By Haddon Libby
With the 25th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival in town from January 3rd through the 13th, we have a unique chance to see films and meet their filmmakers from around the world. Our festival ranks amongst the best attended and most relevant in the United States.
In addition to the cultural diversity that we can all experience, our international festival creates tens of millions in economic activity for the Coachella Valley along with substantial marketing value for the whole region that is hard to fully quantify.
While all of this is very important to the Coachella Valley, the festival itself is a key player in helping to set the early buzz for Awards Season in Hollywood.
Gala awardees in the running for Oscars this year include Matthew McConaughey who is considered a front runner for his work in the Dallas Buyers Club, Bruce Dern for Nebraska, Sandra Bullock for Gravity, Julia Roberts for August: Osage County and Steve McQueen for his directorial work on 12 Years a Slave. The cast of American Hustle is being honored for its ensemble effort on a film that is considered by many as a front runner for Best Picture. Each of these awardees along with a slate of important films and filmmakers from around the world will make this year’s festival one to remember.
For all of the great films that will be honored and/or screened here in the desert over the next two weeks, lets take a quick look at a few of the films that have no chance of winning an award in excellence this year.
The honor for worst film of 2013 will be competitive although my bet is that it will go to Movie 43, a film that Richard Roeper called “the Citizen Kane” of awful. Peter Howell of the Toronto Star felt this film’s prints “should be used as landfill” while Lou Lumernick of The New York Post said, “If you mashed-up the worst parts of the infamous Howard the Duck, Gigli, Ishtar and every other awful movie I’ve seen since I started reviewing professionally in 1981, it wouldn’t begin to approach the sheer soul-sucking badness of the cringe-inducing Movie 43.”
Despite Richard Roeper’s disdain for Movie 43, he feels that White House Down is worse as this film does not realize that it is bad. Other notably bad films include The Lone Ranger where Johnny Depp is considered to have given the worst performance of his career, A Good Day to Die Hard aka Die Hard 23 (or whatever number this series is up to), Grown Ups 2, Smurfs 2 and Hangover 3.
While the Palm Springs Film Festival will honor American Hustle with its ensemble award, the send-up award group, the Razzies, have a full and competitive field this year in this award category with the casts of Grudge Match, Machete Kills, Grown Ups 2, Hangover 3 and Escape Plan currently leading the pack of truly forgettable films.
Worst actor nods will have some big names this year and should include Johnny Depp for The Lone Ranger, Sly Stallone for Grudge Match and Escape Plan, Ryan Reynolds for the D.O.A. and forgettable R.I.P.D, Robert DeNiro for The Big Wedding and Grudge Match and and Bruce Willis for his body of work in 2013.
Worst actress will likely go to either, Kate Winslet, Elizabeth Banks or Halle Berry for Movie 43.
While many of us miss the Palm Springs International Film Festival due to work and family obligations, I cannot encourage you enough to make the time to be part of this fun and important event to the Coachella Valley.
