Harris Savides (1957-2012)

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Zac Petrillo

Working with some of America’s most challenging directors, such as Van Sant, Fincher, and Baumbach, Harris Savides created a diverse palette of provocative images. Defying any one style, what always struck me about Savides’ work was his unique ability to get at the psychology of a character with an entirely fresh use of lighting, composition, or framing. No amount of hyperbole can sum up how important Savides’ cinematography has been to American movies. He passed away today at 55-years-old. Far too young. An immense lose for all of us.

Click below for a few more of Savides’ great pictures:

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A Bond Newbie’s Thoughts on 007: Quantum of Solace

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Zac Petrillo

Short Take: It seems strange to call a film with such a complex plot-line, “simple,” but Quantum of Solace felt more like it was running in place than unraveling a deeper purpose.

Casino Royale unleashed everything and the kitchen sink, introducing a gritty Bond that was less the swank charmer and more the enfant terrible of MI6. Quantum of Solace sets out to further the notion of Bond being only one part ladies man and many parts complicated killer with a heart in the right place. Peppered with some interesting concepts, Marc Forster’s Solace ultimately delivers an abundance of splintered ideas with starts and stops that don’t add up to a very satisfying end. Somehow, even with all the stunts and fireworks, this picture felt small. Its not that the action scenes are stilted, just that the film never settles into a driving action or cohesive point.

A secret organization has infiltrated MI6 for the past few decades. After an early shootout, Bond and company discover that these people are plotting with dictators around the globe to control the world’s oil and water. All signs point to Dominic Greene, a tiny man who seems to be masterminding the entire scheme. When Bond stumbles on Greene he is pawning a beautiful woman named Camille on the exiled General of Bolivia. Without knowing the full story, Bond takes it upon himself to save Camille in a high speed boat chase. Bond and MI6 chase Greene to a high class opera where they realize the villain is in bed with high profile leaders, including those from the United States of America. After Bond kills a special agent, he gets put on leave from his organization. Now acting on his own, Bond joins forces with Camille, a woman he discovers has a score of her own to settle. In the grand finale they take down both the general and Dominic Greene. allowing Bond to make amends with his former employers.

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Hitchcock Trailer

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Zac Petrillo

Anthony Hopkins looks like he’s having a blast, behind the prosthetic makeup that turns him into a striking doppelgänger for the British master filmmaker. The film looks to have a whimsical tone that will no doubt please crowds in America and elsewhere. I’m not sure what this film has to offer that we don’t already know about Hitch or the making of Psycho, but nonetheless you can’t help but be excited to watch Hopkins do his thing.

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Previews For All 2013 Foreign Oscar Submissions

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Zac Petrillo

Here are the previews for almost all of the 71 Foreign Oscar submissions. A few major international names like Haneke, Shortland, Kaige, To, Taviani Brothers, Hallström, and Mungiu are in the bunch. Otherwise, this year has a tremendous amount of fresh blood and what looks like exciting, creative work. In addition to those by the aforementioned, I’m most looking forward to No, Our Children, Children of Sarajevo, In the Shadow, Purge, Just the Wind, The Third Half, and After Lucia. 

NOTE: PAGE WILL BE SLOW TO LOAD

  • Afghanistan, “The Patience Stone,” Atiq Rahimi, director:
  • Albania, “Pharmakon,” Joni Shanaj, director:

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OSCAR FORECAST: Best Supporting Actor 2013

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Zac Petrillo

Best Supporting Actor (10-09-12):
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Alan Arkin, Argo
Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Robert De Niro, The Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Best Supporting Actor: With four of the favorites being past winners, this year looks to carry some very heavy-hitters. It’s pretty rare for an actor to win multiple times in the Supporting category. This year has a strong possibility of bucking that trend. Would it not be great to see Robert De Niro or Tommy Jones back on the stage on Oscar night? For ol’ times sake?

Early buzz about Lincoln has suggested that Jones may not only be the best actor in the film but the best thing about the film, period. Jones, already having won for The Fugitive, hasn’t been around the awards buzz much in the past two decades, but he’s managed to show up with some great performances in that time. Most memorably, Jones gave a compelling, understated turn in No Country for Old Men. There’s no shortage of respect for Jones as a performer. Since its hard to know if Hollywood will go for Lincoln, the actor may be the thing they feel the most comfortable awarding. His fellow actors – Sally Field and Daniel Day-Lewis – already have two Oscars each, so if giving love to one category really factors in, that goes in Jones’ favor also.

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Homeland, Ep. 202: Beirut is Back

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Zac Petrillo

Homeland’s Carrie isn’t a schizophrenic sociopath who threatens the security of those around her or talks to telephone poles. In fact, she’s one of the more grounded mentally unstable characters I’ve ever seen. Yet, the buttoned-up, masculine politics of the CIA insist on treating her like Travis Bickle. The resulting narrative can be a ping pong match of us, as viewer, momentarily doubting Carrie while also trying our damnedest to believe in her. Episode two of Season Two puts the “Just because she’s paranoid, don’t mean they’re not after her” drama to its most violent test yet.

Back in Beirut and almost part of the team again, Carrie gets the tip from her informant that Abu Nazir and some of his men will conduct a secret meeting in a difficult part of the city. Carrie believes in her informant, but Saul et al. struggle with the idea of risking the lives of Americans on the hunch of an exiled, erratic woman. On the verge of mental breakdown, because she can’t even believe herself, Carrie convinces Saul to go through with the mission.

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An “Interesting” Lincoln Enters an Interesting Year for Movies

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Zac Petrillo

I’m not sure I necessarily buy the Twitter reaction craze that has swept through Awards seasons in the past few years. Nonetheless, I wonder if I might be wrong about Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln after all. The film screened tonight at the New York Film Festival. These early reactions suggest an uneven film lead by a wonderful screenplay and a standout performance by Tommy Lee Jones. Apparently Daniel Day-Lewis isn’t as cage-shaking as we are used o.

I suspected Tony Kushner might have something up his sleeve. The film might be slow but actually a bit more interesting then the two trailers let on.

Seeing as the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories are fairly weak, this early buzz for Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field thrusts them straight to the top of each list.

Here are some reactions that struck me:

Lincoln is heavy on the politics. But I loved all the behind-the-curtain government stuff. Kushner’s playwright roots all over it.

Daniel Day-Lewis much more understated and playful than the scenery-chewing trailer suggests.

Spielberg’s LINCOLN is the best film Roberto Rossellini never made. Also one of the best Spielberg did make.

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Record Number of Countries Compete for Foreign Oscar

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Zac Petrillo

I will dig up trailers for as many of these films as I can find shortly. Here’s the not very shortlist:

  • Afghanistan, “The Patience Stone,” Atiq Rahimi, director;
  • Albania, “Pharmakon,” Joni Shanaj, director;
  • Algeria, “Zabana!” Said Ould Khelifa, director;
  • Argentina, “Clandestine Childhood,” Benjamín Ávila, director;
  • Armenia, “If Only Everyone,” Natalia Belyauskene, director;
  • Australia, “Lore,” Cate Shortland, director;
  • Austria, “Amour,” Michael Haneke, director;
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A Moment with Middle of Nowhere

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Zac Petrillo

If you’ve had opportunity to work as a script reader at an agency or production company, then you have almost certainly tortured through the task of reading script after script that made you want to light yourself on fire. Seriously, this isn’t just film snobbery. It’s got to be an empirical fact that the vast majority of scripts that make it all the way to the hands of successful industry types are bizarre enough to make you question your entire career path. Almost every reader will have a similar tale. At least, I have to assume. My time as a reader was short. I read some “Okay” to “Decent” scripts, mostly in the action genres. Horrors scripts were always a fun ride. Comedies, an annoying mixture of college humor and mid-20s self-deprecation. Love stories were always a clever twist on the down-and-out man struggling to land the way-out-of-his-league blond woman. Basically, the genre scripts were entertaining, if always derivations of derivations of derivations.

And then there were the dramas… that’s where the real horror lay. Virtually every purported drama I was asked to read was either a convoluted mess of daddy issue-induced, forced dialogue-ridden melodrama or film-school written character arc with a neat bow at the end. Subtlety, nuance, artistry, topical concepts, and, most of all, films with women as the leads, never made it to the desks of executives of my company… That is, except one very special story.

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House of Cards Comes to Netflix February 1st

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Zac Petrillo

Oh, the irony of the name. Except that it isn’t web-based television content but the old-fashioned boob tube television that has all but fallen under the weight of its own house of cards. If you’ve caught Hulu’s Battlegound, then you know major web-media providers have already produced a show of serious artistic quality and series pay-off. At the time House of Cards was announced, with all it’s heavy hitter talent backing (starring Kevin Spacey, directed by David Fincher), it looked like a watershed moment in new American viewing habits. Flash forward only a small while and the question has become “When?” not “If?” all of our watching will come through web-based means. With highly profitable YouTube channels growing at alarming rates and web-content companies employing more creative people than most small studios, the transition is already in its infancy.

What does the shift mean? My opinion is that small movements, pockets, cultish followings will emerge to support smaller films and television projects. More people will create content and compete to survive in an increasingly competitive web-sphere. The profits will be far lower for most distributors, but the opportunity to breakthrough the iron curtain bureaucracy of Hollywood will be much greater as well. I envision that in 50 years TV as we know it, with time slots and “networks” will be transformed into something resembling YouTube channels completely. Meaning, our remotes will look very different. I suppose the umbrella networks will still exist (although perhaps not) on their own channels. They will likely have far more major competition, a la the emergence of cable networks over the past two decades.

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