The PDC Picks the Top Films of 2014

Mae's Picks

5. Snowpiercer - This is the first English-language feature film for director Bong Joon-ho. And you know what? He gets it right. The production value, a re-envisioned take on already-used themes, and fantastic execution and performances by Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer, and Tilda Swinton, among many others, makes this movie really stand out. It's dark, it has fantastic themes, and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. Watching Snowpiercer is essentially like being on a thrilling ride you never want to get off of. As the passengers, who are the last of humankind and are placed in a class system on the train that makes a complete turn around the earth every year, grow tired of being mistreated, they plan to take over the train one car at a time. This literal look at society's economical system is in heavy play here and Bong Joon-ho's direction takes center stage in a suspenseful epic that deserves to be seen and gives us something to think about.

4. Gone Girl - One of the best adapted screenplays of the year (probably because Gillian Flynn, the author of the novel, was the one who adapted the script), Gone Girl is chock-full of powerful acting, a crazy plot, and just the right balance between drama and insanity. Flynn writes with a deft hand and layers the story with proverbial stereotypes about certain gender notions and exceptionally memorable characters. Rosamund Pike's monologue about the "cool girl" is so popular, and for good reason, and her portrayal of Amy is nothing like we've seen from the actress before. Ben Affleck is the accused husband whose life hangs in the balance between normal life and prison (mostly due to the media's twist and portrayal on the proceedings, which plays a large part in the film). I could go on and on with all the great things to say about this film, but just know this: It's excellently done. Also, did I mention the entire "Cool Girl" speech, already?

3. X-Men: Days of Future Past - We can never forget Brett Ratner's turn in the director's chair for the doomed X3, but now with Days of Future Past, we kind of can. Finally! The excellence that was X-Men: First Class and the wonderful first two X-Men films combine worlds in a time travel mash-up that was exciting and more than fulfilling for longtime fans of the movies and comic books alike. For one thing, Bryan Singer is back in the director's chair and the fluidity with which he directs what could have been a complicated plot (what with flip-flopping timelines and all) could have ended in disaster in anyone else's hands. Plus, spoiler alert, every X-Man (and woman!) makes a reappearance in a spectacular fashion. A definite example of how superhero films should be done.

2. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - What is there to really say about Birdman that hasn't already been said? Most of the time, critics don't agree on everything, but when they do, there's reason to, and this film is definitely reason to. One of the reasons to love it is that the story pretty much, and ironically, mirrors Michael Keaton's career and rehabilitates it all in one go. The ensemble cast is fantastic, it's a cohesive story, and director Alejandro Inarritu gets technically creative when it comes to the style and oh, yeah, the entire film looks like it's entirely one shot. Which is just awesome. That is all.

1, Selma- A lot of people won't see Selma until January 9, but believe me when I tell you that if you see this film and manage not to like it, then... well, you won't like it, but that in and of itself would be a tragedy. This film couldn't have come at a better time and director Ava DuVernay takes great care to make this film, first and foremost, about Martin Luther King, Jr. Everything else is just an extension of him and only serves to make the film that much better. It's powerful, will probably make you bawl like a baby (bring tissues!), and will leave a great impact on you like no other film will this year. Selma is also backed by a strong cast (David Oyelowo as MLK is outstanding) and really steps up to the plate. The best picture of the year!

Julian's Picks

I don’t see as many films as the rest of the crew but I get out there and you know why

5. The Raid 2- Imagine this whole paragraph with this Sean Bean’s face the whole time you’re reading this.

ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY VIEW THE RAID 2.

The Raid 2 is like pure martial arts film life. It breathes in pure awesome. Where the first film The Raid is like what if some one took late 80s beat’em up video games, bosses and all this one was like a perfect upgrade. With perfect mix of films like Infernal Affairs and Donny Brasco with martial arts classics like the Big Boss or Fist of Legend the Raid 2 had it all. Had me catching the shaolin holy ghost in the theater when I saw it. Every fight is money and also such great new remember able characters like Bat-man and Hammer Girl along with their friend curved knife dude had everyone on the edge of their seat. I go around telling people all the time that they need to fix their life if they haven’t seen The Raid 2.

4. Dear White People- Man I loved the idea of this movie from the title alone. 2014 had been a very weird year for race relations in the United States. For a many just looking at the film’s title and trailer they probably thought this film was about Black people telling white people how they are wrong and really folks are wrong. It’s very much more about generation dealing with race in the country now when it’s supposed to be so post racial. I don’t know, I feel this film a lot. I ended up talking about race a lot this year in many different type of situations and a lot of the issues raised here were needed to be explored in the mainstream. The film also gave me one of my favorite reaction gifs

and Tessa Thompson is fine as all outdoors.

3. Interstellar- This movie is my jam y’all. IT HAS TWO ROBOTS!!!! TARS and CASE all damn day folks. 

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I know this film gets flack from some, I probably love it the most out of our crew here. The movie has Proto-Culture in it! I loved the science in it. The real science fiction explored in it. I loved the whole four-dimensional tesseract part; talk of singularities and the theory of relativity in use.

2. Lego Movie- Lego Movie is my jam. It has Batman in it just stunting on everyone. Holding it down like he does in his Lego games. This joint had my dude Chris Pratt aka The Star-Lord out there being awesome building bunk couches. Being a master builder and all. The film basically has the opposite message of The Incredibles, where in everyone is special in their own way. Which does make everyone the same yet amazing at that same time. I also love how they have that play at the end with something that seems innocuous but really plays with Emmitt (Chris Pratt’s Lego alter ego) basically meeting Judeo Christian God and Jesus with the kid and Will Ferrell. Ferrell created the world and wants strict rules where in his son wants the Lego world to be more forgiving and peaceful. Yeah I saw all that when I was watching it and I’m not even close to religious. I just know stories.

1. Top Five- Chris Rock man, Chris Rock. See I always liked his movies. Head of state was enjoyable. I Think I Love My Wife I swear by but this, Top Five is next level. It’s true what everyone is saying it is Rock’s Annie Hall. It’s a great film basically just about people talking in NYC but from a completely black experience. I love how the film deals with fame, especially urban fame and some of the stuff a person has to deal with. It deals with pressures and the way people view you that really struck a cord. The use of hip hop as a constant topic of a person’s top five favorite emcees is perfect way to really tap into a lot of peoples’ life. Also the whole interview that becomes a date I really connected to in this. A TON! Top Five had me like

Rocky's Picks

5. TIE 22 JUMP STREET/VERONICA MARS- Let’s start with a couple of movies that had big expectations this year: Veronica Mars, which needed to simultaneously please the Marshmallows that helped fund it and people new to the show in order to draw in additional audiences; and 22 Jump Street, which had to prove that the original film starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill wasn’t a fluke success. And I think both of them succeeded quite admirably—I couldn’t stop smiling during the former and I couldn’t stop laughing during the latter. Veronica Mars, as I talked about during my Best Trailers of 2014 and Best Kisses of 2014 posts, picked up exactly where the show had left off so many years ago, channeling the right wry and cynical tone while still letting a bit of hope (Logan and Veronica forever!) peep through. And 22 Jump Street continued to poke fun at youth culture, this time mocking the absurdity of college and allowing Tatum and Hill to further their weird sibling rivalry charm. (Let’s hope that the Jump Street/Men in Black crossover hinted at in the Sony email leaks never comes to fruition, because I would shake my fist in prolonged rage.) Overall, though, two of the films that gave me the most smiles this year.

4. TIE: ERNEST & CELESTINE/THE BOXTROLLS- In a year that saw huge success for animated films The LEGO Movie and Big Hero 6, and following last year’s mega-obnoxious-it-will-never-go-away mania of Frozen, I would rather watch Ernest & Celestine or The Boxtrolls. The former is a beautiful (and I mean that both visually and thematically) French-Belgian film about a friendship between a mouse and a bear; they’re not supposed to get along, but they realize their differences from the others of their species make them more attuned to each other than anyone else. The movie was originally released in 2012 but only made its way stateside this year, and please find it and watch it (the subtitled version!). You won’t regret it. The same goes for The Boxtrolls, the latest film from Laika; it underperformed when released this fall, but it’s such a weird, bizarre, gleeful little film that I’ve been recommending it to anyone and everyone. It’s about classicism and creativity and, well, cheese, but all of its disparate elements come together into something great.

3. GONE GIRL- What else is there to say about Gone Girl? I won’t write you a thinkpiece; all I’ll say is that Amazing Amy is my favorite villain of the year. Her cruelty gives me joy. And any time I get the opportunity to smugly say “That’s marriage” to someone, well, I’ll take it!

2. FOXCATCHER- I listed Foxcatcher as my most underrated movie of the year in our staff post, and I stand by that claim. Of the more than 150 movies I saw this year, this is probably the one I can’t stop thinking about—the story that makes me the angriest at American sports culture, social structure, and inherited wealth. All of the performances are great, and in a year packed with male competitors, it’s disappointing that Steve Carrell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo might get forgotten for their work here (and they absolutely shouldn’t). The methodical stillness of the filmmaking is unshakably eerie. And while I hear the critique (which fellow PDC-er Travis Hopson has made to me) that director Bennett Miller doesn’t really add anything to the story with his film, I disagree; I think the mystery of the narrative, and the abruptness with which Miller moves between subplots and how he chooses to end the film, speak for themselves. There’s a moral decay to Foxcatcher that is simultaneously enthralling and repellant, and it’s going to stay on my mind for a long time. 

1. BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE)- Masterful is how I would describe Birdman—director Alejandro González Iñárritu; cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki; composer Antonio Sanchez; the ensemble led by Michael Keaton and including great work from Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Zach Galifianakis. Everyone here is in top form; every scene works; every criticism of cinema and theater and fame hits exactly where it needs to hit; every sneer from Norton lands perfectly; every narrated line from Birdman himself has impact. That voice! Who doesn’t love the Keaton-as-Birdman voice? It’s a twisty-turny film, and the ending won’t work for everyone, and the play within the movie structure has its moments of exceeding meta-ness—but I couldn’t take my eyes off any second of it. Birdman is unforgettable, and it’s my favorite movie of the year.


John's Picks

5. Foxcatcher- The ‘Based on a True Story’ film starring Steve Carrell and Channing Tatum chronicles the story of John du Pont and his relationship with the Schultz brothers during their time working with Du Pont’s Team Foxcatcher wrestling camp. The flick had a ton of buzz a while back but has since taken a back seat to films like Boyhood and Birdman. While the prosthetics used on Tatum and Carrell are a bit distracting I can’t find another flaw with the film. The performances are great and the story has this subdued quality that really grips you by the arm and makes you pay attention. Honestly, if I were to watch a scene out of context I’d think the film lacked any semblance of energy, but the entire film in context? Simply gripping. Carrel’s Du Pont is equal parts sad, weird, and ominious and Ruffalo brings that overly likeable persona he adds to each of his characters making the whole film that much more tragic (Sorry Channing, you were good but those two stole the show).

4. Guardians of the Galaxy- I wonder if this was what it was like to see Star Wars in a theater back in 1977? Guardians brings us to a whole new world full of such fun and wonder that it’s amazing there was any trepidation about the film being too out there. Hindsight is 20/20, I would never have guessed a film starring a talking raccoon and anthropomorphic tree would be one of the best of the year either. Calling a film “the total package” is, like most review tropes, overused and under deserved most of the time. Not here, nope, this is the definition. Chris Pratt brings more laughs than you could possibly expect, the action scenes are top notch…I haven’t seen such great sci-fi dogfighting choreography since Return of the Jedi, the story and writing are so good that you find yourself empathizing with the pain felt by that same talking Raccoon in a bar scene, and if you didn’t cry during the hyper-emotional “We are Groot” conclusion…well then I think you need to see a psychiatrist.

3. The Raid 2- Given how overly-verbose I was when talking about last years The Raid: Redemption it surprises me to have so little to say about the best martial arts movie of the last decade (taking the honors from its predecessor). The simple fact is you don’t need a lot of words to explain why this film is in my top of 2014 list. It surpassed the original. Point made.

2. The Imitation Game- Benedict Cumberbatch’s role as Alan Turing, the British born cryptographer who broke the Nazi’s enigma code and created the first computer while doing it, is both captivating and heart-breaking. Cumberbatch is at his best in the role pulling out that persona of an anti-social genius that has become his calling card. Some have criticized the film for just that, Cumberbatch playing the same old role, and in some sense they are right but he does it so well how can you blame him. Extra points to the filmmakers for making the film about his work and not the tragic conclusion to the story. It’s not that I think that angle shouldn’t be covered, quite the opposite, the way they used it as a final punch to the story made the impact that much more heartbreaking.

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier- How could it not be #1? I’m in the minority that I absolutely loved Captain America: The First Avenger, but the follow up left me among the masses in our mutual love for Cap. The Russo brothers deliver an amazing piece of filmmaking, comic-book or not. Their use of practical effects and shying away from the big flashy CGI of most comic book films brings this movie right down to eye level adding a layer to it that I don’t think we’ve seen yet in the Marvel Universe. The far reaching impact on the Marvel universe at large is obvious but it’s the personal story and in your face blood and sweat action that brings Cap back to #1 and cements The Winter Soldier as my #1 film of the year. 

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Cinema Royale #84- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay

After a week away Cinema Royale is back and so is Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay! The "Cinema Siren" +Leslie Combemale  dials in to review the anticipated first chapter of The Hunger Games finale! Plus, we'll take a look at Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo.

All this and news on Marvel's upcoming Netflix series, the Highlander reboot, and more! Cinema Royale is part of the Hashtag Studios Broadcast Network and brings you movie reviews and news straight from the Nation's Capital! Go to www.cinemaroyaleshow.com and subscribe for free, or find the show on ITunes, TuneIn, and the Cinema Royale app!

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Review: 'Foxcatcher' starring Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum

Here's what we know about Bennett Miller: the man can tell one Hell of a story. This is the same guy who made baseball number-crunching interesting in Moneyball. He's the same guy who took Philip Seymour Hoffman to a Best Actor win in the chilly but engrossing drama, Capote. With his latest film, Foxcatcher, Miller efficiently recounts one of the oddest chapters in Olympic history; a story that involves amateur wrestling, psychotic breaks, and an almost Shakespearean level of familial discontent. It's a film awash in doom and gloom, and Miller is only all too happy to make you feel as depressed about what you know is coming as possible.

There's such a thing as being too good at one's job. The story of eccentric billionaire Jon Du Pont (Steve Carell) and the Schultz Brothers (Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum) is not one that ends on a bright note, and Miller, working from a somber script by Dan Futterman and E. Max Frye, makes sure you experience every gloomy note of it. Even the performances, which have been showered with acclaim since the film was supposed to be released LAST year, are kind of a drag.  For all of the numerous themes Foxcatcher touches upon, and they are many, we're kept at such a distance from the characters that we might as well look up the story on Wikipedia.

Carell, hiding under a prosthetic nose that Nicole Kidman in The Hourswould be jealous of, transforms into du Pont, a total nutcase billionaire with a fanatical passion for wrestling. He's turned his sprawling estate into an Olympic-level training facility, much to the chagrin of his mother (Vanessa Redgrave), and hopes to make a statement to the world by building the best team of wrestlers ever for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. To do it, he first reaches out to champion wrestler Mark Schultz (Tatum), who has been living in the shadow of his older brother Dave (Ruffalo) for his entire career. Du Pont understands this intimately; one look at his home shows the rich family heritage that looms over him at all times, not to mention the constant disapproval of his mother. So he knows exactly what to say to convince Mark, who doesn't seem like the brightest bulb in the world anyway, using a grandiose speech appealing to his sense of patriotism. What's hard to figure, at least right away, is what du Pont is getting out of all this. We recognize that he's a wacko, but just how far does his mental illness go? Is he dangerous? Is he in enough control of his faculties to use someone like Mark for his own personal gain?

The short answers to all of those questions is "extremely wacko", "yes", and "oh Hell yes". While Mark is initially very happy to be forging his own path separate from Dave, it isn't long before du Pont's dismissive attitude and constant demeaning are too much to stand. When Dave finally puts aside his concerns and joins the team, the personality clashes between the three men only cause more problems, leading to a heinous act of violence. Miller unfolds this foreboding mystery in deliberate but detached fashion, often struggling to maintain our attention from scene to scene. That's not to say there aren't great individual moments, but they're largely from the nuanced performances of the three leads. All mocking of his fake nose aside, it's hard to believe that's actually Carell because he practically transforms into du Pont on every level. Du Pont is a zealot, a man of incredible wealth and privilege who hasn't accomplished a darn thing with it. To change that he'll invest everything and destroy anyone. Tatum is all physicality and pent up aggression as Mark, while Ruffalo is the most mentally-balanced of the three as Dave, although he's not without a few flaws. Each actor throws everything they have into their performances, and as the narrative shifts focus everyone gets their time in the spotlight.

Along with great work from the cast, cinematographer Greig Fraser does a top notch job capturing the pristine sprawl of the du Pont estate, contrasted with the humble Schultz wrestling gym and living quarters. But where is the energy? There's no life to this wacky story, and worse there doesn't seem to be much of a point. When the inevitable happens, in one awful act of violence...that's it. No coda to speak of, no point to be made, nothing. I'd call the finale "strangely detached' if the rest of the film hadn't already been so. The thing is, cold and impersonal is probably just what Miller wanted Foxcatcher to be.

 Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, and Mark Ruffalo Grapple for Control in New 'Foxcatcher' Trailer

We've seen Channing Tatum get physical plenty of times before in other films, sometimes in action movies, sometimes to make us laugh. But Foxcatcher, perhaps the most dramatic role of his career, has him taking on the punishing sport of amateur wrestling, and with it one of the most grueling productions he's ever endured. He tells Yahoo...

“It was the most suffocating sport I’d ever played. You can box and hit the bag or something like that, but you can’t wrestle if you don’t want to actually do it. It’s a thankless, painful sport.”

He also talked about the various injuries he suffered while shooting the Bennett Miller-directed film and how that informed his performance, making it more authentic...

“Look, when you’re in that kind of a movie, it doesn’t matter if you’re hurt or not. You keep moving forward. I don’t think my knees will ever be the same after that, and I still have cauliflower ear. But if I came out of the movie without it, I’d feel like I didn’t do something right.”

So it sounds like Tatum's good looks got mangled a little bit, all in service of a film that has been high on the awards radar for months, both for Miller and his cast which includes Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo. The film centers on the true story of schizophrenic millionaire John du Pont who begins an Olympic wrestling facility on his compound and the friendship he forms with the grappling Schultz brothers. But du Pont's sanity began to fracture, and the relationship would end in murder. The new trailer is dark and intense, with Carell barely recognizable as du Pont.

Foxcatcher hits theaters November 14th.

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Virginia Film Festival Slate Includes 'Wild', 'Foxcatcher', 'Dumb and Dumber To', and More

The festival season never really stops, but late in the year they begin to take on a new level of importance. Over the last few years the Charlottesville-based Virginia Film Festival has positioned itself as a venue to catch many of the expected awards hopefuls just as their marketing campaigns are beginning to roll. And now today we're getting a look at the highly impressive slate for 2014, and it features more potential Oscar contenders than the festival has ever had before.

The festival runs from Nov. 6th-9th, and kicking off the show is easily one I'm looking forward to most, and it's the world premiere of Virginia-based film, Big Stone Gap. Best-selling author Adriana Trigiani has adapted her novel for her directorial debut, which stars Patrick Wilson, Ashley Judd, Jasmine Guy, and Jenna Elfman. Trigiani will be on hand for a conversation after the film along with Wilson, Guy, and Elfman. Shot entirely in VA, the story has Judd as a middle-aged spinster who keeps all of the town's secrets until she discovers one of her own that will forever change her life.

The centerpiece film will be the "cinq-a-sept" romance, 5 to 7, starring Frank Langella (on hand as a special guest), Anton Yelchin, and Olivia Thirlby. And closing out the festival will be special screening of Dead Poets Society, in honor of its 25th anniversary.

So what about the Oscar films? Reese Witherspoon has been getting a ton of attention on the festival circuit for her performance in Wild, Jean Marc-Valle's (Dallas Buyers Club) film about the real-life Cheryl Strayed who hiked more than 1,000 of the Pacific Crest Trail alone.  Bennett Miller's Olympic wrestling drama/murder mystery Foxcatcher is also on the slate, and it stars Mark Ruffalo, Channing Tatum, and an unrecognizable Steve Carell. Also included are Barry Levinson's adaptation of The Humbling, starring Al Pacino and Greta Gerwig; Dumb and Dumber To reuniting Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels; Low Down starring John Hawkes as troubled jazz musician Joe Albany; Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner starring Timothy Spall; and The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. Another film showing there is one I've been talking about since Sundance, and it's Cutter Hodierne's Somali pirate hijacking thriller, Fishing without Nets.

And that's just a small taste of a huge slate consisting of over 100 films, plus special panels, guests, and anniversary screenings. It's one of our favorites times of the year and we'll be on hand to experience everything the Virginia Film Festival has to offer. You can check out the full lineup below. Information on the schedule or purchasing tickets can be found here.

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Channing Tatum Gets Serious in New 'Foxcatcher' Poster and Teaser Trailer

We already know what Channing Tatum can do in action movies and in comedies, having only just returned as the dim-witted Officer Jenko in 22 Jump Street. Whatever you think of him, he's dramatically improved as an actor has proven to be a fairly reliable box office draw. There aren't too many who can say that, actually, and it will be interesting to see how Tatum fares in a film like the upcoming Foxcatcher, which will require him to get serious and show what he can do on the dramatic front.

The new poster and teaser trailer for the Bennett Miller (Moneyball) helmed film has been released, and it promises a Tatum who probably won't be cracking a lot of jokes. Originally meant to be in theaters last fall but was pushed back to this November to qualify for the upcoming Oscars, it stars Mark Ruffalo and Steve Carell in a dark biopic on the life of schizophrenic millionaire and wrestling enthusiast, John du Pont. Tatum plays wrestler Mark Schultz, whose autobiography the story is based on, as he and his Olympic medal-winning brother Dave (Ruffalo) befriend du Pont (Carell), attending his state-of-the-art wrestling facility Foxcatcher Farm. But du Pont's wealth hid his mental instability, and as a heated rivalry simmers between all three men du Pont would murder Mark, claiming he was part of a grand conspiracy.

Debuting at Cannes to rave reviews, the consensus seems to be that Tatum, Carell, and Ruffalo give career best performances. So it looks like the long wait for Foxcatcher will have been worth it. We'll find out when it opens on November 14th. [People]

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'Winter Sleep' Wins Palme d'Or at Cannes; Bennett Miller Wins Best Director for 'Foxcatcher'

The curtain has drawn on the glamorous 64th Cannes Film Festival, and the event came to a close with polarizing Turkish film Winter Sleep taking home the prestigious Palme d'Or. Clocking in at over 3 hours, the second year in a row a film of that length has won, Winter's Sleep was directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan who accepted the award from Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman. Some had surmised that Jane Campion's majority-female jury would be more open to selecting Naomi Kawase's acclaimed film, Still the Water, but we saw that gender ultimately played no part.

Taking home the Grand Prix was Alice Rohrwacher's The Wonders, while Bennett Miller won the top directing award for Foxcatcher, which is expected to be an Oscar contender later this year. Timothy Spall won best actor for Mike Leigh's highly-praised Mr. Turner, and Julianne Moore took home best actress for David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars.

The full list of winners is below.

Palme d’Or: “Winter Sleep” (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey-Germany-France)
Grand Prix: “The Wonders” (Alice Rohrwacher, Italy-Switzerland-Germany)
Director: Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher” (U.S.)
Actor: Timothy Spall, “Mr. Turner” (Mike Leigh, U.K.-France-Germany)
Actress: Julianne Moore, “Maps to the Stars” (David Cronenberg, Canada-Germany)
Jury Prize (tie): “Mommy” (Xavier Dolan, Canada) and “Goodbye to Language” (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
Screenplay: Andrey Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin, “Leviathan” (Russia)
Camera d’Or: “Party Girl” (Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis)
Short Films Palme d’Or: “Leidi” (Simon Mesa Soto)
Short Films Special Mention: “Aissa” (Clement Trehin-Lalanne)
Ecumenical Jury Prize: “Timbuktu” (Abderrahmane Sissako, Mauritania-France)

UN CERTAIN REGARD

Un Certain Regard Prize: “White God” (Kornel Mundruczo, Hungary-Germany-Sweden)
Jury prize: “Force Majeure” (Ruben Ostlund, Sweden-France-Denmark-Norway)
Special Prize: “The Salt of the Earth” (Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, France-Italy)
Ensemble: “Party Girl” (Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis, France)
Actor: David Gulpilil, “Charlie’s Country” (Rolf de Heer, Australia)

DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT

Art Cinema Award: “Les Combattants” (Thomas Cailley, France)
Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: “Les Combattants”
Europa Cinemas Label: “Les Combattants”

CRITICS’ WEEK

Grand Prize: “The Tribe” (Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, Ukraine)
Visionary Prize: “The Tribe”
Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: “Hope” (Boris Lojkine, France)

FIPRESCI

Competition: “Winter Sleep”
Un Certain Regard: “Jauja” (Lisandro Alonso, Denmark-U.S.-Argentina)
Directors’ Fortnight: “Les Combattants”

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New Clip and Teaser for 'Foxcatcher' Starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo

At one time Bennett Miller (Moneyball) looked to be heading back to the Oscars with Foxcatcher, a film with a terrific cast and a compelling true story involving sports, money, and murder. But then the release date got bumped and the film was temporarily while a new approach was considered. And that approach will have it still getting an Oscar-qualifying date plus a premiere at Cannes later today.

Before the film rolls a new teaser and a clip have been released which show why there's been so much awards buzz surrounding it. Starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo, the story centers on wealthy heir John du Pont, an amateur sports fanatic who opened up an Olympic-class wrestling facility at his Foxcatcher Farms property. It was there that he met and became friends with Olympic wrestlers Mark and Dave Schultz, until suddenly things went south and ended in murder.  Carell's sporting quite the impressive prosthetic schnoz for this one, and if we know anything about fake noses they are an easy ticket to an Oscar nomination.

Foxcatcher opens on November 14th.


Extrait : Foxcatcher, de Bennett Miller by Telerama_BA


Foxcatcher - Bande-Annonce by Sorties Cinema

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'Foxcatcher' Exits Oscar Race With Move To 2014; 'The Wolf of Wall Street' May Be Next

Just a few days after Nicole Kidman's Grace of Monaco was moved to next year and out of the Oscar race, another awards contender has suffered the same fate. Mere hours after an impressive trailer for Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher was released, Sony Pictures Classics has decided to shift the film from its December 20th date to some time in 2014 to give the director ample time to complete it. Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum star in the true story of John du Pont, a multimillionaire and schizophrenic who builds an Olympic-class wrestling gym on his estate, only to murder gold medal-winning wrestler Dave Schultz.

And Foxcatcher may not be the last major fall season film to make the move. Martin Scorsese apparently has some work left to do on The Wolf of Wall Street, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as hard partying New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort. The problem seems to be the first cut of the film, which in typical Scorsese fashion is extremely long. If a move is made it's possible the film won't arrive until Christmas, which would then cause the studio to bump CIA thriller Jack Ryan to January 2014.

So the Oscar favorites are dropping like flies, which should open things up for something unexpected to make some waves.

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Steve Carell Transforms Into a Killer In Stunning First Trailer for 'Foxcatcher'

Bennett Miller's first two films, Capote and Moneyball, found their way into the Best Picture race quite easily, and also earned Best Actor nods for Philip Seymour Hoffman and Brad Pitt. If the early buzz on Foxcatcher is to be believed, Miller may be going three-for-three. The first trailer for Foxcatcher has been released, and it promises a chilling look at one man's descent into madness.

Based on the true story of paranoid schizophrenic John du Pont (Carell), the story follows his deep passion for Olympic wrestling, building a world-class training facility on his 800-acre property. Mark Ruffalo plays his friend, gold medal-winning wrestler Dave Schultz, with Channing Tatum as his younger brother, Mark. Despite having everything he could ever want, du Pont begins to lose his grip on reality, captured in the trailer's ominous final image.  The transformation Carell undergoes is incredible, and the same can be said of Ruffalo, looking as far from Bruce Banner as possible.

Definitely one to keep a close eye on, Foxcatcher opens on December 20th.

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First Looks: Steve Carell in 'Foxcatcher'; Idris Elba in 'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom'; Kit Harington in 'Pompeii'

Thanks to Charlize Theron's transformation into the hideous Aileen Wuornos in Monster and Nicole Kidman plastering a huge schnoz on her face in The Hours, we went through a period where beautiful actors "uglying themselves up" was a sure path to Oscar gold. Or at least everybody gave it a shot. It remains at the very least an easy way to gain some attention for a specific role, and as we enter the awards season two major Best Picture contenders have stars undergoing some dramatic alterations, and EW has released new images of them, along with one film that will probably qualify for a Razzie.

The first image is of an unrecognizable Steve Carell in Foxcatcher, sporting one heck of a beak. Directed by Bennett Miller (Moneyball), the film has Carell starring alongside Mark Ruffalo, Channing Tatum, and Sienna Miller. He plays John du Pont, a multimillionaire and paranoid schizophrenic who built an Olympic-class wrestling facility called Team Foxcatcher on his estate, where his best friend and gold medal-winning grappler David Scultz (Ruffalo) trained. In 1996 du Pont murdered Schultz, claiming he was part of an international conspiracy. It's a bizarre story, and with a December 20th date it's clearly got Oscar aspirations.

On the other hand, Idris Elba is also unrecognizable as an older Nelson Mandela in this photo from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom...but it's because his face looks like wet cement. It's probably not fair to judge it too harshly because it could look better in motion, and Elba does seem to be embodying the South African freedom fighter pretty well in the trailer. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom hits theaters on November 29th, co-starring Naomie Harris and directed by Justin Chadwick.

And finally, here's Kit Harington wearing considerably less than the bulky gear he usually sports on HBO's Game of Thrones. That should please a few people I know. In the first image from Paul W. S. Anderson's Pompeii, Harington has clearly packed on some muscle for the role of Milo, an enslaved arena fighter who must save his noble love (Emily Browning) and his best friend (Adewale Akkinuoye-Agbaje) when the volcanic eruption occurs that will ultimately level the city. Co-starring Kiefer Sutherland, Paz Vega, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jared Harris, and Jessica Lucas, Pompeii erupts on February 21st 2014.

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'Seventh Son' Moves to Universal; 'Foxcatcher' gets Award Season Date; 'Ninja Turtles' Bumped Two Months

Lots of release date house cleaning going on all of a sudden, and while I don't normally concern myself with stuff like this, these are all pretty significant moves. The biggest involves Seventh Son, the upcoming fantasy adaptation from director Sergei Bodrov and starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore. Now that Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have officially split, with the latter signing a distribution deal with Universal all that's left was to decide who got which projects.

Just days after Legendary opted out of working on the Man of Steel sequel in favor of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, they've now been given the rights to Seventh Son. That means it will no longer maintain the January 17th release date set by Warner Bros., and will be given a new one by Universal, although it's unclear when that will be. Legendary isn't completely leaving Warner Bros. behind, as they're still involved with Godzilla and 300: Rise of an Empire. They're also moving a few other major projects over to Universal, including Warcraft, a Hot Wheels picture, Mass Effect, and Michael Mann's Cyber thriller.

Next up is Foxcatcher, a film that sounded like a potential Oscar contender from the very beginning thanks to Moneyball director Bennett Miller, and a cast that includes Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Steve Carell, and Sienna Miller. Sony Pictures Classics certainly has awards season hopes for it, which is why they've slotted it for release on December 20th, when it will likely get the prestige treatment customary for the studio's Oscar hopefuls. The film tells the weird but true story of John du Pont (Carell), a multimillionaire schizophrenic who built an Olympic-class training facility called Team Foxcatcher on his massive estate. In 1996 he suddenly murdered his longtime friend, gold medal-winning wrestler David Schulz (Ruffalo), accusing him of being part of a major international conspiracy.

And finally, the Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is getting bumped yet again, but at least this time it's only two months rather than six months. It will now hit theaters on August 8th 2014, apparently because Paramount and Bay want to get some distance between it and Transformers 4, which opens on June 27th. What it sounds like is they want more time to develop some hot new TMNT action figures, while selling more hot new Transformers toys. Whatever, it may be a minor nuisance but it's completely understandable looking at it from the studio perspective. With so many blockbusters cannibalizing one another it's a wise course of action getting some distance between two high-profile films as these. [Deadline]

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