LittleMissSunshine Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Back when the 2007 Oscar nominees were announced, some films listed in the Best Picture category were accompanied by a note saying, "nominees to be determined." This was due to the Academy's difficulty in figuring out which producers of The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine would actually be qualified and named as primary producers of their respective films. Since 2000, the Academy has had a rule stating that at maximum only three producers could be handed trophies when the Best Picture was named. Because of the controversy regarding this year's producing credits, the Academy has now made some changes to the rule. Now, in "rare and extraordinary" circumstances, a fourth producer may be named as a Best Picture nominee.

The Academy altered a few other rules, which will also take effect for the 2008 Oscars. One rule is that for an animated film to be eligible for Best Animated Feature, it has to run at least 70 minutes, must be at least 75% completely animated, a significant amount of characters must be animated and those characters and all other animated sequences must be created using frame-by-frame techniques. For this change, I'm not sure what film the Academy is responding to specifically, but the report claims the rule is being more defined because we're in an age of changing technology. The third rule amended is for the Best Art Direction category. Before, only one production designer and only one set director was named, though in rare cases two set directors could be named (as in this year's nomination for The Good Shepherd). Now the rule is that either two production designers or two set directors -- but not both -- can be nominated (if two of one, only one of the other, whichever the mix).

In less than ten years Netflix has become not just a great company but also a great company model. Despite all attempts from Blockbuster and others to compete with the online rental service, Netflix continues to be the champion in its industry. But will the industry eventually be obsolete with all the other internet distribution options? Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says that DVD rentals will indeed become extinct in the next 20 years, but he says that fortunately for him Netflix is not simply a DVD rental service. "If one thinks of Netflix as a DVD rental business," he told the Wall Street Journal, "one is right to be scared. If one thinks of Netflix as an online movie service with multiple different delivery models, then one's a lot less scared. We're only now starting to deliver the proof points behind that second vision."

One of Netflix's plans for the future is a streaming video-on-demand option, which they began rolling out as a bonus to subscribers in January (I still haven't received my upgrade, which is expected to hit all members by June). Hastings claims that by the end of this year 5,000 films will be available in that format. He defended the relatively small amount (compared to 75,000 titles available via snail mail) by pointing out that Netflix originally started out offering only 1,000 titles on DVD. Netflix has also been planning for the future of high-density discs by stocking every title available on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, though Hastings told the WSJ that the formats are not renting too well, and the competing brands are neck-in-neck neck and neck for this small market. He also said that he expects little increase on interest in the discs until one brand is declared the standard.

In addition to being a film critic, Roger Ebert is a bit of a psychic. Or, more likely, he understands the Academy and how they vote. Last year his Oscar predictions were nearly spot on in the major categories. He only missed the supporting actress category, for which he picked Amy Adams over winner Rachel Weisz. But he managed to foresee the Best Picture award going to Crash and he also named the winning director, actor, actress, supporting actor, original screenplay, adapted screenplay, documentary, foreign film and animated film. So, if he is just as good this year we can expect the top honors to go to Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Martin Scorsese, Guillermo Arriaga (he doesn't name an adapted screenplay for some reason), Cars, Pan's Labyrinth, An Inconvenient Truth, and, for the top award, Babel.

I think Ebert will miss with one of the main categories again, probably Supporting Actor. But he thinks he could be wrong on the Best Picture. He claims to have caught wind of a rumor circulating that Little Miss Sunshine is going to grab the top prize in an upset. If this does happen, I imagine the film might also win in the original screenplay category. So far, leading up to the Oscars, Sunshine has picked up significant honors from the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Screen Actors Guild, British Academy and Irish Academy. This year, Ebert skipped out on making predictions in the minor categories.

This past weekend was full of award ceremonies (including the BAFTAs), many of which fall on the path toward the Oscars.

• The Writers Guild of America presented its awards Sunday. Top prizes went to Michael Arndt for his original screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine and to William Monahan for his adapted screenplay for The Departed. Both scripts are the best bets for the Oscars. Amy Berg also won an award for documentary writing for Deliver Us From Evil.
• It remains a tight race for the animated feature Oscar, but Cars beat Happy Feet for the top honor at the Annie Awards Sunday. So far the former has taken some big awards like the Golden Globe while the latter has won most of the critics' prizes. Other than Best Animated Feature, Cars only won for its music. Flushed Away took home the most Annies (5), and Over the Hedge won 3. Bambi II won the award for direct-to-video titles.
• Sunday's Grammy Awards had some love for movies, honoring the soundtrack to Walk the Line, John Williams' score for Memoirs of a Geisha, Williams' composition "A Prayer for Peace" from his score for Munich and Randy Newman's song "Our Town" from Cars. Also semi-related are the Dixie Chicks' five wins, which make up for the Oscar snub of their documentary Shut Up & Sing.
• The Visual Effects Society Awards were also presented Sunday. The biggest winner was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with six awards, including the two top prizes. Other winners were Flags of Our Fathers, Casino Royale and Cars.
• Maggie Gyllenhaal presented the tech Oscars Saturday. You can look forward to the quick montage of winners shown during the Academy Awards telecast in two weeks.

The only award Casino Royale picked up Sunday at the British Academy Awards (BAFTAs) was for Best Sound. It was nominated in nine categories -- ten if you count the publicly voted Rising Star Award, which did go to Casino Royale actress Eva Green. But it would have been very shocking if the 007 movie had beaten The Queen for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film. Oh wait; The Queen didn't win it either. Surprisingly, The Last King of Scotland won Best British Film, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay (for Jeremy Brock and Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen) and, of course, Best Actor for Forest Whitaker. The Queen did win for Best Film, though, and also took the obvious prize for Best Actress for Helen Mirren.

Some of the other unexpected wins were Paul Greengrass for the David Lean Award for Direction and Alan Arkin for Best Supporting Actor for Little Miss Sunshine, which won for Best Original Screenplay. Other prizes went to Pan's Labyrinth for Best Film Not in the English Language, Best Makeup & Hair and Best Costume Design, Children of Men for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design and Babel for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music. For the most part, the British Academy disagreed with last week's London Film Critics Circle Awards, which gave added honors to specifically British performers like Emily Blunt, Toby Jones, Michael Caine and Leslie Philips. However, Casino Royale fared badly with the critics' choices too.

If you don't already have plans for Saturday, February 24, I have the best option for what to do -- provided you live near a participating AMC theater, that is. The cinema chain is offering an amazing deal to moviegoers on the eve of the Oscars: for the price of $30, you can see all five films nominated for best picture. Of course, you have to watch them in a row, from 11am to 11:30pm (or whatever time the 9:45 showing of Little Miss Sunshine lets out). In addition to the movies, though, you also get a large popcorn, a large drink -- with unlimited refills all day long -- and a "collectible pass."

Now, I can see if this is a little too much movie for most people to handle, but I can't express enough how good a deal it is. Plus, you could always leave before Sunshine (I would; I hate it), if you fear a numb butt (try to imagine 24 hours!). Considering I still need to see two of the nominees, it would be worth it for me to attend the whole marathon since at the participating megaplex in Manhattan two movies and concessions would run me about $30 anyway (unless I theater-hopped).

How long has it been since a tried and true comedy won an Academy Award? I'm not talking about the ones with great funny bits mixed with drama, like American Beauty or Forrest Gump. There's the occasional romantic comedy like Shakespeare in Love, Annie Hall or The Apartment. But just plain comedy? Around the World in Eighty Days -- 1956. Well, the time may have come for a funny, non-romantic film to take the top spot again, and it just might be possible. In a bit of a comic coup, Little Miss Sunshine has nabbed the top honors from the Producers Guild of America, over high-buzz, high-drama powerhouses like Babel and The Queen.

While this doesn't sound like much in the greater scheme of things, the PGA award does hold clout. Over the last 17 years, the guild's choice has matched the Academy's choice 11 times. One of the off years was last, where the PGA chose Brokeback Mountain, but really, they weren't alone. Now, after a few months of Oscar chatter for the likes of Dreamgirls and The Departed, Sunshine is stealing the stage again. Sunshine producer Marc Turtletaub, in his acceptance speech, shared the one key scene that convinced him to back the project -- when the grandfather tells Dwayne to have sex with as many women as he can: "I mean, like a thousand." There you go, folks. We get to laugh and maybe just have an incredibly rare comedic award winner because of a horny old man and his lecherous teachings!

Why is it that every year as we approach Oscar time, there are always people who feel compelled to write about how this or that award-favored film isn't really original? The latest offender is the Carpetbagger, who rehashes some tired detritus floating around the internet about the shocking -- truly shocking! -- parallels between Little Miss Sunshine and another family road trip comedy, National Lampoon's Vacation (which, for the record, is one of the funniest films ever made).

We even have some commenter on this piece on the Carpetbagger's site slamming LMS because the character of Olive resembles that pudgy girl with the big glasses from Blind Melon's "No Rain" video. I don't know about that, but if the directors did get the idea for Olive's look from a music vid, that wouldn't be shocking, either, as they're best known as music video directors. I'd still rather see a girl character who looks like Olive and is true to herself than yet another endlessly "cute" blond kid.

As for the originality argument -- I would challenge anyone bitching about the originality of LMS to name any film that isn't derivative in some way of some other film, book, play, magazine article, or even real life. Oh, heavens! The Queen isn't original, they just pulled that right from real stories about what happened between QEII and Blair! The Departed? Remake. Children of Men? Little Children? Thank You for Smoking? Bah, nothing but adaptations.

Reminds me of an interview with the Black Crowes many years ago when they were accused of not sounding "original" enough, and one of the band members responded tartly that he supposed they could be truly original and bang beaver pelts together, but that wouldn't make for very good music.

[ via Hollywood Elsewhere ]

Even if you consider Borat (full title not necessary) to be primarily a scripted work, it is still a film that works best in its unscripted sequences. This is debatable, sure, but I would like someone at the Writers Guild to tell me what was so great about the actual screenplay used. Personally, I think the scripted parts, as well as the adherence to the plot, are the weakest elements.

Nonetheless, Sacha Baron Cohen and his five collaborators are nominated for a Writers Guild Award for Adapted Screenplay. And despite my questioning of this recognition, I don't really prefer any of its competition. The other titles in the adapted category are Little Children, The Departed, The Devil Wears Prada and Thank You for Smoking. If I had to choose, I'd go with the last of these, but I think the prize will go to the overrated Little Children.

I also don't think the Original Screenplay category is that great, either. The nominees for that award are Little Miss Sunshine, Babel, United 93, Stranger Than Fiction and The Queen. Again, I'd have to go with the last of these, but predict the overrated first.

Hopefully, unlike with other guild awards, the WGA's honors will not reflect the Oscar nominations, which may recognize foreign films Volver and Pan's Labyrinth, which were ineligible here.

I'm all for these guild awards, with their specific categories and distinct recognitions, but I'm not sure I understand the Costume Designer Guild's honor for "Distinguished Actor." If the reasoning is that the recipient of this award is someone who looks good in costumes, or makes costume designers look good, then Helen Mirren makes sense as this year's winner. But this reason doesn't explain why the guild is also giving Sandra Bullock an award. Suddenly, the logic falls apart -- especially for anyone who has seen Miss Congeniality 2.

The costume designers don't need to give actors any more praise. And Mirren certainly doesn't need any more trophies this year. To me, the guild's recognition of the different genres of costume design is interesting and appealing enough without some unnecessary star-kissing.

The categories for the Costume Designer Guild Awards separately acknowledge achievements for modern costume, period costume and fantasy costume. The lumping of these genres together into the Best Costume Design Oscar doesn't give credit to the differences between them, and it often ignores the difficulty of modern costuming, which many people assume is as easy as the everyday act of getting dressed in the morning.