For some, 2007 means rehashing the old study-harder-for-exams resolution spiel; for others (namely Hollywood execs, film critics and concerned citizens), the first grueling days are burned off soberly awaiting January 23’s Oscar ballot announcement. Those Oscar nods (especially the wins) validate the workmanship of tireless film crews and directors, not to mention almost guarantee higher DVD revenues.
And usually amid such Oscar season buoyancy, a three-month block of ne’er-do-well films are unceremoniously jilted and forgotten. This decade, no Academy Award was ever doled out to an American film released between January and March since 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and 2000’s Erin Brockovich.
The reasons are clear-cut. By February, late-year Oscar contenders still remain fresh in the public mind. Come Oscar Night that same month, the previous year’s Winter have all but vanished from recent memory. Dubbed the dumping grounds of cinematic history, studio-projected box office bombs are quietly discarded like Thanksgiving leftovers into the cesspool of Oscar oblivion.
This year, the doldrums of winter tease a series of cardboard-thin premises and one-note characters. From Jan. 5’s Code Name: The Sweeper (Cedric the Entertainer) to Feb. 9’s dismal Nutty Professor copycat Norbit, of which Eddie Murphy once again dons the fat suit and grating laugh, many releases in advance prophesy their own clumsy fates.
By contrast, graphic novelist Frank Miller fights to sustain his Sin City cult following with the eye-pleasing Spartan epic 300 (Mar. 9). Also, Daredevil director Mark Steven Johnson sidesteps conventional wisdom, again tapping the February market for Ghost Rider (Feb. 16). Both dream of matching the same $100 million box office futures as their predecessors, but the slim pickings this season might deter filmgoers from jaunting over to the Cineplex.
Hands-down vote belongs to Black Snake Moan (Feb. 23) and Zodiac (Mar. 9), the trailers of which were idiosyncratic without reaching the point of absurdity. Seven and Fight Club alum David Fincher appears to helm Zodiac with the same recognizable desolation, the very same bleakness, which burrows into every dark crevice of celluloid ever wielded by this director. Moan resembles a Salvador Dali painting by comparison. A rich tapestry of jazzy Blues and rock-hard religiosity, this effort by Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer stands a chance to net another Academy Award.
Save for a woeful few, early 2007 repeats the annual trend as a junkyard for misfit movies, finding no solace among distributors constantly wary of failing box office numbers. In thaT respect, the Winter season truly earns its moniker. Check out these trailers for Winter’s upcoming releases:
