Reeling

Suffering for their art

Now that the hoped-for Best Actress Oscar nomination for Sienna Miller didn't materialize and the early reviews are less than stellar, the makers of Factory Girl are taking another tack to promote the movie, implying that Miller and co-star Hayden Christensen weren't just acting during a sex scene in the film.

So I guess Miller definitely didn't deserve that Oscar nom after all. I mean, if she wasn't acting ...

The Departed Part 2?

The L.A. Times reports The Departed screenwriter William Monahan has begun working on a potential sequel to the movie. No word yet on whether Martin Scorsese will be involved - or whether there will be any Xs in it.

Viewing log:

Tuesday Jan. 30

When the Levees Broke, Acts I and II (2006): Wow. More to come after I finish the second two hours.

A Scorsese bonanza

Perfectly timed to coincide with his upcoming Best Director victory at the Academy Awards, the Miami Beach Cinematheque has devoted its Great Directors series to Martin Scorsese in February.

The month-long retrospective begins at 8:30 p.m. Thursday with a slate of rarely-seen shorts, including 1967's notorious The Big Shave. Other films to be shown include Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Raging Bull, Goodfellas and The Departed.

As part of the series, the MBC will also display a collection of vintage posters, photographs and publicity stills from Scorsese's films, along with 80 years' worth of Academy Awards programmes and souvenirs.

The celebration concludes on Oscar night, Feb. 25, with a live telecast of the award ceremonies (and, presumably, Scorsese's acceptance speech), along with cocktails, dining and silent auctions.

For more information on all the events, including a complete schedule of showtimes, visit www.mbcinema.com

DePalma goes high-def

Variety reports that Brian DePalma will write and direct Redacted, a drama about the experiences of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, for HDNet Films. The movie will be released to theaters, cable's HDNet and DVD on the same day, a la Steven Soderbergh's Bubble.

I'm not sure DePalma is necessarily a good fit for the quick-and-dirty HD medium, but the last time he made a war picture, it turned out to be a near-masterpiece. And he really is overdue for a good movie. It's only a matter of time, right?

Viewing log:

Monday Jan. 29

* Chicago (2002): Had been wanting to watch this one again since seeing Dreamgirls for compare/contrast purposes. Both movies boast a screenplay by Bill Condon (who also directed Dreamgirls), but Chicago's narrative seemed so much livelier and engrossing.

The key difference between the two pictures (aside from, you know, the fact that they are completely different movies) is that Chicago has a great, irreverent sense of humor, whereas Dreamgirls is so ... serious. Still don't think it deserved to beat out The Pianist or The Hours or even The Two Towers for Best Picture. But Chicago is an undeniably fun time - and fun is something Dreamgirls could have used a little more of.

Praise Jesus

Some of the reviews that greeted the Oscar-nominated documentary Jesus Camp last summer blasted the movie as clumsy, one-sided propaganda.

But on a commentary track included on the just-released DVD, co-directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady talk extensively about the care they took to avoid demonizing the Evangelical Christians who appear in the film or betray the trust they extended the filmmakers by inviting them into their homes.

I think the utterly non-judgmental tone of Jesus Camp is one of its biggest strengths. Whatever the viewer thinks of the extreme beliefs and attitudes of people like Pastor Becky Fischer - who tells children things like "If this were the Old Testament, Harry Potter would be put to death!" and talks about the conservative Christian movement in us-versus-them military terms - the film also gives you with a sense of who she is as a person.

As bizarre and outlandish - OK, scary - as a lot of her behavior seems to me, I also found myself liking Becky in an odd, indefinable way. Heck, I'd even invite her over for a barbecue, although I suspect she wouldn't approve of my taste in movies.

Al Gore, who stars in another Best Documentary Oscar nominee, An Inconvenient Truth, would probably have a lot to say to the woman seen in Jesus Camp teaching her home-schooled son that global warming is just another conspiracy by evolutionists to discredit creationism. And here I thought it was all a big hoax used by politicians to garner votes.

Viewing log:

Thursday Jan. 25

Jesus Camp (2006)

Friday Jan. 26

* Casino (1995): Martin Scorsese's most unfairly maligned film (although not his most underrated: That would be The King of Comedy).

Anticipation

300 only needs to be half as cool as it looks to make me very happy.

Then again, the trailers for Sin City looked really promising once - and look how that one turned out.

As for the next Frank Miller adaptation: Will someone please make a movie out of Hard Boiled next?

Viewing log:

Wednesday, Jan. 24

Crank (2006): A junky, funny, furious little B-movie that, on purely technical terms, does things I had never seen before. Why Lionsgate didn't screen this movie in advance for critics last year (or why they dumped it on Labor Day weekend) is baffling. I'll be writing more about it here in a day or two.

The "other" Oscars

With seven nominations each, Little Man and Basic Instinct 2 lead the pack for the 27th annual Golden Raspberry Awards, honoring the worst accomplishments in film in 2006.

Winners will be announced Feb. 24., then immediately forgotten - all except for Worst Actor nominee Nicolas Cage, whose out-of-control performance in The Wicker Man is kind of mesmerizing.

Sorry Jack

You're going to have to wait a little longer for that 13th Oscar nomination. Academy members apparently didn't care for your performance in The Departed.

In fact, Mark Wahlberg was the only member of The Departed's cast to receive any Oscar love. Even Leonardo DiCaprio, whose performance in the film was easily the best work of his career thus far, got nominated for the dreary Blood Diamond instead.

Which means, of course, Leo has zero chance of winning, even if Forest Whitaker didn't already have that trophy all sewn up.

More Oscar chatter here and in Sunday's paper, too.

Viewing log:

Monday Jan. 22

Catch and Release (2007)

Tuesday Jan. 23

This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)

"How many movies do you see a day?"

In hopes of answering that perennial question (and as a way to make myself blog more regularly - ahem), I'm going to start posting the title of every movie I watch on a daily basis from now until the end of the year. I wish I had thought of doing this on Jan. 1, but I didn't.

The list will include movies I watch for work and for pleasure, in theaters and at home. I won't be reviewing the movies here, but I will try to jot down a quick thought or two with each entry. An asterisk (*) before the title indicates a repeat viewing of a film.

Saturday Jan. 20

* Unforgiven (1992): My second favorite western, after Once Upon a Time in the West. The last 10 minutes, depicting William Munny's vengeful ride back to Big Whiskey, remain the most perfect filmmaking in Eastwood's career.

Sunday Jan. 21

* The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986): Pretty awful - it is obvious the screenplay was being written on the set as they went along - but strangely, compellingly watchable, especially the long sequence set inside the radio station, which strikes just the right mix of humor and horror Tobe Hooper was aiming for.

X marks the spot in The Departed

UPDATE: Go here for more X-related goodness.

It is starting to look like The Departed might be the movie to beat for the Best Picture Oscar come Feb. 25 (although support continues to build for an underdog that could sneak in and steal the big prize).

I'd bet the farm, though, that Scorsese will finally come away with a Best Director Oscar this year - and unlike his last two sentimental nominations, he actually deserves it this time.

The Departed was also my favorite movie of 2006, in part because Scorsese seemed to be having fun again. For example, as an homage to Howard Hawks' classic 1932 Scarface, Scorsese scattered Xs throughout the movie (some more subtle than others), using them as a symbol of impending doom. (For some Scarface examples, go here).

I recently went through the film again on DVD to see how many Xs I could find. To avoid even a hint of spoilers, I've arranged the frames out of chronological order. But if you've seen The Departed, you'll get an extra kick out of these. And if you haven't, Warner Bros.is re-releasing it to theaters on Jan. 26, so no excuses.

The elevator!