New Image Of Darth Vader in ‘Rogue One‘ (From EW)

Oscar Predictions Or 'Where We Stand Pre-Turkey Feast'

FRONTRUNNERS

1) "La La Land"
2) "Fences"
3) "Manchester By The Sea"

4) "Silence"

5) "Sully"

6) "Lion"

7) "Loving"

8) "Jackie"
9) "Arrival"

10) "Moonlight"

MAJOR THREATS

Hidden Figures
Patriots Day
Hacksaw Ridge
Florence Foster Jenkins
Arrival
20th Century Women

Best Actor

FRONTRUNNERS

1) Denzel Washington, "Fences"

2) Casey Affleck, "Manchester By the Sea"

3) Tom Hanks, "Sully"

4) Ryan Gosling "La La Land"

5) Michael Keaton, "The Founder"

MAJOR THREATS

Viggo Mortensen, "Captain Fantastic"
Joel Edgerton, "Loving"

Andrew Garfield, "Silence"

Dev Patel, "Lion"
Miles Teller, "Bleed For This"

Best Actress

FRONTRUNNERS

1) Emma Stone, "La La Land"

2) Natalie Portman, "Jackie"

3) Amy Adams, "Arrival"

4) Ruth Negga, "Loving"

5) Isabelle Huppert, "Elle"

MAJOR THREATS

Taraji P Henson, "Hidden Figures"

Meryl Streep "Florence Foster Jenkins"

Jessica Chastain, "Miss Sloane"

Annette Benning, "20th Century Women"

Best Supporting Actor 


FRONTRUNNERS

1) Mahershala Ali, "Moonlight" 

2) Michael Shannon, "Nocturnal Animals" 

3) Jeff Bridges, "Hell or High Water"

4) Lucas Hedges, "Manchester By the Sea"

5) Aaron Eckhart, "Bleed For This"

MAJOR THREATS

Liam Neeson, "Silence"

Ben Foster, "Hell or High Water"

Hugh Grant, "Florence Foster Jenkins"

Stephen Mckinley Henderson, "Fences"

Dev Patel, "Lion"

Best Supporting Actress


FRONTRUNNERS

1) Viola Davis, "Fences" 
2) Michelle Williams, "Manchester By the Sea"

3) Naomie Harris, "Moonlight"

4) Nicole Kidman, "Lion"

5) Octavia Spencer, "Hidden Figures"

MAJOR THREATS

Felicity Jones "A Monster Calls"

Margo Martindale, "The Hollars"

Molly Shannon, "Other People"

Helen Mirren, "Eye in the Sky"

Lupita Nyong'o, "Queen of Katwe"
Janaelle Monae, "Hidden Figures"

Best Director

FRONTRUNNERS

1) Damien Chazelle, "La La Land"

2) Kenneth Lonergan, "Manchester By the Sea'

3) Denzel Washington, "Fences"

4) Martin Scorsese, "Silence"
5) Barry Jenkins, "Moonlight"

POSSIBLE THREATS

Mel Gibson "Hacksaw Ridge"

Pablo Larrain, "Jackie"

Paul Verhoeven, "Elle"

Clint Eastwood, "Sully"

Jeff Nichols, "Loving"

Best Foreign Language Film

"Elle"
"Toni Erdmann"
"Neruda"
"The Salesman"
"Under the Shadow"
"From Afar"
"Fire At Sea"
"The Age of Shadows"
"Julieta"
"Land of Mine"

Best Animated Film

"Zootopia"
"Kubo and the Two Strings"
"Finding Dory"
"Moana"
"The Red Turtle"
"Sing"

Best Documentary Feature

"OJ: Made in America"
"The 13th"
"Lo and Behold"
"Before the Flood"
"Weiner"
"Gleason"
"Cameraperson"
"Jim: The James Foley Story"
"Amanda Knox"
"Zero Days"

Limited edition BABADOOK book, which was hand crafted for two years under the supervision of director Jennifer Kent. It's beautifully creepy.

'Cars 3' Official US Teaser Trailer

I love Pixar. The classics they've released over the past 20 years have been tremendous (Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up, Toy Story 3) yet there's always been much hate directed towards 2006's Cars which, I'll admit it, did not have the inventiveness of the previously said titles but had a sweet, good natured simplicity to its Americana vibe. I loved every second of it when I saw it 10 years ago, while on vacation, at a screening room in Alberta's Lux movie theater. Cars 2, on the other hand, I did not love. It is by far the worst movie in Pixar's short 21 year history. While the original had a sweet, western-like, small town simplicity to its delivery, "Cars 2" was all flash and turned into a, gosh, Bond-esque spy caper. The characters were wooden and the marketing for the film's products was all over the screen. Not surprising considering Cars is a major business for Pixar, from lunchboxes to toys, Pixar has been milking it ever since the original's release. Another big mistake was concentrating the center of its plot on red-neck talkin Mater, a caricature that ranks amongst Pixar's worst characters. With all that being said, I do not look forward to "Cars 3."

The single tracking shot from Atonement [2007]. Stunning cinematography and direction. The heartbreaking score seamlessly merges with the singing choir and the final framing reminiscent of a painting by Turner. So much detail captured, I'm not sure there's been a better depiction of Dunkirk on film.

New photo of Liam Neeson in Scorsese's "Silence"

Also this picture of a possible poster just leaked, legit?

I'm quoted in the "Barry" trailer, a look at Barack Obama's college days at Columbia University in NYC

They quoted me in the trailer for "Barry," which captures the tumultuous first few college days of the future U.S. president at Columbia University.


During his college days in, Obama used to be called “Barry.” At that point in time he hadn’t fully embraced his African American roots yet, but was headed towards a journey of self-discovery that would change him forever. That is at least what writer-director Vikram Gandhi tries to show us in this compelling drama.

This is the second film about Obama to arrive this year after the Sundance hit Southside With You, which took place around 10 years later in Chicago. In Barry, Devon Terrell – an uncanny lookalike delivering a great performance — plays Obama with all the features and characteristics that we have come to know of the 44th U.S. president. He doesn’t just deliver a good impersonation of a 22-year-old Obama, but gets the humanity right as well. The performance is a fully sketched immersion that feels and looks like the real thing.

The swift wind of change that would invade Obama’s life happens within his first day on campus. He gets racially profiled by a police officer who thinks he is trespassing school property. The officer wants to hear nothing, not even a plea from Barry that he is in fact studying there and not an intruder.

One evening he decides to attend a party in Harlem with a crowd that seems to be foreign to him even though he shares the same skin color as them. The black side of his family, his distant Kenyan father whom he claims to have met only once, has been absent and uninvolved in his life. It his white mother, beautifully played by Ashley Judd, that has set Barry on the right path. Their relationship is carefully drawn out and reveals where the encoded free-thinking spirit of Barry’s might have come from.

As the film moves forward, Barry starts to feel more and more like he doesn’t belong, and what’s revealed seems almost too pertinent and relevant for the current social and racial climate in the United States. He starts dating a white girl, Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), a bright student that cares about him, but even that relationship becomes problematic. Barry is all too aware of how different his experience on and off campus is compared to hers. She doesn’t understand his frustration, but that seems to be his exact point. One cannot understand the black experience in America unless you step into their own shoes.

The racial tension in Adam Mansbach and Gandhi’s script is voyeuristic by simply, and smartly, showing us more than is explicitly said. Barry wants to be accepted, but he fears the path to acceptance will not come without major change in his country. He sees his brothers and sisters suffering daily, but is frustrated that he can’t do anything about it. A major decision for him would be to live outside of campus on West 109th, which would end up having him converse with black people on a daily basis, something he might not have previously done.

Whereas the aforementioned Southside With You was a calm, romantic watch, this is a serious and refined drama which has the feel of a political firecracker. Ending with his decision to not be called Barry anymore, but Barack instead, his transformation is complete and his investment into major political topics — such as race in America — is about to invade his persona and political life. In attempting to make the case that Obama’s racial experiences in 1981 at Columbia as what triggered and bustled him to the forefront of the political conversation for the years to come, Gandhi has succeeded.

“Barry” hits Netflix on December 16th.

The problem with Ben Affleck, the actor

"Live By Night" is, by all measures, a decently watchable film that is well directed and stylized well enough to harken us back to a time when Gangster films defined a particular era of cinema. I can't say anything else about it, for the time being, due to embargo restrictions, but I do want to talk about Ben Affleck, not the director, but the actor himself.

"Affleck hasn't really shown any kind of legitimately great acting skills over the course of his, now 22 year, career. If anything I'd say that he gave his truest, most mature performance in "Gone Girl," very much due in part to its director, David Fincher, I presume, purposely casting him as the unlikable protagonist. Other than the "Gone Girl" performance, his acting track record has been spotty at best. The other times he actually pulled off believable, unforced performances were in his more playful, earlier roles such as in "Dazed and Confused," "Mallrats" and, even, "Good Will Hunting."

Over the course of his career, his performances have lacked dimension, felt wooden and too self-absorbed to be taken seriously. Although I do find his directing can be inspired at times. Just watch the way he shoots action in "The Town," there's talent there, but also a severe lack of focus in other parts. What can I say, his art just doesn't impress me. 

Why 3D is a scam

It's everywhere. It seems as if every film coming out these days is available with 3D glasses. This of course has a lot to do with money. Ever since James Cameron's groundbreaking "Avatar" came out & stormed the Box Office, the studios wanted to take advantage of the 3D medium by releasing every mediocre effort with an extra pair of $3 glasses included with your ticket. When conceived, most of these movies were not meant for 3D viewing, compared to James Cameron's film which was born and bred as a 3D experience. Don't waste your money watching 99% of movies in 3D, it is not essential & the film does not benefit in any way shape or form from it. 

Owen Gleiberman skillfully tries to defend Ang Lee's misbegotten "Billy Lynn" and its groundbreaking use of High Frame Rates: 

"For 10 years now, all of us have lined up, like joylessly dutiful junior-high students, to watch 3D movies. Once in a while the results have been spectacular (the obvious example: “Avatar,” that glowing extravaganza of light-show immersion), but 97 percent of the time, in movies from “Journey to the Center of the Earth” to “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” to “Alice in Wonderland” to “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” to “Clash of the Titans” to “Resident Evil: Afterlife” to “Tron: Legacy” to “Thor” to “Hugo” to “John Carter” to “Texas Chainsaw 3D,” going to a 3D movie has meant sitting there in those glasses, taking in images that are always a little darker and more murky than you want, images that don’t, in the end, really look “3D,” all for the sake of a rote sensation of “popping” gimmickry. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that in those 10 years, I have only rarely seen a 3D movie that didn’t work just as well (if not better) in a non-3D format."

"The 3D “revolution” has been a listless, half-baked experience, and the more it went on, the more clear it became that the ostensible reason for it — a way to make movies competitive in a marketplace of increasingly distracted eyeballs — was, to a degree, an excuse. The underlying motivation was that ticket prices could be jacked up. Now, with “Billy Lynn,” along comes a movie — one movie! — that truly tries to change the game. And it’s treated as a pariah. What makes the outright dismissal of “Billy Lynn” especially ironic is that we live in an era when the dream of virtual reality is perpetually being nattered about, and in ways (after 25 years of nattering) that dream is starting to come into being, and once you get past the tech lingo that’s what this movie is: an attempt to take the spirit of virtual reality right onto the big screen."

I agree and I would add that I can count in a single hand the amount of movies that have come out since "Avatar" that actually benefited from the 3D treatment: Cameron's "Avatar," Ang Lee's "Life Of Pi," Martin Scorsese's "Hugo," Robert Zemeckis' "The Walk" and Alfonso Cuarron's "Gravity." That's it, that's all. 3D is otherwise a major studio scam that hasn't materialized as planned in terms of artistry, that's why, supposedly, Cameron is trying to find another way to attract people for his "Avatar" sequels. In October he teased that the films might be in 3D without even having to wear the glasses. Is that even doable? 


The reason why studios are releasing every release in 3D is simple: money. The 3D glasses make the movie ticket 3$ more expensive, meaning that the average 12$ ticket price gets boosted up to 15$ for 3D. 

For the time being I'll just have to suck it up and watch movies whichever way they give them to me or as Gleiberman so well put it "sitting there in those glasses, taking in images that are always a little darker and more murky than you want, images that don’t, in the end, really look “3D,” all for the sake of a rote sensation of “popping” gimmickry."

Box Office Week: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens at #1 with $75 mil. Other new releases couldn't compete as The Edge of Seventeen opens weak to $4.8 mil at #7, Bleed for This opens worse at #8 to $2.3 mil, and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk utterly bombs opening wide to $930k at #14.

Box Office Mojo

It was projected to make around $80-90M based on Friday and Saturday's profits, but "Fantastic Beasts" nevertheless dominated the weekend Box-Office with a respectable $75 Million opening weekend. 

Of note: Ang Lee's much anticipated High-Frame-Rate experiment "Billy Lynn's Long Half Time" bombed big time this weekend despite being screened in more than 1,176 screens across the country. It racked up an abysmal $3 Million. Its budget was reportedly at around $40 Million, but it seems like it won't come even close to getting it back and breaking even. Its Oscar hopes have also been obliterated by not only its poor performance, but also the less-than-stellar reviews it has garnered ever since its failed world premiere this past October at the New York Film Festival.

'Manchester By The Sea' might just be the best movie of the year

The indisputably great movie of Sundance 2016 was Kenneth Lonergan's meditative film about loss and loneliness. Starring a never-better Casey Affleck, the film was snatched up by Amazon Studios for a whopping $10 Million. A great investment, as this stunner of a bold, sprawling movie got audiences proclaiming the most heralding of words towards its way. The first 100 minutes are better than any movie I saw last year and its final stretch, brilliantly edited by Jennifer Lane, is a masterful display of restraint and intimacy. Ever since I caught Kenneth Lonergan's masterful film back at Sundance in January it has stayed with me in the most profound of ways. A big part of the depth of this movie resides in Casey Affleck's brilliant portrayal of grief. He is the current leading frontunner for Best Actor and I wouldn't want it any other way. His performance is monumental in the most intimate of ways. This might just be the best movie of the year. [A-]

'Fantastic Beasts' makes $30M on Friday, on pace for $90+ Million opening

    

• Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (4,144 theaters) - $92.0 M
• Trolls (3,945 theaters) - $20.6 M
• Doctor Strange (3,694 theaters) - $20.1 M
• Arrival (2,335 theaters) - $14.5 M
• Almost Christmas (2,379 theaters) - $8.5 M
• The Edge of Seventeen (1,945 theaters) - $8.4 M
• Hacksaw Ridge (2,883 theaters) - $6.6 M
• Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (1,176 theaters) - $3.4 M
• Bleed for This (1,549 theaters) - $3.3 M
• The Accountant (1,423 theaters) - $2.5 M

           Source: BoxOfficeMojo

'Fantastic Beasts' make $8.75M on Thursday, projected to have $90M weekend

"Fantastic Beasts" conjured up the 9th best Thursday opening ever with $8.75 Million. Thursday night previews started at 6pm in over 3,700+ screens nationwide. Projections have it opening at $90+ Million this coming weekend. 

The reviews for the film have been mostly mixed to positive with, especially, "Harry Potter" fans being enamored by the new world J.K. Rowling has created. Hell, the screening I went to of David Yates' "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" was filled with Harry Potter fanatics. You see, J.K. Rowling, in origin-story mode, wrote the film and has signed on to write 5 more! Kaching! 

The film, which takes place in the year 1926, has the fantastic beasts in the title escaping from the suitcase of expelled Hogwarts magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and wreaking havoc in NYC .

For more details click HERE

'Patriots Day' Screens at AFI to mostly positive response

"Patriots Day" might not win the critics awards, but it is a legit contender for a Best Picture nomination. That's at least the consensus that has come out of yesterday's closing night screening at the AFI Film Festival. I would take it all with some skepticism as it's too early to call this film a definite "contender."

Earlier in the year I wrote:

"If you can go past the "America rah rah" feel of the trailer, and quite possibly the whole movie, there is definite cause for interest. Look at that cast: Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, J.K. Simmons. From what I have been hearing this is more of a procedural film, looking for the bombers, than an actual day-of summary. I like that. Although after "Deepwater Horizon" I have a little more doubt about the final result. "Horizon" didn't delve into the big issues of the BP spill, instead focusing on action-packed mayhem. This movie should be more subtle, layered out and, maybe, hold off on the patriotism a bit, but the trailer is all about that."


"Berg's films have been, just like Clint Eastwood's of late, very much attuned to the conservative part of America. Blue-collar, middle class heroes on duty, to serve and protect this great nation of ours. "American Sniper" is a perfect example. I dug that film quite a bit, but there was a whole Left vs Right debate to that film about the heroic merits of its title character. Slightly adhering to the right is, in my books, not a problem and, in fact, very welcome, but the first image we see in this trailer is of an America flag waving at half-mast right down to Katherine Lee's stirring "America the Beautiful". Not subtle at all. Keep it a little down Mr. Berg, you might have a great movie here."

Storyboards of a deleted scene from Bambi (1942), in which the death of his mother is shown

This was deemed too dark for a children's film and was cut. Of course, 52 years later we got Simba nudging at his dead dad's corpse in "The Lion King," but the makers of Bambi refused to show this death. It does work wonders with the imagination not showing it though." Over the years, Bambi's mother's death has become as iconic as any other movie death and, yet, we never saw it.

Redditor "PolskiCanuck" has this to say about the phenomenon:

"In a law class I read about someone doing a memory study, asking people to describe the death of Bambi's mother. Many answers included descriptions of blood, gore, Bambi's mother screaming in pain, etc., even though we never actually saw it. It was used as an example of how our memory is faulty and why witness testimony isn't always accurate, particularly when trying to recount traumatic events."

The composition of this shot eerily beautiful and the kind of the way I imagined Disney would have shot the scene: with effortless simplicity. A natural way of dying for such a creature. Haunting.

'The Edge of Seventeen' Director Kelly Fremon-Craig [Interview]

Full interview can be found HERE

*** (R)

A new, unique female voice is discovered with "The Edge of Seventeen." Writer-director Kelly Fremon gives us an incisive look at female teenage-dom. Nadine, a never better Hailee Steinfeld, is already an awkward and isolated high-schooler when she finds out her best friend is dating her older brother, that sets up a chain of events that feels both unexpectedly moving and hilarious. A geeky boy in her class (Hayden Szeto) seems to be the escape she needs, although she isn't sure if she actually likes him. Oh, to be a teenager.

The top-notch cast is rounded out by Kyra Sedgwick, playing Nadine's mom and Woody Harrelson as Nadine's History teacher, and mentor. The Edge of Seventeen is the most John Hughes-esque film to come around in quite some time. It feeds off of the awkwardness of its characters plights, but also humanizes them in ways that are so rare for the teen movie genre. You could tell Fremon brought some of her own personal experiences to the table for the film, which is also the funniest movie I have seen so far in 2016. 

We spoke to the writer-director about her personal imprints on the film, Hailee Steinfeld's staggering talents and how she actually managed to turn her screenplay into a $7 Million feature film that also happens to be her directorial debut.

The cinematography from the 1927 film "Wings" is amazing

That look of drunkenness by the actor (Charles Rogers) who is poured the glass of champagne at the end of the shot - that's not acting, he's really drunk:

In the scene in which Rogers becomes drunk, the intoxication displayed on screen was genuine, as although 22 years of age, he had never tasted liquor before, and quickly became inebriated from drinking champagne.

Such detail to his craft, this is taking method acting to its absolute limits.

Imagine th trail of destruction behind the cameraman with his camera pushing through all the tables.

'Nocturnal Animals'

Back in 9.19.16 I wrote:

"Tom Ford’s follow-up to 2009’s “A Single Man” turned out to be the love it or hate it movie of the fest. Heated debate raged post-screening, with the film’s champions touting it as a provocative depiction of 21stcentury masculinity, whereas the haters couldn’t look past what they saw as its lurid fiction-within-fiction B-movie plot device isolated a few timid souls. Amy Adams, on fire this fest, plays art gallery owner Susan Morrow, a woman haunted by an old flame (Jake Gyllenhaal) who sends her his latest violent novel “Nocturnal Animals.” Something in the book touches a nerve in Susan and, through flashbacks recounting their failed relationship, we get to see why. To mention any plot points in Ford’s film would be to ruin a nastily satisfying thriller that refuses to balk away from conventions. This wasn’t an easy film to swallow for many, and some of the people I spoke to did in fact have real distaste for it. I can agree that Ford's juggling of plot points, but more specifically flashbacks, can sometimes feel a little out of place and can throw you off with its shift of tones, but it has just enough intrigue and artfulness to prove to the world that, yes, Tom Ford is an extraordinary filmmaker. Some of the scenes he concocts have a biting sting" [B+]

"Nocturnal Animals" comes out tomorrow.

Graph shows record-breaking downfall of originality at the Box-Office

According to the research done by an unknown redditor, as shown by this detailed graph, Hollywood is on pace to have its most un-original year ever at the Box-Office. How? 17 of the top 25 highest earning movies will either be  a sequel, a remake or a "universe" movie. The previous record was 16 whch dates back to 2011. What's more disheartening is the increase in un-originality during the past two decades. According to the redditor "Between 1994-2008, there were an average of only 6.6 unoriginal films in the top 25. However, in the last eight years that average has more than doubled to 14.0." Yikes.

Is this a surprise? Of course not. The downfall of original screenplays in Hollywood has been of the most major of concerns in the industry with Disney and Warner Bros. basically monopolizing the business with a barage of sequels, remakes and "universe" movies. What's next? The dreaded wait for it all to collapse? Will it even collapse? Steven Spielberg thinks so:

"That’s the big danger, and there’s eventually going to be an implosion — or a big meltdown. There’s going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen megabudget movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that’s going to change the paradigm. We were around when the Western died, and there will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western."

For the time being if you are wondering where have all the good movies gone? There are plenty out there, but maybe just not within the Hollywood studio system. You will just have to be a more adventurous moviegoer and, hell, Netflix has tons of great stuff that deserves to be seen ... that is until Disney finds a way to purchase it. I would also suggest that you watch a little more Cable TV because that's where great cinema is happening. I'd start with Both seasons of "Fargo," "The Night of," "Better Call Saul," "The Americans," "Transparent" and "Atlanta." 

For more details on the per year stats you can click HERE