The Movie Thread

[RGMike]

Saw Milk on Friday--LOVED it. Great performance from Penn and pretty historically accurate. I spotted only one detail that didn't ring true--there was an F Market streetcar in one of the scenes, and I don't think that line existed until a few years ago. Interesting also how they kept the Feinstein character out of any closeups, except in historical footage.

I always thought Sherilynn fenn woulda made a good DiFi:

[mshray]

Poor Kristin Scott-Thomas, so brilliant in I've Loved You So Long (and in French, not her native language!) and she's been almost totally ignored.

Here's at least one guy who has Kristin Scott-Thomas getting a nom (and just slightly ahead of Sally Hawkins).  Haven't familiarized myself with this guy, but I found it on a direct link from IMDb.

[Tinka Cat]

Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, a mostly sweet comedy w a great performance from the charming Sally Hawkins

Just in the past few days I've been seeing this pop up on some people's lists as a sleeper Best Pic nominee.  Hadn't heard about it before

crankypants time: I hated hated HATED Happy-Go-Lucky. I found her character to be one of THE most-annoying people I've ever encountered in a film. I wanted to throttle her after 5 mins.  And the only other character in the movie who challenges her in any way turns out to be a paranoid, racist, right-wing nutjob. So the deck is totally stacked in her favor. I'm astounded at how many Ten Best lists it's on, and Hawkins has won just about every critics group's Best Actress award (yes, I suppose it's good acting if she got under my skin, but still).  Poor Kristin Scott-Thomas, so brilliant in I've Loved You So Long (and in French, not her native language!) and she's been almost totally ignored.

I can see what you mean (although I found her mostly charming), and I can't even say for sure if Sally Hawkins is a good actress, b/c she seemed to be SO natural that I felt she was playing herself.   I'd have to see her in something else to see her true range

This movie reminded me of Juno, in that I felt the actor's natural personality shaped the overall mood -- and probably the script, too, since I think Mike Leigh develops a lot of plot and dialogue based on improvisation.

[RGMike]

Too bad Mr Morey moved to Michigan: the Castro is showing Harold & Maude next week with a special appearance by Bud Cort:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/15/DDGB159AHQ.DTL&type=performance

[RGMike]

Sci-Fi alert:  The good news is, they're finally making a film of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. The bad news is, it'll be directed by Roland Emmerich of Independence Day fame.

[mshray]

Sci-Fi alert:  The good news is, they're finally making a film of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. The bad news is, it'll be directed by Roland Emmerich of Independence Day fame.

Well, if it stars Will Smith, like both ID & I, Robot, you can be sure it won't have much if anything to do with the actual writings of Asimov.  I, Robot certainly didn't.

[RGMike]

notes from the Sundance Film Festival:

"Coming into Sundance, we had a feeling the coming-of-age dramedy An Education would probably be pretty good," Defamer's Stu Van Airsdale wrote yesterday afternoon. "But as 282 lucky ticketholders at Sunday's premiere soon discovered, 'good' isn't the half of it.

"An Education all but blew the marquee off the Egyptian Theater, where over 100 latecomers were turned away onto a swarming Main Street before director Lone Scherfig nervously announced not even she had yet seen her film outside the lab. She had nothing to worry about:

"Led by 23-year-old Carey Mulligan in a breakthrough that makes Ellen Page's Juno turn look like a Lifetime reject, Scherfig's ensemble cast wrings a spry, otherworldly beauty from Nick Hornby's script and its corrosive glare at early '60s London. We have no idea if it's the festival's best film, as some have said, but if there is a likelier candidate for life beyond Park City -- as in awards-season, even canonical immortality -- let's have it."

er...WOW!

[RGMike]

Oscar noms announced; here's the list:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/01/22/entertainment/e055320S77.DTL

No Best Pic nom for Dark Knight.

No Best Actress for Sally Hawkins (can't say I'm upset)

Best Pic for The Reader?? Seriously?? and they nominated Winslet for Best Actress for that film rather than Revolutionary Road? Jeezus -- there are still a lot of old Jews in the Academy, I guess 

I seriously disliked The Reader -- it's creepy and icky.

And no Best Song nom for Broooce; but 2 of the 3 Best Song noms are from Slumdog Millionaire (the other Song nominee is the Peter Gabriel tune from WALL-E -- which got 6 nods altogether)

Benjamin Button leads the pack with 13 noms .

[mshray]

My first thoughts...

-Share your surprise at the shutout of Revolutionary Road.  Though I've only seen the trailers for it & The Reader, the buzz on both certainly didn't lead one to expect this.

-Awfully pleased to see Richard Jenkins' nom for The Visitor (dark horse anybody?) as well as Langella's, but I think it is a 2-man race between Penn & Rourke.  Both blew me away personally, so I don't know which to root for.

-The Brangelina paparazzi must be besides themselves now.

-I have no idea who will win Best Actress, but if it isn't Kate Winslett then she is well on her way to surpassing Richard Burton & Peter O'Toole for most-noms-without-a-win.

-just like last year, the Best Supporting Actor field is just impossibly competitive, but WTF is Philip Seymour Hoffman doing in there?  Wasn't he the Lead Actor?

-Marissa Tomei was awesome & is totally deserving, but I kinda think the voters will remember her first Oscar & vote for someone else.  So my money is on Penelope Cruz.

-nice to see In Bruges get a little recognition in the Original Screenplay category.

[mshray]

Best Pic for The Reader?? Seriously?? and they nominated Winslet for Best Actress for that film rather than Revolutionary Road? Jeezus.

Was just comparing the Oscar noms to the SAG noms, and they got it right, I think, Winslett gets a Leading Role nom for Revolutionary Road and a Suporting Role nom for The Reader.

But they not only also have Hoffman in a Supporting Role nom, they gave Dev Patel one as well for Slumdog Millionaire!?  I mean sure, much of the movie was flashbacks with younger actors playing him at 2 diffferent stages, but he was definitely on screen long enough to be recognized as the Leading Role.

[RGMike]

My first thoughts...

-Share your surprise at the shutout of Revolutionary Road.  Though I've only seen the trailers for it & The Reader, the buzz on both certainly didn't lead one to expect this.

-Awfully pleased to see Richard Jenkins' nom for The Visitor (dark horse anybody?) as well as Langella's, but I think it is a 2-man race between Penn & Rourke.  Both blew me away personally, so I don't know which to root for.

-The Brangelina paparazzi must be besides themselves now.

-I have no idea who will win Best Actress, but if it isn't Kate Winslett then she is well on her way to surpassing Richard Burton & Peter O'Toole for most-noms-without-a-win.

-just like last year, the Best Supporting Actor field is just impossibly competitive, but WTF is Philip Seymour Hoffman doing in there?  Wasn't he the Lead Actor?

-Marissa Tomei was awesome & is totally deserving, but I kinda think the voters will remember her first Oscar & vote for someone else.  So my money is on Penelope Cruz.

-nice to see In Bruges get a little recognition in the Original Screenplay category.

I think (dunno if I've said it in this forum) that 2 brilliant seasons of Mad Men stole a lot of Rev Road's thunder. It's a very good movie (tho' it's only major nom, Michael Shannon, is it's weak link IMHO -- let's revisit that after you've seen it) but I'd've been more likely to have been blown away by it if MM didn't exist.

Yes, Hoffman is a lead being shoe-horned into the Supp category (they tried to do the same with Winslet and failed -- whothehell is she "supporting" in Reader? She has more screen time than anybody).  Also pleased about Jenkins, Melissa Leo (who apparently got the "indie" slot instead of Sally H), Tarji P Henson from Button, and In Bruges. Bummed about Kristin Scott-Thomas and Springsteen.

Trivia: according to awardsdaily.com, Benjamin Button today became only the 11th film ever to receive 13 nominations or more including Best Pic . 7 of those went on to win BP:

All About Eve (1950) (14 noms)
Titanic (1997) (14 noms)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Chicago (2002)

the other 3:

Mary Poppins (1964)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

[RGMike]

Best Pic for The Reader?? Seriously?? and they nominated Winslet for Best Actress for that film rather than Revolutionary Road? Jeezus -- there are still a lot of old Jews in the Academy, I guess 

uncredited quipster, quoted on one of the Oscar blogs: “There’s no business like Shoah business.”

[mshray]

Best Pic for The Reader?? Seriously?? and they nominated Winslet for Best Actress for that film rather than Revolutionary Road? Jeezus -- there are still a lot of old Jews in the Academy, I guess 

uncredited quipster, quoted on one of the Oscar blogs: “There’s no business like Shoah business.”

that's a good one 

[RGMike]

equal time for the bad: The razzie nominations are here...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/22/DD6M15EFNK.DTL&type=movies

No surprise that Mike Meyers' Love Guru leads the pack.

[mshray]

equal time for the bad: The razzie nominations are here...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/22/DD6M15EFNK.DTL&type=movies

No surprise that Mike Meyers' Love Guru leads the pack.

Did you hear Renee totally ragging on Benjamin Button this a.m.?  And many callers also thought it was bad to awful.