Friday, August 30, 2013

Future Best Picture Oscar Winner 12 Years a Slave released

12 Years a Slave

Released: August 30, 2013

Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures, Entertainment One, Summit Entertainment

Genre: drama/biopic

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 56.67 Worldwide: 187.70

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Steve McQueen

Screenwriting: Jason Ridley

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Benedict Cumberbatch

Review:

12 Years a Slave is based on the book of the same name by Solomon Northup. the slave memoir, published in 1853, is about Northup’s experience being kidnapped and sold into slavery. The African American had been “an educated carpenter, musician, and family man from New York state” ^GN before being forced to work for a dozen years on a pair of Louisiana plantations.

In his review for The Guardian, Mark Kermode says “if you have any interest in cinema – or, for that matter, in art, economics, politics, drama, literature or history – then you need to watch 12 Years a Slave.” ^GN It rewards the viewer with seeing director Steve McQueen “an artist using the medium of film for its highest purposes: to elevate, educate and ultimately ennoble the viewer.” ^GN It “is not an easy watch and nor should it be” ^GN but is “an important story told with passion, conviction, and grace.” ^GN

“McQueen remains exceptionally even-handed and controlled in his treatment of all the key players, black and white alike.” ^GN Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon is “nothing short of magnificent.” ^GN He “proves himself a master of physical understatement, the clench of his teeth and slightest parting of the lips speaking volumes.” ^GN “The key to Solomon’s existence is the suppression of his rage – he must feign illiteracy and subservience to survive.” ^GN

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o as slave Patsey offers “the most bold feature debut by an actress in recent memory, her performance fiery, fragile and fiercely proud.” ^GN Meanwhile, Benedict Cumberbatch as slaveowner William Ford “displays the trappings of civility” ^GN while Michael Fassbender as slaveowner Edwin Epps is sadistic and cruel.

Sources:

^GN TheGuardian.com movie review by Mark Kermode
^WK Wikipedia

Awards/Honors/Lists:

Dave’s Movie Database Lists:

Awards:

Oscars:

Wins: 3: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Nyong’o), Best Adapted Screenplay

Nominations: 9: Best Director, Best Actor (Ejiofor), Best Supporting Actor (Fassbender), Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design

Lists:

First posted 2/28/2025.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Entertainment Weekly: Top 100 Movies

Entertainment Weekly:

The 100 All-Time Greatest Movies

Entertainment Weekly’s 100 Greatest Movies of All Time was a 1999 hardcover book published by Time-Life Inc. In 2013, the magazine updated it as a top 100 list + another 25 honorable mentions. 60 movies appeared on both lists. The list below is an aggregate of the two lists.

1. The Godfather (1972)
2. Citizen Kane (1941)
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Psycho (1960)
5. Gone with the Wind (1939)
6. The Gold Rush (1925)
7. The Searchers (1956)
8. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
9. The Seven Samurai (Schichinin no Samurai) (1954)
10. Some Like It Hot (1959)

11. Chinatown (1974)
12. Nashville (1975)
13. Pulp Fiction (1994)
14. The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di Biciclette) (1947)
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
17. Blue Velvet (1986)
18. Vertigo (1958)
19. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
20. King Kong (1933)

21. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
22. On the Waterfront (1954)
23. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
24. Jaws (1975)
25. Mean Streets (1973)
26. North by Northwest (1959)
27. Annie Hall (1977)
28. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
29. Duck Soup (1933)
30. Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)

31. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
32. Taxi Driver (1976)
33. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
34. The Graduate (1967)
35. Notorious (1946)
36. Double Indemnity (1944)
37. The Sweet Life (La Dolce Vita) (1960)
38. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
39. Schindler’s List (1939)
40. The Rules of the Game (La Règle du Jeu) (1939)

41. The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet) (1957)
42. All About Eve (1950)
43. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
44. Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) (1959)
45. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
46. Touch of Evil (1958)
47. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1982)
48. The Wild Bunch (1969)
49. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
50. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

51. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
52. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
53. Apocalypse Now (1979)
54. Do the Right Thing (1969)
55. It Happened One Night (1934)
56. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
57. The Piano (1993)
58. American Graffiti (1973)
59. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
60. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

61. Raging Bull (1980)
62. The Godfather Part II (1974)
63. Bambi (1942)
64. Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
65. The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)
66. Toy Story (1995)
67. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
68. The Sound of Music (1965)
69. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
70. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

71. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
72. Jules and Jim (Jules et Jim) (1961)
73. Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
74. Adam’s Rib (1949)
75. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
76. 8 ½ (Otto e Mezzo) (1963)
77. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
78. Manhattan (1979)
79. Swing Time (1936)
80. Aliens (1986)

81. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
82. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
83. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
84. Goldfinger (1964)
85. Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis) (1945)
86. Titanic (1997)
87. Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
88. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
89. Frankenstein (1931)
90. Midnight Cowboy (1969)

91. All the President’s Men (1976)
92. The Lady Eve (1941)
93. Top Hat (1935)
94. Henry V (1944)
95. Network (1976)
96. The Third Man (1949)
97. Last Tango in Paris (Ultimo Tango a Parigi) (1973)
98. The Shining (1980)
99. Airplane! (1980)
100. Goodfellas (1990)

Resources:

Dave’s Music Database: Movie Lists
Entertainment Weekly (7/12/2013). “Movies: Top 100”: slide show with commentary
Filmsite.org (7/11/2013). “The 100 All-Time Greatest”: list-only version of Entertainment Weekly’s 2013 edition
Filmsite.org (1999). “100 Greatest Movies of All Time”: Entertainment Weekly

Originally posted 7/12/2013.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Today in Movies (1963): 8 ½ (Otto e Mezzo)

8 ½ (Otto e Mezzo)

Released: January 2, 1963

Studio: Cineriz (Italy), Columbia Films S.A. (France)

Genre: comedy/foreign

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 0.098 Worldwide: 0.201

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: -- Worldwide: 0.68

Directing: Federico Fellini

Screenwriting: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi

Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimee, Sandra Milo, Rossela Falk, Barbara Steele

Review:

“After achieving international acclaim with increasingly expressionistic portraits of the world as he saw it — from the simple circus performers of “La Strada” to the decadent Roman nightlife of “La Dolce Vita” — Italian maestro Federico Fellini lost confidence in his capacity to create. Instead of giving up, he channeled that artistic despair into his most uninhibited triumph: a freewheeling and shamelessly autobiographical movie about a philandering filmmaker’s crippling case of directile dysfunction, full to bursting with past mistresses, childhood memories and psychoanalytic symbology. From the opening anxiety dream, in which Marcello Mastroianni (as Fellini’s self-flattering/flagellating stand-in) claws his way out of a traffic jam, to the climactic rondelet around the rocket set, the blocked director found surrealistic inspiration in his subconscious.” ^VY