1998’s Croupier was that rare thing: a British film that had a muted response in the UK but achieved much more success over in the U.S. The low budget movie stars Clive Owen and follows the spiral of a struggling writer who takes a job in a local casino and becomes the inside man in its robbery. It’s a simple enough story, but the slick neo-noir execution is deft, and Owen’s subtle central performance won over critics stateside, with Roger Ebert comparing it to Sean Connery’s own “physical reserve” as James Bond.
“It was incredibly successful in America, much to my surprise,” Croupier director Mike Hodges tells Den of Geek now. “There were hardly any advertising campaigns, so it was one of those delightful things where it was totally on word of mouth. It went from 17 cinemas to 300 or something. I wouldn’t call it a blockbuster,...
“It was incredibly successful in America, much to my surprise,” Croupier director Mike Hodges tells Den of Geek now. “There were hardly any advertising campaigns, so it was one of those delightful things where it was totally on word of mouth. It went from 17 cinemas to 300 or something. I wouldn’t call it a blockbuster,...
- 11/17/2022
- by Kirsten Howard
- Den of Geek
Unlike Glenn Close, who was denied an Academy Award (darn that Olivia Colman!) on her seventh try when she was nominated for 2018’s “The Wife,” Renee Zellweger already has a gold trinket to cuddle for her spunky supporting acting turn as a no-nonsense mountain woman in 2003’s “Cold Mountain.”
She was previously nominated for her upgraded take on a single working girl in 2001’s “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and she was lauded for her singing and dancing turn as murderous jazz-age chorine Roxie Hart in 2002’s “Chicago.” But something happened to Zellweger once she earned Hollywood’s top honor. The girl who had Tom Cruise at hello in 1996’s “Jerry Maguire” went into a bit of a slump following the less-said-the-better second Bridget Jones film in 2004 and in the stereotypical role as a supportive wife in the 2005 boxing biopic, “Cinderella Man.”
See Renee Zellweger’s 15 greatest films ranked worst to best
Eventually,...
She was previously nominated for her upgraded take on a single working girl in 2001’s “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and she was lauded for her singing and dancing turn as murderous jazz-age chorine Roxie Hart in 2002’s “Chicago.” But something happened to Zellweger once she earned Hollywood’s top honor. The girl who had Tom Cruise at hello in 1996’s “Jerry Maguire” went into a bit of a slump following the less-said-the-better second Bridget Jones film in 2004 and in the stereotypical role as a supportive wife in the 2005 boxing biopic, “Cinderella Man.”
See Renee Zellweger’s 15 greatest films ranked worst to best
Eventually,...
- 10/15/2019
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
Watch your back, Renee Zellweger! As admiring as the critics are about your rendition of a late-life Judy Garland struggling through the autumn of her years, complete with singing through the tears, Charlize Theron might have just one-upped you with her own uncanny transformation into TV anchor Megyn Kelly in “Bombshell.”
Yes, Renee, you have been perched on top of the Best Actress predictions on the combined odds chart since September 15 after your performance in “Judy” won high praise at the Telluride Film Festival. But that could soon change.
The Jay Roach-directed fact-based drama that digs into the fall of Fox News boss Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) after being besieged by sexual-harassment charges by on-air female talent was screened in Los Angeles on October 13. By all accounts, attendees were duly blown away not just by the torn-from-the-headlines account that Roach specializes in after such acclaimed fare as “Recount” and...
Yes, Renee, you have been perched on top of the Best Actress predictions on the combined odds chart since September 15 after your performance in “Judy” won high praise at the Telluride Film Festival. But that could soon change.
The Jay Roach-directed fact-based drama that digs into the fall of Fox News boss Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) after being besieged by sexual-harassment charges by on-air female talent was screened in Los Angeles on October 13. By all accounts, attendees were duly blown away not just by the torn-from-the-headlines account that Roach specializes in after such acclaimed fare as “Recount” and...
- 10/15/2019
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
With the Critics’ Choice Awards just hours away on Sunday January 13, our 30 Oscar experts from major media outlets are hoping to get guidance from these key precursor prizes as to what will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Their votes remain split between four films, with two of these far out front of the other two.
Since being all but shut out of the Golden Globes, “A Star is Born” has seen its lead over “Roma” in the Best Picture race at the Oscars shrink. It now leads our experts tally by a vote of 16 to 10. Three of our experts are holding out hope for “Green Book,” which won Best Comedy/Musical at the Globes while one is backing “BlacKkKlansman.” [See the most up-to-date Best Picture rankings by our 30 Experts.]
Although “A Star is Born” enjoys a clear majority of first-place votes from the experts, it is not that far ahead of “Roma” and “Green Book” on our Best Picture odds chart.
Since being all but shut out of the Golden Globes, “A Star is Born” has seen its lead over “Roma” in the Best Picture race at the Oscars shrink. It now leads our experts tally by a vote of 16 to 10. Three of our experts are holding out hope for “Green Book,” which won Best Comedy/Musical at the Globes while one is backing “BlacKkKlansman.” [See the most up-to-date Best Picture rankings by our 30 Experts.]
Although “A Star is Born” enjoys a clear majority of first-place votes from the experts, it is not that far ahead of “Roma” and “Green Book” on our Best Picture odds chart.
- 1/13/2019
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
This year the Oscars narrowed down the race for Best Original Score to a shortlist of 15 contenders from which the final 5 nominees will be chosen. That makes it all the more impressive that Nicholas Britell made the cut twice, for both “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “Vice.” Could he now join an exclusive club of music makers who have been nominated twice in the same category?
Only four composers in the last 30 years have been nominated twice for Best Score. Thomas Newman doubled up for “Little Women” and “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994). James Horner picked up a pair of bids for “Apollo 13” and “Braveheart” (1995). Alexandre Desplat received matching noms for “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “The Imitation Game” (2014). And John Williams … well, John Williams does it constantly. The man behind the music of “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” “Harry Potter” and much more has been a double nominee eight times...
Only four composers in the last 30 years have been nominated twice for Best Score. Thomas Newman doubled up for “Little Women” and “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994). James Horner picked up a pair of bids for “Apollo 13” and “Braveheart” (1995). Alexandre Desplat received matching noms for “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “The Imitation Game” (2014). And John Williams … well, John Williams does it constantly. The man behind the music of “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” “Harry Potter” and much more has been a double nominee eight times...
- 1/11/2019
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
For most of the season “Incredibles 2” has been the front-runner to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar in our racetrack odds, and it still is overall, but our Experts have had a change of heart. Most of them now think that “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” will swing right past it on Oscar night.
We’ve polled more than two dozen Expert journalists from top media outlets, and as of this writing 16 of them are predicting “Spider-Man”: Thelma Adams (Gold Derby), Erik Davis (Fandango), Edward Douglas (Weekend Warrior), Joyce Eng (Gold Derby), Tim Gray (Variety), Alicia Malone (Turner Classic Movies), Wilson Morales (BlackFilm), Michael Musto (NewNowNext), Perri Nemiroff (Collider), Kevin Polowy (Yahoo), Christopher Rosen (TVGuide.com), Keith Simanton (IMDb), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Brian Truitt (USA Today), Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere) and Glenn Whipp (La Times).
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But there are...
We’ve polled more than two dozen Expert journalists from top media outlets, and as of this writing 16 of them are predicting “Spider-Man”: Thelma Adams (Gold Derby), Erik Davis (Fandango), Edward Douglas (Weekend Warrior), Joyce Eng (Gold Derby), Tim Gray (Variety), Alicia Malone (Turner Classic Movies), Wilson Morales (BlackFilm), Michael Musto (NewNowNext), Perri Nemiroff (Collider), Kevin Polowy (Yahoo), Christopher Rosen (TVGuide.com), Keith Simanton (IMDb), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Brian Truitt (USA Today), Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere) and Glenn Whipp (La Times).
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But there are...
- 1/7/2019
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Technically, “Roma” has more Oscar Experts at Gold Derby predicting it to win Best Picture (9) than “A Star Is Born” (7), but the films are tied for first place with 7/1 odds because the Bradley Cooper/ Lady Gaga musical is consistently ranked a bit higher among all 20 Oscarologists projecting 8 to 10 nominees in the category.
Only one other flick gets ranked first, too: “First Man” (15/2 odds) has support of four pundits. See all of the latest Best Picture rankings by our 20 Experts.
“Roma,” Alfonso Cauron‘s artsy-indie tribute to his childhood in Mexico, has been in a virtual tie with “A Star Is Born” for the past month while Gold Derby’s Experts made frequent changes that usually resulted in the rival films retaining equal numbers of Experts predicting them to prevail, or at least giving them equal odds.
Over the past month, “Green Book” and “The Favourite” climbed up to four and...
Only one other flick gets ranked first, too: “First Man” (15/2 odds) has support of four pundits. See all of the latest Best Picture rankings by our 20 Experts.
“Roma,” Alfonso Cauron‘s artsy-indie tribute to his childhood in Mexico, has been in a virtual tie with “A Star Is Born” for the past month while Gold Derby’s Experts made frequent changes that usually resulted in the rival films retaining equal numbers of Experts predicting them to prevail, or at least giving them equal odds.
Over the past month, “Green Book” and “The Favourite” climbed up to four and...
- 10/8/2018
- by Tom O'Neil
- Gold Derby
2018 Oscars Best Picture predictions by experts: ‘Three Billboards’ widens lead on eve of PGA Awards
With only days to go until the Academy Awards are announced on Jan. 23, our 31 Oscar experts from major media outlets have been busy updating their predictions for Best Picture. Martin McDonagh‘s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” now has the votes of a leading seven pundits. This character study swept the Golden Globes on Jan. 7 and got another bounce when the writer/director reaped a bid from the DGA on Jan. 11. It is in first place with leading odds of 13/2.
If, as we are predicting, “Three Billboards” wins Best Picture at the PGA Awards on Jan. 20, expect even more of our experts to switch to it. While that precursor prize went with a different film than the Oscars for the last two years, this guild previewed the Best Picture winner for the first six years of the expanded race.T o that end, if another film pulls off an upset at the PGA,...
If, as we are predicting, “Three Billboards” wins Best Picture at the PGA Awards on Jan. 20, expect even more of our experts to switch to it. While that precursor prize went with a different film than the Oscars for the last two years, this guild previewed the Best Picture winner for the first six years of the expanded race.T o that end, if another film pulls off an upset at the PGA,...
- 1/19/2018
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
Footage has surfaced from a 1972 Holocaust movie “The Day the Clown Cried,” starring and directed by Jerry Lewis, Hollywood Elsewhere reports.
Read More: Jerry Lewis Wows MoMA at World Premiere of ‘Max Rose’
Lewis played a circus clown named Helmut Doork who is imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration camp, where he performs small gags for children to keep them entertained. He eventually decided against releasing the movie, and has almost never publicly acknowledged it.
A 31-minute condensed version of the movie recently appeared on Vimeo. The film was shot in Paris and Sweden in 1972 and at one point was expected to play at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. Lewis was reported to have scrapped plans for releasing the film after being embarrassed by how it turned out. The film is scheduled to be made available in its entirely in 2025.
In 1992, Harry Shearer told Spy magazine the movie was so “drastically wrong,...
Read More: Jerry Lewis Wows MoMA at World Premiere of ‘Max Rose’
Lewis played a circus clown named Helmut Doork who is imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration camp, where he performs small gags for children to keep them entertained. He eventually decided against releasing the movie, and has almost never publicly acknowledged it.
A 31-minute condensed version of the movie recently appeared on Vimeo. The film was shot in Paris and Sweden in 1972 and at one point was expected to play at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. Lewis was reported to have scrapped plans for releasing the film after being embarrassed by how it turned out. The film is scheduled to be made available in its entirely in 2025.
In 1992, Harry Shearer told Spy magazine the movie was so “drastically wrong,...
- 6/17/2016
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
The Danish-born director, Nicolas Winding Refn, has helmed a few popular movies such as Drive (2011), Bronson (2008), and the Pusher trilogy. This success has been only slightly marred by a handful of far-less-favored works including Fear X (2003) and Only God Forgives (2013) starring Ryan Gosling.
Ironically, that latter disaster supplied grist for one of the best scenes in the documentary, My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, which was helmed by Refn's wife, the talented but put-upon Liz Corfixen. Near the end of her engaging feature on her self-absorbed spouse, Refn, lying on his bed after the Cannes opening of Only God Forgives, mutters, "Why do critics have to be so cruel?" Then he reads aloud off his cell phone this Hollywood Elsewhere critique by Jeffrey Wells:
"Movies really don't get much worse... It's a shit macho fantasy -- hyperviolent, ethically repulsive, sad, nonsensical, deathly dull, snail-paced, idiotic, possibly woman-hating, visually suffocating, pretentious... [T]his is a defecation by an over-praised, over-indulged director who thinks anything he craps out is worthy of your time. I felt violated, shat upon, sedated, narcotized, appalled and bored stiff."
What I found so fascinating here, besides Refn's reaction to such verbiage ("That's how you know when you made great cinema. When half love and half hate it."), was that Mr. Wells will be able to reuse his review word for word for The Neon Demon.
This tale focuses upon a sixteen-year-old virgin, Jesse (Elle Fanning), who arrives in Los Angeles to begin a modeling career. Her first job is to lie on a couch with her neck supposedly slit and the fake blood streaming everywhere. The photographer is the young, kind-hearted Dean (Karl Glusman, who exposed his erection throughout Gaspar Noé's equally dull Love (2015)). The chap instantly falls in love with her.
Please don't ask why a nice guy would have a young woman pose with her body mutilated, other than it is a striking visual to open a film with. Anyway, Jesse has no time for love. Admitting herself talentless except for being pretty, she has only one item on her bucket list: to be a top model. Seemingly, she will succeed because when this young woman enters a room, everyone stares. Men. Women. Goats. Chimpanzees.
The very next day she's hired by a modeling agency. Twenty-four hours later she's posing for a top brooding photographer (Desmond Harrington), who after spotting her, has everyone leave the studio, orders Jesse to strip, then rubs metallic paint all over her body. Hopefully, it's not lead-based.
Soon every blonde model in L.A. with an Olive-Oyl physique hates her for stealing their jobs, and to top it off, the manager (Keanu Reeves) of the cruddy motel she's staying in is a rapist with a Lolita fixation. Uh-oh. Can there be more? Poorly directed party scenes, stray wildcats and eyeballs, cannibalism, a vile depiction of a horny lesbian, necrophilia in a mortuary, and a dastardly over-the-top performance by Alessandro Nivola as a shallow fashion designer just scrape the top layer of the slime that slithers about as The Neon Demon.
Mr. Refn has noted his goal was to make a satire about the modeling industry and America's facile addiction to externals. He also wanted to explore the 16-year-old girl that resides within himself. As if that weren't enough inspiration, he's spouted, "One morning I woke and realized I was both surrounded and dominated by women. Strangely, a sudden urge was planted in me to make a horror film about vicious beauty."
Now if Mr. Refn had an iota of wit (visual or otherwise) or if he respected women (his wife says he just wants her around as a housewife) or if his half-baked ideas spent ten more minutes in the oven, this offering could have been a gas. Paul Morrisey, John Waters, or even Greg Araki might have shaped this hodgepodge into a tongue-in-cheek funfest. But if Refn is aiming for intentional laughs, he fails. He seems to have been treading more into David Lynch territory but was swallowed up by the quicksand of his own dullardry. More Blue Polyester than Blue Velvet.
That Refn had no idea what he was creating with Demon was not a new occurrence for this vanquished auteur. He has said of a previous effort, "I've spent three years on this movie, and I don't really know what it's about." Then after the filming and the editing of Only God Forgives was completed, he observed to his wife," I wasted six months of our lives." Happily, for us, with his latest, our wasted time clocks in at one hour and 57 minutes. It just feels like six months.
(The Neon Demon, which had its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival to several boos, opens in theaters on June 24th.) - Brandon Judell
Mr. Judell has written on film for The Village Voice, indieWire.com, the New York Daily News, Soho Style, and The Advocate, and is anthologized in Cynthia Fuchs's Spike Lee Interviews (University Press of Mississippi) and John Preston's A Member of the Family (Dutton). He is also a member of the performance/writing group FlashPoint.
Ironically, that latter disaster supplied grist for one of the best scenes in the documentary, My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, which was helmed by Refn's wife, the talented but put-upon Liz Corfixen. Near the end of her engaging feature on her self-absorbed spouse, Refn, lying on his bed after the Cannes opening of Only God Forgives, mutters, "Why do critics have to be so cruel?" Then he reads aloud off his cell phone this Hollywood Elsewhere critique by Jeffrey Wells:
"Movies really don't get much worse... It's a shit macho fantasy -- hyperviolent, ethically repulsive, sad, nonsensical, deathly dull, snail-paced, idiotic, possibly woman-hating, visually suffocating, pretentious... [T]his is a defecation by an over-praised, over-indulged director who thinks anything he craps out is worthy of your time. I felt violated, shat upon, sedated, narcotized, appalled and bored stiff."
What I found so fascinating here, besides Refn's reaction to such verbiage ("That's how you know when you made great cinema. When half love and half hate it."), was that Mr. Wells will be able to reuse his review word for word for The Neon Demon.
This tale focuses upon a sixteen-year-old virgin, Jesse (Elle Fanning), who arrives in Los Angeles to begin a modeling career. Her first job is to lie on a couch with her neck supposedly slit and the fake blood streaming everywhere. The photographer is the young, kind-hearted Dean (Karl Glusman, who exposed his erection throughout Gaspar Noé's equally dull Love (2015)). The chap instantly falls in love with her.
Please don't ask why a nice guy would have a young woman pose with her body mutilated, other than it is a striking visual to open a film with. Anyway, Jesse has no time for love. Admitting herself talentless except for being pretty, she has only one item on her bucket list: to be a top model. Seemingly, she will succeed because when this young woman enters a room, everyone stares. Men. Women. Goats. Chimpanzees.
The very next day she's hired by a modeling agency. Twenty-four hours later she's posing for a top brooding photographer (Desmond Harrington), who after spotting her, has everyone leave the studio, orders Jesse to strip, then rubs metallic paint all over her body. Hopefully, it's not lead-based.
Soon every blonde model in L.A. with an Olive-Oyl physique hates her for stealing their jobs, and to top it off, the manager (Keanu Reeves) of the cruddy motel she's staying in is a rapist with a Lolita fixation. Uh-oh. Can there be more? Poorly directed party scenes, stray wildcats and eyeballs, cannibalism, a vile depiction of a horny lesbian, necrophilia in a mortuary, and a dastardly over-the-top performance by Alessandro Nivola as a shallow fashion designer just scrape the top layer of the slime that slithers about as The Neon Demon.
Mr. Refn has noted his goal was to make a satire about the modeling industry and America's facile addiction to externals. He also wanted to explore the 16-year-old girl that resides within himself. As if that weren't enough inspiration, he's spouted, "One morning I woke and realized I was both surrounded and dominated by women. Strangely, a sudden urge was planted in me to make a horror film about vicious beauty."
Now if Mr. Refn had an iota of wit (visual or otherwise) or if he respected women (his wife says he just wants her around as a housewife) or if his half-baked ideas spent ten more minutes in the oven, this offering could have been a gas. Paul Morrisey, John Waters, or even Greg Araki might have shaped this hodgepodge into a tongue-in-cheek funfest. But if Refn is aiming for intentional laughs, he fails. He seems to have been treading more into David Lynch territory but was swallowed up by the quicksand of his own dullardry. More Blue Polyester than Blue Velvet.
That Refn had no idea what he was creating with Demon was not a new occurrence for this vanquished auteur. He has said of a previous effort, "I've spent three years on this movie, and I don't really know what it's about." Then after the filming and the editing of Only God Forgives was completed, he observed to his wife," I wasted six months of our lives." Happily, for us, with his latest, our wasted time clocks in at one hour and 57 minutes. It just feels like six months.
(The Neon Demon, which had its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival to several boos, opens in theaters on June 24th.) - Brandon Judell
Mr. Judell has written on film for The Village Voice, indieWire.com, the New York Daily News, Soho Style, and The Advocate, and is anthologized in Cynthia Fuchs's Spike Lee Interviews (University Press of Mississippi) and John Preston's A Member of the Family (Dutton). He is also a member of the performance/writing group FlashPoint.
- 6/15/2016
- by webmaster
- www.culturecatch.com
While making the press rounds earlier this month for Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight," Kurt Russell entered into a heated debate with Hollywood Elsewhere founder Jeffrey Wells over the issue of gun control (he doesn't believe in regulations) and violence in the movies (he doesn't believe it influences real-life violence). You can listen to the audio and read a transcript here for the full context of their conversation. HitFix is an entertainment site, so I won't be tackling Russell's comments about gun control, which I disagree with. His opinions on violence in the movies, however, are fair game. First, here's the relevant portion of his conversation with Wells: Wells: "I think there’s a feeling about shootings and violence right now…I think it’s different in 2015 than it was in the mid ’90s. But Quentin is still playing the same game more or less." Russell: "Well, Quentin does what he does.
- 12/22/2015
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
The problem with doing a hyperviolent, gun-filled Quentin Tarantino film is that someone will eventually ask for your opinion on our hyperviolent, gun-filled reality. Hateful Eight's Kurt Russell got a chance to wax philosophical on the subject in an interview with Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells. "Well, Quentin does what he does. He’s painting a picture, writing, telling a story … like a filmmaker. But to mix and match reality with fantasy is something I don’t understand but that’s just me," Russell explained when asked if fictional, ’90s-style Tarantino violence plays differently in 2015. Then he really gets into it, eventually declaring: If you think gun control is going to change the terrorists’ point of view, I think you’re, like, out of your mind. I think anybody [who says that] is. I think it’s absolutely insane. The problem, the problem that we’re having right now to turn it around … you...
- 12/14/2015
- by Halle Kiefer
- Vulture
Outcry on social media as Jeffrey Wells suggests Alejandro González Iñárritu’s forthcoming drama won’t appeal to female audiences on account of its raw and immersive qualities
Film blogger Jeffrey Wells has sparked outrage after suggesting that the forthcoming Leonardo DiCaprio film The Revenant will be unsuitable for female audiences due to its “unflinchingly brutal nature”.
After attending an early preview screening of the film, which follows the revenge mission of a trapper left for dead during the old American west and is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Wells sent out a tweet with fulsome praise of the film, and finished by stating: “Forget women seeing this.”
Continue reading...
Film blogger Jeffrey Wells has sparked outrage after suggesting that the forthcoming Leonardo DiCaprio film The Revenant will be unsuitable for female audiences due to its “unflinchingly brutal nature”.
After attending an early preview screening of the film, which follows the revenge mission of a trapper left for dead during the old American west and is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Wells sent out a tweet with fulsome praise of the film, and finished by stating: “Forget women seeing this.”
Continue reading...
- 11/25/2015
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Alejandro González Iñárritu and Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of The Revenant.
© 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
The Revenant screened Monday night at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in their state-of-the-art Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The Revenant is 20th Century Fox’s upcoming film directed and co-written by Academy Award winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, Babel).
Inspired by true events, The Revenant is an immersive and visceral cinematic experience capturing one man’s epic adventure of survival and the extraordinary power of the human spirit. In an expedition of the uncharted American wilderness, legendary explorer Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is brutally attacked by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
In a quest to survive, Glass endures unimaginable grief as well as the betrayal of his confidant John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). Guided by sheer will and the love of his family,...
© 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
The Revenant screened Monday night at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in their state-of-the-art Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The Revenant is 20th Century Fox’s upcoming film directed and co-written by Academy Award winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, Babel).
Inspired by true events, The Revenant is an immersive and visceral cinematic experience capturing one man’s epic adventure of survival and the extraordinary power of the human spirit. In an expedition of the uncharted American wilderness, legendary explorer Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is brutally attacked by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
In a quest to survive, Glass endures unimaginable grief as well as the betrayal of his confidant John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). Guided by sheer will and the love of his family,...
- 11/25/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Why does "Spotlight" have such a huge lead in the Oscar race for Best Picture based upon the predictions of experts from Yahoo, Variety, Rollling Stone, IMDb and other top media? Currently, 8 out of 19 Oscarologists making predictions at Gold Derby bet on Thomas McCarthy's expose of the Catholic priests' sex scandal in Boston, giving it 6-to-1 odds. "'Spotlight' has the buzz," says Variety pundit Tim Gray. "It's a well-made, tight film, and so far, it has a wide cross-section of admirers." "There are a lot of good movies with great acting performances in the contenders field, but 'Spotlight' is quite simply a great movie all around," adds Brian Truitt (USA Today). "It has solid buzz coming out of the festival circuit, and there'll be more once folks start seeing it in November." And for Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere), "'Spotlight' is clean and direct and the.
- 9/29/2015
- Gold Derby
After watching one would-be blockbuster taken down by a parade of bad buzz, you may be tempted to think back 20 years to Waterworld, Kevin Costner's dystopian aquatic epic that floundered amid reports of a disastrous shoot. Blogger Jeffrey Wells — a former EW reporter who covered the movie — was, and to atone for his small part in sinking the film, he texted Costner to apologize, saying that the finished product was better than the headlines made it out to be. No need for pity, replied Costner: "I’m not sure you know how beloved the movie is around the world." (That's the world that's only 71 percent water, not the one that's 100 percent water.) He continued: "I know that people might think of Waterworld as a low point for me. It wasn’t. It could have had a better, more obvious outcome. The thing I know is that I never had...
- 8/17/2015
- by Nate Jones
- Vulture
"Batkid Begins" will break you. Oh, sure, there's a chance you won't have an emotional response to it. You might be a robot, after all. That's possible. You could be the actual Grinch from the Dr. Seuss story. I guess that would be an acceptable excuse. Or you could be Jeffrey Wells. Otherwise, I can't imagine a human being that would not be flattened by the emotional power of the documentary by Dana Nachman. If you were on social media when it happened, it was impossible to miss this story. A five year old boy and his family asked the Make-a-Wish foundation to help him with his dream, which was to be Batman. What makes the film so powerful is the way it shows how this particular thing snowballed and how the various people involved made that wish happen. It is easy to be cynical in our world right now,...
- 5/15/2015
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
Over the weekend, Judd Apatow brought his "work-in-progress" (but pretty much finished) romantic comedy "Trainwreck" to SXSW, and the resulting effort is one we called "one of his most hilarious and finely-tuned films to date." That result is due in large part to rising star Amy Schumer, who wrote the script and stars in the film. The day after the premiere, Schumer took part in a panel discussion and talked about everything from the film to sex to the Jeffrey Wells controversy, and much more. Here are some of the highlights: The relationship that inspired that "Trainwreck" and why falling in love "kind of sucks" "I was falling in love when I wrote 'Trainwreck,' was scared out of my mind and wasn’t even enjoying it. I was feeling sick all the time. It’s like being on drugs. It’s not even fun falling in love. You...
- 3/17/2015
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
“I’ve spent three years making this film, and I don’t really know what it’s about,” director Nicolas Winding Refn admits, head bowed as he sits on the edge of his bed, contemplating the agony and ecstasy of making Only God Forgives.
Coming off Drive, his most commercial and acclaimed work, it can’t have been easy for Refn to jump headlong into another project, despite knowing from the get-go that it wouldn’t even slightly resemble his last. The director’s musings and misery as he faces the possibility of disappointing a newly galvanized (and much expanded) fanbase serve as the meat and potatoes of My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, a brisk, 58-minute documentary made Hearts of Darkness-style by Refn’s wife, Liv Corfixen.
Whether Corfixen set out to make a home video or always intended to explore her husband’s painful creative process is unclear.
Coming off Drive, his most commercial and acclaimed work, it can’t have been easy for Refn to jump headlong into another project, despite knowing from the get-go that it wouldn’t even slightly resemble his last. The director’s musings and misery as he faces the possibility of disappointing a newly galvanized (and much expanded) fanbase serve as the meat and potatoes of My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, a brisk, 58-minute documentary made Hearts of Darkness-style by Refn’s wife, Liv Corfixen.
Whether Corfixen set out to make a home video or always intended to explore her husband’s painful creative process is unclear.
- 2/26/2015
- by Isaac Feldberg
- We Got This Covered
As 23 of our 29 Oscar experts predicted, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" won Best Makeup and Hairstyling Sunday night. Champs Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier had also prevailed this month with the Makeup and Hairstyling Guild as well as BAFTA. -Break- "The Grand Budapest Hotel" was the 1/3 favorite with 23 Experts predicting it: Thelma Adams (ZEALnyc), Kyle Buchanan (Vulture), Edward Douglas (Coming Soon), Scott Feinberg (Hollywood Reporter), Thom Geier, Michael Hogan (Vanity Fair), Dave Karger (Fandango), Tariq Khan (Fox News), Scott Mantz (Access Hollywood), Mary Milliken (Reuters), Michael Musto (Out.com), Tom O'Neil (Gold Derby), Steve Pond (The Wrap), Claudia Puig (USA Today), Jenelle Riley (Variety), Paul Sheehan (Gold Derby), Keith Simanton (IMDb), Sasha Stone (Awards Daily), Anne Thompson (Thompson on Hollywood), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere), Glenn Whipp (L.A. Times) and Susan Wloszczyn...'...
- 2/23/2015
- Gold Derby
While 20 of our Oscars Experts are predicting that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu will win Best Director for helming "Birdman," eight expect Richard Linklater to prevail for "Boyhood." -Break- Inarritu has leading odds of 1/2 thanks to the predictions of the following 20 experts: Thelma Adams (ZEALnyc), Matt Atchity (Rotten Tomatoes), Kyle Buchanan (Vulture), Thom Geier, Michael Hogan (Vanity Fair), Tariq Khan (Fox News), Scott Mantz (Access Hollywood), Mary Milliken (Reuters), Michael Musto (Out.com), Kevin Polowy (Yahoo), Claudia Puig (USA Today), Jenelle Riley (Variety), Keith Simanton (IMDb), Anne Thompson (Thompson on Hollywood), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere), Glenn Whipp (La Times), Susan Wloszczyna (RogerEbert.com) and Gold Derby's Tom O'Neil and Paul Sheehan. This is the second Best Director bid for Inarritu. He was nominated in 2006 for helming "Babel," but ...
- 2/18/2015
- Gold Derby
While 20 of our Oscars experts are predicting that Eddie Redmayne will win Best Actor for "The Theory of Everything," eight of them expect Michael Keaton to prevail for "Birdman." This is the first Oscar nomination for each. -Break- Updated: Experts' Oscars predictions in 24 categories Redmayne won at the Golden Globes (drama), SAG Awards and BAFTA. He is the 1/2 favorite with 20 Experts backing him: Thelma Adams (ZEALnyc), Kyle Buchanan (Vulture), Mike Cidoni (Associated Press), Edward Douglas (Coming Soon), Scott Feinberg (Hollywood Reporter, Thom Geier, Michael Hogan (Vanity Fair), Dave Karger (Fandango), Tariq Khan (Fox News), Tom O'Neil (Gold Derby), Steve Pond (The Wrap), Claudia Puig (USA Today), Jenelle Riley (Variety), Paul Sheehan (Gold Derby), Keith Simanton (IMDb), Sasha Stone (Awards Daily), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere), Glenn Whipp (Los Angele...
- 2/18/2015
- Gold Derby
If it's one thing women love, it's being called "Jennifer Aniston's somewhat heavier, not-as-lucky sister who watches a lot of TV." This guy really knows how to flatter the females. The trailer for Amy Schumer's film Trainwreck dropped this week, and a guy who writes a blog called Hollywood Elsewhere decided his opinion on Amy's looks and weight needed to be heard. In a post titled "Apatow's Funny-Chubby Community Has New Member," Jeffrey Wells lumps director Judd Apatow's actresses into a category called "chubby, whipsmart, not conventionally attractive, neurotically bothered female comic." Or Cwncanbfc, if you will. Basically, Wells doesn't...
- 2/13/2015
- E! Online
Welcome to the February 12, 2015 edition of Outrage Watch, HitFix's daily rundown of all the things folks are peeved about in entertainment. Today's top story? Beyonce gets a smack-down from Huffington Post contributor Kim Lute. Oh boy, does Kim go after Beyonce here. In an impassioned article posted today, the Peabody-winning journalist takes aim at the singer's performance of the classic Mahalia Jackson gospel song "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" at Sunday's Grammys: "The performance of this iconic song, of which Beyoncé and her family apparently believes is uniquely theirs alone -- though it's sung almost universally at black funerals and churches -- should have been fraught with significance," she writes. And then, more damningly: "And if, as Beyoncé contends, this song means so very much to her why hasn't she sung it on any of her 200 albums? Could her performance have merely hinted at an exaggerated sense of self-worth that...
- 2/12/2015
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
Comedian Josh Gad ("Frozen," TV's "New Girl," the upcoming "The Wedding Ringer") is in talks to star as film critic Roger Ebert opposite Will Ferrell's Russ Meyer in "Russ & Roger Go Beyond," producer David Permut told Hollywood Elsewhere in Palm Springs on Sunday. With a script by "SNL"'s Christopher Cluess, the buddy comedy chronicles Ebert and director Meyer's collaboration on the salacious, 1970 cult melodrama "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"—the first and only screenplay Ebert ever wrote. More a parody than a sequel of the 1967 Jacqueline Susann adaptation "Valley of the Dolls," the X-rated, sex-filled farce about a girl band was penned in just six weeks. Though the deal has yet to be set in stone, Gad is on board according to Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells (who takes issue with his casting) and The Wrap. Permut originally wanted Jonah Hill to play Ebert, but that fell through.
- 1/5/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
The Cinemark Tinseltown USA and Imax in Rochester, New York, has a message for customers having trouble understanding the dialogue in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar: Take it up with the director. After receiving numerous complaints, the multiplex put up signs informing Interstellar ticket buyers of the following: "Please note that all of our sound equipment is functioning properly. Christopher Nolan mixed the soundtrack with an emphasis on the music. This is how it is intended to sound." Moviegoer Jay Shooke tweeted an image of the sign on Nov. 12 to Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells. Hey @wellshwood this is taped up
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- 11/13/2014
- by Pamela McClintock
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"Birdman" has sprouted Oscar wings since it was seen at the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals. Over the past few days it soared up from fourth place in the rankings of our Experts' predictions to second place (with 6 to 1 odds) right behind "Boyhood" (9/2). "Birdman" just surpassed "Foxcatcher" (now ranked fourth with 8 to 1 odd) and "Unbroken" (13 to 2). Its climb has been steady since predictions were first posted on Aug. 20 with "Birdman" in sixth place (16/1). -Break- Three Experts out of 16 now predict it will win Best Picture: Thelma Adams (Yahoo), Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood-Elsewhere) and Paul Sheehen (Gold Derby). "Boyhood" remains out front with eight Experts picking it to win: Michael Musto (Out), Kevin Polowy (Yahoo), Steve Pond (TheWrap), Christopher Rosen (HuffPo), Keith Simanton (IMDb), Sasha Stone (AwardsDaily), Anne Thompson (Thompson on Hollywood/ IndieW...'...
- 9/4/2014
- Gold Derby
Here’s a look at the brand new poster for director Craig Johnson’s The Skeleton Twins. (via EW)
The film had it’s premiere in the Us Dramatic Competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
As Jeffrey Wells’ (Hollywood Elsewhere) wrote after the Sundance screening, “Bill Hader‘s angry, vulnerable, hurting-guy performance in The Skeleton Twins is a career-changer. He’s no longer the SNL smartass who delivers zingy movie performances on the side. He’s now a real-deal actor who can bore into a character as deeply as any other gifted performer.”
As children, Maggie and Milo Dean seemed inseparable. But tragedy hit their family as teenagers when their father died, sending them on different paths, and ultimately leading to a decade-long estrangement. Now in their thirties, another set of near-tragedies brings them together. Melancholic Milo (Bill Hader), a frustrated actor with no prospects, decides to accept his sister...
The film had it’s premiere in the Us Dramatic Competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
As Jeffrey Wells’ (Hollywood Elsewhere) wrote after the Sundance screening, “Bill Hader‘s angry, vulnerable, hurting-guy performance in The Skeleton Twins is a career-changer. He’s no longer the SNL smartass who delivers zingy movie performances on the side. He’s now a real-deal actor who can bore into a character as deeply as any other gifted performer.”
As children, Maggie and Milo Dean seemed inseparable. But tragedy hit their family as teenagers when their father died, sending them on different paths, and ultimately leading to a decade-long estrangement. Now in their thirties, another set of near-tragedies brings them together. Melancholic Milo (Bill Hader), a frustrated actor with no prospects, decides to accept his sister...
- 7/16/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
It's still a long road to anyone seeing Paul Thomas Anderson's highly anticipated "Inherent Vice"....or is it? According to Jeffrey Wells over at Hollywood Elsewhere, some folks have managed to be lucky enough to see the film and the feedback has apparently been that it's “brilliant and mesmerizing in an atmospheric, non-linear sort of way”—which is basically what we'd expect from a Thomas Pynchon adaptation. Moreover, there are apparent rumblings that a New York Film Festival premiere could be in the works... Anyway, something to consider while you wait, but in the meantime, this video tribute to PTA's films by Randall Star should at least hold you over. It's nicely cut six minutes going through PTA's catalog, scored with Jon Brion's music from "Magnolia" providing the backdrop along with "Momentum" by Aimee Mann. Watch below. [Frequency]...
- 7/9/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Fatih Akin raised eyebrows this year when he pulled his new film, "The Cut," from the Cannes lineup just days before it was due to premiere. He did so "for personal reasons," the German director said, but Jeffrey Wells reports a nugget of gossip that Akin had done so because Cannes director Thierry Frémaux wouldn't offer him a definite spot in the competition lineup. "The Cut" is the conclusion to Akin's Love Death, and the Devil trilogy, which includes "Head-On" and "The Edge of Heaven," and stars French actor Tahar Rahim ("A Prophet," "The Past"). Akin has described Rahim's wordless character as "a bit like Charlie Chaplain" and also "a typical western character, like Sergio Leone." "The Cut" should be ready in time to make the fall festival circuit. Below, take a look at the film's poster--the first official glimpse so far at Akin's new project.
- 6/19/2014
- by Jacob Combs
- Thompson on Hollywood
What are the 25 most notorious, revealing, or memorable fashion statements from the history of the Oscars? A new photo gallery looks back at Cher's infamous gasp-inducing risks, Ashley Judd's wardrobe malfunction, plus Bjork, Halle Berry, Jennifer Hudson, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Barbra Streisand, Charlize Theron, and more. Entertainment Weekly. Boris Kachka profiles several longtime awards bloggers during the home stretch of "the most competitive Oscar season ever." Included is Gold Derby's founder Tom O'Neil, who brings along his awards collection and says, "What I love about it is that Hollywood is fighting over a merely gold-plated statuette that tarnishes easily. Is it meant to be ironic?” Also included in the lengthy article are Sasha Stone (Awards Daily), Steve Pond (The Wrap), Scott Feinberg (Hollywood Reporter), Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere), Pete Hammond (Deadline), and Kris Tapley (In Contention). Vulture. Steve P...
- 2/26/2014
- Gold Derby
Woody Allen responded Sunday to allegations that he sexually assaulted his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, calling the accusations completely false. According to Dylan, 28, it's been nearly 22 years since Woody assaulted her in the attic of her childhood home. The alleged abuse is grabbing headlines once again in the wake of Dylan's open letter in The New York Times, in which she claims Woody "told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother's electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me." The emotional account prompted Woody to release the following statement through his representative: Mr. Allen has read the article and found it untrue and disgraceful. He will be responding very soon. In the meantime, it is essential that your coverage make the following facts clear: at the time, a thorough investigation was conducted by court-appointed independent experts. The experts concluded there was no credible evidence of molestation...
- 2/3/2014
- by Nick Maslow
- Popsugar.com
While at Santa Barbara International Film Festival to accept the Outstanding Performing of the Year prize for her role in Blue Jasmine, Cate Blanchett was asked about Dylan Farrow's most recent accusations against her adoptive father, Woody Allen. On Saturday, Farrow published an open letter in the New York Times in which she calls out the stars of some of Allen's films (including Blanchett) for turning a blind eye to her longstanding charge that Allen sexually abused her when she was a child. In response to a question about the situation from Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood-elsewhere.com, Blanchett, who is nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role in Allen's latest film, said simply, "It's obviously been a long and painful situation for the family and I hope they find some resolution and peace." Not the most substantive response, but good enough for the red carpet.
- 2/2/2014
- by Delia Paunescu
- Vulture
Dylan Farrow ends her open letter detailing her sexual abuse claims against her adoptive father, Woody Allen, by singling out several actors who have starred in the director's films, asking pointedly, "What if it had been your daughter?" First on her list was Cate Blanchett, a frontrunner for the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in last year's Blue Jasmine, directed by Allen. At the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Saturday night, journalist Jeffrey Wells asked Blanchett for her response. "It's obviously been a long and painful situation for the family and I hope they find some sort of resolution and peace,...
- 2/2/2014
- by Samantha Miller
- PEOPLE.com
Variety glorious piece gently berating Disney for their self-loathing Frozen marketing ('no, this isn't about girls and it's not a musical, either!')
Towleroad James Franco's '50 Shades of Batman & Robin'. Ha! I know a lot of people hate Franco's absurdities and his ubiquity but I love that he has turned the boredom of professional acting (all that time not acting on film sets or between jobs) into performance art.
EW Marcia Gay Harden will play Christian Gray's mother in 50 Shades of Gray. Can the movie just be about her instead?
Mnpp which is hotter retro reminder: American Hustle's JLaw or...
Vanity Fair Katey wonder whether Lena Dunham or Kristen Stewart have the Sundanceiest Sundance movie
Time Wispy beautiful Gal Gadot from Fast and Furious 6 will play the world's most famous Amazon warrior, Wonder Woman. Or at least Diana Prince in that likely-to-be-terrible Man of Steel 2 Men of Steel?...
Towleroad James Franco's '50 Shades of Batman & Robin'. Ha! I know a lot of people hate Franco's absurdities and his ubiquity but I love that he has turned the boredom of professional acting (all that time not acting on film sets or between jobs) into performance art.
EW Marcia Gay Harden will play Christian Gray's mother in 50 Shades of Gray. Can the movie just be about her instead?
Mnpp which is hotter retro reminder: American Hustle's JLaw or...
Vanity Fair Katey wonder whether Lena Dunham or Kristen Stewart have the Sundanceiest Sundance movie
Time Wispy beautiful Gal Gadot from Fast and Furious 6 will play the world's most famous Amazon warrior, Wonder Woman. Or at least Diana Prince in that likely-to-be-terrible Man of Steel 2 Men of Steel?...
- 12/5/2013
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
New Trailer & Photos Of Peter Berg's Heroism Drama 'Lone Survivor' Which Could Be An Oscar Contender
Peter Berg's "Lone Survivor" starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana was a bit of a question mark earlier in the year, but it's already already garnering positive survival narrative comparisons to solid pictures that have already screened this year like "Gravity," "Captain Phillips," "All Is Lost" and "12 Years A Slave" (that's pretty terrific company to be in). What's more, while reviews aren't out yet, the movie has screened for press, and critics seem to be impressed. Jeffrey Wells has called it a surreal, exhilarating nightmare, and while Oscar blogger Scott Feinberg hasn't seen it yet, the good notices from critics who have seen it have popped it up on his Oscar radar (we'll see if it charts on our own analysis next week).For research, director Peter Berg deployed in early 2010 with a Seal platoon in Iraq near Syria's border. "It really helped...
- 11/8/2013
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Since we started canvassing our Oscar experts in late August, Oprah Winfrey had led the Best Supporting Actress race for her performance in the summer hit "The Butler." But in the last 10 days, support has shifted to newcomer Lupita Nyongo, the breakout star of Best Picture frontrunner "12 Years a Slave" which opens Friday (Oct. 18). Thirteen Experts are now behind the bid by Nyongo: Edward Douglas (Comingsoon), Scott Feinberg (Hollywood Reporter), Dave Karger (Fandango), Guy Lodge (HitFix), Mary Milliken (Reuters), Michael Musto (Out, Gawker), Steve Pond (TheWrap), Christopher Rosen (Huffington Post), Sasha Stone (AwardsDaily), Alex Suskind (Moviefone), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood-Elsewhere) and Glenn Whipp (L.A. Times). Ten Experts support Winfrey: Thelma Adams (Yahoo), Tho...
- 10/17/2013
- Gold Derby
"12 Years a Slave" continues its hefty lead in the Best Picture race, according to Oscarologists' recently updated predictions. Support for "Gravity" has risen sharply, while "The Wolf of Wall Street" has lost all first-placed votes. Twelve Experts now back "12 Years a Slave": Thelma Adams (Yahoo), Edward Douglas (Comingsoon), Thom Geier (Entertainment Weekly), Dave Karger (Fandango), Tariq Khan (Fox News), Mary Milliken (Reuters), Michael Musto (Out, Gawker), Steve Pond (TheWrap), Sasha Stone (AwardsDaily), Jeffrey Wells (Hollywood-Elsewhere), Glenn Whipp (L.A. Times) and Susan Wloszczyna (RogerEbert.com). Five pundits remain loyal to "American Hustle": Scott Feinberg (Hollywood Reporter), Christopher Rosen (Huffington Post), Paul Sheehan (Gold Derby), Alex Suskind (Moviefone) and me. Last week "Gravity" had no first-placed votes, but now it has three: Guy Lodge (HitFix), Anne Thom...
- 10/8/2013
- Gold Derby
Photo Credit: Daniel Daza/Roadside Attractions
Academy Award winner Robert Redford stars in the brand new trailer for the film All Is Lost, an open-water thriller about one man’s battle for survival against the elements after his sailboat is destroyed at sea. Written and directed by Academy Award nominee J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) with a musical score by Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros), the film is a gripping, visceral and powerfully moving tribute to ingenuity and resilience.
In his review from May, Jeffrey Wells over at Hollywood Elsewhere wrote,
“…J.C. Chandor‘s All Is Lost has completely blown everyone away at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s a knockout –a riveting piece of pure dialogue-free cinema, a terrific survival-on-the-high-seas tale and major acting triumph for Robert Redford, who hasn’t been this good since…what, Brubaker? All The President’s Men? A long time. It’s one of the most powerful,...
Academy Award winner Robert Redford stars in the brand new trailer for the film All Is Lost, an open-water thriller about one man’s battle for survival against the elements after his sailboat is destroyed at sea. Written and directed by Academy Award nominee J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) with a musical score by Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros), the film is a gripping, visceral and powerfully moving tribute to ingenuity and resilience.
In his review from May, Jeffrey Wells over at Hollywood Elsewhere wrote,
“…J.C. Chandor‘s All Is Lost has completely blown everyone away at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s a knockout –a riveting piece of pure dialogue-free cinema, a terrific survival-on-the-high-seas tale and major acting triumph for Robert Redford, who hasn’t been this good since…what, Brubaker? All The President’s Men? A long time. It’s one of the most powerful,...
- 8/2/2013
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Nicolas Winding Refn's "Only God Forgives" was booed after it debuted at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and the jeers haven't really let up in the months since.
Out now in limited release and via on demand services, Refn's reunion with "Drive" star Ryan Gosling has been skewered by critics to the tune of just a 33 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. ("Drive," by comparison, received a 93-percent rating on the review aggregation site.)
"When people love or hate your films, it's the only time you've actually penetrated," Refn told HuffPost Live in a recent interview. "That was like the whole point of making films: You're meant to react to it. If everybody likes it -- which, of course, is great -- it's the same thing as everybody hating it. Of course it's more pleasurable if everybody likes it -- because being degraded and hated by everyone is a terrible emotion...
Out now in limited release and via on demand services, Refn's reunion with "Drive" star Ryan Gosling has been skewered by critics to the tune of just a 33 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. ("Drive," by comparison, received a 93-percent rating on the review aggregation site.)
"When people love or hate your films, it's the only time you've actually penetrated," Refn told HuffPost Live in a recent interview. "That was like the whole point of making films: You're meant to react to it. If everybody likes it -- which, of course, is great -- it's the same thing as everybody hating it. Of course it's more pleasurable if everybody likes it -- because being degraded and hated by everyone is a terrible emotion...
- 7/19/2013
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
If you have a thing for Lea Seydoux, this was a good year to be at the Cannes Film Festival. The French actress spends most of "Grand Central" (read our review here) either naked or strutting around noticeably bra-less in a jean shorts and a one piece body suit. And then there's "Blue Is The Warmest Color," an epic three hour lesbian love story with love scenes that are already creating chatter, with Jeffrey Wells noting that one sequence in particular earned applause during the movie. Damn. Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche -- the filmmaker behind the awesome, under-seen foreign film, "The Secret of The Grain" which won several key Cesar Awards in 2008 and also took the Jury Prize in Venice the year before -- and based on the graphic novel by Julie Maroh, the picture tracks the up and down of a fledgling, same-sex relationship. Here's the official synopsis: At...
- 5/23/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
If it weren't for a recent aspect ratio brouhaha, "Shane" probably would sneak into the TCM Classic Film Festival on Saturday at the Chinese without much fanfare. Which would've been a shame considering that Technicolor has digitally revived its naturalistic sheen in honor of the 60th anniversary and an upcoming Warner Home Video Blu-ray on June 4. But there's definitely more buzz now, thanks to Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells kicking up some dirt about a slightly cropped version of George Stevens' beloved Western superseding its original aspect ratio. Although "Shane" was shot in Technicolor in 1951 at 1.37, it premiered at Radio City Music Hall two years later at 1.66, ushering in the widescreen craze to combat the TV boom. Wells protested, but all's well that ends well. "Shane" will be presented at 1.37 except for 1.66 on cable. I asked the director's filmmaker son, George Stevens Jr., to clear up the confusion: "There's no controversy about aspect ratio,...
- 4/26/2013
- by Bill Desowitz
- Thompson on Hollywood
This year's Cannes jury president Steven Spielberg, whose "Lincoln" won two Oscars out of 12 nominations, has not lost his taste for recreating history. The filmmaker has begun developing Stanley Kubrick's "Napoleon" screenplay as a miniseries. Spielberg, who collaborated with Kubrick on 2001's "A.I.," is working with Kubrick's family to bring the abandoned 1970s project to TV. The Stanley Kubrick exhibit currently on view at Lacma offers a room full of extensive documents and artifacts for "Napoleon" (see above), including a letter to actor Oskar Werner ("Jules and Jim," "Fahrenheit 451") offering him the eponymous role, and a polite rejection letter from Audrey Hepburn, turning down the part of Josephine. The project was ultimately put aside after it proved to have a multitude of budget and production challenges, as envisioned by perfectionist Kubrick. Jeffrey Wells believes that Kubrick's "Napoleon" would have been a reprise of the movie Kubrick made instead when UA and MGM.
- 3/4/2013
- by Anne Thompson and Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
"The Place Beyond The Pines" puts Ryan Gosling in familiar territory for anyone who remembers "Drive." In the new film, he plays a stunt driver who turns to crime to protect the girl he loves and her son. (The twist from "Drive": The child is his.) Like "Drive," things go awry. That leaves Gosling on the run from a cop (played by Bradley Cooper).
Directed by Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine"), "The Place Beyond the Pines" debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September. Focus Features picked it up and will release "Pines" on March 29, 2013. Watch the first trailer above.
"'The Place Beyond The Pines' is a cinematic accomplishment of extraordinary grace and insight," wrote Kevin Jagernauth on the Indiewire blog The Playlist after the film's premiere.
Not everyone was a fan: "Except for the bank-robbing and road-chase sequences I didn't believe a single moment in this film,...
Directed by Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine"), "The Place Beyond the Pines" debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September. Focus Features picked it up and will release "Pines" on March 29, 2013. Watch the first trailer above.
"'The Place Beyond The Pines' is a cinematic accomplishment of extraordinary grace and insight," wrote Kevin Jagernauth on the Indiewire blog The Playlist after the film's premiere.
Not everyone was a fan: "Except for the bank-robbing and road-chase sequences I didn't believe a single moment in this film,...
- 12/21/2012
- by Christopher Rosen
- Huffington Post
By Tom O'Neil, GoldDerby.com "Les Miserables" is the early frontrunner to win Best Picture at the Oscars, according to the experts polled by Gold Derby, and it may even end up setting two historic records. Pundits predict the Tom Hooper-directed flick will win Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway), Art Direction, Best Song ("Suddenly") and Sound Mixing. Overall, expect "Les Mis" to reap 12 to 16 bids. Currently, the record is 14 held by "All About Eve" (1950) and "Titanic" (1997). If "Les Mis" beats "Lincoln" to reap the most noms this year, that'll be an encouraging sign since the movie with the most nominations wins Best Picture more than two-thirds of the time. "Les Miserables" could also set a record for most acting bids in one film. That distinction is currently shared by nine flicks that reaped five: "All About Eve" (1950), "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967), "From Here to Eternity" (1953), "Godfather, Part II" (1974), "Mrs. Miniver" (1942), "Network...
- 11/28/2012
- by Alex Suskind
- Moviefone
Natasha Vc Melancholiay Kiki was right. Noooooo....
MovieLine on Sam Raimi's purchase of Angelfall, the Ya series that's meant to be the next Hunger Games. The only thing getting me through the endless repetitiveness of today's cinema culture is that most of these series have an end date. So once Hunger Games ends, people will be looking for the next Angelfall instead. (Can you tell I'm so excited that Twilight is over!!!?)
HitFix talks to Matthew McConaughey about a Magic Mike sequel and all that weight he's lost for The Dallas Buyers Club.
Movies Now profiles GKids, that winning animated indie distributor who should be taken seriously in each year's Oscar race
Awards Daily on the ever present narrative of Oscar's Difficulty with Race. Which, to be fair if you ask me, is not so much Oscar's problem as Hollywood's difficulties; Oscar is only a prism.
Hollywood Elsewhere Newsflash:...
MovieLine on Sam Raimi's purchase of Angelfall, the Ya series that's meant to be the next Hunger Games. The only thing getting me through the endless repetitiveness of today's cinema culture is that most of these series have an end date. So once Hunger Games ends, people will be looking for the next Angelfall instead. (Can you tell I'm so excited that Twilight is over!!!?)
HitFix talks to Matthew McConaughey about a Magic Mike sequel and all that weight he's lost for The Dallas Buyers Club.
Movies Now profiles GKids, that winning animated indie distributor who should be taken seriously in each year's Oscar race
Awards Daily on the ever present narrative of Oscar's Difficulty with Race. Which, to be fair if you ask me, is not so much Oscar's problem as Hollywood's difficulties; Oscar is only a prism.
Hollywood Elsewhere Newsflash:...
- 11/15/2012
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
"Silver Linings Playbook" was set to open in over 2,000 theaters on Nov. 21, but that national rollout won't happen as planned. As first reported by The Los Angeles Times, "Silver Linings Playbook" will now arrive in 400 theaters on Thanksgiving eve, with The Weinstein Company planning a slow unveiling throughout the rest of the year. "We felt we had the reviews and the long runway after the movie opened to let the word of mouth build," David Glasser, TWC's chief operating officer, told The Times. "This is right out of our playbook."
While that might sound like studio executive bluster, Glasser isn't wrong. The Weinstein Company has perfected the platform release in recent years, especially for its Oscar contenders. In 2010, the studio opened "The King's Speech" in just four theaters over Thanksgiving weekend, and slowly expanded that total over the next couple of months; the Best Picture winner reached a high-water mark of 2,386 theaters on Feb.
While that might sound like studio executive bluster, Glasser isn't wrong. The Weinstein Company has perfected the platform release in recent years, especially for its Oscar contenders. In 2010, the studio opened "The King's Speech" in just four theaters over Thanksgiving weekend, and slowly expanded that total over the next couple of months; the Best Picture winner reached a high-water mark of 2,386 theaters on Feb.
- 11/15/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
When The Hunger Games was released in March, several critics had an issue with star Jennifer Lawrence: they thought she didn’t look quite hungry enough.
“A few years ago Ms. Lawrence might have looked hungry enough to play Katniss, but now, at 21, her seductive, womanly figure makes a bad fit for a dystopian fantasy about a people starved into submission,” Manohla Dargis wrote in The New York Times. Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere also took note of Lawrence’s size, saying that she “seems too big” for her co-star Josh Hutcherson: “She’s a fairly tall, big-boned...
“A few years ago Ms. Lawrence might have looked hungry enough to play Katniss, but now, at 21, her seductive, womanly figure makes a bad fit for a dystopian fantasy about a people starved into submission,” Manohla Dargis wrote in The New York Times. Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere also took note of Lawrence’s size, saying that she “seems too big” for her co-star Josh Hutcherson: “She’s a fairly tall, big-boned...
- 11/9/2012
- by Hillary Busis
- EW.com - PopWatch
Daniel Day-Lewis is earning well-deserved raves for his performance as Abraham Lincoln in "Lincoln." (As Time Magazine noted in a recent cover story, Day-Lewis owns the title of "World's Greatest Actor.") There is one part of his portrayal of the 16th president, however, that has raised some eyebrows: Day-Lewis speaks with a higher-pitched voice than many might imagine when they think of the Great Emancipator.
"I still don't like the sound of Daniel Day Lewis's Lincoln voice," wrote Hollywood Elsewhere blogger Jeffrey Wells after seeing one of the film's trailers. "I almost hate it, in a way. It's flat, undistinctive, unimpressive, Matthew Modine-ish. (And that's not a putdown of Modine.) It's hard to describe what I was looking to hear, but this isn't it. And I dearly love the voices that Lewis has given us over the years. The fault, of course, is [Steven] Spielberg's -- he didn't push hard enough,...
"I still don't like the sound of Daniel Day Lewis's Lincoln voice," wrote Hollywood Elsewhere blogger Jeffrey Wells after seeing one of the film's trailers. "I almost hate it, in a way. It's flat, undistinctive, unimpressive, Matthew Modine-ish. (And that's not a putdown of Modine.) It's hard to describe what I was looking to hear, but this isn't it. And I dearly love the voices that Lewis has given us over the years. The fault, of course, is [Steven] Spielberg's -- he didn't push hard enough,...
- 10/26/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
The critics may not know it yet, but Ang Lee's latest film has everything the Academy could want in a best picture winner
Despite ecstatic reviews from critics at the New York film festival this week, Life of Pi has been met with a curiously grudging response from the assembled ranks of Oscar-ologists and awards-season prognosticators.
"I think that Life of Pi is going to be regarded as a major visual feast by the visual-delight-for-the-sake-of-visual-delight crowd," said Jeffrey Wells, of Hollywood Elsewhere, but "as a non-starter by a significant portion of the family audience … and as a respectable also-ran in the best picture contest."
The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg found it "impeccably crafted" but, "while it looks to be a strong below-the-line contender, I'm not sure that I see it contending strongly in the higher-profile categories." Fresh from that screening, Indiewire's Eric Kohn tweeted "Pi seems destined for the Hugo slot: F/X-driven,...
Despite ecstatic reviews from critics at the New York film festival this week, Life of Pi has been met with a curiously grudging response from the assembled ranks of Oscar-ologists and awards-season prognosticators.
"I think that Life of Pi is going to be regarded as a major visual feast by the visual-delight-for-the-sake-of-visual-delight crowd," said Jeffrey Wells, of Hollywood Elsewhere, but "as a non-starter by a significant portion of the family audience … and as a respectable also-ran in the best picture contest."
The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg found it "impeccably crafted" but, "while it looks to be a strong below-the-line contender, I'm not sure that I see it contending strongly in the higher-profile categories." Fresh from that screening, Indiewire's Eric Kohn tweeted "Pi seems destined for the Hugo slot: F/X-driven,...
- 10/5/2012
- by Tom Shone
- The Guardian - Film News
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