Awards Week: Oscar Preview

The 81st Academy Awards celebration will commence tomorrow night and this year there's little to get excited about. The Best Picture nominees are largely middling--"Milk" was filled with great performances and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was close to excellent. But "Slumdog" was all flash and no depth, "Frost/Nixon" was an entertaining trifle, and "The Reader" is an embarrassment to the Academy. It's not a horrible movie. It's just not any good. How many other films were deserving of thesel five spots? I can name you at least ten.

It was selected because its producer Harvey Weinstein is a master of getting films nominated. Its selection lays bare the vacuity of the Awards. The game is close to fixed. Like politics, Oscars are given to those who are able to throw enough money into the campaign. And the films are furiously campaigned for. Pick up a copy of Variety any time in the Winter and you'll see. Those full page ads are expensive.

The selections are almost always safe and predictable as well. (Those film goers wanting to consult the Academy for some of the year's most interesting films should look to the Best Original Screenplay category--the ghetto to where the year's more edgy, engaging films are usually relegated.) The best way to approach the awards is to see them as an expensive pageant put on by the studios to help boost ticket and DVD sales. Winning an award brings some prestige to the studios, but more importantly they help make them money. Hense the expensive campaigning.

Best not to get too upset if your favorite films don't win any awards, or aren't even nominated. The Academy Awards are to quality as winning the Pro Bowl is to gridiron glory.

With all those caveats, here's my quick run through the major nominees (see full list here):

Performance by an actor in a leading role

* Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor" (Overture Films)
* Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon" (Universal)
* Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features)
* Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
* Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

Seems like it's Rourke's to lose. Academy voters like a good story and the story of a performer trying to resurrect his career dovetails nicely with Rourke's comeback story in the making. Consider Penn a strong second place.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

* Josh Brolin in "Milk" (Focus Features)
* Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder" (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
* Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt" (Miramax)
* Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
* Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)

The Academy will award this to Ledger. This one's a lock. My safe pick of the week.

Performance by an actress in a leading role

* Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married" (Sony Pictures Classics)
* Angelina Jolie in "Changeling" (Universal)
* Melissa Leo in "Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics)
* Meryl Streep in "Doubt" (Miramax)
* Kate Winslet in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

Winslet was a Golden Globe winner for her performance. Expect the same Sunday. This is where the Weinstein's "Reader" campaigning will pay off. Would really like to see Leo or Hathaway win this one, but don't count on it.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

* Amy Adams in "Doubt" (Miramax)
* Penélope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (The Weinstein Company)
* Viola Davis in "Doubt" (Miramax)
* Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
* Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

Not sure. Viola Davis was good and seems to have buzz. I'd go with her in a pinch. "Doubt" was an actor's showcase and I expect it to win at least one award.

Best animated feature film of the year

* "Bolt" (Walt Disney) Chris Williams and Byron Howard
* "Kung Fu Panda" (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount) John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
*"WALL-E" (Walt Disney) Andrew Stanton

"WALL-E" was the best animated film and this year's best film. Should win.

Best motion picture of the year

*"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
*"Frost/Nixon"
*"Milk"
*"The Reader"
* "Slumdog Millionaire"

"Slumdog" has been an audience favorite. It's got a triumphant love story, a lead character overcoming adversity, and its safely exotic. Think this will win.

Awards Week: The Year's Ten Best Films

I saw several movies in the last twelve months that were not 2008 releases but still shook me up and I couldn't get out of my head. These stuck with me long after I finished them:

Morvern Callar--Not for all tastes, but this film burrowed into my psyche and set up permanent residence. Scottish party girl Morvern Callar (Samnantha Morton) returns home on Christmas Eve to find her live in author boyfriend has committed suicide. Morvern's next steps are wholly unexpected. A fascinating study of the vacuousness of party culture with a lead character you can never pin down. Morton has never been better. Great soundtrack.

A Face in the Crowd--Fans of "The Andy Griffith Show" must see this film starring Andy Griffith as a charismatic, but evil to the core, fount of folksy wisdom. Lonesome Roads is a drifter discovered by a reporter who helps him rise to stardom, inadvertently unleashing a monster of a man. A neglected classic.

Lake of Fire--Director Tony Kaye ("American History X") lets all sides in the abortion debate speak for themselves. While it probably won't change anyone's mind, it does a good job of showing the impact of abortion on all parties. I did, however, find myself fast forwarding through some of the film's more graphic scenes.

After the Wedding--A synopsis of the film might lead you to believe that its a weepy, twisty soap opera. That the film keeps surprising you, but remains convincing and grounded is a testament to the actors and director. A wrenching drama about family secrets, guilt, and learning to cope with loss. I did not see a better drama this year.

In addition, when I first watched The Strangers, a 2008 release, I thought it was just a creepy horror film, but it stuck around in my head, gave me nightmares for weeks, and made me feel generally unsafe. Not the least bit of fun, but I had reevaluate it and grudgingly respect the craft of a movie that so completely unnerved me.

And now, the The Best Director(s) of 2008:

Ari Folman for Waltz with Bashir--"Bashir" is an animated documentary about the director, a former Israeli soldier, trying to remember/come to terms with the trauma he lived through and helped inflict in Israel's first war with Lebanon. This movie grabs you from its visceral opening scene and by using animation, the director successfully conveys how he can't separate his dreams and hallucinations from the reality of the war he lived through. Unlike any film I've ever seen.

Jonathan Demme for Rachel Getting Married--Demme successfully creates the impression that he is not a manipulator of cast and crew, but a videographer capturing a dramatic wedding and its preparation. The roles feel lived in and the filmmaker disappears.

Cristian Mungiu for 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days--The film is unflinching and frequently disturbing, but crafted to perfection. Mungiu tackles a controversial subject, but avoids becoming preachy. He has meticulously crafted every element, but is never invasive. The sound design alone is a marvel.

And now, at last, The Ten Best Movies of 2008:

10. Tropic Thunder--The year's funniest film. Rude, crude, and hilarious. Robert Downey Jr.'s performance is astonishing.

9. Boy A--Though the film falters in its conclusion--its a little too on the nose--this story of a lost boy is not to be missed.

8. Wendy and Lucy--A story about those living in poverty that impacts, but is not didactic.

7. The Dark Knight--I don't love Christopher Nolan's direction of action scenes, but the actors were captivating and the morality satisfyingly muddy in this umpteenth re-imagining of Batman.

6. Paranoid Park--Languorous and non-linear, this is a moving take on coping with guilt. Cathartic, but it begs for viewer patience.

5. Waltz with Bashir--See description above.

4. Rachel Getting Married--A better, more moving wedding tale than any recent similarly themed rom-com.

3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days--Upsetting and truly sad, but essential viewing. Viewers may want to consider reading a few plot descriptions before watching this film.

2. Happy Go Lucky--Uplifting without being mawkish. Loopy optimist Poppy tries to heal the world and comes face-to-face with a deeply wounded man who may be beyond saving. A truly healing film.

1. Wall-E--An original sci-fi vision that is a wonder to behold. The animation is beautiful and graceful. The first act is among cinema's best.

Tomorrow (or sometime before Sunday night): my less than enthused Oscar preview.

Awards Week: Best Performances, etc.

Above: Michelle Williams and Lucy in "Wendy and Lucy"

The conventional wisdom is that this was a weak year for movies and a quick glance at this year's Best Picture nominees certainly supports that argument. Any year in which "The Reader" is one of the best films would be a weak one indeed. In reality, though, this year was pretty strong for those willing to venture beyond the top ten at the box office. I would agree that many of the films released by the major studios for awards consideration were middling and were more like attempts to create awards vehicles than good movies.

On the other hand, this year's blockbusters were surprisingly strong. The summer film market is squarely targeted toward the tastes of 12 year old boys. (See Summer 2009: "GI Joe" and "Transformers 2.") That so many enjoyable films were made in spite of this was a minor miracle. "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk," "Wall-E," "Kung Fu Panda," "Hellboy 2," and, yes, "Speed Racer" were as strong a line-up as any summer in memory. This summer also gave us "Step Brothers," "Burn After Reading," and "The Strangers." (And everyone of the movies listed above was better than 4 of the 5 best picture nominees.)

But any given year has a host of great films for those willing to try out documentaries, foreign films, and movies that don't usually play outside of large metropolitan areas. Thanks to Netflix and other online media delivery systems it is getting easier for the curious film fan to sample all kinds of unique movies.

Now let's look at the year's best performances (minus the also excellent Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn, but you can read about them nearly everywhere):

Anamaria Marinca in 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days--Marinca is on screen for almost the entire time of this invasive, claustrophobic film about a harrowing night in 1980s Communist Romania. Her performance is small and subtle, but she convinces you of the deepening fear and dread she is experiencing as the night wears on. A no doubt emotionally taxing role.

Richard Jenkins in Burn After Reading, Step Brothers, and The Visitor--It was a great year for Jenkins who nailed these three roles. Each allowed him to show his sizable comic talent, but his low key desperation in "The Visitor" made for the best of the three.

Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married--Those who hated this film because Hathaway's character was self-centered, vain, and destructive missed the point. She was all those things, but that was intentional. That the film asks us to love and sympathize with her and that she makes this possible speaks to her strong acting chops.

Alejandro Polanco in Chop Shop--Polanco plays 12 year old Ale an ambitious entrpreneur scraping and saving for a better life for he and his older teenage sister. Its an unadorned performance, seemingly effortless.

Michelle Williams in Wendy and Lucy--"Dawson's Creek" alum Williams first impressed me in her hilarious role in the Watergate comedy and one of the best films of the 90s Dick. In "Wendy and Lucy," she plays a cash-strapped young woman trying to make her way across the US and to Alaska in hopes of a better life. As her plans fall apart, Williams begins to unravel and her pain is palpable.

Sally Hawkins in Happy Go Lucky--Hawkins got no love from the Academy for her performance as a perpetually cheery elementary school teacher trying to heal the world with kindness.

Andrew Burridge in Boy A--Burridge plays Jack Hawkins, a man being freed from prison after being there since childhood. Broken and timid, Jack must try to craft a normal life. A heartbreaking, beautiful performance that the Academy would have loved if more had seen it.

And now, ten of this year's top twenty films and some deserving honorable mention:

11) The Order of Myths
12) Let the Right One In/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
13) Chop Shop
14) Burn After Reading
15) Up the Yangtze
16) Shotgun Stories
17) Speed Racer
18) Step Brothers
19) The Incredible Hulk
20) The Strangers

Honorable Mention: In Bruges, Be Kind Rewind, Charlie Bartlett, The Visitor, Redbelt, The Fall, Surfwise, Priceless, The Edge of Heaven, Kung Fu Panda, Encounters at the End of the World, Tell No One, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Man on Wire, Frozen River, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Duchess, Changeling, Milk, Frost/Nixon, My Winnipeg

Tomorrow: the best films of the year, best director, and several films that I can't seem to shake.

Awards Week: Worst Films of 2008

This Sunday (Feb. 22) ABC will be airing the 81st Annual Academy Awards. In celebration/correction of that event, I'll be offering the definitive list of the best and worst films of 2008. I planned on seeing a few more of the critics' favorites before Sunday, but I'm burnt out. I've had my fill of pensive meditations on family dysfunction so I'm calling it quits on 2008 film catch-up.

Here's a list of all the films eligible for this year's awards (i.e. every film released in 2008 that I can remember having seen).

There are some advantages to reading the What I'm Watching Awards over watching the Oscar telecast. Reading this will be much shorter and I feature no montages or self-righteous speechifying. Visitors will also be glad to know that my awards are 100% "Reader"-free. I also don't have this to live down.

Who am I wearing?

Van Heusen and Gap

Today we'll be looking at the Worst of 2008 (in no particular order):

Dear Zachary--this documentary took a tragic subject and used it as an opportunity to make a shrill, bitter screed. A nasty piece of work that does not honor its participants.

Doomsday--a genre exercise that kept piling on the ridiculous. Imagine an afternoon of 80s made for cable sci-fi/sword and sorcery flicks all bundled up into an hour and a half. Not nearly as fun as it sounds in part due to the nauseating gore sucking any potential fun out of the proceedings.

27 Dresses--a leaden romantic comedy almost redeemed by the watchable Katherine Heigl and James Marsden. Paper thin characters in service to script.

The Day the Earth Stood Still--a boring remake made more ponderous by a wooden Keanu Reeves.

Seven Pounds--(SPOILER) the feel good suicide movie of the year.

Eagle Eye--ludicrous.

Righteous Kill--almost my least favorite of this year. DeNiro and Pacino go through the motions in this tired police thriller. Very boring.

Worst Film of 2008

Zack and Miri Make a Porno--Kevin Smith peaked with "Clerks." That film's limiting budget, amateur cast, and necessarily static camera helped hide his directorial handicaps. Not good with actors, too in love with his own scripts, poor editing, and a general ugliness in his presentation all add up to make my least favorite film of 2008. And his tender take on porn films was a hollow fiction.

Worst film that I enjoyed in spite of itself

The Happening--bizarre, awful, but compulsively watchable. The stilted line delivery that Shyamalan asks each of his actors to use is a head scratcher. I wasn't particularly troubled by the premise which I found plausible enough and Shaymalan still manages to get in a few good scares. But the goofy dialogue--why you eyein' my lemon drink?--Python-esque lion mauling, and bizarre line deliveries sink this film. It's a meticulously crafted horrible movie. So fundamentally off and un-human that it plays like cinema from another world. Don't miss it.

Films eligible for the 2008 What I'm Watching Awards

All the movies released in 2008 that I can remember having seen:

27 Dresses
Cloverfield
Cassandra's Dream
Teeth
*4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
*In Bruges
Definitely, Maybe
*Be Kind, Rewind
*Charlie Bartlett
The Signal
Semi-Pro
*Chop Shop
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
*Paranoid Park
Doomsday
Run Fatboy, Run
The Ruins
Smart People
*The Visitor
Young@Heart
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Baby Mama
Then She Found Me
*Up the Yangtze
Iron Man
*Redbelt
*Speed Racer
*The Fall
*Surfwise
*Shotgun Stories
*Let the Right One In
*Priceless
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
*The Edge of Heaven
*The Strangers
The Foot Fist Way
*Kung Fu Panda
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
The Happening
*Encounters at the End of the World
*The Incredible Hulk
*Wall-E
Hancock
Kabluey
The Wackness
*Tell No One
*Hellboy II: The Golden Army
*The Dark Knight
*Step Brothers
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
American Teen
*Boy A
*Man on Wire
*The Order of Myths
*Frozen River
Pineapple Express
*Tropic Thunder
*Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Death Race
The House Bunny
*Burn After Reading
Righteous Kill
Ghost Town
Eagle Eye
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Appaloosa
*The Duchess
City of Ember
Quarantine
*Happy Go Lucky
W.
*Changeling
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Dear Zachary
Role Models
Quantum of Solace
Slumdog Millionaire
Bolt
Twilight
*Milk
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Doubt
Gran Torino
The Reader
TimeCrimes
*Wendy and Lucy
Seven Pounds
*The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Valkyrie
Revolutionary Road
*Waltz with Bashir
*Frost/Nixon
*Rachel Getting Married
*My Winnipeg
The Wrestler
The Secret Life of Bees
30 Days of Night

The Wrestler (Dir: Darren Aronofsky)

About half of "The Wrestler" works well. The film features a fascinating performance by Mickey Rourke who owns the role of a once notable entertainer cashing in on his former fame with diminishing returns. The only place Randy "The Ram" Robinson feels comfortable, the only arena in which he consistently succeeds, is the wrestling ring. Even though he is aging and his body is starting to turn on him, The Ram keeps heading back into the ring. It is the only place where he can be whole and fully realized.

And then there's his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and stripper friend Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), the Mary Magadalene to his suffering servant. Assigned to Randy by Syd Field, they keep getting in the way of the authenticity that Rourke and Aronofsky establish in other scenes. For every seemingly unrehearsed scene focused on the backstage bonhomie of the Ram and the other wrestlers, there's a screenplay required confrontation between Randy and his daughter or Randy and Cassidy. These might not stand out as glaringly in a movie that employed less of a stripped down aesthetic. The film uses the over the shoulder, day in the life technique of the Dardennes, a grainy washed out presentation, and a raw performance by Rourke and the other wrestlers. These faux-verite elements clash with the pedestrian drama provided by the women in The Ram's life. But don't blame actresses Wood and Tomei. They're hindered by a predictable script.

Well worth seeing for Rourke's tremendous performance, but the movie as a whole comes up short.

Revolutionary Road (Dir: Sam Mendes)

Why do we not sympathize with the Wheelers? "Revolutionary Road" is a tragedy, but we find little sympathy for the Wheeler family who bring about their own dissolution. If you cannot connect with a tragic figure than you are merely a voyeur. For the audience, there's no catharsis and no tears. We are merely clinicians or scientists, observing. Cold and detached. If the Wheelers were placed in the same setting with the same stimuli, the results would be the same. What lesson do we learn from this film? The Wheelers should never have gotten married.

Part of the problem is with director Sam Mendes detached style. The lighting in his scenes is just so. The set dressing, make-up and costuming impeccable. He can put together a beautiful image with the best of them. (See the beautiful, but similarly detached "Road to Perdition.") There are some nicely constructed moments in "Road" involving parades of faceless businessmen coming to and from work. At key moments, Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) nearly disappears into the cloud of drones or stands apart from them. Winslet and DiCaprio deliver intense performances that were undoubtedly taxing--there will be shouting--but we are always watching them from afar.

There is an invigorating moment, late in the film, when Mendes switches to a handheld camera--almost always used to amp up/signal a rise in tension--and lets his film go a little. We are suddenly there with Frank and April Wheeler (Kate Winslet) and the film jangles the nerves. Distractingly, the score for this so similar to the one created by Thomas Newman for Mendes' "American Beauty" that you might swear the two were one in the same. "Revolutionary Road" is a bit of a curiosity. An impeccably staged, detached tragedy.

(Michael Shannon is getting some awards season notice for his role as the film's Jester. He's good in this, but even better in this year's deep-fried, low budget drama "Shotgun Tales." He was also the best part of the adequate Oliver Stone film "World Trade Center.")