MCN Columnists
David Poland

David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

20 Weeks to Oscar

6 Days To Oscar: You Might Be An Asshole If…

YOU MIGHT BE AN OSCAR ASSHOLE IF… you write about how this filmmaker or that filmmaker was too busy chasing Oscar to make the movie they should have made.

As someone who actually has fairly lengthy conversations with almost every filmmaker who has made an Oscar nominated picture in the last five years or more, I am particularly conscious how stupid and self-serving this notion is.

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9 Days to Oscar: In Memoriam

Voting closes Tuesday… but the die is pretty much cast at this point.

In the 9 days to come, there will be plenty of conversation about the nominees and who should or should not win. But at this moment in the season, I find myself thinking about the ones that got left behind.

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17 Days To Oscar: A Thin Line Between Win & Lose

When an Academy member, just like any other kid in high school, tells their friends whom they voted for, they want to feel good about defending their choice. Fair or not, Melissa McCarthy is “the one who shit in the sink” this year. They may have laughed their colostomy bags off when they saw the film and most voters feel good about Ms McCarthy getting nominated. But when it comes down to bestowing the gold, shit in the pie in the name of dignity will win out over shit in the sink caused by bad Mexican food every time.

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DP/30

DP/30 on Tribeca: Caroline & Jackie, writer/director Adam Christian Clark, actor Marguerite Moreau

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DP/30: Darling Companion, co-writer/director Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer Meg Kasdan

Really interesting look at a long career in writing, directing, and being a family.

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DP/30 Emmy Watch: Necessary Roughness, actor Callie Thorne

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The Hot Blog

Cannes: After Lucia (Despues de Lucia)

I still can’t quite catch my breath. It is the ultimate nightmare of a parent – even of a 2 year old – to think they will be victims, victimizers, or perhaps worse, silent witnesses to the abuse of others when standing up for honor is only dangerous as a social abstraction.

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“The Hunt” Hits The Bullseye At Cannes

Thomas Vinterberg made what is still my favorite of the Dogma 95 movies, The Celebration. The film combined 50s style kitchen sink drama with a modern tone of brutal, brutal honesty. The Hunt is not quite as shocking a film experience. In an odd way, the two films are connected at child abuse. In the…

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Cannes iPhone Review: Rust & Bone

Yeah… you’ve seen this logline before. In fact, the awards season looks to be clogged with some of this. But you have never seen it done through Jacques Audiard’s pitiless, demanding, unrelenting eyes. The pair at the center of this journey are an impulsive muscle-head with no money with a 5-year-old he’s taken from his…

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Quote Unquotesee all »

“Whether by mistake or wholly intentionally, this is a transcendentally awful piece of filmmaking, likely to find favour only amongst the Showgirls crowd and other connoisseurs of tat. Individual scenes rattle the brain like a Yahtzee shaker, not least of all a comic aside in which Kidman’s character saves Efron’s from the effects of a jellyfish sting. Spotting Efron lying on the beach on the edge of consciousness, Kidman strolls over, squats over his swollen face, adjusts her bathing suit, and liberally administers the antidote.”
~ Robbie Collin Flings Further Love To The Paperboy

“People respond strongly to my work, one way or another. I care about critics in the sense that if you have a good review, it’s nice to hear about it, and if you have a bad review, it’s quite nice not to hear about it. When I am making a movie, I try to put all of that out of my mind and think just about the world I am creating. When people criticize my work, they often seem to say either that my worldview is too specific or, “Who needs your world?” Those are not criticisms that resonate with me, because what fictional world do you actually need? To write a screenplay and not make the movie, or to make a movie from a screenplay I didn’t write, both seem odd to me; it’s hard for me to divorce the creation and direction processes. For that reason, I have never given up on a script. When I settle in on something, I just work on it until I kind of get it—though that can take a while. But as long as I have an idea in mind, I will pursue it. It just seems to flow: If I made the thing up in the first place, then that is a reason for me to direct it. I have been asked why I don’t make a big-budget movie or what’s considered a Hollywood movie. I don’t feel particularly compelled to do that sort of thing. The more economical you can be, the more fun you are going to have. I find it all slows down when it gets really big. The process can be so much more light on its feet and inspiring when you are nimble.”
~ Wes Anderson Confides In The WSJ

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