'American Hustle' and '12 Years a Slave' Lead the 71st Golden Globe Nominations

American Hustle and 12 Years lead the Globe nods with 7 each, and with that, my immediate thought is that we have confirmation that American Hustle will be the alternative Best Picture choice to 12 Years a Slave going forward. Of course, it's still just an instinct, because Gravity could also make a big play, but that's my hunch. As for the other nominations, the Globes kind of went all over the place this year- they hated The Butler, they liked Philomena and Rush, they loved Captain Phillips (Greengrass over Scorsese for Director), and they snubbed Oprah despite their reputation for being star worshipers. But look at that Best Actress Comedy/Musical category- Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy and Julia Louis-Dreyfus! That's probably my favorite category of the day just for those unexpected and completely welcome nods (which don't mean anything for the Oscars, but are still pretty cool).

Best Picture Comedy/Musical

• American Hustle
• Her
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Nebraska
• The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actress Comedy/Musical

• Amy Adams (American Hustle)
• Julie Delpy (Before Midnight)
• Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha)
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Enough Said)
• Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

Best Actor Comedy/Musical

• Christian Bale (American Hustle)
• Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
• Leonardo Dicaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
• Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis)
• Joaquin Phoenix (Her)

Best Picture Drama

• 12 Years a Slave
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Philomena
• Rush

Best Actress Drama

• Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
• Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
• Judi Dench (Philomena)
• Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)
• Kate Winslet (Labor Day)

Best Actor Drama

• Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
• Idris Elba (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom)
• Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)
• Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
• Robert Redford (All is Lost)

Best Director

• Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)
• Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
• Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips)
• Alexander Payne (Nebraska)
• David O. Russell (American Hustle)

Best Supporting Actor

• Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
• Daniel Bruhl (Rush)
• Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
• Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
• Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Supporting Actress

• Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)
• Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
• Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
• Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
• June Squibb (Nebraska)

Best Screenplay

• Her
• Nebraska
• Philomena
• 12 Years a Slave
• American Hustle

Best Score

• All is Lost
• Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
• Gravity
• The Book Thief
• 12 Years a Slave

Best Song

• "Atlas" (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)
• "Let it Go" (Frozen)
• "Ordinary Love" (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom)
• "Please Mr. Kennedy" (Inside Llewyn Davis)
• "Sweeter Than Fiction" (One Chance)

Best Foreign Language Film

• Blue is the Warmest Color
• The Great Beauty
• The Hunt
• The Past
• The Wind Rises

Best Animated Film

• The Croods
• Despicable Me 2
• Frozen

As you can see, they made up for the SAG snub of Robert Redford yesterday, and added another boost to what were longshots Barkhad Abdi and Daniel Bruhl's chances in Supporting Actor- that race seems to be solidifying with those two in place. Saving Mr. Banks hasn't fared well at all outside of Emma Thompson at the awards so far- that movie's Oscar chances appear to be slipping, but what would take its place? My feeling is still The Butler, but we'll see. They do still love their stars at the Globes, which means that Leo should probably be considered a frontrunner to win, but they also really liked Nebraska, nominating it in several categories, including director and picture, so watch out for Bruce Dern. And no Scorsese for director means they didn't totally fall for Wolf of Wall Street, despite a couple of nods for it. But the overwhelming love for American Hustle by the HFPA (all 4 acting nominations) means it's definitely in it win it, and I even think it's probably the frontrunner here for Comedy/Musical. In drama, Gravity or even Captain Phillips could pull off a win, as well as 12 Years but my instinct says it's Gravity, at least at the moment. The Golden Globes are held January 12th on NBC.

POSTER: "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"

A new poster showing an angry Caesar from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, due out next year. I can't wait!

San Diego Critics Choose "Her"

Another day, another critics group. The San Diego Film Critics Society joins the love for Her and anoints it as their best film:

• Best Film: Her
• Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
• Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
• Best Actor: Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis
• Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now
• Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
• Best Original Screenplay: Her
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Before Midnight
• Best Foreign Language Film: Drug War
• Best Documentary: The Act of Killing
• Best Cinematography: To the Wonder
• Best Animated Film: The Wind Rises
• Best Editing: Captain Phillips
• Best Production Design: The Great Gatsby
• Best Score: Her
• Best Ensemble Performance: American Hustle
• Body of Work: Matthew McConaughey (Mud, The Wolf of Wall Street, Dallas Buyers Club)

TRAILER: "Edge of Tomorrow"

Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt in a futuristic sci-fi thriller based on a Japanese novel. From Doug Liman, who directed Go, The Bourne Identity and Swingers, and coming out June 6, 2014. Looks like it could be good.

2013 Screen Actors Guild Nominations

The first major industry award has announced their nominees this year. The guild awards are important because the branches of the Academy are made up of people who belong to the various guilds- and so today's SAG nods include and come from many who are members of the acting branch in the Academy. The biggest snub was Robert Redford for All is Lost, while the surprise nominees were Barkhad Abdi for Captain Phillips (yay!), James Gandolfini for Enough Said, and Dallas Buyers Club in Best Ensemble. The acting nominees rarely match up with the Oscar ones perfectly though (the membership in the Academy is a much smaller, more exclusive group), so there's room for other people yet.

Best Ensemble

• 12 Years a Slave
• American Hustle
• August: Osage County
• Dallas Buyers Club
• Lee Daniels' The Butler

Best Actor

• Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
• Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
• Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)
• Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
• Forest Whitaker (The Butler)

Best Actress

• Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
• Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
• Judi Dench (Philomena)
• Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
• Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

• Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
• Daniel Bruhl (Rush)
• Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
• James Gandolfini (Enough Said)
• Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

• Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
• Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
• Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
• June Squibb (Nebraska)
• Oprah Winfrey (The Butler)

Best Stunt Ensemble

• All is Lost
• Fast & Furious 6
• Lone Survivor
• Rush
• Wolverine

Well, as far as my own predictions go, my Best Supporting Actress lineup matched exactly with the SAG nominees here. Everything else is slightly different, and this could help outside contenders like the late James Gandolfini and Barkhad Abdi to get Oscar attention. But as I said, the Academy rarely matches up with SAG exactly, so we'll see who may fall out for Robert Redford (I still think he's a lock to get nominated, but this does hurt him for the win). And the actress race as well, usually holds a spot for a newcomer who wouldn't be as popular with an organization like the Screen Actors Guild, so I really think mainstays like Meryl Streep and/or Judi Dench are vulnerable in that category to someone like Amy Adams (who the Academy loves) or Adele Exarchopoulos, who may have a strong passion vote behind her that will mark her as #1 on the ballot (that always helps to get outsiders in). And lastly, I really had a strong feeling all along that The Butler was going to make a comeback in the guild awards, so this could signal the beginning of that, as the other guilds will announce in the coming weeks.

Great Reviews for "American Hustle"

Unsurprisingly, given the New York Film Critics win, American Hustle's reviews now coming in are proving pretty ecstatic indeed. The madcap comedy about con artists and corruption in the late 1970's has drawn comparisons to everything from Goodfellas to Boogie Nights to classic Hollywood screwball comedies with high praise for the entire ensemble, but Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams in particular. David O. Russell's clearly got another heavy hitter on his hands, possibly a major threat for Best Picture, proving exactly the kind of "light" alternative the voters tend to look for recently in place of the darker dramas. We'll see, but something tells me it could mount a serious challenge to something like 12 Years a Slave.

"The film's masterly organization of chaos and intelligence is a reminder that comedy is just tragedy, but faster, and it underlines the slick timidity of what passes for movie comedy today." (Time)

"The movie evokes such classics as 'Married to the Mob,' 'Goodfellas,' and 'Prizzi's Honor,' but it has a fizziness all its own and a pell-mell but lucid storytelling strategy that is one of the most impressive achievements in recent filmmaking." (The New Yorker)

"'American Hustle' is, among other thing, a heartfelt inquiry into the allure of false fronts and the universal need to be loved for one's true self. In that respect, there's a dash of Preston Sturges's 'The Lady Eve,' in a picture that otherwise suggests an Altman-esque spin on 'The Sting.' (Variety)

"Russell has made a rangy, exuberant caper movie set in late 1970s New Jersey, with heavy overtones of the two great Martin Scorsese-Nicholas Pileggi collaborations, 'Goodfellas' and 'Casino.'" (The Telegraph)

"There is something unmistakeably Russell-esque in the neurotic, shrill, and often very funny drama: a kind of neo-noir farce. Russell distills his own toxic kind of nitrous oxide and pipes it into the cinema." (The Guardian)

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Mary Poppins" (1964)

In perfect timing with the release of Saving Mr. Banks in a couple of weeks, Disney's Mary Poppins is now out on blu-ray for its 50th anniversary. A timeless classic and one of the very best family films ever made (although anyone will love it, provided you like musicals), Julie Andrews stars as the magical nanny in her Oscar-winning role, and she truly is "practically perfect in every way." The movie is a joy of performance from all the actors involved, including Dick Van Dyke as Bert and David Tomlinson as Mr. Banks. It'll leave you in an irrepressibly happy mood, and you'll want to go back again and again.

Original Trailer from 1964:

TEASER: "Godzilla"

In the teaser for the new Godzilla, coming out next summer, we only get a glimpse of the monster toward the end. But I can almost guarantee that this remake with Elizabeth Olsen and Bryan Cranston will at least be better than the 1998 Roland Emmerich one- it'd be hard to get much worse.

TRAILER: "Jupiter Ascending"

The new movie from The Wachowski siblings, starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, coming out July 25th, 2014:

Variety Roundtable: Actresses

Now it's Variety's turn to try and do a roundtable. Here's a different batch of actresses in Brie Larsen, Julie Delpy, Greta Gerwig, Kathryn Hahn and Adele Exarchopoulos.

AFI Top 10

The American Film Institute announced their top ten movies of the year. They have an excellent record of matching the Oscar Best Picture lineup, so take note:

AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR

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

Yay for Captain Phillips and Fruitvale Station! Surprised The Butler didn't make it here, but to my shock everyone seems to have remembered and chosen Fruitvale Station for these end of the year lists instead. And I'd bet money this is our Best Picture lineup sans Fruitvale only.

Online Film Critics Society Nominations

Actually not a bad bunch here. They spread the wealth and included many contenders not mentioned elsewhere in the critics groups this season. Lots of love for The Wind Rises and finally some attention for Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi:

Best Picture

• 12 Years a Slave
• American Hustle
• Before Midnight
• Blue is the Warmest Color
• Drug War
• Gravity
• Her
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Short Term 12
• The Wind Rises

Best Director

• Joel and Ethan Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)
• Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)
• Spike Jonze (Her)
• Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
• Hayao Miyazaki (The Wind Rises)

Best Actor

• Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
• Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)
• Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis)
• Mads Mikkelson (The Hunt)
• Joaquin Phoenix (Her)

Best Actress

• Amy Adams (American Hustle)
• Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
• Julie Delpy (Before Midnight)
• Adele Exarchoppoulos (Blue is the Warmest Color)
• Brie Larsen (Short Term 12)

Best Supporting Actor

• Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
• Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
• Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
• Matthew McConaughey (Mud)
• Sam Rockwell (The Way, Way Back)

Best Supporting Actress

• Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)
• Scarlett Johansson (Her)
• Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
• Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
• Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color)

Original Screenplay

• American Hustle
• Blue Jasmine
• Her
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Museum Hours

Adapted Screenplay

• 12 Years a Slave
• Before Midnight
• In the House
• Short Term 12
• The Wind Rises

Best Animated Feature

• Despicable Me 2
• From Up on Poppy Hill
• Frozen
• Monsters University
• The Wind Rises

Best Foreign Language Film

• Blue is the Warmest Color
• Drug War
• Museum Hours
• Wadjda
• The Wind Rises

Best Documentary Film

• 56 Up
• The Act of Killing
• At Berkeley
• Blackfish
• Stories We Tell

Best Editing

• 12 Years a Slave
• Drug War
• Gravity
• Her
• Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Cinematography

• 12 Years a Slave
• The Grandmaster
• Gravity
• The Great Beauty
• Inside Llewyn Davis