MCN DVD
Frozen River

Apart from appearances in several of Henry Jaglom's ensemble pieces, Melissa Leo came to our attention as detective Kay Howard in the brilliant police series, Homicide: Life on the Streets. After appearing mostly in TV guest slots, as cops or victims, Leo made an impressive big-screen return with memorable performances in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Stephanie Daley, 21 Grams and Jaglom's Hollywood Dreams.

Also .. Nights in Rodanthe, Miracle at St. Anna, Chocolate, Way of War, Iowa, Clint Eastwood: American Icon Collection, and more ...

___________________________

Voynaristic
Bridging The Cultural Gulf With Trouble The Water
by Kim Voynar

When is a movie more than a movie?

One of the things that particularly interests me about independent film is the way in which movies can both shine a light on social issues and act as agents of change in shifting the way in which those who watch a given film view the world around them.

DP/30 Created & Presented by David Poland
30 Minutes With Oscar Nominated Documentarians
Trouble The Water Deal & Lessin	Man On Wire Ryan & Meditch	Nerakhoon Ellen Kuras

Frenzy on the Wall:
Kate Winslet Should Not Win the Oscar this Year
by Noah Forrest

There is the argument that if Winslet wins for The Reader, it’s really a win for both films, but that’s not true. She would be winning for a specific performance in a specific film and since that film is The Reader, it would be inappropriate when the other four performances are all better than Winslet performance in that particular film.

____________________________

Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

The debut of rom-com He’s Just Not That Into You led the frame with an estimated $27.9 million. Three other films bowed this weekend to varying results including a sturdy start for the 3-D animated Coraline of $16.3 million that ranked third overall. There was OK response of $9.9 million for the thriller Push but in light of cost and awareness, The Pink Panther 2 gross of $11.8 was viewed as disappointing.

Weekend Estimates (Full List)

DP/30
30 Minutes With The World's Top Animators
Andrew Stanton Wall-E	Henry Selick Coraline	Ari Folman Waltz With Bashir

Wilmington on Movies
Coraline, He's Just Not That Into You, Pink Panther 2 and Fanboys
by Michael Wilmington

Other movie genres may need some more oomph. But -- at least among the big popular, well-budgeted and well-distributed movies that have huge poster displays at the Multiplexes -- animation still seems in a kind of modern Golden Age.
    
That certainly goes for Henry Selick’s Coraline, a delightful, sharp, whimsical, wittily imagined and wondrously executed feature cartoon for adults and the smarter or more sophisticated kids ...

Also ... Wilmington on DVDs

20 Weeks to Oscar
Who Let the Dogs In?
by David Poland

Ladies & Gentlemen… children of all ages… seven Oscar nominees who really didn’t go into this season expecting to be attending the Academy Awards… Viola Davis. Courtney Hunt. Richard Jenkins.
Scott Hamilton Kennedy. Melissa Leo. Martin McDonagh. Michael Shannon. All deserving.  All appreciating.

The Charts
Best Picture | Director | Screenplay
Actor/Supporting Actor | Actress/Supporting Actress

Richard Jenkins The Visitor	Melissa Leo, Courtney Hunt Frozen River	Viola Davis Doubt

Oscar Outsider :
Who's the Best of the Best Director Nominees?
by Kim Voynar

Here we are 17 short days from Oscar, the "Biggest Movie Event of the Year," and over on the Gurus chart, they've got it nailed down to their top two picks in each category. I've written a lot of Oscar columns since coming on board here, covering the adapted and original screenplays, the acting categories, the foreigns, and the docs. Now, with less than three weeks to go until Hollywood's big hot date night with itself, I'm taking a look at the contenders in the Best Director category.

____________________________

The Gurus give their number 1 and number 2 picks in every category ... including the shorts. Gurus - February 3, 2009

DP/30
30 Minute Chats With Oscar Nominated Directors
Ron Howard Frost/Nixon	Stephen Daldry The Reader	Danny Boyle Slumdog MIllionaire

The Ultimate DVD Geek
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
by Doug Pratt

It is said that flaws can be tolerated in friends and strangers, but not in one's parents, and that definitely seems to be everybody's opinion when it comes to the father of Star Wars, George Lucas. It is because the first movie was so good that the other films became so frustrating and their flaws so obsessively glaring (if only, in Phantom Menace, he had shown the mother killed, like Bambi's mother, the entire series might have been taken more seriously…).

Defiance	-				-
Hotel for Dogs	-	-	-	-
Paul Blart, Mall Cop	-		-	-
Notorious	-	-	-	-
Chandi Chowk	-	-	-	-
Last Chance Harvey	-		-	-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	-
Revolutionary Road	-				-
Valkyrie	-		-	-
The Wrestler	-	-	-	-

Peter Gabriel And Oscar: Unplugged

Film Society Of Lincoln Center Fires 8 Staffers

Foundas On The 2 Versions Of Bertrand Tavernier's Bayou Thriller With Tommy Lee Jones

Klawans Talks To James Gray About The Jewishness Of Two Lovers

Is Lem Dobbs' "Edward Ford" The Great Unproduced Screenplay?
Earlier - Esteeming The Classic Soderbergh-Dobbs Commentary On The Limey DVD

What's The Bottom Line On Reporting Of Shutdown Of Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital?

Chicago Sun-Times Editor Michael Cooke Flees To Toronto Star

Irish Playwright Hugh Leonard, 82, Wrote "Da" And "A Life"; Extra In Olivier's Henry V

"I belong to a generation of filmmakers who want cinema to be both pleasure and experiment. Mainstream and art can be married. Everyone wants to see something artistically daring, as long as it's exciting to watch."
Talking Tom Tykwer

Is Danny McBride The Next Will Farrell?

Chicago Tribune Fires 12 Of Planned 60, Including Pulitzer-Winning Writer; Jerusalem Correspondent And Photographers

16 Movie "Mind-Burners"

Diane Keaton Writing Memoir Of Mom's Struggle With Alzheimer's

Going Halfway Up (spoilers)

Four Blaxsploitation Pics Off The Beaten Path

Ryan Gilbey's Makeovers For Oscar

John Hurt Reprises Quentin Crisp

Redstone Sez He's Close To Restructuring $1.6 Billion Debt

"More money than I or anyone in my family has ever seen."
Hardwicke's Side Of Twilight Sequel Saga
Plus - EW's Got Pages From "Twilight: Director's Notebook"

UK DVD Of The Wackness Promo'ed With A "Golden Ticket" That Gets One Of First 1,000 Buyers A Trip To Amsterdam And A Bag Of "Skunk"

James Gray Pens A Goodbye To Joaquin Phoenix

Rizov On "The New Depression Cinema"

Wingnut's New Web Wingman
Gordon Paddison's Post-New Line Consultancy Rings Up Jackson-Walsh ProdCo As Its First High Profile Client For Digital Brand Strategy
And - Blogging On " Respecting Your Consumer"

Almodóvar's New Short Debuts Friday The 13th

Remembering Carmen Miranda On Her Centennial

They Don't Make Sex-Ed Films The Way They Used To

FedEx Founder Fred Smith Absolutlely, Positively Still Believes In H'wd

Giving Jerry Lewis' Artistic Gifts A Fair Hearing
And - Hearing He's Just Not That Into You

Ridiculous Revisionism: Tom O'WhyInHeckDidTheLATimesEver-
HookUpWithThisMoron Hates On Godfather II's Best Picture Oscar

Why Watchmen Author Alan Moore Hates Comic Book Movies

Why Tribeca's Going To Qatar
And - Why Abu Dhabi And Dubai Put Money Into Their Own Film Fests

Stephen Merritt On Turning Coraline Into A Musical
And - Jamie Stuart Captures Henry Selick Looking Stop-Motiony Himself (video)

The Writers Strike: One Year Later

Nolan Present At The Inception

Yahoo's Got The Tarantino Trailer But Misspells Its Misspellings

First Oscarcast Ad For A Movie: The Soloist

Allocating Your Clive Owen Budget

Remembering Johnny Carson As Oscar Host

Indian Gamblers Stake A Billion Rupees On Millionaire

Lionsgate Loses Some Wall St. Money

Muzak Bankrupt

Woody's Back To Blighty But With Spanish Coin

Michael Moore Wants A Bailout

Manhattan Mainstay Of Experimental Cinema, Film-Makers' Cooperative, About To Be Evicted In Favor Of Internet Radio Station

Watch The Opening 5 Minutes Of The International

The Daily Deadwood
Cablevision Takes $450 Million Loss On Newsday
And - Toronto Metro Fires Staff, Hires Unpaid Interns To Replace Them.
While - Wall Street Journal No Longer Doing Research For Its Reporters?

Pong Turns 40

Are There Movie Stars If You Can't Buy US At 7-Eleven?
Billionaire Burkle's Source Interlink Mag Distrib Claims Nefarious Plot By Publishers Who Refused To Pay Per-Copy Ransom

5 Arguments Against The Live Nation-Ticketmaster Monopoly

Is There A 21st Century "Anarchist Cinema"?

The New Yorker's Greta Gerwig Groupie Comes To Defense Of Micro-Auteur Joe Swanberg

Robert Anderson, 91, Wrote Tea & Sympathy, I Never Sang for My Father. The Nun's Story

Examining Spielberg's Jurassic Perk: The 2% Of Gross From Universal Theme Parks In Perpetuity

Live From Austin, The Office Space 10th Anniversary Event

Phaidon Press Finalizes Deal To Become Auteur Of Cahiers Du Cinéma

The Rude Logo For Tarantino's Rude Ninth Pic

Mumblequeen Greta Gerwig Slotted For Next Noah Baumbach Outing

NewsCorp-Owned Publisher Harper Collins Sets Layoffs

Cautionary Tales About Paid Content On The Web

Buena Vista Social Club Bassist Cachaito Was 76

5 or 6 Years... 10% Distrib Fee... Starz Cable Slots... $100 Million Loan To Help Secure Reliance Funding
More DreamWorks/Disney Details
The Times Adds...

“If we don’t have something original to say, we won’t. The drill of chasing the week’s news to add a couple of hard-fought new details is not sustainable.”
Newsweek Makes The Intellectual Leap Into A New Media Universe

Ad Age Counts 65,100 Job Losses In Media In Current Downturn (And It's Not 5pm Yet)

"I work fast. I do not make 20 parallel versions of the edit and then cannot decide which one would be the best. I just do it once and then plow on until I’m through the film and then that’s the film."
Mr. Herzog Is Brisk As Well As Brusque

"This is a film whose essential metaphorical thrust is to exculpate Nazi-era Germans from knowing complicity in the Final Solution."
Ron Rosenbaum Sez Oscar Ought Not Peruse The Reader

Should The Joker's Bespoke Fuschia Velveteen Suit Be Hung Up For Good?

NY Observer Will No Longer Dine Out

The Return Of Julia Roberts (To The Arts Section Of The Times)

Tony Kushner On Milk

In Berlin, Winterbottom Bummed By Banks

"'The only problem was, it was Christmas Eve. Getting it delivered was out of the question. Then I thought, "OK, maybe I can find a bookstore that had it in stock."' His next thought — he'd drive to Canada and deliver the $26 book himself."
The Day's Best, Craziest Story About An Author Connecting With A Reader

Sad Stories Behind The Shuttering Of The Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital

"Martin Luther said if he knew the world ended tomorrow, he would plant a tree," Werner Herzog told me. "I would start a film."
Ebert Negates Despair

Isla Fisher Is A Clown

Next For Coraline: The Musical

New George Lucas-Designed Film Film School At USC Is Swanky, But Still Needs Bucks

Clay Shirky On Why Micropayments Won't Save Publishers

The Rise Of The Cinema Simulcast

DreamWorks Finalizes Releasing Product Under Disney Touchstone Banner

Red-Band Trailering Observe And Report; AKA "Rude Blart"

Coraline's Neil Gaiman On The Humble Button

"I am not quite sure if they really understand the situation. This is a mess for all of us."
Magazine Wholesaler Anderson News Folds; Deliveries To Newsstands Threatened

A Modest Proposal: $62 Billion For The Arts

German Federal Film Fund Invests Almost $10M In Tarantino's Basterds

SAG's Former Negosh Doug Allen Re-Fired

Complete BAFTA Winners List Here
Earlier - Guardian Live-Baftas

The Sunday NY Times
Chip Kidd On Redesigning Downey
And - Tom Perrotta On Winslet
Plus - Hirschberg On Standout Talents
With - Hustvedt On Pitt
And - Jane Smiley On Penn
With - Almodóvar On Penélope
And - Barry Levinson On Rourke
Plus - Chris Buckley On Langella
And - Keener On Kat Dennings
With - Cooking With James Gray
And - Bossing Gomorrah
With - Mich Workers Get Film Training
And - DreamWorks Ani's Charm Offensive
And - The Producer Wears Prada
Plus - Gyllenhaal And Sarsgaard Off Broadway
And - Remaking Friday The 13th
Plus - Buñuel's Wildest, New To DVD