gimme some film

Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby Makes the Myth into a Man

sarah — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:57:28 +0000

Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is an unapologetic, over-the-top kinetic fantasy. Everything is big (Klipspringer plays a castle-sized organ, not a piano), loud (the deservedly much-hailed soundtrack delights), and bursting with color. The camera zooms, twitches, leaps and dances through a roaring feast of 1920s decadence and despair. It also relentlessly pushes in on the titular character: self-made myth Jay Gatsby. And that is the reason you should see the film.

In the midst of all the swooping 3D (meh) and exquisitely detailed sets (woot!), Leonardo DiCaprio’s depiction of Gatsby is sensitive and real. Just as Fitzgerald introduces us to the mask Gatsby presents to the world then peels it away page by page, DiCaprio and Luhrmann start with Gatsby’s facade (that famous smile, lit by fireworks) and then let it fall away scene by scene. We see the longing, the panic, the joy (what’s this? DiCaprio laughing on screen?), the fear, the anger, and most importantly, the hope. In short, they get Gatsby, and they get him right.

Also right? Luhrmann’s decision to preserve much of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s language. Similar to his treatment of Shakespeare’s text in Romeo + Juliet, The Great Gatsby‘s script is mostly book-verbatim. Purists will be happy to know that the novel’s beloved opening and closing sections are present, preserved and as powerful as ever. Indeed, a few lines from the book are even typset and floated through the frame. Which brings us to Lurhmann’s biggest mistake.

The Great Gatsby‘s narrator is Nick Carraway. In the beginning of the book, he introduces himself as someone who was taught to withhold judgements, and, as such, has become someone everyone tells their stories to. This gives Fitzgerald a plausible reason for why Nick is privvy to everyone’s secrets.

In the beginning of the movie, however, Carraway is in a sanatorium for alcoholism and various other ailments. He tells the story of Gatsby to his therapist, who, after a while, encourages him to write it down. This gives Luhrmann a plausible reason for why Nick is narrating in the first place and why his narration is so literary. It’s an unnecessary imposition. Audiences are used to voice-over narration, as distasteful a technique it may be to auteurs. Filmgoers need no explanation for Nick’s storytelling, and the poetic prose is no more over-the-top than the film’s set design, stylized shots or saturated color. It seems a shame to doom Book Nick Carraway to a sanatorium, too; the Midwestern man left New York disillusioned, not certifiable. I longed to be lost in Gatsby the movie as I am in Gatsby the book, but the sanatorium scenes kept interrupting.

Another misstep is also related to audience coddling: Lurhman seemed nervous that uninitiated Gatsby-ites may not pick up on particular themes or motivations. Several lines that stood out in the book for their idiosyncratic subtext were clarified by extra dialogue or narration. (The beautiful shirts scene is just that—beautiful—until some non-Fitzgerald Nick narration over-explains Daisy’s famous sobbing words.) The added exposition is a boon to high schoolers studying for lit tests, but a bit of a drag for a film chock full of actors who are capable of conveying miles of meaning in their delivery, body language and expressions.

On May 10, come for the spectacle, savor a well-played portrait of Gatsby by DiCaprio, and try to let Luhrmann’s obvious love for Fitzgerald’s words outweigh your outrage over those few unfortunate additions. Oh, and wear a costume.

We got dressed up for a Gatsby preview and party in KC!

Beth with our friend and super stylist, Malina, who designed our costumes.

Ali and me…waiting for the movie to start.

Beth and me…goofing around after the show.

Check out Beth’s posts on the book and a Gatsby giveaway!

This post contains affiliate links.

Mud: An engaging coming-of-age yarn from Jeff Nichols

sarah — Thu, 02 May 2013 01:52:04 +0000

A nuanced coming of age story with a few epic bends, Jeff Nichols’s third feature, Mud, is both the story of every kid and this one kid: Ellis, played with remarkable vulnerability by Tye Sheridan, whom you might recognize from Tree of Life. Ellis is a 14-year-old river kid who faces troubles both common (crushes and domestic uncertainty) and uncommon (a sunburnt island-squatter—Mud—offers Ellis and his pal Neckbone a deal they can’t refuse).

I was struck how boy-like the boy-actors were, from their matter-of-fact capability navigating the river, to the wary way they watched adults for clues on how to navigate the much more tumultuous transition to adulthood. Newcomer Jacob Lofland adds humor as the blunt but ever-loyal Neckbone. Lofland and Sheridan weren’t acting like boys, they just were boys…which says a lot about these young actors’ talents and Nichols’s as well. (If you haven’t seen Nichols’s small-town, psychological thriller Take Shelter, do yourself a favor and download or rent it now.)

Not to be outdone by his tween co-stars, Matthew McConaughey’s character here is the upturned Arkansas river version of his old rom-com leads: dirty, glinting, with who-knows-what hidden under the currents. He plays the shifty dreamer Mud well, adding to the string of recent film-cred roles (Magic Mike, Killer Joe, The Paperboy, Bernie) that should keep the second act of his career going strong.

Many of Mud’s scenes were shot during the magic hour, with the glow used to light the actors’ expressive eyes. Nichols wisely lets those eyes do a lot of the film’s talking, as tempting as it would be to let the characters’ drawling dialect unspool unchecked. Nichols uses the same restraint to carefully place parallel story lines to add power to the film’s theme—love is big, messy and strong as that river—without overstating it. As tumbling and inevitable as its river setting, Mud rolls along, dragging you into its emotional undertow.

This post contains affiliate links.

The Place Beyond the Pines: An engrossing fathers-and-sons triptych

sarah — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 13:48:03 +0000

It’s been a week since I saw writer/director Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines, and I’ve been puzzling out how he created such an immersive film ever since. With my notebook and constant (over) analysis, I tend to watch and deconstruct movies at the same time. But this film pulled me under fast, leaving me to figure out why after the lights came up.

Cianfrance’s background is the first clue: Documentaries outweigh fiction on his resume, though he’s most well-known for 2010′s heartbreaker Blue Valentine, starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. The non-fiction practices of gathering moments as they happen and storytelling by way of context (as opposed to highly constructed dialogue) served The Place Beyond the Pines well. We get to know these characters by their clothes (oft unflattering), their houses, their sad tattoos, how they move, how others react to them. And in a story that unfolds over almost two decades, we only see the needed moments. There’s no fat to distract, only one loaded look, layered interaction or can’t-be-unmade decision after another.

Secondly, the performances are superb. Across the board, the stars of The Place Beyond the Pines “are” instead of “act.” A master of embodying empathetic characters, Ryan Gosling works his magic here, snaking sympathy out of the impulsive, violent Luke. Eva Mendes gives Romina, the mother of Luke’s son, convincing layers. Emory Cohen (AJ) and Dane DeHann (Jason) electrify the film’s third act with nuanced portraits of young men masking angst with bravado. (If you saw Dane DeHann in Chronicle or Lawless, you know he’s one to watch; his intensity reminds me of Leonardo DiCaprio’s early work.) One moment I remember being pulled out of the film was to think, “Welcome back, Bradley Cooper.” (I’m sure he’s so relieved to return to the favor of this small-potatoes blogger!) Unlike my contrarian frustration with his performance in Silver Linings Playbook, Cooper impresses here as the conflicted, ambitious Avery.

Finally, The Place Beyond the Pines mesmerizes with its story’s proportionate consequences. In contrast to Hollywood’s preponderance of reaction-less actions, this film has a believable sense of moral physics. The story watches Luke, Avery and, finally, AJ and Jason make the most important decisions of their lives. Luke and Avery both long to do the right thing, but struggle to keep that impulse pure. The results of the characters’ choices feel real and inarguable…and they propel the film forward. Yes, forward. While it would have been fashionable to tell this multi-generational story out of order, Cianfrance’s linear narrative makes wrong-choice penalties feel rightly inescapable…and motion toward redemption that much more hopeful.

I highly recommend you get lost in The Place Beyond the Pines‘ inevitable brand of storytelling.

What film have you been lost in recently?

This post contains affiliate links.

Trance: A labyrinth without a center

sarah — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 01:10:20 +0000

If you like your twists uncomplicated with heart or soul, you’ll love this flick. As an exercise in compelling confusion, this mind-heist movie by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) works. The shooting is stylish, and the acting is intriguing. As Simon, James McAvoy’s baby blues convince you that a bump on the head really did leave him with no memory of where he left that stolen painting. Vincent Cassel delights as Franck, the leader of the scrambling gang of thieves. (If you take one thing away from Trance, make it a resolution to watch Cassel’s back catalogue, especially 1995′s Cannes favorite Le Haine.) And Rosario Dawson appropriately mesmerizes as the hypnotherapist, Elizabeth, hired to retrieve the memory of the robbery from Simon’s troubled mind.

The plot ducks and weaves entertainingly. Early on in the film, I guessed the who but not the how, which let me feel smart for guessing correctly while leaving me with enough questions to be interested until the end. Interested, but not satisfied: (SMALL SPOILER) The beginning of the movie had a playful wit that quickly darkens; when the grimness suddenly flips to sunny at the end—upbeat soundtrack and all—the tonal shift felt un-earned.

A recent mind-heist precedent, Inception, also twisty and stylish and well-acted, left me thinking about loss and asking questions about the mind’s capacity for self-delusion. Trance just had me questioning, “Why is the hypnotherapist naked again?” and thinking about a particularly nasty bit of third-act violence that went un-justified and un-examined. It didn’t lead me beyond the film, only frustratingly back in. Labyrinth, indeed.

So here’s my recommendation: Go if you’re a fan of thrillers and want a case-study in structuring a twist-heavy plot. But if you’re looking for post-film-deep-conversation fodder, find another film, friends.

What film has inspired your best post-movie conversations?

This post contains affiliate links.

An interview with Oscar-nominated short-film director Tom Van Avermaet

sarah — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:01:24 +0000

Tom Van Avermaet directed the Oscar-nominated short Death of a Shadow and gracefully agreed to answer a bunch of nosy questions for the enlightenment of Gimme Some Film readers! Thanks to Tom for his time…and for making one incredible short film!

Where did the idea for Death of a Shadow come from? It was one of the most imaginative stories I’ve seen in years (short or feature).

Tom: Thank you very much, I’m glad you were able to enjoy it. As a writer and a filmmaker I’ve always loved mythological, metaphysical and symbolic figures that play an important part in our culture, figures that personify a certain fact of life. I then try to give those figures my own interpretation or place them in an universe that I myself create. For this film, I wanted to make an own interpretation of the figure of “Death” and I was looking for a way to do this that I thought would be original. So I began thinking and at a certain moment a thought struck me, why can’t “Death” be like a collector of art, where instead of paintings or sculptures, this strange art “critic” collects moments of death, with his own interpretation of what makes a good death and what not.

Because film for me is most of all a visual medium, I then had to find a way to make this collection of dying moments visual. As I’ve always loved to play with contrast and light, shadow and darkness, I felt the actual shadows of people an ideal ‘item’ for this figure to collect. Shadows bind us to the daylight world, they’re our reflection on the soil, ground, walls, our companion till the end so to say. So I felt that capturing the shadow of a dying person would make an excellent representation of collecting that person and their death.

But in this world and with this larger-than-life figure, I felt that he himself would not actually go out and collect these deaths and these shadows. No, for me he would need a helper, someone maybe that was already part of his collection, but wanted to “buy” his way out of it by supplying “the collector” with enough pieces—a morbid trade if you will. This led me to the figure of Nathan Rijckx [played by Matthias Schoenaerts], who uses the tools of the world of the collector to capture these shadows and deliver them back to his “master,” his ultimate drive returning to life and the woman he met before he died, a fleeting moment that becomes a huge element in the existence of this tragic figure lost between life and death.

What was the shoot like? Where did you film? For how long?

The shoot was quite short (five and a half days) and quite heavy because we were filming at multiple locations. All in all things went quite smoothly, largely due to the help of a wonderful cast and crew, who expertly accomplished the project that I wanted to in the finished film. To me as a filmmaker, the shoot is always quite hard because the world that you have in your head then has to be given a certain reality, and, like always, you have so little time to accomplish everything you want to accomplish. But gladly I didn’t have to sacrifice anything important. But even then, and especially after being three and a half years in pre-production (almost solely spent to gather enough financing for the film and trying multiple times to get it made with a budget that wasn’t sufficient), it’s quite depressing to have only those five and half days to get it done. But we did it, thanks to the help of those wonderful people around me. We shot the whole film in the Region Champagne-Ardennes in France, who also ended up giving us a grant to film in the region that finally helped us to be able to make it.

Did the story change at all from script to shoot to post?

Not really no, we fought hard to get the film made like we wanted it to get made. At a very early point in the process, there were also WWI trenches in the film, and I had to scrap that due to budgetary concerns. But I never wanted to compromise anything that would have ruined the essence of the movie and the story we wanted to tell. From the moment you start doing that, you’re doomed as a filmmaker, and you’re always going to regret making that certain decision. But luckily I didn’t have to do that, although it meant having to fight tooth and nail with the help of my production team to get the film made. But it’s a fight that hopefully paid off in the end.

How did you finance Death of a Shadow?

This was the most difficult process of getting the film made. I was lucky enough to win something called a VAF (translated: Flemish Audiovisual Fund) Wild Card with my thesis film Dreamtime, a prize given every year to two of the best student films in Flanders, Belgium. This meant an immediate grant for a next short film project; in the beginning I thought I was going to make this project very soon after graduation. Things turned out a bit differently. I first tried to make the project a couple times with the budget we had, but we always hit a brick wall right before shooting where we realized it just wasn’t going to be possible. As we didn’t want to compromise on the story we wanted to tell, me and my producer Ellen De Waele from Serendipity Films had to go out and look for more money. We tried different countries and different governmental institutions, but only after a couple of years of trying did we find a willing partner in the Region Champagne-Ardennes in France. This coupled with some tax shelter money from a company called Intraco Ltd., and we were able to finally finish the movie. A lot of people also co-produced the movie to some extent by taking less money or giving their time for free, so without the generous help of all our partners, cast, and crew, a project like this wouldn’t have been possible.

What was Oscar night like for you? Any favorite moments?

It was quite a special moment, especially after struggling for such a long time to get the film off the ground. My favorite moment was definitely the announcement of all the nominees and seeing our film up there, a small clip of it screened in front of millions of people. Just thinking about it again gives me goosebumps. As a filmmaker, at that moment, you really feel like you exist. The night itself was very surreal, standing on the red carpet between Jessica Chastain and Mads Mikkelsen, meeting Francis Ford Coppola and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, all that combined talent in that theatre at that moment in time…it’s amazing to be part off. It definitely gives you hope for the future and gives you a great incentive to try and return there one day!

How has being nominated changed your film career?

It definitely opened some doors for me, at least a lot faster than they might have otherwise opened. I was able to sign with a top agency in CAA, with some great and motived agents who want to help me get feature projects off the ground. It meant me being able to very quickly meet some people I greatly admired, and it just helps the visibility of your film as now tons more people will be able to get a chance to see it compared to before. It’s been a great boost, and it’s also something you’ll never have to give up. For the rest of my life I’ll be an Oscar nominee, something I’ve never dreamed possible with just my first professional fiction project.

Who or what are your creative influences?

I’m inspired by a lot of things, by writers like Neil Gaiman; by painters like Magritte, Dali, and Goya; by mythology, fairy tales, just pure imagination of people given form in tales or visuals. My filmic influences are definitely the great fantastic storytellers and masters of the visual storytelling: people like Stanley Kubrick, Guillermo Del Toro, Michel Gondry, Terry Gilliam, Jeunet and Caro, Christopher Nolan and Darren Aronofksy. But also the great storytellers of the silent era, like Carl Theodore Dryer, Murnau and Fritz Lang. I’m someone with a great love for visual storytelling and feel close to people who create worlds with as much love as I try to do.

Do you have any favorite short films?

One of my favorite short films, one of the best ever made, is La Jetée [watch for free on Hulu] by Chris Marker, a real treasure. I also love animation short films, like the works of Aleksander Petrov, Raoul Servais or Jan Svankmeyer. There are so many treasures in the short film world still to be discovered though. It’s a shame that theatres don’t play them in front of features anymore, as it’s a genre that definitely deserves more attention.

What are some of your favorite feature films?

The list seems almost endless as I’m such a big lover of films, but to name a few: Pan’s Labyrinth, Memento, Requiem For A Dream, Barry Lyndon, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Brazil, Twelve Monkeys (feature version of La Jetée by Terry Gilliam btw), Inception, etc. So many great films, it’s almost a crime to just pick a few.

What are you working on now?

Right now I’m trying to get my first feature project off the ground, but I hope to have multiple projects in the pipeline in the coming months. At least in the development stage, there’s a great number of material that I’m looking into adapting combined with some of my own ideas that I want to start working out as screenplays. Then there are also numerous scripts that I still have to read; perhaps one of those will also strike a note with me as a filmmaker. So, busy times ahead that will hopefully result in a first feature project (and hopefully not the last!).

What’s your dream film project?

There are a couple, but one would definitely be an adaption of The Sandman comics, the masterpiece created by Neil Gaiman.

Any advice for newbie short filmmakers?

Be ready to fight for your film as you’re going to be the only one that will be able to get that project made. If you really believe in a project, don’t give up when times get tough, but take every hurdle as a new challenge. If it’s really a good project, you will always find other people willing to help you out and help the film get made. Also, be thankful to your cast and crew; filmmaking is a team sport, and you’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with.

This post contains affiliate links.

10 Docs to Watch from True/False Film Fest 2013

sarah — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:18:58 +0000

Chicago-based marching band Mucca Pazza entertains before a screening at the 2013 True/False Film Fest.

If I have an excuse for taking so long to post about the True/False Film Fest (February 28 – March 3 in Columbia, MO), it’s this: I just didn’t want it to be over. In its ten years of bringing the best documentaries (and kinda documentaries) to the heartland, True/False has created an army of fanatics who talk about the fest with fervor usually reserved for barbecue and college teams ’round these parts.

I attended last year and was converted to the event’s infectious spirit immediately. The fest is designed to break down the walls between filmmakers and film-goers. Each screening has a filmmaker Q&A, parties mix fans and documentarians, and the compact festival traffic patterns ensure you’ll run into the person responsible for that fantastic film you just saw in line for coffee or a slice of Shakespeare’s pizza. The fest also seems calibrated for filmgoers’ maximum happiness. “Buskers” serenade you while you wait for films to start, hundreds of friendly volunteers keep things running smoothly, and an ingenius “Q” system helps latecomers get into sold-out films.

And we haven’t even talked about the expert film curating yet. In two years, every single film I saw was worth watching. That’s a pretty incredible programming feat! Here are ten films I got to see at True/False 2013 that you should put on your to-watch list.

Dirty Wars

Directed by Richard Rowley

This shocking film follows reporter Jeremy Scahill’s investigation into the rapidly expanding kill list of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Puzzle piece by puzzle piece, Scahill assembles a picture of a covert war…one that targets an American citizen and his son.

Manhunt

Directed by Greg Barker

If you loved Zero Dark Thirty, you’ll want to keep a close eye on HBO’s documentary schedule. They’ll be airing Manhut, the real-life story of the The Sisterhood—a team of mostly female CIA analysts—who tracked Bin Laden to his final hiding place. Spoiler alert: ZDT and Manhunt‘s stories line up surprisingly well.

The Stories We Tell

Directed by Sarah Polley

Canadian actor and director Sarah Polley peels away the layers of both her own family history and the objectivity of documentary filmmaking in this inventive film. Funny and poignant, this doc is a must-see.

No

Directed by Pablo Larrain

As producer Daniel Dreifuss said at the screening, No is a feature film with a documentary soul. This Oscar-nominated film (Best Foreign Language Film) tells the story of the 1988 ad campaign that challenged Chilean dictator Pinochet’s claim to power. The film embeds old news footage and the actual television ads—in all their absurd glory—in a dramatic narrative shot on ’80s television cameras. Gael Garcia Bernal stars.

The Moo Man

Directed by Andy Heathcote

Family dairy farmer Stephen Hook struggles to keep his South England operation running and his small herd happy. If you grew up on a farm (like me), some of the scenes will elicit visceral memories (I could smell the manure). If you didn’t, you’re about to get an eyeful! When the Midwestern crowd around me gasped in horror at a bovine birth scene, I remembered just how few people had the, um, privileged upbringing I did. Which is precisely the film’s point. Both urbanites and rural-dwellers will enjoy this quiet and engaging film.

Twenty Feet From Stardom

Directed by Morgan Neville

Twenty Feet From Stardom tells the stories behind the nameless voices we’ve been hearing our entire lives as backup singers become the stars of this music-packed film. Easily tallying the most goosebumps-per-minute of the fest, this doc had the audience applauding spontaneously and shivering with harmonic delight. The film will open in theatres on June 14. Go.

Who is Dayani Cristal?

Directed by Marc Silver

This film follows the case of one unidentified body on the U.S./Mexican border to personalize immigration issues. In his second True/False appearance, Gael Garcia Bernal follows the footsteps of the John Doe as a forensic anthropology team at the Pima County Missing and Unidentified Persons Project solves the mystery of his identity.

Blackfish

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite

This chilling investigation traces the life story of a trained orca, Tilikum, who has killed multiple times while in captivity. The film thoughtfully questions the disparity between “killer whale” behavior in the wild and under human care. I’m never going to Sea World again. Magnolia Films will be releasing this doc; I highly suggest seeing it in theatres.

Leviathan

Directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel

Visually mesmerizing and uncompromisingly immersive, Leviathan takes you onboard a North Atlantic fishing boat. With cameras attached to fishermen, sunk into fish tubs, and strapped to poles, surging through waves and flocks of birds, the film forces you to see the ocean—and the machine riding it—in new ways. The directors have ties to Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab and won the fest’s True Vision award for innovative filmmaking. Watch it if you have the chance; it’s stunning.

Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington

Directed by Sebastian Junger

Journalist and filmmaker Sebastian Junger creates a sensitive portrait of his Restrepo co-director Tim Hetherington, who was killed while reporting in Libya. Both a celebration of an amazing man and an exploration into the complexities of war reporting, Which Way Is the Front Line From Here was the fest’s True Life Fund recipient. With a matching grant from The Bertha Foundation, the fund will benefit Sebastian Junger’s Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues (RISC) program and Milton Margal School for the Blind, an organization Hetherington supported in Sierra Leone. You can donate here.

This post contains affiliate links below.

Live Blogging the Oscars!

sarah — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 00:33:20 +0000

10:58: Ben Affleck just thanked Canada. And Iran. “I want to thank my wife, who I don’t usually associate with Iran.” Thanks people for helping him when they had nothing to gain from him. Classy. Sneaks in his kids names at the end. Fast talker, that Ben. Doesn’t mention Damon.

10:55: Argo. “That is strange. That is weird. I mean, I’m glad for him.” — Lauren. My thoughts exactly.

10:54: How great would it be if Jack hosted the whole Oscars next year?

10:52: Michelle Obama! Introducing the Best Picture?!? Yes! (Great dress, too, by the way.)

10:49: Daniel Day-Lewis wins (as expected), goes from teary-eyed humility to deadpanning that he and Meryl did a straight swap for their Margaret Thatcher and Lincoln parts. Also wins Best Vocabulary in an Acceptance Speech and Classiest Guy Ever.

10:48: And the winner is…Denzel’s eyebrows.

10:46: Paul on Daniel Day-Lewis: “He doesn’t even need to be in a movie anymore to win something.”

10:43: Wow. Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress. At least we’ll get a real fantastic acceptance speech. OK. And we did. Happy Birthday, Emmanuele! Love how she both tripped getting on stage, ran off stage in a daze and managed to be charming while doing both.

10:40: Chastain! Chastain! Chastain! Please! Please! Please!

10:33: Still bitter that Kathryn Bigelow isn’t nominated for Zero Dark Thirty for Achievement in Directing. But it’s hard to stay bitter when winner Ang Lee is so dang charming. (Life of Pi continues its surprising winning streak.)

10:30: Moonrise Kingdom tribute happening now.

10:26: Original Screenplay, I’m for Zero Dark Thirty BUT totally OK with Tarantino winning because now we get to listen to him talk and learn stuff like Charlize is his neighbor. Love that he thanked his actors for making his characters alive. “This is the writers’ year, man.” We’re gonna go into work on Monday yelling that.

10:23: Hope Beasts of the Southern Wild wins for adapted screenplay…But, nope. Chris Terrio for Argo.

10:14: “Skyfall” (from Skyfall, as Renee helpfully told us) wins for Best Original Song. I love Adele’s acceptance speeches! “And my man, I love you, baby!” With tears and a wave. So loveable.

10:12: Turns out I like Scarlett Johansson’s voice. Huh.

10:10: Life of Pi wins for best original score by Mychael Danna.

10:09: Keion is worried that Hushpuppy is sleepy. “It’s been a big day for her.”

10:00: “The hardest thing about writing…is writing.” R.I.P. Nora Ephron. And Ray Bradbury. You’re breaking my heart.

9:50: Lincoln wins Best Production Design, and understandably so.

9:46: Of the last three Best Oscar pics, my favorite was Django Unchained (over Silver Linings Playbook and Amour).

9:39: Keion wants to see a mash-up of the Skyfall song and Chicken Little. I do not think there is an explanation for this.

9:36: We’re imagining a theoretical Adele-Jennifer Hudson showdown backstage. It is awesome.

9:34: J-Law…unfortunately staying on script. So much fun when she doesn’t.

9:31: Film Editing goes to Argo. Ok.

9:30: Awwwwww! The Academy introduces the student presenters. Classy.

9:24: At the end of Hathaway’s speech, Keion says, “Oh, I get it now.” (We had all been discussing the Hatha-haters phenomenon earlier.)

9:22: Really hoping Helen Hunt wins this one so The Sessions gets some much-deserved glory. Well, nevermind. Breaking news: Megan does a killer Anne Hathaway impression.

9:21: Johnnie calls Amy Adams a firecracker. Yep, pretty much sums it up.

9:20: Christopher Plummer promises us 30 more films. Yay!

9:12: Best sound mixing award goes to Les Miserables. Best sound editing goes to BOTH Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall! A tie! As Mark Wahlberg said, “No BS!”

9:04: Keion wants to see Helena Bonham Carter wearing business caszh. This is a good idea.

9:00 Not smart to have any singing follow Jennifer Hudson’s standing-ovation show-stoppin’. Sorry Les Mis people.

8:55: Much discussion about whether Catherine was lip-synching or not for “All That Jazz.” Opinions? No discussion about Jennifer Hudson. Live.

8:50: Everybody is hoping for No, thanks to the personal connection in the room. Looking forward to seeing it at the True/False Film Fest next week! Ack. Amour wins it…does this mean people voted for it in this category and not in Best Pic?

8:43: Sugarman…Sugarman…Sugarman… Crossing my fingers here for Best Doc! YAY!!!!!! See it, people!

8:39: Of the next three Best Picture nominees featured, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty and Argo, you know I’m going with Zero Dark Thirty.

8:36: Liam Neeson says “Good evening,” and we all burst into delighted shouts, claps and squeals. #starpower

8:33: Rooting for Death of a Shadow for live action short film! Oh, but Curfew won.

8:32 Seth MacFarlane is an enthusiastic clapper. Or as Johnnie says, “He claps honestly.”

8:29: J.C. Penny just told me I “deserve to look better” and “live better.” What’s wrong with how I look or live now, Penny?

8:25: This living room needs some people who were around when the original Goldfinger song came out to answer a few of our questions. Too age homogenous here.

8:19: Les Miserables wins for makeup and hairstyling. Not to be mean, but can you win for styling Anne Hathaway’s bald head?

8:17: Anna Karenina wins for best costume design. Designer Jacqueline Durran, frequent Joe Wright collaborator, is wearing a fab coat dress and is classily short-spoken.

8:09: Was going to root for Life of Pi for best visual effects, but now switching to The Avengers. But Life of Pi wins this, too. Deserved! They use the Jaws theme to play the team off!

8:06: Rooting for Roger Deakins (Skyfall) for best cinematography! Booooo….but Life of Pi wins. Conversation ensues about breaking up cinematography into CG and not-as-much CG categories.

8:03: Of the first three Best Pic nominees featured, I’m picking Beasts of the Southern Wild (over Life of Pi and Les Miserables).

8:00 Disney/Pixar walked away with the animated awards for Paperman and Brave. And points for the kilt, man (director Mark Andrews makes a brave fashion choice).

7:55: We’re passing around a pic of Jason’s unofficial adopted brother (long story), who is a producer of the foreign film nominee No. He made it on TV! In a blur behind Kristin Chenoweth.Very cool!

7:50: Yes! Off to a good start! Waltz wins Best Supporting Actor. Keion and I still think it should’ve been Leo, but what can you do.

7:49: Philip Seymour Hoffman was incredible in a slight mess of a movie…still rooting for Christoph Waltz.

7:47: Spontaneous applause in the living room at the conclusion of the opening number. So! Cute! And! Funny!

7:42: Speaking of adorable, now Seth is joined by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe. Dancing.

7:39: Seth MacFarlane is singing…and he’s GOOD. And Charlize can DANCE. (We all knew Channing could.) The Oscars just got adorable.

7:29: Making the official decision to not to fill out a ballot so I can just root for my favorites without trying to “win”.

7:05: George Clooney’s hair is AMAZING, you guys.

7:04: Also love Halle Berry’s dress. The power of stripes!

7:02: Sidney! Bristow! That is all.

7:00 Paul asks, “Where’s the snow?” We all agree the Oscars would be better if the stars had to trudge through 10 inches of the white stuff.

6:52 Chris Evans gets Best Son of the Night for complimenting his Mom (also his date for event) all the way through his red carpet interview.

6:46: Keion is giving Beasts of the Southern Wild-crawfish-eating instructions which amount to “rip the stuff out.”

6:44: Decided my Maya costume has missed the mark.

6:41: I LOVE Charlize’s dress. LOVE. And I used to have her hair. But she does it WAAAAAY better.

6:33: Keion starts what promises to be a night-long tradition of yelling “Beast It!” whenever a Beasts of the Southern Wild clip comes on.

6:32: We are very glad Kelly asked Joseph Gordon-Levitt about his socks. We not being ironic.

6:30: Johnnie says Reese Witherspoon is “a vision in blue.” It’s true.

This post contains affiliate links.

{random film-ness} The Acceptance Speech Score Card

sarah — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 22:47:20 +0000

For your Oscar-watching pleasure, may I present The Official Gimme Some Film Acceptance Speech Score Card? Simply circle the points as the winner earns them, subtract a subjective number of negative points for any unpleasant annoying-ness, and total. Then let me know who your high-scoring winner was post-awards! Enjoy, Oscar-fiends!

{in theatres} Silver Linings Playbook

sarah — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:00:34 +0000

Ok. *Deep breath* I have a confession to make: I did not love this movie. I’ve put off writing about this film for almost three months, and now it’s time to come clean. Please argue with me in the comments section if you love it—and know that the Academy clearly agrees with you. (But commenter David H. doesn’t.)

I think I procrastinated writing this post for so long because I wanted the reasons for my dislike of the octo-nominated movie to be more complicated. But I haven’t read the novel by Matthew Quick for an in-depth literary analysis. I don’t really have much to say as far as social commentary on mental illness goes. All I’ve got is this:

I didn’t buy it.

The story didn’t have the internal consistency necessary for belief, and it didn’t have the momentum necessary to keep me interested. I loved (Oscar nominated) Bradley Cooper in Alias, but here, I never felt he completely settled into the role. He seemed to be Putting On Mental Illness, not playing it from within. If that makes any sense. And the shift at the end from Cooper’s wide-eyed-and-delusional wounded anti-hero to googly-eyed-but-in-control romantic lead was too fast and too easy. (Oscar nominated) Jennifer Lawrence (loved her in Winter’s Bone and The Hunger Games), as a grieving young widow, was more convincing. But, again, I felt the script and direction kept her (literally) dancing on the surface of the story instead of digging into it.

I have liked David O. Russell’s previous work. He did a better job of balancing the sober and the silly in The Fighter, for example. Silver Linings Playbook‘s tone was uneven: Sometimes it seemed the film’s major players (actors, director, editor and composer) had entirely different ideas on what particular scenes were about. There were moments I genuinely enjoyed, (the main characters’ first conversation about medications, the dance competition routine) but I wasn’t thoroughly drawn in. I wasn’t engrossed. I was unsatisfied with a film I was fully prepared to love. Sigh.

What did you think about Silver Linings Playbook?

This post contains affiliate links.

{random film-ness} Prepping for the Oscars

sarah — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:47:15 +0000

They’re finally here. The love-to-hate-’em-hate-to-love-’em Oscars. One whole week where almost everyone is talking about movies? It’s a little slice of cinema-crazy heaven. I’ll be delivering some Oscar party games and a couple late-coming Best Picture reviews this week, plus live blogging on Sunday night. To start prepping for the festivities, read up! Here’s what Gimme Some Film is currently serving for your Oscar-reading pleasure: