Post Cannes 2011/Onward

Well, that was amazing. Cannes 2011 happened in the blink of an eye, vibrant flashes of cinema heaven that will keep me on an epic high for weeks. I met a lot of great people and look forward to developing those relationships over the course of many Cannes years to come. Collecting my thoughts and sanity during this massive withdrawal will be a slow process, and I may post some pictures as June progresses to remind myself the experience actually happened. The end tally for those interested parties – 38 feature films total, full reviews of which you can find here at The House Next Door (Day 1 – 12). Also, I’m starting a new gig at SanDiego.com, a cool local outlet that’s actually paying me for my services. I’ll be doing essays (in some form or another) on Comic-Con and The Los Angeles Film Festival, not to mention reviews of some wide releases, so stay tuned. Thanks to everyone who supported my Cannes trip and read my dispatches. Without you guys I’d be talking to myself.

Links Galore

The House Next Door
SDAFF 2010 #1: Intro/Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
SDAFF 2010 #2: Macho Like Me/Bodyguards and Assassins/ Alien vs. Ninja
SDAFF 2010 #3: City of Life and Death/71: Into the Fire
SDAFF 2010 #4: House of Suh/Tibet in Song

Slant Magazine
Seven Samurai (Blu)
Jolene
Red Hill
Smash His Camera (DVD)
Searchers 2.0 (DVD)

InRO
The American

- Thoughts to come on Uncle Boonmee, Winter’s Bone, and Certified Copy before I embark on my journey up to the AFI Film Festival. Thanks for being patient.

New Focus: RETROSPECTIVES

With the light-speed expansion of Gone Cinema Poaching, where I’ll be covering mostly new films and filmmakers, Match Cuts will primarily shift to focus on glaring gaps in my cinematic foundation. Over the coming months I will be watching and writing on films by specific filmmakers I’ve unforgivably ignored over the course of my 28 years on this Earth.

This will be an expansive project, covering 10+ films per auteur (depending on availability) in order to immerse myself in these particular cinematic worlds. Already queued up: Kenji Mizoguchi, Jacques Tournuer, Edward Yang, Pedro Costa, Douglas Sirk, Moshen Maklmalbaf, Tsai Ming-liang, Hong Sang-soo, and Frank Tashlin. But first, one of the masters of Polish cinema – Jerzy Skolimowski. My experience with Skolimowski begins and ends with his great turn in Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises, so basically I’m starting from scratch. Wish me luck.

Gone Poaching for Wild Things

In what will be a regular gig over at Chazz Lyon’s excellent new blog Gone Cinema Poaching, I will be contributing weekly reviews of new films and the occasional long essay on various topics. It’s an exciting opportunity for me to branch out and explore new avenues of this fascinating business, so I’m looking forward to the increased workload. Not wasting any time, Chazz has already posted my first assignment, Spike Jonze’s fascinating and problematic Where the Wild Things Are, which you can find here.

I will continue to post on Match Cuts as always, with a plethora of new material in the coming weeks like posts on The Informant!, Eden Lake, the Korean gangster film Breathless, and A Serious Man, not to mention the continuing Best of the Decade Project. So here we go…

Seattle Here I Come…

The next five days will find Match Cuts exploring the grand North West, Seattle, WA in particular. When I return, tales of the epic mountain ranges, crisp cityscapes, and Scarecrow Video will be told. I leave you with the above image, a stunning still from the opening sequence of Alan J. Pakula’s still-mesmerizing conspiracy film The Parallax View, a doosy set on the top of the Space Needle. I’ll let you know if I get embroiled in any intrigue a long the way.

An Epic Project…

…is in the works. I’ll be unveiling this joint venture in the next few weeks, as soon as the final touches have been ironed out. In the meantime, I’ll have some more thoughts on Inglorious Basterds, which I just saw for the second time today and think is most certainly the best American film of 2009. Only Spike Jonze has a chance to top it.

-GH

Update

A slew of ridiculously busy days, including attending a wedding with my lovely lady, and an epic Labor Day weekend of work and research at the Del Mar Racetrack has left me considerably lacking in the movie department. However, come Wed., I’ll be back to full throttle, checking out a number of new films, including Monte Walsh, Sin Nombre, Duplicity, District 9, Martel X 2 (The Holy Girl and The Headless Woman), and for me the long anticipated debut from Steve McQueen, Hunger. Can’t wait.

Oscar Predictions: The Winners

Here are my projected winners, not necessarily who I think deserves to win! If it were up to Match Cuts, I’d go with Milk for Best Picture, Mickey Rourke for Best Actor, Kate Winslet for Best Actress, Penelope Cruz for Best Supporting Actress, Heath Ledger for Best Supporting Actor, and Gus Van Sant for Best Director. Anyways, on to the projected results.

* – indicates actual winner

Best Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Reader
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire *

Best Director
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire *
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant, Milk

Best Actor
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk *
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Actress
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, The Changeling
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet,  The Reader *

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey, Jr, Tropic Thunder
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight *
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona *
Viola Davis, Doubt
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, Milk *
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire *
Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button *
Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Foreign Film: Waltz With Bashir, dir. Ari Folman, Departures
Best Original Score: WALL-E, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Animated Film: WALL-E, Dir. Andrew Stanton*
Best Costume Design: Michael O’Connor, The Duchess*
Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*
Best Original Song: “O’Saya”, Slumdog Millionaire, “Jai Ho”, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Film Editing: Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire*
Best Make-Up: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*
Best Sound Editing: The Dark Knight*
Best Sound Mixing: The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Documentary Feature: Man on Wire, dir. James Marsh*

16/21 correct, not counting those pesky Short Subject Categories.

Best Documentary Short Subject: The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306, Smile Pinki
Best Animated Short: “Presto”, PIXAR, La Maison en Petits Cubes
Best Live Action Short: Manon on the Asphalt Toyland