Food, Inc. is one of the best films I saw this year. I knew it would be about the inhumane treatment of animals in slaughter houses. But I was unprepared for the information the film revealed about the corporate dominance of companies like Monsanto, and the stunning revelation that our food comes from a very small handful of companies. They package it differently to...
Monthly Archives: February 2010
One can only hope that the Academy are generally smarter than this, or more mature? But after Dave Karger reported on the Chartier emailgate, and the Carpetbagger did too, some of Karger’s commenters illustrated how and why people can embody stupidity and why scandals can sometimes cost contenders votes: * Ambient Lite Excellent idea! I looked him up, he‚Äôs...
I feel like I have to disclose the information passed on to me by predictor extraordinaire, Kris Tapley – who predicted, along with Damien Bona, 21 out of 24 categories last year, but whose crowning moment was predicting Departures to upset Waltz With Bashir. Tapley told me yesterday that Argentina’s Oscar submission, El Secreto de sus Ojos, is the one to...
From the press release: The 18th Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala (www.movieguideawards.com) wrapped up its awards presentation Tuesday night and handed out more than $300,000 in cash prizes, with the top three prizes sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation. Set at the historic Beverly Wilshire Hotel and attended by numerous actors, executives and producers, the...
A few days ago, right after the BAFTAs, several websites declared the Oscar race over. I hadn’t felt nervous about The Hurt Locker’s Best Picture chances until that moment. You don’t declare a race over before ballots have been turned in. You just don’t. With one week to go and strategists and publicists who are really good at their jobs are angry....
Well, the clusterfuck has finally come full circle. The producer of The Hurt Locker blah blah blah, violated the rules by sending out an email, blah blah blah and cut to — he has had to apologize. He did finally apologize: The academy has not yet issued a statement about how it intends to deal with this severe violation of Oscar campaign rules. Penalties could be...
Nice Vanity Fair piece about the cinematography of the nominated films: The Hurt Locker’s director of photography, Barry Ackroyd, uses Super-16 cameras to create a raw, documentary feel for his sun-drenched canvas in Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraqi War drama. Christian Berger, meanwhile, channels the poignant black-and-white photography of Ingmar Bergman’s legendary...