Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Awards Season

Two quick things as the awards derby rolls on:

265 films are eligible for academy awards contention. Now, some of these are The Twilight Saga or Green Lantern and are kind of silly inclusions. But while slashfilm said that there are only 10 possible nominees out of 20 possible contenders (or about 8% great films coming out of hollywood), looking at films that have been nominated for best picture, director, or acting from a critic's guild gives us 65 films. Or, to put it another way, 25% of the films being released in the US in whatever format merits Oscar contention are deemed worth seeing by some critical voice. (And of course, may or may not come out of the studio system.)

So, while Circumstance may not have a hope in hell of being nominated for an oscar, that obviously doesn't mean it isn't worth watching. Furthermore, those are only 65 eligible films, so no documentaries, some exclusions, and an odd assortment of foreign films (for example, Poetry, Le Quattro Volte, Kaboom, Bellflower, and the Kill List all have been mentioned in critics' lists, but are not on the eligibilty list.) The fact of the matter is that there are more than 75 films that have been mentioned for best film nominations of one sort or another, not to mention foreign, documentaries, or animated movies (Rango ftw!). And there are even more films worth seeing for performances or technical achievements. I just get annoyed whenever film discussions get framed in the old "there are no movies worth watching" way. Stop beating the poor horse.

Now, if the studios would not release about half of those in the last two weeks of December, it sure would make my life (and scheduling) less complicated....

Secondly, indieWire posted the Film Comment rankings. While you've got 50 films recommended up top (hey! A movie a week...), the second list is really interesting: Fifty Films Not Released in 2011. Some will be released in 2012 (the Deep Blue Sea, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia - which I am DESPERATE to see, etc.), and I believe the Innkeepers is now on DVD, I'm sure some of these may never quite make it past the film fest circuit. It is a good reminder that there is a whole world of undiscovered films out there, even for those of us that try to keep an ear to the ground for news coming out of Sundance, Toronto, Cannes, Venice...

And people wonder why my netflix queue maxes out at 500.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Golden Globe thoughts

Yay Albert Brooks!

Other thoughts:

Yay:
American Horror Story! Whoo!
Bryan Cranston.
Jessica Lange! WHOOO!
The Hour!
Rooney Mara!
The Ides of March!
Michael Fassbender!
Moneyball!
50/50!
Brendan Gleeson!
Ryan Gosling! x2 (oh HFPA, you're so obvious.)
And again Albert Brooks!

Weird:
No Dexter/Michael C. Hall
Berenice Bejo? Really?
Boss? Really?
No Jim Parsons, no Mandy Patinkin (I don't care so much, but I'm surprised.)
No Tree of Life?
No 30 Rock?
Not really surprising, but no Community or Parks and Rec?
No Andy Serkis.

Not ok:
Breaking Bad. WHAT. THE. FUCK. (sub heading: No Aaron Paul.)
No Gary Oldman. Boo.
No Muppets in comedy?

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Golden Globes

I will have more thoughts on these tomorrow when I can look a little more closely, but most importantly:

WHERE THE FUCK IS BREAKING BAD. HOW CAN I INSIST THAT OTHER PEOPLE TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY IF YOU INSIST ON BEING RIDICULOUS.

Moar on the SAG noms

First off: SO SAD about Albert Brooks. He had been getting more nominations than almost anyone else! I have high hopes he'll spring back.

The other big snub is obviously Michael Fassbender. I wonder if he split his own votes somehow?

Here's the movie rundown:

SAG nominations

For realsies:
THE ARTIST (The Weinstein Company)
BÉRÉNICE BEJO / Peppy
JAMES CROMWELL / Clifton
JEAN DUJARDIN / George
JOHN GOODMAN / Al Zimmer
PENELOPE ANN MILLER / Doris


BRIDESMAIDS (Universal Pictures)
ROSE BYRNE / Helen
JILL CLAYBURGH / Annie’s Mom
ELLIE KEMPER / Becca
MATT LUCAS  / Gil
MELISSA McCARTHY / Megan
WENDI McLENDON-COVEY / Rita
CHRIS O’DOWD / Rhodes
MAYA RUDOLPH / Lillian
KRISTEN WIIG / Annie
REBEL WILSON/ Brynn

THE DESCENDANTS (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
BEAU BRIDGES / Cousin Hugh
GEORGE CLOONEY / Matt King
ROBERT FORSTER / Scott Thorson
JUDY GREER  / Julie Speer
MATTHEW LILLARD  / Brian Speer
SHAILENE WOODLEY  / Alexandra King

THE HELP (DreamWorks Pictures / Touchstone Pictures)
JESSICA CHASTAIN / Celia Foote
VIOLA DAVIS / Aibileen Clark
BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD / Hilly Holbrook
ALLISON JANNEY / Charlotte Phelan
CHRIS LOWELL / Stuart Whitworth
AHNA O’REILLY / Elizabeth Leefolt
SISSY SPACEK / Missus Walters
OCTAVIA SPENCER / Minny Jackson
MARY STEENBURGEN / Elaine Stein
EMMA STONE / Skeeter Phelan
CICELY TYSON / Constantine Jefferson
MIKE VOGEL / Johnny Foote

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (Sony Pictures Classics)
KATHY BATES / Gertrude Stein
ADRIEN BRODY / Salvador Dali
CARLA BRUNI / Museum Guide
MARION COTILLARD / Adriana
RACHEL McADAMS / Inez
MICHAEL SHEEN / Paul
OWEN WILSON / Gil

Okay - a couple of things here. One? Very surprised by the Artist, as it is a small cast, and particularly over Margin Call. However, including James Cromwell tickles me, because seeing him as the chauffeur in the Artist made me think of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuNzcbCrNHg. Also tickled by Matthew Lillard's inclusion because YAY MATTHEW LILLARD.

However, I feel like Midnight in Paris COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT. The point being Corey Stoll as Hemmingway (not to mention Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald). Seriously - Carla Bruni as Museum Guide? In that case, you should have Tom Hiddleston as F. Scott and Lea Seydoux as Gabrielle. But more importantly: Hemmingway. Jesus. I wonder if people voted for the cast without noticing the SAGs planned to leave him off?

So anyways, 4/5 for me. Other reactions to follow.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

SAG nominees

The SAG nominations come out tomorrow (I think). One of my favorite categories they have is best ensemble, so I'm going to try to guess what will be nominated there:
Margin Call
The Help
Bridesmaids

Pretty sure about those. I think the last two might be The Descendants and Midnight in Paris. I'd prefer Martha Marcy Mae Marlene or Ides of March. I don't think Carnage will get it. Possibly Dragon Tattoo or Harry Potter, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

TV time!

The critics awards are coming fast and furious for movies. And while I am tracking all of those intently, there are also a couple of fun tv precursors to the Golden Globes. The WGAs, PGAs, and AFIs all release separate tv awards or nominations.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

NBR

Oh, National Board of Review. How COULD you?

Hugo wins best picture, director from NBR

I, clearly, am not a fan. I really, really disliked Hugo, and I'm not alone in that. (it was overly long and self indulgent. It could have been much, much better.)

Ah, well - let's look at the top 10 films:
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The Ides of March
J. Edgar
The Tree of Life
War Horse

Interesting.... BEYOND thrilled with Drive's inclusion. Surprised by the Ides of March - I'll have to catch that toot sweet. Happy with Tree of Life, Harry Potter, the Artist, and... of course... Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. :) War Horse's inclusion bodes well. I (and I know I'll be attacked for this) did not like Saving Private Ryan. So I'm approaching War Horse with some apprehension.

And the Top 10 Independent Films:
50/50
Another Earth
Beginners
A Better Life
Cedar Rapids
Margin Call
Shame
Take Shelter
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Win Win

Another Earth!!!! YAAAAAAAY! (Shame! Yay! 50/50! Yay! Take Shelter! yay!) (Also - Cedar Rapids - are you kidding me?) Also, between Margin Call's ensemble win at the Gothams and this, I may need to check it out. Maybe Zachary Quinto's presence will help tide me over till the next American Horror Story.

A few other awards worth noting:
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Best Original Screenplay: Will Reiser, 50/50
Best Animated Feature: Rango
Breakthrough Performance: Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Spotlight Award: Michael Fassbender (A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, X-Men: First Class)
NBR Freedom of Expression: Pariah
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation

Sundance 2012

So - the Sundance competition slate has been announced. Some of the titles that stand out are Smashed, Wish You Were Here, the Surrogate, Filly Brown, Nobody Walks and Save the Date.

Descriptions below: