Walk the Line Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In one of the oddest videos I've watched all year, Joaquin Phoenix tells E! that he's retiring from acting in order to pursue his music career. What's weird about the video is that the E! dude kind of laughs off the ultra-serious Phoenix when he claims he's quitting, and by doing so kind of insults the actor musician. As Phoenix walks away, peeved no one took him seriously during a moment that obviously meant a lot to him, the E! host struggles to regroup but it's too late. So then they grab Casey Affleck in mid-stride and he's all like, "Yeah, he's going to pursue this music thing" -- as if it was common knowledge.

Actually Casey, it's not common knowledge. And I'd be totally fine with this if it were, say, Jessica Simpson, but Joaquin Phoenix, in my opinion, is one of the best actors we have working today. What the hell? Phoenix's last completed movie was the James Gray-directed Two Lovers, due out in 2009, and that's it for now. If you want to follow the guy, you'll have to do so by checking out his band The Lady is a Tramp.

But is this for real? Actors with long beards often say crazy things in quiet voices because they want people to listen, and not that they want to be heard. (Don't know the difference? Watch White Men Can't Jump.) So check out the video after the jump and let us know what you think. Is this dude serious? And if he is, do you support his quest to pursue a career in music?

Should Joaquin Phoenix Retire from Acting?

Hell no!Yes, I never liked him anywayI'll support him if that's what he wants to doI could not care lessVote

After surprising lots of folks (including me) with last year's break-out hip hop hit Hustle and Flow, director Craig Brewer and Flow's Oscar nominated star Terrence Howard have decided to pair up once again, this time eying country music as their platform. The duo will get busy for Paramount on a biopic of singer Charley Pride.

The studio recently picked up the life rights for Pride, as well his wife Rozene, with plans to go all Walk the Line on this bad boy. That's right, like Joaquin Phoenix, Howard will perform all of the songs featured himself. (In a rare move, the Academy has gone ahead and nominated him for an Oscar even though production won't begin for at least a year.) At an early age, Pride dabbled in professional baseball before moving to Nashville and falling in love with music. Between 1966 and 1984, 51 of his 54 singles landed in the country top 10. Says Brewer, "When Jackie Robinson broke the barrier, there was a flood of talent that came after him, but Charley was alone." The director will first take on another country-themed flick (Maggie Lynn) before he begins work on the Pride biopic.

As Hollywood prepares for its latest surge of biopics, yesterday's New York Times featured a very interesting article that posed the folllowing question: When it comes to acting in a biopic, is is better to mimic or transcend? As the Times points out, back in the day, there wasn't much of a debate. Despite not looking much like their characters, folks like Robert Redford (All the President's Men) and Warren Beatty (Bonnie and Clyde) had no problem convincingly portraying historical figures without dramatically alter their appearances.

However, you can't help but be blown away after witnessing the transformations Nicole Kidman (The Hours) and Charlize Theron (Monster) completed as part of their respective takes on Virginia Woolf and the real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Sure, Theron did a nice job of capturing Wuornos through her acting, but let's face it -- there's no way she would have won an Oscar without all that make-up.

Some would argue a great actor shouldn't have to completely change his or her look in order to capture the essence of a person. This past year, Philip Seymour Hoffman (who looks nothing like the writer) dazzled as Truman Capote, despite barely changed his appearance for the role. Same goes for Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon when they took on Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash in Walk the Line.

So, I ask you: Is it important to you for an actor (or actress) to change their appearance when starring in a biopic, should they look nothing like the person they're portraying?

Well, the Oscars are over. It's been a long and often mind-numbingly boring Oscar night (especially the acceptance speeches), but we, like Jon Stewart, stuck it out until the bittersweet end. What did everyone think of Stewart as the Oscar host? I was really impressed with Stewart, myself.  I was worried the audience wouldn't be real responsive to his jokes. His brand of humor is political, highbrow and snarky, and I wondered how he would go over with a theater full of insecure movie stars. I loved the Daily Show-style bits they did in-between too, although I think the humor went over the heads of some of the stars. Reese Witherspoon got it, though - she's a smart cookie, don't let the cutesy looks fool you for a second.

Here, for your perusing pleasure, is the list of all the winners and nominees from the major categories (winners are in bold and marked with an asterisk). Give us your thoughts on Oscar night -  the winners, the losers, whose outfits you loved and hated, what you thought of Stewart as the host - whatever your thoughts are, we want to hear them.

 

I was very sad to find out that Ungawa, the Capuchin monkey I had hired from trainer-turned-bunk junking director Soso Whaley for a CD cover photo shoot, had died. Ungawa had picked the Oscars for me a couple of years ago, and while he went 0 for 6 (being far more interested in the popcorn I baited the photos with), it was a whole lot of fun to host him, and the kids that showed up were delighted by his delightful simian antics, none of which involved flinging poo.

This year, I was disappointed to find that my second choice to pick this year’s Oscars - Antony, the world-renowned anteater that Whaley also trained - had recently died of old age. He had appeared in a number of television shows and films, including Baby It’s Cold Outside.

A striped-knee tarantula named Klaus stepped up this year. While he was not as entertaining as a monkey (and what is?) or as goofy-looking as an anteater, he was a consummate professional, and his predictions were not entirely without rhyme or reason (if you can ignore the fact that he was not so much choosing as he was running away from us):

It's been a battle of the rainy-day games on our Oscar derby this week, with Erik's magic 8 ball going head to head with Kim's kids and their post-it plastered paper donkey. Though the donkey method produced the prediction that George Clooney's going home with the biggest bounty on Sunday night, most of our experts are still pinning their tails, and hopes, on the cowboy craze. Elsewhere, we learned that fictional characters from the 70s don't have a *whole* lot to say about this year's races, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman would be wise to stop the Capote press train long enough to take note – Johnny Cash is on his ass.

As you know, the Oscar winners are determined by a highly secret, very scientific process guaranteed to ensure the very best of the nominees in each category will go home with the coveted statue of a naked golden man - and, let's be honest - who doesn't want a naked golden man on their bedside table or mantel? This year, as part of our extensive coverage of the awards show everyone loves to bitch about, we here at Cinematical headquarters are making our own highly scientific Oscar predictions in the top five categories, to assist you in placing bets with your bookies or office betting pools.

A few days ago, James Rocchi gave us his Oscar predictions, based on the Virtual Borgnine (tm), Rocchi's own invention based on the theory that Oscar winners are largely determined by old, rich, white men who have spent their whole lives in show business. Today, straight from the pristine lab located in my kitchen, we bring you Oscar predictions based on the Official Cinematical Pin the Oscar on the Donkey Oscar Prediction Game!

To assist me in the prediction process, I used my five assistants - my four (yup, I said four) younger children, ages 9, 6, 4 and 2, and my husband, Jay (he got to pick Best Picture, so I didn't have to deal with four kids fighting over who got to choose the last winner, but to keep it fair, the kids spun him around no less than 10 times. He's still recovering.) Each assistant was thoroughly blindfolded with an Oscar-worthy purple velveteen blindfold and spun around an appropriate number of times to ensure dizziness and slight nausea, which is pretty much what we feel when watching the Oscars anyhow. For purposes of determining the winner, the nominee that Oscar's head was closest to was judged to be the winner.

Without further ado, the Pin the Oscar on the Donkey Oscar Predictions:

3:10 to Yuma is a fantastically tight little western about honor and duty, starring Van Heflin and a frighteningly charismatic Glenn Ford. It's a perfect example of the the great things that can be done in film when you've got about $6, 90 minutes, a solid story (written by Elmore Leonard), and a pair of great actors. But, because Hollywood a) is out of ideas, and b) can't leave well enough alone, James Mangold has decided to follow up Walk the Line by remaking a movie that's been pretty much perfect for almost 50 years. Oh, and he's going to kick it up a notch, don't you worry. Apparently, you see, "There are a lot of good-bad themes that were only touched on in the original...This is a total struggle culminating in a showdown, which has the potential to be one of the great movie gunfights." So, let me get this straight: a movie that's all about acting, honor, and subtly is going to be turned into a huge shootout? Fan-freaking-tastic.

Mangold and his wife Cathy Konrad will also produce the film, which is expected to begin shooting this summer.

The American Cinema Editors (ACE) had their annual awards ceremony last night, and Brokeback Mountain didn't win a damn thing (an investigation is sure to follow). Like the Hollywood Foreign Press, ACE also divides films into dramatic and musical/comedy categories, and taking home the major prizes instead of Brokeback's editors were Hughes Winborne, who edited Crash, and Michael McCusker of Walk the Line. On the nonfiction side, Sabine Emiliani won the best editing for a documentary award for her work on March of the Penguins.

Also recognized at the event were Ron Howard, who for some reason was named filmmaker of the year (was Cinderella Man really that great?), and Ed Abroms and Terry Rawlings (the editor of Blade Runner), who received lifetime achievement awards.

In order to cash (pun intended) in on the film's Oscar buzz, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has announced they will release Walk the Line on DVD this February 28th. Not only that, but there will be three different discs to choose from. Line will join a small list of major Oscar nominated films (Crash and Hustle and Flow to name two) actually available at the video store come awards time...and that makes me plenty happy because I have not seen it yet and am way too lazy to drag my ass out in the snow right about now.

Consumers (that's you!) will have a choice between a single-disc widescreen edition, a single-disc full-screen edition and, for those of you really into Johnny,  a two-disk special edition featuring three extended musical sequences, three featurettes and collectible postcards. Don't fret cheapos, both single-discs will also include a full-length commentary by director James Mangold and 10 deleted scenes. Though it was snubbed for Best Picture, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon (both Golden Globe winners) are up for the Best Actor and Actress award. You can catch the awards on ABC this March 5th.