No Oscars host has done better Best Picture parodies than Billy Crystal. And no awards show has had better parodies than the MTV Movie Awards (specifically the Max Fischer Players reenactments from the 1999 show). So it is interesting that MTV’s movies editor Josh Horowitz has made a video in which he’s aping Crystal’s opening shtick. And comparatively, he’s not very good. Some of it is kind of funny, including the whole No Country for Old Men phone call, especially the line about Juno being Abigail Breslin with the mouth of Dennis Miller, and the bit about how in There Will Be Blood Kevin J. O’Connor’s mustache seemed to be trying to compete with Daniel Day Lewis’. But I was completely bored by the Michael Clayton bit.

It is at least funnier than that Vanity Fair “In Memoriam” thing. And that There Will Be Blood thing with David Spade. But it’s not quite as funny as the Diablo Cody video from earlier today.

The video is worth watching for one reason, though: Kurt Loder, scarier than ever. The next time I see him in person, I might actually run away screaming. He’s definitely more frightening than The Ruins looks. I have to say, though, as creepy as he is, I can’t wait to see him in Big Trouble in Little China 2.

Anyway, good luck to Jon Stewart this Sunday. And remember, if you’re in NYC, you can watch his monologue and the rest of the ceremony with your friends at Spout and our friends at The Reeler. See here for details.

New York Magazine’s Grub Street blog points to a glorified press release wire story about the menu created by James Sakatos at the Carlyle Cafe for the Academy’s official New York Oscar viewing party, with one course devoted to each of the five Best Picture nominees. Sakatos says he watched all five films in a weekend and took copious notes before putting the menu together, but he’s apparently not much of a deep reader, because each entree is a thuddingly literal interpretation of the film’s themes––and at least one isn’t even accurate.

For instance: There Will Be Blood is represented by Sakatos’ favorite dish of the five, a squid ink risotto with mushrooms, cuttlefish and blood orange foam. That sounds awesome, but the last thing I think of when I think of Daniel Plainview is a delicate seafood risotto. Check out Sakatos’ description of why this is more appropriate than, say, cold steak and a milkshake: “The black ink brings to mind the film’s oil gushers, with blood orange foam to remind diners of the struggle and, of course, the title.” OF COURSE. How silly of me.

Way, way, way worse, is Sakatos’ justification of how Dover sole is the embodiment of Michael Clayton: …Read more

A lot of people have wondered how a brilliant film like Ratatouille could be denied a Best Picture Oscar nomination. Well, I’ve finally uncovered the conspiracy, and it involves food, obviously. See, Ratatouille celebrates great French cuisine. But apparently the Academy is in the pockets of the American fast food industry, because all five of the Best Picture contenders have some sort of connection to the greasy, fatty and popular foods that keep America overweight and complacent.

What, you don’t believe me? OK, well here’s the obvious ones: There Will Be Blood has a line about drinking milkshakes (the line is now such a popular catch phrase, I’m shocked McDonalds hasn’t yet given its customers a movie tie-in); Juno has a hamburger phone; No Country For Old Men has that slaughterhouse bolt pistol. Now here’s the less noticeable and the real stretch: Michael Clayton deals with a fictional company called U-North, which is pretty much supposed to be the real company Monsato, which got its start as the supplier of saccharin, caffeine and vanillin to Coca-Cola; and Atonement is the latest film to have a “small fry” actress nominated for an Oscar (yeah, that’s all I’ve got).

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• With the fate of Heath Ledger’s final projects up in the air, Variety takes a look at some past films that were effected by the sudden deaths of their respective stars. Would Shrek have been as popular with Chris Farley as the voice of the titular ogre? Would Interview With the Vampire be better with River Phoenix? Should Jane Harlow’s final film, Saratoga, have been scrapped?
• WGA reps and studio execs enter a second day of informal talks today, which should be more exciting that it feels to me. Maybe it’s because I just read this detail of how badly the writer’s strike is effecting the economy, and now my head hurts.
• After confirming that Tony Gilroy had directed him to a second Oscar nomination, Tom Wilkinson has decided to reunite with the Michael Clayton director for the pharmaceutical company drama Duplicity. He is joined by Billy Bob Thornton and joins Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.
• Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida are now considered a “husband-and-wife team” for writing an original screenplay that Oscar-winner Sam Mendes will direct as a low-budget comedy. Currently untitled, the movie will be about a young couple trying to decide where in the U.S. is best to raise a child. It could be a very short film if the couple just reads the latest issue of Fit Pregnancy magazine.

Here is my follow-up to last month’s question of what mainstream movie will feature on the most top ten movie lists. And the winner is … Ratatouille. Oh wait, didn’t I disqualify that one for being too obvious? No? Well, I should have. Yes, according to Movie City News’ Big Ass Chart (aka Scorecard) of critics’ top tens, the Pixar movie made it on to 51 best-of lists, making it the best-grossing best movie of the year. But maybe it wasn’t the most mainstream, if you define mainstream as studio-produced fare. Under that qualification Zodiac was the best mainstream movie of 2007, having been made jointly by Warner Bros. and Paramount and showing up on 70 best-of lists. Other Warner successes include Michael Clayton, which featured on 54 lists, Sweeney Todd, which received 44 mentions, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which showed up on one list, and Letters From Iwo Jima, which showed up a little late on one list.

As far as those mainstream movies I predicted would feature heavily, Knocked Up (34 lists) ended up defeating Superbad (25 lists) — meanwhile, the third Judd Apatow movie of the year, Walk Hard, managed to get on one critic’s list — though both were actually behind The Bourne Ultimatum (28 lists), when it came to “average vote” (average numerical placement on the list). If we’re going by mainstream appeal (and if Karina is correct in her view of the film), then Juno was the best mainstream comedy of the year with 63 lists. Hairspray (13 lists) beat out its crappy musical siblings Across the Universe (7 lists) and Enchanted (8 lists). In addition to showing up on Richard Corliss’ list, Beowulf managed 3 other mentions. And Transformers not only showed up on a top ten list, it featured on 3! Of course, it’s more surprising that Spider-Man 3 made it on 4 lists. The greatest thing to happen, of course, was Manohla Dargis listing The Kingdom as one of her favorites. Joining her is Don Payne. If I had made a top ten list (instead of this thing), the film could very well have beaten Transformers. Oh well, at least nobody put the shocking blockbuster Alvin and the Chipmunks on their list … yet.

Eventually Judd Apatow’s schtick will no longer be fresh. But it may continue to be funny, even after the viral marketing backlash. Case in point: this new sketch/advertisement for Walk Hard, which takes Apatow’s viral brand to a mega-meta level. As much as the idea of fake fights involving Apatow and his actors is now a tired concept, the video is hilarious. And as much as Apatow’s self-referential jokes about being self-referential about being self-referential are as obvious as they are mind-wrapping, the video is still hilarious.It helps that this time around, there’s more funny guys involved and more going on at once. It’s not simply funny to watch Craig Robinson chasing after Judd Apatow because he’s pissed about being in another one of his “fucking commercials”, but it’s comedic gold to inter-cut it with Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill and Justin Long realizing they no longer have to talk about Apatow’s movies and can freely discuss their desire to see Michael Clayton.

Funny is funny, regardless of the situation or the motive.

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• “There are all these people who are like a non-people living here in caravans, 15 to a house in parts of England. Completely under the radar, completely unprotected. Like Dickensian England, it’s all here. These people are working for Sainsbury’s, Tesco’s and ASDA, [they] all pretend they don’t know it’s going on. And the government pretends it doesn’t know it’s going on. They’ve designed everything so that those people can be used to keep the cost of living low. There like this sub-human race and I realized that this is really widespread.” From RCRD LBL’s “exclusive interview” with Nick Broomfield, whose narrative feature Ghosts just came out on DVD in the UK.
• Coen Brothers blogathon alert: “Seeing as the Coen Brothers and their new movie haven’t gotten enough blogosphere attention, we here decided we would talk about the Coen Brothers and what their new movie has done to and in their body of work.” The show goes down Friday the 21st at Vinyl is Heavy.
• “At the moment, it looks like a good chunk of my annual top-ten will be dominated by Westerns and Musicals,” writes Filmbrain. “Go figure.” I totally agree with him on Michael Clayton, which I finally saw on Monday and which is such a disappointment–if there was an award for the Best Final Reel Totally Undeserved By The 90 Minutes That Precede It, this one would win in a landslide.
• Martin Scorsese’s New York, New York is, according to Nathan Rabin, “unmistakably a coke movie. It has coke’s jittery, paranoid rhythms: the maddeningly repetitive circular conversations, the pummeling emotional intensity, the screaming matches, and ragged, overreaching ambition. It’s the kind of movie that shows up at your doorstep at four in the morning looking bleary-eyed and desperate and angrily demands $400 for something it doesn’t feel comfortable talking about.”

Anne Thompson has written an impassioned post, defending Michael Clayton against Warner Brothers’ mismanagement:

What makes me crazy is that the studio had a well-reviewed, smart-house, classy movie that played well for the Academy and cost only $22 million. That’s peanuts to a studio like Warners and there was no earthly reason to go wide! They could have let those per-screen averages play out slowly over time, kept the movie simmering in a successful mode, and widened gradually, keeping the Oscar race in mind. This is the kind of movie that builds and finds an audience. As long as it’s successful, all well and good. But taint it with a 4th-place weekend and you’ve got the perception of damaged goods.

I haven’t seen Clayton yet, but from what I can tell, she’s totally right: this is the kind of movie that needs to play small for a few weeks, adding cities and screens bit by bit, so that coastal, early-adopting grown-ups have a chance to see and spread the word to their peers.

It’s so strange that Warner Brothers keeps bungling like this. Just take a look at the Warner Brothers tag on this blog, and it’s just one stupid scandal and/or mistake right after another. They either failed to sufficiently support Jesse James out of apathy, or they deliberately sabotaged its release. They let Nikki Finke’s “Robinov hates women” meme spread unchallenged for days before issuing a denial. And now they’re letting what should have been an easy (if slow-burning) prestige hit fall to their impatience. This is where I break into the Jerry Seinfeld voice in order to say, “What is the deal, with Warner Brothers?” And with sure-to-be gems like Man Wich in the pipeline, can it really get better before it gets worse?

October 12 (Chicago Public Radio): Our kind of town, Chicago is… Filmspotting covers the 43rd Annual Chicago International Film Festival, including quick reviews of the new Tony Gilroy thriller “Michael Clayton” and the fest’s closing night film “The Savages.” Plus, Jake and Elwood… er, Adam and Matty… reveal their Top 5 (or 10) Chicago Movies — films set and shot in the Windy City … The show kicks off with your hosts on a spiritual quest to India via Wes Anderson’s “The Darjeeling Limited.”

New music by Deadstring Brothers courtesy of Bloodshot Records.

Filmspotting #181
:21-11:41 - Review: “The Darjeeling Limited”
Music: Deadstring Brothers, “Ain’t No Hidin’ Love”
14:18-20:01 - CIFF Review: “Michael Clayton,” Poll Results
20:02-24:56 - CIFF Review: “Control”
24:57-28:26 - CIFF Review: “The Savages”
Music: Deadstring Brothers, “Silver Mountain”
29:05-31:17 - New DVDs, Donations
31:18-34:38 - Massacre Theatre (Winner: Lia Elder)
34:39-45:07 - Listener Feedback (Yuma, Jesse James, Brothers Movies)
Music: Deadstring Brothers, “If You Want Me To”
46:06-57:23 - Top 5: Chicago Movies
57:24-59:01 - Close/Next Show

CORRECTIONS/NOTES

Have a comment or Top 5 list you’d like to share? Send an e-mail or short mp3 clip to feedback@filmspotting.net. Or give us a call at 206-203-CINE and leave a voice message.

CHICAGO – Don’t be fooled by its formulaic, Hollywoodspeak tagline.

“The truth can be adjusted” is the Michael Clayton way of saying this film has rammed in a whole hell of a lot more than you might first presume and is about to blindside you with everything a picture-perfect Hollywood product should be.

George Clooney in Michael Clayton.
Photo courtesy of IMDb

An opulent, all-star cast as in The Departed sometimes yields the film of the year. At other times, the failure of that resolve can make financiers suicidal.

In the case of Michael Clayton, writer/director Tony Gilroy weaves the commanding George Clooney, flawlessly fanatical (and sometimes streaking) Tom Wilkinson, tautly corporate Tilda Swinton and the always-on-top-of-his-game Sydney Pollack into a film that pays its weight in gold.

…Read more