murderball Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I still don't understand the success of March of the Penguins. I don't understand the film's popularity, and I really don't understand how it beat Murderball for the documentary Oscar. I do understand its influence, though. Yes, Happy Feet was coincidentally in production before the release of the penguin doc, but as far as the public knows, the animated movie is coming on the heels of March, and it should be of help to Warner Bros. that kids might be hungry for more penguins (not literally, of course). Earlier this month, the New York Times featured an article on the penguin craze and mentioned other related movies coming out in the near and distant future, including Surf's Up, a Madagascar sequel and a long-in-the-works Opus picture. Of course, there's also Bob Saget's March parody, Farce of the Penguins, which heads straight-to-DVD in January.

But what about the nature documentary? What influence has March of the Penguins had on its genre as opposed to its subject? Obviously, Hollywood isn't so keen on celebrating the medium, especially when that medium is one typically associated with the Discovery Channel and other cable outlets more than with theatrical box office gold. Sure, before March of the Penguins there was Winged Migration, another doc about birds that grossed about $11 million domestically, but compared to March's $77 million domestic earnings, that can easily be forgotten in studio execs' memories.

Hey, we might not be the biggest film snobs here at Cinematical, but when it comes to Jackass Number Two, we seem to be above it. Erik was surprised and a little bit scared to see it rise to the top of last weekend's box office. James, also shocked, suggested a reason for its successful opening. Even I thought it was too stupid to bother with, and had even planned to avoid phone calls from those friends who might attempt to peer pressure me into seeing it with them. Alas, I'm an easy one to break, and on Saturday night we got boozed up with Texas-size margaritas at Dallas BBQ, headed to the theater with the liveliest crowds in Brooklyn, and watched Jackass Number Two. And, of course, I laughed my ass off. Why? Because I'm a normal human being with a sense of humor. And no attempts at being cynical, snobbish or above it could keep me from splitting my sides for almost 90 minutes straight.

I won't go so far as to say Jackass Number Two is the funniest movie of the year; I'm still sure that I'll laugh more during Borat, but it is at least the funniest thing I've seen this year. And let me point out that without the tequila and the rowdy audience, I would probably have laughed just as much. It isn't simply the ridiculous stunts and pranks and gross-out gags that makes the film so funny, either. It is the wonderful group of guys, who are constantly as curious, afraid, amazed and yes, even above the bits as their audience is. The fact that some of them occasionally show disdain for the whole project and swear off even thinking of doing a third film shows that these aren't just a bunch of idiots who like playing with fire (and snakes, sharks, terrorism, riot weapons, horse excrement and semen and, best of all, Busby Berkeley musical routines); they are witty entertainers who can take a lot of pain and suffering for the enjoyment of the viewer.

Besides, if Murderball's Mark Zupan can allow himself to be shot off a pier into a lake, then surely we can all sit through a silly film like Jackass Number Two for an hour and a half.

Remakes are always defended in ways that make the general public appear as idiots. Old films are remade because people don't remember, foreign films are remade because people don't like to read subtitles and documentaries are remade because they teach us stuff. But any documentary that can be remade as a dramatic feature is different from docs that just teach us stuff. They already have an engaging narrative and interesting characters -- otherwise producers wouldn't see the remake potential. Rather than finding new ways to market enjoyable docs to moviegoers, I guess it's easier to do the remake, so filmmakers have an easy movie to make and sell, therefore providing two films to be profited on.

I guess the reason that I'm even more angry this time is because Murderball, which has inspired an upcoming project for director James Mangold, is probably the most entertaining, most easily accessible documentary that has ever existed. Sure it teaches us stuff, but it's also hilarious, action-packed and feel-good. Besides, nobody could play lead murderball (aka wheelchair rugby) player Mark Zupan in a way that would better his own appearance in the Oscar-nominated, Sundance-winning doc. Certainly not Eminem, who expressed an interest last year.

Today Show critic Gene Shalit may not love those gay cowboys (yes, we know, they're sheepherders, but "cowboys" sounds so much more rugged and manly), but the rest of the film critics sure do. Brokeback Mountain stomped all over the competition at the Broadcast Film Critics Association's Critics' Choice Awards, snagging wins in three cats, including Best Picture. The film also won honors for Michelle Williams for Best Supporting Actress, in an award shared with Amy Adams for Junebug, and for Ang Lee as Best Director. The BFCA wins bode well for the films shot at Oscar gold next month - five of the six past years winners of Best Picture at the Critics' Choice.

Brokeback's Heath Ledger lost out to Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Capote, and Reese Witherspoon declared, "I love critics! This year, anyway," as she took the Best Actress prize for her portrayal of June Carter in Walk the Line. Paul Giamatti snuck in a surprise victory over George Clooney for Best Supporting Actor, while Crash won the screenplay and ensemble awards.  March of the Penguins continued to dominate the documentary scene, beating out Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Murderball, Mad Hot Ballroom and Grizzly Man, in a race that could end up closely mirroring the Oscars. However, two documentaries that I think should get noms - Favela Rising and Boys of Baraka - were ignored in the Critics' noms in spite of Favela Rising winning the International Documentary Association's top award for feature lenth documentaries in November (actually Favela shared the award with another film, Our Brand is Crisis, but still, other documentary filmmakers thought it rocked). Look for interviews with directors of several documentaries on the Oscar shortlist within the next month here on Cinematical, because we love you, and we know you need your serious film talk to wash the taste of Bloodrayne out of your mouths. 

Complete list of 2005 Critics Award winners and nominees is here.