I feel that even though I'm happy that Ben Affleck is getting great reviews for directing Gone Baby Gone, I feel there's a negative side to this in that the backlash from Gigli, Jersey Girl and Pearl Harbor have cornered him so that doing an art picture sparingly like Hollywoodland and getting behind the camera are the only options for him. Affleck is a very self-deprecating and eternally affable character, and the public has no real reason to dislike him, but to keep moving forward, Affleck is going to naturally say "Oh, I'm getting tired of starring in action movies, you guys were right and I was wrong. I want to only do meaningful art films and direct" when what he really means is "I've concluded (or rather Hollywood has concluded for him) that being at the helm of a film with any sizable budget is too risky for me careerwise so I'm only going to take small roles in pictures like Hollywoodland and direct. That way if the film bombs, it's a) not my responsibility since I'm not the star and b) probably no big deal because you guys will have never heard of it."
In other words: What Affleck is projecting to us as taking bold risks by taking a supporting role in Hollywoodland and directing, is really playing it safe and cowardly. If Affleck really wanted to be brave, he wouldn't cater to a wishy-washy American public. He'd stand up and say "Yeah, that's right, I made Pearl Harbor, Armegeddon, and Daredevil, they were kickass films, and I'm proud of them," so as not to hurt their DVD marketability. He'd continue to take leading roles as he saw fit and he'd take another superhero role and make it work, American moviegoers be damned!
Being nominated for his second Oscar with Gone Baby Gone is a copout. If Affleck wanted to be brave, he'd take Daredevil 2 into an Oscar winning performance.
Meanwhile, I can't help but notice that Matt Damon is being proclaimed the most popular star by Entertainment Weekly Magazine, the sexiest person on Earth by People Magazine, and the most bankable star by Forbes Magazine in a year where he did VIRTUALLY NOTHING AT ALL.
A short review: Matt Damon did two sequels, one of which he was merely one part of a 14-person ensemble and one one which he carried to a respectable $200 million threshold. Bourne Ultimatum was only the 6th highest grossing film of the summer. His last film that he actually starred in Good Shephard (in 2006, not 2007) got a couple decent reviews but completely wilted at the box office.
Why didn't you reward Matt Damon in the year where he did Syriana or even Good Shephard. Those were films that weren't sequels and actually required some original thought. All Matt Damon had to do in 2007 was pal around with Clooney, Pitt, and Cheadle on screen in one film, and look serious and shoot guns in the other.
I've previously written on Ben in: http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2007/10/i-liked-daredevil-goddamnit.html
I've previously written on Matt in http://sophomorecritic.blogspot.com/2007/08/overgeneralizing-on-matt-damon-and-box.html
Showing posts with label Syrianna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Syrianna. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Monday, November 27, 2006
Best Ensemble Award from the past few years
Here's what my picks would've been for the last 5 years if the oscars had a best ensemble category. I think they should have an ensemble award because
1. It's a great award to debate
2. Obviously the acting awards are popular
3. It promotes teamwork
4. The actors don't have to get the oscars, they can go to the casting director
Nonetheless, here's what i would've picked, actually not what i personally would have picked but a relatively objective take i'd have been happy with. For instance, i hated PS Hoffman's performance in Capote and that would disqualify it out of the top 5 for me, but i acknowledge that a lot of people did like Phillip Seymour's performance, and so therefore i have to credit him for moving a lot of people with his performance.
2005: Brokeback Mountain OR Crash (wasn't a fan of either movie but as a concession to the fact that everyone loved them and they vied for top awards in most categories, i'll let my naysayers take their pick of one, i'd pick Brokeback, i think)
Syrianna (and i do strongly feel it should have been included)
Good Night and Good Luck
Batman Begins (wouldn't be considered for an oscar in any other non-technical category, but as casts for summer blockbusters go, i'd give it to this)
Capote
2004:
Sideways
Closer-Small but effective ensemble
Million Dollar Baby (hmmm, actually didn't see it yet, but who am i to argue with a best picture oscar winner)
Aviator-Jude Law and Wilhem DeFoe were filling out bit parts in this? That's how deep the talent level was
Ray-Did anyone even notice that guys like Terrence Howard were in this?
Runner-Up: Troy-With Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, Peter O'Toole, Sean Bean, Brandon Gleason, and Brian Cox in supporting roles, this had the potential to win
2003:
*Note, i don't believe in awarding sequels unless they're better than the original or change it in some way, so i'll just award LOTR for 2001
1. House of Sand and Fog
2. 21 Grams-3 Good Leads
3. Cold Mountain-Everyone was great, especially Law at the helm, and Brandon Gleason, Ethan Suplee and Jack White as the gang of musical vagabonds were actually pretty good. Don't forget Giovanni Ribisi and PS Hoffman in bit roles
4. Mystic River-Although I think when you think about it, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn were both a little overdramatic, but there was a definite professional caliber of actors in that film
5. Seabiscuit
2002:
1. Road to Perdition-Daniel Craig and Jude Law could have been awarded best supporting actors right there, if they had stronger oscar campaigns and I think it was one of Tom Hanks' better roles
2. Adaptation-Cage, Strep, Cooper plus a lot of other goodies: Judy Greer, Tilda Swenson, Ron Livingston
3. The Hours
4. Chicago
5. 25th Hour-Ed Norton, Brian Cox, Rosario Dawson, Barry Pepper, Anna Paquin, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in case anyone forgot
2001:
1. A Beautiful Mind-Once again, i didn't even realize that Anthony Rapp from Rent, Adam Goldberg from the Street and Josh Lucas who would later become a star were in this film
2. Royal Tannenbaums-Best Wes Anderson cast ever assembles, quietly strong performances by Paltrow, Glover and Huston were there best in years, and good use of Kumar Pullada. A great use of Gene Hackman as well and show of his comedic side.
3. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings: Interestingly enough Christopher Lee has by now been in Lord of the Rings, James Bond, and Star Wars
4. In the Bedroom: Interesting that Marissa Thomei could get nominated for an oscar after people felt she absolutely didn't deserve her first to the point that they called foul on it (for My Cousin Vinny)
5. Godsford Park: Without a doubt
2000:
1. Traffic
2. The Contender-What insightful uses for guys like Christain Slater and Gary Oldman
3. You Can Count on Me-The executive producer had to fight for Mark Ruffallo since he was an unknown quantity back then
4. Almost Famous
5. Wonderboys
1. It's a great award to debate
2. Obviously the acting awards are popular
3. It promotes teamwork
4. The actors don't have to get the oscars, they can go to the casting director
Nonetheless, here's what i would've picked, actually not what i personally would have picked but a relatively objective take i'd have been happy with. For instance, i hated PS Hoffman's performance in Capote and that would disqualify it out of the top 5 for me, but i acknowledge that a lot of people did like Phillip Seymour's performance, and so therefore i have to credit him for moving a lot of people with his performance.
2005: Brokeback Mountain OR Crash (wasn't a fan of either movie but as a concession to the fact that everyone loved them and they vied for top awards in most categories, i'll let my naysayers take their pick of one, i'd pick Brokeback, i think)
Syrianna (and i do strongly feel it should have been included)
Good Night and Good Luck
Batman Begins (wouldn't be considered for an oscar in any other non-technical category, but as casts for summer blockbusters go, i'd give it to this)
Capote
2004:
Sideways
Closer-Small but effective ensemble
Million Dollar Baby (hmmm, actually didn't see it yet, but who am i to argue with a best picture oscar winner)
Aviator-Jude Law and Wilhem DeFoe were filling out bit parts in this? That's how deep the talent level was
Ray-Did anyone even notice that guys like Terrence Howard were in this?
Runner-Up: Troy-With Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, Peter O'Toole, Sean Bean, Brandon Gleason, and Brian Cox in supporting roles, this had the potential to win
2003:
*Note, i don't believe in awarding sequels unless they're better than the original or change it in some way, so i'll just award LOTR for 2001
1. House of Sand and Fog
2. 21 Grams-3 Good Leads
3. Cold Mountain-Everyone was great, especially Law at the helm, and Brandon Gleason, Ethan Suplee and Jack White as the gang of musical vagabonds were actually pretty good. Don't forget Giovanni Ribisi and PS Hoffman in bit roles
4. Mystic River-Although I think when you think about it, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn were both a little overdramatic, but there was a definite professional caliber of actors in that film
5. Seabiscuit
2002:
1. Road to Perdition-Daniel Craig and Jude Law could have been awarded best supporting actors right there, if they had stronger oscar campaigns and I think it was one of Tom Hanks' better roles
2. Adaptation-Cage, Strep, Cooper plus a lot of other goodies: Judy Greer, Tilda Swenson, Ron Livingston
3. The Hours
4. Chicago
5. 25th Hour-Ed Norton, Brian Cox, Rosario Dawson, Barry Pepper, Anna Paquin, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in case anyone forgot
2001:
1. A Beautiful Mind-Once again, i didn't even realize that Anthony Rapp from Rent, Adam Goldberg from the Street and Josh Lucas who would later become a star were in this film
2. Royal Tannenbaums-Best Wes Anderson cast ever assembles, quietly strong performances by Paltrow, Glover and Huston were there best in years, and good use of Kumar Pullada. A great use of Gene Hackman as well and show of his comedic side.
3. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings: Interestingly enough Christopher Lee has by now been in Lord of the Rings, James Bond, and Star Wars
4. In the Bedroom: Interesting that Marissa Thomei could get nominated for an oscar after people felt she absolutely didn't deserve her first to the point that they called foul on it (for My Cousin Vinny)
5. Godsford Park: Without a doubt
2000:
1. Traffic
2. The Contender-What insightful uses for guys like Christain Slater and Gary Oldman
3. You Can Count on Me-The executive producer had to fight for Mark Ruffallo since he was an unknown quantity back then
4. Almost Famous
5. Wonderboys
Tribute to Rob Altman
This is edited from last post to focus more on Rob Altman than Prairie Home Companion:
As the recipient of a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars this past March, the late director Rob Altman (Nashville, MASH) received a temporary spotlight which made his next film A Prairie Home Companion that much more eagerly anticipated but due to the laws governing summer blockbusters, that anticipation didn’t lead to much of an audience at the box office. While critics hailed it as among the summer’s best films, the audiences of today responded to the film with confusion and disappointment.
Since the start of his career, however, Altman has often been a figure who’s been misunderstood by critics, contemporaries, investors, and the public alike. In the case of Prairie Home Companion, the biggest misconception was that it was that it was a film about Garrison Kiellor and his popular Midwestern radio show, but the beauty of the film is how the director isn't taking us behind the scenes of the Midwestern radio show as much as he's using radio show host to tell his own story.
The plot of the film centers around an axe man from a corporation that has just brought the radio show and travels to the theater to shut it down at the end of the night’s broadcast.
While the rest of the show’s cast is insistent that Kiellor use the opportunity of this last broadcast to say goodbye to the audience and thank them for listening, Kiellor shrugs it off saying that he wants his last show to go like any other show.
“Retirement, you’re talking about death, right?“ Altman once said and he clearly meant that. Altman had been diagnosed with cancer for 18 months prior to his death, but did not make the information public. Instead, he went to work directing Companion and joked during his acceptance speech at the Oscars that he had at least 40 good years left due to a recent heart transplant.
Altman’s “life goes on” attitude was so pervasive that he carried that trademark to his films, refusing to abide by the traditional Hollywood ending. Films like The Player or McCabe and Mrs. Miller are jarring in how they end their stories with so little resolution as bad guys and good guys get handed their fates alike
More than just a premature death notice, Altman uses Prairie Home Companion as a springboard for his own contemplations on life, art, and death during his twilight years. Those familiar with the director that helped usher American cinema into a new era in the 1970s and has had a few dry streaks in his career since, might be able to draw connections between Kiellor's character and Altman as two artists who might be considered acquired tastes and who are past their prime.
Most of the current generation of moviegoers are probably unaware of how Altman’s style of overlapping dialogue influenced fast paced dramas or how his ensemble pieces have influenced multi-storylined films like Traffic or Syrianna.
In the film, an angelic figure played by Virginia Madsen visits the set during its last broadcast to ask Garrison Kiellor a question she’s been preoccupied with: She once heard him tell about two penguins that she didn’t get, but laughed anyway. She asks him what exactly it was that made the joke funny.
Kiellor’s surprising response is that he doesn’t really know why the joke is funny either, but maybe it was funny because she laughed.
Like the joke about the two penguins, Rob Altman has not always been understood or successful, but he has methodically kept making films just the same and the many people who “laughed” with his work will be sorry to see him go.
As the recipient of a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars this past March, the late director Rob Altman (Nashville, MASH) received a temporary spotlight which made his next film A Prairie Home Companion that much more eagerly anticipated but due to the laws governing summer blockbusters, that anticipation didn’t lead to much of an audience at the box office. While critics hailed it as among the summer’s best films, the audiences of today responded to the film with confusion and disappointment.
Since the start of his career, however, Altman has often been a figure who’s been misunderstood by critics, contemporaries, investors, and the public alike. In the case of Prairie Home Companion, the biggest misconception was that it was that it was a film about Garrison Kiellor and his popular Midwestern radio show, but the beauty of the film is how the director isn't taking us behind the scenes of the Midwestern radio show as much as he's using radio show host to tell his own story.
The plot of the film centers around an axe man from a corporation that has just brought the radio show and travels to the theater to shut it down at the end of the night’s broadcast.
While the rest of the show’s cast is insistent that Kiellor use the opportunity of this last broadcast to say goodbye to the audience and thank them for listening, Kiellor shrugs it off saying that he wants his last show to go like any other show.
“Retirement, you’re talking about death, right?“ Altman once said and he clearly meant that. Altman had been diagnosed with cancer for 18 months prior to his death, but did not make the information public. Instead, he went to work directing Companion and joked during his acceptance speech at the Oscars that he had at least 40 good years left due to a recent heart transplant.
Altman’s “life goes on” attitude was so pervasive that he carried that trademark to his films, refusing to abide by the traditional Hollywood ending. Films like The Player or McCabe and Mrs. Miller are jarring in how they end their stories with so little resolution as bad guys and good guys get handed their fates alike
More than just a premature death notice, Altman uses Prairie Home Companion as a springboard for his own contemplations on life, art, and death during his twilight years. Those familiar with the director that helped usher American cinema into a new era in the 1970s and has had a few dry streaks in his career since, might be able to draw connections between Kiellor's character and Altman as two artists who might be considered acquired tastes and who are past their prime.
Most of the current generation of moviegoers are probably unaware of how Altman’s style of overlapping dialogue influenced fast paced dramas or how his ensemble pieces have influenced multi-storylined films like Traffic or Syrianna.
In the film, an angelic figure played by Virginia Madsen visits the set during its last broadcast to ask Garrison Kiellor a question she’s been preoccupied with: She once heard him tell about two penguins that she didn’t get, but laughed anyway. She asks him what exactly it was that made the joke funny.
Kiellor’s surprising response is that he doesn’t really know why the joke is funny either, but maybe it was funny because she laughed.
Like the joke about the two penguins, Rob Altman has not always been understood or successful, but he has methodically kept making films just the same and the many people who “laughed” with his work will be sorry to see him go.
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