Movie Life - Film around the world collecting

Twilight's Ashley Greene: I'm Fit Enough for Action Movies

2011-12-11T22:58:00.001-08:00

Not surprisingly, Greene says working on “Twilight” with Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner was an amazing experience.

“To work with incredible directors is like a crash course for acting,” she gushes.

“And we [the cast] have all become a family so it has been nice, personally and as an actor, to learn and grow with these people, and to have someone to relate to who is in the same circumstances.

“The amount of attention and insanity surrounding those films changed all our lives. But it happened to us together and it’s had a tremendous effect on how close we are now,” she says.

Ashley has parlayed her athletic good looks into a lucrative modeling career, and loves fashion.
She was recently named a rep for DKNY jeans and for Mark Cosmetics.

She posed naked in body paint for Sobe fitness water last year and the campaign was featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

“I like to shop; I like fashion,” says Greene. “I like things that are not too super-girly but have a feminine twist. And I’m excited by amazing dresses!

“It’s nice because, in everyday life, I like to be comfortable and put together, but on the red carpet, I love being glamorous. The whole dressing up thing is every girl’s fantasy.”

The actress is currently dating Broadway’s Reeve Carney, multiple sources confirm to Us Weekly. Carney, who currently stars in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

She previously dated Jonas Brothers band member Joe Jonas.
The “Twilight” franchise gave Greene the kind of exposure young actors dream about in Hollywood but quality roles for women are still in short supply, especially as the industry struggles with low theater attendance.

“It has always been hard, but it is now very competitive,” says Ashley. “It’s hard to break out, and it is still hard for me. I am fighting for my next job.

“Nothing is set in stone. So you have to really love acting to go through that grind every day. But once you get a role, it’s worth it.”

Ashley has two films coming out, “LOL: Laughing Out Loud” with Miley Cyrus and “The Boom Boom Room.”

She’s also appear in a three-episode guest starring role in TV’s dramedy “Pan Am” with Christina Ricci.

Puss in Boots stomps on Twilight

2011-12-11T22:54:00.001-08:00

The first of the holiday season movies have ended Breaking Dawn's run at the top of the Australian box office.

Though Puss in Boots has managed to edge out New Year's Eve in their debut weekend in cinemas, with the animated cat's tale taking $2.91 million against the rom-com's $2.64m, figures from the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia show.

They pushed the latest Twilight movie into third place after three weeks of top billing, also dropping Adam Sandler's comedy Jack and Jill and British teen comedy The Inbetweeners down two places to fourth and fifth, respectively.

Seasonal animation Arthur Christmas has stayed steady in sixth place while George Clooney's political thriller The Ides of March dropped two places to number seven.

Sword-and-sandals spectacular Immortals fell four places to eighth position, Brad Pitt's baseball flick Moneyball dropped two places to ninth, and Woody Allen's comedy Midnight in Paris rounds out the Top Ten, still packing them in after eight weeks in release.

TOP 10 AT THE AUSTRALIAN BOX OFFICE THIS WEEKEND:

1. Puss in Boots - $2.918 million (Paramount)

2. New Year's Eve - $2.645 million (Warner Bros)

3. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 - $1.152 million (Hoyts)

4. Jack and Jill - $1.041 million (Sony Pictures)

5. The Inbetweeners - $999,980 (Roadshow)

6. Arthur Christmas - $558,100 (Sony Pictures)

7. The Ides of March - $530,940 (Roadshow)

8. Immortals - $488,544 (Universal)

9. Moneyball - $188,933 (Sony Pictures)

10. Midnight in Paris - $136,440 (eOne/Hopscotch)

TAYLOR SWIFT REVEALS SHE SHOT THE HOME MOVIES IN NEW ‘OURS’ VIDEO

2011-12-11T22:48:00.001-08:00

Taylor Swift got to do something she’d never done before while shooting her latest video for ‘Ours’ — she got to work the camera. The nearly-22-year-old songstress acted with her faux boyfriend Zach Gilford to create the home movie effect seen in the clip.

“About to go make some videos… Home movies and cute things that I’m gonna be reminiscing back on while I’m in my awful work day,” Swift tells the camera in the opening shot of her latest behind-the-scenes webisode. The singer decided that having home movies intermixed in the actual video would give it a more personal feel, or as director Declan Whitebloom explains, “home movies to show the lighter side of life.”

The crew was going for a retro feel with the old school clips, and obtained the look by using a 8 mm camera effect. “We started to film Taylor and Zach doing those very actions together, like making their home movies,” Declan spills. “But we realized quite quickly that it was actually better to give them the camera.”

Taylor and Zach seemingly ran away with their newfound behind-the-camera freedom, even shooting when the director was out of sight, according to him. “They filmed each other like a real couple. That’s created a much more genuine, less professional look, which is what we were going for the whole time.”

Renner copes with new Hollywood status

2011-12-11T22:43:00.001-08:00

There are plenty of reasons why Jeremy Renner is walking through life with a smile on his face.

The 40-year-old actor picked up acting Oscar nominations the past two years and in 2012 he replaces Matt Damon as the new face of the Bourne action films.

Next year Renner will also play Hawkeye alongside Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man and Chris Hemsworth's Thor in the all-star superhero film The Avengers and as Hansel in the comedy-action fairytale Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.

Renner, however, jokes his most impressive achievement took place while making Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.

The achievement?

While Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's number one star Tom Cruise was hanging outside the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai, for what some are calling the most dangerous stunt performed in film history, Renner and his other co-stars Simon Pegg and Paula Patton were safely tucked away inside the 829.84m structure.

"We just had to sit inside and sip on some tea," Renner laughs in an interview with AAP.

"We didn't have to do all of that."

Cruise demanded to perform the stunt on his own so when audiences buy their popcorn and sit down for the latest chapter of the Mission: Impossible franchise they will not be seeing a stunt double hanging off the Burj Khalifa.

It is Cruise risking his life.

"Oh yeah," Renner, when asked if Cruise was enjoying himself, responds.

"He was having fun. He was smiling from ear to ear between takes.

"It is the tallest building in the world and twice the size of the Empire State building.

"That's a good comparison for Americans.

"I don't know if there's a building like that (the Empire State building) in Australia, but let's just say it's tall."

Renner plays Will Brandt, the chief analyst of US espionage agency the Impossible Missions Force (IMF).

When a terrorist bombing in Moscow destroys the Kremlin and the IMF is blamed, agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise), Brandt and IMF colleagues Benji Dunn (Pegg) and Jane Carter (Patton) are forced to initiate an independent operation known as "ghost protocol".

"Things go awry," Renner, born in Modesto, California, explains.

"Then everything shuts down, we become rogue agents essentially and hence ghost protocol.

"We are thrust together to overcome great obstacles and within that dynamic of the four agents you realise that not everybody is who they say they are or who they appear to be.

"It's a spy franchise and you never know with spies if they are good, bad or where their allegiances lie."

Renner first came to the attention of Hollywood executives and film critics with his Independent Spirit Award nominated performance as American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in the 2002 biopic, Dahmer, but it was not until 2009's The Hurt Locker, playing a member of a US bomb squad unit in Iraq, that catapulted Renner to the next level.

Renner received his first Oscar nomination for the performance and The Hurt Locker went on to beat Avatar for the best picture Academy Award.

In February Renner had to find himself another tuxedo after the Academy honoured him with a second consecutive nomination for his performance as a crook in the Ben Affleck bank heist film, The Town.

As the new face of the Bourne films, sharing the screen with Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Avengers role and as the lead in Gretel: Witch Hunters, Renner finds himself being tagged as a movie star.

He is not sure about the label.

"If that's what that is, I have no idea," Renner shrugs.

"I have certainly enjoyed working. I can tell you that.

"There have been a lot of wonderful of opportunities I have seemingly stumbled across with Mission being the first big monster out of the gate.

"I enjoyed the heck out of that and ever since then it has been more action movies after that.

"Who knows what the future holds.

"Maybe a nap."

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol opens in Australian cinemas on December 15

Lady Gaga: VERY Available to Audition for Your New Movie

2011-12-08T22:21:00.001-08:00

It should come as no surprise that Lady Gaga has aspirations to being in film someday—like nearly all pop stars in the year 2011, she is nearly as much actress as she is musician in her performances and general public persona. But Gaga isn’t content with using her fame and stature to secure herself roles in the latest blockbuster or art-house flick—as she explains in a preview from her upcoming appearance onEllen, she doesn’t want to cheat the process. “I wanna audition!” the pop star complains to Ellen. “I wanna work for it! When I get offered jobs and I don’t audition for them, I turn them down.”

She explained why the objection: “When I talk about acting, I’m always surprised no one ever asks me to audition…they’ll just say ‘I want her to do this movie’ and I’m just like why? You haven’t seen me act before.” Uh, Gaga, you know you make a lot of music videos that have elaborate stories and lots of extraneous dialogue (often in foreign languages for no reason)? It’s not film acting, but it’s still technically acting. Those videos are a lot more popular than you might realize—that thingwhere you and ~~Beyoncé~~ Honey Bee go on the lam and eat pastries and talk in non-existent aphorisms has been viewed nearly 130 million times, for one.

Meanwhile, what kind of movies does Gaga want to appear in? “My dream would be to be in a Woody Allen movie,” she says. The vest-and-tie look just might work for her.

Movie Review: Riveting performances in "Shame"

2011-12-08T22:14:00.001-08:00

Steve McQueen , the director, definitely doesn’t pull his punches and Michael Fassbender, the actor, clearly doesn’t mind taking them.

In their first collaboration, 2008’s “Hunger,” Fassbender played Bobby Sands, the IRA member who starved himself. In their latest collaboration, “Shame,” Fassbender plays Brandon Sullivan, a Manhattan thirty-something who also starves himself, but does so emotionally. That’s because he’s (A) addicte d to alcohol, (B) addicted to drugs, (C) addicted to sex or (D) addicted to love. Might as well admit it, the answer is (C), and the film’s no-holds-barred and all-parts-bared depiction of Brandon’s addiction has earned the film considerable controversy and an NC-17 rating.

While many critics are bound to have an orgasm over “Shame” – maybe that’s a poor word choice here – the general public is sure to struggle warming up to a film about people who don’t behave according to Miss Manners and who aren’t particularly likeable either. Drama ebbs and flows as well.

But who said life — or a film’s interpretation of life — has to be populated with only likeable people? “Shame” has more on its mind than pleasing audiences. If you want to see schmaltzy swill, go to “New Year’s Eve,” a lock to go ka-ching at the box office.

Like the challenging films of the 1970s, “Shame” focuses on a person behaving outside of society’s norms while trying to exist inside of them. It’s like performing a highwire act where you’re attempting to balance yourself while juggling chainsaws blindfolded. A wrong step lands you in an unhappy place.

Whether the subject matters turns you off, there’s no denying that Fassbender turns in a riveting performance worthy of an Oscar nomination. Talk about baring all — skin, soul, spleen.

It doesn’t take long to see that Brandon has issues. A little masturbation here, a lot of porn there. He later looks at a woman on the subway with a predatory stare that indicates he has more on his mind than finding out her zodiac sign.

When Brandon discovers his computer at work has been taken away, we know that its contents aren’t flooded with fantasy football statistics.

His life, while slightly off-kilter, has an orderliness to it, yet that gets disrupted by the arrival in his apartment of his sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), who has issues of her own. That their childhood bares little resemblance to “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” becomes apparent soon enough. When Sissy sings a dirge-like rendition of “New York, New York” at a bar, we see Brandon lose his guard. He tries not to make a habit of that.

Instead he goes from one sexual encounter to the next, battling with his addiction and not faring well. Some may wonder how having sex can be a bad thing. This film shows how. Brandon knows he has an illness. He just can’t find a cure. A particularly painful scene takes place when Brandon tries to have an intimate sexual experience with a co-worker (Nicole Beharie).

Psychologists should have a field day with this film, analyzing Brandon, Sissy and Brandon’s horn-dog boss David (James Badge Dale). So many peccadilloes, so little time.

People offended by graphic sex shouldn’t be within five miles of “Shame.” Interestingly, many of these people have no problem watching graphic violence. Go figure. People expecting titillation from the subject matter will be disappointed, too. This isn’t sex from Penthouse. This is sex from hell where the brief physical pleasure soon gets replaced by an insatiable need.

To be blunt, the film’s NC-17 rating has more to do with male frontal nudity than the sex scenes, which you can see in many R-rated films. To spark a debate, ask how David Fincher’s remake of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” avoided an NC-17 rating.

For those keeping track, “Shame” marks the fourth film for Fassbender this year. He played a young Magneto in “X-Men: First Class,” Rochester in “Jane Eye” and Carl Jung in “A Dangerous Method.” Most moviegoers know him for playing Lt. Archie Hicox in “Inglourious Basterds.” Talk about range. But it’s in “Shame” where he lets it all hang out, so to speak. If you like your souls tortured, Fassbender’s Brandon has his waterboarded. Fassbender has my vote for best actor.

As for McQueen, who co-wrote the script with Abi Morgan and is no relation to the late actor, he’s a force to be reckoned with. He just doesn’t direct films with a sense of daring, he directs them with a sense of danger, and in era where too many directors play it safe and sanitized, that ain’t a shame.

Unlikely Hero in an Underground Hideout, Away From the Nazis

2011-12-08T22:07:00.001-08:00

Agnieszka Holland’s “In Darkness,” inspired by the real exploits of a Polish sewer worker and sometime burglar named Leopold Socha, who helped Jews during the Nazi occupation of Lvov (now Lviv, in Ukraine), provides the latest evidence that the Holocaust movie has become a genre in its own right. Even a true story can follow the familiar conventions of film narrative, and this tale of a righteous gentile selflessly assisting in the survival of a handful of persecuted Jews is no exception.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with the movie. It is suspenseful, horrifying and at times intensely moving. But the ease with which it elicits these responses from the audience feels more opportunistic than insightful. Feature films about the Holocaust are often celebrated for preserving memory and raising awareness of the pervasive horror and occasional heroism of a fast-receding history. But who among the ticket-buyers is likely to be unaware of the broad outlines (and even the terrible particulars) of the Nazi genocide?

You do not go to a movie like this to learn, but rather to feel: to pity the victims, despise the villains, and identify with both the vulnerable and the brave. “In Darkness,” which was written by David F. Shamoon (drawing on the book “In the Sewers of Lvov” by Robert Marshall), obligingly supplies the desired emotions, which means that, in spite of its grim setting, it is finally more comforting than troubling.

Socha, known as Poldek, is played by Robert Wieckiewicz, a wonderful Polish actor with meaty features and an engagingly blunt manner. Early in the film Poldek and his young colleague (and criminal sidekick), Szczepek (Krzysztof Skonieczny), who use the sewer tunnels as escape routes and hiding places for their loot, stumble on a nightmarish scene in the forests outside town. What they see — a group of naked, terrified women being chased and shot by German soldiers — serves as a haunting reminder of the fact, amply documented in Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah,” that ordinary Poles knew what was happening to their Jewish neighbors.

The liquidation of the ghetto offers Poldek and Szczepek new possibilities for looting. They also discover that a small group of Jews have taken refuge in the underground waterways, hiding in the shadows amid the waste and vermin. Poldek helps them, first as a business proposition — they have money to pay him — and eventually out of a sense of moral obligation. His ethical awakening provides one of the film’s dramatic arcs as, like Oskar Schindler in the paradigmatic Righteous-Gentile movie “Schindler’s List,” Poldek evolves from self-seeking operator to humanitarian hero. He must overcome the skepticism of his wife, the ever-present threat of the Germans and the intrusions of Bortnik (Michal Zurawski), an old prison buddy who now wears the uniform of the Nazi-supporting Ukrainian militia.

Poldek’s Jews, meanwhile, huddle in darkness and enact their own parables of human nature under duress. They seem as carefully selected for diversity as the soldiers in a World War II platoon picture. There are, among others, a wealthy, sophisticated couple (Maria Schrader and Herbert Knaup); a philandering husband; a fallen woman; a pious man; a drug addict; two children; and a handsome, clean-shaven tough guy (Marcin Bosak, somewhat resembling Daniel Craig in “Defiance”). In the course of their 14 months in the sewers some will die, some will fall in love, and a baby will be born — all of it rendered in shadowy, glimmering half-light by Ms. Holland and the cinematographer, Jolanta Dylewska.

The visual contrast between the worlds above and below ground is handled beautifully and evocatively, and it gives “In Darkness” the dreamlike quality of a fairy tale. Constriction and freedom — and the assertion of individual will in cruelly oppressive circumstances — are themes Ms. Holland has explored before, in “The Secret Garden,”“Washington Square” and her earlier World War II drama, “Europa Europa.”

Those films were somewhat more attentive to psychological nuance. Here there is greater emphasis on the social complexities of wartime Lvov, which are represented above all by the linguistic polyphony of the dialogue. German, Yiddish, Polish and Ukrainian compete for attention, and the languages are markers not only of ethnicity but also of class and ideology.

This cacophonous music — more than the pushy, maudlin musical soundtrack — provides “In Darkness” with a kernel of authenticity, as does Mr. Wieckiewicz’s stoical performance. And as I have said, it is not a bad movie: it is touching, warm and dramatically satisfying. But that, given the subject matter, is exactly the problem.

“In Darkness” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Graphic violence and pervasive terror.

IN DARKNESS

Opens on Friday in New York and Los Angeles.

Directed by Agnieszka Holland; written by David F. Shamoon, based on the book “In the Sewers of Lvov” by Robert Marshall; director of photography, Jolanta Dylewska; edited by Michal Czarnecki; music by Antoni Komasa-Lazarkiewicz; production design by Erwin Prib; costumes by Katarzyna Lewinska and Jagna Janicka; produced by Steffen Reuter, Patrick Knippel, Marc-Daniel Dichant, Leander Carell, Juliusz Machulski, Paul Stephens and Eric Jordan; released by Sony Pictures Classics. In Manhattan at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, Broadway at 62nd Street. In Polish, German, Yiddish and Ukrainian, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 23 minutes.

WITH: Robert Wieckiewicz (Leopold Socha), Benno Fürmann (Mundek Margulies), Agnieszka Grochowska (Klara Keller), Maria Schrader (Paulina Chiger), Herbert Knaup (Ignacy Chiger), Marcin Bosak (Yanek Weiss), Michal Zurawski (Bortnik), Krzysztof Skonieczny (Szczepek), and Julia Kijowska (Chaja).

Hopkins to play Hitchcock

2011-12-07T23:34:00.001-08:00

Sir Anthony Hopkins has signed on to play legendary director Alfred Hitchcock in a new biopic.

Alfred Hitchcock & the Making of Psycho is based on Stephen Rebello's book of the same name and the film will be directed by Sacha Gervasi.

Dame Helen Mirren is in talks to play Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, according to CinemaBlend.com.

The film will chronicle Hitchcock's experiences while filming the thriller Psycho in the late 1950s. The film became an instant classic when it was released in 1960 and many film fans argue it is the director's greatest movie.

The role will mark Sir Anthony's latest real-person portrayal - the British-born movie star has also played former US president Richard Nixon, artist Pablo Picasso, bike racer Burt Munro, former British leader David Lloyd George and writer Charles Dickens on screen. He is also currently playing literary great Ernest Hemingway in Hemingway & Fuentes.

Alfred Hitchcock & the Making of Psycho isn't the only film about the director's great works currently in early development - Sienna Miller has been cast as Tippi Hedren in an as-yet untitled film about the actress' relationship with the legendary filmmaker on the set of 1963's The Birds.

'The Amazing Spider-Man' Game Will be a Free-Roaming Movie Epilogue

2011-12-07T23:26:00.001-08:00

Since the debut of what appeared to be free-roaming gameplay footage from Activision's upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man movie videogame tie-in at New York Comic Con, fans have been wondering where the release would fit in with the film's storyline. After all, where would Spider-Man find the time to fight a giant mechanical bug between bouts with the Lizard and sweet smooching times with his girl Gwen Stacy? In anticipation of the release of a closer look at the game on Spike TV's VGA's this weekend, Marvel has released a new piece of concept art showcasing Spidey facing yet another mechanized menace (perhaps a Spider-Slayer?). What's more, Marvel has confirmed that the game will serve as an epilogue to the film "occurring entirely after the events of the movie." The game also officially marks the return of free-roaming gameplay, as opposed to the more channeled action found in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

Judging from the three pieces of concept art we've seen so far and today's news, it looks like Peter Parker will be swinging everywhere from Oscorp offices to apartments to subway tunnels.

From Marvel.com:

"The Amazing Spider-Man" is in development at veteran game studio Beenox, and features an original narrative crafted by Hollywood writer Seamus Kevin Fahey (episodes of "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena" and the re-imagined "Battlestar Galactica") that continues young Peter Parker's adventures following the events of the new film. Using the game's new Web Rush mechanic allows players to pull off a vast array of moves never before possible. With a story that takes players through many areas all over--and under--Manhattan, fans will feel what it's truly like to be a super hero, as they experience the cinematic adrenaline rush of web-swinging through the city and fighting crime using Spider-Man's spectacular acrobatic moves and attacks.

See a new piece of concept art from The Amazing Spider-Man videogame teaser, plus a teaser for the game's new footage to be screen at Spike TV's Video Game Awards this Sunday below:

Cinema Eye honors Frederick Wiseman film with Legacy Award

2011-12-07T23:10:00.001-08:00

With Oscar season so invariably focused on the new and the now, it's refreshing when the occasional awards body casts a look backward to slightly older releases -- though they don't tend to go back 44 years. Trust the conscientious folks behind the Cinema Eye documentary awards to take up that cause with a Legacy Award for classic individual documentaries that, in their view, still carry resonance and influence today. This year's recipient: Frederick Wiseman's 1967 debut feature "Titicut Follies."

I've never had an opportunity to see Wiseman's film, an exposé of the grim conditions at a Massachusetts prison for the criminally insane, but it'd be interesting to see on what note he started his prolific and still-productive career. I'm familiar only with the director's later works, peaking with his staggering Paris ballet study "La Danse." His work of late has been preoccupied with human movement and performance; his latest, "Crazy Horse," about the titular Paris nightclub, continues in that direction. It opens in the US in January, neatly coinciding with the Cinema Eye presentation.

Edited press release after the jump.

New York - The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking today announced that the 2012 Legacy Award will be presented to the landmark 1967 documentary, Titicut Follies, a stark and graphic portrayal of the conditions that existed at the State Prison for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman will accept the award on behalf of the film at this year’s Cinema Eye ceremony.

“It’s hard for me to believe that Titicut Follies was shot forty-six years ago,” said Wiseman. “I’m thrilled to receive the Cinema Eye Legacy Award but it is tough for me to deal with the implications.”

The award will be presented on January 11, 2012 at the 5th Annual Cinema Eye Honors ceremony to be held at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York. A Stranger Than Fiction screening of Titicut Follies will be held the following week, on January 17, at the IFC Center, on the eve of the opening of Wiseman’s latest film, Crazy Horse, which debuts at New York’s Film Forum on January 18, before rolling out to theaters nationwide.

“Few filmmakers - in fiction or nonfiction - have created such an enduring body of work that is also, uniquely, their own as Frederick Wiseman,” said Cinema Eye’s Advisory Chair Andrea Meditch. “The legacy of Titicut Follies stands as a beacon to all of today's filmmakers for its unflinching honesty and the lingering power of John Marshall's camera and Wiseman's editing."

"Titicut Follies is a remarkable film, both for its unwavering look at a failed institution and as the template for the decades of Wiseman films that would follow,” said Laura Poitras, the Chair of the Cinema Eye Filmmaker Advisory Board, which voted to give the Legacy Award to Titicut Follies. “As filmmakers, we look to Wiseman as an inspiration and we are honored to salute the debut film of this vital American auteur."

This is the third year that Cinema Eye will present a Legacy Award, intended to honor classic films that inspire a new generation of filmmakers and embody the Cinema Eye mission: excellence in creative and artistic achievements in nonfiction films. The Legacy Award celebrates the entire creative team behind the chosen film. This year marked the first time that Cinema Eye’s newly established Filmmaker Advisory Board voted on the recipient of the award. Previous Legacy Awards went to Ross McElwee's Sherman’s March and the Maysles Brothers’ Grey Gardens.

Top of the Queue: Jessica Chastain aged into Helen Mirren? Really?

2011-12-06T19:13:00.001-08:00

“The Debt,” a smart thriller about past sins catching up to heroes and villains alike, comes out on DVD this week. The film switches between a trio of Mossad agents trying to capture a Nazi war criminal in 1960s Berlin and the same agents 30 years later, dealing with the fallout from the mission.

I liked the film, but I’m hoping the “deleted scenes” section of the DVD includes what seems like a key scene missing from the film — the scene where all three agents get major reconstructive face surgery.

That scene must exist, right? Because that’s the only possible explanation why the actors playing the older versions of the agents look absolutely nothing like their counterparts. It was extremely distracting.

Jessica Chastain and Helen Mirren are attractive women, but Mirren couldn’t be Chastain’s distant aunt, let alone the same person. And what must have Sam Worthington, hunky “Avatar” star that he is, thought when he learned that bloodhound-faced Cieran Hinds was playing his older self?

It’s a recurring casting problem in movies — how does one find two actors who can plausibly play the same person at different periods of their lives, and put them in the same movie? When it works, it can be a real kick. But more often than not, it’s jarring.

Take “The Notebook.” This 2004 romantic drama has become synonymous with “weepy chick flick,” but it actually worked for me, and featured two terrific star-making performances by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. The problem was the framing story, featuring James Garner and Gena Rowlands as the same lovers, now elderly, with Rowlands’ character suffering from dementia.

McAdams evolving into Rowlands, okay. But there is no way that the sharp-featured Gosling would someday turn into Jim Rockford. Just no way. (Actually, this visual disconnect sparked me to come up with my own alternate ending to the movie, in which Garner’s character was revealed not to be Gosling’s character, but the romantic rival played by James Marsden. That would have been plausible. But nobody consulted me.)

More successful, I think, was “Big Fish,” in which Billy Crudup comes to terms with his dying, flighty father, played in present day by Albert Finney and in fanciful flashbacks by Ewan McGregor. Physical resemblance aside, both actors have that same mischievous spark, and it worked.

Also effective was “Stand By Me,” which probably could have worked just as a period piece about four boys on a grisly quest in 1962 Oregon. But Richard Dreyfus adds a note of poigancy as the Wil Wheaton character, now a grown author writing down his memories. Dreyfus is barely in the movie aside from his voiceover narration, and yet you can’t imagine “Stand By Me” without the mix of Wheaton’s unsure face and Dreyfus’ empathetic voice.

The godfather of this sort of casting, of course, is “The Godfather” movies, in which we meet Don Corleone first as an avuncular kingpin in the first movie (Marlon Brando), and then as a lean, ruthless young criminal making his mark in the second (Robert De Niro). Although they look enough alike, this one works because underneath Brando’s mumble-mouthed patriarch, we see the cold criminal mastermind. De Niro stripped the character down to that hard-edged inner core.

Gloria Stuart played the older Kate Winslet in “Titanic,” which worked well enough. An actor named Harrison Young played the elderly World War II veteran in “Saving Private Ryan,” eventually revealed to be Ryan (Matt Damon) himself. Both are little more than cameos, adding a present-day framing device to a period drama to say “this really happened.”

One of the funniest examples of this casting was in the second Austin Powers movie, “The Spy Who Shagged Me,” when Austin goes back in time to the swinging ’60s. It didn’t work as well as the first movie (there’s a reason why people make fish-out-of-water stories, not fish-in-water stories), but there was a great cameo by Rob Lowe as Dr. Evil’s Number Two, played in the present day by Robert Wagner. Nice resemblance, eyepatch and all.

But my favorite example comes in the third Indiana Jones movie, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” which opens with a prologue featuring a teenage Indy (the late River Phoenix) fighting bad guys while on a Boy Scouting trip. What made this so great was Phoenix’s riotously on-target Harrison Ford imitation, from his half-barked line readings (“Everybody’s lost but me!”) to his use of what online film fans call Ford’s Wagging Finger of Doom.

The stars come out for New Year's Eve

2011-12-06T19:05:00.001-08:00

Director Garry Marshall and actor Hector Elizondo are good friends and former jazz musicians. So it made sense to them to introduce the actors promoting Marshall's new romantic comedy, New Year's Eve, by pounding on a set of bongos as they separately entered a Beverly Hills hotel ballroom.

It was corny but cute, just like many of the filmmaker's movies, including New Year's Eve. Indeed, Marshall is becoming a movie man for all holiday seasons.

There was last year’s Valentine's Day, and now he's getting festive with his latest, which opens in theatres Dec. 9.
Can a back-to-back twin bill of Mother's Day and Father's Day be far behind? Maybe or maybe not. All Marshall knows for sure is that the key to a multi-story approach, holiday film or not, is to hire good actors.

"What is very startling is they can all act," said Marshall after the bongo beating. "So it all worked."
In New Year's Eve, Marshall dusts off his formula from Valentine's Day, presenting a series of intertwining vignettes underscoring love, loss and lust, during the renowned end-of-year celebration at Manhattan's Times Square.
And why wouldn't the director re-do what he's done before? Valentine's Day was a smash in 2010, earning more than $216 million US worldwide.

This time around, the ensemble includes a few Oscar-honoured actors. Robert De Niro plays a man on his deathbed. Halle Berry is his thoughtful nurse. Hilary Swank plays a stressed-out producer of the Times Square activities, and Michelle Pfeiffer is a dowdy secretary who decides to realize her resolutions.

That might be enough for any old romantic comedy, but this is a Marshall all-star love-fest, after all. So Jessica Biel shows up as woman about to give birth. High School Musical's Zac Efron plays a delivery dude with a plan. And Glee's Lea Michele is a backup singer who gets stuck in an elevator with a cynic (Ashton Kutcher). She also gets to sing. As does rock singer Jon Bon Jovi, typecast as a rock star.

And there's more. Katherine Heigl is a caterer forced to work on the party night of the year. Toronto comic Russell Peters and Modern Family's Sofia Vergara are her harried cooks. Rapper Ludacris co-stars as a cop at Times Square. Sarah Jessica Parker is an over-protective mother suffocating her daughter (Abigail Breslin). Josh Duhamel is a businessman nostalgic for the previous New Year's Eve.

And, of course, there is Elizondo, featured in his thirteenth Marshall movie. This time, he plays a mechanic assigned to fix the disabled Times Square countdown ball that signals a start to the new year.

To that end, Marshall shot some of his sequences during the 2010 Times Square end-of-year festivities, then later in March of 2011 in and around Manhattan. Certainly, the timing posed some problems for the performers.

"I had to hug them, not because they liked me, but because it was freezing," said Marshall, who has 1990's Pretty Woman and 2001's The Princess Diaries on his resume.

Elizondo agreed that the cold presented challenges. "What I was always looking forward to was the word, 'Cut,'" he admitted.

Mostly, they survived in good humour. That was especially true of Efron, who happily reunited with his Hairspray co-star Pfeiffer, by playing the messenger who tries to make Pfeiffer's secretary's wish list come true. During their mini-story, they ride a motorcycle together, and Efron said he "enjoyed the cuddling." They also kiss at midnight.

"I am the envy of every girl across the planet, at the ripe old age of 53," said Pfeiffer, referring to the High School Musical star's teen poster-boy status.

Michele, the Glee artist, understood the sentiment. She was looking for a non-musical role for her movie debut, but she couldn't resist the New Year's Eve offer. "I got to be a backup singer for Jon Bon Jovi, which is awesome," said Michele, who sings a solo rendition of Auld Lang Syne in the film.

Swank, an Oscar winner for serious roles in Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby, says she was thrilled to finally get a job in a comedy. "Usually, I die in my movies," she said. "I don't live to see the credits."

Not this time. She had the added bonus of acting opposite one of her heroes, De Niro. In fact, she clearly remembers her first day on set with the actor. It was a hospital scene in which De Niro's character is in his bed, near death. She was standing next to the bed, getting into the actor's "method," as he lay there with his eyes closed.

A few minutes into Swank's process of immersing herself in the De Niro moment, she realized, when he came to, that he had not been in deep preparation, but was having a nap before the scene started.
"Oh my god," Swank recalled thinking to herself, "he was sleeping."
That's show business.

Will 'The Descendants' ever open in Springfield?

2011-12-06T19:00:00.001-08:00

12:40 p.m. Dec. 6, 2011 | Updated The latest commercial for "The Descendants" proclaims that the film is now playing "everywhere."

Everywhere, that is, but Springfield.

This always happens toward the end of the year: movie studios release a slew of "grown up" films while simultaneously pursuing a press and advertising blitz. This is part of a strategy that's supposed to keep these high-end films front-of-mind when it comes time to vote for the Oscars and other awards.

The problem is, most such movies are released in just a few big cities, weeks (or even months) before they'll open in cities the size of Springfield. So while "The Descendants" has been receivinggreat reviews and director Alexander Payne appeared last week on "Charlie Rose," Springfield residents could not yet see the movie.

So when will it open here?

"'The Descendants' continues to open in new markets during the next few weeks and will open at the AMC Springfield 12 on Dec. 9," AMC spokesman Ryan Noonan said in an email.

Several readers have sent emails asking why AMC waited so long to open the film here, but Noonan said it wasn't the company's decision.

"The studio sets the plan for limited release movies," Noonan said. "Typically they open in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago first. We then work closely with the distributors to show as many runs at as many theaters as possible under the distributor’s release plan."

I asked Fox Searchlight Pictures, the studio behind "The Descendants," about their release plan. The company sent this statement in response: "A platform release allows time for positive word of mouth to generate. The success of many specialty and independent films such as 'The Descendants' rely heavily on grassroots efforts, creating momentum and building awareness that then can support the film's opening in additional markets."

This does not bode well for our odds of seeing some of the other grown-up movies getting a lot of buzz this season, such as "The Artist," "My Week With Marilyn," "Melancholia," "Like Crazy," "Martha Marcy May Marlene" and "Into the Abyss." I asked Noonan when (or if) they might open here.

"Many of these films are still in early release and, while schedules are always subject to change, should hit the Springfield market in January," Noonan said. He also said AMC is not carrying "Melancholia" because the film was released to home video at the same time it was a theatrical release.

Around the World in One Movie: Film Financing’s Global Future

2011-12-06T18:51:00.001-08:00

The German craftsmen on Stage 15 in the Babelsberg studio were hard at work on a recent afternoon building a dystopian Korean slum, the thud of a nail gun and a whiff of sawdust in the air. Next door, Andy and Lana Wachowski, the American-born team behind the “Matrix” movies, were filming black-clad storm troopers from an imagined future for their latest feature, “Cloud Atlas.”

From its truly global parentage to its time-bending story told by three directors using two separate production crews, the movie is unabashedly strange. The narrative, which starts near New Zealand and circles the globe, is bewildering in its complexity, featuring characters in six eras who might share a soul migrating through time. And the project’s primary backers are from China, Korea and Singapore.

But “Cloud Atlas,” in all its glorious confusion, also serves as a guidepost to the future of the film business. Increasingly, sophisticated filmmakers who once relied on American studios for backing are turning to a globe-straddling independent finance system for their most expensive projects.

“Cloud Atlas,” with its $100 million budget and high-wattage cast, including the Academy Award winners Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, was an epic independent film too complicated, too expensive and perhaps too risky for any conventional studio to have backed.

To move forward, the project broke free of national boundaries. The investors from Asia and beyond contributed roughly $35 million, without which the film could not have been made. German subsidies account for $18 million more. In the United States, “Cloud Atlas” will be distributed, probably next fall, by Warner Brothers, which has made only a modest investment to date.

In many ways, the producers are drawing a blueprint for a new era of genuinely international filmmaking.

“We were just looking for a way to get it done,” said Grant Hill, one of the “Cloud Atlas” producers, “but I think there’s the basis for a model there.” He called the final push for financing an “exotic mixture” of deals, adding, “What a studio would have had to pay would have made it impossible.”

The change has been coming for several years. In 2010, the international box office was up 30 percent over five years, twice the growth in domestic sales. And foreign sales accounted for roughly 70 percent of total receipts, both for the industry at large and for some of the biggest American studio productions like “Avatar.”

Meanwhile, the Oscar for best picture, for three consecutive years, has gone to films — “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Hurt Locker” and “The King’s Speech” — that used globe-spanning financial networks to create stories aimed at global audiences. Movies like these will simply make a stop on American theater screens as they travel around the world.

A peek at the back lot for “Cloud Atlas” testifies to the need for a budget that defies the term “indie.” Behind the yellow shipping containers that are part of the futuristic Korean set is a fine 19th-century sitting room with a rose-lined garden path outside the front door. The interior of an old tall ship shares the soundstage with the exterior of a space-age hovercraft and Styrofoam boulders.

The performers, meanwhile, shift between jarringly different roles. “The biggest change for me as an actor is to have two different film units and two different film crews and to go between the two from one day to the next,” Ms. Berry said in a phone conversation.

She described playing “a Jewish woman in the 1930s” for the third director, Tom Tykwer, then becoming “an old tribal woman” for the Wachowski siblings the next day, and losing track of fellow cast members amid the layers of makeup and costumes.

“Some days I go into the trailer, I’ll be having a conversation — I won’t even know it’s with Hugh Grant until five minutes in,” Ms. Berry said.

The gestation of “Cloud Atlas” is a winding tale of emerging markets and perseverance that breathed life into an unlikely project, which, if successful, will probably provoke more change in the business of filmmaking.

In 2005, while on the London set of “V for Vendetta,” the actress Natalie Portman gave a copy of “Cloud Atlas” to Lana Wachowski (formerly Larry), who became intrigued with the novel’s six obliquely connected stories.

A year later, Lana and her brother Andy surfaced with a screenplay. Mr. Tykwer, a friend of the Wachowskis — the directors declined interview requests — joined in writing the numerous drafts of the script, which were shared with the book’s author, David Mitchell.

“After two years of hard work, we were still about 30 percent short” of the necessary money, Mr. Hill said. “At that point you go home unless you can come up with something new, not part of the traditional model.”

Rather than giving up, the producers translated the screenplay into more than half a dozen Asian languages and found that the film’s treatment of reincarnation resonated with potential investors in the East.

“The theme of the story is rebirth, and it comes straight from the basic ideal of Buddhism,” said Michelle Park, chief executive of the Bloomage Company, a Korean film distributor. Ms. Park describes her company’s investment as “unusually high” by Korean standards.

Money came from the Singapore container ship magnate Tony Teo; the Hong Kong film distributor the Media Asia Group, which made what its chief executive, John Chong, called the company’s “largest ever investment in a Western production”; and Dreams of the Dragon, a Beijing film company that had not previously invested in a major film. One of its owners, Wilson Qiu, in an e-mail, cited his “fascination with the source material.”

Others also claim pride of authorship. “From our perspective, ‘Cloud Atlas’ is a German film,” said Christine Berg, project manager for the German Federal Film Fund. Not only are the country’s subsidies substantial, but Mr. Tykwer, who achieved fame with his Berlin film, “Run Lola Run,” is in charge of the second crew.

One advantage of having disparate financing, said Peter J. Dekom, a veteran entertainment lawyer, is that it gives filmmakers greater creative freedom. “The more investors you have, the less control you feel from any one investor,” he said.

The idea of shooting on parallel tracks, with the Wachowskis directing one unit and Mr. Tykwer the other, grew from a realization that the stars were more likely to work for a steep discount if the shoot could be finished in half the time. Actors also play different roles in different time periods, keeping them busy and, on certain days, turning stars into extras.

“It’s sort of like guerrilla filmmaking in a way,” Ms. Berry said. “Even though there seems like there’s a lot of money, it’s not opulent. All the money’s going into the screen.”

Still, such an unusual project presents hurdles in capturing a mainstream audience.

The Wachowskis brought in about $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office for Warner Brothers with the Matrix series. But their “Speed Racer,” also for Warner, was a high-budget flop in 2008. This time, Warner agreed to distribute the film in the United States but was not a large contributor to its production budget.

“To have taken the whole movie, given the expense, would have been a very risky proposition for us,” said Warner’s top film executive, Jeff Robinov. Whether it was smart business to jump in only part way, Mr. Robinov said, “I can’t tell you until we’ve seen more.”

The Wachowskis are notorious for their secrecy, but they showed six minutes of footage at the American Film Market in Santa Monica last month.

“It looks phantasmagorical,” said Victor Loewy, a seasoned international film distributor who bid on the United Kingdom rights after watching the clip. “It’s so unlike anything I’ve seen in 40 years in this business.”

Williamston man's movie, 'The Key' to debut at Celebration Cinema

2011-12-04T23:08:00.001-08:00

Jack Schaberg's first two films were farcical looks at senior citizens in a retirement home or a man caught up in a half-baked insurance scheme.

His latest movie, "The Key," is decidedly darker.

"It's sort of a family drama suspense mystery," said Schaberg, of Williamston, who wrote, directed and produced the new film, set for a Dec. 8 screening at Celebration Cinema in Lansing.

Show times are 5:15 p.m.. 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m.

The story line: On her 18th birthday, a girl who grew up without her father takes a call from either him or some other man telling her to get "the key" and to meet him at the airport.

So begins a 12-hour odyssey involving family secrets, treasure, bad guys and blackmail money.

The movie was filmed in Williamston, Mason, Fowlerville, Linden and Fenton with local actors who volunteered their time. Braedyn Miller, a Williamston girl, has a part in the film. Filming was done on weekends and the occasional week night starting in July 2010, Schaberg said. "It took about a year to get everything," he said. "I edited it as I went along."

An Okemos native, Schaberg earned a film degree from the University of Southern California but ended up working in the lumber industry.

He now works for a video production business in Okemos and makes movies in his spare time.

His first film, "We Know Care," (2006) featured a dim-witted couple who inherited a mansion and decided to open it as a bed and breakfast and retirement home, striking a deal with senior citizens to fix the place up.

His second film, "The End of Art," was co-directed by Lansing actor Bruce Bennett. A struggling artist and stay-at-home dad teams up with an insurance salesman in a double-indemnity scheme.

Released in 2009, the movie was shot partly in East Lansing, Williamston and Mason. Local actor Tony Caselli had a role in the film.

Schaberg said he came up with the idea for "The Key" about 15 years ago and decided he could make the film himself.

The movie was made on a shoestring budget with a Canon camera and a digital audio recorder.

"It was basically done for the price of gas money and food money," he said.

Someday, Schaberg said, he'd like to make movies full time. For now, it's a hobby and a passion

"You get to take an idea, turn that into a 110-page script and see the characters develop," he said. "Making a movie is sort of like building a house. When you get to sit in the theater and see it, it's very satisfying."

Weekend Box Office: Twilight Sparkles For Third Week In A Row

2011-12-04T23:04:00.001-08:00

This weekend was quiet at the box office; the deep breath before the plunge. The string of holiday movies start to roll out next weekend, beginning with the latest over-cast super-ensemble romantic comedy New Year's Eve. But this week, with no new major releases, movie audiences took the weekend off.

Thanks to the lack of competition those sparkly vampires and angsty werewolves of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 held on to the top spot for a third week in a row. The almost $17 million it added to its total pushed it up to $247 million in overall domestic sales and past Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides to become the fourth highest grossing film of the year. Next week look for it to push past The Hangover Part II for third place.

The one new movie in theaters this weekend was the much discussed Shamewhich debuted in just ten venues but managed a decent $361,000 haul.

As the end of the year approaches, the box office's annual total continues to sag below numbers from three years ago. Increasing ticket prices in the midst of a struggling economy are finally catching up to the industry with a bleak out look for next year.

For the full weekend top ten totals, take a look at the chart below:

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

$16,900,000

Total: $247,300,000

LW: 1 WR: 3
THTRS: 4,046

The Muppets

$11,200,000

Total: $56,137,000

LW: 2 WR: 2
THTRS: 3,440

Hugo

$7,625,000

Total: $25,188,000

LW: 5 WR: 2
THTRS: 1,840

Arthur Christmas

$7,350,000

Total: $25,292,000

LW: 4 WR: 2
THTRS: 3,376

Happy Feet Two

$6,000,000

Total: $51,785,000

LW: 3 WR: 3
THTRS: 3,536

Jack and Jill

$5,500,000

Total: $64,308,000

LW: 6 WR: 4
THTRS: 3,049

The Descendants

$5,200,000

Total: $18,087,000

LW: 9 WR: 3
THTRS: 574

Immortals

$4,394,000

Total: $75,588,000

LW: 7 WR: 4
THTRS: 2,627

Tower Heist

$4,100,000

Total: $70,800,000

LW: 10 WR: 5
THTRS: 2,404

10.

Puss in Boots

$3,050,000

Total: $139,522,000

LW: 8 WR: 6
THTRS: 2,750

Films Clash Over Access in Crime Case

2011-12-04T22:55:00.001-08:00

A newly announced documentary about the West Memphis Three murder case in Arkansas carries the imprimatur of Peter Jackson, the Academy Award-winning director of the “Lord of the Rings” movies, and the goal of exonerating three men who were released from prison in August.

But with its considerable pedigree and ambitions, the film has collided with a long-running documentary series produced by HBO that has brought worldwide attention to the case.

On Sunday Mr. Jackson’s production company, Wingnut Films, announced the completion of “West of Memphis,” a nonfiction feature directed by Amy Berg, whose 2006 documentary, “Deliver Us From Evil,” about a Roman Catholic priest who confessed to numerous acts of child molestation and rape, was nominated for an Oscar.

The new film looks at Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., who were teenagers in 1994 when they were tried, convicted and imprisoned for killing three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Ark. Over the years those convictions have been called into question, and the men were freed on Aug. 19 in an arrangement that required them to plead guilty, even as they continue to maintain their innocence.

Mr. Jackson and his wife and collaborator, Fran Walsh, who live in New Zealand, have followed the case since 2005. An investigation that they helped finance yielded new findings that, if not for the plea deal, might have led to a new evidentiary hearing or even a new trial for Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Misskelley and Mr. Echols, who was facing a death sentence and had exhausted his appeals. (Mr. Echols and his wife, Lorri Davis, are also producers of “West of Memphis.”)

But they are hardly the only filmmakers covering the story. A 1996 documentary, “Paradise Lost: The Murders at Robin Hood Hills,” and a 2000 sequel, “Paradise Lost 2: Revelations,” directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, helped raise awareness about the West Memphis Three defendants and cast doubts about witnesses and evidence at their trials.

Mr. Berlinger and Mr. Sinofsky’s latest entry, “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,” is planned for a January broadcast on HBO and was among 15 films named last month to the shortlist of contenders for the Academy Award for best documentary feature. Versions of “Paradise Lost 3” were also screened at the Toronto and New York film festivals this year.

Ms. Berg, who was recruited by Mr. Jackson in 2009, acknowledged in an interview that though she had not seen the “Paradise Lost” films, they “got the ball rolling,” while leaving “so many avenues that needed to be investigated.”

Ms. Berg said she believed that multiple projects on the case — a scripted feature film is also in the works — could peacefully coexist. “Personally I believe that the pursuit of justice has nothing to do with competition,” she said.

But behind the scenes she and the “Paradise Lost” filmmakers have butted heads over access to key figures in the case.

Pam Hobbs, the mother of Stevie Branch, one of the murder victims, said in an interview that she was contacted last year by Mr. Berlinger, who sought to film new material with her for “Paradise Lost 3.” However, Ms. Hobbs had signed a life-rights deal with Elizabeth Fowler, a producer of the scripted feature, and was unsure if she could participate in the documentary.

Ms. Fowler said that while an arrangement was being worked out that would allow Ms. Hobbs to be interviewed for “Paradise Lost 3,” Ms. Berg made her own deal with Ms. Hobbs that precluded her from speaking to Mr. Berlinger for his film.

“The next thing I knew,” Ms. Fowler said, “Joe got quote-unquote shut down, and there was no point in continuing those conversations.” (Mr. Berlinger, Mr. Sinofsky and HBO declined to comment on this matter.)

A lawyer representing “West of Memphis” also wrote an e-mail to the “Paradise Lost” team, denying a request to release Ms. Hobbs from its contract, adding: “Hopefully, you wouldn’t want to encourage or induce such third parties to breach their agreements.” A spokeswoman for “West of Memphis” said that Ms. Berg became aware of this correspondence in January and that HBO respected this exclusivity. The spokeswoman said in an e-mail that Ms. Hobbs “chose to work with us exclusively and felt committed to our investigation and our investigative film.”

Ms. Berg said her production paid Ms. Hobbs about $500 a week as “a consulting fee” and to protect confidential information in her investigation. She said Mr. Berlinger and Mr. Sinofsky made similar arrangements with other subjects, including Terry Hobbs, Ms. Hobbs’s ex-husband, and John Mark Byers, the adoptive father of another murder victim, Christopher Byers. Those men gave on-camera interviews for “Paradise Lost 3” but not for “West of Memphis.” The credits for “Paradise Lost 3” say that “some individuals appearing in this film received an honorarium for their participation.”

No theatrical distributor or broadcaster has been announced for “West of Memphis,” but the film is a strong candidate next year for major film festivals, like Sundance, which has not yet unveiled its complete documentary lineup.

Wherever the film is ultimately shown, Ms. Berg said it would fulfill its mission if it helped shine a light on what many consider to be an injustice.

“I don’t know if there are enough films that could be made about this, really, because it speaks to everything that’s wrong with our society and our country and our legal system,” she said. “There are so many themes within this story that need examination.”

PlayStation Brings Movies Home

2011-12-02T00:31:00.001-08:00

From creative agency Studio Output and prodco Marshmallow Laser Factory comes a new round of online spots promoting Sony’s “PlayStation@Store,” an online service where PlayStation Network subscribers can rent the latest blockbuster movies in HD starting at $1.99.

The above Tron-themed short finds Joe Everydude settling in for a night of movies with his PlayStation 3 (we assume that he canceled his Netflix subscription in protest of the recent price-hike fiasco). Suddenly, with the aid of a watermelon and a group of mysterious people in white body suits, Mr. Everydude finds his bare-looking living room transformed into a virtual world of glowing motorcycles and Jeff Bridges.

In the announce, we were told that the shorts contain, “No post production, no SFX!” (minus, of course, the obvious uses of SFX). One interesting detail about the films is that they were shot using PlayStation’s own “Move Controller” and “EyeToy” technology. View two more shorts, one an homage to Transformers and the other to Pirates of the Caribbean, and more instances of people in white body suits engaging in celebratory dancing, after the jump.

Amanda Seyfried to debut latest film at Sundance

2011-12-02T00:28:00.001-08:00

William H Macy, Helen Hunt and Amanda Seyfried are among the stars with movies which will be premiered at next year's Sundance Film Festival.

Macy and Hunt will debut their latest film, The Surrogate, about a man, who decides he no longer wants to be a virgin and hires a sex surrogate.

Seyfried stars alongside Michael Cera and Jason Ritter in The End Of Love.

The 11-day Utah event is widely regarded as the world's foremost showcase for independent film.

There are 16 films in competition for US dramatic film competition, whose past winners include Winter's Bone, Precious and Frozen River - and another 16 for the documentary category.

Overall, more than 4,000 films from around the world were submitted to the festival this year. But the final selection features only a few household names - amid a line-up peppered with newcomers.

Robert Redford, founder and president of the Sundance Institute, said: "We are, and always have been, a festival about the film-makers.

"So what are they doing? What are they saying? They are making statements about the changing world we are living in.

"Some are straight-forward, some novel and some offbeat but always interesting. One can never predict. We know only at the end, and I love that."

John Cooper, director of the festival, said this year film-makers have been forced to be "more resourceful and truly independent in their approaches to filmmaking" because of the economic crisis.

The US documentary competition includes films about renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, and another on performance artists Marina Abramović.

Other documentaries include The House I Live In, about drug abuse in America, and The Invisible War, which looks at the exploration of rape in the US military.

Around Town: Superman flies again and the New Wave returns

2011-12-02T00:19:00.001-08:00

A Francois Truffaut retrospective, an animation festival and a screening of 1978’s “Superman” are among this week’s highlights.

The American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre celebrates the legacy of one of the founders of France’s New Wave cinema, Francois Truffaut, who died at the age of 52 in 1984. “The Film Lover: A Francois Truffaut Retrospective” commences Friday evening with his first feature film, 1959’s “The 400 Blows,” his critically acclaimed autobiographical drama about a troubled young boy, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Leaud in a stunning performance). The second feature is Truffaut’s third entry in the Antoine Doinel series, the 1968 romantic comedy “Stolen Kisses,” with Leaud and Delphine Seyrig.

Truffaut pays homage to one of his icons, Alfred Hitchcock, in his 1968 mystery thriller “The Bride Wore Black,” starring Jeanne Moreau in the title role, which screens Saturday. Also on tap is his 1962 masterwork, “Jules and Jim” with Moreau and Oskar Werner. The retrospective concludes Sunday with his 1960 film noir, “Shoot the Piano Player” with Charles Aznavour, and 1980’s World War II drama “The Last Metro,” with Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve.http://www.americancinematheque.com

Cinefamily’s Silent Movie Theatre gets highly animated this week. The “Animation Breakdown” begins with “An Evening With Don Hertzfeldt” on Thursday, featuring the L.A. premiere of his latest animated short, “It’s Such a Beautiful Day.” The filmmaker will be appearing in person. On Friday, Cinefamily shines the spotlight on Polish animation with several shorts by noted animators including an exclusive presentation of the Brothers Quays’ latest film, “Maska.” Saturday afternoon’s offering is a sneak preview of Pixar’s newest short film, “La Luna,” six months before its theatrical release. Later in the afternoon, Cinefamily presents a cast and crew reunion of the Cartoon Network series “Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.”

The animation programs continue Saturday evening with a selection of Polish animation shorts followed by a tribute “Brad Neely: From Creased Comics to China, IL.” There are more Polish animation shorts in the offing early Sunday afternoon as well as a tribute to animator Bruce Bickford later in the evening.

Animation historian Jerry Beck presents a new 35mm restoration of the once lost Disney “Laugh-O-Gram” cartoons Tuesday evening. These were Walt Disney's first animated shorts produced in Kansas City nearly 90 years ago. Included are “Jack the Giant Killer” and “Goldie Locks and the Three Bears.” http://www.cinefamily.org

UCLA Film & Television Archive’s Wednesday evening screening series at the Million Dollar Theater in downtown Los Angeles takes flight with the 1978 blockbuster “Superman,” directed by Richard Donner, and starring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. http://www.cinema.ucla.edu.

Henry Jaglom will be on hand at the Cinematheque’s Aero on Theatre Thursday evening for a screening of his 1977 psychological drama “Tracks,” starring Dennis Hooper as a Vietnam sergeant who is mentally unstable due to the conflict.

On Friday, the Aero kicks off its “Spectacular Holiday Spirit on the Big Screen” with two rarities: 1944’s drama “Christmas Holiday” with Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly, and Bill Forsyth’s underrated 1986 comedy “Comfort and Joy,” with Bill Paterson and Clare Grogan. On Saturday, the Aero celebrates the 20th anniversary of the box office hit “The Addams Family,” directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Anjelica Huston as Morticia and Raul Julia as Gomez. Also screening is the far more entertaining 1993 sequel, “Addams Family Values.”

Steven Spielberg’s lavish 1991 fantasy, “Hook,” starring Robin Williams as an adult Peter Pan and Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, screens Sunday afternoon in a 70mm print. Later in the evening, the Aero screens 70mm prints of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1993 box office dud “Last Action Hero,” and Sylvester Stallone’s 1993 thriller “Cliffhanger.”

Brazilian director Jose Padilha will appear in person Wednesday at the Aero with his latest film, “Elite Squad: The Enemy Within,” which is the country’s official submission for the foreign language film Oscar. Screening Wednesday at the Egyptian is the 2010 low-budget indie “Dirty Old Town.” One of the film’s stars, actress Janell Shirtcliff, will participate in a discussion after the screening.http://www.americancinematheque.com

Directors Gavin O’Connor (“Warrior”) and Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”) will discuss director Barry Levinson’s directorial debut, 1982’s “Diner,” after a screening of the memorable comedy starring Steve Guttenberg, Kevin Bacon and Mickey Rourke, Thursday evening at Film Independent at LACMA at the Leo S. Bing Theatre. Tuesday’s matinee screening is Otto Preminger’s wonderful 1959 courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Murder” with Jimmy Stewart and Lee Remick.http://www.lacma.org

UCLA Film & Television Archive’s “L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema” enters its third month at the Billy Wilder Theater on Friday with several short films from director Alile Sharon Larkin, including "A Different Image” and “Your Children Come Back to You.” Larkin will be appearing in person.

Director Charles Burnett will be appearing in person Wednesday at the Wilder with a screening of his well-received 1990 drama “To Sleep With Anger,” starring Danny Glover and Vonetta McGee.

On Saturday, the archive’s Legacy Screening series presents the 1991 documentary “American Fabulous,” directed by Reno Dakota, about his friend, a gay man living in Central Ohio. Dakota will be in attendance at the screening at the Wilder.

Though Jeanne Moreau is best-known as an actress, she has also directed two features. On Sunday, the archive presents 1979’s “The Adolescent” and 1976’s acclaimed “Lumiere.”http://www.cinema.ucla.edu.

The New Beverly Cinema offers a Wes Anderson double bill Thursday-Saturday: 1998’s “Rushmore,” with Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray and Seymour Cassell, and 2001’s “The Royal Tenenbaums,” starring Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Stiller. The new 35mm restoration of Sergei M. Eisenstein’s 1925 masterwork “Battleship Potemkin” screens Sunday and Monday. http://www.newbevcinema.com

The L.A. Conservancy has a special Sunday matinee of the 1947 holiday classic "Miracle on 34th Street," with John Payne, Maureen O'Sullivan, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn, who won the supporting actor Oscar as Kris Kringle. The screening is at the venerable Million Dollar Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. http://www.laconservancy.org/matinee

The Los Angeles Filmforum presents “Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles, 1945-1980” Visual Communications” Sunday afternoon at the Downtown Independent. Among the films on the program is 1974’s “I Told You So.” http:/www.lafilmforum.org

The ArcLight Cinemas are presenting holiday classics this month. Screening Monday at the Arclight Hollywood is arguably everyone’s favorite yuletide fare, Frank Capra’s 1946 “It’s a Wonderful Life,” with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. The 1993 stop-motion animated delight from producer Tim Burton, “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” visits the Arclight Sherman Oaks on Wednesday and the Beach Cities venue Wednesday evening. http://www.arclightcinemas.com

The Skirball Center screens “Shame” Tuesday evening. No, not Steve McQueen’s current controversial drama about a sex addict, but a 2006 documentary about a spokesperson for women’s rights in Pakistan. http:://www.skirball.org.

The Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival takes over the New Beverly Cinema for six days beginning Tuesday evening. The festival promotes independent cinema and includes feature films, documentaries, shorts and videos by new artists.http://www.hollywoodreelindependentfilmfestival.com
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ “2011-2012 Documentary Series” visits the California Science Center IMAX Theater on Wednesday for a screening of the 2010 “Hubble 3D.”

New on DVD: In stores next week

2011-11-30T23:02:00.001-08:00

(2011, Universal; 118 minutes) Without any doubt the most cockamamie plot I’ve witnessed in many a moon. The aliens are throwbacks to classic Bug-Eyed Monsters. I liked the Western material more than the aliens, but then that’s the way I am. As preposterous money-makers go, it’s wildly inventive. Rated PG-13. (Roger Ebert)

‘The Debt’★★½

(2011, Miramax; 112 minutes) A celebrated 1965 raid by three agents of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, is celebrated by the publication of a book in 1997, unfortunately just as new facts are emerging. A good cast, but the older and younger versions of the characters don’t match up well, and the plot loses its way. Rated R. (Ebert)

‘Friends With Benefits’★★★

(2011, Screen Gems; 109 minutes) Follows rom-com formulas as if directed on autopilot, but that’s not to say it isn’t fun. Mila Kunis plays Jamie, an executive headhunter in New York City. Justin Timberlake plays Dylan, the hot shot behind a popular website. They agree to have sex without emotional attachment, and you know how well that works. But they’re both the real thing when it comes to light comedy. Not a great movie, but I enjoyed them in it. Rated R. (Ebert)

‘The Hangover Part II’★★

(2011, Warner; 101 minutes) Not merely a sequel to the 2009 hit, but literally a remake, with the same story transported laterally from Las Vegas to Bangkok. This time Stu (Ed Helms) is the groom to be, and his buddies (Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha and Zach Galifianakis) are in the wedding party. Galifianakis has many of the best moments, but the film plays like some kind of a test of how much raunch a weekend movie crowd can tolerate. Rated R. (Ebert)

‘The Help’★★★

(2011, Disney; 146 minutes) A story of African-American maids in the South during Jim Crow days, how they view their employers and how they empower a young white woman to write a best-seller about them. A good film, involving and wonderfully acted. Rated PG-13. (Ebert)

‘Life, Above All’★★★★

(2011, Sony; 102 minutes) A drama inspiring tears, centering on the 12-year-old Chanda (Khomotso Manyaka), who takes on the responsibility of holding her family together after her baby sister dies. Her mother is immobilized by grief and illness and her father by drink. Gravely and powerfully acted, good-hearted and brave. Rated PG-13. (Ebert)

‘Point Blank’★★★

(2011, Magnolia; 84 minutes) An ingenious thriller that doesn’t make much sense but doesn’t need to, because it moves at breakneck speed through a story of a man’s desperation to save his pregnant wife after she has been kidnapped. This is the kind of movie where you get involved first and ask questions later. Rated R. (Ebert)

‘Mr. Popper’s Penguins’★½

(2011, Fox; 97 minutes) A stupefying dumb family movie proving that penguins have limited charisma as pets, with Jim Carrey as a rich man who inherits the penguins from his father and takes them into his duplex co-op in Manhattan. Based on a classic children’s book; maybe children who like the book will like the movie, although penguins are more entertaining as a concept in a story than as characters on a screen. PG, 97 min. (Roger Ebert)

‘Rapt’★★★

(2011, Lorber; 125 minutes) A millionaire industrialist is kidnapped, and the event strips the cover from his private life of adultery and gambling losses. He finds that few people really ever loved him, and that without his public facade, he can no longer command a corporation. He begins the film as a powerful animal, becomes a haggard victim and ends as a pitiful case study. No MPAA rating. (Ebert)

‘The Smurfs’★½

(2011, Sony; 86 minutes) This latest version of the Smurfs combines an enchanted world of magical animated characters with live-action New York City and manages to get the worst of both worlds. It tries to appeal to kids with pratfalls, potty humor and the substitution of “Smurf” for every possible noun, verb and adjective. For the adults, there are pointless cameos by Tim Gunn and Joan Rivers. Rated PG. (Nell Minow)

Also Available

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Harvey Weinstein talks Oscars, Michelle Williams and the charm of “My Week With Marilyn” – AWARDS ALLEY

2011-11-30T22:54:00.001-08:00

Hollywoodnews.com: “Pulp Fiction.” “The English Patient.” “Good Will Hunting.” “Shakespeare in Love.” “Chicago.” “The Aviator.” “Gangs of New York.” “The Reader.” “The King’s Speech.”

For decades, Harvey Weinstein’s name has been synonymous with the Academy Awards, and his influential fingerprints have been all over the Oscar season. Weinstein annually produces, distributes, supports and guides quality films from the silver screen to the Oscar podium. And while Weinstein has earned a reputation as being a master of the awards campaign, he’s also (first and foremost) a movie lover with an appreciation for our industry’s rich history.

That passion is on display in Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Artist” and Simon Curtis’ “My Week With Marilyn,” two films distributed by The Weinstein Company that are being touted for Oscar consideration this season.

Weinstein spoke with HollywoodNews.com the day after both pictures generated even more awards buzz with multiple Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations and big wins through the New York Film Critics Circle. And while “The Artist” and “Marilyn” are just starting to reach wider audiences, Weinstein still has Meryl Streep’s “The Iron Lady” on the horizon, meaning his Oscar season just now is starting to heat up. It was a pleasure speaking with Harvey Weinstein about moviemaking, Marilyn Monroe, the Oscar momentum generated by his films, and his love for films about the creative process. Here’s Harvey Weinstein:

HollywoodNews.com: You have said in interviews how much you respect Marilyn Monroe, and how her remarkable life was an inspiration for you to support “My Week With Marilyn.” Yet Eddie Redmayne’s eager character, Colin, and his enthusiasm for the movie industry reminded me of you. I’m wondering how much that character served as a hook for you, as well.

Harvey Weinstein: I think that was the hook for me, Sean, for getting me into the story. The idea that there was this 23-year-old boy with his first job on the set of a movie, and he’s working for Laurence Olivier, directing Marilyn Monroe, and Marilyn Monroe’s husband, Arthur Miller, has a fight with her on their honeymoon, walks out, the boy’s there to comfort her, and little by little a romance ensues … that is everybody who ever was male and grew up in the movie business, that was our fantasy. And the romance is sweet. She says to him, “I’m 30 years old. I’ve been married three times. I haven’t had a date since I was 16.” And he’s a young boy who wants to court her and take her out on a date. She thinks she can live with him, and he can take her out of the viper’s nest that is Hollywood. It’s a true story, and it’s just one of those charming slices of life.

HollywoodNews.com: I also appreciated how it didn’t shy away from the ugly warts that can surface behind-the-scenes on a movie set, though.

Well, I think that’s important, too. I always like to do snapshot movies – how certain things are done. I don’t want to tell William Shakespeare’s biography, but I’m interested in how he did “Romeo & Juliet,” and we ended up with “Shakespeare in Love.” Same with James M. Barrie and “Peter Pan” and our film, “Finding Neverland.” Last year, we focus on this incredible incident about the King of England having a stutter, and a speech therapist who happened to be an actor but knew how to cure him. This was another snapshot into one of the most famous actresses in the world. Probably the most famous actress ever. And I thought, “What a way in; through the romance.” Let’s see her longing for innocence, see her longing for joy. And also see how funny she was, which I don’t think most people get. And also how smart she was. So yes, I like the snapshot approach. I’m not good with the thousand-page biography.

HollywoodNews.com: Marilyn is referred to as American Royalty in the film, and she absolutely was just larger than life. When you think of a contemporary artist, someone we might be fascinated with decades from now, who do you think of?

I can think of Madonna as a modern equivalent of Marilyn. I will tell you a story. You said “royalty,” and one of the things that happened to us on “Marilyn” is that we wanted to shoot in Windsor Castle. I’ve made a lot of movies in England. Every time I’ve asked Windsor Castle, the answer’s always been, “No.” That answer’s kind of been pro-forma. I also wanted to shoot in … the aristocratic boy’s school where Prince Philip and Prince Charles went. And the answer always has been, “No.” I wanted to shoot the lake on Windsor Castle. “No, no, no, no, no!”

This time, they say, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.” And we kept wondering who cut the red tape. You said “royalty.” Did you know that in 1956, when Marilyn Monroe was making the movie that we deal with in our film, there was a two-day break. On one of the nights, the Queen invited her to a Royal Premiere. There’s footage on YouTube of Marilyn and the Queen getting along famously. Obviously there’s only a piece of it that they’ll air, but they got along amazingly well, these two. And the irony is that we believe the Royal family removed the red tape. And even stranger was that Marilyn Monroe and the Queen were the same age. When you said “royalty,” it just reminded me of that story.

HollywoodNews.com: Yesterday was a very important day, with the Indie Spirit noms and “The Artist” earning top honors from the NYFCC. You know that this is a very long season, so I’m curious if there’s victory to be had in the nominations, or is your eye always on the big Oscar prize?

Well, look, if you win the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Feature for “The Artist” or Best Director, and Meryl Streep wins Best Actress, and Michelle gets nominated for “Marilyn,” that’s a great day. There’s no way around it. These are movies that profit from the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, which is what I think critics’ awards are. Look, I’m thrilled. It still is as exciting as it always was. I’m not underselling any part of what a great day yesterday was.

HollywoodNews.com: We do appear to be in a cycle where our films are celebrating the creative process, from “Marilyn” to “The Artist.” It harkens back to “Shakespeare in Love,” and other films that looked back to honor past works of art. Do you think it’s time the Academy did it again?

Well, I hope so. I have a couple of movies in “The Artist” and “Marilyn” that do just that, so selfishly, I’ll say yes. What I always hope is that the best movie wins, and usually it does. I don’t even think “usual.” I think it always does. Even when we’ve lost, we probably deserved to. But it is a great year.

“My Week With Marilyn” is in theaters now.

New photos of Anne Hathaway and Adam Shulman released

2011-11-30T22:46:00.001-08:00

Movie fans in Scottsdale are waiting to see Anne Hathaway on the big screen in The Dark Knight Rises. The actress is taking on Catwoman in the film, but she is making news for her personal life this week. On Tuesday, Movieline reported the actress was engaged to her boyfriend of three years, Adam Shulman. Celeb Buzz also shared a number of new photos of the couple together. Check out the new photos here.

Production on The Dark Knight Rises just wrapped earlier this month, so the actress is now enjoying a bit of a break before beginning work on another project. Christian Bale, the man behind Batman in this final installment of Christopher Nolan's trilogy, had nothing but praise for Hathaway and her performance as Catwoman in the film. He said the following about her, according to First Showing:

"I'm terrible at auditions, so I'm very impressed when somebody really seems to acquire an ownership of a character without having worked on it or prepared for some amount of time. I saw that in Anne\. When Chris watched the screen test, he agreed that Anne did a wonderful job. In many ways, she has the hardest job. There are a number of people who feel that the Catwoman role has been defined previously. So, I always saw Anne's role as being the toughest job of any of us."

Earlier this summer, some fans were upset about the choice of costume for Hathaway's character. However, that buzz died down as the production continued and more was seen. Fans are still buzzing about the release of this film on social media though. One fan said the following on Twitter recently

American Masculinity, Shown in All Its Angst

2011-11-30T22:39:00.001-08:00

On Monday night, when Natalie Portman helped introduce the first-ever tie for best feature at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, she noted that the winners, “Beginners” and “The Tree of Life,” took on the big ideas: “love, death, human connection.” She could’ve added: boyhood, fatherhood and how to look good in a suit. Both “Beginners,” an indie, multigenerational romance from the director Mike Mills, and “The Tree of Life,” Terrence Malick’s sweeping ode to Americana (and earth), are wide shots at the notion of American masculinity, as it is and was.

Many of the films that have begun to rack up statuettes and nominations on the sometimes gilded, sometimes barbed path to the Oscars (the Gothams traditionally start off the campaigning in New York) deal with the existential crises of men. There are real-life figures grappling with their place in history (Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role of Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar”), fictional figures contending with the weight of their cultural forebears (Owen Wilson as a dissatisfied screenwriter in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”) or classic archetypes facing an uncertain future (the silent screen actor at the advent of sound in “The Artist”). Guyish morality (and mortality) tales like “The Descendants,” Alexander Payne’s bittersweet family drama, and “50/50,” a comic bromance about a young man with cancer, have been rewarded with good notices from critics and precursor trophy givers, like the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

Other Oscar watchers, like Sasha Stone at Awards Daily, have noted that there’s a preponderance of struggling (but hot) single fathers in this year’s crop of hopefuls: the “sexiest men alive” troika of George Clooney in “The Descendants,” who describes himself as the “backup parent” to two daughters; Brad Pitt in “Moneyball,” who tries to fit his child into his shuffling career as general manager of the Oakland A’s; and Matt Damon as the economically floundering but devoted dad in “We Bought a Zoo.” Even the nameless hipster-lust object played by Ryan Gosling in “Drive,” Nicolas Winding Refn’s stylish ode to Los Angeles noir, becomes a father figure to a neighbor’s little boy. In “The Artist,” which received top honors from the New York Film Critics Circle on Tuesday, the dapper French leading man Jean Dujardin doesn’t have a kid, but he does have a scene-stealing little dog. (For movie stars, even retro ones, that’s responsibility enough.)

“Take Shelter,” the writer-director Jeff Nichols’s haunting story of a blue-collar family man beset by visions of doom, offers a tight-lipped patriarch who is all the more unsettling for his familiarity. “It reminds me of a stepfather I had, Big Mike,” said Michael Shannon, the star of that film. (At some point Mr. Shannon, now a hulking 6 foot 4, was Little Mike.) That his character hides his crippling nightmares from his wife — played by Jessica Chastain, who, like Mr. Shannon, is earning all the right kudos for the performance — is not just a plot device. “I don’t think that’s an aberration, some sort of malignant behavior,” Mr. Shannon said. “I think it’s pretty common, actually, for people that are in relationships to withhold certain things from one another.”

Though “Take Shelter,” set against rust-belt economic turmoil, has the whiff of something topical, Mr. Shannon said it was a personal project for Mr. Nichols, with whom he has collaborated before. “Jeff wrote this movie because of the anxiety he was having about starting a family,” he said. (Mr. Nichols is being promoted for a best original screenplay Oscar.)

Movies typically have too long a development cycle to reflect the latest shifts in American culture, but there are exceptions like “Margin Call,” the talky financial thriller in which roomfuls of dudes (and one “dudette,” as J. C. Chandor, the writer and director of “Margin Call,” described one of the film’s stars, Demi Moore) choose how to navigate the imminent demise of their fictional investment bank. Mr. Chandor, the son of a stockbroker, based it loosely on the 2008 fall of Lehman Brothers and labored not to make Wall Street a bogeyman. Audiences leave debating the real-life economic repercussions.

“It’s been sort of sad, obviously, for the world and for the country, but the film I think has been taken more seriously,” Mr. Chandor said of his timing. He is making his feature debut with “Margin Call,” which earned the Robert Altman prize for directing, casting and ensemble (the actors include Zachary Quinto, Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons) from the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

Of course the idea that studios (and audiences) would shell out for a good-looking hero (or several) is nothing new; Hollywood has always been a sucker for a struggling — or stuttering — conqueror. But in the nearly three years that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has allowed up to 10 best picture nominees — the same span that I’ve been chronicling the daily red carpets and cocktail-party chatter of Oscar season in my role as the Carpetbagger — there have been at least a few movies in the trophy pool that centered on women: “Black Swan,” which won Ms. Portman an Oscar last year; “An Education,” which introduced Carey Mulligan to the world; “The Blind Side,” which demonstrated that mainstream movies could resonate equally with Oprah watchers and Academy voters; and “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” which had the blessing of Oprah herself, a producer.

This year’s answer to “The Blind Side” may be the “The Help,” Tate Taylor’s adaptation of the best-selling novel about women’s work and civil rights in 1960s Mississippi. With strong performances from Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Ms. Chastain, it is considered an Oscar shoo-in for an acting nomination, and maybe more.

This year the Academy revised its rules to allow anywhere from 5 to 10 best picture nominees, so it could still be a brofest — or not. At this stage guessing is part of the fun. Beside all the celebrity-stylist and gift-bag hoopla, the Oscar race is a conversation: about which films deserve canonization via little gold men, how they might get there and whether they will shape us when they do.

For Mr. Mills, the writer-director of “Beginners,” a little-seen and highly personal film poised to make a bigger ripple now, the impact of the early awards attention is to, unexpectedly, amplify everything he wanted to say. He based his movie very closely on his own relationship with his father.

“I started writing it five months after my dad passed away,” he said. “And I’m in this crazy grief world, which makes me really brave, and I’m willing to talk about anything that I can to the world, about humanity, which sounds pretentious. But I’m like: ‘Why not? What else are we here to talk about? ”

Best Lothario Films: Eight Movie Womanizers

2011-11-29T22:16:00.001-08:00

The movies are full of bed-hopping men — think of Humphrey Bogart's serial flirtations inThe Big Sleep (1946) and Richard Roundtree laying his way uptown and down in Shaft(1971). But in Steve McQueen's Shame, womanizing is not just an outgrowth of the plot — it is the plot. And it's just the latest example of a subgenre we'll call the Lothario film. Particularly plentiful in the wake of the sexual revolution, Lothario films are the pictures that deal with men tripped up on their own swinging dicks. Here are fond memories of our favorite dicks and the collateral damage they left in their wakes.

Alfie (1966) — Director: Lewis Gilbert; Lothario: Michael Caine. In the year of Blow-Up, as David Hemmings wrestled with models in hip Notting Hill, Alfie offered a look at sex among the working class in a resolutely unsexy, swinging London. Wearing a slack expression and reciting his nihilist philosophy to the camera in h-dropped Cockney, Michael Caine's Alfie is perhaps the most boorish womanizer on this list: lofty and bullying with his mistresses, depending on his stallion-like physical presence alone to keep him satisfied. Featuring a dismal illegal abortion scene, it's a time capsule of the moment just before sex and consequences were parted.

Play Misty for Me (1971) — Director: Clint Eastwood; Lothario: Clint Eastwood.Eastwood has produced a long line of out-of-wedlock children and films since '71; this was the first of the latter. Misty examines the hazards of free love, with Eastwood playing a DJ whose on-air whisper keeps the sheets hot at his Carmel-by-the-Sea bachelor pad, until one casual lay (Jessica Walter) first refuses to take the hint and then comes back with a knife. A "Hell hath no fury" film that inverts assumptions about masculine predators and feminine victims.

Shampoo (1975) — Director: Hal Ashby; Lothario: Warren Beatty. Beatty co-wrote the screenplay with Robert Towne and, bouncing between L.A. trysts on his motorcycle, starred as hairdresser George Roundy. The opposite of aggressive bluster, Beatty's reserved, shy, withholding performance is a lovely tiptoe approach — his whisper is what draws the women closer. If George is ultimately as fleeting and impossible to hold as the Santa Ana wind, he is also granted a measure of heroism amid a rising tide of materialism: "I don't fuck for money. I do it for fun."

The Pick-up Artist (1987) — Director: James Toback; Lothario: Robert Downey Jr.Toback's own trawling has been widely rumored — in a 1989 foldout chart in Spy, and the pages of Gawker besides. Otherwise, he is probably best known as the director of Fingersand as the wingman to pal Warren Beatty, this film's shadow producer, who once summed up his might-as-well-ask seducer's credo thusly: "You get slapped a lot, but you get fucked a lot too." Pick-up Artist doubles-down on the playing-the-odds metaphor, with a spaniel-eyed Robert Downey (before he had his gap-teeth closed and when there was still a vulnerability beneath the glibness) as the skirt-chaser who reinvents himself for every new pick-up.

Boomerang (1992) — Director: Reginald Hudlin; Lothario: Eddie Murphy. Playing an infamous Manhattanite lady-killer, Eddie Murphy is too eager to have the audience on his side to make Boomerang's player-who-gets-played comeuppance plot go, but on the way to wholesome yawn Halle Berry, he passes through quite a menagerie of actresses, including mewling senior Eartha Kitt, finishing-school freak Robin Givens, and Amazonian Grace Jones.

Deconstructing Harry (1997) — Director: Woody Allen; Lothario: Woody Allen and loads of alter egos. You need only look at Liam Neeson's spooked "What have I gotten myself into?" expression in every scene in Husbands and Wives (1992) to realize there is a world of darkness on the fringes of every Allen comedy, and most of it is blackly disgorged here. Allen's Harry Block, a philandering novelist who shtups his sister-in-law and fashions a book from it, is his most unpleasant alter ego, with the film an erotomaniac's self-revelation to rival Robert Crumb's My Troubles With Women.

Auto Focus (2002) — Director: Paul Schrader; Lothario: Greg Kinnear. This film is a love story of a sort, about the symbiotic ante-upping relationship that develops between A/V geek John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe) and Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear), who embark together on an odyssey of amateur porn and group gropes that ends only when Crane turns up in a Scottsdale motel room, bludgeoned to death with a tripod. Saddled with a laughable formal "hook" — as Crane's life goes out of control, so does the camera-work —Auto Focus works best as outright farce of sexual desperation, as in the scene of increasingly spooked-looking Crane switching a bar TV set to Heroes — like Sutherland's Casanova imitating his own flyleaf portrait — when he's doing his evening's cruising.

Sideways (2004) — Director: Alexander Payne; Lothario: Thomas Haden Church. A dialogue between fidelity and inconsequentiality, connoisseurship and appetite, Sideways's two poles are represented by Paul Giamatti's Miles and Thomas Haden Church's aging soap-opera stud, Jack. "There are some things that I have to do that you don't understand," Jack says in a voice that speaks of surrendered self-control and the dilemma of a sex drive without a brake. The guy can't help it.