The rags-to-riches, come from behind boxing ring narrative has been overdone, and while nothing has come close to stealing the title away from the Jake La Motta biopic (Million Dollar Baby was crap folks), if the performances are spot on, if Russell gives this biography a different tapestry (apparently he shrunk the timeline from 30 to 3 years) then we'll gain more insight in why this originally attracted the Darren Aronofskys and the Brad Pitts).
Similar to the Golden Globes because it is a foreign group of film journalists who conduct the voting (though I'm sure they have no mandate to prefer films loaded in stars), this year's the 15th Lumiere Awards has a pair of films in the top tier that recently that duked it out for the Louis Delluc award. Philippe Lioret's Welcome (which just got picked up by Film Movement this week) and Jacques Audiard's A Prophet (a SPC release next February) received five and four noms respectively.
Tons of Park City alumni are bringing their latest films, but I'm a bit surprised that March-pegged releases of The Weinstein's All Good Things and Focus Features' Greenberg aren't getting a Park City push. Instead, as expected, Sony Pictures Classics will show up and they get to showcase Get Low and A Prophet (Spotlight section) once again, and they'll preem Holofcener's Please Give. Overture will introduce Philip Seymour Hoffman's directing debut (Jack Goes Boating) and Fox Searchlight will preem Duplass Bros.' untitled comedy, which I'm calling Center of Attention - because its a great title considering the subject matter.
The good news is that a handful of films that I predicted that would be at the fest and that I wanted to see (Blue Valentine, Happythankyoumoreplease, Hesher, Howl, Sympathy for Delicious and Winter's Bone) have indeed been selected.
When it comes to release time, Daryl Wein's Breaking Upwards might want to come with the label this ain't Mumblecore. Not that there is a problem with the films, but seeing that IFC Films don't have a problem with inexpensive/low-budget films, I'm afraid that cinephiles might lump this with the Swanberg/Bujalski/Shelton group.