Continuing in our look back on the last decade, Screenhead examines the major movie events of the year 2008. For previous years, click to visit the article: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.

The Year of the Dark Knight

As mentioned in the look back on 2007, there seemed to be a dissonance between talent and money in Hollywood, with big budget movies getting critically hammered by critics and public alike. But all that changed in 2008. No one can argue that the biggest and most important film of the year was The Dark Knight. In 2005 Christopher Nolan had won back audiences, after the awful Batman and Robin, with the dark and grittier reboot Batman Begins. Many analysts claimed that while the film performed well ($370 million worldwide), it only didn’t do better due to backlash against the previous Batman film. So by the time the teaser trailers appeared in late 2007 there was already a salivating fanbase counting the days. Rumours were circulating that Heath Ledger’s performance as Batman’s nemesis Joker was one of cinema’s finest. When Ledger died in January 2008 (see below) the incident created a sense of foreboding relating to the character, although some felt that the death would be an incentive not to watch the film. By the time the film was released in July, it instantly started breaking box-office records left, right, and centre.

The film may have been two and a half hours long, but its popularity was due to Christopher Nolan’s unrelentingly bleak vision. Ledger’s Joker is a grotesque character, relishing in chaos and quite successfully destroying the hopes of a peace that Batman fought so long to achieve. On the opposite side of Joker is Harvey Dent, the “white knight” district attorney set to fight corruption and put the bad guy away. It’s no spoiler that Dent becomes disturbed criminal Two-Face. The film was one of the most intense blockbusters ever made, injecting a sense of violence without fetishising it. In fact, one can label The Dark Knight as the real post 9/11 film, in which Batman and the city of Gotham must deal with the embodiment of Terrorism, Joker, a character that has no apparent motive, and no apparent history (in the film he tells contradicting stories about the origins of his facial scars), just the desire to corrupt. It’s also worth noting that the film ends on an interesting note: on a lie. Is Nolan trying to saw that our society can only function when based on an illusion?

The film ended up making a billion dollars worldwide, and is now the 2nd highest-earning film in the US. While it isn’t without flaws (the shakey-cam action can be unnecessarily confusing, Morgan Freeman’s character is largely superfluous, and of course Christian Bale’s performance as Batman is completely overshadowed by the brilliant Ledger) The Dark Knight was a breath of fresh air for the blockbuster. It proved that a high-budget film could be dark and thematically dense and not just make money, but have audiences returning to the same film several times over. It was perhaps a sign of the Academy’s snootiness to not even nominate the film for Best Picture in the 2009 Oscars. However, it will be fascinating to see the impact the film will have on future blockbusters, and whether we’ll be seeing more “dark reboots” during the summer months. READ ON »

Continuing in our look back on the last decade, Screenhead examines the major movie events of the year 2007. For previous years, click to visit the article: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.

2007: No Country for Blockbusters

The dispute between entertainment and art has waged on for decades, and this one was no different. But the largest rift between these factions was arguably in 2007. It was Hollywood’s first $4 billion summer, with huge hits such as Spiderman 3, Shrek the Third, Transformers, and even some surprises such as The Simpsons and The Bourne Ultimatum thrashing analyst expectations. But, the majority of these films (excluding Bourne 3) were slated by critics. Nothing new there, but fanboys and many of those with broader tastes also seemed to react to these films negatively. IMDB, the ultimate fanboy gauge, saw poor ratings for the threequels such as Spidey 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and while these films topped the box office, they interestingly failed to surpass their predecessors (even disappointing expectations if you take inflation into account).

And it was to no surprise that the Oscars in early 2008 failed to nominate any of these films besides the occasional technical award. Instead the nominated and winning films were some of the lowest earning Oscar movies of all time. The main winner was the excellent Coen Brothers adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel, No Country for Old Men. It was a powerful film about the chaos of violence but its ambiguous ending left many disregarding it as an “arthouse” movie. The other nominees such as Michael Clayton, Atonement, and There Will Be Blood, were mid-level earners, the only exception being the surprise indie hit Juno, which made $143 million. It was no wonder that the ratings for the Oscar ceremony were lagging in recent years. Whereas previous years had seen critical and financial successes such as Return of the King and Titanic win awards, it now seemed that Hollywood was somewhat out of tune with audiences, marketing huge, loud, explosive films that most audiences saw as dumb but a way of spending Friday night. No one with the right amount of money had the balls enough to completely reinvent the blockbuster, fearing a change from the norm would alienate audiences rather than refresh their enthusiasm for movies. Fortunately, that all changed in 2008.

Pirates of the Web

While Pirates of the Caribbean was making hundreds of millions of dollars in the summer of 2007, it was another type of pirating that was rocking the movie industry that year. Pirating of movies was nothing new. Ever since VHS became popular, you could find cheap bootlegs, either a copy of an official tape or the recording made by some guy filming at the cinema screen. Once the digitising of films, by compressing the sound and video into manageable sizes, came about at the end of the 90’s, pirating became a whole lot easier.

First came the torrent programmes such as Kazaa (remember that?) and Limewire. Files were broken down into segments and “shared” with other users. After Limewire came the many Torrent programmes which essentially did the same thing. Pirate Bay was one of the best tracking sites for torrent files, and also indicated how many people were sharing, or “seeding”, the file (the problem with this was rarer films that were shared by only a few users were subject to slow downloading or even being stopped entirely). And finally date repository sites like Megaupload enabled users to download compacted .rar files bit by bit, and then rebuild them into movies. READ ON »

Continuing in our look back on the last decade, Screenhead examines the major movie events of the year 2005. For previous years, click to visit the article: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004.

The Rise of Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow could have been one of those guys in Hollywood who had talent but no one would have heard of. He began his career as a stand-up comedian, and eventually started writing for acclaimed TV shows such as The Ben Stiller Show, and the influential The Larry Sanders Show. It seemed as if Apatow had a frustration between being a writer/director and a producer. He wrote, for example, the comedy series Freak and Geeks which was cancelled too soon despite the positive response. And when he produced, with comedies like Anchorman, he succeeded. But it was 2005 that finally saw Apatow receive the accolade and popularity that he deserved.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin was an unassuming yet surprisingly inventive comedy that was unexpectedly successful in its theatre run. Starring Steve Carell (who actually conceived of the idea) as the eponymous hero, the film follows his workmates’ attempts to get him laid, despite his initial resistance and embarrassment. What appeared to be a crude sex-comedy actually turned out to be a sweet, sincere, and thoroughly funny film, and perhaps the best comedy of the decade. Part of the film’s brilliance it attributable to Apatow’s trust in his cast. Many scenes were improvised, such as the amusing “You know how I know you’re gay” or “Hot grandma” conversations, and Apatow would often film with multiple cameras in order not to miss a great improvisation.

Not only did Virgin ensure Apatow’s career as a writer/director, it also made stars out of Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd, both of which appeared in TV comedy previously, but since then have made their own way in the film industry. And of course the film confirmed that Carell is one of the best comedic actors around. Apatow’s follow up as writer/director was another funny-but-sweet rom com, Knocked Up, which fared even better in the box office than Virgin. This year saw the release of the amusing but overlong Funny People. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Apatow’s sense of honesty when dealing with comic issues, and his faith in acting talent, has led to a change in the comedy film sector, with Apatow-produced films such as Superbad, Pineapple Express, and Forgetting Sarah Marshell all proving that Apatow fully deserves his time at the top.

Brokeback Mountain

Homosexuality had been an issue dealt with in cinema before, and not just in arthouse cinemas. In and Out fared well in the box-office, Philadelphia scored Tom Hanks an Oscar, etc. But many of these films dealt with homosexuality as a political issue. In 2005 no one expected a story of two men in cowboy-country who had a passionate love-affair to be any more than a well-reviewed but limited release. But by the time Brokeback Mountain opened in the US in early December, it had already become a sensation. Not only were the lead performances of Jake Gyllenhaal and (especially) Heath Ledger exceptional, but Brokeback Mountain held the biggest per-theatre average outside of a Disney animated film, meaning that the film sold more available tickets than any non-kids film. Within days the buzz spread far and wide, despite being banned in a theatre in Utah, banned in all of China, and despite conservative criticism (Fox even reported that the film had burned out after its opening weekend, not realising that every film makes less money during weekdays than weekends).

The film worked not just as a “gay” film, but it was probably the most genuine romance film in years (indeed, the film’s posters intentionally resembled the posters for Titanic), directed tenderly by Ang Lee. Despite its numerous awards, the film failed to win Best Picture at the Oscars, instead going to the heavy-handed and patronising Crash. You can still hear the reaction when Jack Nicholson reads out the award, as it was considered certain to win. Its failure to do so led many to accuse the Academy of being homophobic. Nevertheless, Brokeback Mountain managed to outsell Crash, both in theatres and on DVD, by several times. READ ON »

Continuing in our look back on the last decade, Screenhead examines the major movie events of the year 2004. For previous years, click to visit the article: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003.

The Passion of Mel

Mel Gibson’s religious personal life meant very little to film fans at first, who were pretty happy seeing Mel rip up the screen in the cop action series Lethal Weapon, or in the post-apocalyptic Mad Max films. But all that changed in 2004, when Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was released. Charting the supposed last days of Christian saviour Jesus Christ, the film was made using the languages of the time (Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew), and thus was considered box-office poison by many studios. Gibson funded a lot of the film himself, and was unable to go for a full-scale marketing strategy. Luckily for him, he didn’t need it, as churches around the nation were doing all the promotion for him. Opening on religious holiday Ash Wednesday, the film made $65 million in 3 days, and eventually made over $600 million worldwide, making it the most successful independent movie of all time.

The film proved that the hegemony of Hollywood has a habit of neglecting the millions of people that don’t make up their target market. And yet we haven’t seen anything like The Passion since. The closest example is the films by the Kendrick brothers, who use church donations to fund films spreading Christian messages, and whose 2008 film Fireproof earned $33 million at the box office, despite only costing half a million dollars. What made The Passion so interesting was the proof of blind faith still prominent throughout the world. For fans of the film were surely only moved because of their prior knowledge of the story of Christ. Gibson’s film is an exercise in torture porn (see below), telling very little about Christ’s story, or supposed messages. Instead, the film wallows in the gore, with countless torture scenes, and even a few that are not present in any religious texts (such as a crow plucking out the eye of the crucified thief who taunted Christ, or when Christ crushes a snake with his foot), creating a sense of nausea and sympathy only on a very visceral and animalistic level. Nevertheless, The Passion is a fascinating cinematic phenomenon.

Sideways and the Rut of Indie Cinema

One of, I’m sure, many Hollywood industry rules is never to underestimate the power of comedy. My Greek Fat Wedding was proof of that. But trends in independent cinema this decade seemed to lean towards the comic. 2004 was proof of this trend with the unexpected success of Alexander Payne’s delightful Sideways. The tale of two 40-somethings who take a trip to California’s wine county in advance of one of them getting married. It’s a gentle premise fortified with two great tragic-comic performances by leads Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church, with a smart script about truly growing up, and not hiding in boyish charm or pretentiousness. The film made over $100 million worldwide. READ ON »

500 Days of Summer, Amreeka, Precious, The Last Station and Sin Nombre pocketed the Spirit Award nominations for best feature film.

Precious and The Last Station attained the most nominations with five each while The Messenger attained four.

Nominations for Best director went to Joel and Ethan Coen for A Serious Man, Lee Daniels for Precious, James Cray for Two Lovers, Cary Joji Fukunaga for Sin Nombre and Michael Hoffman for The Last Station.

Female lead nominations went to Maria Bello for Downloading Nancy, Gwyneth Paltrow for Two Lovers, Nisreen Faour for Amreeka, Helen Mirren for The Last Station, and Gabourey Sidibe for Precious.

Nominations for Male lead were recognized for Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart, Colin Firth for A Single Man, Souleymane Sy Savane for Goodbye Solo, Joseph Gordon-Levitt for 500 Days of Summer, and Adam Scott for The Vicious Kind.

The winner of the Robert Altman award was announced as well and the award goes to A Serious Man honoring the director, casting director and ensemble cast.

About five minutes into the video, the announcements start with actors Matt Dillon and Taraji P. Henson.

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

(Source)

Carey Mulligan is a fabulous actress and she is dynamite in An Education. I am sure she is on the short list for Oscar nominations. Although her interview with Jimmy gets a little lost, I do like her handling of the “It girl” title. What is an “It girl” anyway?

I like Reel Geezer’s review of Precious.  I am sure it will be an Oscar contender.  Both reviewers have worked in the business as a producer and screenwriter. They understand the process of making a film.

It’s almost the close of the year, folks, and to that end, the grand train of pretentious wackjobs handing little gold statuettes to OTHER pretentious wackjobs that’s also known as Oscar Season is almost upon us.  And to that end, most every studio in town is frantically sending out screeners to everybody and their mother to try and get votes together to get the prizes.

Most every studio, of course…except for one:

Miramax.

Dig the word:

Disney’s indie distributor has been limping to an early grave for months now and today they announced that due to their uncertain future they’re raising the white flag on this year’s Oscar game. They won’t be able to send screeners to regional critics and the few major awards voters they do send them to will only get Adventureland and Everybody’s Fine….

This should produce an audible gulp from everyone who follows the industry…if Miramax isn’t willing to dance, they’ve pretty much destroyed their indie cred.  There’s pretty much no chance that Adventureland and Everybody’s Fine will win any serious awards, so Miramax will have no showing to speak of.

Sounds like another nail getting pounded into Miramax’s coffin.

Okay, so people weren’t too enthused by the Screenhead Film Festival’s big prize giveaway (it was ten DVDs, man!  That’s got a retail value of like two, maybe three hundred bucks!), but I’ve got something here that might put some fire in your belly.

It’s the Indieroar Film Festival, and I just got word of it from director Alan Rowe Kelly.  Top prize?  Five THOUSAND dollars.

Plus, you’ll also get some film editing software with that.  And if that isn’t enough, there are also second and third prizes too, a thousand bucks a crack.  Entries are being accepted in five categories: horror, drama, comedy, animation and documentary, and each entry must be UNDER twenty five minutes in length.

The public will vote on the gathered films, and winnow down the entries to the top twenty five in each category, the winners of which will be decided by a jury.

So if you’re a short film maker and you’re up for a shot at five grand, grab your camcorder and get to shooting.  Deadline for entry is January 15th, 2010.

A Single Man in HD

Trailer Park | MySpace Video

A Single Man, a romantic story interrupted, is both co-written and directed by American fashion designer Tom Ford, who makes his directorial debut with this film. David Scearce helped with the script, which is adapted from Christopher Isherwood ‘s novel of the same name. The Weinstein Company is bringing A Single Man to limited theaters starting on December 17, 2009.

Colin Firt does an extraordinary job of playing an English professor, whose partner dies suddenly and he tries to live ha typical day, which is a struggle to say the least.  Will he find the meaning of life?