TFC Journal at TheFilmChair.com

Variety’s Anne Thompson is reporting that Sony Picture Classics has fired the first shot this Oscar season. The distributor announced that it has just sent out Oscar screeners for the indie drama Frozen River. Melissa Leo’s performance as a struggling single mother in the film has generated Oscar buzz since Sundance. Of course, being the only truly buzzworthy part of this year’s lackluster festival certainly helped.

We non-Academy folks are still waiting for a DVD release date.

Kirsten Dunst is out doing press for her comedy How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, co-starring Simon Pegg.  In an interview with MTV, Dunst said she’s down for reprising her role as Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man 4.

“I’m in,” said the actress matter of factly. However, when pressed to make the announcement official, Dunst quickly changed her tone, and rather cryptically added, “I’m not saying anything, I know there’s rumors…”

From MTV.com’s Splash Page.

Work has me playing catch up on a lot of movies lately. I finally sat down to watch the charming period comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. The film stars Amy Adams as an actress who hires the out of work governance Miss Pettigrew (France McDormand) to help her juggle three male…ahem…suitors. Most of the time, I sat there waiting for the characters to break into song. It feels like it should be a musical–Mary Poppins with a wink and a nod. Then one scene confirmed it.

Attention Broadway producers: There’s smash musical just sitting there waiting for you.

David Cronenberg, 1978.

‘To me, the body is the centre of horror. The awareness of the body, the awareness of death is the wellspring of horror. Furthermore, I am very aware of the relationship between sexuality and death. For a lot of people, their own private horror very definitely involves sexuality.’

From Time Out London

Slacker Uprising (2008)–No Stars

There’s a reason why Michael Moore’s Slacker Uprising was distributed for free via the Internet: No one would pay good money to see this movie. The dull, dour narrative, which follows Moore’s college tour ahead of the 2004 presidential election, promotes the right wing characterization of Moore as a shameless self-promoter. It rarely works as an informational tool. It doesn’t even reach the level of a mediocre concert film. It’s a bad movie.

I was tempted to finish that last paragraph by writing “all politics aside.” But unlike Moore’s masterful weaving of tales of corporate greed hitting the little guy, Slacker Uprising is all politics. It’s painful preaching to the choir that feeds off the steaming hatred many people have for our current president. It lacks a genuine attempt to move forward. No documentary about the next generation of voters should spend so much time looking in the rear view mirror.

Slacker Uprising is, at its best, a film that illustrates just how badly the Democrats failed in 2004 (and possibly how they will fail again in 2008). People’s disgust for George W. Bush was the only thing motivating voters in the presidential election four years ago. In this film, we see it when mothers and brothers rail against Bush for their family member’s death in the Iraq War. We see it when Moore and others lament the “rich man’s war.” We see it when ardent Bush supporters come out in force to heckle or pray at Moore’s stops. We see it when those Bush supporters are, rightly or wrongly, made to look a fool through malicious local news interview montages.

Every time Bush’s name is uttered or hollered, you get the sense that there’s little else holding anything, particularly this film, together. The same notion is bubbling to the surface this year, in part because someone nodding along with Slacker Uprising is more concerned with what has happened and not what should happen.

Moore is a better filmmaker than this. His other films (Roger & Me, The Big One, and Fahrenheit 9/11) are successful pieces of cinema because their intensity is palpable when I watch them today. Slacker Uprising will only become less important as time passes. And while it still wouldn’t have been a great film if he released it ahead of the 2006 midterm elections, at least I would have felt something. Today, the film is barely alive.

Slacker Uprising, directed by Michael Moore, is now available for download at SlackerUprising.com or Amazon.com.

I’m the best you ever seen, Fats. I’m the best there is. And even if you beat me, I’m still the best. – Fast Eddie, The Hustler.

Hollywood legend Paul Newman died Friday after battling cancer.  He was 83.  The Oscar winner, who most recently lent his voice to the animated movie Cars, is known for his work in Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  He was married to his Long Hot Summer co-star Joanne Woodward until his death. The were together for more than 50 years.

Weeds just wrapped up its fourth, and possibly its best, season on Showtime. If you haven’t watched the show yet, you should. Nancy Botwin is still the perfect post-9/11 tragic heroine.

Amazon.com has a deal for you if you want to catch up on the show. And it’s the best deal I’ve seen for the series. How about $49.99 for the first three seasons. That’s 50 percent off! Sweet deal, but it only lasts until the end of the day.

Buy it NOW

Steven Spielberg is the second high-profile celeb to donate money to fight California’s proposed state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Brad Pitt, who is turning into Bono-esque crusader, already donated $100,000 (the maximum donation?) to fight Proposition 8.

Upon announcing their $100K donation, Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw issued this statement:

By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation. Such discrimination has NO place in California’s constitution, or any other.

Hear, Hear! If the Republicans are looking to make gay marriage a wedge issue in the presidential election, they are in for a big surprise.

In California? Visit www.NoOnProp8.com for more information on the fight against Proposition 8.

Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road is the Oscar contender we all saw coming from a mile away.  Unfortunately for a contender like that, the Oscar season hasn’t been too friendly in the past few years.  Is Revolutionary Road a Dreamgirls? Or is it A Beautiful Mind?

From the trailer, I’d say it looks like Mad Men if the Emmy winning series were executive produced by Elia Kazan.  

Revolutionary Road opens hit theaters on Dec. 26. 

AMC’s Mad Men, one of my favorite shows, became the first basic cable series to win the Emmy for Best Drama tonight.  If you don’t know why, then just watch this clip. 

 TV doesn’t get any better than that.

Own It!