Phoenix Film Critics Shine on "The Artist"

Phoenix Film Critics Society 2011 Awards:

BEST PICTURE
"The Artist"

TOP TEN FILMS OF 2011 (in alphabetical order)
"The Artist"
"The Descendants"
"Drive"
"The Help"
"Hugo"
"Midnight in Paris"
"Moneyball"
"My Week With Marilyn"
"Super 8"
"The Tree of Life"

BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Elizabeth Olsen, "Martha Marcy May Marlene"

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Albert Brooks, "Drive"

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Berenice Bejo, "The Artist"

BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING
"Super 8"

BEST SCREENPLAY - ORIGINAL
"The Artist"

BEST SCREENPLAY - ADAPTATION
"The Help"

BEST LIVE ACTION FAMILY FILM (Rated G or PG)
"The Muppets"

THE OVERLOOKED FILM OF THE YEAR
"A Better Life"

BEST ANIMATED FILM
"Rango"

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
"The Skin I Live In"

BEST DOCUMENTARY
"Page One: Inside the New York Times"

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Life's a Happy Song, "The Muppets"

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
"The Artist"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
"Tree of Life"

BEST FILM EDITING
"The Artist"

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
"Hugo"

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
"The Artist"

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
"Hugo"

BEST STUNTS
"Drive"

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE ON CAMERA
Thomas Horn, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"

BREAKTROUGH PERFORMANCE BEHIND THE CAMERA
Michael Hazanavicius, "The Artist"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUTH IN A LEAD OR SUPPORTING ROLE – MALE
Thomas Horn, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUTH IN A LEAD OR SUPPORTING ROLE – FEMALE
Saoirse Ronan, "Hanna"

Review: "Memoirs of a Geisha" is a Beautiful Film with a Beautiful Heroine (Happy B'day, Gong Li)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 102 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
Running time: 145 minutes (2 hours, 25 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for mature subject matter and some sexual content
DIRECTOR: Rob Marshall
WRITER: Robin Swicord (from the book by Arthur Golden)
PRODUCERS: Lucy Fisher, Steven Spielberg, and Douglas Wick
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dion Beebe
EDITOR: Pietro Scalia
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/HISTORICAL/ROMANCE

Starring: Ziyi Zhang, Ken Watanabe, Michelle Yeoh, Kôji Yakusho, Gong Li, Suzuka Ohgo, Youki Kudoh, Kaori Momoi, Tsai Chin, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kenneth Tsang, Randall Duk Kim, Ted Levine, and Samantha Futerman

Memoirs of a Geisha is a 2005 historical and costume drama set in Japan during the Showa Era (1926-1989). The Academy Award-winning film is based upon Arthur Golden’s 1997 novel of the same name.

With her mother ailing in the years before World War II, a Japanese girl, 9-year-old Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo), finds herself torn from her family when her penniless father sells her and her sister, Satsu (Samantha Futerman), to two Kyoto geisha houses. Chiyo endures harsh treatment from the owners of the okiya (geisha house) that buys her, and the okiya’s head geisha, Hatsumomo (Gong Li), who is envious of the nine-year-old’s stunning beauty and lovely eyes, is especially nasty. Hatsumomo’s chief rival, a geisha named Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), takes Chiyo under wing as a maiko (apprentice geisha).

In time, Mameha renames Chiyo, Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang), and she becomes Kyoto’s most famous geisha. Beautiful and accomplished in her profession, Sayuri charms some of the most powerful men of the day, but she loves one in particular, a man she met as a child and who is called The Chairman (Ken Watanabe). She hopes that one day The Chairman will chose to be her danna, the wealthy patron supports the geisha’s expensive profession. However, World War II and the post-war American Occupation threaten to take away her privileged lifestyle and make the burden of the secret love that haunts her even harder to bear.

Geisha means “art person” or “person of the arts.” Geisha skillfully entertainment men with music, dance, and conversation (which the do artfully), but geisha aren’t necessarily prostitutes, although after WWII, some young women called themselves “geisha” and prostituted themselves to American troops. Geisha were perhaps most common in the 18th and 19th centuries, and have become less common since.

The 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha is based upon the 1997 Arthur Golden novel, Memoirs of a Geisha. The book is historical fiction, although Golden interviewed an actual geisha about her experiences for use in his book. The film earned high praise for its stunningly beautiful visuals, but many critics disliked the film’s supposed lack of narrative, slow story, and lack of substance. The film is indeed a visual feast. Cinematographer Dion Beebe’s (Chicago, Collateral) photography is supernaturally beautiful, and Beebe won an Oscar for making Memoirs look like enchanted eye-candy painted by an Old Master. The costumes, clothing, and uniforms are impeccable in their design as they are functional in their use, and some of them are super duper beautiful. Art, production, and sets do what the best of their kind do, transport the viewer to a world in which they can believe – a world that rings true, and one in which they might want to visit if not live. The candy coating is John Williams’ highly evocative and moving score that moves the narrative and provides the appropriate mood indicators.

On the other hand the narrative and story are not weak. Yes, the first 35 minutes of this film are so dull and slow, and the cinematography is so dreary, dank, and dark that to watch the movie is like doing a chore – mowing the lawn, cleaning the toilet, scrubbing scum, etc. It’s around the 35 minute mark that Ken Watanabe’s The Chairman enters the film, and Memoirs comes to life, allow the cast and crew to show their best talents in the glorious light of Beebe’s photography. Perhaps, many viewers are turned off by a story that focuses on the spiteful interpersonal politics of desperate and competitive women – cat fights, disputes over men, territorial pissing matches, etc. But it all rings true; all the fighting is genuine and captivating. The characters have depth and their struggles have meaning, and that’s why we can believe and empathize with the motivations of even the characters that are villains.

Something else that many reviewers may miss is that it is the cast through the characters not the script that carries this film. Of the many fine performances that mark this film (and it’s a shame that Ken Watanabe will likely be regulated to playing the Asian token in many American films), the trio of Ziyi Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, and Gong Li is Memoirs of a Geisha’s holy trinity. Li actually makes the malicious and spiteful force of nature, Hatsumomo, into a three-dimensional character worthy of study and sympathy. Michelle Yeoh is splendid as the motherly sage Mameha, and Ziyi is the top of the pyramid.

Oscar seems to have made a habit of ignoring Ziyi's luminous performances in such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero (2002), and the Academy clearly wronged her here. With grace and subtlety, often with a facial expression and emotion more than with words, she shows us Chiyo/Sayuri as a resourceful hero who goes on a journey to claim her prize. It isn’t the ultimate prize, but it is the best for which she could hope in her position. By showing us a young woman finding happiness within the limits forced upon her, Ziyi shows us the face of Memoirs of a Geisha. Kept from being a near-perfect gem because its first half hour is garbage, the film recovers and makes the very best of what it has left, giving us two hours of the movie as a beautiful picture book containing a story about a heroine worth championing.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 3 wins: “Best Achievement in Art Direction” (John Myhre-art director and Gretchen Rau-set decorator), “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Dion Beebe), and “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood); 3 nominations: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (John Williams), “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Wylie Stateman), and “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Rick Kline, and John Pritchett)

2006 BAFTA Awards: 3 wins: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (John Williams), “Best Cinematography” (Dion Beebe), and “Best Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood); 3 nominations: “Best Make Up/Hair” (Noriko Watanabe, Kate Biscoe, Lyndell Quiyou, and Kelvin R. Trahan), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Ziyi Zhang) and “Best Production Design” (John Myhre)

2006 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (John Williams) and 1 nomination:“Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Ziyi Zhang)

2006 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Ziyi Zhang)

Sunday, May 14, 2006

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Gareth Edwards' "Monsters" Not Like Other Monster Flicks

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 108 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux


Monsters (2010)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
Running time: 94 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes)
MPAA – R for language
CINEMATOGRAPHER/WRITER/DIRECTOR: Gareth Edwards
PRODUCERS: Allan Niblo and James Richardson
EDITORS: Colin Goudie
COMPOSER: Jon Hopkins
BAFTA nominee

SCI-FI/DRAMA

Starring: Scoot McNairy Whitney Able, and Mario Zuniga Benavides

Monsters is a 2011 British science fiction film and quasi-monster movie. It is the debut feature film of Gareth Edwards, who wrote, directed, and shot Monsters. A cinematic one-man-army and DIY filmmaker, Edwards also created the film’s special effects.

Monsters opens six years after NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. The agency sent a probe to collect samples, but upon re-entry, the probe crashed in Mexico. Now, a huge swath of northern Mexico near the border of the United States is quarantined as the “INFECTED ZONE” because a new alien life form began to appear in this region. The U.S. and Mexican militaries struggle to contain the tentacled creatures in the infected zone.

The film focuses on Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy), a young American photojournalist, who travels about Mexico taking pictures of the creatures and the aftermath of their appearances. Kaulder’s employers send him to a Mexican hospital to find Samantha “Sam” Wynden (Whitney Able), an American injured during a creature attack. Sam turns out to be the daughter of Kaulder’s boss, a wealthy media mogul, and Sam’s father insists that Kaulder escort her back to the United States. However, circumstances force the couple into a more dangerous trip than either imagined.

Monsters looks like a low-budget movie compared to most sci-fi alien invasion movies, but Monsters is not competing with movies like Independence Day (1996) or even with classic black and white B-movie monster flicks. Monsters is essentially an allegorical road movie about the state of the environment and about First World nations waging war on Third World nations. Without preaching, writer/director Gareth Edwards uses clean imagery which conveys potent symbolism concerning our current state of affairs.

Actors Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able were dating at the time they were shooting Monsters, which likely contributed to the absorbing screen chemistry they show here. [They are now married.] Their naturalistic performances are pitch perfect for this movie’s message about mankind’s current situation.

Edwards presents some potent images and effective scenes throughout this film, especially in the last act when Kaulder and Sam enter a post-disaster American small town. In the film, the area was damaged by a creature, but I’m guessing that in the real world, this is an American neighborhood, post-hurricane or other natural disaster. This point in the narrative affirms that for a science fiction monster movie, Monsters is a surprisingly human story.

7 of 10
B+

NOTE:
2011 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer” (Gareth Edwards – Director/Writer)

Friday, December 30, 2011

Oklahoma Film Critics Really Like "The Artist"

The Oklahoma Film Critics Circle (OFCC) is the statewide group of professional film critics. OFCC members are Oklahoma-based movie critics who write for print, broadcast and online outlets that publish or post reviews of current film releases. 2011 is the OFCC’s sixth annual list of awards for achievement in cinema.

Like other film critics circles, they've chosen The Artist as their best picture.  I like that they chose to give the Fright Night remake an award, "Best Guilty Pleasure."  It really is a good movie and should not have been a flop at the box office.  Goodness, I'd love to see a sequel.

Complete List of OFCC 2011 Film Awards:

Top 10 Films:
1. “The Artist”
2. “Drive”
3. “The Descendants”
4. “Hugo”
5. “Shame”
6. “Moneyball”
7. “Midnight in Paris”
8. “Melancholia”
9. “Tree of Life”
10.“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”

Best Film
“The Artist”

Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”

Best First Feature
Sean Durkin, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”

Best Actress
Michelle Williams, “My Week with Marilyn”

Best Actor
George Clooney, “The Descendants”

Best Supporting Actress
Octavia Spencer, “The Help”

Best Supporting Actor
Albert Brooks, “Drive”

Best Screenplay, Adaptation
“Moneyball,” Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin

Best Screenplay, Original
“The Artist,” Michel Hazanavicius

Best Documentary Film
“Page One: Inside The New York Times”

Best Foreign Language Film
“The Skin I Live In”

Best Animated Film
“The Adventures of Tintin”

Obviously Worst Film
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”

Not-So-Obviously-Worst Film
“The Hangover Part II”

Best Guilty Pleasure
“Fright Night”

Review: "eXistenZ" is as Crazy as Ever (Happy B'day, Jude Law)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 32 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


eXistenZ (1999)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada/UK
Running time: 97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong sci-fi violence and gore, and for language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: David Cronenberg
PRODUCERS: David Cronenberg, Andras Hamori, and Robert Lantos
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Suschitzky
EDITOR: Ronald Sanders
COMPOSER: Howard Shore
Genie Award winner

SCI-FI/CRIME/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Ian Holm, Willem Dafoe, Don McKellar, Callum Keith Rennie, Christopher Eccleston, Sarah Polley and Oscar Hsu

eXistenZ is a 1999 Canadian/British science fiction film from director David Cronenberg. The film is set in the near-future and involves advanced video games and organic virtual realities. When Cronenberg, a surrealist and master filmmaker, tests the bounds of imagination, he makes you wonder if there really are any boundaries to imagination, or at least to his. With a filmography full of movies that are trippy experiences, it’s hard to pick out the craziest Cronenberg picture, but I’d say eXistenZ is safe bet.

Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is the world’s best game designer, and her new game, eXistenZ, is a virtual-reality masterpiece. During a demonstration or, perhaps, beta testing, of eXistenZ, a crazed fan makes a peculiar attempt on her life. Ted Pikul (Jude Law), a marketing intern at the company for whom Allegra designs games, spirits her away from the scene, but though they escape the murderous attempt on her life, this is just the beginning of a strange trip that takes them both to worlds real, unreal, and maybe real.

The usual Cronenberg themes: bodily invasion, altered states of perception, and what is real are much in evidence, but like some of his best work, eXistenZ questions what effect technology has on the human body, mind, and spirit. Cronenberg also seems to question whether humans should change their bodies and the way they live to accommodate a technology that is of only the most frivolous use – entertainment-based technology. That question permeates almost every frame of the film, and adds weight to the drama.

Many of the performances are stiff, although deliberately so, but still it’s a bit too wooden and too cold. Sometimes the acting is all a bit too affected and too smart for its own good. Jude Law and Jennifer Jason Leigh, however, give, wildly spirited and inspired performances; even their odd and taut moments have a vivacious air to them. They’re fun to watch, and the pair has a screen chemistry the just screams that this is a mismatched matched pair. For some reason it works, and they look gorgeous on the screen, making this truly odd tale fun to watch.

The best way to describe this story is too say that it deals with virtual worlds and computer generated realities like The Matrix did. eXistenZ, however, is not about cardboard philosophy, wire-fu fight scenes, and pyrotechnics and special effects as sexy eye candy. This is The Matrix for smart people.

8 of 10
A

2000 Genie Awards: 1 win: “Best Achievement in Editing” (Ronald Sanders); 2 nominations: “Best Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design” (Carol Spier and Elinor Rose Galbraith) and “Best Motion Picture” (Robert Lantos, David Cronenberg, and Andras Hamori)

"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" Lights Up the Box Office

“Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” Heats up December Box Office

Film is the highest-grossing release of the holiday season to date and has passed $136 million worldwide

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Village Roadshow Pictures’ “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” has followed up its number one opening by emerging as the top-grossing film to date, domestically, in this December’s very competitive holiday box office landscape. The film is estimated to take in $90.56 million through Monday, easily leading the domestic box office for the month. In addition, the film has soared past the $100 million mark globally, earning a combined estimated worldwide total of $136.26, while still only in a limited number of international markets. The announcement was made today by Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution, and Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, President of International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Fellman stated, “Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, together with director Guy Ritchie, have once again proven to be a winning combination for moviegoers, and we believe that the audience response and strong word of mouth will continue to carry ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ through the holidays and beyond. We congratulate everyone involved in the film on once again making this classic character irresistible to contemporary audiences.”

“Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” has also opened with impressive numbers in 25 international markets, including the UK, Germany and Italy, with most major territories still to come.

Kwan-Rubinek said, “The first ‘Sherlock Holmes’ was a huge hit with international audiences, and we are extremely pleased with the way moviegoers have again embraced the new film. With many more markets yet to open, we are looking forward to a long and lucrative run for the film.”

Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law returns as his friend and colleague, Dr. Watson, in “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.”

Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the room…until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large—Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris)—and not only is he Holmes’ intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may give him an advantage over the renowned detective. Holmes’ investigation into Moriarty’s plot becomes more dangerous as it leads him and Watson out of London to France, Germany and finally Switzerland. But the cunning Moriarty is always one step ahead, and moving perilously close to completing his sinister plan. If he succeeds, it will not only bring him immense wealth and power but alter the course of history.

Filmmaker Guy Ritchie returned to direct “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” the follow-up to the smash hit “Sherlock Holmes.” The sequel reunited producers Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin. Bruce Berman and Steve Clark-Hall served as executive producers. The film also stars Noomi Rapace, Jared Harris, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly, and Rachel McAdams. “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” was written by Michele Mulroney & Kieran Mulroney. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were created by the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and appear in stories and novels by him.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Silver Pictures Production, in association with Wigram Productions, a Guy Ritchie Film, “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.” The film is being distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures. The film has been rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action and some drug material.

http://www.sherlockholmes2.com/

Happy Birthday, Debbie

I know.  A lady doesn't reveal her age!