See it...The Visitor

While waiting for the turkey coma to wear off...another fine film came my way via Netflix.
The Visitor, by the same people who brought you the The Station Agent.

This is a superb film, a character study with an embedded social message.  Richard Jenkins is, once again, fantastic.   I feel pretty good about predicting Jenkins for the Oscar nod.  He's just so marvelously subtle, and although it's a quiet, non-Oscar baity role, his "artistry", if I may...is obvious.  Two snaps up in a circle.

Rachel, Rachel

I just got out to see Rachel Getting Married. If you've been avoiding or ignoring the film for any reason, don't.  It's pretty brilliant. I will say more after I've had a chance to digest, but right now, I just want to call my siblings and tell them I love them. Dysfunction and all.

Rejected Twilight screenplay

Scene excerpts from Eric Snider's ( www.ericdsnider.com ) version of Twilight...unfortunately rejected by the studio.


Scene 2

BELLA: It's tough being the new kid in school! Especially when everyone is so friendly and helpful and interested in me. Why can't they just leave me alone so I can sit in the corner and cut myself?
CLASSMATE: You're awesome, Bella!
BELLA: See what I have to put up with? Hey -- who are those hot people over there?
CLASSMATE: Those are the Cullens. They avoid direct sunlight, they don't eat food, they sleep in coffins in a graveyard, and holy water burns them. I think they're Canadians.
BELLA: They sure are spectacularly gorgeous.
CLASSMATE: Yes, they are.
BELLA: I mean seriously, those people are BEAUTIFUL. Especially the one who keeps looking at me. Man alive, that guy is stunning. I mean, wow. He is hot buttered seduction on a stick. I'm not interested in him sexually, of course, because sex is dirty, but wow -- LOOK AT HIM! Yee-ikes! Hubba hubba! If you don't mind, I'd like to spend the next 75 pages talking exclusively about how attractive he is, and then bring it up again every paragraph or so for the remaining 400 pages.
CLASSMATE: Knock yourself out.



Scene 5

BELLA: Thanks for saving me from that mob of guys who attacked me in the street! It's a good thing you obsessively stalk me while simultaneously insisting you want nothing to do with me.
EDWARD: No problem. If anyone's going to tear you limb from limb and gorge themselves on your sweet, delicious, life-giving blood, it's going to be me.
BELLA: Aw, you say the nicest things! I'm pretty sure you're a vampire, that I'm in love with you, and that part of you wants to kill me.
EDWARD: Don't be silly. It's not just part of me.
BELLA: LOL!

What more can I say about Twilight? It did 70 million at the box office this weekend. 70 million. Congratulations to all involved. Really, I'm happy for you. Now, go make a good movie with your new found currency. Okay?

The Wrestler weighs in

I do wish they wouldn't give so much away in trailers, I kinda feel like they showed me the whole story, except, thank God, the way it ends.

But, what a story it looks to be! This is not just the old Mickey Rourke we are feeling nostalgic for...it's ourselves. All of us older folks, I have a feeling, are going to need a wheelbarrow to get out of the theatre.

After all, we're all Mickey in some respect or another. Who here thinks they've had perfect success with their lives? Who among us doesn't feel like life has slapped them in the face at some time or another? Which one of us has no regrets?

I dunno.. it looks to me that The Wrestler has something that will connect with just about everyone. The low budget production values seem to keep it simple, honest and in your face at the same time.

I'm going to see this soon, come hell or high water. I'm going to want to continue this conversation at that time!

The Wrestler opens December 17
http://www.foxsearchlight.com/thewrestler/

Unapologetically gay!

"Unapologetically GAY. Penn's best in 13 years."

This is what Nathaniel Rogers' over at The Film Experience had to say after his screening of Milk. I am on pins and needles waiting for his full write up of this film, but, it sounds like it's a winner! AND it sounds like Penn may be the front runner in the Best Actor race.

As much as I want to see Mickey Rourke walk away with it...I do believe it is going to be hard for the Academy to forgive and forget his tumble down the cellar stairs into the no-man's land of substance abuse, and self-destruction. If he gets his career back...that's his reward. I hope for the best for him, I really do. He's a damn fine actor, and I think, under all the machismo, a gentle and decent person.

It's funny though, because Penn hasn't exactly been a model citizen. However, one thing Penn always was, even in his darkest time...was professional. He has been able to keep his ship righted, and his shit together. Unlike, say, his tragic brother Chris who died of heart failure with cocaine and codeine in his bloodstream.  

But, as for the film itself.  Can you imagine how great it would be to see Milk win the Best Picture Oscar?  In light of the Proposition 8 debacle?  With an Obama White House?  It would certainly silence the crowd who deemed the Academy homophobic after Brokeback Mountain failed. 

 Personally, I'm not sure Brokeback or Crash deserved to win that year.  I predicted Crash as the winner just based on their Oscar campaign, and the fact that there were SO many academy members in the film, and SO many actors with Academy members behind them.  You just start doing the math, and those numbers start to work.

And then you figure in the homophobia of the Academy, and well, there you have it. 

Milk opens December 5th

Doesn't high school suck?

So, I have a stupid question. If this guy is supposed to be a hundred and seven years old....what the hell is he doing in high school?
And why the hell is he preying on a 17 year old virgin...vampire or not, that's just wrong! Oh, wait....I think I just answered my own question.

A Tony and an Oscar?

Strong buzz coming in about Stephen Daldry's The Reader.  It sounds like Kate Winslet may have been prophesizing on Extras when she said "Holocaust = Oscar".  

I am pleased to hear this.  Even though I had predicted the Sam Mendes directed Revolutionary Road to win the battle of the Winslet movies.  I now feel that Stephen's movie has a stronger chance, not only at Best Picture but of winning that elusive Oscar for Winslet.  

I prefer this scenario, as Stephen Daldry is a real mensch. Smarter then hell, funny, humble and generous as the day is long.   I like the idea of him coming out on top in the Daldry vs.  Mendes "friendly" rivalry. 

Daldry and Mendes were the toasts of London's West End, and even though I always suspected that Stephen had more respect amongst the actors, Mendes won an Oscar...American Beauty...1999...and had also skipped off to broadway and won a Tony for the Cabaret revival.  

Not that Stephen is any stranger to awards....I slept in his guest room amongst too many Olivier Awards to count,  and spun the cameo on his Tony Award.  Critics Awards fall out of his closets!  He has been nominated for an Oscar for both of his long form films. Billy Elliot, and The Hours. And I say, let's make it three for three.  

Stephen takes his time and doesn't need to work on project after project...so, when he pulls one out of his hat...it should be magical.  Look for him to have a huge year with The Reader as well as Billy Elliot on Broadway.  A Tony and an Oscar?  It's possible.

Oscar predictions pre-Thanksgiving

Wow...isn't that a pretty man!

And isn't that a big damn picture!  Why don't I know how to size photos? 

Okay, we're talking Oscar predictions.  

Usually, by now, I have seen almost everything, and am pretty damn sure who and what are getting nominated. 

But, I haven't received a single screener, and I have missed every single screening I had planned to attend. Just busy? Just apathetic? I think the election so wore me out, that I just couldn't muster the energy.  No time for Oscar! What?! Who am I? I haven't seen ANYTHING!

Anyhoo....I am still hoping to get caught up with my viewing in time for a re-vamp come December, but for the time being...here is what I've picked for the top 6 categories.

BEST PICTURE

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Milk
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
reserve
Australia

BEST DIRECTOR
David Fincher - Benjamin Button
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
Sam Mendes - Revolutionary Road
Darren Aronofsky - The Wrestler
or Jonathan Demme - Rachel Getting Married

BEST ACTOR
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
Sean Penn - Milk
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Leonardo Di Caprio - Revolutionary Road
falling away
Josh Brolin - W
Brad Pitt - Benjamin Button

BEST ACTRESS
Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road
Kristen Scott Thomas - I've Loved You So Long
Sally Hawkins - Happy Go Lucky
Ann Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Meryl Streep - Doubt
falling out
Angelina Jolie - Changeling

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Jamie Bell - Defiance
James Franco - Milk
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

falling away

Dev Patel - Slumdog Millionaire

Liev Schreiber - Defiance

falling out

Robert Downey Jr. - The Soloist..not releasing until 2009

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Viola Davis - Doubt
Taraji P. Henson - Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei or Evan Rachel Wood ( depending on who gets the best campaign) - The Wrestler
Rosemary Dewitt - Rachel Getting Married
Penelope Cruz - Vickey Christina Barcelona
falling away
Misty Upham - Frozen River
Samantha Morton - Synecdoche, New York

I'm sticking to these...for now. I'd love to hear from any of ya'll who have seen some of these films. What did you love? Who floated your boat like no other? What prospect makes you shiver with antici....pation?