Like Jason Reitman, Noah Baumbach has mastered the near-impossible knack of writing smart, memorable, quotable dialogue that doesn’t sound like a stand-up routine in search of a rim-shot. I suppose George Hickenlooper would mock a movie like this as a “puerile masturbatory self examination of stone dead emotional detachment and characters who no longer...
Monthly Archives: November 2009
I’ll bounce off Sasha’s angle once more to feature a second Variety tribute from one actor to another: I had the privilege of playing Hal Holbrook’s gay lover in the landmark TV film “That Certain Summer.” His character was a divorced father with a teenage son, and in one powerful climactic scene, the boy rejects him when he discovers he’s...
Richard Corliss, in a Fall Movie Preview, writes up Invictus admiringly: If there’s a whiff of colonialism in casting Hollywood stars as renowned South Africans, the actors work hard to find strength and nuance in their roles. Damon, beefed up for the occasion, makes Pienaar a stalwart yet courtly figure. Freeman infuses Mandela’s speeches with the same gentleness...
For Your Speculation makes a nice listen for the their 50 Things We’re Thankful For. Their voices are soothing, which is the best thing one can hope from a podcast. Fair warning: Awards Daily is also joining the podcast revolution and we’ll be starting our weekly podcasts in the next few days. Be ready. Meanwhile, we thank Awards Speculation for including us...
Jeremy Renner is not a big Hollywood name, or at least, he wasn’t until this year. Here is Ben Affleck, writing for Variety, on Renner (thanks to Mr. Ellwood for the twip): Jeremy pulls you in so that you identify with that person. His performance is the result of a tremendous work ethic and commitment. It’s very hard to fake. That part could easily have...
The debate raging in the comments section of another post declares that this year mirrors 1989, when Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture. They compare that to the Blind Side and I guess I would say that, what crack pipe are you all smoking? They also are wrongly comparing Precious to Do the Right thing which was snubbed that year. I guess the only thing those films have...
There is sort of an unwritten rule that says comments on a site kind of belong to that site. But this one came up over at Hollywood-Elsewhere as part a debate about the film The Blind Side – why it was doing so well at the box office, and why it seems like just the kind of movie America-at-large craves. Director George Hickenlooper offered up this explanation: I...