Until recently, the literary pedigree of a motion picture could clear a path to an Oscar nomination and often a win. Best Picture champs such as “No Country for Old Men” (2007), “Million Dollar Baby” (2004) and “The English Patient” (1996) all began their lives on the page in works by Cormac McCarthy, F.X. Toole and Michael Ondaatje, respectively. This year, “White Noise,” Noah Baumbach‘s Netflix film based on Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel, is angling for such a Best Picture nomination.
The tradition dates back to the earliest days of the Academy Awards when classic novels were regularly adapted for the screen. The 1930s saw “All Quiet on the Western Front” (by Erich Maria Remarque), “Mutiny on the Bounty” (by Charles Nordoff and James Norman Hall) and “Gone With the Wind” (by Margaret Mitchell) walk off with the top prize. The subsequent decade was also fortunate for novelists, as adaptations of “Rebecca...
The tradition dates back to the earliest days of the Academy Awards when classic novels were regularly adapted for the screen. The 1930s saw “All Quiet on the Western Front” (by Erich Maria Remarque), “Mutiny on the Bounty” (by Charles Nordoff and James Norman Hall) and “Gone With the Wind” (by Margaret Mitchell) walk off with the top prize. The subsequent decade was also fortunate for novelists, as adaptations of “Rebecca...
- 11/30/2022
- by Robert Rorke
- Gold Derby
If it’s Tuesday, this must be Election Day in a year when democracy itself is on the ballot. It’s a moment that Jefferson Smith – the naive but idealistic young senator played by Jimmy Stewart – could have appreciated in the Oscar-winning 1939 classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” from director Frank Capra. It tops the list of 25 movies that this Gold Derby editor singles out as exemplary staples of the political genre over the past 80-plus years. Most originated on the big screen, but a few were made-for-tv.
Why bring this to you today? Think of it as a distraction tactic at a time when so many of us are overloaded with anxiety over an especially consequential election that will determine control of Congress. The list features biopics, satires, historical dramas and journalism hybrid thrillers as well as fictitious allegories.
SEE15 Best American Political Films
Watch any of these tonight...
Why bring this to you today? Think of it as a distraction tactic at a time when so many of us are overloaded with anxiety over an especially consequential election that will determine control of Congress. The list features biopics, satires, historical dramas and journalism hybrid thrillers as well as fictitious allegories.
SEE15 Best American Political Films
Watch any of these tonight...
- 11/8/2022
- by Ray Richmond
- Gold Derby
James McMurtry wants to make one thing clear: His songs are not about him. “Oh, no, there’s none of that,” the songwriter says, scoffing at the very notion. “I don’t do autobiography. My songs are made up.”
McMurtry is talking about The Horses and The Hounds, his stunning new record, and his first in six years, but he may as well be discussing his entire discography. For the past three-plus decades, the Texas singer has been writing songs that, even in the relatively writerly world of Americana, stand...
McMurtry is talking about The Horses and The Hounds, his stunning new record, and his first in six years, but he may as well be discussing his entire discography. For the past three-plus decades, the Texas singer has been writing songs that, even in the relatively writerly world of Americana, stand...
- 8/20/2021
- by Jonathan Bernstein
- Rollingstone.com
Rupert Muroch’s News Corp said Monday it will acquire the Books & Media segment of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for $349 million in cash and merge it with HarperCollins amid ongoing consolidation in the book publishing business.
Hmh Books & Media has an extensive backlist, “a sustainable and growing source of revenues, high margins and cash flow for publishers, particularly evergreen properties with broad, enduring and global appeal,” News Corp. said announcing the deal. In calendar year 2020, over 60% of Hmh Books & Media revenues were generated by its backlist, which includes The Lord of the Rings trilogy and other titles by J.R.R. Tolkien; 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell; and All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. HarperCollins currently has rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s works in the British Commonwealth.
Hmh Books & Media’s frontlist in the lifestyle and children’s segments includes Antoni in the Kitchen, Instant Pot Miracle, Wow...
Hmh Books & Media has an extensive backlist, “a sustainable and growing source of revenues, high margins and cash flow for publishers, particularly evergreen properties with broad, enduring and global appeal,” News Corp. said announcing the deal. In calendar year 2020, over 60% of Hmh Books & Media revenues were generated by its backlist, which includes The Lord of the Rings trilogy and other titles by J.R.R. Tolkien; 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell; and All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. HarperCollins currently has rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s works in the British Commonwealth.
Hmh Books & Media’s frontlist in the lifestyle and children’s segments includes Antoni in the Kitchen, Instant Pot Miracle, Wow...
- 3/29/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has agreed to acquire Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Books & Media consumer publishing unit for $349 million in cash.
The deal, unveiled on Monday, covers 7,000 book titles, including such popular backlist titles as The Lord of the Rings trilogy and other books by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell, and All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. It also includes such children’s and young adult classics as Curious George, The Polar Express and The Little Prince.
The business will become part of News Corp’s HarperCollins Publishers, which currently has rights to Tolkien’s works in the British Commonwealth....
The deal, unveiled on Monday, covers 7,000 book titles, including such popular backlist titles as The Lord of the Rings trilogy and other books by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell, and All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. It also includes such children’s and young adult classics as Curious George, The Polar Express and The Little Prince.
The business will become part of News Corp’s HarperCollins Publishers, which currently has rights to Tolkien’s works in the British Commonwealth....
- 3/29/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has agreed to acquire Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Books & Media consumer publishing unit for $349 million in cash.
The deal, unveiled on Monday, covers 7,000 book titles, including such popular backlist titles as The Lord of the Rings trilogy and other books by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell, and All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. It also includes such children’s and young adult classics as Curious George, The Polar Express and The Little Prince.
The business will become part of News Corp’s HarperCollins Publishers, which currently has rights to Tolkien’s works in the British Commonwealth....
The deal, unveiled on Monday, covers 7,000 book titles, including such popular backlist titles as The Lord of the Rings trilogy and other books by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell, and All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. It also includes such children’s and young adult classics as Curious George, The Polar Express and The Little Prince.
The business will become part of News Corp’s HarperCollins Publishers, which currently has rights to Tolkien’s works in the British Commonwealth....
- 3/29/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Nan A. Talese, President, Publisher and Editorial Director of her eponymous Doubleday imprint, will retire at the end of the year, bringing an end to one of publishing’s most celebrated careers that also included stints at Random House, Simon & Schuster and Houghton Mifflin.
Since starting her Nan A. Talese imprint at Doubleday in 1990, Talese, who is married to author Gay Talese, has published a list of prominent authors including Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Adam Haslett, Alex Kotlowitz, Pat Conroy, Thomas Keneally, Mia Farrow, Jim Crace, Valerie Martin, Peter Ackroyd, Mary Morris, Louis Begley, Jennifer Egan, Mark Richard, Judy Collins, Barry Unsworth, Antonia Fraser, Thomas Cahill, Janet Wallach, and George Plimpton.
Talese’s successor was not announced.
After beginning her career at Vogue, Talese joined Random House in 1959 as a copy editor, then became the first woman to hold the position of literary editor. In that role, she worked with such writers as A.
Since starting her Nan A. Talese imprint at Doubleday in 1990, Talese, who is married to author Gay Talese, has published a list of prominent authors including Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Adam Haslett, Alex Kotlowitz, Pat Conroy, Thomas Keneally, Mia Farrow, Jim Crace, Valerie Martin, Peter Ackroyd, Mary Morris, Louis Begley, Jennifer Egan, Mark Richard, Judy Collins, Barry Unsworth, Antonia Fraser, Thomas Cahill, Janet Wallach, and George Plimpton.
Talese’s successor was not announced.
After beginning her career at Vogue, Talese joined Random House in 1959 as a copy editor, then became the first woman to hold the position of literary editor. In that role, she worked with such writers as A.
- 7/8/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
In a recent interview, Deadwood creator David Milch got very personal and revealed that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The news from the Emmy-winning producer comes ahead of the much anticipated Deadwood movie which is set to premiere on HBO on May 31.
Milch opened up about his diagnosis in an interview with Vulture. He said that things started to feel off about five years ago when his friends noticed that he had “imperfect recall and tardy recall and short temper. I became more and more of an acquired taste.” It wasn’t until about a year ago when he had a brain scan and that’s when the news hit.
“As best I understand it, which is minimally, I have a deterioration in the organization of my brain,” he told Vulture. “And it’s progressive. And in some ways discouraging. In more than some ways — in every way I can think of.
Milch opened up about his diagnosis in an interview with Vulture. He said that things started to feel off about five years ago when his friends noticed that he had “imperfect recall and tardy recall and short temper. I became more and more of an acquired taste.” It wasn’t until about a year ago when he had a brain scan and that’s when the news hit.
“As best I understand it, which is minimally, I have a deterioration in the organization of my brain,” he told Vulture. “And it’s progressive. And in some ways discouraging. In more than some ways — in every way I can think of.
- 4/23/2019
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
In the late 1970s, an associate professor in the Philosophy department at Johns Hopkins (thesis title: "The Nature of the Natural Numbers") began publishing essays on Hollywood movies. George M. Wilson wasn't the first person to undergo this shift in specialism. At the start of the decade, Stanley Cavell had published The World Viewed, a series of "reflections on the ontology of film." But Cavell had always been concerned with how works of art enable us to think through philosophical themes such as knowledge and meaning, and he held a chair, at Harvard, in Aesthetics. Wilson differed in that he brought a range of analytic gifts to an ongoing revolution: the close reading of American cinema, conceived as part of the "auteur" policy of Truffaut and other writers at Cahiers du cinéma in the 1950s, and concertedly developed in the following decades by critics in England such as V. F.
- 12/11/2017
- MUBI
What’s the pothole situation in Starling City? And the re-zoning hassle – that still a headache? And the business with the access lanes to the bridge – was that ever settled?
Since Oliver Queen’s been elected mayor, it’s reasonable to think that this kind of mayoral busyness is the better part of his days. At night, of course, he puts on a mask and hood and grabs his bow and arrows and kicks (or maybe punctures) miscreant ass. Oh, and his also training a bunch of wannabe vigilantes to help with the kicking/puncturing – and not always being Mr. Nice Guy while he’s doing it. (Maybe he’s got some marine drill sergeant DNA?)
The question is, who is better for Starling City, the politician or the archer? If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’d probably choose the archer because obviously anybody would be better than a politician.
Since Oliver Queen’s been elected mayor, it’s reasonable to think that this kind of mayoral busyness is the better part of his days. At night, of course, he puts on a mask and hood and grabs his bow and arrows and kicks (or maybe punctures) miscreant ass. Oh, and his also training a bunch of wannabe vigilantes to help with the kicking/puncturing – and not always being Mr. Nice Guy while he’s doing it. (Maybe he’s got some marine drill sergeant DNA?)
The question is, who is better for Starling City, the politician or the archer? If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’d probably choose the archer because obviously anybody would be better than a politician.
- 10/27/2016
- by Dennis O'Neil
- Comicmix.com
Manuel here kicking off our centennial celebration of under appreciated (and under discussed!) Oscar winning actress Mercedes McCambridge.
We begin with her film debut which also happens to be her Oscar-winning vehicle, All The King's Men. She'd been doing radio work consistently for over a decade but this was as big a break as they got. The film is a political parable about that most rare of characters, the honest politician (Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark), who succumbs to corruption on his way to the top only to be punished by his deeds. It's Shakespearean in essence and all the more powerful for being based on a real-life politician, Louisiana governor, Huey Long (the inspiration behind Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name).
It's a testosterone-fueled film with only two gals...
We begin with her film debut which also happens to be her Oscar-winning vehicle, All The King's Men. She'd been doing radio work consistently for over a decade but this was as big a break as they got. The film is a political parable about that most rare of characters, the honest politician (Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark), who succumbs to corruption on his way to the top only to be punished by his deeds. It's Shakespearean in essence and all the more powerful for being based on a real-life politician, Louisiana governor, Huey Long (the inspiration behind Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name).
It's a testosterone-fueled film with only two gals...
- 3/11/2016
- by Manuel Betancourt
- FilmExperience
Music and Sex: Scenes from a life - A novel in progress (first chapter here). Warning: more highly graphic Tmi.
A weekend of fruitless fretting almost led Walter to agree that Martial had the right idea and the show should go on with no guitarist, and with just Walter on keyboards, but really all he'd come up with for sure was a new band name -- The Living Section, for the Wednesday arts portion of The New York Times. The other guys all agreed that was an improvement. However, he couldn't bring himself to propose to them what, in his head, he had dubbed the Martial Plan.
The thing about the band was, it had to be fit in between all the stuff that going to college was actually about, such as attending classes. So on Monday, it was back to the usual schedule, which meant one of his favorite...
A weekend of fruitless fretting almost led Walter to agree that Martial had the right idea and the show should go on with no guitarist, and with just Walter on keyboards, but really all he'd come up with for sure was a new band name -- The Living Section, for the Wednesday arts portion of The New York Times. The other guys all agreed that was an improvement. However, he couldn't bring himself to propose to them what, in his head, he had dubbed the Martial Plan.
The thing about the band was, it had to be fit in between all the stuff that going to college was actually about, such as attending classes. So on Monday, it was back to the usual schedule, which meant one of his favorite...
- 9/8/2015
- by RomanAkLeff
- www.culturecatch.com
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the release of "Crash" (on May 6, 2005), an all-star movie whose controversy came not from its provocative treatment of racial issues but from its Best Picture Oscar victory a few months later, against what many critics felt was a much more deserving movie, "Brokeback Mountain."
The "Crash" vs. "Brokeback" battle is one of those lingering disputes that makes the Academy Awards so fascinating, year after year. Moviegoers and critics who revisit older movies are constantly judging the Academy's judgment. Even decades of hindsight may not always be enough to tell whether the Oscar voters of a particular year got it right or wrong. Whether it's "Birdman" vs. "Boyhood," "The King's Speech" vs. "The Social Network," "Saving Private Ryan" vs. "Shakespeare in Love" or even "An American in Paris" vs. "A Streetcar Named Desire," we're still confirming the Academy's taste or dismissing it as hopelessly off-base years later.
The "Crash" vs. "Brokeback" battle is one of those lingering disputes that makes the Academy Awards so fascinating, year after year. Moviegoers and critics who revisit older movies are constantly judging the Academy's judgment. Even decades of hindsight may not always be enough to tell whether the Oscar voters of a particular year got it right or wrong. Whether it's "Birdman" vs. "Boyhood," "The King's Speech" vs. "The Social Network," "Saving Private Ryan" vs. "Shakespeare in Love" or even "An American in Paris" vs. "A Streetcar Named Desire," we're still confirming the Academy's taste or dismissing it as hopelessly off-base years later.
- 5/6/2015
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Sean Penn: Honorary César goes Hollywood – again (photo: Sean Penn in '21 Grams') Sean Penn, 54, will receive the 2015 Honorary César (César d'Honneur), the French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts has announced. That means the French Academy's powers-that-be are once again trying to make the Prix César ceremony relevant to the American media. Their tactic is to hand out the career award to a widely known and relatively young – i.e., media friendly – Hollywood celebrity. (Scroll down for more such examples.) In the words of the French Academy, Honorary César 2015 recipient Sean Penn is a "living legend" and "a stand-alone icon in American cinema." It has also hailed the two-time Best Actor Oscar winner as a "mythical actor, a politically active personality and an exceptional director." Penn will be honored at the César Awards ceremony on Feb. 20, 2015. Sean Penn movies Sean Penn movies range from the teen comedy...
- 1/28/2015
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
“I’m going to miss f—ing you. I used to think there was more… but there’s not.”
On paper, this line of dialog reads like some crude kiss-off from Don Draper. But in You Are Here, Matthew Weiner’s feature-film directorial debut, it’s a wry kiss-off from Owen Wilson that elicits chuckles instead of gasps. Wilson plays Steve Dallas, a charming TV weatherman who’s getting by in the world with as little effort as possible. When his less successful childhood friend, Ben (Zach Galifianakis), turns to him for support after his estranged father dies, the two...
On paper, this line of dialog reads like some crude kiss-off from Don Draper. But in You Are Here, Matthew Weiner’s feature-film directorial debut, it’s a wry kiss-off from Owen Wilson that elicits chuckles instead of gasps. Wilson plays Steve Dallas, a charming TV weatherman who’s getting by in the world with as little effort as possible. When his less successful childhood friend, Ben (Zach Galifianakis), turns to him for support after his estranged father dies, the two...
- 9/9/2013
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
Martin Scorsese has been tapped to deliver the 2013 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. The Oscar-winning director of "The Departed" and "Raging Bull" will hold forth on his career as one of the foremost chroniclers of Catholic guilt, violence and criminality in the annual talk sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (Neh). Scorsese is the first filmmaker to get the honor, a prestigious forum that in the past has drawn such leading figures in the arts and academia as Toni Morrison, Robert Penn Warren and Harvard University President Drew Gilpin...
- 2/19/2013
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
"Death disports with writers more cruelly than with the rest of humankind," Cynthia Ozick wrote in a recent issue of The New Republic.
"The grave can hardly make more mute those who were voiceless when alive--dust to dust, muteness to muteness. But the silence that dogs the established writer's noisy obituary, with its boisterous shock and busy regret, is more profound than any other.
"Oblivion comes more cuttingly to the writer whose presence has been felt, argued over, championed, disparaged--the writer who is seen to be what Lionel Trilling calls a Figure. Lionel Trilling?
"Consider: who at this hour (apart from some professorial specialist currying his "field") is reading Mary McCarthy, James T. Farrell, John Berryman, Allan Bloom, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, Edmund Wilson, Anne Sexton, Alice Adams, Robert Lowell, Grace Paley, Owen Barfield, Stanley Elkin, Robert Penn Warren, Norman Mailer, Leslie Fiedler, R.P. Blackmur, Paul Goodman, Susan Sontag,...
"The grave can hardly make more mute those who were voiceless when alive--dust to dust, muteness to muteness. But the silence that dogs the established writer's noisy obituary, with its boisterous shock and busy regret, is more profound than any other.
"Oblivion comes more cuttingly to the writer whose presence has been felt, argued over, championed, disparaged--the writer who is seen to be what Lionel Trilling calls a Figure. Lionel Trilling?
"Consider: who at this hour (apart from some professorial specialist currying his "field") is reading Mary McCarthy, James T. Farrell, John Berryman, Allan Bloom, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, Edmund Wilson, Anne Sexton, Alice Adams, Robert Lowell, Grace Paley, Owen Barfield, Stanley Elkin, Robert Penn Warren, Norman Mailer, Leslie Fiedler, R.P. Blackmur, Paul Goodman, Susan Sontag,...
- 4/24/2011
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Getty
Billy Collins served as United States Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003. What does that mean for a poet’s career? “A rocketing lift into high levels of self esteem,” joked Collins, who recently talked to Speakeasy about his new book of poems, “Horoscopes for the Dead.” “If you had those problems, they’re terribly erased.”
Collins, perhaps America’s most popular poet, said he felt undeserving of the post. “I thought I was getting ahead of 20 people in line,” he said.
Billy Collins served as United States Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003. What does that mean for a poet’s career? “A rocketing lift into high levels of self esteem,” joked Collins, who recently talked to Speakeasy about his new book of poems, “Horoscopes for the Dead.” “If you had those problems, they’re terribly erased.”
Collins, perhaps America’s most popular poet, said he felt undeserving of the post. “I thought I was getting ahead of 20 people in line,” he said.
- 3/29/2011
- by Steven Kurutz
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
Anonymous has been at it again. Following Primary Colors's version of Clinton comes O: A Presidential Novel. Mark Lawson on the tradition of insider political fiction, from Disraeli to The West Wing. A preview from tomorrow's Guardian Review.
Also in tomorrow's Review: Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage on why Anna Nicole Smith is a true operatic heroine, Andrea Levy on why she wrote Small Island, Stefan Collini in praise of Eric Hobsbawm and Sarah Churchwell on the scandalous Lillian Hellman
A successful political career demands a tradeoff between fame and anonymity. A leader needs to be known – an Obama, Blair or Clinton has the global recognisability of a rock star – but high-level politics also frequently depends on the exercise of secrecy. The unattributable briefing ("a party insider, speaking on condition of anonymity", "a source travelling with the prime minister") is a standard tool of political journalism, offering an early first...
Also in tomorrow's Review: Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage on why Anna Nicole Smith is a true operatic heroine, Andrea Levy on why she wrote Small Island, Stefan Collini in praise of Eric Hobsbawm and Sarah Churchwell on the scandalous Lillian Hellman
A successful political career demands a tradeoff between fame and anonymity. A leader needs to be known – an Obama, Blair or Clinton has the global recognisability of a rock star – but high-level politics also frequently depends on the exercise of secrecy. The unattributable briefing ("a party insider, speaking on condition of anonymity", "a source travelling with the prime minister") is a standard tool of political journalism, offering an early first...
- 1/22/2011
- by Mark Lawson
- The Guardian - Film News
Patterson Hood and crew made a series of mini-documentaries related to the various themes and influences the band explores on their next album, "Go-Go Boots." The eight episodes are a companion to this, their ninth studio album, due out Feb. 15th. The episode below, directed with Jason Thrasher, delves into the band's relationship with the music and mythology of Eddie Hinton -- the obscure soul singer whom Hood described as "if Otis Redding met Howlin' Wolf somewhere in the middle."
"Back in the 60's and 70's, Eddie Hinton lived and recorded in my hometown of Muscle Shoals Alabama where he was a part of the thriving music scene that was based there," Hood explains. "A triple threat (singer, guitar player and songwriter) Eddie participated in hit music by Percy Sledge, Bobby Womack, Aretha Franklin, Boz Scaggs, Dusty Springfield.... Later he made several incredible albums as a solo artist."
Those are...
"Back in the 60's and 70's, Eddie Hinton lived and recorded in my hometown of Muscle Shoals Alabama where he was a part of the thriving music scene that was based there," Hood explains. "A triple threat (singer, guitar player and songwriter) Eddie participated in hit music by Percy Sledge, Bobby Womack, Aretha Franklin, Boz Scaggs, Dusty Springfield.... Later he made several incredible albums as a solo artist."
Those are...
- 1/18/2011
- by Brandon Kim
- ifc.com
More Toronto coverage
Toronto -- Like debutantes at a cotillion, movies that harbor Oscar hopes are about to be presented to the world at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival.
At first blush, many of them sport the kind of credentials that automatically get the attention of Academy voters: Danny Boyle, whose "Slumdog Millionaire" swept the Oscars in 2009 after winning the People's Choice Award in Toronto, is back with his newest film, "127 Hours"; double Oscar winner Hilary Swank will stake her claim for further consideration with the crusading legal drama "Conviction"; and Colin Firth, who was nominated last year for "A Single Man," is auditioning for back-to-back noms for his latest, "The King's Speech," in which he plays a stammering King George VI.
"Every movie is different," said Sony Pictures Classics co-head Michael Barker, who's shepherding nine films through the Toronto juggernaut. Some -- such as Mike Leigh's "Another Year,...
Toronto -- Like debutantes at a cotillion, movies that harbor Oscar hopes are about to be presented to the world at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival.
At first blush, many of them sport the kind of credentials that automatically get the attention of Academy voters: Danny Boyle, whose "Slumdog Millionaire" swept the Oscars in 2009 after winning the People's Choice Award in Toronto, is back with his newest film, "127 Hours"; double Oscar winner Hilary Swank will stake her claim for further consideration with the crusading legal drama "Conviction"; and Colin Firth, who was nominated last year for "A Single Man," is auditioning for back-to-back noms for his latest, "The King's Speech," in which he plays a stammering King George VI.
"Every movie is different," said Sony Pictures Classics co-head Michael Barker, who's shepherding nine films through the Toronto juggernaut. Some -- such as Mike Leigh's "Another Year,...
- 9/9/2010
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Life is political. Hollywood is political. And yesterday in the U.S., the state elections were very political in the broad sense of the term, since many pundits kept arguing that they served as a referendum on President Obama and his policies.
We make no such claims. We're not here to talk U.S. politics specifically, but with all this political fever in play, what better time than to reflect back on what we believe are the ten best movies about American politics?
There are some terrific contenders here; not surprisingly some from decades gone by. But in most, the themes of power and corruption going hand-in-hand is front and center. It's material that's inherently rife with conflict, making for some of the best drama to be found anywhere.
So have a look at the following pages and our selections for the best movies about American politics. And when you're finished,...
We make no such claims. We're not here to talk U.S. politics specifically, but with all this political fever in play, what better time than to reflect back on what we believe are the ten best movies about American politics?
There are some terrific contenders here; not surprisingly some from decades gone by. But in most, the themes of power and corruption going hand-in-hand is front and center. It's material that's inherently rife with conflict, making for some of the best drama to be found anywhere.
So have a look at the following pages and our selections for the best movies about American politics. And when you're finished,...
- 11/4/2009
- CinemaSpy
This review was written for the festival screening of All the King's Men.
TORONTO -- You would not immediately think of Sean Penn for the role of Willie Stark, the powerful and hugely ambitious Southern politician around whom Robert Penn Warren's famous 1946 novel revolves. You think of a big man because the character was modeled after Louisiana's flamboyant governor Huey P. Long and was played in the original 1949 movie by Broderick Crawford, both stocky men. But Penn fills the screen with this cagey and cunning character, his oratory so loquacious an enemy would vote for him and a body seeming to move in several different directions with every step. In one of his greatest screen performances, Penn nails the contradictory and compelling genius of a small-time rural pol, who dreams and schemes his way to the top of a corrupt system designed to keep men like him on the outside.
This charismatic performance, surrounded by incisive turns by an all-star ensemble cast, gives furious energy to a movie that doesn't seem to know how to contain it. Writer-director Steven Zaillian's questionable solution is to fit this rambunctious portrait of unruly Southern politics in a monumental frame where Southern Gothic meets Leni Riefenstahl. Neo-classical buildings and old-money mansions tower over mere mortals or glower with oligarchic rage. Ominous darkness reaches into the corners of a screen that is as close to black-and-white as a color movie can achieve. James Horner's music thunders so melodramatically you expect lightning to fill the sky at any moment.
Audience can certainly find entertainment in this movie, so long as no one takes things too seriously. One suspects, however, that Zaillian and a vast team of producers and executive producers that includes political consultant and pundit James Carville believe they are making a serious commentary on American politics. It comes closer to kitsch. Columbia Pictures will have a job selling a movie where drawbacks nearly equal winning attributes, and its great star has never meant much at the boxoffice.
Curiously, Zaillian moves the story from the 1930s to the postwar era, apparently to let Willie Stark deliver his common-man message to integrated audiences, making it seem as if Stark/Long reached out to poor blacks as well as poor whites. He certainly never did.
This particular type of demagogue grew out of a rural region in a Southern state dominated by cigar-smoking old-boy politics of the worst sort. To defeat such men, Willie had to use their own methods against them. Thus, the idealist often worked outside the law and believed the ends always justified any means. Penn, in even Willie's earliest moments as a hick politician in a backwater town, conveys this duality. He truly believes in the hopes and aspirations of his "fellow hicks," but know he can't deliver on his promise by playing fair.
Lapsed idealist and alcoholic journalist Jack Burden (Jude Law), the novel and movie's eyes and ears, picks up on this aspect of Willie right away. From Old Southern aristocracy himself, he gloms onto Willie as a breath of fresh air blowing through smoke-filled rooms. Jack joins Willie's administration after he is elected. But when the governor is threatened by impeachment, Willie asks Jack to dig up dirt on the prominent Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins), a man who acted as father to Jack between and during his mother's (Kathy Baker) four marriages.
His reluctant sleuthing proves everyone's undoing as Jack is forced to confront his own past, including his long lost love, the daughter of a former governor, Anne Stanton (Kate Winslet), and her melancholy brother Adam (Mark Ruffalo), the story's only true idealist. Meanwhile, Willis' press attache and sometime lover Sadie (Patricia Clarkson) jealously stirs the pot while Tiny Duffy (James Gandolfini), a man of wide girth and low cunning, prods everyone with jabs of unimaginative pragmatism.
Subplots from the novel get shorn or abbreviated as the movie takes great leaps to get to its crucial moments. It can't afford too much subtlety, but then Willie is not a subtle guy. Nevertheless, the hammy neo-Third Reich trappings of the production design and cinematography feel disingenuous and imposed on a milieu and a political climate that produced a different kind of corruption. What you are left with then is a towering performance as Penn plays one of the great figures of 20th century American literature with a verve and vitality that is breathtaking.
ALL THE KING'S MEN
Columbia Pictures in association with Relatively Media a Phoenix Pictures production
Writer/director: Steven Zaillian
Based on the novel by Robert Penn Warren
Producers: Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Ken Lemberger, Steven Zaillian
Executive producers: Todd Phillips, Andreas Schmid, Michael Hausman, David Thwaites, James Carville, Andy Grosch, Ryan Kavanaugh
Director of photography: Pawel Edelman
Production designer: Patrizia Von Brandenstein
Costumes: Marit Allen
Music: James Horner
Editor: Wayne Wahrman
Cast:
Willie Stark: Sean Penn
Jack Burden: Jude Law
Judge Irwin: Anthony Hopkins
Anne Stanton; Kate Winslet
Adam Stanton: Mark Ruffalo
Sadie Burke: Patricia Clarkson
Tiny Duffy: James Gandolfini
Sugar Boy: Jackie Earle Haley
Mrs. Burden: Kathy Baker
Running time -- 128 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
TORONTO -- You would not immediately think of Sean Penn for the role of Willie Stark, the powerful and hugely ambitious Southern politician around whom Robert Penn Warren's famous 1946 novel revolves. You think of a big man because the character was modeled after Louisiana's flamboyant governor Huey P. Long and was played in the original 1949 movie by Broderick Crawford, both stocky men. But Penn fills the screen with this cagey and cunning character, his oratory so loquacious an enemy would vote for him and a body seeming to move in several different directions with every step. In one of his greatest screen performances, Penn nails the contradictory and compelling genius of a small-time rural pol, who dreams and schemes his way to the top of a corrupt system designed to keep men like him on the outside.
This charismatic performance, surrounded by incisive turns by an all-star ensemble cast, gives furious energy to a movie that doesn't seem to know how to contain it. Writer-director Steven Zaillian's questionable solution is to fit this rambunctious portrait of unruly Southern politics in a monumental frame where Southern Gothic meets Leni Riefenstahl. Neo-classical buildings and old-money mansions tower over mere mortals or glower with oligarchic rage. Ominous darkness reaches into the corners of a screen that is as close to black-and-white as a color movie can achieve. James Horner's music thunders so melodramatically you expect lightning to fill the sky at any moment.
Audience can certainly find entertainment in this movie, so long as no one takes things too seriously. One suspects, however, that Zaillian and a vast team of producers and executive producers that includes political consultant and pundit James Carville believe they are making a serious commentary on American politics. It comes closer to kitsch. Columbia Pictures will have a job selling a movie where drawbacks nearly equal winning attributes, and its great star has never meant much at the boxoffice.
Curiously, Zaillian moves the story from the 1930s to the postwar era, apparently to let Willie Stark deliver his common-man message to integrated audiences, making it seem as if Stark/Long reached out to poor blacks as well as poor whites. He certainly never did.
This particular type of demagogue grew out of a rural region in a Southern state dominated by cigar-smoking old-boy politics of the worst sort. To defeat such men, Willie had to use their own methods against them. Thus, the idealist often worked outside the law and believed the ends always justified any means. Penn, in even Willie's earliest moments as a hick politician in a backwater town, conveys this duality. He truly believes in the hopes and aspirations of his "fellow hicks," but know he can't deliver on his promise by playing fair.
Lapsed idealist and alcoholic journalist Jack Burden (Jude Law), the novel and movie's eyes and ears, picks up on this aspect of Willie right away. From Old Southern aristocracy himself, he gloms onto Willie as a breath of fresh air blowing through smoke-filled rooms. Jack joins Willie's administration after he is elected. But when the governor is threatened by impeachment, Willie asks Jack to dig up dirt on the prominent Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins), a man who acted as father to Jack between and during his mother's (Kathy Baker) four marriages.
His reluctant sleuthing proves everyone's undoing as Jack is forced to confront his own past, including his long lost love, the daughter of a former governor, Anne Stanton (Kate Winslet), and her melancholy brother Adam (Mark Ruffalo), the story's only true idealist. Meanwhile, Willis' press attache and sometime lover Sadie (Patricia Clarkson) jealously stirs the pot while Tiny Duffy (James Gandolfini), a man of wide girth and low cunning, prods everyone with jabs of unimaginative pragmatism.
Subplots from the novel get shorn or abbreviated as the movie takes great leaps to get to its crucial moments. It can't afford too much subtlety, but then Willie is not a subtle guy. Nevertheless, the hammy neo-Third Reich trappings of the production design and cinematography feel disingenuous and imposed on a milieu and a political climate that produced a different kind of corruption. What you are left with then is a towering performance as Penn plays one of the great figures of 20th century American literature with a verve and vitality that is breathtaking.
ALL THE KING'S MEN
Columbia Pictures in association with Relatively Media a Phoenix Pictures production
Writer/director: Steven Zaillian
Based on the novel by Robert Penn Warren
Producers: Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Ken Lemberger, Steven Zaillian
Executive producers: Todd Phillips, Andreas Schmid, Michael Hausman, David Thwaites, James Carville, Andy Grosch, Ryan Kavanaugh
Director of photography: Pawel Edelman
Production designer: Patrizia Von Brandenstein
Costumes: Marit Allen
Music: James Horner
Editor: Wayne Wahrman
Cast:
Willie Stark: Sean Penn
Jack Burden: Jude Law
Judge Irwin: Anthony Hopkins
Anne Stanton; Kate Winslet
Adam Stanton: Mark Ruffalo
Sadie Burke: Patricia Clarkson
Tiny Duffy: James Gandolfini
Sugar Boy: Jackie Earle Haley
Mrs. Burden: Kathy Baker
Running time -- 128 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 9/21/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sony Pictures has scheduled the release of its delayed drama All the King's Men for Sept. 22, the studio said Wednesday. The Steven Zaillian-helmed film -- which features an Oscar-caliber cast of Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson and Anthony Hopkins -- originally was slated for a Dec. 16 bow last year amid high hopes for awards-season success. But King's Men -- a remake of the 1949 film of the same name, based on Robert Penn Warren's 1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel -- was bumped less than two months before its release because the film's editing and music were not finished (HR 10/21).
- 4/13/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Oscar winner Sean Penn's latest movie All The King's Men has left him with such severe exhaustion, he's retiring from the movie industry for several years to recover. Penn enjoyed playing governor Willie Stark opposite actors including Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Sir Anthony Hopkins in the political thriller based on Robert Penn Warren's best-selling novel of the same name. He explains, "The first week back, you want to make up for all the time you spent away from the kids - mistake. You have to pretend you're still away except you're not, so you just sleep and they come to see you, otherwise you're ill. This one (All The King's Men) has been extremely rough. I'm pretty burnt out and I'm going to have a couple of years off at least now."...
- 4/6/2005
- WENN
Columbia Pictures' remake of the gritty social drama All the King's Men is turning into a glamorous, star-studded movie. Meryl Streep is in negotiations to join the cast, headed by Sean Penn and Jude Law, while Kate Winslet and Mark Ruffalo are in talks about the project. An offer has already gone out to Winslet, while one is pending in Ruffalo's case. Streep, who most recently played an ambitious senator in The Manchurian Candidate, would play Sadie, an aide to Southern politician Willie Stark (Penn). Law is set to appear as protagonist Jack Burden, a journalist who falls under Stark's spell. Steven Zaillian is set to direct from his own adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's novel, which is based on the life of late Louisiana Gov. Huey Long. Phoenix Pictures chairman Mike Medavoy and president Arnold Messer are producing with Zaillian. Former Columbia executive Ken Lemberger, political consultant James Carville and Todd Phillips are executive producing. Phoenix Pictures director of development David Thwaites is overseeing on behalf of the company, with Amy Baer overseeing on behalf of the studio. Streep is repped by CAA. Winslet and Ruffalo are repped by WMA.
- 9/29/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jude Law has signed on to play protagonist Jack Burden in Columbia Pictures' remake of the triple Oscar winner All the King's Men. Played by John Ireland in the 1949 version, Burden is a journalist who falls under the spell of Southern populist politician Willie Stark, whose tale is at the center of the story. Ireland received an Oscar nomination for his performance. Sean Penn is in negotiations to play Stark. Steven Zaillian is on board to direct from his own adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's novel. Phoenix Pictures chairman Mike Medavoy and president Arnold Messer are producing together with Zaillian and former Columbia executive Ken Lemberger. James Carville, President Clinton's one-time political consultant, and Todd Phillips are executive producing. Phoenix director of development David Thwaites is overseeing for the studio, with Amy Baer handling the project for Columbia. The project is aiming for a fall start date. Law, who next can be seen in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Alfie, is repped by CAA and attorney Karl Austen of Hirsch, Jackoway, Tyerman, Mandelbaum & Morris.
- 7/23/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Even though it eventually won three Academy Awards, the original 1949 version of All the King's Men, starring Broderick Crawford and John Ireland, was a definite underdog in its day. But the new adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's novel, which Phoenix Pictures and writer-director Steven Zaillian are readying, promises to be a much starrier affair. Sean Penn is being sought for the role of Willie Stark, the populist politician whose rise and fall is at the center of the tale. And though negotiations have not yet begun, the latest names to enter the mix are those of Brad Pitt and Jude Law. Although the Stark role is a juicy one -- it earned Crawford an Oscar -- the protagonist of Warren's novel is actually Jack Burden (played by Ireland in the '49 version), a journalist who falls under Stark's spell and loses his idealism in the process. The project, with Zaillian at the helm, is aiming for a September start date, with Phoenix producing for Columbia Pictures. Phoenix chairman Mike Medavoy and president Arnie Messer are producing together with Zaillian and former Columbia executive Ken Lemberger. James Carville, former President Clinton's one-time political consultant, and Todd Phillips are executive producing. Director of development David Thwaites is overseeing for Phoenix, with Amy Baer handling the project for Columbia.
- 4/29/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Academy Award-winning screenwriter Steven Zaillian will direct All the King's Men, an adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a populist Southern politician. Sean Penn, who scored the best actor Oscar this year for Mystic River, is being sought to play the role of Willie Stark, which earned Broderick Crawford an Oscar in the 1949 film version of the book. Phoenix Pictures is producing the project for Columbia Pictures. The production is aiming for a September shoot in New Orleans.
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