play. While folks around me in the overheated Galaxy were laughing at this overwrought Iowa parable about an obsessive-compulsive woman driven to win a butter-carving contest at all costs (read: Michele Bachmann), star Jennifer Garner can't compare with Nicole Kidman in To Die For. I neither laughed at nor reviled her, I just felt sorry for her.

By Anne Thompson
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September 5, 2011 10:18 AM
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Telluride Review Round-Up: Glenn Close Passion Project Albert Nobbs

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Based on the Telluride reaction to Glenn Close's long-aborning gender-bender drama Albert Nobbs, the veteran actress has a shot at an Oscar nomination--and so does supporting actress Janet McTeer. Roadside Attractions is planning a late year release--outside the fray--and will push hard for award recognition for Close. The movie played well with the Telluride's audience, especially women, but may face some mixed reviews. The sampling below includes a rave from the NYT's A.O. Scott, which won't hurt.

By Anne Thompson
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September 5, 2011 8:41 AM
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Telluride Day Three: The Teaser/Trailer

Meredith Brody continues her reports from Telluride.Something had to give. All movies and no play (!) makes me cranky, so the flesh is weak: after a full and satisfying day of Wim Wenders’ Pina; The House on Trubnaya Square (1928) by Boris Barnet, with a new score performed by Dennis James and the Filmharmonia Ensemble; Glenn Close and the crème de la crème of British, Irish, and Australian actors in Albert Nobbs, directed by Rodrigo Garcia; and a Tribute to Tilda Swinton with a half-hour of clips, an onstage interview conducted by The New Yorker’s Hilton Als, a screening of Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, followed by a Q and A with Ramsay, Swinton, and co-scenarist Rory Kinnear, I, uh, went to a party instead of coming home and diarying it up. (Not the fancy-schmancy Vanity Fair party, at which I’m sure AT of TOH was present and taking notes. But a nice soiree nonetheless.)

By Meredith Brody
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September 5, 2011 6:25 AM
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Telluride Reviews: Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method Isn't for Everyone; Knightley Inspires Debate

David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method has stirred up a wide range of reaction at Venice and Telluride. Cronenberg and writer Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) conduct a brainy, controlled examination of the intense relationships between the pioneers of psychoanalysis, elder Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and younger accolyte Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and two well-educated but neurotic patients (Keira Knightley, Vincent Cassell) who challenge their ideas about sexuality and societal constraints. There's a lot going on in this intellectual historical drama, which is ably carried by some of the world's sexiest movie actors. (See a sampling of early reviews below.)

By Anne Thompson
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September 5, 2011 6:01 AM
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Telluride Day Two: From Nick James and German Silent Expressionism to Goodbye First Love and Clooney

Meredith Brody continues her Telluride diary.The problem with writing about your day’s worth of movies and serendipitous festival sightings and conversations is that distance lends charms; yesterday I may have felt slightly cranky exiting Bela Tarr’s shaggy post-apocalyptical shaggy-horse-story The Turin Horse and running into people laughing and crying after seeing hot-off-the-presses The Descendants, or slightly jealous of the blissed-out audiences levitating down the hill from seeing Wim Wenders’ Pina, in the beloved Galaxy theater that is specially kitted out this year with a state-of-the-art sound system as well as 3-D with top-of-the-line glasses (one friend complains that they’re so heavy they wear a groove in her nose). I’ve wanted to see Pina since it premiered at the Berlinale in February and several people told me it was their favorite movie of the festival.

By Meredith Brody
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September 4, 2011 5:05 AM
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Weekly Wrap: Oscar Talk, Contagion, Carnage, Ides of March, Dangerous Method; Venice, Telluride, BFI

WEEKEND PREVIEW:

By Maggie Lange
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September 2, 2011 8:18 AM
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Telluride: Clooney Caught in Ides of March Fest Tug of War

The Venice Film Festival opened with The Ides of March, and Toronto has it booked too. Telluride wanted--and George Clooney wanted--the film to play Telluride as well as part of its Clooney Tribute. So he included a clip from late in the movie--a "spoiler" he told me at the annual patron's brunch--thinking folks would have seen the film. But no, it was not possible to book it in Telluride after all. Sony wouldn't show it to the fest, in deference to Toronto. So Clooney's got The Descendants here.