Movie of the Day: "The American President" (1995)

In honor of President's Day, I'm recommending this movie about one of my favorite fictional heads of state. That's President Andrew Shepherd of course, played by Michael Douglas in this Rob Reiner film, which is really more screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's film, as all his scripts are. This movie really served as the audition reel for The West Wing, actually (Martin Sheen is even the chief of staff here). Douglas is a widowed president who becomes interested in Annette Bening's feisty environmental lobbyist, and decides to start dating her. But what would happen if there was a single president who suddenly had a girlfriend? Sorkin gets it pretty much right, as the movie is infused with a Clinton-era mindset where all anyone's interested in is petty personal gossip. But Shepherd is a stand-up guy deep down, committed to liberal principles, and even though the romance is great (Bening and Douglas have fantastic chemistry), my favorite part of the movie is Douglas's big speech to the cameras at the end, where he vows to send a bill to Congress that outlaws all handguns in the United States. Ha, ha! Talk about a liberal fantasy. Can you imagine that happening in real life? Still, it's nice to dream about it.

Original Trailer:

2015 Oscar Predictions, Part One: Effects, Sound and Shorts

Time for final Oscar predictions! This is going to be much more of a crapshoot on my part than last year, I'm afraid. I'm not totally confident this time, with the Best Picture and Director race seemingly very close- that unfortunately affects how the entire ballot unfolds most of the time, where they want to spread the wealth around, etc. So, let's start with the down-ballot tech categories, which might be among the easier to predict this year.

VISUAL EFFECTS

Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
X-Men: Days of the Future Past
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

So, with this category we have two precursors. Apes won the guild award, surprisingly, while Interstellar took the Bafta effects prize, but I feel that the Academy will go for Interstellar as well here, being the supposed "classier" choice. Although I'd love to see Apes win it, as I think it's more deserving.

Winner: Interstellar
Alternate: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

SOUND MIXING

Interstellar
Unbroken
Birdman
American Sniper
Whiplash

I shouldn't do this, but I'm going to make a slightly left field prediction here and go with Whiplash. It won the Bafta, and music-oriented movies sometimes win this award. Plus, there's a lot of passion for Whiplash among the Academy apparently, so I think it may manifest itself here over the war sounds of American Sniper. Although, Birdman could also win this, because it won the guild award, and sometimes the Best Picture could take a sound award. This one's a best guess scenario.

Winner: Whiplash
Alternate: American Sniper
Dark Horse: Birdman

SOUND EDITING

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
American Sniper
Birdman
Unbroken
Interstellar

No Whiplash here, so I'd say American Sniper is the obvious pick. War movies often win these sound awards, and it took the guild.

Winner: American Sniper
Alternate: Birdman

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Joanna
Our Curse
The Reaper
White Earth

Everyone's favorite Oscar pool killers, the short categories. Well, I hear Crisis Hotline is the most emotional one of the bunch, so I'm going with that one.

Winner: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Alternate: Joanna

LIVE ACTION SHORT

Aya
Boogaloo and Graham
Butter Lamp
Parveneh
The Phone Call

For this one, The Phone Call has name actors in it, like Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent, so that's what I'm placing my money on. I also hear Parveneh is very moving, so that could be a spoiler.

Winner: The Phone Call
Alternate: Parveneh

ANIMATED SHORT

The Bigger Picture
The Dam Keeper
Feast
Me and My Moulton
A Single Life

Okay, for once I've actually seen all of these, and Disney's Feast is by far the best one of the bunch. Of course, I predicted Disney last year and they lost, but maybe that means they come through this time. It deserves to, because the rest are only okay, while Feast is cute and likable. The thing I learned about the shorts last year is that most people don't even vote on these categories, so the winners probably will be determined by what the people in the animation branch liked best out of the five, and I just don't really see why they'd like anything else.

Winner: Feast
Alternate: The Dam Keeper (this would only win because it's the longest and the animation style is cool, but the story isn't anything to write home about)

'Birdman' Wins Top Prize from Satellites

The Satellite awards happened late last night with zero fanfare (I can't help but wonder how long that group is going to continue existing), but even so, I actually like a couple of their picks, from Mr. Turner's cinematography to Apes in visual effects, and Song of the Sea in animated film. Interestingly, this is the first voting body this year to go with the split, awarding Linklater and Birdman.

Picture: Birdman
Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Documentary: Citizenfour
Animated Film: Song of the Sea
International Film: Tangerines
Original Screenplay: Nightcrawler
Adapted Screenplay: The Imitation Game
Score: Birdman
Song: "We Will Not Go," Virunga
Cinematography: Mr. Turner
Visual Effects: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Editing: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Sound: Whiplash
Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Costumes: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ensemble: Into the Woods

So, elsewhere last night, the second to last guild, the Motion Picture Sound Editors, awarded American Sniper (which will probably take the sound editing Oscar), Big Hero 6, Unbroken and you got it, Birdman again, making the amount of industry support that Birdman has overwhelming. It's now received awards from SAG, PGA, DGA, ADG, ASC, CAS, MPSE, and MHG- that's the actors, producers, directors, art directors, cinematographers, sound mixers/editors and makeup/hair stylists. And people still don't think it's winning Best Picture? I can't ignore that amount of support, guys. It's clearly the industry's favorite, while Boyhood has been all but ignored. I think the writing's on the wall.

Feature English Language Effects/Foley: American Sniper
Feature English Language- Dialogue/ADR: Unbroken
Feature Music: Birdman
Feature Musical: Get On Up
Feature Foreign Language- Effects/Foley/Dialogue/ADR: The Liberator
Feature Animation: Big Hero 6

BOX OFFICE 2/13-2/15: 'Fifty Shades' Dominates; 'Kingsmen' Strong Second

Unsurprisingly, the much hyped Fifty Shades of Grey opened in first place, bringing in over $80 million for the three day (and an estimated $90 million for the four day) weekend, despite terrible reviews, and a surprisingly terrible Cinemascore of C+. I mean seriously, what exactly did people think they were seeing here? It got a boost from Valentine's Day of course, and it may be end up being pretty frontloaded, as a decrease of 60-70% (maybe even 80%) wouldn't shock anybody next weekend. In second was Matthew Vaughn's action movie Kingsmen, which surpassed expectations, earning over $35 million for the three days, a number it was predicted to pull in over the four day President's Day weekend. Probably worked as counter-programming for the guys.

SpongeBob took third place, falling 44% from last week, which is the exact same pattern of the first film ten years ago, while American Sniper had another good hold, crossing $300 million total, and ensuring that it will become the top movie of 2014 when it finishes its run. Jupiter Ascending rounded out the top five, declining by about 50% from last week's debut, another disappointing film from the Wachowski's, who I'd be very surprised to see make another movie at this point- I mean, what studio is going to trust them after all these flops?

Top 5:

Fifty Shades of Grey- $81.7 million
Kingsmen: The Secret Service- $35.6 million
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water- $30.5 million
American Sniper- $16.4 million
Jupiter Ascending- $9.4 million

All in all, it was a very big weekend at the box office this week, with the top three films all earning over $30 million, while the Oscar movies continue to creep on in limited release. Best Picture favorite Birdman has now brought its total to $36 million, closing in on last year's 12 Years a Slave gross at about this point in the race. But with just one more week before the Academy Awards, any more boosts will be minimal, because most of the films will be releasing on DVD or Blu-Ray very soon. Next week are several smaller releases, with Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and The Duff coming out, along with Kevin Costner's McFarland, USA. Tune in for Oscar weekend next time!

'Birdman' Wins Again with Makeup & Hairstyling, Cinema Audio Society, and Cinematographers

A couple more guilds late last night handed Birdman some more hardware, making it the overwhelming favorite inside the industry apparently. The Cinema Audio Society, or the Sound Mixers Guild, went first:

Motion PIcture Sound, Live Action: Birdman
Motion Picture Sound, Animated: Big Hero 6

Birdman is nominated for the sound awards at the Oscars too, so this could potentially signal a win in one of them, but I still think this guild isn't much of an indicator there, since the whole Academy is voting, and not just the sound mixers- they'll probably just look at what's the loudest. Birdman also won the top prize at the ASC awards tonight for Emanuel Lubezki, which paves the way for its impending Cinematography win at the Oscars. Meanwhile, the Makeup & Hairstyling guild also liked Birdman, but gave out a few trophies in different categories.

Contemporary Makeup: Guardians of the Galaxy
Contemporary Hairstyling: Birdman
Period and/or Character Makeup: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Period and/or Character Hairstyling: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Budapest's two here ensure it the Oscar it already had in the bag for this category.

'Imitation Game' and 'Grand Budapest Hotel' Win at 2015 WGA Awards

The last of the four major guilds handed out their prizes tonight, and the results came in as follows:

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Imitation Game
Best Original Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Documentary Screenplay: The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz

So, these awards solidify a couple of things. One, that The Imitation Game is still the frontrunner for the Adapted Screenplay Oscar, despite losing the BAFTA last week. It faces Whiplash and Theory of Everything for the Oscar, but being the only film of the three with 8 nominations, including director (and with the USC Scripter award behind it as well), I think it's a pretty safe bet for the category. And two, that Boyhood's loss to Budapest here means it was shut out of the four major industry guild awards- SAG, PGA, DGA, and WGA. I don't think that bodes well for its Best Picture chances at all. But Birdman was not eligible for the WGA, which means it goes head to head with Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest in Original Screenplay at the Oscars, and with Birdman being the heavy Best Picture favorite, I think it's going to beat it. Best PIcture usually takes a writing or an acting award, it's rare that it could win without either one, so I'm still thinking Birdman in Original Screenplay.

Movie of the Day: "The Strawberry Blonde" (1941)

In honor of Valentine's Day, I first direct you to our February movie page of course, where you'll find ten of my favorite romances for the occasion, but today I'm also putting out a bonus choice, and that's the underrated musical from 1941 starring James Cagney and Olivia de Havilland. This is a pure romantic comedy, which was not really the typical choice for either of the stars (he was known for gangster movies, while she was most often in period swashbucklers at this point), but it worked out perfectly, because they're both much funnier and more relaxed than you would ever see them in anything else. Set in the 1890's (can you believe there was once a time where nostalgia for that era was in vogue?) Cagney is a wannabe dentist in love with a rich, snobby society girl (Rita Hayworth), and only just friends with her less sophisticated pal (de Havilland). But of course, Olivia is really the girl for him all along, and the two have sensational chemistry in their scenes together as they work out a plan to falsely "settle" for each other while he keeps trying to land Hayworth. It all works out as it should, but it's a lovely, breezy and surprisingly funny romantic comedy that you should check out on this February 14th. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Original 1941 Trailer:

TRAILER: "Crimson Peak"

Boy, it's been quite a week for new trailers, hasn't it? I'm so there for this one though- It's Guillermo Del Toro's latest, and it looks to be an old fashioned, gothic horror movie, or at least his attempt to imitate one. Not so sure about Jessica Chastain's accent (and we thought Brits did American voices bad- I'm getting flashbacks to Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider voice here), but the costumes look great and the whole look and atmosphere is cool. I can't wait- coming out October 16th, just in time for Halloween.

TRAILER: "Hot Pursuit"

I'm almost embarrassed to admit parts of this trailer did make me chuckle. It reminds me of The Heat, in that these two leads might be perfectly cast together. But it could also be horrible (the director's last movie The Proposal, was hit but it was also not good). It looks like the perfect part for Reese, but Vergara's schtick can be really, really grating (she kinda reminds me of Fran Drescher- remember when there was an attempt to make her into a movie star?) We'll see- it comes out May 8th.

TRAILER: "Run All Night"

At some point you have to wonder how many of these movies Liam Neeson can make, but he seems to be staying in house, once again working with the director of Unknown and Non-Stop for yet another revenge thriller, this time battling an equally grizzled and scowling Ed Harris for the life of his son. Scheduled as counter-programming to come out on the same day as Cinderella, it'll probably be another hit for the action star, who's kind of created his own genre of film by now, don't you think?

TRAILER #3: "Cinderella"

Like with last year's Maleficent, Disney is out to completely oversaturate the market with an abundance of trailers for this movie, but this is the first one that makes it look non-disastrous (if not exactly brilliant). It does a weird thing though- when I first saw the teaser I immediately recommended 1998's Ever After as an alternative to this, which was sort of a non-magical, feminist reworking of the Cinderella story that's actually really good, and this trailer makes it look like the movie actually does go the Ever After route, down to her first accidental meeting with the Prince. Other than that it's still cartoony and magic filled, and Cate Blanchett looks to be hamming it up like nobody's business. It's coming out March 13th- I just hope it's better than Maleficent, and this is the first ad that gives me some hope for that.

TRAILER: "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."

Hmm- could this be a fun, late summer hit? We haven't had a reboot of a 60's TV series in a while, so here comes the new Man From U.N.C.L.E., which keeps the early 60's Cold War setting, as Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer step into the roles made famous by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum. Guy Ritchie is a lot more miss than hit to me, but his breezy, jokey style could maybe suit the kind of tone a movie like this needs to work. It's nice to see Hugh Grant showing up in movies again.