In Contention

Tag: Synecdoche New York

  • ‘Moon’ redrawn: own a future classic

    I know there are a lot of “Moon” fans and collector types among you, so I thought this worth mention. The great British design studio All City, who dreamed up the justly famous poster for Duncan Jones’s sci-fi debut, have launched a new series of limited edition Redrawn poster concepts for some of their most famous titles of recent years — all of them available to purchase.

    The striking sketch-based prints are all eminently frameable: this rejigged take on the “Moon” poster appears to be the most popular, but I’m just as keen on what they’ve done with the likes of “Control,” “Let the Right One In” and “Spirited Away.” At around $120 to $240 a pop, they’re not quite bargainous, but should age pretty nicely. Check ’em out here; some of my favorites after the cut.

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  • Ebert names ‘Synecdoche’ the decade’s best

    Philip Seymour Hoffman in Synecdoche, New YorkI’m happy to see the Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert is bold enough to tap something like Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” as the best film of the decade.  His list on the whole is rather singular, I found, which is also refreshing.

    Of his number one pick, he says:

    “Synecdoche, New York” is the best film of the decade. It intends no less than to evoke the strategies we use to live our lives. After beginning my first viewing in confusion, I began to glimpse its purpose and by the end was eager to see it again, then once again, and I am not furnished. Charlie Kaufman understands how I live my life, and I suppose his own, and I suspect most of us. Faced with the bewildering demands of time, space, emotion, morality, lust, greed, hope, dreams, dreads and faiths, we build compartments in our minds. It is a way of seeming sane.

    That’s a wonderful way of summing up the work of Charlie Kaufman, who I recently called the “filmmaker of the decade.”  His is perhaps the most penetrating and insightful work in the medium today.  Check out the rest of Ebert’s list here.

  • THE LISTS: Top 10 actors under 30

    Abbie Cornish in CandyI wrote recently about how this year’s Best Actress race seems to ushering in a striking new wave of young talent, from the elfin throwback charm of Carey Mulligan to the rawer screen presence of Gabourey Sidibe, while a range of youthful names, from the long-hyped Abbie Cornish to the out-of-nowhere Katie Jarvis, have been racking up critical plaudits all year.

    Whether Academy voters comply or not, it’s hard to disagree that it’s a good year to be a fresh face.

    Meanwhile, the industry’s male twentysomethings may have enjoyed less frenzied acclaim than their fairer counterparts, but the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Whishaw and – yes – Shia LaBeouf have kept things ticking over for the generation quite respectably.

    So, with the teen-driven narratives of “An Education” and “Precious” heading for theaters soon, and with the youth romance of “Bright Star” currently pleasing older arthouse audiences, it seemed an apt moment to celebrate the new guard by ranking the finest talent that the born-after-1980 generation has to offer.

    And believe me when I tell you it was one of the trickiest lists I’ve ever compiled on this site. The more I contemplated recent successes and breakthroughs, the longer the shortlist of candidates grew, spanning Academy-endorsed names already on the A-list (Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal) to quirkier talents from the indie and foreign sectors (Sam Riley, Emilie Dequenne). I like to think that the fact that I struggled as much as I did to narrow the list down to 10 names bodes very well for the future.

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  • 5/20 Web Round-up

    (from left) James Cameron and Sam Worthington on the set of Avatar• Peter Sciretta asks for your most hated uses of CGI in movie history. [/Film]

    • Charlie Kaufman talks “Synecdoche, New York,” his “mutant horro film,” across the pond. [Daily Telegraph]

    • IMAX plans to cozy up next to James Cameron’s “Avatar” for an extended run. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Donna Freydkin chats up “Terminator Salvation” star Christian Bale. [USA Today]

    • Matt Bradshaw remembers the movie summer of 1980. [Cinematical]

    • Christopher Campbell puts together a casting call for Steven Spielberg’s recently announce Martin Luther King biopic. [Spout Blog]

    • Richard Corliss picks the top 10 Cannes films ever. [Time]

  • Charlie Kaufman on Charlie Kaufman

    Charlie KaufmanFlipping through Empire Online’s typically entertaining list of features recently, I stumbled across this portrait of filmmaker Charlie Kaufman (whose brilliant “Synecdoche, New York” opened in the UK this weekend) giving one-offs on the six features sprung from his twisted mind to date.

    There’s talk of his working relationship with director Michel Gondry on their first effort, “Human Nature” (which I still haven’t seen), the agony of adapting Susan Orlean’s “The Orchid Thief” into 2002’s “Adaptation” and meeting Harvey Keitel and Pierce Brosnan at the Oscars in 2004 (when Kaufman one the original screenplay award for his masterpiece, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”).  My favorite is this aside about “Being John Malkovich”:

    “There’s something about John Malkovich that’s odd and unknowable. There’s a look in his eye that makes me imagine there’s someone else looking out from inside his head. His name is funny, you know – when people say ‘Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich’, it’s funnier than any other name I’ve tried. And I’ve tried other names, because we didn’t know if we can get him. We also thought of Christopher Walken, we thought about Willem Defoe. I don’t know what that group is exactly, but they’re serious actors, they’re good actors, but they’re slightly odd. So it’s funny, but it’s not a joke in the way it would be if it were, say, Jerry Lewis.”

    Kaufman also calls “Synecdoche” a “horror film,” which I’d be willing to go along with.  I’d be willing to go along with just about anything he has to say on that film, to be honest.  It’s the most bizarrely brilliant film that I can’t qualify to come across my path in a long, long time.  And suddenly I want to see it again.

  • The Brits get it

    Samantha Morton in Synecdoche, New YorkOf course, the film is very old news to all of you Stateside, but allow me a moment to say how proud I am that my fellow Englishmen — well, the critics among them, at least — have embraced Charlie Kaufman’s stunning “Synecdoche, New York” with open arms.

    The film opens today in the UK to a raft of rave reviews from the local broadsheets, including rare five-star notices from the Guardian and the Telegraph. Here’s a sample of Peter Bradshaw’s awestruck review:

    The film is either a masterpiece or a massively dysfunctional act of self-indulgence and self-laceration. It has brilliance, either way: surreal, utterly distinctive, witty, gloomy in the manner that his fans will recognise and adore, but with a new epic confidence, absorbing the influences of Fellini and Lynch … At the end of it all, you will feel as if you have lived through some crazy tragedy, swum a chlorinated Hellespont of tears. It is not for everyone, but is utterly extraordinary in its way. If Charlie Kaufman never does anything again, this will stand as his cracked monument.

    I always suspected that the film would probably play better across the pond than in the States — though to be fair, it’s not as if the film doesn’t have it share of American devotees. But I’m so pleased to see a clearer consensus emerging on the film this time around — perhaps if there had been similar unanimity of praise on its U.S. release, the film wouldn’t have got quite so buried in awards season. (I’m not deluding myself into thinking the film could have been a major player, but the fact that there was nothing for, say, Samantha Morton all season still really smarts.)

    Anyway, the rehabilitation begins here. Hurrah.

  • A pleasure deferred

    As I walked past my local cinema (that would be my beloved Dalston Rio, if there are any other fans out there) en route to the supermarket this morning, I was rather struck by this new poster for Charlie Kaufman’s masterpiece “Synecdoche, New York.”

    Synecdoche, New York

    After spending a moment admiring the one-sheet and wondering why I had never seen it before, it only then occurred to me that the film has yet to be released in the UK. Yes, you Yanks read that right: the film only hits Limey screens in a fortnight’s time. (Of course, to make up for it, we get a lot of European titles ahead of the States — with the curious exception of “Let the Right One In,” which only bowed last month.)

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  • ‘The Wrestler’ wins big at the Indie Spirits

    Mickey RourkeDarren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” walked away three trophies at today’s Independent Spirit Awards, including top honors for Best Actor (Mickey Rourke) and Best Feature.

    In his greatest acceptance speech of the season, Rourke seemed fully uninhibited, almost as if he said, “Screw it, ballots are in,” and he cut loose.  The tough guy thing poked through here and there as well as a lot of humorous forgetfulness. (He thanked Searchlight honcho Peter Rice and Rice’s “boss, Jim Jimanopoulos, or something like that.”  Of course he meant Fox studio chief Jim Gianopoulos).  But mostly, it was expletive-laden (like the Spirits like), raunchy and overall, still strangely endearing.

    Rourke briefly dedicated the award to recently deceased pet chihuahua Loki, of course, in a choked-up moment that seemed to beautifully contrast with the rest of the rant.  He held the mic like a rock star might, pushing it away during the applause moments and bringing it back to his lips to finish his thoughts.  He also dedicated a solid 60 seconds to his friend Eric Roberts.  “Whatever he did 15, 20 years ago should be forgiven,” Rourke said.  “Eric Roberts is the fucking man and he deserves a second chance.  I wish there’d be one God damned filmmaker in this room that’d let him fly because the man is something else.”

    Melissa Leo’s speech in acceptance of the lead actress award — not so much.  She rambled, she seemed self-involved, overly dramatic, pompous…let’s just say it’s probably a good thing she hasn’t accepted too many awards publicly this year because I think it would have damaged her Oscar chances.  That’s just me, but it’s a hell of a performance and justly rewarded tonight.

    “Milk” won two trophies early on, James Franco taking down a win in the Best Supporting Actor category and Dustin Lance Black’s first screenplay award.  “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” also secured a pair: Best Screenplay for Woody Allen and Best Supporting Actress for Penelope Cruz.

    Tom McCarthy won the Best Director prize despite his film “The Visitor” not showing up in the Best Feature category, while Charlie Kaufman took home the Best First Feature prize for the exceptional “Synecdoche, New York,” which also won the pre-announced Robert Altman Award.

    (More, plus the full list of winners after the jump.)

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  • My dream ballot: part two

    OK, I explained the deal with this yesterday, when I covered the technical categories. What follows are the names and films that I, in a perfect world, would like to hear announced by Sid Ganis and Forest Whitaker bright and early tomorrow morning. (Or tomorrow afternoon, in my case … living across the Atlantic does have occasional advantages.)

    Once more, my personal ballot takes no notice of Academy rules, eligibility squabbles, or whether or not anyone believes they have a shot in hell. For me, they simply represent the finest achievements I saw in 2008, with all the subjectivity that entails. Feel free to argue, or share your own distant hopes for tomorrow — however faint — in the comments.

    Best Picture
    “The Class”
    “Gomorrah”
    “I’ve Loved You So Long”
    “Synecdoche, New York”
    “Wendy and Lucy”

    OK, so this won’t comes a surprise to anyone who read my Best of 2008 list, but these remain for me the year’s five most clear-cut masterworks. I’ve already made the case for each of these nominees at greater length, but for now, let me say that they are all notably linked by their startling humanity and strength of characterisation. The Academy will inevitably focus on works more formally elaborate than most of those listed here, but from where I’m standing, none were more emotionally rewarding. (As it happens, my honourable mentions here get their due in the next category.)

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  • ‘Dark Knight’ tops our list of the year’s best

    The Dark KnightIn lieu of a proper Tuesday list, I thought I’d do something a little different this year, since we have a slew of contributors and In Contention is no longer the brain space of just one person.  I polled all our writers for their individual top 10 lists, which you can find detailed after the jump.  But with the lists in hand, I pulled out the trusty abacus and went about the painstakingly in-depth analysis of each to surmise a collective top 10.  The results were interesting.

    No film appeared on all five lists, which is already an accomplishment, I’d say.  Four films appeared on four lists and four on three.  The remaining two films on the collective appeared on two lists.  No film popping up on just one list was taken into account, so you don’t get to march with torches over a “Bolt” inclusion.

    “The Dark Knight” became the obvious victor early on, but Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” came a lot closer than you might think.  I used a simple point system per ranking, but in all scenarios, the number of lists featuring a film was given precedence over points.  This made for a good tie-breaker here and there and, in some cases, caused for this film or that to leap-frog another.

    Consider this my ultimate salute to our contributors who, I doubt I’m alone here, did a bang-up job in 2008.  Here’s to an equally splendid 2009.

    In Contention’s top 10 films of 2008:

    1. “The Dark Knight”
    2. “Synecdoche, New York”
    3. “Slumdog Millionaire”
    4. “WALL-E”
    5. “Milk”
    6. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    7. “The Wrestler”
    8. “Let the Right One In”
    9. “Rachel Getting Married”
    10. “In Bruges”

    Honorable mention: “Gomorrah,” “Hunger,” “Pineapple Express”

    (Individual lists after the jump.)

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  • EXCLUSIVE: Best Makeup contenders narrow to seven

    Luke Goss in Hellboy II: The Golden ArmyThe first bake-off of the season is here, narrowing the Oscar contenders for Best Makeup down to seven.  The finalists are:

    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “The Dark Knight”
    “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
    “The Reader”
    “Synecdoche, New York”
    “Tropic Thunder”
    “The Wrestler”

    No major surprises here.  My predicted three are still in the mix.  In fact, I missed the top seven in my chart by just one, “The Reader” in favor of “Frost/Nixon.”  But the show of support for “The Wrestler” is certainly telling, and perhaps a worthy inclusion, given the attention to brutal battle detail in the pro wrestling flick.

    If there are any surprise omissions, it might be the aforementioned “Frost/Nixon,” or perhaps “W.”  Oh, and “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”  I believe the first installment made it this far.  No go on the considerably less popular sequel.  But on the whole, this process seems to have been organic enough, leaving us with a solid septet.  I could see any combination of three making it in.

  • For the completists

    Over at Gold Derby, Tom O’Neil lists all the runners-up (with points tallies) from yesterday’s National Society of Film Critics awards, along with other gossipy tidbits from the days proceedings. (Most stupid/amusing nugget: Eve, the eerily Applesque female robot from “WALL-E,” garnered a lone Best Actress vote.)

    The full list is below the cut, but here are a couple of bits and bobs that jumped out at me. It’s interesting to see that Sally Hawkins and Sean Penn won their respective categories by a landslide, in a single round of voting. (Seriously, what does distant runner-up Mickey Rourke have to do to gain some traction?)

    Meanwhile, “Waltz With Bashir” pulled off its stunning Best Picture victory in the second round of voting, after its animated cohort “WALL-E” led in the first round. Talk about a good day for the animated medium. What a second Best Picture citation from one of the ‘big three’ critics groups could have done for “WALL-E”s chances is a matter for contemplation, but it’s still very much on the radar — I’m still betting (naively, perhaps) it’ll make the Academy’s top five.

    Elsewhere it’s nice to see Michelle Williams’ extraordinary work in “Wendy and Lucy” at least appearing in the mix, while “Synecdoche, New York” and “A Christmas Tale” (narrowly behind “Happy-Go-Lucky”) make the NSFC’s Best Screenplay table a very classy one indeed. An interesting oddity in the Best Supporting Actress category is that Viola Davis actually tied on points with winner Hanna Schygulla (a truly inspired choice, for my money), but was placed second as she appeared on fewer ballots.

    Finally, can I just say how much I love these guys for giving Eddie Marsan some props? Finally.

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  • Small pleasures: Guy’s best (and worst) of 2008

    It’s a lovely thing when you realize, at least part of the way through adulthood, that we still possess the ability to surprise ourselves. When left to graze at leisure, the mind can stumble upon some unexpected notions, frequently overriding the conclusions we thought we had reached after twelve months of watching, writing and (occasionally over-) thinking. And more often than not, it knows best.

    This is what I discovered when I sat myself down on a poolside lounger in the remote hills of Portugal’s Algarve region and set about finalizing this list, which had been eating away at me for the better part of the last six weeks. After various tortured drafts drawn from my scrappy 2008 diaries, notebooks and In Contention entries — none of which looked sufficiently reflective or, frankly, right to me — I decided to dispense with notes entirely and start from scratch, using my memory as my sole resource.

    And so it was that when I asked myself, “What’s the best film you saw in 2008,” the answer that came was not only amazingly swift, immediately satisfying and ultimately inarguable, but it was not the answer I expected to receive. Of course, I knew the film would crop up somewhere prominent in the list — the mind is a filter, after all, not a magician’s hat — but it was one of several films this year (and indeed, on this list) that I would call “growers.”  You see them, you like them, but it takes a few weeks, months even, of rumination and interpretation before you realize just how much you love them.

    It’s something that should be borne in mind when it comes to awards voting, which work on a “survival of the fittest” basis: some films simply take longer than others to make a collective (or selective) impact. This may rule them out of competition time frames, but it doesn’t make them lesser achievements. Similarly, certain films that seem like huge, important deals at the time can leave us scratching our heads when removed from the flurry of the season. In a perfect world, Oscar voting would take place a year or two (or 10) after the release of the year-end glut — but it was ever thus.

    One perception of mine that hasn’t changed through the compilation of this list, however, is that it’s been a year of bijou pleasures. As one talked-up Hollywood title after the other disappointed, dissipated or dared to be merely “good,” the films left standing for me were mostly on the intimate side: small but beautifully formed works bound by character rather than concept, often asking penetrating questions about society, family and the nature of the individual. As the Americans, by and large, treaded water, European cinema soared, with France enjoying a particularly golden streak — the likes of which we haven’t seen in well over a decade.

    I may have complained often in these pages that it’s been a “bad year” for film, but as I look down the list of 20 titles that I finally arrived at, covering as it does a pretty rich variety of moods and forms, it now seems graceless to say so. When Hollywood flickers, different voices emerge, and for that we should be grateful. Perhaps it hasn’t been a bad year…just a smaller one.

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  • INTERVIEW: Michelle Williams

    Fate can have a bittersweet sense of timing, and Michelle Williams understands this better than most. A 2008 that started bleakly with the passing of Heath Ledger, her former partner and the father of her daughter, has ended as a professional banner year for the 28 year-old actress.

    A triptych of startling performances in a disparate array of projects — Sharon Maguire’s “Incendiary,” Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York,” and, most prominently, Kelly Reichardt’s “Wendy and Lucy” — have made this the year Williams consolidated the Oscar-nominated promise she demonstrated as a member of strong indie ensembles in the likes of “Brokeback Mountain” and “The Station Agent,” and emerged as a great, free-standing actor in her own right.

    Further accolades have rolled in, with her tricky, film-carrying performance in “Wendy and Lucy” earning her an Independent Spirit nod and a Best Actress award from the Toronto critics, while in the background, her late ex remains the year’s most talked-about thespian. When she sighs wistfully over the phone from New York and says that it’s been “a weird year,” that barely seems to cover it.

    It’s another curious reversal that the film largely responsible for making this such a big year for Williams truthfully couldn’t be any smaller. “Wendy and Lucy” is a brilliant, elegiac piece of Americana that easily ranks among the year’s finest films. The story of a young, broke drifter, Wendy, whose already fragile existence collapses when she is separated from her best friend Lucy, a yellow-gold mongrel, it inauspiciously came her way as a short story (“Train Choir,” by co-scripter Jon Raymond) with a brief note attached — the lean script still uncompleted.

    “Todd Haynes recommended it to me,” she says, referring to the iconoclastic auteur who directed her in last year’s “I’m Not There.” “He’s a mutual friend of mine and Kelly’s, and he thought we’d be a good fit. So I read it — I mean, I’d be stupid not to trust the judgment of someone like Todd.”

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Memo to the Academy

    The Academy Awards–MEMO–

    TO: Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
    FROM: Kristopher Tapley

    RE: The ballot you recently received

    Ladies and gentleman,

    As you sit to ponder the year’s best in your various fields of professional expertise, you might find yourself strong-armed into the consensus view 2008’s film product has been whittled down to over the last 30 days.  You might even find yourself at a loss, cramming as much as you can after a year of constantly working with nary a moment to spare a trip to the cinema.  Such last minute jitters can yield an unconsidered and, certainly, lackadaisical approach to your annual responsibilities as AMPAS members.  But I implore you to take your time with this, be measured, and above all, take pen to paper with a level of seriousness.

    While I would never presume to tell you how to go about filling in your respective ballots, I hope you don’t find it too bold of me to offer a few closing words of encouragement and suggestion as we close the book on 2008.  The glut of film awards season fades into a numbing hum you’d perhaps rather ignore until the holidays have run their course, so come back to these words at a later date if you must.  They merely represent the humble opinion of one passionate film lover who believes in the potential of your organization and the ideals it stands for.

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  • “Agonized and beautiful”

    At the risk of sounding stoned on hope, I offer the following heresy: The movies are fine. Sometimes they’re great; occasionally they’re magnificent.

    The twelfth-graph opener in Manohla Dargis’s recent year-end wrap-up.  The sentiment would be a nice reference to Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York,” which Dargis calls “a grievously underloved film about life and death and every agonized and beautiful thing in between.”  Curiously, she’s the only critic in the New York Times triumverate who found a place for the film on her list.

  • Best in show: the year in superlatives

    Cate Blanchett in The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonThe year is slowly coming to a close, and after this week’s year-in-review pieces, I’m happy to see so much healthy and spirited discussion on my humble picks for the year’s best films.  Today I’m wrapping all of that up with a list of superlatives, some of them in your usual categories, the staples, some of them in a couple of, oh, let’s call it “fun” arenas that I like to mix in year in and year out.

    I should note, however, that Nathaniel Rogers at The Film Experience is the king at this stuff.  His annual “Film Bitch Awards” are a must-read.  Here’s last year’s set.

    So with that, let’s get into the awards.  I used to call these the “In Contention Awards,” but I don’t think that’s fair anymore now that we have a slew of contributors.  So I’ll let them speak to their favorites at their leisure.  These reflect my views of the season and mine only.  You know the Best Picture champ, of course, but beyond that, I hope you enjoy the rundown.  Just keep the (inevitable) disagreement friendly:

    Best Picture
    “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures)

    Best Director
    Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

    Best Actor
    Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”

    Best Actress
    Cate Blanchett, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

    Best Supporting Actor
    Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”

    Best Supporting Actress
    Samantha Morton, “Synecdoche, New York”

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  • All in the family: a note on the SAG nods

    I know I shouldn’t get upset. As Sasha Stone over at Awards Daily repeatedly intones, when it comes to awards analysis, “the trick is not minding.” You should coolly observe the trends, learn from them and be guided always by your head rather than your heart.

    But damn it, I’m only human. I can’t help getting invested in certain contenders. And I don’t mind admitting that I was utterly dismayed by this morning’s thoroughly unadventurous and, worse yet, insular set of SAG nominations. Did the voters really carefully consider all the possible options before putting pen to ballot paper? Did they really take time to decide which of the year’s performances and ensembles most moved and challenged them? Or did they simply reel off the five names in each category that they’ve heard the most about, and think are most likely to feature in the Oscar race?

    Maybe the answer to the first two questions is “yes.” But I doubt it. I find it hard to imagine that any actor adequately attuned to their own craft could consider all the female supporting performances of the year and somehow decide that Amy Adams’ performance in “Doubt” was more rich and complex than what Rosemarie DeWItt achieved in “Rachel Getting Married,” or Marisa Tomei in “The Wrestler.”

    I don’t believe (or at least I don’t want to believe) that actors who supposedly have some experience of ensemble work can fail to notice that the ensembles of “Synecdoche, New York,” “The Dark Knight,” “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” or even “Rachel Getting Married” are denser, more intricate and infinitely more integrated than those of “Frost/Nixon” or “Doubt.”

    A great ensemble is about more than the prestige of the names within it. You’d expect actors to understand that, and last year’s off-the-wall nominations for “Hairspray” and “3:10 to Yuma” suggested that maybe, just maybe, they did. This year, however, was back to business as usual, as they turn their highest and most unique award into yet another Best Picture-emulating copycat list.

    (More thoughts, and predictions, after the cut.)

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