A fairly great poster from Mike White's upcoming directorial debut. I just wish that the entire image was an illustration.

The Astronaut Farmer

In all four of their films the Polish brothers have set their stories in places that are distinctly American. It is actually one of the best parts of them, seeing what details they include to make the surrounding feel familiar, yet also a bit like something you have never seen.

The Astronaut Farmer seems at first glance to be there most conventional film to date, and in a way it is, but their perspective remains refreshingly skewed toward the unusual and uncommon. The whole film seems like an art film made for children.

Thats not to say everything works. I liked the fact that there were no conventional and unnecessary sub plots but there is a point at the end of the second act that feels forced and another that you expect the minute you meet a certain character. It's better for the story to take these turns though, instead of relying on cliche.

Also, there is an uncredited actor that I was surprised to see show up for a few scenes. He is there to try an talk some sense into Billy Bob Thornton's character and it was nice to see him show up in something like this.

Not tired of all the Oscar hype yet? Kristopher Tapley at In Contention has posted his predictions for next years race. He has also posted a list of his predicted winners on his blog. Granted, this is way too early for any of these to be taken completley serious but how else are you going to fill your time until the next awards season?

Bicycle Thief/Thieves

This has been confusing me for sometime now and I was reminded of it during the Oscars last night. Criterion is releasing Vittorio De Sica's masterpiece but the title has changes from The Bicycle Thief to Bicycle Thieves. During the montage of Best Foreign Language winners last night the title was shown as the former, and every time I've seen the movie it has always been referred in the singular. In the context of the movie the plural makes more sense, but when did the title change?

Best Picture: The Departed. Wow. This is great. This is the first year in memory where my favorite movie of the year wins best picture. It is amazing that this movie, or at least this kind of movie, acutally won. That is all, I think I'll rewatch The Departed now.

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed. Finally.

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland. Even though he's reading it, his speech is really good.

Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen. You could have skipped out on watching the oscars and known the answer to that one.

Best Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker, The Departed. Wow, this is great. There is a theory that the category that usually predicts the best picture winner is editing. If this is the case this year I will be ecstatic.

The Michael Mann clip about America in the movies was really good.

Best Original Song: Melissa Etheridge. In honor of the song nominees I present you with this...

Best Original Screenplay: Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine. Best Adapted Screenplay gets Helen Mirren and Tom Hanks reading lines from the scripte. Original gets Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.

Best Orinal Score: Gustavo Santaolalla, Babel

Best Documentary: An Inconvienant Truth. Al Gore and Jerry Seinfeld are on the same stage.

Best Documentary Short Subject: The Blood of Yingzhou Discrict.

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson.

Best Foreign Language Film: The Lives of Others. So Pan's has won everything it was nominated for then loses this. For a year that was supposed to not have any upsets there has been a lot of upsets. It looks like Cate Blanchette was shocked when she announced the winner.

Both of these are taken from Hollywood Elsewhere but I agree with both of them.

Ellen and Clint...that's funny. The digital camera routine with Steven Spielberg....funny. Ellen is a great host. As good as Johnny Carson was in the old days...as good as Billy Crystal in the mid '90s.

That Wes Anderson American Express commercial is still brilliant, especially that moment when Wes starts to talk and suddenly we hear the sound of gunfire -- BLAM! -- and Wes hesitates for only a second and then keeps going.

Best Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean

Best Cinematography: Guillermo Navarro, Pan's Labyrinth. This is quite an upset. Children of Men should have won. Pan's could end up wining the most awards tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if it upset Little Miss Sunshine in original screenplay.

So far the show has actually been really good and entertaining but the speeches have all been a bit boring.

Best Costume Design: Marie Antoinette

Best Adapted Screenplay: William Monahan, The Departed.

I'm pretty sure when the announcer started Academy Award winning writer that he would end it with Ben Affleck.

Best Animated Feature: Happy Feet. Glad the director of Babe: Pig in the City has an oscar.

I have now lived long enough to see interpretive dancing at the oscars...twice.

Best Supporting Actor goes to Alan Arkin. The first upset, Eddie Murphy had basically won everything up to this point. Blame Norbit.

Sound Mixing goes to Dreamgirls. I guess that means the guy that has been nominated 18 times before will have to wait until a 19th time.

What are all these people doing making noises? I have no idea what is happening. The next award is for Sound Editing. Letters From Iwo Jima wins. I like it when they show clips of the people working during the naming of the nominees.

I just decided this would be much easier if I just did a new post for everything so from now on that is how it's going to go. I'm sure everyone is excited.

This is my favorite night of television, followed closely by the first weekend of March Madness, Mavericks playoff games, and ThursdaysI al. I'll be watching from beginning to end and it seems I have nothing better to do than sit here and post updates.

Oscar Telecast 2007

I was a bit confused by the penguin opening. It wasn't funny it didn't really go anywhere.

Somebody just stepped out of the seventeenth century to pick out shoes for Jennifer Hudson.

The man from the seventeenth century now looks somewhat like a grape. He is apparently doing interviews and is asking all the hard hitting questions about buttoning sweaters.

This is the second mention of Jennifer Hudson as the new peoples princess. I have no idea what that means.

And now the show is starting...

I always like it when they get Errol Morris to do these documentaries. Clint Eastwood gets the best line with "stuff like that." Also quite odd that Stan Brakhage gets a shout out.

Only three minutes in and already the first shot of Jack Nicholson. Who has a shaved head.

How did Al Gore become the most popular man in the world?

The first category is...Art Direction. The winner, Pan's Labyrinth. I am glad we are getting clips of all the films and am even happier that the producers aren't playing music behind the speeches like last yea.

Well, that song, was acutally funny.

Makeup Award goes to Pan's Labyrinth.

Best Animated Short goes to The Danish Poet. A movie I have never head of and will more than likely never see.

Best Live Action Short...West Bank Story.

Independent Spirit Award Winners

Best Feature:
"Little Miss Sunshine"

Best Director:
Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, "Little Miss Sunshine"

Best First Feature:
"Sweet Land"

Best Documentary:
"The Road to Guantanamo"

Best Foreign Film:
"The Lives of Others"

Best Female Lead:
Shareeka Epps, "Half Nelson"

Best Male Lead:
Ryan Gosling, "Half Nelson"

Best Supporting Female:
Frances McDormand, "Friends With Money"

Best Supporting Male:
Alan Arkin, "Little Miss Sunshine"

Best Screenplay:
Jason Reitman, "Thank You For Smoking"

Best First Screenplay:
Michael Arndt, "Little Miss Sunshine"

Best Cinematography:
Guillermo Navarro, "Pan's Labyrinth"

Someone to Watch Award:
Julia Loktev, "Day Night Day Night"

John Cassavetes Award:
"Quinceañera"

Truer Than Fiction Award:
Adele Horne, "The Tailenders"

Producers Award:
Howard Gertler and Tim Perell, "Shortbus," "Pizza"

Special Distinction:
David Lynch, Laura Dern, "Inland Empire"

Oscar Predictions

I really have no idea on any of these. There seems to be a few categories that are all but decided (best actor, actress) and some that any of the nominees could win (best picture). And with that, my guesses...

Performance by an ACTOR in a LEADING ROLE

Pick: Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland
Preference: Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland

I really liked Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson but he has no chance of winning. I never saw Venus so can't comment on Peter O'Toole and Whitaker really gives the most dynamite performance.

Performance by an ACTOR in a SUPPORTING ROLE

Pick: Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
Preference: Mark Wahlberg - The Departed

Eddie Murphy has won basically every award up to this point and it's probably a mistake to go against him here but can the star of Norbit really win an oscar?

Performance by an ACTRESS in a LEADING ROLE

Pick: Helen Mirren - The Queen
Preference - Helen Mirren - The Queen

The safest bet of the night.

Performance by an ACTRESS in a SUPPORTING ROLE

Pick: Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Preference: Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls

I feel like she is winning this for one song but it's a hell of a moment in the movie. I think it will be more interesting to see what or if she does anything next.

Best ANIMATED FEATURE FILM of the Year

Pick: Cars
Preference: Monster House

Cars was good but not one of the best Pixar efforts. Monster House felt like those adventure movies from the eighties that have kids doing amazing things while their parents are away at work.

Achievement in CINEMATOGRAPHY

Pick: Children of Men - Emmanuel Lubezki
Preference: Children of Men - Emmanuel Lubezki

The other nominated films all look nice but this is the only one that was actually groundbreaking.

Best DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Pick: An Inconvenient Truth
Preference: An Inconvenient Truth

Granted, I have only seen two of the nominees but if everything that this movie predicts actually happens, those kids from Jesus Camp will never get a chance to take over the world.

Achievement in FILM EDITING

Pick: Babel - Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise
Preference: United 93 - Clare Douglas, Richard Person, and Christopher Rouse

Filmed much like a documentary the editors of United 93 has to go through countless hours of footage to construct the story on the plane.

Best FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM of the Year

Pick: Pan's Labyrinth
Preference: Pan's Labyrinth

It's the only one I have seen of the nominees. The Lives of Others seems to be its only competition.

Best WRITING, SCREENPLAY BASED ON MATERIAL PREVIOUSLY Best WRITING, SCREENPLAY BASED ON MATERIAL PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED OR PRODUCED

Pick: The Departed - William Monahan
Preference: The Departed - William Monahan

"I'm gonna go have a smoke right now. You want a smoke? You don't smoke, do you, right? What are you, one of those fitness freaks, huh? Go fuck yourself."

Best WRITING, SCREENPLAY WRITTEN DIRECTLY FOR THE SCREEN

Pick: Little Miss Sunshine - Michael Arndt
Preference: Little Miss Sunshine - Michael Arndt

I would be equally happy if Letters From Iwo Jima won.

Achievement in DIRECTING

Pick: The Departed - Martin Scorsese
Preference: The Departed - Martin Scorsese

He's probably the greatest living director.

Best MOTION PICTURE of the Year

Pick: Babel
Preference: The Departed

Like I said earlier, any of these five could win and it wouldn't be a big surprise (well, maybe if The Queen wins).

And the rest of the categories. Only predictions, no preference...

Achivement in ART DIRECTION:
Pan's Labyrinth
Art Direction: Eugenio Caballero
Set Decoration: Pilar Revuelta

Achievement in COSTUME DESIGN:
Dreamgirls - Sharen Davis

Best DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT:
Recycled Life - Leslie Iwerks and Mike Glad

Achievement in MAKEUP:
Pan's Labyrinth - David Martí and Montse Ribé

Achievement in MUSIC Written for Motion Pictures (ORIGINAL SCORE):
The Queen - Alexandre Desplat

Achievement in MUSIC Written for Motion Pictures (ORIGINAL SONG):
“I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth - Music and Lyric by Melissa Etheridge

Best ANIMATED SHORT FILM:
The Little Matchgirl - Roger Allers and Don Hahn

Best LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
West Bank Story - Ari Sandel

Achievement in SOUND EDITING:
Letters from Iwo Jima - Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman

Achievement in SOUND MIXING:
Dreamgirls - Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer and Willie Burton

Achievement in VISUAL EFFECTS:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Allen Hal

Grindhouse Banner

I still don't know how I feel about this movie(s) but all the artwork and trailers have been fantastic. Below is the latest example.

A Very Altmanesque Tribute to Altman

Ghost Rider

By no means is this a good movie. It's almost a so bad it's good but takes itself a little too seriously to receive that endorsement. Not Nicolas Cage though. He is so bad he's good. He eats jelly beans from a martini glass.

I don't really feel like writing more so here are some observations I thought up during the movie. I had a lot of time to think during the movie.

1. In the beginning of the movie we are introduced to young Johnny Blaze and Roxanne Simpson. They are in love and 17. Later, when the two characters meet again they are played by Cage and Eva Mendes. Nicolas Cage is 43 and Eva Mendes is 32 so it seems the two have bigger problems than just the Ghost Rider. Something like the space time continuum.

2. All comic book heroes origin stories are ridiculous. Peter Parker was bit by a radioactive spider, Bruce Banner was zapped by gamma rays. Ghost Rider gets his power because the Devil was impressed with his motorcycle jumping abilities.

3. Ghost Rider's most powerful attack basically comes down to him being really good at staring.

Breach

Breach is good, actually really good. Thing is, I'll probably never watch it again. I guess that's a bit of a backhanded compliment but the whole thing is so lean it doesn't really require repeat viewing.

The film is about Robert Hanssen, a high-ranking FBI agent who for years passed classified information to the Soviets. He was a brilliant and sinister guy, a devout Catholic, yet also a guy who secretly recorded homemade porn.

I was unaware of most of the details about Robert Hanssen before seeing this and the movie does a good job of presenting all the facts. I would have actually liked a little more detail about him. Chris Cooper does such an amazing job playing Hanssen that you start to miss him when he is off the screen. The performance is up there with his orchid farmer from Adaptation as the best thing he has ever done.

I also appreciated the small details throughout the movie. That Hanssen uses dial up internet (it's set in late 2000-early 2001) and the websites you briefly see look the era. There didn't seem to be any inaccuracies that would take you out of the movie.

Notes:

1. I am getting tired of these straightforward one word titles. Just during the coming attractions there were two others, Premonition and Fracture. Granted it's better than calling them something along the lines of Executive Decision or Extreme Measures.

2. I saw this at the Rave Theater at Northeast Mall. The two Rave's in town are by far the best theaters in Fort Worth but they have started a curious (annoying) habit. After the commercials play it goes to a black screen with just their name and logo visible and music begins to play, usually something from a movie. This is really aggravating and adds to the already too long pre movie entertainment. Today they only played a few seconds from something I couldn't recognize but three other times I have had to listen to the entire James Bond theme.

Bee Movie Trailers

Below are the two teaser trailers from the upcoming Bee Movie. It comes from Jerry Seinfeld and I remember reading somewhere that he said the movie had more in common with his show than with all the other animated talking animal/insect/other things that move movies.

79th Academy Awards Promo

A commercial directed by Spike Lee showcasing famous movie being recited by New York citizens. There are links to the other (shorter) ads at the Big Screen Little Screen blog. I would post them myself but I'm too lazy and the second half of the NBA all-star game is about to start.

What Are They Doing There: Volume Two

A second round of movies featuring actors or actresses who you wouldn't expect to see in their roles.


Lindsay Lohan, A Prairie Home Companion: A Robert Altman film featuring Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, John C. Reilly, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Virginia Madsen, and...Lindsay Lohan.

Jon Stewart, The Faculty: Jon Stewart is a bad actor. The Faculty is a bad movie. Why would casting him as an evil teacher alien with tentacles seem like a good idea? It wasn't.

John Candy, JFK: This is really more of a cameo but it is still surprising to see the star of Wagons East show up in a Oliver Stone film. That being said, Candy is actually quite good in his brief scenes as Dean Andrews, a sinister individual concealing knowledge of who killed John F. Kennedy.


Marlon Wayans, Requiem for a Dream: This is the most frustrating kind of these appearances. An actor who has done nothing up to the movie to prepare you for how good they are in the role, then falls back into the same pattern after the movie.

Someone takes the idea of the drive-in theater too seriously.

Glengarry Glen Schrute

McSweeney's has a spec script for The Office as written by David Mamet here.

It's good, but not nearly as good as their Jim Jarmusch's notes for a Ghostbusters sequel, which can be found here.

For the Netflix Queu

Just a reminder, three of last years best movies are released on DVD tomorrow.

Listen to The Departed

Here are mp3's from two scenes from The Departed.

The first features Leonardo DiCaprio and Vera Farmiga.

The second is primarily Alec Baldwin and features the best line of dialogue from a movie filled with great lines of dialogue.

These were originally posted on Hollywood-Elsewhere.

Air Jordan XX2 Commercial

This isn't movie news but it's a really great commercial.

Ebert's Oscar Picks

I consider Roger Ebert to be the greatest film critic of all time. My fridays felt incomplete with him being absent from reviewing movies the majority of the year. That being said, he has released his oscar predictions and preferences and since he did not have a top ten list this is one way to see what movies he really enjoyed. You can read the entire thing here, below is the summary.

Best Film: Babel (preference: Babel)
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker (preference: Peter O'Toole)
Best Actress: Helen Mirren (preference: Mirren)
Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy (preference: Murphy)
Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson (preference: Hudson)
Director: Martin Scorsese (preference: prefers not to say)
Picture: Babel (preference: Babel)
Foreign: Pan's Labyrinth (preference: Pan's)
Animated: Cars (preference: Monster House)
Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth

As an added bonus, here is a photo of Ebert, Peter O'Toole, and Jason Patric. I have no idea what they are doing but I bet one of them got laid later that night.

What Are They Doing There: Volume One

Two of my favorite things about movies are when actors or actresses make a comeback (something I am sure I will get to later) or when they show up in roles that are completely unexpected.

The people on this list generally did these projects early in their careers before becoming famous but looking back it still feels strange to see them in these roles:

Jay Mohr, Jerry Maguire: This role falls closest to the actual actor with Mohr basically playing the same role from everything else he has done: the jerk. The reason I am including this here is that it's really the only big profile movie he has ever been involved with and it's amazing to see how much screen time he actually has.


Dave Chappelle, You've Got Mail: This was five years before he would become world famous for Chappelle's Show but he was still showing up in small parts in various comedies. The strange thing here is that he is actually playing a character, Tom Hank's best friend, and not just there to run off crazy one liners.

George Lopez, Bread and Roses: This is probably the least seen out of this group and that is what makes it so special. Here, Lopez is playing a completely unsympathetic character and what's more, it's in a Ken Loach film. Loach is known for making British socialist dramas and this is the one time (I can think of) that he has made a film set on American soil.


Chris Rock, Nurse Betty: Rock was already well known when he made this but like Lopez above, Rock was working with a talented writer/director (Neil Labute). Better yet, he spends the entire film acting opposite Morgan Freeman and the two of them have wonderful chemistry. Rock also has one of the most affecting death scenes from the past ten years.

I'm a filmmaker from Mexico. But I also belong to the world.

Below the photo Children of Men director Alfonso Cuaron writes about the "Three Amigos" connection with Mexican Cinema and how it defines their roots but not their vision. Link from Movie City News.


This year's Oscars are being seen as a high point for Mexican cinema. My latest film, Children of Men, has three nominations, which is obviously great. But Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel has seven and Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (which I helped produce) has six. That's just amazing.

Fortunately the three of us are good friends. We developed our films at the same time and we have always loved to collaborate, to stick our forks in each other's salad. So I feel as close to Alejandro and Guillermo's films as I do to my own. The three of us don't compete, we complement. We're family. You wish your brother would win a big award, just as your brother wishes the same for you.

So if nothing else the Oscars are an amazing excuse for a celebration, the perfect opportunity to hang out with my friends. What I resent, however, is the notion that the Oscars are somehow bestowing legitimacy on Mexican cinema. We don't need this legitimacy. Babel is a great film right now. Pan's Labyrinth is already great. Plus we all know that great films are always being snubbed at the Oscars. That doesn't make them any less great.

It is also dangerous to view us as somehow "representing Mexican cinema". Of course Alejandro, Guillermo and I are rooted in Mexico. But we are also a part of everything else as well. Children of Men is set in London, Pan's Labyrinth in Spain, while Alejandro shot Babel in a variety of languages and in locations ranging from Japan to California to Morocco. On the one hand these can be viewed as Mexican pictures; on the other, they are films that defy the usual nationalistic criteria.

Some years ago I left Hollywood to make a small Mexican film called Y tu mamá también. It was my way of reorienting my compass, of reconnecting to what I had always loved about cinema. And this was entirely the right thing to do. One way or another, it's important for film-makers to go back to their roots.

Having said that, my hope for the future is for people to start cutting loose from those geographic roots, to begin moving towards a state of freedom, of rootlessness. I feel this is what someone like Alejandro has already done. By shooting in Morocco and Japan, you could say that he was leaving his roots and finding his identity.

I have a huge appreciation of backgrounds. What I have a problem with is borders. The language of cinema is cinema itself: it doesn't matter whether it is filmed in Spanish or English or French or Japanese. The same goes for the people who make it. Yes, I'm a film-maker from Mexico. But I also belong to the world.

The Mystery of the Missing Moviemakers

Knocked Up International Trailer

and the domestic one.

Factotum

I am sorry I missed this at a screening in Los Angeles a few months ago. Not because this movie is great (it's not even that good), but they were showing it as a double feature with Drugstore Cowboy. That being said, the film is mildy entertaining if you are a fan of Charles Bukowski and Matt Dillon does a good job of portraying his alter ego Hank Chinaski but there are two aesthetic choices in the film I had a problem with:

1. All of Matt Dillon's button down shirts have creases ironed into the sleeves. I'm not sure if a down on his luck writer
would take the time to iron his shirts. Especially a down on his luck writer who washes his clothes in the bathroom sink.

2. Throughout the entire movie, Matt Dillon has Tim Duncan beard.