Theater Decor, Movie Prices, "Anonymous" Costumes

On my way home from morning appointments I usually slip into movie theaters to see if anyone has a matinee showing that piques my interest. Though I get my share of press screenings and screeners, I love to see movies in regular release. There was a Margin Call showing at the perfect time at the gorgeous new Elinor Bunin Munroe theater at Lincoln Center but -- argh -- they don't offer matinee pricing and I just don't do full price in the morning. We can only control so many things about the egregious costs of living and one of them for me is that I do not pay full price if I see a movie in the morning. You gotta draw the line somewhere since movie theaters seem to raise their prices at least twice a year. (Do any of you get raises twice a year? Show of hands? Nobody?! Why do movie theaters keep raising their prices?!)

So I stopped at my the Loew's Lincoln Square which does offer matinee $ but nothing at the time I needed and last time I bought a ticket merely as time filler I suffered mightily for it. But I was amused to see this costume display for Anonymous when I entered the lobby since I had just been talking to the director (the aforementioned morning appointment) and was carrying an Anonymous book under my arml the movie was suddenly enveloping me. T'was inescapable! 

The film's costume design is by Lisy Christi, who is best known for doing Michael Haneke pictures. (Quite a leap to Roland Emmerich, aesthetic-wise, eh?)  Oscar loves this time period (the movie stretches from 1560 to 1603) so could the costume branch be interested? Maybe this will be the third Roland Emmerich movie to win nominations? His movies generally make a mint at the box office but only The Patriot (2000) and Independence Day (1996) have previously entered the Oscar conversation.

At the very least it won't hurt that Vanessa Redgrave is playing Oscar's all-time favorite royal. Didn't Andy Warhol once say 'In the future every actress will be famous for playing Queen Elizabeth for 15 minutes.' ???

Enough of my silly babbling. Your turn! Any interest in Shakespeare conspiracy theaters? Does your movie theater dress things up with displays? And do you love starting your day with a cheap matinee show? 

Oscars Horrors: Hellboys and Albinos

In this series, Team Experience is looking at Oscar nominated or Oscar winning contributions from or related to the horror genre. Horror has many hooks (and other deadly pointy things) but it's historically lacking in Oscar bait.

HERE LIES... Hellboy's makeup, sent to the grave from Benjamin Button's cradle in the 2008 competition for Best Achievement in Makeup for 2008; aging in reverse buried ageless supernatural creatures. 

Have you ever found yourself wholly confused by what Oscar's makeup branch looks for in a movie? Aside from aging prosthetics, where latex is lathered on to  take movie stars from cradle to grave in bloated biopics, there seems to be no consistency in how they vote. Benjamin Button's aging, which was surely heavily computer abetted, won the Oscar whilst Nicole Kidman's nose in The Hours was ruled ineligible due to computer touchups years earlier.  If you stop to recall that that the subgenre of movies that is most obviously makeup dependent (the zombie movie) has never received one makeup effects nomination it sets the head spinning right off one's shoulders. What are they looking for? It's my dream to corner one of them one days and ask just that question.

The case of Hellboy II: The Golden Army is an interesting one because, though the movie is rife with beautiful prosthetics work, many of the characters appeared in the earlier film Hellboy (2004) for which Mike Elizalde and Thomas Floutz did not receive nominations. Technically makeup work within a sequel must be sufficiently "new" to qualify. Was it the adorable site of Little Orphan 'Code Name: Hellboy' in the prologue flashback? 

The makeup work was so perfect that child actor Monste Ribé could even brush his fake teeth!

Why was the amazing sight of Ron Perlman as the adult Hellboy in 2004 not enough for a makeup nomination? Perhaps we're so accustomed to seeing genre favorite Ron Perlman buried in latex and prosthetics that it's only the site of him without (like in Drive this year) that warrants any double takes and "how did they do that?" wonder!

Or maybe the nomination came from those twin Royal elves Prince Nuada (Luke Goss, pictured) and Princess Nuala (Anna Walton) and their albino skin and weirdly creepy scarring?

Either way I hope the makeup artists or Guillermo del Toro got around to thanking Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta for the Fire & Ice inspiration... "NEKRON!!!!!"

Have you ever seen the Hellboy movies?
Hellboy would sure be a tough costume to pull off for Halloween.

Gotham Awards: The Tree of Marcy May's Sheltered Descendants

The Gotham Award nominees were announced today. Though they're not affiliated I like to think of them as the East Coast Spirit Awards on account of the similar types of films they tend to honor (independent and lower budgeted films) and the slightly confusing windows of eligibility. The ceremony will be held on November 28th, 2011 here in NYC which is the same day that the New York Film Critics Circle have just announced as the date on which they'll name their winners. So mark those calendars. Awards Season begins in earnest on Monday November 28th, 2011. So the season will be almost exactly three months long this year what with the Oscars arriving on Sunday February 26th, 2012.

Best Feature:

• Beginners (Mike Mills)
• The Descendants (Alexander Payne)
• Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt
)
• Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols
)
• The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)

'One of these things is not like the others, one of these things is not the same.' The black sheep of this shortlist family is The Descendants which is decidedly more mainstream than the other contenders: big movie star, crowd-pleasing rather than crowd-risky, obviously on its way to Oscar nods.

Several categories and few opinions after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Links

I apologize straightaway for the slower-than-usual posting the past few days. it's just been one of those weeks. co-miserate with me in the comments.

Pajiba "Goodwin's Law: Celebrity Edition" starring Susan Sarandon, Lars von Trier and more celebrities whose exaggerating mouths get them into trouble.
Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal tons of W&G items up for auction starting on November 1st. I love Wallace and Gromit.
EW Joss Whedon plots his return to the web with the apocalyptic Wastelanders.
In Contention I know you've heard this but it's worth noting that the NYFCC, arguably the most important of the 17 million critics awards out there, have taken the crazy crazy "first!" position in awards season by jumping to (gasp) November.

Animation Magazine that animated marvel Persepolis is still shaking things up years later.
Self Styled Siren remembers Barbara Kent (1906-2011), another silent film star who has left this earth.
Awards Daily is excited for the new Diane Keaton memoir. So am I but I'm honestly surprised as she seemed so the don't-kiss-and-tell type.
Scanners good piece on cinephilia and our separate lines in the sand when it comes to horrific imagery, whether of the standard horror or pyschologically disturbing variety.

Keyframe Nick Davis on Derek Jarman's Blue.  

Indeed, it’s hard to escape an undertow of privation while watching Blue, not just because its premise is the imminent demise of a great filmmaker (still absurdly undervalued by all but the most self-selecting audiences,) but because its form is austere enough to come across as like a mid-level gallery gimmick."

just 4 fun
Skedrawdles "it's a cloud eat cloud world."
Towleroad "It Getteth Better"
Hark, a Vagrant! Spider-Man vs. Kraven.  

I Googled "Les Miz Songs" For A Title To This Post

... so pretend it's called "I Dreamed A Dream... of Music!" or something thereabouts. Be creative, in the wake of my early morning total lack thereof. JA from MNPP here. As I made horrifically clear to everyone back when we played “Make Me Watch A Musical” a couple of years ago, I have… well, it’s more than a blind spot, more like a black hole when it comes to movie musicals. It’s been awhile since then and I haven’t much improved my standing with the genre, either. I’ve seen several of the Busby Berkley musicals and I really enjoyed them (Team Blondell! Ruby Keeler can suck an egg!), but then I suffered though – suffered being the operative word – Funny Girl to see who this Barbra Streisand character everybody talks about is all about and wow, not for me! I say this not to offend you Barbolytes (Streisfans? Babsilonians?) but to make it clear how Byzantine my pathologies towards the genre are. There’s no rhyme or reason. 

Which is why I find myself writing this post today. A couple of years ago, Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway lit up the stage at the Oscars, and me along with most of the rest of you lit up alongside it. What a hoot! And now they’re reuniting to make a musical, which is totally something I would watch.  They have charisma that captivates me. The musical is Les Misérables, to be exact. My familiarity with Les Miz can be summed up by this post here. That’s the honest truth. Totally clueless. I’ve never even read Hugo’s book. The French Revolution is involved? Maybe somebody steals some bread? I don't know.

So I want a lesson. I’m asking you musical lovers to tell me what I need to know going into this. Gimme "The Gospel of Les Miz According To TFE Readers." How right or wrong is Hugh Jackman for the part he’s playing? How about Russell Crowe? And lovely Anne, can she be a Fantine, whatever the hell that is? Who could you see playing the parts better? And what about all the other roles, who would you cast? What are they going to have to do to adapt the source into a successful movie? I don’t know! I am asking you!