Academy Awards 2013

[OrphanPip]

OK, it's that time of year again.

It wasn't the most exciting year for movies, but there were a handful of decent films. Seth MacFarlane will be the host, some of the early press has already been pretty negative. A lot of people seem to doubt his ability to perform live. However, in MacFarlane's defense, I saw him live at a festival junket once (back when Family Guy was cancelled) and he seemed quite capable of commanding a stage.

On to the nominees.

In the Best Picture category:

Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Mis.
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Out of this category, Amour is the only film I haven't seen. The selections are solid but not very exciting. Beasts was a great little independent film, but I know it doesn't have a chance in hell to win. I'm also disappointed that Moonrise Kingdom didn't get a nom. I'm thinking the Academy will go for Argo or Zero, and maybe Lincoln if they are feeling conservative.

Actor in a Leading Role:

Bradley Cooper
Daniel Day-Lewis
Hugh Jackman
Joaquin Phoenix
Denzel Washington

I'm fairly confident that Day-Lewis will win this.

Actress in a Leading Role:

Jessica Chastain
Jennifer Lawrence
Emmanuelle Riva
Quvenzhane Wallis
Naomi Watts

Naomi Watts has great buzz from Impossible, but I didn't see it yet. I found Lawrence and Chastain were competent but nothing special. Wallis was great, but a child won't win. I didn't get to see Riva's performance, so I'm not sure who will get this Oscar.

Actor in a Supporting Role:

Alan Arkin
Ronert De Niro
Philip Seymore Hoffman
Tommy Lee Jones
Christoph Waltz

Ah, not sure about this category either. I'm leaning towards Tommy Lee Jones or Christoph Waltz. I would have liked to see DiCaprio nominated in this category.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams
Sally Field
Anne Hathaway
Helen Hunt
Jackie Weaver

Helen Hunt was great in The Sessions, but I think Anne Hathaway will walk away with this prize.

The other noms here: http://oscar.go.com/nominees

I think Spielberg is probably a good bet for the directing nod.

So, Lit-Net, any thoughts on this years Oscars crop?

[kelby_lake]

Not as excited this year. Film choices are too predictable.

[Bibliophile79]

I want to see Les Mis win Best Pic, but it will probably go to Lincoln or Argo. I can't see ZDT winning because Hurt Locker won not too long ago.

DDL is a cinch to win Actor, but Jackman could surprise everybody

Want to see J-La (as Will Ferrell called her) win Best Actress, but it'll probably go to Jessica

Anne Hathaway for Best Supporting

Supporting Actor could go to anybody, and even though Waltz won at the Globes, I could see Tommy Lee Jones win

And Speilberg for Director

[Alexander III]

Waltz deserves to win Supporting Actor, he is a beast of dialogue. Though Di Caprio's performance in Django was equally remarkable to Waltz's.


On A side note I decided to watch Le Mis online yesterday as dvd quality was available, thankfully I chose to watch it online and not in the cinema, I had to stop after 15 minutes, it was horrible, there is a reason a large segment of the male population detests musicals and in this film the essence of why musicals are hated was perfectly expressed. It was like watching a soap-opera, something with was consciously trying to play with your emotions and was pathetic at it. The film traumatized me with its ugliness.

[Ecurb]

I've seen Argo, Les Miz, Life of Pi, Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook. Les Miz is horrid. Like academy award winner "Chicago" before it, it casts non-singers in all the lead roles, and then butchers (unsurprisingly) the numbers. Les Miserables is a strange musical, tragic and operatic in theme and mood, but more like a Broadway show in terms of musical style. Lest anyone think I dislike musicals – I don’t. They’re one of my favorite art forms. Indeed, I love Les Miz, and I’ve seen it on the stage three times.

Since the score of Les Miz is more operatic than most musical scores, the lack of singing talent amongst the performers in Les Miz was striking. Russell Crowe (the baritone Jauvert) can’t sing. The ominous, foreboding nature of his character sould be portrayed through the deep baritone of his songs -- but he can't sing. Hugh Jackman has a pleasant, small, almost falsetto voice that’s inappropriate for the Jean Valjean operatic-tenor anthems. Anne Hathaway’s numbers were simply embarrassing. Her two big songs (“I Dreamed a Dream” and “Come to Me”) were musically understated, but emotionally overblown. I’ll grant that death-bed arias can make the viewer wonder how someone dying of TB can maintain the lung power to hit the high notes – but what’s the alternative? Apparently, it is to have Anne Hathaway whisper the songs, with tears streaming down her pretty-but-disease-ravaged face. I hid my eyes during the numbers to avoid embarrassment. Both songs are excellent – the music should produce the emotional resonance of the scene, not the weeping, diseased face of the performer.


I’ll grant that the Parisian revolutionaries – Marius and his crowd (who were not played by movie stars) – were better. The attempts at realism didn’t work, though. The “Lovely Ladies” number is supposed to be a comic song sung by prostitutes – but the comedy was ruined by the realism. How funny is it to see disease and poverty-ridden prostitutes singing a song? The Sascha Baron Cohen comic numbers suffered from the same failing (although less so, because Cohen was himself so slapstick that he brought some fun back to the numbers). Musicals are supposed to be fun. Les Miz is tragic (for a musical) – but the director seemed reluctant to let any fun peep through even in the comic numbers.

The stage version of Les Miz is a story, told through song. The movie tried to tell the story visually, and tack the poorly-sung songs on, as a sort of appendage. With the exception of the revolution numbers (“I can Hear the People Sing, Red and Black, Drink with Me”), it didn’t work. The realism marred the revolution scenes, too. There just weren’t enough revolutionaries to scare up a decent revolution. IN the play, the audience just assumed that there were extra forces off stage. The realism of the movie made it clear that there weren’t.

What's next? Anne Hathaway whispering the high notes in La Traviata? Richard Gere dancing the prince in Swan Lake (like he did in "Chicago")? Penelope Cruz as Carmen?

Life of Pi and Silver Linings were fun, but hardly memorable. The two leads in Silver Linings were just not quite believable enough or sympthetic enough to make anyone care about them.

I enjoyed Lincoln and Argo.

[Desolation]

I hope Django wins everything it's nominated for...It's the only "not safe" choice of the bunch. I enjoyed what I've seen of the other movies, but they're all so standard "GIVE ME AN OSCAR!" movies.

[Alexander III]

I hope Django wins everything it's nominated for...It's the only "not safe" choice of the bunch. I enjoyed what I've seen of the other movies, but they're all so standard "GIVE ME AN OSCAR!" movies.

yes yes yes

[MorpheusSandman]

they're all so standard "GIVE ME AN OSCAR!" movies.

These types of films make up 95% of every year's Academy Award, which is why I simply don't bother anymore. Plus, they have a long track record of getting things just plain, bass-ackwards wrong.

[qimissung]

You boys. Of course the Oscars have rather ordinary movies. It's Hollywood, after all. They are never going to give the award to anything too unconventional.

I've only seen four of them, Les Miz, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained. You know, I enjoyed Silver Linings, but how did it even get nominated for Best Picture? Really? And Bradley Cooper for Best Actor? I thought he did a good job in it. I have not been interested in his body of work until this. I liked Les Miz, but Ecurb, your thoughts on it are so on the mark. I just liked the play so much better. When will they realize that plays and movies are not necessarily interchangeable? Oh right, when they can't make any money on it.

I was sort of hoping Rust and Bone would be nominated, or at least Marion Cotillard. But no. For Best Picture I think it will be Lincoln, best actor, Day Lewis, Best Director, Spielberg. For Best Actor Denzel Washington or Joaquin Phoenix would also get my vote. I really enjoyed Flight. The Master I found enigmatic; the relationship between the two leads was fascinating.

Best Actress, it's a toss up between Chastain, Riva and Watts. I hope to see Amour and The Impossible here pretty soon. But Naomi Watts is always thoughtful and luminous. Best Supporting Actor, Waltz or De Niro. Best Supporting Actress, yeah probably Anne Hathaway, but it would be fine with me if Helen Hunt won, or Sally Field.

I need to see Lincoln still and Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Sessions, and The Impossible. That last one is a little embarrassing, but I'll watch it. I mean out of that whole Tsunami thing and two white people are the ones they end up making the movie about. I wish I had some money to throw around. I think there's a good movie to be made with some of the people that it really affected. Unlike you guys, Django Unchained was not one of my favorites, nor do I think it was one of Tarantino's best. That's probably still Pulp Fiction. My personal favorite is Kill Bill: Volume Two. I mean, The Bride, come on! But Christopher Waltz is so compellingly watchable when he is on the screen. I love his voice, like liquid silk.

Have any of you all heard of this movie that will be showing at Sundance? :


About three years ago, Randy Moore, a struggling screenwriter living in Burbank, had an out-there idea: What if he took a tiny camera and, without asking permission, began shooting a narrative movie at Disney theme parks?


It's called Escape from Tomorrow; here's an article about it in the LA Times:


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,1748760.story

[islandclimber]

It always has shocked me that the Oscars take such a myopic view of cinema. American and english language only pretty much. It would be nice to see foreign films compete for best picture. And foreign actors and actresses compete for those awards as well.

Denis Lavant's performance in Carax's latest "Holy Motors" was by far the acting performance of the year, if not of this new decade. He gave life to a character unlike anything in cinematic history, and showcased a versatility (brilliantly I might add) unmatched in the world of acting, all in a single film. It's a travesty that he is absent from this list, and that "Holy Motors" did not receive a nomination for best foreign film.

[MorpheusSandman]

Even when it comes to their best foreign film noms, they're almost always films in the American/Western mode of filmmaking. I mean, it's understandable in the sense that America has undoubtedly had the biggest influence in terms of cinema worldwide, but if you're looking overseas for the best films I'd think they'd be more interested in the unusual and original. As I said in the "last movie you saw" thread, Dogtooth may not have been a great film, but it was refreshing to see something so startlingly original up for best foreign film... but of course it loses to the utterly conventional In a Better World.

[Pierre Menard]

These types of films make up 95% of every year's Academy Award, which is why I simply don't bother anymore. Plus, they have a long track record of getting things just plain, bass-ackwards wrong.

I still bother in the sense that I'll watch it, but yes, I put very little stock in the Academy and it's opinion. It's pretty meh.

[MorpheusSandman]

It is strangely watchable, however little one cares for the results. I do think the Academy respects the art and magic of filmmaking, and I think the ceremony tends to reflect that... I just think their tastes tend to suck.

[OrphanPip]

Well the Academy will always commend the most prestige because it is the body of American actors, directors, producers, and various technical staff that determine the results. The tastes are conventional because there's such a large body of people (5783 voting members as of 2012 according to wiki) involved in determining the results, but they are a large body of people who have given much of their life to film as an art.

I'm more surprised by the conventional tastes of the Golgen Globes voters, who are members of the foreign press.

[qimissung]

It always has shocked me that the Oscars take such a myopic view of cinema. American and english language only pretty much. It would be nice to see foreign films compete for best picture. And foreign actors and actresses compete for those awards as well.

Denis Lavant's performance in Carax's latest "Holy Motors" was by far the acting performance of the year, if not of this new decade. He gave life to a character unlike anything in cinematic history, and showcased a versatility (brilliantly I might add) unmatched in the world of acting, all in a single film. It's a travesty that he is absent from this list, and that "Holy Motors" did not receive a nomination for best foreign film.

I've heard good things about "Holy Motors," and it's on my list of movies to see, IslandClimber.