Oscar Nominations Review

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Well, the nominations are in. I was only 75% correct in my predictions, and I’ll hopefully do better than that prognosticating the winners. My biggest personal failure was not mentioning Javier Bardem in the Best Actor mix. I’ve heard great things about the performance, but fairly mixed reviews of Biutiful led me to believe that it would be hard for him to get over the usual foreign film bias.

As always, there was controversy. The biggest surprise for me was seeing The King’s Speech come home with 12 nominations. It was very competently done if not a bit bland, and nobody seemed to really dislike it… but Best Editing? Over Inception? Really? Ditto Cinematography over 127 Hours and wait, Sound Mixing? It just goes to show how far an “Oscar Movie” can go, and it has now solidly positioned itself as the chief contender to, if not the favorite over, The Social Network for Best Picture. This race is far from over, folks.

So, for the snubs. I haven’t seen Bardem’s performance yet, but I do know that while good, Bridges didn’t deserve to get in ahead of the criminally under-appreciated Ryan Gosling or Duvall’s amazing turn. Much of the negative buzz will be focused on Christopher Nolan getting locked out of Best Director, again. I saw the logic in 2008, but now I’m wondering if the Academy just doesn’t like him.

It's probably the hair

The Way Back knocked out the frontrunner in makeup, Alice in Wonderland, which is only notable in that apparently enough voters saw Weir’s latest, yet that was the only nomination it got. Likewise, The Town had to be content with Jeremy Renner’s supporting acting nomination, just like Gone Baby Gone had to be with Amy Ryan’s. Shutter Island was ignored altogether, but that’s what happens when you release your film in February.

Another big surprise, although it’s hard to call it a snub without having seen it, is the documentary frontrunner, Waiting for Superman. What positively was a snub was the best doc I saw this year, The Pat Tillman Story. Maybe the Lands (Gas and Waste) are better, but I doubt it.

The last and most obvious snub was in special effects. Somehow, Clint Eastwood’s tragically mediocre Hereafter, with its five minute CGI tsunami, somehow beat out both Tron:Legacy and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Now I know the Academy is fully of geriatrics... *ahem*thekingsspeech12nominations*ahem* ...but this is the kind of prank you’d only see at a nursing home, probably involving some combination of denture paste and Metamucil.

Gotcha again, viewing public!

This should be a good show, especially now that Academy voters throw a cane into the works with The King’s Speech. What at first looked like a landslide for The Social Network, with Inception cleaning up the tech awards, could now prove to be anything but. I can’t say that I’m happy how things turned out, but it undeniably has breathed some excitement back into the race. Check back for Oscar winner predictions as the show gets closer.

The Way Back (2011)

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A Toast

Filmmaker Peter Weir returns after a seven-year absence from filmmaking with 2011’s The Way Back, an epic survival story. It’s sort of a latecomer into this Oscar season, but a respectable one.

The story opens on a Soviet Gulag in 1941 Siberia. Prisoner Janusz, (played by Jim Sturgess) a recent political internee, is determined to escape, knowing that sustained survival is unlikely in the abhorrent conditions. He puts together a group of like-minded inmates, including vicious thief Valka (Colin Farrell) and an enigmatic American who is known only as Mr. Smith (Ed Harris). This group strikes out for the wilderness, deciding that the safest escape route to avoid capture by Communist sympathizers is around Lake Baikal, south through Mongolia and China, and eventually into India via the Himalayas.

A feat Usain Bolt later repeated by sprinting the entire 4000 miles in 643737.6 seconds

This beautifully shot film features prominently the stunning vistas of Asia, from the snowy north, to the steppes of central Asia, to the mountains of the South. The cinematography from Russell Boyd is magnificent, and even if the film wasn’t any good, would be notable for its artistic style alone.

The chemistry with the actors on screen is fantastic, they play off each other very well, and give life to the dialog. This is especially important to distinguish the movie from other survival films, and Colin Farrell is absolutely creepy as Valka. It is a shame that he leaves when he does, it kind of makes me want to see a spin-off sequel that follows him on his own journey home.

To be released internationally as The Way back II: Colin Farrell Takes a Bitch

While the film treads familiar ground, it does so with care and an emphasis on camaraderie not often seen in movies. Most survival stories feature characters that have to learn to trust each other and are divided by internal tensions. Most of these are plagued by forced plot twists, cornball screenwriting, or sentimental cliché to further the action.

Fuck you Robert Zemeckis. Fuck you and fuck FedEx while you’re at it

The Way Back instead builds tension organically, with each character proving their own with distinctive skills, providing legitimate reason to keep each of them along for the trip. The central theme is trust, and Peter Weir paints a refreshingly optimistic view of humanity by showing how this trust is forged.

Beer Two

My only complaint about the film is in the pacing. This film manages to pack the whole journey into 133 minutes, quite compact considering the length of it. What is unfortunate is how little time is spent on developing several key characters, and how quickly they seem to cross nations as large as Mongolia and Tibet. These characters are all fascinating to watch, and it is a shame that more time couldn’t be spent filling them out more.

I’m an optimist, so I tend to think there is a three-hour cut of the film sitting in a room somewhere in L.A. It might be possible that there is a “director’s cut” of the film waiting for DVD, and if so, I’ll be anxiously awaiting it. In the meantime, the movie is left feeling slightly incomplete as a result.

Verdict

*punch* “Worth a” *punch* “a signed confession” *punch*

The Company Men (2011)

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By: Oberst von Berauscht (4 Beers)

A Toast

Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) is a junior executive for a major corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. He has everything you could ask for, a six figure salary (plus bonuses), an expensive house, and a loving family. All this is jeopardized when he, along with over three thousand other employees, is laid off. The film also follows corporate execs Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) and Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) as they act all depressed at not being able to stop the firings, before eventually being laid off as well.

So anyway, Bobby eventually is “reduced” to working for his brother-in-law in the carpentry business.

I will give credit where credit is due and say that director/screenwriter John Wells is clearly trying hard to make a statement about corporate layoffs in a recession economy. And some of what he does manages to pull at your heartstrings and “inspire”. The actors all do what they can to get emotion out of their characters. But ultimately, the flaws in the film are not with the script, but the concept. The cinematography is also very good, creating the right melancholy mood you’d expect for a film that deals with such heavy material.

Beer Two

Director Wells seemed to be going for the Frank Capra approach to filmmaking here. The film focuses on an everyman character, who when faced with adversity is initially unsuccessful in overcoming it. But he eventually faces his fears to realize the full potential in himself. Despite Wells’ attempts to make Bobby Walker an everyman, this approach cannot succeed due to the self-defeating premise of making a man in a Porsche “average”. Not only this, but the character is downright offensive.

In one scene he takes a job interview and, upon realizing that the job he’s applying for carries a $60,000 salary, insults the interviewer and walks out in a huff. Just for context, the median personal annual income for workers age 25+ according to the U.S. Census Bureau for 2009 was $32,140. And then there is the wonderful scene where he shouts his wife down for failing to pay the Country Club dues.

Kevin Costner feels underutilized here as Bobby’s blue-collar brother-in-law. He runs a construction business and works hard to keep afloat and to pay his employees. He even takes jobs to keep his men working over the winter, even if he won’t make any money on the projects. Costner gives the role a world-weary, beer-swilling feel. His character is the kind that this sort of movie should follow.

This brings me to my next point:

Beer Three

The whole film is simply wrong-headed. Are we really supposed to feel empathy for rich executives who couldn’t bother to put some of their money aside for a rainy day? Character Phil Woodward is the worst offender. A former shipbuilder who worked his way up to corporate executive status, he of all the people in the film should have known better. Chris Cooper is a great character actor, and it can only be the fault of the screenwriter/director for failing to salvage what should have been a tragic story.

Gene McClary is a little better, Tommy Lee Jones’ character isn’t looking for sympathy, or empathy, but rather his character realizes the devastating impact corporations can have on working people. And being a senior executive, he confronts his friend and CEO multiple times about the problem, and is eventually let go as a result.

(Warning, spoilers!)

The film concludes with the most saccharine denouement in recent memory. Tommy Lee Jones’ character uses his considerable wealth to start a new shipbuilding business, and hires back what appears to be just about every extra fired from the company and Ben Affleck takes a job there, hiring his friends he met at the unemployment office. Because all you need to do is wish upon a star and your millionaire friend will make everything all better.

Dreams do come true, after all

Beer Four

The ultimate failure of the film is that it never manages to create a sense of outrage for the disassembly of the American workforce. The movie clearly sets out to do so, even ending with newsreaders talking about the financial crisis, and how it is affecting the country. Instead, the movie chooses to soft pedal, never exploring the impact the crisis has on the average worker. And for that, this film is a sad result and a missed opportunity.

Verdict

Downsized, and moved to China

No Strings Attached (2010)

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By: Henry J Fromage (3 Beers)

As you can see from my trailer review earlier this week, I wasn’t expecting much from this one. Usually when you draw the Ashton Kutcher romcom, you immediately start cursing the day you were born. Sure, Natalie Portman is currently an “it” chick, but the Kutcher maelstrom has dragged down decent actresses before.

Amy Smart who?

A Toast

Actually, it really wasn’t too bad. I expected to get about 2-3 ironic pity chuckles, but this one does the one thing that all comedies should- make you laugh out loud. You might feel a bit dirty afterwards, but never mind that.

No one ever needs to find out

The chemistry between the two stars is better than it has any right being, and Portman is surprisingly funny, especially when she plays drunk. The supporting cast has its share of smart one-liners, and Greta Gerwig in particular shines. It’ll be interesting to see how her career develops after this and Greenberg. Also, in the defense of my prognostication, the worst part of the trailer (the obviously dubbed “Why can’t we just have sex!” throw-away line) never made it into the final cut of the film. How was I to know?

Oh, and Kevin Kline drinks too much purple drank

Beer Two

The movie starts in summer camp when the two stars meet as children. They could not have found two more awkward and wooden child actors if they had spent months combing the country for the least inspiring candidates. Some useless character development that is completely ignored later is used to set up an unfunny and crass punch-line that your little brother might have written while perusing some Victoria’s Secret catalogues. Just leave that one on the cutting room floor next time, guys.

Timmy does some “research”

Beer Three

So, this flick is about two attractive people trying to make a go of a strictly sexual relationship. This predictably does not work out, and the script ignores the chance for a novel take on things to let serendipity do all the work to get it to the place everyone knows it’s going. I can’t complain too much about that considering the medium, though.

What a can complain about is the mentality of the males in this picture. Portman is very much the man of the relationship, and while that certainly doesn’t always reflect well on her character, she does avoid conversations like the one Kutcher has with his rival for her “affections”. It boils down to the rival suitor telling Kutcher that while he’s having all of this wild monkey-sex with her in “handicapped bathrooms” he’ll be the one that gets to marry her. Um… congratulations?

Keeper!

Verdict

This one is much funnier than it deserves to be and you should give it a watch. Just don’t expect too much deep thinkin…

Oscar Nominee Predictions

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Oscar season is in the air. A lot of the main precursors (lesser or more specific awards granters) have announced their choices and the nominations will be announced January 25^th.

Why would we care about a ceremony that is often accused of being out of touch or narrowly focused? Well, there’s the Oscar drinking game. Beyond that, they are still the gold standard for determining the best films, performances, and achievements of the year. As an excuse to drink, you could do a lot worse.

Here are my predictions and analysis for the nominees in all 24 categories. Check back for my post-nomination analysis and predictions and win your own Oscar drinking game pool. Or, bet against me and be the drunkest. Either way you win.

Best Picture

Acting

Best Picture Indicators

Specialty Films

Technical Categories

Shorts