2011 Gotham Awards Chooses "Beginners" and "The Tree of Life"

The Gotham Awards were handed out Monday night, November 28th. The Gotham Awards honor independent films:

21st Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards Winners and Nominees:

Best Feature (tie)
WINNER: Beginners (Focus Features)
Mike Mills – director
Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Miranda de Pencier, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen - producers

WINNER: The Tree of Life (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Terrence Malick - director
Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Grant Hill – producers

Nominees:
The Descendants
Alexander Payne, director; Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Meek’s Cutoff
Kelly Reichardt, director; Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani, Elizabeth Cuthrell, David Urrutia, producers (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Take Shelter
Jeff Nichols, director; Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)

Best Documentary
WINNER: Better This World (Loteria Films, Picturebox, Motto Pictures and Passion Pictures; ITVS in association with American Documentary
POV)
Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega –directors
Katie Galloway, Kelly Duane de la Vega, Mike Nicholson – producers

Nominees:
Bill Cunningham New York
Richard Press, director; Philip Gefter, producer (Zeitgeist Films)

Hell and Back Again
Danfung Dennis, director; Mike Lerner, Martin Herring, producers (Docurama Films)

The Interrupters
Steve James, director; Alex Kotlowitz, Steve James, producers (The Cinema Guild)

The Woodmans
C. Scott Willis, director; Neil Barrett, Jeff Werner, C. Scott Willis, producers (Lorber Films; Kino Lorber, Inc.)

Best Ensemble Performance
WINNERS: Beginners (Focus Features)
Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller, Keegan Boos

Nominees:
The Descendants
George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Margin Call
Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Aasif Mandvi (Roadside Attractions)

Martha Marcy May Marlene
Elizabeth Olsen, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, Maria Dizzia, Julia Garner, John Hawkes, Louisa Krause, Sarah Paulson (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Take Shelter
Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Tova Stewart, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon, Kathy Baker, Ray McKinnon, Lisagay Hamilton, Robert Longstreet (Sony Pictures Classics)

Breakthrough Director
WINNER: Dee Rees for Pariah (Focus Features)

Nominees:
Mike Cahill for Another Earth (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Sean Durkin for Martha Marcy May Marlene (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Vera Farmiga for Higher Ground (Sony Pictures Classics)
Evan Glodell for Bellflower (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Breakthrough Actor
WINNER: Felicity Jones for Like Crazy (Paramount Vantage)

Nominees:
Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Harmony Santana in Gun Hill Road (Motion Film Group)
Shailene Woodley in The Descendants (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Jacob Wysocki in Terri (ATO Pictures)

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
WINNER: Scenes of a Crime
Blue Hadaegh, Grover Babcock - director-producers

Nominees:
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same
Madeleine Olnek, director; Laura Terruso, Madeleine Olnek, producers

Green
Sophia Takal, director; Lawrence Michael Levine, producer

The Redemption of General Butt Naked
Eric Strauss, Daniele Anastasion, directors and producers

Without
Mark Jackson, director; Mark Jackson, Jessica Dimmock, Michael Requa, Jaime Keeling, producers

Second Annual Gotham Independent Film Audience Award
WINNER: Girlfriend
Justin Lerner - director-producer
Jerad Anderson, Kristina Lauren Anderson, Shaun O’Banion - producers

New this year is the Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant. It is a $25,000 cash award for an alumnus of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs, which aims to further the careers of emerging women directors by supporting the completion, distribution and audience engagement strategies of their first feature film.

WINNER: Lucy Mulloy, director, UNA NOCHE

Nominees:
Jenny Deller, director, FUTURE WEATHER
Rola Nashef, director, DETROIT UNLEADED

Review: "DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story" is Still Funny (Happy B'day, Ben Stiller)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 100 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story (2004)
Running time: 92 minutes (1 hour, 32 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for rude and sexual humor, and language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Rawson Marshall Thurber
PRODUCERS: Stuart Cornfeld and Ben Stiller
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jerzy Zielinski
EDITOR: Alan Baumgarten and Peter Teschner
COMPOSER: Theodore Shapiro

COMEDY/SPORTS with elements of romance

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor, Ben Stiller, Rip Torn, Justin Long, Stephen Root, Joel David Moore, Chris Williams, Alan Tudyk, Missi Pyle, Jamal E. Duff, Gary Cole, Jason Bateman, Al Kaplon, Curtis Armstrong, and Hank Azaria with (cameos) Lance Armstrong, Chuck Norris, and William Shatner

DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story is a 2004 sports comedy set in the world of competitive dodgeball. Ben Stiller is one of the film’s producers and is also one of the movie’s stars. DodgeBall follows an underdog dodgeball team and their rivalry with a powerhouse team from a big-budget gym.

A group of misfits band together and enter a dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas in order to save their cherished gym, Average Guy Gym. The gym owner, Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn), is not an ambitious guy, but he reluctantly joins his friends/customers to go after the $50,000 championship prize.

This prize money will save his gym from foreclosure, where upon it will end up in the hands of Global Gym and its owner, White Goodman (Ben Stiller). When Goodman learns that Peter’s friends will compete in the tournament and that Peter is also dating an attorney (Christine Taylor) he desires, Goodman assembles a killer team of hired muscle to compete in the Las Vegas tournament against Peter and his friends.

DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story is absolutely hilarious. It’s witty, sarcastic, lewd, crude, snarky, and unabashedly lowbrow, but ultimately it’s the kind of belly laugh comedy that doesn’t come around often enough. It’s not high art; it’s the love child of such films as Caddyshack and Revenge of the Nerds. Vince Vaughn, once destined to be a matinee idol, has turned out to be a funny comic actor who gets plenty of mileage out of dry wit and dead pan humor, and though he is warmer than he is hot in this film, he makes DodgeBall.

Anyone who can not take DodgeBall seriously and has the kind of sense of humor that finds a film like Dude, Where’s My Car? funny will like this.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2005 Razzie Awards: 1 nomination: “Worst Actor” (Ben Stiller)

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New York Film Critics Choose "The Artist" and Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep

Founded in 1935, the New York Film Critics Circle is, according to their website, “an organization of film reviewers from New York-based publications that exists to honor excellence in U.S. and world cinema.” Members are critics from daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, magazines, and online general-interest publications (that meet certain qualifications).

Every year in December, Circle members meet in New York to vote on awards for the year's films.  Apparently, they moved things up this year to have more clout in the awards conversation. Will they?  Well, The Artist is a black and white silent movie, which may get Oscar nominations, but will critical acclaim give it a best picture win?  I have not seen The Artist, but I'd be super surprised if it won best picture.

Here's the complete list of the 2011 winners:

Best Picture - The Artist

Best Director - Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist

Best Screenplay - Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin for Moneyball

Best Actress - Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady

Best Actor - Brad Pitt for Moneyball, The Tree of Life

Best Supporting Actress - Jessica Chastain for The Tree of Life, The Help, Take Shelter

Best Supporting Actor - Albert Brooks for Drive

Best Cinematographer - Emmanuel Lubezki for The Tree of Life

Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary) - Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Best Foreign Film - A Separation

Best First Film - J.C. Chandor for Margin Call

Special Award -Raoul Ruiz

Review: Anna Faris Saves "The Hot Chick" (Happy B'day, Anna Faris)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 8 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Hot Chick (2002)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for appeal for crude and sexual humor, language and drug references
DIRECTOR: Tom Brady
WRITERS: Rob Schneider and Tom Brady
PRODUCERS: Carr D'Angelo and John Schneider
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tim Suhrstedt
EDITOR: Peck Prior
COMPOSER: John Debney

COMEDY/FANTASY/ROMANCE

Starring: Rob Schneider, Anna Faris, Matthew Lawrence, Eric Christian Olsen, Robert Davi, Rachel McAdams, Alexandra Holden, Maritza Murray, Tia Mowry, Tamara Mowry, Fay Hauser, and Jodi Long, Melora Hardin, Michael O’Keefe, and Dick Gregory with Adam Sandler

The Hot Chick is a 2002 American body-switching comedy starring Rob Schneider, Anna Faris, and Rachel McAdams. Adam Sandler served as one of the film’s executive producers and has a small role in the film for which he did not receive screen credit.

The Hot Chick seems to send you a warning from beyond the movie poster – Warning! This is really lowbrow trash! Luckily, movie is very funny, and Rob Schneider has that gift to make you look past the bad story material, the same kind of material upon which his career seems to thrive.

Jessica (Rachel McAdams) is the hot chick, the most beautiful girl in school, but also the cruelest, and she just can’t help herself when it comes to being full of herself. A pair of ancient, mystical earrings (please, don’t question it) causes her to switch bodies with Clive (Rob Schneider). So Clive’s body contains Jessica’s essence and personality, while Jessica’s body belongs to the soul of Clive, a low rent, dumb criminal.

Jessica reveals her new body to her close friend, April (Anna Faris), and, of course, April slowly comes to love Clive. Perhaps, the strangest thing is that so many come to easily accept Jessica’s predicament once it’s revealed to them. I guess it just makes for more characters to be in on the joke, more people to suffer the cruel fate of this movie’s pratfalls.

Schneider and co-writer/director Tom Brady pile the script with so many sight gags and so much gross humor, bodily functions, and sexual innuendo that there’s bound to be quite a few things to laugh at. Relentless, they don’t give the viewer enough time to focus on the holes in the plot. So what? It’s a cheap laugh. How many times do bad movies, especially this kind of cheap comedy, payoff and give make us laugh literally from its beginning to the its very ending?

Besides, I’m really in love with Anna Faris. I’d see this movie again just for her.

5 of 10
C+

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Review: "The Music Lovers" Loves Tchaikovsky (In Memoriam: Ken Russell)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 26 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Music Lovers (1970)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK
Running time: 123 minutes (2 hours, 3 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Ken Russell
WRITER: Melvyn Bragg (based upon the books by Catherine Drinker and Barbara von Meck)
PRODUCER: Ken Russell
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Slocombe
EDITOR: Michael Bradsell

BIOPIC/DRAMA/MUSIC

Starring: Richard Chamberlain, Glenda Jackson, Max Adrian, Christopher Gable, Kenneth Colley, Isabella Telezynska, and Maureen Pryor

Must genius suffer for the sake of his art? That’s just one of the themes of Ken Russell’s wild and fanciful, The Music Lovers, the 1970 biographical film about the life and career of Romantic-era Russian composer, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. The film covers the rise of his star at the Moscow Conservatory to his death in 1893 and focuses on the sweeping beauty of his music, as well as the tragedies of his personal life as they influenced his musical output.

As the film begins, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) teaches harmony at the Moscow Conservatory. He is composing his early music, but it meets with disfavor from his mentor Nicholas Rubinstein (Max Adrian), who got him the position at the Conservatory. At this point, the film becomes what we might now consider a music video. Russell uses Tchaikovsky’s music to illustrate the young musician’s personal moods and his confidence in himself as a composer. Of course, Tchaikovsky’s music is beautiful, but when Russell combines the music with powerful visuals, he makes us feel the composer’s joy for life and for his art. It’s a heady, emotional rush; personally, my eyes were literally glued to the screen and my spirits soared with sublime beauty of Tchaikovsky’s jams. I simply couldn’t escape the impressionistic sensations that literally bleed from the film. The music soars and the visuals rush by in a stream of surrealistic landscapes, so you can’t help but be caught up with and in Tchaikovsky.

The film does take some liberties with history as many films of this type do. The composer gains a patron, a wealthy widow, Madam Nadezhda von Meck (Isabella Telezynska), who provides him with a annual allowance which helps him to find more time to compose. Around that same time, he meets and marries Antonina Milyukova (Glenda Jackson), a student at the conservatory who sends him a love letter. The film severely compresses the time between Madam von Meck’s endowment and the composer’s marriage to his admirer, which is historically inaccurate. However Russell plays the effect of these two relationships on the composer off each other.

In Russell’s film the marriage stunts Tchaikovsky’s development as a composer much to the chagrin of his patron, his teachers, his friends, and his brother Modeste (Kenneth Colley). The marriage is unhappy from the onset and is not helped by the arrival of his mother-in-law (Maureen Pryor). Instead, Russell creates an idealized romantic love between Tchaikovsky and Madam von Meck that contrasts with his troubled marriage to Nina. The burdens of maintaining these two vastly different romances move the film forward to its tragic resolutions.

That’s probably the most powerful thing about this film, the juxtaposition of the sublime beauty of Tchaikovsky’s music and the debilitating traumas of his personal relationships. Usually, such extreme misery would be a turnoff, but Russell frames everything in the context of Tchaikovsky’s beloved compositions. Everything that happens to the composer in his film is understood in the context of the music. In a sense, you have to wonder what came first. On one hand, I can realize that the music came from his life experiences, but in the framework of the movie, I got the feeling that the music, whether through the influence of his patrons, admirers, friends, or family, was the master controller. Russell beautifully presents this conflict of creativity: the music or the life, which comes first? He takes full advantage of the visual possibilities of film, while opening up the senses to what the addition of sound can do for the movie viewing experience.

The performances are brilliant, but I especially give kudos to Ms. Jackson as Nina. Her transformation from a beautiful young thing to pitiable mental case is astonishing. She essentially plays two people, and she reinforces that by undergoing an almost total physical transformation from romantic heroine to tragic, broken woman.

For those who love Tchaikovsky, The Music Lovers is an interesting take on the famed composer’s life, and fans of his will certainly love the music. For lovers of films, this is a peak work by one of the great visual stylists, a man whose work is an eye-popping blend of the grandiose, the bizarre, and the beautiful.

8 of 10
A

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"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1" Actually Dark and Moody

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 99 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011)
Running time: 117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, sexuality/partial nudity and some thematic
DIRECTOR: Bill Condon
WRITER: Melissa Rosenberg (based upon the novel by Stephenie Meyer)
PRODUCERS: Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt, and Stephenie Meyer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Guillermo Navarro
EDITORS: Virginia Katz
COMPOSER: Carter Burwell

FANTASY/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Julia Jones, Chaske Spencer, Gil Birmingham, Boo Boo Stewart, and Michael Sheen

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is the fourth film in the Twilight Saga film franchise. Like the previous films: Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is based upon the wildly popular Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer. Each of the first three films is based upon one of the first three books in the series; however, the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, is being adapted into two movies.

Breaking Dawn – Part 1 continues the love story a young human woman, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), and her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), as the two join hands in marriage. Not everyone is happy about the nuptials, especially Bella’s friend, the Native American werewolf, Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Jacob vehemently objects to Edward’s honeymoon plans for the couple, as he believes what Edward plans could kill Bella. The couple honeymoon on the private island of Isle Esme in Brazil, but Bella makes a shocking discovery that puts a strain on her relationship with Edward. That discovery also threatens the Cullens’ treaty with Jacob’s tribe and Bella’s very life.

Although I enjoyed it, I don’t have as much to say about The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 as I had about the previous movies. Most of this film is joyless, but it isn’t slow. The story deals with the darker side of romance and family; even the wedding is filled with omens and portents. This is a jarring difference from the rest of the series, which depicted young love growing stronger and more confident. I would be lying if I did not admit that I wanted more of that. There were times in this movie that I was begging for the unhappiness to hurry up and end.

For those hungry for more vampire vs. werewolf action, that dominates the second half of the Breaking Dawn – Part 1. This physical, tribal, racial conflict offers an energetic anecdote to the gloomy Gus that is most of this film. Also of note: I don’t know if it was because of the theatre in which I saw Breaking Dawn – Part 1, but there were times in the film that the musical score was so loud that I could not hear the dialogue.

Anyway, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is, thus far, the least of the series, but it is not at all a bad movie. It tells a good story, but it does come across as weird (even weirder than vampire stories normally are) and wonky.

6 of 10
B

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Review: New "Conan the Barbarian" is Gleefully Lunatic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 98 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Conan the Barbarian (2011)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody violence, some sexuality and nudity
DIRECTOR: Marcus Nispel
WRITERS: Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, and Sean Hood (based upon the character, Conan, created by Robert E. Howard)
PRODUCERS: John Baldecchi, Boaz Davidson, Randall Emmett, Joe Gatta, Avi Lerner, Danny Lerner, Fredrik Malmberg, and Les Weldon
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Thomas Kloss
EDITOR: Ken Blackwell
COMPOSER: Tyler Bates

FANTASY/ACTION

Starring: Jason Momoa, Stephen Lang, Rachel Nichols, Ron Perlman, Rose McGowan, Bob Sapp, Leo Howard, Steven O’Donnell, Nonso Anozie, Saïd Taghmaoui, Milton Welsh, and Morgan Freeman (narrator)

Conan the Barbarian is a fictional character created by Robert E. Howard. Conan first appeared in publication in the December 1932 issue of Weird Tales in the short story, “The Phoenix on the Sword.” Howard featured Conan in several short stories, but only one novel. After Howard’s death, other authors would write Conan novels, and the character has also appeared in comic books nearly non-stop since 1970.

The character is best known, outside of people who read fantasy fiction and comic books, for his appearance in two films from the early 1980s. Arnold Schwarzenegger portrayed Conan in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Conan the Destroyer (1984). After over two decades, Conan returned to movie screens in Conan the Barbarian, a 2011 action/fantasy film and sword and sorcery movie. In the new film, Conan seeks revenge against the ambitious and ruthless warlord who killed his father.

After his father, Corin (Ron Perlman), is killed and his entire village murdered, young Conan (Leo Howard) swears revenge. The killer is an empire-building warlord, Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang), who wants to reassemble the Mask of Acheron, an ancient relic that will give him the power to conquer the world. The story picks up 20 years later and finds Conan (Jason Momoa) a pirate living amongst the Zamoran pirates led by Artus (Nonso Anozie).

Fate brings Conan into contact with one of the men who raided his village. From this man, Conan learns that Zym and his sorceress daughter, Marique (Rose McGowan), are searching for a pureblood descendant of the necromancers that made the Mask of Archeron. They find that descendant in the form of Tamara Amaliat Jorui Karushan (Rachel Nichols), a young woman living in a monastery, but Conan gets Tamara first. This begins a battle between Conan and Zym that will decide the fate of the world.

There are so many fantasy films in theatres that are aimed at the family audience or, at least, general audiences, including females. Conan the Barbarian is aimed squarely at males, but mainly at males whose balls dropped more than a few years ago. Speaking of balls: Conan the Barbarian is balls to the wall in terms of the sheer lunacy thrown on the screen. This movie is hardcore – even more so than the darker Conan the Barbarian and certainly more than its lighter, PG-rated sequel, Conan the Destroyer. Hacking, slashing, a bloody caesarean, beheadings, torture, topless wenches, mass murder, and assorted depictions of gore and brutal murder: this is the real Conan, steeped in the violent and edgy material of weird pulp fiction.

Visually, Conan the Barbarian looks like a Robert E. Howard Conan story should look. There are swarthy pirates, hefty warriors, comely maidens and wenches, reptilian witches, and miscreants of all sizes and shapes. Barbarian villages dot the landscape; ruined fortresses protrude from rocky outcroppings; a monastery hides beyond a cavernous pass; immense castles and structures reach for the sky; and deceptively fast ships cut across the sea.

Conan the Barbarian does have its problems. The movie is a little too long, and, without spoiling, I can say that some of the places the story sends Conan don’t seem to make much sense. It is as if the film is simply being stretched or the story padded. Some of the action scenes work very well, but others are simply extraneous or gratuitous.

The characters are bit shallow, but the actors make the most of them. I would describe the performances as grand and flamboyant rather than over the top. Rose McGowan is a hoot as the conniving, vicious Marique. Stephen Lang brings to this movie the same aggressive physicality he brought to Avatar as the villain, Colonel Miles Quaritch. It is difficult for me to separate Arnold Schwarzenegger from Conan, but I like Jason Momoa’s take on the character. Momoa’s Conan is younger, leaner, and meaner; he is like a wolverine and a panther.

Overall, I like this new Conan the Barbarian. Visually, aesthetically, and in the story, it reminds me of many of the Conan comic books that I read as a kid, especially The Savage Sword of Conan. With its disappointing box office, there likely won’t be a sequel, but the new Conan the Barbarian deserves one.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, November 26, 2011

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