It's been 10 years since I was introduced to movie-going and film criticism by my mentor, Sir Gino Dormiendo. From then on, watching movies, writing "meaningful" and "intelligent" articles and reviews, and collecting films have become a habit. Until now...
2008 is not a groundbreaking year for the movies, generally speaking. The global financial crisis that struck the U.S.A. (and thus affected the economies of many countries) influenced the economic aspect of movie-making (at least in the US). The closure of art-house, specialty production outfits Paramount Vantage (the people behind last year's critically acclaimed, Oscar winners No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood) and New Line Cinema (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) was big deal among movie moguls, not to mention some American film critics who had their own share of bad luck (due to being axed or downsized by their newspaper or magazine editors). As with the Philippine movie industry, the trend toward digital movie-making continues, though this year most plots zeroed in on either gay-themes films or slice of life stories.
A 'BLOCKBUSTER' SUMMER
Despite the gloom, Hollywood churned out big-budget pictures that scored heavily at the box office last summer (Indiana Jones: Crystal Skull; Iron Man; Hancock; Wanted), while women-oriented movies (Sex and the City movie; Mamma Mia!) generated immense buzz and bigger ticket sales.
The summer also produced two movies that created critical and popular buzz that resonated until the awards season: the latest Batman movie The Dark Knight (pictured above) and Disney-Pixar project WALL-E.
GOOD CRITICAL BUZZ FOR "BUTTON," "FROST/NIXON," CLINT EASTWOOD
Awards contenders ruled the universe with varying degrees of reception: unexpected (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; the British-U.S. co-production Slumdog Millionaire); timely (Milk); festival winners (Venice Best Pic The Wrestler; Cannes hit A Christmas Tale; low budget critical hit Wendy and Lucy); acting showcase (Doubt; Burn After Reading; Frost/Nixon); and genre pictures (Swedish thriller Let The Right One In; lush adaptation of hit novel series Twilight).
Smart counter programming resulted to excellent box office for the limited releases of Slumdog and Milk, both Oscar Best Picture contenders. Button opened with a healthy $27 million in its first weekend of wide release, while Clint Eastwood's latest (and last film as an actor, according to hearsay) opus, Gran Torino managed to rake in a surprisingly potent $9 million in 500 theaters. (In contrast, his fall release, the Angelina Jolie starrer Changeling was a tad anemic with $29 million gross and mediocre reviews.)
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