Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
My favorite time of year to look at movie ads was always around the holidays. I loved how the movies, particularly those aimed at children, altered their ads to fit the holiday season. My personal favorite was for “Monsters, Inc.” with the one-eyed Mike Wazowski standing next to a snowman with instructions to construct one of your own.
What is in my mind the finest month for the movies is almost here! Let Marshall guide you through the best and steer you away from the worst, but most of all enjoy! The studios have been holding back their best movies all year to dump them all here, where they can get serious awards consideration.
December 4
A major Oscars wild-card is “Brothers.” No one really knows what to make of it. If the movie hits big, it could completely change the game. But it could just fly under the radar like most expect it to now. However, the trailer makes it look as if it the movie could be absolutely mind-blowing. Directed by Jim Sheridan, who has received six Academy Award nominations, “Brothers” follows Grace Cahill (Natalie Portman) as she and her daughters deal with the loss of her husband, Sam (Tobey Maguire), in war. Sam’s brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) comes to live with Grace to lend a helping hand. But romantic sparks fly between the two at precisely the wrong time: the discovery that Sam is alive and coming home. With the two brothers both tugging Grace’s heart for their share, a different type of sparks fly.
You have heard me say plenty about “Up in the Air.” If you haven’t read my Oscar Moment on the movie or heard my bliss at the release of the trailer, let me give you one more chance to hope on the bandwagon.
But the movies don’t stop there. “Armored,” an action-drama that is tooting its own moral horn, starring Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne. “Everybody’s Fine” appears to be a holiday movie, so that might be worth checking out if you’re in the spirit. The movie, a remake of a 1990 Italian film by the same name, stars Robert DeNiro as a widower who reconnects with his estrange children. And “Transylmania” looks to cash in on the vampire craze sweeping the nation by satirizing it, but I doubt it will be financially viable because it is being released by a no-name studio and without any big names.
December 11
The highlight of the weekend for many will be “The Princess and the Frog,” Disney’s return to the traditional animation by hand musical. The movie looks to capitalize on what we know and love Disney musicals for, adding some catchy tunes to a fairy tale we have known since childhood. Anika Noni Rose, best known for her role as Lorrell in the film adaptation of “Dreamgirls,” lends her talented voice to the princess Tiana. As a huge fan of “Dreamgirls” during the winter of 2006, I couldn’t think of someone better equipped to handle the sweet, soft Disney music (which isn’t designed for belters like Beyoncé or Jennifer Hudson). That being said, the music won’t sound like anything you’ve ever heard from a Disney fairy tale. It is being scored by Randy Newman, not Alan Menken (“Beauty and the Beast,” etc.), and will have a jazzy feel much like its setting, New Orleans.
This week also boasts the opening of three major Oscar players. Two have been featured in Oscar Moments, “Invictus” and “A Single Man.” The former opens nationwide this Friday, the latter only in limited release. I’ll repost the trailers below because they are worth watching. But read the Oscar Moment if you want to know more about the movies.
According to the people that matter, “The Lovely Bones” has all the pieces to make a great movie. But for summer reading two years ago, I read the source material, Alice Sebold’s acclaimed novel. I found it dreadfully melodramatic and very depressing without any sort of emotional payoff to reward the reader for making it through. But maybe Hollywood will mess up the novel in a good way. If any movie could, it would be this one. With a director like Peter Jackson and a cast including Saiorse Ronan (“Atonement”), Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci, and Susan Sarandon, it could very well happen. It opens in limited release on this date and slowly expands until its nationwide release on Martin Luther King Day weekend in 2010.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
I stuck the ads to my wall using rolls of tape. But whenever I took the ads off, the tape didn’t come all the way off. Whenever we repainted my room, my mom told me that I was no longer allowed to tape anything to the wall because the painters had to pull the tape off before they could paint.
The “F.I.L.M. of the Week” is Gus Van Sant’s “Paranoid Park,” a multi-layered movie that serves as both a crime drama and a portrait of a scared teenager. The film serves as a testament to the prowess of Van Sant (Academy Award nominated director of “Milk” and “Good Will Hunting”), who not only helmed the movie, but wrote and edited it. He excels at doing what I love to see filmmakers do: taking a simple premise and using the power of moviemaking to turn it into something extravagant.
Alex (Gabe Nevins) is a teenage skateboarder who makes a split-second decision that turns out to be a big mistake with life-changing ramifications. The film follows the effect of the event on his life as he, apprehensive, attempts to hide the truth and escape the consequences. The movie begins with an aura of mystery surrounding what is happening, but in just 80 minutes, Van Sant strips it all away and gets to the core of an insecure and distraught teenager.
The triumph of “Paranoid Park” is not the story, but the storytelling. Van Sant brings a distinctively different style to this than he did to a movie like “Milk.” He employs a non-linear story line to replicate the events running together in Alex’s mind. Alex is a very passive figure in the movie, and we witness the tearing apart of his mind not in his dialogue, but mostly from drawn-out shots of him. These shots provide such a clear insight into the character thanks to Van Sant allowing the cinematography to shine. Throw in a soundtrack eclectic enough to rival a Tarantino movie, and you get one great movie to watch.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
I said in Random Factoid #102 that I was not allowed to cut out ads of rated R movies, but that wasn’t entirely true. The rule was that when I turned 13, I would be allowed to do it. But by the time I turned 13, the phase of cutting out movie ads had passed.
Today’s “Oscar Moment” is brought to you by the movie “A Single Man,” adapted from a decades-old novel by Christopher Isherwood (if that sounds like the closing of “Sesame Street,” excuse my tardiness of honoring the show’s 40th anniversary). The movie could follow a similar awards season road to “Slumdog Millionaire.” Both were discovered at film festivals, got a distributor, and began attracting much Oscar talk. “A Single Man” burst onto the scene at the Venice Film Festival, where Colin Firth took home the prize for Best Actor. He has since become a frontrunner in the Best Actor race at the Oscars. But Firth is not the only part of the movie getting attention. Julianne Moore has gained some traction in a tight Best Supporting Actress race, and Tom Ford, former fashion designer (something I know only from a quick Google search), has won raves for his first film.
From watching the trailer, after the shock of watching a montage filled with Ford’s distinct, visually arresting style, you probably are asking, “This looks good, but what is this movie about?” The movie centers around middle-aged homosexual British professor George Falconer (Firth) and him reeling from the death of his partner, Jim (Matthew Goode, “Watchmen”). It follows him over the course of a day, consoled by close friend Charley (Moore), as he tries to discover if life is worth living without Jim.
It is a tight Best Actor field this year, with heavyweights such as Morgan Freeman, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Jeff Bridges in contention. Yet most people seem to think that Firth is safe for at least a nomination. He is a likable actor, never demanding much attention, and making missteps in only the quietest of fashions. Although many people seem to have postulated that the Academy is very homophobic from its snub of “Brokeback Mountain,” the Best Actor prize went to Sean Penn for playing homosexual San Francisco mayor Harvey Milk last year.
Moore perhaps faces even stiffer competition in Best Supporting Actress. Mo’Nique is a lock (which I can now testify to from seeing the movie). Barring a complete flop of “Nine,” at least one actress will get in, if not two. “Up in the Air” has two strong candidates in the category, Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga. “The Lovely Bones” could also has two potential nominees with past winners Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon. I don’t think Moore is a certainty by any means, but I must keep in mind that I have not seen her performance in the movie. But she is a four-time nominee, and maybe it is her time. We all know how desperate the Academy was to award Kate Winslet last year after five times coming up empty on Oscar night, even willing to commit category fraud to give it to her.
As for the Best Picture/Director duo, it seems to be less likely than the two actors. The film’s subject matter could likely hurt it – I say this not because of my own personal beliefs but because there exists a large faction of old white men in the Academy opposed to homosexuality. I think the triumph of “Milk” last year shows significant progress, but nonetheless, this homophobia still exists, even if in vestiges. Without the expansion of the field of Best Picture nominees, I don’t think this would have a chance. But I think “A Single Man” lurks at the bottom of the ten or just outside of it. If one of the heavyweights like “Invictus” or “The Lovely Bones” underwhelms, I think “A Single Man” could sneak in and steal a spot. As for director Tom Ford, I am quite skeptical about his chances. While the trailer shows an appealing stylistic approach, this cannot cover the fact that this is Ford’s first film. It is fairly rare for a director to earn a nomination for their first project, and in such a strong year for directors, I think Ford will get lost in a crowd of big names like Clint Eastwood, Peter Jackson, and James Cameron.
I feel like I close every “Oscar Moment” on the same note: “I don’t care if it gets nominated, this looks good enough to get me to a theater!” The same goes for “A Single Man,” which opens in limited release on December 11 and will gradually expand across the country as awards season progresses.
BEST BETS FOR NOMINATIONS: Best Actor (Colin Firth), Best Supporting Actress (Moore), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction
OTHER POTENTIAL NOMINATIONS: Best Picture, Best Director (Tom Ford)
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
Often times whenever there were back-to-back ads in the Houston Chronicle, I went and took the movie section from my neighbor’s recycling bin and cut it up. Don’t worry, they knew I did it.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
I was invited to fill part of a time capsule in December 2000. What did I put in my bag? You guessed it … tiny little ads for “Cast Away” and other movies that I can’t remember. There were only other things because my mom was able to persuade me to include them.
Every year, one movie looks so impressive on paper that it is a foregone conclusion at the beginning of the year that it is not only a slam dunk to be a nominee, but also the assume winner of Best Picture. I think I speak for most pundits when I say that “Invictus” is that movie from 2009. When you mix one of the Academy’s favorite directors, Clint Eastwood, with two highly respected actors, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, not to mention a true inspirational story involving a beloved humanist, Nelson Mandela, it seems like simple math that these add up to Oscar gold.
But let’s look at the movies in a comparable position to “Invictus” from the past few years:
The only real conclusion that can be drawn from those results is that having sky-high expectations can often yield unfavorable results. If people expect something amazing, it is all the easier to underwhelm. So the only question that remains is which awards season path “Invictus” will tread – the extremely disappointing “Dreamgirls,” the mildly rewarding “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” or perhaps it will even capitalize on its status and turn it into Oscar triumph.
It is hard to judge the film on its own merit, though, because no one has seen it. However, if the trailer is any indication, we are really in for a treat. “Invictus” seems to be one of those inspirational movies designed to make your heart melt, the type of movie that the Academy hadn’t rewarded in a while until last year when “Slumdog Millionaire” cleaned house. If “Slumdog” has really ushered in a new era of feel-good, triumphant films taking home the big prizes, “Invictus” seems to be a logical successor. But then again, I feel like bloggers like myself often create these “movements” much like some suspect English teachers of coming up with “themes.” Maybe we over think it, and the choice of a body of voters is just based on what movie took their breath away that year.
To bring up the obligatory other face of the coin, Clint Eastwood perhaps isn’t quite as venerated by the Academy as many think. Neither of his two works gained much attention; “Gran Torino” wound up with a goose egg in the nomination column, not even willing to acknowledge what could be the last time he steps in front of the camera. The Academy rarely awards more than two Oscars to actors and directors, and maybe the voters think that Eastwood has gotten enough recognition from them. On a different note, if people are looking for a fairly buoyant movie, they might find “Up in the Air” a more appealing choice. Critics claim that it truly expresses the zeitgeist of these tough economic times, addressing our problems but infusing the gravity with a bit of levity.
While I could spend all day discussing the awards potential of “Invictus,” I will let the movie speak for itself on December 11. Then I will be in a much better position to discourse.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
Obviously, I didn’t leave the ads up forever. They had to come down to make way for newer movies, right? But my attachment to them didn’t end when they left the wall. I kept the ads inside my desk at first, but when they became too numerous, I moved them to a container than could fit a body underneath my bed. I still had ads from 2000 until the middle of July this summer when I underwent a massive purge. I saved only one ad. Any guesses as to what movie it is? Check back tomorrow if you are hungering for more information on my infatuation.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
I had a grid layout for the ads in my room. Above my bed, I had to work around a lamp that was attached to the wall, so I had three ads on the top row and two on the bottom row. On the three other doors in my room, I usually had a 2 by 2 setup. Usually, I kept to these four places, but whenever I felt especially in a decorating spirit, I would put ads on the other walls in my room.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
I was not allowed to cut out the ads of R-rated movies. It was my mom’s rule, something that I don’t quite understand to this day. So many Oscar nominees could have graced my walls.
This week’s “F.I.L.M.” (First-Class, Independent Little-Known Movie) is one that I fully believe has the power to change the world. “The Constant Gardener” is so emotionally compelling that it can force you to question every opinion you have about helping those in poverty. I have seen firsthand the poorest people in our hemisphere during a mission trip to Nicaragua this summer, but this movie hit me at nearly the same level. Director Fernando Mierelles (“City of God“) doesn’t treat their indigence as some sort of spectacle. He treats them with humanity, willing to feature them as real people with hearts and feelings just like the diplomat played by Ralph Fiennes. Mierelles almost does for the poor in movies what Dickens did for the poor with literature.
“The Constant Gardener” gained some prestige from Rachel Weisz’s Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress, an award that she unquestionably deserved. But don’t be fooled by the word “supporting.” She may not have a great deal of screen time, but the character Tessa, who she plays with brilliance and compassion, is the dominant focus of the movie. Tessa is a crusader for justice investigating a pharmaceutical company using the destitute in Africa as guinea pigs but possibly treating them like flies, unafraid to alter results of their tests for the betterment of their company. Her inquiry into the potentially corrupt dealings of the corporations leads her into dangerous territory, unwittingly drawing her husband, Justin (Fiennes), into the fray. What ensues is a startling portrayal of the consequences of one man trying to do the right thing for the people who don’t have aren’t given a voice.
While “The Constant Gardener” may not exhibit Mierelles’ directorial prowess quite like “City of God,” it is still a breathtaking achievement. It is unlike most political thrillers, which are usually entangled in plot twists, and conveys a simple story with huge moral implications. The movie will make you cry for its content, but on a grander level, it will make you weep for the people that Justin and Tessa try to defend. How much is one life worth? How far would you go to save a life? Should help be given to the individual or the group? “The Constant Gardener” grapples with those questions, but ultimately leaves you to ponder how you feel about the issues.
Today’s factoid will be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
Often times, the New York Times would frustratingly layer two ads that I really wanted on my wall on the same page (that is, one on the front and one on the back). Don’t worry, I almost always got both of them. Usually my parents were kind enough to go buy a second paper just so I could get the ads that I wanted.
Marshall and the Movies 
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