Critical Consensus / Trailer and Clip: Nouvelle Vauge and History of Sound / Visitations: Buckley, Mescal, Roher / The People's Telluride #13

 CRITICAL CONSENSUS

I am posting Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes scores as of yesterday for many TFF #52 films:

Ballad of a Small Player     MC: 51     RT: 69    Combo: 120

Blue Moon                          MC: 78     RT: 97    Combo: 175

Bugonia                               MC: 74     RT: 92    Combo: 166

Frankenstein                        MC: 75     RT: 80    Combo: 155

Hamnet                                MC: 88     RT: 89    Combo: 177

The History of Sound          MC: 62     RT: 66    Combo: 128

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You    MC: 82     RT: 93    Combo: 175

It Was Just an Accident       MC: 88     RT: 98     Combo: 186

Jay Kelly                             MC: 66    RT: 86     Combo: 152

La Grazia                             MC: 69    RT: 76     Combo: 145   

The Mastermind                  MC: 79     RT: 89    Combo: 168

Nouvelle Vague                   MC: 72     RT: 88    Combo: 160

Pillion                                  MC: 85     RT: 100  Combo: 185

A Private Life                      MC: 66     RT: 69    Combo: 135

The Secret Agent                 MC: 87     RT: 100  Combo: 187

Sentimental Value:               MC: 89    RT: 95     Combo: 184

Spingsteen: Deliver Me...    MC: 69    RT: 100   Combo: 169

And ordered by combined Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes score:

1) The Secret Agent: 187

2) It Was Just an Accident: 186

3) Pillion: 185

4) Sentimental Value: 184

5) Hamnet: 177 

6) If I Had Legs I'd Kick You: 175 (tie)

6) Blue Moon: 175 (tie)

8) Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere: 169

9) The Mastermind: 168

10) Bugonia: 166

11) Nouvelle Vague: 160

12) Frankenstein : 155

13) Jay Kelly: 152

14) La Grazia: 145

15) A Private Life: 135

16) The History of Sound: 128

17) Ballad of a Small Player: 120     

I'll have my own set of Professionals deliver their verdict in Monday's post.

TRAILER AND CLIP

From YouTube:

Trailer for Nouvelle Vague:

Clip from The History of Sound:

 VISITATIONS

Jesse Buckley and Paul Mescal on Hamnet from Deadline.               

Daniel Roher on Tuner from The Hollywood Reporter.

THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE #13

You've have a few days left to get your ratings in for The People's Telluride.  At the moment we're at about half the respondents (maybe a bit more) that normally participate each year.  Additionally, the Pros are doing their part and I plan to have the The Professionals ratings up a week from today.

Again, email me a list of the films you saw and rate each on a 1 to 5 scale.  1 means it was very bad, 5 means you thought it was terrific.  Decimals are fine.

Report your ratings to: mpgort@gmail.com 

The deadline for this year to turn in your ratings will be Sept. 15th.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

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MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com

The FAC Updated Predictions for Supporting and Screenplays / Telluride Time Tunnel-Re-visiting TFF #13 / RT's Top 100 Films of 2017

HAPPY NEW 2018!


Welcome to Michael's Telluride Film Blog and The Film Awards Clearinghouse (FAC).

THE FAC UPDATED PREDICTIONS FOR SUPPORTING AND SCREENPLAYS

Taking a look today at four categories to update them as we begin the new year.  Also a mention that the Golden Globe Awards are less than a week away.  They'll be announced on Sunday, Jan. 7th.

As always, the films/performers from TFF #44 films are indicated with Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

The Supporting races were last predicted in this space on Dec. 4th.  In that post the Supporting Actress race looked like this :

1) Alison Janney/I, Tonya
2) Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
3) Holly Hunter/The Big Sick
4) Octavia Spencer/The Shape of Water
5) Mary J. Blige/Mudbound

Others: Hong Chau/Downsizing, Leslie Manville/Phantom Thread, Melissa Leo/Novitiate

Four weeks later, here's where we stand:

1) Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird

2) Alison Janney/I, Tonya

3) Mary J. Blige/Mudbound

4) Holly Hunter/The Big Sick

5) Hong Chau/Downsizing

Others: Octavia Spencer/The Shape of Water, Tiffany Haddish/Girls Trip, Leslie Manville/The Phantom Thread.

Comment:  Blige has really seen a surge over the past couple of weeks.  The top spot is still very tight but Metcalf seems to have the edge at the moment.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

From a month ago:

1) Willem Dafoe/The Florida Project
2) Sam Rockwell/Three Billboards
3) Armie Hammer/Call Me By Your Name
4) Michael Stuhlbarg/Call Me By Your Name
5) Mark Rylance/Dunkirk

Others: Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water, Ben Mendelsohn/Darkest Hour, Ray Romano/The Big Sick


The updated predictions:

1) Willem Dafoe/The Florida Project
2) Sam Rockwell/Three Billboards
3) Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water
4) Woody Harrelson/Three Billboards
5) Armie Hammer/Call Me By Your Name

Others: Michael Stuhlbarg/Call Me By Your Name, Christopher Plummer/All the Money in the World, Steve Carell/Battle of the Sexes

Comment:  Nice surges for Jenkins and Harrelson.  Dafoe looks like the solid favorite to win at this point.


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The screenplay categories are being updated for the first time since Nov. 9th...

Here's what was out front nearly two months back:

1) Call Me By Your Name
2) Mudbound
3) Molly's Game
4) The Disaster Artist
5) Last Flag Flying

Others: Wonderstruck, Stronger, Wonder Woman

And today's update:

1) Call Me By Your Name
2) Mudbound
3) Molly's Game
4) The Disaster Artist
5) Wonder

Others: Victoria and Abdul, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Wonderstruck

Comment:  A very stable category for the last two months.  The fifth spot is a toss up.  The top four seem to be in good shape.


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

From Nov. 9th:

1) Three Billboards
2) The Shape of Water
3) Get Out
4) Lady Bird
5) Darkest Hour

Others: The Post. The Big Sick, I, Tonya

And the new FAC prediction says:

1) Three Billboards

2) Get Out

3) Lady Bird

4) The Post

5) The Shape of Water

Others: The Big Sick, Phantom Thread, I Tonya

Comment: Phantom Thread supplants Darkest Hour in the conversation for the last spot.

TELLURIDE TIME TUNNEL-RE-VISITING TFF #13

MTFB continues its months long review of the history of the Telluride Film Festival. 

You may recall that I started this project back on April 13, 2017.  The goal here is to provide a place on the interwebs where someone could get a relatively complete look at what played at each Telluride Film Fest (in as far as feature films are concerned) since its inception.

As I have written on a couple of occasions, the current official Telluride Film Festival website has links to the programs for fests from 2006 to last year's program.  Prior to 2006, I am unaware of any other collection of data for TFF online.  This is an attempt to provide that.

So, we pick up where we left off with a look at the films and personalities of TFF #13.  The 13th Telluride Film Festival took place  from Aug. 29-September 1, 1986.

Tributes: Alexander Mackendrick, Jiri Menzel and Isabelle Huppert.

Also of note, a retrospective of the films of Anthony Mann labeled Mann of the West that featured the one and only Jimmy Stewart in person.

SHOWS:

The Biscuit Eater
Blue Velvet
Cactus
Closely Watched Trains
The Decline of the American Empire
Devil in the Flesh
Document: Fanny and Alexander
Eat the Peach
Eraserhead
The Gay Desperado
The Interrogation
The Lacemaker
The Ladykillers
A Lonely Woman
Los Inundados
The Man form Laramie
Mother Teresa
My Little Village
No End
The River's Edge
The Sacrifice
Sacrificed Youth
Seize the Day
Smasher
The Sweet Smell of Success
Therese
Tire Die
Too Far to Go
We Are the Living
Winchester 73
The Witch
Working Girls


Guests:

Denys Arcand
Laura Dern
Crispin Glover
Agnieszka Holland
Chuck Jones
David Lynch
Kyle MacLachlan
Anne Meara
Jerry Stiller
James Stewart
Robin Williams


I'm trying to imagine a weekend where I might have seen James Stewart, Robin Williams and David Lynch around town and also have caught screenings of Blue Velvet, The River's Edge, Winchester 73 and The Sweet Smell of Success.


RT'S TOP 100 FILMS OF 2017

Rotten Tomatoes has released its list of the top 100 films rated on their site for 2017.  The list includes a number of titles from both TFF #44 as well as TFF #43.

Those from TFF #44 making the grade are:

#91-The Other Side of Hope
#68-Human Flow
#67-Battle of the Sexes
#26-Faces Places
#20-The Shape of Water
#5-Lady Bird

Jordan Peele's Get Out is rated as the top film by RT for 2017.

TFF #43 films that made the RT Top 100 are:

#97-Maudie
#81-Frantz
#64-I Called Him Morgan
#61-The B-Side:Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography
#44-Graduation
#35-Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds

The complete RT Top 100 list is linked here.




That's your first MTFB for 2018.  There will probably be more. Thursday.


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

"Wild" Unleashed/"Imitation Game" Starts Strong/"Mr. Turner's" Mike Leigh/Critics' View/Couple of Notes

Good Monday All.  Hope your Thanksgiving holiday was terrific.  The New York Film Critics are supposed to announce their choices for the best in 2014 film making.  I'll have a bonus post about that later this morning...


WILD UNLEASHED

Jean Marc Vallee's "Wild" is unleashed on Friday.  The film premiered at Telluride.  The film tells the true story of Cheryl Strayed who walked the Pacific Coast Trail as an act of revival and redemption.  The film stars (and was partially produced by) Reese Witherspoon who has received considerable awards buzz as has co-star Laura Dern.

I have linked interviews/profiles with Vallee, Witherspoon and Strayed below from The LA Times, Mother Jones and Newsday:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-jean-marc-vallee-wild-director-20141130-story.html#page=1

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/11/wild-cheryl-strayed-reese-witherspoon-jean-marc-vallee-laura-dern-pacific-crest-trail

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/wild-a-charged-experience-for-reese-witherspoon-1.9655502


IMITATION GAME STARTS STRONG

The word from this weekend is that Morten Tyldum's "The Imitation Game" starring Benedict Cumberbatch opened very strongly in limited NY/LA release.  The film based on the life of Alan Turing was surprisingly snubbed by The Independent Spirit awards earlier last week but if early box office and Academy buzz is any indication...it looks to still be a strong awards contender.

Here's Variety's report of the strong box office opening in only four theaters in New York and L.A. from the weekend:

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/imitation-game-box-office-benedict-cumberbatch-oscars-1201367234/

The New York Times Arts Beat posted this video of director Morten Tyldum narrating a segment of the film:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/morten-tyldum-narrates-a-scene-from-the-imitation-game/?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytmovies


MR. TURNER'S MIKE LEIGH

Writer/director Mike Leigh talks process and other items in this discussion about "Mr. Turner" with Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/cannes-mr-turner-q-as


CRITICS' VIEW

Critic's have started announcing their ten best lists and such as we enter the last month of 2014.  Awards Daily's Sasha Stone takes a look at what the critics' collectives tell us:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2014/11/checking-in-with-the-critics-as-we-head-into-critics-
week/

Sight and Sound has posted it's "Ten" Best list.  It's here and below the link is the list of TFF #41 an #40 films that made their cut.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/sight-sounds-top-10-movies-of-2014-boyhood-goodbye-to-language-and-grand-budapest-20141128

"Leviathan"
"Under the Skin" (TFF #40)
"Ida" (TFF #40)
"Mr. Turner"
"Birdman"
"Two Days, One Night"
"The Look of Silence"
"The Wind Rises" (TFF #40)


COUPLE OF NOTES

I saw "Birdman" a second time in Albuquerque (there for the Rio Grande Art Show).  It's s till great...genius...masterpiece.  Likely the #1 film when I put together my year end list.  Go see it if you didn't see it in T-ride or someplace else later...or see it again.

I also saw Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash" and maybe I suffered from too much anticipation or perhaps I can't leave my "teacher" lenses aside (believe me, I've "tough loved" my share of kids) but...ummm...no.  The film has been a critical darling since Sundance (look at Sasha's story above about the critical response so far).  My objections:  It's over heated, has zero subtlety and the ending...which a lot of people love...fundamentally unbelievable.  Now, I'm a huge J.K. Simmons fan and there's a lot of reason to believe he's going to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this and to give him his due, he does a terrific job of committing to the character but in the end, even J.K. can't make me buy the way it all plays out.

Bottom line is that "Whiplash" is a B- film.  That's my two cents.

More on Thursday including an updated FAC for Best Picture, Director Lead Actress and Actor.