22 posts tagged “oscars”
Just this morning, I was hanging around Awards Daily -- the web site dedicated to the Oscar roundup for the year -- and I took a poll as to what will be nominated for the National Board of Review. When I clicked in the drop-down box to vote, I realized there aren't many great movies from 2009.
Some of the National Board contenders included Box Office disasters like Amelia, future Box Office disasters like Avatar, disappointments like Funny People, and "coming to the Lifetime network" Brothers.
Now, I can't predict what Brothers or Avatar will do at the Box Office (although, clearly I just tried to), but usually at this stage in the game we kinda have an idea of what's going to be nominated for the Golden Globes as well as the Oscars. This year, with the ten Oscar Best Picture contenders, it's anybody's bag.
So far, my favorite movies of the year include 500 Days of Summer, Precious, Where the Wild Things Are, and The Hurt Locker. However, I have yet to have seen some of the big contenders on the list (An Education, A Serious Man, A Single Man), so my list will probably change.
This is what I will be dreaming about when I'm napping from all the tryptophan tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!
Fall is the time of year when more qualified movies are released. When people bring up "Oscar" and "Awards." One movie that is getting a lot of praise at the Toronto Film Festival and with critics is Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, the story of a man who reaches ten million frequent flyer miles in a job where he breaks the bad news to people who've been downsized. Ebert has already put this movie at the top of his 2009 list.
Jason Reitman is an interesting director because all of his films are different from one another. Thank You For Smoking took on the tobacco industry, Juno had something to say about marriage and teenage pregnancy. Now it appears that Reitman is taking on timely issues like unemployment, mirroring it with the way people employ themselves in relationships.
The Up in the Air preview is interesting because it consists of a montage of shots over one long monologue from George Clooney, culminating in the claim that we are all "sharks."
Last week I went to the movies for a full-blown double feature day. After a stressful week, I just wanted a break where I could get lost in someone else's story (my idea of a perfect vacation for the mind).
My double feature consisted of The Hurt Locker and (500) Days of Summer. While I enjoyed both movies (and see why Locker is getting Oscar talk already), I really fell hard for Summer. For me, no other movie compares at the moment.
I find myself listening to the songs from the movie in an effort to remember my favorite moments (Regina Spektor's "Us" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Bookends" come to mind). I find myself shopping for clothes and wondering what Summer would wear. I have an urgent desire to rewatch The Graduate, write angry greeting cards, and listen to the Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man" on constant rotation. And the film has inspired me to wait for someone like Tom Hansen to come along in my life (if you don't want him Summer, I'll take him!).
How could she not love someone who has a dream sequence like this one?
Critics have been calling this movie Generation Y's Annie Hall and rightly so. As a Woody Allen fan, I think this movie has New York melancholy written all over it (even though I was surprised to learn halfway through the film that it takes place in Los Angeles). Not only has this film proven to me that Hollywood still makes good films, but also that Hollywood still makes good romantic comedies. There's a reason why you don't see commercials saying, "It's official. Everyone is in love with The Ugly Truth."
The trailer for Rob Marshall's movie musical Nine is out and it looks a lot like Chicago, with its dark lighting and themes. The cast is incredible -- with Dame Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard (looking like Audrey Hepburn!), and Penelope Cruz (also looking like Audrey Hepburn!).
The trailer for Taking Woodstock has been released online. I've been looking forward to seeing previews for this film since going through a brief post-Oscar depression, scouring IMDB and Incontention.com for next year's Academy Award nominees (terribly sad, but entirely true). Surprisingly, Demetri Martin appears to be the lead in director Ang Lee's tale based on actual events surrounding Woodstock.
Over the weekend, I Love You, Man placed second at the Box Office with $18 million, solidifying what I've been saying for years: Paul Rudd rocks!
I've loved him since Clueless and have followed his career since then, with the under-appreciated Overnight Delivery (starring then unknown Reese Witherspoon), cult classic Wet Hot American Summer, "Friends" appearances, and finally as Judd Apatow's new boy bitch in movies. I feel like finally America is catching on to what I believed in all along. I'm some sort of prophet in the Book of Paul.
Recently, while watching the 2006 film Diggers, I also realized that Rudd has got range. In Diggers, he plays a 1970's clam digger coming to terms with his father's death in this dramedy. Rudd has the talent of being able to be funny and real (surprisingly, I nearly saw a flicker of this notion in Will Ferrell in Bewitched during a cute scene of dialogue with Nicole Kidman). Rudd is good looking, witty, and rather likeable all at the same time. Now, I'm waiting for the day when he gets a role where audiences other than teenage boys and men in their 20's will appreciate him; I'm talkin' Academy Awards here, people. Remember, Tom Hanks started out on "Bosom Buddies."
For about three months (from November to January), "good" movies are released in time for the Oscar push. Come February and March, "crap" movies that have been on the backburner for a year are given their time in the sun. However, sometimes it takes a while for a film to be released because it's too independent, too unappreciated to see the light of day during the Oscar push. Wendy and Lucy is one of those films.
Frankly, I can understand why it's unappreciated. Wendy and Lucy is a movie that clocks in at an hour and 20 minutes, there's no real plot, and one of the title characters is a dog. Yet, after seeing this movie, I left the theatre having gone on an emotional roller coaster.
While we don't really know much about Michelle Williams' Wendy (other than she's on her way to Alaska with her dog Lucy), director Kelly Reichardt's choice to withhold Wendy's backstory from the audience is an intriguing tactic. After all, Wendy is a drifter. Michelle Williams' ability to make us care for Wendy and somehow know what she's been through is a testament to her acting. Sometimes, it's hard to remember when she was Jen on "Dawson's Creek." Also, the scene where she encounters a hobo in the woods is one of the scariest moments I've experienced in cinema all year. If your heart isn't beating a mile a minute during this scene, you might not be human.
Without giving too much away, I think that this movie is one of the most important movies to be released in 2008 (although it didn't reach more mainstream audiences until now). This film shows the choices some individuals have to make in order to survive and pursue a new way of life. With the nation in economic turmoil and tent cities popping up around the world, Wendy's story almost hits too close to home. Even though one doubts Wendy's house foreclosed or she lost her job at the top of the corporate ladder, her story is still one that resonates in today's unstable world.
Yesterday, AMC Theatres around the country showed the five Academy Award Best Picture nominees for an all-day Oscar Showcase for $30 a person. The Showcase consisted of:
Milk 10:30 a.m.
The Reader 1:05 p.m.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 3:45 p.m.
Slumdog Millionaire 7:15 p.m.
Frost/Nixon 9:45 p.m.
Like any other Oscar nerd, I attended the Showcase, even though I had already seen all five films. With the Showcase, each movie-goer gets a quasi "Press Pass" that allows them free popcorn and the ability to mill around and feel V.I.P., if only for one day. In addition to this false sense of Hollywood importance, you also get to win prizes with Oscar trivia games!
I rather looked forward to viewing all five Best Picture nominees again because sometimes a movie resonates better the second time around. While I still feel Milk is the best of the five films, I definitely appreciated frontrunner Slumdog Millionaire more after seeing it again. It has that feel-good quality that audiences need right now, especially with the economy in turmoil.
I also appreciated Kate Winslet's performance in The Reader better. I was a Revolutionary Road fan, so when Ms. Winslet wasn't nominated for her role as April Wheeler, I was pretty disappointed. However, The Reader is a very emotional, well-done film that actually hinges on Winslet's performance. As I was watching it, I questioned whether it would have been nominated for all these awards with Nicole Kidman cast as Hanna Schmitz (Kidman was originally supposed to play the Nazi war criminal who has an affair with a teenage boy).
Watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I realized that upon second viewing this movie does not stand up next to the other films. In a film where nothing really happens other than the story of a man aging backwards, the characters aren't very memorable when they should be. Plus, I realized I never truly understood their connections (Taraji P. Henson's "Queenie" is the exception). For example, why does Daisy love Benjamin? It never made any sense to me, even after watching it again. I felt like she was only jealous of his gift and wanted him in her life as a treasure to collect.
And while Frost/Nixon is compelling, I just don't see how it broke any new ground in filmmaking or storytelling (instead, see The Wrestler). I wonder if the topic of "Watergate" is the new "Holocaust" -- where any film that tackles the subject will automatically get an Oscar nomination.
I highly recommend the Oscar Showcase to anyone who loves movies and gets excited about the Oscars. It seems to be getting more and more popular every year (this year, Entertainment Weekly even featured it on their "Must List").
With the afterglow of the Superbowl pretty much faded by now, it's now time for the media to turn their attention to what REALLY matters: The Academy Awards! With Oscar Week finally here, everyone from CNN to the View will be trying to predict who will take home a statuette on February 22.
So far, I've really dug Stephen Colbert predictions. His picks are in line with mine (even if they are done through his "DaColbert Code" method). Although I can totally see a Viola Davis upset in the Best Supporting Actress Category. I especially enjoy Colbert's Best Actor category prediction.
For those of us in Oscar pools, any pick that includes Slumdog Millionaire will probably make you a millionaire (not really). However, I personally would love to lose a pool and most certainly be a gracious loser if Milk wins.
Kate Winslet graced the cover of The New York Times Magazine over the weekend with this gorgeous image taken by Paolo Pellegrin.
Kate led the pack of highlighted "Great Performers," which included Mickey Rourke and Penelope Cruz (basically the other two living individuals I expect to win the Oscar this year). Each write-up on the "Great Performers" is by other celebrities related to the actors (Catherine Keener wrote about The 40-Year-Old Virgin co-star Kat Dennings, Diner director Barry Levinson offered accolades for directee Mickey Rourke) . Tom Perotta (author of Little Children) wrote praise for Winslet, saying: "According to my own highly unscientific survey, just about everyone loves Kate Winslet."
I second that. I only hope all this attention doesn't hurt her chances come Oscar time.
