2015 Features: 1. Tom McCarthy‘s Spotlight, 2. Alejandro G. Inarritu‘s The Revenant; 3. George Miller‘s Mad Max: Fury Road; 4. Cary Fukunaga‘s Beasts of No Nation; 4. Bill Pohlad‘s Love & Mercy, 5. Laszlo Nemes‘ Son of Saul; 6. John Crowley‘s Brooklyn; 7. Todd Haynes‘ Carol, 8. Baltasar Kormakur‘s Everest; 9. Peyton Reed‘s Ant-Man; 10. Adam McKay‘s The Big Short, 11. Ridley Scott‘s The Martian, 12. Asghar Farhadi‘s About Elly, 13. the last 25 minutes of The Walk, 14. JamesVanderbilt’sTruth; 15. SarahGavronSuffragette; 16. JuddApatow‘s Trainwreck; 17. Noah Baumbach‘s Mistress America, 18. Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson‘s Anomalisa, 19. David O. Russell‘s Joy; 20. Alex Garland‘s Ex Machina.
Cinematographer Svetlana Cvetko, whom I’ve been referring to as “HE’s own” for several years, has become a bona fide hyphenate — a director-dp. After making the festival rounds last year with her doc short, Yours Sincerely, Lois Weber, she began directing a self-penned feature. Produced by Nick Sarkisov and shot in black-and-white widescreen (2.39:1), it’s called My Crazy Nature.
It’s about a menage a trois relationship between two guys and a girl. The portions I’ve seen (and the silky monochrome capturings are truly magnificent) reminded me at times of Francois Truffaut‘s Jules and Jim (’62) with a dash of Coline Serreau‘s Pourquois Pas? (’77).
Alas, Svetlana has had to recently interrupt this passion project (which has been filming locally as well as in Europe) to direct an indie-financed drama called Foreign Exchange, costarring Meet The Parents‘ Teri Polo and Niptuck‘s Dylan Walsh.
Svet’s dp credits, working backwards: Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story (post-production), Jonathan Parker‘s The Architect and several docs (including partial cinematography) — Silicon Cowboys, Brand: A Second Coming, Red Army, Inequality for All, Miss Representation and Inside Job.
BEST PICTURE: 1. Spotlight; 2. The Revenant; 3. Love & Mercy; 4. Mad Max: Fury Road; 5. Carol.
BEST ACTOR: 1. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant, 2. John Cusack, Love & Mercy, 3. Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs (even though I didn’t like his company).
BEST ACTRESS: 1. Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years; 2. Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn; 3. Rooney Mara, Carol.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: 1. Paul Dano, Love & Mercy; 2. Michael Shannon, 99 Homes; 3. Sylvester Stallone, Creed.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: 1. Jane Fonda, Youth; 2. Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl; 3. Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs (even though she bothered me).
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS: 1. Jacob Tremblay, Room; 2. Whatsername, the little girl in Joy; 3. Any suggestions?
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE: 1. Spotlight; 2. The Revenant; 3. Youth.
BEST DIRECTING: 1. Alejandro G. Inarritu, The Revenant; 2. Tom McCarthy, Spotlight; 3. George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road.
BEST SCREENWRITING (Original): 1. Spotlight; 2. Trainwreck; 3. Inside Out.
BEST SCREENWRITING (Adapted): 1. Carol; 2. Brooklyn; 3. The Big Short.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: 1. The Revenant; 2. Mad Max: Fury Road; 3. Carol.
Congrats to the makers of the 15 documentaries that have made the Academy’s shortlist — Amy, Best of Enemies, Cartel Land, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, He Named Me Malala, Heart of a Dog, The Hunting Ground, Listen to Me Marlon, The Look of Silence, Meru, 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets, We Come as Friends, What Happened, Miss Simone?, Where to Invade Next and Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom. Due respect but it was seriously shortsighted for the Academy’s doc committee to dismiss Colin Hanks‘ All Things Must Pass, Ondi Timoner‘s Brand: A Second Coming, Doug Tirola‘s Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, Kent Jones‘ Hitchcock Truffaut and Amy Berg‘s Janis: Little Girl Blue. The winner of the Best Feature Doc Oscar will be announced during the 2.28.16 Oscarcast.
Last Friday 124 feature-length documentaries were submitted for Oscar consideration. A short list of 15 will be revealed in early December (less than five weeks hence), and the final quintet will be announced when all the Oscar nominees are announced in mid January. And of course I’ve been slacking on this front so here’s a roster of my personal short-list preferences. There are more than a few I haven’t seen (including Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus‘ Hot Girls Wanted, Geeta and Ravi Patel‘s Meet The Patels, Marc Silver‘s 3 and 1/2 Minutes, Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi‘s Meru, Matthew Heineman‘s Cartel Land, Benjamin Statler‘s Soaked in Bleach) but here are 11 docs that — for me, in this order — burned through in some extra, commanding, head-turning way:
Last night I decided to skip the L.A. premiere screening of Ondi Timoner’s BRAND: A Second Coming and just hit the party instead. Little did I know that Timoner has trimmed about 15 minutes from the version I saw two or three months ago at the L.A. Film Festival, and I didn’t think that cut needed tightening at all. I’m nonetheless told that it plays quite nicely. The party was at St. Felix on Cahuenga. I spoke briefly to Amy Berg about her doc, Janis: Little Girl Blue, which I saw and loved in Toronto. HE’s own Svetlana Cvetko, who shot a large portion of the Brand doc, was in attendance along with Timoner, of course, as well as street artist and illustrator Shepard Fairey.
(l. to. r.: Shepard Fairey, BRAND: A Second Coming director Ondi Timoner, dp Svetlana Cvetko.
I felt as if I’d been injected with an exciting spiritual drug when I first saw Ondi Timoner‘s BRAND: A Second Coming, which opens tomorrow. I’ve seen it three times since last March and have felt the same juices each time. Because it’s a film about transcendence — about the transformation of Russell Brand from hyper comic libertine to social revolutionary. I fell in love with the arc of his life, which is that he finally found his focus and got it right after floundering around (somewhat like Che Guevara, Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Malcolm X, all of whom found their calling after an uncertain period in their 20s). He became truly interesting when he stopped projecting like a hyper, swaggering, shag-crazy narcissist and became a “champagne socialist” revolutionary and began saying “look at what’s wrong here”…that’s when Brand became a lightning bolt.
Russell Brand, director Ondi Timoner during final shooting on BRAND: A Second Coming.
I wrote last March that Timoner’s doc (partly shot by HE’s own Svetlana Cvetko) is “one of the most unusual and impressive documentary portraits of a famous person I’ve ever seen because of…well, its eagerness to step out of the standard function of a documentary and take the proverbial ride. It’s a film that transcends itself and becomes something else by embracing the attitude and temperament of its subject. Just as Brand has begun moving the focus of his life beyond fame and wealth and the lowest form of humor (i.e., simply making people laugh), Brand: A Second Coming is about seeing and transcending and turning a page.”
Through all the excitement I chose to ignore Brand’s decision not to travel to Austin to help promote Timoner’s doc, which basic professional courtesy required. Brand explained that despite his admiration for Timoner’s film that he wasn’t comfortable discussing the portion of her doc that covers his sex, drugs & rock ‘n’ roll period (i.e., roughly the first 40 minutes).
I also looked the other way when he got together with Michael Winterbottom to make a somewhat similar documentary, The Emperor’s New Clothes, that covers a lot of the same material in Timoner’s film. Clothes was barely paid attention to on these shores, but the most forgiving person in the world would have to admit this was a huge dick move on Brand’s part.
SoCal readers of Hollywood Elsewhere are hereby urged to snag a ticket to the 6.17 Los Angeles Film Festival screening of Ondi Timoner‘s Brand: A Second Coming. “I can’t overstate how jolting and invigorating this doc plays, especially during the second viewing and particularly when it hits the 40-minute mark, which is when the story of Russell Brand’s social-political awakening kicks in,” I wrote on 3.14. “It’s a brilliant, go-for-it thing that not only portrays and engages with a brilliant artist-provocateur but matches his temperament and picks up the flag. Superb photography by Timoner (especially loved the occasional punctuation of grainy 8mm) and HE’s own Svetlana Cvetko. The doc constantly pops, riffs and punches over its nearly two-hour running time. Magnificent graphics and editing, and a perfect ending.”
The title of this new Michael Winterbottom-Russell Brand doc is The Emperor’s New Clothes, but the similarities to Michael Moore’s 2009 doc are immediately apparent. Winterbottom’s film is also joined at the hip with Ondi Timoner‘s BRAND: A Second Coming, the recently premiered two-hour doc about the transformation of Russell Brand from hyper libertine to social revolutionary. Clothes will screen later this month at the Tribeca Film Festival. Pic will also be specially screened in the UK on Tuesday, 4.21.
Today Variety‘s “staff” ran a wrap-up piece about “13 break-out movies” that played at 2015 South by Southwest. Three days ago a similar N.Y. Times piece, written by Mekado Murphy, highlighted the “South by” films that were “the talk of the festival.” There were some overlaps but well over 20 films are included in the two articles, and yet neither mentions Ondi Timoner‘s BRAND: A Second Coming, a nearly two-hour doc about the transformation of Russell Brand from hyper libertine to social revolutionary.
This despite Timoner’s film having (a) opened SXSW to the usual hoopla, (b) won thoughtful praise from nearly every critic who reviewed it and (c) reportedly played to more than the usual rousing receptions at three separate showings. Several strong films played at “South by” and everyone, of course, has their special favorites, but how did these articles manage to completely ignore one of the festival’s most invigorating crowd-pleasers? Not to mention one of the most politically pointed films of that Austin gathering, and one that will likely cause a stir when it opens commercially later this year.
I can’t overstate how jolting and invigorating and even ground-shifting Ondi Timoner‘s Brand: A Second Coming plays, especially during the second viewing and especially when it hits the 40-minute mark, which is whenthestoryof Brand’s social-political awakening kicks in. It’s a brilliant, go-for-it thing that not only portrays and engages with a brilliant artist-provocateur but matches his temperament and picks up the flag. Superb photography by Timoner (especially loved the occasional punctuation of grainy 8mm) and HE’s own Svetlana Cvetko. The doc constantly pops, riffs and punches over its nearly two-hour running time. Magnificent graphics and editing, and a perfect ending.
What’s significant is that the lives of Che Guevara, Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and MalcolmX, whom Brand identifies with and admires, had a similar dramatic arc in that they finally “became” after floundering around — Che as a son of Argentine privelege, Jesus as a stay-at-home carpenter until he was 30, Malcolm X as a pimp and an incarcerated con until he was awakened by Elijah Muhammed, etc. Similarly Brand became truly interesting and transcendent when he stopped projecting like a hyper, swaggering, shag-crazy narcissist and became a “champagne socialist” revolutionary and began saying “look at what’s wrong here”…that‘s when he became a lightning bolt.
From Variety‘s Dennis Harvey: “Brand might look like a dissolute rock star, but take away the expletives and jokes and it’s clear that what he says is eagerly dismissed in some quarters precisely because he’s smart and provocative, and reaches a large audience with a message that is off-the-charts liberal by current standards. The reasons he gives for being fed up with the status quo are very persuasive — and delivered in such a way that they reach people who’d be bored stiff by any standard political sermonizing.”
From The Guardian‘s Alex Needham: “It’s Brand’s journey from comic to activist which is the meat of Timoner’s story: what happens when drugs, sex, fame and wealth all fail to thrill and a charismatic man decides to make the almost unprecedented transition from comic to guru. Even if you’re cynical about Brand’s motives or just think that he’s a bit of berk, the film convinces you of the almost alarming sincerity of his political mission — not least because his mother reveals that as a child Brand claimed that he was indeed the second coming.”
Harvey again: “Such self-comparisons might seem odious on the surface, and indeed they are quite odious to those who’d prefer to dismiss Brand’s concerns because they hail from an English comedian, ex-drug addict and former Mr. Katy Perry. But Brand’s motormouth eloquence and sharp if often gleefully rude intelligence certainly qualify him as much to talk about corporate greed, economic equality, climate change and other pressing issues as many professional pundits whose often dubious legitimacy is seldom questioned.”
Last Tuesday I spoke with Ondi Timoner, director of Brand: A Second Coming, a fascinating, motor-mouthed portrait of actor-comedian-social activist Russell Brand. It will open Austin’s South by Southwest film festival this evening. Timoner’s doc (partly shot by HE’s own Svetlana Cvetko) is one of the most unusual and impressive documentary portraits of a famous person I’ve ever seen because of…well, its eagerness to step out of the standard function of a documentary and take the proverbial ride. It’s a film that transcends itself and becomes something else by embracing the attitude and temperament of its subject. Just as Brand has begun moving the focus of his life beyond fame and wealth and the lowest form of humor (i.e., simply making people laugh), Brand: A Second Coming is about seeing and transcending and turning a page. It’s about breaking out of the Wachowski’s Matrix by way of comic irreverence, manic energy and a massive ego.
Ondi Timoner, director of Brand: A Second Coming.
Russell Brand
Brand is partly advocating a kind of Iceland-styled social revolution by way of consciousness raising and neighborhood organizing and more compassion for drug addicts and fierce resistance to most of the goals and systems of 1% corporate dominance, and partly calling for the debunking of conservative myths about individual fulfillment through the acquisition of power, money, sex, property, etc. Brand is rich so who’s he to talk, right? His response is to swear over and over that he’s been to the very top and gotten drunk on luxury and debauch and that none of the spoils are particularly fulfilling. He genuinely sees himself as a kind of change agent in the vague tradition of Malcolm X, Jesus of Nazareth, Mahatma Gandhi and Che Guevara. I realize this will rub some the wrong way, but what’s wrong with choosing these fellows as heroes and wanting to follow in their path? Brand’s obviously an eccentric, but he has the aura of a guy who’s really seen through the bullshit.
Born in June 1975, Brand first gained fame as a nervy, drug-addicted stand-up comedian, award-show m.c. and televized provocateur. He became sober in ’04 and got into transcendental meditation but continued to provoke and challenge and piss people off. His first big American-fame injection came, of course, from starring roles in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him To The Greek and Arthur. But gradually the focus of his comedy became more and more political, and Timoner’s film comes alive when this phase, which kicked in sometime around 2012, takes over. We’re speaking of a phase in which Brand has more or less forsaken narcissism in and of itself (well, mostly) and has resolved to be, as he explained during a relatively recent q & a, “the people’s narcissist.”
