22nd Annual Art Directors Guild Awards Winners

Two nights ago the guild announced the winners for the 2018 edition of these annual awards that honor production design in 11 categories of film television, commercials, music videos and, for the first time, animation features.

ADG President Nelson Coates and Art Directors Council Chair Mark Worthington presided over the awards ceremony with comedian Jonathan Fernandez serving as host.

Winners are in *BLUE.  To check winners in all categories check press release at official site here (pdf file).

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1/5/18
Yesterday the Art Directors Guild (ADG, IATSE Local 800) announced the nominations for the 22nd edition of their Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards in theatrical motion pictures, television, commercials, music videos and, for the first time, animation features.  The announcement was made by Art Directors Guild President Nelson Coates and Awards Producers Thomas Walsh and Thomas Wilkins.

As previously announced, ADG Awards will honor eight-time Academy Award Nominee Katheleen Kenedy with the Cinematic Imagery Award. The “William Cameron Menzies Award” will honor Disney’s Oscar nominated animation filmmakers Ron Clements and John Musker. A special Leadership Award will be bestowed upon International IATSE President Matthew D. Loeb. The Outstanding Creative Achievement Award will be given to Production Designer Michael Baugh. Lifetime Achievement Awards will be presented to Production Designer Norm Newberry Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated Production Designer/Set Designer James Murakami, Scenic Artist John Moffitt, and Senior Illustrator/Art Director Martin Kline. The late Oscar-winning Production Designer Sir Ken Adam (Dr. Strangelove, James Bond) Senior Illustrator and Bambi’s Concept Designer Tyrus Wong will be inducted into the ADG Hall of Fame.

ADG Awards are open only to productions when made within the U.S. by producers signatory to the IATSE agreement. Foreign entries are acceptable without restrictions.

Not easy to guess which film could win the Oscar in the production design category and neither to guess the Oscar nominees but in the past five years, the winner of period film went to win the Oscar twice, once was fantasy category winner and once was contemporary category winner.  So our best guess will come when we learn the Oscar nominees and learn ADG winners as of now it's hard to do estimates.  For me, production design award-deserving movies are Blade Runner 2049 and Wonder Woman, then perhaps Logan; the other nominees have good production design but nothing that could be out-of-the-ordinary.

These are the Nominees

Period Film
Sarah Greenwood for Darkest Hour
Nathan Crowley for Dunkirk
Jim Clay for Murder on the Orient Express
Rick Carter for The Post
*Paul Denham Austerberry for The Shape of Water

Fantasy Film
Sarah Greenwood for Beauty and The Beast
*Dennis Gassner for Blade Runner 2049
Rick Heinrichs for Star Wars: The Last Jedi
James Chinlund for War of the Planet of the Apes
Aline Bonetto for Wonder Woman

Contemporary Film
Stefania Cella for Downsizing
Rusty Smith for Get Out
Chris Jones for Lady Bird
*Francois Audouy for Logan
Inbal Weinberg for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Animated Film
William Cone and Jay Shuster for Cars 3
*Harley Jessup for Coco
Olivier Adam for Despicable Me 3
Grant Freckelton for The Lego Batman Movie
Matthew Button for Loving Vincent

To check nominees for other categories go official site here (pdf file) or here for press release and options to open file. Winners will be honored at the Awards Gala on Saturday, January 27 in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland.

The Post (2017)

Political thrillers are easily my least favourite of the genre, but I do love Spielberg and it's basically impossible to pass a movie of his when it stars both Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, and it's praised by everyone. So expectations were sky high and The Post, while it still is a pretty good film, didn't meet them.

Set in the 1970s, the film tells the true story of the journalists from The Washington Post and their attempt to publish the Pentagon Papers, classified documents which detail the United States government involvement in Vietnam even prior to the war.

Perhaps I'm speaking as a foreigner who knows very little about this, actually, it's more like nothing, but that's the kind of story that needs to be told and it's indeed very interesting. There are some dull moments but the overall pace was good enough to keep my attention through most of the film.

Spielberg's movie doesn't only focus on the political and financial risks of publishing that kind of documents, but on the difficulties Catherine Graham, the paper's owner, faces because she is a woman as well, because apparently, women aren't as good as men. While showing how hard it is to be a woman in a man's world, The Post also shows how important we, women, are to society. And honestly, it does a better job than Battle of the Sexes.

I think it's needless to say that The Post also defends the freedom of the press and celebrates the search for truth. Also needless to say is how relatable that is in the times we live, when a 'man' like Trump is the leader of the free world. It does, however, have a flaw: the discussion about the freedom of speech is not as powerful as I was hoping.

20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures

What truly elevates this film is the acting. Meryl Streep gives a great performance as Catherine Graham, capturing both her vulnerability and strength. She doesn't always come off sympathetic though and hers is far from being the best performance of 2017 hence I really hope she doesn't win the Oscar. Tom Hanks gives a solid performance as Ben Bradlee, editor of The Washington Post. But again, nothing stellar/Oscar worthy. Bob Odenkirk as assistant editor Ben Bagdikian and Sarah Paulson as Tony Bradlee are also noteworthy.

The cinematography is quite good too. The colours, the lighting, they really help give the film the right atmosphere and build some tension. John Williams's score is quite beautiful but it doesn't always work.

68th Annual ACE EDDIE Awards Winners

A couple of days ago the ACE society had their awards ceremony and perhaps the biggest surprise is to have I, Tonya winning an editing award as believe there was nothing outstanding in film when it came to editing, sigh.

More expected Dunkirk collected the Dramatic award which paves a road to an Oscar win in the editing category.

Winners are in *BLUE.  To check winners in all categories, go official site here.

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1/3/18
A few moments ago the American Cinema Editors Society announced the nominations for the 2018 EDDIE Awards which recognizes outstanding editing in film, television and documentaries.

Noteworthy are the changes organizers did to television and documentary categories where in general there is a clear category simplification and if you wish to learn changes go official site here.

Know is the first industry tech group to announce nominations but the biggest surprise is that there is NO surprise! (lol)  Just check the list of 10 films divided in Dramatic and Comedy categories and will notice that are the same films everybody have been talking about since the start of current awards season.  Perhaps the only dark horses are Molly's Game, Baby Driver and Blade Runner 2049; the rest are the films many are betting will get an Oscar Best Film nomination.

Again this year there will be discussions about what is a Comedy and what's not; so, to not spoil the habit here are my two-cents:  NONE of the five films nominated in the Comedy category are comedies.  Four are (strong) dramas and one is an action film.  Know don't really understand or like American humor, but yes, I did not laugh at all when watching any of those five movies.  Sigh.

By-the-way EDDIE Dramatic winner tends to become the Oscar winner, but somehow feel that this year winner could come from more from what group calls comedy.

Best Edited Feature Film Dramatic
Joe Walker for Blade Runner 2049
*Lee Smith for Dunkirk
Alan Baumgarten, Josh Schaeffer and Elliot Graham for Molly's Game
Michael Kahn and Sarah Broshar for The Post
Sidney Wolinsky for The Shape of Water

Best Edited Feature Film Comedy
Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss for Baby Driver
Gregory Plotkin for Get Out
*Tatiana S. Riegel for I, Tonya
Nick Houy for Lady Bird
Jon Gregory for Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Edited Animated Feature Film
*Steve Bloom for Coco
Clair Dodgson for Despicable Me 3
David Burrows, Matt Villa and John Venzon for The Lego Batman Movie

Best Edited Feature Documentary
Aaron I. Butler for Cries from Syria
*Joe Beshenkovsky, Will Snidaric and Brett Morgen for Jane
Ann Collins for Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold
TJ Martin, Scott Stevenson and Dan Lindsay for LA92

To check nominees at official site plus all television categories go here.  Awards ceremony will be on January 26 at the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom.

When We First Met Netflix Movie Trailer

When We First Met (2018)

When We First Met debuts February 9

Noah spends the perfect night with Avery only to become just friends,but he gets the opportunity to travel through time and alter that night over and over again until he gets everything perfect.

THE B-LIST: QUESTIONABLE MUSICAL MOMENTS #24 – WHITE POP JESUS

During the 70s and 80s, the Italians would rip off any movie, just as long as they could do it cheaply , a little bit sleazy, and with no concern that the finished product making any sense whatsoever. And we're not just talking about the multitude of takes on Mad Max, Star Wars, or Conan the Barbarian. You can also find low budget Italian counterfeits of Saturday Night Fever, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and believe or not, Jesus Christ Superstar.

Of course, the Italian version can't just have Jesus doing his thing in the Holy Land. That wouldn't be Italian enough. Instead, they transport the story to modern day Rome, let Jesus fight the mafia, and set it all to a disco soundtrack. Ladies and Gentle, allow me to present to you a few highlights from... White Pop Jesus!

First up we have the introductory number in which Jesus either returns from the spirit world or escapes a mental institution. It's never really made clear...

Then we have this little showstopper, in which three of White Pop Jesus' female followers extol their savior's virtues. I think...

But nothing, and I mean nothing, tops the temptation of Christ by drugs as told through interpretive dance...

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Ted Neely, who played the titular role in Norman Jewison's Jesus Christ Superstar, recalled, "Because of so much protest in America when we were doing the show live, prior to making the film, Mr Jewison was concerned about whether or not the film would be accepted around the world. So he requested an audience with Pope Paul VI to see the film. The two of them sat down together and watched the film, and the Pope said: ‘this is a good film, I think this film will open the eyes to people around the world’. He said that he felt that the music was so inviting and so spiritual that it would spread the essence of Christ worldwide... so we got his blessing to release the film. So thank God for that, and thank Pope Paul VI for that!"

Whether or not that's exactly how things happened is up for debate, but it does appear His Holiness was really a fan of the musical, despite some of its obvious theological shortcomings. A 1974 article in People Magazine profiling the Pontiff noted, "After the sisters have cleared away the dinner dishes each evening, Paul either heads back to his office for a few hours of late work with his staff, or he settles down to read in his bright living room to the accompaniment of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven on the turntable. The papal record shelf also holds the original cast LP of Jesus Christ, Superstar, which has had enough plays to satisfy an unoffended Pope that its fundamentalist hymns and hollers are shattering proof of youth’s groping for God."

Alas, there appear to be no existing records detailing what kind of reception, if any, Pope John Paul II gave White Pop Jesus when it hit Italian movie screens in 1980. I don't want to presume, but if I had to... I'm guessing it wouldn't have been quite as welcoming. But you never know.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie (2017)

I grew up playing with LEGO (and I probably still would if I wasn't busy all the time and their stuff wasn't so expensive -- a thing is having your parents paying it, a thing is paying it yourself) and, on my teen years, I occasionally stumbled upon the series Ninjago on TV. I didn't love it but it was okay when there wasn't anything else interesting on TV. I guess I watched The LEGO Ninjago Movie for the same reason, I didn't have anything better to watch and although I had very little expectations, the film managed to disappoint me. 

It's a hard knock life for Lloyd (Dave Franco), the 16-year-old estranged son of Garmadon (Justin Theroux), the evil warlord who keeps trying to take control of Ninjago City and keeps failing because of a secret gang of ninjas. Turns out Lloyd is the leader of those ninjas but this time the battle against his father will be much harder as the ultimate weapon is unleashed.

The plot is like a ninja, so thin you don't even notice it. It has no complexity, which the previous instalments of the LEGO franchise had, no real twists (Lloyd being Garmadon's father is revealed within the first 5 minutes) and it's not engaging. Actually, it's quite boring.

I admit the plot wasn't great in the other movies either, but at least those have great characters. The LEGO Ninjago Movie hasn't got any of those. There's very little characterization, even less development, but most of all, they are not very funny. They are just meh. Also, the villain is pretty stupid. I did, however, like Dave Franco's performance. He really captures the kid's exasperation. 

Warner Bros. Pictures

The characters aren't the only unfunny element in the film, the whole thing is unfunny. That happened because first, many funny gags and jokes were given away in the trailer; second, the humour isn't sharp or wit or clever. It's just bland. I did chuckle a couple of times while watching this, but that's not what you expect when watching a comedy, is it?

The father-and-son relationship does have heart though. It doesn't break any new ground, and it really felt like watching The Empire Strikes Back at some points, but it was nice having it. 

The animation is still very enjoyable. The colours are vibrant, the settings are very beautiful and the characters look good too. The songs are nice too but it's a bit all over the place and they get a little distracting at times. 

Darkest Hour (2017)

I remember seeing the trailer of Darkest Hour about a month ago and thinking it looked good. My expectations soon lowered when I was told the performances were good but everything else was average. In support of that theory, I learnt that Joe Wright directed it, the same guy who directed Pan. Thank goodness Darkest Hour wasn't that dreadful, but it wasn't great either.

In the same year of Nolan's masterpiece Dunkirk, Wright's movie depicts the events that led to the Dunkirk evacuation. In specific, the film follows newly-appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) as he must decide whether to negotiate a peace settlement with Hitler's Germany or fight against the odds.

I don't know much about Winston Churchill or about the events leading up to England's entry into Worl War II (in my defence, I'm Italian and we study how Italy entered the war) so this indeed was an interesting story for me to see told. At least, that's how it was supposed to be. Unfortunately, it was poorly executed and instead of being engaging and compelling, it was boring and dull. It brings up many things but doesn't even bother explaining them. We are not told why he was chosen as Prime Minister since everyone seems to hate it or why the kind didn't trust him. What's worst though is that it's not even explained why the king goes from distrusting him to blindly supporting him in the blink of an eye. 

Darkest Hour is supposed to be a biopic but instead of giving us an understanding of what kind of man Winston Churchill was, the film wears us out with him sitting in meetings and giving speeches without actually telling anything about him. As a result, Churchill comes off as an over-the-top, eccentric man with a lot of power but very little depth.

Focus Features

Churchill's isn't the only uninteresting character in this film. That applies basically to everyone else. Especially to the female characters who are terribly underwritten and have no purpose in the story other than helping the male protagonist, which is a bit of a cliché of the genre.

Joe Wright's movie does have a strength though. That one thing that kept me watching until the end (even though I was bored to death). It's Gary Oldman, ladies and gents. I've seen enough historical footage of Churchill to say Oldman captures all the mannerisms, the walk, the voice. It's not always easy to understand what he's saying but in spite of that, he really gives a great performance. However, although I'm sure he will win the Oscar for it, I don't think it's that great to deserve it. Sure, he's unrecognizable, he entirely disappeared into the role, but some of the credits go to the men and women behind the make-up and costumes. Now, those deserve the Oscar.