African-American Film Critics Honor "Zero Dark Thirty"

The African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) chose Zero Dark Thirty as the "Best Picture" of 2012, but honored the director of Argo, Ben Affleck, as "Best Director." The AAFCA is a group of African-American film critics that give various awards for excellence in film at the end of each year. The association was founded in 2003 by Gil L. Robertson IV and Shawn Edwards.

2012 African-American Film Critics Association Awards:

Best Picture: "Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Director: Ben Affleck, "Argo"

Best Actress: Emayatzy Corinealdi, "Middle of Nowhere"

Best Actor: Denzel Washington, "Flight"

Best Supporting Actress: Sally Field, "Lincoln"

Best Supporting Actor: Nate Parker, "Arbitrage"

Best Screenplay: Ava DuVernay, "Middle of Nowhere"

Best Foreign Language Film: "The Intouchables" (France)

Best Documentary: (tie) "The House I Live In" and "Versailles '73: American Runway Revolution"

Best Animated Feature: "Rise of the Guardians"

Best Independent Film: "Middle of Nowhere"

Best Breakthrough Performer: Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Music: Kathryn Bostic and Morgan Rhodes, "Middle of Nowhere"

Special Achievement Awards: Cicely Tyson and Billy Dee Williams

Top 10:
1. "Zero Dark Thirty"

2. "Argo"

3. "Lincoln"

4. "Middle of Nowhere"

5. "Life of Pi"

6. "Les Misérables"

7. "Django Unchained"

8. "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

9. "Moonrise Kingdom"

10. "Think Like a Man"

Review: "Django Unchained" is Off the Hook

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 1 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Django Unchained (2012)
Running time: 165 minutes (2 hours, 45 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong graphic violence throughout, a vicious fight, language and some nudity
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Quentin Tarantino
PRODUCERS: Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Richardson
EDITOR: Fred Raskin

WESTERN/DRAMA/ACTION

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, James Remar, Walton Goggins, Laura Cayouette, and Samuel L. Jackson

Django Unchained is a 2012 American Western film and revenge movie from Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction). Like his previous film, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained is an alternate-history movie.

Django Unchained focuses on a slave-turned-bounty hunter who, with the help of his mentor, sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner. The name “Django” comes from the 1966 Italian “Spaghetti Western,” Django, which inspired Tarantino’s film. Franco Nero, the actor who portrayed Django in the 1966 movie, also has a cameo in Django Unchained.

The film opens in 1858. Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a German dentist turned bounty hunter, buys a slave, Django (Jamie Foxx). Shultz wants Django because the slave can identify the Brittle Brothers, a gang of ruthless killers. Recognizing that the slave’s talents that could make him a good bounty hunter, Schultz offers Django two things: (1) he will free Django and (2) he will help Django find his wife, Broomhilda Von Shaft (Kerry Washington), who is still a slave. In return, Shultz wants Django’s help collecting bounties.

However, Broomhilda is now owned by a charming but brutal slave owner named Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Candie owns the plantation, Candyland, in Greenville, Mississippi. There, male slaves are trained to fight for sport (“Mandingo fighting”) and female slaves are sold into prostitution. Infiltrating Candyland and collecting Broomhilda will be Django and Shultz’s most difficult bounty.

Now that I look back on Inglourious Basterds, I like it now more than I did when I first saw it back in 2009. I gave it a grade of “B” (6 of 10). Tarantino’s screwball take on World War II history in that movie prepared me for the freedom with history that Tarantino takes with Django Unchained. Of the movies released in 2012, Django Unchained is the best one I’ve seen so far.

As in all his works, Tarantino’s imagination, inventiveness, and, of course, his encyclopedic knowledge of films results in a screenplay full of outrageous notions, scandalous scenarios, shocking sequences, and mind-blowing scenes. So we get great cinema. Tarantino makes spellbinding films filled with hypnotic characters, plots twists, and settings. And Django Unchained is no exception; it is simply great

Django Unchained is essentially three movies: a quasi-slave narrative, a gun-slinging Western, and a revenge movie that come together as a Spaghetti Western, more so than as an American Western film, especially the ones made before the 1960s. This film looks and acts like a Western, only, the cowboy hero is a slave-turned-bounty hunter and the Old West town in need of taming is a Mississippi plantation.

The result of Tarantino’s genius screenwriting is that the actors cast in his films have the material to fashion great characters, regardless of the individual actor’s level of talent. When the talent is Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson, magic happens. Foxx reveals the evolution of Django from slave to free man in a way that allows the viewer to share the change; Foxx makes Django passionate, vulnerable, and a true cowboy movie hero.

I initially was not crazy about Christoph Waltz as the Nazi colonel and “Jew hunter,” Hans Landa, in Inglourious Basterds, but I’ve grown to love that performance. Landa was not a fluke; here, Waltz fashions a man of many of colors in Dr. King Shultz, a performance which deserves at least an Oscar nomination. Leonardo DiCaprio is a blazing star as Calvin J. Candie, simply because DiCaprio creates a monster in Candie by not being what people probably expect – over the top and inflammatory. There is some subtlety, grace, and depth in DiCaprio’s performance here.

Sam Jackson won’t get the Oscar he deserves for creating Stephen, the ultimate / major domo “house nigger” and Candie’s right-hand man. As great as Foxx, Waltz, and DiCaprio are, Jackson creates a supporting character that is as good as the best in American cinematic history. Stephen is so reprehensible and is odious to the point of being intolerable, and the character is embarrassingly real in the context of the history of American slavery. Jackson will likely be left out because the Academy that hands out Oscar nominations will likely pay more attention to Waltz and perhaps, DiCaprio than Jackson. Besides, Stephen may be a bit too much for conservative Oscar voters to take.

But that is the magic of what Quentin Tarantino can create. He is the best director of his generation – better than the likes of such stalwarts as Chris Nolan and David Fincher. Django Unchained proves it.

10 of 10

Saturday, December 29, 2012

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Black Film Critics Circle Chooses "Zero Dark Thirty"

The Black Film Critics Circle (BFCC) chose Zero Dark Thirty as the best film of 2012.  The group was founded in 2010 and is a membership organization comprised of film critics of color from daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, magazines, radio, television and qualifying on-line publications.

2012 Black Film Critics Circle:

Best Film: "Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"

Best Actress: Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"

Best Adapted Screenplay: "Argo"

Best Original Screenplay: "Django Unchained"

Best Animated Film: "Rise of the Guardians"

Best Foreign Film: "The Intouchables" (from France)

Best Documentary: "The Central Park Five"

Best Ensemble: "Lincoln"

75 Tunes Vie for 5 "Best Original Song" Oscars Nominations

75 Original Songs Tune Up For 2012 Oscar®

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Seventy-five songs from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2012 are in contention for nominations in the Original Song category for the 85th Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today.

The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is featured, are listed below in alphabetical order by film and song title:

"For You" from "Act of Valor"

"Metaphorical Blanket" from "Any Day Now"

"Let It Rain" from "Being Flynn"

"Learn Me Right" from "Brave"

"Touch the Sky" from "Brave"

"Airport" from "Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best"

"Come on Girl" from "Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best"

"Someday" from "Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best"

"Protect the King" from "Brooklyn Castle"

"California Solo" from "California Solo"

"Casa De Mi Padre" from "Casa De Mi Padre"

"Del Cielo" from "Casa De Mi Padre"

"Yo No Se" from "Casa De Mi Padre"

"No Other Plans" from "Celeste and Jesse Forever"

"Before My Time" from "Chasing Ice"

"By the Light of the Moon" from "Crossroad"

"The Sambola! International Dance Craze" from "Damsels in Distress"

"When You Comin' Home" from "Darling Companion"

"Death by China" from "Death by China"

"Delhi Safari" from "Delhi Safari"

"Ancora Qui" from "Django Unchained"

"Freedom" from "Django Unchained"

"100 Black Coffins" from "Django Unchained"

"Who Did That to You?" from "Django Unchained"

"How Bad Can I Be?" from "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax"

"Let It Grow" from "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax"

"Thneedville" from "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax"

"Ain't No Train" from "Downtown Express"

"You Don't Have to Be a Star" from "Fame High"

"Jose's Martyrdom" from "For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada"

"Strange Love" from "Frankenweenie"

"Voodoo" from "Halloween Party"

"Luna Nascosta" from "Hidden Moon"

"Song of the Lonely Mountain" from "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

"Abraham's Daughter" from "The Hunger Games"

"Master of the Seas" from "Ice Age Continental Drift"

"We Are" from "Ice Age Continental Drift"

"Looking for a Sign" from "Jeff, Who Lives at Home"

"From Here to the Moon and Back" from "Joyful Noise"

"He's Everything" from "Joyful Noise"

"I'm Yours" from "Joyful Noise"

"Wide Awake" from "Katy Perry: Part of Me"

"Cosmonaut" from "Lawless"

"Beaten Up and Broken Down" from "Least among Saints"

"Suddenly" from "Les Misérables"

"Pi's Lullaby" from "Life of Pi"

"When I Grow Up" from "Losing Control"

"Love Always Comes as a Surprise" from "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted"

"Ladies of Tampa" from "Magic Mike"

"The Baddest Man Alive" from "The Man with the Iron Fists"

"This Gift" from "The Odd Life of Timothy Green"

"Still Alive" from "Paul Williams Still Alive"

"Dotted Line" from "People Like Us"

"Snake Eyes" from "Promised Land"

"Razors.Out" from "The Raid: Redemption"

"I'm Not Leaving" from "Re:Generation"

"Still Dream" from "Rise of the Guardians"

"Undercover Love" from "Rock of Ages"

"Big Machine" from "Safety Not Guaranteed"

"I Be Here" from "Saint Dracula"

"I Have Secrets" from "Saint Dracula"

"Skyfall" from "Skyfall"

"Breath of Life" from "Snow White and the Huntsman"

"Gone" from "Snow White and the Huntsman"

"One Wing" from "Sparkle"

"Not Running Anymore" from "Stand Up Guys"

"Feel Love" from "Struck by Lightning"

"Everybody Needs a Best Friend" from "Ted"

"Never Had" from "10 Years"

"Dull Tool" from "This Is 40"

"She Won't Let Go" from "Until They Are Home"

"Kiss Me Goodbye" from "Virginia"

"Anything Made of Paper" from "West of Memphis"

"Hashishet Albi" from "Where Do We Go Now?"

"When Can I See You Again?" from "Wreck-It Ralph"

During the nominations process, all voting members of the Music Branch will receive a Reminder List of works submitted in the category and a DVD copy of the song clips. Members will be asked to watch the clips and then vote in the order of their preference for not more than five achievements in the category. The five achievements receiving the highest number of votes will become the nominations for final voting for the award.

To be eligible, a song must consist of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the film. A clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition of both lyric and melody must be used in the body of the film or as the first music cue in the end credits.

The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

Negromancer 2013

Happy New Year!  Welcome to Negromancer, a ComicBookBin blog (www.comicbookbin.com). This is rebirth of the former movie review website as a movie review and movie news website and blog.

We just finished our second full calender year, and this month will mark our third reincarnation birthday.  We also want to take a moment to remember all the film, television, and comic book people we lost last year, including the recent passings of Jack Klugman, Gerry Anderson, and Charles Durning.

All images and text appearing on this blog are © copyright and/or trademark their respective owners.

Review: "Red Hook Summer" Late with Its Hook

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 101 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


Red Hook Summer (2012)
Running time: 121 minutes (2 hours, 1 minute)
MPAA – R for brief violence, language and a disturbing situation
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Spike Lee
WRITERS: James McBride and Spike Lee
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Kerwin DeVonish
EDITOR: Hye Mee Na
COMPOSERS: Bruce Hornsby with Judith Hill and Jonathan Batiste

DRAMA

Starring: Jules Brown, Clarke Peters, Toni Lysaith, Heather Simms, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Nate Parker, Kimberly Hebert Gregory, De’Adre Aziza, Jonathan Batiste, Sincere Peters, Coleman Domingo, and Isiah Whitlock, Jr.

Red Hook Summer is a 2012 drama from director Spike Lee. The film follows a middle-class boy from Atlanta, spending the summer with his grandfather in Red Hook, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

Thirteen-year-old Silas “Flik” Royale (Jules Brown) finds himself in Red Hook, Brooklyn. His mother, Colleen Royale (De’Adre Aziza), has sent him there to spend the summer with Flik’s grandfather (and her father), Da Good Bishop Enoch Rouse (Clarke Peters). The Bishop heads Lil’ Peace of Heaven Church, a small congregation struggling with financial worries and shrinking membership.

Flik hates staying in the Red Hook housing projects, where he runs afoul of a local drug dealer named Box (Nate Parker). Still, he makes a friend in sassy teen girl, Chazz Morningstar (Toni Lysaith), and the youngsters spend their days and nights arguing about life and spiritual matters. This Red Hook summer is not free of troubles, as dark secrets suddenly come forth. Who are Bishop Richard Benjamin Broadnax and Blessing Rowe?

First, some trivia: Red Hook Summer is the first time Spike Lee has acted in one of his films since 1999’s Summer of Sam. Lee also reprises the role of Mookie, the lead character in Lee’s 1989 film, Do The Right Thing, for this movie.

Red Hook Summer is a quality film, but suffers from being uneven and rough. Spike Lee’s films are at their best when the director is being confrontational and when he can pluck nerves and tweak prevailing attitudes, conventions, and traditions, as he did in Do The Right Thing. For most of its runtime, Red Hook Summer wears its low-budget, indie production values on its sleeves, and it is less confrontational and more quarrelsome. It’s not that this film looks cheap; it just looks like every other indie drama set off the beaten path in some average, lower working class or impoverished burg/neighborhood.

Except for a few moments, some snippets of dialogue, and a soliloquy here and there, Red Hook Summer does not offer sustained fire, passion, and conflict (or obstacles). There is an explosive change with forty minutes left in the movie. Even at that point, Lee allows the film’s real drama and conflict to go unresolved or even conferred upon. Essentially, the best of Red Hook Summer does not happen until the movie’s last act. WTF, indeed! The drama is just getting started as the movie is just starting to end.

The film is rather inelegant about its most confrontational and didactic aspects and elements. The acting is often stiff, the dialogue only a little less so. Still, Red Hook Summer has something many other movies lack, a sense verisimilitude.

Watching it, the movie felt real to me. It has weight, substance, and depth, in spite of its deficiencies. Spike Lee does what he does best – get on the streets and turn those streets into burly, fleshy drama. In a landscape of big, loud, expensive movies made all the more unreal by various computer and technological enhancements, Red Hook Summer keeps it real. It is impossible to ignore, and that’s a good thing.

6 of 10
B

Monday, December 31, 2012

Oklahoma Film Critics Name "Argo" Best Film of 2012

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.

OFCC 2012 Film Awards:

Top 10 Films
1. “Argo.”

2. “Zero Dark Thirty.”

3. “Moonrise Kingdom.”

4. “Django Unchained.”

5. “Silver Linings Playbook.”

6. “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

7. “The Master.”

8. “Lincoln.”

9. “Looper.”

10. “Les Miserables.”


Best Film: “Argo.”

Best Director: Ben Affleck, “Argo.”

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln.”

Best Actress: Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty.”

Best Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master.”

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables.”

Best Original Screenplay: Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, “Moonrise Kingdom.”

Best Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio, “Argo.”

Best Animated Film: “Wreck-It Ralph.”

Best Body of Work: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Looper,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Lincoln”)

Best Documentary: “Searching for Sugar Man.”

Best First Feature: “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” Benh Zeitlin.

Best Foreign Language Film: “Amour.” (from Austria)

Best Guilty Pleasure: “21 Jump Street.”

Not-So-Obviously Worst Movie: “Prometheus.”

Obviously Worst Movie: “That’s My Boy.”