The Cliff Edge

A new Doctor, but who cares, really?

Matt Smith with Christian Slater on stage in ‘Swimming With Sharks’

So the BBC has gone predictably for youth in order to sustain interest in “Doctor Who,” one of its hottest brands. The new Doctor, Matt Smith, 26, is a bright young actor who can play tough — he was very good opposite Christian Slater in “Swimming With Sharks” in the West End — and also portray madness, as he did to excess onstage in “That Face.”

Just as significant for fans of the show is the transition of chief writer from Russell T Davies to Stephen Moffat. Judging from the recent Christmas special, Davies is fast running out of steam although he will deliver specials starring David Tennant this year. Smith steps into the Tardis in 2010, by which time the “Doctor Who” fuss may have diminished to, who cares, really?

Here are my reviews of Smith’s stage appearances in “Swimming With Sharks” and “That Face” and more about the changes in the show.

Smith with Lindsay Duncan in ‘That Face’

Badalamenti deserves this year’s top film music honours

Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley in “The Edge of Love” scored by Angelo Badalamenti

Vanity Fair has an interesting rundown of 11 potential candidates for this year’s film score awards. It’s a good list with many of the always deserving usual suspects. Good bets for Oscar nominations include Alberto Iglesias for “Che,” James Newton Howard for “Defiance,” and Thomas Newman for “Revolutionary Road.”

It’s hard not to escape the feeling, though, that while the “Revolutionary Road” score is atmospheric and haunting, director Sam Mendes must have temped his film with Newman’s score for “American Beauty.” Given the popularity of “WALL-E,” Newman’s delightful music for that picture seems like a hotter prospect just as A.R. Rahman’s excellent work should benefit from all the buzz about “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Mychael Danna’s score for Atom Egoyan’s “Adoration” was as good as anything this year but it won’t be eligible for the Academy Awards until next year. Other scores deserving attention in 2008 were “Alexandra,” Andrey Sigle; “Quantum of Solace,” David Arnold; “Synecdoche, New York,” Jon Brion; and “The Wrestler,” Clint Mansell.

My pick for this year’s awards, however, is the typically rich and melodic music written by Angelo Badalamenti (pictured) for the overlooked Dylan Thomas picture “The Edge of Love” directed by John Maybury. The Universal soundtrack album is a mix of songs performed by star Keira Knightley with a couple of tracks by the glorious Madeleine Peyroux and Beth Rowley. Still, there’s plenty of music included from Badalamenti, who is best known for all those scores that made David Lynch’s films seem better than they were and who is long overdue for Oscar attention.

This is how the Vanity Fair piece begins:

Listen Up: Best Original Score

by Julian Sancton

The film score is a strange creation: a stand-alone piece of art indentured to another. In the handy player to the right, we’ve included a sample track from each of our favorite scores of the year. (The contenders in Best Original Score have gone largely unscrutinzed as everybody’s been yammering about the main categories.) So take a break and enjoy the work of some of the most gifted orchestral composers working today. (In an homage to Spinal Tap, we’ve listed our Top Eleven.)

Read the full story and more about “The Edge of Love”

Bright start to the year for Spurs with FA Cup win

Spurs captain Jonathan Woodgate flips the coin ahead of tonight’s kick-off

It was cold but entertaining at White Hart Lane tonight as Tottenham Hostpur kicked off 2009 with a convincing 3-1 win over Wigan in the third round of the F.A. Cup. There’s a long way to go in the Premier League and three cup competitions including the first leg of the semi-finals of the Carling Cup against Burnley on Tuesday. But it’s a start. Here’s a report from The Times.

Harry Redknapp won the FA Cup with Portsmouth last season and he took the first step towards a nostalgic return to the final last night when Tottenham Hotspur defeated Wigan Athletic at a freezing White Hart Lane.

Tottenham flattered to deceive for much of a bland third-round tie, but at least provided a smattering of warmth for their fans with second-half goals from Roman Pavlyuchenko, scoring twice, and Luka Modric.

Read the full story and here’s more about Spurs

Rock icon Delaney Bramlett dead at 69

Bonnie and Delaney Bramlett attracted the best, such as Duane Allman

Very sad to hear of the death on Dec. 27 of the great Delaney Bramlett whose recordings with then wife Bonnie (nee Lynn O’Farrell) in the band Delaney & Bonnie were among the most formative of the late ’60s and early ’70s. I saw them in Detroit back then and tracks on the Rhino compilation are fixtures on my iPod. His great bluesy sound and her unforgettable voice make them indispensable rock ‘n’ roll icons. Here’s Bramlett’s obituary in The Times

For a brief spell in the late 1960s and early 1970s the singer and guitarist Delaney Bramlett led what many regarded as the most influential rock’n’roll band in the world.

Known as Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, the loose conglomeration, led by Bramlett and his wife, toured and recorded with a stellar backing band that included Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Leon Russell, Duane and Greg Allman and Dave Mason of Traffic among other rock luminaries.

A charismatic figure from the US South with a background steeped in blues and gospel music, Bramlett came to be regarded as a mentor by many of his more famous associates. Harrison and Clapton both credited him with putting them back in touch with their roots at a time when the pressures of pop celebrity had caused them to drift from their moorings.

Read the full obituary

THR Top 10 films for 2008 all over the map

Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris in Appaloosa, ranked eighth in my list

By Kirk Honeycutt

When it comes to crafting our annual Top 10 Films lists, The Hollywood Reporter’s movie critics have a time-honored tradition of casting a large and wide net, and 2008 is no exception.

The lists here display an ample range of films, so much so that no single film appears on all six lists. Every list contains at least one film not found on any other list. And each critic has a different best film.

The “winning” film, appearing on five of six lists, is “Slumdog Millionaire,” Danny Boyle’s Mumbai medley of magic realism and breathtaking romanticism, which is shaping up as one of the most lionized films of 2008.

Read the full story with all the lists

Back to the Red Shoot on Boxing Day

There are few things to match the annual Boxing Day jaunt through the New Forest to the Red Shoot pub near Linwood for a pint or two of Tom’s Tipple bitter with family and friends. This year, it was a beautiful day: sunny and dry and crisp. Brilliant!

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Here’s to eternity’s sunrise

St. Charles Bridge, Prague Photo: Ray Bennett

Robert Mulligan brought out the best in his actors

American director Robert Mulligan, who has died aged 83, never matched his 1962 classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” but he was always able to draw out fine performances from his actors. Not only that, but Elmer Bernstein provided wonderful scores to many of his films including “Mockingbird” and four other Mulligan pictures that registered strongly with me as a young man:

“Fear Strikes Out” (1957) with Anthony Perkins as a troubled young baseball player with an overbearing father (Karl Malden)

“The Rat Race” (1960), which Garson Kanin adapted from his own play, showing a new side to Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis

“Love With the Proper Stranger” (1964) starring Steve McQueen and Natalie Wood (who copped a best-actress Oscar nomination) dealing with the pregnancy resulting from a one-night stand

“Baby, the Rain Must Fall” (1965) with McQueen opposite Lee Remick in a sensuous tale set against Texas honky-tonks based on a play by Horton Foote

Here’s Mulligan’s obituary in The New York Times

Oscar winners and wannabes in UK February releases

Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson in Vicky Cristina Barcelona

By Ray Bennett

Everything comes in pairs in the United Kingdom’s February film releases. Two Oscar-winning veteran filmmakers show how it’s done with Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” and Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”. Two famous characters from the past, one bringing chills and the other chuckles, also return — Jason Voorhees in a remake of “Friday the 13th” and Inspector Clouseau in “Pink Panther 2”. There are two serious awards contenders in John Patrick Shanley’s drama “Doubt” and the second part of Steven Soderbergh’s biographical saga, “Che”. And a new film titled “Brothers” from Irish director Jim Sheridan is about two conflicted brothers played Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire.

Oscar-winning veterans

Not content with delivering “Changeling” with its highly praised performance by Angelina Jolie in 2008, 78 year-old Clint Eastwood stars in as well as directs “Gran Torino” (Feb 20, Warner Bros.). He plays an extremely grouchy veteran of the Korean War whose racism undergoes a change when he defends his mixed-race neighbours from a local gang. Lean and gravel-voiced, the four-time Academy Award winner is said to deliver a performance that could finally win him a best actor award.

Woody Allen has three Oscars on his mantlepiece, two of them for writing, and he’s in the running for at least a third screenplay nomination for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (Feb. 6 Optimum Releasing). Given a rousing welcome at this year’s Festival de Cannes, the picture sees British actress Rebecca Hall (daughter of Sir Peter) and Scarlett Johansson as two young American women, Vicky and Christina respectively, vacationing in Spain. There they meet a suave and disarming artist played by Javier Bardem who charms them each into relationships that are heavily complicated when his flamboyant and dangerous ex-wife, played by Penelope Cruz, shows up.

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Fiennes plays a blinder as tortured Oedipus

Ralph Fiennes and Clare Higgins at the National thru Jan. 4 Photo: Catherine Ashmore

By Ray Bennett

Bloodied and screaming, Ralph Fiennes brings the tortured title role of Sophocles’ “Oedipus” to vivid life in a new version by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness.

On a set that is both stark and imposing and in the modern dress of a city banker about to go under, Fiennes portrays a character whose endless curiosity about himself leads to dire revelations and bleak self-imposed punishment.

McGuinness takes the tale of a would-be leader whose relationship with his mother is the source of much scandal-making and fear and turns it into a mystery story. The man’s tragedy is that the villain he is seeking turns out to be himself and that’s too great a burden to bear.

Read my full review in The Hollywood Reporter and more about the production