An aquatic/animal welfare documentary that plays it pretty safe, and almost too safe if you ask me, ‘The Whale’ has an interesting topic and charm to spare, but it never really goes out there to make itself feel particularly relevant or important. In fact, if you didn’t know that Ryan Reynolds was the narrator (and the producer, along with ex-wife Scarlett Johansson), you might actually think this is a film made about an event that transpired a decade or so ago, it feels so generic at certain points. It doesn’t ever give itself a real sense of time or place, and that bugged me a tad, since it sort of defeats the point of documenting something on film. Despite that small sized issue, it’s still a solid 90 minutes of slightly informational cinema, with a few very cute moments of an Orca at play, a tear or two shed for some, and an overall sense of your time pretty much well spent. It’s not the type of doc to remember come Oscar time, and it surely won’t show up at all during the precursor season, but if you see it you likely won’t regret that you did. I know that I didn’t.
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Let me be clear before I begin writing this and you begin reading…I do not believe for one minute that Citizen Kane (1941) is the greatest American film ever made. Cue the howls of protest now please. Sorry.
Though the American Film Institute has twice voted the film such, in 1997 and again in 2007, and the annual poll conducted by Sight and Sound states the same, I think other films have gone past the film in terms of their brilliance, namely The Godfather: Part II (1974), The Godfather (1972), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Schindler’s List (1993), Raging Bull (1980), and The Searchers (1956) to name a few. My opinion does not bring into the mix that Citizen Kane (1941) is not among the greatest films ever made, (it is), and it might be the most innovative film ever made, changing the way directors made their movies forever, but greatest of all time? Nope. Read more on Historical Circuit: Citizen Kane (****)…
Tags: American Film Institute, Best Original Screenplay, Citizen Kane, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Historical Circuit, Joseph Cotten, masterpiece, Orson Welles, Oscar snubs, Sight & Sound
Tuesday’s results show on Dancing with the Stars was a big surprise. It’s normal that early in the season the lowest scores are the ones to get eliminated off the show. But sometimes the viewer’s chime in and fight for you to stay on the show. Chaz Bono is one of those cases. Bono had the lowest scores Monday night and was at the bottom of the leaderboard premiere night. He was in the bottom three Tuesday night and walked away safe.
Read more on Dancing with the Stars: Week 2 Results…
In an industry dominated by testosterone, explosions, and hot-tempered men who think they know everything, Anna Belickis, one of the newest writers to The Awards Circuit as on her way to establishing herself as one the industries freshest critics. Many readers of the Awards Circuit can barely name any female critics in the industry let alone our small nook of the internet. Sasha Stone of Awards Daily and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood are probably the leading ladies of this part of film criticism but rest assured, Anna will be making her way up the rounds to be synonymous with those talented women in no time..
Anna who currently resides in New York, first became interested in film at the tender age of eleven. She was watching Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and recognized Elijah Wood from a previous movie she seen him in. She looked him up and read his entire biography, filmography, etc. and the next day approached her friend Caitlin and made a pact to watch every Elijah Wood film to that date. Mission Accomplished! And even at eleven, she had to keep the Rated R films under the radar. From that point on, Anna and Caitlin would pick random actors and watch all their films.
As Anna matured so did her love of film. Some of her most dramatic and endearing choices of films she constantly watches until this day is Robert Redford’s Ordinary People, as she puts “the perfect acting movie. All performances are perfect.” Her favorite Oscar Best Picture winner is Sam Mendes’ American Beauty. When Anna applied as a writer for the Awards Circuit many questions came to mind. The Awards Circuit, as well as other sites, sadly and I imagine not purposely are predominately run by men and even the commentators, not necessarily the entire readership are men. How could she fit in? The idea of a woman joining the staff was a dream I was afraid that would never come to fruition, having tried and failed, several times before. Anna applied at the tender age of twenty, didn’t have any “formal” writing training, and at the time was in North Carolina with her husband Kevin. At the time Anna was writing on her own blog, “Showtimes and Dogtags.” A blog and forum for military women and men who were fighting overseas and finding consolation in film and television. I read the blog and recognized massive potential. It was like being a coach and going out and scouting for your baseball team and find the best kept secret and it’s yours for taking. Anna is an innovative, special, and tremendously talented woman.
Read more on Digging Into: Anna Belickis…
Tags: 2011 releases, extremely loud and incredibly close, sandra bullock, stephen daldry, thomas horn, tom hanks, trailer
As a continuing feature here at Awards Circuit, here are the latest ratings provided by the MPAA Ratings Board – The Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA).
In this edition, dated 9/28/11, two Oscar hopefuls, “Carnage” and “We Need To Talk About Kevin”, go in front of the Board and a whole host of independent and potentially straight-to-video releases get their marks. Curiously, a film known as “The Good Doctor” starring Orlando Bloom, Michael Pena, Troy Garity, Rob Morrow, and Taraji P. Henson won a ratings appeal but still lacks domestic distribution.
Read more on MPAA Ratings Bulletin No. 2191 (9/28/11)…
Tags: Carnage, MPAA Ratings, Natural Selection, Sinful Davey, The Good Doctor, Underground, We Need To Talk About Kevin
Tags: 2011 releases, jeremy irvine, Oscar contender, poster, posters, Steven Spielberg, war horse
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The Awards Circuit – By Clayton Davis – Academy Award Predictions, Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, Golden Globes, SAG Predictions All Year Long- Haneke’s ‘Amour’ gets a trailer May 17, 2012The last time Michael Haneke brought a film to Cannes he walked away with the Palme d’Or for his startling film The White Ribbon. He returns to the Croisette this year with his new film Amour and the trailer for that film has just been released is is located after the jump. Synopsis: Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music […]Terence Johnson
- Haneke’s ‘Amour’ gets a trailer May 17, 2012
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