London Film Critics go for 12 Years a Slave

The London critics gave 12 Years their top prize, but gave the directing win to Alfonso Cuaron, following what seems to be the distinct pattern of the year. Most think the Oscars will split the exact same way, but I'm having a hard time seeing how you can predict that to happen under a preferential ballot system, where the movies are ranked, and getting the right number of 2's and 3's count even more than 1's- even if you intend to split it might not happen that way. Remember, the Oscars are the only place that uses that system, which means all these other split wins are coming under a simple "most votes wins" ballot. We still don't know how things will play out because of that:

• Supporting Actor: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
• Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
• Technical Achievement: Gravity
• Breakthrough British Filmmaker: Jon S. Baird, Filth
• British Actor of the Year: James McAvoy (Filth, Trance, Welcome to the Punch)
• British Actress of the Year: Judi Dench, Philomena
• Young British Performer: Conner Chapman, The Selfish Giant
• British Film of the Year: The Selfish Giant
• Actress of the Year: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
• Actor of the Year: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
• Documentary: The Act of Killing
• Foreign-Language Film: Blue is the Warmest Color
• Screenwriter of the Year: Joel and Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis
• Director of the Year: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
• Film of the Year: 12 Years a Slave

BOX OFFICE 1/31-2/02: "Ride Along" Stays at Number One

Super Bowl weekend is traditionally a slow weekend at the box office, and this was no exception, as Ride Along coasted to #1 again with just $12 million, bringing its total to $93 million. That and Lone Survivor are the first big hits of the new year, as the latter film crossed $100 million this weekend as well. New release That Awkward Moment came in at #3, with $9 million and a "B" Cinemascore, which isn't terrible considering the mostly unknown cast of up and comers- this should provide a boost in visibility to Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan at least.

Meanwhile the long delayed release of Labor Day finally arrived, but with dismal reviews (32% on Rotten Tomatoes), and the Kate Winslet/Josh Brolin romantic melodrama bombed completely, opening to just $5 million on 2500 screens. And of course Frozen came in with another $9 million, boosted by a sing-a-long release, and brought its insane total to $360 million domestic (and nearing a billion worldwide). The other animated release, The Nut Job filled out the top five, with $7 million, bringing its own total to $50 million, but the family films should finally have some competition next week when The Lego Movie opens.

Top 5:

1. Ride Along- $12.3 million
2. Frozen- $9.3 million
3. That Awkward Moment- $9 million
4. The Nut Job- $7.6 million
5. Lone Survivor- $7.2 million

Philip Seymour Hoffman 1967-2014

The New York Times reports that Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his Manhattan apartment this morning of an apparent drug overdose. A syringe was found in his arm along with a bag of heroin nearby. Hoffman was 46 and is survived by three young children with his partner Mimi O'Donnell, a costume designer. He'd been in so many movies over the past fifteen years, including Capote, for which he won Best Actor in 2006, but I can't even name how many films I've seen him in that I loved. Here were just some of my favorites: Almost Famous, Doubt, The Master, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Charlie Wilson's War, The Savages, and Moneyball. He was an incredible actor that you always looked forward to seeing onscreen and this is an incalculable loss.

Here he is as rock critic Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, a movie that I adore:

The trailer for The Savages, an underrated movie from 2007 with great performances from him and Laura Linney:

And winning Best Actor for Capote in 2006:

WGA Awards 'Her,' 'Captain Phillips'; ASC Honors 'Gravity;' 'Frozen' Tops the Annie Awards

The Writers Guild offered up a couple of upsets tonight at their awards dinner:

• Original Screenplay: Spike Jonze, Her
• Adapted Screenplay: Billy Ray, Captain Phillips
• Documentary: Sarah Polley, Stories We Tell

American Hustle was expected to win for original, but was trumped by Spike Jonze and Her, which probably makes it the favorite for the Oscar now, but only slightly. Adapted Screenplay going to Captain Phillips was something of a surprise, but since 12 Years a Slave was ineligible for consideration here, that will very likely not repeat at the Oscars. Meanwhile, the American Society of Cinematographers gave their top film award to Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity, which was not a shock, as it's practically guaranteed to take the Cinematography Oscar next month as well.

On another awards ceremony that took place tonight, Frozen dominated at the Annie Awards, winning five on its way to picking up the Oscar as well:

• Best Animated Feature: Frozen
• Best Animated Special Production: Chipotle Scarecrow
• Best Animated Short Subject: Get a Horse
• Best Animated Effects in Animated Production: The Croods
• Best Animated Effects in Live Action Production: Pacific Rim
• Character Animation in an Animated Production: The Croods
• Character Animation in a Live Action Production: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Character Design in an Animated Feature: The Croods
• Directing: Frozen
• Music: Frozen
• Production Design: Frozen
• Storyboarding: Monsters University
• Voice Acting: Josh Gad, Frozen
• Writing: Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises
• Editorial: Monsters University

Happy February: A Month of Movie Romance

We're at the start of a new month, which means the new batch of movies for February is now here!  For the occasion I've posted ten of my favorite love stories as a tribute to romance in the month of Valentine's Day. They include some of my very favorite movies ever, like The Lady Eve and Trouble in Paradise, two romantic comedy classics that I really think you should look for, but also some modern ones, like Pride and Prejudice and Sleepless in Seattle. Head on over the the Movies of the Month page for the February description, and then click here for the list of films under February: Be My Valentine. Have a good time with the this month's love stories, everyone!

Maximilian Schell 1930-2014

The Austrian-born Old Hollywood star Maximilian Schell passed away today at the age of 83. He was most known for his Oscar winning role in the 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg, where he played the attorney for Burt Lancaster's judge accused of collaborating with the Nazis during WWII. His other significant parts were in movies like Topkapi (1964), The Man in the Glass Booth (1975), Julia (1977), Deep Impact (1998), and in his later career he became a director of many German films, notably Marlene, the famous 1984 documentary about Marlene Dietrich.

Here he is winning his Oscar for Judgement at Nuremberg (which is an incredible movie, by the way- you should definitely seek it out if you haven't seen it):

TRAILER: "A Million Ways to Die in the West"

Trailer for the new Seth MacFarlane comedy western, seemingly a vehicle to finally launch himself as a personality rather than his disembodied voice through his various animated characters. The movie's written and directed by him and coming out May 30th:

Super Bowl TV Spots

There are always plenty of hyped up promos for the big spring movie trailers during the game on Sunday, so here's a preview for some of them.

First, it's an action-packed spot for Russell Crowe in Noah:

Now one for The Amazing Spider-Man 2:

Finally, a little tease for the preview of Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier:

Jesse Eisenberg is Lex Luthor

In some truly baffling stunt casting, Variety reports that Jesse Eisenberg, of The Social Network fame, has been cast Lex Luthor in the Batman/Superman movie, and Jeremy Irons is Alfred. Lex is the big news though, because apparently they've decided to "modernize" the character by turning him into some kind of internet genius or something. I say that because when you cast Jesse Eisenberg of all people as a supervillain, clearly what you're going for is a more evil version of his Mark Zuckerberg. As much as I like him, that is what we're going to be getting here. Frankly, every new piece of news about this movie makes it sound worse, but maybe this could all turn out to be kind of gloriously entertaining in a "so bad it's good" kind of way?

REVIEW: "August: Osage County" (2013) Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts. Dir. John Wells

I went into August: Osage County expecting to be put off by the hammy acting on display from the big name cast, but honestly none of that bothered me in the slightest, as everyone on screen seem to be having a great time with the performances and the dialogue, and this movie is a wildly entertaining ride. 

I say that everyone looked like they were having fun onscreen, which is surprising considering the bleakness of the material. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tracy Letts (who also adapted script), August tells the story of a highly dysfunctional family who gathers together in the wake of the father's suicide (Sam Shepard), who seems to have finally given up after all these years living with his wife Violet (Meryl Streep), the matriarch who exists to make everyone's life a living hell. Violet's now dying of cancer (ironically, mouth cancer, as Shepard notes), succumbed to drug addiction, and things are only getting worse. When Shepard decides to remove himself from the situation, Violet's three daughters and their significant others all come home to face the monster, and family secrets start flying fast and loose.

This is a black comedy of sorts, as some of the insults are so over the top and mean-spirited it leads to full on physical confrontations that can't help but provoke astonished laughter (the scene where Violet's oldest daughter Barb lunges across the dinner table at her own mother's throat is particularly memorable), but the skeletons in the closet that are revealed are somewhat cliched of dysfunctional families in the movies (long ago affairs, etc.), and the fights that are provoked by character's interactions in the film are a tad predictable, in my opinion. Frankly, this material is extremely melodramatic and I'm shocked that the play won a Pulitzer Prize, but perhaps it plays differently on the stage. As a movie however, it's never less than entertaining because despite the familiar situation, the acting elevates the drama and Meryl Streep turns in another dominating performance as the nasty, manipulative Violet Weston who is never less than completely in control of everyone around her.

Streep sometimes has a tendency to draw attention to herself in her character roles, but I was always convinced that she flat out was this crazy woman, from her first scene to her last. She inhabits her fully and though the role is inherently big and showy, to me she felt like a real person, however awful and damaged that person may be. The poisonous barbs fly out of her mouth with a venomous glee and it's fun to watch, simply because when Mery Streep commits to a character like this, it is always something to see. For her part Julia Roberts is also very good in this movie as Barbara, the angry eldest daughter who is already on her way to becoming her mother. For me Roberts has always seemed to possess an underlying sardonic hostility beneath the surface of her smiling demeanor, and here she finally gets to let loose and the bitterness comes across as genuine and earned from the rotten childhood provided by living in such a disturbed household. Other standouts in the cast include Margo Martindale and Chris Cooper as Violet's sister and brother-in-law, who are more subtle in their performances (somebody had to be), but just as effective as part of the ensemble, and the two younger sisters and victims of Violet's wrath are Juliette Lewis and Julianne Nicholson, both very good as well. 

The cast works well together in fact, and though TV veteran John Wells could be described as providing a kind of flat direction for the proceedings, I don't know how much more can be done with the material, which is primarily an actor's showcase set over a few scenes in one house. The most that could be said for this is that it's a movie that probably could have been on TV, given the inherent melodrama of the play itself- but for what it was, I was highly entertained from start to finish, and the actors make the experience worthwhile.

* * 1/2

TEASER: "Under the Skin"

The brand new red band teaser for the surrealist movie Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson. This made a big splash at the Venice Film Festival back in August, and is finally coming out stateside on April 4th:

The Academy Revokes Best Original Song Nomination

Ha! Apparently the Academy agreed with me that the Best Original Song nomination for "Alone, Yet Not Alone," from the movie of the same name (above) that no one has ever heard of, was a suspicious and embarrassing error, because they have now rescinded the nomination entirely. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Board of Governors convened last night to discuss stripping songwriter Bruce Broughton of his Oscar nod, and has now officially done it, declaring him as having "illegally lobbied" the music branch and used his own status as a former governor to influence others to vote for his song. Well, this little dust-up probably assures that more people will hear it than ever would have anyway, so despite Broughton's apparent "devastation," he can at least be happy about that.