Welcome to the second part of my look at the duplicity that is the Hollywood we know and love (or love to hate in some cases).   Yesterday I delved into the mainstream films, such as Transformers, which get little to no recognition by the Academy.  These are movies that represent the very monetary foundation of which Hollywood is built.

Today I’m going to slide the other way and talk about the performance side of Hollywood.  Films with limited budgets, little to no marketing and have to fight tooth-and-nail in some instances for distribution as well as theater screens.  They are the darlings of Hollywood, praised for often dramatic portrayal of characters and deeply emotional stories.  Yet, even with all the attention they receive when nominated for an Oscar, only a select group of viewers end up seeing these films.

In contrast to their mainstream counterparts, performance films have always been the underdog.  It starts from the very point the script is completed all the way to getting onto the screen.  It’s the latter which ultimately proves the most critical because without theaters to show it, what good is a movie?

Continue Reading →

The Winners

Just call her the giant slayer. Kathryn Bigelow and her modest little Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker beat out the behemoth box office champ Avatar for best picture, best director, best original screenplay, best editing, best sound editing, and best sound mixing. Bigelow made history, becoming the first female ever to win the award for directing.

James Cameron and company (Avatar) left with a total of three trophies: best visual effects, best art direction and best cinematography. The cinematography award seemed a little odd. After all, most of this film was computer generated, wasn’t it?

There were no real surprises in the acting categories. Best supporting actress went to Mo’nique for Precious, best supporting actor Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds, best actress was Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side, and Jeff Bridges finally won for Crazy Heart.

Up won best animated feature and best original score, while El Secreto do Sus Ojos (Argentina) won best foreign picture. The Cove won best documentary. For an expanded list of major category winners, scroll to the bottom of the article.

Continue Reading →

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire won Best Feature and a total of 5 awards last night at the 25th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards. Comedian Eddie Izzard served as Master of Ceremonies at the late-night show at LA Live’s event deck in downtown Los Angeles.

Here are all the winners:

BEST FEATURE
Producers Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness, Gary Magness for Precious

BEST DIRECTOR
Lee Daniels for Precious

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Scott Cooper, Robert Duvall, Rob Carliner, Judy Cairo, T Bone Burnett for Crazy Heart

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD for Best Feature made for under $500,000
Lynn Shelton for Humpday

BEST SCREENPLAY
Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber for 500 Days of Summer

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious

Continue Reading →

While legions of fans are getting ready for Disney and Tim Burton’s release of Alice In Wonderland tonight at midnight, a good portion of the attendees are also going for a special glimpse at Tron: Legacy, which will be attached to the beginning of most screenings. That’s right, Disney is already starting the marketing for the film, which won’t be in theaters for another 9 months.

With that said, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Disney is already planning on expanding the franchise to their TV network geared more towards kids between the ages of 6 and 14. The show reportedly a 10-part Tron micro series that will follow the events of Legacy, and premiere in the fall of 2011.

No word yet on whether the show will be a mix of CG animation and live action, such as it will in the upcoming film, but you can expect it to look as stunning as some of the images and graphics we have seen from Disney on the project thus far.

As well as news coming in about the upcoming animated series, we also recently got our hands on some new stills from the upcoming Tron: Legacy film, which hits theaters this December in 3D and IMAX. Check them out after the jump.

Continue Reading →

The 82nd annual Academy Award nominations were announced this morning. This is the first year that the Best Picture category has been expanded to ten films. Here is a list of the major category nominees.

For a complete list of all nominees, visit the official site of the Oscars. The Awards take place on Sunday, March 7 at 8/5P on ABC.

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’nique, Precious

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibie, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia

Continue Reading →

I’m a sucker for movies about country singers. Despite the fact that listening to country music makes my ears bleed, I never pass up on a good country drama. The genre traditionally leans toward biopics (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Sweet Dreams, Pure Country, Walk the Line) and Crazy Heart is no exception.

Jeff Bridges plays Bad Blake, a washed up Country/Blues musician who has been relegated to performing in bowling alleys and other undignified venues. Blake is a raging alcoholic who stumbles off the stage mid-performance to go puke, then returns to finish a set.  He drives his pick-up from town to town and beds middle age women who still remember him from his golden days.

He tersely thrusts his show notes to whatever band he happens to be playing with that night, and  can’t be bothered to rehearse. It’s a gamble as to whether he will even show up on a given night, and to what condition he’ll be in.

To make matters worse, his former protégé, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), has become a country music superstar, and regularly plays to packed stadiums. There is clearly some bad blood between the two, because anytime Sweet’s name is brought up, Blake bristles.

Continue Reading →

Avatar may be raking in zillions of dollars week after week, but we like to look to the future of IMAX and 3D, as Disney is getting set to release Tron Legacy in December of this year. The effects alone should bring in plenty of Avatar super fans to the theater, not to mention the generation that grew up with the first Tron, who will undoubtedly bring their families to the sequel.

While some of us got an up-close encounter with the blue lightcycle from the upcoming Tron Legacy back in July, we were still hungry for more..well, more colored lightcycles, frankly. Finally, we’ve got another pic to salivate over.

Tron Legacy, starring Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, John Hurt, and Garrett Hedlund, hits theaters on December 17th.

Our pals over at MTV Movies Blog have got the exclusive first look at the sleek new lightcycle, which you can check out after the jump. We’ve seen yellow and blue, when do we get a glimpse at the other colors?

Continue Reading →

The 67th annual Golden Globes awards took place last night, and Avatar walked away top honors of  Best Picture and Best Director, fueling speculation that it is gaining momentum going into the Oscar nomination race. Avatar and Crazy Heart picked up two awards each, but there were no lopsided wins this year.

Critical darling The Hurt Locker was shut out and went home empty handed.  The Hurt Locker has been cleaning up top honors at Critic Circle awards nationwide. Up in the Air was nominated for six awards, but only won for Best Screenplay.

Veteran actors Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep won acting awards, and delivered particularly elegant and classy acceptance speeches.

On the television side, Dexter fared well, with John Lithgow and Michael C. Hall both winning acting awards.  HBO’s film Grey Gardens won two awards as well.  Mad Men won for Best Television Series, Drama and freshman series Glee won for best Television Series, Comedy or Musical.

A complete list of winners follows. Also, be sure to check out our photo gallery of all the winners after the jump.

Continue Reading →

Greetings programs. Here it is, the first poster, image and synopsis for Disney’s long-awaited Tron sequel, entitled Tron Legacy. We’ve been bringing info about this movie since way back in July during Comic-Con in San Diego. Now, we’ve got the first official poster art to share, and it looks pretty awesome.

In addition to the poster, we’ve got the first official image from the film and the new synopsis just released by Disney. I won’t keep you in suspense any longer, here’s all the scoop on the film’s story:

Tron Legacy is 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (GARRETT HEDLUND), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (JEFF BRIDGES), looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the digital world of Tron where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin’s loyal confidant Quorra (OLIVIA WILDE), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey of escape across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.

Once again, that seems pretty awesome. Check out the full, high resolution poster after the jump as well as the first image. Tron Legacy hits theaters in December of 2010.

Continue Reading →

“More of this is true than you’d believe” –opening credits for  The Men Who Stare At Goats. Irreverent, sarcastic, and funny as hell, The Men Who Stare At Goats is based on a non-fiction book by Jon Ronson. Ronson is a journalist who stumbled upon a secret military group that was formed in 1979 specifically to harness paranormal and psychic powers to use in warfare. The men in this group were training to become “psychic warriors” who could walk through walls, read thoughts, and kill someone just by staring at them.

Ewan McGregor plays Ronson in the movie. His wife has just left him (for his one-armed boss), and he has no sense of purpose. He goes to interview a man who claims that he used  to be in  a psychic military unit. His story is so crazy that Ronson writes him off as being a kook. He decides to go to the Middle East to cover the Gulf War, partly to impress his ex-wife, and partly because he has nothing to lose.

Upon arrival, he runs into Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who just happens to be one of the people mentioned by name by the crazy man he just interviewed in the states. Astonished by the coincidence, he starts tagging along with Lyn pleading with him to tell the truth about whether he was in the secret unit. Bit by bit, Lyn tells the story (through flashbacks) of the formation and eventual disintegration of the military unit known as the “New Earth Army” in military circles.  The story finally leads up to what Lyn is doing in the Middle East.

Continue Reading →