In Contention

Tag: Ballast

  • THE LISTS: Top 10 directorial debuts of the decade

    JimMyron Ross in BallastTo me, “great cinema” means something I haven’t seen before or something I have seen before presented in a new way. With 110 years of motion pictures behind us, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to meet those standards, especially since filmmakers find it a lot easier to give in to preconceived notions of story structure, character arcs and tidy resolutions than to try and present something truly unique on the screen. So more often than not, when something new comes along, a new filmmaker unhinged to big money or heavy reputations is brought along with it.

    Actually researching the titles eligible for inclusion made me realize just how few great debut films there really are, let alone in this decade. Most great filmmakers needed at least one title or two to really get their bearings straight. M. Night Shyamalan, Christopher Nolan, Michel Gondry, David Fincher and Alexander Payne all come to mind. Not everyone can be Spike Jonze after all.

    That said, there’s also something amazing and beautiful about catching an artist at their most raw and naïve. Often, the only way to rewrite the rulebook is to be unaware that you are breaking any rules in the first place. When it comes to art, the line between genius and stupidity can be nearly invisible. For example, a film that came close to making this list was “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy.” Less a movie than a patchwork of scenes and caricatures, Adam McKay clearly had no specific vision for this thing since an entire second movie was constructed out of deleted scenes. But what he came up with benefits from a legitimate sense of anarchy that isn’t present in any of his or Will Ferrell’s subsequent work. And from Chaplin and Keaton to Johnny Knoxville and Sacha Baron Cohen, the cornerstone of great comedy has been anarchy.

    Let’s get the obvious out of the way. This list may be a bit premature as there are six whole months left for some obnoxiously talented filmmaker to set my world on fire with their debut work and I’m denying him or her a rightful spot on this list. Well, what are you gonna do? It’s not like I’ve seen all the films eligible for inclusion released up until this point anyway. I’m taking my chances. And before I get stick in the comments, believe me, I was surprised and disappointed that no foreign film made the list. It’s not that I didn’t see many; it’s just that I didn’t see any that deserved it. And yes, I’ve seen “Amores Perros.”

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  • ‘Frozen River’ continues its run at Gothams

    “Frozen River” is really turning into one of the surprise packages of this admittedly young awards season. Just yesterday it had a superb showing in yesterday’s Independent Spirit nominations, where it beat the more hotly fancied likes of “The Visitor” to a Best Picture nomination, only two days after landing an unexpected nod in the top category at the Golden Satellite Awards (fending off even heavier opposition, principally “Benjamin Button”).

    Now its dream week continues after taking the Best Feature award at last night’s Gotham Awards, as well as a Best Breakthrough Actor gong for Melissa Leo. Not bad going for a film that was only being talked of in Best Actress circles a few months ago.

    If it continues to emerge as this year’s indie Cinderella story, I’ll be interested to see what notice the Academy takes of it. I sense a Best Original Screenplay nod for Courtney Hunt is a genuine possibility considering the dearth of heavyweights in that field. At the very least, however, the more momentum the film gains, the more I like Leo’s chances of a well-deserved Best Actress nod.

    Moving on to the rest of last night’s awards, I’m glad to see that “Synecdoche, New York” jointly triumphed in the Best Ensemble category, tying with “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” — with a scattering of Spirit noms too, at least Charlie Kaufman’s widely misunderstood masterpiece isn’t getting completely shafted this awards season.

    Meanwhile, Lance Hammer unsurprisingly took the Best Breakthrough Filmmaker award for critics’ darling “Ballast,” while sentimental favou Sitrite “Trouble the Water” emerged victorious in the Best Documentary category.

    The cutely named Best Film Not Playing At A Theatre Near You citation went to “Sita Sings the Blues,” while Penelope Cruz, Gus Van Sant, Melvin Van Peebles and documentary vet Sheila Nevins tooks home tribute awards.

  • ‘Ballast,’ ‘River,’ ‘Rachel’ lead the Indie Spirit nods

    James Franco in MilkI’m late to the table on today’s Independent Spirit Award nominations because I’ve been toiling away on the latest Oscar column (which should be up shortly).  Obviously, Sony Pictures Classics dominated the scene but I’m glad to see that this year’s crop is more “independent” than in years past.

    One nomination that stuck out to me was James Franco in the supporting actor category for “Milk” (a film good enough for four nominations but not for Best Picture — explain that to me).  Early on the idea was that Josh Brolin’s foil character Dan White would be the better bid for the category at the Oscars.  Then word came that James Franco was the heartbeat of the piece and likely a better fit.  Finally, the film landed and I was not alone in thinking Brolin hit his performance out of the park.  Now this, so who knows?  I still get the feeling Emile Hirsch is lurking in the wings waiting for a surprise, maybe with SAG or even Oscar, but that’s a difficult trio of supporting contenders to work through at the moment.

    I get the feeling this year’s Indie Spirits will be dominated by “The Wrestler” and “Rachel Getting Married,” maybe some love for “Frozen River” here and there.  I’m happy to see “Synecdoche, New York” land the Robert Altman Award (which always seems to go to a highly deserving crew), and I’ll certainly be pulling for Harris Savides yet again in the cinematography category.

    The nominations:

    Best Feature
    “Rachel Getting Married” (Neda Armian, Jonathan Demme, Marc Platt)
    “The Wrestler” (Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin)
    “Wendy and Lucy” (Larry Fessenden, Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani)
    “Ballast” (Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh)
    “Frozen River” (Chip Hourihan, Heather Rae)

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  • Still nobody knows anything

    At least, that’s the message I get from Pete Hammond’s latest column, in which he somewhat half-heartedly claims that the Best Picture frontrunners at this stage are “WALL-E,” “The Dark Knight” and “Changeling.” In that order, apparently — with “Slumdog Millionaire” creeping up behind.

    I realize Hammond has access to more Academy members than I do (not hard, since I know none), but I find that hard to swallow. Of the summer blockbusters, “The Dark Knight” looks to me to have more campaigning momentum than “WALL-E,” though I’m still not predicting it as a nominee. And I can’t see “Changeling” making much headway in the race with such a mixed critical reception. Surely, of the seen contenders, “Slumdog Millionaire” is ahead of all three. What I really learn from this is that Academy members clearly need to see more movies.

    More helpful to me is this tidbit Hammond offers on the Best Foreign Language Film race:

    From what we’ve been told only Germany, Japan and Russia have made any significant impact, with Italy’s Cannes Grand Prix winner, “Gomorra,” getting predictions that it will be one of the final five, despite mixed response from some who frowned on its generous amount of violence. And the Portuguese film “Our Beloved Month of August” was apparently so poorly received that some members were trying to leave before they could “officially” exit and still receive credit for seeing it.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Button’ rises, ‘Torino’ surfaces, ‘Doubt’ swoops

    Apologies for the slightly delayed wrap. Much to discuss this week — here are the highlights:

    • With some formerly hot prospects now off the radar, this week’s Off the Carpet column surveys the landscape, and concludes that things look good for “Benjamin Button.”

    • “The Soloist” withdrew as the AFI fest opener; their loss is “Doubt”‘s gain.

    • With a trailer for “Gran Torino” finally emerging, we wonder if Clint Eastwood is the real frontrunner for Best Actor.

    • The Gotham Independent Film Awards unveiled the season’s first set of nominees — good news for titles like “Ballast” and “The Visitor.”

    • More impressions from the London Film Festival, including hot foreign-language contender “The Class.”

    • Still in London, we caught up with “Happy-Go-Lucky”‘s superb Best Supporting Actor contender, Eddie Marsan.

    • This week’s edition of Tech Support put Art Direction in the spotlight.

    • We were in a listmaking mood this week, rounding up some of the most scandalously unnominated actors of this era …

    • … while John Foote reminisced over his personal favourite movie moments.

    • And finally, who should host the Oscars? Our answer may surprise you.

  • ‘Ballast’ tops list of Gotham Indie award nominees

    BallastThe Gotham Independent Film Award nominees have been announced (note the change in moniker this year), and Lance Hammer’s Mississippi drama “Ballast” leads the pack with four nominations.  Six films received two nominations apiece, including Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York,” Jonathan Demme’s “Rachel Getting Married” and Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

    One film that might have popped up had it been eligible was Gus Van Sant’s “Milk,” but the film was not ready to screen for IFP in time.

    These are the first set of film awards nominations of the 2008 season, kicking off the campaigns for more than a few potential Oscar contenders, including actresses Rosemarie DeWitt, Melissa Leo and Rebecca Hall, each of them nominated in the Breakthrough Actor category.  The documentary race also includes a number of Oscar hopefuls, “Man on Wire,” “Trouble the Water” and “Encounters at the End of the World” among them.

    The frontrunner at this point is probably the bread-winner of the nomiantions process: “Ballast.”  But I have a feeling “The Visitor” could spark enough support to surprise in the end.  Also nominated for Best Feature is Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” the film’s only mention.

    The awards will be held on Tuesday Decmber 2 at New York’s Cipriani Wall Street.

    (Full list of nominees after the jump.)

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