Oscar Predictions 2011

Tomorrow at around 5:40 Pacific time the first envelope will bet cracked open and we will learn who the Academy ultimately chose to award at the end of this endless award season. So what do we expect? Will the favorites win?


Here's the thing: Oscar prognostication is not an exact science - it's not a science at all. There are no exit polls; there is no Nate Silver with a team of lackeys calling Academy members to inquire as to their vote. The Academy really frowns on that sort of thing, so when people tell you they're predicting the Oscars they generally are guessing based on how many awards a film or artist has racked up so far, or they might be extrapolating from a conversation they had with someone who knows someone who actually voted, or maybe they are legitimate insiders who run the cocktail party circuit and talk about these things.


But, as screenwriter William Goldman famously said about people in Hollywood: No one knows anything. So, keeping that in mind, here are the latest rumors for the major Oscars:


Best Picture


Safe bet is still The King's Speech, but there is some talk that Social Network is staging a late rally. The assumption is that the geezers in the Academy went for King's Speech, while the younger set leaned Social Network. That would leave the decision in the hands of middle aged voters. How many of them are on Facebook?


Best Actor

Colin Firth will win this. There's no point in discussing it, although there are some sly critics handing the award to Jesse Eisenberg. I think they just want attention.


Best Actress


This one has been flip flopping between Annette Bening and Natalie Portman; Portman having won most of the earlier awards, and Bening having never won at all. Four nominations, no wins. Did the Academy go for sentiment? Doubt it. Portman will win.


Best Supporting Actor


Christian Bale, unless this is a really interesting night.

Best Supporting Actress

Again, a little excitement. Melissa Leo has won everything in the run up but her self promoting "For your Consideration" ads scuttled a lot of the community's respect. Could fourteen year old Hailee Steinfeld win? I think she could. On the other hand, Helena Bonham Carter won the BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress and gave a terrific speech. Oscar voters like that sort of thing.


Best Director


Tom Hooper won the DGA award for King's Speech, and if the film is sweeping along he might be the winner. But there are plenty of folks who see David Fincher getting this for Social Network, even if his film doesn't get the big prize. This could be a tie breaker in the Oscar poll vote, but I'd go with Fincher.


Best Adapted Screenplay


Aaron Sorkin, Social Network. No point in discussing the other nominees. This script is so celebrated that you can download it now, if you just want to gaze at the words on the page. (For the record, I thought the writing in Social Network was terrific. I will probably download the script.)


Best Original Screenplay


Inception fans, this is your shot. Will Chris Nolan get some Oscar love? I'm saying no. This one will likely go to David Seidler for The King's Speech. Hey, it's a sweep.

Unknown

Unknown - Warner Bros

Unknown is a flashy action thriller, full of twists and turns and lots of car chases; since the film is set in Berlin it is mostly Mercedes doing all the chasing, and who knew those staid old cars could careen around corners like that? And take a bullet -- many, many bullets, right through the hood, and the engines just keep roaring.

Liam Neeson is a professor of biotechnology, come to town to deliver a paper at splashy biotech conference, very high profile because a Saudi Prince will be in attendance to promote a top secret project that might end world hunger. Prince Shada has been the target of assassination attempts -- there are bad guys opposed to ending world hunger, if they can still make a buck off starving people – so security is tight and press coverage intense.

But Dr. Martin Harris has a mishap: he is in a terrible car accident and falls into a coma for days. When he wakes up, no one seems to know who he is, including his wife Liz (January Jones). Slipping out of the hospital against his doctor’s orders, Martin tracks her down at a formal event, trailed by outraged hotel security. Perfectly coiffed and stunning in an elegant black gown, she looks right at him and says, without emotion, “I don’t know this man.” Then she calls over another guy (Aidan Quinn) and introduces him as Dr. Martin Harris.

Well, what a pickle! Martin half believes his brain was broken in the car wreck, but then an assassin starts to trail him and he figures that, whatever is going on, he isn’t imagining it. He can’t remember much about the events that led up to the car accident, but he does recall the young cab driver (Diane Kruger) who was at the wheel -- she heroically saved his life -- so he tracks her down and they team up to solve the mystery. (As cab driver Gina, an Eastern European illegal trying to stay under German police radar, Kruger is spunky and resourceful, shielding a luminous innocence behind cautious reserve. She and Neeson pair up nicely.)

There are twists and turns and twists in this film, the action is well paced and there are plenty of edge- of-your-seat moments. It doesn’t break any new ground or explore any deeper issues, but it’s a lot of fun. Rated PG-13 for “violence and action, and brief sexual content,” and while there is a lot of gunfire, there isn’t much actual bloodshed, so if that sort of thing makes you squeamish you should be okay. Unknown was the box office champ in its opening weekend, but that isn’t saying much because hardly anyone went to the movies. Still playing everywhere. B-

Oscar Countdown

The Oscar race kicked itself into high gear when the nominations were announced last month, and then quickly slid into dull predictability. Right now you could get a better argument out of who will come in second in most of the major races than who will win the gold.

Current list of favorites:

Best Picture: King’s Speech

Best Actor: Colin Firth

Best Actress: Natalie Portman 

Nothing wrong with any of these shoo ins, especially Natalie Portman, who did terrific work in a strange and challenging film. Seems to me when an actress takes chances like she did they should get some notice for it. I also have no issue with Colin Firth: he’s a great actor who has been ignored by the Academy because he’s played romantic leads a lot; it’s been good for Darcy fans but not so much for Mr. Firth’s hopes for serious acting accolades.

The Best Picture thing is the most predictable of all, the conventional wisdom being that Oscar voters can’t resist a royal drama with English accents. Now, that’s all very well if we’re a bunch of dizzy colonists, but here in the western outpost of the New World you might think that an American film or two could get some traction. Social Network enjoyed enormous hype and excellent reviews back in the fall, but it seems to be suffering a bit of backlash; some people say it was overrated, but I think it made too big of a splash too early and now it’s just worn out its welcome.

It would be pretty cool if Social Network scored an Oscar upset. It would be even cooler if Black Swan did. Not much likelihood either way, though. King’s Speech is it.

Possible toss ups:

Best Director: Tom Hooper (King’s Speech) or David Fincher (Social Network) 

All along the assumption has been that Fincher would take this. He’s a respected American director with a slew of great films to his credit, most of them too strange and scary to attract much Oscar attention. But Tom Hooper won the Directors Guild award, and the DGA winner frequently (not always – check with Spielberg) goes on to win the Oscar. Still, most prognosticators (and bookies) call this one a toss up.

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (Fighter) or Geoffrey Rush (King’s Speech) 

Christian Bale has won pretty much every available award in this category, but if there is a King’s Speech sweep he could get pushed out of contention. Rush was excellent, but he has won before and Academy voters are known to honor rookies in supporting categories.

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (Fighter) or Hailee Stanfield (True Grit)

This is the only category where anything interesting is happening. Hailee Steinfeld was widely considered a possible Best Actress contender; the combination of her supporting status and the fact that True Grit has ten nominations could push her to the top of this heap. Not a big chance of that, but there is a bit of momentum going her way.

That’s the big six. Oscar Ballots are due two weeks from today so, if anything is going to shift, it’s got to happen soon.

Another Year

If I told you that Another Year is about an old married couple you might not want to go and see it, which would be a shame because this is a fine film, a lovely meditation on life and its adventures – or lack of them. It is also a refreshing antidote to the crash bang nonsense that often passes for Hollywood entertainment. So, full disclosure – Another Year is about an old married couple, Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and Tom (Jim Broadbent) – we never learn their last names, as though when the film begins we already know then too well to bother with formalities. Much of the action takes place in their cozy London house, comfortably decorated with a lifetime of good memories. Tom and Gerri garden, they cook dinner, they sip wine, they hang out.

And they have friends who aren’t nearly as content with their lives.

The film is divided into four parts, identified by the season, the passage of time punctuated by visits to Gerri and Tom’s “allotment,” a plot of land somewhere in town where they work their most ambitious gardening. On a wet spring evening they host Mary, Gerri’s long time co-worker, for dinner; Mary, played with searing, heartbreaking intensity by Lesley Manville, is a middle aged woman, clinging to her youth, disappointed by her life. She drinks too much and carries on about her great love, the one who got away, and we have the sense that all this has happened before, that Gerri and Tom have patiently listened to Mary rant many times. Then, a few months later, Tom’s friend Ken (Peter Wight) shows up with much the same story, drinking his way through dinner, complaining about his life, showing little interest in doing anything about it. (Wight does remarkable work as Ken, somehow making an unattractive, unappealing character sympathetic).

Now, if you think you can tell where this is going you are wrong; Another Year moves slowly and lingers lovingly on the routine activities of life, but it is not predictable. Sometime during the summer segment of the film Gerri and Tom’s son Joe (Oliver Maltman) shows up; he’s a thirty year old attorney who is often too busy to visit with mum and dad, but when he arrives it’s clear the family is close and has a happy history. Unlike most of the other people in this movie Joe is looking forward to the unexplored future of his life, instead of lingering unhappily on the past, and when, in autumn, he surprises his parents by arriving at their door with a girlfriend (a fresh and appealing Karina Fernandez) in tow, they are delighted even as Katie’s  appearance throws the disappointments of their friends’ lives into starker relief.

There is a simple, charming elegance to this film. Nothing is overstated, and we arrive in the story as though we always belonged there anyway. When Tom pours Gerri some wine we want to hold up our glass, and when Mary starts to rant we wish we could quietly excuse ourselves to our hosts and head on home; the film is that personal and intimate. But it is also thoughtful and refreshing in its honest portrayal of regular people, well worth a night at the multiplex. A

Here Comes Oscar

Tomorrow the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce nominations for the 83^rd Academy Awards, and for no good reason at all I will get up at the crack of dawn to watch them do it. 

I think it’s fun. Go figure.

So who’s got a shot at Oscar?  There are some obvious suspects in the Best Picture Category, specifically The Social Network, The King’s Speech, Inception, and Toy Story 3.  The last two will get in because they are precisely the sort of movies that the Academy had in mind when they expanded the field of Best Picture Nominees to ten.  Neither one will win; barring an enormous upset (and that wouldn’t be so bad, upsets make the awards interesting) either The King’s Speech or Social Network will get the award.  There is a lot of huffing and puffing today because the Producer’s Guild bucked the trend and honored King’s Speech for Best Picture instead of Social Network, but it’s still a toss-up between the two for Oscar gold.  The films that will be honored just to be nominated include True Grit, The Fighter, Black Swan, Winter’s Bone, The Kids Are All Right, and The Town, with any of the last three possibly vulnerable to a surge by 127 Hours.  I’m not feeling that, though; 127 Hours seems to have dropped under the radar and stayed there.

Best Actress: Natalie Portman will be nominated and surely win for Black Swan; Annette Bening will be gracious and say she is honored to be included in such a stellar group of actors – and it should be a stellar group.  If the youthful Academy voters have any influence, we will see nominations for Jennifer Lawrence for Winter’s Bone and Hailee Steinfield for True Grit.  Both of them are deserving and would get a boost from Oscar notice.  Nicole Kidman will probably nab the last spot for her performance in Rabbit Hole, even though no one is going to see it, but folks like Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine) and Julie Anne Moore (The Kids Are All Right) could slip in.  The Blue Valentine thing is kind of interesting, because in spite of the rave reviews Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling received for their performances, neither one was nominated by the Screen Actors Guild.  Most prognosticators think that precludes them from an Oscar nom, since there is a lot of overlap between the Guild and members of the Academy’s Actors Branch.

Best Actor: Colin Firth will be nominated and win, with Jesse Eisenberg (Social Network), Jeff Bridges (True Grit) and James Franco (127 Hours) joining the crowd.  The last spot is up for grabs;  Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter) is a possibility along with Robert Duvall (Get Low) and Javier Bardim (Biutiful) in the mix.  But you can’t discount Ryan Gosling for Blue Valentine in spite of his SAG snub.  Could happen.  

As usual, the Best Supporting races have the most intrigue.  Hailee Steinfield  (True Grit) might end up in this category, even though most observers call her performance lead instead of supporting.  If she does, she will likely join Mellissa Leo (The Fighter), Helena Bonham Carter (King’s Speech), Amy Adams (The Fighter) and Mila Kunis (Black Swan).  This will edge out Jackie Weaver, who has received a lot of attention for her role in Animal Kingdom, an Australian film that didn’t get much big screen time.  Winner in this group is anybody’s guess. 

In the Supporting Actor category, expect Christian Bale to be nominated for The Fighter, as well as Geoffrey Rush for The King’s Speech.  One of these two will win.  Also likely: Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), Jeremy Renner (The Town) and Andrew Garfield (Social Network).  There’s rumors of a late “surge” by Matt Damon for True Grit, but don’t bet on it. 

Those are the four major categories, the only other biggie is Best Director, which will likely include David Fincher (The Social Network,) Christopher Nolan (Inception), Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), and David O. Russell (The Fighter) unless the Coen Brothers (True Grit) pop in and Knock out David O. Russell.  That doesn't look likely from here.

Mystery is over tomorrow morning. Mystery is over, and the over hype begins.  Oscar Season is on.

The Social Network

The Social Network is a fast paced, gripping, thoroughly entertaining roller coaster ride of a movie. It tells a big story but it starts out small, in a bar just down the street from Harvard, where Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his girlfriend, Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), are having a conversation – more like an argument – over a couple of beers, discussing Mark’s intense desire to join one of Harvard’s exclusive social clubs. The dialogue is so sharp, so witty, and so fast paced that I actually leaned forward in my seat to catch it all, and as soon as the scene was over I wanted to watch it again. And that wasn’t even the best part of the film.

The Social Network is, more than anything else, the story of one young man’s outsized drive and determination to pursue an idea. “The Facebook” is a narrow concept at first: “I want to take the entire social experience of college and put it online” Zuckerberg explains, and he starts out only allowing Harvard students access to the site, but he quickly sees the value of opening it up to other colleges, and then to the world, essentially putting the entire social experience of everyone online. The film shows the early, frantic days of programming in Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room, and then follows Facebook’s founder when he leaves school and heads boldly off to Silicon Valley, quickly evolving from wunderkind to titan. It’s a big story but it’s told on a really personal level, Zuck hanging out in his shabby dorm room with his geeky roommates, swigging beer and trying to come up with an online experience that will make his brainy upscale classmates take notice.

But there’s fallout, naturally – whenever anyone comes up with a new idea there is someone else who claims to have thought of it first. So the film time shifts back and forth between the high energy, untamed story of Facebook’s invention, and deadly quiet legal conference rooms where wounded parties demand that Zuckerberg give them their share of the wealth. Among the plaintiffs is Eduardo Saverin, played with tremendous honesty and vulnerability by soon-to-be-Spiderman Andrew Garfield. In the film, Saverin is Zuckerberg’s best friend and collaborator, but their visions for the direction of Facebook drive them apart – or, more accurately, lead Mark to push Eduardo away. Eduardo is particularly unhappy when Zuckerberg decides to take advice from Sean Parker, the inventor of Napster who has very big picture ideas for the future of Facebook. (Parker is played by Justin Timberlake in a serious star turn. The guy is great.)

Is The Social Network an truthful depiction of the founding of Facebook? Probably on some levels. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin says he was writing a good story, not a factually accurate account. But he also says that the filmmaking team got close enough to the truth to make sure that the bottle of beer movie Zuck pulls from his dorm room ‘frig is the same kind that the real Zuckerman preferred. Jesse Eisenberg watched YouTube videos of Facebook’s founder in order to nail his carriage and mannerisms, although he built the character from the script, not real life research. (Eisenberg does tremendous work here, creating a kind of geek anti-hero that we can’t help but root for, even when he is at his most ruthless. I hope he gets an Oscar nod.) But while the film may not be completely accurate it is always completely authentic; director David Fincher pulls you into the action and makes you believe.  Don't see The Social Network to learn the truth about the founding of Facebook; see it because it is a terrific film, a great cinematic thrill ride. Playing everywhere. A

Photo credit: Relativity Media

Money Never Sleeps, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Owls

The big kahoona this weekend is the sequel to 1987's Wall Street. This one is called Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the original name plus a pithy qualifier, summer blockbuster style. Critical reception to the new picture has been mixed, apparently it's not enough to be Oliver Stone anymore -- someone even suggested the controversial director has gone soft. But the cast is interesting, with Michael Douglas reprising Gordon "Greed is Good" Gekko, and Shia Lebeouf playing his latest acolyte, Jake Moore. Carey Mulligan mixes things up as Winnie, Gekko's estranged daughter and Jake's fiancée. Playing in lots and lots of theaters. Legends of the Guardian is also opening - I think of it as the Owl movie - it's a fantasy tale that has critics praising the 3-D visuals but not much else. You Again is a mother/daughter Mean Girls story that apparently is awful, even though it has Jamie Lee Curtis and Kristin Bell. Left over from last week: The Town, Devil, and Easy A. I will definitely see Wall Street, and I might try to catch Easy A. 

Next week The Social Network opens.  If early reviews are for real, this film is perfect.  Heaps of praise, and nothing else.  Should be interesting.

Critical Summaries

• Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps: Metacritic 59; Rotten Tomatoes 54

• Legends of the Guardians: Metacritic 56; Rotten Tomatoes 49

• You Again: Metacritic 27; Rotten Tomatoes 14

• The Town: Metacritic 74; Rotten Tomatoes 94

• Devil: Metacritic 44; Rotten Tomatoes 41

• Easy A: Metacritic 72; Rotten Tomatoes 85

Catfish

Catfish is a documentary, of sorts, but not like the informative ones that warn of disaster, or the entertaining, message-y ones in the style of Michael Moore. Catfish feels personal, like a home movie made by some very talented friends, a project that started out as a goof but took off when they realized they had stumbled onto a remarkable story. 

And this is how it starts: Nev Schulman is a twenty something New York City photographer specializing in elegant shots of dancers. One day he gets a package in the mail from Abby, an eight year old girl who lives in Michigan; it’s a watercolor painting of one of his photographs that had recently appeared in a national magazine. Nev is flattered and decides to encourage Abby; they exchange emails and become friends on Facebook, and he sends her more pictures to paint. Before long he is also Facebook friends with Abby’s mother, Angela, her father, her brother and, most notably, her nineteen year old sister Megan, who is very interested in Nev. The two launch into a relationship, using Facebook, text messages and actual phone calls to pursue what becomes a very steamy connection. This is what gets Nev’s brother, Rel and his partner Henry to turn on the cameras; they figure they have an opportunity to chronicle a 21st century Internet love story.

There are a lot of great things about Catfish, but my favorite is that the story unfolds for the audience exactly the same way it did for Nev and Rel and Henry; as the layers peel away and the virtual becomes real, we are right there with them. Rel said he always wanted to make a movie about his brother because he’s “just very charismatic and gets into a lot of trouble and gets himself into situations.” Big brother is right – Nev is a natural on screen, disarmingly honest, and we can’t help but root for him even when he is at his most reckless. Is it a story for our time? Well, yes and no: it’s about love, and loneliness, timeless human issues; but it’s also about how the modern virtual world provides unexpected outlets to cope. Catfish was a big hit at Sundance and it opens in a lot of cities around the country September 24. Check it out, it’s an interesting, fun time at the movies - but one important caveat: don't try to find out (or even guess) the ending; you'll ruin your own fun. B+






Image credit: Rogue

The Town, The Devil, and Emma Stone

It's been a long hot dry spell, but finally some high quality films are hitting the multiplex. Big opener this weekend is The Town: Ben Affleck stars in and directs a gritty crime thriller that is getting good to excellent reviews. (If you pay attention to movies at all, you’ve heard about this one; my film buff daughter turns 22 tomorrow and all she wants to do is see The Town and then have us take her out to a cool, pricey bar for dinner. This is part of a broader scope of birthday events that do not include her parents, but, we're happy she slotted us in.) In spite of the early critical enthusiasm, the LA Times reports that Easy A, the teen caper comedy very loosely based on The Scarlett Letter, is likely to beat The Town for the weekend box office crown. Apparently teen age girls are very reliable moviegoers. But, I imagine you saying, The Town has Jon Hamm! Don't teenage girls want to see Jon Hamm? Well, maybe not. He is like, 39, or something. Easy A has gotten some good reviews, most of the critics attributing the film's quality to the performance of its star, Emma Stone. Devil, a scare fest based on an idea from M. Night Shyamalan but written and directed by somebody else, will also hit screens (lots of them) this weekend. It’s about a bunch of people stuck in an elevator with Lucifer himself, and whenever the power flickers someone gets offed. No doubt there’s a twist at the end. Hardly any critics have seen this film, the few reviews out there are middling to bad.

If you happen to live in New York or Los Angeles, you can catch Never Let Me Go, playing in a handful of locations.  Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, it's a sci-fi tale about cloned children who are raised to become organ donors.  Early reviews say it is slow moving but brilliant.  Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightly star.  Also in limited release is a French movie called Heartbreaker; it's an entertaining old school romantic comedy, more Cary Grant/Doris Day than Jennifer Aniston/whoever. Fun to watch.  And if none of these appeal to you well, there's always Resident Evil, still playing everywhere.

My choices: The Town, Never Let Me Go, Easy A.  In that order. 

What to See: September 10, 2010

Last week the box office crown went to The American, the George Clooney picture that everyone went to see and no one liked. Don’t expect it to repeat this weekend. New on Friday: the fourth Resident Evil movie, where Milla Jovovich keeps trying to save the world, only this time in 3D, so she will be tossing weapons around and it will seem like they are flying right out of the screen. Could be fun if you're into that sort of thing. There’s also The Virginity Hit, a movie shot YouTube style about a teenager trying to lose his virginity and his friends who want to film it. It’s not getting a lot of love in the early reviewing , even though it was produced by Will Farrell and Adam McKay, the Funny or Die team. Apparently it’s more dead than funny. If you’re curious about whatever it was that happened to Joaquin Phoenix, there is a documentary about him opening this weekend, called I’m Still Here. Directed by Casey Affleck, it has been screened to mixed reviews at a film festival or two, but even critics who admire the film find it quite strange. Some think the whole thing is a hoax, and Phoenix’ best performance. That would be ironic.

Box Office Derby August 30

The Last Exorcism and Takers battled it out for the box office crown this weekend.  It looked like Exorcism was going to nab it, but at the last minute Takers pulled ahead.  Neither film is very good, though, so it hardly matters except to T.I., who starred in and produced Takers and wants to be sure that everyone knows his movie is number one.  Otherwise, this weekend's results look a lot like last weekend's, just with these two new movies on top.  So you got your Expendables, your Eat Pray Love, that stuff.  Vampires Suck sank a bit, and Scott Pilgrim slipped off the top ten.  Just not enough geek love.  Coming up the next few weeks we'll see serious fall films start to hit the theaters (aka, Oscar bait) and that should make movie going more interesting.  That will be a relief.

What to See -- August 27

There's a movie coming out this weekend called The Last Exorcism; I saw a trailer and it looks really scary. Set in rural Louisiana (where else?) it's about a preacher who makes the trek to an isolated farmhouse to save the soul of a demonic girl. Only he doesn't really believe in this stuff, so he brings a documentary crew along to expose his own fraud -- except this time, the possession seems to be real. Cool premise; decent, if limited, early reviews. Then there's Takers, about a bunch of seasoned criminals (including rapper T.I. and Chris Brown) determined to pull off one last heist, and we all know how that kind of thing usually turns out. Matt Dillon plays the "hardened" detective determined to stop the criminal escapade. Apparently light on plot but good with the action; reviews have been mixed, mostly bad. And there's that Avatar re-release.

These are slim pickings, so here are a couple of other thoughts: if you're looking for some movie fun, see Scott Pilgrim or The Other Guys. Both entertaining, lighthearted films. If you want something more challenging, look for a showing of the excellent (but slow moving) Winter's Bone, or the also good Kids Are All Right. That should do it.

Avatar Redux

OK, this is odd: James Cameron is re-releasing Avatar this weekend, with nine minutes of new footage showing Pandorans hunting sturmbeests, a fantastical creature that looks a lot like a stegosaurus. Do Pandorans eat these things? We don't know, but anyway now that the hunting scene is back Cameron has slipped the sturmbeests into a few other spots as well; I guess he thought we would have been confused before, if we were watching a big busy Pandoran battle and a couple of stegosauruses lumbered through. Cameron is also worried because Alice in Wonderland and How to Train Your Dragon opened shortly after Avatar (the first time), and he believes this caused a dearth of 3D screen availability for all those people who still wanted to pay a premium to see his movie. So he's putting it out there again, just to help his disappointed fans. And to show off the sturmbeests.  (Wanna see a sturmbeest?  Click here.  I would post it but I'm afraid James Cameron would get mad.)

In other box office news, turns out people are tired of paying a premium to see 3D movies; Piranha 3D had disappointing numbers last weekend, and Step Up 3D and that Cats and Dogs movie also failed to impress. Overall, the movie business is on track to match last summer's box office numbers but actual ticket sales are down -- Memorial Day weekend had the worst movie attendance numbers since 1993.  (Of course, it may also have had the worst movies since 1993.  Sex and the City 2, anyone?  Prince of Persia?)

Box Office Derby

Bit of a surprise on the weekend box office – Expendables was number one, with about $17 mill in tickets sold, everyone expected that, but Vampires Suck came in at number two, and no one saw that coming. Critics hated the Twilight spoof, but audiences showed up, giving the film a slight edge over Eat Pray Love; the Julia Roberts picture is sinking like a soft marshmallow in very hot chocolate, showing none of the staying power of Julie and Julia from last season. Scott Pilgrim continued its ride on the down elevator, looking more and more like it will have to find redemption in DVD or whatever. Piranha 3D did okay, though. They’re already planning a sequel.

The Switch

Jennifer Aniston is Kassie, a successful career woman with a ticking clock. She decides to act before it is too late, and announces her intention to find a sperm donor and have a baby. This comes as a shock to her neurotic best friend Wally, played by Justin Bateman; he gives her dozens of reasons why it’s a bad idea, but we can pretty much tell that he’s just put out because she’s not interested in his sperm. That, and he’s probably in love with her – we know that because she’s Jennifer Aniston, and this is a romantic comedy. There’s not much else in the plot to give their relationship away – in contrast to films like When Harry Met Sally, or Broadcast News, where it is clear how much the two main characters enjoy each other’s company, these two mostly argue and act irritated with each other as the movies skips quickly along in order to get to the main event: the sperm switch.

Spoiler alert? Really? C’mon, the name of the film is The Switch, you know it’s coming.

So Justin Bateman finds himself in Kassie’s bathroom, face to face with her Viking sperm donor’s seed, and he’s drunk and not a little high from pills that Cassie’s friend Debbie (played with great humor by Juliette Lewis – where has she been?) has slipped him and he decides to have a little fun. Next thing we know, Viking seed has become neurotic seed, Kassie’s pregnant, and she moves away to raise her son in bucolic Minnesota. (I have to give some props to Justin Bateman here. For the sperm switch scene he’s alone in a bathroom, playing a drunk who is about to, well, donate. Potentially awkward and cringe worthy, but he pulls it off. It’s not hilarious but it’s amusing.)

The best friends lose touch, until Kassie moves back, seven years later, with a kid who seems an awful lot like Wally. The film picks up at that point, because Thomas Robinson, who plays young Sebastian, is a terrific little child actor, and he and Bateman have great chemistry together. When the two of them are on screen, discussing their neuroses, it’s a lot of fun. The rest of the movie is predictable fluff, but if you’re in the mood for lighthearted nonsense, you could do worse than this one. Don’t rush out to see it, though, if you’re hoping for a big dose of Jennifer Aniston – she doesn’t get a lot of screen time. With a terrific supporting performance by Jeff Goldblum as Wally’s friend Leonard. It’s been years since I’ve enjoyed Goldblum this much. Playing all over but it had a disappointing first weekend so, if you want to see it in theaters, sooner is probably better than later. B-

Photo credit - Miramax

Where did the summer go? August 20, 2010

It's rumored that some East Coast school districts are starting up next week, no post labor day schedule for them, and plaintive parents are posting Facebook pictures of their near adult children settling into dorm rooms like there's something wrong with that. But the summer movie season isn't quite over, not when you've got a picture like Piranha 3D popping up in theaters this weekend. I remember the first Piranha; a bunch of us sneaked out of class to see it in a triple bill with Alligator and The Howling. It was, believe it or not, a John Sayles marathon.

This new Piranha is getting oddly good reviews, especially for Elisabeth Shue's performance and I like Elisabeth Shue. 3D sort of annoys me, especially the glasses and the dim screen, but I might show up. Also this weekend we've got The Switch; Jennifer Aniston and Justin Bateman starring in a comedy about a sperm donor baby and his dad's reluctance to embrace adulthood, in a funny way. Apparently Bateman outshines Aniston here, and the kid (Thomas Robinson) steals the show from both of them. Then there's the second installment of Nanny McPhee, for the younger set; and Lottery Ticket, about a kid from the projects who discovers he has a winning lottery ticket on a Friday, and has to wait until Monday to cash it, avoiding all sorts of pitfalls over the course of the weekend. Finally, among big openings, there's Vampires Suck, a satire parody movie that messes around with the "Twilight" series. I like the idea of this one but I don't know if I can sit through it. In any case, everyone seems to think that The Expendables will take the weekend again, and what is drawing people to this geriatric action pic I have no idea. Maybe I'll check it out.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Scott Pilgrim

It’s hard to know where to start with this wacky, entertaining little film. Scott Pilgrim bends all kinds of storytelling rules, expecting us to ride along, say, when Scott, a lightweight, wimpy dude turns into a live action video game superhero, endures a colossal battle and then turns right back into his old persona, happily collecting his bonus coins from the floor (“Cool, coins!”) while his score totes up absurdly in the background. I love this stuff.

Scott Pilgrim, played by Michael Cera, is a shiftless twenty something Canadian, who doesn’t have much going on except a band (Sex Bob-omb) where he plays a fierce bass guitar. His heart was “kicked in the butt” by a rock singer named Envy who left him behind when she got famous. Scott compensates by dating a 17 year old high school student, much to the chagrin of everyone he knows, and everyone he knows is kept well informed by his roommate Wallace (Kieran Culkin) who has superpowers himself when it comes to texting about Scott’s personal life. He can do it – literally – in his sleep.

Then Scott meets Ramona Flowers, an edgy young woman with purple hair; she delivers packages for the Canadian version of Amazon and occasionally shows up in Scott’s dreams because there’s a subspace in his brain she likes to use. (If you’re not a Scott Pilgrim aficionado you won’t understand what that means, and it never gets explained, but that’s the way this movie rolls.) Scott falls head over heels for Ramona but she’s got baggage: in order to date her, Scott has to defeat her seven evil exes (and, perhaps more frightening, break up with Knives Chau, his seventeen year old girlfriend). And so the video game battling begins, with the first of the evil exes mounting an assault in the middle of a Sex Bob-omb concert. Scott is baffled: “Wait! We're fighting over Ramona?” Evil Matthew Patel responds reasonably, “Didn't you get my email explaining the situation?”

This film is full of great characters, with Kieran Culkin nearly stealing the show as Wallace, a low key but sharp witted gay lothario who loves Scott like a brother but isn’t afraid to call him on his romantic peccadilloes. Anna Kendrick is terrific as Scott’s impatient, down to earth sister, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead is pitch perfect as the mysterious Ramona. And a shout out is due to Alison Pill, who plays Kim Pine, the drummer for Sex Bob-omb; Pill (looking oddly like a young Molly Ringwald) nails the acerbic wit and sharp insight that make Kim a welcome antidote to the freewheeling style of the rest of the gang.  Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is not a serious movie, but it creates its illogical universe with such care, each piece of the story fitting snugly into the next, that we quickly believe that the whole thing makes perfect sense. This is a really fun ride. B+

Girl is Getting a Dragon Tattoo

Rooney Mara

An actress named Rooney Mara has been cast in the high profile role of Lisbeth Salander in the American remakes of Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo stories.  If the rumors are true (and who the heck knows for sure) everyone from Kristin Stewart to Scarlett Johansson was in the running for the role.  Oh, and Ellen Page.  Her too.

Rooney is relatively unknown (she was in Youth in Revolt, and The Winning Season) but she was already set to make her mark in the hotly anticipated The Social Network.  With this casting,  she's on track to be an "It Girl."

Daniel Craig, currently out of Bond films to work on, was already cast in the role of Mikail Blomkvist, the journalist who collaborates with the fierce, brilliant Lisbeth to solve crimes.

Photo Credit - IMDB Pro

Summer Doldrums

The ReelFan is back!  Spent some time visiting elderly relatives and found it oddly difficult to get internet access in retirement homes and a place called Wisconsin. Fortunately, it's been a boring summer at the movies, so not much to report.

But let's talk anyway. Expendables took the weekend box office -- no big surprise, early "polling" showed enormous interest in the 80's throwback action picture. Julia Roberts did pretty well with her Eat Pray Love debut, but distributor Sony is already talking about needing a strong showing overseas to get production costs covered. Seems that there wasn't enough love in the audience to assure steady domestic box office in the next few weeks (audiences gave the film a "B" on Cinemascore -- not a good sign from an opening weekend crowd). Scott Pilgrim pretty much tanked, which shouldn't surprise me since my hipster twenty-something daughters had no interest in going. "I'm sick of that guy," my oldest said of Michael Cera, and that was that.

The Kids Are All Right

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore are Nic and Jules, a gay couple raising up two teenage kids in a perfect little urban family setting; Norman Rockwell for the twenty first century. But like a Norman Rockwell painting, the outward appearance is a little too perfect, not quite real. Nic and Jules’ relationship is rocky, cracks showing everywhere, in spite of their charming craftsman home with the Volvo wagon parked out front. These two are an odd couple, Nic a tough, self controlled doctor, who pesters the children to write timely thank you notes and drinks too much wine; Jules is a free spirit, experimenting with careers and enjoying the moment. “If it were up to Jules,” Nic quips as she pours another glass of red, “we would skip the thank you notes and just send out good vibes.” Hilarious, actually, and as the film gets going there is a lot of funny dialogue and scenes that make any parent – or any teen, or any former teen – cringe with comic recognition.

And the kids are all right, or anyway, we’ve all seen worse. The oldest, Joni, played with heartbreaking vulnerability by Mia Wasikowska, is spending her last summer at home before she heads off to some sort of prestige college. Brother Laser (Josh Hutcherson), still in high school, asks a favor of his eighteen year old sister: he wants her to contact their sperm donor dad. She’s reluctant – “That could really hurt moms’ feelings” – but she complies, and soon Paul (Mark Ruffalo) crashes into their lives, bringing an energy and unpredictability that immediately appeals to Jules and puts Nic entirely on the defensive. Paul owns a restaurant called WYSIWYG – what you see is what you get, in computer speak – and that is an apt description of him: he is bearded and brash and sweaty, a self described “doer”; but he is also charming and friendly, even when confronted by Nic’s disapproving barrage of questions. “You must be the griller in the family,” he tells her, amiably.

I liked the beginning of this movie a lot, but it lost me towards the end, when screen writers Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Bloomberg seemed to lose their senses of humor (Cholodenko also directed). The tone of the film becomes dark and tense, and the thought provoking premise just unravels; it’s like the writers had this great, timely idea for a story and then couldn’t figure out what to do with it. I left the theater feeling vaguely unsettled and a little bit cheated; I came to see a comedy about American families, and found myself watching a predictably sorry, sudsy tale. With excellent performances from the whole cast, although Bening, Moore and Ruffalo have shone brighter in other roles. Playing in very limited release, going wider on a slow rollout. B