Sicko

Into the Wild wasn't indie enough for the Independent Spirit Awards, but that didn't stop the Gotham Awards from recognizing the film. Wild, which had too big a budget to be considered for the Independent Spirits, took home the award for best feature at Tuesday's Gotham Award ceremony, which recognized achievement in independent film.

Michael Moore's documentary Sicko took home the award for best documentary, while Ellen Page nabbed the breakthrough actor honor for her role in Juno. The ceremony itself included tributes to actor Javier Bardem and The Namesake director Mira Nair. To see a full list of winners, just read more

Curious to find out which documentaries may be competing for the little gold statuette at the 2008 Oscars? The Academy has narrowed down the possibilities to 15, from mainstream titles like Michael Moore's Sicko to festival favorites like Autism: The Musical. Clearly war is of particular interest to documentary filmmakers and Academy members alike, as six of the 15 films deal with the subject.

As Variety notes, the list does not include certain audience favorites like King of Kong and In the Shadow of the Moon. This list of 15 will be further whittled down to five and these final candidates will be announced January 22.

To check out the list of this year's top 15 documentaries (according to the Academy), read more

How many puns can we make about Ratatouille, the animated movie about a rat chef, taking the top slot at the box office this weekend? Ratatouille deep fries Die Hard at the box office? Ratatouille slices and dices the competition? Ratatouille gently folds in the ingredients for success?

Bringing in a sizzling (wow, this is fun) $47 million its opening weekend, Ratatouille easily came in first place, beating out Live Free or Die Hard, which raked in $33 million. Evan Almighty was No. 3, though had a much weaker showing than its opening weekend with just $15 million, which doesn't spell good things for the comedy that cost a mighty penny.

1408 continues to do exceptionally well for a summer thriller, taking fourth place. Michael Moore's documentary Sicko came in ninth with $4.5 million — the second-highest opening ever for a documentary (second only to Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11). Sad disappointment Evening groggily limped behind Sicko in tenth place.

Unfortunately, the reign of the little Pixar rodents will most likely be short lived. Transformers opens this Tuesday, just in time to rope in the July 4th vacationers looking for a cool theater and gigantic robot cars. Well, License to Wed also opens this week, but something tells me that movie won't provide too much competition for the Transformers. And that something is Robin Williams.

Image courtesy of Disney/Buena Vista Entertainment

Along with the animated rat chefs and dying ladies with stories to tell this Friday, there is Michael Moore and his latest documentary, Sicko, in wide release. The film explores health insurance in the U.S. and how it compares to that of other countries.

Back at Cannes the film got a ton of attention — and a surprising amount of praise. Assuming that critics and audiences alike had tapped out on Michael Moore, it piqued my curiosity when I saw the reviews roll in calling Sicko an indication of a steadier, wiser and more mature Moore. If you haven't seen the intriguing trailer yet, you can check it out if you read more

Michael Moore's latest political documentary, Sicko, premiered this week and some of his Hollywood stars were out to celebrate. I must say that I love seeing Pacey Whitter Josh Jackson out anywhere, not to mention Kristen Bell post-Veronica Mars. Also, it's always amazing to see Mr. John Cusack. Yay for Say Anything crushes.

To see more from the premiere, including lots of pics of Pharell Williams, Diane Kruger, Lisa Kudrow and Melissa Etheridge, just read more

Michael Moore and Steve Jobs will be going head-to-head this Friday as Moore's new movie Sicko premieres in theaters the same day the much talked about iPhone goes on sale.
Headlined News reports that Moore isn't happy with Jobs' plan to get thousands of people to Cingular and Apple stores and steer them away from an educational film about America's healthcare system. “This is an appalling display of greed and jealousy,” said Moore after a recent screening of his new movie. “Apple and AT&T obviously don’t care about fixing America’s healthcare system. They only care about how many iPhones they’re going to sell." What do you think of Moore's statement?

For the most part critics are heralding Michael Moore's latest documentary Sicko for providing an eye-opening look at the health insurance crisis in the U.S. Many are also uttering sighs of relief that Moore's political viewpoints are relatively subdued in the film, unlike his previous documentaries in which many found Moore's opinions shoved down their throats, ultimately undermining the messages of the films.

Curiously, even the Fox News website is giving Sicko a favorable review, though the critic is quick to note this is because Moore isn't "confronting" anyone. The most common complaint for Sicko is that in comparing American system to that of Cuba, Canada and England (among other countries), Moore paints an absurdly rosy picture of other systems in order to highlight just how horrifying things are here, but the rosiness isn't exactly accurate, either.

Check out some excerpts from various reviews of Sicko:

Variety:
“...An entertaining and affecting dissection of the American health care industry that documents how it benefits the few at the expense of the many. Pic's tone alternates between comedy and outrage, as it compares the U.S system of care to other countries.

Chief criticism of the film is that it paints too rosy a picture of the national health care of the countries he compares America to, including Canada, England, France — and Cuba.”

More views if you read more