The full trailer for the new Godzilla movie, coming out May 16th. This actually looks pretty cool! It can only get better from the horrible 1998 version, but I love all the nods to the original Japanese movie from the 50's, which was really a metaphor for the fallout of the atomic bomb. This may turn out to be one of those rare remakes that works, like 2011's Planet of the Apes reboot:
Final Oscar Predictions, Part 2: Makeup, Music, Costumes, Sets & Cinematography
Today it's time for the second group of tech awards, which include makeup, music, costumes, sets, and cinematography. Some of these categories are a little easier to call, but most still have a fairly strong runner-up right behind it, so let's get going:
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
- Gravity
- Inside Llewyn Davis
- Prisoners
- Nebraska
- The Grandmaster
This is Gravity's to lose. It won the Cinematography guild award, along with the BAFTA, and the Academy has gone for the 3D epic in this category the last three times it was eligible (Life of Pi, Hugo, Avatar). It's really no contest.
Winner: Gravity
Alternate: None, I can't imagine it losing.
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
- The Great Gatsby
- 12 Years a Slave
- American Hustle
- Gravity
- Her
Now, this is a tricky one, despite first glance indicating that Gatsby should have it. It's won all the requisite precursor awards, including the ADG and BAFTA, but sometimes the Oscars go a different way in this category, especially regarding movies they don't like. Gatsby got mixed to negative reviews and is only nominated for two Oscars, and last year's Anna Karenina was another critically mixed film that won all the precursors for production design, only to lose the Oscar to Lincoln. Often this category goes to the film with the most overall nominations, which tells me 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle or even Gravity could be in the running. Then again, this may be overthinking things, as badly received films like Alice in Wonderland and Memoirs of a Geisha still managed a win here. I'll stick with Gatsby for now, but it's not a lock at all.
Winner: The Great Gatsby
Alternate: 12 Years a Slave
Dark Horse: American Hustle
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
- The Great Gatsby
- The Grandmaster
- 12 Years a Slave
- The Invisible Woman
- American Hustle
Now, in this category they never have a problem rewarding badly received films, and usually the loudest, flashiest, biggest period costumes take it. The Great Gatsby has won most of the costume awards, including the BAFTA but just the other day, 12 Years a Slave won the Costume Designers Guild award in a bit of an upset, so that may signal that this is a place besides screenplay where they can reward the Best Picture frontrunner. I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb here and say 12 Years, because of that guild win. It's a limb because Gatsby's costumes are undoubtedly flashier and that almost always prevails, but I just have a feeling this year may be different.
Winner: 12 Years a Slave
Alternate: The Great Gatsby
Dark Horse: American Hustle
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
- Gravity
- The Book Thief
- Her
- Philomena
- Saving Mr. Banks
I really think this belongs to Gravity (and yes, that movie will be picking up the most statues on Oscar night). Philomena is the spoiler, as it's really the only chance for that film to win something, and reports are that the older members in the Academy loved the movie, but I feel pretty safe choosing Gravity here.
Winner: Gravity
Alternate: Philomena
Dark Horse: None, I'd be shocked it it wasn't one of those two.
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
- "Let it Go," Idina Menzel (Frozen)
- "The Moon Song," Karen O. (Her)
- "Happy," Pharell Williams (Despicable Me 2)
- "Ordinary Love," U2 (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom)
This is an exciting category because this is the first time in years the Song award has actually been competitive, and there are two genuine big hits among the nominees. I'm going to go with "Let it Go," because that song has basically swept the country as part of the phenomenon that is Frozen, but never count out U2, who will be performing at the ceremony, along with the others. As for the quality, I personally think "Happy" is the catchiest and best song of these nominees, and with the song a big hit in its own right and Pharell Williams on a Grammy-winning hot streak, he could very well be the surprise winner too. I'm going with Frozen due to the momentum of the movie, but I really don't think "Let it Go" is up there with the best Disney song winners of the past (I'm sorry, but that song is no "Under the Sea" or "A Whole New World.")
Winner: "Let it Go"
Alternate: "Happy"
Dark Horse: "Ordinary Love"
BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
- Dallas Buyers Club
- Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
- Lone Ranger
Dallas Buyers Club. Slam dunk. As I said last week there's no way the Academy allows the word Jackass to be engraved on an Oscar, and The Lone Ranger was one of the worst reviewed movies of last year. Maybe if it was just the makeup artists voting they might consider the other two, but with the whole Academy chiming in? No.
Winner: Dallas Buyers Club
Alternate: None.
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Blue is the Warmest Color" (2013)
The Criterion Collection has Blue is the Warmest Color out this week, the Palm D'Or winner of last year's Cannes film festival. It's a passionate, intense look at a teenager's coming of age in modern day France, and a love story enacted by two actresses giving the performances of their lives. Adele Exarchopoulos makes her film debut as the lead (whose name, coincidentally is also Adele), and Lea Seydoux is the older woman she falls for. The most acclaimed foreign film of 2013, it was ineligible for the Oscars this year due to its release date in France, but it's inclusion all but certainly would have made this year's outcome in that category very different. Check it out, it's a beautiful film worth seeing.
Trailer:
Movie of the Day: "12 Years a Slave" (2013)
The last week of February is also the last week of Black History Month, which we are going to note by celebrating all this week in our Movie of the Day series. And why not start with the movie of the moment, the Best Picture frontrunner itself? 12 Years a Slave was a powerful account of the life of Solomon Northup, who was kidnapped into slavery from the North in 1841 and spent more than a decade on Southern plantations before finally gaining back his freedom. Chiwetel Ejiofor turned in an affecting performance of a man trapped in devastating circumstances, and the rest of the cast is filled out by an ensemble that includes Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti and Brad Pitt. A powerfully moving film.
Trailer:
Final Oscar Predictions, Part 1: Effects, Sound and Shorts
All this week I'll be posting my final Oscar predictions for every category. They'll be split up into 5 groups, 3 groups of technical awards, the actors, and finally Picture/Director. This is a tough year, where several of the races are either neck and neck, or completely up in the air, so you'll have to bear with me on this, but I'm going to do my best to help you with your Oscar pool, so here we go. I'll start with the first group of techs, and we'll move from the smaller categories to the bigger ones as the week progresses. Today it's the sound awards, visual effects, and those dreaded shorts, the thorn in every Oscar pool:
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
- Gravity
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
- The Lone Ranger
- Star Trek Into Darkness
- Iron Man 3
An easy one, the easiest of the 24 categories, probably. This is Gravity, hands down, as everyone already knows.
Winner: Gravity
Alternate: None, this category is locked.
BEST SOUND EDITING
- Captain Phillips
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
- Gravity
- All is Lost
- Lone Survivor
Ostensibly there is a difference between these two sound categories, but no one really knows what it is, least of all your average Academy member. Your best bet here is Gravity, where sound was crucial to the experience, as so much of the film was set in the silence of space.
Winner: Gravity
Alternate: Captain Phillips (this split the Sound guild award with Gravity)
Dark Horse: All is Lost (unlikely, but sound was an important part of that nearly silent film as well)
BEST SOUND MIXING
- Lone Survivor
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
- Captain Phillips
- Inside Llewyn Davis
- Gravity
I'd go for Gravity again since it won the guild, but Captain Phillips could very well take one of these sound prizes if they want to award that film a trophy someplace. Still, I'm predicting Gravity to take it.
Winner: Gravity
Alternate: Captain Phillips
Dark Horse: Inside Llewyn Davis (sometimes musicals win here, but in this case it's a long shot at best)
BEST DCUMENTARY SHORT
- CaveDigger
- Facing Fear
- Karama Has No Walls
- The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
- Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack
Ok, so here we go with the short categories. The shorts can sometimes make or break everyone's predictions, because obviously very few people have seen these except for the members of the individual branch. They're trying to make the shorts more widely available these days to the public, but there's still a long way to go. No one used to even be able to vote for these except members who'd seen every film, but now the whole Academy can vote if they so choose. That may make it easier to call the most broadly appealing film, but it's still a crapshoot for the most part. For what it's worth, I actually got the three short categories right the last two years in a row (after missing them every year for a decade before that), but I'm still simply making my best guess. Here, I'm choosing The Lady in Number 6, as it seems to be the most moving, about an elderly Holocaust survivor (who sadly, just passed away last night).
Winner: The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
- That Wasn't Me
- Just Before Losing Everything
- Helium
- Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?
- The Voorman Problem
By accounts from the people who've actually seen these nominees, Helium appears to be the most popular. And since many Academy members simply skip these categories if they haven't seen them, the favorite will probably win out.
Winner: Helium
Alternate: The Voorman Problem (this was nominated for a BAFTA and has a couple of name actors in it, so it could spoil)
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
- Feral
- Get a Horse!
- Mr. Hublot
- Possessions
- Room on the Broom
A lot of people think Feral is the best one, but Get a Horse! is a Disney animated short starring Mickey Mouse, the first in almost 20 years. It won the Annie Award and features original voice recordings of Walt Disney as Mickey, so, again, given the fact that the whole membership votes now, I think this celebration of early Hollywood has the sentimental edge.
Winner: Get a Horse!
Alternate: Feral
Harold Ramis 1944-2014
In some very sad news today, it's been reported that Harold Ramis has died at the age of 69. He was best known for his roles in the comedy classics Ghostbusters and Stripes, but he was a hugely talented writer-director whose films included Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, Groundhog Day, and Analyze This. He was a Chicago native who started out with National Lampoon and SCTV in the mid-70's and went on to become co-writer of the hits Animal House, Meatballs and Stripes, occasionally performing in movies as well. He died from complications relating to autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis.
To a certain group of fans, myself included, Harold Ramis will forever be known as Dr. Egon Spengler, nerd extraordinaire and collector of "spores, molds and fungus." See below:
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
- The Lego Movie- $31.5 million
- 3 Days to Kill- $12.3 million
- Pompeii- $10 million
- RoboCop- $9.4 million
- 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
