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Entries in Florida (7)

Tuesday
Dec242019

"The Irishman" leads the nominations from the Online Film Critics Society 

The OFCS was founded back in 1997 just as film criticism was exploding on the web but still disrespected by old media. Since their founding 22 years ago there is less reason for their existence (all critics are primarily "online film critics" these days) but we've always liked them because the taste level is consistent. Let's start with their nominees and move on to other winners from other associations, at home and abroad.

OFCS
(Online Film Critics Society)

Best Picture

  • 1917 
  • The Irishman 
  • Jojo Rabbit 
  • Knives Out 
  • Marriage Story 
  • Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood
  • Parasite
  • Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
  • Uncut Gems 
  • Us

 

Best Animated Feature...

Click to read more ...

Friday
Dec212018

Florida Film Critics Circle (and more)

Given our most recent podcast conversation in which Florida film critic Alfred Soto was a guest star, we wanted to inform you of the end results of The Florida Film Critics Circle's year end "best" discussions. The Favourite took their top prize but the big story is how fully they embraced Asian cinema with two acting prizes for Asian actors and additional prizes for Shoplifters (foreign film), Shirkers (documentary), and Mirai (animated film).

The 26 member wide organization is spread out all around Florida and has been in existence since 1996, just before the boom (2002-2012) when every city and/or state decided they needed an organization, sometimes two of them!) Their full list of winners (along with a handful of other groups that announced earlier that we neglected to mention) are after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Saturday
Dec202014

Critical Consensus: Boyhood or Birdman?

Birdman and Boyhood continue to split regional trophies. This round tips in Birdman's favor for a change though. I'm becoming more and more curious to see who SAG selects as "Outstanding Cast". Will they opt for the heartfelt dedication of 4 actors who spent a few weeks each year for over a decade making the same intimate masterpiece, or will they go with a very exciting movie that's about acting to a significant degree with the lively interactions of movie stars pretending to be theater stars who are actually acting together in frame in a way you rarely see in the movies but see all the time in theater where this is no camera and editing to distract you.

It's a tough predictive call though my vote goes to Birdman because there's far more acting with each other (and more consistency in the quality of each performance) something that is pure pleasure if you're a lover of the art of acting as interacting.

Results and commentary from Florida, Las Vegas, Utah and St Louis after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Monday
May122014

Stage Door: An Iliad and (gulp) Troy's 10th Anniversary 

If you'll allow me a personal and quite biased recommendation, I'd love to send any Floridians reading to the Orlando Fringe Festival (May 14th-25th) to check out Allen Sermonia or Jenn Remke in An Iliad. Jenn and Allen are friends of mine and I had the privilege of attending a full rehearsal last week in which Jenn performed the entire show (they're doing it in repertory so Allen gets alternating nights) and apparently she's the first female actor to ever perform it!

I've seen Jenn in a few previous plays so I knew she was talented but holding an entire stage by yourself is a true challenge and I'm happy to report she was riveting. By the time the play sunk its hooks in, I forgot I was watching my friend and was just watching "the poet" working her way through numerous character sketches and a retelling of the specifics of the Trojan War and, by troubling extension, the not-so-specific universality of war.

Even those who don't get a decent education in the classics (in this case Homer's "The Iliad") know the story thanks to the way all hugely influential classics seep into the collective subconscious. I've read the Iliad but I'm embarrassed to report that instead of the poem my brain was doing a major Troy (2004) sidebar afterwards comparing the play's potent intimacy with the movie's B grade epicness.

It's not that I wanted to think about Troy...

BrothersCousins, eh?

It's just that I am me and Eric Bana and Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom and Diane Kruger (all looking beautiful enough to launch thousands of ships to possess) are a kind of draw, no matter how bad the surrounding movie is and however embarrassing that is to admit.

In a stupid coincidence Troy is celebrating its 10th anniversary just as this performance kicks off. And I am helpless in the face of such calendar markers. I haven't had a desire to revisit the movie but aside from the beauty of its players I remember being  convinced that Orlando Bloom, despite the terrible reviews he won, was actually perfect as Paris. It's just that the character is detestable and not in the type of way that often provokes rabid anti-hero worship. Bana also did fine and hugely charismatic work (I expected him to become a much bigger star but it was sadly not to be) but Garrett Hedlund and Brad Pitt were weirdly weak links despite being well cast. Maybe they didn't have enough to play with as actors? Mostly I did not appreciate the weirdly deflating rewrite of the Achilles/Patroclus relationship: 'They're just cousins, broseph; No Homo!'

If you've only ever seen Troy and no other dramatic interpretations of this story, I must suggest this BAFTA Nominated short film Achilles (1995), narrated by Derek Jacobi, from the Oscar nominated filmmaker Barry Purves which restores the gayness in gorgeous NSFW stop-motion:

 

Back to the play
Because my attention to the theater world is intermittent at best I had missed the explosion of interest in "An Iliad" over the last couple of years. Denis O'Hare, the ubiquitous character actor of stage, film and recently television (American Horror Story/True Blood) co-wrote it and performed it in repetory with Stephen Spinella (the Tony winning original star of Angels in America) in 2012 and it has since become a fixture in regional theater partially because it's cheap and easy to produce (no set / one actor), sure, but also because it's just a damn good play: moving, provocative, and angry.

Even if you're not in Florida, see it as soon as some regional theater tackles it near you.

Tuesday
Feb042014

Link-Along

HuffPo Gabby Sidibe gets in trouble for using the word "Tranny" on television. It's hard to keep up. Gabby is not alone. I also didn't realize this word was now off limits since LGBT people have been using it for years and in names of clubs and dance nights and everything ("Tranny Shack" "Tranny Chasers" etcetera) 
Cinema Blend American Hustle will hit DVD Bluray on March 18th. I wonder if it will have any Oscar wins to tout on its cover? You think?
The Wire attends the Frozen sing-along

TV Blend poster for season 2 of Bates Motel (I wish I had liked that show, but nope.) 
In Contention Guy makes us want to go the Miami Film Festival 
/Film new trailer for Captain America: Winter Soldier includes Emily VanCamp

More on PSH
Slate Dana Stevens' tribute to the late Philip Seymour Hoffman
The Wrap catches us up on 5 current PSH projects and where they stand now that he's gone. Weirdly they leave out the sixth, Ezekiel Moss which he had planned to direct and which had recently cast its leads.
The Guardian on the double standards of drugs and drug laws. Some addicts are viewed empathetically and tragically and others as criminals 

Finally...
I keep meaning to share this really fun video of all the Best Visual Effects winners at the Oscars from Star Wars through Life of Pi. You've probably seen it already but isn't it a good watch?!