cinema reflections
'Music of the Heart' cast: Meryl Streep, Gloria Estefan, Aidan Quinn and Angela Bassett. 'Music of the Heart': Unusually bloodless Wes Craven movie works as Meryl Streep showcase Wes Craven, the director of the Scream franchise and of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, is hardly the kind of filmmaker from whom one would expect a syrupy motion picture about a determined violin teacher […]
Chris Pratt at Oscar 2015 rehearsals. Oscar 2015 winners The complete list of Oscar 2015 winners and nominees can be found further below. See also: Oscar 2015 presenters and performers. Now, a little Oscar 2015 trivia. If you know a bit about the history of the Academy Awards, you'll have noticed several little curiosities about this year's nominations. For instance, there were quite a few […]
Robert Redford in 'The Great Gatsby' 1974. Robert Redford: 'The Great Gatsby' 1974 misfire and 'The Way We Were' 1973 box office hit on TCM Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month Robert Redford returns this evening (Jan. 20, '15), with three more films: two Sydney Pollack-directed efforts, Out of Africa and The Way We Were, and Jack Clayton's movie version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's […]
2015 Golden Globes' nominee Julianne Moore in 'Maps to the Stars.' Watch Golden Globes online: Red Carpet arrivals and awards ceremony George Clooney will be present at the Golden Globes ceremony to pick up his Cecil B. DeMille Award. Will presenters Tina Fey and Amy Poehler sink or swim – or both, alternately? Well, the 2015 Golden Globes ceremony will begin shortly. Would you like […]
Oscar 2015 dates (Meryl Streep in 'Into the Woods') The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC announced yesterday, April 17, 2014, the Oscar 2015 dates. The Academy Awards ceremony will air live on ABC on Feb. 22, 2015 – or about ten days earlier than the Oscar 2014 ceremony. Key Oscar 2015 dates are as follows: Saturday, November 8, 2014 The Governors […]
Oscar selfie becomes most retweeted tweet of all time: Ellen DeGeneres, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, and Oscar 2014 company. Oscar selfie + TV ratings: 10-year high in overall viewership in U.S. Hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, whose “Oscars selfie” became the most retweeted tweet of all time, and featuring the likes of Angelina Jolie, Will Smith, and John […]
Meryl Streep in August: Osage County. Meryl Streep breaks Oscar record: Oscar 2014 nominations The 2014 Oscar nominations were announced earlier today at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Thor: The Dark World and Snow White and the Huntsman actor Chris Hemsworth – whose Rush was completely shut out – made […]
Amy Adams and Christian Bale in 'American Hustle' Oscar 2014 predictions Below are our last-minute Oscar 2014 predictions. The 86th Academy Award nominations are going to be announced on Thursday, January 16, at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. We will be posting the list of Oscar 2014 nominations here. As mentioned […]
Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in August: Osage County: Duel of the Oscar winners [See previous post: “Oscar 2014 Watch: Harvey Weinstein Cannes Film Festival Coming Attractions.”] More Oscar 2014 bait: August: Osage County, directed by John Wells, and starring three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep (Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice, The Iron Lady) and Oscar winner Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich). Is it mere coincidence that […]
Kristen Stewart and Senator Al Franken. Jane Fonda & Kristen Stewart + Jennifer Garner & Kerry Washington: Oscar presenters Jane Fonda, Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Garner, and Kerry Washington have been added as Oscar 2013 ceremony presenters, producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have announced. (Image: Kristen Stewart and Al Franken at the Academy's Governors Awards last December.) Jane Fonda Daughter of Henry Fonda (Oscar nominee […]
Meryl Streep in Hope Springs. In movies since the late 1970s – she was first seen in a small role in Fred Zinnemann's Julia (1977) – Meryl Streep seems to get at least one annual Golden Globe nomination. This year, her performance as a middle-aged woman attempting to revive her semi-comatose marriage in David Frankel's romantic comedy-drama Hope Springs has earned Streep her 27th nomination. […]
Heartburn movie 1986: “Nora Ephron and Carl Bernstein” (Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson) Nora Ephron and Carl Bernstein: Heartburn movie Besides her essays, screenplays, and directorial efforts, another Nora Ephron claim to fame was her marriage to Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein. Their marriage lasted from 1976 to 1980. Ephron later wrote the semi-autobiographical novel Heartburn, which she herself adapted into the screenplay for Mike Nichols' […]
The Manchurian Candidate 2004 Denzel Washington movie. While keeping the framework of the 1962 original, Jonathan Demme's remake of John Frankenheimer's political thriller The Manchurian Candidate (2004) has revamped the plot so as to create parallels between what takes place on screen and current events. The results are mixed at best. In the new version, adapted by Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris from George Axelrod's […]
Octavia Spencer In this very artistic picture, Octavia Spencer admires her Oscar statuette at the Governor's Ball, following the 2012 Annual Academy Awards from Hollywood, CA February 26. Spencer was the year's Best Supporting Actress winner for her performance in Tate Taylor's The Help. In addition to Spencer, the Help cast included Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Chris Lowell, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, […]
Meryl Streep Best Actress Oscar winner: The Golden Lady and her golden little man. Meryl Streep Best Actress Oscar: Dressed to Win Best Actress Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, whose golden dress and earrings match – or rather, outshine – her golden Oscar statuette, poses backstage at the 84th Academy Awards held on Feb. 26, '12, at the former Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland […]
Meryl Streep, husband Don Gummer: Oscar 2012 Meryl Streep and husband Don Gummer at the Governors Ball after 84th Annual Academy Awards held at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012. Streep won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady. (Image: © A.M.P.A.S.) While picking up her Oscar – her third […]
Milla Jovovich and Tim Gunn. Milla Jovovich and Tim Gunn: Academy Awards' Red Carpet Ukrainian-born actress Milla Jovovich (on Dec. 17, 1975, in Kiev, at the time part of the Soviet Union) is pictured above while interviewed – or about to be interviewed – by TV reality show celebrity Tim Gunn upon her arrival at the 2012 Academy Awards on Feb. 26 in Hollywood. Jovovich […]
Best Picture * The Artist – Thomas Langmann. The Descendants – Jim Burke, Jim Taylor & Alexander Payne. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close – Scott Rudin. The Help – Brunson Green, Chris Columbus & Michael Barnathan. Hugo – Graham King & Martin Scorsese. Midnight in Paris – Letty Aronson & Stephen Tenenbaum. Moneyball – Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz & Brad Pitt. The Tree of Life – Dede Gardner, Sarah Green, Grant Hill & Bill Pohlad. War Horse – Steven Spielberg & Kathleen Kennedy. Best Foreign Language Film […]
Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, The Artist In the Oscar 2012 Best Actor category, Gary Oldman, Demián Bichir, and Brad Pitt are dark horses for, respectively, their performances in Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Chris Weitz's A Better Life, and Bennett Miller's Moneyball. That leaves George Clooney, who plays a befuddled father in Alexander Payne's The Descendants, and Jean Dujardin, who plays a mix […]
Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York Just last week, an email ad plugging Meryl Streep's performance in The Weinstein Company release The Iron Lady raised a number of eyebrows, as the email appeared to break the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' vote-soliciting rules. But thanks to a humongous loophole in the Academy's set of rules regarding that […]
"It's been TWENTY-NINE YEARS SINCE MERYL STREEP WON AN OSCAR. And she certainly deserves to win for her performance in The Iron Lady,” reads a Thelma Adams quote heading a The Weinstein Company ad. The ad, sent out a week ago by The Hollywood Reporter and Variety to their email subscribers, also included a link to a Streep interview found on the TWC website. According […]
Bits from the BAFTA 2012 red carpet, included Best Supporting Actress presenter Daniel Radcliffe (photo) declaring “you can't always have favorites, but I'd be delighted if she [Drive's Carey Mulligan] wins.” Radcliffe, of course, is the star of The Woman in Black and the Harry Potter movies – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was the biggest worldwide blockbuster of 2011. When asked […]
George Clooney and Max von Sydow George Clooney and Max Von Sydow chat away at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon held on Monday, Feb. 6, '12, in Beverly Hills. Clooney is a Best Actor nominee for Alexander Payne's The Descendants. Von Sydow is a Best Supporting Actor nominee for Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. (Image: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.) Clooney's competition for the […]
The Nick Nolte movie that earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination this year was Gavin O'Connor's Warrior. In the photo, Nolte, among whose movies are The Deep, 48 Hrs., Hotel Rwanda, and Arthur, is seen at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oscar Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills, California, on Monday, February 6, 2012. Meryl Streep can be seen applauding him […]
Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture * The Help – Jessica Chastain. Viola Davis. Bryce Dallas Howard. Allison Janney. Chris Lowell. Ahna O'Reilly. Sissy Spacek. Octavia Spencer. Mary Steenburgen. Emma Stone. Cicely Tyson. Mike Vogel The Artist Bérénice Bejo. James Cromwell. Jean Dujardin. John Goodman. Penelope Ann Miller Bridesmaids Rose Byrne. Jill Clayburgh. Ellie Kemper. Matt Lucas. Melissa […]
Amber Heard: SAG Awards. 'Zombieland' actress Amber Heard: SAG Awards Actress Amber Heard, whose credits include Zombieland, Patrick Lussier's Nicolas Cage action flick Drive Angry, and the Johnny Depp box office disappointment The Rum Diary, is pictured above on the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards' Red Carpet outside Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 29. To date, Heard has not been shortlisted for a SAG […]
Debbie Reynolds, Katherine Heigl, One for the Money Jan. 28, '11, update: Forget Tuesday's Oscar nominations announcement: Liam Neeson's action vehicle The Grey, which will likely be totally ignored when the Oscar 2013 nominations are announced, will easily top the North American box office this weekend. After taking in an estimated (and better than expected) $6.2 million on Friday (as per Deadline.com), the Joe Carnaham-directed […]
Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady Three actresses are shoo-ins for the 2012 Academy Awards' Best Actress shortlist: Meryl Streep for her portrayal of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady, Michelle Williams for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn, and Viola Davis for her portrayal of a Southern housemaid in Tate […]
Jeremy Irvine Jeremy Irvine, the star (along with the titular character) of Steven Spielberg's World War I drama War Horse, arrives at the 2012 London Film Critics Awards. Irvine was a contender for Young British Performer of the Year, along with John Boyega for Attack the Block, Yasmin Paige for Submarine, Saoirse Ronan for Hanna, and the eventual winner, Craig Roberts for Submarine. Michel Hazanavicius' […]
Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie attend the 69th Annual Golden Globes Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Brad Pitt was nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for his role in Bennett Miller's Moneyball. Angelina Jolie was the director of Best Foreign Language Film nominee In the Land of Blood and […]
Michelle Williams, Luke Kirby, Take This Waltz With four nominations, Michel Hazanavicius' silent comedy-drama The Artist is the top nominee in the international categories of the Vancouver Film Critics Circle's 2011 Awards. (See further below the full list of Vancouver Film Critics nominations.) Starring Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, The Artist is set at the dawn of the talkie era, as screen icon George Valentin […]
Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady. The Golden Globe Awards' Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama category will definitely include Meryl Streep for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd's Thatcher-lite The Iron Lady. That will mark the 17th nomination for Streep, who took home two Golden Globe statuettes in the long ago past: as Best Supporting Actress […]
Meryl Streep, Anthony Head in Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady The most curious thing about Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist winning the New York Film Critics Circle's Best Film and Best Director awards is that 85 years ago this “innovative” work would have had little-to-no novelty value. It's in black and white, it's (mostly) silent, and it features a handsome, mustached, hammy actor. In that regard, […]
Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady Oscar veteran Meryl Streep may have her name already engraved on the Best Actress statuette for the 2012 Academy Awards – well, barring a Glenn Close upset – but those associated with former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher are none too pleased with Streep's performance as the free-marketeering Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady, as reported […]
Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, and Martin Scorsese will be presenters at the eighth Directors Guild of America Honors, to be held at the DGA Theater in New York City on Thursday, Oct. 13. Actor and talk-show host Richard Belzer will serve as Master of Ceremonies. [Photo: Alice Guy Blaché.] Meryl Streep will present the DGA Honor to her Julie & Julia director-writer Nora Ephron. Helen […]
Angelina Jolie in Salt: $293 million worldwide. July 5: Forbes magazine has come up with a list of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood. This "top-ten actresses" list includes five Academy Award winners (Angelina Jolie, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep), one of the stars of Sex and the City (Sarah Jessica Parker), one of the stars of the old television series Friends (Jennifer […]
Emily Browning, Sleeping Beauty. Julia Leigh's Sleeping Beauty divided critics at the Cannes Film Festival – while reminding some of Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Presented by Jane Campion, Sleeping Beauty is the story of a young woman (Sucker Punch's and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events' Emily Browning) whose sex-escort job entails taking drugs, passing out, and having wealthy older men do “things” […]
There are two good reasons to watch the otherwise dismal film version of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel The Devil Wears Prada, the story of a young, comely journalist wannabe who lands a job as secretary to a world-class bitch fashionista. The two good reasons – unfortunately, neither of which have much on-screen time – are Meryl Streep, as the soft-spoken (but viper-tongued) queen bee of […]
Justin Bieber: 'Never Say Never' London premiere. 'Justin Bieber: Never Say Never' London premiere Justin Bieber was in attendance at the Justin Bieber: Never Say Never premiere held at London's 02 Arena on Feb. 16, '11. Directed by Jon M. Chu – instead of the previously (and incongruously) announced Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) – Never Say Never is a mix of concert and biographical […]
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events with Jim Carrey. Three of Daniel Handler's Gothic tales about three siblings on the run from a ruthless and greedy relative are given the Hollywood treatment in Brad Silberling's Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Not surprisingly, the $100m+ film boasts first-rate production values, with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's lenses perfectly capturing (and enhancing) the eerie Gothic-ness of […]
The Hours with Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf. Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer-winning The Hours uses Virginia Woolf's 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway (working title: “The Hours”) as the link that binds its three leading female characters. Far apart in terms of time and space, those three disturbed, unhappy women share both the deadness of a life of self-abnegation and the living reality of death itself. Despite gaps […]
Greer Garson ca. early 1940s. Greer Garson: Multiple Best Actress Oscar nominee on TCM Greer Garson received no less than six Best Actress Academy Award nominations during a seven-year span (1939-1945). The Oscar record of MGM's First Lady of the 1940s is only matched by that of Warner Bros.' First Lady of the 1940s (and of the late 1930s), Bette Davis, who also earned six […]
Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, The Bridges of Madison County Clint Eastwood is the last star to be featured in Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series, 2010 edition. (See below the Clint Eastwood movie schedule.) Right now, TCM is showing the Western The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), one of Eastwood's early directorial efforts. Chief Dan George and Sondra Locke, with whom Eastwood had […]
The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 teaser poster has been released. As can be seen, it shows a castle engulfed in flames. The caption ominously reads: IT ALL ENDS HERE. As attested by the preview and this teaser poster, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 will be a much darker Harry Potter. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, […]
Kathryn Bigelow The Hurt Locker's Best Director Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar acceptance speech: “This really is… There's no other way to describe it, it's the moment of a lifetime. First of all, this is so extraordinary to be in the company of such powerful, my fellow nominees, such powerful filmmakers who have inspired me and I have admired for, some of whom, for decades. And thank […]
Sandra Bullock. Best Actress Sandra Bullock's Oscar acceptance speech “Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down? I would like to thank the Academy for allowing me in the last month to have the most incredible ride with rooms full of artists that I see tonight and that I've worked with before and I hope to work with in the […]
Vera Farmiga on the Oscars' Red Carpet. Best Supporting Actress nominee Vera Farmiga Vera Farmiga arrives at the 82nd Academy Awards, held on March 7, '10, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Farmiga was a Best Supporting Actress nominee for her performance in Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, also featuring Oscar nominees George Clooney and, in the supporting category, Anna Kendrick. As expected, the […]
Jeremy Renner in Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker. Below is our complete 2010 Oscar Predictions list. If we're correct, The Hurt Locker will win a total of six Oscars, followed by Avatar with three (Titanic won 11 back in 1998), and Crazy Heart and Up with two each. The White Ribbon, The Cove, The Blind Side, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, Up in the […]
Best Actor Oscar nominees Colin Firth, Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Renner at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 2010 Oscar Nominees Luncheon held this afternoon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. This year's five Best Actor nominees are in the running for the following films: A Single Man (Firth), The Hurt Locker (Renner), Crazy Heart (Bridges), Invictus (Freeman), […]
Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin in It's Complicated (top); Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar in Broken Embraces (middle); Agnes Varda in The Beaches of Agnes (bottom) Which movies were totally ignored by the Academy? Which performers and filmmakers were ignored? The list is quite long, of course. Below are the most notable omissions from the Oscar 2010 shortlist. Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer, Pedro Almodóvar's Broken […]
Avatar, starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and Sigourney Weaver, and The Hurt Locker, featuring Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie, are the 2010 Academy Awards' leaders. James Cameron's sci-fi/fantasy adventure and Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq War drama received nine nominations apiece, including best picture, best director, and best original screenplay. Curiously, Cameron and Bigelow were married for a couple of years about two decades ago. The other […]
Helen Mirren, The Last Station In the last 15 years, SAG's best female actor nominees have been identical to the Academy's Best Actress line-up only five times. Well, in addition to last year's upset when Kate Winslet was nominated by the Screen Actors Guild and Academy members, but for different performances: Revolutionary Road (SAG) and The Reader (Academy).* Helen Mirren's spot on the list is […]
At a meeting held Monday, the 2009 Guldbagge (Golden Beetle) jury comprised of Katinka Faragó, Nils Petter Sundgren, Pia Johansson, Jannike Åhlund, Johan Renck, Mikael Marcimain and Guldbagge jury chairman Eva Swartz Grimaldi (not voting) picked Niels Arden Oplev's box office smash The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as the best Swedish picture of the year. Adapted by Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg (from Stieg […]
Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, and Keith Urban pose for the camera at the 2010 SAG Awards ceremony, held in Los Angeles on Sat., Jan. 23. Cruz was in the running for the best supporting actress SAG Award, but she lost to Precious' Mo'Nique. The trio of actresses, along with Kate Hudson, Sophia Loren, Fergie, Judi Dench, and Daniel Day-Lewis were also up for […]
Meryl Streep was one of the presenters at the 2010 SAG Awards ceremony. Streep was in the running in the best actress category (for Julie & Julia), but lost to Sandra Bullock for the blockbuster The Blind Side. Without a doubt, Streep and Bullock will be the two top contenders for the best actress Oscar. In fact, both Streep and Bullock won Golden Globes last […]
Meryl Streep: Best Actress Golden Globe winner for 'Julie & Julia.' Golden Globes: Meryl Streep now has seven statuettes, 25 nominations Double Golden Globe nominee Meryl Streep's Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical win for Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia was her seventh. Her loss for Nancy Meyers' It's Complicated – also in the Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or […]
The Golden Globes are over. A folksy looking and sounding Jeff Bridges (above, in Crazy Heart), not George Clooney (for Up in the Air), got the chance to thank family (including father Lloyd Bridges and his mother, who died last year), friends, and co-workers. Although Bridges' win wasn't a total surprise, many of us were expecting George Clooney, who looks more like the type of […]
According to MTV, the “Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief” telethon, to be broadcast on Friday, Jan. 22, '10, has added appearances by Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Bill Clinton, and Muhammad Ali. Among the other film personalities scheduled to participate in the telethon are Robert Pattinson, Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, Brad Pitt, Anna […]
"It's sort of surreal,” The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow told journalists backstage when asked about her Critics Choice Award victory over former husband James Cameron, in the running for the blockbuster Avatar. Cameron's 3D sci-fier, however, was the evening's big winner in terms of sheer number of trophies: six (not seven, as previously reported) in all, including best cinematography (Mauro Fiore), best visual effects, […]
Vera Farmiga, George Clooney in Up in the Air (Dale Robinette / Paramount) Jan. 17 update: Hosted by Ricky Gervais, the 2010 Golden Globes ceremony will be broadcast live coast to coast later this evening, January 17, on NBC (5 to 8 pm PT, 8 to 11 pm ET) from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. (Please, scroll down for our final predictions.) Golden […]
George Clooney, Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air (Dale Robinette / Paramount) Pegasus News reports that Jason Reitman's Up in the Air was the best picture of 2009 according to the ten members of the North Texas Film Critics Association that got together at a Dallas cafe this past Saturday. Matching the choices of numerous other US-based critics' groups, the NTFCA chose Kathryn Bigelow […]
George Clooney and Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air (Dale Robinette / Paramount). Usual suspects Up, Up in the Air, Kathryn Bigelow, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Mo'Nique, and Christoph Waltz are the Kansas City Film Critics Circle's choices for best of 2009. Jason Reitman's comedy-drama Up in the Air was voted the best film, but as it's happened before Kathryn Bigelow was the best […]
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia. Meryl Streep & Carey Mulligan: US Critics' Best Actresses Only two actresses delivered great performances in 2009, at least as far as most US-based critics' groups were concerned: veteran Meryl Streep as Julia Child in Julie & Julia, and newcomer Carey Mulligan as a daring schoolgirl in 1960s London in An Education. The exceptions were critics in Las Vegas, […]
Avatar: Zoe Saldana wears Na'vi blue digital make-up in global blockbuster that has passed the $1 billion milestone worldwide. James Cameron's mix of fantasy, adventure, and environmental conscience has already shattered several box office records – among them “fastest to $1 billion worldwide” – with more sure to come. Besides Zoe Saldana, Avatar also features Sam Worthington and three-time Academy Award nominee Sigourney Weaver. Box […]
Critics' choices: Summer Hours with Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, and Jérémie Renier. Olivier Assayas' French-made family drama was the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's, the New York Film Critics Circle's, and the Boston Society of Film Critics' Best Foreign Language Film of 2009. Summer Hours was also the Best Film of the year according to indieWIRE's latest “critics' choices poll.” Coincidentally, the top movie of […]
The Hurt Locker with Guy Pearce and Brian Geraghty. After being all but ignored at this year's Venice Film Festival and at the 2008 Spirit Awards – where it received only two nominations in the acting categories (Best Actor for Jeremy Renner; Best Supporting Actor for Anthony Mackie), Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq War thriller The Hurt Locker, revolving around a U.S. Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, is […]
Colin Firth in A Single Man. San Francisco Film Critics Circle Best Actor Colin Firth will quite likely receive his very first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a Los Angeles-based English professor grieving over the unexpected death of his lover (Matthew Goode) in Tom Ford's A Single Man, based on Christopher Isherwood's 1964 novel. This is the second time in a row that the […]
A Prophet with Tahar Rahim, winner of the Louis Delluc Prize. Jacques Audiard's violent prison drama chronicles the difficulties facing a young Frenchman of Algerian ancestry who, after being sent to jail for six years, must navigate between two warring factions while behind bars: the Corsicans and the Muslims. Shades of Eleanor Parker's suffering, toughening up, and progressive corruption while in a women's prison – […]
It's Complicated with Meryl Streep, John Krasinski, and Caitlin FitzGerald. Winner of the National Board of Review's Best Ensemble award, Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy features Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski, Zoe Kazan, Lake Bell, Rita Wilson, Mary Kay Place, Hunter Parrish, Caitlin FitzGerald, and, at its center, two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep. Early next year, Streep will likely receive her 148th Oscar nomination – […]
Up in the Air with George Clooney and Vera Farmiga. As the United States remains mired in one of its worst economic crises ever, the National Board of Review (NBR) has selected Jason Reitman's Up in the Air – the story of a frequent-flying, company-downsizing expert – as the year's Best Picture. Also: Best Actor for George Clooney (tied with Morgan Freeman in Invictus), Best […]
2010 Golden Globe Predictions: Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical Sandra Bullock, The Proposal A bossy Canadian businesswoman forces her American assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her so she can stay in the US. Marion Cotillard, Nine The wife of an Italian filmmaker (Daniel Day-Lewis, above) must cope with both his infidelities and his artistic temper. Zooey Deschanel, (500) Days of Summer […]
Zac Efron Werner Herzog Slumdog Millionaire composer A.R. Rahman, Sairaa Rahman Robert Pattinson, Edward Cullen in the Twilight movie franchise. Michael Shannon, Kate Arrington Photos: Bryan Crowe / © A.M.P.A.S. James Franco, Ahna O'Reilly Natalie Portman Jochen Alexander Freydank Milk filmmaker Gus Van Sant, Anne Kronenberg Photos: Jon Didier / © A.M.P.A.S. Photos: Darren Decker / © A.M.P.A.S. Sophia Loren Slumdog Millionaire filmmaker Danny Boyle […]
Freida Pinto and Dev Patel: SAG Awards' Best Cast winners. Danny Boyle's sleeper hit Slumdog Millionaire marked the feature film debut of British actor Dev Patel and Indian model Freida Pinto; the former plays a slum denizen with a seemingly inexplicable ability to get all the right answers in India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The latter plays the woman of his dreams, with […]
Oscar nominations announcement 2009: Forest Whitaker and Academy president Sid Ganis. Oscar trivia: 2009 Academy Awards Most nominated films David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, with 13 nominations. Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, featuring Dev Patel and Freida Pinto, with 10. Gus Van Sant's Milk, starring Sean Penn, James Franco, and Josh Brolin; and Christopher Nolan's The Dark […]
Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Pop celebs such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z mingled with movie celebs at the 2009 Golden Globes ceremony. Beyoncé, a.k.a. Beyoncé Knowles, was in the running in the Best Original Song category for the Cadillac Records ditty “Once in a Lifetime,” which she co-composed. The winner, however, was another pop idol, Bruce Springsteen, for The Wrestler's title song. Beyoncé had two previous Golden Globe nominations, […]
Meryl Streep in Doubt. Academy Award Predictions: In case she gets another Academy Award nomination in early 2009 – her 15th – Meryl Streep will tie with Katharine Hepburn for the record of most nominations in the lead actor/actress categories: 12 in all. Next in line is Bette Davis with 10 nods, followed by Laurence Olivier and Spencer Tracy with 9 each. Meryl Streep has […]
Kate Winslet in The Reader. Double Golden Globe nominee Kate Winslet is in the running as Best Actress – Drama for her performance as Leonardo DiCaprio's dissatisfied suburban housewife in Sam Mendes' 1950s-set Revolutionary Road and as Best Supporting Actress for Stephen Daldry's (partly) 1950s-set The Reader, in which she portrays an illiterate German woman who, some time after becoming emotionally and physically intimate with […]
Meryl Streep & Amy Adams 'Doubt' Premiere: AFI FEST AFI FEST 2008 opening night premiere of Miramax Film's Doubt held at ArcLight Hollywood on October 30, 2008 Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, John Patrick Shanley Meryl Streep Amy Adams Amy Adams, Meryl Streep Photos: Kevin Winter / 2008 Getty Images The images below are from arrivals at AFI Fest 2008 held at Arclight Hollywood on November […]
Doubt, the much-anticipated drama directed and adapted by John Patrick Shanley from his own Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play, and starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Viola Davis, will be the new Opening Night Gala presentation at AFI FEST 2008. The screening will take place on Thursday, Oct. 30, at ArcLight Hollywood's Cinerama Dome. The AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival […]
July 9 update: Outfest 2008, the 26th Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, kicked off last night at downtown Los Angeles' historic Orpheum Theatre with a screening of Laurie Lynd's Breakfast with Scot, in which a straitlaced gay couple tries to handle an orphaned 11-year-old boy with a passion for feathered boas and rose hand cream. Adapted by Sean Reycraft from Michael Downing's novel, […]
In the upcoming musical romantic comedy Mamma Mia!, based on the phenomenally successful stage hit of the same name, a young bride-to-be tries to find her real father – out of three men her mother fooled around with – while much of the cast sings ABBA's hit songs of the 1970s. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd and written by Catherine Johnson, Mamma Mia! stars Meryl Streep, […]
Sydney Pollack, the director of several critical and box office successes of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, died of cancer earlier today in the Los Angeles suburb of Pacific Palisades. He was 73. Pollack began his show business career on the stage and later moved on to television, where he directed episodes of several series including The Fugitive and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. During his […]
Paul Muni is a Jewish-Austrian-Hungarian Chinese in The Good Earth. Today it'd have been simpler. Muni would have been merely a Jewish-Ukrainian Chinese. Hollywood Chinese, Arthur Dong's documentary about the portrayal of Chinese and Chinese-Americans in Hollywood films, will have its Los Angeles premiere at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7, at the AFI FEST 2007, held at the ArcLight theater complex in Hollywood. Recently nominated […]
AFI FEST Featuring the likes of Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, John Sayles, Wayne Wang, John Landis, Laura Linney, Ellen Page, Jason Reitman, Javier Bardem, the voices of Catherine Deneuve and Danielle Darrieux (in Persepolis), and veterans Nancy Kwan, Turhan Bey, and Luise Rainer (all three in the documentary Hollywood Chinese), Los Angeles' AFI FEST 2007 will be held November 1-11, 2007, at the […]
The AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival – in press releases referred to as “AFI FEST 2007 presented by Audi” – has announced that Lions for Lambs (see trailer below) will be its Opening Night Gala screening on Thursday, November 1, 2007, at the ArcLight Hollywood's Cinerama Dome Theatre. Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan and directed by Robert Redford, the film stars Redford, Tom Cruise, […]
The winners of the 2007 London Film Critics' Circle Awards were announced this evening at a ceremony held in aid of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children at the Dorchester Hotel. London Film Critics' Awards chair Marianne Gray stated that The Queen – winner of the best British film, best British director (Stephen Frears), best British actress (Helen Mirren), and best […]
What are the Golden Globes? Babel set with Alejandro González Iñárritu and Gael García Bernal. What are the Golden Globes? One possible answer: An awards season ceremony that, at least in 2007, opted to embrace (admittedly, mostly English-language) multinational and multiethnic nominees. Case in point: surprise Best Motion Picture Drama Babel, directed and written by Mexican nationals Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga, respectively, and featuring an international […]
Pan's Labyrinth: The Pale Man (Doug Jones) in underground, dark fantasy. Guillermo del Toro's post-Spanish-Civil-War-set Pan's Labyrinth / El laberinto del fauno was the National Society of Film Critics' surprise Best Film winner. Perhaps even more surprising, its two runners-up were both movies featuring non-English-language dialogue, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Letters from Iwo Jima. A Spanish-Mexican co-production, del Toro's dark fantasy features U.S. actor Doug Jones as both […]
Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. Set in the aftermath of Princess Diana's death, Stephen Frears' The Queen, written by Peter Morgan, goes out of its way to present Queen Elizabeth II as a kind-hearted heroine determined to save both the British monarchy and a hunted deer. For her efforts, Mirren is in the running in the Screen Actors Guild Awards' Best Actress […]
The sacred cows of the Hollywood firmament – or Hollywood barn, if you want to be really literal – will receive hosannas from certain quarters no matter how mediocre their output. Some believe that to say something negative about the likes of Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, or Clint Eastwood, for instance, is akin to burning the flag (any flag), spitting on the holy book of […]
John Fowles: 'The Collector' author. John Fowles: 'The Collector,' 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' author dead at 79 Author John Fowles, among whose novels are The Collector (1963), The Magus (1965), and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), died on Saturday, Nov. 5, '05, at his home in Lyme Regis, Dorset, on England's southern coast. Fowles (born on March 31, 1926, in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex) was 79. He […]
The 2005 London Film Critics' Circle Award winners were announced on Feb. 9. Best Film The Aviator – Martin Scorsese The Motorcycle Diaries – Walter Salles Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Michel Gondry House of Flying Daggers – Zhang Yimou * Sideways – Alexander Payne Best British Film Ae Fond Kiss . . . – Ken Loach Finding Neverland – Marc Foster My Summer […]
'The Merchant of Venice' 2004 with Al Pacino. 'The Merchant of Venice' 2004: Al Pacino as Shylock at the Venice Film Festival Michael Radford's 2004 The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino as Shylock; Alejandro Amenábar's right-to-die drama The Sea Inside / Mar adentro, starring Javier Bardem; and Hollywood celebrities such as Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, and John Travolta are a few of the highlights […]