anna kendrick Tagged Articles at Cinematical

So here we are in the days before the Oscar nominations for calendar year 2009. We've been breaking down everyone's chances from the first stage of the critics' awards through the Guild nominations and onto the eventual winners of the two groups whose taste tends to be in line with Academy voters - the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Broadcast "Film Critics" Association. How sad. We can ignore their populist vibes, but must embrace the statistics that tell us that nominations are almost inevitable if not always a golden victory. Piece by piece we will look at the Top Eight categories until eventually having predictions in all of them (right down to the technical ones) of what will be on the list of contenders come the morning of Feb. 2. We begin with ten slots for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress

THE LOCKS
That would be Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) and Mo'Nique (Precious). Now hold on, I'm not making my full-on Oscar predictions yet. These are just the nominations. Wouldn't that be a shock though? Either one of the two performances dominating nearly every possible voting group award NOT getting a nomination? Someone would definitely be throwing a television down the stairs on that one.

If you read up on the breakdown of the leads, then you know there are five voting bodies we are considering - the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Golden Globes, the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Screen Actors Guild and the BAFTAs. In the Lead categories, there were 33 performances since 2001 that got nominations from all five groups. In the Supporting categories, there have been 15. 17 if you count the fact that Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) was nominated as the lead by the SAGs and BAFTAs, respectively. All 50 performances were nominated for an Oscar. Based on that stat alone, we can fill five of the ten Supporting slots with Waltz and Mo'Nique as well as Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones), Vera Farmiga (Up In The Air) and Anna Kendrick (Up In The Air).

When Jason Reitman cast Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air last November, every news article rang with She's The Next Big Thing prophecies (including ours.) Not surprisingly, they all turned out to be right, and Kendrick has her pick of juicy roles. She must have a thing for dramedy, because according to The Hollywood Reporter, she's signed onto Seth Rogen and James McAvoy's cancer comedy.

Formerly titled I'm With Cancer, the project hit a snag in November when director Nicole Holofcener left due to a disagreement over filming location. Jonathan Levine has now stepped in to direct, and Kendrick's arrival has blessed the production, and it's all back on track. It begins shooting in Vancouver (hometown of producer and costar Rogen) this February.

Critics and audiences might begin sharpening their knives at Kendrick's character description -- she'll be playing "a young psychologist assigned to handle Adam's case [played by McAvoy] despite her lack of real world experience." That sounds dangerously close to the character she played in Up in the Air, and could quickly typecast her as that young employee who is always out of her depth. She'll have to really dig in and bring her to life so that the similarities are only on paper. Do you think she can pull it off?

With the werewolves out of the way, back to our regularly scheduled programming. A few weeks ago, The Hollywood Reporter ran a piece called "Shallow pool for Oscar's actress contenders." The basic premise: While the list of female directorial hopefuls is stronger than ever for the 2010 Academy race, the actress nods aren't so hot with Meryl Streep leading only a handful of other front-runners (Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe). The piece also noted the other potential Best Actress candidates, the possibility of notable performances in the remaining releases, the struggles women still face in Hollywood, and -- egads -- the fact that some are talking about Sandra Bullock getting a nod for The Blind Side.

Reading the article through, I quickly had a thought .... and it was most definitely not about that previously mentioned werewolf flick getting any award love. Usually a discussion like this might be disheartening or aggravating, but the thought wasn't negative. It was, in fact, quite positive.

Why don't we use this "shallow pool" as a reason to celebrate unconventional roles and performances?

There's an interesting phenomenon going on at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. Female filmmakers were a big part of the festival's opening weekend. (The fest might be 9 days long, but that first weekend is the time that packs the punch -- the time when the stars descend, the parties commence, and the big films have their premieres.) But this isn't only relevant to festival goers. These fests showcase tomorrow's films, so in some ways, TIFF is a peek into the future. And it's one where women defy what's expected of them.

At the moment, I'm calling it the Anna Kendrick effect. While she might be one of the youngest Tony Award nominees ever, this actress shot into the public eye with a supporting role in that incessant, sparkly piece called Twilight. Her performance was fine, but she really wasn't given enough for a large buzz to commence, especially while under the shadow of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. But now she's got a co-starring role in Jason Reitman's new Up in the Air -- a role where she must hold her own against George Clooney and Vera Farmiga. And she does. In fact, she's so good that her performance has been getting a lot of buzz up here in Toronto -- and it's proved one thing: We might see women and blow them off as nothing more than the crazy jealous friend, but there can be a lot of other talent in there if given a solid role to prove it.

Sometimes it seems like one of Hollywood's main goals is to make people without spouses and children feel really bad about themselves. If that sort of thing bothers you, I would recommend passing on Up in the Air, which is as strident about the notion that a life without a family is worthless as any movie I've ever seen. Fortunately, it is also brisk, funny, and not enslaved to genre conventions. Parts of the film, in fact, approach comic brilliance. The reason that the film's message-mongering doesn't grate, I think, is that we really do feel sorry for the protagonist – an obsessive frequent flier who begins to realize that his life is an empty, lonely shell of rationalizations and self-delusions.

In some respects, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) approaches caricature: not only is he wifeless, childless and practically homeless – he has a barren studio in Omaha and spends 320 days a year on the road – but he fires people for a living and occasionally gives motivational speeches urging people to "empty their backpacks" and rid themselves of commitment. But there's a kernel of truth to him, in the sense that there is something compelling, almost romantic about transience. His world of luxury hotels and airline perks – and a hot frequent flier girlfriend (Vera Farmiga) with whom he sleeps with when their paths cross but who asks for nothing more – actually seems kind of cool.

Once upon a time, Marc Pease (Jason Schwartzman) flipped out during his high school's production of The Wiz, despite every assurance from his drama teacher, Mr. Gribble (Ben Stiller), that he was at the very least capable ("You set the bar... so that others can go beyond it!").

Eight years later, Gribble's giving The Wiz another shot, while Pease tries to keep the remaining half of his once mighty a cappella group together and heading towards some modest goal of stardom. The two of them share a common love with present-day senior Meg (Anna Kendrick), and all three of them have a love for performing -- and an aversion to anything resembling comedy over the course of The Marc Pease Experience.

You'd think that the next movie featuring the star of a very recent blockbuster would be a surefire candidate to get a splashy theatrical release. Yet despite the presence of Ben Stiller in its cast, chances are that you won't see The Marc Pease Experience this summer.

Stiller, who starred in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian -- which has earned nearly $400 million worldwide since its release in late May -- plays a supporting role as a mentor to Jason Schwartzman, who must come to terms with his dream of becoming a musical star on Broadway. Rising starlet Anna Kendrick is also featured. As reported by The Playlist, Paramount will be releasing The Marc Pease Experience on August 21 in just 10 markets: Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle ... and "maybe" Boston, according to director Todd Louiso. Those are definitely major markets, but New York and Los Angeles will be avoided, and I'm guessing those of us in the selected markets will need to search out where exactly the movie will be dumped be playing.

Production on the film began under the Paramount Vantage banner, a division that has since been shuttered. The Playlist speculates that "there was basically a mandate from Paramount to all the Paramount Vantage movies 'on the way out' that 'We're just not going to put any more money into them.'" Whether that's true or not -- and I'm inclined to hope that they evaluated each movie on its own merits -- you might need to buy a plane ticket to see another Ben Stiller comedy this summer. Failing that, The Marc Pease Experience is expected on DVD before the end of the year.

Edgar Wright's upcoming Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a veritable puupuu platter of young talent. Some are super-recognizable -- like Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans, and Kieran Culkin. And some are new Canadian talent thrown into the mix, like Ellen Wong. Since Mr. Pilgrim is a Canadian slacker and ex-boyfriend-slayer, we're getting a little more maple leaf talent, more recognizable faces, and a superhero to boot.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that Brandon Routh has signed on to play Ramona's evil ex #3, Todd Ingram -- the rocker with vegan psychic powers, and Brie Larson (who is currently playing the struggling daughter in United States of Tara) will play Pilgrim's ex, Envy Adams. But that's only the beginning. Alison Pill (who kicked butt in Dear Wendy, and more recently served under Milk) will play the drummer in Pilgrim's band, while her Wendy co-star Mark Webber will play Stephen Stills, another bandmate. But that's not even the best reunion.

Ann Veal strikes again! Oh yes -- Mae Whitman, who played George Michael's crazy paramour on Arrested Development will play ex #4 -- the half-ninja Roxy Richter. And wrapping up the pack --- Anna Kendrick will play Pilgrim's sister, Johnny Simmons will play Young Neil, and Satya Bhabha will play "an ex-boyfriend who can summon demon hipster girls at will."

I wonder if other Can-con will follow ... Maybe some swashbuckling with Violet Miranda, or activism with Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask? Either way, I'm sold on Pilgrim. How about you?

What does last year's most talked-about teen flick have in common with this year's most talked-about pre-teen flick? Here's a hint: A director and an actress. Yes, Juno director Jason Reitman has finally chosen the female lead for his follow-up flick Up in the Air -- based on Walter Kim's (Thumbsucker) 2001 novel -- and he's chosen none other than Anna Kendrick. Who? Oh wait, I forgot to put this next to her name: Twilight actress Anna Kendrick.

The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Kendrick, who played one of Bella's friends in the poetic vamp tale, beat out other actresses like Emily Blunt and Juno herself, Ellen Page. Go figure! In the film, Kendrick will play "a young woman who finds herself pulled into the orbit of a "career transition counselor" (i.e. professional firer) careening through the airless world of business travel." Oh, and that "career transition counselor" will be played by George Clooney. I haven't seen Twilight, but Kendrick was excellent in the small indie Rocket Science, and from what I remember she's got a sort of Emma Stone thing going on. Ya know, cute, girl-next-door-but-intelligent kinda personality. I dig her. Paramount will shovel it into theaters, but there's currently no word on a release date.

Unfortunate as it is, there's a new type of genre out on the streets, waving its angsty little hand in our faces each year -- the "quirky, teen-related Sundance film." It's almost as if these films were designed to play at Sundance; their main character almost always has a strange disability (be it thumb-sucking, vagina dentata or stuttering), their family is, of course, dysfunctional, their best friend is a creepy serial killer in training and their love life is in shambles. While Rocket Science does get a lot of things right, it's hard not to label it as "just another Sundance film" -- the kind that's amusing to watch, but easily forgettable.

The nice thing about Rocket Science is that, more often than not, it's honest. It doesn't expect a lot from its characters, and in doing so the film continually keeps the audience guessing. Just when you thought the plot was heading in one direction, it spins around and heads the other way. The triumphs are personal -- more internal than external -- and while the mainstream audience might be turned off by a film that doesn't hand you the "happy ending" on a silver platter, it might be a nice change of pace heading into the latter part of a summer that's been full of dumb, predictable, popcorn fluff.