Spend the night with Leonardo and Russell Crowe as EclipseMagazine.com and Warner Brothers team up to bring you the Washington, DC Screening of Body of Lies. The Screening will be held Tuesday, October 7, 2008 (that’s tomorrow night!) at Gallery Place in DC. I’m working with Warners on automating our contests, so we’re testing out this cool new system. To get your tickets, CLICK HERE!!! and enter the code ECLP9886.  This movie looks amazingly good so go, enter the code, download your pass, it’s that simple.

bodyoflies 

Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the best man U.S. Intelligence has on the ground, in places where human life is worth no more than the information it can get you.  In operations that take him around the globe from the Middle East to Washington, Ferris’s next breath often depends on the voice at the other end of a secure phone line – CIA veteran Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe).  Waging war from a laptop in the suburbs, Hoffman is on the trail of an emerging terrorist leader who has orchestrated a campaign of bombings while eluding the most sophisticated intelligence network in the world.  To lure the terrorist out into the open, Ferris will have to penetrate his murky world, but the closer he gets to the target, the more he discovers that trust is both a dangerous commodity and the only one that will get him out alive.

The film stars Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio ("Blood Diamond," "The Aviator," "The Departed"), Oscar winner Russell Crowe ("Gladiator," "A Beautiful Mind"), Mark Strong ("Stardust"), Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani ("M for Mother"), Oscar Isaac ("The Nativity Story") and Simon McBurney ("The Golden Compass").

"Body of Lies" is directed by Academy Award nominee Ridley Scott ("Black Hawk Down," "Gladiator") from a screenplay by Oscar winner William Monahan ("The Departed") based on the novel by former Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.  Donald De Line ("The Italian Job") and Ridley Scott are the producers, with Michael Costigan ("American Gangster," "Brokeback Mountain") and Charles J.D. Schlissel ("The Prestige") serving as executive producers.

The behind-the-scenes creative team is led by cinematographer Alexander Witt ("American Gangster"), Oscar-nominated production designer Arthur Max ("American Gangster," "Gladiator") Oscar-winning editor Pietro Scalia ("Black Hawk Down"), and Oscar-winning costume designer Janty Yates ("Gladiator").  Marc Streitenfeld ("Kingdom of Heaven") composed the score.

Opening nationwide on October 10, 2008, "Body of Lies" will be distributed by Warner Bros Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.  The film has been rated "R" by the MPAA for "strong violence, including some torture, and language throughout."

No Country for Old Men

39 Washington, DC area Film Critics (WAFCA - of which I’m one) huddled together in a small broom closet this weekend to do our annual duty of selected the best of the year. In the last three weeks we were hit with an avalanche of DVD Screeners (about 50) and had a bunch of screenings to attend (about 100) and walked away with our eventual best Picture selection. Generally, I disagree with my fellow members, but last year and this year they got everything right, with the exception of Clooney for Michael Clayton - a film I absolutely HATED. I’m still mixed on No Country for Old Men, which is why I haven’t written a review yet. The first 90 minutes I sat there thinking, I’m watching the clear Best Picture of the Year, but then that weird ass last 20 minutes just ruins the entire film for me. I left the theater really angry and wondering what the f just happened. I’m still not entirely sure if the last 20 minutes is enough to throw out the first 90 minutes of brilliance or not. Ultimately, I did cast my ballad for No Country and am glad that it won. Because the other selections where two films that I absolutely loathe (Atonement and Michael Clayton.) So we did good this year and I’m happy with the results. Without Further adieu……

BEST PICTURE
Winner: No Country for Old Men

BEST DIRECTOR
Winner: Ethan and Joel Coen (No Country for Old Men)

BEST ACTOR
Winner: George Clooney (Michael Clayton)

BEST ACTRESS
Winner:
Julie Christie (Away from Her)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner:
Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Winner: Aaron Sorkin (Charlie Wilson’s War)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Winner: Diablo Cody (Juno)

BEST ENSEMBLE
Winner: No Country for Old Men

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Winner: Ratatouille

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Winner: Sicko

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Winner: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

BEST ART DIRECTION
Winner: Sweeney Todd

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Winner: Ellen Page (Juno)