DVDs This Week

Pick of the Week

There Will Be Blood – Probably the best film released in this country this year, a total redefinition of film language and featuring a titanic performance, this is an unqualified masterpiece. It’s a brutal story and works on more meta levels that you’d care to recite, but perhaps still the most unsung praise must go to Jonny Greenwood’s crashing score, a dissonant swirl that fits the breadth and intensity of the movie. A genuine work of art.

Also out

The Bucket List – Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson do stuff before they die. Sounds and is crap.
The Accidental Husband – Yep. That bad.
The Gameplan – The Rock is always watchable and this looks like a decent effort for the kids.
Water Lilies – Not seen but apparently an effective coming of age story.
My Left Foot – Pretty excellent biography starring Daniel Day Lewis in his first Oscar winning turn.
Frontiers – Xavier Gens-helmed gorno rubbish.

Link Strawberries

JoBlo has a new clip from Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr is THE MAN.

Emma, hip hop musical style! Ooooh, she gonna get serrrved!

EW has a list of Daniel Day Lewis’ best ever roles.

Darren Aronofsky is writing a show for AMC.

Errol Morris is moving into fiction.

The reaction to Oliver Stone’s script about George W Bush has been mixed among biographers of the World’s Most Powerful Buffoon.

IndieWire has a review of The Visitor, the new film from The Station Agent director Tom McCarthy.

MGM is defending its decision to delay Valkyrie.

Bright Lights After Dark has a tribute to Bette Davis on her centenary.

Top Model reject Clare bitches away to TV Guide.

The AV Club interviews John Krasinski and profiles the career of Thomas Haden Church.

Bobby Cannavale is to star in the updated version of Cupid from Veronica Mars’ Rob Thomas.

DVD Round Up

Pick of the Week: Rescue Dawn – Terrific true-life POW adventure story starring a method Christian Bale and directed by the greatest of all eccentric geniuses, Werner Herzog. Manages to be a straight-ahead exciting adventure, blackly comic character study and uplifting humanist drama all at once. One of last year’s most underrated films.

Also Out:
Enchanted – Charming post-modernist Disney adventure with Amy Adams sparkling and James Marsden a square-jawed Prince Charming of the highest order.
The Darjeeling Limited – Decent Wes Anderson effort but below par by his standards. Performances are all great but a mixed tone and sense of thematic deja vu wear down a potentially marvellous film.
Mike Leigh Collection: Auterist oeuvre of one of Britain’s finest purveyors of the human spirit.
Hard Eight – Rerelease for Paul Thomas Anderson’s flawed but promising debut film.
Futurama; Bender’s Big Score – Pretty decent feature length effort from Futurama with enough quality gags to keep it from running out of steam.
Entourage Season 3 – Some people like this.

Region 1: There Will Be Blood – The Americans have a two-disc edition of this coming out on Tuesday. There don’t appear to be many extras for a double-disc but honestly, they could just put the film on there twice and I’d still buy it.

Movie Hall of Fame #1: There Will Be Blood

So this column will be a hall of fame for movies following the turn of the century. With the DVD release of the subject coming soon, I thought it appropriate to salute a film I’m not sure has even been matched thus far since 2000.

There Will Be Blood is among the finest works of movie-making I’ve ever witnessed. Prior to its release, the film garnered slavering praise from critics but warnings of impenetrability. The film, while considered already to be the masterpiece of a young filmmaker, was thought too daunting a prospect to capture an audience and could have too much fire in its belly to play with Academy voters.

Oscar Predictions: Betty, Tommy ‘n’ Johnny

So Betty and Tommy need to keep their spirits up and predict what will happen with the Oscar show tonight, trying desperately to keep up with me in the predictions race (which I am winning thanks to the Golden Globes). These are all set out at will win / want to win. Enjoy their losing after the jump.

Oscar Predictions: Picture

Picture Nominees: No Country For Old Men, Atonement, There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, Juno

This one is mighty open this year, given the mixed reaction of key precursors and the differentiation in overall reviews and business. Commercially, Juno should be frontrunner but realistically, the film is only likely to win its one award for Diablo Cody’s script.
Michael Clayton was a surprise and while a good movie, isn’t quite strong enough to contend either. I would probably not even place it among the dark horses.
The dark horse is surely There Will Be Blood, my favourite of the lot and among the finest movies ever made. The film’s reviews have been near perfect but it could be too far dominated by Day Lewis for Academy voters, evidenced by the snub for Paul Dano.
So the other two are frontrunners. Atonement has been loved for the picture nod by the BAFTAs and Golden Globes and could easily nick it. But, it’s unlikely. They will almost never give an award to a film unless it gets a host of others and its snubbing across almost all major categories doesn’t bode well.
Therefore, it’s No Country For Old Men for the win. It’s picked up big love from critic circles and peer awards and is second only to There Will Be Blood for me in the whole competition. It’s got the momentum and surely will just nick it. Don’t be the house though.

Will Win: No Country For Old Men

Should Win: There Will Be Blood or No Country For Old Men

Dark Horse: Atonement

Oscar Predictions: Actor

Actor Nominations: Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood), Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd), George Clooney (Michael Clayton), Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises), Tommy Lee Jones (In The Valley of Elah)

One horse race. I really cannot even envisage somebody beating out Daniel Day Lewis this year seeing as he gave the finest performance of his career. Subsequently, this places it among the top ten male performances of all time. True.
I suppose Clooney and Depp could manage to cause an upset but not only would I not hold my breath, I wouldn’t even close up my nostrils for second. Day Lewis will win, deserves to win and will not be defeated.
It should though be noted that I think both Casey Affleck in Gone Baby Gone, Josh Brolin in No Country For Old Men and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead deserve nods over Depp, Clooney and Mortensen. But there you go. Although, Mortensen should’ve got one for History of Violence. All’s fair, eh?

Who Will Win: Daniel Day Lewis

Who Should Win: Daniel Day Lewis

Dark Horse: Um… Clooney?

Diggin’

Music: I’ve been listening to quite a few records in the last two weeks, helping me to sleep while Betty’s in San Francisco. While making shelves last week I listened to Awesome Color’s self-titled record. They’re a collective from Ann Arbor and strictly adhere to the musical heritage of the town by referencing liberally from the first three Stooges LPs. I’ve also fallen back in love with a host of female singer-songwriters, notably Laura Nyro and Nina Nastasia. On the other side of the coin, I’ve been very much enjoying early Murcof micro-house productions and am currently obsessed with any version of ‘Into The Mystic’ I can find.

Film: It’s been a good time for films but one has towered above the rest. There Will Be Blood ranks right up with the finest American movies I’ve ever seen, a brutal and bleak exploration of capitalist roots and the making of a nation. Daniel Day Lewis is good enough that many other actors may feel giving up could be a good route. Michael Clayton was dense and intelligent, I would expect nothing less from the low-key stable of Clooney. Oddest was Slipstream, the very-little-seen directorial debut of Anthony Hopkins which was utterly baffling until its final reel and honestly, I really liked it. It’s score on Rotten Tomatoes is terrible but it seems like many just were upset that he referenced David Lynch, after they’d recognised this, they put on their protective helmets and prevented themselves from liking it. Or they just hated it. Either way, it deserves more praise than its getting.

TV: I’ve been entrenched in two shows recently, Oz and Battlestar Galactica. Oz was the seed from which HBO grew into its golden age and is still astonishingly shocking, difficult to watch and thoroughly rewarding. A major review of it will soon come to the site as the inaugural part of a new feature. Battlestar I’m loving but not as much as people would want me to. But I can’t deny its qualities; great acting, three dimensional characterisation and, for the budget especially, jaw-dropping special effects. It’s politics are a little muddy and heavy-handed at times but it’s still a fine work.

Books/Comics: I finished RJ Ellory’s A Quiet Belief In Angels which really lost its way and didn’t manage to finish with the same grace it started with. I’m currently on The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright, a history of Al Qaeda and the reason for 9/11 happening. It won the Pulitzer last year and it’s just fantastically written and utterly fascinating. I can hear the sound of Republicans everywhere not understanding the need for a book on the subject.  I just got through the tenth volume of Powers which I’ve been awaiting for flipping ages and I got the Best American Comics 2007 which is just marvellous. Edited by Chris Ware and packed with clever, odd little strips.

Anything Else: I’m really liking The Guardian at the moment, it just seems better than all other papers despite the spelling errors. Also magazines are still piling up and the decisions haven’t been made on what to subscribe too! I’m currently working on three new subscriptions as a frame so maybe you can help me decide. The choices are: The Economist, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, GQ (US Edition), Details, Newsweek. What do you think folks? Is there one I’m missing…

Awards Discussion

Well, I suppose not really a discussion with it only being me here but hell, I’m gonna have a darn good go. Awards season is in full swing now with all sorts of critics circles and guilds throwing awards left, right, centre and backwards. Concentration though has been heavily on the BAFTAs and the upcoming Oscars as we anticipate a night of easy predictions.

The precursors to the Oscars have been solid enough this year, mostly following a pattern of trying to give awards to everyone and their mother. The BAFTAs did this to the nth degree, handing out the awards so thinly across the major categories that the eventual big winner on the night was the flawed one woman show La Vie En Rose. That Marion Cotillard is incredible in the film is undoubted, but the prestige that holds hands with winning the most BAFTAs perhaps shouldn’t have been bestowed on a film that came nowhere close to a Best Film nod.

That said, Cotillard is my new favourite person. Her speech was about as cute as watching two tiny pups try to climb into a bobble hat. Better was the surprise on the faces of people in the audience who expected us stuffy Brits to awards our own and give the talentless Keira her award. Julie Christie would have been more deserving but Cotillard was better. Mainly though thanks should go to all and sunder who did not give anything to Knightley. The woman can’t act and has the body of a thirteen-year old boy.

Anthony Hopkins winning a fellowship was very touching but here’s the mistake. No clips at all from Fracture, The Edge or The Human Stain. The first is a masterclass in cheeky winking, the second sees him call a bear a ‘motherfucker’ and the third, well, he plays an African-American. Yeah. That’s right. But otherwise he deserved it. Remains of the Day contains his finest performance of the lot, a work of emotional art.

Best moments of the night though. First was Daniel Day Lewis’ slightly eccentric but very enjoyable speech about South London and then playmates. The man might be a little odd but his performance in There Will Be Blood is undersung despite the praise. Best since De Niro in Raging Bull or at least Spacey in American Beauty. Then there was This Is England, the visceral and touching work of personal socio-politics by Shane Meadows which won Best British Film. Deserving in every way.

The most lovely though was Javier Bardem’s marvellous speech after winning for No Country For Old Men in which he referred to the Coens as ‘Mummy and Daddy’. His performance deserved the win and so it felt only fair that he should have his moment.

So onwards to the Oscars and we will have predictions soon. On this form, Atonement looks good for the picture win even if it wins nothing else. Day Lewis is a shoe-in and Cotillard is far from a dark horse now. I suppose the most interesting category will be Supporting Actress. I was certain Cate Blanchett would sweep everything as Dylan but darn if Tilda Swinton didn’t nab one away in her bizarre Japanese bee costume.  More awards talk soon. Tuck up folks, see you soon.

Link Hurts

Punk god and motormouth champion of the people Henry Rollins talks to The Guardian.

PopSugar asks a very pertinent question: Is Katherine Heigl really the most desirable of all the fair maidens in the land?

A favour to all as those most Spicey of Girls cancel some dates.

I keep on hearing about this book so I thought I should pass on some of the hype.

Francois Vincent takes his chance on McSweeney’s to recast articles from Maxim into sociological studies.

Slate asks when America will embrace the genius of Pingu.

Cracked.com has a list of the worst ever half-time performers at the Super Bowl.

The Independent, always so quick to leap upon a rumour, thinks Daniel Day Lewis might win an Oscar…

USA Today is looking forward to eight movies that this link will list for you.

Harp is loving the new folky Goldfrapp.

Many are excited about the xBox 360 release for Rez 3D.