"Doing a Winslet"

This morning, on Radio Four's Today Programme, Evan, I think it was, used the above term. Surely the first of many references to this particular speech...

Monday musing

I've been trying to drum up the energy to write something about last night's Golden Globes, but they were what they were.

Of course it was a good night for the UK, and Slumdog in particular, but if I have to hear that Kate Winslet blubber speech one more time I think I'll scream.

I was thrilled for Danny Boyle, who I've known for a long time, even if it's not his best movie. I was thrilled that Mickey Rourke beat Sean Penn for Best Actor, and that Colin Farrell's In Bruges performance got recognised. I was delighted too that the Boss picked up Best Song and thought Chris Nolan's acceptance speech on behalf of Heath Ledger's award was heartfelt and fitting.

It wasn't a good night for Benjamin Button, which deserved far more than nothing. I think it will do better come Oscar time, although methinks the BAFTAs won't be that different to the Globes in being a Slumdog landslide.

From Batman to Broadbent

The Top 250 movies at the US/Canadian box office in 2008 according to Variety.

Reading it, two quick thoughts occurred to me.

One, that somebody should do a list of how much they each cost to run along side it.

And two, how the hell did The Happening make so much money?

The end is nigh?

"Lawyers for 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. told a judge Friday that they were trying to settle the copyright lawsuit over Watchmen, a signal that the nearly year-old court fight over the superhero movie may be nearing a conclusion," writes the LA Times' John Horn in today's paper.

"The attorneys were to appear before US District Judge Gary A. Feess to schedule a trial later this month over the film’s distribution rights when they told the judge that settlement talks were underway."

All of which can only be a good thing. March 6 isn't that far away, after all.

Read the rest here.

Directed by...

Guess who?

The Spirit: Worst Film Of The Year?

I've not yet seen The Spirit but judging by the reviews I'm not in any rush, particularly if I have to pay for it. Regular readers will know that I had been looking forward to it, although from the teaser onwards I began to have my doubts, a feeling not helped by all subsequent trailers. Then the reviews started to come in and, well, the general consensus is that it sucks, big time. Total Film (a magazine of which I'm a contributing editor) put it on the cover (presumably sight unseen) and devoted eight interior pages (plus many more before) of the Christmas 2008 issue to it. They were not the only ones burned. But the Total Film website has struck back, with this spot-on spoof For Your Consideration ad...

Book Soup

I was sad to read of the death of Glenn Goldman, owner of the fabulous Book Soup on Sunset Boulevard. Situated just opposite the now defunct Sunset Strip branch of Tower Records, Book Soup was always a must-visit for me whenever I was in LA, particularly when I used to stay nearby at the Sunset Marquis and would often walk there. More than just a book shop, Book Soup had a wonderful atmosphere, was a lovely place to hang out in, browsing its well-stocked shelves. It was a little oasis of calm in a city that's constantly on the go. The question now, though, is for how much longer. Goldman put the shop on the market the day before he died, and in the age of Amazon and Borders, independent bookstores are a dying breed.

Quote whores

I've had my name on a few movie posters in my time — Seven, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford to name just three. By that I mean a quote from one of my reviews has adorned a poster to trumpet a film's genius, performances, direction, or sometimes its sheer "masterpieceness" (I made that last one up, by the way).

I've made it on to posters on the London Underground and onto DVD and video sleeves. I was one of a handful of reviewers whose Polaroid photo adorned the adverts for Memento along with a glowing quote. I've even made it onto cinema marquees. I once had a quote for Edward Scissorhands above the entrance of the Odeon Leicester Square and sent the family along to check it out.

Every film I've "appeared" on, I've been happy to be associated with. There are, I believe, no real dogs that bear my endorsement. (I say believe because I can't remember for sure.) But because I don't have a steady reviewing gig, "being quoted" happens less and less to me these days, although a quote from my Arena review of Body Of Lies made the bus stop ads and I loved being seeing my name on the huge posters for Jesse James that were all over the underground. That I think I did call a masterpiece, and I stand by it.

But there are reviewers who are quoted endlessly. They're often the ones who work for the tabloid newspapers and/or radio stations who often give breathlessly enthusiastic and highly praising reviews to just about everything (or so it seems). There are some, it seems, who clearly love having their name on a poster or an ad because they're happy to praise just about any piece of shit.

It happens both in the UK and US, but it's much, much worse in America where there are some folk who have elevated this "quote whoring" to something approaching an "art" and every year eFilmCritic.com devote a list to the worst offenders — 2008's can be found here. It's hilarious.

Doctor Who?

Matt Smith, that's who. The 26-year-old actor is the youngest to pilot the Tardis and takes over from David Tennant next year.

Feliz ano nuevo!

Let's hope it's a good one.

Happy New Year!

My thanks to everyone who's stopped by this last year and especially to those who've taken the time to comment. There's a lot of stuff on the net and I appreciate you choosing to spend time here.

Best wishes to you all. Here's to a healthy, happy and wonderfully cinematic 2009!

My favourite films of 2008

Favourite rather than best, and with the proviso that this isn't the final, official list because due to a combination of work, family matters, and a nagging cold, I've not be able to see everything I have wanted to before completing it. But seeing as it's the last day of 2008, I figured I should put something up here.

There have been some glaring omissions in my viewing this year and that's reflected by the absence of several titles that you might have assumed I would have picked (Let The Right One In for starters.) I've also discounted anything I saw last year (Sweeney Todd, No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood) that was released in the UK in 2008 because I included them last time. There are, I admit, some surprises.

And so, in reverse, order.

21) Wall-E

20) Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired

19) Che

18) Hellboy II: The Golden Army

17) Frost/Nixon

16) Valentino

15) Rachel Getting Married

14) Slumdog Millionaire

13) Revolutionary Road

12) Speed Racer

11) Gone Baby Gone

10) Doubt

9) Son Of Rambow

8) Hunger

7) Dean Spanley

6) [REC]

5) Iron Man

4) The Wrestler

3) In Bruges

2) The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

1) Man On Wire

Brilliant Billy

If I had to choose my favourite Billy Wilder movie, it would probably be The Apartment which I watch at least once a year and which seems to get better and more caustic each time. Here, the New York Times' A.O. Scott salutes Wilder's alternate festive flick.

Watchmen war

How depressing is this?

Surely Fox won't scupper Wolverine's chances with the geek crowd by delaying Snyder's movie.

They wouldn't... would they?

Tis the season to be jolly

Here's wishing a very Merry Christmas to one and all. Eat well, be well, and treat your friends and family with love and respect. And may Santa bring you exactly what you wish for.

Between now and the New Year, reel world matters will be taking things easy, but I promise to have my films of the year up before the end of old. Until then...

Happy Holidays.

End of an era

The once loved but now maligned VHS tape is no more. For today's youngsters for whom watching a movie means either downloading it from Hula or one of those file sharing sites, or else sticking a shiny platter into a DVD player or PS3, this won't mean a thing. But for those of us who grew up in the 80s, for who so many of our formative cinematic experiences arrived on VHS, this is a very sad day indeed. When I moved earlier this year, I gave away hundreds of old movies on VHS to a charity shop although I did keep a rather large box of films you either can't get on DVD (Static, for starters) or stuff I'd recorded off the telly years before. Compared to Blu-ray, compared to DVD, VHS sucked — poor quality image, lousy sound — but I still remember seeing Texas Chainsaw three times in 24 hours after renting it from my local video shop, or watching Reservoir Dogs every single a day for about three months in the Empire office when that film was banned on video. Sure they were bulky and cumbersome and you had to rewind the damn things, but I loved them nonetheless. VHS, RIP.

Comic book movie of the year

Iron Man, without question. Slick, stylish, witty, with a shit-eating grin of a lead performance from Robert Downey Jr, I actually wanted to see it again as soon as it ended, although it only just pipped Guillermo Del Toro's superior sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army to top spot.

As for The Dark Knight... I know there's plenty of love out there for that film, and while I thought the opening heist was brilliantly executed (I've watched it several times since being sent the film on Blu-ray) and Heath Ledger's performance made it into my best of the year, I still prefer Batman Begins. For me, when Ledger's offscreen, the film deflates. I'd also argue that it's too long, has one too many villains and a third act that's too messy and convoluted for it's own good but if you like the film you're not likely to listen. If the movie had ended with the lorry flip and didn't try to shoehorn Two-Face into the story, only to kill him, I probably would have liked it more. As it is, I know I'm in the minority, but that's okay.

Performances of the year

I'm sure I've missed some — and I've yet to see The Visitor or Changeling — but these are my favourite performances of 2008. If any of them pick up an award or two, cinematic justice will have been served.

Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler


Anne Hathaway and Rosemarie DeWitt in Rachel Getting Married


Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road


Michael Fassbender in Hunger


Kristin Scott Thomas in I've Loved You So Long


Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight


Benicio Del Toro in Che


Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading

Getting there

Still ploughing through my stack of DVDs in an attempt to fill as many wholes before settling on my films of the year. Going to give myself till Monday as a deadline to see what I can before finalising my list. It may still be incomplete but it will be a list. (BAFTA wise I still have a few more weeks until the end of the first round of voting.)

Dave Gibbons talks Watchmen

Tomorrow night at the Apple Store in London's Regent Street, Watchmen co-creator and Hugo Award-winning illustrator Dave Gibbons will be in conversation with yours truly.

Among the topics under discussion will be the Watchmen Motion Comic, Dave's Watching The Watchmen tome and the movie itself. Hope you can join us.

The event is free and begins at 7pm. Directions and details can be found here.

Times bestseller author

According to The Times, my Sweeney Todd book was the fourth bestselling film and theatre book of 2008 which is, like, brilliant. My thanks to all who bought it and to Adam at Titan for pointing out this delightful piece of news which has really made my day. I am, as they say, suitably chuffed.

Microbudget movies

Here's the link to a piece I wrote for today's Guardian newspaper on how microbudget movies might be one possible future for the British film industry.

Those Golden Globes nominations

I don't want to be unkind about the Golden Globes because, for those nominated, it's a big deal, as a friend of mine was a couple of years ago. And yet it's a show driven by stars and ratings and the nominations tend to reflect that, with the gongs themselves dolled out by a group of foreign journalists nobody has heard of whose opinions and votes have, in the past — how shall I put this delicately? — been easily susceptible to outside influence. Having said that, it's great to see In Bruges being nominated in several categories, although the absence of both Richard Jenkins for The Visitor and Benicio Del Toro for Che from the Best Actor list shows what a strong year it is.

Still the man

I've never interviewed Clint Eastwood, much to my chagrin, although our paths crossed briefly the year he was president of the Cannes jury. Clint was coming out of the Majestic Hotel, I was strolling in. It was a beautiful moment. For me, at least. Clint didn't even notice. Then again, he was talking to Catherine Deneuve at the time. So who can blame him. Clint is a star unlike any other. Seems I'm not the only one who feels that way.

Got Milk

Fresh from its victory at the NY Critics Awards, I decided to watch Gus Van Sant's Milk last night and was glad I did. After a glorious experimental phase that produced Gerry, Elephant, Last Days and Echo Park, Van Sant returns with a more conventionally told tale of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), the self-styled Mayor of Castro Street in San Francisco who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the US and who was later gunned down by a disgruntled former colleague, Dan White (Josh Brolin). Penn, who all but disappears into the role, excels as the eponymous activist, Brolin, who picked up the Best Supporting Actor award from the NY Critics to go with Penn's Best Actor award, makes the most of the uptight White (arguably the most thankless role in the story), and the film brilliantly uses archive footage both to tell the story and to save on expensive recreations. A worthy tale well told.

Random matters...

The new Terminator: Salvation trailer is here. Consider me officially excited.

The New York Times interviews Doubt writer-director John Patrick Shanley. I really wish Warners would release a special edition DVD of Joe Versus The Volcano — I adore that film.

Bill Willingham's terrific comic Fables looks like it might finally be coming to TV. If you haven't read his modern day spin on fairy tales and folklore, it's well worth checking out.

And the LA Critics choose Wall-E as their film of the year, stemming the Slumdog tide. But for how long...

Oliver Postgate RIP

For generations of children Oliver Postgate was the man. Creator of Bagpuss, Ivor The Engine and The Clangers among other shows, Postgate, who has died aged 83, delighted many millions of British kiddies, myself included, with his wonderfully idiosyncratic brand of entertainment and animation. He may be gone but his creations live on. The Clangers were always my favourite.

Wallander on DVD

Out on December 26 via amazon.co.uk and available here. If you're in the US, you'll need a region-free DVD player. But it's worth it.

Wallander

Anybody out there watching Wallander with Kenneth Branagh as the Swedish cop and loving it as much as me? Wonderfully matter-of-fact in its storytelling and not at all sensationalist despite its often gruesome subject matter, Branagh is superb as the thoughtful detective, weighed down with the worries of the world, and the show looks terrific too; the first part having been shot by Anthony Dod Mantle with the second sticking to Dod Mantle's visual template.

DC Critics pick

Following last week's win from the National Board Of Review, the Washington DC Film Critics have also got behind Danny Boyle's Oscar frontrunner, Slumdog Millionaire which I watched for a second time the other night and. have to say, enjoyed as much as I did the first time. Good to see Mickey Rourke getting some love too.

Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Best Actress: Meryl Streep (Doubt)
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Original Screenplay: Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Animated: Wall-E
Best Documentary: Man on Wire
Best Foreign Film: Let the Right One In
Best Ensemble: Doubt
Best Breakthrough: Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button