TRAILER #2: "Her"

The second trailer for Spike Jonze's Her is out- the movie is a lonshot contender for Best Picture and is coming out Dec. 18th.

Oscar Documentary Shortlist

The Academy has announced the 15 documentaries shortlisted for Oscar contention. This means that the five nominated films for Best Documentary will come from the following list:

• The Act of Killing
• The Armstrong Lie
• Blackfish
• The Crash Reel
• Cutie and the Boxer
• Dirty Wars
• First Cousin Once Removed
• God Loves Uganda
• Life According to Sam
• Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
• The Square
• Stories We Tell
• Tim's Vermeer
• 20 Feet From Stardom
• Which Way is the Line From Here? The Life and Times of Tim Hetherington

My wild stab in the dark at the five chosen are The Act of Killing, Blackfish, Stories We Tell, Tim's Vermeer and 20 Feet From Stardom. We'll see how close I am when the nominations come out. In the meantime, here's the trailer for one of the most acclaimed documentaries of the year, 20 Feet From Stardom:

New York Film Critics Circle Winners- "American Hustle" Tops

One of the oldest and most prestigious film critics groups in the country announced their awards today. In a very surprising result, they voted American Hustle the top prize, along with Screenplay and Supporting Actress. This provides a major boost for American Hustle in the Oscar race, and this, along with the Gotham awards shutting out 12 Years a Slave last night, seems to indicate some surprising resistance to the film, despite its amazing reviews, although Steve McQueen was touted as Best Director.

• Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary): Stories We Tell
• Best First Film: Fruitvale Station
• Best Cinematography: Inside Llewyn Davis
• Special Award: Frederick Wiseman
• Best Screenplay: American Hustle
• Best Animated Film: The Wind Rises
• Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
• Best Foreign Language Film: Blue is the Warmest Color (France)
• Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
• Best Director: Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
• Best Actress: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
• Best Actor: Robert Redford (All is Lost)
• Best Picture: American Hustle

Gravity was totally shut out by the New York critics (not even cinematography, really?), but it has a chance to rally with other groups, most notably the L.A. film critics (the second most prestigious critics group), who vote this Sunday, and often go out of their way to vote the opposite of New York. Other boons from this are Robert Redford's chances in Best Actor and Jennifer Lawrence in Supporting Actress. But American Hustle is the big story, and a possibility here is that the New York critics just set it up as the lightweight "alternative" to 12 Years a Slave in Best Picture, ala Argo last year. We'll see. Next up it's the National Board of Review, which announces their winners tomorrow.

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Nashville" (1975)

Robert Altman's masterpiece Nashville is on blu-ray today, and you owe it to yourself to check out this film, which is one of the most visceral and immediate representations of America ever made. It follows five days leading up to a country music concert in Nashville, TN and no less than 24 characters are chronicled as their stories interweave themselves in and out of the frame. When it all comes together it achieves greatness in ways you couldn't possibly predict ahead of time. Nominated for 5 Academy Awards and my favorite Altman film.

Original 1975 Trailer (this is another goofy '70s one):

2013 Gotham Award Winners

The Gotham Awards have announced their winners and the results are bit surprising, and a possible boost to Best Actor/Actress hopefuls Matthew McConaughey and Brie Larsen, although the award could still end up with little impact. The most notable result was that 12 Years a Slave was shut out in favor of Fruitvale Station, which finally got some much deserved recognition tonight.

• Best Feature: Inside Llewyn Davis
• Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
• Best Actress: Brie Larsen (Short Term 12)
• Best Breakthrough Actor: Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station)
• Best Breakthrough Director: Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station)
• Best Documentary: The Act of Killing

2013 Satellite Awards Nominations

These awards are essentially meaningless, because you might as well ask what didn't get nominated, but here's the rundown anyway. 12 Years a Slave leads with 10 noms, and there seems to be a lot of love for American Hustle in this group as well:

Best Motion Picture

• Inside Llewyn Davis
• 12 Years a Slave
• Philomena
• American Hustle
• Gravity
• Captain Phillips
• The Wolf of Wall Street
• Saving Mr. Banks
• All is Lost
• Blue Jasmine

Director

• Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
• Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)
• Ron Howard (Rush)
• Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine)
• Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)
• Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)
• Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips)
• David O. Russell (American Hustle)

Actress

• Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
• Judi Dench (Philomena)
• Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
• Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
• Amy Adams (American Hustle)
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Enough Said)
• Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)
• Adele Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Color)

Actor

• Christian Bale (American Hustle)
• Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)
• Robert Redford (All is Lost)
• Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
• Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
• Forest Whitaker (The Butler)
• Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
• Leonardo Dicaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
• Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color)
• Oprah Winfrey (The Butler)
• June Squibb (Nebraska)
• Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
• Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)
• Emily Watson (The Book Thief)
• Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Jake Gyllenhaal (Prisoners)
• Harrison Ford (42)
• Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
• Casey Affleck (Out of the Furnace)
• Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
• Ryan Gosling (The Place Beyond the Pines)
• Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
• Tom Hanks (Saving Mr. Banks)

International Film

• The Hunt (Denmark)
• Blue is the Warmest Color (France)
• Four Corners (South Africa)
• Wadjda (Saudi Arabia)
• Circles (Serbia)
• The Past (Iran)
• The Great Beauty (Italy)
• The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium)
• Bethlehem (Israel)

Animated Motion Picture

• Ernest & Celestine
• Turbo
• The Wind Rises
• The Croods
• Frozen
• Epic
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2
• Monsters University

Documentary

• 20 Feet From Stardom
• Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie
• The Square
• American Promise
• The Act of Killing
• Blackfish
• Stories We Tell
• Tim's Vermeer
• Sound City
• After Tiller

Original Screenplay

• Enough Said
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Blue Jasmine
• Her
• Saving Mr. Banks
• American Hustle

Adapted Screenplay

• Captain Phillips
• Lone Survivor
• The Wolf of Wall Street
• Philomena
• Before Midnight

Original Score

• Philomena
• 12 Years a Slave
• Her
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• The Book Thief

Original Song

• "Young and Beautiful" (The Great Gatsby)
• "Let it Go" (Frozen)
• "I See Fire" (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug)
• "So You Know What it's Like" (Short Term 12)
• "Happy" (Despicable Me 2)
• "Please Mr. Kennedy" (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Cinematography

• Prisoners
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Gravity
• 12 Years a Slave
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• Rush

Visual Effects

• World War Z
• The Croods
• Oz the Great and Powerful
• Rush
• Gravity
• All is Lost

Film Editing

• Prisoners
• American Hustle
• Gravity
• Rush
• 12 Years a Slave

Sound

• Elysium
• Gravity
• All is Lost
• Rush
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Captain Phillips

Art Direction & Production Design

• The Invisible Woman
• Saving Mr. Banks
• The Butler
• Rush
• The Great Gatsby
• Oz the Great and Powerful

Costume Design

• The Invisible Woman
• Rush
• The Great Gatsby
• Saving Mr. Banks
• 12 Years a Slave
• Oz the Great and Powerful

REVIEW: "12 Years a Slave" (2013) Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender. Dir. Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave is a powerful work of art that will pack an undeniable punch for anyone not familiar with the horrors of slavery, and a very visceral one for those who are. It is undoubtedly the most in depth look at the "peculiar institution" that poisoned our country for hundreds of years since the television series Roots captivated the nation thirty years ago, and such reminders of our past are always necessary, so as not to forget the tragic past that we come from.

The story is based on the autobiography of Solomon Northup, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841, essentially plucked from his comfortable life in Saratoga, NY where he lived as an educated free man with his family. McQueen tosses us into his life as a slave early in the film and then flashes back, where we see how idyllic his situation was (perhaps a little too idyllic- the North was not exactly a bastion of racial equality in the mid-19th century) and how it took a hard left turn when he was tricked by two men into traveling to the the nation's capitol for a musical performance (Solomon is a talented violinist) and then drugged, waking up in chains. His cries for help after being beaten into submission by a slavedriver are not heard, and soon Solomon is renamed Platt and loaded onto a boat headed for the Deep South.

From that point on the film follows an episodic structure as Solomon is sold first to a plantation run by a benevolent slaveowner (Benedict Cumberbatch) and then to that of Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), an angry, crazy alcoholic who alternately takes pride and misery in controlling all movements of the lives he considers his property. McQueen is a very talented image-maker, and throughout the film his art background is on full display- there are shots of forlorn slaves staring out at their existence that resemble pictures of Southern plantations from history books, and one of several slaves unrolled from a wagon as if they were cattle. Another is a mesmerizing long take where Solomon is hung from a tree for an excruciating length of time as life goes on in the background behind him, where children frolic and the white mistress of the plantation looks on with cruel indifference. The film was shot in Louisiana, and the beautiful landscape is directly contrasted with the horrors that inhabit it, as slaves walk among the trees and unbearable heat with a solemn disposition that makes you feel the pained existence of those who suffered.

However, despite the artistry and craft at work, the movie is not without its drawbacks. The screenplay by John Ridley is riddled with unnaturally fanciful language, almost Shakespearean in its rhythms, which for me took some getting used to, as hearing such artificial dialect so consistently from every character was a bit distracting, threatening at times to take me out of the experience. And Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a masterful performance as Solomon, for which he should be given all the credit in the world, because his character is not the most compelling. You feel for Solomon as a man who's had everything taken from him in an instant and who does nothing but suffer beatings and whippings from that moment onward, but rarely do we get to know him as a person. We know that his life was good before his capture and that he was a literate man who enjoyed playing the violin but not much more is explored about him, and at times he is nothing more than the object of suffering. But again, thanks to Ejiofor's tremendously expressive eyes and face, we are drawn in to his ordeal as much as we can be.

The supporting characters in the film are more colorful and complicated, especially Cumberbatch and Fassbender as two different slaveowners. Cumberbatch is Ford, the so-called "good man," who wants to save Solomon's life and doesn't like to cause suffering, yet under the system of slavery there is no such thing as a good man who participates in its practices. And Fassbender's Epps is the most complicated character in the movie, a man so vile in the way he treats other human beings, yet conflicted in his own mind about his feelings for the slave woman, Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o) and cruel to his wife (Sarah Paulsen), herself driven into anger, hatred and depression over his obsession and preference for Patsey to her. Epps seems to dull his self-loathing with alcohol and is the living proof of an indentured servant's claim that inflicting subhuman torture on other human beings day in and day out does things to a man and shapes his character in twisted ways that can never be undone.

This is very grim subject matter and the film is a tough sit, with constant scenes of beatings and torture inflicted on people over the course of two hours. Even though Solomon's "happy" ending eventually comes through, it's an emotional release that is only a mild relief, as the movie reminds us there were so many left behind who didn't survive the system. I can't say that the film was a pleasant experience or even an enlightening one, which is my biggest problem with it. For those who are familiar with the horrors of slavery, this is a story of survival, yes, but it's also a statement about slavery that for me, offered nothing new on the subject. Its value may be more important in years to come, as the go-to movie about American slavery in order to introduce people to the topic. For that reason, it's an important historical record, but given that Roots is still around and available for viewing, I don't think that this film offers any more insights into slavery than that groundbreaking series did, which was the first to show Americans the realities of slaves sold on the auction blocks, families being forcibly separated, the sexual slavery of women to their masters, and endless whippings and beatings as punishment for misbehavior- all ground that is covered again in this movie.  McQueen can take you in deeper and make you feel the pain in a more graphic and visceral manner, but I'm not sure that brutal violence itself is all that's necessary for emotional identification and sorrow, especially at the expense of further developed characters and relationships between Solomon, Patsey and the other slaves.

Still, 12 Years a Slave is a very admirable achievement and a step further in McQueen's directorial career- and the movie is obviously going to be showered with a lot of awards season love, much of it very deserved, especially for the performances. I'd recommend it highly, as it's worth seeing for the actors in particular.

* * * 1/2

Oscar Roundup: Best Picture

It's time to take a look at all the contenders for Best Picture, as this week is the week that the critics awards will start rolling in, and the critics are the first stop on the way to the Oscar nominations in January. Next week will be the Golden Globe nominations, the Screen Actor's Guild nominations, and then in the coming weeks the rest of the guild nominations will follow, and all will serve to narrow down the field so that when the Oscars finally announce, the nominees will be from among those previous nominees and winners.

We have to start off by explaining that the Academy now nominates anywhere from five to ten nominees, and this is only the third year that they've been using that system. Under this practice, voters mark down five favorites in preferential order, and then the movies are rounded off by placement in order to fill out the field. This has meant that for the past two years they've ended up with nine Best Picture nominees, and some say that this new system makes it mathematically impossible to get to ten- so we have to assume that it will probably be nine again this year as well.

The frontrunner for Best Picture has been 12 Years a Slave since it won the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival. The movie is assured a nomination along with Best Director for Steve McQueen, and it has fared surprisingly well at the box office so far, bringing in $33 million at the moment- not bad for what is considered a very difficult and dark film for mainstream audiences to sit through. It's in a very good position right now, but the drawbacks are real, and almost entirely to do with the dark and disturbing subject matter. The Academy has a long history of preferring lightweight, feel-good movies that inspire passion and affection, rather than admiration. There are some exceptions to that rule of course, for example when No Country For Old Men won or The Hurt Locker, but more often than not they like a movie that makes them feel, especially in recent years. The King's Speech winning over The Social Network was a big one, Chicago over The Pianist, and most famous of all, Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan. If there's no feel good alternative for the voters to rally around this year, that leaves 12 Years in a good position, but if there's something else out there to latch onto I would not be surprised to see that happen.

In second place as it's been all season is Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity. The box office success story of the year, it's amassed $250 million so far, and received across the board stellar reviews from critics. Some say that Gravity could be the alternative to 12 Years, but it would have to overcome another longstanding Academy bias towards anything science fiction. No sci-fi film has ever won Best Picture, no matter how groundbreaking (Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind came up empty, and they even preferred Hurt Locker over Avatar). There's a first time for everything but I personally don't think that Gravity is the kind of movie they would ever vote for and I'd be very surprised to see that happen.

After those two locks it's a bit of a question mark on what will fill out the other seven slots. I think Captain Phillips is pretty safe, as it's another well-reviewed, very successful hit from a respected, previously nominated director in Paul Greengrass. After that, I would say that Alexander Payne's Nebraska looks very likely, as reports are that the film has played very well at Academy screenings, and seeing as it aims directly into that older, white male target demo of the Academy, it really should do well with them. The Coens' Inside Llewyn Davis has been a question mark all year long as to whether it could land a BP nomination- I think it probably will, because there's a solid bloc of Coen Brothers fans within the Academy that pushed A Serious Man into the final batch of nominees in 2009. If that movie, one of their smallest and most personal can manage a nomination, then I think this one, which is no less well received, certainly can as well.

As for other mainstream films, I truly believe that The Butler is going to make it in, and will do much better with industry recognition among the many guild awards than many think it will. First of all, it's a movie backed strongly by The Weinstein Co., which always manages to get a heavy contender across. Second, the cast is made up of some very big insider names, who are all doing their part in heavy campaigning to get the movie recognized, and that includes people like Jane Fonda, John Cusack, and Oprah Winfrey for heaven's sake. Third, it was a well-liked, decently reviewed, mainstream hit ($115 million at the box office) that is exactly the kind of movie Academy voters prefer to recognize. Call me crazy, but this is the kind of film that actually could be the "feel-good" alternative to 12 Years a Slave, if it makes it in. The only problem with it is that director Lee Daniels is a long shot for a nomination himself, which usually kills a movie's Best Picture chances, but hey- it didn't hurt Argo last year. In this new group of nine nominees, it may be possible for a film to win without a director's nomination. So that's my theory anyway, but obviously we'll see what happens.

Other possible nominees include Saving Mr. Banks, All is Lost, Blue Jasmine, and American Hustle, not to mention Her. The odds for these films getting in are all over the place, and we're going to have to see what ends up getting the most love at the various critics and guild awards. The films that seem to have the most passionate fans (which is what counts in garnering #1 votes) look like All is Lost and Her right now. Saving Mr. Banks is about the history of Hollywood itself, which is always popular among the voters too. But my strongest feeling on another sure thing nomination is for The Wolf of Wall Street, which is just now starting to screen for industry insiders, and reports are highly enthusiastic. Martin Scorsese is beloved, and Wolf is supposedly a dark comedy in the vein of Goodfellas, but with a huge ensemble cast and a beloved icon behind the wheel, I really think it has a strong shot to get in.

My predictions right now:

12 Years a Slave
Gravity
Captain Phillips
Nebraska
Inside Llewyn Davis
The Butler
The Wolf of Wall Street
Saving Mr. Banks
American Hustle

I wouldn't be surprised to see several of those films replaced with something else, and it's such a great year for movies that there are still other long shots that could be in contention, like August: Osage County, Dallas Buyers Club, and Philomena. The picture will become clearer this week and I'm excited to see how it all shakes out. I'll come back with my firm predictions in January before the Oscar nominations are announced, and after the preliminaries have happened so be sure to check back then. Until then, everyone!

Box Office 11/27-12/1: 'Catching Fire' and 'Frozen' Dominate the Holiday

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, two movies demolished the competition and everything else in the top ten fell way behind the curve. Catching Fire and Frozen together took in almost 75% of the box office. Catching Fire was particularly impressive, as it grossed $74 million over the the three day weekend, and an astonishing $110 million since Wednesday. It's $48 million ahead of what the first movie did, which makes it likely to finish over the previous film's $408 million dollar gross (it also has a chance to hit $1 billion worldwide, now that international numbers are much higher than the first film's). It's sitting at $296 million total at the moment, but set to keep going strong through Christmas.

Disney's Frozen also had a colossal opening, amassing $66 million through the three day, but $93 million over the five day holiday weekend, which beats the record set by Toy Story 2 in 1999, which opened with $80 million. The movie played 57% female and earned the rare "A+" Cinemascore, so word of mouth on this one should be very strong, and make it the go-to movie for family audiences through December. Other openings this weekend bombed, as Jason Statham's action flick Homefront earned just $6.97 million (9 million since Wednesday) and Spike Lee's Oldboy tanked with $1.2 million after being dumped in theaters with poor reviews and very little promotion.

Top 5:

1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire- $74.5 million
2. Frozen- $66.7 million
3. Thor: The Dark World- $11.1 million
4. The Best Man Holiday- $8.5 milllion
5. Homefront- $6.97 million

In limited release news. Philomena debuted this weekend to land in the top 10 with $3.8 million, suggesting good word of mouth and a bright future, as Judi Dench will be sure to start raking in the Best Actress nominations soon, and director Kasi Lemmon's Black Nativity opened to $1.5 million in 1500 theaters, which is less than impressive considering the budget ($17 million), and doesn't signal much of a shelf life going forward. Next week it's a quiet weekend, with just the wide release of Out of the Furnace and the limited release of Spike Jonze's Her. See you then!

Paul Walker 1973-2013

Deadline is confirming at this late hour that actor Paul Walker has died in a car crash at the age of 40. Best known for the Fast & Furious movies, the actor was one of two passengers killed in a fatal collision at 3:30pm Saturday afternoon. The crash occurred in Santa Clarita County, CA, where the vehicle was engulfed in flames and the two victims were pronounced dead at the scene. Walker leaves behind a 15 year old daughter and had been filming Fast & Furious 7, which was scheduled for release next July.

Movie of the Day: "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" (1987)

Without a doubt my favorite Thanksgiving movie, this one needs little explanation. Steve Martin is trying to get home to Chicago, and gets paired up with shower ring salesman John Candy, who makes his life a living hell. Hilarious, heartwarming and sentimental (but not too much so) this is a well known classic by now and gets better all the time. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Trailer:

Movie of the Day: "What's Cooking?" (2000)

A lesser known Thanksgiving movie that looks at the holiday celebrations of four ethnically diverse families living in Los Angeles.. This comedy from 2000 boasts a huge ensemble cast as it veers back and forth between the different families as their problems and conflicts begin to escalate and eventually intersect in surprising ways. Whenever there's a movie like this you'll ultimately prefer one family's story to another- my personal favorite is Alfre Woodard and Dennis Haysbert's Thanksgiving that goes awry, but Mercedes Ruehl is really good too as the divorced matriarch of a Hispanic family whose ex-husband crashes the dinner. Check this movie out if you can- another plus is how incredibly good all the food looks.

Trailer: