Assessing the Field, Pt. 1--Who Will Win: This year's race featured surprising fades from Argo (lack of enthusiasm; Ben Affleck not nominated for Best Director), Zero Dark Thirty (political controversy; Kathryn Bigelow not nominated for Best Director), and Lincoln (lack of enthusiasm; historical controversy). The latter two weirdly reopened the door for Argo to regain a frontrunner status that it seems unlikely to relinquish. For me, this field is no better than last year's, and a big step down from 2010 (and maybe even 2009). But most onlookers are straining themselves to declare this year a bumper crop of movies, so different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Assessing the Field, Pt. 2--Biggest Snub: The first halves of Flight or The Impossible--both extraordinary feats in visual effects--would make their respective films worthy of consideration were the second halves of each not so crushingly melodramatic; that means the only movie with a real case is The Master, which was a little too abstract and inaccessible for its own good (I honestly still have no idea what point PT Anderson was trying to make). Still, it was provocative, extraordinarily well-acted, and visually striking. Don't tell me Les Miserables was a more impressive achievement.
Ranking the Field
9. Les Miserables: I gave up after I felt like I had gotten the idea about Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway's nominated performances (maybe about an hour in). I could imagine Les Mis as a somewhat enjoyable piece of musical theater for those who enjoy things like musical theater, but it's a pretty indulgent piece of filmmaking--kind of like Harry Potter, the producers were free to throw whatever horseshit they wanted onscreen and be assured that there would be a critical mass of screaming fans who would eat it up no matter what. In this case, they threw a singing Wolverine, Gladiator, Borat, and Catwoman onscreen and let Tom Hooper's mediocre direction do the rest.
8. Django Unchained: Speaking of self-indulgent, cult-following-assured filmmaking...Quentin Tarantino. As soon as the first Django trailer was released, Tarantino had a captive audience of fanboys who were ready to lap up the two and a half hours of gratuitous, contrived violence that he delivered. There's no takeaway in Django, and all the titillation is there for the sake of titillation itself. It's an Inglorious Basterds remake, only this time we're rooting for Christoph Waltz to successfully exterminate a demographic group. The creativity, shock value, and self-consciousness are all gone, though. And it's a shame--this is a simple case of a talented director with a lot of fancy toys to play with becoming too taken with himself and wasting an opportunity to create something great.
7. Life of Pi: I came away from Life of Pi with one striking impression--Ang Lee is a preposterously good director (in fact, I'd suggest he deserves the Oscar if an Argo Best Picture win leaves Best Director wide open). He's given a piece of shit script and some of the world's worst "professional" actors and still conjures up an undeniably decent movie, thanks to a uniquely stunning aesthetic vision. That vision, of course, can't completely quash the whole horrible script and horrible acting thing, but it at least makes what would otherwise be a total disaster an entertaining experience.
6. Silver Linings Playbook: Someday, I think, Silver Linings Playbook will be remembered as either a) the movie that launched Jennifer Lawrence's historically decorated career (technically Winter's Bone, but OK), b) the movie that launched Bradley Cooper's unprecedentedly respected career or c) some movie that came out in 2012, got a lot of awards hype, but we now have trouble explaining why. Quite possibly, it could be all three. Getting nominations in every acting category wasn't wholly undeserved (only mostly undeserved), since the acting was definitely the strong suit for Silver Linings, inasmuch as it had a strong suit. But as a cohesive film, it was a fairly disjointed genre-hopping snoozefest in which most of the jokes didn't land and the climax was a ballroom dance competition.
5. Beasts of the Southern Wild: The indie critical darling, Beasts rode a hype train all the way to Oscar station. It's not that it's not as good as many of the nominees (doesn't take much to beat Les Miserables, after all), but I am a little doubtful that of all possible options it was the single best independent film made in 2012, the one everyone had to congregate around and trumpet as a groundbreaking achievement. It was an over-ambitious but thought-provoking attempt to explore both race and death, and succeeded at least in part. But wasn't there something out there that succeeded more than in part? Something?
4. Lincoln: Give Steven Spielberg credit for his clever marketing strategy--hey, whatever my next movie is will be better than War Horse! And he was right. There were very few seven-hour takes of horses running through battlefields in Lincoln (possibly even none, although I don't remember whether the war scene at the beginning had an equine presence). Spielberg's work in Lincoln certainly didn't pave any exciting new ground for filmmakers of tomorrow, but that's OK because not really anything did this year. And at the end of the day, he did give us a gripping historical drama that let Daniel Day-Lewis assert his complete and total dominance of the acting profession on a big stage.
3. Argo: I just don't see how this can be a great year of movies if Argo was the third-best of them all (or, as the Academy will suggest tonight, the absolute best). Argo was good, no doubt, and definitive proof that Ben Affleck is a gifted thriller director (if Gone Baby Gone and The Town weren't proof enough). But it really seems to have been elevated to preposterous heights by a confluence of factors: Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln's fades; a heavy load of Hollywood self-importance (the Academy, fresh off giving The Artist its top prize, loves that); and a lot of people feeling bad that Affleck didn't get a directing nomination. Good, exciting movie? Absolutely. Great, award-winning movie? Eh.
2. Amour: Amour's Best Picture candidacy isn't really to be taken seriously, but it will still walk away with a Best Foreign Film award and hopefully an increased visibility that might drive more people to see it. I wasn't totally blown away when I left the theater, but Amour has the ever-important quality of being hard to forget. Indeed, it's probably one of the more unflinching ("unflinching" has probably been used in every single piece ever written about Amour) explorations of death and its consequences that you'll come across in any media, and it's carefully assembled by a team of qualified and brave professionals. Be warned, though--it's not for the faint of heart.
1. Zero Dark Thirty: Kathryn Bigelow's follow-up to The Hurt Locker was just as gripping, compelling, and bravely made as its Oscar-winning predecessor. The congressional investigation into its research process is a shame...and pretty stupid, since it's a work of fiction that's entitled to take liberties if it wants, though I still believe that it didn't. The matter of unerring accuracy aside, though, Zero Dark was still easily the most watchable and rewatchable, the most relevant and important, the most special movie of the year, hands down. We'll have a hundred more Argos in our lifetime, dozens of Silver Linings Playbooks and Lincolns, even a few Amours, but we'll only have this one movie that had the courage to take the most salient true story of the past five years and turn it into an awards-season contender. And that's worth rewarding.
The Oscars are on tonight. Please watch them so people stop arguing about whether they still matter. They do still matter.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Oscar Preview 2013: Best Actor
In case you couldn't read the title of the post because you're illiterate but only for fonts over size 12 (I'm struggling for an intro, in case you couldn't tell), this is going to be a preview of the Best Actor category. Let us begin.
Assessing the Field, Pt. 1--Who Will Win: This is as decided a race as they come; it's Daniel Day-Lewis in a walkover. The other nominees can save the time they might use to write an acceptance speech on something more productive, like practicing their "I'm so happy Daniel Day-Lewis won" faces.
Assessing the Field, Pt. 2--Biggest Snub: This year was the last chance to get Robert Pattinson a long-deserved nomination for his work in the Twilight series, and Hollywood blew it. God. Damn. It. In a more serious vein, Dwight Henry of Beasts of the Southern Wild, whose realistic chance for a nomination was in the Supporting category, should be in this race. He was a) totally playing a co-leading role and b) fucking fantastic. But I guess completing the Silver Linings Playbook acting nominations grand slam and giving Wolverine an invite were more important than getting Henry what he deserved.
5. Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables): I couldn't finish Les Miserables (or, as it's known colloquially,a flaming piece of shit "Les Miz"). As I addressed a couple of days ago with Anne Hathaway, since when do we give out Oscars to people who have like three non-singing lines in an entire movie? And are we not forgetting that this is an actor best known for X-Men and the colossal disaster that was Australia? If there is a shocking upset and Hugh Jackman wins this award, I'm never watching another movie, period.
4. Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook): This Onion headline is really the only appropriate way of introducing Bradley Cooper's Oscar candidacy; that being said, I am kind of a fan. I'm really enjoying these mid-career turns to serious acting by the mainstream pretty boys--Cooper, Jackman, Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum, Ryan Gosling (each to varying degrees). And I'm buying Cooper's candidacy a lot more than Jennifer Lawrence's for the same movie--his character was far more fleshed-out and central, and Cooper played it surprisingly well. Good for him.
3. Joaquin Phoenix (The Master): Phoenix was excellent in The Master, whose supporting stars I've already gone on record as saying are Oscar-worthy; his ranking here is just reflective of how strong this category is this year. But few could play a psychologically unstable, boozing-more-than-anyone-has-ever-boozed war veteran-turned-cult adherent like Phoenix. At least I suspect few could. Haven't really seen that many others try that role out, for some reason.
2. Denzel Washington (Flight): Flight got all gross and schmaltzy and generally annoying toward the end, but the one and only Denzel can't be faulted for that. He did everything he could with the part--a talented alcoholic pilot who successfully crash-lands his failing plane and has to sort out the consequences--and should only be judged slightly for accepting a role in the live-action return of the guy who forced Forrest Gump on a still-reeling society. In a world in which Daniel Day-Lewis isn't Meryl Streep Lite, Denzel would be contending for an Oscar.
1. Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln): The Academy people started engraving Day-Lewis' name into the award the minute Lincoln's production was announced. Rightfully so. I had no idea until I stumbled upon this fact on Wikipedia (though I assume if I were consuming more Oscar preview materials I'd have heard it 700 times), but Danny Boy is about to become the first ever three-time Best Actor winner. Crazy. If it weren't for Taylor Lautner's meteoric ascent to greatness threatening his reign, imagine how many awards Day-Lewis could rack up in the next few decades. (Maybe the Twilight joke only worked once.)
Tomorrow: whatwe've all I've been waiting for--Best Picture. And, uh, the actual Oscars.
Assessing the Field, Pt. 1--Who Will Win: This is as decided a race as they come; it's Daniel Day-Lewis in a walkover. The other nominees can save the time they might use to write an acceptance speech on something more productive, like practicing their "I'm so happy Daniel Day-Lewis won" faces.
Assessing the Field, Pt. 2--Biggest Snub: This year was the last chance to get Robert Pattinson a long-deserved nomination for his work in the Twilight series, and Hollywood blew it. God. Damn. It. In a more serious vein, Dwight Henry of Beasts of the Southern Wild, whose realistic chance for a nomination was in the Supporting category, should be in this race. He was a) totally playing a co-leading role and b) fucking fantastic. But I guess completing the Silver Linings Playbook acting nominations grand slam and giving Wolverine an invite were more important than getting Henry what he deserved.
5. Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables): I couldn't finish Les Miserables (or, as it's known colloquially,
4. Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook): This Onion headline is really the only appropriate way of introducing Bradley Cooper's Oscar candidacy; that being said, I am kind of a fan. I'm really enjoying these mid-career turns to serious acting by the mainstream pretty boys--Cooper, Jackman, Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum, Ryan Gosling (each to varying degrees). And I'm buying Cooper's candidacy a lot more than Jennifer Lawrence's for the same movie--his character was far more fleshed-out and central, and Cooper played it surprisingly well. Good for him.
3. Joaquin Phoenix (The Master): Phoenix was excellent in The Master, whose supporting stars I've already gone on record as saying are Oscar-worthy; his ranking here is just reflective of how strong this category is this year. But few could play a psychologically unstable, boozing-more-than-anyone-has-ever-boozed war veteran-turned-cult adherent like Phoenix. At least I suspect few could. Haven't really seen that many others try that role out, for some reason.
2. Denzel Washington (Flight): Flight got all gross and schmaltzy and generally annoying toward the end, but the one and only Denzel can't be faulted for that. He did everything he could with the part--a talented alcoholic pilot who successfully crash-lands his failing plane and has to sort out the consequences--and should only be judged slightly for accepting a role in the live-action return of the guy who forced Forrest Gump on a still-reeling society. In a world in which Daniel Day-Lewis isn't Meryl Streep Lite, Denzel would be contending for an Oscar.
1. Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln): The Academy people started engraving Day-Lewis' name into the award the minute Lincoln's production was announced. Rightfully so. I had no idea until I stumbled upon this fact on Wikipedia (though I assume if I were consuming more Oscar preview materials I'd have heard it 700 times), but Danny Boy is about to become the first ever three-time Best Actor winner. Crazy. If it weren't for Taylor Lautner's meteoric ascent to greatness threatening his reign, imagine how many awards Day-Lewis could rack up in the next few decades. (Maybe the Twilight joke only worked once.)
Tomorrow: what
Friday, February 22, 2013
Oscar Preview 2013: Best Actress
...and we're back with Best Actress. Getting into it right away:
Assessing the Field, Pt. 1--Who Will Win: A late push from Emmanuelle Riva is making things a little more interesting (just as notably, Jessica Chastain has faded from once-competitive position), but Jennifer Lawrence is still the odds-on favorite. Crazier things have happened than if Lawrence were to lose--last year, for instance, Meryl Streep beat Viola Davis in this very category (kind of a bad decision, but oh well, at least Meryl Streep got her first Oscar!). So you never know. But Jennifer Lawrence looks to be on her way to kicking off a decorated and Hunger Gamesy career.
Assessing the Field, Pt. 2--Biggest Snub: I'm going to come way out of left field here, since I haven't seen Rust & Bone, whose star Marion Cotillard was the only potential nominee people are whining about being left out. So, just for argument's sake, what about Aubrey Plaza for Safety Not Guaranteed? It was a delightful movie (Can I say that--"delightful"? Does it make me sound uncool?), and she carried it start to finish. Yeah, screw you, reader who I'm arbitrarily deciding is a traditionalist. Aubrey Plaza. Why not? Shake things up around here, you know?
Ranking the Field:
5. Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild): Yeah, I'm not on board this bandwagon at all. Beasts had its moments, but the more I think about it, the less I'm shitting my pants over a 5-year-old's "great acting." Someone most likely gave her some lines and told her to read them the way she would say them in real life. It's great that she's charismatic and obviously filled with potential, but let's not pretend like she was channeling a character other than Quvenzhane Wallis. Some of her line readings--this is libelous to suggest these days but oh well--were pretty flat, to be honest.
4. Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook): For the third time in three days, allow me to express how underwhelmed I was by Silver Linings Playbook (which is, by the way, one of the few movies ever to get a nomination in every acting category). Jennifer Lawrence's character was overdrawn and unrealistic, it seemed to me, and painted a pretty skewed and non-constructive picture of mental illness. Her acting was whatever. I am 100% serious when I say I enjoyed her a great deal more in The Hunger Games. I loved that movie, man.
3. Emmanuelle Riva (Amour): This is where, for me, the field gets really good. My reservation with listing Riva any higher is that, let's be frank here, most of us don't speak French and we have to read words on a screen to know what she's saying. I find it a little, I don't know--pretentious isn't the right word--but kind of pretentious to nominate non-English speaking performances when you know that the critical mass of voters required to secure that nomination couldn't possibly all have understood the foreign language. The movie, including the acting, was brutally, beautifully sad, though. Super well done. If I spoke French I'd probably go with Riva in this category. But I don't speak French because I like freedom. Bush/Cheney, baby!
2. Naomi Watts (The Impossible): I'm pretty confused as to why The Impossible didn't do better in the US with both audiences and awards (it's killing internationally, box office-wise), since it was both entertaining and painstakingly made. Sure, there were cliches a-plenty, but it was about a goddamn family getting hit by a tsunami and trying to find each other amid the wreckage so give them a break. Anyway, Naomi Watts spent half the movie maybe-dying in a Thai hospital, but her performance was heavy, heavy stuff (in a really good way). When they all found their way back together at the end (not a spoiler, everyone knows this is happening when they go into the theater), I might have teared up. Might have. (Did.)
1. Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty): Zero Dark Thirty's awards chances getting hammered for its maybe-inaccurate (but probably not, politicans are just dirty liars, as everyone knows) portrayal of torture in the Bin Laden investigation killed me. Jessica Chastain's performance was the best of the year, hands down. That woman she played was determined as all hell to find Osama (at least according to the possibly fictionalized script), and no one plays determined like Jessica Chastain plays determined, at least that I've seen. Just totally, totally gripping work start to finish. Nothing remotely negative or sarcastic to say here. Go Team Chastain.
Tomorrow Best Actor, and then Sunday Best Picture (as well as, you now, the actual Oscars).
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Oscar Preview 2013: Best Supporting Actor
What rhymes with "Best Supporting Shmactor" and is the title of the category The Optimist is going to look at today? Answer: Best Supporting Actor. If you didn't get that one right, don't worry, it was tough.
Assessing the Field, Pt. 1--Who Will Win: This is an excitingly and unusually close four-way race. The current odds say Tommy Lee Jones, and though I'm not rooting for them to be, I expect those odds will be right, because the odds always are. Christoph Waltz has a fighting chance, and Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman are outside candidates as well. And Alan Arkin gets to go to the awards show, so that's cool too!
Assessing the Field, Pt. 2--Biggest Snub: The field is a good one, so no major qualms, but I would've been excited to see a fresher name like Michael Fassbender for Prometheus or Sam Rockwell for Seven Psychopaths. If the Academy is worried about a generation gap, they probably shouldn't nominate five baby boomers (or older) in the same category. Plus, in my completely unqualified opinion, both Prometheus and Seven Psychopaths were among the most well-made mass-appeal movies of the year, which are the types of film the Oscars should be giving more consideration to.
5. Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds Django Unchained): It's not that I don't completely adore Christoph Waltz, because I do--it's that Django Unchained was an Inglorious Basterds retread, and Waltz was given absolutely no new rope to work with whatsoever. All I could think was "I've seen this performance before, except for this guy was hunting Jews, instead of slaveholders." That might change the moral agenda of the character, but it doesn't change his role, and I didn't see any original material here.
4. Alan Arkin (Argo): Fun fact--"Arkin" and "Argo" start with the same two letters! Crazy! Meanwhile, in the world of thoughts that are remotely worth your time, I have kind of the same "this guy always plays the same quirky character in different settings" concern with Alan Arkin that I had with Waltz. Don't ask me what Alan Arkin's character was called in Argo, because I don't remember. In fact, I was probably calling him "Alan Arkin" in my head while I watched the movie. Don't get me wrong, he's a great entertainer...but he's always Alan Arkin to me, at this point.
3. Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook): This is as high as I will go on anyone who was in Silver Linings Playbook, the least multi-dimensional exploration of mental illness that could realistically contend for awards. There was a lot more ground script-wise that could've been covered with the obviously unstable, gambling-addicted aging dad character that De Niro was handed, but he did the best with what he was given. Young Vito Corleone in Godfather Part II it wasn't, but you take what you get at his age I guess.
2. Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln): I'm not going to hold it against Jones that some producer or writer somewhere thought it would be a good idea to throw in the classic "last-minute historical fiction twist" and stuck Jones' character as the vehicle for that completely unnecessary twist. The actual performance was very strong, as Jones was asked to carry a completely dialogue-based movie in basically any scene Daniel Day-Lewis wasn't in, of which there were a surprising number. Oscar-worthy? Perhaps.
1. Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master): I went with Amy Adams for The Master yesterday, and I'm going with Philip Seymour Hoffman today. It was a weird, over-ambitious movie, but the roles no doubt demanded more of the actors than those assigned to any of the other nominees, and Seymour Hoffman delivered as he always does. Playing Lancaster Dodd, Seymour Hoffman was alternately inspiring, creepy, hollow, and whatever other adjectives could be used to describe an L. Ron Hubbard stand-in. If the movie had been remotely accessible (and trust me, it wasn't), he'd be a shoo-in for the award.
Tomorrow--Best Actress, a field topped byHunger Games Silver Linings Playbook star Jennifer Lawrence. See you then.
Assessing the Field, Pt. 1--Who Will Win: This is an excitingly and unusually close four-way race. The current odds say Tommy Lee Jones, and though I'm not rooting for them to be, I expect those odds will be right, because the odds always are. Christoph Waltz has a fighting chance, and Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman are outside candidates as well. And Alan Arkin gets to go to the awards show, so that's cool too!
Assessing the Field, Pt. 2--Biggest Snub: The field is a good one, so no major qualms, but I would've been excited to see a fresher name like Michael Fassbender for Prometheus or Sam Rockwell for Seven Psychopaths. If the Academy is worried about a generation gap, they probably shouldn't nominate five baby boomers (or older) in the same category. Plus, in my completely unqualified opinion, both Prometheus and Seven Psychopaths were among the most well-made mass-appeal movies of the year, which are the types of film the Oscars should be giving more consideration to.
5. Christoph Waltz (
4. Alan Arkin (Argo): Fun fact--"Arkin" and "Argo" start with the same two letters! Crazy! Meanwhile, in the world of thoughts that are remotely worth your time, I have kind of the same "this guy always plays the same quirky character in different settings" concern with Alan Arkin that I had with Waltz. Don't ask me what Alan Arkin's character was called in Argo, because I don't remember. In fact, I was probably calling him "Alan Arkin" in my head while I watched the movie. Don't get me wrong, he's a great entertainer...but he's always Alan Arkin to me, at this point.
3. Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook): This is as high as I will go on anyone who was in Silver Linings Playbook, the least multi-dimensional exploration of mental illness that could realistically contend for awards. There was a lot more ground script-wise that could've been covered with the obviously unstable, gambling-addicted aging dad character that De Niro was handed, but he did the best with what he was given. Young Vito Corleone in Godfather Part II it wasn't, but you take what you get at his age I guess.
2. Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln): I'm not going to hold it against Jones that some producer or writer somewhere thought it would be a good idea to throw in the classic "last-minute historical fiction twist" and stuck Jones' character as the vehicle for that completely unnecessary twist. The actual performance was very strong, as Jones was asked to carry a completely dialogue-based movie in basically any scene Daniel Day-Lewis wasn't in, of which there were a surprising number. Oscar-worthy? Perhaps.
1. Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master): I went with Amy Adams for The Master yesterday, and I'm going with Philip Seymour Hoffman today. It was a weird, over-ambitious movie, but the roles no doubt demanded more of the actors than those assigned to any of the other nominees, and Seymour Hoffman delivered as he always does. Playing Lancaster Dodd, Seymour Hoffman was alternately inspiring, creepy, hollow, and whatever other adjectives could be used to describe an L. Ron Hubbard stand-in. If the movie had been remotely accessible (and trust me, it wasn't), he'd be a shoo-in for the award.
Tomorrow--Best Actress, a field topped by
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Oscar Preview 2013: Best Supporting Actress
The Optimist has been dormant in recent months, but did you really think he would miss his annual Oscar preview? You fool. We'll start today with a rundown of an alarmingly weak and uninspired Best Supporting Actress category. I'm changing the format of these posts a little, as all my loyal followers will notice, so that we're clear from the start that I'm not projecting the order of finish but simply expressing my personal tastes. Alright, away we go.
Assessing the Field, Pt. 1--Who Will Win: In a travesty of the highest degree, Anne Hathaway has run away with the race. Don't ask me why--I was brought up to think that winning acting awards required, you know, more than appearing in a filmed version of your middle school musical theater production. More on this later.
Assessing the Field, Pt. 2--Biggest Snub: This is a historically weak field for any of the four acting categories, as far as I'm concerned, so asking who the biggest snub was is kind of like asking what my favorite scene of Les Miserables was. In fact--true story--I just wrote "I guess I wouldn't have minded seeing Helen Hunt get a nomination"... and she not only did get one, but is now going to place third out of five in my rankings of the field. That's how shitty this group is.
Ranking the Field
5. Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook): I really appreciated Jacki Weaver's performance in Animal Kingdom a couple years ago and had no qualms about her nomination for that role, but her showing up here shows you just how much voters were forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel in this category. Weaver played a less-than-secondary role in a less-than-stupendous awards season fluff job of a movie (Silver Linings Playbook) that somehow rode its recognizable star power to a slew of nominations, including this gratuitous one for Weaver. Yuck.
4. Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables): As noted earlier, there is sadly no suspense over whether Hathaway will secure her first-ever Oscar win for her 20 or fewer minutes of singing in the miserable Les Miserables. I'll save my Les Miserables complaints for later (I just streamed it online, because Tom Hooper isn't getting ten bucks of my own money for that shit), but it's hard to focus on Hathaway's performance other than to say it's mighty hard to impress me in a movie in which you speak zero lines. The Les Mis fanboys and fangirls ate the showtune-singing up though, so congrats Anne.
3. Helen Hunt (The Sessions): I'm not totally sold on Helen Hunt being "Supporting" for The Sessions, since Jennifer Lawrence, playing almost the exact same role (love interest of handicapped main character who receives almost as much screentime as main character) is the frontrunner for regular old "Best Actress." But Hunt was fine, and she got naked, which I guess takes balls (actually, having seen her naked, I can tell you it didn't literally take balls). I will go as high as "moderately impressive" in reviewing her performance. The Sessions was kind of weird but good, by the way, for all those pining to know.
2. Sally Field (Lincoln): At one point an overwhelming Best Picture favorite, Lincoln has plunged to being at best an outside shot. With that tumble went any shot whatsoever Sally Field had at being a legitimate contender in this category, which is a shame, because she delivered a pretty deep performance given especially her relative dearth of lines. What I took away from her performance, mostly, was that Mary Todd Lincoln was pretty crazy and super annoying, so I don't know if Field should expect any holiday cards from the Estate of M.T. Lincoln, but still it was a job well done.
1. Amy Adams (The Master): The Master fell out of the Best Picture discussion before the end of 2012 but is still a major presence in the acting categories, and rightfully so. Only in that movie, for instance, could you find the Amy Adams character jerking off the Philip Seymour Hoffman character while giving him a super creepy pep talk in the bathroom mirror. I don't remember her character's name, so I'll just go with "Cold Hard Crazy Cult Queen Bitch." That would be an accurate summation of her role, anyway. And she played the shit out of that role. I'd like to see Anne Hathaway's "Dying Prostitute" Les Miserables character try to jerk Philip Seymour Hoffman off in a mirror. There would be a lot more tears and a lot more singing. Pass.
Tomorrow: Best Supporting Actor--a category whose nominees are almost entirely aging badasses. Get pumped. (And, for old times' sake, throw me a "Follow" over on the right side of the screen. Thanks friend.)
Assessing the Field, Pt. 1--Who Will Win: In a travesty of the highest degree, Anne Hathaway has run away with the race. Don't ask me why--I was brought up to think that winning acting awards required, you know, more than appearing in a filmed version of your middle school musical theater production. More on this later.
Assessing the Field, Pt. 2--Biggest Snub: This is a historically weak field for any of the four acting categories, as far as I'm concerned, so asking who the biggest snub was is kind of like asking what my favorite scene of Les Miserables was. In fact--true story--I just wrote "I guess I wouldn't have minded seeing Helen Hunt get a nomination"... and she not only did get one, but is now going to place third out of five in my rankings of the field. That's how shitty this group is.
Ranking the Field
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| Whoa, Jacki Weaver really was in Silver Linings Playbook. |
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| Stop it. |
4. Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables): As noted earlier, there is sadly no suspense over whether Hathaway will secure her first-ever Oscar win for her 20 or fewer minutes of singing in the miserable Les Miserables. I'll save my Les Miserables complaints for later (I just streamed it online, because Tom Hooper isn't getting ten bucks of my own money for that shit), but it's hard to focus on Hathaway's performance other than to say it's mighty hard to impress me in a movie in which you speak zero lines. The Les Mis fanboys and fangirls ate the showtune-singing up though, so congrats Anne.
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| Takes |
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| Sally Field. |
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| This is her "plotting to murder you" expression. Actually, all her expressions are her "plotting to murder you expression. |
Tomorrow: Best Supporting Actor--a category whose nominees are almost entirely aging badasses. Get pumped. (And, for old times' sake, throw me a "Follow" over on the right side of the screen. Thanks friend.)
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Re-Examining the 2010 Best Picture Race
When I first did my highly acclaimed, much discussed, generally beloved Oscar preview posts in the run-up to the February 2011 Oscars--at the height of the "King's Speech" v. "Social Network" debate--I felt that the year (2010) had offered an unusually bountiful crop of films. Well, flash forward two years, and much is being made about this year's group of movies. I'll go into more depth on this subject when I individually discuss this year's Oscar categories in the coming weeks, but I can't say I agree. I keep flashing back to 2010 and thinking it was a better year, far and away. I also keep flashing back to 2010 and realizing how differently I would rank the Best Picture nominees, given the extra time to re-watch and think further about them. So that's what this is. A re-ranking. It's exciting. Wait, where are you going? It'll be cool guys, I swear!
10. Winter's Bone (Old ranking: 10)
Yeah, "Winter's Bone" is still boring. But Jennifer Lawrence, eh? She's parlayed her role as "cold meth addict offspring in barren Appalachia" (I think that was the character's name, right?) into quite a budding career there. Good for her.
9. Inception (Old ranking: 8)
8. Black Swan (Old ranking: 9)
I don't really have much of a preference between "Black Swan" and "Inception"--both above-average but not timeless thrillers--but I'll flip the two because I'm dead tired of hearing about how great "Inception" was. By the time they were in the snow, it was ridiculous. We all know that. Come on. Also, the top was starting to wobble at the end. Case closed. (By the way, "Black Swan"--Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman making out??? Dope.)
7. The King's Speech (Old ranking: 4)
6. The Kids Are All Right (Old ranking: 2)
5. The Fighter (Old ranking: 3)
I feel the same way about each member of this trio--all good movies, to be sure, but none I've been remotely motivated to watch again. I think this lack of staying power particularly goes for "The King's Speech," which absolutely ran away with the race two years ago. It was said then, but it bears repeating now--it's almost as if the Academy is begging young people to tune out. Very disingenuous Best Picture choice.
4. 127 Hours (Old ranking: 1)
The James Franco Loses His Arm Show was far and away my favorite way back when, but I have to admit that it depreciates considerably with repeat viewing. Not enough to keep the poster off my dorm room wall or to stop me from thinking this is Danny Boyle's best movie (over "Trainspotting" and Oscar darling "Slumdog Millionaire"), but still, it's definitely no more fun the second or third time around.
3. True Grit (Old ranking: 6)
Two years ago, I wrote this about my forever-and-ever celebrity crush "True Grit" star Hailee Steinfeld: "I am very afraid her next three roles are going to be in terrible Nickelodeon movies or things like the always-feared 'High School Musical 7: The Musical Strikes Back' and she will never be heard from again." Well, she hasn't been heard from--but there were no Nickelodeon or Disney Channel movies to break the fall. She is allegedly cast in the upcoming "Ender's Game" adaptation--I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, I should add that "True Grit" is eminently rewatchable and highlighted by no less than four absolutely wonderful performances.
2. Toy Story 3 (Old ranking: 7)
Because I went to college since I last ranked these. And so how can I say no to this? (By the way, if you want to see the same clip as part of the saddest 15 minutes of your life, click here.)
1. The Social Network (Old ranking: 5)
Over the past couple weeks, I've watched "The Social Network" once on a plane and one and a half times on cable--and it gets better and better. I think what takes the movie to the next level, besides its immense contemporary relevance, is the Erica Albright arc that begins and ends the narrative. First you get the stupendous opening breakup scene, then you get the vengeful blog post, the failed apology, a great reference to Erica in the Sean Parker club scene (skip to 1:44), and then finally the awesome ending where Mark adds her on Facebook. Not that anything that happens in the movie is close to real (in particular, apparently, the Eduardo subplot), but that doesn't mean it's any less good. Did Zuckerberg really create and grow Facebook to get Erica Albright's attention? Probably not. But man I hope so.
By the by, haven't written for a while, but my usual home is now over at BlogDailyHerald. Check it out (I'm linking to my posts, but definitely check out the whole site while you're at it). Adios.
10. Winter's Bone (Old ranking: 10)
Yeah, "Winter's Bone" is still boring. But Jennifer Lawrence, eh? She's parlayed her role as "cold meth addict offspring in barren Appalachia" (I think that was the character's name, right?) into quite a budding career there. Good for her.
9. Inception (Old ranking: 8)
8. Black Swan (Old ranking: 9)
I don't really have much of a preference between "Black Swan" and "Inception"--both above-average but not timeless thrillers--but I'll flip the two because I'm dead tired of hearing about how great "Inception" was. By the time they were in the snow, it was ridiculous. We all know that. Come on. Also, the top was starting to wobble at the end. Case closed. (By the way, "Black Swan"--Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman making out??? Dope.)
7. The King's Speech (Old ranking: 4)
6. The Kids Are All Right (Old ranking: 2)
5. The Fighter (Old ranking: 3)
I feel the same way about each member of this trio--all good movies, to be sure, but none I've been remotely motivated to watch again. I think this lack of staying power particularly goes for "The King's Speech," which absolutely ran away with the race two years ago. It was said then, but it bears repeating now--it's almost as if the Academy is begging young people to tune out. Very disingenuous Best Picture choice.
4. 127 Hours (Old ranking: 1)
The James Franco Loses His Arm Show was far and away my favorite way back when, but I have to admit that it depreciates considerably with repeat viewing. Not enough to keep the poster off my dorm room wall or to stop me from thinking this is Danny Boyle's best movie (over "Trainspotting" and Oscar darling "Slumdog Millionaire"), but still, it's definitely no more fun the second or third time around.
3. True Grit (Old ranking: 6)
Two years ago, I wrote this about my forever-and-ever celebrity crush "True Grit" star Hailee Steinfeld: "I am very afraid her next three roles are going to be in terrible Nickelodeon movies or things like the always-feared 'High School Musical 7: The Musical Strikes Back' and she will never be heard from again." Well, she hasn't been heard from--but there were no Nickelodeon or Disney Channel movies to break the fall. She is allegedly cast in the upcoming "Ender's Game" adaptation--I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, I should add that "True Grit" is eminently rewatchable and highlighted by no less than four absolutely wonderful performances.
2. Toy Story 3 (Old ranking: 7)
Because I went to college since I last ranked these. And so how can I say no to this? (By the way, if you want to see the same clip as part of the saddest 15 minutes of your life, click here.)
1. The Social Network (Old ranking: 5)
Over the past couple weeks, I've watched "The Social Network" once on a plane and one and a half times on cable--and it gets better and better. I think what takes the movie to the next level, besides its immense contemporary relevance, is the Erica Albright arc that begins and ends the narrative. First you get the stupendous opening breakup scene, then you get the vengeful blog post, the failed apology, a great reference to Erica in the Sean Parker club scene (skip to 1:44), and then finally the awesome ending where Mark adds her on Facebook. Not that anything that happens in the movie is close to real (in particular, apparently, the Eduardo subplot), but that doesn't mean it's any less good. Did Zuckerberg really create and grow Facebook to get Erica Albright's attention? Probably not. But man I hope so.
By the by, haven't written for a while, but my usual home is now over at BlogDailyHerald. Check it out (I'm linking to my posts, but definitely check out the whole site while you're at it). Adios.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
The 2012 A's: Season Highlights
I hope you all read my last A's post--if you didn't, go do that now--but here's a much less reading-intensive one running down some of the highlights of the year with video. The rankings are subjective, of course, but everything on here is good stuff.
10. A's Turn Three: So, this list will probably be biased toward moments I was either present or watching on TV for (for instance, I was at this game), but the eighth triple play in A's history is worth making it onto this list, no? Especially given that it actually helped the A's win and is pretty representative of the season in being turned by Josh Donaldson, Adam Rosales, and Chris Carter, three dudes about as famous as I am.
9. Gomes' Hit-By-Pitch Walk-Off: A decent number of the 14 walk-offs will make it in here, but a complete compilation is available at this link. Pretty cool in retrospect that the first one would be a walk-off hit batsman. At the time, it seemed like no more than an amusing oddity; it would turn out to be, of course, the start of something special.
8. Carter's Walk-Off Home Run: Chris Carter hit a ball about seven hundred feet to walk off on the Mariners in July. This moment was probably the peak of the Chris Carter welcome-to-the-majors tour before his stats fell back down to earth and he was relegated to the back half of the first base platoon. He crushed that ball, though.
7. RIP Jemile Weeks: Remember the days when Jemile was a face of the franchise and his jersey was one of the few the stadium merchandise store sold? Ah, how things have changed since June. But Jemile and Coco are, to my memory, the two chief figures in a majority of the year's walk-offs, and I remember this one well. It was over after the triple. (Notice the Bernie-ing after the game. Classic 2012 A's.) Jemile was left off the postseason roster, but thanks for the memories, kid.
6. A's Score Two in 9th on Fireworks Night: The A's were playing the Red Sox in the second-to-last game before the All-Star Game (we sent Ryan Cook--whoops), and stranded the bases loaded in the 8th after Cespedes struck out disgustingly with one out. (Side note: this happened way back when people still thought the Red Sox would make the playoffs.) Down 2-1 in the 9th, though, the A's rallied behind a bunch of guys (Cliff Pennington, Brandon Moss) who were at the time locked in their own personal battles against the Mendoza line. I was at this game (it was a sell-out--Red Sox on Fireworks Night), and I'd argue that it brought the momentum into the All-Star Break that would fuel the historic July tear.
[Fast-forward to 1:10.]
5. A's Drop 20 on Boston: Before the season, I would've put the over/under on runs the A's would score all year at 20. Instead, behind such big-name stars as George Kottaras, we continued the Red Sox's emasculation by putting that many up in one game, which was the icing on the cake at a time during which the A's were proving to be real contenders.
4. A's Tie in 9, Walk Off in 10: Trying desperately to catch the Rangers, the A's needed two huge homers last week to hold off the Mariners and pick up another game on Texas. Brandon Moss can hit a goddamn baseball.
[Fast-forward to 1:31.]
3. Crisp Walk-Off Finishes Sweep of Yankees: In the midst of the July tear, the A's swept the Yankees in four games at home. In some ways, it was possibly the high water mark of the year--every single win was decided in the late innings (browsing MLB.com for additional video of the other games in the series is an excellent use of time), topped off by another walk-off hit from Coco in game four. That series is conclusive proof that the A's will win an ALCS with the Yankees, should the Yankees be lucky enough to get that far.
2. Norris's First Career Home Run Beats Giants: For me, this is the sweetest of the walk-offs. Norris had never hit a home run (he'd barely gotten a hit) in the major leagues, was facing Santiago Casilla who at the time was near-perfect in save opportunities, and the A's were still significantly below .500. Also, unlike the majority of the walk-offs, the A's were behind and on the brink of a loss. This, to me, was when the season turned. (For God's sake, Kuiper says "The A's finally have the 9th inning go their way." Think that 'finally' was ever necessary again this year?)
1. Blevins' Miracle Save: Though the season was mostly about walk-offs, the number one highlight for me was a pitching performance. In a huge game with the Angels, Grant Balfour had entered the game with a 6-3 9th inning lead, given up two runs, and left runners on first and third without getting an out. Enter Jerry freaking Blevins. He induced a strikeout and a walk for the most exciting save anyone has ever seen, preserving the win and holding the Angels back from gaining more ground. I swear this was better than the video indicates.
Hope you all found these clips enjoyable (posts based on content I didn't create are always the easiest, for some reason). Tomorrow we'll continue A's posts by discussing this year's roster and the A's of yore (not your grandfather's yore, but my five-years-ago yore). Enjoy tonight's game. Go A's!
10. A's Turn Three: So, this list will probably be biased toward moments I was either present or watching on TV for (for instance, I was at this game), but the eighth triple play in A's history is worth making it onto this list, no? Especially given that it actually helped the A's win and is pretty representative of the season in being turned by Josh Donaldson, Adam Rosales, and Chris Carter, three dudes about as famous as I am.
9. Gomes' Hit-By-Pitch Walk-Off: A decent number of the 14 walk-offs will make it in here, but a complete compilation is available at this link. Pretty cool in retrospect that the first one would be a walk-off hit batsman. At the time, it seemed like no more than an amusing oddity; it would turn out to be, of course, the start of something special.
8. Carter's Walk-Off Home Run: Chris Carter hit a ball about seven hundred feet to walk off on the Mariners in July. This moment was probably the peak of the Chris Carter welcome-to-the-majors tour before his stats fell back down to earth and he was relegated to the back half of the first base platoon. He crushed that ball, though.
7. RIP Jemile Weeks: Remember the days when Jemile was a face of the franchise and his jersey was one of the few the stadium merchandise store sold? Ah, how things have changed since June. But Jemile and Coco are, to my memory, the two chief figures in a majority of the year's walk-offs, and I remember this one well. It was over after the triple. (Notice the Bernie-ing after the game. Classic 2012 A's.) Jemile was left off the postseason roster, but thanks for the memories, kid.
6. A's Score Two in 9th on Fireworks Night: The A's were playing the Red Sox in the second-to-last game before the All-Star Game (we sent Ryan Cook--whoops), and stranded the bases loaded in the 8th after Cespedes struck out disgustingly with one out. (Side note: this happened way back when people still thought the Red Sox would make the playoffs.) Down 2-1 in the 9th, though, the A's rallied behind a bunch of guys (Cliff Pennington, Brandon Moss) who were at the time locked in their own personal battles against the Mendoza line. I was at this game (it was a sell-out--Red Sox on Fireworks Night), and I'd argue that it brought the momentum into the All-Star Break that would fuel the historic July tear.
[Fast-forward to 1:10.]
5. A's Drop 20 on Boston: Before the season, I would've put the over/under on runs the A's would score all year at 20. Instead, behind such big-name stars as George Kottaras, we continued the Red Sox's emasculation by putting that many up in one game, which was the icing on the cake at a time during which the A's were proving to be real contenders.
4. A's Tie in 9, Walk Off in 10: Trying desperately to catch the Rangers, the A's needed two huge homers last week to hold off the Mariners and pick up another game on Texas. Brandon Moss can hit a goddamn baseball.
[Fast-forward to 1:31.]
3. Crisp Walk-Off Finishes Sweep of Yankees: In the midst of the July tear, the A's swept the Yankees in four games at home. In some ways, it was possibly the high water mark of the year--every single win was decided in the late innings (browsing MLB.com for additional video of the other games in the series is an excellent use of time), topped off by another walk-off hit from Coco in game four. That series is conclusive proof that the A's will win an ALCS with the Yankees, should the Yankees be lucky enough to get that far.
2. Norris's First Career Home Run Beats Giants: For me, this is the sweetest of the walk-offs. Norris had never hit a home run (he'd barely gotten a hit) in the major leagues, was facing Santiago Casilla who at the time was near-perfect in save opportunities, and the A's were still significantly below .500. Also, unlike the majority of the walk-offs, the A's were behind and on the brink of a loss. This, to me, was when the season turned. (For God's sake, Kuiper says "The A's finally have the 9th inning go their way." Think that 'finally' was ever necessary again this year?)
1. Blevins' Miracle Save: Though the season was mostly about walk-offs, the number one highlight for me was a pitching performance. In a huge game with the Angels, Grant Balfour had entered the game with a 6-3 9th inning lead, given up two runs, and left runners on first and third without getting an out. Enter Jerry freaking Blevins. He induced a strikeout and a walk for the most exciting save anyone has ever seen, preserving the win and holding the Angels back from gaining more ground. I swear this was better than the video indicates.
Hope you all found these clips enjoyable (posts based on content I didn't create are always the easiest, for some reason). Tomorrow we'll continue A's posts by discussing this year's roster and the A's of yore (not your grandfather's yore, but my five-years-ago yore). Enjoy tonight's game. Go A's!
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