State of Film

Tom Ford can make a good movie in SINGLE MAN, but will not show his TEETH or a SINGLE SMILE

2010-04-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

A SINGLE MAN, Tom Ford's first film is well directed, well written and boasts strong performances by Colin Firth and Juliane Moore. A SINGLE MAN is an American Drama that explores a critical day in the life of George Falconer (Firth) as he becomes depressed and existential on hearing the deadly news of his lovers tragic car accident.

What stands out most in the film is the amazing framing, photography and production design. There is also a dynamic use of color grading which stands out in an amateurish way, but, as mentioned, overall, this is strong film.

Now, what stands out to us at this Film Status Blog after the Oscars on ABC is the inability of Tom Ford to show his teeth. Throughout the ceremony, and now we have discovered, in every picture on IMDB Tom Ford never shows his teeth when he smiles. He looks like he is constantly posing resulting in a fake, tense, robotic stance at all times. Whoever makes his wax statue will have an easy job!

ALICE IN WONDERLAND fakes 3-D

2010-03-03T15:08:00.000-08:00

ALICE IN WONDERLAND was shot in 2-D and converted (faked) into 3-D in post for business, not artistic reasons. The Studios are capitalizing on AVATAR'S 3-D success and faking films like ALICE, IRON MAN 2 (now reverting back to good old 2-D), and CLASH OF THE TITANS into 3-D in the post production process because they expect the average consumer to pay the extra 3-D ticket price just because 3-D is AVATAR hot right now. Given the box office success of ALICE to date it seems to be working which shows the smarts of the Studios and idiocy of the average ALICE IN WONDERLAND movie goer.

AVATAR 3-D was shot stereoscopically for 3-D in production and this is why the 3-D in this film looks so beautiful and appropriately 3-dimensional. This is the only way 3-D should be made. ALICE IN WONDERLAND looks gaudy, inconsistent, and has odd fake shadows in many scenes and should have remained a 2-D movie.

2010 OSCAR Nomination Weakest in years...

2010-02-01T15:30:00.000-08:00

Ironically, the year (2010) that the Academy decides to go 10 Nominations for Best Picture, they have a relatively weak showing from the 2009 qualifying year. HURT LOCKER is the strongest film on all levels directorial, screenplay, acting, cinematography, etc., but this film would have been trumped if it tried to compete last year with the likes SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, MILK, and CURIOS CASE or the year before with great films like NO COUNTRY and THERE WILL BE BLOOD. AVATAR is a technical masterpiece but lacks in its story which is simple and recycled; and it could be argued that AVATAR should only be nominated for technical awards for 3-D, Cinematography and Sound Design not Best Picture.

DISTRICT NINE, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, BLINDSIDE, AN EDUCATION are all very well made, well directed and extremely well acted but again, in a strong year these films would be limited to screenplay and acting awards, not Best Picture.

Why PRECIOUS, UP, A SERIOUS MAN, and UP IN THE AIR are even nominated for Best Picture is beyond me and several seasoned movie goers. PRECIOUS touches on a very important story but that is the most I can say about the film -- the rest of it appears to be made by a film student good at consolidating locations for cheap shooting. Mariah Carey's and Lenny Kravitz's cameo's are forgettable and so "I am trying just to be a humble actor, not a dancing pop star" and the rest of the performances, while not at all poor, are "Oh so important, so PRECIOUS".

UP should be in animation category not Best Picture. A SERIOUS MAN has strong acting, moments of humor, but is terribly dissatisfying and trivial in its futile existential message about the lack of meaning in life. UP IN THE AIR is just globally mediocre -- everything about it is at best passable and Reitman's writing and direction, just like JUNO, shows the hand of the filmmaker and makes you so aware that you are watching a movie. The writing in UP IN THE AIR is masturbatory, the acting sloppy, the direction almost non-existent (like a director afraid to try anything beyond the most basic coverage and slow camera pushes); something other than the quality of this film must give it a life -- perhaps the fact that Jason Reitman is Ivan Reitman's son!

INVICTUS is a strong film that got left out of the Best Picture Category this year and could have easily replaced UP IN THE AIR or SERIOUS MAN and given HURT LOCKER a fight. INVICTUS is extemely well directed, acted and is about the important rise of Mandela.