Trailer for Big Fan, the directorial debut of the writer of The Wrestler

Take a gander:

-Can this follow in the footsteps of The Wrestler?

Kevin Smith wants to gun for some awards with his upcoming Sports Flick

Yes, Kevin Smith and awards don't go hand in hand for most, but he seems to think this passion project he has with Mitch Albom might be the one to break through:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Kind of seems like The Wrestler, only with hockey...what do you think of this potential film?

The best movie of 2008 comes to DVD this week!

To me at least, this was my #1 of the year (check the archived top 10 list on the Main Page for proof if need be). It's a practically perfect film in my eyes, and the most clear cut PICK OF THE WEEK in a long time. It's:
The Wrestler
What Mickey Rourke and Darren Aronofsky created here, based on the lovely yet sparse script from Robert Siegel, is nothing short of amazing. Rourke gave one of the ten best performances I've ever seen an actor give, Aronofsky did a flawless job of directing (or more appropriately in this case, cinematically observing), and the supporting roles by Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood are just about without peer for the year as well. The fact that a film like this only got 2 Oscar nominations while other films rake them in is just another reason why sometimes looking harder for quality films can pay off in a big way. I simply can't recommend this film enough to everyone. If for no other reason than getting to hear Bruce Springsteen's amazing title track to the movie, seek out this DVD at once!
-Also out this week we have Frost/Nixon, which while not fantastic, is a very solid flick. It's hurt a bit by pacing problems and unnecessary directorial choices by Ron Howard (which is unusal considering how unobtrusive Howard is), but overall the script by Peter Morgan and acting across the board make it a worthy film to check out. There's the biopic of the Notorious B.I.G. out as well, called, oddly enough, Notorious. It's somewhat standard issue, but it's slightly better than I expected it to be. If you were a fan of rapper, you should enjoy this. Finally we have the Sundance Film Fest graduate The Last Word, which takes an interesting premise (a man who comprises people's suicide notes falls for a relative of one of his employees) and manages to make a fairly bland movie out of it. Check it out if you're curious, but it's nothing special at all.
-My Vintage pick this week is The People vs. Larry Flynt. One of the odder subjects for a biopic/first ammendment rights film, this tale of a pornographer who fought for his rights so that we could live in a country that would protect not only him, but us as well, is a film that works a lot better than you'd ever expect it to. From Courtney Love's terrific performance as Flynt's wife to Milos Forman's directing, it's both an entertaining and important film, one worth watching if you have not already.
-What will you be watching this week on DVD?

Is it actually better to LOSE an Oscar than to WIN one?

This article in Cinematical seems to make the arguement that the great films/performances keep their strength by not winning, using The Wrestler/Mickey Rourke as an example:

The Oscars are history now and soon people won't even be able to remember the winners. But I keep thinking about that Best Actor race that came down to a near-draw between Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler (291 screens) and Sean Penn for Milk (111 screens). My group, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, simply called it a tie. We agreed that both men gave the performance of their lifetimes. Other critics groups and other year-end awards also split between them; there was no clear consensus. For my annual predictions, I went with my gut on this one: I got the vague impression that, just from the cultural temperature, people were really into Rourke. But Penn won. And now that it's over -- with some hindsight -- it makes perfect sense. The Oscars didn't want to ruin The Wrestler for us.
The Wrestler is just a couple of months old now, but it has already gained a certain type of following. It has actual fans; people love this movie rather than just admire it. Milk has become a good movie for students to watch in school, but The Wrestler is a film that they will choose to watch, in their free time. It's a cult film now. And cult films don't win Oscars. It automatically disqualifies them from cult status. A cult film is something that people discover on their own. If the Academy acknowledges it, then it has been plucked away and turned into something official. It has a stamp of approval, and cult films are all about not being approved.
You can bet that Citizen Kane wouldn't always poll as the best movie of all time if it had actually won Best Picture in 1941. (The actual winner, How Green Was My Valley, is a good film, but it doesn't get nearly the same kind of love.) Think about films like Showgirls (1995), The Big Lebowski (1998), Fight Club (1999), Donnie Darko (2001), Memento (2001) or Brick (2006). Together those six beloved cult films earned a total of three Oscar nominations, and all lost. (Fight Club for Sound Effects Editing, and Memento for Screenplay and Editing.) Part of the fun of enjoying these films on a cult level is the idea of coming to their rescue, pulling them from obscurity and planting our own flag on them.
Additionally, I seriously believe that part of Martin Scorsese's enduring, loyal following from 1972 all the way through 2006 came from the fact that he never won an Oscar, and thus was never officially accepted. (Just look at his Oscar-winner colleagues like Coppola, Schaffner or Avildsen.) Now Rourke is riding on this cult success. Now that he has become our actor and not their actor, we will demand -- and get to see -- him in lots more films. I imagine the odds are only about 50-50 he will ever be nominated again, but won't it be fun to see him going nuts in two, three or even four movies a year? But better still, just imagine if Penn had lost. He'd probably go back to making more angry, message-laden films, hoping for more nominations. But now that he's got two Oscars, he has stopped, smiled and taken a role as Larry Fine in the upcoming Three Stooges movie! That alone will be worth his Oscar victory.
-What do you think? Does this arguement hold water?

Results of the Spirit Awards!

Here are the winners:

Best Feature: Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler

Best Director: Tom McCarthy, The Visitor

Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Actress: Melissa Leo, Frozen River

Best Supporting Actor: James Franco, Milk

Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Screenplay: Woody Allen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best First Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, Milk

Best First Feature: Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York

John Cassavetes Award: In Search of a Midnight Kiss

Best Cinematography: Maryse Alberti, The Wrestler

Best Foreign Language Film: The Class

Best Documentary: Man on Wire

Someone to Watch Award: Lynn Shelton, My Effortless Brilliance

Piaget Producers Award: Heather Ray, Frozen River

Truer Than Fiction: Margaret Brown, The Order of Myths

Robert Altman Ensemble Award: Synecdoche, New York

-The Wrestler had the best night overall...and all in all it was a nice mix of winners...thoughts?

Springsteen's The Wrestler song gets a video!

-Just reminds me more of how big a snub his lack of a nomination was, but I'll get over it...

Mickey Rourke's BAFTA Acceptance Speech

-Rourke gives the most entertaining speeches, for many reasons...

One Last Top 10 List...This Time of a Musical Nature

I know we're pretty much over top 10's for the year, but I wanted to chime in with one more...my list of the 10 best original songs, since we all were a little surprised that the Academy could only come up with 3....here's my 10:

1. The Wrestler (The Wrestler)
2. Dracula's Lament (Forgetting Sarah Marshall)
3. The Story (My Blueberry Nights)
4. Down to Earth (WALL-E)
5. Rock Me Sexy Jesus (Hamlet 2)
6. Jai Ho (Slumdog Millionaire)
7. I Thought I Lost You (Bolt)
8. Up to our Nex (Rachel Getting Married)
9. O Saya (Slumdog Millionaire)
10. Zydrate Anatomy (Repo! The Genetic Opera)
-I'm sure everyone else has other favorites, so sound off! And yes, I'm aware all 3 of the nominees are on my list, but only one cracked the top 5...

London Critics Honor The Wrestler

Yes indeed, the flick took the top prize across the pond, and here's the whole list:

LONDON CRITICS CIRCLE FILM AWARD WINNERS

FILM OF THE YEAR- The Wrestler
THE ATTENBOROUGH AWARD: BRITISH FILM OF THE YEAR -Slumdog Millionaire
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR- Waltz With Bashir
DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR- David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
BRITISH DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR- Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
ACTOR OF THE YEAR- Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
ACTRESS OF THE YEAR- Kate Winslet - The Reader and Revolutionary Road
BRITISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR- Michael Fassbender - Hunger
BRITISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR- Kristin Scott Thomas - I’ve Loved You So Long
BRITISH ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE- Eddie Marsan - Happy-Go-Lucky
BRITISH ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE- Tilda Swinton - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR- Simon Beaufoy - Slumdog Millionaire
THE NSPCC AWARD: YOUNG BRITISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR- Thomas Turgoose - Somers Town and Eden Lake
BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH FILM-MAKER- Steve McQueen - writer-director: Hunger
DILYS POWELL AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO CINEMA- Dame Judi Dench

-Nice to see some love for The Wrestler, perhaps the rather large British voting block will carry this over to Rourke and/or Tomei at the Oscars...time will tell

Anyone still hurting from the Springsteen snub...

Lovers of the song "The Wrestler" now have at least a small reason to rejoice. Springsteen's new album came out this week and has The Wrestler as a bonus track. So just because the Academy didn't dig it, it doesn't mean we can't...oh, and the album is awesome too, but it's The Boss, so it's to be expected.

Mickey Rourke to actually wrestle...really good or really bad idea?

Yes, Rourke is supposedly going to be performing at World Wrestling Entertainment's (ah, the good old days when it was simply the WWF) Wrestlemainia event. I put this to you, our faithful readers...thumbs up or thumbs down on this idea? And furthermore, will this news hurt his chances at an Oscar? Discuss!

This is Massively Cool to Me...

Just Gotta Say...

Congrats to Mickey Rourke! He deserved it in a big bad way. Overall, a decent awards show, no?

A Conversation with Mickey Rourke!

From Awards Daily:

-The man is fascinating, that's for sure

Aronofsky Talks The Wrestler

Variety posted this interview, which is pretty cool:

-always an interesting guy to listen to...

The Online Film Critics Nominations!

It's a good day for The Wrestler on the internet, as it leads the field with 5 nods...here are the nominees:

BEST PICTURE

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Dark Knight

Slumdog Millionaire

WALL*E

The Wrestler
BEST DIRECTOR

Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler

Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight

Andrew Stanton, WALL*E
BEST ACTOR

Benicio Del Toro, Che

Richard Jenkins, The Visitor

Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon

Sean Penn, Milk

Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
BEST ACTRESS

Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married

Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky

Meryl Streep, Doubt

Michelle Williams, Wendy and Lucy

Kate Winslet , Revolutionary Road
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Robert Downey, Jr., Tropic Thunder

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt

Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Eddie Marsan, Happy-Go-Lucky

Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams, Doubt

Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Viola Davis, Doubt

Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Kate Winslet, The Reader
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

In Bruges, Martin McDonagh

Milk, Dustin Lance Black

Synecdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman

WALL*E, Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon

The Wrestler, Robert D. Siegel
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Roth

The Dark Knight, Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan

Frost/Nixon, Peter Morgan

Let the Right One In, John Ajvide Lindqvist

Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy
BEST DOCUMENTARY

Dear Zachary: a letter to a son about his father

Encounters at the End of the World

I.O.U.S.A.

Man On Wire

My Winnipeg
BEST FOREIGN FILM

A Christmas Tale

The Counterfeiters

I’ve Loved You So Long

Let the Right One In

Waltz with Bashir
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Bolt

Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who

Kung Fu Panda

WALL*E

Waltz with Bashir

-In the end, this doesn't mean much at all for the Academy, but it's always one of my favorite awards bodies to look forward to hearing from, they always seem to have some interesting picks...thoughts?

The Kansas City Film Critics Announce Their Award Winners

The Wrestler has a nice showing here:

BEST FILM-Slumdog Millionaire

BEST DIRECTOR-Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler

BEST ACTOR-Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS-Meryl Streep, Doubt

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR-Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS-Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY-Robert D. Siegel, The Wrestler

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY-Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM-Let the Right One In (Sweden)

BEST DOCUMENTARY-Man on Wire

BEST ANIMATED FILM-Wall*E

THE VINCE KOEHLER AWARD~for Best Science Fiction,Fantasy or Horror Film-The Dark Knight

-A lot of familiar winners, but a few more wins than usual for The Wrestler...a one time thing or a sign of a shift towards the film Oscar-wise?

A Body Slam of a Movie

My full review will be up soon, but I feel compelled to write and state that without question, The Wrestler is the true masterpiece of the year. What Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, and Darren Aronofsky have done in this film is without peers this year. See it as it expands (it's currently only in NY and LA), because it deserves quite a few Oscar nominations (personally, Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Original Score, and Original Song are all categories that it should be recognized in). I can't stress this enough...The Wrestler is the best film of 2008. More to come, but feel free to state your favorite film of the year here!