Genie Awards: It's "Incendies" and the Red Carpet

Canada's Genie Awards were held this week and Incendies, which you'll remember was up for the Foreign Film Oscar, was the big winner. The "runner up" as it were, the movie that did very well for itself that didn't win the big one, was Barney's Version which was just Rosamund Pike short of sweeping all the acting trophies. Curiously, if you trust photos from the big event the Barney's Version team was curiously absent. That's so uncool when you win that many awards!

Melissa Etheridge performed (anyone know what song?) and here's a photo of presenters Mia Kirshner (more on her in a bit) and Rossif Sutherland. Yes, he's another spawn of Donald Sutherland -- I didn't know there was a post Kiefer! -- he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for a film called High Life. Perhaps he can co-star with Armie Hammer at some point since he appears to be the only other 6'5" actor in their age bracket.

Xavier Dolan's Heartbeats went home empty-handed but at least it won nominations for Pic/Director, Cinematography and Supporting Actress.

Best Picture INCENDIES
Best Director Denis Villeneuve for INCENDIES
Best Actor Paul Giamatti in BARNEY'S VERSION
Best Actress Lubna Azabal for INCENDIES
Best Supporting Actor Dustin Hoffman in BARNEY'S VERSION
Best Supporting Actress Minnie Driver in BARNEY'S VERSION
Original Screenplay Jacob Tierney for THE TROTSKY
Adapated Screenplay Denis Villeneuve for INCENDIES
Editing INCENDIES
Cinematography INCENDIES
Art Direction: BARNEY'S VERSION
Costume Design: BARNEY'S VERSION
Make Up: BARNEY'S VERSION
Original Score: BARNEY'S VERSION
Original Song: "Already Gone" from THE TROTSKY (below. I liked this movie. Did any of you see it?)

Sound: INCENDIES
Sound Editing: INCENDIES
Documentary: LAST TRAIN HOME
Live Action Short: SAVAGE
Animated Short: LIPSETT DIARIES

Special Prizes
The Claude Jutra (this is a debut film prize) Jephte Bastien for SORTIE 67
(Honorable Mention: Peter Stebbings for DEFENDOR)
Golden Reel: (this is a prize for the highest grossing Canadian film) RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE

RED CARPET LINEUP

Mia Kirschner is a dark beauty but I can never ever decide what I think of her acting. I loved the Atom Egoyan film Exotica (the first thing I saw of hers) but I didn't feel fannish until I caught her as a dominatrix in Love and Human Remains. So I thought I was "yes!" on Mia until The "L" Word (hated her on that) so I was blown away by her inchoate despair and haunting of The Black Dahlia (film bitch supporting actress nomination). It seems that my reaction to her is completely dependent on the role/movie which is not something that usually affects me to that degree... i.e. I usually know whether or not I like an actor's work independent of which projects house them. Anyone have any strong feelings one way or the other on Mia?

I can't be the only one who gets freaked out when creepy child stars grew up. Look at Cameron Bright (Birth), now 18, and Jodelle Ferland (Tideland), 16. Yikers. (No, they're not together. I just enjoy my photoshop.) Yes, I know Cameron Bright is in the Twilight movies but I haven't seen them since the first one bored me to tears so to me he's still that creepy boy who tried to seduce Nicole Kidman.

"You're a little liar aren't you?"

I would die to see Sassy Gay Friend take on Birth (2004) but it's too obscure to get that treatment.

Finally there's Best Actress winner Lubna Azabal (who I keep hearing great things about but who is evaded my eyeballs up till now) from Incendies wielding her Genie. The Genie looks like the most dangerous prize this side of Emmy's 'careful or you'll lose an eye' winged she-demon. Oh and Rachel LeFevre she of the booted from Twilight fame.

That's it. Bye!

Pssst. INCENDIES opens in the U.S. on April 22nd.

Take Three: Anthony Mackie

Craig here with Take Three, a weekly look at a character/supporting actor's career through three movies. Today: Anthony Mackie. Mackie’s had a sprinkling of leads so far (Spike Lee’s controversial She Hate Me, the period drama Night Catches Us, and the upcoming biopic Bolden!), and he’ll undoubtedly get a star-making role of his own someday soon. But in the meantime he’s working hard to create a still very-much-on-the-rise profile as an exemplary supporting player in a variety of fine films.

Take One: Half Nelson (2006)
Mackie puts in a vital sincere performance in 2006 indie drama Half Nelson. He’s Frank, a former friend of Drey’s (Shareeka Epps) jailed brother and a Brooklyn drug dealer, who is intent on dragging Drey into his orbit as a local drug mule. That's an idea that her teacher Dan (Ryan Gosling) takes umbrage with, especially in one riveting scene where Dan confronts Frank on the street, warning him to leave her alone. Mackie avoids the overplayed clichés in portraying drug dealers on screen. He’s calm, charming and actually feels he’s helping by keeping Drey near. He wins Dan around, in a way, too. He’s just someone making his way, just like everyone else in Ryan Fleck’s sombre, thoughtful film.

It’s Gosling’s film, obviously, and he’s great in it. But Mackie adds the kind of concrete support that's essential to the emotionally intricate structured character dramas. Frank is as key to Drey’s understanding and growth as Dan is, just in a different, more dubious way. The regard evident in Frank’s demeanour throughout suggests a tricky back-story to their friendship. It’s an essential detail for our understanding of the story, too. 

Take Two: The Hurt Locker (2009)
There’s a trio of solid actors dominating Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar-winner The Hurt Locker. Leading from the front is lead Jeremy Renner as reckless firebrand Sergeant William James. Backing up his ostensible one-man deactivation outfit two up-and-coming actors, Bryan Geraghty as Specialist Owen Eldridge and Mackie as Sergeant J. T. Sanborn. All three are making waves in the film world (twice Oscar-nominated Renner is the best known); their respective roles added exposure and gravitas to their résumés. Mackie was subtly commanding in the film as the operation leader, trying desperately to keep everthing running smooth and fine-tuned whilst maintaining a clear head.

Though it initially seemed that he'd be merely an antagonistic presence for Renner’s vented spleen, Mackie is so persuasive that he is never merely a guide and an obvious audience identification figure. He makes Sanborn the guy we trust to interpret for us the searing heat, hurt and hellishness of modern-day warfare. He transferred to the audience a measured perspective on it all; not the kinetic, compulsive thrill – is that the right word? – of it all (Renner owned that), but the responsibility, the discursive aspect and the drudgery, the stifled panic – the things that aren’t always first on the list of desired attributes for a sergeant in a war film. Mackie was, in a small way, quite revelatory. His presence cemented the film for me as much more firmly thought-provoking for a long period after I saw it.

Take Three: The Adjustment Bureau (2010)
In The Adjustment Bureau (now playing) Mackie looks just fine in a snazzy hat and trench coat combo – dashing through illogically mind-bending doorways across a rain-drenched New York. I’ll hold off on suggesting he’s Matt Damon and Emily Blunt’s personal guardian angel, as some reviews have offered up, as this seems to stretch the point a bit. But who this mysterious bureau “employee” Harry Mitchell is is left teasingly open. But he’s more a bespoke Deep Throat, an anonymous Mr. X silently assisting our political-wannabe hero in his time-loop of need. Harry can do crazy-mad magic sci-fi stuff like, er, tip coffee on people on buses and, um, creep up on you during wet weather. Ok, so he may be the least dynamic otherworldly entity currently on our screens -- a low-fi sci-fi shy guy --  and he may inexplicably fall asleep on park benches (thus, rather oddly, setting in motion the entire film’s plot), but Mackie more than makes up for it for the duration of Bureau’s running time. And I do mean its running time.

It’s a shame that Mackie is temporarily replaced halfway through by Terence Stamp as the dominating shadowy figure intent on giving Damon a run for his money. (Mackie is the best casting in the film and it rankles when he’s sidelined.) He disappears for a large chunk of the action, but there’s a game amiability to his performance. As an actor he pays keen attention to what makes such workaday genre hybrids as this tick. He plays his part amid the inscrutable daftness finely.

His appearance also makes you wonder: what if he had been cast as the hero? Isn’t it about time Mackie was upgraded to leading man? Move over Matt, Mackie’s next in line for star status.

Three more key films for the taking: She Hate Me (2004), Freedomland (2006), Night Catches Us (2010)

you will have a thousand affairs...

i doubt i doubt
that you will find as pure a love as the one you have in me.
you will have a thousand affairs
without love.
but at the end of it all
there's only pain

Yes, No, Maybe So: "Super 8"

We already did this once during the Superbowl but here's the full trailer to J.J. Abrams Super 8, a clear attempt to recapture 80s Spielbergania. Disturbingly hypey things are flying cross the internet like 'a Best Picture nomination is all sewn up!' uh... from 2 minutes of footage? It's not like its a Holocaust drama or a biopic and looks particularly fetching. History is littered with trailers that looked awesome, the movies proving less so. We shall see. The other disturbing thing I read was that the internet had 'a collective boner'. Call me old fashioned but the only way I'd ever be interested in a collective boner was if I could handpick the orgy members. Ewww. But those caveats aside the trailer IS good. I'm a "yes." But let's play our game anyway.

Yes It certainly looks intriguing... and all the things that worked in the 30 second version (the mystery, the borrowed music, the "gee whiz it's 80s scifi!" feel) are expanded and gain in oomph at 2 minutes. Surely a good sign for the next (two hour) expansion, right?

No Sometimes when people (J.J. Abrams) try to be someone else (Steven Spielberg) they feel like jpgs that have been saved at lower resolutions. Or they miss the mark and end up like some weird amalgam (Spielberg + Shyamalan ÷ Abrams = ?) The proof, one way or the other, will be in the full 2 hours.

Maybe So I know that this is about the kids but wouldn't it be appropriately wondrous if Coach Taylor knocked a plum supporting role out of the park and had a big screen career and/or an awesome TV offer to follow his Friday Night Lights perfection since that stellar show has filmed its last scenes.

Here's the new trailer

Yes No or Maybe So people?
Okay okay, I'll bite on the overhype. Let's discuss Oscar prospects, too. A few techs or much more?

Link's Cutoff

Your Movie Buddy has already named a few "best of the year" posters (and it's only March!) including this absolute beaut for Meek's Cutoff to your left. Seriously. I like this poster better than the movie and I like the movie pretty well.
The Wrap has an open letter to David E Kelley about his new Wonder Woman series that doubles as a love letter to Joss Whedon. I think it's time the internet gave up that ghost as sad as it is to say farewell to.
Scene Stealers gives a fist up to Duncan Jones's Source Code with our Jake Gyllenhaal.
Slant also looks at the new scifi tinged thriller
Towleroad speaking of... some lame person at SXSW tried to snap a photo of Jakey doing his business in the bathroom. Uncool.
Critical Condition unburies 80s stinker Just One of the Guys and treats it like a hidden treasure.
Old Hollywood shares a great 70s quote from Peter Weir on Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975).
My New Plaid Pants Eeek. How did I miss this old Michael Fassbender commercial? So funny. And naked.

Finally, The Hairpin has curated an Netflix instant watch program called "Newman's Ownly" that sounds more delicious, soul-fattening, and spiritually satiating than any solo triple feature evening has any right to be

"'Hombre' means 'man'…and Paul Newman is 'Hombre'."

Should you partake in this orgy of celluloid Newmanliness, I only ask that you make it a double feature instead or replace Hud (1963) with another film somehow. Hud should be rented on DVD or simply bought on BluRay as it deserves better resolution than the generally good but still streamed "Instant Watch" can provide. It's one of those crispest and most perfect looking black and white films ever made, like it was carved from the purest cinematic marble by Michelangelo himself. There's one cold-eyed close-up of Newman that is so heart stopping I needed a defribulator to make it through the rest of the movie. Plus, Hud (1963) is one of the best movies of its entire decade so give it the space in your head that it deserves.