milk Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In the last few years, Emile Hirsch has become a go-to resource for directors of all sorts of films: After starring in Sean Penn's Into the Wild, Hirsch took on the reins of Speed Racer, a massive, effects-driven action film from The Matrix's Wachowski brothers, and then collaborated on screen with Penn again, in a supporting but essential role in Gus Van Sant's Milk. In his latest project, Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, Hirsch tackles yet another period character, this time playing a young Vietnam veteran who regains a little bit of his humanity when the iconic music festival descends on his hometown.

Cinematical recently spoke to Hirsch in an exclusive telephone interview about his role in Taking Woodstock. In addition to discussing the challenges of bringing a character to life whose behavior, if not very identity, has become as familiar to audiences as the imagery of Woodstock itself, Hirsch revealed some of the sources of inspiration he took for his portrayal, and talked about the futility of coming up with a strategy for one's acting career.

Cinematical: The character you played in Into the Wild had his own tragic past, but the way that he dealt with it was with a greater degree of serenity. Did you see any parallels or similarities when you took on this role in Taking Woodstock?

400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.

The Oscars are history now and soon people won't even be able to remember the winners. But I keep thinking about that Best Actor race that came down to a near-draw between Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler (291 screens) and Sean Penn for Milk (111 screens). My group, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, simply called it a tie. We agreed that both men gave the performance of their lifetimes. Other critics groups and other year-end awards also split between them; there was no clear consensus. For my annual predictions, I went with my gut on this one: I got the vague impression that, just from the cultural temperature, people were really into Rourke. But Penn won. And now that it's over -- with some hindsight -- it makes perfect sense. The Oscars didn't want to ruin The Wrestler for us.

Milk
Sean Penn won an Academy Award for his portrayal of openly gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, and Dustin Lance Black won another for his script, which focused on Milk's activist years in the 1970s. "It's a minor miracle of sheer film making joy and determination," wrote James Rocchi, "and one of the best American films of 2008." With deleted scenes and mini-features "Remembering Harvey," "Hollywood Comes to San Francisco," and "Marching for Equality." Also on Blu-ray. Buy it.

Add to Netflix queue. | Buy at Amazon.

Let the Right One In
My top pick from last year is a dramatic thriller about vampires and young people, old souls and eternal fears, yearning for the unobtainable and the inevitable pains of loving another person. Director Tomas Alfredson takes a traditional tale -- the youngster who is picked on and the new friend who helps -- and rubs in a touch of supernatural, a touch of the old world, and a touch of heart on the sleeve, wrapping it in beauty and agony. Also on Blu-ray. Buy it.

Add to Netflix queue. | Buy at Amazon.

Transporter 3
I have no easy defense of my love for Jason Statham as Frank Martin in the Transporter films. Suffice it to say that the action -- fights, car stunts, people stunts -- keeps me occupied, the plots are not hard to track, and I like the interplay between the main character and Inspector Tarconi (François Berléand). In this episode, Jeroen Krabbé as the bad guy is a nice bonus. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

Add to Netflix queue. | Buy at Amazon.

Also out: Cadillac Records, Role Models. After the jump: a bounty of Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray Picks, plus Collector's Corner.

We've all been there before: You're invited to some cool kids Oscar party, but you're afraid to go because you didn't even see half the nominated films. And you just know everyone will be chatting up this year's nominees as if they directed the films themselves, leaving you tired, scared and alone off shivering in the corner near those tasty mini franks. But what if you had some sort of cheat sheet -- like a guide that shows you how to fake your way through any Oscars party? Would that help?

Luckily, our peeps over at Moviefone have flown in to rescue those last-minute Oscar bandwagon fans who desperately want to pretend they know all about Frozen River ("It's kind of like 'Maria Full of Grace' meets 'Fargo.'"), Milk ("It's got a positive, uplifting message that anyone -- gay or straight -- can connect with."), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ("It's kind of like 'Forrest Gump' meets 'Cocoon.'"), Slumdog Millionaire ("The dance scene at the end made me want to run out and rent a week's worth of Bollywood movies.") and those other Oscar-nominated movies ... even if they didn't yet have a chance to actually watch them. So head on over to Moviefone to snag some of these fantastic one-liners, then thank us later ... after you impress your friends and woo everyone with your slick, snarky movie knowledge.

Also on Moviefone: Oscars Made Easy. Still trying to decide which films to see before the big event on Sunday? Check out this very cool break down on all the Oscar contenders, and use it to help steer you in the right direction.

When the Oscar nominations are announced, it almost always causes an uptick in the box office for whichever titles are still in theaters. This increase in attention also leads more people to rate the films at the Internet Movie Database (whether they've actually seen them or not), and Ryan Adams at Awards Daily has noticed a strange trend: Milk's multiple Oscar nominations led to a precipitous decline in its popularity. Wait, what?

Adams has a graph showing various films' positions on IMDb's Top 250, which are determined by users rating each film on a scale of 1-10. There are day-to-day fluctuations, especially when a film is still current, but Milk was holding steady at around #180. Then, as soon as the Oscar nominations were announced last Thursday, Milk took a serious nosedive. Within 24 hours, it had dropped from #182 to #211. The decline has continued, and it now sits at #223.

Why the sudden and huge backlash? Surely all those people giving it a "1" rating didn't all hurry out and see it -- and hate it -- the day the Oscar nods were announced. Either they'd already seen it and hated it and weren't motivated to express their disdain until after it got so much Oscar attention; or else they still haven't seen it and hate it anyway. When so many people cast "1" votes in such a short span of time, it's hard to believe those are the true opinions of actual viewers of the film.

Adams' theory is that these are gay-haters who can't stand the idea of a gay-themed film doing well with critics and the Academy. He notes that a similar drop-off happened with Brokeback Mountain three years ago. There's no way to know if that's really what's happening, but it's a plausible theory, especially with things like California's Proposition 8 putting gay rights in the news so much recently.

"Oh, good grief, it's Oscar."
--Lucille Bluth, "Arrested Development"

(The following post is written to the tune of Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler," which was not among those nominated for Best Original Song when the 81st Academy Award nominations were announced earlier today.)

Have you ever seen a one trick pony in the field so happy and free?
We'd call 'em by another name, the Academy
Have you ever seen a piece of pap that they all wouldn't eat?
If you've ever seen that Crash, then you'd agree.

Then you'd agree, The Dark Knight should've had more of a shot
Then you'd agree, Gran Torino deserved to go home with naught
Then you'd agree, I'm struggling to come up with just one more bon mot
Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?
We sure as hell would've asked for a whole lot more

Couldn't Let the Right One In have been recognized outside of Foreign?
If they'd even seen that movie, then they'd agree
Didn't The Reader leave most of these guys snorin'?
If they'd stayed up for this movie, then they'd agree

Then you'd agree, Dear Zachary... shouldn't have been snubbed from the start
Then you'd agree, The Fall was a tremendous work of art (direction)
Then you'd agree, they left off Gommorah too, old fart after old fart
Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?
We really would've asked for a whole lot more

Those nods that have comforted me, I drive away
For all of Milk's attention, I just cannot feel gay
The snubs here and there have caused far too much dismay

Have you ever seen a year where AMPAS actually got it right?
I'll plan to watch something else that February night...

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.

400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.

This year we've got at least three biopics jockeying for space in the year-end awards, just like every year. Biopics continue alternately to fascinate and disappoint me. I've already written at length about how these movies tend to be roughly the same, following much the same format and formula (and brilliantly spoofed in last year's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story). And I've written about how they're instant award-magnets, causing nearly every artist in Hollywood to scour every last barrel bottom for any famous person's life story that hasn't yet been filmed. So for them, here's a handy dandy field guide to getting awards.

Best Bet: War heroes or political figures. In 1970, was any other movie going to beat Patton for a bunch of Oscars? Robert Altman's M*A*S*H may have been more popular and more artistic, but it didn't have Patton. In 1982, Gandhi beat out the infinitely superior Blade Runner. Schindler's List (1993) counts too. So does Erin Brockovich (2000). And this year, though I'm not ready to bet the farm just yet, it looks like Milk (309 screens) could be the big winner. Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon (205 screens) will probably get some nominations this year, but it's hard for old Tricky Dick to stack up against Harvey. Exceptions to the rule: you have to clearly define your character as either a hero or a villain. Sorry Oliver Stone, no Nixon or W. Malcolm X (1992) came close, but it was a bit too subversive for voters. Forest Whitaker's award-winning Idi Amin was actually the villain of that film, so his purpose was clear. This year Steven Soderbergh's Che (2 screens) is worthy, but a bit too complex for voters, failing to explain whether or not they should actually like Che.

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.

Nominations for the 61st annual Writers Guild of America awards are in, with a lot of names that will probably come up again in two weeks, when the Oscar nominations are announced.

In the original screenplay category, the films and their authors are Burn After Reading (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen), Milk (Dustin Lance Black), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen), The Visitor (Tom McCarthy), and The Wrestler (Robert Siegel). The Coens won WGA awards for Fargo and No Country for Old Men, and Allen has won four times, most recently for 1990's Crimes & Misdemeanors.

For adapted screenplay, the nominees are: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Eric Roth), The Dark Knight (Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan), Doubt (John Patrick Shanley), Frost/Nixon (Peter Morgan), and Slumdog Millionaire (Simon Beaufoy). Roth previously won this award for Forrest Gump, and Shanley won for Moonstruck. If you're wondering, The Dark Knight counts as "adapted" because it uses pre-existing characters. (The Oscars have the same rule.)

What does this mean for Oscar-watchers? In the adapted category, of the 120 nominees since 1984 (prior to that the WGA had separate categories for drama and comedy), 90 of them -- 75% -- have also been nominated for Oscars. But 11 of those WGA-but-not-Oscar nominees have happened in the last eight years alone, and some folks think the WGA-omitted Revolutionary Road and/or The Reader might get some Oscar love.

The original screenplay category is almost exactly the same story, with 31 WGA nominees not getting Oscar nods, 14 of those in the last eight years. Among the much-praised original screenplays that might get Oscar attention despite being overlooked by the WGA are Rachel Getting Married and Synecdoche, New York.

The WGA awards will be announced Feb. 7. You can see the entire list of nominees, including documentaries and TV shows (yay 30 Rock!), here.