Showing posts with label Jordan Ruimy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jordan Ruimy. Show all posts

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Looking Toward the Fall / More of the Critics' View from France / The Goldfinch Trailer, Stills, Poster

Good Thursday to you faithful readers...and everyone else as well.


LOOKING TOWARD THE FALL



Jordan Ruimy wrote a piece on his website World of Reel this week focusing on films that he thinks are in the mix to play one or more of the triumvirate of film festivals of late August-early September-i.e. Telluride, Venice and Toronto.

The list has expanded over the past couple of days as Jordan solicited input from readers and as I punch the publish to publish this morning the list has over four dozen possibilities.

I took a look at them and, based on history and/or distribution, these are the films that seem most likely from Jordan's list to make the TFF #46 SHOW.  I have listed them here in the order that Jordan has them on his original listing and with the numbering he has used:

8) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood/Heller/TriStar-Sony
10) Lucy in the Sky/Hawley/Fox Searchlight
11) Nomadland/Zhao/Fox Searchlight
14) Dry Run/Haynes/Focus Features
18) Little Women/Gerwig/Columbia-Sony
24) Antlers/Cooper/Fox Searchlight
31) Against All Enemies/Andrews/Amazon Studios
32) Motherless Brooklyn/Norton/Warner Bros.
39) The Truth/Kore-eda/No current U.S. distribution
40) Ema/Larrain/No current U.S. distribution
41) Bergman Island/Hansen-Love/No current U.S. distribution
50) Radioactive/Satrapi/Amazon Studios

Of course there are numerous others in the list that could play or that I'd like to see on the list when it's released: Scorsese's The Irishman, Waititi's Jojo Rabbit, Gray's Ad Astra, Crowley's The Goldfinch to name a few.

The other note here is that Ruimy's list are all films that have yet to premiere.  He does not include films from Berlin or Cannes that could be a pert of the TFF program.

Ruimy's complete list of films is linked here.


MORE OF THE CRITICS' VIEWS FROM CANNES



Having linked Reini Urban's critical compilation for the films from Cannes quite a bit the last couple of weeks, I took a suggestion from a reader via the comments section and decided to relay critical reactions that had been put together by other sources.

The specifically mentioned critical review of the Palme competition films was from David Hudson writing for The Criterion Collection.  You can find that here.


Additionally, Eric Kohn at Indiewire put together the critical reception from 50 or so critics.  The Indiewire group chose Bong Joon-ho's Parasite as the best film as, of course, did the jury.

The article with the top five vote-getters in four categories: Best Film (Parasite), Direction (Sciamma/Portrait of a Lady on Fire), Screenplay (Parasite) and First Film (Atlantics).

The Indiewire critics article is linked here.

Among the critics included were a few who have participated in my annual collection of responses from industry types following TFF: including Kohn/Indiewire, Anne Thompson/Indiewire, Peter DeBruge/Variety, Gregory Ellwood/The Playlist and David Ehrlich/Indiewire.


THE GOLDFINCH TRAILER, STILLS, POSTER

The folks at Warner Bros. and Amazon have started rolling out the publicity for John Crowley's The Goldfinch based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Donna Tartt.  Appearing this week were stills, a poster and a teaser trailer which is here from YouTube:



Additionally stills were released for the film which first appeared at USA Today:




And finally we saw a teaser poster for the film as well.  Here that is from Awards Watch:



The Goldfinch is set for U.S. release on Sept. 13th.


That's today's version of MTFB.  I'll be back with more on Monday.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

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Thursday, May 2, 2019

The Best of the Decade and Telluride / Could 44 Someday Be at TFF? / No New Apocalypse Now for TFF #46

Good Thursday everyone...Happy May!


THE BEST OF THE DECADE AND TELLURIDE



After having teased it for a couple of weeks, Jordan Ruimy of World of Reel published his compilation of over 250 film critics, bloggers, programmers, distributors, academics and the like after asking them "What are the best films of the 2010's?".  Participants were told to name five in no order of preference.

The best film of the decade?  Drum roll please...George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road.

Jordan was kind enough to have invited me to participate.  Three of the films that made my final list of five made it into the final top 25.  My final five were (in alpha order): 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, Inside Llewyn Davis, A Separation and Shame.

On the final top 20 in Jordan's poll A Separation finished #9, Inside Llewyn Davis was $10 and 12 Years a Slave was #21.

As you might expect, Telluride Film Fest film's were all over the list.  Jordan ran a more comprehensive list of the top 75 and TFF films that made the cut included:

#3 Moonlight
#7 Roma
#9 A Separation
#10 Inside Llewyn Davis
#12 Under the Skin
#13 Carol
#14 Toni Erdmann
#20 The Act of Killing
#21 12 Years a Slave
#23 La La Land
#26 Amour
#26 (tie) Ida
#35 Blue Is the Warmest Color
Six films tied at #41: Son of Saul, The Turin Horse, The Rider, Manchester by the Sea, Leviathan, First Reformed
#53 Faces Places
Four films tied at #58: Gravity, Stories We Tell, The Other Side of the Wind, Foxtrot
Two films tied at #70: The Look of Silence and Frances Ha.


That's an astounding 26 films of the top 75.  That also means that roughly 10% of the TFF schedule over the last nine years is on the list.

Here's my original list of 20 films to start with that I published back on April 11th:

2010- True Grit
2011- The Tree of Life, Shame, A Separation
2012- Lincoln, The Life of Pi
2013- 12 Years a Slave, Nebraska, Inside Llewyn Davis
2014- Birdman, Foxcatcher, The Grand Budapest Hotel
2015- Son of Saul, Spotlight, Mad Max: Fury Road
2016- Moonlight, La La Land
2017- Lady Bird, Dunkirk
2018- Roma


Making Ruimy's list of 75 from my top 20:

2011: The Tree of Life, A Separation
2013: 12 Years a Slave, Inside Llewyn Davis
2014: The Grand Budapest Hotel
2015: Son of Saul, Mad Max: Fury Road
2016: Moonlight, La La Land
2017: Dunkirk
2018: Roma


Finally, the massive list of respondents to Ruimy's poll included industry professionals who have been a part of my annual poll of professionals following the conclusion of TFF:

Nick Allen/RogerEbert.com
Alex Billington/FirstShowing.net
Peter DeBruge/Variety
Gregory Ellwood/The Playlist
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Mark Johnson/Awards Circuit
Eric Kohn/Indiewire



Others of note:

Erik Anderson/Awards Watch
David Ansen/Newsweek
Drake Doremus/Film Director
Pete Hammond/Deadline
Monte Hellman/Film Director
Peter Howell/The Toronto Star
Annette Insdorf/Columbia Film School
Dave Karger/TCM
Eric Lavallee/Ioncinema
Rod Lurie/Film Director
Joey Magidson/Awards Circuit
Matt Neglia/Next Best Picture
Tom O'Neil/Gold Derby
David Poland/Movie City News
Steve Pond/The Wrap
Cedric Succivelli/International Cinephile Society
Jeff Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere

Ruimy's entire post is linked here.


COULD 44 SOMEDAY BE AT TFF?



I have wondered since it was announced nearly a year ago what the Barrack and Michelle Obama might produce as a part of their development deal with Netflix and as of a couple of days ago; it appears we have our first set of answers.

Vice reported earlier this week that Obamas have seven projects in development.  They include television series, documentaries and a feature film centered on the life of Frederick Douglass.

Of particular note in terms of a possible Telluride play are the documentary Crip Camp which focuses on a camp for disabled kids that was founded in the late 1960's as well as Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom which is very early in its development.

The Vice story and a complete rundown of the seven projects is here.



NO NEW APOCALYPSE NOW FOR TFF #46

I speculated in Monday's MTFB post that the latest version of Apocalypse Now (dubbed "The Final Cut") which screened at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this week might make an appearance at TFF #46.  That speculation seems to have taken a hit since Monday as multiple outlets have reported that the film will be released in theaters on Aug. 15th.

There is a newly cut teaser for this final version.  Here that is via YouTube:




And the story from SlashFilm is linked here.



That's your MTFB for this Thursday.  I'll have more on Monday.


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

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Monday, April 22, 2019

Narrowing the Field / Nuggets About The Irishman / Fremaux and Cannes' Insights

Welcome back from the holiday weekend...

NARROWING THE FIELD

I teased on my April 11th post that I have been asked to be a part of a "Best of the Decade" project and posted the list of 20 films I came up with to work from.

The completed project is set to come out next month sometime and as the organizer has let the cat out of the bag, I am assuming that I can too.

If you're on Twitter you may have seen this tweet the last week from Jordan Ruimy who runs the World of Reel website:

So...connecting the dots...yes, I'm one of Ruimy's "200".

As you may remember from my earlier post, these were my top 20 2010 films:

2010- True Grit
2011- The Tree of Life, Shame, A Separation
2012- Lincoln, The Life of Pi
2013- 12 Years a Slave, Nebraska, Inside Llewyn Davis
2014- Birdman, Foxcatcher, The Grand Budapest Hotel
2015- Son of Saul, Spotlight, Mad Max: Fury Road
2016- Moonlight, La La Land
2017- Lady Bird, Dunkirk
2018- Roma


And further...time to winnow my list down from 20 to 10.  Chronologically, here are my 10 best of the 2010's:

2010- True Grit
2011- The Tree of Life, Shame, A Separation
2013- 12 Years a Slave, Inside Llewyn Davis
2014- Birdman
2015- Son of Saul
2017- Lady Bird, Dunkirk

I'll have my top five soon...


NUGGETS ABOUT THE IRISHMAN


Joe Pesci and Martin Scorsese on the set of The Irishman (via Phillip Vaughn/Shutterstock and Indiewire)


Perhaps the most anticipated film of 2019 is Martin Scorsese's The Irishman.  The film is being produced by Netflix which gives at least some hope that it could possibly make the Venice/Telluride couplet in a few months.

Recently Indiewire's Zack Sharf wrote about an interview with one of the film's producers: Jane Rosenthal.  Rosenthal revealed some small bits of information and insight about the upcoming mob flick from the director of Goodfellas and The Departed.

You can find that story linked here.


FREMAUX AND CANNES' INSIGHTS



Cannes Film Fest artistic director Thierry Fremaux had a conversation over the weekend with Indiewire's Eric Kohn about the 2019 lineup for the venerable festival. 

Among topics discussed: Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in ...Hollywood, The Truth and Rocketman.

And it should come as no surprise that there are further films that will be added to the various sections that make up the total program for Cannes #72.

The Kohn/Fremaux interview is linked here.

That's your MTFB for this Monday and I'll have more for you on Thursday...


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

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Thursday, April 4, 2019

More on Agnes Varda / Report from CinemaCon: The Goldfinch / New Title for Radegund / Thanks to World of Reel for the Invitation

Good Thursday to all...


MORE ON AGNES VARDA


Photo via Indiewire


The death of film making pioneer Agnes Varda has continued to send reverberations through the film community and the honorifics and reminiscences continue to appear online and in major publications.  As I did on Monday, I have linked a few more of those here:

From the Cannes Film Festival official site

Manohla Dargis for The New York Times

Jude Dry for Indiewire with comments from female film makers including: Greta Gerwig, Ava Duvernay, Lena Dunham and a dozen others.


REPORT FROM CINEMACON: THE GOLDFINCH


Part of the cast of The Goldfinch at CinemaCon (via Indiewire)


CinemaCon attendees got the first look at a trailer for John Crowley's adaptation of Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Goldfinch earlier this week.

The film is certainly on my watch list as a potential choice by TFF programmers for this year's fest.  The film is scheduled for U.S. release on Sept. 13th and is from the combination of Warner Bros. and Amazon Studios.  The combination of factors means that it could play any or all of the combination of Telluride, Venice and Toronto.

Kate Erbland writing for Indiewire filed this report from CinemaCon detailing the roll out of the first filmed images of the film.


NEW TITLE FOR RADEGUND



Amid fevered speculation that Terrence Malick's new film will be announced as a competition film for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival on April 18th came news this week that its title has officially been changed. 

The film has been discussed for months with the working title Radegund.  However, Indiewire's Zack Sharf reported on Tuesday that the film will now be titled A Hidden Life.

The film follows the true story of World War II Austrian Conscientious Objector Franz Jagerstatter who was executed by the Nazis in 1943.

Sharf's story from Indiewire is linked here.

A Hidden Life is on my TFF #45 watch list.


THANKS TO WORLD OF REEL FOR THE INVITATION



I got a nice invite from Jordan Ruimy of the World of Reel website to participate in a project he is currently working on.  I don't want to give away what it is until Jordan is ready to unveil it but I did want to publicly give him a thank you and a shout out and tell you that something is in the works.

You can take a look at World of Reel by clicking here.

And thanks again for including me Mr. Ruimy.



That's today's MTFB.  Thanks for taking the time to give it a look.  More on Monday.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

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