Once Swede update...

The Internets are beginning take notice of our Once Trailer that we mentioned yesterday.

So far it's been mentioned on blogs...
- The Chancer
- Unarocks
- Rick O'Shea

And made the Phantom 105.2 news (sound clip).

Crazy!

Shameless Self Promotion...

As an entry to the Be Kind Rewind Sweding Contest, me and a few friends re-made the trailer for Once. Enjoy!

Something DIFFerent

The Dublin International Film Festival wound up on Sunday. I managed to get to 3 films....

Funny Games U.S.
A straight remake of the original German film, Funny Games U.S. is a fairly disturbing look at the hunger and fascination that modern audiences have towards cinema violence. The reason to remake it in such an exact way is to make it's point more direct, tangible and relevant then it was before. I left the cinema feeling horrible, so it did have the effect on me that the director wanted. It's a unique experience, but not one for anyone sensitive.
Rating: * * * * (4 Stars)

The Orphanage
For the most part, The Orphanage is a brilliant horror film filled with moments of complete terror and pants-wetting suspense. Very well directed, written and performed, it keeps you engaged and alert with it's story of hauntings and a missing child. It's such a pity that the final 2 minutes of the film tear apart everything that it worked so hard on building. To go into it would be to spoil the film, so I'll just say this: it's denouement is so ethically skewed and uncharacteristic of the story that it actually offends deeply and gives the wrong message.
Rating: * * * * (4 Stars, but it would be 5 if the ending hadn't been such a cop out)

The Escapist
This was the surprise film of the festival. If this is festival director Grainne Humphreys idea of what a surprise film should be then I'll be skipping it next year. The film itself has been done many times before and better too. We never get enough back-story or development from the characters, their motives are either shallow or non-existent, and the final twist is, while clever in some respects, completely hollow and meaningless. A poor effort, and a bad choice.
Rating: * * (2 Stars)

I hope the festival improves next year, as there's most certainly room for it.

Cinema is the real winner...

You can find out all the Oscar winners and losers (aka: nominees) here.

I didn't have time to put up my predictions yesterday, but I'd have gone for There Will Be Blood for Best Film (wrong!), The Coens for Director (right!), Day Lewis for Actor (duh! right!), Cotillard for Actress (right! yay!), Blanchett for Supp. Actress (wrong!) and Holbrook for Supp. Actor (wrong again!).

There were no big surprises this year, and it seems that this was one of the few years that The Academy gave the best film award to a deserving film.

Congrats to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in winning for Best Song.

Irish director to make Akira

"Kanedaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!"

The director of the Oscar-nominated short film Fifty Percent Grey, Ruairi Robinson, has been lined up by Leonardo Di Caprio's production company Apian Way and Warner Bros. to direct 2 live-action films based on the Manga property Akira.

The Akira manga comic books were made into the much celebrated animated feature back in 1988, and in the 90s Sony Pictures made some headway into producing a live-action version but faltered at the projected budget for the effects. Now that CGI has reached a stage where the budget can be shrunk Di Caprio has taken on the story, probably with a view to starring as well.

Aintitcoolnews broke the story here.

You can view the brilliant short Fifty percent Grey here.

Miffed At The IFTAs

Film journo and all-round intelligent bloke Donald Clarke has an article in Today's Irish Times that asks questions on the credibility of some awards in this year's IFTAs. You can read that article on-line here.

Similar to what I've said in the past, he challenges that the added glamor and ceremony over the past few years has cheapened the awards and, even though it promotes shorts and low-budget endeavors, has ended up being nothing more than an opportunity to have a few famous faces on the morning papers.

When the response you get from Aine Moriarty, IFTA Chief Executive, is "Who is voicing this opinion? It is ridiculous" it just shows how closed minded the awards are.

Review Roundup

Cloverfield
With all the hype surrounding this film I was expecting to be let down a good deal, considering that the vast majority of films never meet the expectations built up by a crazy marketing campaign. Turns out the hype was deserved and I throughly enjoyed the hell out of it! It's fast paced, well constructed and feels like some genuine creative thought went into making it what it is. It's a blockbuster with a little more smarts then your usual multiplex fodder. It does suffer from some gaping plot holes but, being a monster movie, you can easily forgive them. A word of warning: try and sit as far back in the cinema as possible! It's not as shakily annoying as some Bourne films, but it comes close the odd time.
Rating: * * * * (4 Stars)

Juno
This film, while being quite good, comes across as a missed opportunity for me. What we have is a story that's funny, touching and engaging but is written in a fashion that completely alienates the audience. The quick-witted banter that coats almost every scene (the first 10 minutes are an onslaught of achingly dry punchlines) displays an unsettling need to prove its indie roots. Luckily, once it gets to the half way mark the dialog begins to simmer down and the story takes centre stage. Page is sometimes annoying, but generally fine, as the title character and is supported by a great cast (including Michael Cera who nails his role perfectly). Good but not great, it's amount of awards and nominations seem like overkill. Oh, and I hate hate hate The Moldy Peaches!
Rating: * * * (3 Stars)

Definitely Maybe
I was, not quite dragged, but coerced into seeing this. This year's "released for Valentines" film is light on the schmaltz and heavy on the cute as Ryan Reynolds' tells the story of how he met is soon-to-be-divorced wife to his young daughter. Compared to other rom-coms it has it's moments, tends not to drift into over-sentimentality and has a dark core to its tale. However, it does contain characters and arcs that are beyond belief and reality. Do yourself a favour and watch High Fidelity instead, a film about past and current relationships that surpasses this attempt.
Rating: * * (2 Stars, add another 2 if you like this sort of movie)

Writers' Strike Over! (almost!)

UPDATE: East and West Coast branches of the Guild will vote on Tuesday for the acceptance of the new terms. It's suggested that the writers will be back to work on Wednesday.

(In other news, it's been speculated that Lost will get 6 more episodes in April/May! Good times!!)

CNBC is reporting here that a deal will go before the writers tomorrow (Saturday) for their approval.

Ex-CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner said "It's over, they made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It's going on Saturday to the writers in general". Once the writers give it the thumbs-up (which everyone seems fairly certain that they will) it will bring an end to the strike that has lasted since November and shut down most TV and some film productions.

Eisner concluded: "A deal has been made, and they'll be back to work very soon," adding, "I know a deal's been made. I know it's over."

Falling Slowly into Insanity - UPDATED

UPDATE: The music section of the AMPAS yesterday agreed that the song "Falling Slowly" from Once is allowed to retain it's nomination in the category for Best Song. Sanity has thankfully prevailed, but you have to wonder what effect all this bad press has on its chances.

Original Story:
You've probably read the speculation and furore in the Sunday Tribune and elsewhere about Once's nomination in the Best Song category at the Oscars. Originally I had completely dismissed this as an old story re-cycled due to the announcement of the nominees last week, but then the story began to pick up speed and the AMPAS said that they were considering the situation.

This comes as a complete surprise as I had though the matter had been sorted out long ago! Kris Tapely over at Variety points out the same in this article. Only 2 songs from Once (Falling Slowly and If You Want Me) were stated by the Academy to be fit for nomination, while all other songs contain were found to be un-original (as in: not for the film). But now the Academy seems to be flip-flopping and pressure has been mounted to re-consider its legibility as an original work for the film. "Pressure from where?" you might ask. Have a look at who else is nominated for Best Song and you may find an answer.


The AMPAS will announce their final decision sometime today.

Del Toro To Direct The Hobbit

Guillermo Del Toro, director of fantastic films such as Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy and The Devil's Backbone, has been confirmed via The Holloywood Reporter (story here) to direct 2 back-to-back features based on Tolkien's The Hobbit.

It's been known for a few weeks that Peter Jackson and New Line finally settled their litigation surrounding profits for the first Rings installment, and that The Hobbit would be done as 2 films, but when it was originally announced Jackson was only listed as a producer. This hinted at a busy slate for Jackson (with The Lovely Bones and Tintin both in various stages of production) and a possible new director. With Del Toro confirmed, production should begin in 2009 with release dates of Christmas 2010 and 2011.

Oscar Countdown: No Country Wins DGA Award

It has only happened 3 times since 1996 that the DGA Award has gone to a director that didn't go on to win the Best Directing Oscar for that year. Ron Howard (Apollo 13), Ang Lee ( Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and Rob Marshall (Chicago) won the DGA in 1996, 2001 and 2003, only to lose to Mel Gibson (Braveheart), Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) and Roman Polanski (The Pianist).

This year, the DGA Award went to the Cohen Brothers for No Country For Old Men which now makes them almost certain of Oscar glory.

New Bond film gets a name, confuses everyone

It was announced on Sky News earlier that the new James Bond film currently in production will be called: Quantum of Solace.

Apparently it's based on a short story contained in Fleming's For Your Eyes Only.

I don't know about everyone else, but does the title sound a bit Lord Of The Rings-ish? Or even Star Trek-y?

Review Roundup!!

I've conceded to the fact that I won't be able to write full reviews of these films. So here's a quick-fire roundup of what I've seen lately...

No Country For Old Men
I've been aching to see this film for ages, and it did not disappoint. Everything about it sublime: the direction, the writing, the performances (Javier Bardem's will go down in history), the sound mixing, the adrenaline pumping chases...aw hell I could go on for ages. It's excellent. Please go see it.
Rating: * * * * * (5 Stars)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
10 minutes in to this a friend leaned over and said: "I didn't know this was a musical!". She ended up really enjoying it though, which is more then I can say for myself. The problems I have with Sweeney are inherent to the actual source material itself. The production is fantastic, the performances good and the direction excellent. However, it suffers from a few songs that miss the mark and characters (the daughter and her lover in particular) that are just plain boring to watch.
Rating: * * * (3 Stars)

Charlie Wilson's War
Like Sweeney Todd, this has most of the parts to make a brilliant film, but somewhat falls short. The story of a US Congressman who instigates the biggest covert war in the history of the CIA is interesting and has a strong message that is not forced but hinted at. It's a pity that this story is just not compelling enough, and leaves you with the feeling that they cut out 30 minutes of plot development. It is funny in places and has Philip Seymore Hoffman stealing every scene he's in, but it just isn't enough to save it.
Rating: * * * (3 Stars)

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
This is a massive attempt at taking the piss out of Walk The Line and Ray, and they almost pull it off. In a movie like this you just need to know one thing: is it funny? Answer: Yes, but not always. Some jokes are delivered with a knowing wink that takes you out of the story and reminds you that you are just watching a group of people who are effectively pointing and laughing at other films. Others of its ilk, like Anchorman and Blades Of Glory, aren't so aware of themselves and are the better for it. That said, it is mostly funny and is just about worth the admission. Watch out for a cracking joke about The Temptations.
Rating: * * * (3 Stars)

R.I.P. Heath Ledger

His passing is both sad and unfortunate. It's a shame that we won't get to see what would have been a great career.

BBC News has coverage here.

Oscar Nominations Announced

The Oscar.com website has a full run-down here.

The big new is that there's quite a few Irish in the nominations...

- Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) in Best Supporting Actress
- Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood) in Best Actor
- Once got a single nomination in the Best Song category
- Seamus McGarvey (Atonement) in Best Cinematography

So how did my predictions do? Here's some commentary (read: my own stoopid opinion) on other categories as well...

Best Picture
Almost hit the nail on the head. There's been quite some buzz with Michael Clayton, and this morning I've been reading that some are considering it No Country's main rival.

Best Director
Joe Wright, director of Atonement, will feel rotten. A Best Picture nomination but nothing for his direction. Jason Reitman's nomination is a huge surprise, considering the Academy rarely give nods to comedy. On the predictions front: 3/5 ain't bad!

Best Actor
Tommy Lee Jones' nomination wasn't expected. I had thought Tom Hanks was a certainty but was very wrong. Emile Hirsch's exclusion was the first sign that Into The Wild would get royally snubbed. Another 3/5.

Best Actress
Like I said, Cate Blanchett's nomination is an annual event. She won't win it though as most will give her Best Supporting Actress. Laura Linney's nomination was unexpected. Keira Knightly didn't get her very much expected nomination... burn! 3/5 on the predictions again.

Other Categories
- As usual, Best Supporting Actor has the most interesting selection. If it turns out to be No Country's night then Bardem will take it home, otherwise Hal Holbrook will be given it (more so for his career rather then his role in Into The Wild).
- Saoirse Ronan will have her work cut out to beat Cate Blanchett in Best Supporting Actress. The I'm Not There actress is a dead cert.
- Best Original Screenplay is the Academy's favorite time to give an award to an Indie film. Juno looks most likely this year.
- No Simpson's Movie on the Best Animated Feature list. Ouchers!
- Speaking of animation, Ratatouille's 5 nominations are really surprising, especially Best Orig. Screenplay
- I predicted 2 nods for Once in the Best Song category, but was trumped by Enchanted's 3 (count 'em!) nominations. I did not see that coming at all. Even Eddie Vedder's song from Into The Wild didn't get a nomination! Once will be favorite to take away the statue as the rest of the votes will be spread too liberally over Enchanted's songs to pose any threat.
- Norbit got nominated (for Best Make-Up). The end of the world is nigh!

Overall, it's a wide open race and I have a feeling that no one film will run away with it. The ceremony will take place, pending that the Writers' Strike (TM) will allow it, on Sunday, Feb. 24th.