Alexander Payne on His Life at the Movies
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lifestyle SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2013 Best & worst 2013 Movie moments of the year hanksgiving has come and gone, which means the end of 2013 is just weeks away, so it’s time Tto look back at the films TheWrap’s staff has seen this year, and pick out the moments - large or small - that wowed us for one reason or another. From that 10-minute sex scene in “Blue Is the Warmest Color” to Bruce Dern’s subtle portrayal of a man with a painful past in “Nebraska” and Channing Tatum’s cameo in “This Is the End,” here are the choic- es for the best movie moments of the year. The last scene in “Captain Phillips”: Even those who were mixed on the movie sung the praises of Tom Hanks for his performance in the last 10 minutes of the movie, when the title character is in shock after being rescued. His wide-eyed, largely wordless reaction spoke volumes about the trauma he sur- vived, and the woman who treated him was the per- fect counterpart, which makes sense since she’s actu- ally in the Navy. A harrowing ending to a gripping film. President Barack Obama (center) dances alongside Mariah Carey (right) during the National Christmas Tree President Barack Obama hugs Santa at the National The drunken bar scene in “The Heat”: Sandra Lighting ceremony on the Ellipse adjacent to the White House in Washington, DC, December 6, 2013. The event, Christmas Tree lighting ceremony across from the Bullock and Melissa McCarthy’s drunken dancing and hosted by actress Jane Lynch, features performances by Mariah Carey, Joshua Bell, Aretha Franklin, the band White House in Washington, Friday, Dec 6, 2013. — AP inebriated bonding (above) in a Boston dive bar Train and jazz legend Arturo Sandoval. — AFP marks the comic high-point of the buddy cop film. The two stars are completely without vanity, whether they’re hitting on barflys or having fun with scotch tape. They take the material to the edge and beyond, as comedy should be. Woody Grant shows his family the broken home where he spent his childhood in “Nebraska”: When Hollywood hails Mandela, after long walk to big screen Bruce Dern’s Woody Grant returns to the home where he grew up, now abandoned and dilapidated, he barely says a word - but his gaze says volumes ollywood has a long history with Nelson Mandela, about what he endured within those walls. Dern’s whose life story was seemingly made for the big screen- performance in the scene is heartbreaking, whether Hand stars and filmmakers have lined up to pay tribute to he’s wandering through his parents’ bedroom whis- him. By mere chance, his death on Thursday was announced pering how he would have been whipped if he’d during the London premiere of “Mandela: Long Walk to been caught in there as a child, or responding to a Freedom,” the movie version of his 1994 autobiography that question about whether he remembers his brother’s took 19 years to come to fruition. Morgan Freeman, who played death by quietly offering, “I was there.” the South African leader in Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated When Solomon Northup is nearly hung in “12 2009 film “Invictus,” called Mandela “one of the true giants of the Years a Slave”: Steve McQueen left the camera rolling past century. just long enough to capture one of the most excruci- “Nelson Mandela was a man of incomparable honor, uncon- ating moments of the year when Solomon Northup querable strength, and unyielding resolve-a saint to many, a (Chiwetel Ejijofor, above) is left hanging for hours hero to all who treasure liberty, freedom and the dignity of with a noose around his neck, and just one foot bare- humankind,” he said. Freeman was better placed than many to ly touching the ground beneath him. The moment comment on Mandela. In a 1994 press conference to promote captured so much about the era that the film is try- his autobiography, the then South African president was asked ing to depict - the brutality of plantation life, the nec- who he would choose to play himself in a movie version of the essary indifference of other slaves, and Northup’s book. Mandela chose Freeman, and for a long time the actor- extraordinary will to live for the day he gets to see his who has also played God and the president of the United family again. Above all, the painfully long take forces States-was linked to the planned movie, and given regular audiences to hang there with him, which is the clos- access to the anti-apartheid icon. est most may come to experiencing the horrors of But the project got bogged down, and Freeman eventually slavery themselves. dropped out, before Eastwood asked him to help make The moment Joaquin Phoenix’s character meets “Invictus,” which focused on Mandela’s campaign to unite his his lovely, new personalized operating system in apartheid-torn country behind the national team in the 1995 Her”: Spike Jonze’s odd tale of the relationship Rugby World Cup. “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” was even- US actor Morgan Freeman poses during a photocall for the premiere of Clint Eastwood’s film “Invictus” in Madrid, between a man and his operating system is filled tually brought to the screen by South African producer Anant in this file photo. — AFP with lovely moments, the most significant of which Singh, in collaboration with the highly-rated British actor Idris may come when Joaquin Phoenix’s character boots Elba and director Justin Chadwick, also a Briton. spawned numerous other films and documentaries, including role as the wife of a black White House butler who served eight up his new, intuitive OS. A robotic male voice asks “It’s been well worth the wait,” Singh said in a recent media “Winnie Mandela,” starring Jennifer Hudson and Terrence US presidents. African American director Spike Lee, who gave Phoenix a few questions (“Are you social or anti- interview to promote the film, which is currently being Howard, released in September. Mandela a cameo role in his 1992 movie “Malcolm X,” posted an social?” “How would you describe your relationship screened in select US theaters and will be released nationwide “Goodbye Bafana” (2007), directed by Denmark’s Bille old picture of himself with the South African legend. “President with your mother?”), an onscreen icon spins briefly, later this month. “It’s made the film better that we have gone August and starring English actor Joseph Fiennes, told the story Nelson Mandela Born July 18th, 1918-December 5th In The Year and then Scarlett Johansson’s voice comes out: “Hi, through as much as we have,” he added. Harvey Weinstein, the of the white jailor who guarded Mandela for 20 years on Of Our Lawd 2013,” he wrote. And South African-born Oscar I’m Samantha.” And with that, the weirdest, most legendary Hollywood producer behind the new movie, paid Robben Island. He was also portrayed on the small screen long winner Charlize Theron wrote: “Rest in Peace Madiba. You will inventive and most touching love story of the year tribute to Mandela after his death at the age of 95. before “Invictus” and “Long Walk to Freedom.” Danny Glover be missed, but your impact on this world will live forever. I am begins. “One of the privileges of making movies is having the played him in the 1987 TV movie “Mandela,” while Sidney Poitier saddened to the depths of my soul.” — AFP Channing Tatum’s cameo in “This Is the End”: opportunity to immortalize those who have made a profound took the role in 1997 in “Mandela and de Klerk.”Filmmakers and There were too many hilarious moments to count in impact on humanity,” he said. “We count ourselves unspeakably stars with South African links or who have explored related Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s directorial debut, fortunate to have been immersed in Nelson Mandela’s story themes joined in tributes to Mandela after his death. which was a raunchy send-up of the Rapture. But one and legacy. It’s been an honor to have been granted such prox- “My heart is broken... My hero is gone,” said Lee Daniels, the of the most memorable featured the funniest cameo imity to a man who will go down as one of history’s greatest African American director who made “The Butler” starring of the year - People Magazine’s Sexiest Man of 2012, freedom fighters and advocates for justice.” Mandela’s story has Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, tipped for an Oscar for her Channing Tatum, pulling off a mask (above) to reveal he has become Danny McBride’s sex-slave in order to survive in the post-apocalyptic wasteland that Los Angeles has become. Alexander Payne The sunrise at the beginning of “Gravity”: The Q&A: calm before the storm that sets Alfonso CuarÛn’s space thriller into motion is a magnificent display of how far VFX have come since Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: on his life at the movies A Space Odyssey” wowed audiences in 1968. George Clooney’s dialogue isn’t an exaggeration in the lexander Payne is equal parts filmmaker the 2006 anthology film “Paris je t’aime,” with slightest when he watches in awe as the sun begins and film buff. The Omaha-born filmmak- Margo Martindale as an American tourist in illuminating planet Earth. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Clooney Aer, for example, found time while pre- Paris, you went from caricature to an emotional says. “Terrific.” miering his latest, “Nebraska,” at the Cannes Film epiphany in minutes.