British diplomats, evil pharmaceuticals and The Constant Gardener
Wednesday, September 2, 2015 at 6:00PM Andrew Kendall looks back at The Constant Gardener for its 10th anniversary...
"This whole machine is driven by guilt."
To look back, after ten years, at the overly stylised hand-held camera visual style of The Constant Gardener, it might not seem particularly noteworthy; but, the almost unintelligible camerawork of Fernando Meirelles' first English language film, just off the success of City of God, remains key to what makes The Constant Gardener one of the century's most effective (pseudo)-political thrillers. True, it has faded in history as one of the slew of dramas that tried to break into that impenetrable 2005 Best picture line-up. We remember it for Rachel Weisz’s luminous Oscar winning turn, but The Constant Gardener has more to offer than just its place in awards history – it’s an unflinching, exact, and effective film which has not lost its vigour in the ten years since it premiered.
Dope Re-Release: What Does It Mean?
Wednesday, September 2, 2015 at 3:00PM Please welcome our new contributor Kieran Scarlett.
Dope (discussed here) hits theaters again this weekend. The film made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival in January before opening wide earlier this summer to slightly less rapturous response and modest box office. Not that $16 million for a movie with a production budget of $700 000 is anything to sneeze at, mind you. Still, it's not quite the sleeper hit many at Sundance thought it would be. Will it be able to improve on those numbers? Perhaps.
Is there hope for Dope?
With Straight Outta Compton performing very well, Dope's obsession with the early 90s could play well on re-release. Or will the audiences just see the megahit rap biopic and pass over the Sundance indie altogether?
With the upcoming re-release of Dope and yesterday's DVD and Blu-ray release of Mad Max Fury Road (reviewed here), the question of awards prospects for films released in the first half of the year comes into play. It's possible that Dope's re-release could be priming the pump for an awards campaign - a reminder of The Little Indie They Thought Could And Still Might. Awards wise, it's going to be an uphill climb for something like Dope. Even if one takes into account the fact that the Academy has come under fire recently for lack of diversity in its nominations and might be looking to fix that, Dope may still have trouble standing up against other efforts. There's Tangerine, which in addition to being an absolute joy of a film has a better hook in terms of an awards narrative. And there's the aforementioned Straight Outta Compton, both a critical and commercial success. Still, if Dope is indeed trying to make an awards play, a re-release right now is a wise move, right before the Telluride Film Festival kicks off and things typically start to get very noisy in the world of awards punditry.
Have you seen Dope yet? It's your last chance to check out Rick Famuyiwa's love letter to '90s hip-hop nostalgia before its DVD release next month.
Kieran is a Canadian expat whose love affair with movies began with Judy Garland and Julie Andrews. He thanks his older brother for his film fanaticism and apologizes profusely for dragging him to see "Cold Mountain" on opening weekend because 'people in it might get nominated for stuff.' He received his MFA in writing from the American Film institute. He spends a lot of time thinking about the 1974 Best Actress race, admiring Dorothy Malone's mambo skills and longing for the return of Holly Hunter. Kieran can be found in Los Angeles, writing, working on movies and searching for the perfect arthouse theater with good parking. [Follow him on Twitter.]
HBO’s LGBT History: Da Ali G Show, Entourage & The Comeback
Wednesday, September 2, 2015 at 1:04PM Manuel is working his way through all the LGBT-themed HBO productions.
Last week we looked at The Sopranos, The Wire and Carnivàle. I commended each of those series for putting LGBT characters front and center and, more importantly, for not treating their sexuality as their only character dimension. But what of HBO’s comedies? If these dramas were doing the heavy lifting, what can we glean from looking at their comedic contemporaries?
Well, let’s just say that, in 2015 journalistic parlance, HBO had some “problematic” characters on display.
A limp wrist. A lilting high-pitched voice. A jutting hip. A flair for style. We all know these characteristics of the stereotypical gay male of the late twentieth century; it’s as reviled as it is ubiquitous. But it also demands close scrutiny; why should we refuse to give voice to these flamboyant members of the LGBT community? And yet, why should all mainstream America be solely exposed to them as if they were the entire community? This week we’ll try and address these questions while talking about “gay minstrelsy” as we discuss Da Ali G Show, TFE fave, The Comeback and Entourage after the jump...
Two-Hosted Oscars
Wednesday, September 2, 2015 at 11:12AM News broke this morning that the Oscar ceremony will have two hosts this year. That's only happened twice in the 21st century, but it wasn't always James Franco / Anne Hathaway disastrous...
Alec Baldwin & Steve Martin hosted in The Hurt Locker's year
We can assume the announcement of two means they're already negotiating with a pair. It's not like Oscar to go for sloppy seconds and the last time they did (Neil Patrick Harris) it was a bomb. So don't expect the Golden Globe wonders Amy Poehler & Tina Fey. They'd be excellent but it would be shocking. Here are the previous Oscar ceremonies that used two hosts -- this isn't new as much as the internet is like "whoa, TWO!" this morning -- but it is relatively uncommon in modern Academy Award ceremonies. There have been twelve ceremonies with three to six hosts but let's ignore them because that's a lot of names to type. 11 of the 87 ceremonies have had 2 hosts.
Pre-Televised Ceremonies with 2 hosts
1st Oscars - Douglas Fairbanks & William C deMille (Wings)
5th Oscars - Lionel Barrymore & Conrad Nagel (Grand Hotel)
17th Oscars - Bob Hope & John Cromwell (Going My Way)
18th Oscars - Bob Hope & Jimmy Stewart (The Lost Weekend)
20th Oscars - Agnes Moorehead & Dick Powell (Gentleman's Agreement)
Televised Ceremonies with 2 hosts
In the early days they had a side ceremony in NY so the two host system came in handy
25th Oscars - Bob Hope & Conrad Nagel (The Greatest Show on Earth)
26th Oscars - Donald O'Connor & Fredric March (From Here to Eternity)
27th Oscars - Bob Hope & Thelma Ritter (On the Waterfront)
29th Oscars - Jerry Lewis & Celeste Holm (Around the World in 80 Days)
The Opening of the 27th with Bob Hope in LA and Thelma Ritter in NYC
From the mid 50s to the mid 00s it was either group hosting or just one host
82nd Oscars -Steve Martin & Alec Baldwin (The Hurt Locker)
83rd Oscars - James Franco & Anne Hathaway (The King's Speech)
Which twosome are you hoping for? Here are some other ideas... with absolutely no attention paid to what's actually plausible. Vote for your favorite!
