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“Skyfall,” “Django Unchained” earn Producers Guild Nominations

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:45:00 +0000

The Producers Guild of America, hailed by statistician Nate Silver as one of the more reliable predictors of Oscar success, revealed its nominations yesterday afternoon. In step with other major film associations, the PGA hailed "Argo," "Lincoln," "Les Miserables," "Life of Pi," "Silver Linings Playbook," and "Zero Dark Thirty," in the running for best theatrical motion picture.

Four wild cards rounded out the list of 10 nominees, however, shutting out Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master": the James Bond film "Skyfall" made the cut, as did Wes Anderson's indie film "Moonrise Kingdom." The appearance of "Beasts of the Southern Wild," which was surprisingly left out from the Golden Globe nominations, another strong Oscar predictor, suddenly became a viable contender in the race. And, though critically acclaimed, The Hollywood Reporter notes that "Django Unchained" was a wild card because guild voters didn't get screeners due to its late completion.

Resolved: In 2013, I’ll stop paying attention to Rush

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 17:00:00 +0000

I've never been one for New Years resolutions, but, then, I've never been a father before, either. That means up until now, the symptoms of my early onset Old Jewish Man Syndrome -- anxiety, neurosis, self-hate and attendant gastrointestinal distress -- mostly affected just me, and not a small child. So I figure if there's a first time for everything, then 2013 is as good a year as any to come up with 10 resolutions that, if fulfilled, hold out the hope of making me a better and healthier dad, husband, writer and overall person.

Some of these will seem trivial, and others will seem more serious. My guess is that at least a few will ring true for you - and if they don't, well, at least you can have a good laugh at my expense. Here they are in no specific order:

1. I will stop lying to my exercise machine: When it comes to my relationship with workout machines, I am nothing short of a pathological liar. Whether at home or on vacation, I tell the machines I meet that I weigh 173 pounds when I really weigh about 10 pounds more than that. In other words, when I program my workout, I tell the machine I'm the weight I want to be, but not the weight I actually am. Why do I do this and what the hell do I really think I'm getting away with?

Tarantino: “I find the criticism ridiculous”

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:30:00 +0000

A wide-ranging three-part interview on The Root with Quentin Tarantino conducted by its editor, the Harvard Prof and cultural critic Henry Louis Gates Jr., offers the public a chance to hear Tarantino's thinking about slavery, race, use of the N-word and the making of his latest film, "Django Unchained." Prominent figures including Spike Lee have attacked Tarantino in recent days for being disrespectful and exploitative of America's racial past and present in "Django." The following are excerpts of some his most interesting remarks:

On working with Jamie Foxx to build the character of the hero, Django:

Could a black director have made “Django”?

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:40:00 +0000

For two reasons, Quentin Tarantino’s "Django Unchained" was all but guaranteed to ignite a conversation about race in America.

First and foremost, the film dares to break a major taboo. Specifically, as the New York Times critic A.O. Scott put it, "Django" dares to show "regenerative violence visited by black against white instead of the reverse" -- a narrative that "has been almost literally unthinkable" in American life, much less in big-budget pop culture productions.

Second, the film does that in the immediate aftermath of a racially charged election that saw a black man reelected to the White House with the most diverse (read: non-white) coalition in presidential history.

Quentin Tarantino reveals details about “Inglourious Basterds” spin-off, “Killer Crow”

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:45:00 +0000

Hot on the heels of "Django Unchained," Tarantino's latest slavery-era Western, the director has opened up about plans for another film, adding substance to the rumor that "Inglourious Basterds" and "Django Unchained" might be part of a trilogy. Like the two previous films, Tarantino's next would also revolve around characters who overthrow historically oppressive groups, this time telling the story of rebellious black American military troops in 1944, after Normandy.

In an interview with The Root's editor-in-chief, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Tarantino reveals his plans for "Killer Crow":

Tarantino is the baddest black filmmaker working today

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 17:44:00 +0000

There are some folks who won’t like to read these words: White guy superstar director Quentin Tarantino may be the baddest black filmmaker working in big-time Hollywood movies today.

That is a possibility which angers some, frightens others and disgusts a few more, saying as much or more about the sorry state of movie audiences today and the still-closed world of big-time filmmaking than any tart provocation Tarantino has managed to splash on the screen.

The reason we’re having this conversation — again — is thanks to the latest addictive confection of revenge film, spaghetti Western, Blaxploitation movie and anti-slavery fantasy Q.T. dropped on us all to close out 2012: "Django Unchained."

Beyond the fact that it is gleefully bloody, luxuriating in crimson-splattered shootouts at a time when America is deeply conflicted over how much it loves this stuff, "Django Unchained" uncorks the perfect revenge fantasy for black people descended from slaves and living in a still-white-dominated society.

Spike Lee: “Django Unchained” is “disrespectful to my ancestors”

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:15:00 +0000

Over the weekend, director Spike Lee told VibeTV that he refuses to see Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained," the violent slavery-era Western that came out on Tuesday. "I cant speak on it 'cause I'm not gonna see it," he said. "All I'm going to say is that it's disrespectful to my ancestors. That's just me...I'm not speaking on behalf of anybody else." Lee also tweeted: "American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them.”

Tarantino’s incoherent three-hour bloodbath

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 14:39:00 +0000

Quentin Tarantino no longer makes movies; he makes trailers. “Django Unchained” feels like a three-hour trailer for a movie that never happens, a slavery-revenge melodrama cum salt-‘n’-pepper action film that would be awesome if it actually existed. Like so many trailers, it’s packed with memorable scenes that don’t go anywhere, and keeps promising payoffs that remain theoretical. It’s got Western scenery on a grand scale and scenes of madcap comedy involving inept members of the Ku Klux Klan. It’s got veritable geysers and fountains and gushers of blood, an ocean of fake gore even by Tarantino’s standards. You could claim that he’s “quoting from Sam Peckinpah” with those slapsticky water balloons full of blood, except that that’s not quite it. It’s more like he’s quoting from crappy ‘70s drive-in movies that were quoting from “The Hills Have Eyes,” which was quoting from something else that was quoting from Peckinpah. (I may be missing an intermediate stage there, such as a cannibal film that was dubbed from Italian into Spanish and projected once, with the reels out of sequence, at a downtown Los Angeles theater in 1983.)

“Les Miserables”, “Django Unchained” set to beat box office expectations

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Although holiday spending has been sluggish this year, the turnout for movies is up--at least on Christmas Day. "Les Miserables" and "Django Unchained" debuted across America yesterday and, based on projections, are exceeding opening day expectations.

"Les Miserables," which opened in 2,808 theaters, is now the #1 advance ticket-seller among all Christmas Day releases. Universal was hoping to make at least $10 million its opening day, but according to Deadline, the Tim Hooper adaptation's projected earnings from yesterday will exceed that by about $8 million. However, sales could decline by Wednesday or Thursday, with one studio exec noting that “Christmas Day has very unique play patterns by genre, region of the country, ethnicity, and target demo. You won’t really know where films are headed until Friday. But that’s a fantastic number for Les Miz.”

Tarantino compares the War on Drugs to slavery

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:41:00 +0000

Iconic film director Quentin Tarantino believes that US drug policy, and the subsequent mass incarceration of African Americans, is comparable to pre-Civil War slavery. In an interview about his latest movie—Django Unchained, which documents the story of a freed slave, played by Jamie Foxx—Tarantino points out that the hierarchies of racial injustice have shifted but not wholly improved. "This whole thing of...this 'War on Drugs,' and the mass incarcerations that have happened pretty much for the last 40 years has just decimated the black male population," says the filmmaker. "It’s slavery...it’s just slavery through and through, and it’s just the same fear of the black male that existed back in the 1800s." He adds that the US prison system, which currently houses staggeringly disproportionate numbers of black men, mirrors the structure and appearance of slavery. "Especially having even directed a movie about slavery, and you know the scenes that we have in the slave town, the slave auction town, where they’re moving back and forth," he says, "Well that looks like standing in the top tier of a prison system and watching the things go down. And between the private prisons and the public prisons, the way prisoners are traded back and forth." African Americans throughout the US are 13 times more likely to face jail for the same drug-related offenses as white people, according to a 2011 statement by the NAACP; at 13% of the US population, they currently make up 53.5% of all imprisoned drug offenders, despite drug use being fairly evenly divided across racial lines.

“Jack Reacher”: Tom Cruise’s terrible timing

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:44:00 +0000

In the larger narrative of Tom Cruise’s late-career comeback, the new Paramount thriller “Jack Reacher” had a clear role to play – at least, before it became toxic, thanks to its accidental and superficial similarity to a real-life tragedy. It would be insulting to suggest that Cruise or Christopher McQuarrie, the film’s writer and director, are “victims” in any way, or that the commercial fate of a mainstream entertainment has any meaning in the face of the unbearable grief and tragedy of Sandy Hook. But it’s also useful to remember that Cruise and McQuarrie have done nothing wrong or unusual, beyond what people in Hollywood do all the time, which is to spin out violent and grotesque fantasies for our enjoyment. I think the problem “Jack Reacher” suddenly represents is more about us than about the movie. Confronted with our evident eagerness to consume simulated real-world horror as entertainment, we feel ashamed, at least temporarily.

“Django Unchained,” “Les Miserables” excluded from WGA nominations

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:09:00 +0000

Scripts for "Django Unchained," "Les Miserables," and "Beasts of the Southern Wild" are officially out of the running for Writers Guild Awards (WGA) because they, along with several other critically acclaimed films, were not produced in accordance to WGA submission guidelines.

Statistician Nate Silver has noted that industry insider awards, like the WGAs, are strong category predictors for the Oscars, but being left off by a technicality might not affect the chances for the films. As Deadline notes, being ineligible for the WGAs does not mean being ineligible for the Oscars: "Despite shared memberships, screenwriting nominees for the Motion Picture Academy seldom correspond 100% in either original or adapted categories because Oscar rules are less restrictive."

Oscar’s ideological throwdown

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Hollywood could be getting an unexpected gift this season: An Oscar race that isn’t completely boring. With an impressive number of high-quality and high-visibility movies in the mix, movies that offer markedly different worldviews, interpretations of human experience and dramatized real-world events, the Academy Award struggle of 2013 ought to be a heated cultural imbroglio with all sorts of ideological overtones, one that lays bare some of the fault lines in American society.

Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama-hunting thriller “Zero Dark Thirty” has already been proclaimed the year’s best film by several critics’ groups (including the New York Film Critics Circle, to which I belong), and become the object of a left-wing counterattack, all before its official release. Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” depicts our most revered president as a shrewd political manipulator, and has itself been mired in historical controversy about its presentation of the struggle to end slavery. Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” takes on our nation’s “peculiar institution” from a different angle, spinning an outrageous tale of a freed slave taking garish and bloody revenge on the antebellum slave-owning class, with the director’s usual indifference to accuracy, plausibility or taste. Michael Haneke’s “Amour,” a front-runner in the foreign-language race and a likely contender in other categories, tackles a subject that may be even more taboo than torture and slavery: The realities of old age and death that we will all face.

Quentin Tarantino hints at retirement

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:32:00 +0000

Gearing up for the release of Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained," the award-winning filmmaker sat down with Playboy and revealed that the highly anticipated movie might also be one of his last:

“I just don’t want to be an old-man filmmaker. I want to stop at a certain point. Directors don’t get better as they get older. Usually the worst films in their filmography are those last four at the end. I am all about my filmography, and one bad film f—s up three good ones.…When directors get out-of-date, it’s not pretty. I’m on a journey that needs to have an end and not be about me trying to get another job. I want this artistic journey to have a climax. I want to work toward something. You stop when you stop, but in a fanciful world, 10 movies in my filmography would be nice. I’ve made seven. If I have a change of heart, if I come up with a new story, I could come back. But if I stop at 10, that would be okay as an artistic statement.”

Of his current success, Tarantino said, “I want there to be anticipation. I was actually quite proud when I read that 'Django' is one of the most anticipated movies coming out this year. It’s a black Western. Where’s the anticipation coming from? I guess a lot of it is me. That’s pretty f—ing awesome.”

h/t Entertainment Weekly