The Oscar Buzz: June 2015

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

The First Trailer for "Snowden" Promises Disarray Without Any Substance

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

It seems like 2015 will be the year that Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a lot of Oscar-winning figures. Most specifically, people who were the main subjects of Best Documentary winners. With The Walk's first trailer in recent memory, it's time for the other, arguably bigger one. Following this year's Best Documentary winner Citizenfour, director Oliver Stone is back to his old political ways with a film chronicling the life of the notorious Edward Snowden. Is he a patriot? Well, we'll get Stone's impression pretty soon. For now, we have the first trailer that at least suggests some form of patriotism.

On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 known as Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. It was a historic moment in American history and one that has come to epitomize the dreamers in all of us. It is likely why outer space has always been an intriguing place for fiction to visit, whether it be Star Trek or more recently with last year's Interstellar. Yet despite the real world success, outer space remains a largely fictional place on screen where even the best films like Gravity are nitpicked by scientists like Neil Degrasse Tyson for its numerous inaccuracies. It is with this general dissent that makes it harder to argue against director Ron Howard's Apollo 13, which turns 20 today and still features one of the most accurate depictions of space and remains one of the few true stories to tackle a realm beyond our atmosphere. For that reason, and so much more, it deserves far more recognition than it gets.

The First Trailer for "Love" is Explicit and Explicitly Noe in Every Way

If you read my post about films to check out from Cannes, there's a chance that you are at least vaguely familiar with director Gaspar Noe's Love. While I do not have high hopes of it making the Oscars shortlist, or even a longer list for that matter, I do think that there's something interesting about Noe's work in general. He is an aggressive filmmaker who is very explicit yet stylish in how he portrays everyday life. For those with a strong stomach, there's a chance that you might find his work appealing. With his latest film Love already getting mixed reviews, it is interesting to see the first trailer for the film which yes, is a little NSFW as predicted by the subject matter. However, it does seem to promise something as surreal and bizarre as we'd come to expect from him.

Birthday Take: Mel Brooks in "Blazing Saddles" (1974)

Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles

Welcome to The Birthday Take, a column dedicated to celebrating Oscar nominees and winners' birthdays by paying tribute to the work that got them noticed. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive retrospective, but more of a highlight of one nominated work that makes them noteworthy. The column will run whenever there is a birthday and will hopefully give a dense exploration of the finest performances and techniques applied to film. So please join me as we blow out the candles and dig into the delicious substance.

Scene from Harvey Girls

Welcome to Best Song, a new weekly column released on Sunday dedicated to chronicling the Best Original Song category over the course of its many decades. The goal is to listen to and critique every song that has ever been nominated in the category as well as find the Best Best Song and the Best Loser. By the end, we'll have a comprehensive list of this music category and will hopefully have a better understanding not only of the evolution, but what it takes to receive a nomination here. It may seem easy now, but wait until the bad years.

Nothing But the Best: "The Hurt Locker" (2009)

Scene from The Hurt Locker

Welcome to the series Nothing But the Best in which I chronicle all of the Academy Award Best Picture winners as they celebrate their anniversaries. Instead of going in chronological order, this series will be presented on each film's anniversary and will feature personal opinions as well as facts regarding its legacy and behind the scenes information. The goal is to create an in depth essay for each film while looking not only how the medium progressed, but how the film is integral to pop culture. In some cases, it will be easy. Others not so much. Without further ado, let's start the show.

Heather Graham in Boogie Nights

Scene from Milk

For people across America, June 26, 2015 is a historical day. It is the moment when all 50 states were unanimous in passing a bill to allow gay marriage. Not just in one or two states, but the whole caboodle. It is a prospect that many have fought bravely to acquire over the past century. Because of this, LGBT representation has become more positive and accepted among mainstream audiences and in the case of The Academy, it has even been recognized in most fields, most recently with 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club in which Jared Leto won Best Supporting Actor for playing a transsexual character. But here is the bigger question, and one that is up there with representation of films tackling race and gender equality: with this breakthrough, is it possible that we will ever have a positive gay themed film win Best Picture?

Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road

Following the recent announcement of new rules for this year's Academy Awards, The Academy has announced who their new members are. Among the list of 322 names is a mixture of actors, directors, musicians, and behind the scenes workers. As with every year, there's a lot of surprising and welcomed entries. This year sees a list that includes people as diverse as David Oyelowo (Selma) to Kelly Reichardt (Meek's Cutoff) to Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead). If for no other reason, it is an interesting list. The following is the list of names divided into categories as well as various credits that you'll likely recognize them from.

Birthday Take: Sidney Lumet in "Network" (1976)

Peter Finch in Network

Scene from Chariots of Fire

It has been awhile since director Hugh Hudson's film Chariots of Fire has been publicly thought of. While it won Best Picture back in 1982, it has since been reduced to being that film that had that Vangelis score we all kind of liked (for good reason). However, by some shocking forces of nature, the film's subject Eric Liddell is getting another film. No, it's not a remake of Chariots of Fire nor does it necessarily involve anyone from the 30-year-old film. However, it may as well serve as an unofficial sequel to the film as it follows the runner following these events as he became a teacher in China called The Last Race. More details after the jump.

Every year, there's a little bit that gets changed around at The Academy Awards. This year is no different as members congregated to hold a vote on various new laws that will instated for eligibility at next year's ceremony. While the debatable "big shocker" is that they didn't vote to lower the Best Picture category from its current 5-10 nominees to a solidified five (likely due to this being a strong year for genre films from Mad Max: Fury Road to Inside Out), there were small things that are going to help make the playing field more even. The big changes will be discussed immediately following the jump.

Check This Out: James Cameron's Tribute to the Late James Horner

As movie fans will likely know, director James Cameron remains a technical challenger of the cinematic landscape. Over his long career, he has reinvented how we see the medium in various ways. Among them are his three collaborations with composer James Horner (Aliens, Titanic, Avatar), who died in a plane crash yesterday at the age of 61. While I have already reported on the composer's legacy and how Titanic almost didn't have "My Heart Will Go On," there's been one voice who we haven't actually heard from: Cameron himself. In a touching letter to The Hollywood Reporter, the director shares his personal thoughts on Horner's career and his collaborations with him.

Colette Marchand in Moulin Rouge

On June 23, performer Colette Marchand passed away at the age of 90 at her home in Bois-le-Roi, France. With an IMDb resume that only clocks in at six films (10 if you include appearances as self), she made the most of her brief acting career. In 1952, she starred in director John Huston's Moulin Rouge as Marie Charlet. The film would receive seven Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture. Marchand would herself receive a nomination for Best Supporting Actress. While her acting resume may be small, this film played to her one strength and the thing that she was better known for: dancing.

Left to right: Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic

With the passing of composer James Horner, it seems appropriate to look on a man whose output helped to shape contemporary film history. Having done everything from A Beautiful Mind to Braveheart, he was a prolific composer to always enjoyed a challenge. However, for his most successful score, there's a strange and beautiful history behind it. The beloved theme song "My Heart Will Go On" almost didn't happen. Chalk it up to stubbornness to create history with a little bit of disobedience on Horner's part.

On Monday, June 22, film composer James Horner died in a plane crash around Los Padres National Forest in California. He was an advocate for aviation and was one of many who owned personal planes. In a way, it was like the music that he composed for various epics with their soaring, enchanting beauty that took us someplace unexpected. His prolific output made him a household name and his collaborations with director James Cameron meant that he scored the two highest grossing films in history: Titanic and Avatar. What the legendary composer leaves behind is an impressive body of work that redefined how music was used in film and how it could impact our emotional responses.

My Top 10 Favorite Meryl Streep Performances

Meryl Streep

Today is actress Meryl Streep's birthday. As longtime readers will likely know, I have had a long and conflicting view when it has come to her work. While she is actually a good actress, I feel that it is worth debating how many of the 19 (to date) Oscar nominations or 3 wins was actually deserved. I have decided that on her birthday, instead of spreading more apathetic dismissals, that I would come forward with more evidence that I don't hate her. I have decided to count down my personal Top 10 favorite movies of which I have seen her in (not necessarily in the lead role). It will, in some respects, be shocking what actually makes the final cut, partially because there's a lot that I haven't seen. Nevertheless, let us get this list underway.

Best Song: "It Might as Well Be Spring" (1945)

Scene from State Fair

Left to right: Julia Garner and Lily Tomlin

In 2015, it seems like a very good time to be Lily Tomlin. For starters, she has gotten a lot of acclaim for her work on the Netflix series Grace and Frankie alongside co-star Jane Fonda. While she has been busy with small parts here and there, it feels like she has decided to take center stage with a series of projects that also includes Sundance favorite from director Paul Weitz called Grandma. In a film that sees her taking care of her granddaughter and having a very randy time about it, the first trailer looks to promise a lot of great times ahead, but is it possible that an Oscar nomination is in store as well?

Scene from Jurassic Park

There is a good chance that you have seen director Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World. With the film breaking box office records and becoming the biggest hit of the summer, it seems like audiences are ready to hang out with dinosaurs again. While the film is tearing up the movie charts, there's a certain other chart that the Michael Crichton franchise has just climbed back on top of. After a 22 year absence, the main theme from Jurassic Park is officially at the top of the charts once again.

Juliette Lewis

Review: "Inside Out" is Pixar's Great Meta Commentary on Why We Love Pixar

Among the many anniversaries coming in 2015 is Toy Story's 20th anniversary. While it may just seem like an honor bestowed upon a really good film, it is also an indicator for Pixar's growth and legacy. There was a time where that film could have been a fluke. Yet 14 movies later, they are still willing to charm us and reinvent the wheel, making us sympathize with new things whether anthropomorphic or abstract. This is why director Pete Docter's Inside Out feels not just like a film, but as its own meta retrospective on the first two decades of a studio that has a widely regarded almost perfect track record. Thankfully, it still is a really good example about why Pixar is leagues ahead of its competitors.

Birthday Take: Jean Dujardin in "The Artist" (2011)

Jean Dujardin in The Artist

Trivia: How Many Oscars Has Pixar Been Nominated For?

When it comes to the Oscars, few studios have had as unanimous a reputation with them as Pixar. Where many directors and actors have been known to get countless nominations, there hasn't been a studio with a release schedule in which audiences could pretty much not only predict a nomination, but also a win (specifically in Best Animated Feature). But how well does Pixar actually do at the Oscars? Is their reputation as great as you'd think? In honor of this week's release of Inside Out, here's a by the numbers look of each film and short that the studio has released and what their actual winning track record actually is.

Among the films that I listed from this year's Cannes Film Festival, director Denis Villeneuve's Sicario ranked as one of my more anticipated movies. With last year's great Enemy, he proved to be a director who could make an intricate thriller into one of the most gripping stories of the year. With that in mind, I was curious to see what he would do next and with great reviews for Sicario already leaking out, it looks like another hit for the director. Today, we get our first glimpses into the Mexican cartel film with an all star cast with a trailer. Thankfully, it looks like more of the same from a director who knows how to make espionage and tension into high forms of art.

The First Trailer for "Boulevard" Says Farewell to Robin Williams With Heart

Robin Williams

Among the many tragedies last year, we lost the charismatic actor Robin Williams. With a long and storied career full of amazing performances, the death ended his career with a lot of potential still left. Among his final roles is director Dito Montiel, whose film Boulevard holds the honor of being his final dramatic turn. With the first trailer out, it is hard not to question how it summarizes an impressive career and if it will serve as a cinematic farewell to a legend on par with John Wayne in The Shootist. For the most part, it at least looks like we might just get that opportunity.

Pop Quiz: How many times has Pixar won Best Animated Feature? To some, the notion is to believe that it has won every time out of the gate. However, as noted yesterday, this fact may not be entirely true. While the studio has earned an impressive 7 of the 14 wins, there's been a few that have missed the cut, including Monsters Inc. and Cars - and some didn't even get nominated at all. However, with Inside Out coming out Friday and looking to be a strong contender for an eighth victory, it feels like a good time to not necessarily rank all of Pixar's films, but only those that have won an Oscar. Who comes out on top? You'll have to read on to find out.

Check This Out: "Monsters Inc." and "Shrek" at the Oscars

It is hard to believe, but there was a time when the Best Animated Feature wasn't a category at the Oscars. With each passing year, it has become one of the more significant categories. Even in 2015, there's still major contention as to what makes the final nominees, including big juggernaut Pixar, who has won the category 7 of the 14 times despite being absent the past few years. With Friday's release of Inside Out, it feels like a good time to revisit the category's first year in which things all kicked off with a very animated gimmick that hasn't been done since.

Nothing But the Best: "The Apartment" (1960)

Ron Moody

On June 11, actor Ron Moody passed away in a London Hospital. He was born Ronald Moodnick in 1924 and legally changed his name to Ron Moody in 1930. He was related to director Laurence Moody and Clare Lawrence. He has also said of himself to be 100% Jewish. Having had a career in the Royal Air Force, his initial dreams of being a technician were sidetracked when he found his new love: theater. While he was a versatile actor who participated in various genres, he will always be remembered as the character Fagin in the stage and film adaptation of Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist." In both cases, he received award nominations and considered it fate that he would play the character on and off between 1960 and 1984.

Best Song: "Swinging on a Star" (1944)

Scene from Going My Way

"The Hateful Eight" to Become Widest 70 MM Release in 20 Years on Christmas Day

Much like his previous film Django Unchained, director Quentin Tarantino looks to be making Christmas into a time for bloody, profane, stylized westerns for the cinephile in all of us. This week, news was released that his latest film, The Hateful Eight, will be opening in theaters on the exact same day three years after the director's last stab at the genre. While it will be easy to speculate its Oscar chances, the more interesting note is Tarantino's approach to its release. While you will get to see The Hateful Eight on Christmas Day, you will have to be a lucky son of a gun near a theater that has a 70 MM screen.

Marlon Brando

To a generation, Marlon Brando was the greatest living actor. With a resume that includes everything from the defiant The Wild Ones to the political On the Waterfront and of course The Godfather, his work continues to be studied and admired. Yet what makes him an even more compelling artist is that his career wasn't as smooth sailing as some would believe. He turned his win for The Godfather for Best Supporting Actor into a political moment about the treatment of Indians. He became an activist as well as a conflicted voice of a generation. This is why it is interesting that coming next month to Showtime is a special biopic on the deceased actor - wait for it - in his own words called Listen to Me Marlon.

Matt Damon in The Martian

Before I dive in, I want to personally apologize for this unexplained absence over the past week. This was caused largely due to personal and health problems that made writing and keeping up with Oscar-worthy news a little difficult. As of this moment, I should be in good enough of a condition to return to sharing my personal opinions and keeping you up to date on the latest happenings. First up, a look at the many trailers that premiered over the past week for films that we may be hearing about a lot over this Oscars season. Speaking as we're starting to enter the season when all of the trailers premiere (see: Suffragette and Bridge of Spies). While this round-up may not have nearly as many hits, we may be looking at a very interesting season ahead.

Birthday Take: Dean DeBlois in "How to Train Your Dragon" (2010)

Scene from How to Train Your Dragon

Scene from Hello, Frisco, Hello

A Comparison Between "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Films (2009 and 2011)

Left to right: Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig

As the years have dragged on and the culture continues to find new fads, it is interesting to note the legacy of author Siteg Larsson's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." While the book itself is a behemoth - accumulating 15 million copies sold worldwide - there are two camps on the two main filmed versions and the heroines that are at the center. With American star Rooney Mara claiming that the sequel is pretty much not happening and David Lagercrantz writing the first book since the author's death in 2004 called "The Girl in the Spider's Web," it seems as opportune of a time as ever to look back on the two filmed versions and see how the language and visual outlines play into each other.

Left to right: Susannah York and Albert Finney in Tom Jones

Tom Hanks

Believe it or not, but the last time that director Steven Spielberg worked with Tom Hanks, it was The Terminal in 2004. For a team that brought us some of the best modern cinema with Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me If You Can, it seems like wasted potential, even if both have done pretty well for themselves in the 11 years between projects. However, it looks like they're back with a Cold War thriller called Bridge of Spies that has both of them ready to play hard ball with history and present another intense war film. If the first trailer is any indication of what's to come, it may easily rank among the director and the actor's best work.

Nothing But the Best: "Mrs. Miniver" (1942)

Bruce Dern in Nebraska

Joseph Gordon Levitt

In 2008, director James Marsh released the documentary Man on Wire. It followed the journey of real life tightrope walker Philippe Petit as he infamously performed a routine between both of the World Trade Center buildings. It was an astounding achievement in film making as it turned an unnerving real life story into a cinematic heist film as well. It was a film that was so acclaimed that it remains one of the highest rated titles on critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes and took home the Best Documentary award at that year's Oscars ceremony. With The Walk, director Robert Zemeckis is looking to reenact these events with Joseph Gordon Levitt in the central role. The better question is why this is even necessary.

The First "Suffragette" Trailer Gives Us a Look at a Potential Oscar Front Runner

Carey Mulligan

It looks like the beginning of the Oscars prospecting is upon us. First there was the Cannes Film Festival, which presented a plethora of debuts from potential nominees. Now we are seeing trailers for films playing during the prime time known as awards season. Among the first to show themselves is the star-studded vehicle known as Suffragette. This film, directed by Sarah Gavron, has such an impeccable cast of nominees and winners that it would seem ridiculous to not immediately put this on the calendar. Thankfully, the first trailer makes it all the more promising in the process.

Left to right: Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke

Director Noah Baumbach is already looking to have a great 2015. Following the highly enjoyable Frances Ha in 2013, he has already released While We're Young: a look at how generations relate to each other. It was funny, insightful, and showed the director finding his niche as a filmmaker. With the trailer for his next film of the year, Mistress America, he teams up with the writer and star Greta Gerwig, who made the 2013 comedy such a big hit. Along with the prospect of more lightning in a bottle chemistry, is there any chance that we'll be seeing another great female-lead comedy in the cards? From the looks of it, yes.

R.I.P. Julie Harris (1921-2015)

Julie Harris

When it comes to the look of the film, very few people notice how hard it is to design the wardrobe. Whether it is the simple use of a shirt and jacket combination or a period piece costume with elegant sequins, there's something important about putting effort into it. It creates iconography and makes a story more interesting visually. Among the costume designers who have made an impact is Julie Harris, who passed away today at the age of 94 in London, England. With a career spanning 50 years, she was responsible for a lot of the iconic looks ranging from A Hard Day's Night to The Great Muppet Caper. Her work continues to stand the test of time with their magnificence and beauty.

This is going to be a great year for fans of archaeology. With Jurassic World weeks away, it has recaptured audience's interest in the creatures that once walked this Earth. However, there's another one out there for those looking for a lighter, friendlier take on dinosaurs. Coming this Fall, it's the return of Pixar with their second film of the year following this month's Inside Out. With the first trailer released for director Peter Sohn's The Good Dinosaur, we get a sense of what to expect if things didn't go according to plan. It may not have much, but it definitely has enough to get me excited.

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Monday, June 29, 2015

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Friday, June 26, 2015

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Monday, June 22, 2015

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Friday, June 19, 2015

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Monday, June 15, 2015

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Friday, June 5, 2015

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Tuesday, June 2, 2015