Far from Park City

Thanks to the modern miracle of DVDs, I can sample some Slamdance Film Festival offerings without having to trudge through the snow. So far, I have reviewed Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer and Circus Rosaire. More to come...

(BTW: While all the A-list Variety critics are in Park City, Meet the Spartans will open Friday without press previews. I don't have to tell you what that means, do I?)

Oscar madness

My first take on today's announcement of Oscar finalists: A few welcome surprises -- including a Best Actor nomination for Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises) and a Best Director nod for Jason Reitman (Juno) -- along with plenty of predictable choices, hardly any of them unworthy, and only one truly disappointing shut-out. (Nothing at all for Knocked Up? Damn.)

I wish there had been a little Academy love for some of my personal-fave long-shots (especially Reign Over Me and Black Snake Moan), but, really there's nothing on this list that annoys me, and quite a few inclusions that delight me. I'm especially happy to see Ellen Page among the Best Actress finalists -- shameless plug: I have an interview with her in the new issue of MovieMaker -- and Tommy Lee Jones getting the attention he deserves for the criminally under-rated In the Valley of Elah. Let's hope neither nominee will have to worry about crossing picket lines when the envelopes are opened Feb. 24.

Still another one bites the dust

David Elliott joins the ever-increasing ranks of film critics laid off by daily newspapers. Damn. (Hat tip to FilmStew.com.)

For the record

I would like to stipulate, and have recorded for posterity, that I favorably reviewed Step Up and 27 Dresses before I had any idea -- repeat, any idea -- that director Anne Fletcher was this hot. Really. Honest.

And speaking of Denzel....

Long before they paired in American Gangster, Russell Crowe co-starred with Denzel Washington in Brett Leonard's 1995 sci-fi thriller Virtuosity. Both Crowe and I look a lot younger in this clip.

Me and Denzel, Part III

In late 1997, I had the opportunity to talk with Denzel Washington about Fallen. This vintage segment -- newly edited, like all my YouTube clips, by the multitalented Robert Clark -- probably won't land me a job on 60 Minutes, but I do think it demonstrates that I learned a few things about doing TV during my stint at KPRC. (BTW: Note the "Uncle Denzel" reference at the very end. Yes, I told him all about that, and he was amused.)

Me and Denzel, Part II

As my son's birthday approached in 1995, I feared that, even with my free-lace writing work, and my part-time gig at KPRC, I wouldn't have enough cash to throw a celebration worthy of the lad. Fortunately, during the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, the spectacularly wonderful Jami Bernard put me in touch with her editors at the New York Daily News, who assigned me to interview Denzel Washington in conjunction with Devil in a Blue Dress. When I returned to Houston, I told my son that, thanks to his "Uncle Denzel," he would enjoy a first-rate birthday blow-out. And ever since, "Uncle Denzel" is how Washington has been known at Casa Leydon.

(A word on the above clip: Unfortunately, Washington hasn't yet been able to do Othello at Houston's Tony Award-winning Alley Theatre. But, hey, hope springs eternal.)

Me and Denzel, Part I

Back in April 1995, The Houston Post, which had employed me as film critic since August 1982, shut down. And when I couldn't find another newspaper to pay me to watch movies for a living, I feared that I would actually have to find a real job.

Fortunately, I managed to avoid the inevitable for a while when I landed a part-time gig at KPRC-TV, Houston's NBC affiliate, as film critic for the station's weekend morning news show. Talk about earning while you're learning: This segment I did with Denzel Washington (during a junket for Virtuosity) was one of my very first efforts for KPRC as on-the-air interviewer. Fortunately, Washington was too gracious to make me look too green.

Surge into Afghanistan?

Excuse me, but wasn't this what Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep were talking about in Lions for Lambs?

Weekend at the movies

The good news: The Rape of Europa, a fascinating documentary about Adolf Hitler's campaign to claim Europe's art masterworks for the "master race."

The bad news: Well, Uwe Boll unleashed another one of his videogame adaptations.

Barack Obama: Superstar

What Tina Daunt of the L.A. Times writes specifically about Barack Obama's appeal to Hollywood insiders may also help explain the candidate's ascending superstardom everywhere:

"[I]n a town that for many months has been divided by head and heart, a lot of entertainment industry people who chose [Hillary] Clinton because she was the smart choice, the 'inevitable' Democratic candidate, are going where their hearts have long wanted to take them -- to a place on the Obama bandwagon (and nobody wants to miss the last seat).

"From the beginning, Hollywood has loved Obama's story -- his 'pitch' as they say -- but were wary of his real box office potential. Iowa and now possibly New Hampshire have lifted that uncertainty. The only thing the town likes better than a great story is a winning one."

Sicko

I've been felled by whatever bug is floating around Houston these days, and haven't spent much time out of bed during the past 24 hours. Will post again when I'm feeling better.

Sundown

Sometimes, I think it's a sin -- when I feel like I'm winning, when I'm losing again.

In praise of Frank Langella

Throughout nearly four decades of estimable work in film and theater, Frank Langella has remained highly visible at a level somewhere between superstar and journeyman. Early in his film career – specifically, in 1970, when he gave back-to-back, attention-grabbing performances in Frank Perry’s Diary of Mad Housewife and Mel Brooks’ The Twelve Chairs – he appeared poised to break out as a hot-hunk leading man. (After seeing the latter film for the first time, a gay college classmate confided to me: "I'd sure like to see that sailor naked!" So I recommended that he see Housewife. He did. Several times.) Later in the ‘70s, Langella evidenced similarly sexy potential when he starred in a popular Broadway revival of Dracula, then repeated his smoldering portrayal of the bloodthirsty count in an indifferently received film version. For one reason or another, however, the magic didn’t happen, and movie stardom eluded him.

But never mind: Langella has continued to earn awards and dazzle audiences in a remarkably diverse variety of stage roles – I was impressed by his turn as Henry Higgins in a Houston Grand Opera revival of My Fair Lady a few years back – while occasionally making his presence felt (and appreciated) as a supporting player in indie and mainstream movies. His may not be a household name, but it’s nonetheless a name that carries weight with those who have admired his work.

Which is why, as I've written in my Houston Chronicle review of Starting Out in the Evening, when Lauren Ambrose's ambitious grad student first approaches Leonard Schiller (Langella), a literary lion in winter, with equal measures of giddy excitement and respectful deference, it’s easy to image the actor playing Leonard generating the same response in a fan who recalls, say, Langella’s 1975 Tony Award-winning performance -- his Broadway debut! -- in Edward Albee’s Seascape, and who has followed the actor’s career ever since.

An objective observer – like the cynical magazine editor in Starting Out in the Evening, who dismisses Langella's character as a forgotten relic from another era -- might question why anyone would get so excited about encountering a figure so far removed from the A-list. But, as Louis Armstrong once quipped, “There are some people that, if they don’t know, you can’t tell them.”

Houston crix pick pix

The recently formed Houston Film Critics Society – of which I am a member – has announced its very first list of year-end accolades. And while I don’t agree with every selection, hey, I got outvoted in some categories, so I’ll just have get over it, after a reasonable amount of pouting.

But seriously, folks:

BEST PICTURE – No Country for Old Men.

BEST DIRECTOR OF A MOTION PICTURE – Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE – Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE – Julie Christie, Away from Her.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE – Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE – Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE CAST – Hairspray.

BEST SCREENPLAY – Diablo Cody, Juno.

BEST ANIMATED FILM – Ratatouille.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – Dario Marianelli, Atonement.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG – "Falling Slowly" from Once.

HFCS president Nick Nicholson (no, I don’t believe that’s his real name, either, but that’s his story, and he’s sticking with it) also announced a special prize for HONORARY TEXANS: Joel and Ethan Coen, co-directors of No Country for Old Men. “We were so impressed with No Country,” Nicholson said, “that we wanted to let the Coen Brothers know they are welcome to shoot in our state any time they want, as long as they don’t let their pit bulls anywhere near us.”

But wait, there’s more: HFCS members also voted to bestow special prizes for OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMA. The winners: Philip Seymour Hoffman, for being so damn good in no fewer than three 2007 movies (Charlie Wilson’s War, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and The Savages); and the late, lamented Greenway 3 Theatre, the revered Houston art-house that closed on New Year’s Eve.

The top ten movies of 2007, voted by HFCS members:

1. No Country for Old Men

2. Juno

3. Atonement

4. Michael Clayton

5. Into the Wild

6. Sweeney Todd

7. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

8. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

9. Charlie Wilson’s War

10. I’m Not There

Another lame excuse

Looks like I won't get to see There Will Be Blood until Monday. And since I can't very well compile my list of 2007's ten best movies without seeing whether this particular movie should be included, well...

Coming soon to a video store near you

Several Academy Award hopefuls will be released on DVD during the next few weeks, to take advantage of all the pre-Oscarcast hoopla. But 3:10 to Yuma -- which hits video stores next week -- is the only one set for a January debut.

Stand By Me

My favorite version of one of my favorite songs.

Top Ten late again

Sorry: I'm still catching up with a few 2007 movies, so I likely won't have my year-end wrap-up posted until this weekend. Yeah, I know: This tardiness is getting to be a habit with me.

Big Easy eateries

Since a reader asked about restaurants in my home town of New Orleans, I thought I'd do some online checking to see if some of my faves are still open for business. I had heard that Mandina's closed for a while, because of Katrina-caused damage. Looks like they got a great deal on pink paint while doing repairs and restoration. But never mind: If you're in The Big Easy, go. Eat. Enjoy.

And if you're in the French Quarter, be sure to check out my favorite joint in that area: Felix's Restaurant and Oyster Bar.