Cinema

Cinematical

Cinematical
Cinematical
  • PGA Nominations Hint at Good Things for Batman

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    Fans of a certain cave-dwelling rubber-fetishist have cause to celebrate: The Dark Knight has been nominated for best picture by the Producers Guild of America, whose nominations tend to reflect the Oscars very, very closely. The other four nominees are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, and Slumdog Millionaire.

    The Producers Guild of America has officially existed since 1962, when separate groups for TV and film merged, but the PGA didn't start giving out awards until 1990. Since then, the PGA best picture winner has matched the Oscar winner 12 out of 19 times. They...


  • 'Terminator' Gets Archived

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    "I'll be back" now has a whole new meaning.

    The Hollywood Reporter posts that good ol' Arnold Schwarzenegger will soon be immortalized in DC not for his politics, but for his killing machine. The Library of Congress/National Film Registry has selected 25 films to be preserved in the registry. The choices must be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically" significant, and James Cameron's 1984 film The Terminatorleads the pack with its "ingenious, thoughtful script ... and relentless, nonstop action."

    And it's a pretty interesting mix of films that will go along with Arnie. We're talking The Invisible Man, Deliverance, In Cold Blood, The Pawnbroker, The Killers, Johnny...


  • Review: Defiance

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    A lot of the time, watching a movie, we recoil or start at something in it: That's fake, we say, and dismiss the whole film. On many occasions, that impulse is correct because the film is fake, but on rare occasions, we feel that sensation of dislocated wrongness not because the film is fake but because our world is; we can't wrap our heads around the facts and ugly truths of what we see, can't comprehend how such things are possible, and recoil from them out of refusal to...


  • Cinematical Rocks the /Filmcast

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    Last Monday, yours truly was invited to help a friend of a friend out by offering to review Frost/Nixon on their podcast. As it turns out, it was the /Filmcast we were talking about, and it happened to be the same night that head honcho here Erik Davis was due to join in. Small world, eh?

    So we tag-teamed our film chatter with the cool guys over at /Film --...


  • The Rocchi Review with Kris Tapley of In Contention

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    Which year-end lists are really worth caring about? What films got a boost from the Broadcast Film Critics and Golden Globe nominations, like Happy-Go-Lucky, and which ones got lost in the shuffle? What's Iron Man doing on the AFI Top Ten Films List, anyhow? And what long, epic films are perfect for enjoying with a turkey sandwich on Boxing Day? Joining James this week to talk about all these topics and more is Kris Tapley of the weblog In Contention. You can listen to the...


  • Review: The Wrestler

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    (We're reposting our review of The Wrestler form the Toronto International Film Festival to coincide with the film's theatrical release.)

    By James Rocchi

    After winning top honors at the Venice Film Festival, Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler rapidly became the must-see of the Toronto International Film Festival, with huge lines at the press and industry screening this afternoon seemingly unaffected by the news that Fox Searchlight had purchased...


  • Directors Guild to Make Ebert an 'Honorary Life Member'

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    Apart from the filmmakers themselves, I can't think of many people who have championed directors more than Roger Ebert, who for 40 years has been an outspoken supporter of filmmaking not just as entertainment but as an art form. And the Directors Guild of America agrees: The group announced today that on Jan. 31, Ebert will receive its Honorary Life Member Award.

    He will be the 43rd person (and the first film critic) in the DGA's 61-year history to be given the award, which is "for recognition of outstanding creative achievement, or contribution to the Guild, or the profession of directing." Michael Apted, current president...


  • Discuss: Favorite Movie Songs from 2008?

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    Like every red-blooded American, I dread the interminable Best Original Song presentations during the Oscars. More often than not, the songs suck, the presentation is elaborate and boring, and the insistence on playing the songs in full drags out an already too-long evening. But this year there's one song I'll actually be excited to see -- assuming it actually gets nominated. Thankfully, none of the Academy's arcane rules disqualified it.

    Variety has the just-announced list of 49 eligible Original Songs from 2008. It features the entire soundtrack to High School Musical 3, the memorable "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire, the worst Bond song of...


  • Austin Critics Name 'Dark Knight' Best of 2008

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    Looks like the Austin Film Critics Association have become the first critics group to name The Dark Knight as their favorite of the year (the flick tied Slumdog Millionaire in votes in Chicago). Variety tells us those crazy cats from Texas (drunk off the intoxicating vibes at the Alamo Drafthouse, perhaps) handed out a total of five awards to the Batman sequel, including Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger), Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Score. Other notable Austin Critics awards went to Let the Right One In...


  • Discuss: For Your Razzie Consideration

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    As the season marches on, 'for your consideration' ads litter the trades and various awards analysis websites. However, there aren't nearly enough campaigns for the year's worst performances.

    You have your obnoxious kids (Jaden Smith in The Day The Earth Stood Still, Logan Lerman in Meet Bill). You have your touched individuals who straddle the line between functional and, ahem, 'full retard'...


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