Entertainment Weekly has released its annual Entertainer of the Year edition, and this time it's Sandra Bullock, just 4 years after she got the top honors in 2009. I'd say it's pretty deserved, as The Heat was the year's biggest comedy and Gravity became a phenomenon of its own in the fall. The coolest part about it is that she's still got all this popular success at the age of 49, when most women (unless they're Meryl Streep) have fallen off Hollywood's radar. And for the record, the last time she got this cover she won the Oscar for The Blind Side- could it happen again? Also included on the list are Jennifer Lawrence, the cast of Scandal, Tom Hanks, Breaking Bad, and Netflix.
BOX OFFICE 11/22-11/24: 'Catching Fire' Burns Bright
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opened huge this weekend, with a $161 million dollar debut that makes it good for the fourth best opening weekend of all time, behind The Avengers, Iron Man 3, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The first film opened with $152 million, which this one handily beat, and it played to a slightly broader audience. Still mostly female of course, but split evenly among age groups over and under 25, and with more men than the first Hunger Games. With very good reviews and word of mouth (an "A" Cinemascore), it should play well for the rest of the holiday season, especially with next weekend being Thanksgiving, and may surpass the original Hunger Games' $408 million total.
In second place was Thor, which fell 61% to $14 million and will now gross just over $200 million total, which isn't that impressive considering the big opening weekend, and in third was The Best Man Holiday, which also fell a steep 58% to $12 million, despite its A+ rating from audiences. The smaller budget film will still be profitable of course, because it cost just $17 million to produce. The poorly reviewed Vince Vaughn comedy Delivery Man opened in fourth to a weak $8 million, continuing his recent string of disappointments at the box office, and rounding out the top five was Free Birds, with $5 million.
Top 5
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire- $161.1 million
- Thor: The Dark World- $14.1 million
- The Best Man Holiday- $12.5 million
- Delivery Man- $8.2 million
- Free Birds- $5.3 million
Next week, the only real competition against Catching Fire will be Disney's Frozen, the latest entry in their Disney Princess canon, which is already earning some good notices for being an actual feminist fairy tale for once. But Catching Fire will be expected to dominate over the long holiday weekend, as other openers are Black Nativity and Homefront. See you then!
TRAILER: "Nymphomaniac"
The nutty new trailer for Lars Von Trier's next movie is here, and with an interesting mix of actors that includes Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, Stellan Skarsgaard, Shia LeBeouf and his favorite actress, Charlotte Gainsbourg. This guy has directed some pretty out there movies in the past (Dogville and Antichrist to name a couple) and this looks to be another in that vein. Coming out next summer.
POSTERS: "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Two new posters for The Wolf of Wall Street are out today. Looks like a good time to be had:
Jennifer Lawrence on Letterman
The bubbly, nutty and completely unfiltered Jennifer Lawrence shows why she's become Dave's new favorite guest, as every time she's come on he's had her stay longer and longer. Here she is promoting The Hunger Games last night and ripping through any subject that came up:
'Gravity' Short Film: "Aningaaq"
This is pretty awesome- WB has released a seven minute companion short film that was originally going to show up on the blu-ray for Gravity, which shows the other side of Sandra Bullock's distress call to a man that couldn't understand her. It's written and directed by Jonas Cuaron and is now being submitted for the Oscars as a live-action short. It's probably safe to say this is a definite spoiler, so only for those who've already seen Gravity:
Oscar Roundup: Best Actor
The Best Actor race is insanely crowded this year. So packed that there already seems to be a set list of five nominees, with as many as five more fighting to squeeze their way into a tightly locked space.
To start off, Chiwetel Ejiofor seems set for a nomination and possibly the win for 12 Years a Slave, where he plays Solomon Northup, a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery in the 1840's. He and the film have received amazing reviews and as the star and focus of the likely Best Picture winner, he'll be getting the most attention, as often times the Best Picture has a strong lead in the Actor or Actress category. Ejiofor himself has also been working in films for many years now and has been long overlooked in character parts, so this will be his first nomination. Everything seems to be pointing his way at the moment, the only drawback would be that his part is not as showy as his co-stars Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong'o, who are also favored to win.
In second is Robert Redford, who many see as a lock for All is Lost, and another frontrunner for the win, but I'm iffy on this one. I believe that as the legend and icon he is, that Redford will likely be nominated, but I'm not convinced about the win, seeing how the movie has proved polarizing with audiences (although very well-reviewed by critics). The thinking here is the Academy voters (who are mostly old, white men of his age group) will identify with him and want to see him win an acting Oscar (his only nomination was for The Sting back in 1973), but that didn't work out so well for eight time loser Peter O'Toole a few years ago (and if anyone was owed one it was probably him, right?)
In third we have Matthew McConaughey, who got career best reviews for Dallas Buyers Club and seems assured his first ever nom after a critical career comeback going on two years now. Most think he's locked here and it does look set, but I think if anyone could be bumped for an outsider he's the one who's vulnerable, despite the dramatic weight loss he undertook for the role as a man dying of AIDS.
In fourth is Tom Hanks, who was fantastic in Captain Phillips and hasn't been nominated for an Oscar since Cast Away in 2000. Phillips was well reviewed and has already made $100 million at the box office, so to me this is another set in stone nomination, which would be his sixth (and possibly seventh if he scores a double nod for Saving Mr. Banks this year). On the other hand, if voters want to reward him for one movie and don't see the need for a double nomination, is it possible he's vulnerable? It could happen, but I'm doubtful because he's another beloved icon and the performance is so strong (especially the last fifteen minutes) that I think he will sail through.
And the fifth slot I think will be filled by Bruce Dern for Nebraska, another industry vet who's been around in supporting character parts for decades and has now landed the best role of his career at the age of 77. He would seem in slightly shakier territory, but with people like best bud Jack Nicholson personally out there campaigning for him, he may have more support than we think. It's difficult when every performance is so worthy, because the fight for nominations becomes more based on outside factors- campaigning, likability, personal support within the actor's branch, etc. Who do they want to vote for?
And that's where we come to the outsiders looking to break in to that really tough group and Forest Whitaker is the one I'd love to see make it. He's the center of The Butler, and even though his performance is subtle and understated, he conveys more emotion and power through just his eyes and mannerisms than anyone else could. The movie is backed by Oscar whisperer Harvey Weinstein and may be underestimated in a lot of categories (we'll get to that when I do Best Picture), so I think Whitaker is still a threat here. After him it's Joaquin Phoenix in Her, who has to act opposite an OS and has been spectacularly praised, Oscar Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis, who's a newcomer as a lead but has also gotten stellar reviews, and Leonardo Dicaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street, who's the big question mark, along with Christian Bale for American Hustle. Both are multiple former nominees who could easily get in again if their performances live up to the hype.
For now, here's who I've got:
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Tom Hanks
Robert Redford
Matthew McConaughey
Bruce Dern
I'm not voting for any surprises here, because to me that particular group may very well be locked right now, no matter how great Leo and Christian Bale are in their upcoming movies. The shakiest one of that group in my opinion is either Dern or McConaughey, and I think either of them may be replaced by Forest Whitaker. And we could have a situation where Redford and Dern are fighting it out for the veteran slot, and only one of them makes it. But out of those five, I think Ejiofor's still the one to beat at the moment. Next week I'll take a look at Supporting Actress.
TRAILER: "Muppets Most Wanted"
New trailer for the next Muppets movie, coming out in March of next year:
Adele Exarchopoulos on Charlie Rose
Newcomer Adele Exarchopoulos is sure to be a fixture at upcoming awards events, out promoting Cannes winner Blue is the Warmest Color. Here she is with Charlie Rose, talking about the process she went through with fellow actress Lea Seydoux and how excited she is to be traveling all over the world now with the success of the film. What comes across most is how mature she seems for a 19 year old (and her English is pretty good too).
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "JFK" (1991)
In honor of the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination this Friday, what better timing could there be to watch JFK, Oliver Stone's melting pot of conspiracy theories about the mystery of JFK's death. Very controversial at the time of its release for playing loose with the facts, it's difficult to tell what is and is not being accused of having happened, but as a movie, it's an exciting and compelling drama with an all star cast that included Kevin Costner, Joe Pesci, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman and Sissy Spacek.
Original 1991 Trailer:
TRAILER: "The Past"
The first U.S. trailer for Asghar Fahadi's The Past, France's submission this year for the Oscars. The movie was lauded in Cannes, especially Berenice Bejo (The Artist) for her performance. Iranian director Farhadi's last film was the outstanding A Separation (2011) which won the Oscar for foreign-language film that year. And kudos to this trailer for actually including the subtitles for once. The movie's coming out in December.
REVIEW: "Stories We Tell" (2013) Dir. Sarah Polley
Canadian director Sarah Polley's documentary on the mystery of her family is a highly inventive, extremely personal piece of filmmaking, that turns the mystery of the story she's telling on its head, and becomes itself something of a puzzle to be unraveled (although I admit I saw one particular twist coming ahead of time, but maybe that surprise will work better on you than it did me).
The film begins fairly conventionally, using interviews with Polley's family members and home video footage to tell the story of her mother Diane, a Canadian actress who was active in the 1960's and 70's, and the relationship she had with Sarah's father, Michael, her second husband, whom she married and had several children with, including Sarah. The film creatively uses the footage and memories of various relatives and acquaintances, whose place in Diane and Michael's life becomes revealed gradually, as Diane's story begins to get more and more complicated as it progresses through her later years. Diane herself died of cancer when Sarah was 11 years old, and the questions her film asks about her mother begin to show themselves as a part of Sarah's own reckoning with finding out as much as she can about a woman she never really got to know. A woman who turns out to have been hiding life altering secrets that as they come to light, affect and change Sarah forever, which she is candidly and openly revealing about herself on film.
It's hard to describe this movie without giving away several twists, which are crucial to what happens in the story, and one of them I am going to reveal here, so I'll warn you ahead of time with a great big SPOILER ALERT in case you don't want to know: Sarah, the youngest child in her family, ultimately finds out that she was the product of an affair, and that Michael is not her biological father, which until now, no one in the family knew, including her father. The way this revelation affects the family is obviously painful and shocking, and the way Polley herself deals with this life-changing truth is to be incredibly honest about her feelings and to ultimately expose the whole story, using accounts of her mother from other people, and writings from her father, which she intertwines into this spell-binding documentary. The film shifts gears as the layers grow deeper, and it goes from simply being the firsthand account of one life, to the heartbreaking reconciliation and reunion of a daughter and her two fathers, and ultimately a story about stories- how they're told, who they can affect, what forms they can take (several are undertaken to tell just this one alone) and the ways in which all families are probably hiding multiple stories of their own, which could be revealed by doing a little digging and talking to just the right people.
By putting herself out there in this way, Sarah Polley reveals herself as a very ambitious filmmaker who isn't afraid to take chances in the way that she tells stories, and her track record so far is the beginning of what looks to be a career worth following (her other two films as a director are 2007's Away From Her and 2011's Take This Waltz, both worth seeing). Stories We Tell is fascinating, complex and inspiring filmmaking- and one of the year's best and most unique films.
* * * 1/2
