sicko Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Film Clips: Why Aren't You Going to See Documentaries?
Filed under: Documentary », Distribution », Exhibition », DIY/Filmmaking », Movie Marketing », Columns », Film Clips », Cinematical Indie », Polls »
Over at indieWIRE, Anthony Kaufman has an excellent piece up on Michael Moore's proposal that theaters across America designate a night each week at "Doc Night at the Movies." Citing the dismal box office returns for docs in the past year (only Moore's Sicko, No End in Sight, and In the Shadow of the Moon grossed over a million dollars), Kaufman seems intrigued by Moore's proposal, if somewhat skeptical it would work. Kaufman raises some interesting points about the feasibility of a "Doc Night," including these questions:
- Who will select the documentaries that are chosen? And on what basis will they be chosen?
- Will the documentaries already have distributors or not? Or will there be a mix?
- Will participating filmmakers pay a fee? Or conversely, will they get a split of the ticket sales?
- If most multiplexes are film-only, and the majority of documentaries are finished in a high-definition digital format, how will they be screened? Will expensive projectors be rented? Or will filmmakers need to pay for costly film transfers?
Cinema Eye Awards: What was Your Favorite Doc of 2007?
Filed under: Documentary », Awards », Fandom », Cinematical Indie »
Back in January, we wrote about director AJ Schnack's (Kurt Cobain: About a Son) efforts to create awards for non-fiction filmmaking that would be ... somewhat more relevant than the Academy Awards. Back when the Oscar shortlist for docs came out, Schnack wrote an angry diatribe about the process and the films selected (and, more importantly, those that were not selected) that echoed the sentiments of many of us who write about, or make, documentary films. Although I'm not at all displeased that Alex Gibney ultimately won the Oscar for Taxi to the Dark Side, and would have been equally happy if No End in Sight had won, there were some glaring omissions in the Oscar shortlist that were truly appalling, most notably In the Shadow of the Moon and King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.
Jeffrey M. Anderson's 400 Screens, 400 Blows - The Oscar Grouch
Filed under: Awards », Oscar Watch », Columns », 400 Screens, 400 Blows »
As my wife said, it's just not the Oscars if there's nothing to complain about. However, I was impressed that two of the year's toughest films, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (389 screens) and Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men took the most nominations. Typically, the Academy is attracted to much less challenging and easy-to-categorize films (like Atonement). Both films are fairly bleak in their vision, but I suspect There Will Be Blood will sneak out ahead for two reasons: it's an epic, and epics almost always win. And, to quote a character from Sunset Boulevard, it "says a little something" about the current sociopolitical climate.
One of the biggest controversies cropped up over the foreign film category, which came up with five nominations that no one has ever heard of. (The Counterfeiters opens sometime next month and Mongol opens in June.) Not to mention that they ignored top contenders like 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (opening this week) and Persepolis (30 screens). Thankfully the outrage has begun discussions on changing the stupid, ancient rules for the category. Currently these rules require each country to submit one film, and multi-national films, such as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (107 screens), to be disqualified. A small group of "specialists," rather than the Academy as a whole, votes on the small list of films. The documentary category was less obscure, and although I saw 19 documentaries in 2007, I only managed to see two of the five nominees, No End in Sight and Sicko. I have an Academy screener for Operation Homecoming that I hope to catch soon, and Taxi to the Dark Side (1 screen) is screening for Bay Area press next week.
Satellite Awards: No Longer Space Junk; Now Just Boring Junk
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Awards », Michael Moore »
I was a little hard on the International Press Academy last year, but they made some ridiculous decisions when handing out their Satellite Awards. Still, at least they came off as being different than every other year-end awards giver by picking winners like Joseph Cross and X-Men: The Last Stand (best comedic actor and best editing, respectively). Those are at least some interesting, unpredictable picks, right? This year, I feel the need to be harder on the organization, because it's gone totally predictable in honoring No Country for Old Men, Juno, Sicko, American Gangster, Ratatouille, Diablo Cody and Christopher Hampton, among others. The actors they honored -- Marion Cotillard, Viggo Mortensen, Ellen Page, Ryan Gosling, Tom Wilkinson/Casey Affleck (tied) and Amy Ryan -- aren't all the most obvious choices, but they aren't shocking, either. Couldn't they have at least gone with nominee Clive Owen or his nominated "comedy or musical" Shoot 'Em Up (!?!?!?), or something?Not that the winners aren't deserving, but what good is yet another awards ceremony if it's not going to distinguish itself from the Golden Globes, which are the Satellite's unrecognized yet unmistakable "baby daddy". Yeah, the Hollywood Foreign Press will likely go with some other winners, but they won't seem that different. Again, I do salute the IPA for having a documentary category, though it wouldn't have hurt to give The King of Kong its one possible prestigious(?) award -- not that it was actually a better film than fellow nominee No End in Sight. Also, it's always enjoyable to see what the IPA picks for best DVDs (The Prestige for overall; Borat and Masters of Horror Season 1 (tied) for extras; Ratatouille for youth-oriented; Ken Burns' The War for documentary; The Graduate 40th Anniversary Edition for classic). For the rest of the nominees and winners, head over to Variety.
L.A., New York, Boston, and D.C. Critics Announce Year-End Awards
Filed under: Awards », Newsstand », Oscar Watch »
Christmas time isn't only for Santa and kidlets. In the world of cinema, some filmmakers and actors get notable awards to scatter amongst their presents, while others only get to scatter empty space and the dismal tarnish of broken dreams. As films push to get themselves into the running before the ball drops, critics have started to share their picks. So, while we were all enjoying our weekends, the Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and D.C. critics were picking their best films of the year. B-town was all over a certain country for old folks, while the others were crazy for a little blood. Many of the critics picked the same films, so peruse this list and weigh in on who/what they're all forgetting about.Here are the lucky winners, all courtesy of Variety:
Los Angeles
Paul Thomas Anderson was victorious in LaLa land, with his most recent film, There Will Be Blood -- the story of a Texan prospector during the early days of the oil business. The film nabbed the best picture slot, best director, best actor for Daniel Day Lewis, best production design for Jack Fisk, and then runner-up slots for screenplay, music, and cinematography.
Julian Schnabel also made a solid showing with The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the story about French Elle EIC Jean-Dominique Bauby and the stroke that changed his life. The film won only the award for best cinematography for Janusz Kaminski, but it received some runner-up nods as well -- best picture, director, and foreign language film.
Other winners include: La Vie en rose, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, and a tie between Ratatouille and Persepolis for best animated feature.
'Into the Wild' and 'Sicko' Are Top Winners At Gotham Awards
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Independent », Awards », Michael Moore », Cinematical Indie »
IFP's 17th annual Gotham Awards were held Tuesday night in Brooklyn, honoring the best in independent film for 2007. With only six categories, the Gothams seem like a pretty reasonable alternative to the bloated spectacles of certain other award ceremonies I could name. Sean Penn's Into the Wild (pictured) took Best Picture honors, beating out Great World of Sound, I'm Not There, Margot at the Wedding, and The Namesake. Michael Moore's healthcare exposé Sicko won Best Documentary, up against The Devil Came on Horseback, Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains, My Kid Could Paint That, and Taxi to the Dark Side.
Since this is the first awards event of the season, a victory here could be seen as a good sign for the Golden Globes and Oscars. Sicko was probably a shoo-in for an Oscar nod anyway, but Into the Wild definitely needed the boost, since the field of excellent films this year is especially crowded.
The Best Ensemble Cast category had some heavyweights -- Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, The Last Winter, Margot at the Wedding, The Savages, and Talk to Me -- and apparently the juries couldn't choose, because Before the Devil and Talk to Me shared the award.
Craig Zobel was named Breakthrough Director for his music-biz satire Great World of Sound, which had more nominations (three) than any other film. Juno's Ellen Page took the Breakthrough Actor award.
The sixth category is my personal favorite: Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You, honoring a flick that's been well-received at festivals but that hasn't gotten distribution yet. The winner was Frownland, Ronald Bronstein's dyspeptic do-it-yourself quasi-comedy about a neurotic, stammering mess of a man. I saw it at South By Southwest and loathed every frame of it; others have adored it. It's that kind of movie.
The Hollywood Reporter has more details on the ceremony itself, which also included tributes to Roger Ebert, director Mira Nair, actor Javier Bardem, production designer Mark Friedberg, IFC Center founder Jonathan Sehring, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The ceremony will be broadcast on NYC TV and The Documentary Channel on Dec. 4 and 8.
Academy Shortlists 15 Docs
Filed under: Documentary », Foreign Language », Independent », Politics », Oscar Watch », Religious », Cinematical Indie », War »
Documentary filmmakers deserve much more love and attention than they receive. One way to get more attention is to make the list of 15 documentaries short-listed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Variety has this year's list and cites three Iraq War-themed films as being "center stage": Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro's Body of War, Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight (which Cinematical's Kim Voynar gave high marks when it played at Sundance) and Richard Robbins' Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience.Kim is a self-styled "documentary dork" -- her words, not mine -- and wrote a column two months ago about films she thought "have (or ought to have) a shot at Oscar gold." She included No End in Sight, as well as the following docs that all made the short list: Sean Fine and Andrea Nix-Fine's War/Dance, Michael Moore's Sicko, Daniel Karslake's For the Bible Tells Me So, and Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's Nanking. Kim was pulling for Logan Smalley's Darius Goes West, which sadly did not make the list. Other notable exclusions included David Singleton's In the Shadow of the Moon and Seth Gordon's The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.
Here are the remaining eight that did make the list. First, the ones we've covered so far: Tony Kaye's Lake of Fire, Richard Berge and Bonni Cohen's The Rape of Europa, Weijun Chen's Please Vote for Me and Peter Raymont's A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman. Next, the ones we haven't seen yet: Steven Okazaki's White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (which has played on HBO), Alex Gibney's Taxi to the Dark Side (due for release in January), Bill Haney's The Price of Sugar and Tricia Regan's Autism: The Musical.
Now the Academy's Documentary Branch will review the 15 films and narrow the list still further to the final five nominees, which will be announced on January 22.
DVD Picks of the Week: 'Ratatouille' and 'Sicko'
Filed under: DVD Reviews », New on DVD », Home Entertainment », Michael Moore », Hold the 'Fone »
Ratatouille
Really, what else is there to say about the omnipotence of Pixar? How about this: They're robots from outer-space that have concocted a flawless entertainment formula (typically blending visual mastery, imaginative storytelling, witty humor and John Ratzenberger) that wins over critics and normal human beings alike time and again (even if Cars showed a few slight glitches in the matrix). What's scary is that Ratatouille is one of their best films yet, easily among their top three. What's even scarier is that they appear to challenging themselves, "What can't we make audiences fall in love with? How about a rat who cooks?!" Well, turns out Remy (Patton Oswald) is the most lovable rodent since Splinter, and has surely given his species a fighting chance to coexist more fruitfully with future generations of humanoids. Just think how many kids pleaded for pet rats after this one (hey, hamsters are close). Young buck Peter O'Toole continues chewing up the scenery as a stuffy food critic (Pixar's revenge for the staggering 24% percent of critics on Rottentomatoes who didn't deem Cars fresh pickings?), while Lou Romano marks the studio's latest in-house talent to thrive as the voice of Remy's man-pal Linguini. You have eight months to enjoy repeated viewings of Ratatouille on DVD before Pixar's next film drops: It's called Wall-E, and it's about -- get this -- robots in outer-space.
Read Erik's full DVD review | Go inside the Ratatouille DVD at Pixar
Indies on DVD: 'Flanders,' 'Pretty Things,' 'Blame It on Fidel'
Filed under: Documentary », Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Thrillers », New on DVD », The Weinstein Co. », Cinematical Indie »
The biggest indie release this week is Michael Moore's Sicko, which we've already covered extensively. I admit to a blind spot regarding Moore -- I think he's sincere in wanting to change things for the better, but his methods and approach drive me nuts -- so I'll just note that The Weinstein Co. DVD is filled with supplemental features and move on to less publicized films.Just as controversial in its own way, Bruno Dumont's Flanders (pictured) debuted at Cannes last year, sparking passionate response, mainly in a negative vein. Our own James Rocchi called it "slow, turgid, bleak and brutal ... watching Dumont try and craft allegories and deeper meanings out of the petty interactions of his thinly-crafted characters and their meaningless actions and cruelties is a bitter experience." Other critics liked it much more, though, so I remain stubbornly intrigued. The DVD from Koch Releasing appears to be bare bones.
I'm also curious about Pretty Things (Les Jolies Choses) because it features Marion Cotillard in a dual role as "a goody-goody and her evil twin." Variety further described the film as "a blistering music-biz romp." Cotillard made a huge splash as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose this year. I'd love to give this action thriller a spin. The DVD, also from Koch Releasing, is likewise without supplemental features.
Blame It on Fidel follows a nine-year-old girl trying to make sense of a world gone mad: Europe in the early 1970s as her parents suddenly become politically active, throwing her life into turmoil. The movie slipped completely under my radar, but it received very positive reviews when it was released earlier this year. Koch Releasing's DVD includes a "making of" feature, behind the scenes segments, and deleted scenes presented by director Julie Gavras.
Documentary Group to Give Michael Moore a Career Achievement Award
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Awards », Michael Moore », Cinematical Indie »
With five feature documentaries under his substantial belt and plenty more on TV, Michael Moore will be honored Dec. 7 with the International Documentary Association's Career Achievement Award. That's right: For many conservatives, Dec. 7 is a date which will live in infamy all over again. A statement from IDA president Diane Estelle Vicari says, "Michael Moore still has many more extraordinary films ahead of him. Our members are thankful for his fearless commitment to tell compelling stories. He is a role model for young documentary filmmakers everywhere in the world."
Personally, I disagree with that last part. I don't think would-be filmmakers should emulate him. Even though I agree with almost all the points he makes in his films, I'm often embarrassed by his antics and shenanigans. His most recent, Sicko, was his sloppiest yet, and Moore shot himself in the foot by behaving like a buffoon.
Dec. 7 is also the night of the IDA's general awards, the nominees for which were previously announced. Moore's already a contender there, as Sicko is up for best feature-length documentary. He's no stranger to the IDA awards, having previously won for Roger & Me and Fahrenheit 9/11.
The IDA was founded in 1982. Previous Career Achievement honorees include William Greaves, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Jean Rouch, and David Attenborough.
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Gwyneth Paltrow Joins Nicole Kidman in 'The Danish Girl'
Discuss: The Movies That Haunt You
