August
24
Awards Season Watch: Mortensen Trifecta
Viggo Mortensen followed up his three Lord of the Rings movies with two stellar performances, in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence and last year's Eastern Promises, for which Mortensen earned his first Oscar nom.
This put Mortensen in the Oscar Zone. And this fall Mortensen returns to the Toronto Film Fest with two pictures: the Ed Harris western Appaloosa (Groundswell, New Line/WB, 9/17) and the Holocaust drama Good (ThinkFilm, 12/08), which is the performance that Mortensen himself hopes is an Oscar-contender. Here's the trailer:
BTW, Twitch has a nice selection of Toronto trailers.
As usual, reactions of Toronto critics, press and audiences will tell the tale for the films hoping to push forward and go the distance for Oscar contention.
The Academy, with its elder voters, still harbors an affection for westerns. I hear good buzz on Appalooosa, but while actor-director Harris's Pollock did win an Oscar for Marcia Gay Harden (and Harris has been nommed as an actor four times), it's tough for a genre film to get serious Academy attention. In recent years, however, those barriers have become more breakable.
Also, WB is struggling to release and market all the pics it has piled up from New Line and Warner Independent. The studio is opening the Edward Norton-starrer Pride & Glory wide, and is sharing the release of WIP's Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle, with Fox Searchlight. So it will be unlikely that the studio will be able to mount and sustain serious Oscar races for many of these films.
Mortensen adores Good, which ThinkFilm plans to release by year's end. But the film is directed by Brazilian director Vicente Amorim, who is not in the Academy directors' club.
Mortensen's third fall pic, John Hillcoat's film version of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel The Road, wasn't ready for the film fests. The 2929 Entertainment pic is set for release November 26 by Dimension/MGM, which suggests that despite its literary pedigree (and the Oscar Best Picture win for No Country for Old Men, based on McCarthy's book), the film may not be on Harvey Weinstein's Oscar must-push list. That could always change.
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Appaloosa does look good. looking forward to seeing that one. i'm a big fan of the new western -- perfect story structure, compelling characters, simple camera work that's a pleasure to watch, etc
is it correct to call movies like 'unforgiven' and 'open range' 'nouveau-westerns' or would that be reserved for something like 'no country for old men'? (or is wondering that too dumb a thing in general)
whatever...i like them. whenever a western gets made you can count on solid story and a good time at the movies. here's rooting for mortensen
Posted by: Alan | August 24, 2008 at 05:17 PM
You know me and I LOVE westerns. I've seen Appaloosa and I would say it's a good, solid western. Great peformances, terrific dialogue (Mortensen and Harris have some great funny scenes together) beautifully shot (by Dean Semler) as any western should be and has that "masculine" edge that any great western should have. Actually the first half of the film plays like a remake of the 1959 Edward Dmytryk western Warlock with Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn. The same exact premise
But I felt it falls short when compared to The Assasination of Jesse James and 3:10 to Yuma from last year. The basic problem for me is one of pacing. I felt it dragged at times and tended to meander along when it should get straight to the point and the ending, while it's expected, takes it's own sweet time getting there. But anybody who loves the genre and just likes good, well made, smart movies please go see this one
Posted by: Sergio | August 24, 2008 at 06:19 PM
I am always rooting for the success of the western. one thing I learned from my USC class this spring was that this genre is something, like the newspaper, that will not endure with the younger generation. They just don't get them, appreciate them, or understand them. it's another place and time. That's why I always root for every western to succeed. But going forward, they will be only be supported by older viewers.
Posted by: anne thompson | August 27, 2008 at 06:31 PM
I think The Road will be another huge smash hit for Viggo. Many college kids have read the book, love him in his other movies and will go in droves to see him in The Road.
Posted by: R | September 09, 2008 at 01:42 PM