2014 Screen Actors Guild Awards Nominations - TV Categories List

by Amos Semien

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is an American labor union that represents film and television performers worldwide.  Most people probably know SAG for the various actors’ strikes or for the Screen Actors Guild Award, which SAG uses to honor outstanding performances by its members.  The first SAG Awards ceremony was held in February 1995 (for films released in 1994).

The 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations were announced on Wednesday, December 11, 2013.  In the television categories, Breaking Bad led with 4 nominations.  “The Big Bang Theory,” “Modern Family,” and “30 Rock” each had three nominations.

Winners will be announced at the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® ceremony.  The ceremony will be simulcast live nationally on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014 at 8 p.m. (ET)/5 p.m. (PT) from the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center.

An encore presentation will air immediately following live telecast on TNT only at 10 p.m. (ET)/7 p.m. (PT).  A live stream of the SAG Awards can also be viewed online through the TBS and TNT websites, as well as through the “Watch TBS” and “Watch TNT” apps for iOS or Android.  Apparently, viewers who want to use these apps must sign in using their TV provider user name and password in order to view the live stream.

20th ANNUAL SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS NOMINATIONS - TELEVISION PROGRAMS

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries:
MATT DAMON / Scott Thorson – “BEHIND THE CANDELABRA” (HBO)

MICHAEL DOUGLAS / Liberace – “BEHIND THE CANDELABRA” (HBO)

JEREMY IRONS / King Henry IV – “THE HOLLOW CROWN” (WNET/Thirteen)

ROB LOWE / John F. Kennedy – “KILLING KENNEDY” (National Geographic Channel)

AL PACINO / Phil Spector – “PHIL SPECTOR” (HBO)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries:
ANGELA BASSETT / Coretta Scott King – “BETTY & CORETTA” (Lifetime)

HELENA BONHAM CARTER / Elizabeth Taylor – “BURTON AND TAYLOR” (BBC America)

HOLLY HUNTER / G.J. – “TOP OF THE LAKE” (Sundance Channel)

HELEN MIRREN / Linda Kenney Baden – “PHIL SPECTOR” (HBO)

ELISABETH MOSS / Robin Griffin – “TOP OF THE LAKE” (Sundance Channel)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series:
STEVE BUSCEMI / Enoch “Nucky” Thompson – “BOARDWALK EMPIRE” (HBO)

BRYAN CRANSTON / Walter White – “BREAKING BAD” (AMC)

JEFF DANIELS / Will McAvoy – “THE NEWSROOM” (HBO)

PETER DINKLAGE / Tyrion Lannister – “GAME OF THRONES” (HBO)

KEVIN SPACEY / Francis Underwood – “HOUSE OF CARDS” (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series:
CLAIRE DANES / Carrie Mathison – “HOMELAND” (Showtime)

ANNA GUNN / Skyler White – “BREAKING BAD” (AMC)

JESSICA LANGE / Fiona Goode – “AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN” (FX)

MAGGIE SMITH / Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham – “DOWNTON ABBEY” (PBS)

KERRY WASHINGTON / Olivia Pope – “SCANDAL” (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series:
ALEC BALDWIN / Jack Donaghy – “30 ROCK” (NBC)

JASON BATEMAN / Michael Bluth – “ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT” (Netflix)

TY BURRELL / Phil Dunphy – “MODERN FAMILY” (ABC)

DON CHEADLE / Martin “Marty” Kaan – “HOUSE OF LIES” (Showtime)

JIM PARSONS / Sheldon Cooper – “THE BIG BANG THEORY” (CBS)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series:
MAYIM BIALIK / Amy Farrah Fowler – “THE BIG BANG THEORY” (CBS)

JULIE BOWEN / Claire Dunphy – “MODERN FAMILY” (ABC)

EDIE FALCO / Jackie Peyton – “NURSE JACKIE” (Showtime)

TINA FEY / Liz Lemon – “30 ROCK” (NBC)

JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS / Vice President Selina Meyer – “VEEP” (HBO)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series:

BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO)
PATRICIA ARQUETTE / Sally Wheet
MARGOT BINGHAM / Daughter Maitland
STEVE BUSCEMI / Enoch “Nucky” Thompson
BRIAN GERAGHTY / Agent Warren Knox
STEPHEN GRAHAM / Al Capone
ERIK LA RAY HARVEY / Dunn Purnsley
JACK HUSTON / Richard Harrow
RON LIVINGSTON / Roy Phillips
DOMENICK LOMBARDOZZI / Ralph Capone
GRETCHEN MOL / Gillian Darmody
BEN ROSENFIELD / Willie Thompson
PAUL SPARKS / Mickey Doyle
MICHAEL STUHLBARG / Arnold Rothstein
NISI STURGIS / June Thompson
JACOB WARE / Agent Selby
SHEA WHIGHAM / Elias “Eli” Thompson
MICHAEL KENNETH WILLIAMS / “Chalky” White
JEFFREY WRIGHT / Valentin Narcisse

BREAKING BAD (AMC)
MICHAEL BOWEN / Uncle Jack
BETSY BRANDT / Marie Schrader
BRYAN CRANSTON / Walter White
LAVELL CRAWFORD / Huell
TAIT FLETCHER / Lester
LAURA FRASER / Lydia Rodarte-Quale
ANNA GUNN / Skyler White
MATTHEW T. METZLER / Matt
RJ MITTE / Walter White Jr.
DEAN NORRIS / Hank Schrader
BOB ODENKIRK / Saul Goodman
AARON PAUL / Jesse Pinkman
JESSE PLEMONS / Todd
STEVEN MICHAEL QUEZADA / Gomez
KEVIN RANKIN / Kenny
PATRICK SANE / Frankie

DOWNTON ABBEY (PBS)
HUGH BONNEVILLE / Robert, Earl of Grantham
LAURA CARMICHAEL / Lady Edith Crawley
JIM CARTER / Mr. Carson
BRENDAN COYLE / John Bates
MICHELLE DOCKERY / Lady Mary Crawley
KEVIN DOYLE / Molesley
JESSICA BROWN FINDLAY / Lady Sybil Crawley
SIOBHAN FINNERAN / Sarah O’Brien
JOANNE FROGGATT / Anna Bates
ROB JAMES-COLLIER / Thomas Barrow
ALLEN LEECH / Tom Branson
PHYLLIS LOGAN / Mrs. Hughes
ELIZABETH McGOVERN / Cora, Countess of Grantham
SOPHIE McSHERA / Daisy
MATT MILNE / Alfred
LESLEY NICOL / Mrs. Patmore
AMY NUTTALL / Ethel
DAVID ROBB / Dr. Clarkson
MAGGIE SMITH / Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham
ED SPELEERS / Jimmy
DAN STEVENS / Matthew Crawley
CARA THEOBOLD / Ivy
PENELOPE WILTON / Isobel Crawley

GAME OF THRONES (HBO)
ALFIE ALLEN / Theon Greyjoy
JOHN BRADLEY / Samwell Tarly
OONA CHAPLIN / Talisa Maegyr
GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE / Brienne of Tarth
EMILIA CLARKE / Daenerys Targaryen
NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU / Jaime Lannister
MACKENZIE CROOK / Orell
CHARLES DANCE / Tywin Lannister
JOE DEMPSIE / Gendry
PETER DINKLAGE / Tyrion Lannister
NATALIE DORMER / Margaery Tyrell
NATHALIE EMMANUEL / Missandei
MICHELLE FAIRLEY / Lady Catelyn Stark
JACK GLEESON / Joffrey Baratheon
IAIN GLEN / Ser Jorah Mormont
KIT HARINGTON / Jon Snow
LENA HEADEY /Cersei Lannister
ISAAC HEMPSTEAD WRIGHT / Brandon “Bran” Stark
KRISTOFER HIVJU / Tormund Giantsbane
PAUL KAYE / Thoros of Myr
SIBEL KEKILLI / Shae
ROSE LESLIE / Ygritte
RICHARD MADDEN / Robb Stark
RORY McCANN / Sandor “The Hound” Clegane
MICHAEL McELHATTON / Roose Bolton
IAN McELHINNEY / Barristan Selmy
PHILIP McGINLEY / Anguy
HANNAH MURRAY / Gilly
IWAN RHEON / Ramsay Snow
SOPHIE TURNER / Sansa Stark
CARICE VAN HOUTEN / Melisandre
MAISIE WILLIAMS / Arya Stark

HOMELAND (Showtime)
F. MURRAY ABRAHAM / Dar Adal
SARITA CHOUDHURY / Mira Berenson
CLAIRE DANES / Carrie Mathison
RUPERT FRIEND / Peter Quinn
TRACY LETTS / Sen. Andrew Lockhart
DAMIAN LEWIS / Nicholas Brody
MANDY PATINKIN / Saul Berenson
MORGAN SAYLOR / Dana Brody

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series:

30 ROCK (NBC)
SCOTT ADSIT / Pete Hornberger
ALEC BALDWIN / Jack Donaghy
KATRINA BOWDEN / Cerie
KEVIN BROWN / Dot Com
GRIZZ CHAPMAN / Grizz
TINA FEY / Liz Lemon
JUDAH FRIEDLANDER / Frank Rossitano
JANE KRAKOWSKI / Jenna Maroney
JOHN LUTZ / Lutz
JAMES MARSDEN / Criss
JACK McBRAYER / Kenneth Parcell
TRACY MORGAN / Tracy Jordan
KEITH POWELL / Toofer

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT (Netflix)
WILL ARNETT / George Oscar “G.O.B.” Bluth II
JASON BATEMAN / Michael Bluth
JOHN BEARD / Himself
MICHAEL CERA / George-Michael Bluth
DAVID CROSS / Tobias Fünke
PORTIA DE ROSSI / Lindsay Bluth Fünke
ISLA FISHER / Rebel Alley
TONY HALE / Buster Bluth
RON HOWARD / Narrator/Himself
LIZA MINNELLI / Lucille Austero
ALIA SHAWKAT / Maeby Fünke
JEFFREY TAMBOR / George Bluth, Sr./Oscar Bluth
JESSICA WALTER / Lucille Bluth
HENRY WINKLER / Barry Zuckerkorn

THE BIG BANG THEORY (CBS)
MAYIM BIALIK / Amy Farrah Fowler
KALEY CUOCO / Penny
JOHNNY GALECKI / Leonard Hofstadter
SIMON HELBERG / Howard Wolowitz
KUNAL NAYYAR / Rajesh Koothrappali
JIM PARSONS / Sheldon Cooper
MELISSA RAUCH / Bernadette Rostenkowski

MODERN FAMILY (ABC)
JULIE BOWEN / Claire Dunphy
TY BURRELL / Phil Dunphy
AUBREY ANDERSON EMMONS / Lily Tucker-Pritchett
JESSE TYLER FERGUSON / Mitchell Pritchett
NOLAN GOULD / Luke Dunphy
SARAH HYLAND / Haley Dunphy
ED O’NEILL / Jay Pritchett
RICO RODRIGUEZ / Manny Delgado
ERIC STONESTREET / Cameron Tucker
SOFIA VERGARA / Gloria Delgado-Pritchett
ARIEL WINTER / Alex Dunphy

VEEP (HBO)
SUFE BRADSHAW / Sue Wilson
ANNA CHLUMSKY / Amy Brookheimer
GARY COLE / Kent Davidson
KEVIN DUNN / Ben Cafferty
TONY HALE / Gary Walsh
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS / Vice President Selina Meyer
REID SCOTT / Dan Egan
TIMOTHY SIMONS / Jonah Ryan
MATT WALSH / Mike McLintock

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series:
BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO)
BREAKING BAD (AMC)
GAME OF THRONES (HBO)
HOMELAND (Showtime)
THE WALKING DEAD (AMC)

END

Review: "The Manchurian Candidate" Remake a Missed Oppurtunity

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 166 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Running time: 130 minutes (2 hours, 10 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence and some language
DIRECTOR:  Jonathan Demme
WRITERS:  Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris (based upon the film screenplay by George Axelrod and based upon a novel by Richard Condon)
PRODUCERS:  Tina Sinatra, Scott Rudin, Jonathan Demme, and Ilona Herzberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tak Fujimoto, ASC
EDITORS:  Carol Littleton, A.C.E. and Craig McKay, A.C.E.
COMPOSER:  Rachel Portman
BAFTA Award nominee

DRAMA/THRILLER with elements of mystery and science fiction

Starring:  Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight, Kimberly Elise, Jeffrey Wright, Ted Levine, Anthony Mackie, Bruno Ganz, Simon McBurney, Al Franken, and Miguel Ferrer

The subject of this movie review is The Manchurian Candidate, a 2004 thriller and drama film from director Jonathan Demme.  The film is an adaptation of the 1959 novel, The Manchurian Candidate, from author Richard Condon.  It is also a re-imagining of director John Frankenheimer’s 1962 film adaptation of the book.  In the 2004 film, a war veteran begins to believe that during the Gulf War, soldiers in his U.S. Army unit were kidnapped and brainwashed for sinister purposes.

If you’re going to remake a great movie, you should try to make the new movie also be a great film, or at the very least try to make it a…very good film.  The Manchurian Candidate, Jonathan Demme's (The Silence of the Lambs) update of the Frank Sinatra classic of the same title, which was directed by John Frankenheimer, is neither great nor very good.  It’s the worst thing one could get from the esteemed filmmakers involved in the project, all of whom have glowing resumes.  The new The Manchurian Candidate is a flat out average film that’s barely worth an exciting trip to the video store.

In the original 1962 film, the Manchurian Candidate was a sleeper agent/assassin trained by the Red Chinese.  In the new film, the sleeper agent is Raymond Prentiss Shaw (Liev Schreiber).  Raymond Shaw is the subject of a mind control project by Manchurian Global, a huge conglomerate with its hands in everything from providing services to the military to funding political campaigns and owning politicians.  With the help of their political cronies and Raymond’s mother, Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw (Meryl Streep), Raymond, a young Congressman from New York, is made the Vice-Presidential nominee on the opposition (likely the Democrats, but not directly named) party’s ticket in the upcoming presidential race.

Raymond had once been Sergeant Raymond Shaw back in 1991 during Operation Desert Shield just before it became Operation Desert Storm.  He answered to U.S. Army Major Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington).  Washington, Shaw, and the rest of their platoon were ambushed in Iraq, but all they remember about the incident is that Shaw single-handedly saved the lives of the entire platoon (except for two men who were killed during the attack) after Major Marco had been knocked unconscious.

However, Ben Marco runs into another platoon buddy, Corporal Al Melvin (Jeffrey Wright), after a Boy Scout assembly where Marco recounts Shaw’s heroism.  Melvin is disheveled, and he tells Marco a fantastic tale of strange dreams he’s been having about their platoon being kidnapped and experimented on after they were ambushed.  Melvin’s story contradicts the official version of what happened in Kuwait, the one that made Shaw a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.  Although, Marco is uncomfortable with Melvin’s tale, he knows there is a ring of truth to it because he also has never been comfortable with the official version of the ambush and their rescue.  He thinks someone was inside his head after his platoon was ambushed, and he wonders if the same thing happened to Shaw.  Marco must find out, and he’s running out because the nation just may be voting for a man whose mind is controlled by sinister forces.

It’s supposedly not always fair to compare the new version of something to the old, but it happens anyway.  Nearly everything that made the classic black and white The Manchurian Candidate an unusually creepy and unique suspense thriller is present in the 2004 version, but the filmmakers have taken the characters, plot, and settings (Korea becomes the Persian Gulf in the new film) and made a flat thriller, in which the thrills only occasionally register.  The surprises are mild, and while the changes made for the new film seem like novel ideas, the filmmakers don’t get much heat from them.

I blame everybody.  Denzel Washington’s performance is either phoned in or overwrought, but it’s his worst in a long time.  Meryl Streep tries to get traction from her evil character, but it’s a performance wasted on an all-too-phony character; besides, Ms. Streep just can’t replace Angela Landsbury’s mega evil mom from the original.  I place the most blame on director Jonathan Demme.  Back in the 1980’s, his novel spin on pedestrian film stories and his quirky characters were stunningly refreshing.  He hit the big time with the hugely entertaining and very well done The Silence of the Lambs, but since then, he has become a big time Hollywood player making mediocre films.  He continues that trend with The Manchurian Candidate.

Early Internet rumor mongering about The Manchurian Candidate described this film as a hot political potato that took sharp swipes at President Hand Puppet and his administration, swipes that would draw blood like Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 did, but no such luck.  You wouldn’t miss much if you waited for this to appear on TV – basic cable TV.

4 of 10
C

NOTE:
2005 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Meryl Streep)

2005 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Meryl Streep)

2005 Black Reel Awards:  2 nominations:  “Best Supporting Actor” (Jeffrey Wright) and “Best Supporting Actress” (Kimberly Elise)

Updated:  Sunday, November 10, 2013


The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin" Shames Us for Forgetting

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 59 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (2003)
Running time:  84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes)
PRODUCERS/DIRECTORS:  Nancy D. Kates and Bennett Singer
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Robert Shepard (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Rhonda Collins, Veronica Selver, and Gary Weimberg
MUSIC:  B. Quincy Griffin

DOCUMENTARY – History/LGBT/Civil Rights

I was recently searching Netflix, looking for a movie I could review in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (also known simply as the March on Washington).  I suddenly came across the name of a person involved in the American Civil Rights Movement of whom I had never heard.

That man is Bayard Rustin, and he turned out to be the perfect subject matter for this remembrance for several reasons.  One of them is that Rustin was the chief organizer (official title: Deputy Director) of the March on Washington (August 28, 1963), where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous and historic “I Have a Dream” speech.  The second reason is that there is an award-winning documentary about Bayard Rustin.

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin is a 2003 documentary film from the producing and directing team of Nancy D. Kates and Bennett Singer.  Brother Outsider was originally broadcast as an episode of the long-running PBS documentary series, “P.O.V.” – Season 15, Episode 9 (January 20, 2013).  The film was also shown at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, where it received a nomination for the festival’s “Grand Jury Prize Documentary” award.

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin presents a broad overview of Rustin’s life.  Rustin was an American leader and activist in several social movements, including civil rights, gay rights, non-violence, and pacifism.  Rustin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1912, and Brother Outsider follows his life from there.  West Chester is where Rustin began his life as an activist, when as a youth he protested Jim Crow laws.

The film chronicles Rustin’s arrival to Harlem, and his subsequent involvement in communism and later in the anti-war movement.  The film also recounts Rustin’s run-ins with the law enforcement officials over his activities and also how he was monitored by the FBI.  The film discusses Rustin’s life as an openly gay man, which got him into trouble, both with police and with his colleagues and contemporaries.  Of course, the film’s centerpiece is Rustin’s long involvement with the Civil Rights Movement, so the film covers the March on Washington.  There is also an examination of Rustin’s relationship with Dr. King and with his mentor, A. Philip Randolph.

Rustin’s friends, family, companions, and figures from the Civil Rights Movement speak on camera about Rustin.  That includes Civil Rights figures such as Eleanor Holmes Norton, Andrew Young, and actress Liv Ullmann.  The film uses a lot of archival footage, which includes film and video of Dr. King, Malcolm X, Strom Thurmond, H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, Robert F. Kennedy, and President Lyndon Johnson, among many.  Brother Outsider also includes a sequence from the 2001 HBO movie, Boycott, starring Jeffrey Wright.

In a recent article for CNN.com, writer and CNN contributor LZ Granderson talks about Bayard Rustin’s marginalization in Civil Rights history, which Granderson attributes to homophobia among some African-Americans and in some segments of the black community.  Running through Brother Outsider is the question asking why Rustin remained in the background of the Civil Rights Movement, never really coming forward.  I don’t think the film ever directly answers that question.

Watching the film and understanding the pariah status that gay people had in the United States for the majority of Rustin’s life, one can understand that Granderson is likely right.  Rustin’s status or lack thereof in Civil Rights history has been affected by his being openly gay.  Rustin was both a “brother,” to many in the social movements in which he participated, but his sexual identity also made him an “outsider.”  For portraying this, Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin won the GLAAD Media Award for “Outstanding Documentary” in 2004.  Rustin’s place in history is being restored.  On August 8, 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Bayard Rustin (who died in 1987) the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

As a documentary about the Civil Rights Movement, Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin is essential, not only because it brings Rustin to light, but also because it is a good overview of the movements that preceded the Civil Rights Movement.  The film also draws attention to the figures that both influenced the movement before it began and also built the movement in its early days.  Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, as a documentary, is essential Civil Rights viewing.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2004 Black Reel Awards:  1 nomination: “Black Reel Television: Best Original Program” (Public Broadcasting Service-PBS)

2004 Image Awards:  1 nomination: “Outstanding TV News, Talk or Information-Series or Special”

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

http://rustin.org/

For the time being, LZ Granderson’s CNN.com column, “The man black history erased,” can be read (as long as the article remains posted) here or http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/21/opinion/granderson-rustin-erased

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Broken City" Well Put Together

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 56 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Broken City (2013)
Running time:  109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive language, some sexual content and violence
DIRECTOR:  Allen Hughes
WRITER:  Brian Tucker
PRODUCERS:  Remington Chase, Randall Emmett, Allen Hughes, Stephen Levinson, Arnon Milchan, Teddy Schwarzman, and Mark Wahlberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Ben Seresin (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Cindy Mollo
COMPOSERS:  Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross, and Claudia Sarne

CRIME/DRAMA with elements of a thriller

Starring:  Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright, Barry Pepper, Alona Tal, Natalie Martinez, Michael Beach, Kyle Chandler, James Ransone, Griffin Dunne, Justin Chambers, and Chance Kelly

Broken City is a 2013 big-city crime drama from director Allen Hughes.  Starring Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, the film follows an ex-cop seeking to unravel a complex political mystery involving a powerful mayor.

Broken City opens by revealing a controversial police shooting.  Seven years later, ex-cop Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) owns a private detective agency that is on the verge of bankruptcy.  Taggart gets a big break when New York City Mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Russell Crowe) offers him $50,000 to learn the identity of the man with whom his wife, Cathleen (Catherine Zeta-Jones), is having an affair.

When the suspected adulterer is found shot to death, Taggart thinks that he may have been double-crossed.  However, Taggart’s path to payback takes him into a complicated political conspiracy involving many elements, including a controversial real estate deal, a contentious mayoral election, and police Commissioner Carl Fairbanks (Jeffrey Wright) who despises Mayor Hostetler.

If you found my summary or synopsis of Broken City unusually vague (compared to what I normally offer), it is because I am trying to reveal as little of this film’s plot and story as possible.  I really enjoyed Broken City.  It reminds me of a smoky old Film-Noir movie from the 1950s that focuses on “the city” (such as John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle).  Broken City is also the first feature film that Allen Hughes has directed without his twin brother, Albert, with whom he has collaborated on such gems as Menace II Society and The Book of Eli.  Allen rarely falters in this solo effort.

Hughes works from an excellent screenplay by Brian Tucker, although I think Broken City would work even better as a novel or television series.  However, Hughes manages to squeeze every subplot, relationship, conflict, and bit of motivation onto the screen.  The result is a cynical tale of big city politics, cronyism, and murder that delivers surprises as if they were mean left hooks.

Broken City is something of an ensemble film.  The viewer enters the world of the film through Mark Wahlberg’s Billy Taggart.  While this isn’t his best performance, Wahlberg proves once again that he is both a fine actor and a true movie star because he will make you want to follow both Taggart’s investigation and his personal journey.

The rest of the cast takes what they are good at doing and distills it into powerful supporting performances.  For Russell Crowe, that means a meaty, masculine, and menacing turn as the powerful Mayor Nicholas Hostetler, a character which feels like a co-lead, but is more of a supporting player.  There is not enough Catherine Zeta-Jones who is smoky and husky as the bordering-on-fatale First Lady Cathleen Hostetler.  The always-superb Jeffrey Wright makes a pugnacious turn as the police commissioner, but the story also needs more of his character.

So that is the glaring flaw of Broken City.  It needs to be bigger in terms of its scope, and it needs to be longer in terms of length.  If any crime drama deserves to run at least three hours, Broken City is it.  Still, this movie was one of 2013’s first really good dramas, and it is hugely entertaining with a killer last act.

7 of 10
A-

Saturday, August 17, 2013

2013 Sundance London Feature Film and Panel Programmes

Sundance London Film and Music Festival - April 25 to 28, 2013:

FEATURE FILM PROGRAMME — The international and UK premieres of American independent narrative and documentary films that premiered in January at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, U.S.A.

Blackfish (Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite) — Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity. (Documentary) International Premiere

Blood Brother (Director: Steve Hoover) — Rocky went to India as a disillusioned tourist. When he met a group of children with HIV, he decided to stay. He never could have imagined the obstacles he would face, or the love he would find. Winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary and the Audience Award: U.S. Documentary presented by Acura at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. (Documentary) UK Premiere

Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes (Director and screenwriter: Francesca Gregorini) — Emanuel, a troubled girl, becomes preoccupied with her mysterious, new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to her dead mother. In offering to babysit her newborn, Emanuel unwittingly enters a fragile, fictional world, of which she becomes the gatekeeper. Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Jessica Biel, Alfred Molina, Frances O'Connor, Jimmi Simpson, Aneurin Barnard. (Narrative) International Premiere

God Loves Uganda (Director: Roger Ross Williams) — A powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to infuse African culture with values imported from America’s Christian Right. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting “sexual immorality” and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow biblical law. (Documentary) European Premiere

In a World... (Director and screenwriter: Lake Bell) — An underachieving vocal coach is motivated by her father, the king of movie-trailer voice-overs, to pursue her aspirations of becoming a voiceover star. Amidst pride, sexism and family dysfunction, she sets out to change the voice of a generation. Cast: Lake Bell, Demetri Martin, Rob Corddry, Michaela Watkins, Ken Marino, Fred Melamed. Winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. (Narrative) International Premiere

The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete (Director: George Tillman Jr., Screenwriter: Michael Starrbury) — Separated from their mothers and facing a summer in the Brooklyn projects alone, two boys hide from police and forage for food, with only each other to trust. A story of salvation through friendship and two boys against the world. Cast: Skylan Brooks, Ethan Dizon, Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks, Anthony Mackie, Jeffrey Wright. (Narrative) UK Premiere

The Kings of Summer (Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Screenwriter: Chris Galletta) — A unique coming-of-age comedy about three teenagers who, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a makeshift house in the woods. Free from their parents’ rules, their idyllic summer quickly becomes a test of friendship. Cast: Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Alison Brie. (Narrative) International Premiere

Muscle Shoals (Director: Greg 'Freddy' Camalier) — Down in Alabama Rick Hall founded FAME Studios and gave birth to the Muscle Shoals sound. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Gregg Allman, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Bono and others bear witness to the greatest untold American music story. (Documentary) UK Premiere

Running from Crazy (Director: Barbara Kopple) — Mariel Hemingway, granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, strives for a greater understanding of her family history of suicide and mental illness. As tragedies are explored and deeply hidden secrets are revealed, Mariel searches for a way to overcome a similar fate. From two-time Academy Award-winning director Barbara Kopple. (Documentary) International Premiere

Touchy Feely (Director and screenwriter: Lynn Shelton) — A massage therapist is unable to do her job when stricken with a mysterious and sudden aversion to bodily contact. Meanwhile, her uptight brother's foundering dental practice receives new life when clients seek out his “healing touch.” Cast: Rosemarie DeWitt, Allison Janney, Ron Livingston, Scoot McNairy, Ellen Page, Josh Pais. (Narrative) International Premiere

Upstream Color (Director and screenwriter: Shane Carruth) — A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives. Cast: Amy Seimetz, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, Thiago Martins. Winner of a U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Sound Design at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and from the director of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic-winning film Primer. (Narrative) UK Premiere

SPECIAL EVENT PROGRAMME — On-screen stories complemented by extraordinary off-screen experiences.

History of the Eagles Part One (Director: Alison Ellwood) — Iconic American rock band the Eagles have earned countless awards and sold more than 120 million albums worldwide, including the best-selling album of all time. Using never-before-seen home movies, archival footage and new interviews with all current and former members of the Eagles, this documentary provides an intimate look into the history of the band and the legacy of their music. Includes an extended Q&A with the Eagles. (Documentary) International Premiere

Peaches Does Herself (Director and screenwriter: Peaches) — On the advice of an old stripper, Peaches makes sexually forthright music. This electro rock opera follows Peaches' rise in popularity and her love affair with a beautiful she-male that ultimately leads her to realize who she really is. Cast: Peaches, Danni Daniels, Sandy Kane, Mignon, Sweet Machine Band, Jolly Goods. Sundance London will also host a performance by Peaches. (Narrative) UK Premiere

Sleepwalk With Me (Director: Mike Birbiglia, Screenwriters: Mike Birbiglia, Ira Glass, Joe Birbiglia, Seth Barrish) — Reluctant to confront his fears of love, honesty, and growing up, a budding standup comedian has both a hilarious and intense struggle with sleepwalking. Cast: Mike Birbiglia, Lauren Ambrose, Carol Kane, James Rebhorn, Cristin Milioti. Winner of the Best of NEXT <=> Audience Award, Presented by Adobe Systems Incorporated, at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Includes an extended Q&A with director and screenwriter Mike Birbiglia, moderated by comedian Jimmy Carr. (Narrative) European Premiere

UK SPOTLIGHT — Drawing on the Sundance Film Festival’s rich legacy of premiering outstanding films produced in the UK – including An Education, Four Weddings and a Funeral, In Bruges, In the Loop, Kinky Boots, and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels – this new showcase presents a selection of UK films that premiered in Park City, Utah.

In Fear (Directed and story by: Jeremy Lovering) — Trapped in a maze of country roads with only their vehicle for protection, Tom and Lucy are terrorized by an unseen tormentor exploiting their worst fears. Eventually they realize they've let the evil in – it’s sitting in their car. Cast: Alice Englert, Iain De Caestecker, Allen Leech. (Narrative) UK Premiere

The Look of Love (Director: Michael Winterbottom, Screenwriter: Matt Greenhalgh) — The true story of British adult magazine publisher and entrepreneur Paul Raymond. A modern day King Midas story, Raymond became one of the richest men in Britain at the cost of losing those closest to him. Cast: Steve Coogan, Anna Friel, Imogen Poots, Tamsin Egerton. (Narrative) UK Premiere

The Moo Man (Directors: Andy Heathcote, Co-director: Heike Bachelier) — A year in the life of heroic farmer Steve, scene stealing Ida (queen of the herd), and a supporting cast of 55 cows. When Ida falls ill, Steve’s optimism is challenged and their whole way of life is at stake. (Documentary) UK Premiere

The Summit (Director: Nick Ryan) — Twenty-four climbers converged at the last stop before summiting the most dangerous mountain on Earth. Forty-eight hours later, 11 had been killed or simply vanished. Had one, Ger McDonnell, stuck to the climbers' code, he might still be alive. Winner of the Editing Award: U.S. Documentary at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. (Documentary)

SHORT FILM PROGRAMME — A wide-ranging collection of short films that screened in January at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. All will screen together in one Short Film Programme. The winner of the Sundance London Short Film Competition will be the tenth short film featured.

The Apocalypse (Director and screenwriter: Andrew Zuchero) — Four uninspired friends try to come up with a terrific idea for how to spend their Saturday afternoon. International Premiere

Black Metal (Director and screenwriter: Kat Candler) — After a career spent mining his music from the shadows, one fan creates a chain reaction for the lead singer of a black metal band. European Premiere

The Date (Director and screenwriter: Jenni Toivoniemi) — Tino’s manhood is put to the test in front of two women when he has to host a date for Diablo, the family’s stud cat. Winner of the Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Irish Folk Furniture (Director: Tony Donoghue) — In Ireland, old hand-painted furniture is often associated with hard times, with poverty, and with a time many would rather forget. In this animated documentary, 16 pieces of traditional folk furniture are repaired and returned home. Winner of the Short Film Jury Award: Animation at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Jonah (Director: Kibwe Tavares, Screenwriter: Jack Thorne) — When two young men photograph a gigantic fish leaping from the sea, their small town becomes a tourist attraction in this story about the old and the new. From the director of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Grand Jury Prize-winning film FISHING WITHOUT NETS. UK Premiere

Reindeer (Director: Eva Weber) — A lyrical and haunting portrait of reindeer herding in the twilight expanses of the Lapland wilderness. Winner of a Short Film Special Jury Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Until the Quiet Comes (Director and screenwriter: Kahlil Joseph) — Shot in the Nickerson Gardens housing projects in Watts, Los Angeles, this film deals with themes of violence, camaraderie and spirituality through the lens of magical realism. Winner of a Short Film Special Jury Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. European Premiere

Whiplash (Director and screenwriter: Damien Chazelle) — An aspiring drummer enters an elite conservatory’s top jazz orchestra. Winner of the Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. International Premiere

The Whistle (Director: Grzegorz Zariczny) — Marcin, a lowest-leagues football referee who lives in a small town near Krakow, dreams of better times. At his mother’s urging, he decides to change his life and find himself a girlfriend and a better job. Winner of the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. UK Premiere

PANEL PROGRAMME — Discussions with renowned guest speakers providing incredible insights into the filmmaking process.

The Art of the Score: An Afternoon with David Arnold — In a career that has produced over 60 scores to date, David Arnold has written and arranged some of the most exciting music in film and television today – and has done so across myriad genres and styles. Best known for his five James Bond scores, including Casino Royale and Tomorrow Never Dies, as well as Independence Day, Stargate, Godzilla, Hot Fuzz, The Stepford Wives, and the television series Sherlock and Little Britain, his work has garnered numerous Grammy, Emmy, BAFTA, UK Royal Television Society and BMI awards and nominations. He was also Musical Director for 2012 Olympic Games and 2012 Paralympic Games in London. In a lively afternoon celebrating creativity and collaboration, Arnold and guests offer a first-hand look at the composing process – through conversation, clips and various demonstrations of his approach to film and the musical choices that have led to some of his most notable work.

Screenwriting Flash Lab — It takes years of screenwriting to have an overnight success. It also takes talent, willpower, determination, grit and more than anything – it requires failure. And yet the fear of failure can stymy creativity. What is a writer to do? Join UK and American screenwriters for a lively, honest and irreverent discussion on the creative lessons learned from their biggest “cock-ups”. A not-to-be-missed opportunity to meet fellow writers, as well as Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program Founding Director, Michelle Satter, and International Director, Paul Federbush. Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Tideland, In This World, Death Defying Acts), Peter Straughan (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Debt, Men Who Stare at Goats), Lynn Shelton (Touchy Feely, Your Sister’s Sister, Humpday), moderator Mia Bays, Oscar-winning producer (Six Shooter, 30 Century Man) and marketing consultant / creative executive at Microwave, and other panelist to be announced. Co-presented with BAFTA.

Senses of Humor and Humour: US – UK Comedy — As the wisest among us have often observed, humor is a serious thing. A strangely elusive form (E.B. White once likened it to dissecting a frog; you can do it, but the thing dies in the process) comedy may be dispensed with sugarcoated smoothness, but it’s a uniquely powerful, sophisticated way of looking at the foibles of human nature and the contradictions of our lives and societies. From family dysfunction to global politics, comedians might argue that laughing at the world is simply the most sensible way of making sense of it. In a battle to establish who is funnier and why, our group of UK and US actors, comedians and filmmakers unpeel the layers and explore what’s behind the American and British “brands” of humor. With comedian, author and filmmaker Mike Birbiglia (Sleepwalk With Me), writer, director and actress Lake Bell (In A World…) and other panelists to be announced. Co-presented with BFI.

Review: "Lady in the Water" is a Beautiful Storybook Fantasy (Happy B'day, Bryce Dallas Howard)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 163 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Lady in the Water (2006)
Running time: 110 minutes; MPAA – PG-13 for some frightening sequences
WRITER/DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan
PRODUCERS: Sam Mercer and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATORGRAPHER: Christopher Doyle, H.K.S.C
EDITOR: Barbara Tulliver, A.C.E.

FANTASY/DRAMA/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban, Sarita Choudhury, Cindy Cheung, Freddy Rodriguez, Bill Irwin, Jared Harris, M. Night Shyamalan, June Kyoto Lu, Mary Beth Hurt, and Noah Gray-Cabey

M. Night Shyamalan’s films have been thoughtful and profound. His characters fight pitched battles with their inner demons as they wage war with the outside forces that would destroy or enslave them. We’ve seen that in everything from the heart-rending ghost story, The Sixth Sense, to the story of a lapsed minister who finds his way back to his faith while battling an alien invasion in the 2002 hit film, Signs. Shyamalan’s films are also known for their twist endings – surprising finales that not only change the tone of the film, but also frustrate audiences who bought into one kind of story and find a shock ending ruins their expectations – Unbreakable (2000) and The Village (2004) being the best (or worst) examples.

In his new film, Lady in the Water, Shyamalan eschews the twist ending for a yarn that can be taken figuratively as a fairytale or literally as a tale of people who find their destiny in a fairytale made real. Or maybe the viewer can see it as both figurative and literal. Regardless of how one views it, Lady in the Water is one of the most lovely and heartfelt tales told in recent years – a thing as beautiful as its sparkling blue movie poster.

Modest and humble, Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti, in a performance that solidifies his place as a great American actor), manages an apartment building named “The Cove.” One night Cleveland is investigating the noises from the apartment’s swimming pool when he falls in by accident. He awakens to find that a pale, young woman with deep blue eyes, who says her name is Story (Bryce Dallas Howard), has rescued him from drowning. Cleveland discovers that Story is a “narf,” a creature from an old bedtime story, and she is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to her own, the “Blue World.” Cleveland and the rest of The Cove’s collection of oddball tenants realize that they have suddenly been drawn into Story’s fable. Young Soon (Cindy Cheung), a go-getter college student, Mr. Dury (Jeffrey Wright), a serene crossword puzzle fanatic and his son, Joey (Noah Gray-Cabey), Mr. Leeds (Bill Irwin), a housebound TV watcher, and Vick (M. Night Shyamalan), a writer and Anna Ran (Sarita Choudhury), his talkative sister, among many others, accept this strange story of which they are a part. With their help, Cleveland must protect this fragile young woman from a deadly creature hell-bent on keeping Story from returning home.

By now, many reviewers and audiences have turned on Shyamalan for this picture. However, where others see Lady in the Water as boring or mystifying, I see it has a simple fairytale. Yes, Shyamalan’s script is a bit artsy and pretentious at times, and the story (based upon a bedtime tale he wrote for his children) is stretched to the breaking point and challenges credibility. Still, for all that we might take it literally, much of the story is symbolic The characters, setting, and incidents are meant to remind us of a bedtime story, or to put it bluntly – “Once upon a time... Lady in the Water is a metaphor about people taking up their place in destiny, of the difficulty in taking up the journey to get to one’s place, and that each person does indeed have a purpose.

While the subject matter and characters might not make sense on the surface, they and the tale in which they exist have a deeper meaning. We’re supposed to see past the trappings and see the core – lives driven by purpose for the good of humanity. In Lady in the Water, the title character, but especially Cleveland Heep, have to break out of the protective shells they’ve made for themselves using their own fears, grief, and insecurities as building material. Thus, it’s no wonder that the other characters were so quick to embrace their part in this bedtime story – they’ve also hungered for a life of meaning. An enchanting fairytale filled with magical characters and dark fantasy, Lady in the Water is the most meaningful fable mainstream Hollywood has given us in a very long time.

8 of 10
A

Monday, July 31, 2006

NOTES:
2007 Razzie Awards: 2 wins: “Worst Director” (M. Night Shyamalan) and “Worst Supporting Actor” (M. Night Shyamalan); 2 nominations: “Worst Picture” ((Warner Bros.) and “Worst Screenplay” (M. Night Shyamalan)

------------------------

The Ides of March movie review

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 7 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Ides of March (2011)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive language
DIRECTOR: George Clooney
WRITERS: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon (based upon Beau Willimon’s play “Farragut North”)
PRODUCERS: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Brian Oliver
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Phedon Papamichael
EDITOR: Stephen Mirrione
COMPOSER: Alexandre Desplat
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/POLITICS with elements of a thriller

Starring: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, and Max Minghella

The Ides of March is a 2011 political drama directed by George Clooney. The film is based on the 2008 play, Farragut North, by Beau Willimon, who also co-wrote the screenplay for this film adaptation. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the film’s executive producers, and his production company, Appian Way Productions, is one of this film’s financial backers. The Ides of March is kind of a thriller, but it doesn’t really work as a thriller. The best moments are when the film puts two characters together in a clash or test of wills.

The film focuses on Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), the Junior Campaign Manager for a Democratic presidential candidate, Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney). Morris’ campaign is competing in the Democratic primary, and the latest battleground is the state of Ohio, where Morris battles the other Democratic presidential candidate, Arkansas Senator Ted Pullman. Both campaigns are also attempting to win the endorsement of U.S. Senator Franklin Thompson (Jeffrey Wright), D-North Carolina.

Meyers is doing well at his job, but he gets involved in two troublesome situations. First, he holds a secret meeting with Pullman’s Campaign Manager, Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti). Then, he becomes embroiled in drama with a Morris campaign intern, Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood). One entanglement could ruin Meyers, but the other has the potential to destroy the Morris campaign.

The Ides of March feels restrained to me. The entire movie simmers like a dish that needs to boil-over, but doesn’t know how or when to do it. The best moments in the film are when two characters clash. The best confrontations feature Meyers and Senior Campaign Manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) or Meyers and Molly Stearns. There is one major test of wills between Meyers and his boss, Mike Morris (who is Governor of Pennsylvania), and another between Meyers and Sen. Thompson. Both occur in the film’s last act, but these moments made me realize that this movie should have had more scenes featuring Meyers, Morris, and Thompson in some combination. It is as if the best stuff is happening off-camera.

Honestly, I can recommend The Ides of March to people that enjoy watching particular members of this cast act in dramas, especially Gosling and Clooney. I think people who like political dramas will like this, although they should not expect this to be humorous or satirical (at least not in an obvious way). Although it has an electrifying second half, The Ides of March isn’t as good or as visceral as it could be.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2012 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published” (George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon)

2012 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Beau Willimon, George Clooney, and Grant Heslov) and “Best Supporting Actor” (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

2012 Golden Globes: 4 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (George Clooney), “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Ryan Gosling), and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon, and George Clooney)

2012 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Jeffrey Wright)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock Headline New Stephen Daldry Movie

Cameras Roll on “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” as It Heads from the Page to the Big Screen

Hanks and Bullock Headline the Cast under the Direction of Stephen Daldry

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Principal photography is underway on Warner Bros. Pictures’ feature film adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s acclaimed novel “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.” The film stars Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks, and is being directed by Stephen Daldry (“The Reader,” “The Hours”) and produced by Scott Rudin (“The Social Network,” “True Grit”).

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” also stars Thomas Horn, making his acting debut as 11-year-old Oskar Schell, an exceptional child with an off-kilter world view and a daunting mission ahead of him.

Oskar is convinced that his father (Hanks), who died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, has left a final message for him hidden somewhere in the city. Feeling disconnected from his grieving mother (Bullock) and driven by a relentlessly active mind that refuses to believe in things that can’t be observed, Oskar begins searching New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key he found in his father’s closet. His journey through the five boroughs takes him beyond his own loss to a greater understanding of the observable world around him.

Shooting entirely in New York, Daldry directs the film from a screenplay by Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump,” “The Insider”). Celia Costas (“Doubt,” “Closer”) serves as executive producer with Mark Roybal (“Doubt”) and Nora Skinner (“The Reader”).

Also starring in the film are James Gandolfini as Ron, a new friend of Oskar’s mom; Zoe Caldwell as the boy’s grandmother; Max von Sydow as the man renting a room from Oskar’s grandmother, who befriends Oskar and accompanies him on his quest; and Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright as a couple whose own tenuous relationship has a profound effect on Oskar.

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Chris Menges (“The Mission,” “The Killing Fields”); production designer K.K. Barrett (“Where the Wild Things Are”); and costume designer Ann Roth (“The English Patient”).

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is currently scheduled for release in 2011 and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

George Clooney, Jeffrey Wright Shine in "Syriana"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 178 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


Syriana (2005)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence and language
DIRECTOR: Stephen Gaghan
WRITER: Stephen Gaghan (suggested by the book See No Evil by Robert Baer)
PRODUCERS: Jennifer Fox, Michael Nozik, and Georgia Kacand
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Elswit, A.S.C.
EDITOR: Tim Squyres
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Starring: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Amanda Peet, Christopher Plummer, Alexander Siddig, Mazhar Munir, Akbar Kurtha, Sonnell Dadral, Nadim Sawalha, and William C. Mitchell

In 2000, Stephen Gaghan won the “Best Adapted Screenplay” for the 1999 film, Traffic, which took a look at drug-trafficking through several different points of view, each one a sub-plot in the film, making Traffic not only one film, but a movie composed of several mini-movies. Gaghan, now as both writer and director, tries that method again with the film, Syriana, a politically-charged thriller about the international oil industry, oil trading, and the politics as seen through the eyes those personally involved in the business and politics and those affected by business and politics behind energy.

Syriana, even more so than Traffic, is a riveting, but cerebral political thriller that demands that the viewer pays attention, rather than “turn his brain off” as he or she would in a sit-back-and-enjoy, special effects-laden thriller. The film follows characters from the brokering rooms and halls of power in Washington D.C. to the oils fields of the Persian Gulf, and weaves multiple storylines that look at the human consequences of the decisions of the wealthy and powerful oil players.

A murder plot that he is initiating in Beirut, Lebanon goes bad for Bob Barnes (George Clooney), a career CIA operative. Suddenly, circumstances beyond his control mark him as a failure, and Barnes becomes the subject of an FBI investigation. Relegated to a desk job, he begins to wonder about the disturbing work to which he’s dedicated his life.

The target of Barnes’ assassination plot was the handsome and charismatic Prince Nasir Al-Subaai (Alexander Siddig). Nasir makes a deal with a Chinese company for his country’s natural gas drilling rights, a arrangement that will bring more money to the nation than a similar deal with an American oil company, Connex Killen. He finds a kindred spirit in Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon), an oil broker/energy analyst, who discovers that an horrifically painful family tragedy has given him a lucrative deal with the idealistic Gulf prince. Nasir is the apparent heir to the throne of his country, and his father, the Emir Hamad Al-Subaai (Nadim Sawalha) is ill. However, Nasir’s younger brother, the callow and not bright Prince Meshal (Akbar Kurtha), is more amenable to American interests, so the Americans, in particular Connex Killen, are angling to have the Emir (king) chose Meshal as his successor.

The American oil company Connex Killen is the result of a recent merger of two energy entities – Connex, a Texas energy giant, and Killen, a smaller Texas oil company. Killen and its owner, Jimmy Pope (Chris Cooper), also used shading dealings to land drilling rights to coveted oil fields in Kazakhstan, which also lands them under an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) is a quiet, but highly ambitious Washington attorney at Sloan Whiting. It is his job to get the Connex Killen merger through the Justice Department. Holiday, subtle and very smart, must give the federal investigators enough material to make their case against Killeen for its shady dealings in Kazakhstan without jeopardizing either the deal or the merger with Connex.

Ultimately, the machinations of all these men play a part in the life of Wasim Kahn (Mazhar Munir), a young man from Pakistan who works in the Gulf oil fields with his father. After being laid off because of Nasir’s deal with the Chinese, he becomes angry and disillusioned. The Pakistani teenager and his friend Farooq (Sonnell Dadral) join a madrassa, where they fall under the sway of The Cleric (Omar Mostafa) a mysterious blue-eyed Egyptian. He is the same man who took possession of one of the Stinger missiles Bob Barnes sold to arms dealers in Tehran, Iran at the beginning of the film.

Syriana lacks the shaky camera work and rapid editing director Stephen Soderbergh used to give intensity to the Stephen Gaghan-penned Traffic. Gaghan’s film is subtle and eschews the documentary style atmosphere Traffic had. Syriana’s labyrinthine plot and convoluted script snake through a massive ensemble of players, of which very few are more important than others. Even someone with only a little screen time impacts the narrative, shaping the paths of other characters.

Although all the characters are interesting and the performances of them are nice, only two stood out to me. First, Alexander Siddig’s Prince Nasir is a driven man, and Siddig tells as much about the character through his face as he does through the script. Nasir is clearly a man of ideas, a leader and a charming and captivating one at that, but Gaghan only gives Nasir one scene in which he gets to show his ability to lead. That one scene, with generals and other leaders of his country, actually strikes as a bit hollow because there was never any indication prior to that that Nasir would go so far to assure his ascendancy to Emir. Nasir is essential to Syriana’s concept and more of him would have solidified the film’s ideology, but Gaghan ultimately leaves him bare (at least in this cut of the film, which apparently existed in a longer version before it hit U.S. theatres).

The other stand out character is Bennett Holiday, and in the role of Holiday, Jeffrey Wright gives Syriana’s best performance. Like the film, Wright’s Holiday is quiet, but determined. Delicately and with restraint, Holiday will achieve his means. Holiday is actually more successful in his venture than the film in which he exists. Wright makes Holiday Syriana’s focal point; basically, he is the point at which all sub-plots meet or he determines the resolution of others. Holiday, like Syriana, is pragmatic and not very judgmental. Clearly he knows right and wrong, and Syriana obviously believes that much of what people and nations do for the wealth and power that oil and natural gas gives them is harmful to their own long term interests and the immediate well being of many humans, but Holiday is pragmatic, and, to a lesser degree, so is Syriana though the creators might not admit that.

Still, Syriana is about how the world is than about how the world should be. Sometimes, the film’s tagline, “What is the price of oil?” seems like a rhetorical question. We can agree that the actions of many of the film’s players (and there real life counterparts) are selfish, harmful, and wrong, but things are what they are. Perhaps, Syriana is asking us to consider the ramifications of how we get our energy, but a lot of the film’s message and action are to the imagination. Gaghan is clearly sending his message to a more thoughtful film audience. He doesn’t expect the rank and file Joe Blow to give a hoot how the fuel gets to his four-wheeler, or what the ultimate cost of getting it there is. He does expect people who claim they care and are interested, regardless of their political affiliations and ideologies, to take this and create action. What that action is and how it benefits all of humanity is not answered, but I can guess it involves humans being less dependent on oil.

Sadly, the film is too short, sometimes oblique, and occasionally vague. The film’s star, George Clooney, is actually the star of a truncated sub-plot in Syriana. If given more screen time, Bob Barnes’ storyline would have been an edge-of-the-seat international thriller – the dessert portion of Syriana’s gourmet meal. I couldn’t help but leave the theatre wondering about what could have been. Still, what we do get is damn good.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, December 10, 2005

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (George Clooney); 1 nomination: “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (Stephen Gaghan)

2006 BAFTA Awards: 1 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (George Clooney)

2006 Black Reel Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Supporting Actor” (Jeffrey Wright)

2006 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (George Clooney); 1 nomination: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Alexandre Desplat)

Review: "Quantum of Solace" Finds James Bond with a Hard-On for Payback

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 46 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Quantum of Solace (2008)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some sexual content
DIRECTOR: Marc Forster
WRITERS: Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade
PRODUCERS: Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roberto Schaefer (director of photography)
EDITORS: Matt Chesse and Richard Pearson
MAIN THEME: “Another Way to Die” performed by Alicia Keys and Jack White and composed by Jack White
BAFTA Awards nominee

ACTION/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, Gemma Arterton, Jeffrey Wright, David Harbour, Jesper Christensen, Anatole Taubman, and Joaquín Cosio

The 2006 version of Casino Royale rebooted the James Bond film franchise. The follow up film, Quantum of Solace (the 22nd Bond film), is a rough and tumble, rip-roaring action movie that is probably more Jason Bourne than it is James Bond. Still, this is a very good action thriller.

Quantum of Solace continues immediately after the events of Casino Royale. James Bond (Daniel Craig) rushes the captured Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) to Siena, Italy, where Bond and M (Judi Dench), his M16 superior, will interrogate White. The interrogation is interrupted, however, by a double agent. Bond follows the trail of the double agent to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), the charismatic leader of an ecological organization called Greene Planet. Behind Greene Planet’s seemingly legitimate business interests and benevolent aims hides Quantum, a powerful terrorist organization plotting to overthrow the government of Bolivia.

For Bond, this mission is as much about vengeance as it is about duty. Quantum is also connected to the death of the woman Bond loved, Vesper Lynn, (who betrayed him and died in Casino Royale). In Bolivia, Bond is joined by Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko), a young woman hunting the murderer of her family, Bolivian general, Medrano (Joaquín Cosio), and a co-conspirator of Greene’s. As he gets closer to finding the man responsible for the betrayal of Vesper, Bond leaves a pile of bodies in his wake, and soon the CIA and his own agency are hunting him.

By now, moviegoers are used to the fact that the Daniel Craig James Bond is not the “shaken, not stirred” Bond of the past. Bond is now as much an ass-kicking action hero, leaping and running all over the place, as he is a cool secret agent (if not more). And Quantum of Solace is certainly kick-ass. It isn’t more of the same; the film simply takes the cool action scenes of Casino Royale and multiplies them.

Craig is ultra-cool as the ruthless “blunt instrument,” and his performance here – balancing a broken heart with a barely concealed hard-on for revenge – is tasty. Mathieu Amalric is smashing as Dominic Greene; rarely has such a weasel of a villain been so attractive. Judi Dench and Jeffrey Wright deliver their usually good performances.

From the opening rollicking car chase (one of the best I’ve seen in a long time) to the desert hotel showdown, this Bond packs a wallop. Quantum of Solace lacks the smart elegance of the typical James Bond movie (which even Casino Royale had), but I’ll take solace in this quick, sweet, brutal gem of an action movie.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
2009 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Sound” (James Boyle, Eddy Joseph, Chris Munro, Mike Prestwood Smith, and Mark Taylor) and “Best Special Visual Effects” (Chris Corbould and Kevin Tod Haug)

-------------------------

Review: James Bond is Refreshed and Thuggin' Out in "Casino Royale"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 238 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Casino Royale (2006)
Running time: 144 minutes (2 hours, 24 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violent action, a scene of torture, sexual content, and nudity
DIRECTOR: Martin Campbell
WRITERS: Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Paul Haggis (based upon the novel by Ian Fleming)
PRODUCERS: Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Phil Méheux, BSC
EDITOR: Stuart Baird, A.C.E.
THEME SONG: “You Know My Name” performed by Chris Cornell (written by Chris Cornell and David Arnold)
BAFTA Award winner

ACTION/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, and Mads Mikkelsen with Jeffrey Wright and Judi Dench, and Giancarlo Giannini, Caterina Murino, Ivana Milicevic, Simon Abkarian, Sébastien Foucan, and Jesper Christensen

Back in 1995, director Martin Campbell launched the first Pierce Brosnan James Bond film, GoldenEye. Eleven years later, Campbell helms another re-launch of the James Bond franchise with Casino Royale, the 21st James Bond movie. This new film takes Bond back to early in his career, and we get a new actor playing Bond, Daniel Craig (Layer Cake, Munich), who brings a bit of the thug to the venerable secret agent.

In his first big mission as 007 (Double 0 means the agent has a license to kill… but you knew that), James Bond tackles terrorism. M (Judi Dench), the head of British Secret Service, M16, is unsure of her new agent, who tends to leave a pile of bodies in his wake. Still, Bond travels to Madagascar where he engages in a pulse pounding chase of the would-be bomber, Mollaka (Sébastien Foucan). This is the kind of hard work Bond must do to learn that the key figure in a terrorist money laundering scheme is Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a banker to the world’s terrorists.

In order to stop Le Chiffre and bring down the terrorist network, Bond eventually has to face Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game (Texas Hold ‘em) at Casino Royale (located in an unnamed town in Montenegro). In his corner, Bond has a beautiful British Treasurer official named Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), and of course, their initial disinterest in each other becomes a mutual attraction that goes farther. Meanwhile, dark forces have gathered around Le Chiffre, and Bond is finding that some of his own allies may be on Le Chiffre’s side.

How is Daniel Craig as James Bond? Imagine Sean Connery, but darker, edgier, and much more dangerous. Personally, I like it, but having Bond as a cold, killing machine is a bit off-putting. Still, Craig has an absolutely magnetic screen presence, and it’s hard not to focus on him even in a crowd scene. And he has a rock hard body.

Meanwhile, the overall film is pretty good. Almost gone are the sci-fi elements that have been a staple of Bond films, to one extent or another, since the beginning. Casino Royale is like the Jason Bourne films (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy), but darker still. The film has several dry spots, but the narrative makes up for that with several edge-of-the-seat action sequences – each one mesmerizing. Martin Campbell does an excellent job keeping up the heart-pounding thrills by taking us from Europe to Madagascar to the Bahamas to Miami and back to Europe again (to an eventual explosive finale in Venice). In fact, Campbell does an excellent job staging the thrills so quickly and pacing them so well that the bad moments in Casino Royale seem like a figment of the viewer’s imagination. Even the poker game, which makes up the middle act of Casino Royale, is great.

While Craig is quite good, the rest of the cast is mostly average. Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd hardly registers as a Bond girl, and Mads Mikkelsen is a half-menacing and half comic stock villain. Judi Dench, however, has a lot of bite in her as M, and Dench, a truly fine actress, hits the right note in each of her scenes – so much so that her M is missed whenever she leaves.

I’m reluctant to compare Casino Royale to other Bond films because it is so different, but judged on its own, this is a fine film. Whether this new direction will stand firm over the long run is a question for the future, but right now, Casino Royale is a good thing.

7 of 10
B+

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

NOTES:
2007 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Sound” (Chris Munro, Eddy Joseph, Mike Prestwood Smith, Martin Cantwell, and Mark Taylor); 8 nominations: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Martin Campbell, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis), “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (David Arnold), “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Steven Begg, Chris Corbould, John Paul Docherty, and Ditch Doy), “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Daniel Craig), “Best Cinematography” (Phil Meheux), “Best Editing” (Stuart Baird). “Best Production Design” (Peter Lamont and Simon Wakefield), and “Best Screenplay – Adapted” (Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis)

--------------------