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Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Washington DC Film Critics Name "La La Land" Best Film of 2016
The 2016 WAFCA Awards were announced Monday, December 5, 2016.
The 2016 WAFCA Award winners:
Best Film:
La La Land
Best Director:
Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
Best Actor:
Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Best Actress:
Natalie Portman (Jackie)
Best Supporting Actor:
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
Best Supporting Actress:
Viola Davis (Fences)
Best Acting Ensemble:
Hell or High Water
Best Youth Performance:
Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea)
Best Voice Performance:
Liam Neeson (A Monster Calls)
Best Motion Capture Performance:
Mark Rylance (The BFG)
Best Original Screenplay:
Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Eric Heisserer, Based on the Story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang (Arrival)
Best Animated Feature:
Kubo and the Two Strings
Best Documentary:
13th
Best Foreign Language Film:
Elle
Best Production Design:
Production Designer: David Wasco; Set Decorator: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco, SDSA (La La Land)
Best Cinematography:
Linus Sandgren, SFS (La La Land)
Best Editing:
Tom Cross, ACE (La La Land)
Best Original Score:
Justin Hurwitz (La La Land)
The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC:
Jackie
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Monday, December 19, 2016
Las Vegas Film Critics Name "La La Land" Best Picture of 2016
2016 Sierra Award winners were announced Friday, December 16, 2016.
2016 Sierra Award winners:
Best Picture
La La Land
Best Actor
Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
Best Actress
Natalie Portman – Jackie
Best Supporting Actor
Michael Shannon – Nocturnal Animals
Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis – Fences
Best Director
La La Land
Best Adapted Screenplay
Nocturnal Animals
Best Original Screenplay
La La Land
Best Cinematography
La La Land
Best Film Editing
Moonlight
Best Score
La La Land
Best Song
“City of Stars” – La La Land
Best Action Film
Captain America: Civil War
Best Documentary
O.J.: Made in America
Best Animated Film
Kubo and the Two Strings
Best Foreign Language Film
The Handmaiden
Best Costumes
The Witch
Best Art Direction
La La Land
Best Visual Effects
The Jungle Book
Best Comedy
The Nice Guys
Best Horror/Sci-Fi
The Witch
Best Family Film
The Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Best Ensemble
Hidden Figures
Breakout Filmmaker
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Youth in Film
Lucas Hedges – Manchester by the Sea
William Holden Lifetime Achievement Award
Kirk Douglas
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Phoenix Critics Circle Names "Moonlight" Best Picture of 2016
The 2016 Phoenix Critics Cirlce Award winners were announced Saturday, December 17th, 2016.
2016 Phoenix Critics Circle Award winners:
BEST PICTURE
Moonlight
BEST COMEDY FILM
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
BEST SCIENCE FICTION FILM
Arrival
BEST HORROR FILM
The Witch
BEST MYSTERY OR THRILLER FILM
Hell or High Water
BEST ANIMATED FILM
Kubo and the Two Strings
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Handmaiden (South Korea)
BEST DOCUMENTARY
O.J.: Made in America
BEST ACTOR
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
BEST ACTRESS
Natalie Portman, Jackie
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Viola Davis, Fences
BEST DIRECTOR (tie)
Damian Chazelle, La La Land
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
BEST SCREENPLAY
Efthimis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos, The Lobster
BEST SCORE
Justin Hurwitz, La La Land
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Sunday, December 18, 2016
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Names "Manchester by the Sea" Best Film of 2016
2016 / 50th KCFCC Annual Awards:
Best Film: Manchester by the Sea
Robert Altman Award for Best Director: Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)
Best Actor: Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Jackie)
Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis (Fences) & Naomie Harris (Moonlight)
Best Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Arrival
Best Original Screenplay: Hell or High Water
Best Foreign Language Film: The Handmaiden (South Korea)
Best Documentary: O.J.: Made in America
Best Animated Film: Zootopia
The Vince Koehler Award for Best SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Film: Arrival
Tom Poe Award for Best LGBT Film: Moonlight
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Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Boston Film Critics Names "La La Land" Best Picture of 2016
2016 Boston Society of Film Critics Awards Winners:
Best Picture - La La Land
Best Actor - Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea
Best Actress - Isabelle Huppert for 2 films: Elle and Things to Come
Best Supporting Actor - Mahershala Ali for Moonlight
Best Supporting Actress - Lily Gladstone for Certain Women
Best Director - Damien Chazelle for La La Land
Best Screenplay - Kenneth Longergan for Manchester by the Sea
Best Cinematography - Chung-hoon Chung for The Handmaiden
Best Documentary - O. J.: Made in America
Best Foreign-Language Film (awarded in memory of Jay Carr) - The Handmaiden (South Korea)
Best Animated Film - Tower
Best Film Editing (awarded in memory of Karen Schmeer) - Tom Cross for La La Land
Best New Filmmaker (awarded in memory of David Brudnoy) - Robert Eggers for The Witch
Best Ensemble Cast - Moonlight
Best Original Score - Mica Levi for Jackie
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Monday, December 12, 2016
2016 Critics' Choice Movie Awards Name "La La Land" Best Picture of 2016
The winners of the 22nd Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards were revealed at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards on Sunday, December 11, 2016 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. The award ceremony was hosted by T.J. Miller and aired on A&E.
The 22nd Annual Critics' Choice Movie Award winners (for the year in film, 2016):
BEST PICTURE
La La Land
BEST ACTOR
Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
BEST ACTRESS
Natalie Portman – Jackie
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali – Moonlight
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Viola Davis – Fences
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Lucas Hedges – Manchester by the Sea
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Moonlight
BEST DIRECTOR
Damien Chazelle – La La Land
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - Tie
Damien Chazelle – La La Land
Kenneth Lonergan – Manchester by the Sea
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Eric Heisserer – Arrival
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Linus Sandgren – La La Land
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
La La Land – David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
BEST EDITING
Tom Cross – La La Land
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Madeline Fontaine – Jackie
BEST HAIR & MAKEUP
Jackie
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Jungle Book
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Zootopia
BEST ACTION MOVIE
Hacksaw Ridge
BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Margot Robbie – Suicide Squad
BEST COMEDY
Deadpool
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Meryl Streep – Florence Foster Jenkins
BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE
Arrival
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Elle (France, Germany, Belguim)
BEST SONG
City of Stars – La La Land
BEST SCORE
Justin Hurwitz – La La Land
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New York Film Critics Online Names "Moonlight" Best Picture of 2016
2016 New York Film Critics Online honorees:
PICTURE: Moonlight
DIRECTOR: Barry Jenkins - Moonlight
SCREENPLAY: Barry Jenkins - Moonlight
ACTRESS: Isabelle Huppert - Elle
ACTOR: Casey Affleck - Manchester by the Sea
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Viola Davis - Fences
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Mahershala Ali - Moonlight
CINEMATOGRAPHY: James Laxton - Moonlight
FOREIGN LANGUAGE PICTURE: The Handmaiden (South Korea)
DOCUMENTARY: 13th
ANIMATED FEATURE: Kubo and the Two Strings
ENSEMBLE: Moonlight
DEBUT AS DIRECTOR: Robert Eggers - The Witch
USE OF MUSIC: Justin Hurwitz (composer) - La La Land
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER: Ruth Negga - Loving
TOP 12 Films (Alphabetical)
Arrival
Fences
Free State of Jones
Hell or High Water
I, Daniel Blake
Jackie
La La Land
Loving
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
O.J.: Made in America
Toni Erdmann
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Saturday, December 10, 2016
Los Angeles Film Critics Choose "Moonlight" as "Best Picture of 2016"
42nd Annual (2016) Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards:
BEST PICTURE
Moonlight
Runner-up: La La Land
BEST DIRECTOR
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Runner-up: Damien Chazelle, La La Land.
BEST ACTRESS
Isabelle Huppert, Elle and Things to Come.
Runner-up: Rebecca Hall, Christine
BEST ACTOR
Adam Driver, Paterson
Runner-up: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
Runner-up: Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Runner-up: Issei Ogata, Silence
BEST SCREENPLAY
Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos, The Lobster
Runner-up: Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
BEST DOCUMENTARY/NONFICTION FILM
I Am Not Your Negro
Runner-up: O.J.: Made in America
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
The Handmaiden (South Korea)
Runner-up: Toni Erdmann
BEST ANIMATION
Your Name
Runner-up: The Red Turtle
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
James Laxton, Moonlight
Runner-up: Linus Sandgren, La La Land
BEST MUSIC/SCORE
Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, La La Land
Runner-up: Mica Levi, Jackie
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Seong-hie Ryu, The Handmaiden
Runner-up: David Wasco, La La Land
BEST EDITING
Bret Granato, Maya Mumma, Ben Sozanski, O.J.: Made in America
Runner-up: Tom Cross, La La Land
DOUGLAS EDWARDS INDEPENDENT/EXPERIMENTAL FILM/VIDEO
Deborah Stratman, The Illinois Parables
NEW GENERATION
Trey Edward Shults and Krisha Fairchild, Krisha
SPECIAL CITATION
Turner Classic Movies, for preserving historic cinema via Filmstrick
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
Shirley MacLaine
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Thursday, December 1, 2016
New York Film Critics Circle Names "La La Land" Best Picture of 2016
The Circle was the first film critics organization that I encountered as a budding, young movie lover. The Circle's awards have been predictors of the Oscar nominations. However, The Circle sees it awards “as a principled alternative to the Oscars, honoring esthetic merit in a forum that is immune to commercial and political pressures,” according to their website.
2016 NYFCC Awards:
Best Picture
La La Land
Best Director
Barry Jenkins - Moonlight
Best Screenplay
Kenneth Lonergan - Manchester by the Sea
Best Actress
Isabelle Huppert – Elle; The Things to Come
Best Actor
Casey Affleck - Manchester by the Sea
Best Supporting Actress
Michelle Williams - Manchester by the Sea; Certain Women
Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali - Moonlight
Best Cinematographer
James Laxton - Moonlight
Best Animated Film
Zootopia
Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary)
O.J.: Made in America
Best Foreign Language Film
Toni Erdmann
Best First Film
Kelly Fremon Craig - The Edge of Seventeen
Best First Film
Trey Edward Shults - Krisha
Special Award:
Thelma Schoonmaker & Julie Dash - Daughters of the Dust (25th Anniversary Restoration)
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Wednesday, November 30, 2016
National Board of Review Names "Manchester by the Sea" Best Film of 2016
The 2016 version of the organization’s Annual Gala will be held on Wednesday, January 4, 2017 with NBC’s Willie Geist set to return as host.
The National Board of Review has named Manchester by the Sea 2016’s Best Film of the Year. That was announced Tuesday, November 29, 2016, along with the organization’s other year-end honors.
2016 National Board of Review award winners:
Best Film: Manchester by the Sea
Best Director: Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Best Actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Best Actress: Amy Adams, Arrival
Best Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Best Supporting Actress: Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Best Original Screenplay: Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jay Cocks and Martin Scorsese, Silence
Best Animated Feature: Kubo and the Two Strings
Breakthrough Performance (Male): Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Breakthrough Performance (Female): Royalty Hightower, The Fits
Best Directorial Debut: Trey Edward Shults, Krisha
Best Foreign Language Film: The Salesman
Best Documentary: O.J.: Made in America
Best Ensemble: Hidden Figures
Spotlight Award: Creative Collaboration of Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Cameraperson
2016 Top Films
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hail, Caesar!
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Moonlight
Patriots Day
Silence
Sully
2016 Top 5 Foreign Language Films
Elle
The Handmaiden
Julieta
Land of Mine
Neruda
2016 Top 5 Documentaries
De Palma
The Eagle Huntress
Gleason
Life, Animated
Miss Sharon Jones!
2016 Top 10 Independent Films
20th Century Women
Captain Fantastic
Creative Control
Eye in the Sky
The Fits
Green Room
Hello, My Name is Doris
Krisha
Morris from America
Sing Street
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Gotham Awards Names "Moonlight" Best Feature Film of 2016
This year, the 2016 Gotham Awards kicks off the 2016-17 American movie awards season. The nominations were announced Thursday, October 20, 2016. The Gotham Awards ceremony was held on Monday, November 28, 2016. at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.
2016 / 26th Annual IFP Gotham Awards winners:
Best Feature
Moonlight
Barry Jenkins, director; Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, producers (A24)
Best Documentary
O.J.: Made in America
Ezra Edelman, director; Caroline Waterlow, Ezra Edelman, Tamara Rosenberg, Nina Krstic, Deirdre Fenton, Erin Leyden, producers (ESPN Films)
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Trey Edward Shults for Krisha (A24)
Best Screenplay
Moonlight, Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney; Screenplay by Barry Jenkins (A24)
Best Actor*
Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea (Amazon Studios)
Best Actress*
Isabelle Huppert in Elle (Sony Pictures Classics)
Breakthrough Actor*
Anya Taylor-Joy in The Witch (A24)
* The 2016 Best Actor/Best Actress and Breakthrough Actor nominating panels also voted to award a special Gotham Jury Award for ensemble performance to Moonlight, “in which actors at all levels of experience give outstanding performances that speak eloquently to one another both within and across each chapter of the story.” The awards will go to actors Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monáe, Jaden Piner, Trevante Rhodes, and Ashton Sanders.
Breakthrough Series – Long Form
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rachel Bloom & Aline Brosh McKenna, creators; Marc Webb, Rachel Bloom, Aline Brosh McKenna, Erin Ehrlich, executive producers (The CW)
Breakthrough Series – Short Form
Her Story, Jen Richards and Laura Zak, creators (herstoryshow.com)
Gotham Independent Film Audience Award
IFP members will determine the Gotham Independent Film Audience Award with nominees comprised of the 15 nominated films in the Best Feature, Best Documentary, and Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award categories. All IFP current, active members at the Individual Level and above will be eligible to vote. Voting took place online from November 16th at 12:01 AM EST and concluded on November 23rd at 5:00 PM EST.
Moonlight
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Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Christopher Nolan Begins Shooting "Interstellar"
HOLLYWOOD, CA (August 13, 2013) – Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom, Inc., and Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that principal photography on “INTERSTELLAR” is officially underway in Alberta, Canada. The film will be released in IMAX® and 35mm theaters on November 7, 2014. Paramount Pictures will distribute domestically, Warner Bros. Pictures internationally.
Directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy), the production will travel the globe and utilize a mixture of 35mm anamorphic and IMAX film photography to bring to the screen a script based on the combination of an original idea by Nolan and an existing script by Jonathan Nolan, originally developed for Paramount Pictures and producer Lynda Obst. The new script chronicles the adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
“Interstellar” features a prestigious cast that includes Matthew McConaughey (“Magic Mike,” “Mud”), Academy Award® winner Anne Hathaway (“Les Miserables,” “The Dark Knight Rises”), Academy Award® nominee Jessica Chastain (“Zero Dark Thirty,” “The Tree of Life”), Bill Irwin (“Rachel Getting Married,” TV’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”) Academy Award® nominee John Lithgow (“Terms of Endearment,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) Academy Award® nominee Casey Affleck (“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” Gone Baby Gone”), David Gyasi (“Cloud Atlas”), Wes Bentley (“The Hunger Games”), Mackenzie Foy (“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Parts 1 and 2”) Timothée Chalamet (TV’s “Homeland”), Topher Grace (“Spider-Man 3”), David Oyelowo (“Jack Reacher,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”), Academy Award® winner Ellen Burstyn (“The Last Picture Show,” “The Exorcist”), and Academy Award® winner Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy).
The film is being produced by Academy Award® nominee Emma Thomas (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy) and Lynda Obst (“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” “The Siege”). Renowned theoretical physicist Kip Thorne is consulting on the film as well as serving as executive producer, along with Jake Myers (“Jack Reacher,” “RED,” “RED 2”) and Jordan Goldberg (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy).
The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” “The Fighter”), Academy Award®-nominated production designer Nathan Crowley (“The Dark Knight” Trilogy), Academy Award®-nominated costume designer Mary Zophres (“Gangster Squad,” “True Grit”) Academy Award®-nominated editor Lee Smith “The Dark Knight” Trilogy,” “Elysium,”, Academy Award®-winning composer Hans Zimmer (“The Lion King,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy), and Academy Award®-winning visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin (“Inception,” “The Dark Knight” Trilogy).
Official Site: www.InterstellarMovie.com
About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.
About Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures meets worldwide tastes and demands with a diverse mix of filmed entertainment and is a global leader in the marketing and distribution of feature films. The International Division operates offices in 24 countries and releases films in over 125 international territories, either directly to theaters or in conjunction with partner companies and co-ventures. Internationally, the Studio has been the market leader in six of the last 13 years, having surpassed $1 billion in grosses a total of 15 years, 12 of which were consecutive years, and crossed $2 billion five times, including 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Review: "ParaNorman" Thankfully Not Normal
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 2 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux
ParaNorman (2012)
Running time: 92 minutes (1 hour, 32 minutes)
MPAA – PG for scary action and images, thematic elements, some rude humor and language
DIRECTORS: Chris Butler and Sam Fell
WRITER: Chris Butler
PRODUCERS: Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tristan Oliver
EDITORS: Christopher Murrie
COMPOSERS: Jon Brion
ANIMATION/FANTASY/COMEDY/HORROR/FAMILY
Starring: (voices) Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, Bernard Hill, Jodelle Ferland, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein, and John Goodman
ParaNorman is a 2012 American, 3D, stop-motion animated, comic-horror film. The film is a production of Laika, the stop-motion animation studio behind the 2009 film, Coraline. ParaNorman focuses on a misunderstood boy, who talks to ghosts, and his quest to save his town from a centuries-old curse.
Not many people in the town of Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts seem to understand or even like 11-year-old Norman Babcock (Kodi Smit-McPhee), except his dear mother, Sandra (Leslie Mann), of course. Norman can talk to ghosts. This claim infuriates his father, Perry (Jeff Garlin), because he thinks his son is too weird, and it annoys his sister, Courtney (Anna Kendrick), who is embarrassed by her brother. Norman even has a classmate dedicated to bullying him, the break dancer wannabe, Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Norman does have one friend, a chubby, eccentric kid named Neil Downe (Tucker Albrizzi).
Oh, there is one other person interested in Norman. That would be the town crazy, Mr. Prenderghast (John Goodman), who is also Norman’s uncle. He claims that Norman is the only person who can save the town from a centuries-old curse put upon it three hundred years ago by a vengeful witch. Pursued by zombies, Norman races to stop the curse with only Neil, a reluctant Courtney, and Mitch (Casey Affleck), Neil’s brother, by his side. But stopping the curse means having the right information/the real story, and Norman is having trouble getting that.
ParaNorman is not only one of the best animated films of the year, but it is also one of 2012’s best movies. This film looks like a Tim Burton movie, but is darker and less whimsical than most of Burton’s movies; ParaNorman is probably more in line and closer in tone with Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999).
One of my college professors said that books which contained controversial ideas often ended up in the children’s literature section, To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies, being examples she used. ParaNorman is kind of like that; in fact, it is like one of those children’s classics (film or storybook) with something to say. It runs the gamut of themes and ideas: the destruction of revenge, bullying, parental acceptance, the cycle in which parents pass on their fears and prejudices to their children or even project those onto their children, the fear of being different, how easy it is for a person to isolate himself because he is persecuted for being different, the mob mentality, the quest for redemption, etc. ParaNorman has so many ideas and themes that I lost count. It does not aspire to be more than a kid’s movie; it just wants to be more than the average children’s movie.
The film is such a feast of dark colors and fantastic visual elements that it is easy to miss the substance. The stop-motion animation and production values in ParaNorman exceed Coraline; it’s not even close. The character design alone is way ahead in terms of imagination and diversity than many animated feature films. The characters are caricatures of real-life human body types, but in an amusing way that celebrates all the big hips, thunder thighs, scrawny necks, big butts, fat bodies, etc. without being cruel for the sake of cheap laughs.
There is a lot more to say, but I don’t want to run on (longer than I usually do). This hand-crafted movie is a miracle. It celebrates being different, but also enjoying being different from other people. There is a surprise reveal about one of the characters near the end of the film that makes ParaNorman extra, extra-special.
9 of 10
A+
Friday, January 04, 2013
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Review: "Tower Heist" Captures Classic Eddie Murphy
Tower Heist (2011)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for language and sexual content
DIRECTOR: Brett Ratner
WRITERS: Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson; from a story by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, and Ted Griffin
PRODUCERS: Brian Grazer, Eddie Murphy, and Kim Roth
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dante Spinotti
EDITOR: Mark Helfrich
COMPOSER: Christophe Beck
COMEDY/CRIME with elements of a thriller
Starring: Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Stephen Henderson, Judd Hirsch, Téa Leoni, Michael Peña, Gabourey Sidibe, Nina Arianda, Marcia Jean Kurtz, and Juan Carlos Hernandez
Tower Heist is a 2011 crime comedy from director Brett Ratner (the Rush Hour franchise). The film follows the misadventures of a gang of working stiffs who plot to rob a Wall Street tycoon who stole their pensions. Tower Heist is a comic caper that lives up to the comedy part, and the film’s actors deliver on their characters, especially Eddie Murphy who returns to the kind of character that made him popular in the 1980s.
Tower Heist focuses on Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller), the building manager of The Tower, a high-rise luxury apartment complex in New York City’s Columbus Circle (Manhattan). The residents are wealthy and are used to being catered to, and the building’s security is no joke. Still, Josh has everything under control until the Tower’s most noteworthy tenant, wealthy businessman, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), is arrested by the FBI for running a Ponzi scheme. It was Kovacs who suggested that Shaw invest the Tower employees’ pension fund, and now that money is also apparently gone.
When FBI agent Claire Denham (Téa Leoni) tells him that Shaw may get away with his crimes, Josh decides to get revenge on Shaw by breaking into his apartment to steal from him. He gathers fellow coworkers: his brother-in-law, Charlie Gibbs (Casey Affleck); a bankrupt Wall Street investor, Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick); bellhop Enrique Dev’reaux (Michael Peña), and Jamaican-born maid, Odessa Montero (Gabourey Sidibe) as his crew. Josh knows, however, that his crew needs a real criminal, so he recruits his neighbor, a petty crook named Slide (Eddie Murphy), to assist them in the robbery. But as determined as they are, things keep getting in their way.
Tower Heist is not really a heist film like the edgier The Italian Job (either version) or the cool and clever Ocean’s Eleven (2001) and its sequels. Tower Heist is comic fluff – successful comic fluff, but still fluff, and its concepts, ideas, and set pieces are utter fantasy. Things happen in this movie that are so unbelievable that they are often funny; it’s ridiculous stuff, but quite amusing.
The real treasures in Tower Heist are the actors and their characters. The story that is Tower Heist is Josh Kovacs’ story, and Ben Stiller, who has been a successful leading man in big screen comedies for well over a decade, is funny. However, Stiller gives the film a surprising dramatic heft by giving Kovacs a dark and melancholy side that simmers right alongside this movie’s humor – even if many viewers may not see it.
Eddie Murphy, in his role as Slide, has done what many critics (and some fans) have been demanding for over two decades – return to playing the wiseass who makes being rude, confrontational, and streetwise a gold standard. This kind of character, in one form or another, appeared in early Murphy films like 48 Hrs., Trading Places, and Beverly Hills Cop and at various time during Murphy’s tenure on “Saturday Night Live” (1980-84), yet in this film, that kind of character still seems fresh. The reason for this may be that Murphy plays Slide as a genuine criminal, a confrontational person who may appear comical, but who is actually an opportunistic career criminal and felon that is dangerous and untrustworthy. Slide is a real hood rat and is good for the film’s conflict and tension. He makes you believe that this heist has a better than 50% chance of going really bad.
There are other good supporting performances: Téa Leoni (who should have had a larger role), Matthew Broderick, and Alan Alda (who makes Arthur Shaw seem like a really nasty piece of work). I’ll also give credit for Tower Heist’s success as a comedy to both director Brett Ratner and editor Mark Helfrich. Ratner allows the actors room to play their characters for strong (if not maximum) effect. Helfrich composes a film that makes sure the comic moments are really funny and turns the heist sequence into a surprising thriller. I’d like to be a snob about this sometimes shallow and fluffy movie, but I really enjoyed Tower Heist. So why front?
7 of 10
A-
Sunday, November 06, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Review: "Good Will Hunting" Maintains Itself (Happy B'day, Ben Affleck)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong language, including some sex-related dialogue
DIRECTOR: Gus Van Zant
WRITERS: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
PRODUCER: Lawrence Bender
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jean Yves Escoffier (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Pietro Scalia
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
Academy Award winner
DRAMA
Starring: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård, Minnie Driver, Casey Affleck, and Cole Hauser.
Will Hunting (Matt Damon), a charismatic, brilliant young man has spent, or rather wasted, the first 20 years of his life when an MIT math professor discovers Will’s mathematical gifts. When Will is arrested after a street fight, Professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard, Breaking the Waves) takes custody of Will determined to nurture Will’s rare genius so that it is not wasted.
Will runs through a gamut of psychiatrists as part of his court ordered treatment until he meets a grieving, career impaired shrink named Sean Maguire (Robin Williams). Maguire is from Will’s old neighborhood, and he recognizes some of the young man’s difficulties with a society so different from their ‘hood. He tries to reach the young man as Will continually enforces a wall around himself, a wall he has had since childhood to protect himself from a world seemingly always out to hurt him.
Will also meets and falls in love with Skylar (Minnie Driver, Grosse Point Blank), a pretty, young pre-med student, who eventually demands a commitment of love that Will is reluctant to give. If he embraces a new life, Will may have to abandon the impoverished, but familiar life he knows, including his childhood friend, Chuckie (Ben Affleck).
Good Will Hunting is a beautiful, moving story that pulls not too gently on the heartstrings. Affleck and Damon won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay of 1997 for the film’s script. They crafted simple, yet evocative characters for both themselves and the rest of the cast. Hunting is the most complex of the lot, but he isn’t difficult to understand. He’s been hurt, so he lashes out at the world. He’s made a safe little hovel in which he can live, and he doesn’t intend to venture far from it. He knows it and he feels safe in it, only occasionally peeking his head out of his hole to delight people with his brilliance and wit.
Williams’s portrayal of Sean Maguire earned him a long overdue Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Like his Dr. Malcolm Sayer in Awakenings and Parry in the Fisher King, Maguire is a man in pain. You can feel a great building up in the shell, that these men have created for themselves, ready to break out and violently splash the world. In the end, they learn to gradually release their pent up pain and emotion and to reach a sense of balance. The parts that Williams usually take are usually so flamboyant and loud, begging for attention, like Williams himself. When he takes a part like Maguire, he has to control himself, and we can feel, along with him, the struggle to remain in his containment unit. To see him so controlled may have attracted Academy voters to his cause.
Good Will Hunting isn’t a smart movie. Damon and Affleck are occasionally stiff and forced in their parts, and there is still a rough edge to their acting abilities, especially Affleck’s. Driver is good, but the script only allows hints at her personality. Skylar’s one outburst about her troubled past piques the interest, but is gone as suddenly as it came.
Gus Van Zant does a credible job here, but one mostly gets the sense that he was just following a sort of paint by numbers plan. This is more about Damon, Affleck, and Williams than the director. But Van Zant assists them in bringing some tears forward; it’s a empathic, feel sad movie with a tacked on feel good ending. But done well, it’s worth repeated viewings.
7 of 10
A-
NOTES:
1998 Academy Awards: 2 wins: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Robin Williams) and “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck); 7 nominations: “Best Picture” (Lawrence Bender), “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Matt Damon), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Minnie Driver), “Best Director” (Gus Van Sant), “Best Film Editing” (Pietro Scalia), “Best Music, Original Dramatic Score” (Danny Elfman), and “Best Music, Original Song” (Elliott Smith for the song "Miss Misery")
1998 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck); 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” (Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Matt Damon), and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Robin Williams)
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Thursday, September 16, 2010
Review: "Gone Baby Gone" Superb Directorial Debut for Ben Affleck
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 9 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
Running time: 115 minutes (1 hour, 55 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, drug content, and pervasive language
DIRECTOR: Ben Affleck
WRITERS: Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard (from the novel by Dennis Lehane)
PRODUCERS: Ben Affleck, Sean Bailey, Alan Ladd, Jr., and Danton Rissner
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Toll (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: William Goldenburg
2008 Academy Award nominee
CRIME/DRAMA/MYSTERY/THRILLER
Starring: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Ryan, Amy Madigan, Titus Welliver, Michael K. Williams, Edi Gathegi, and Madeline O’Brien
Like Martin Scorsese did before him in 1973 with Mean Streets, Ben Affleck visits the tough streets of a city in which he’s familiar, Boston, for his film Gone Baby Gone, based upon a Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) novel. There Affleck tells a harrowing tale of shocking crime, brutal violence, and ultimate betrayal set in the seedy underbelly of a lower working class neighborhood.
Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), two young private detectives, are hired by grieving aunt, Beatrice “Bea” McCready (Amy Madigan), to take a closer look into the disappearance of her niece, a little girl named Amanda (Madeline O’Brien). Capt. Patrick Doyle (Morgan Freeman), the head of the investigation, and the two senior detectives, Det. Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and Det. Nick Poole (John Ashton), aren’t happy about Bea and her husband, Lionel McCready (Titus Welliver), bringing in Kenzie and Gennaro, whose specialty is finding missing debtors.
Patrick and Angie take their investigations to the extra mean streets of the Boston neighborhood where the major players, including themselves, live. Patrick and Angie soon trace the child’s disappearance to some kind of deal gone bad involving her mother, a loud and vulgar drug addict/alcoholic named Helene McCready (Amy Ryan, in an Oscar nominated role). Ultimately, Kenzie finds himself risking everything, including his relationship with Gennaro, their sanity and lives, to find Amanda. Nothing is what it seems, and the case is vastly complicated.
If Ben Affleck was known as a pretty boy actor who made bad career choices, now he’s known as an up and coming director to watch. Gone Baby Gone, which Affleck also co-wrote with Aaron Stockard, is a sharp, edgy and morally ambiguous tale. The detective angle of the story is certainly a piece of pulp crackerjack that is as sweet and bitter as dark chocolate, but also as addictive as faerie food. Once you bite into Affleck’s beautiful/accursed confection, you will never leave it, and it won’t leave you.
That’s because the heart of Gone Baby Gone is so frighteningly familiar to viewers – the unsettling notion of a small child stolen by a monstrous human who savages, violates, and ultimately destroys a young life by murder or psychological ruin. However, novelist Dennis Lehane’s tale takes you to even darker regions below the surface of this familiar scenario, and Affleck doesn’t shy from visualizing the story into a film that goes for the vulnerable places on your body and in your mind. It’s the place where the self-righteous find that not only is the road to damnation paved with good intentions but that their justifications make them as bad as the worse people.
Ben Affleck also found his film gifted with a number of high quality performances, including some from Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Amy Madigan, among others. The stand outs are the director’s brother, Casey Affleck, and Amy Ryan. Affleck, playing the little tough guy, is a bubbling cauldron as he takes his Patrick Kenzie from the sweet guy who really cares to the tough guy/bad ass detective who can take on the most dangerous on mean street.
Amy Ryan is superb as Helene McCready. Simply put, the audience has no reason to believe that Helene is not a real-life breathing person with an ugly past, a pathetic present, and a loser future. Ryan makes you believe that Helene is both lost in an addictive personality and a totally lousy mother. This is the richness of Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone.
9 of 10
A+
NOTES:
2008 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Amy Ryan)
2008 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Amy Ryan)
Saturday, February 23, 2008
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