I don’t have a lot to talk about this week. I’m off to Melbourne from Wednesday to Sunday to help manage a few Queensland golfers who are competing in the Victorian Amateur Championship. I’ve therefore taken a week off and haven’t had the chance to write any reviews.
Well, I have written one review – for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. I can’t share it with you until next week however because there’s a review embargo currently in place. In fact, it’s not the only film I’ve seen in the past few days that I can’t yet discuss.
Review Embargoes
Review embargoes are serious business at this time of the year. Studios want to keep a tight lid on their films until just the right moment – hoping that a combined wave of publicity can help steer the film into the Oscar spotlight.
The topic has become a huge talking point however in regards to David Fincher’s remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. David Denby from The New Yorker became the first to publish a review – despite having signed an embargo that nothing could be said until December 13.
Many other critics and bloggers have weighed in on the argument. Jeffrey Wells provides a neat summary on his website which you can check out here. It includes the emails between critic David Denby and Dragon Tattoo’s producer Scott Rudin which make for fascinating reading.
Both sides make persuasive arguments but I have to side with the distributors and filmmakers in this case. They will almost always have the upper hand. I can’t think of many critics who are powerful enough to break an embargo and then not get blacklisted and banned from future previews (severely limiting their profession).
Awards Race
Whilst on the subject of awards, the first batches have been turned in. The New York Film Critics Circle gave their top prize to The Artist and the National Board of Review followed a few days later with their choice of Hugo. The European Film Award winners were announced over the weekend with Melancholia winning best picture.
The race is still rather murky and I don’t expect things to become clearer until a few more critics awards are dished out. It still has the appearance of a wide open race.
The two most significant lead up awards – the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globe Awards reveal their nominees on December 14 and December 15 respectively. I can’t wait to see who makes the cut and as always, I hope for some surprises.
Top 10 List
I’ll be printing my top 10 and bottom 10 lists in a final blog in a few weeks time but in the meantime, you can get a sneak peak on the 612ABC website.
I had to put a preliminary list together for my final show with Spencer Howson for the year and we went through them on air (with some caller feedback too). You can read the list and listen to the podcast by clicking here.