By Jason Apuzzo. Here is a revealing piece of on-the-spot documentary work by Sky News’ Duncan Sharp, from the scene of the current protests in Cairo.
We support the Egyptian people in their aspiration for genuine (i.e., non-fraudulent) democracy.
Posted on January 29th, 2011 at 9:42am.
By Jason Apuzzo. The Devil’s Double, about the mobster-like lifestyle of Saddam Hussein’s son Uday, is currently one of the hottest films at Sundance – and Lionsgate is currently rumored to be negotiating a deal for the film right now, according to Deadline. You can read Libertas’ glowing review of the film, from our own Joe Bendel at Sundance.
Also: there are some interesting new interviews out with Devil’s Double director Lee Tamahori (see here) and star Dominic Cooper (see here), who apparently delivers a knockout performance in the film. In the Tamahori interview, it’s incredible to hear him talk about Saddam’s “rotten regime” in Iraq, and how it was ultimately only “an invasion” that took the Hussein family down.
I certainly never expected to hear that from a filmmaker at Sundance. Times are obviously changing in the indie film world, and very much for the better.
Posted on January 28th, 2011 at 7:44am.
By Jason Apuzzo. Our old friend Patrick Goldstein at the LA Times noted yesterday that we’re apparently headed for another all-white Oscar ceremony, with nary an honoree-of-color in sight. As Patrick writes:
Setting aside the more obscure, technical categories, when it comes to the best picture award along with the major nominations for acting, writing and directing, there are, ahem, zero people of color in the Oscar race this year. …
It’s hard not to notice how few minorities had any visible roles in this year’s most lauded films. “The Social Network” offers us a virtually lilywhite Harvard; “The Fighter” is set in a oh-so-white, blue-collar Boston neighborhood; “The King’s Speech” depicts an all-white, upper-crust, 1930s-era London; “Toy Story 3,” like most Pixar films, is set in a fantasy suburbia without any obvious references to minorities; while “True Grit” takes us back to the Old West, where the only black faces I can remember seeing are that of a manservant and a stable boy.
Ouch! I would also add here that many ethnicities are notably absent among this year’s Oscar nominations. Patrick continues:
There are no studio chairmen or heads of production who are black or Latino. In fact, there are barely any people of color in any high-level positions at any major studio, talent agency or management firm. When I asked a couple of reporter pals to name the most powerful black executive in town, a lot of head-scratching ensued before we decided that the person with the most clout was probably James Lassiter, Will Smith’s longtime business partner and production company chief. …
Hollywood is usually impervious to embarrassment, but perhaps this is one of those signal moments when the industry should engage in a little soul-searching about the image it projects to the outside world. At Oscar time, the spotlight is on show business, which in an increasingly multicultural country turns out to be a business that is just as white on the outside as it is on the inside.
Oh, my! How did this happen in an industry dominated by liberals? I don’t understand.
Since Patrick has just uttered an exceedingly inconvenient truth about the industry, and is probably taking a lot of heat at the moment, I’d like to publicly offer him refuge here in the Libertas Witness Protection Program™. In the Libertas Witness Protection Program™ he can feel free to post here at Libertas anonymously (perhaps as ‘Rafe Templeton III,’ or some other suitably Anglo name). We’ve done this sort of thing before, and are happy to do it again for a friend in need.
[UPDATE: Patrick has since updated his article; he is, indeed, currently taking a lot of heat for his observations. Our offer of putting him in the Libertas Witness Protection Program™ stands.]
Posted on January 26th, 2011 at 3:47pm.
By Jason Apuzzo. For you Bullitt fans out there, The Wall Street Journal has a wonderful piece out today in which jazz writer Marc Myers retraces the path of the car chase from that film – all while driving a 2011 Ford Mustang V6, with original Bullitt stunt driver Loren Janes at his side, and with Lalo Schifrin’s Bullitt soundtrack in the stereo! My goodness, what an afternoon that must’ve been.
The austere cool of Bullitt has never been matched. Could it be matched today? Actually, yes, it could – if people in the industry stopped acting like freaks, and behaved like normal professionals again.
By the way, check out those beads on McQueen! And props to late director Peter Yates, incidentally, for the corduroy jacket above – men should still be wearing those, in my opinion. Enjoy the article.
Posted on January 26th, 2011 at 3:43pm.
By Jason Apuzzo. The 2011 Oscar nominations were announced today. You can look at the list here. I wanted to offer a brief reaction.
As with many observers, what struck me the most was the snubbing of Christopher Nolan – and make no mistake, it was a snub. Since I’ve never been an admirer of Nolan’s films, however – including Inception – I consider his absence from the Best Director competition no great tragedy. At the same time, I couldn’t help but think of another British director, Chris Morris, whose name I would’ve loved to see on the Best Director nominee list – because I thought Norris’ Four Lions this year was one of the sharpest, wittiest, and most provocative comedies I’ve seen since the heady days of Paddy Chayefsky and Woody Allen in the 1970s.
A long-shot, you say? Perhaps. But here’s the issue: I no longer watch award shows – any of them. And there’s a reason for this. It’s not the length of the shows – as long as they admittedly are – nor the tendency of some winners and/or hosts to behave like imbeciles. Nor is it the occasional tendency these awards-fests have to penalize films based on their popularity with audiences.
It’s the fact that nobody takes chances anymore with their selections, nobody takes any risks, or flies in the face of conventional wisdom. And it’s chiefly for this reason, in my opinion, that these awards shows have become such a bore.
So the Oscars will be tedious again this year, and ratings will go down – again – and everyone will look around and scratch their heads and wonder why. And people will look for exotic solutions – someone will suggest lowering the Oscar statuettes from the ceiling next year, or floating them in on a barge like Cleopatra, or maybe having Gene Simmons host.
When really, just a few adventurous selections might’ve made all the difference.
Posted on January 25th, 2011 at 3:47pm.
By Jason Apuzzo. Variety and the few critics allowed to see Kevin Smith’s Red State at Sundance are panning it, with Variety calling it “a dull blade slashing wildly, predictably and ineffectually.”
Also, in a profanity-laced, 20 minute speech after the screening of his film, Smith announced that he would be self-distributing the film himself. According to Hollywood Reporter:
Smith lambasted movie studios for a system he said is unfair and outdated and too focused on advertising. Smith said that he had never intended to get into the business of the movie industry — noting that he’s simply a “fat, masturbating stoner” — but the state of the industry essentially forced his hand.
Translation: the film bombed, and he had no takers.
Deadline Hollywood is also reporting that even if there had been any enthusiasm for distributing his project among the many distributors who brought their teams to the screening, Smith alienated them all by generally acting like a psycho and insulting the distribution business. He also claims that this will be his second-to-last film.
Free Game Pass revoked. Kevin Smith=Game Over.
Also: this is another sign that political cinema is currently dead, having been killed, ironically, by the very people who practice it.
Posted on January 24th, 2011 at 10:32am.