#movie:three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri

[kevinpolowy]

How 'Three Billboards,' 'Shape of Water' have suddenly become the Oscar favorites

(Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures)

In what’s so far been a refreshingly unpredictable race for Oscar’s Best Picture trophy, a pair of clear-cut favorites have emerged.

Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water both had monster weeks between Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards and Thursday’s Critics’ Choice Awards (with some BAFTA and Director’s Guild Awards love in between).

Three Billboards, a Coensian crime drama peppered with heavy doses of black comedy, was the big winner at the Globes, prevailing in Best Picture — Drama, Best Actress — Drama (Frances McDormand), Best Original Screenplay (McDonagh), and Best Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell).

The Globes aren’t always the best predictor when it comes to the Oscars, given that they involve votes from fewer than a hundred foreign journalists and the Oscars are decided by thousands of film professionals. The Globes’ Best Picture — Drama winner has only repeated at the Academy Awards four times over the past 10 years (Moonlight, 12 Years a Slave, Argo, and Slumdog Millionaire), though on one of those years (2011), its Best Picture — Musical or Comedy winner (The Artist) later triumphed at the Oscars.

Regardless, the splashy, high-profile Globes telecast no doubt gave Three Billboards a few shots in the arm only five days before Oscar voting closed. It also boosted the chances of McDormand (who will likely go head-to-head with Lady Bird leading lady Saoirse Ronan, winner of Best Actress — Musical or Comedy) and Sam Rockwell (who pulled a major upset over the favored star of Florida Project Willem Dafoe).

On Thursday, McDormand and Rockwell repeated at the Critics’ Choice Awards, voted on by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and Broadcast Television Journalists Association, this time with McDormand winning head-to-head against Ronan, and Rockwell again topping Dafoe.

In between the two ceremonies, Three Billboards scored nine BAFTA Award nominations: Best Film, Outstanding British Film of the Year, Best Director (McDonagh), Best Leading Actress (McDormand), Best Supporting Actor (Rockwell), Best Supporting Actor again (Woody Harrelson), Best Original Screenplay (McDonagh), Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.

It was also a major coup for McDonagh to land a DGA nomination on Thursday, besting the likes of Steven Spielberg (The Post), Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name), Sean Baker (The Florida Project), and Dee Rees (Mudbound) for one of the five coveted slots.

It was a slower start to the week for The Shape of Water, del Toro’s whimsical woman-meets-sea-creature sci-fi romance. The film took home only two Globes, but it included a biggie: Best Director for del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim), who has called the film the best he’s ever made. (Alexandre Desplat also won for Best Original Score.)

Then came the tidal wave.

On Tuesday, The Shape of Water led all BAFTA nominations with a whopping 12 nods. including Best Film, Best Director (del Toro), Best Leading Actress (Sally Hawkins), Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer), Best Original Screenplay (del Toro and Vanessa Taylor), and Best Cinematography.

On Thursday morning, del Toro joined McDonagh in the DGA race — up against Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), and Jordan Peele (Get Out). And on Thursday night, the film came up huge at the Critics’ Choice Awards, winning not only Best Picture, but also Best Director, Best Production Design, and Best Score.

So what does this all mean for the bigger Oscars picture? It certainly positions The Shape of Water and Three Billboards — both Fox Searchlight releases — to lead all comers at the Academy Awards nominations on Jan. 23, with both films boasting a mix of above-the-line and below-the-line contenders.

It also boosts both their odds for Best Picture in a year when any of a half-dozen films (also including Get Out, Lady Bird, The Post, Call Me by Your Name, and Dunkirk) had seemed to have a legitimate shot at winning.

What’s the favorite between the two? Critics have been divided about Three Billboards (particularly in its redemption of a racist cop), while they have generally embraced The Shape of Water. Del Toro is now the hands-down favorite to win Best Director, and The Shape of Water could be shaping up for a Best Picture win, too.

Watch del Toro reveal how The Shape of Water was “terrible” to make:

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:

BAFTA Awards slammed for nominating only men for Best Director for the fifth year in a row

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[marcuserrico]

Role Recall: Woody Harrelson on identifying with 'Cheers' character, learning to dunk, and what he really thinks of Jennifer Lawrence

Over the course of a wildly successful, widely diverse three decades, Woody Harrelson has held down the tap on Cheers, proved white men can jump, and managed to survive The Hunger Games, winning an Emmy and receiving two Oscar nods along the way. The 56-year-old Texas native has two major films out this month — the Rob Reiner-helmed biopic LBJ, in which he’s virtually unrecognizable as the 36th president, and the Oscar-buzzing Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, where he plays a local sheriff under siege from a mother who wants justice for her murdered daughter —  and has recently wrapped filming on 2018’s surefire blockbuster Solo: A Star Wars Story. Yahoo Entertainment recently down with Harrelson for a guided tour of his greatest hits in the latest edition of our Role Recall series. Some highlights:

Cheers (1985-93) Harrelson’s breakout role came in the classic NBC sitcom, where he joined the ensemble in 1985 as the kind, yet dimwitted bartender Woody Boyd. “It was a friend of mine who told me that there was this part you should go try out for,” Harrelson explains. “The part’s named Woody, he’s from Indiana, where we had gone to college, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’

“There was a lot about Woody Boyd that I resonated with. And though I didn’t think I was very innocent at the time, I probably was pretty innocent. It was the first time I really broke out of anonymity — and poverty.”

White Men Can’t Jump (1992) Harrelson really couldn’t jump for the Ron Shelton comedy about two basketball hustlers, a fact that resulted in endless taunting (and wagering) from co-star Wesley Snipes. “That was one of the funnest times I ever had doing a movie. I remember having an actual contest with Wes where I was trying to dunk. We were betting and I was losing. Then he went to his trailer … and this [crew member] told me, “Why don’t you ever stretch?” This is my first introduction to yoga,” Harrelson recalls, “and I started stretching and the next thing you know, I could dunk the ball. This is on a 9-and-a-half-foot rim, by the way; I couldn’t do it on a 10-foot rim. … He came out of his trailer and I pretended I couldn’t and we upped the bet and upped the bet and then slammed it. I’ll never forget the look on Wes’s face: It was joyous.

Indecent Proposal (1993) This extremely popular, extremely un-P.C. film starred Robert Redford as mogul who offers Harrelson’s character $1 million for a night with his wife, played by Demi Moore. “My mom was pretty psyched,” says Harrelson. “She didn’t come to visit me on set much, but with Robert Redford was in the movie, she came to the set for sure. She was like a little girl. It was fantastic.”

Natural Born Killers (1994) Harrelson and Juliette Lewis played a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde in Oliver Stone’s graphically violent road-trip movie that polarized audiences upon its release. “I didn’t know it would be that controversial. It was very controversial,” says Harrelson. “People are like, ‘Do you like doing controversial movies?’ I’m like, ‘Hell, no. I like doing movies people would go see, not movies people are boycotting.'”

The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) Harrelson reteamed with Stone and earned his first Oscar nomination playing Hustler magnate Larry Flynt in this biopic. “I wouldn’t have been much into doing this movie if I hadn’t come to respect Larry. I don’t respect much the pornography part of what he does,” Harrelson quickly adds, “But what he is as a person, and the rebel that he is, and even what he did recently offering $10 million for any information that leads to the impeachment of our so-called president… I’ve never met a more honest man.”

The Hunger Games (2012-15) For the blockbuster four-film saga based on the bestselling book series, Harrelson played mentor to Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen. “I love Jen,” Harrelson says with a smile. “She’s absolutely hysterical. She’s her own person. I love who she is. I think she’s a tremendous actress, but even more so as a person, she’s one of my top favorite people in the world.”

True Detective (2014) Harrelson and partner Matthew McConaughey both earned Emmy nominations for HBO’s esoteric mystery thriller. “Love working with Matthew, that’s the third thing we did together,” Harrelson says, ticking off their collaborations in EDtv and Surfer Dude. “He’s a hard-core committed guy… Man, what a performance.” But despite their good vibes on set and off, that doesn’t mean Harrelson wants to reprise their partnership for a follow-up season of True Detective. “I don’t see doing that because it went really well the first time and if you come back around to it, what else are you going to hear? ‘Not as good. Wasn’t as good. Boy, you guys were good before, but this time…’ I don’t want to hear that.”

Watch the complete Role Recall above.

Here’s Woody on why he almost didn’t appear in the upcoming Star Wars movie:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

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[kevinpolowy]

The 5 biggest movie upsets at the 2018 Golden Globes

Sam Rockwell (Getty Images via NBC)

You should never be surprised that there are big surprises at the Golden Globes. The voting body of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is not very large — it’s roughly the same size as an NFL team roster. So no matter how many quote-unquote experts (like this guy) are making predictions, it’s always tough to get a read on what exactly the HFPA is thinking, and why or how or when. Then again, the unpredictability makes for a suspenseful, entertaining show. Here are the biggest movie shockers from the 75th Golden Globes:

5. In the Fade wins Best Foreign Film. Granted, the average American likely hasn’t heard of any of the five nominees for Best Foreign-Language Film. So trust us when we tell you very few expected Fatih Akin’s explosive German drama In the Fade to topple the likes of the Chilean transgender story A Fantastic Woman, the Angelina Jolie-directed Cambodian genocide drama First They Killed My Father, and the wackadoo Swedish satire The Square. It was. We swear.

4. “This Is Me” wins “Me”-off against “Remember Me” in Best Original Song. Movies rarely come as Golden Globesy as The Greatest Showman, a big splashy musical with big splashy stars (Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, et al.) at an awards show that loves musicals so much that there are three “Musical or Comedy” movie categories despite the fact we only see one or two musicals released a year. Coco‘s poignant ballad “Remember Me” felt like a heavy favorite, and remains so for the Oscars… But on this night, the “Me”-off in Best Original Song went to the poppy empowerment track “This Is Me,” crooned by Bearded Lady of the Year, Keala Settle.

Allison Janney

3. Allison Janney edges Laurie Metcalf in Best Supporting Actress. Allison Janney’s wickedly funny, filthy-mouthed Bad Mom in I, Tonya isn’t your traditional “awards bait” part. While she has won a few trophies here and there, most of the early award-season hardware has gone to Lady Bird star Laurie Metcalf for her not-nearly-as-bad-but-still-sometimes-infuriating mom in Greta Gerwig’s beloved dramedy. Janney won big on Sunday, and she didn’t even have to send in the goons. Suddenly her Oscar chances feel a little more real.

2. Sam Rockwell tops Willem Dafoe (and Christopher Plummer) in Best Supporting Actor. Willem Dafoe is looking like the early Oscar favorite for his touching, understated performance as an empathetic Everyman routinely crapped on by the residents of an extended stay motel in The Florida Project. So pundits figured this one would go to either Dafoe or Christopher Plummer, given the HFPA’s clear appreciation for what he did in a matter of weeks on the now-famous All the Money in the World reshoots. But there was Sam Rockwell, whose bigoted-turned-simpatico cop owns the most surprising arc in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, coming out on top. Rockwell likely benefitted from the HFPA’s overall love for the film, which leads us to…

1.     The overall dominance of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri You may have heard, but this year is generally considered one of the most wide-open awards races in eons, with five or six films that could reasonably win Best Picture come March’s Oscars telecast (Get Out, Lady Bird, The Post, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards, and maybe even Dunkirk or Call Me by Your Name). The HFPA clearly has one clear-cut favorite, though, as they doled out Four Statuettes Inside the Beverly Hilton to Martin McDonaugh’s Midwestern murder drama (Best Picture — Drama, Best Actress — Drama for Frances McDormand, Best Supporting Actor for Rockwell and Best Screenplay for McDonagh). Does its Globe domination give it a leg up at the Oscars? Not necessarily, but in such a tight year, any momentum helps.

Watch Oprah Winfrey’s stirring Golden Globes speech:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

The highs and lows of the 2018 Golden Globes

Golden Globes 2018: See the complete winners list

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[gwynnew]

Woody Harrelson calls 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' a masterpiece

Woody Harrelson is known as a straight shooter, so when he speaks this highly about a film, fans should pay attention. In Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Harrelson plays a small-town police chief who incurs the wrath of a single mother (Frances McDormand) seeking justice for her daughter’s  killer. The darkly comic drama from writer-director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths), is “a real masterpiece,” according to Harrelson, balancing “the darkest possible premise” with “humor” and “emotion.” As the actor told Yahoo Entertainment, “I’ve never seen audiences respond to any movie like this.” Watch the video above.

Harrelson (who is also starring in this month’s biopic LBJ) had nothing but praise for his Three Billboards director and co-stars. Frances McDormand, he said, is at “the top of her game… that part is such a great part, and boy does she nail it.” As a corrupt cop, Sam Rockwell gives “maybe his best performance,” said Harrelson, “and he’s never been anything but great.” As for McDonagh, Harrelson described him as “Coen brothers-level, which is the highest and best it gets in this industry.” (Harrelson worked on the Coens’ No Country for Old Men, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2008.)

Woody’s final word on Three Billboards? “I feel really lucky to be a part of it.” Who needs a publicist when you’ve got Woody?

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri opens in theaters Friday.

From ‘Cheers’ to ‘Hunger Games,’ watch Woody Harrelson share his favorite behind-the-scenes moments in our Role Recall:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

Sam Rockwell on channeling American rage in ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’

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Allison Janney plays mommy dearest to Margot Robbie in official ‘I, Tonya’ trailer

[kevinpolowy]

See how 'Three Billboards' pulled off Sam Rockwell's most shocking moment in behind-the-scenes clip (exclusive)

In perhaps the vilest moment in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the seven-time Oscar-nominated drama from writer-director Martin McDonagh, Sam Rockwell’s brutish cop Dixon casually beats the pulp out of local advertising impresario Reed Welby (Caleb Landry Jones) — the man who owns the titular signs — before tossing him through a second-story window.

It’s a shocking moment within the film’s story, about a grieving mother (Frances McDormand) who wages a publicity war against her local police force for not finding her daughter’s rapist and murderer. But it’s also a technical coup for the filmmakers, all captured in a single shot without one cut.

In a clip from the upcoming digital and Blu-ray release’s bonus features, you can get a behind-the-scenes look at how McDonagh and company executed the shot (watch exclusively above). It involved a stunt double, some swift stair work by Jones, and a truckload of cardboard.

“It’s a very violent, brutal scene,” explains director of photography Ben Davis. “And the violence is all the more believable because there are no cuts within the sequence to remind you that you’re watching a piece of fiction.”

In other words, they kept it real.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is available on Digital HD Feb. 13 and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Feb. 27.

Watch: Woody Harrelson compares Martin McDonagh to the Coen brothers:

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:

How ‘Three Billboards,’ ‘Shape of Water’ have suddenly become the Oscar favorites

Sam Rockwell on channeling American rage in ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’

About that ending of ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’: Sam Rockwell and Martin McDonagh reveal their theories (spoilers!)