2012 Independent Spirit Award nominees

I think we have seen all of the nominees that have been released in our area so far. Here's the list, below. Give me a couple of days and I'll update my alphabetical list of nominees and winners.


BEST FEATURE

(Award Given To The Producer) * Executive Producers Are Not Listed.

50/50 - Producers: Evan Goldberg, Ben Karlin, Seth Rogen

The Artist - Producer: Thomas Langmann

Beginners - Producers: Miranda De Pencier, Lars Knudsen, Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Jay Van Hoy

The Descendants - Producers: Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

Drive - Producers: Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel

Take Shelter - Producers: Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin

BEST DIRECTOR

Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist 

Mike Mills - Beginners 

Jeff Nichols - Take Shelter 

Alexander Payne - The Descendants 

Nicolas Winding Refn - Drive

BEST SCREENPLAY

Joseph Cedar - Footnote

Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist

Tom McCarthy - Win Win

Mike Mills - Beginners

Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash - The Descendants

BEST FIRST FEATURE

(Award given to the director and producer)

Another Earth - Director: Mike Cahill, Producers: Mike Cahill, Hunter Gray, Brit Marling, Nicholas Shumaker

In The Family - Director: Patrick Wang, Producers: Robert Tonino, Andrew Van Den Houten, Patrick Wang

Margin Call - Director: J.C. Chandor, Producers: Robert Ogden Barnum, Michael Benar-Oya, Neal Dodson, Joe Jenckes, Corey Moosa, Zachary Quinto

Martha Marcy May Marlene - Director: Sean Durkin, Producers: Antonio Campos, Patrick Cunningham, Chris Maybach, Josh Mond

Natural Selection - Director: Robbie Pickering, Producers: Brion Hambel, Paul Jensen

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Mike Cahill & Brit Marling - Another Earth 

J.C. Chandor - Margin Call 

Patrick Dewitt - Terri

Phil Johnston - Cedar Rapids 

Will Reiser - 50/50

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD

(Award given to the best feature made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer) * Executive Producers are not listed.

Bellflower - Writer/Director: Evan Glodell, Producers: Evan Glodell, Vincent Grashaw

Circumstance - Writer/Director: Maryam Keshavarz, Producers: Karin Chien, Maryam Keshavarz, Melissa Lee

Hello Lonesome - Writer/Director/ Producer: Adam Reid

Pariah - Writer/Director: Dee Rees, Producer: Nekisa Cooper

The Dynamiter - Writer: Brad Inglesby, Director: Matthew Gordon, Producers: Kevin Abrams, Matthew Gordon, Merilee Holt, Art Jones, Mike Jones, Nate Tuck, Amile Wilson

BEST FEMALE LEAD

Lauren Ambrose - Think Of Me

Rachael Harris - Natural Selection

Adepero Oduye - Pariah

Elizabeth Olsen - Martha Marcy May Marlene

Michelle Williams - My Week With Marilyn 

BEST MALE LEAD

Demián Bichir - A Better Life

Jean Dujardin - The Artist

Ryan Gosling - Drive

Woody Harrelson - Rampart

Michael Shannon - Take Shelter

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE

Jessica Chastain - Take Shelter

Anjelica Huston - 50/50

Janet Mcteer - Albert Nobbs

Harmony Santana - Gun Hill Road

Shailene Woodley - The Descendants

BEST SUPPORTING MALE

Albert Brooks - Drive

John Hawkes - Martha Marcy May Marlene

Christopher Plummer - Beginners

John C. Reilly - Cedar Rapids

Corey Stoll - Midnight In Paris

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Joel Hodge - Bellflower

Benjamin Kasulke - The Off Hours

Darius Khondji - Midnight In Paris

Guillaume Schiffman - The Artist

Jeffrey Waldron - The Dynamiter

BEST DOCUMENTARY

(Award given to the director and producer)

An African Election - Director/Producer: Jarreth Merz

Bill Cunningham New York - Director: Richard Press, Producer: Philip Gefter

The Interrupters - Director/Producer: Steve James, Producer: Alex Kotlowitz

The Redemption Of General Butt Naked - Directors/Producers: Eric Strauss, Daniele Anastasion

We Were Here - Director/Producer: David Weissman

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

(Award given to the director)

A Separation (Iran) - Director: Asghar Farhadi

Melancholia (Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany) - Director: Lars Von Trier

Shame (UK) - Director: Steve Mcqueen

The Kid With A Bike (Belgium, France, Italy) - Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne

Tyrannosaur (UK) - Director: Paddy Considine

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD

(Award given to one film’s director, casting director, and its ensemble cast) MARGIN CALL DIRECTOR: J.C. Chandor

CASTING DIRECTORS: Tiffany Little Canfield, Bernard Telsey ENSEMBLE CAST: Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto, Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD

The 15th annual Piaget Producers Award honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality, independent films. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget. The Finalists are:

Chad Burris, producer of Mosquita y Mari 

Sophia Lin, producer of Take Shelter 

Josh Mond, producer of Martha Marcy May Marlene

Piaget Producers Award Nominating Committee:

Brian Udovich (Chair), Anish Savjani, Lynette Howell, Amy Kaufman

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD

The 18th annual Someone To Watch Award recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant. The Finalists are:

Simon Arthur, director of Silver Tongues

Mark Jackson, director of Without

Nicholas Ozeki, director of Mamitas

Someone To Watch Award Nominating Committee:

Alison Dickey (Chair), Jay Duplass, Lisa Kennedy, Daniel Stamm, James Faust

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD

The 17th annual Truer Than Fiction Award is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant. The Finalists are:

Heather Courtney, director of Where Soldiers Come From

Danfung Dennis, director of Hell And Back Again

Alma Har’el, director of Bombay Beach

Truer Than Fiction Nominating Committee:

Wesley Morris (Chair), Ava DuVernay, Laura Poitras, PJ Raval, Laura Thielen

JAMESON FIND YOUR AUDIENCE AWARD

The 2nd annual Jameson FIND Your Audience Award was established to help make it possible for one Spirit Award-nominated film to find a broader audience. The Award includes a $40,000 marketing and distribution grant, funded by Jameson Irish Whiskey. The grant is designed to meet the filmmakers’ biggest challenge today: How to get their films out into the marketplace. A blue-ribbon committee will determine the winner. The deadline to submit is Friday, December 2, 2011.

All of the winners of our filmmaker grants will be highlighted at the Spirit Awards ceremony and announced at the Spirit Awards Nominee Brunch on January 14 at BOA Steakhouse in West Hollywood. 

The Independent Spirit Awards are usually the night before the Oscars.

J. Edgar (2011)

Jack and I liked this bio-pic way more than we expected. Leonardo DiCaprio transforms (1, 2, 3) into the rigid, authoritative Hoover and we predict nominations for makeup and art direction at the least. Clint Eastwood directs his star studded cast with ultra-high production values and we liked the historical bent and the use of actors playing Robert Kennedy (Jeffrey Donovan--Burn Notice, Changeling) and Nixon (Christopher Shyer), who, despite not looking much like their roles, had the voices down pat, including the latter's expletives. DiCaprio (after I wrote about him in Shutter Island he was in Inception) is very good in this, as are Armie Hammer (The Social Network) as his adoring colleague Clyde Tolson, Naomi Watts (covered in Mother and Child, then she was in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and Fair Game) as his faithful secretary Helen Gandy, and Judi Dench (I loved her Oscar-winning performance in Shakespeare in Love (1998), her Oscar-nominated turns in Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown (1997), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005), and Notes on a Scandal (2006), as well as Tea with Mussolini (1999)) as his devoted and exacting mother. Eastwood (covered in Invictus, then directed Hereafter) treats the subject lovingly (despite a few goofs--this link contains spoilers, in my opinion) with a script by Dustin Lance Black (I wrote about him in Milk, which won him an Oscar). My only quibble with the movie is that even though Tolson was five years younger than Hoover (here's a photo from 1939), in the makeup of later years, Hammer looks much older than DiCaprio.

As usual, Eastwood composed the score and added songs of the times, but I can't find any links to the tracks, or even a list of songs. What I did find was this review by "blind film critic"--now there's a niche--in which he says he's made a list, but it has only three tracks on it. There is also this youtube link.

Rottentomatoes' scores are low: 41% critics and 56% audiences, which is part of why we didn't expect to like it (the other part is that Mary Ellen was lukewarm). A few hours before seeing it I saw Jon at the park. He likes metacritic better, and it likes this movie better, rating it 59% critics and 70% audiences. We think it's worth seeing.

The Descendants (2011)

Sublime, with Oscar buzz to match, this story of a Hawaiian lawyer and his two daughters dealing with their mom's coma and new revelations about her life is by turns funny and sad, with first-rate performances, magnificent footage of at least two islands, and a soundtrack consisting entirely of native Hawaiian songs. George Clooney (last covered in The Ides of March) scores again as Matt King, the sole trustee of his family's 25,000 untouched coastal acres on Kauai, and the befuddled dad of the 17 and 10 year old angry girls, played by 20 year old Shailene Woodley (nominated for the Gotham Awards Breakthrough Award for this after over a dozen TV roles) and 11 year old Amara Miller, making her screen debut after auditioning along with 300 others. 19 year old Nick Krause is funny as smart-ass Sid, and equally good acting is contributed in selected scenes here and there by Robert Forster, Beau Bridges (Jack noticed Bridges got third billing in the end credits, even though he was only in the last third of the movie), Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, and others. The stunning photography is by Phedon Papamichael, who has an impressive body of work, including Cool Runnings (1993) about the Jamaican bobsled team, Moonlight Mile (2002), Sideways (see below), Walk the Line (2005), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), W., and The Ides of March. You can hear clips from the guitar- and ukulele-heavy soundtrack from this link.

Jack and I are both fascinated with our own midwestern families' histories and this is full of family lore, old photos, and legacies, based on Kaui Hart Hemmings' story “The Minor Wars,” from her collection, House of Thieves, and then fleshed out into a novel called The Descendants. Here's the New York Times review. To avoid spoilers, just look at her picture so you'll recognize her cameo as Matt's secretary, then you can read the review or the book after you see the movie. The co-screenwriters, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash deserve credit, not only because Rash plays Dean Felton on Community, one of the half hour comedies I love on NBC Thursdays, but also because these characters are fully fleshed out.

Director/co-writer Alexander Payne (won Oscar for co-writing and nominated for directing Sideways (2004), also directed and wrote or co-wrote Citizen Ruth (1996), Election (1999), and About Schmidt (2002), all of which are wonderfully cynical) is one of those Hollywood auteurs whose work is eagerly anticipated. Now you don't have to wait. Run right out to your neighborhood theatre and see for yourself, as we did today on opening day here.

Circumstance (Sharayet - 2011)

This story of two rebellious teenagers in Iran won the Audience Award at Sundance, the same one that happythankyoumoreplease won last year, as well as being nominated for Best Picture and losing to Like Crazy. It is colorful, poignant, and sexy (the girls are more than best friends), but left Jack and me a bit puzzled about all the hoopla. The political parts, where the girls come in conflict with the fundamentalists in their community, was disturbing but didn't get to us that much. Perhaps it's a cultural thing. I'm pleased for director/writer/co-producer Maryam Keshavarz (a woman of Iranian descent born and educated in the U.S.) making her feature debut, and the girls Nikohl Boosheri and especially Sarah Kazemy are quite beautiful and this is their first time on screen. Like the Sundance jury and audiences, critics are loving this (82% critics/72% audiences on rottentomatoes). It closed here today and will be available as a DVD on netflix beginning December 13, so you can judge for yourself.

Like Crazy (2011)

Jack and I liked very much this sweet love story between American and British college students that quickly gets complicated by visa issues. Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) as well as a Grand Jury Prize for Felicity Jones it also boasts the growing talent of co-star Anton Yelchin (after I wrote about him in Star Trek he was in The Beaver). Coincidentally Jennifer Lawrence (last covered in X Men: First Class) co-starred with Yelchin in The Beaver and has a part in this as well. I wrote about Jones in Chéri, and she earns her accolades here. Director/co-writer Drake Doremus is getting lots of love for this and has another project in the works. His co-writer Ben York Jones, who worked with him on Douchebag (2010) (I didn't see it but just had to put in the title) has a small part. Look at his picture and you will recognize him when you see it or if you have.

Composer Dustin O'Halloran's name was familiar to me because I bought the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006), which had a mixture of classical piano solos by O'Halloran and some 1980s pop ditties. He likes to call his songs Opus this number and that number and I thought there was overlap until I examined the numerology. If you're a myspace member (or maybe if you're not) you can stream some of the opi (opuses?) from this link. Here's another one (with strings added) that is definitely from the movie. In another coincidence, the music of Paul Simon is a part of the lovers' relationship and we saw the movie within the same week of seeing Simon live. Only one of his songs is in the official soundtrack (the streaming link on that page is broken, sorry), but quite a few more are in the movie, including Graceland.

This is playing in only 109 theatres right now (Tower Heist is in 2942 and Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 is first with 4061) but may go wider, since its rating is 74% critics/70% audiences on rottentomatoes. On the other hand, it will translate well to the small screen if you must wait. It is a delightful little movie about first love and we recommend it.

Vidal Sassoon: The Movie (2010)

Good fun, this documentary about the man who invented the modern wash and wear haircut played at our local Jewish Film Festival a few weeks ago. The directing debut for Craig Teper is colorful, as you would expect with this genial subject, and assured. The movie covers Sassoon's life, including his Jewish roots, at least three wives, his healthy lifestyle, and his wonderful haircuts. Watch the trailer here and, if you like, buy or rent the whole thing from iTunes, buy it from amazon, or watch it on demand from selected providers.

Rule #12 for movies and television

On screen, driving the wrong way on a crowded street, freeway, sidewalk, or even through a parade, causes honking, swerving, screaming, running, but almost never a quick crash or death. Please do not test my theory! See the complete list here.

Tower Heist (2011)

Jack and I laughed a lot at this action comedy with a fully developed plot (victims team up to rob a Ponzi schemer) and awesome production values, reuniting Ben Stiller and two of his co-stars, Téa Leoni and Alan Alda, from the must-see indie Flirting with Disaster (1996), as well as Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Gabourey Sidibe, Michael Peña, and many more. Since I panned Little Fockers and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, refer to Greenberg and Tropic Thunder for some Stiller fandom--he is earnest in this, playing it straight, but that's not a problem. As for Murphy, who is very funny here with his trademark rubbery face, for my favorites I would choose his debut 48 Hrs. (1982), Trading Places (1983), Coming to America (1988), Bowfinger (1999), Dreamgirls (2006), and this. 

My favorites of Broderick's work are WarGames (1983), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), The Freshman (1990), Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), The Road to Wellville (1994), The Producers (2005), and Then She Found Me (2007). Alda (other faves: M*A*S*H of course (1972-1983), Same Time, Next Year (1978), The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979), The Four Seasons (1981), Sweet Liberty (1986), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Betsy's Wedding (1990), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), and Everyone Says I Love You (1996) in which his song was one of the best, and he was Oscar-nominated for The Aviator (2004)) plays with finesse the charming but heartless financier. 

Affleck (covered in I'm Still Here) has a lot of funny lines, as do Peña (30 Minutes or Less) and Sidibe (Oscar-nominated for Precious and has been in every episode of The Big C). Leoni's (after Flirting with Disaster, my other favorites are The Family Man (2000), Hollywood Ending (2002), Spanglish (2004), and You Kill Me (2007)) FBI agent reminds me of the line from The First Wives Club (1996), when Goldie Hawn's character says that the only roles for women are "babe, district attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy." Leoni was a babe in Flirting, and she's every bit as lovely 15 years later, but not treated as such.

I believe this is the first Brett Ratner-directed movie I've seen and the pace is good. We didn't have high hopes when we saw there were two screenplay writers, Ted Griffin (Ocean's Eleven (2001), Matchstick Men (2003), others) and Jeff Nathanson (both of Ratner's Rush Hour sequels, Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Terminal (2004), more), and three story writers, Adam Cooper & Bill Collage (Accepted (2006) and an Olsen twins movie) and Griffin. But there are no plot holes that I remember (imdb contributors found a few) and the whole thing is quite entertaining. Oscar-nominated Dante Spinotti (for L.A. Confidential (1997) and The Insider (1999), and 60 other productions, including Public Enemies) is the cinematographer responsible for the beautiful photography of New York and the plush interiors, although I'm guessing he was not in the helicopter for the aerial shots.

Exciting jazz-inflected music is by Christophe Beck (last covered in Crazy, Stupid, Love.) and you can listen to tracks here. Check this out sometime. It probably won't be nominated for anything, but it's good fun.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

Just as creepy as the trailer and really really good, this story of a young woman after her time in a rural cult deserves the nominations and win it has gained so far. Ashley and Mary-Kate's little (23) sister Elizabeth Olsen, luminous in real life, acts the part of the fragile MMMM with her whole body. This is only her second feature but another is in the can for 2011 and four more are scheduled for 2012 and 2013. John Hawkes (after I wrote about him in Higher Ground he was in Contagion) is back to his scary tricks as the cult's leader. Sarah Paulson (Golden-Globe-nominated for the über-Christian comedian Harriet in the cancelled series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a small part in Down with Love (2003), more) is MMMM's concerned sister Lucy and Hugh Dancy (Adam) is Lucy's husband, both of whom are completely clueless as to what MMMM has been through, which is not totally their fault. Director/writer Sean Durkin makes his feature debut at those jobs here, but did produce Afterschool, which I liked a lot. The script is layered and goes back and forth in time but we are never more confused than we're supposed to be. Cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes also shot Afterschool as well as Tiny Furniture and shows us the differences between the cult's farm and woods and Lucy's beautiful lake house.

The music is by Daniel Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, from a band called Priestbird (you can download an album for a suggested donation here) and one dissonant song, Collage, representing the feel of the movie, is available from this site. There are two other songs, one called Marcy's Song (sung by Hawkes in the trailer) and another called Marlene, from 40 years ago (story is here). The soundtrack album is available exclusively on iTunes.

Do check this out and learn why she has so many names.

The Rum Diary (2011)

Jack and I wanted to like this but sadly found the adaptation of Hunter Thompson's first novel a mishmash, unable to decide if it's a political drama about a newspaperman in 1960 Puerto Rico, an action movie, or a rollicking farce. Jack, who read Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, said that Thompson's writing style is equally disjointed, you should forgive the expression. One of the tag lines on imdb is "One part outrage. One part justice. Three parts rum. Mix well." I think a better blender was needed for the mixing.

I was surprised when I learned that Bruce Robinson directed and adapted Thompson's novel, because I LOVED (caps necessary) his quirky Withnail & I (1987) and especially How To Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) (he also was Oscar-nominated for writing The Killing Fields (1984) and wrote the excellent Return to Paradise (1988)). Johnny Depp (last covered in these pages in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) gives his all to each genre but can't save the project from the script. More fine actors give what they can, notably Michael Rispoli (Two Family House (2000), Jackie Aprile on The Sopranos, Death to Smoochy (2002)), Aaron Eckhart (covered in Rabbit Hole), Richard Jenkins (I wrote about him in Eat Pray Love), Amber Heard (The Joneses, the now-cancelled series The Playboy Club) whose character Chenault is pronounced sha-NELL, and Giovanni Ribisi (I've missed much of his work, but liked Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) and Avatar, in which he had supporting roles, as well as a series arc on My Name is Earl) who manages to out-swish Depp as a drunken co-worker.

What we did like were the fabulous vintage cars, the beautiful location shots of Puerto Rico, and the slow motion cock fighting (you won't see the violence). You don't need to pay to see this--just wait for its free cable showings and watch for those cars!

The Names of Love (Le nom des gens - 2010)

Another great French movie, this is about a ditzy woman, proud of her middle-Eastern name Baya Benmahmoud, who feels the best way to convert right-wingers is to have sex with them. Then she meets a straight-laced guy with an ordinary name, Arthur Martin, and begins a romance. The part was re-written once Sara Forestier was cast as Baya, and it won her the César Award (French equivalent of the Oscar) for Best Actress and Michel Leclerc and Baya Kasmi won Best Original Screenplay. In the subtitles, by the way, the heroine's name is spelled Baya, like the screenwriter's. However, on imdb, it's spelled Bahia. Although I have definitely seen Forestier in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) and Wild Grass, I don't remember those roles. Now I will remember her! Among other trivia, she asked that a nude scene be put back in after another actress had asked that it be removed. It's a funny scene (and not the only time we see her naked). Jacques Gamblin plays Arthur, and he is quite funny as well.

We saw this at a Jewish Film Festival, and were told before the movie began that Arthur Martin is the name of a type of washing machine in France, about which poor Arthur is frequently teased. And this time I knew the meaning of the actual movie title: Le nom des gens literally means the name of people. It showed only one night here, but is now available on netflix. Check it out. It's sexy and funny.

My Afternoons with Margueritte (La tête en friche - 2010)

Good fun! Mary, Bob, and I liked a lot this sweet tale of a barely literate man, teased and verbally abused his whole life, and his elderly friend who reads aloud to him from Camus and introduces him to the world of books. Starring Gérard Depardieu (last covered in Potiche) and 97-year-old Gisèle Casadesus and directed by Jean Becker, who, along with Jean-Loup Dabadie, adapted the novel by Marie-Sabine Roger (they are all experienced at their crafts, but new to me). The book won the Cezam Prix Litteraire Inter CE, one of the largest adjudicated readers' prizes in the world, in 1997 for Roger. And because I speak a little French and am interested, I looked up the meaning of the real title of the book and movie, La tête en friche. It means literally "the uncultivated [or fallow] head," which certainly does describe Depardieu's character Germain.

It closed here weeks ago, so save it to your netflix queue. Here is the trailer and a little of the music.

Take Shelter (2011)

Very well done, this story of a man going mad (or is he?) kept us riveted the whole time. Michael Shannon's (last covered in The Runaways) Curtis never has a moment's rest and his face shows it in every scene. As his wife Samantha, Jessica Chastain (The Debt) is outstanding, with a fully developed character to express. Jeff Nichols directed and wrote the script (his second), which is set and shot in northern Ohio, about 30 miles from Cleveland, and the little girl who plays their deaf daughter Hannah is a deaf girl from central Ohio named Tova Stewart who makes her acting debut here. I knew the guy who works with Curtis looked familiar, and then I watched the latest episode of Boardwalk Empire and realized he is Shea Whigham, who plays Sheriff Eli Thompson on that show, not so far sharing a scene with Shannon's Agent van Alden. Another face I recognized was Ray McKinnon, who has one scene as Curtis' brother Kyle--McKinnon was In O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and The Blind Side, among others.

Spooky music (go to the amazon page and click Play all samples) by David Wingo (from the band Ola Podrida) is supplemented by a song by Ben Nichols (the band Lucero), the director's brother. I'm glad I decided to write this one up, before the other five (!) in draft mode, because I learned the Gotham Award nominees for independent film have been published. This was nominated for best picture and ensemble cast, and soon I will add it to my work-in-progress of nominations and winners sorted by title. Well, maybe not that soon, since I have the others to write up, and haven't stopped seeing new ones, nor my other work.

Anyway, this is a good one, and you should see this new movie.

Margin Call (2011)

Peggy told me I would like this thriller about a big investment firm at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis and she was right. Written and directed by J.C. Chandor in his feature debut, it has a star-laden cast portraying people at all levels of the game, and it will keep you involved. Stanley Tucci's (after I wrote about him in Julie & Julia and The Lovely Bones he was in Burlesque and Captain America: The First Avenger) character is fired within minutes of the opening credits but his findings are key to the plot, which is explained clearly over the course of time. Then Zachary Quinto's (Spock in Star Trek) financial analyst runs with it, followed by his sidekick Penn Badgley (a regular on Gossip Girl, which I haven't watched). The hierarchy moves up to Paul Bettany (last covered in Creation), Kevin Spacey (Casino Jack), Simon Baker (good in Something New (2006) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006), I haven't watched The Mentalist), and finally Jeremy Irons (won his Oscar for Reversal of Fortune (1990), my other favorites include Dead Ringers (1988) in which he played twins, Damage (1992), The House of the Spirits (1993) in which he was among the mostly Anglo actors who played Chileans for the Danish director who adapted Isabel Allende's novel, Stealing Beauty (1996), Chinese Box (1997), Lolita (1997), and Being Julia (2004)) as the head honcho, with Demi Moore (The Joneses) and Aasif Mandvi (It's Kind of a Funny Story) thrown in for a smattering of diversity, speaking of House of the Spirits. Mary McDonnell (Oscar-nominated for Passion Fish (1992) and Dances with Wolves (1990), both of which I intend to see at some point, and I loved Grand Canyon (1991) and loved her part) must have had a good contract to get top billing with the others, as she has only one scene as Spacey's wife.

The tense music is by Nathan Larson (covered in Our Idiot Brother). I've been listening to it as I type, from a loop on the movie's official site. With 19 producers, including Quinto, this does not win the Producers Plethora prize, still held by Get Low with 23.

This time I can't tell you what Jack thought because he couldn't make it, but I liked it very much.

Contagion (2011)

Scary! This bio-thriller about a killer virus gone world-wide epidemic is packed with stars and kept us on the edge of our seats, thinking about all the doors and hands we had touched. Director Steven Soderbergh (I wrote about him in The Informant!) is working again with writer Scott Z. Burns (I forgot to mention that Burns adapted the novel for the Informant! and co-adapted The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)), and this time takes credit in his own name as cinematographer (in all his previous work, Soderbergh uses the pseudonym Peter Andrews as cinematographer).

When Valentine's Day came out, Jack said, "Just tell us who isn't in it," and this bears some resemblance to that, with Gwyneth Paltrow (last mentioned in these pages in Country Strong), Matt Damon (Adjustment Bureau), Laurence Fishburne (Oscar-nominated for playing Ike Turner in What's Love Got to Do With It (1993), also good in Apocalypse Now (1979), Rumble Fish (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), The Color Purple (1985), Higher Learning (1995), Bobby (2006), 21 (2008), and many more), John Hawkes (Higher Ground) playing someone non-creepy for a change, Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes), Marion Cotillard (Midnight in Paris), Kate Winslet (my favorites: Sense and Sensibility (1995), the love story part of Titanic (1997), Hideous Kinky (1998), Holy Smoke (1999), Iris (2001), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Little Children (2006), her scenes in Romance & Cigarettes, the mini-series Mildred Pierce (2011), and her Oscar-winning performance in The Reader, which was predicted by Ricky Gervais in the episode of Extras where Winslet played a foul-mouthed version of herself who said the Holocaust wins Oscars), Jennifer Ehle (The Ides of March), Demetri Martin (Taking Woodstock), Elliott Gould (my personal faves are the TV movie Once Upon a Mattress (1964), Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) for which he was Oscar-nominated, M*A*S*H (1970), California Split (1974), Bugsy (1991), and Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001), Twelve (2004), and Thirteen (2007), among his 162 acting credits), Bryan Cranston (Drive), Sanaa Lathan (Love & Basketball (2000), Something New (2006), a series arc on Nip/Tuck), and Dr. Sanjay Gupta as himself among the 68 actors credited with 78 more uncredited, which may be a precedent.

Shooting locations are listed as Atlanta, San Francisco, Hong Kong, and various places in Illinois, but it looks like we travel around the world with very high production values. Master composer Cliff Martinez (also covered in Drive) keeps up the tension with his high energy score, of which all twenty tracks are posted on youtube and is available from iTunes, amazon, etc.

My favorite line apparently is someone else's, as it's been posted on imdb: Gould's scientist says to Law's blogger, "Blogging is not writing. It's just graffiti with punctuation."

Playing in only one house here, this has a predicted DVD release date of January. Don't watch the movie right before you go to sleep if you're prone to nightmares. But it's good.

The Big Year (2011)

We rather liked this comedy with Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson as competitive birdwatchers, even though reviews were awful (40% critics/54% audiences on rottentomatoes). There's a robust supporting cast, including Dianne Wiest and Brian Dennehy as Black's parents, JoBeth Williams as Martin's wife, Rosamund Pike as Wilson's wife, Rashida Jones and Andrew Wilson (Owen and Luke's brother) as fellow birders, Kevin Pollak and Joel McHale as Martin's business associates, and cameos by Anjelica Huston, Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Parsons...the list goes on, and Jack correctly identified a voiceover as John Cleese of Monty Python fame. I don't remember Black's film debut in Bob Roberts (1992), though the movie was great, but did like him in a number of pictures, including High Fidelity (2000),  Shallow Hal (2001), The School of Rock (2003), King Kong (2005), Margot at the Wedding (2007), and Tropic Thunder. I wrote about my favorite Owen Wilson roles in Midnight in Paris and Steve Martin in It's Complicated, and all three are believable as the obsessive birders.

Directed by David Frankel (Miami Rhapsody (1995), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Marley & Me (2008, I didn't see it), and some TV) from a script adapted by Howard Franklin (The Name of the Rose (1986), Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), more) from the book The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik, the movie features great locations (mostly Canada, plus some Atlanta), wonderful sets, and, of course, beautiful photography of birds by Lawrence Sher (Kissing Jessica Stein (2001), Garden State (2004), Dan in Real Life (2007), The Hangover, The Hangover Part II, among others).

The music is also good, with eight songs, including Black's ringtone, listed here, and if you scroll down on that link, you can hear samples (click on the little arrows next to $0.99) of the excellent soundtrack composed by Theodore Shapiro, who scored State and Main (2000), Old School (2003), Prada, Tropic Thunder, and Dinner for Schmucks, among his 50 credits.

If you see only one movie a month, perhaps you should pick another, but if you like birds or any of the cast members, check this one out, still playing in very limited showtimes here, with a possible DVD release set for February.

The Way (2010)

Poignant, lovely, and even funny at times, this story of a father undertaking the spiritual journey his son died before completing is just wonderful. It's the seventh collaboration between Emilio Estevez (director/writer/supporting) and his father Martin Sheen (starring) and is based in part on selected stories from Off the Road: a Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route by Jack Hitt (the movie's website credits him so I submitted the correction to imdb and it will appear after a while, Hitt's first hit on imdb). The journey is the walk from St. Jean Pied de Port in southwestern France to Santiago de Compostela, which is in the northwest corner of Spain, about 500 miles (I spent a week in Santiago de Compostela in 1997--it's a fascinating medieval city with stone streets and Gaelic music--but didn't learn much about the Pilgrim's Route). The prolific Sheen (born Ramon Estevez) has 226 acting credits, and my favorites include Catch-22 (1970) (I'm showing my age here!), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Dead Zone (1983--one of my top twenty of all time), Wall Street (1987), Da (1988), Bobby (see below), Talk to Me (2007), and, of course, 154 episodes of the West Wing--I watched a couple of seasons but Jack has seen them all multiple times). Here Sheen is a master of manly introversion--recently I heard someone on a screen, big or small, say, "We men can talk about our feelings, we'd just rather not," which sums up Sheen's Tom Avery. Estevez, now 41, has been acting since he was 18 (my faves: The Outsiders (1983), Repo Man (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985)), got his first screenplay produced at 23, and began directing five years later (of his five features I've seen only Bobby (2006), a great ensemble piece about the people at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, the night of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination). We see his Daniel Avery as a ghost who occasionally walks and talks with his father along The Way.

The excellent supporting cast includes Deborah Kara Unger (coincidentally my favorite of her many credits, Crash (1996) (not the 2004 Oscar winner), was directed by David Cronenberg, who directed Sheen in The Dead Zone) as angry Canadian Sarah, Yorick van Wageningen as jovial Dutchman Joost (pronounced yost, rhymes with toast), James Nesbitt (Waking Ned Devine (1998), Millions) as intense Irishman Jack, and Tchéky Karyo (I recognized his name and face but his credits aren't all that familiar to me) as Zen-like Frenchman Captain Henri.

The movie was shot on location on the actual trek and the images are quite lovely. The music by Tyler Bates is pretty, with nice guitar riffs. To hear two tracks, go to this page and select playlist 2 (I also enjoyed hearing the first track on playlist 1: the theme to the Showtime series Californication). Most of his other work has been much more agitated than this, which you'll discover if you listen to the rest of the tracks. In addition there are good songs, listed here.

This is still playing in our town and Jack and I highly recommend it. I have to add that when I heard Tom describe Daniel, in both the trailer and the movie, as "my only son," I thought about messed up Charlie Sheen, and who wouldn't want to distance himself?