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'Mountain'
MenCritics are raving, but will American moviegoers give gay cowboys the boot? By ROBERT W. WELKOS and ELAINE DUTKA THE LOS ANGELES TIMES HOLLYWOOD — "Brokeback Mountain" seems to have everything going for it: great reviews, a remarkable opening weekend and dominance in the first wave of the Hollywood awards season, underscored Tuesday by seven Golden Globe nominations, the most of any film. But there's one important landmark the film has yet to reach — roping in a mass audience. Over the next several weeks, the movie about two handsome young cowboys falling in love with each other — dubbed by some wags the gay "Gone With the Wind" — will be released across the United States in cities where its themes of repressed sexuality and cultural intolerance may prove a tougher sell than they have in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with their concentrations of cineastes and gay and lesbian populations. "Brokeback Mountain's" future in the heartland will offer a classic test of whether what the movie business considers its best work will be embraced by audiences whose values may be more conservative than Hollywood's. In some ways, "Brokeback" could prove a counterpoint to the phenomenal success of last year's "The Passion of the Christ," a film disparaged by Hollywood power brokers and many film critics that still emerged as a blockbuster. The controversial cowboy movie, which is rated R in part for its sexuality, also is hitting theaters at a time when filmmakers and studio executives are worried they are losing touch with audiences, as reflected by a nearly yearlong box-office slump. At least one national exhibitor believes "Brokeback Mountain's" appeal will not be limited to major metropolitan cities. "Between the controversy and the reviews, 'Brokeback Mountain' is becoming a 'must-see' movie of the year," said Jerry Pokorski, executive vice president and chief film buyer for Pacific Theatres and ArcLight Cinemas, which has about 400 theaters across the country. "Maybe in Wichita Falls it will be a different story, but I still believe that good reviews — and good films — drive the business." But outside of big cities, movies that generate great reviews don't always play strongly. Just this year, "Capote" attracted consistently good reviews, but so far has grossed just $10.4 million in more than 200 theaters. Within movies that have gay themes, the stronger the sexuality the weaker the films tend to perform. Although toned-down gay-themed movies such as "The Birdcage" and "Philadelphia" were hits, the far more explicit (and Oscar-winning) transgender drama "Boys Don't Cry" sold only $11.5 million in tickets. "I really don't think America is ready for a homosexual love story like this," said Peter Sprigg, vice president for policy at the conservative Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. "I'm sure it has a great deal of appeal within the Hollywood community itself, which is already committed to a pro-homosexual ideology, but I can't see it as a big box-office success." Added Dave Bossie, who was the executive producer of the anti-Michael Moore documentary "Celsius 41.11" and heads the conservative grass roots organization Citizens United: "'Brokeback' will not only encounter resistance, but empty theaters. My wife and I watched the trailer in a theater a few days ago and sensed an audible revulsion to two men passionately embracing and kissing on the big screen. "Blue-collar workers (and) predominantly heterosexual women are not going to pay to see this story in large numbers. The conservative audience that made 'The Passion of the Christ' so successful will be the death knell for 'Brokeback Mountain.'" But one theater owner in Tennessee says early interest has been running high. "E-mails are running 50 to 1 in favor of the film — and not just from (gay and lesbian organizations)," said Jeff Kaufman, vice president of film for Memphis, Tenn.-based Malco Theatres, a family-owned chain of about 300 screens in small towns such as Blytheville, Ark.; Owensboro, Ky.; and Oxford, Miss. "'Brokeback' is a high-quality film, a terrific picture and there seems to be broad-based interest. A gay theme certainly didn't hurt 'The Birdcage,' which had great commercial success," Kaufman said. On Friday, the film will open on two screens in a theater in Plano, Texas, a Dallas suburb. "We've sold about 40 tickets over the Internet for the Friday screening, more than for any other movie we are showing, including 'King Kong,'" said Terrell Falk, vice president of marketing and communications for Cinemark USA Inc., which has more than 2,000 screens in 200 theaters, primarily in Utah, Ohio, California and Texas. But interest in acclaimed titles typically fades once a town's core film fanatics have come and gone. Still, novelist Larry McMurtry, who with co-screenwriter Diana Ossana adapted E. Annie Proulx's short story into "Brokeback Mountain," says the film's examination of secret love in the wilds of Wyoming should hold universal appeal. "People seem to like it — it's striking them in their hearts and in their gut," said McMurtry, the author of "Lonesome Dove." Robin Glasscock, a bartender at the Proud Cut Saloon in Cody, Wyo., said she plans to go see the movie with her friends. "I don't know how this community would respond to it," she said. "It's a pretty conservative type of place. I certainly hope they wouldn't be (offended by the movie). I think it's something they should see regardless."\] "Brokeback Mountain" will need to get those kind of intrepid moviegoers if it is to become a breakout hit. The film's producer and distributor, Focus Features, says it is encouraged that among the ticket buyers in the opening weekend were a significant (but unspecified) number of straight men who came with their girlfriends or wives. James Schamus, a Focus co-president, said the stereotype of the "Middle American who votes Republican and runs screaming from the theater at the thought of this movie is being exploded as we speak." -
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Jake
GyllenhaalJake Gyllenhaal and Brokeback Mountain lead the pack in NOW's roundup of this season's hottest films By GLENN SUMI / NOW Toronto Magazine Jake Gyllenhaal is sprawled com fortably on a hotel sofa, grinning like a big cat. It's day three of Brokeback Mountain's publicity blitz at the film festival, and he's already become a crowd favourite, smiling for photographers, pausing to sign autographs, taking it all in with those big baby blues. After asking whether I mind if he smokes, he takes a drag. Not in a guilty, "I know I shouldn't be doing this" kind of way, but in a pleasurable after-dinner manner. He's got a lot to be pleased about. Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, has just won the top prize at Venice, and there's lots of good buzz in and around the sold-out screenings. Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger play Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar, two dirt-poor Wyoming cowboys. They meet one summer in the 1960s to tend a flock of sheep on the top of the titular mountain. After a lot of bonding, some surreptitious looks and a bout or two of drinking, their friendship takes a sharp turn one cold night as they unbuckle those chunky belts, shuck those well-worn denims and wordlessly get it on. Over the ensuing months on their mountaintop paradise, and then years later when they move apart, get married and raise families but still meet for occasional "fishing trips," they genuinely experience a love that dare not speak its name. "I'm not no queer," says Ennis early on, followed by Jack's "Me neither." Funny, then, that the media have jumped on the "gay cowboy" phrase, something neither character would ever identify with. "I think that comes from people who haven't seen the movie," says Gyllenhaal, with his head-on gaze. "After you see it, you don't really think in those terms. In a way, all this fuss is a perfect example of why it's such a struggle for these two to be together. They have nothing to do with labels. What draws them together is love." Albeit a kind of love that hasn't been captured much on film outside of the independent scene, and never with such up-and-coming big-name stars and a major director like Lee. The originality of Annie Proulx's 1997 short story, on which the film is based, was one of the reasons why both actors signed on. "It was like Annie was walking through the forest and came across some myth that had never been heard or seen before," says Gyllenhaal, who recently added a terrifying performance as a bulked up U.S. Marine in Jarhead to his growing resumé, which includes the cult classic Donnie Darko. "It was a story that you couldn't not say or tell. I like things that are alive and fresh, things that haven't been done before." He's quick to say that he's less interested in the film's political potential than its emotional charge. "Movies are very powerful, and they can change people they've done that to me," says the actor. "But this wasn't about politics. I don't think I could play a part with a political agenda. I work in the world of emotions, not politics." It seems like a pat phrase, but one look at his puppy-dog eyes and you believe it. Think of Gyllenhaal's most memorable roles and you don't remember his one attempt at a big blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow but the smaller, wrenching performances, like his tortured teen who carries on an affair with Jennifer Aniston in The Good Girl and the boy who loses his girlfriend in Moonlight Mile. He's like a more emotionally available Tobey Maguire. Brokeback Mountain wrestles your feelings to the ground because of Jack's touching vulnerability mixed with Ennis's deep-rooted fears of exposure. That openness comes naturally. Gyllenhaal grew up in an enviously glamorous and liberal milieu. Both his parents are filmmakers, and his sister Maggie is an actor. Growing up, the idea of same-sex love was never a big deal. "The fact that I have two godfathers who are a gay couple and a lot of my friends came out when they were 15 or 16 probably helped it all seem not that foreign," he smiles. "But I'm not naive. I'm totally aware that there are people out there who hate gays. The thing is, sexuality isn't about left or right, conservative or liberal. It affects everyone. A lot of people, no matter what their political stance, are dealing with this issue." Despite one explosive scene in which Ledger inadvertently bashed Gyllenhaal's nose in during a kiss, the dark-haired actor says the emotional scenes were harder to film. "The intimate scenes and the fight scenes are related," he points out. "These are two guys who deal with animals, and their instinct is to treat each other and themselves like animals. "But that emotional territory is way more complicated. I think that's why everybody is so fascinated with the physical aspect, because it seems easier to talk about. Emotions are scarier." The elegiac tone of doomed love hovers over each gorgeous frame of the film. And while a tragic turning point near the end is ambiguous, Gyllenhaal points out something that no one else has mentioned in any analysis of the film. Proulx published the piece exactly a year before Matthew Shepard's gay-bashing. Shepard, ironically, was also from Wyoming. "When the story came out in the New Yorker, there were very real fears about gay-bashing. It was a reality. Maybe in another eight or 10 years it won't even be a fear." And what if he, movie star Jake Gyllenhaal, could talk to a real life Jack Twist today? Gyllenhaal's big eyes get even bigger and that grin curls up. "I'd tell him, 'Gosh, I wish I could find a love that was so deep in my life. Oh, and don't worry, man. I've got your back.'" - posted
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Jake's
progressWith three new films, including a brave portrayal of forbidden love in the Wild West, Jake Gyllenhaal should have nothing to cry about (but that doesn’t stop him) Jake
Gyllenhaal sometimes likes to speculate about what he might do in the
future. He flirts with the idea of becoming a gardener, opening a
restaurant, or better still, making furniture, just like the 10ft-long
mahogany table he crafted for his mother recently, which now takes pride of
place in the kitchen at the family’s holiday home in Martha’s Vineyard.
"Nothing makes me happier than knowing that my mum and dad sit down at
that table every night when they’re there," he says. "I just
rang my dad and asked him to give it another coat of linseed oil. It gives
me a tremendous amount of joy to do things like that."
The irony is, of course,
that while most young men of Gyllenhaal’s age fantasise about being a
movie star, here’s a movie star who daydreams about being a carpenter.
"I’m in a funny profession. I’m just 24 years old, and I should be
able to question what I want to do with my life," he says, rather
defensively. "Right now, I’m doing what I always wanted to do, but
that might change and maybe I’ll end up doing something else if it makes
me feel better."
In truth, of course,
Gyllenhaal’s future is mapped out more clearly than a giant atlas. Acting
may indeed be a funny profession, and he may have doubts about it, but
he’s good at it, that’s for sure – quite possibly the best of his
generation. We’re meeting at dusk in a hotel garden at the height of the
Venice Film Festival. It’s been a day of heat (temperatures in the 80s)
and hype – Gyllenhaal’s face is everywhere on posters for Brokeback
Mountain, which has been given a rapturous reception by public and critics
alike. He’s run the gauntlet of press conferences and jousted with the
junketeers, international film journalists, all after their pound of flesh.
Now, as the sun sets, it’s swarming mosquitoes that turn up for his blood
instead.
He swats distractedly at
tanned arms made muscular from the rigours of training for his role in
Jarhead, Sam Mendes’s surreal film about the first Gulf War. But as
we’re here to talk about Brokeback Mountain, it’s love, in all its
forms, not war, engaging us – the love for a parent, a sibling, a
girlfriend, and the love between two men.
Gyllenhaal’s emotions are
close to the surface, flickering across that handsome, open face like pages
turning on a book. It’s an essential asset for an actor, the ability to
draw upon such feelings, and he laughs and even cries easily. He comes from
a close, loving family, and at one point, I ask if his parents’ enduring
marriage is an inspiration to him, which leads to a reflection on the nature
of lasting relationships. "I recognise that if you love somebody you
should stay with them, but that doesn’t mean it was that way with them
always. My dad said that was what he liked so much about Brokeback, that it
was a story of how complicated it is to love someone over a long period of
time, what a struggle it can be. It was their 25th anniversary party and
some guy asked my dad what it was like to be with the same woman for so
long, and my dad said, ‘She’s not the same woman.’"
He pauses here, welling up,
and turns his head away to dab at his eyes. "I’m sorry, it’s so
weird that makes me cry. I think it’s because I’m a little tired."
His point is that
relationships change and evolve and go through tough times, but you have to
stick with them. Having a little weep obviously runs in the family.
Gyllenhaal arranged a special screening of Brokeback for his parents
recently, and by the end of it they were in a heap, like a collapsed scrum.
"They were both in tears," he says, looking decidedly glum again,
before immediately brightening up. "Hey, maybe they were crying out of
embarrassment."
Gyllenhaal first heard about
the screenplay of E. Annie Proulx’s short story several years ago.
"It was introduced to me the same way as it was introduced to everybody
else – as the gay cowboy story. I was 17 and I was terrified of it at that
time. It sounded like the farthest thing from anything I’d want to have
anything to do with. I didn’t even read it."
Gyllenhaal’s reaction
wasn’t unique. There were plenty of A-list stars who read the script,
appreciated that it’s a beautifully written piece, and promptly turned it
down, presumably because playing gay for hetero stars was considered too
risky. Why was he so scared? "I just didn’t think I’d be able to do
it. And I was too young."
A few years later, an older,
bolder Gyllenhaal heard that Oscar-winner Ang Lee was going to direct it.
"I read it and it was beautiful, just beautiful. I knew that I wanted
to do it. I didn’t even think about the intimate scenes or who I would be
doing it with, I just wanted to do it. It was just the idea of these two
people struggling to love each other, and that really moved me."
Brokeback Mountain is a
classic American love story where the lovers happen to be men, and quite how
that will play in the US multiplexes we’ve yet to see. But for the critics
on both sides of the Atlantic, it is undoubtedly one of the best films of
the year. It won the main prize in Venice and should receive a hatful of
Oscar nominations, including one for Gyllenhaal, who could also be in
contention for his role as a young soldier in Jarhead. In fact, it’s hard
to avoid Gyllenhaal right now – he also pops up as a maths student in John
Madden’s screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play, Proof,
with Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins.
It’s to be hoped that
Gyllenhaal doesn’t really quit while he’s ahead. "No, I guess
not," he says. "I love it." And the camera loves him. Take a
look at any of the films mentioned above – or his breakout performance in
the excellent Donnie Darko – and you’ll see a gifted big-screen actor
coming of age before our eyes.
Set to the epic backdrop of
the West, Brokeback Mountain is a sweeping story of longing and regret, of
forbidden love and desire, and thoroughly deserves the plaudits it has
received. Gyllenhaal plays Jack Twist, a young drifter who meets another
ranch hand, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), when they are hired to protect
thousands of sheep that graze on Wyoming’s majestic Brokeback Mountain
through the summer, before they’re driven down into town for winter
shearing. As the pair swap life stories and talk of their hopes for the
future – marrying, raising a family and buying land – they are drawn
together, first as friends, and eventually as lovers, which, initially, is a
shock to them both. Over the years, they continue to meet for a few
snatched, stolen days, and Twist is the one who urges that they should set
up a home together. But it’s Del Mar who backs away, frightened of the
backlash such a move might provoke in such a deeply conservative land.
That same conservative land
– or huge swaths of it – might just find Brokeback Mountain a little too
unconventional. "People can respond however they want to," says
Gyllenhaal. "You can look at it as an issue of sexuality, but it’s
really about how hard it is when you fall in love with somebody, whether
you’re gay or straight."
Gyllenhaal admits that both
he and Ledger were anxious about filming the love scenes. "It was
nerve-racking. But, you know, you take a deep breath and dive in the water,
and it’s freezing cold and you want to get the hell out. You know what I
mean? And then they want you to do it again. But ultimately, we both knew we
had to trust Ang. And we also knew we’d do whatever was needed, because
the story is really beautiful and the consummation of that relationship was
completely valid. If you don’t see that stuff, the story doesn’t have
the same poignancy."
Two good-looking straight
actors playing such roles was bound to generate plenty of nudge-nudge
publicity, and Gyllenhaal’s already tiring of it. "Hopefully, people
will see beyond the whole ‘Oh, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal have love
scenes’ thing."
Gyllenhaal grew up in the
film community – his father Stephen is a director (of Waterland among many
others) and his mother, Naomi Foner, is a screenwriter. His sister Maggie,
older by some two years, is also an actress. He spent much of his childhood
visiting one film set or another and mixing with actors and directors and
writers – Jamie Lee Curtis is his godmother – and made his first film
appearance in City Slickers, aged just ten. It’s no wonder that by the
time he was in his early teens, he was already set on acting. "We grew
up around a lot of famous artists, but at the time they were just friends.
Then I woke up one morning and it was like, ‘Whoa! Look who’s
here!’"
Growing up in LA’s
artistic community made it easier for him to play a gay man, he believes,
than it was for Ledger, who comes from a rural Australian background.
"We went to cowboy boot camp to prepare for the film," says
Gyllenhaal. "Heath didn’t need to do that. I’m unable to put a
saddle on without falling on my arse, and he’s galloping off into the
sunset. I was surprised when Heath said he would do the film. I think he was
hesitant about it. But the idea of a same-sex relationship is hardly foreign
to me. I mean, I grew up in LA."
In fact, Gyllenhaal long ago
asked questions about his own sexuality. "I’ve grown up among a lot
of people who have different sexual preferences. And I definitely don’t
think you’ve grown up until you’ve thought about those things. It’s
not necessarily about experimenting with those things, but thinking about
them. You meet someone who is hiding their sexuality and you question it
yourself. That happened a long time before I did this movie. Making this
film didn’t make me question it. It made me want to tell a story of the
love I’ve had in my life. That’s what I really thought about. There was
a time when I was going through a really hard time in my life, breaking up
with a girlfriend, and it just resonated with me in so many ways, and
actually, it helped."
He frets that his private
life is becoming a soap opera for the tabloids, especially in the States
where his on-off relationship with the actress Kirsten Dunst is meat and
drink to the celeb mags, and paparazzi follow their every move, providing
long-lens "evidence" of every tiff.
"It’s crazy," he
agrees. "They choose to photograph young couples like us, and young
couples are precarious. So there’s going to be drama; I mean, you’re in
your mid-twenties, and that’s how it’s going to be. If they photographed
two 45-year-olds who’ve been married for 15 years, they’re not going to
get much drama."
Gyllenhaal is still young
– he’ll be 25 on December 19 – and wants the freedom to make mistakes,
just like everybody else, without a long lens there to snap it. "I
should be doing what I want to do and screwing up and that should be OK.
Learning things."
He’s at turns affronted by
the intrusion, and then pragmatic. "It’s the life I chose, and I knew
that was how it was. I know people deal with worse things in their
life."
In Jarhead, based on Anthony
Swofford’s best-selling memoir of his time in the marines during the first
Gulf conflict, Gyllenhaal got to act alongside Peter Sarsgaard, who happens
to be his sister’s boyfriend. The shoot was intense – a cast made up
entirely of men, and a crew almost all male, stuck in the Californian desert
making a movie about soldiers waiting in the Saudi desert to go to war.
With testosterone running
riot, there was plenty of aggression spilling over. At one point, Gyllenhaal
was knocked in the mouth with a rifle butt and lost half a front tooth. He
refused to speak to the actor responsible until Mendes wrote an extra scene
in which his character, Swoff, apologises to the other man.
His relationship with
Sarsgaard, who plays a hard-ass marine called Troy, was difficult. "I
considered that it was him trying out for my sister’s hand," says
Gyllenhaal, deadpan. "I’m not saying whether he succeeded, but
that’s what it was. I think Maggie revelled in it – I think she was
excited for both of us. And you know, we came out of it closer, that’s for
sure. There’s that saying that to be somebody’s friend you have to
recognise they are an equal mind. I think he left that experience feeling
that about me, and I know I did about him."
His relationship with his
sister is intense and, he says, often fractious and painful. "It’s
been hard at times. I remember one of the first movies she did, which will
go un-named, and when I watched it, I said to her, ‘I can’t tell you any
other way, but you were really bad.’ And she started crying, she was so
hurt. And then, with Secretary, it was just like, ‘You were
extraordinary!’ And she was. But she knows I’m honest, and she knows
that I love her."
His family provide the best
refuge, the safest haven. "I found where my heart really lies and what
makes me feel good is being with my friends and my family; growing with
them, sharing with them and being intimate with them – that’s what makes
me happiest."
For a moment I’m expecting
more tears, but Gyllenhaal is contemplating carpentry again. "Maybe
I’ll make some chairs next," he muses. "To go with the
table." He’ll be making plenty more films, too. Despite flirting with
alternatives to acting, he’s a natural. You might even say that he was
born into it.
Brokeback Mountain is
released on January 6, Jarhead is released on January 13, and Proof is
released on February 10 - posted
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AFI
MOVIES OF THE YEAR-OFFICIAL SELECTIONSAFI AWARDS 2005 AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR-OFFICIAL SELECTIONS - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN - CAPOTE - CRASH - THE 40 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN - GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK. - A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE - KING KONG - MUNICH - THE SQUID AND THE WHALE - SYRIANA - posted
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' Brokeback
Mountain' Leads Golden Globe Pack12.12.2005, 05:12 PM Wildly varying films have received kudos from critics during this busy awards season, from biopics about Johnny Cash and Truman Capote to classic stories about romance and a royal ape. But one appears to be riding to the front of the pack heading into Tuesday's Golden Globe nominations: "Brokeback Mountain." The story of cowboys who fall into forbidden love in Wyoming has been named the year's best picture in recent days by critics groups in New York, Los Angeles and Boston; its director, Ang Lee, has received top honors from all three and from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. One of the film's stars, Heath Ledger, won the best-actor award Monday from the New York Film Critics Circle, and his co-star, Jake Gyllenhaal, was named best supporting actor by the National Board of Review. "Brokeback Mountain" also appears on the American Film Institute's list of the top 10 movies of the year. Tom O'Neil, a columnist for the awards Web site theenvelope.com, said "Brokeback Mountain" is one of only two shoo-in nominees for best drama at the Golden Globes, scheduled for Jan. 16; "Good Night, and Good Luck," about Edward R. Murrow's battles with Sen. Joseph McCarthy, is the other. The film from director George Clooney received the best-picture award Monday from the National Board of Review, which described it as "extraordinary." "There is a curious consensus building behind 'Brokeback Mountain,'" O'Neil said. "At the same time, we're seeing previous front-runners like `Munich' and '(Memoirs of a) Geisha' fall behind. Neither film has gotten the enthusiastic support of film critics, which is a crucial element behind a best-picture rival." "Brokeback" also has all the key ingredients needed for a best-picture Oscar nominee, O'Neil said - and the Golden Globes increasingly have been a predictor for Academy Awards success in recent years. "It is epic, it's a wide-screen, big-canvas movie. Oscar voters frequently confuse best picture with big picture. This is big in its ideas, in its cinematic range, in its landscape views of Wyoming in the '60s," he said. "It feels important - it's making a social statement about something that's becoming more acceptable in America but is still slightly dangerous." Similarly, the fact that Lee has received so much praise could bode well for him. The veteran Hong Kong helmer lost the best-picture and best-director Oscars for his 2000 martial arts epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," though the movie did win for best foreign-language film, and Lee won a Golden Globe from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for best director. "There is a feeling that this is a director who is overdue for his laurels," O'Neil said. Beyond "Brokeback" and "Good Night," about six other movies could sneak into the best drama category, he predicted. One of them is "Capote," which has earned Philip Seymour Hoffman rave reviews and best-actor honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the Boston Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Online. O'Neil said "King Kong," Peter Jackson's epic remake and one of the year's most anticipated films, probably won't get a Globe nod, but it should be a best-picture nominee at the Oscars. In the musical or comedy category at the Golden Globes, "Walk the Line" is a likely contender. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Cash, but Reese Witherspoon runs away with the movie as his on- and off-stage partner, June Carter Cash. The performance has earned Witherspoon best-actress awards from reviewers in New York and Boston. "Even in the Hollywood, commercial, popcorn genre she's worked in, she has extraordinary respect from a cross-section of critics here," said Gene Seymour, film critic for Newsday and president of the New York Film Critics Circle. "She's very, very engaged in her character - she really knows what to do in front of a camera, always. She has an amazing capacity to connect with people." Other possible nominees, O'Neil said, include "Pride and Prejudice," "Casanova" (which also stars Ledger), "Mrs. Henderson Presents" and "The Squid and the Whale," a dark comedy about divorce which has earned writer-director Noah Baumbach top screenplay honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. The New York Film Critics Online named "Squid" the year's best movie. "There were a lot of quality films and I think you're seeing it in all different genres," said Annie Schulhof, National Board of Review president. "If you're in the mood for a biopic, go see `Capote,' go see `Good Night, and Good Luck.' If you're in the mood for a political thriller, you have `Syriana.'" - posted
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"Brokeback"
builds Oscar buzz with NY awardMonday December 12 2:30 PM ET Gay cowboy love story "Brokeback Mountain" won three of the top four awards from the New York Film Critics Circle on Monday, building momentum as the critics' favorite for Hollywood's top honors, the Oscars. Earlier the National Board of Review, a New York group of 150 film professionals, academics and students, announced its annual awards, naming George Clooney's McCarthy-era drama "Good Night, and Good Luck" as best film of 2005. The awards presented by the
New York Film Critics Circle are among a string of second-tier awards
leading up to the March 5 Academy Awards. The
slew of awards announced in December traditionally helps narrow the field
for the Oscars. The New York Film Critics Circle gave the film its awards for best film, best director and best actor, for Heath Ledger. "Brokeback Mountain" already won best film from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Saturday, and it earned eight nominations for the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday. The National Board of Review's prize for directing went to Lee for "Brokeback Mountain." Lee's resume boasts a varied string of hits from the Jane Austen adaptation "Sense and Sensibility" in 1995 to martial arts epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in 2000. "A lot of people among critics are responding to it because it is so daring," said Gene Seymour, chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle. "It has all the sweep of what we have come to know as a major Hollywood romance, but it carries within it such a grand departure," he said. The New York Film Critics named Reese Witherspoon best actress for her role in the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line." Their awards for best supporting actor and best supporting actress went to William Hurt and Maria Bello for their roles in "A History of Violence." Critically acclaimed "Capote," directed by Bennett Miller, won an award for best first film, while Werner Herzog will be honored for two non-fiction films "Grizzly Man" and "White Diamond," the group said. Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai's "2046" was named best foreign language film and Japanese film-maker Hayao Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle" won best animated film. NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW AWARDS The National Board of Review, which has sometimes raised eyebrows for its esoteric picks, appeared not to have gone too far out on a limb this year. It picked Philip Seymour Hoffman as best actor for "Capote" and "Desperate Housewives" star Felicity Huffman as best actress for "Transamerica." The National Board of Review also listed its 10 best films of the year in a selection that included many of those named by the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday. The list, which was not ranked in order, included independents such as "Brokeback Mountain," "Crash" and "Capote" as well as "A History of Violence," the political thriller "Syriana" and big studio productions "Walk the Line" and "Memoirs of a Geisha." Steven Spielberg and Woody Allen made the list for "Munich" and "Match Point," respectively. "Paradise Now," about Palestinian suicide bombers, was named best foreign-language film and "March of the Penguins" was given best documentary by the National Board of Review. The National Board of Review's picks have traditionally been closely watched because it has been the first to announce its awards, but its announcement was delayed this year amid controversy over its voting procedures. - posted
by Ally |
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Can ‘Brokeback Mountain’ become a phenomenon that somehow transcends its considerable hype? By TRAY BUTLER Friday, December 09, 2005 In the weeks before filming began on “Brokeback Mountain,” director Ang Lee met individually with his lead actors to impart guidance about handling their roles. With Heath Ledger, the advice was simple. “The main thing I remember Ang telling me was, ‘stillness,’” Ledger says. It’s an appropriately Zen imperative from the Taiwanese director, whose 2000 masterpiece “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” earned him a reputation for squeezing soulful, intimate performances out of actors in grandiose settings. And Lee’s advice cuts to the core of Ledger’s character, Ennis Del Mar, a conflicted ranch hand who only feels safe when he’s in the quiet majesty of the Wyoming wilderness and in the arms of his unlikely soul mate, Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal). But that idea of “stillness” feels a million miles from the ear-splitting buzz surrounding the film itself. “Brokeback Mountain” may be the single most talked about gay movie of all time — propelled by its two straight leads and the firestorm of speculation over how Hollywood would handle such a unapologetic tale of same-sex romance. Ledger and Gyllenhaal’s rash of recent magazine covers and the festival circuit’s acclaim for the film only fanned the flames that burn on countless “Brokeback” postings online. As the world braces for the film’s Dec. 9 opening, it’s almost as if there are two “Brokeback Mountains”: the movie itself, which is a somber and gut-wrenching love story in the tradition of celluloid weepies, and the “Brokeback” buzz, with its hope of Oscar acclaim and twin fears of a Red State backlash against Hollywood’s very gay autumn. Screenwriter Diana Ossana scoffs at any supposed controversy. “People come in with these preconceived notions of the film, the ‘gay cowboy movie.’ It got that tagline after about three or four years, and we just rolled our eyes at it,” says Ossana, who co-wrote the screenplay with Western novelist Larry McMurtry. But after people see the film, she says, they can’t stop thinking about it. “They’ll tell me, ‘You know, I never really thought about gay men and their lives, I always tried to avoid it, but I really felt bad for those guys. “I didn’t know they felt the way that we do,’” Ossana says. “Which floored me.” NOT ALL OF THE HYPE is universally positive. Last month, contrarian blogger Matt Drudge dug up an unnamed Wyoming playwright (who turned out to be Sandy Dixon, originally quoted in the Casper, Wyo., Tribune) who said she’d never met a gay cowboy and accused the film’s writers of trying to ruin her state’s Western image. Even some gay fans raised eyebrows when both Gyllenhaal and Ledger indicated in separate interviews that they don’t think their characters are necessarily gay. Ellen Huang, executive director of the nonprofit film group Queer Lounge, believes those comments were actually part of a marketing campaign. “You have to connect with the mainstream audience that says you’re going to get beyond the gayness of it all,” Huang says. “Any heartfelt love story is about not being able to be with the one you’re supposed to be with. “It’s a very enlightened statement,” she continues. “Even in the gay community, people are trapped in labeling. I think there are people who love who you love. I think in this case, especially for Heath Ledger’s character, I feel he just happened to fall in love with a man. What he’s battling is society’s labeling of him suddenly.” Ledger seems to have learned his lesson on labels. When asked about the love story, he delivers a deliberately worded answer on what exactly “gay” means. “It’s a touchy subject. If I say, ‘No, it isn’t [gay],’ then a lot of people will say, ‘No it is!’” the 26-year-old Australian actor says. Instead, he decided to play Ennis as a character who shows that love can “transcend all.” “Whether you want to label him as gay or not, it’s a human being and his soul falling in love with another soul, which happens to be in the vessel of a man,” he says. “And I think that’s the point of Annie Proulx borrowing the masculine Western iconic figure and landscape. Because it’s so masculine, it shows that love exists in all forms.” Screenwriters Ossana and McMurtry also heap adoration on Proulx, who wrote the short story on which the film is based. Ossana picked up the piece when it originally ran in the New Yorker in 1997. She says she “sobbed liked a five-year-old” after reaching the end. The next day, she insisted that her friend and collaborator McMurtry read the story. “I recognized immediately that this was a story that was a work of genius,” says McMurtry, author of “The Last Picture Show” and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for “Lonesome Dove.” “And I wondered, why didn’t I write it? I’ve been there in the West my whole life.” Before the end of the year, the two optioned Proulx’s short story with their own money, but waited in vain as directors and stars came and went on the project. “Agents just didn’t want their beloved actors to take on these ‘risky’ roles,” Ossana says. Finally, Focus Features landed Lee, a director in need of a hit after his “Hulk” tanked at the box office. His newer work ranges from flying kung-fu masters (“Crouching Tiger”) to dysfunctional suburbanites (“The Ice Storm”), but Lee was no stranger to gay storylines: His 1992 comedy “The Wedding Banquet” was about a gay man marrying a woman to appease his Taiwanese parents. For McMurtry, Lee seemed like an obvious choice to direct the film. “We felt that the exile in Ang connects to the exile in Ennis, just a little bit,” he says. “Ang is exiled from China and Taiwan, while Ennis is exiled from his community.” Lee says the love between Ennis and Jack might turn off some moviegoers, but he was more concerned with capturing the deeper ideas behind the story: the notion of social obligation versus personal free will. “There are people who won’t go see this, because of the gay relationship,” Lee says. “Or from the left side, some will ask if it’s gay enough. But I can only be honest and try to do justice to the brilliant writing by Annie Proulx.” That brilliant writing also attracted fans like Andy Towle, the journalist and photographer who runs Towleroad.com. As evidenced on his blog, Towle has been practically obsessed with “Brokeback” for two years, and his love of the short story goes back a lot longer. The long-awaited film did not disappoint him. He calls it “groundbreaking.” “A gay story has never been told in this really classic cinematic context,” Towle says. “Most of the times people have seen gay storylines in urban settings and films that either have to do with coming out or AIDS or about nightlife. This film is shocking in the sense that the gay experience in a familiar cinematic context. It’s more a story about love than it is about being gay.” And, as Towle points out, having two hot, young stars playing the leads certainly helps. So how will “BROKEBACK” fare at the multiplex? Given its meager budget of $12.5 million, the film stands to be a financial success even if the folks in Peoria unilaterally reject the notion of queer cowboys. Early critical response has been overwhelmingly affectionate. The movie scored big at the Toronto, Venice and Telluride film festivals, even though it was rejected by Cannes. Entertainment Weekly gave the film an “A” and placed its two stars on the cover of last week’s issue. The movie also earned four nominations from the Independent Spirit Awards. Huang of Queer Lounge expects the film to be a hit. She notes that even some blogs by straight male writers are reviewing the movie positively, in addition to the glowing response from mainstream magazines. “These doors will open,” she says. “I think Hollywood is a very fickle monster. If the next two films with major stars playing gay characters tank, they will very quickly blame it on the gay aspect of the film.” On the other hand, the movie may well repeat the success of, say, “Philadelphia,” and land Oscar statues. Ledger already appears posed to win a nomination for his role. Huang says this fits with the way the Academy tends to operate. “I think right now in order for gay-themed movies to be made, they have to be Oscar bait,” she says. “I think it’s going to take a while before people start seeing gay James Bond. Gay characters have to be so mainstreamed that there’s no need for Oscar bait anymore.” LEDGER REMAINS characteristically stoic when the topic of gold statues comes up, and he is equally less inclined to discuss any controversy the movie might stir up. “That’s kind of out of my hands, really isn’t it?” he says. “It’s obviously not that controversial to me.” His sentiment neatly reflects the character of Ennis, who keeps his thoughts hidden for most of the movie. That “stillness” — a quiet urgency, really — and the rumbling just beneath the surface are aspects that elevate “Brokeback Mountain” beyond its hype and makes it a film for the ages. “Sometimes in acting, or in life, words can kind of complicate things. They can confuse an issue,” Ledger says. “If anything, [Ennis’s quietude] gave me more room and more space to express what I wanted.” - posted
by Ally |
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The buzz surrounding Ang Lee’s new tragic romance Brokeback Mountain has reached a fervor. Though it opens in only three cities Friday, there are already whispers of multiple Oscar nominations. And critics, bloggers, and journalists nationwide have fallen all over themselves to be the first to proclaim how brave straight actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are for having taken such “daring,” “risky,” or just plain “gay” roles. It’s praise well earned for this story of young Wyoming natives, Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal), who meet and fall in love in the summer of 1963. But what’s truly surprising about this “gay cowboy” movie is that the target audience doesn’t seem to be gay men at all. In fact, it seems that much of the marketing has been geared toward young women, who haven’t seen much in the way of epic big-screen love stories since Titanic. And they’re going to love it, just as they did Titanic. Because for all its hype Brokeback Mountain is not really a gay film at all—and is much better off for it. Despite both its protagonists being male, Brokeback is at its core a classic story about loving someone you can’t have, a proven theme at the box office. Titanic became the most successful movie in history with its story of working-class Jack and privileged Rose, two people who come together by chance and, despite societal objections that deem their relationship impossible, fall in love. Brokeback Mountain is Jack and Ennis’s Titanic. Even though they’re living in tents and subsisting on beans heated over an open fire, tending sheep together in the high country represents for these cowboys an escape into freedom—similar to what Jack and Rose experience aboard an ocean liner at the dawn of the 20th century. And just like those doomed lovers, Jack and Ennis are ultimately destined for disappointment. After all, it’s 1963 and—as Lee reminds us with the moody wide-angle panoramas that are his signature—we’re in the mountain state of Wyoming, where minds are closed to a romance between men. Just last month an obscure Wyoming playwright said she had never encountered a gay cowboy in her life, suggesting, on the merit of her enormous experience and expertise, that there never were any. No matter. Whether or not one Wyoming cowboy ever happened to love another in a way that was more than brotherly, Brokeback—like Titanic—is the kind of story that will get straight women into movie seats, whereas a movie that dwells on its “gayness” might not. This can be only good news for the director, actors, and producers, because where straight women go, their husbands, boyfriends, and dates dutifully follow. And why not? In an interview the weekend before the film opened, Ledger, who had a child with Brokeback costar Michelle Williams in October, told Advocate.com, “Anyone who fears this: They are not going to come out of the movie and suddenly [be different]. [Being gay’s] not a disease. It’s not contagious. [Straight males] should understand that it’s a story of pure love.” And what does a straight guy need to actually enjoy the film? Ledger suggested, “I guess a little bit of maturity is being asked for, because society has been immature in the past. That’s about it.” And straight men may find the film less threatening than they fear. While Lee doesn’t skimp on scenes of physical intimacy, these moments are all very tastefully shot—honest and rather tame. In fact, Brokeback focuses more on Ennis and Jack not having sex than their actually going through with it. And if straight women and men do turn out to see Brokeback, that will mean good things for LGBT people too. The movie challenges stereotypes in a way so-called gay movies, which usually exaggerate those stereotypes, cannot—even gay movies smart enough to subvert assumptions. Here the stereotype that’s being turned inside out is more universal. The movie questions the “masculinity” we attribute to emotionally unavailable men: By the end of the film it’s the expressive Jack we consider brave and the silent Ennis we find cowardly. Is Brokeback Mountain a watershed in filmmaking? Definitely. But is it a gay movie? No. Most viewers will remember Brokeback not as a movie in which cowboys kissed but as a love story they cannot forget—straight guys included, if they’re mature enough, or at least smart enough, to follow the lead of the women they love. - posted
by Ally |
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BY JAN STUART |
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BY JAN STUART |