Two-time Dancing with the Stars champion Julianne Hough doesn’t have to shimmy for her supper in her latest movie role. Her leading-lady role in the latest Nicholas Sparks movie, Safe Haven , represents her first straight acting gig – no dancing or singing required! Hough was the guest of honor at the premiere that Self magazine hosted on Monday night in Manhattan. (The actress is also the magazine’s March cover girl.) Co-star Josh Duhamel was also on hand and told me that men ain’t afraid of no chick flicks: “Guys are sensitive beings too who just want to see a good movie,” he said. According to Gavin DeGraw, who performs on the Safe Haven soundtrack, stylish facial hair is also a plus. He said it was Ryan Gosling’s “really cool beard” that made him a fan of The Notebook. I also got to ask director Lasse Hallstrom , who’s recent Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was nominated for several Golden Globes , why the industry doesn’t take romance more seriously. He responded that “romantic movies tend to push it a bit too far into sentimentality…I try to counter that by trying to be real with those performances.” Check out my full red carpet interview below: Follow Grace Randolph on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Southern goth-chic gets a swoony supernatural makeover in Beautiful Creatures , a teen franchise-starter that suggests what Twilight might have looked like with a reasonable budget, a competent script and halfway-decent special effects, but still saddled with next-best source material. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s book, the first of four, reps a calculated synthesis of proven YA-lit elements and recent publishing success tactics, which makes for ingratiating storytelling on the page. Fortunately, writer-director Richard LaGravenese has jettisoned most of the novel and refashioned its core mythology and characters into a feverishly enjoyable guilty pleasure, unapologetic in its mass-market rebel ‘tude. Though Beautiful Creatures has what it takes to support a series — a “gifted” girl, a smitten guy and powerful evil forces determined to keep them apart — the film could face trouble winning over cynical young auds who view it as the latest shameless attempt to cash in on the fantasy craze, which of course it is. And yet, now that the Twilight and Harry Potter series have run their course, the timing seems right for a soapy romance in which a sensitive small-town hunk (Alden Ehrenreich) falls hard for the new girl in town, not really minding that she’s a witch — or “caster,” as they prefer to be called here. With a dark-haired, pale-skinned look more likely to inspire 1920s audiences than today’s supermodel-obsessed tastes, Alice Englert ( Ginger and Rosa ) brings a refreshingly relatable quality to the role of 15-year-old Lena Duchannes, who’s moved to dead-end Gatlin, S.C., after things got out of control at her last school. Lena wants to keep a low profile while counting down the days until her 16th birthday, when a family curse predicts she will be “claimed” as a dark witch, but Ethan recognizes her as the mysterious girl he’s been dreaming about for months, and insists on getting to know this melancholy stranger. The best young-adult offerings tap into deeper themes that resonate with teens, but this one trades mostly in dopey wish fulfillment, granting magical powers and a devoted admirer to girls who imagine themselves as outsiders. It’s about feeling different, having a secret and discovering that special soulmate in whom one can confide. With his heavy brow knit in an expression of deep concern, Ehrenreich looks the way a young Orson Welles might if cast on a CW series, with a plucky Southern accent in place of a sonorous radio voice. Though the film preserves the idea of Ethan as narrator, it ditches the novel’s off-puttingly snide tone, allowing the popular girls — led by self-righteous ex-g.f. Emily (Zoey Deutch) — to damn themselves, while saving the amusing putdowns for Gatlin. Nearly everything about the book has been streamlined for the screen, which may rankle fans (who are likely to miss the ethereal song that binds Ethan to Lena, at least), but it makes for a far cleaner plot. While Lena spices up a traditional teen courtship with doses of magic — as when she caps a date by conjuring snow out of thin air on a muggy December afternoon — her powerful dark relatives (a vampy cousin played by Emmy Rossum and shape-shifting undead mom Sarafine, played with lip-smacking relish by Emma Thompson ) arrive to demonstrate what happens when witches go bad. The film goes out of its way to forge memorable character introductions, which will serve the series well, should sequels follow (more confusing is a scene toward the end when Ethan, a sophomore in the book, is shown leaving for NYU). By granting LaGravenese the freedom to refashion the novel as he sees fit, Warner Bros. gives Beautiful Creatures an edge over other recent hit fantasy-series adaptations, which have often shown stiff, gospel-like fidelity to their source material. By contrast, this project comes across as downright blasphemous — and not only against the potboiler that inspired it; LaGravenese’s script takes on Bible-beaters, book-banners and all who invoke God to justify small-minded prejudice. In one particularly campy scene, Sarafine goes head-to-head with Lena’s guardian ( Jeremy Irons , the picture of drawling Old South gentility) in the local church, dabbing holy water behind her ears like perfume as she dismisses the superstitious townsfolk’s notions of religion. Considering how little it takes to get certain groups riled up about what their kids are reading, the film goes awfully far out of its way to align itself with blacklisted literature, offering up Viola Davis’ voodoo “seer” (and resident librarian) as its high priestess. Garcia and Stohl clearly saw To Kill a Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye as models for the series, although Beautiful Creatures demonstrates few of their insights into human nature, hewing closer to Judy Blume and Twilight fan fiction. Likewise, while Ethan and Lena turn one another onto Vonnegut and Bukowski, throwing their names around for punk credibility, either writer would surely recoil to see himself quoted in this context. The film ultimately plays like so much teenage girl poetry, heavy on the angst, endearingly naive in its notions of love and yet brought vividly to life by a game cast, evocative locations (both indoors and out) and stunning anamorphic lensing. Louisiana works nicely for Civil War-obsessed Gatlin, suggesting a tween-friendly True Blood . RELATED: ‘Beautiful Creatures’ NYC Premiere: Twi-Hard With A Vengeance? Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Even if you didn’t watch the big game last night, you know that a) Beyonce brought the house — or was it the lights? — down, and b) six big movie trailers aired during the game: Star Trek Into Darkness , Iron Man 3 , The Lone Ranger , Oz The Great and Powerful , World War Z and Fast & Furious 6 . All were designed to whet the record-setting viewing audience’s appetite for these films. Not all of them were successful. Below, I rank the trailers from worst to best in terms of how effective they were at making me want to see the movies they were promoting. 6. World War Z I’m no demographics expert, but I’ve got to imagine that there’s a fair amount of overlap between guys who like brutal football games and guys who like violent zombie stories. So, Paramount seems to have squandered a big marketing opportunity by running a commercial that was essentially a distillation of the trailer the studio released in November . The mayhem-on-a-plane scene doesn’t add much, although, taking into account similar scenes from the Iron Man 3 and Fast & Furious 6 ads, all the hot trailers have them these days. What this spot needed was at least one memorable close-up of the zombie terror that Brad Pitt & Co. face. Instead, I’m left with the impression that the notoriously troubled World War Z production may be seriously lacking in chills and thrills when it’s released in June. 5. The Lone Ranger Johnny Depp trumps Brad Pitt in my book, so this trailer has a slight edge over World War Z , but in 2013 it’s hard to get worked up over horses and railroads and a hero ( Armie Hammer ) whose costume consists of a party mask. And despite the powerful distraction that is the dead bird on Depp’s head , I can’t help but think of Wild Wild West when I see this movie advertised. 4. Oz The Great And Powerful Although there’s not a lot of new stuff to see in this trailer, the clip does a good job of selling this Wizard of Oz prequel as an action-packed and visually trippy story. (The bubble travel scene should appeal to Flaming Lips fans.) With Sam Raimi orchestrating all those A-list witches and special effects, this movie has potential and the Super Bowl clip got that across. 3. Fast & Furious 6 I came very close to putting this trailer higher up in the ranking because it’s so much damn fun to watch. But then I thought about the Fast & Furious movies that have come before this latest installment. The scenes of a tank crushing cars on a freeway and the F&F crew bringing down a jet plane with a grappling gun and a sports car are riveting, but this has never been a weighty franchise. So, I worry this is one of those trailers that gives away all the movie’s best bits — like Michelle Rodriguez’s unlikely return, for instance. 2. Star Trek Into Darkness J.J. Abrams had a little fun at our expense with this pulse-quickening spot. He has none other than James T. Kirk ask the question Star Trek fans are dying to have answered about the character Benedict Cumberbatch plays : “Who the hell are you?” The answer, as presented in the trailer, is pretty cheeky, too. “I am better…at everything!” really does make me want to see this guy get a one-way proton torpedo ride to Mustafar. Oh wait! That’s a Star Wars planet. Then again, that scene of Spock looking like he’s about to be engulfed my molten lava sure does look like the place where Obi-wan and Anakin Skywalker had their fateful Episode III duel. But I digress. If the Benedict Cumberbatch tomfoolery makes you groan, the scenes of a seriously malfunctioning U.S.S. Enterprise crash-landing on Earth will rock you. 1. Iron Man 3 (Extended Version) Even more proof that Robert Downey Jr. is the heart and soul of the Marvel movie universe right now. Having the actor break the fourth wall with an “extensive,” as he puts it, melodramatic look was a beautiful thing, and then the trailer just got better from there. We got to see a little more of Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin character — his mouth moved! Words came out of it! — Don Cheadle in the War Machine suit, and Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan looking anything but gleeful. In fact, he’s on the floor and looking kind of wet, which is often PG-13-speak for bloody. That’s not a good sign. But what I’m really obsessing over is the trailer’s thrilling climax cliffhanger in which Iron Man has to figure out how to rescue 13 people who’ve been sucked out of a sabotaged Air Force One. As Jarvis, the Marvel equivalent of Siri, explains, Tony Stark’s superhero suit can only carry four. Do the math. That is effective marketing. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
As Steven Soderbergh said at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s preview screening of Side Effects on Wednesday, “There’s Movie A and there’s Movie B and there’s Movie C.” The director was making the apt point that Side Effect s could have been a heavy-handed movie about a) Big Pharma or b) insider trading, two of the film’s main motifs. But Soderbergh chose c), a much subtler and entertaining third path, and judging from the Manhattan audience’s enthusiastic reaction to the picture, his instincts did not fail him. Following the screening, Soderbergh took part in a Q&A session with cast members, Rooney Mara , Jude Law and Vinessa Shaw and Side Effects screenwriter Scott Z. Burns. When one moviegoer asked the director, “Did you ever feel like you might have missed an opportunity for a bigger conversation about Big Pharma?” Soderbergh responded: “I didn’t want to see that. What I loved about what Scott [Burns] did is that that issue was just a Trojan horse to hide a thriller inside of. I feel like, as a movie—that you stand in line and pay to see—I didn’t want to see a serious movie about Big Pharma. I really didn’t. I feel like I can read about that. It’s all over the news. It’s everywhere.” Alluding to his self-proclaimed retirement from filmmaking Soderbergh continued, “That may be a result of the fact that I’m in the twilight of my career. I honestly wanted to make something that…was connected to movies I saw when I was growing up that I thought were fun.” Burns chimed in to explain he generally starts “writing from a place where there’s something I’m upset or passionate about. So, obviously I have strong feelings about that whole issue.” But, he reasoned, “I don’t like movies that are preachy. If they are, they should be things like An Inconvenient Truth . We all wanted to make something really entertaining. The hope is that it causes a discussion about all these other issues. But we wanted to invite people to go on a ride.” Side Effects offers a lot of plot twists and turns along the way. Even Thomas Newman’s superb, eerie score elicits sensations that don’t necessarily align with the spare, elegant scenes unfolding on screen. “I feel like you should have a reason for every shot and you should have a reason for every cut,” Soderbergh told the crowd at the Walter Reade Theater before praising Burns’ script yet again. “What I loved about this piece of material is it’s an incredible opportunity to take it all down to the marrow,” he said, adding: “That doesn’t mean it has to be boring. It doesn’t mean that it can’t be stylish. It just means that, as a director, you’re supposed to have the 30,000-foot view of the movie and [to] be able to calibrate how the shots and the cutting patterns are going to affect the audience.” Soderbergh did not sound like filmmaker who was ready to fold up his director’s chair, and after demonstrating his nuanced choice of camera angles for a specific scene, Shaw, who plays Law’s wife in the film, addressed the elephant in the room. “And why are you quitting directing, based on everything you just said?” the actress said. [Insert passionate round of applause here.] “Because I don’t ever want to be in a situation where that’s the solve again,” Soderbergh said. “I can’t use that again. I used it. And that’s the last good idea I ever had.” Nell Alk is an arts and entertainment writer and reporter based in New York City. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Manhattan Magazine, Z!NK Magazine and on InterviewMagazine.com, PaperMag.com and RollingStone.com, among others. Learn more about her here. Follow Nell Alk on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival unveiled its lineup of 109 features including 69 world premieres Thursday. The festival, which overlaps with SXSW’s music and interactive programs, also includes 14 North American and five U.S. premieres. SXSW will screen eight films each in its Narrative Feature and Documentary Competitions. [ Related: ‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone’ To Open The SXSW Film Festival ] As previously announced, Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi starrer The Incredible Burt Wonderstone will open the festival, taking place in downtown Austin, TX. The film will screen as part of SXSW’s Headliners section along with Harmony Korine’s Toronto debut Spring Breakers with James Franco and Selena Gomez, Stephen Finningan’s Hawking and Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead . SXSW veteran Joe Swanberg ‘s Drinking Buddies will screen in the festival’s Narrative Spotlight section along with fellow vet and Austin-based filmmaker Bryan Poyser’s The Bounceback and John Sayles ‘ Go For Sisters with Edward James Olmos. SXSW’s Festival Favorites section will have a good dose of Sundance offerings this year, including Austin’s Richard Linklater ‘s Before Midnight , Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess , Joseph Gordon-Levitt ‘s Don Jon’s Addiction , Yen Tan’s Pit Stop , David Gordon Green ‘s Prince Avalanche and Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color . “It’s an incredible privilege to sift through so much exciting work, and every year brings new surprises. Though trends emerge after the fact, not consciously while we’re programming, much of this year’s program embraces love and the need/search/desire for connection,” commented SXSW festival producer Janet Pierson in a statement. “Many films reflect importantly on our culture and include intimate looks at iconic figures, and we’re lucky to have a plethora of hugely entertaining and audience pleasing films. Even more thrilling is the opportunity to support so many filmmakers we’ve followed for years who’ve made enormous creative leaps in their work.” The 2013 SXSW Film Conference and Festival takes place March 8 – 16. Music takes place March 12 – 17 and the tech-laden Interactive component takes place March 8 – 12. For more information, visit their website . The 2013 SXSW Film Conference and Festival lineup follows with information provided by organizers). Narrative Feature Competition (This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,191 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere): Awful Nice Director/Screenwriter: Todd Sklar, Screenwriter: Alex Rennie Estranged brothers Jim and Dave must travel to Branson together when their father dies and leaves them the lake home. A series of hilarious mishaps and costly misadventures follow as they attempt to restore the house and rebuild their relationship. Cast: Alex Rennie, James Pumphrey, Christopher Meloni, Brett Gelman, Keeley Hazell (World Premiere) Burma Director/Screenwriter: Carlos Puga On the eve of an annual sibling reunion, a troubled young writer is sent reeling with the arrival of an unexpected guest. Cast: Christopher Abbott, Gaby Hoffmann, Chris McCann, Dan Bittner, Emily Fleischer (World Premiere) Improvement Club Director/Screenwriter: Dayna Hanson When their big gig falls through, a ragtag, avant-garde performance group with a political message struggles to find their audience—and the motivating force behind their work. Cast: Magge Brown, Dave Proscia, Wade Madsen, Jessie Smith, Pol Rosenthal (World Premiere) LICKS Director/Screenwriter: Jonathan Singer-Vine, Screenwriter: Justin “Hongry” Robinson The story of a young man, D, as he returns to his Oakland neighborhood after two years served in prison for a robbery gone wrong… Cast: Stanley “Doe” Hunt, Koran Jenkins, Tatiana Monet, Devon Libran, Les “DJ Upgrade” Aderibigbe (World Premiere) The Retrieval Director/Screenwriter: Chris Eska On the outskirts of the Civil War, a boy is sent north by a bounty hunter gang to retrieve a wanted man. Cast: Ashton Sanders, Tishuan Scott, Keston John, Bill Oberst, Jr., Christine Horn, Alfonso Freeman (World Premiere) Short Term 12 Director/Screenwriter: Destin Daniel Cretton The film follows Grace, a young supervisor at a foster-care facility, as she looks after the teens in her charge and reckons with her own troubled past. An unsparingly authentic film, full of both heart and surprising humor. Cast: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, Keith Stanfield (World Premiere) Swim Little Fish Swim (USA, France) Director/Screenwriter: Ruben Amar, Lola Bessis Between surrealism, unusual characters, art and magic tricks, Swim Little Fish Swim is a dreamlike journey from childhood to adulthood. Cast: Dustin Guy Defa, Anne Consigny, Brooke Bloom, Lola Bessis, Olivia Durling Costello (World Premiere) This Is Where We Live Directors: Josh Barrett, Marc Menchaca, Screenwriter: Marc Menchaca A struggling family’s dynamics are challenged and a unique friendship is born when a small-town Texas handyman becomes caregiver to their son with cerebral palsy. Cast: Ron Hayden, CK McFarland, Marc Menchaca, Tobias Segal, Frankie Shaw (World Premiere) Documentary Feature Competition (This year’s 8 films were selected from 905 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere) 12 O’Clock Boys Director: Lotfy Nathan Pug, a young boy growing up on a combative West Baltimore block, finds solace in a gang of illegal dirt bike riders known as The 12 O’Clock Boys. (World Premiere) Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton Directors: Stephen Silha, Eric Slade A documentary about embracing your passions and becoming the person of your dreams, disguised as an inspiring biopic about pioneering filmmaker and poet James Broughton (1913-1999). (World Premiere) Hey Bartender Director: Douglas Tirola The story of the bartender in the era of the craft cocktail. (World Premiere) Los Wild Ones Director: Elise Salomon Wild Records is an indie label reminiscent of the early days of Sun Records. The label is based in LA and run by Reb Kennedy aka Mr. Wild Records and is comprised of young Latin musicians who write and perform 50s Rock n Roll. (World Premiere) The Short Game Director: Josh Greenbaum Each year, the world’s best 7-year-old golfers descend on Pinehurst, North Carolina to determine the next “world champion” and who might become golf’s next phenom. The Short Game follows 9 young golfers on their quest for greatness. (World Premiere) Touba Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi With unprecedented access and dynamic 16mm cinematography, Touba reveals a different face of Islam by chronicling Sufi Muslims’ annual pilgrimage to the city of Touba.(World Premiere) We Always Lie To Strangers Directors: AJ Schnack, David Wilson A story of family, community, music and tradition set against the backdrop of Branson, Missouri, the remote Ozark Mountain town that is one of the biggest tourist destinations in America. (World Premiere) WILLIAM AND THE WINDMILL Director: Ben Nabors William Kamkwamba builds a windmill from scrap to rescue his family from famine, transforming his life and launching him onto the world stage. His success leads to new opportunities and complex choices, distancing him from the life he once knew. (World Premiere) Headliners (The section features red carpet premieres and gala film events with some major and rising names in cinema.) Evil Dead Director/Screenwriter: Fede Alvarez, Screenwriter: Rodo Sayagues Five friends, holed up in a remote cabin, discover a Book of the Dead that unwittingly summons up dormant demons which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left to fight for survival. Cast: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore (World Premiere) Hawking (UK) Director: Stephen Finnigan A brief history of mine: a look at the life of Stephen Hawking (World Premiere) The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Director: Don Scardino, Story by Chad Kultgen & Tyler Mitchell and Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley. Screenplay by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley As superstar Vegas magicians and former best friends Burt and Anton grow to secretly loathe each other, their long-time act implodes, allowing an ambitious rival street performer the big break he’s been waiting for. Cast: Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, with Alan Arkin, James Gandolfini and Jim Carrey (World Premiere) Spring Breakers Director/Screenwriter: Harmony Korine Four college girls who land in jail after robbing a restaurant in order to fund their spring break vacation find themselves bailed out by a drug and arms dealer who wants them to do some dirty work. Cast: James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, Gucci Mane (U.S. Premiere) When Angels Sing Director: Tim Mccanlies, Screenwriter: Lou Berney Michael despises Christmas. Now Christmas is getting even. Cast: Harry Connick Jr., Connie Britton, Chandler Canterbury, Fionnula Flanagan, Lyle Lovett, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Eloise DeJoria, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson (World Premiere) [More World, North American and U.S. Premieres in following pages.] —
The Super Bowl’s notoriously pricey ad spots already cost a chunk of change well into the seven figures last year and it’s set to head well northward for 30 seconds of airtime this Sunday. But that has not scared away movie studios from snapping up commercial time on Super Bowl XLVII. Studios will air ads for upcoming blockbusters including Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man 3 , J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness , Johnny Depp’s The Lone Ranger , James Franco and Michelle Williams’ Oz The Great And Powerful and Vin Diesel’s The Fast and the Furious 6 . Brad Pitt’s World War Z is slated for a pre-game spot. Disney’s The Lone Ranger , with a July release, is the pic with the longest wait-time before its theatrical release. Last year, 30 seconds on the sky high rated sports event cost $3.5 million, but that has jumped to a cool $4 million for a half-minute in the match-up between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers. Among the non-studio ads set to air Sunday are spots from Chrysler, Tide, Best Buy, Coke and the new BlackBerry 10, according to Deadline. [ Sources: Huffington Post , Deadline ]
Oscar-nominated feature No by director Pablo Larraín starring Gael García Bernal are among the ten Galas that will screen at the 30th Miami International Film Festival. The ten-day fest will host 117 features and 12 shorts from 41 countries with an emphasis on films from Latin America. [ Related: River Phoenix’s Last Film To Debut At Miami International Film Festival ] No , which screened at the recent Sundance Film Festival , is based on the true story about an ad executive who comes up with an ad campaign to defeat Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1988. The film will screen in Miami’s CineDwntwn Galas along with other Sundance offerings, Twenty Feet From Stardom (Opening Night Film) by U.S/ director Morgan Neville, Sebastian Junger’s Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington by Sebastian Junger, screening in the Documentary Competition along with Marc Silver’s Who Is Dayani Cristal? , Valentine Road , Gideon’s Army and Blackfish / Radius-TWC’s Twenty Feet from Stardom turns the spotlight to some of the world’s biggest singers’ backbone, their backup singers. Maiken Baird and Michelle Major’s Venus and Serena will screen Awards Night March 9th. The doc will spotlight the American tennis superstars siblings. As previously announced, the festival will honor two remarkable directors with Career Achievement Tributes: renowned Swedish writer-director Lasse Hallström ( My Life as a Dog , What’s Eating Gilbert Grape ) and Spanish producer, writer, and Oscar-winning director Fernando Trueba ( Belle Epoque , Chico & Rita ). MIFF will screen the directors’ latest works including The Hypnotist by Hallström and The Artist and the Model by Trueba. The 30th Miami International Film Festival runs March 1 – 10. Galas, documentary and Ibero-American competition categories follow. For a list of further MIFF films, visit their website . CineDwntwn Galas Amor Cronico (USA/Cuba, directed by Jorge Perrugorría) The Artist and the Model (Spain, directed by Fernando Trueba) The Boy Who Smells Like Fish (Canada/ Mexico, directed by Analeine Cal y Mayor) Dark Blood (Netherlands, directed by George Sluizer) Eenie Meenie Miney Moe (USA, directed by Jokes Yanes) The Hunt (Jagten) (Denmark, directed by Thomas Vinterberg) The Hypnotist (Sweden, directed by Lasse Hallström) NO (Chile/USA, directed by Pablo Larraín) *2013 Oscar Nominated for Best Foreign Film Twenty Feet From Stardom (USA, directed by Morgan Neville) Venus and Serena (USA, directed by Maiken Baird and Michelle Major) Documentary Competition: Viva Cuba Libre: Rap Is War (USA, directed by Jesse Acevedo) Blackfish (USA, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite) The Crash Reel (USA, directed by Lucy Walker) Cubamerican (USA, directed by Jose Enrique Pardo Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story (USA, directed by Brad Bernstein) Gideon’s Army (USA, directed by Dawn Porter) Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation (Sagrada: El misteri de la creació) (Switzerland, directed by Stefan Haupt) Valentine Road (USA, directed by Marta Cummingham) Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington (USA, directed by Sebastian Junger) Who Is Dayani Cristal? (United Kingdom/Mexico, directed by Marc Silver) Ibero-American Competition (fist-time feature filmmakers from Spain, Portugal and Latin America): The Boy Who Smells Like Fish (Mexico/Canada, directed by Analeine Cal y Mayor) Edificio Royal (Colombia/Venezuela/Germany, directed by Iván Wild) Good Luck, Sweetheart (Boa Sorte, Meu Amor) (Brazil, directed by Daniel Aragão) Miguel, San Miguel (Chile, directed by Matías Cruz) Molasses (Melaza) (Cuba/France/Panama, directed by Carlos Días Lechuga) No Autumn, No Spring (Sin otoño, sin primavera) (Ecuador/Colombia/France, directed by Iván Mora) Solo (Uruguay/Argentina/Netherlands/France, directed by Guillermo Rocamora) The Swimming Pool (La piscina) (Cuba/Venezuela directed by Carlos Machado Quintela) Villegas (Argentina/Netherlands/France, directed by Gonzalo Tobal)
Two weeks after carrying home the big prizes from the Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe Awards , Argo firmly established its Oscar front-runner status with another one-two punch in the form of the PGA’s Motion Picture Producer of the Year honor and the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast. And in a season of confusion and contradiction, that front-runner status gives Argo traction that none of its Best-Picture rivals have. The PGA win was not a surprise, especially after Argo ’s strong showing with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Content-wise, it’s the type of film that charms producers, being a taut political thriller 65% of the time and a stack of insider Hollywood jokes the other 35%. Apart from that, you have The Affleck, and the time has come to love and praise The Affleck . Rejuvenated and relevant again, Ben Affleck is this year’s Oscar story. When the nominations came out, who was the “snubbed” director? It wasn’t Kathryn Bigelow , Paul Thomas Anderson , or Wes Anderson , the three directors whose films appeared on the most end-of-year lists. It was The Affleck, and within 72 hours, The Affleck was redeemed with populist awards broadcast live on the CW and NBC, making Argo the People’s Film and Affleck the Oscar story of the year. For Best Picture prognostication, the PGA Award is a major get. Since it was started in 1989, the Producers Guild has awarded the eventual Best Picture Oscar winner nearly 70 percent of the time, and has been perfect over the past 5 years. Additionally, the PGA uses a preferential ballot just as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has done since 2009. What this means is that Argo and Affleck do not need to top all ballots, they just need to be agreed upon by most ballots. I don’t have scientific findings to present here, but think about the conversations you’ve had about the Best Picture nominees: Lincoln , Les Misérables, Django Unchained , and Silver Linings Playbook are much more polarizing than the crowd-pleasing Argo . For what it’s worth, Argo also has the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of all the nominees, 96, followed by Zero Dark Thirty , 93, and Amour , 92. The movie’s SAG win was more of a surprise. Argo is not an Actor’s Movie. This is not to say the award was not earned, simply that most of the attention was divided between the flashy Les Mis and the kitchen sink acting of Silver Linings Playbook . But there’s that word: “divided.” The Screen Actors Guild is a massive organization of nearly 160,000 members (though only current on dues are eligible to vote), so while theater types might have leaned toward Les Mis and classically-trained types might have opted for Silver Linings or Lincoln , the one film the Guild ended up agreeing on was Argo and its Affleck-led cast. It was, in a word, the most popular. (Keeping with the populist theme, note how the SAG Awards are the only guild awards that appear on billboards). SAG has a terrible track record with Best Picture. The two top awards aligned less than half of the time since SAG started their awards in 1995. But this is a season when stats mean less than they would normally. The film with the most Oscar nominations is no longer the film to beat. Harvey Weinstein , who put Affleck on the Oscar map with the 1997 movie Goodwill Hunting, is fighting an uphill battle. There’s a legitimate front-runner in town, and it does not have the director’s nomination assumed necessary. (And I’m not talking about Django Unchained .) This season, the Best Picture race is all about tone and attitude, and Argo and its affable director are all about tone and attitude. Affleck is an A-lister once again, charming every room he enters — his jokes won the room at the PGA breakfast Saturday morning — and his film’s recent run of awards-season honors have made its Best Picture prospects impossible to ignore. After months of having several films on the radar, there is finally one at the center of it. John Hendel is a playwright from Los Angeles. Follow John Hendel on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Proving that a movie shot over a day and a half can premiere at Sundance if it has James Franco’s name attached, Interior. Leather Bar . is an infuriating stunt that misrepresents itself as Franco and co-director Travis Mathews’ reimagining of the 40 minutes William Friedkin claims he was forced to cut from Cruising to get an R rating. Yet it would seem “James Franco’s 40 Minutes” don’t exist either, leaving only this hastily tossed-off companion piece, a partly authentic, partly scripted behind-the-scenes featurette that never quite conveys the star’s “high/curious” interest in all things taboo. After Sundance and Berlin, relative obscurity awaits. On paper, the project echoes Franco’s earlier Memories of Idaho , two experimental films made from scraps that Gus Van Sant discarded during the making of My Own Private Idaho . A notorious embellisher, Friedkin has often said that he brought Cruising to the ratings board 50 times before they relented and gave him an R, despite still-graphic footage and talk of bondage and numerous other fetish acts, nearly all of it unsimulated. In his DVD director’s commentary for Cruising , Friedkin explains how he recruited actual members of Gotham’s leather-bar scene: “Of course, I filmed all these activities in their entirety, but all the other film that I shot has somehow disappeared.” With or without the lost X-rated material, Cruising was an important and controversial film in its time, serving as a time capsule of a pre-AIDS sexual subculture, while conflating its play-acted aggression with a series of ripped-from-the-headlines New York murders. As such, it’s a rich text to reopen, though Mathews (an openly queer director who shook up the LGBT fest circuit with his art-porn feature I Want Your Love ) makes no effort to investigate what went missing or query Friedkin, but instead focuses on Franco as the pic’s more marketable meta-subject. Recognizing how the “is he or isn’t he” debate has dogged nearly all of Franco’s recent art projects (beginning with his blatantly homoerotic NYU student short, The Feast of Stephen ), Mathews attempts to shift the attention onto Franco and his creative process. None of the young actors who agreed to participate in the film, least of all Val Lauren (a longtime Playhouse West cohort and star of Franco’s directorial debut, Sal ), would have enlisted if not for Franco’s involvement. Although Franco appears in the film, his role is mostly that of the man behind the curtain, stirring things up with half-baked opinions, such as his complaint that the MPAA is to blame for his hetero-normative upbringing: “Why don’t they gives us violence in a little more palatable way, and amp up the sex?” Franco really should have agreed to take the pic’s Al Pacino part himself — a Kinsey Zero assigned to go undercover and blend with an extreme queer subculture — but instead delegates it to Lauren, asking the actor to “play” a version of himself. To the extent that this sloppy assembly has a shape, the film constructs an arc in which Lauren constantly questions his participation in the project (different from the controversial tension underlying Cruising , where exposure to leather bars may be turning Pacino’s cop aggressive and/or gay). Lauren is seen debating his choice with the other actors, most of them straight, and improvising calls to a homophobic friend (performed by one of Franco’s producers) and his supportive wife. The Cruising re-creations make up only a small portion of the pic’s running time, shying away from Crisco-covered forearms and the other extreme acts that caused Friedkin so much grief, while trying to portray barroom fellatio and a random, unrelated rough-love scene between three bears as “just right.” This last act pushes the underlying insult to new extremes, cutting between “dirty” closeups and the expressions on Lauren and Franco’s faces as they watch from the sidelines, pretending that witnessing this act of outre lovemaking has somehow broadened their minds. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
I couldn’t have guessed back in 1995 that Richard Linklater ‘s charming Before Sunrise would spark one of the most beloved trilogies of the next few decades, but anticipation has been so high for the latest chapter in Jesse ( Ethan Hawke ) and Celine’s ( Julie Delpy ) arrested romance that it was only natural we’d be longing for more after 2004’s Before Sunset . Shot in secret, the third film in the series, Before Midnight , premiered last night at Sundance to rave reviews and today brings a few new photos that’ll have you pining even harder for whenever it’s delivered to theaters. Via The Playlist : Without walking and talking into spoiler territory, let’s just say Sundance critics were largely over the moon for the pic, which was also written by Delpy, Hawke, and Linklater. Slate goes so far as to say it’s “not only good, but so good it approaches perfection.” Perfection , people! THR calls it “funny and harrowing,” for what it’s worth, which sounds… promising? Indiewire lauds it “Linklater’s most refined achievement,” although The Guardian goes against the grain, labeling it “forced and unnecessary.” Read more from the Sundance Film Festival : ‘The East’: How Marling & Batmanglij’s Dumpster-Diving Freegan Summer Inspired The Eco-Anarchist Sundance Thriller ‘Austenland’ Director’s Note: Jerusha Hess On Her ‘Girlishly Indulgent’ Sundance Rom-Com SUNDANCE: ‘Sound City’ Premiere Finds Dave Grohl Rocking With Rick Springfield Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
