Oscar reveals 2014 foreign-language shortlist

Some are pleased, many significantly less so, with the recently announced selection of films still in the running for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Academy members whittled down the list of 76 entries to nine, a mix of shoo-ins and surprise omissions sure to rankle critics.

Among the movies that will advance to the next and final round of voting before the Academy Awards are Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty (Italy), The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium), and The Grandmaster (Hong Kong).

The Past, directed by Asghar Farhadi, whose A Separation took home the prize in 2012, is arguably the most glaring exclusion. Though some critics say the film doesn't quite meet the bar Farhadi set for himself with A Separation, the movie has nonetheless garnered nearly universal acclaim (96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) for both the director and his stars, including The Artist’s Berenice Bejo.

Chile’s popular Gloria, and Saudi Arabia’s Wadjda, the first feature ever filmed in the region, let alone by a woman, were also notably snubbed. They’ll soon be joined on the sidelines by four of the nine films listed below, as ultimately only five movies can be nominated in the best foreign-language category. These finalists will be determined after one more round of voting takes place among specially selected committees in New York and LA.

No matter how difficult, it seems we must let go of The Past in favor of rooting for those works that still have a shot at gold. Which of the below has what it takes?

Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen, director
Like the characters it portrays, The Broken Circle Breakdown is a heartfelt but sloppy and overheated mess. Moving at times, but a mess nonetheless.

Full review

Bosnia and Herzegovina, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanovic, director

Cambodia, The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, director

Denmark, The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg, director
It’s very polished, with confusing themes (the culture of hunting, the nature of lying and gossip, the power of forgiveness?), and has narrative lapses that torpedo credibility. But should the film not get the reviews and word of mouth required to fire up the box office, the intense performance from star Mads Mikkelsen (A Royal Affair, Clash of the Titans, Casino Royale, etc.) could prove a good hedge.

Full review

Germany, Two Lives, Georg Maas, director

Hong Kong, The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai, director
The Grandmaster works best if you've never seen a kung fu movie before. If you have, Wong Kar Wai's film may strike you as a beautiful and expensive missed opportunity.

Full review

Hungary, The Notebook, Janos Szasz, director

Italy, The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, director
The film will inevitably draw comparisons to Fellini classics like La Dolce Vita, 8 ½ and Roma, but the Fellini halo effect could prove especially advantageous. While fun and entertaining, Sorrentino’s Roman holiday, a long stretch at well over two hours, is a more challenging excursion.

Full review

Palestine, Omar, Hany Abu-Assad, director

'Butler' returns to win in mixed bag Labor Day weekend

During a quiet Labor Day weekend, The Butler made a splash, becoming the first 2013 release to stay at the top spot for three weekends in a row. The Civil Rights-movement drama starring Forest Whitaker and, of course, Oprah, earned $14.8 million from Friday to Sunday and $20 million

over the four-day period. Its Monday total was enough to push it ahead of One Direction: This Is Us, which earned $15 million over the normal weekend period, and $18 million through Monday. Concert movies have been popular ever since tween singer Miley Cyrus (you know, the star that performed at the VMAs last weekend) took the sleepy Super Bowl weekend by storm and opened Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour to $31 million. Since then, concert movies have been a bit hit-or-miss, with the Jonas Brothers completely bombing their debut, and Katy Perry not doing much better last year. But Sony was quick to point out that the One Direction movie cost just $10 million, making it an inexpensive win for the studio.

A Spanish-language underdog of a movie, Instructions Not Included, made it to fifth place over the long weekend with a total haul of $10 million. It marks the biggest hit yet for Pantelion Films,
the Lionsgate arm devoted to distributing films targeted at Hispanic audiences. The family-focused narrative, a mixture of comedy and heart, wowed audiences, who gave the movie an "A+" in exit polls. Popular Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez plays a man who takes in his daughter after her birth mother abandons her, then fights to keep her when the mother shows up after they've formed a close bond. In release in just over 300 theatres, it had the best location average of the week, $28,000 per screen.

The car-set thriller Getaway lived up to its 2% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with a four-day total of $5.5 million. Still, that was better than the thriller Closed Circuit, which earned $2.5 million over the weekend. Focus Features has used this time slot before for adult thrillers like The American and The Debt, but this opening was markedly worse than those two releases, coming in with just a fraction of the take of those movies' opening weekends.

While the long weekend was poor for new releases, other returning releases posted lower-than-average drops. Blue Jasmine, in its second weekend on over 1,000 screens, had a four-day total of $5.3 million, matching last week's performance day for day. The Grandmaster, which expanded onto over 700 screens, earned $3.1 million, an excellent showing for the martial arts feature.

This Friday will be a light in major releases, with only Riddick opening in over 2,000 theatres.

 

'Butler' and 'We're the Millers' stay on top of new releases

Despite three new releases hitting theatres, the top two films were returning releases. In week two, The Butler led with $17 million, a scant 30% drop from opening weekend. In second place, the comedy We're the Millers dipped 25% to $13.5 million in its third week, a sign that audiences are connecting with this drug smuggling caper.

The World's End had the best relative performance of the three new offerings. Generating $8.9 million on 1,549 screens, fans of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg clearly turned out. Devotees of the so-called "Cornetto Trilogy" (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are the first two genre-skewering comedies) gave the final installment its best opening yet, drawing an audience that skewed male, with the majority of attendees under 30.

Many in the industry expected that the horror feature You're Next would top the box office, but
instead this tale of a family under siege was the worst of the lot, opening to just $7 million. Just when you think horror is a sure thing, a movie like this falls flat. In fact, it was the worst horror movie opening yet in 2013. Still, its budget was likely fairly low, unlike this week's biggest loser: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

Lily Collins stars in this adaptaion of a young adult novel, which was made for $60 million in hopes that it would launch a trilogy. No dice. Instead, the feature had a weekend total of $9.3 million,
and a five-day opening of $16 million. The audience was 68% female, with 46% of those turning out under 21. Even this bulls'-eye demographic turnout didn't prevent them from giving it a CinemaScore rating of "B+," when the same audience likely would have given Twilight an "A++!++!"

Blue Jasmine expanded into over 1,200 theatres this weekend, and it held on to its audience. The per-screen average dropped two-thirds, which is actually a fairly strong hold for such an aggressive expansion. That meant the Woody Allen comedy finished ninth with $4.3 million. That's a bit off Midnight in Paris, but the strength of the figures suggests that this story of a rich housewife married to Madoff-like villian could approach the $30-40 million range, compared to Paris' $56 million total.