2014 Satellite Award Winners

The Satellite Awards have been given out, and these are not any kind of Oscar precursor, but here's what the International Press Academy (a group of entertainment journalists who aren't taken very seriously) liked for movies anyway:

• Picture: 12 Years a Slave
• Director: Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
• Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
• Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
• Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
• Supporting Actress: June Squibb, Nebraska
• International Film: The Broken Circle Breakdown (the pic above)
• Animated Film: The Wind Rises
• Documentary: Blackfish
• Original Screenplay: American Hustle
• Adapted Screenplay: Philomena
• Score: Gravity
• Song: "Young and Beautiful," The Great Gatsby
• Visual Effects: Gravity
• Cinematography: Inside Llewyn Davis
• Editing: American Hustle
• Sound: Gravity
• Production Design: The Great Gatsby
• Costumes: The Invisible Woman

BOX OFFICE 2/21-2/23: '3 Days to Kill' and 'Pompeii' No Match for 'The Lego Movie'

The Lego Movie won the weekend again, coming in with $31 million for a new total of $183 million with no signs of slowing up. The new releases this week were no competition for it, as Kevin Costner's attempt to revamp himself as an older action hero, ala Liam Neeson, fell by the wayside, with the badly reviewed 3 Days to Kill coming in at a distant second place with $12 million. It won't do much in the long run. 

In third was the Mount Vesuvius movie Pompeii, starring Kit Harrington of Game of Thrones fame, but it was also poorly received and way too expensive, earning just $10 million over the weekend on a $100 million budget. That's a total failure, so it can only hope for higher receipts from international grosses. Fourth was RoboCop, which took in $9 million and fell 57% from last week, and fifth place belonged to The Monuments Men with another $8 million and $58 million total so far, but both of those movies cost upwards of $70 million, so success is something of a relative term.

Top 5

1. The Lego Movie- $31.5 million
2. 3 Days to Kill- $12.3 million
3. Pompeii- $10 million
4. RoboCop- $9.4 million
5. The Monuments Men- $8.1 million

Surprisingly, About Last Night fell off a cliff this week after a successful debut last weekend, earning just $7 million, not even enough to make the top five. And internationally, Frozen is closing in on $1 billion, with $980 million worldwide and just about to open in Japan (it looks like it may also get to that $400 million marker domestically too, having now grossed $384 million in an astonishing stateside run). Finally, in another landmark, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is now the 10th highest-grossing movie of all time at the domestic box office with $423 million. Next up it's Liam Neeson himself in the flight thriller Non-Stop against Bible producer Mark Burnett's Son of God.

REVIEW: "Nebraska" (2013) Bruce Dern, Will Forte. Dir. Alexander Payne

Woody Grant is approaching the end of his life with nothing to show for it. He's an old alcoholic who married young, settled down, had kids and spent the rest of his time sitting on his heels, like many millions of others. But now that he's there, that he can practically see the end staring him in the face, he wants a win of some kind. A definite win. Don't we all?

Alexander Payne's Nebraska is a bleak but very moving look at the life of an old man searching for his dignity, and the lives he's surrounded by in the desolate landscapes of a stranded middle America. Bruce Dern plays Woody, who drifts in and out of awareness most of the time, but now seems to be very aware of the possibility of his having won $1 million in a Mega Sweepstakes letter he got in the mail. It's the oldest scam in the book of course, as his son Dave tells him, but for him, it's a fantasy that he's desperate to hold onto, to make real, to get him his last win. Dave (Will Forte in an affecting performance a million miles away from Saturday Night Live), puts up with it, even though the old man has never given him anything and wasted much of his life away drinking, and he volunteers to take him to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim his "prize." Along the way we get something in the great tradition of an American road movie, as the sweeping plains of the midwest pass by in beautiful black and white photography that enhances the loneliness, isolation and the resigned misery of its inhabitants. Payne gives us a similar kind of movie to 1971's The Last Picture Show, which also took a hardened, bleak look at an abandoned part of the country.

The residents of Woody's hometown of Hawthorne, Nebraska may be miserable, but they don't seem to know it, as most have never known anything else. Woody's no different from his old friends and family members in that regard, and never verbally expresses the regrets and despair he's now feeling- for that we have to look behind Dern's soulful eyes and grizzled face, and it's a marvelous performance from him because I saw every bit of those conflicting emotions, despite the internal nature of the role. You feel for this guy, even as you piece together his history of neglecting his family, drinking, and being cuckolded- he's a tired old man now and who doesn't know someone in a similar position? June Squibb is Woody's wife Kate, a tough talking, foul mouthed old broad, who may be a pain to take day and day out, but is a jewel to have around when you need her, as she's the one who tells the plain, blunt truths about the miserable folks they both know. Woody and Kate's relatives may be practically dulled into submission by their lives, but boy do the knives come out when they think Woody's actually won something. This image of the small towns of middle America is far from the optimistic view of Frank Capra, but it feels realer, as many of these folks are sadly all too recognizable. Payne's from Nebraska and lives there still, and the sense of authenticity that is portrayed in this film is striking.

Getting to know his neighbors makes Woody's small triumph at the end of our journey with him feel like a celebration of the highest order, and this portrait of a part of America that is rarely explored on screen makes it a highly personal and emotional film that already feels like a classic, at least to me. Woody's triumph is also Payne's, and this movie will stand the test of time to represent what a certain generation felt like as the curtain came down on their time spent on this earth.

* * * 1/2

Costume Guild and Audio Society Winners

The last of the industry guilds weighed in tonight, with the Cinema Audio Society awarding Gravity and Frozen for sound mixing in a feature and animated feature, respectively. Meanwhile the Costume Designers Guild handed out its prizes as well:

• Contemporary Film: Blue Jasmine
• Period Film: 12 Years a Slave
• Fantasy Film: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Surprisingly, 12 Years a Slave beat out The Great Gatsby, which has been taking costume awards left and right and was widely expected to win this and the Oscar next week. But this signals potential support for 12 Years in a technical category other than Screenplay, which could help add to its haul if it is indeed going to win Best Picture next Sunday.

12 Years a Slave wins NAACP Award for Best Picture

The NAACP Image Awards were held tonight, where 12 Years a Slave and The Butler did very well for the film awards, winning two each:

• Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
• Best Supporting Actor: David Oyelow, The Butler
• Best Actress: Angela Bassett, Black Nativity
• Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Butler
• Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave
• Entertainer of the Year: Kevin Hart

Top 10 Films of 2013

Finally, it took me a while to catch up but I've now seen enough movies from 2013 to post my own top ten of last year. Luckily, I was able to do this before the Oscars next week, so here it is- my top ten films of 2013:

1) Gravity- Dir. Alfonso Cuaron

Without a doubt, Gravity was the best cinematic experience of 2013, a roller coaster ride in a theater that transported you up in space only to make Earth feel like an alien planet when you finally come back down. Sandra Bullock gave her best performance ever as a female action hero trying to get back home and survive, not for anyone else, but for herself alone. And director Cuaron cemented himself as a master of visual effects and atmosphere, giving the movie a meditative quality even in the face of non-stop, almost unbearable tension. 

2) Inside Llewyn Davis- Joel and Ethan Coen

The Coen Brothers ode to folk music and the Grenwich Village scene of the 1960's also transported you to another time and place, evoking the smoke filled coffee houses and shadowed lighting of a time gone by, maybe even one that never existed. This was a dreamlike, lyrical movie about a guy who didn't make it big. With so many movies about success and heroes, this one celebrates the poetry of failure, and sees much beauty in it.

3) Captain Phillips- Paul Greengrass

Another tense story of survival, one that was ripped from the headlines and showed us in real time the story of Captain Richard Phillips, who was kidnapped and held hostage by Somali pirates in 2009. Greengrass films in his trademark shakicam style that elevates the tension and constant, heartpounding suspense, making for a terrific thriller that placed us in the midst of the action. Also a movie that made significant points about how U.S. power dwarfs the desperation of third world societies, and the hopelessness faced by many held hostage by their own environments.

4) Before Midnight- Richard Linklater

The third in the Before Sunrise trilogy, that now sees longtime lovers Jesse and Celine entering their forties and grappling with real life issues like raising kids, dealing with exes, struggling with difficult jobs, and in the middle of all that trying to maintain the relationship that once showed us two people seemingly made for each other in a fairy tale light. The fairy tale no longer exists, replaced by the realities of every day life, which gives the movie a poignancy and deeper meaning than the other films, even if the depressing nature of life is laid out fully for all to see.

5) Blue is the Warmest Color- Abdellatif Kechiche

A coming of age story about a young girl discovering what she wants in life, and who she wants to love. An incredibly intimate and personal filmmaking style distinguishes this film from others like it, as the young Adele's life is expressed in the barest, most raw manner possible. The performances by Adele Exarchopoulos in the lead role and Lea Seydoux as the woman she falls in love with are extraordinary and bring us into these character's lives in such a way that we feel fully present in all of their immediate emotions. A beautiful, emotionally powerful movie.

6) Nebraska- Dir. Alexander Payne

Alexander Payne's portrait of a desolate American landscape encapsulates one old man's life in a single road trip to Lincoln, Nebraska. Bruce Dern plays Woody Grant as a cuckold who continues to delude himself as the sun sets on his life and his alertness is starting to go, but he's looking for his dignity on the way out, and his son (Will Forte) is helping him to find it. It's a deeply moving, profound look at one life trying to gain some meaning among the ruins of wasted years gone by and mistakes that can't be taken back, but it's also funny and sad at the same time, as life usually is.

7) The Act of Killing- Joshua Oppenheimer

This experimental documentary was the movie that left the biggest impact on me this year, leaving me with an unsettling feeling I simply couldn't shake for days. Oppenheimer made a film that revisited the atrocities the Indonesian government committed against its own people in the 1960's, but from the point of view of the winners, the hired assassins and officials who are now in their 70's and still protected by the state. Seeing the men who committed these crimes look back on and re-enact what they did is surreal, haunting and deeply, deeply disturbing as you are forced ponder the horrific complexities of evil and human nature.

8) American Hustle- David O. Russell

A modern day screwball comedy that took a true life event (the ABSCAM scandal in the 1970's) and spun it through a vortex, delivering characters that are con artists and manipulators, struggling to find their way through an insanely convoluted plot, while interacting with each other through various disguises and cons on top of cons. Performances in this one were unforgettable down the line, with Christian Bale and Amy Adams at the center of it, as two grifters in love. A fun, devious, delightful con from beginning to end.

9) Fruitvale Station- Ryan Coogler

A powerful docudrama that relays the last day in the life of Oscar Grant, a young African-American man who was killed by a police officer in the early morning hours of New Year's Day, 2009. Michael B. Jordan gave a breakthrough performance as Oscar, who was a troubled but good-hearted kid with a family and friends who loved him, someone who didn't deserve to be the victim of a senseless crime like this, and the impact of the incident is hauntingly reflected again in the recent killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida. A terrific debut from 26-year old Coogler, who fashioned a meaningful drama about what life is like for young black men in today's America.

10) Short Term 12- Destin Daniel Cretton

Another debut independent film from a new director, this one about a young woman who works in a foster care facility for troubled teens. Brie Larsen gave one of the best performances of the year as twentysomething Grace, herself a past victim of abuse, as she struggles to help the kids and cope with her own life. Despite the bleak material this movie is heartwarming and optimistic, a film that gives you hope for the future and recognized passion for a generation that values the good it can do in the face of traumatic human experiences.

Honorable Mentions: 12 Years a Slave, Stories We Tell, Frances Ha, This is the End, 20 Feet From Stardom, Blackfish, Blue Jasmine, Ernest & Celestine, The Wolf of Wall Street, Her

FEATURETTE: "American Hustle"

Check out this 30-minute documentary on the making of American Hustle, currently making the rounds as Oscar voting is underway. This is when the studio campaigns are at their loudest:

TRAILER #2: "22 Jump Street"

Coming out June 13th, Sony's released another trailer for 22 Jump Street- this time the boys are undercover in college. The first one was pretty funny, and the sequel is the same writers and directors, so I'm actually looking forward to this:

TRAILER: "Guardians of the Galaxy"

The first trailer for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy had its world premiere last night on Jimmy Kimmel. Looks kinda interesting, I guess. My biggest hope for any Marvel movie is that they not feel generic, as so many of the studio's movies are starting to lately. I sense an Avengers-humor vibe with this one, but I wonder if the only difference is that these particular characters are less known than the other comic book heroes. We'll see. The movie's coming out August 1st:

REVIEW: "The Act of Killing" (2013) Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer

Joshua Oppenheimer's experimental documentary (now streaming on Netflix) does an extraordinary thing. It takes a look at mass genocide through the eyes of the people who committed it- the victors who "won" over the rebels acting against the state. In Indonesia in 1965, following a failed attempted coup, local gangsters were hired to help wipe out much of the population, in an anti-communist purge led by the Indonesian army. They formed infamous death squads and killed upwards of 500,000 people in one of the worst massacres of the last century. Now, Oppenheimer goes back to Indonesia to interview the people took part in these atrocities, who are now part of a right-wing paramilitary group called the Pemuda Pencasila, and protected and in some cases even celebrated by the state.

The leader of one of these squads, Anwar Congo, is the main subject of the film, along with several other former gangsters and petty criminals who went on to commit crimes against humanity. Congo and his friends are happy to talk about what they did, reminisce, even re-enact in classic Hollywood fashion the killings they took part in, and led. The result of this approach is a haunting, surreal, deeply disturbing account of history from the people who have never been held accountable for what they've done. It's antithetical to every history lesson many in the West have ever been taught, and indeed, it's like stepping into another world, an upside-down universe where any normal notion of morality and evil is turned on its head. 

The perpetrators of these crimes have dealt with the fallout in various ways- some have no regrets and still celebrate their victory (it was all in the name of "anti-communism" after all, as they've been told over and over again). Others seem to have a total acceptance of the murders, even understanding the horrifying nature of it while admitting that in a practical sense there's nothing to do but live with it after it's done. In a particularly sickening interview, one of Congo's friends compares actions of right and wrong as flexible, always changing depending on who's in power at a particular time. He compares the killings to the torture practices instilled by the Bush administration at Guantanamo and the foundational lie of the Iraq war, seeing as no one from the Bush White House has ever been held accountable for those crimes either. Your heart sinks while watching this as you realize recent U.S. history will now be pointed to as an example for other countries who commit atrocities without retribution.

Anwar Congo himself is the most disturbing of all, as his own accounts of this time seem to haunt him personally, and over the course of the film he communicates his own nightmares and flashbacks to the murders, culminating in an excruciating final sequence that will stay with you for days. Despite the fact that all the criminals seem to glory in their horrific past and are eager to be on camera and share it with the filmmakers, the questions the film brings up about the nature of evil in human beings are the most unsettling. These frail old men do not now resemble the killing machines they once were and their perceived affection for family members do not match the caricatures we often get of crazed murderers in the movies or in life. These men could be people you run into on the street. And that thought is so troubling that the film leaves a lasting impact unlike anything else you'll see this year. 

* * * *

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Foreign Correspondent" (1940)

The Criterion Collection is out with another awesome cover this week for Alfred Hitchcock's under-appreciated Foreign Correspondent. This is one of his best movies, a mass government conspiracy thriller that sees an everyman international reporter (Joel McCrea) mixed up in one dangerous incident after another, and all at the start of WWII. I really love this movie, and it has some of Hitchcock's best setpieces, from the confrontation in the mysterious windmills to the climactic plane crash (an insanely impressive stunt for the time). Not to mention a scene-stealing early turn from the great George Sanders as a fellow muckraker. Look for this one.

Original trailer from 1940:

FEATURETTE: "20 Feet From Stardom"

A look at the Oscar-nominated documentary about overlooked back-up singers in the music industry. It's a terrific movie, and I think it's probably the frontrunner in this category, because it stands out as the feel-good film against the other documentaries, most of which are heavy, intense movies with serious subject matter. You should check it out: