Art Directors Guild and Scripter Awards

The prestigious USC Scripter award for screenwriting announced their nominees today:

• Captain Phillips
• Philomena
• The Spectacular Now
• 12 Years a Slave
• What Maisie Knew

A couple of surprising choices there, with Spectacular Now and What Maisie Knew, and Captain Phillips has shown real strength in every single preliminary award this season. But I have to assume 12 Years a Slave is the winner here.

And the ADG chimes in with the nods for Production Design in several categories:

PERIOD FILM

• American Hustle
• The Great Gatsby
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Saving Mr. Banks
• 12 Years a Slave

FANTASY FILM

• Elysium
• Gravity
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Oblivion
• Star Trek Into Darkness

CONTEMPORARY FILM

• August: Osage County
• Blue Jasmine
• Captain Phillips
• Her
• The Wolf of Wall Street

Nice to see Llewyn Davis finally be acknowledged for something in a guild, at least for its 60's set design. My guess for the Oscar nods are 12 Years, Great Gatsby, Llewyn Davis, Her and The Hobbit.

REVIEW: "Short Term 12" (2013) Brie Larsen, John Gallagher, Jr. Dir. Destin Daniel Cretton

The lives of teens at a residential facility, somewhere between a foster home and a juvenile detention center, is a universe we've rarely, if ever, been exposed to on film. This is the world that Destin Daniel Cretton takes us into in his first feature film, which is a heartbreaking and emotional character study of a damaged young woman doing her best to help other troubled souls escape from the depths of pain and sorrow she herself has had the misfortune to face.

The big discovery of this movie is Brie Larsen in the lead role as Grace, a 25-year-old former foster child, who now works at Short Term 12 as a line staff member. Not a parent or a therapist, as she tells a new employee, she acts as a guide and sometimes friend to the deeply troubled teens who reside at the facility, encouraging them to talk out their emotions and express themselves through art if necessary. She attempts with all her might to lead them away from the painful future many of them will likely face as adults, when they leave the residence at age 18. But Grace is troubled herself, severely emotionally repressed and with a kind but tough exterior that refuses to let anyone into her own inner world, not even her boyfriend and co-worker Mason (John Gallagher, Jr.), who is never anything but patient and gentle with her, despite her icy and distant demeanor. Brie Larsen plays this incredibly complex character with so much subtlety and expressiveness, especially in her eyes, as you can simply observe her conflicting emotions even when she cannot verbally express them. It's a terrific performance in a role that should launch her into a long career playing intelligent characters. She alternately radiates kindness, anger, resentment and a gift for communicating with and care for young people, as we suspect and soon confirm her own history of tragic abuse is what drives her to help others who've been through similar experiences.

The kids in the care center are standouts as well, especially Keith Stanfield as the sullen and despairing rapper Marcus, and Kaitlyn Dever as the deeply angry Jayden, whom Grace feels a particular kinship with. This sounds like very bleak material and it is for the most part, but the great care with which it's handled, that is with a running strain of hope and optimism make it a warm film at its conclusion, and a life affirming portrait of troubled youth who can benefit from the guidance of those who care enough not to let them fade away. John Gallagher Jr.'s character is also a key presence in the film, as his eternally sunny and sweet disposition, especially with Grace in her harder moments, give the audience a character to connect to and even identify with, as he too comes from a foster background but sees his experience as integral to everything positive he's managed to obtain in his life. This perspective remains throughout the film, and one suspects it's Crettin's own experience in this world (he worked at a facility like this one) that informs his humanist point of view on the subject. A wonderful, hopeful, bleak yet subtly optimistic view of life even under the harshest circumstances, Short Term 12 is one of the must see movies of 2013.

* * * 1/2

Sandra Bullock, Iron Man Dominate the People's Choice Awards

Sandra Bullock once again sweeps the People's Choice Awards, winning every category she was nominated in. Action movies and comedies carry the day elsewhere:

• Favorite Movie: Iron Man 3
• Favorite Movie Actress: Sandra Bullock, Gravity
• Favorite Movie Actor: Johnny Depp, The Lone Ranger
• Favorite Comedy Movie: The Heat
• Favorite Comedy Movie Actor: Adam Sandler, Grown-Ups 2
• Favorite Comedy Movie Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Heat
• Favorite Drama Movie: Gravity
• Favorite Drama Movie Actor: Leonardo Dicaprio, The Great Gatsby/The Wolf of Wall Street
• Favorite Drama Movie Actress: Sandra Bullock, Gravity
• Favorite Action Movie: Iron Man 3
• Favorite Action Movie Star: Robert Downey, Jr., Iron Man 3
• Favorite Movie Duo: Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, Gravity
• Favorite Family Movie: Despicable Me 2
• Favorite Horror Movie: Carrie
• Favorite Thriller Movie: Now You See Me

Cinematography and Costume Guild Nominees

The technical guilds usually always include the eventual Oscar nominees, so here are a couple that came in today.

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS (ASC)

• 12 Years a Slave
• Captain Phillips
• The Grandmaster
• Gravity
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Nebraska
• Prisoners

Apparently there was so much great cinematography this year there had to be 7 nominees. 5 out of those 7 will likely make the Oscar cut. Offhand, my guess would be 12 Years, Gravity, Inside Llewyn Davis, Captain Phillips and Nebraska. But The Grandmaster is certainly a possibility (it'd replace Phillips if anything). Meanwhile, the costume designers also spoke up.

COSTUME DESIGNERS GUILD (CDG)

Period Film:

• 12 Years a Slave
• American Hustle
• Dallas Buyers Club
• The Great Gatsby
• Saving Mr. Banks

Fantasy Film:

• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
• Oz: The Great and Powerful

Contemporary Film:

• Blue Jasmine
• Her
• Nebraska
• Philomena
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

This category always favors period and fantasy films, the more elaborate the better, so my guess on the final five would be 12 Years, American Hustle, Great Gatsby, Oz, and Catching Fire.

'Gravity,' 'American Hustle,' and '12 Years a Slave' Lead the BAFTA Nominations

So, the headlines for what the Brits liked this year- they LOVED American Hustle, which scored all four acting nominations, matched the DGA nominees for director 5/5, and completely snubbed Dallas Buyers Club and Her.

BEST PICTURE

• 12 Years a Slave
• American Hustle
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Philomena

BEST DIRECTOR

• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
• Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
• Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
• David O. Russell, American Hustle
• Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST ACTOR

• Christian Bale, American Hustle
• Bruce Dern, Nebraska
• Leonardo Dicaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
• Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
• Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips

BEST ACTRESS

• Amy Adams, American Hustle
• Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
• Sandra Bullock, Gravity
• Judi Dench, Philomena
• Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
• Daniel Bruhl, Rush
• Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
• Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
• Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
• Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
• Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
• Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
• Oprah Winfrey, The Butler

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• American Hustle
• Blue Jasmine
• Gravity
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Nebraska

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• 12 Years a Slave
• Behind the Candelabra
• Captain Phillips
• Philomena
• The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST BRITISH FILM

• Gravity
• Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
• Philomena
• Rush
• Saving Mr. Banks
• The Selfish Giant

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

• The Act of Killing
• Blue is the Warmest Color
• The Great Beauty
• Metro Manila
• Wadjda

BEST ANIMATED FILM

• Despicable Me 2
• Frozen
• Monsters University

BEST DOCUMENTARY

• The Act of Killing
• The Armstrong Lie
• Blackfish
• Tim's Vermeer
• We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• 12 Years a Slave
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Nebraska

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

• American Hustle
• Behind the Candelabra
• The Great Gatsby
• The Invisible Woman
• Saving Mr. Banks

BEST EDITING

• 12 Years a Slave
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Rush
• The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST MAKEUP & HAIR

• American Hustle
• Behind the Candelabra
• The Butler
• The Great Gatsby
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

• 12 Years a Slave
• American Hustle
• Behind the Candelabra
• Gravity
• The Great Gatsby

BEST MUSIC

• 12 Years a Slave
• The Book Thief
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Saving Mr. Banks

BEST SOUND

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

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• Gravity
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Iron Man 3
• Pacific Rim
• Star Trek Into Darkness

BEST BRITISH DEBUT

• Colin Carberry, Glenn Patterson, Good Vibrations (Writers)
• Kelly Marcel, Saving Mr. Banks (Writer)
• Keiran Evans, Kelly + Victor (Writer/Director)
• Paul Wright, Polly Stokes, For Those in Peril (Director/Writer & Producer)
• Scott Graham, Shell (Writer/Director)

BEST SHORT FILM

• Island Queen
• Keeping Up with the Joneses
• Orbit Ever After
• Room 8
• Sea View

BEST SHORT ANIMATION

• Everything I Can See From Here
• I Am Tom Moody
• Sleeping With the Fishes

RISING STAR AWARD

• Dane DeHaan
• George MacKay
• Lupita Nyong'o
• Will Poulter
• Lea Seydoux

Other things to note, since there is a significant overlap between the members of BAFTA and the Academy- Meryl Streep is snubbed for Amy Adams, and I now think that's exactly what will happen at the Oscars. And it definitely looks like Robert Redford will not make the cut for Best Actor now, I have to admit. Leo is surging at exactly the right time and I do think he'll get in there, and the love for American Hustle is so strong that it looks like even Christian Bale stands a great shot at sneaking in. But with Dallas Buyers Club so strong with all the guilds over here, I don't see Matthew McConaughey missing out despite BAFTA's total dismissal of the film. And as for the rest, it really looks to me like American Hustle's leading the charge now, with 10 nods here and all four actors in. It's possible they'll want to stick with a British film (Gravity got 11 nominations), but they haven't not matched the Oscar win since 2007. It's still a three movie race between Gravity, 12 Years and American Hustle, because if you take out the Best British Film nod for Gravity, all three movies tied with 10 nominations. So, as usual, the guild awards will tell the story in a couple of weeks, no matter what wins the Golden Globe this weekend.

Vancouver Critics Go for "12 Years"

Another regional group weighs in for 12 Years a Slave, and Jennifer Lawrence is starting to catch up to Lupita Nyong'o in the number of critics wins for supporting actress:

• Picture: 12 Years a Slave
• Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
• Actor: Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis
• Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
• Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
• Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
• Screenplay: Inside Llewyn Davis
• Documentary: The Act of Killing
• Foreign Language Film: The Hunt

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Cape Fear" (1962)

After a couple of weeks off, the blu-ray releases are back in force, with 1962's classic Cape Fear the best today's bunch has to offer. For my money, this was a way better film than the 1991 Scorsese-directed version, with Robert Mitchum as a truly scary, sadistic psychopath stalking Gregory Peck and his family. Where Robert DeNiro tore up the scenery, Mitchum was calm, cool, collected and quietly terrifying. A villain for the ages in an era before there was such a thing as restraining orders.

Original 1962 Trailer:

2013 Directors Guild Nominations

 The oldest and most important guild announced its nominees today:

• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
• Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
• Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
• David O. Russell, American Hustle
• Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

Historically speaking, the winner of the DGA almost always wins Best Picture at the Oscars, even if the directing Oscar goes to someone else. Last year Ben Affleck was famously snubbed by the Academy, but won the DGA and Argo of course went on to win Best Picture. The DGA usually doesn't line up 5 for 5 with the Academy's best director nominees, with two or sometimes even three left off. That's because the director's branch of the Academy is a much smaller, more exclusive group (only about 400 members compared to the DGA's 14,000) that often prefers arthouse, foreign and visionary directors. But looking at this list, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this was one of the years where it lined up perfectly. My only guess would be that Paul Greengrass might fall out for someone like Spike Jonze. As for a winner here, it's still up for grabs. My feeling is that Alfonso Cuaron is out front, but with American Hustle gaining steam in the Best Picture race, this could be Russell's as well. The DGA presents its winners on Jan 25th.

Oklahoma Critics Like "Her," North Texas Chooses "Gravity"

 More regional groups spoke up today, and the Oklahoma critics prefer Her for Best Picture. They also had some fun with their made up categories in those last couple listed:

• Film: Her
• Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
• Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
• Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
• Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
• Original Screenplay: Her
• Adapted Screenplay: 12 Years a Slave
• Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
• Animated Film: Frozen
• Documentary: The Act of Killing
• Foreign Language Film: The Hunt
• First Feature: Fruitvale Station
• Body of Work: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club, Mud and The Wolf of Wall Street)
• Guilty Pleasure: Iron Man 3
• Not-So-Obviously Worst Film: August: Osage County
• Obviously Worst Film: Grown-Ups 2

Meanwhile, the North Texas critics like Gravity and Sandra Bullock for top prizes:

• Picture: Gravity
  
• Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
  
• Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
  
• Actress: Sandra Bullock, Gravity
  
• Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
  
• Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
  
• Cinematography: Gravity
  
• Animated Film: Frozen
  
• Documentary: 20 Feet From Stardom
  
• Foreign Language Film: Blue is the Warmest Color and The Grandmaster (tie)
  

January Movies Are Here

 This month, with no particular holiday that symbolizes all of January, in order to kick off the new year, the theme is movie musicals. Listed on the Movie of the Month page is the description for the January theme, with its celebration of music, and click here for the list of ten diverse movies that have something to do with music, be it an old-fashioned musical, concert documentary or even rock mockumentary. Have fun with the movies this month, as all are exciting, vibrant, music-filled events that will hopefully fill your life with song. The list includes one of my favorite comedies, A Hard Day's Night, as seen above.

BOX OFFICE 1/04- 1/06: "Frozen" Tops in its 6th Weekend

The unstoppable Frozen returned to #1 this weekend with $20 million, taking it just $3 million shy of $300 million,  to become Disney's second biggest animated hit of all time, behind only The Lion King. The movie's performance has been pretty astounding, as it will almost surely continue to chug along, with awards success coming up and no other family film on the horizon. In second was Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (above), following the recent trend of releasing horror films in January, which took in $18.2 million, the lowest ever debut for a Paranormal Activity movie. It also received a dismal C- from audiences, but given the fact that these movies are so cheap, pretty much all of them are profitable in the end, no matter how bad.

In third was The Hobbit, which took a steep drop with $16 million, amassing $229 million total, and unlikely to cross $300, making it the first Peter Jackson Middle Earth movie not to do so. The controversy-ridden Wolf of Wall Street came in at #4 with $13 million, which is actually a pretty decent hold from last week, considering its bad Cinemascore. It could be that the headlines have helped spark curiosity towards it, or that it's attracting the right crowd now, with people who know what to expect going in. The total so far is $63 million, while American Hustle is doing even better, right behind it this weekend but already with $88 million and guaranteed to cross $100 in the next week (and that's before its possible victory at the Golden Globes).

Top 5

1. Frozen- $20.7 million
2. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones- $18.2 million
3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug- $16.3 million
4. The Wolf of Wall Street- $13.4 million
5. American Hustle- $13.2 million

In other holdovers, Anchorman 2 pulled in $11 million this weekend for a total of $109 million so far, one of the big comedy successes of the year, and Catching Fire has now made $407 million at the domestic box office and is certain to beat Iron Man 3's $409 million total to be the #1 movie of the year (incidentally, the first time that spot's been held by a movie starring a woman since the 1960's!). Next weekend it's The Legend of Hercules, but January continues to be a dead month for any new films, with the Oscar movies in wide and limited release continuing to kick around and televised awards season about to start off with the Golden Globes on the 12th. See you then!

REVIEW: "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013) Leonardo Dicaprio, Jonah Hill. Dir. Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street has been under fire for the last couple of weeks, embroiled in what's essentially the same controversy that last year's Zero Dark Thirty was tangled up in. That's whether or not the directors of these films took a hard enough stance on an inflammatory moral issue, whether it was appropriate for them to document in a non-judgmental fashion the behavior of individuals that we know for a fact took place, and took place right in front of us. In Kathryn Bigelow's case, it was the sanctioned torture practices that government officials engaged in, and here it's the outrageous and frankly obscene partying, misogyny and reckless and illegal practices of scamming people out of their money that stockbroker Jordan Belfort had a hand in on Wall Street in the 90's (and he may have been one of the small-time criminals compared to recent years, as the movie itself points out).

It's not fair to ask artists to be the ones to take a moral stance, to depict and judge the culture in ways that it hasn't been reconciled with by society. We want justice done in our movies because we haven't gotten it in real life, and films like this rub our faces in that fact in a way that makes many uncomfortable. Yes, the behavior of these men was and is infuriating, and the fact that they escape virtually unscathed even more so. But then we have to ask ourselves why then, if this kind of behavior is so universally reviled and repulsive and morally wrong, has none of it been dealt with as of yet in our society? No prosecutions or convictions for Wall Street criminals who brought down the economy, none for those in the highest levels of government who sanctioned war crimes. Like it or not, this is the society we've become, where certain kinds of people live in a consequence free world and are immune from the kind of justice the rest of us can't escape, and rather than reveling in their behavior, Martin Scorsese in the final shot reflects a mirror back at us, conveying his belief (although open to interpretation) that we're the ones who allow this kind of thing to happen.

Unfortunately, any time an artist portrays a culture in a way that's ambiguous it has to be left open to interpretation from those who are going to take the opposing view- that it glorifies what's being portrayed. In this film, we are essentially treated to a three hour romp of orgies, drugs, and outlandish recklessness from Jordan Belfort and his cohorts, and it's they who revel in their money, toss it away, spend their time in a constant state of drug induced euphoria and clearly treat women as objects to be used and humiliated. If people are appalled by this behavior, that's probably a credit to their own morality, as I'm sure there are wannabe bankers who will seek to emulate it, just as Scarface's Al Pacino stands as an icon to a whole generation of gangsters and rappers (in other words, those who missed the point). But at the risk of attracting that crowd and in order to make a film you can sit through, this is all treated as a black comedy of the highest order, and Leonardo Dicaprio gives what's arguably the greatest performance of his career.

He certainly gives the role everything he's got, and commits fully to the drug crazed, narcissistic Jordan, who enters Wall Street at age 22 and about two seconds later is immersed in the manic, alpha male lifestyle, with Quaaludes and hookers his vices of choice. It's a hilariously committed, very physical performance that has him doing things on screen you probably never thought you'd see him do (the final Quaalude scene had my theater in stitches), and he's joined by Jonah Hill in a slyly funny turn of his own as his weaselly little pal Donnie. The movie itself is basically three hours of debauchery that, while entertaining, does grow tiresome after a while, although it can certainly be argued that depicting excess in an excessive manner is the point of the whole exercise. But I think that the film could have shaved 45 minutes off its running time and still made its point in style.

You have to give credit to the 71-year-old Scorsese, who after all these years has lost none of his edge in making a movie so daring as this one, and is still able to ruffle feathers of those who find it so blatantly offensive. But to them I would say, is it the movie that's offensive, or is it the reality of Wall Street culture and the consequence/ risk free lives these crooks live every day, right under our noses, that bothers you more? Because as Scorsese and Jordan Belfort tell us, this happens, and we do nothing. And to me, therein lies the real outrage.

* * *