frostnixon Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I am not an apologist for the MPAA. As Cinematical's Eric D. Snider astutely observed recently, the Classification and Rating Administration of the Motion Picture Association of America continues to 'arbitrarily enforce and haphazardly apply' their own ratings, generally favoring big-budget studio pictures while lowering the boom on lower-budgeted independent films. With a track record of more than 40 years, though, does any parent today believe that the MPAA is solely responsible for telling them what is suitable for their children to watch?

Evidently Deborah Knight Snyder does. The mother of two children wrote an article for the GateHouse News Service in which she wondered about the movie rating system, which she described as an "imprecise, almost backward process." No argument there, but then she described Alex Proyas' Knowing as a movie that "scared the hell" out of her and questioned: "What parent in their right mind would let a 13-year-old see such a movie?" She continues: "Thank goodness our 13-year-old was otherwise occupied and chose not to join us for the film," and then relates an experience suffered by her older son when he saw The Ring just before he turned 13 several years ago. He later told her: "That movie was terrifying for a 12-year-old!"

Snyder doesn't address her own accountability in these two incidents, of course. One son "chose not to join us" and the other went with a friend's mother: "I confess I didn't think much about his going to see it." From this, we can surmise that an adult who has been watching movies for several decades and has two children -- one of whom is now in college -- had, until this very week, abdicated responsibility for deciding what her children could watch, ceding that role entirely to the MPAA.

The Wrestler
For all its indie cred, adult language, and exposed body parts, Darren Aronofsky's film follows a well-trod path through sports movie cliches. Still, it's anchored by Mickey Rourke's empathetic, "I've been there and I know that" performance as a world-weary wrestler, and Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood provide needed counterbalance as a wary stripper and unforgiving daughter, respectively. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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Frost/Nixon
Peter Morgan's adaptation of his own stage play supplies all the "based on truth" dramatic hay that's needed, while Michael Sheen and Frank Langella sparkle in the title roles. Ron Howard's movie feels very much like a television production; as an actors' showcase, it's fine for what it is, without illuminating deeper truths. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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Caprica
I've watched and watched without being converted into the worshipful fold, but for Battlestar Galactica fans already suffering from withdrawal, you can get your fix with this prequel starring Eric Stolz and Esai Morales. I'm sure it's the best thing ever made, and that you will play it over and over again. Buy it.

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Wolverine and the X-Men: Heroes Return Trilogy
First three episodes of the animated TV series. "With great tragedy in their past and their future, Wolverine must lead Xavier's disillusioned heroes against the forces of fate and destiny. Only together can the X-Men steer the course of history away from catastrophe and save us all." Doesn't that sound cool, kids? Rent it.

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Also out: Into the Blue 2: The Reef (featuring bikinis and beefcake).

After the jump: Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray picks, and Collector's Corner.

I haven't really done any comprehensive Oscar predicting this year. There's a glut of prognosticators, and I'm not any good at it anyway. But I figure I should go out on one limb the day before nominations are announced -- how else can I look foolish on the 22nd? -- and here it is: I predict that Wall-E slips into the Best Picture final five and leaves The Dark Knight in the cold.

Now, I'll admit that I'm doing this partially to annoy Josh "Snub It And There Will Be Consequences" Tyler (because seriously, that was insane). But here's the thing: if you accept the conventional wisdom that four of the five Best Picture slots will be occupied by Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, that leaves Dark Knight and Wall-E (and possibly Doubt) fighting for #5. Since we're talking about Academy voters here, I think the smart money is on the beloved, endlessly charming Pixar flick over the pitch-black superhero epic. It's less divisive and more accessible. (I'll agree that it's not quite as awesome.) The Bat will content itself with tech noms and Heath Ledger.

So that's my last-minute sucker's bet. You got any? Aronofsky for Best Director? Dev Patel for Best Actor? Last chance, kids.

As a precursor to the Oscars, all the Hollywood guilds and associations have been announcing their own nominations, and you might have noticed a pattern developing:

• The Producers Guild of America named these films as candidates for its best picture award: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, Milk, and Slumdog Millionaire.

• Then the Directors Guild of America announced its nominees, and they were the men who directed these films: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, Milk, and Slumdog Millionaire.

• And the Writers Guild of America had 10 nominees, five each in original screenplay and adapted screenplay, and among those nominees were the people who wrote these films: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, Milk, and Slumdog Millionaire.

The same five films were nominated for each of these guild awards -- a trifecta, to use a word I don't get to use often enough. So now you're wondering, is this trifecta common? And how does it predict the Oscar nominations?

It turns out it is pretty common for a movie to be nominated for all three of these. (It helps that the WGA nominates 10 films, increasing the chances of overlap with the other awards.) The PGA awards are the newest, having begun in 1990, and since that time 43 films (not counting this year's) have hit the trifecta. And of those 43 -- and this is the important part -- only three have then failed to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

So if history is any indication, the nominees for Best Picture at the Academy Awards will be these five films: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, Milk, and Slumdog Millionaire. Put on your sad clown mask and take it to the bank.

The Motion Picture Association of America does a few other things too, but its most visible impact on movie-going is its ratings system. G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17, you gotta have a rating for your movie if you want most theater chains to show it, and the MPAA's secretive clan of breast-counters and violence-ignorers decides which label its gets.

An overwhelming majority of films get the rating they deserve -- or, at the very least, a rating that's consistent with how the MPAA has rated other films with similar content. But some MPAA decisions are baffling, illogical, or just plain outrageous. Here are the ones that perplexed us the most this year.

The Worst MPAA Ratings of 2008

1. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (rated PG for "epic battle action and violence"). The MPAA says, "The ratings are intended to provide parents with advance information so they can decide for themselves which films are appropriate for viewing by their own children." It's all about parents looking out for their kids. So how in the name of C.S. Lewis did this film -- rife with stabbing, throat-slitting, decapitating, and large-scale slaughter, much of it perpetrated by teenage characters -- get a PG? Does the fact that most of the violence is bloodless (and therefore not realistic) somehow make it family-friendly? Had there been even one sexual reference, it would have gotten a PG-13. Thank goodness Disney only packed the film with killing instead!

In limited release, Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard's adaptation of Peter Morgan's stage play, had the highest per-screen average of the weekend ($60,000 each at three screens), according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo, but it's not an indie. Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire ($18,026 per screen at 78 theaters) and Gus Van Sant's Milk ($17,071 per screen at 99 theaters) held up very well as they expanded in their fourth and second weeks, respectively, but we talked about them last week.

Instead, let's look at the resiliency of Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long. Now in its seventh week, the French-language drama starring Kristin-Scott Thomas still had the 7th-highest per-screen average among all movies ($3,020 average, 51 screens). The film's cumulative take is a modest $1.76 million, which likely is a good return for distributor Sony Pictures Classics, and it will undoubtedly do very well when it's released on DVD in a couple of months.

My personal opinion is close to what Jeffrey D. Anderson expressed: "These characters are always subservient to the furthering of the story; the story itself squashes them." The popular appeal of the film is readily apparent, though: (1) Kristin Scott Thomas has a degree of name recognition in the arthouse world; (2) she gives an exquisite, finely-tuned performance; (3) it's in French, which is the default language for anguish and loss; (4) it revolves around a mother and her family, not a romance, which is a huge, refreshing relief; (5) it's rarely cinematic and feels much more like a televised stage play, which is oddly reassuring for some audiences; (6) it features a closing twist, which I found infuriating rather than enlightening, but twists always drive word of mouth.

Have you seen any films in limited release that you're recommending to friends?

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game Santa obsesses over during his off time. Last week we asked you to celebrate Caption-Gate by churning out a little funny for a photo from the new film Frost/Nixon, in theaters this weekend. Congrats to our three winners, who reminded us of the warped nicknames that plagued the Nixon era.

1. "I know they call him Tricky Dick, but that's just inappropriate." -- Don P.

2. "The De-Evolution of Sideburns" -- Joshua B.

3. "Frost, Woodward, and Bernstein look up in dismay as Nixon finally puts it together and figures out who Deep Throat was. Of course, having their secret conversations in the television studio was probably a bad idea." -- Kathi F.

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This week we're loosening our belt buckles, hiding the scale and waitin' for Santa to bring us all sorts of goodies because there ain't nothin' like the holidays. And whaddya know, the film we're highlighting this week is called Nothing Like the Holidays (in theaters December 12), and those folks behind the three naughtiest (but tasteful) captions will prance away with one Nothing Like the Holidays soundtrack, one Nothing Like the Holidays cookbook, one Nothing Like the Holidays scarf, one Nothing Like the Holidays notepad, one Nothing Like the Holidays poster, one Nothing Like the Holidays flask and one Nothing Like the Holidays grocery bag. So start shopping for the best caption, folks, and sound off below ...



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"You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore ..."
-- Richard Nixon, on his 1962 loss to Pat Brown for the Governorship of California

That statement turned out, of course, not to be true; we would have Nixon to kick around for decades more. That statement also concealed a different truth, which is that Nixon -- the hunched, scowling, puritan-satyr of American politics -- could not only take a beating, but also dish one out. Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard's film adaptation of Peter Morgan's stage play, kicks Nixon around, but it also lets him kick back, as TV personality (not journalist or reporter, but personality) David Frost faces Nixon in a series of 1977 interviews for an ambitious, expensive and poorly-planned multi-night TV broadcast. Why would Nixon agree to an on-camera inquisition? Because Frost paid him -- $600,000 -- for the chance to do so, and because Nixon thought it might be a chance to re-emerge from his exile after resigning the presidency in 1974. Two men, their careers in decline, circling each other for a shot at redemption: Frost (Michael Sheen) is wagering his fortune on the chance to re-make his reputation; Nixon (Frank Langella), with neither reputation or fortune, is desperate for a chance to escape infamy.

But Frost/Nixon is not simply the equivalent of Thunderdome for readers of The Nation, where two men enter and one man leaves. Morgan's script is smart enough to make sure there are things hidden under that clash, a quieter film about character and communication, modern media and ancient principles. And we also get the interview field of combat, which drapes the slick surface of modern manners over the kind of brute, bloody battle you normally see only in nature documentaries. The film, like Frost's interviews, is not merely about Watergate -- which is good, because we have, I should think, drained that well of venality fairly dry -- but instead about bigger issues of accountability and process and principle. Frost, stripped of all pretense, was asking Nixon a good question: Who the hell do you think you are? Nixon, stripped of all pretense, was asking an equally good question: Who the hell are you to ask?

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game Frost and Nixon both played religiously once they were done talking about that whole Watergate thing. Last week we asked you to dish out a caption or several in honor of a little film the kids like to call "OMG ... I luv you Robert Pattinson!" The rest of us, however, use the title Twilight. We had tons of submissions, and at the end of the day we went with the one that didn't "suck". Heh. Get it? I'm lame. Congrats Jennifer!



1. "So, I thought you said you would try to lay off the garlic bread for a while..." -- Jennifer B.

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This week we're listening in on a very important (and historic) series of interviews between Richard Nixon and David Frost in the buzzed-about Frost/Nixon, directed by Ron Howard and starring Frank Langella (Nixon) and Michael Sheen (Frost). The three folks behind our favorite captions this week will slip away with one Frost/Nixon poster, one Frost/Nixon t-shirt, and one Frost/Nixon hat. Sound off below ...



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