Viggo Mortensen always seemed like the kind of actor who would insist on eating a dozen hot dogs in a scene if his character did the same. Green Book cinematographer Sean Porter confirmed those suspicions. “We shot a hot dog eating contest and Viggo was cramming them in at full speed every take,” laughs Porter. Green Book provided Mortensen (and his digestive system) with ample opportunities to display that kind of commitment to authenticity. In the based-in-fact story, Mortensen plays Tony Vallelonga, a Bronx bouncer with a penchant for gluttony who accepts a job driving a refined piano virtuoso (played […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Dec 15, 2018Oscars show host Seth MacFarlane and actress Emma Stone announced the nominees for the 85th annual Academy Awards this morning at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The award show telecast will air on Sunday, February 24 at 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT on ABC. Not surprisingly following the buzz this year, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln is the nomination frontrunner, earning 12 nods including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones) and Best Supporting Actress (Sally Field). Life of Pi edged out Zero Dark Thirty […]
by Billy Brennan on Jan 10, 2013It was 2012 and there was an election on and it was getting hotter everyday and I didn’t know how much time we had left and it was the end of film (if not the end of cinema) and I knew not what to do, so I did what I always do in situations like this: I went to the movies. Usually for free, at the behest of some publicist or festival. About half the time I went because I had nothing better to do. Often I went alone for no discernible reason other than that I had no one […]
by Brandon Harris on Jan 1, 2013Yesterday I attended the “How the Critics Saved My Film” Film Week panel, featuring the pre-eminent critic for the New York Times A.O. Scott (I discovered with pleasure yesterday that his friends call him “Tony”), critics David D’Arcy and Miriam Bale, and filmmaker Alex Ross-Perry. One subject that wasn’t addressed in the panel, but that is pertinent to all of this, is the quality of writing in film criticism. Since I am a filmmaker (whose films will need to be saved), the way a review is written feels important to me, and it’s not just because I like good writing. […]
by Naftali Beane Rutter on Sep 19, 2012What master do you worship? Does your master have a name — God, Yahweh, Allah, Vishnu, Great Spirit, Creator, Father, Mother — or remain nameless? Is He/She/It an abstraction — love, light, power — or have you met? Has your master sat across a table from you and asked you to account for your transgressions? Did you stare your master in the eyes without blinking? The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson’s sixth feature film, is an epic, 70mm story of tiny details that plays out viscerally on the most complicated expanse imaginable: The human face. Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a snarling, […]
by James Ponsoldt on Sep 14, 2012The Master is Paul Thomas Anderson’s follow-up to There Will be Blood, my favorite film of that year. After this trailer I’m even more psyched.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 19, 2012Here’s the second bit of footage released from Paul Thomas Anderson’s forthcoming The Master, this time featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman (who plays the title character), as well as Joaquin Phoenix. As with the previous one, this is really a teaser/clip rather than an actual trailer, giving us a sense of only a small aspect of the film — rather than taking the usual trailer tactic of telling us 90% of the plot and compacting every notable or high-energy moment from the film into 90 seconds. As someone who likes to be surprised by movies, I hope that this refreshingly different […]
by Nick Dawson on Jun 19, 2012We featured Paul Thomas Anderson in conversation with Robert Downey Sr. last week on the blog, and now we’re pleased to share the first clip from Anderson’s upcoming The Master. The 1950s-set drama about a religion not dissimilar to Scientology will be released by the Weinstein Company on October 12 and is bound to be a major player come awards season. Just from this sneak peak alone, it looks like this might be a career-defining role for Joaquin Phoenix…
by Nick Dawson on May 21, 2012