SFIFF! Part 2: My picks

So, here's what I'm going to try to go see this year:

First up, I'm going to see most of the shorts that are in competition. If I do get to screen again next fall, I want to have a good sense of what made it through this year. And I want to see what wins this year!  And I already mentioned the Peaches doc and concert and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

SFIFF! Part 1: general thoughts

Hulllloooooo!

It's been so long. I'm not sure what happened there. (Yet again.)

Actually, I do. Things have been busy. I started going on twitter regularly. And there are only so many hours I can look at a screen at a day. (It is a lot. The number there is lot. But not all.)

And the spring has been pretty meh when it comes to movies. I've been going to some films I only have a half-hearted interest in, just to feel like I'm using my movie pass in a somewhat financially-responsible manner.  There hasn't been a lot I've been jazzed about. (Those I have wanted to see: Warm Bodies was cute, Spring Breakers was amusing, Side Effects was fun, and I loved Stoker. But I mean, come on. The pianogasm.)

But the exciting news in my world is that the San Francisco International Film Fest finally announced the full program and tickets have been secured.

[And my name is in the program! As one of the screeners for the Golden Gate Awards. I'm so thrilled. It was a bit of a scheduling trick at times, but I SO enjoyed being a screener. For every student film with painful graphics, I saw some really stunning works that I'm still thinking about months on. I'm not sure I talked about this at all on here, between my infrequent postings and worries about confidentiality, and I'm not going to talk about which ones I watched, but overall I really enjoyed the experience. I hope they'll have me back again. And I'll keep an eye out for my favorite shorts coming online.]

I think I talk about this every time I go to a film fest, but I'm always torn between seeing those titles I've been anticipating for months (which in all probability means they are bigger titles with future distribution) and those I've never heard of that I may never have the chance to see (at least on the big screen.) One of the great things about SFIFF is that there is a real emphasis on both documentaries and foreign films, and there are more films that are unknown to me.

Don't get me wrong - I love IFF Boston (especially the younger crowd), but I generally have heard of at least half the narrative titles there. With SFIFF, I usually know maybe a quarter? So when the program is released, there isn't the same level of "Yes! The Way, Way Back! And Some Girls! And Berberian Sound Studio!" But it gets things like Where Do We Go Now, Valley of Saints, Rebellion, and Le Quattro Volte, none of which I had heard of before the last two fests, and each of which I ended up loving. (Of course, there are always a few of the same overlapping big titles making the rounds - this year those include The East, Much Ado About Nothing, Computer Chess, and Prince Avalanche.)

And of course, sometimes the things at any film fest don't totally work out (Nostalgia for the Light, Diana Vreeland, Sleeping Sickness) but that's the fun grab bag aspect. And while I have never had any inclination to make a film, I think mainlining a bunch of movies all at once can be a real film school education. [I found that in screening, as well. Editing. Editing is key. Find a really good editor.]

So! What's on for this year?

This year, I'm trying to give myself a couple of nights off, since I often burn out and miss one or two films for, you know, needing sleep. There are a couple that I'm currently undecided on (Fill the Void - which won best film at the Israeli Film Awards, and Inori - a documentary contender about an isolated Japanese town living in accordance with nature. (*cough*Mononoke*cough*)) And there are several more I couldn't fit in the schedule :

The sad ones in the upper corner are Google and the World Brain, Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Game, Populaire, and A River Changes Course. Populaire looks like it is getting a limited US release in May. I can't figure out if the other 3 have distribution deals, but I'm sure Google is a pretty safe bet.  I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed for A River, which looks really interesting, and has an A- rating over on criticwire. (Hmmm, Something in the Air, which is my conflict on timing, only has a B+. And a distributor in IFC. I may have to swap that out somehow.)

Although I should point out that that initial draft above has switched around a bit. I swapped out the Derek Waters event for The Act of Killing, to give myself a night off later in the week. And THEN, I learned that the first 300 people to buy tickets to Peaches Does Herself are going to get tickets to go see her live! So I had to bump The Strange Little Cat to later in the fest and that's why I'm not sure I'll go see Fill the Void before her show.

Here, enjoy some Peaches:



I'm not going to the centerpiece films, What Maisie Knew, Inequality for All, and Before Midnight because I'm sure an Alexander Skarsgaard film and a Sundance Jury winner will be released and I have yet to watch Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Plus they *are* more expensive, and lord knows I spend a lot on tickets. I *am* going to the director's night with Philip Kaufman and Invasion of the Body Snatchers at the Castro because, hey. 70s SF at the Castro. Should be fun.

(I do want to point out that I am thrilled with the inclusion of Inequality for All. I think my brother helped with the kickstarter. I helped Veronica Mars. He may be the better person.)

(To be fair, I also backed The Goon and The Heist.)

I am not going to see To Live and Die in LA (which they are showing because William Friedkin is coming with his new book), because I have already seen it. But if you have not, you should. The counterfeiting scenes with Willem Dafoe are epic.

Hmm - this has gone on a little long, so I'm going to continue with my picks in another post.

3/5/13 Mix

So... This:

Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones
Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane
Suffragette City - David Bowie
Down on Me - Janis Joplin
American Woman - The Guess Who
Touch Me - The Doors
All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
White Room - Cream
25 or 6 to 4 - Chicago
Born to Be Wild - Steppenwolf
Hush - Deep Purple
Life in the Fast Lane - Eagles
Last Dance with Mary Jane - Tom Petty
Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
Come Together - The Beatles
Wild Thing - The Troggs
California Here I Come - Shocking Blue
My Generation - The Who
We Gotta Get Out of this Place - Eric Burton & the Animals
Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
Sweet Jane (live) - Velvet Underground

The JWD Awards - the Winners

Best Film:
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Cloud Atlas
Django Unchained
Killing Them Softly
Liberal Arts
Lincoln
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Popcorn Film/Genre flick: 
The Avengers
Boy
Cabin in the Woods
Frank and Robot
Headhunters
The Hunger Games
Looper 
Pitch Perfect
Seven Psychopaths
Skyfall

Best Actress:
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Rachel Weisz - The Deep Blue Sea
Quvenzhane Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Emma Watson - The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Hani Furstenberg - The Loneliest Planet
Fenessa Pineda - Mosquita y Mari
Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty

Notable omissions: Melanie Lynskey - Hello I Must Be Going, Mary Elizabeth Winstead - Smashed,  Emayatzy Corinealdi - Middle of Nowhere, Linda Cardellini - Return

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
Anne Hathaway - Les Mis
Jacki Weaver - Silver Linings Playbook
Samantha Barks - Les Mis
Emily Blunt - Looper
Brit Marling - Sound of My Voice

Notable omissions: Carmen Ejogo - Sparkle,  Amy Adams - The Master, Ann Dowd - Compliance, Nicole Kidman - The Paperboy

Best Actor:
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
John Hawkes - The Sessions
Logan Lerman - The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Frank Langella - Robot + Frank
Brad Pitt - Killing Them Softly

Notable omissions: Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena - End of Watch, Joaquin Phoenix - The Master, Denis Lavant - Holy Motors

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
Ezra Miller - The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Dwight Henry - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Robert DeNiro - Silver Linings Playbook
Leonardo DiCaprio - Django Unchained
John Goodman - Argo
Sam Rockwell - Seven Psychopaths

Notable omissions: David Oyelowo - Middle of Nowhere, Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master,

Best Ensemble:
Argo
Lincoln
Moonrise Kingdom
Seven Psychopaths
Silver Linings Playbook
Safety Not Guaranteed

Notable omissions: Your Sister's Sister, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Starlet, Bernie

Best Director:
Ben Affleck - Argo
Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
David O. Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
Andrea Arnold - Wuthering Heights
Rian Johnson - Looper

Notable omissions: Michael Haneke - Amour, Paul Thomas Anderson - The Master

Best Cinematography:
Wuthering Heights
Cloud Atlas
The Loneliest Planet
Skyfall
Valley of Saints
Moonrise Kingdom
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Lawless

Hmmm.... Wuthering Heights and Loneliest Planet have the benefit of long shots of gorgeous landscapes. Cloud Atlas gets six different eras and styles to play with and comes in a very close second. But, the first thing I said after Skyfall was that it was the most beautiful Bond film ever. So Skyfall's moors gets it over Wuthering Heights'.

Notable omissions: Anna Karenina, Samsara, On the Road, End of Watch, The Master, Here

Best Screenplay (original/adapted):
Django Unchained (original)
Moonrise Kingdom (original)
Seven Psychopaths (original)
Looper (original)
Cabin in the Woods (original)

Lincoln (adapted)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (adapted)
Argo (adapted)
Silver Linings Playbook (adapted)
Cloud Atlas (adapted)
Killing Them Softly (adapted)

Notable omissions: The Master

Best Visual Effects:
Cloud Atlas
The Hobbit
The Avengers
John Carter
Prometheus

Notable omissions: Snow White and the Huntsman, Life of Pi

Best Costumes:
Spiderman
The Queen
The Queen
Catwoman
King Schultz
Anna
Caroline

Notable omissions: Farewell My Queen

Best Makeup:
Cloud Atlas
The Hobbit
Looper
Lincoln
Prometheus

Best Art/Production Design:
Moonrise Kingdom
Cloud Atlas
Lincoln
Django Unchained
The Hobbit

Notable omissions: Life of Pi, Anna Karenina

Best Editing:
Killing Them Softly
Cloud Atlas
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Moonrise Kingdom
Zero Dark Thirty

Notable omissions: The Master

Best Song:
The Riff Off - Pitch Perfect
The Bellas' Finale - Pitch Perfect
Breath of Life - Florence + The Machine - Snow White and the Huntsman
Fire in the Blood - The Bootleggers ft. Emmylou Harris & Nick Cave - Lawless
Abraham's Daughter - Arcade Fire - Hunger Games
Everybody Needs a Best Friend - Norah Jones - Ted
Dull Tool - Fiona Apple - This is 40
Ancora Qui - Ennio Morricone and Elisa Toffoli - Django Unchained
Freedom - Anthony Hamilton & Elayna Boynton - Django Unchained
Song of the Lonely Mountain - Neil Finn - The Hobbit
I Dreamed a Dream - Anne Hathaway - Les Mis
Molly Malone - The Deep Blue Sea

Notable omission: Holy Motors

Best Score:
Argo
Moonrise Kingdom
Cloud Atlas
Silver Linings Playbook
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Pitch  Perfect

Notable omissions: Anna Karenina, The Master, Life of Pi, On the Road, Frankenweenie

Best Sound Mixing and Editing:
Killing Them Softly (NYTimes warning)
Les Mis
Skyfall
The Avengers
Argo
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Foreign-but-not-British Film:
I know I included it on last year's list, but Once Upon A Time in Anatolia. Fantastic.
Where Do We Go Now?
Valley of Saints
Headhunters
Rebellion
Boy
Snowtown

Notable omissions: Amour, Kon-Tiki, No, A Royal Affair, War Witch, Barbara, Lore Elena, Holy Motors, Blancanieves, Oslo August 31, Meanwhile in Mamelodi

Best Documentary: The American Scream

Notable omissions: Pretty much everything else aside from Chasing Ice (pretty good) and Diana Vreeland (horrible).

Best Animated:
Update - I have now seen ParaNorman and Frankenweenie. And... weirdly, I liked Frankenweenie better.

Notable omissions: .... all of them?

Best Female Action Star:
Jennifer Lawrence - Hunger Games
Anne Hathaway - Dark Knight Rises
Emily Blunt - Looper
Lynn Collins - John Carter
Naomie Harris - Skyfall (yikes what a stretch!)

Egads. Not such a good year. Even Zoe Bell didn't get a moment in Django. At least there's tv?

Notable omissions: Gina Carano - Haywire, Brave

Best Breakthrough Performance:
Quevenzhane Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Samantha Barks - Les Mis
Aaron Tveit - Les Mis

Notable omissions: Emayatzy Corinealdi - Middle of Nowhere, Tom Holland - The Impossible, Thure Lindhardt - Keep the Lights On, Ann Dowd - Compliance, Alicia Vikander - Anna Karenina  

Movie You Wanted To Love But Just Couldn't:
Les Mis
The Amazing Spiderman
The Loneliest Planet
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
The Dark Knight Rises

Best Dance:
The Thiller Haka from the credits of Boy
Silver Linings Playbook (not online)
Perks of Being a Wallflower
Cabin in the Woods
the Popcorn scene in Alps (not online)
Magic Mike

Best Villain:
Daniel Henshall - Snowtown
Guy Pearce - Lawless
Tom Hiddleston - The Avengers
Stupidity - Prometheus
Hugo Weaving - Cloud Atlas

Tom Hiddleston was certainly memorable, and the stupidity in Prometheus the most villanous, in that it made me want to beat something to death, but the scariest was the true life serial killer. 

Best Quote:
It can still be a date if you order Raisin Bran - Silver Linings Playbook
Sometimes I think I can do crystal meth, but then I think mmm... better not. - Pitch Perfect
Puny God - The Avengers
Argo Fuck Yourself - Argo
I'm never gonna see a merman - Cabin in the Woods
Jiminy Cricket! He flew the coop! - Moonrise Kingdom
Fuck all you guys, my wife worked hard on these! - Django Unchained
America's not a country - it's a business. Now fucking pay me. - Killing Them Softly.
Fact is, the law says you cannot touch... but I think I see a lot of lawbreakers up in this house tonight. - Magic Mike
Mwufveivumh - Bane, Dark Knight Rises.

Best Opening to a Film:
Seven Psychopaths
John Dies at the End
Skyfall
Cabin in the Woods

Notable omissions: The Turin Horse, Bernie, Holy Motors, Haywire

Best Ending (retitled in 2012 as the McKayla Maroney award):
Looper - spoiler: JGL shoots himself
Cabin in the Woods - spoiler: the world ends
Skyfall - the players fall into place
Perks of Being a Wallflower - the tunnel
Killing Them Softly - Brad Pitt's monologue
Seven Psychopaths - as the credits roll
The Avengers - schwarma

18/24

So better than the 17/24 for 2011 and 2010, but not as good as 21/24 for 2009. BUT WHO IS COUNTING.

Unwinding with the rest of the wine (that got cracked during Cristoph's speech) and watching Justified. Boyd and Ava at a Kentucky swinger's party WHAT.

Media question of the day

Which is better: The War Horse parody from The Good Wife, Moo-Cow, or the RENT parody from Slings & Arrows, East Hastings: The Musical?

The Oscars - who *should* win

IMHO. Any of these that differ from my predictions and manage to upset will greatly lessen the sting of being wrong about the winners.

Best Picture
I'm going to go Argo. I'd be okay with Silver Linings, Lincoln, or Zero Dark Thirty winning. I think it was a year of several very good films, with none really being outstanding.

Best Director
I feel like I have a hard time judging a first time director, because I have no other works of his to compare it to. So while Beasts of the Southern Wild really impressed me with its adherence to a vision, I think I'd probably give it to either Spielberg or Russell. Spielberg is doing his best in years, Russell has been consistently good, and this is his best to date. I'm going Russell.

Best Actor
I really kind of want to give it to Cooper. I don't like him - his whole Hangover thing really annoys me, but I think his performance here was great and I think it is probably the best thing he will ever do. It is unfair, then, that he is going up against a clairvoyant medium. It has to be Day Lewis. He's just so good. 

Best Supporting Actor
Robert DeNiro. Christoph is good, but his role echoes his role in Basterds - just flipped morally, and while Tommy Lee Jones is really excellent in Lincoln, his character felt a little thin to me.

Best Actress
Jennifer Lawrence.

Best Supporting Actress
Helen Hunt.

Best Animated Feature
In many ways, I liked ParaNorman better. But while its animation was more inspired in parts, it was also rougher in others. Frankenweenie was more consistent. And I did love the Burton for kids template. So, Frankenweenie.

Cinematography
Skyfall - Roger Deakins.

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Lincoln” Screenplay by Tony Kushner

Best Original Screenplay
Zero Dark Thirty. I was going to go Django, but... do they go on original scripts? Or what made it into the film? Because as I said before, I thought the last act of Django had some structural issues. But I bet I would have loved the director's cut/original screenplay. But. Based on the scripts of the finished products? I think Zero Dark Thirty was a pretty remarkable achievement.

Costume Design
Okay - I LOVE Eiko Ishioka's work. I cannot BELIEVE she wasn't up for The Fall. She did Varekai, which is my favorite Cirque production. Although I'm not sure Mirror Mirror was her very best work. But I'd certainly count out Lincoln and Les Mis. I do like Colleen Atwood (and this), but she gets tons of recognition. Which leaves Anna. Beautiful work. Hmmmm...... Considering it is posthumous.... I think that tips it for me to Anna. (The Fall still should have won.)

Best Documentary Feature
ummm.... dunno.

Best Documentary (Short Subject)
Ditto. 

Film Editing
“Silver Linings Playbook” Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
 
Best Foreign Language Film
Don't know. I want to see No and A Royal Affair, but have not yet. 

Makeup
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” - Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane

Best Original Score
“Argo” Alexandre Desplat

Best Original Song
“Skyfall” from “Skyfall”- Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
Honestly - not my favorite Bond theme OR Adele song, but better than the alternatives. This category coulda been better! Ladies From Tampa!

Production Design
“Anna Karenina”- Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer

Best Animated Short Film
“Adam and Dog” Minkyu Lee. Although Paperman is fab, too.

Best Live Action Short Film
? Need to see Curfew apparently.

Sound Editing
Without having had a chance to go back and watch the sound videos I posted earlier (here for some overlap): “Skyfall” Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers

Sound Mixing
Ditto: “Argo” John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia

Achievement in visual effects
I'm still mad at the Hobbit for not being better. And the 3-D made some of the effects look janky. The tiger seems like quite the achievement, so I'm okay with Pi. Otherwise, like half of the Avengers was effects. But, Pi. I think.