Onelinereview: November 2009

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Awards Season Schedule: Movie Year 2009

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Time to Lobby the Library of Congress About the National Film Registry

Happy Thanksgiving!

In one month, the Library of Congress will announce the next 25 films added to the National Film Registry. Last year's list spanned the years 1910-89, and included: Foolish Wives (1922), Hallelujah (1929), Sergeant York (1941), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), A Face in the Crowd (1957), Flower Drum Song (1961), Deliverance (1972), and The Terminator (1984). Also included were historically important films such as White Fawn's Devotion (1910), the earliest surviving film directed by a Native American; George Stevens WWII footage (1943-46); the amateur home movie of a trip to newly opened Disneyland, Disneyland Dream (1956); and Len Lye's experimental animated short Free Radicals (1979).

The National Film Registry started in 1989, and there are currently 500 films on the list. Although the obscure films and historically important documentaries fulfill the mandate of the Registry, there does seem to be a movement, at least in recent years, to include those fictional feature films that are great films (more of a Sight and Sound approach) or cult films (such as The Killers and Johnny Guitar last year) and not just historically or culturally important ones (there are still many Oscar-winning Best Pictures not on the list, for example).

You can e-mail your list to the Library of Congress and they'll consider your choices. Link to their website.

Below are my picks for what should be added to this year's list (I only do the narrative feature films: I'll let the Library of Congress decide on the obscure works). To me, the film that most needs to be added above all (my choice last year as well) is Blue Velvet. Just one film I picked last year got in!... The Terminator (1984).

My choices for this go-round, by year:

1910s and 20s
A Tale of Two Cities (1917)
Male and Female (1919)
The Love Light (1921)
The Sheik (1921)

1930s
The Guardsman (1931)
Queen Christina (1933)
The Merry Widow (1934)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Holiday (1938)

1940s
Bambi (1942)
First Comes Courage (1943)
Lifeboat (1944)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
The Lady From Shanghai (1948)

1950s
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Limelight (1952)
Stalag 17 (1953)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
The Killing (1956)

1960s
Lolita (1962)
The Birds (1963)
The Great Escape (1963)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

1970s
Carnal Knowledge (1971)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Front (1976)
Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979)

1980s
Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Arthur (1981)
The World According to Garp (1982)
Aliens (1986)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Die Hard (1988)

1990s
JFK (1991)
El Mariachi (1992)
Husbands and Wives (1992)
Ed Wood (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Before Sunrise (1995)
Sling Blade (1996)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Titanic (1997)
Rushmore (1998)
Election (1999)

Monday, November 23, 2009

Taking the Oscar Bait-- 2009

Thanksgiving week ushers in the first wave of the serious Oscar hopefuls, which run to Christmas Day. They can turn out to be all hype, but it's still the case that the biggest Oscar films come out this time of year. Below is the slate of this year's major Oscar bait of the upcoming releases, roughly in order of current "buzz":

1. Up in the Air
2. Invictus
3. Nine
4. A Single Man
5. The Last Station
6. Avatar
7. Crazy Heart
8. It's Complicated
9. Everybody's Fine
10. Brothers

Friday, November 20, 2009

1980s Films On My Movie Radar

The decade of blockbusters and sequels; the rise of the independent film; the last gasp of many of the classic Hollywood directors; and such popular genres as: slasher films, raunchy comedies, and films of teenage angst. I saw four films off last year's list which leaves me with a full list of six (I'm continuing to bring my ten films-to-see lists down to six). Here's a list of the classic 1980s films that have managed to elude me so far, but they're on my radar:

Absence of Malice— 1981

Das Boot— 1981

The Pope of Greenwich Village— 1984

A Room with a View— 1986

The Last Temptation of Christ— 1988

Valmont— 1989

Monday, November 16, 2009

"Make Way" for the New Criterion Slate

Make Way for Tomorrow, Lola Montes, Howard's End and an Eclipse George Bernard Shaw box set are among the next Criterion releases. Not jumling out of my skin for these titles... will have to give Tomorrow a second chance someday. Link to Criterion's upcoming DVDs.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Heritage Galleries November '09 Auction Realized

Heritage Galleries' November movie poster auction ended this weekend with The Black Cat one sheet garnering an impressive $334,600! This ties it for fourth place for movie poster sales of all-time (see link below).

The next best showing among one sheets was $33,460 for an FN grade Citizen Kane.

Other top selling one sheets included several silent era posters that scored in the neighborhood of $20,000— posters for Fritz Lang's Spies, Griffith's True Heart Susie, and Scott Sidney's Tarzan the Ape Man.

Here is Learn About Movie Posters compilation of top sellers of all-time.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Martin Scorsese to Receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced the recipient for this year's Cecil B. DeMille Award: Martin Scorsese. The press release was posted about 9:12 this morning on the HFPA website... glad they are prompt (even though it's PST, sorry New York).

Goodfellas is probably Scorsese's masterpiece for me (others would say Taxi Driver or Raging Bull). Of his recent films I think The Aviator and The Departed are his best (others would say Gangs of New York). My "favorite" Scorsese films are The King of Comedy and After Hours.

Scorsese was certainly among the most probable picks, and deserving. I thought they'd go with the older Coppola first (or Mike Nichols, Woody Allen, etc.), hence my guess, but maybe they'll eschew those others and get back to the actors next year.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Who will Receive this Year's Cecil B. DeMille Award?

One of the highlights of "Pre-Awards" Season is the announcement of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe Award for lifetime achievement, the Cecil B. DeMille Award. The timing of the announcement has changed somewhat through the years, but recently has stayed firm at 9:00 a.m. PST on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving week. This year, it's slightly off that schedule and will be announced tomorrow, Thursday, November 12.

The Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Golden Globe was first given in 1952, to namesake Cecil B. DeMille himself. Producer/Director DeMille was one of the most successful filmmakers of Hollywood's Golden Age and in 1952 he made the film that would win Oscar's Best Picture, The Greatest Show on Earth. Who won the second DeMille award? Walt Disney.

In the early years of the award, the recipient was generally a producer/studio head, but starting with Maurice Chevalier (1959's recipient) performers have worked their way up, to the point that the award has been given exclusively to them since 1978 (with a few "hyphenates" among them, such as Clint Eastwood), until Steven Spielberg's 2008 win.

So, who do you think will be given this year's Cecil B. DeMille Award? The most likely candidate of the last several years has certainly been Meryl Streep. Streep is second in Golden Globe nominations only to Jack Lemmon (19 to his 22). She's had a string of high profile hits as of late critically and commercially, too.

Here is a link to the Cecil B. DeMille Award on the HFPA's website.

And here is a handy one-page list on Wikipedia.

What is your guess for this year's DeMille?

Notables who have yet to receive the honor include: Woody Allen, Julie Andrews, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Caine, Glenn Close, Tom Cruise, Daniel Day-Lewis, Robert DeNiro, Gerard Depardieu, Robert Duvall, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks, Dennis Hopper, George Lucas, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julia Roberts, Martin Scorsese, Sylvester Stallone, Meryl Streep, John Travolta, and Denzel Washington.

... My perennial guess is HFPA favorite (12 noms, 3 wins) Michael Caine. This year, though, in light of Spielberg's win last year, I'm choosing Francis Ford Coppola as my prediction for this year's DeMille Award recipient.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Pre-Awards Season Begins 2009

The announcement of the National Board of Review's picks on December 3rd, as is tradition, will bring down the checked flag for the start of Awards season. Here at One Line Review, Pre-Awards season begins with the simultaneous publication in the first weekend of November of the Los Angeles Times's "Holiday Movie Sneaks," Entertainment Weekly's Holiday Movie Preview Issue [see note, however] (which contains their early guesses in Oscar's Best Picture, Directing, and Acting races), and Awards-Season Previews in the trades. Note: This year, The EW Holiday Movie Preview issue was pushed a week (presumably because it was the first FULL weekend in Nov.) I therefore delayed my blog entry to today. On Monday, I feel we can safely stand around the water cooler and say the word "Oscar" without fear of "already?" (These year-round Oscar websites, however, to me, are the equivalent of playing Christmas music in July.)

Going straight to the belly of the beast, I was struck yet again by how DISASTROUSLY STUPID the Oscars are in DOUBLING the number of Best Picture contenders. I APPLAUD EW for STILL only listing five predictions! I bet they originally had ten and then they saw how totally unwieldy the list was and went 'oh hell' and brought it back down to five. What's so sad is I think 2009 is a GREAT year for movies-- I could already put together a top ten-- and EW's predix for the top five Best Pictures-- Hurt Locker, Invictus, Lovely Bones, Precious, Up in the Air, make it look so deadly dull. I don't know, for some reason the magic is gone.

There are at least six acting "locks" it seems coming into the season: Morgan Freeman (Invictus), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia), Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds), Mo'nique (Precious). Also with a big chance for an acting nom is Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker).

Films I look forward to— Oscar or otherwise— include: 2012 (don't pretend you don't too), Avatar, Broken Embraces, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Me and Orson Welles, Nine, and Sherlock Holmes.

Like I said earlier, I already have more than enough films to create a top ten from, so even if a few of the upcoming films turn out to be great, it will make for one heck of a movie year.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

One Line Review Turns Two

Happy b-day to my blog, two years old today. This blog has gotten over 16,000 views, so I hope that means some of the content has been worthwhile. I've enjoyed doing it these last two years. Hope to see it to year three in 2010.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween on the Boulevard: 2009

Living in L.A. means the opportunity to take part in the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval, on Santa Monica Boulevard between Doheny Drive and La Cienega Boulevard. It's a good opportunity to see what's big in pop culture. My report below.

Costumes of the moment:
1. Alice in Wonderland (a TON, everywhere, particularly Mad Hatters, Alices, and March Hares)
2. Where the Wild Things Are (a LOT), some very lazy Maxes among them (paper crown, long johns)
3. Watchmen (a few, but only one Dr. Manhattan [surprisingly for Santa Monica Blvd. not nude or semi-nude, but in a suit]
4. Lady Gaga (although it’s frequently hard to tell whether or not it was meant to be her!)
5. Indiana Jones. Yup, give ‘em an inch… the (hopefully last) sequel was last year, but these guys couldn’t stop themselves….
6. Sully Sullenberger- at least one
7. Bruno- didn’t think there’d be one, but there was one guy…
8. Up! There were three guys but one guy (the first one I saw) did it amazing. This first guy had the full rainbow-colored balloons with a miniature house, and his girlfriend was dressed as the little boy. The second guy was alone with a flat cut out of the house and the full balloons. The third guy literally had THREE balloons: completely missing it (lame!)
8. Balloon boy: would have been a little better say if it it didn't turn out to be a fraud!
9. Octomom.
10. SOOOOO last year award: Joker (hang your heads in same people!)

Other costumes:
Batman Family- very cute, Dad as Batman, Mom and young daughter both as Batgirl, little boy as Robin
Ghostbusters (of course). Now there is even a sexy girl costume version
Nightmare Before Christmas- a LOT. It’s quite boring at this point
Muppets- and always in a group—SOOOOO boring at this point
Rice Crispies in a “bowl” (inflated kiddie pool)—kind of a pain to walk around
I’m sure I’ve seen it, but a guy in a red hoodie, with a small bike and milk crate with ET in it is STILL a crowd pleaser—had to smile

Sexy costume for chicks this year: Snow White (don’t know why: lots of them), bumblebees/butterflies too
Fun costume—girl as Mary Poppins (loved it)
Surprisingly no one dressed like Michael Jackson (that I saw). His music was everywhere though. (No Adam Lamberts or Susan Boyles that I saw either)
Retire it already! Award: Captain Jack Sparrow (wouldn’t you be embarrassed to wear this?)

This year: WOW a lot of tourists!