Best Picture

Since I haven't done all the reviews yet, let's do this inspired-by-haiku-style of years past:

Winter's Bone: Gritty, dark, with a lead who's wise
Consider the nomination your prize
Same for 127 Hours, with my man Franco
You're first in my book, but it just won't be so
The Kids Are All Right is probably suffering from time
Released in June, it's certainly not front of mind.
Toy Story 3 is just the third animation considered tops
I cried a whole lot, but it doesn't quite have the chops
True Grit, I liked way more that I'd thought
The Coen Brothers - count them out not.
Despite the acting, The Fighter doesn't stand a chance
10 nominations got them in this dance.
Black Swan - you are so intense and unexpected
I think Portman's in, but you'll be bested
Social Network and Inception - brilliant and quick
You're a bit too young for the Academy to get.
King's Speech: You're a bromance and not too much more
And yet I think this Oscar is yours to score.

Another year, another Oscars

Make no mistake: I don't find the repetition of yearafteryear Academy Awards mundane, but reassuring and almost always surprisingly rewarding. It's like opening a Christmas stocking from my Mom & Dad - I know it's going to happen every year, and there will be patterns and there will be surprises, and I am going to love the process as much as anything contained.

As I sit here, the mountains of San Diego are being doused with snow - ten inches since this morning, and it's still falling - and the only thing on my mind is: What if we can't drive down the mountain for the Oscars? The roads are nowhere near plowed, and we live in a land of no cable, with only a Toyota Camry to our name. So, moreso than ever before, there's the chance that tomorrow Trevor and I will not be watching the Academy Awards. Gulp.

Of course the Oscars will still happen. Of course I could read about them online. of course I would know what everyone wore, and who won what, and who offended whom. And it won't change anything in the world at large. Right?

Well, let's not worry about that yet - let's focus on the Oscar predictions!

Oscar Predictions 2010

If you're still keeping up with me here, no doubt you've noticed that I'm somewhat less pop culturally active than I once was. It's true: I've been sometimes busily and sometimes very lazily settling into life as a rural dweller. There isn't a movie theater, bar (that's open more than 3 days a week, that is), or concert venue within 30 miles of here; we've reduced our Netflix subscription to 1-at-a-time, and I'm surrounded by people who've never heard of the CW.

That being said, Trevor & I have done our best to stay current: We're watching 'Party Down' on Netflix, reading all the 'American Idol' recaps, and have seen eight of the ten best picture nominees (Yes, I have been completely irresponsible in terms of movie reviews, but, despite evidence to the contrary, we really have seen 8.). And - to the aghast of the Squirrels Squirrels Squirrels - we're skipping out on our weekly rec volleyball league match tomorrow in favor of the Oscars (Yikes, what if tomorrow is our first victory? Just coincidence, I'm sure.)

First things first: The best movie I saw in 2009 was 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' and - as impressed as I am with Meryl Streep constantly - I'm not so into the imitation-as-artistry form of acting (Yeah, I'm talking to you other Mr. Foxx), and I haven't heard a single one of the nominees for Best Original Song (but, I'm still willing to bet the one from 'Crazy Heart' will win.).

So, here they are, my not-entirely-fearless Oscar predictions:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
Best Director: James Cameron
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges
Best Actress: Meryl Streep
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Waltz
Best Supporting Actress: Mo'nique
Best Original Screenplay: 'Inglorious Basterds'
Best Adapted Screenplay: 'Up in the Air'

Plus, I'm sure that 'Music by Prudence' will totally win Best Documentary Short. Er, right?

Movie Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox

It only makes sense that Wes Anderson ('Rushmore,' 'The Royal Tenebaums') would make an animated movie. For years his movies have been both complimented and critiqued for their out-of-this-world characters, surreal plots, colorful backdrops and quirky soundtracks - in an animated world, those features just make sense. You can watch the trailer here.

Fantastic Mr. Fox succeeds at walking a fine line: It is both simple filmmaking at its best (Easy-to-follow plot based on a children's book by Roald Dahl, stop-go animation) and incredibly, incredibly intelligent (Anderson gives viewers a totally seamless jump into a complete - and completely delightful - new universe with quick dialogue, clever jokes and subtle and pitch perfect voice actors.). Of the 5 Oscar contenders Trevor and I saw over the last two weeks, 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' was the best: Heart-warming without being sappy, laugh out loud funny without being pratfall-heavy or gross, smart without being pretentious.

The story is about a foxy Fox (It's true: He's voiced by George Clooney) who gave up the thieving life eleven years ago to start a family with his Meryl Streep-voiced wife. He wants to do one final job (a three-parter) because he's bored, worried about money, having a midlife-fox-crisis about who he is and needs to outsmart some mean farmers. Of course, being a smart movie, none of these reasons are explicit, you just realize them over the course of the quick 90 minutes.

Another reason it's perfect this movie was animated: Jason Schwartzman can finally play a teenager again. He's never better than when he's playing a whiny teenage-maturity-level manchild, but the facial hair can be a distraction. As Mr. & Mrs. Fox's son, jealous of his cousin's arrival, he's all sullen sass, and it's pretty near perfect.

9 Twix bars!

Oscar recap

Let’s just get a few things out of the way about the Oscars last night. Most of the coverage I’ve seen so far has been negative – hating on the musical numbers, thinking Hugh Jackman was blasé – but I thought the show was close to perfect. It mixed it up from previous years, and made it feel personal.

• I loved the new presenting format, where past winners in the acting categories spoke about the nominees, instead of just showing clips from their films. It was personal and relevant. That being said, I found it hilarious to watch Nicole Kidman present to Angelina Jolie – two of the most cardboard women in the world, seemingly in a contest to see who can smile with their eyebrows raised the highest and lips closed the most.

• I teared up quite a bit throughout the show, but I think the biggest waterworks came for Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter of ‘Milk,’ who thanked his mom for loving him even when there was “pressure not to” and who then talked to gay kids out there: “If Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he’d want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches or by the government or by their families that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours.” Political in all the right ways, succinct and touching. Love it.
• The children from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ were my favorite part of the movie, and my favorite part of the red carpet. Seriously. Just look at them:

• I love musicals, and I loved the musical numbers with Hugh Jackman (especially the crack about “Your Craigslist dancers” in the econo-version of the opening act). However, I think that declaring “The musical is back!” was a little revisionist (even though I support anything that involves musical mashups and Beyonce). I mean, “Chicago’ won the Best Picture Oscar SIX years ago. It’s BEEN back, y’all.
• Presenters that were awesome: Queen Latifah (What a lovely idea to have a live performance during the Remembrances. And, it was a nice reminder when she said that to us they were images, but to the people in that room they were friends.). Natalie Portman (loved the purple, Natalie) and Ben Stiller (as Joaquin Phoenix). Tina Fey & Steve Martin (To borrow a page from Randy Jackson, these two could read the phone book and I would fall out of my chair laughing). Jack Black & Jennifer Aniston. Hell yeah I’ll give her credit just for standing up there on stage 10 feet in front of Brangelina.
• Presenters that need some work: Alicia Keys & Zac Efron, Amanda Seyfried & Robert Pattison (I had no idea he was British?). Bill Maher. Boring.
  
• I wish all the Montage 2008s had been Romance ones.
• By my count, that final montage of upcoming films (which got much less buildup than I was anticipating and wound up running over the credits since the show ran long) previewed 24 coming out this year. Interesting, since this year, not counting short, documentary or foreign language films, 26 films were nominated for an Academy Award.

That’s all for now!

The Oscar countdown

The Oscars have some things planned to make this year’s telecast fresh and exciting. (Ranting side note: I can guarantee you that in the brainstorming meeting, someone definitely talked about Generation Y/”Millennials”/”The Facebook Generation” having ADD. Guess what y’all, we don’t! Please stop pandering to us with your take on what fast-paced intelligence means.)

The first thing you might notice is a slightly less busy red carpet. According to my very reliable sources (thanks Megan!), show producers are asking presenters to avoid the red carpet. They’re hoping this will force more people to tune into the show to see what everyone is wearing. Interesting idea, but I don’t see it working. Half the hype around the Oscars – and the best way to drive post-show buzz – is from the red carpet, and since most of the presenters have an upcoming project to promote (that’s why they’re presenting in the first place!), they won’t want to skip out on that.

Another change to the traditional Oscar format is this year’s host: Hugh Jackman will take over the reins. He’ll be the first non-stand up comedian to host since 1975. The ladies love him – that accent! – and he’s done Broadway – so he has the power to command a stage – and I’m sure he’ll do just fine, but with his X-Men prequel due out this spring, it seems a bit convenient.

The final new feature that I know about (the first-time production team of Bill Condon and Laurence Mark are being very tight-lipped about the updates) is a montage of upcoming movies that they’re going to show at the end of the show, presumably to excite the public about what’s to come. I think this is a horrible idea. Not only does it make me wonder how much studios are paying to have their movie included, by providing a shortlist of Movies That Matter, it’s making the movie world even smaller.

Think about it: The movies that the broader American public gets to see is already limited by things like distribution deals and production houses that sort of arbitrarily decide what’s marketable (thus worth their money/efforts to promote) and what’s not. And I’m not just talking about super-independent movies. Consider: this movie starring Rachel McAdams and Tim Robbins:



Two very main stream actors, in a very mainstream, probably heartwarming, plot. Absolutely no buzz or publicity. Or that Christmas movie that came out with Debra Messing. I mean, people will watch anything during the holidays, but, for whatever reason, no one (outside of New York and LA) even got the option of this one.

Part of the job of being a movie fan is “discovering” those movies you probably wouldn’t have seen. That’s why everyone is so in love with ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (and ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ or ‘March of the Penguins’ before it.). By traditional industry wisdom, 95% mainstream America never would have seen this movie, but the word of mouth buzz propelled it into non-independent movie theaters, gave it a marketing budget and made it essentially a shoo-in for the Best Picture Academy Award. I feel like the Academy Awards choosing movies in advance is limiting that possibility. But, because ’m not an Academy member and my opinion means naught. I suppose we’ll just have to see how it plays out.

Enjoy the show all!

It's not quite scientific

Hey, have you heard the Oscars are on Sunday? I look forward to this every year, and because Trevor & I finally caught 'The Reader' this weekend (the last of the Best Picture nominees), I am ready to make some way too emotionally-driven and completely arbitrary predictions:


Best Picture:

Shocking no one, 'Slumdog Millionaire' wins! Everyone feels good about themselves until they watch it again in two years and wonder what on earth they were thinking saying that was the most well-made film in Hollywood this year.

Best Actress:

Sorry Melissa Leo – I remember you fondly from your days on Homicide, but the Academy tends to favor Out There choices in the Supporting categories, not the lead ones. (That’s why Slumdog Millionaire’s producers lobbied for Dev Patel – the main character – to be recognized as a supporting actor, not a lead one). For you and Richard Jenkins - who was wonderful in the delightful 'The Visitor' - the nomination truly was the award.



That being said – Best Actress is the toughest category to call, what with Kate Winslet as the perennial bridesmaid when it comes to Oscars (but was she nominated for the wrong movie? In my opinion, no.), Meryl Streep as, well, Meryl Streep (but has she been recognized enough in her career? Is there such a thing? Who could have watched this movie and been impressed with her?), and Anne Hathaway as the long-time industry presence who shocks everyone with her dramatic prowess.

This is the category where I’m having the hardest time separating out my own personal feelings. I truly don’t understand how anyone could have seen 'Rachel Getting Married' and come out anything short of mind blown by what Anne Hathaway did in it. Kate Winslet was good in 'The Reader' (but what is up with movies set in foreign countries, where they speak English just with that foreign accent? Can I discredit her just for that?) but certainly not mind blowing. Still, because 'The Reader' is more front-of-mind because of its late release date, and because it's got the campaign backing of the Weinsteins, I'm going to predict this one goes to Kate Winslet.

The most predictable outcome of the Best Actress announcement? Angelina Jolie will look pissed.

Best Actor:

As far as Best Actors go, it’s also a three way race (because, inexplicably, Brad Pitt is being completely ignored for what was some amazing work in ‘Benjamin Button). The only thing that Oscar likes more than a comeback story is awarding old time industry favorites, but I wonder if this type of voting will lead to Mickey Rourke and Frank Langhella splitting the vote and bestowing the Oscar upon the, in my opinion, most deserving, Sean Penn.

Best Supporting Actress:

I still can’t believe Cate Blanchett wasn’t nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Doubt's Viola Davis has really been really hitting it out of the park in all her award show appearances:

But I really don’t support the idea of giving an Oscar to someone who’s on screen for less than 10 minutes. I think Taraji P. Henson has a real legitimate shot here, and because I truly enjoyed her in 'Benjamin Button' (I think she carried her character the most realistically through age and more than held her own opposite Brad Pitt), I hope it happens.

Best Supporting Actor:

It’s too bad that the Best Supporting Actor race is so predictable, not only because Heath Ledger won’t be there to accept the award he certainly deserves, but because it’s quite the collection of performances: Robert Downey Jr. would have had a great shot at this for his role in ‘Tropic Thunder’ because that's just the type of role the Academy likes to reward in this category (See: Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Michael Shannon and Philip Seymour Hoffman were the best parts of their respective movies.

Screenplays:

Most of the widely recognized films this year were adapted from other works, making the Original Screenplay category one of the oddest: 2 never-heard-of-‘ems ('Frozen River' + 'Happy Go Lucky'), 1 long-forgotten comedy ('In Bruges'), 1 of the front-runners for Best Picture ('Milk'), and an animated gem ('Wall-E'). If the Academy is paying attention to the carefully scripted silences in the brilliance that was Wall-E, that’s where the Oscar will land.

As far as Best Adapted Screenplay, I'd be shocked if this didn't go to 'Slumdog Millionaire,' and disgusted if it wound up with 'Doubt,' but I think it truly belongs to 'Frost/Nixon,' which took on the daunting task of converting a play into a truly watchable movie.


That’s all I’ve got as far as opinions go for now, but have you heard that Peter Gabriel is refusing to perform the song from 'Wall-E' for the telecast, because the producers wanted him to perform a shortened version? Yet, he is still attending the event. Interesting.

Rumor mongering

When I saw this picture of Heidi Klum at the Golden Globes, I assumed that she was, once again, carrying the beautiful spawn of Seal, and I had just missed out on the announcement in the midst of all this Dear-God-When-Will-This-Project-Runway-Debacle-Be-Over drama.

But I see nothing on the internets about this. What's the deal?

It Stings

In the notes that I took about last night's Golden Globes, I wrote in big capital letters: STING?!? And then somehow failed to mention him below.


On second thought, I'm not actually sure what else there is to say.

Coming up Golden

The Golden Globes went down last night at the Beverly Hilton in sunny Beverly Hills, California. For better or worse, Globes have become a legitimate precursor to the Oscars – at least as far as buzz goes. Of course, with the Golden Globes, you are relying on 90 international journalists to cast their votes (There are closer to 6,000 Academy members) so the results can sometimes seem a bit…skewed.

Questionable category: What is the point of awarding best supporting actor/actress for a television series, miniseries or TV movie? Neil Patrick Harris for amazing comedic work week-in and week-out as Barney in How I Met Your Mother versus Tom Wilkinson as Benjamin Franklin in an HBO movie? Talk about apples and oranges.

Notable absences: James Franco, Sean Penn, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Will Smith, Frances McDormand. Also, it seemed like a lot of celebrity couples were missing their other halves: Susan Sarandon was there, but Tim Robbins wasn’t. Tom Cruise was there, but Katie Holmes wasn’t. Darren Aronoksy was there, but Rachel Weisz wasn’t. Also, are David Duchovny and Tea Leoni not separated anymore? Because, great.

Wow, You’re Actually Kind of Adorable Award: Colin Farrell? I’m as shocked about this as you are.

Let’s Tone This Down Award: Renee Zelwegger - That hair. Those sleeves. That expression. You used to be so normal looking.


Tacky Joke Award: Helloooo Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks - I am not sure jokes at the expense of someone's sobriety are all that funny. (I wasn’t all that offended by Sasha Baron Cohen’s joke about Madonna divorcing Guy Ritchie to cut her staff expenses – and I liked how he handled the response.)

Where’s the Love?: No nominations for 'Lost'? Not showing anyone but Steve Carrell and Rainn Wilson from The Office? They were all there (except apparently John Krasinski?). Come on!

There’s not too much else to say. Danny Strong has apparently become somewhat legitimate (You’re always legit to me, Doyle.). The show moved pretty quickly, and it was definitely the year of white/nude dresses: