Hollywood Life Magazine » Anne Thompson

Anne Thompson Says Oscar for Sam Rockwell

Cindy Mottley — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:07:37 +0000

One of the most ardent advocates for Conviction has to be Indiewire’s Anne Thompson, who interviews Sam Rockwell, and also interviewed other cast members, like Juliette Lewis and Hilary Swank. Here is what she says about Rockwell:

Finally, Conviction brings Rockwell the role of his career, playing the real-life rebellious, angry, volatile Kenny Waters, who grew up neglected and abused on the wrong side of the tracks and ended up with a murder conviction, in prison for life. His sister, Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank), finished high school, put herself through college and law school, over eighteen years, in order to figure out a way to prove that he was innocent of the crime. Rockwell is able to show us how this guy feels—angry, hopeful, suicidal, never sure if it will work out, hanging on to his sister to find a way out. It’s tough, real, upsetting stuff. The climactic prison scenes had to be shot over again because the grueling 16-hour day’s shoot was ruined by an airport X-ray. But doing it over made it even better, director Tony Goldwyn told me in Toronto. While two-time Oscar winner Swank gives yet another stellar performance, Rockwell, who is an actors’ actor, should finally earn some of the recognition that he deserves.

Living in Cinema‘s Craig Kennedy also went to bat for Rockwell in our podcast series, making a point to note how many times Rockwell has brought it but never seems to get any recognition.

Anne Thompson On Toy Story 3

Cindy Mottley — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:37:19 +0000

With a few brief blurbs from Variety and Hollywood Reporter (good, not great), Indiewire/Thompson on Hollywood’s Anne Thompson writes of TS3:

My take: This movie is more than welcome, while most of the studio movies released so far this year are utterly nonessential. The third Toy Story installment is a fascinating meta-movie that works on several levels at once. We start inside the vivid imagination of child Andy as he plays with the toys we know and love, led by Woody and Buzz (voiced again by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen). We move onto teen Andy trying to decide which toys to take to college; he keeps Woody and throws the rest into a garbage bag, but is distracted from delivering them to the attic; they end up first in the trash, then at a rough-and-tumble daycare center. Right from the start, Michael Arndt’s script and Lee Unkrich’s direction manipulate us into responding to real threats to these toys, not just to their happiness but their very survival. And parents will feel a familiar pang at watching a child leave his innocence behind.

Pixar does not rest on its laurels here. This is sophisticated storytelling crammed with visual, editing and sonic cues (Randy Newman is back in fine form), as the movie veers entertainingly (not jarringly) from one genre to another and deploys more and more complex technology as it goes. And like Up, it reaches into the heart and squeezes. My bet: with a boost from 3D (which like How to Train Your Dragon and Up is an organic, immersive enhancement), this will be the movie to beat as the summer’s top performer

I think she’s right, money-wise. The Oscar is up in the air still, but so far it will be Dragon’s main competition. This is what I think about Toy Story 3 and Oscar, and I say this without yet having seen the film - Pixar is lousy with Oscars already. Let’s look at their track record:

2001 – Shrek (Dreamworks) – beat Monsters, Inc.
2002 – Spirited Away (Disney/with Lasseter on board)
2003 – Finding Nemo (Pixar)
2004 – The Incredibles (Pixar)
2005 – Wallace and Gromit (Nick Park/Dreamworks)
2006 – Happy Feet (WB) – beat Pixar’s Cars
2007 – Ratatouille – (Pixar)
2008 – Wall-E – (Pixar)
2009 – Up – (Pixar)

So, it’s a bit absurd at this point the amount of Oscars Pixar has won since they implemented the Animated Feature category. Then again, they’re the best, so they deserve it. Toy Story, the original, was released before they had a category for it to win in, which it would have in a walk. Now, some believe that the Toy Story series deserves to be rewarded. I would tend to agree if it were the same team who created the first two brilliant movies. It isn’t. And these early reviews aren’t exactly making my skirt fly up. It’s a wait and see.

Dreamworks has been doing great work, but Kung Fu Panda and now, How to Train Your Dragon are good enough to win on their own reputation, particularly since Pixar has already has an embarrassment of riches. Well deserved though they may be.

Anne Thompson On Toy Story 3

Cindy Mottley — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:37:19 +0000

With a few brief blurbs from Variety and Hollywood Reporter (good, not great), Indiewire/Thompson on Hollywood’s Anne Thompson writes of TS3:

My take: This movie is more than welcome, while most of the studio movies released so far this year are utterly nonessential. The third Toy Story installment is a fascinating meta-movie that works on several levels at once. We start inside the vivid imagination of child Andy as he plays with the toys we know and love, led by Woody and Buzz (voiced again by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen). We move onto teen Andy trying to decide which toys to take to college; he keeps Woody and throws the rest into a garbage bag, but is distracted from delivering them to the attic; they end up first in the trash, then at a rough-and-tumble daycare center. Right from the start, Michael Arndt’s script and Lee Unkrich’s direction manipulate us into responding to real threats to these toys, not just to their happiness but their very survival. And parents will feel a familiar pang at watching a child leave his innocence behind.

Pixar does not rest on its laurels here. This is sophisticated storytelling crammed with visual, editing and sonic cues (Randy Newman is back in fine form), as the movie veers entertainingly (not jarringly) from one genre to another and deploys more and more complex technology as it goes. And like Up, it reaches into the heart and squeezes. My bet: with a boost from 3D (which like How to Train Your Dragon and Up is an organic, immersive enhancement), this will be the movie to beat as the summer’s top performer

Anne Thompson On Toy Story 3

Cindy Mottley — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:37:19 +0000

With a few brief blurbs from Variety and Hollywood Reporter (good, not great), Indiewire/Thompson on Hollywood’s Anne Thompson writes of TS3:

My take: This movie is more than welcome, while most of the studio movies released so far this year are utterly nonessential. The third Toy Story installment is a fascinating meta-movie that works on several levels at once. We start inside the vivid imagination of child Andy as he plays with the toys we know and love, led by Woody and Buzz (voiced again by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen). We move onto teen Andy trying to decide which toys to take to college; he keeps Woody and throws the rest into a garbage bag, but is distracted from delivering them to the attic; they end up first in the trash, then at a rough-and-tumble daycare center. Right from the start, Michael Arndt’s script and Lee Unkrich’s direction manipulate us into responding to real threats to these toys, not just to their happiness but their very survival. And parents will feel a familiar pang at watching a child leave his innocence behind.

Pixar does not rest on its laurels here. This is sophisticated storytelling crammed with visual, editing and sonic cues (Randy Newman is back in fine form), as the movie veers entertainingly (not jarringly) from one genre to another and deploys more and more complex technology as it goes. And like Up, it reaches into the heart and squeezes. My bet: with a boost from 3D (which like How to Train Your Dragon and Up is an organic, immersive enhancement), this will be the movie to beat as the summer’s top performer

Anne Thompson Looks at Summer and Sees Oscar Gold

Cindy Mottley — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:12:02 +0000

Look to the summer, says Anne Thompson, for potential Oscar movies:

But this year, five summer movies could score a top ten slot, from crowd-pleasers Up, Star Trek and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to higher-end fare such as Public Enemies and Hurt Locker.

Not having seen Harry Potter, I don’t see it landing in the top slot, although with ten who knows. Thompson has high praise for the film indeed:

[The film is] just about the best-made picture I’ve seen in many a moon. This Potter is as elegantly designed as a Pixar movie.Its tech credits are outstanding: period production design and costumes, cinematography, and visual effects (the quidditch matches are stunning).

For me, the best picture Oscar nominees are still going to be the ten best films of the year, not necessarily there to appease the public. It’s easy to go there, since The Dark Knight seems to have kicked off much of the hoopla, but you’re still looking at ten best – I don’t know that I see any of these, save Hurt Locker, ending up as one of the best of the year. Impossible to say. Harry Potter opens in the next three days and we’ll see how it goes from there. Public Enemies is solid but the digital video stuff is a bit weird, I think, and ultimately off-putting (usually I don’t think that but with this film…) The buzz for it appears to have deflated somewhat as well and it would need more heat at this point to go all the way, especially with so many Big Oscar Movies coming in the next few months.

Anne Thompson Calls Milk “Perfect Academy Movie”

Cindy Mottley — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:50:08 +0000

Ms. Thompson praises Milk:

Milk is far better than I was expecting it to be, even after reading Todd McCarthy’s positive review. It had been described to me as small, political, an acting vehicle for Sean Penn. It’s far more than that.

First of all, Dustin Lance Black’s script is as lean and disciplined as Gus Van Sant’s direction. (And that is not always true of Van Sant, although his recent indie films have been spare, even austere.) There is nothing indulgent about this film. Every actor is well cast, and Penn’s performance is towering, detailed, specific, poignant. As easy as it can be to dislike Penn the man (pick your poison), you can’t dismiss this performance, because he makes you care deeply about this guy. Penn will be nominated, in a competitive year.

Milk is the perfect Academy movie–moving, and political, especially in an Election year with Proposition 8 on the California ballot–and could get to Best Picture. It reminds us of how far we’ve come, in a short time, and how far we still have to go.

She elevates it beyond Frost/Nixon and W. and believes it could be nommed for “picture, director, screenplay, actor, editor.”

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