Lisa Attempts To Predict The Actual Oscar Nominations

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Because I’m obsessed with awards and I love taking risks, here are my predictions for which films and performers will receive Oscar nominations in the six major categories tomorrow morning. As opposed to my previous post on the Oscars, these are the films that I expect to see nominated (as opposed to who and what I personally would like to see nominated.)

Best Picture

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club

Gravity

Her

Nebraska

Philomena

Saving Mr. Banks

The Wolf of Wall Street

(Yes, I’m going with a full 10 nominee slate here. Based on the guild nominations, I think that Inside Llewyn Davis will end up being snubbed. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Lee Daniels’ The Butler somehow managed to sneak into the top 10, depending on whether or not liberal Academy members want to reward a film that basically uses the 2008 presidential election as a happy ending.)

Best Director

Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity

Paul Greengrass for Captain Phillips

Spike Jonze for Her

Steve McQueen for 12 Years A Slave

David O. Russell for American Hustle

(When it comes to Best Director, there always seems to be at least one surprise omission and nomination. This year, I’m predicting it will be Scorsese and Jonze.)

Best Actor

Bruce Dern in Nebraska

Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years A Slave

Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips

Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club

Robert Redford in All Is Lost

(Best Actor is usually the easiest category to predict and I don’t think this year will be any different. I would prefer to see Leonardo DiCaprio nominated for Wolf of Wall Street but I have a feeling that the Academy will not be able to resist Tom Hanks essentially playing Tom Hanks.)

Best Actress

Amy Adams in American Hustle

Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine

Judi Dench in Philomena

Emma Thompson in Saving Mr. Banks

Meryl Streep in August: Osage County

(I have a feeling that Meryl will get nominated because she’s Meryl. Sandra Bullock is certainly a contender for her performance in Gravity but I think the Academy is mostly going to view that film as a technical triumph. Amy Adams is popular and has Golden Globe momentum.)

Best Supporting Actor

Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips

Bradley Cooper in American Hustle

Michael Fassbender in 12 Years A Slave

James Gandolfini in Enough Said

Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club

(I’d love to see James Franco nominated for his work in Spring Breakers but I think the big surprise here will be James Gandolfini receiving a posthumous nomination for Enough Said.)

Best Supporting Actress

Sally Hawkins in Blue Jasmine

Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle

Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years A Slave

Julia Roberts in August: Osage County

June Squibb in Nebraska

(Sorry, Oprah.)

So, there you go. There are my guesses. Now, I have to say that I don’t have a great record when it comes to predicting the actual Oscar nominations. That’s because it’s usually a lot more fun to speculate about the nominations than to actually watch them be announced. When you’re speculating, you’re free to come up with all sorts of scenarios that could lead to exciting upsets (like James Gandolfini receiving an honorary nomination, for instance). Perhaps that’s why the actual Oscar nominations always feel somewhat anti-climatic.

We’ll see how right (or wrong) I am tomorrow morning!

Here Are The Totally Predictable and Boring Razzie Nominations

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Every year, while the Oscars honor the “best” in film, the Razzies honor the worst. Now, I have to admit that I think the Razzies are overrated and somewhat predictable. They tend to nominate the films that everyone already agrees are bad. There’s a tendency to go for easy laughs and obvious targets. That’s why predictably bad Adam Sandler films will always dominate the Razzies while the films that represent the worst tendencies of Hollywood — like Man of Steel, for instance — will somehow be ignored.

What I’m saying is that next year, we need an alternative to the Razzies.

However, until that day comes, here are the Razzie nominations for this year. Not surprisingly, they nominated Lindsay Lohan, despite the fact that she was actually pretty good in The Canyons. But, it’s the Razzies and Lindsay is an easy target.

WORST PICTURE
“After Earth”
“Grown Ups 2”
“The Lone Ranger”
“A Madea Christmas”
“Movie 43”

WORST ACTOR
Johnny Depp, “The Lone Ranger”
Ashton Kutcher, “Jobs”
Adam Sandler, “Grown Ups 2”
Jaden Smith, “After Earth”
Sylvester Stallne, “Bullet to the Head”/”Escape Plan”/”Grudge Match”

WORST ACTRESS
Halle Berry, “The Call”/”Movie 43”
Selena Gomez, “Getaway”
Lindsay Lohan, “The Canyons”
Tyler Perry, “A Madea Christmas”
Naomi Watts, “Diana”/”Movie 43”

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Chris Brown, “Battle of the Year”
Larry the Cable Guy, “A Madea Christmas”
Taylor Lautner, “Grown Ups 2”
Will Smith, “After Earth”
Nick Swardson, “A Haunted House”/”Grown Ups 2”

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lady Gaga, “Machete Kills”
Salma Hayek, “Grown Ups 2”
Katherine Heigl, “The Big Wedding”
Kim Kardashian, “Tyler Perry’s Temptation”
Lindsay Lohan, “InAPPropriate Comedy”/”Scary Movie 5”

WORST DIRECTOR
The 13 People Who Directed “Movie 43”
Dennis Dugan, “Grown Ups 2”
Tyler Perry, “A Madea Christmas”/”Temptation”
M. Night Shyamalan, “After Earth”
Gore Verbinski, “The Lone Ranger”

WORST SCREENPLAY
“After Earth” – Gary Whitta, M. Night Shyamalan, Will Smith
“Grown Ups 2” – Fred Wolfe, Adam Sandler, Tim Herlihy
“The Lone Ranger” – Ted Elliott, Justin Haythe, Terry Rosso
“A Madea Christmas” – Tyler Perry
“Movie 43” – Written by 19 “Screenwriters”

WORST SCREEN COMBO
The Entire Cast of “Grown Ups 2”
The Entire Cast of “Movie 43”
Lindsay Lohan & Charlie Sheen, “Scary Movie 5”
Tyler Perry & Either Larry the Cable Guy or That Worn-Out Wig & Dress, “A Madea Christmas”
Jaden Smith & Will Smith on Planet Nepotism, “After Earth”

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF, OR SEQUEL
“Grown Ups 2”
“The Hangover Part III”
“The Lone Ranger”
“Scary Movie 5”
“The Smurfs 2”

What Lisa, Evelyn, and Erin Watched Sunday Night #96: The 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

On Sunday night, my sister, my best friend, and I gathered together and watched the 71st Annual Golden Globes.

Why Were Watching It?

Because it was an awards show! Seriously, I love awards.

What Was It About?

When you think about it, the Golden Globes are a lot like that nerdy kid in high school that everyone tolerated because he had rich parents but who they still made fun of every chance they got. Whenever his parents went out of town, he would throw a wild but somewhat desperate party. Everyone would spend the weekend trashing his house and drinking all of his alcohol and then leave without bothering to help him clean up afterward.

(I guess now would be a good time to add that, if Taylor is reading this, sorry!)

Seriously, the Golden Globes are so weird! Nobody is really sure who is in the Hollywood Foreign Press but, every year, they serve free drinks and give out a lot of awards and, as a result, everyone in Hollywood gets together for one night.

What Worked?

Okay, first thing first — a lot of people on twitter thought that the speech Diane Keaton gave and song she sang while accepting the Governor’s Award for Woody Allen was creepy but I thought it was really sweet! I know that a lot of people have issues with Woody Allen (see below) but I usually enjoy his movies.

(When they were showing clips from Allen’s career, they showed Diane Keaton in Annie Hall going, “La dee da, la dee da…” and Evelyn says, “Is she playing Lisa?”)

Last year, I was one of the few people who didn’t think that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did that great of a job as hosts but this year, I agree with everyone else. Tina and Amy should host everything.

I loved it when Melissa McCarthy was pretending to be Matt Damon. What I especially loved was how Matt Damon played along with the joke, to the extent that when Michael Douglas praised him while accepting his Golden Globe, Matt actually pointed over at Melissa.

I can’t complain about any of the winners, which is a rarity for me. I was surprised to see Brooklyn Nine Nine win the Golden Globes for Best Actor and Best TV Show Comedy but I’ve never actually watched the show so I can’t complain.

My favorite acceptance speech came from Matthew McConaughey, mostly because he said, “Alright, alright, alright…”

Finally, a most importantly, a lot of redheads were honored this year. It was a good night for my fellow members of the 2%.

What Did Not Work?

Oh, where to start? Because of all the alcohol involved and the mix of television and movie stars, the Golden Globes have gotten a reputation for being more fun than the Oscars but, for every celebrity who is a fun drunk, there’s about a hundred more who are boring drunks and the 71st annual Golden Globes proved this point. For every Emma Thompson, there was a Jacqueline Bisset. For all the attention that’s being given to a few unexpected moments (and NBC’s reaction to those moments — who would have guessed the censors would get so worked up over vagina?), the Golden Globes were actually rather restrained and boring this year.

The award for most obnoxious presenter goes to Diddy. What was Diddy even doing up there?

The Golden Globes Ceremony was scheduled to last three hours and, unlike the Oscars, it ended on time. However, a lot of those three hours were taken up with watching the winners trying to navigate their way up to the stage. It got boring. Add to that, I am so tired of nominees who don’t bother to come up with a coherent speech before they win their award. It’s not that cute.

All in all, the ceremony could have really used a big production number or two.

Of course, Woody Allen can’t ever win an award without his son, Ronan Farrow, going on twitter and whining about how terrible his father is and all of the little sycophants who follow him chimed in with their usual, “Oh Ronan, I’m sorry!” Uhmmm, just curious — would anyone know who Ronan Farrow is if not for his parents? A lot of people have had shitty fathers but very few of those people have managed to get their own show on MSNBC as a result of it. Just saying.

Who exactly told Emma Stone it would be a good idea to wear a dress that appeared to be decorated with sperm?

“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments

I’ll Show You Some Golden Globes!

Lessons Learned

Award shows can be boring.

What If Lisa Marie Picked The Oscar Nominees…

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

With the Oscar nominations due to be announced this week, now is the time that the Shattered Lens indulges in a little something called, “What if Lisa had all the power.” Listed below are my personal Oscar nominations. Please note that these are not the films that I necessarily think will be nominated. The fact of the matter is that the many of them will not. Instead, these are the films that would be nominated if I was solely responsible for deciding the nominees this year. Winners are listed in bold.

You can check out my picks for 2010 by clicking here.

My picks for 2011 can be found here.

And, finally, here are my picks for 2012.

Best Picture

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Before Midnight

Blue Is The Warmest Color

Frances Ha

Fruitvale Station

Her

Inside Llewyn Davis

Spring Breakers

Upstream Color

Best Director

Noah Baumbach for Frances Ha

Shane Carruth for Upstream Color

Spike Jonze for Her

Harmony Korine for Spring Breakers

David O. Russell for American Hustle

Best Actor

Bruce Dern in Nebraska

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf Of Wall Street

Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club

Joaquin Phoenix in Her

Dennis Quaid in At Any Price

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine

Julie Delpy in Before Midnight

Adèle Exarchopoulos in Blue Is The Warmest Color

Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha

Amy Seimetz in Upstream Color

Best Supporting Actor

Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips

Kyle Chandler in The Spectacular Now

Bradley Cooper in American Hustle

James Franco in Spring Breakers

Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club

Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle

Eva Mendes in The Place Beyond The Pines

Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years A Slave

Léa Seydoux in Blue Is The Warmest Color

Octavia Spencer in Fruitvale Station

Best Original Screenplay

American Hustle

Blue Jasmine

Her

Inside Llewyn Davis

Upstream Color

Best Adapted Screenplay

12 Years A Slave

Before Midnight

Blue Is The Warmest Color

The Spectacular Now

The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Animated Feature

The Croods

Despicable Me 2

Ernest and Celestine

Frozen

Monsters University

Best Documentary Feature

20 Feet From Stardom

The Armstrong Lie

Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer

Stories We Tell

Tim’s Vermeer

Best Foreign Language Film

(Please note that I do things differently for this category than the Academy. For this award, I am nominating the best foreign language films to be released in the United States in 2013.)

Beyond the Hills

Blue Is The Warmest Color

Renoir

White Elephant

Best Production Design

12 Years A Slave

Gravity

The Great Gatsby

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Oz: The Great and Powerful

Best Cinematography

Frances Ha

Inside Llewyn Davis

Nebraska

Spring Breakers

Upstream Color

Best Costume Design

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

The Copperhead

The Great Gatsby

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Best Film Editing

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Gravity

Her

Upstream Color

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Dallas Buyers Club

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Warm Bodies

Best Original Score

Gravity

Her

Maniac

Trance

Upstream Color

Best Original Song

“Let it Go” from Frozen

“A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)” from The Great Gatsby

“Young and Beautiful” from The Great Gatsby

“The Moon Song” from Her

“I See Fire” from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

“Atlas” from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

“Please Mr. Kennedy” from Inside Llewyn Davis

“So You Know What It’s Like” from Short Term 12

“Becomes The Color” from Stoker

“Here It Comes” from Trance

Best Sound Editing

All Is Lost

Iron Man 3

Pacific Rim

Rush

Upstream Color

Best Sound Mixing

All Is Lost

Iron Man 3

Pacific Rim

Rush

Upstream Color

Best Visual Effects

Gravity

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Iron Man 3

Oz: The Great and Powerful

Pacific Rim

List of Films By Number of Nominations:

9 Nominations — Upstream Color

8 Nominations — American Hustle

7 Nominations — 12 Years A Slave, Her

5 Nominations — Blue Is The Warmest Color

4 Nominations — Frances Ha, Gravity, The Great Gatsby, Inside Llewyn Davis, Spring Breakers

3 Nominations — Before Midnight, Dallas Buyers Club, Iron Man 3, Pacific Rim

2 Nominations — All Is Lost, Blue Jasmine, Frozen, Fruitvale Station, Nebraska, Oz The Great and Powerful, Rush, The Spectacular Now, Trance, The Wolf of Wall Street

1 Nominations — 20 Feet From Stardom, The Armstrong Lie, At Any Price, Beyond The Hills, Captain Phillips, The Copperhead, The Counselor, The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Ernest and Celestine, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Maniac, Monsters University, No, The Place Beyond The Pines, Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, Renoir, Short Term 12, Stoker, Stories We Tell, Tim’s Vermeer, Warm Bodies, White Elephant

List of Films By Number of Oscars Won

3 Oscars — American Hustle, Upstream Color

2 Oscars — The Great Gatsby

1 Oscar — Before Midnight, Blue is The Warmest Color, Frances Ha, Frozen, Gravity, Her, Iron Man 3, Maniac, Pacific Rim, The Spectacular Now, Spring Breakers, Stories We Tell, The Wolf of Wall Street

6 Trailers That Are Too Hot For YouTube

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi! It’s time for another edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film trailers! This week, all of our trailers have one thing in common: they’re all too hot for YouTube!

A special thank you to Johnny Stanwyck for uploading these trailers to YouTube. You can check out Johnny’s site, The Grindhouse Schoolhouse, by clicking here.

1) Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980)

George Eastman certainly seems to be amused!

2) Gail Palmer’s Prisoner of Paradise (1980)

3) Love Dreams (1981)

4) Joy (1977)

5) Sex Wish (1976)

6) Nothing To Hide (1981)

What do you think, Trailer Kitty?

Here Are The DGA Nominees

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Director’s Guild of America has announced their nominees for the best director of 2013.

And here they are:

Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity

Paul Greengass for Captain Phillips

Steve McQueen for 12 Years A Slave

David O. Russell for American Hustle

Martin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street

Lisa Marie Picks The Best 26 Films of 2013

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2o13 was an unusually good year in film. While there was never any doubt what my number one film would be, it took me considerably longer to narrow down my other favorites to just 25 movies.

Also complicating matters is that a film that I’m very much looking forward to, Spike Jonze’s Her, is not going to be opening here until next weekend. Because I haven’t seen it, I could not consider it for this list. If, after I do see it, I feel that it belongs in the top 26, I will add it.

(Update: I have since seen Her and I have modified my original list. — LMB, 1/1o/14)

You may be asking, “Why 26 films?” Lisa doesn’t do odd numbers, that’s why.

Without further ado, here’s the list!

Upstream Color
American Hustle
Frances Ha
Her
Before Midnight
Blue Is The Warmest Color
Spring Breakers
12 Years A Slave
Fruitvale Station
Inside Llewyn Davis
The Wolf of Wall Street
Warm Bodies
The Counselor
Gravity
Blue Jasmine
The Spectacular Now
Much Ado About Nothing
Dallas Buyers Club
The Conjuring
Drinking Buddies
Iron Man 3
Nebraska
The Place Beyond The Pines
At Any Price
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
All Is Lost
The Iceman
Frozen

(Now that you’ve seen my favorites of 2013, check out my picks for 2010, 2011, and 2012!)

Other Entries In TSL’s Look Back At 2013:

Here Are The Writer’s Guild Nominations!

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Earlier today, The Writer’s Guild of America announced their nominations for the best screenplays of 2013. While it’s only natural to look at these nominations and try to use them as an Oscar oracle, it should be remembered that only 95 of the 289 Oscar-eligible films were also eligible for a WGA nomination.* Among those films not eligible to be nominated: 12 Years A Slave, Philomena, Fruitvale Station, and Rush.

Here are the nominees:

Original Screenplay:

American Hustle,

Blue Jasmine,

Dallas Buyers Club,

Her,

Nebraska

Adapted Screenplay:

August: Osage County,

Before Midnight,

Captain Phillips,

Lone Survivor,

The Wolf of Wall Street

—–

* As much as I wish I could say that I was responsible for coming up with that statistic, all credit should actually go toGoldderby.

Here Are The Producer’s Guild Nominations!

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Earlier today, the Producer’s Guild of America announced its ten nominees for best picture of 2013. Here they are:

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Blue Jasmine

Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club

Gravity

Her

Nebraska

Saving Mr. Banks

The Wolf of Wall Street

There are two big shocks here: 1) Inside Llewyn Davis was not nominated and 2) Blue Jasmine was. As critically acclaimed as Blue Jasmine was, it’s mostly been viewed as a vehicle for Cate Blanchett to pick up her second Oscar.

Some people are also surprised that The Butler didn’t pick up a nomination. I’m not.

The PGA also nominated five films for Best Animated Feature:

The Croods,

Despicable Me 2,

Epic,

Frozen,

Monsters University

Last year, the PGA correctly predicted 4 of the 5 eventual nominees for the Oscar for Best Animated Film. It wouldn’t surprise me to see that happen again, with The Wind Rises replacing Epic.

Lisa Marie Picks The 16 Worst Films of 2013

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

A lot of people are saying that 2013 was a great year for movies. And I guess it was. An unusually large number of memorable films were released last year.

However, by that same token, a huge number of truly terrible films were released in 2013 as well. With that in mind, here are my personal picks for the 16 worst films of 2013. Why 16? Because Lisa doesn’t do odd numbers, that’s why.

16) Carrie

15) Getaway

14) After Earth

13) Broken City

12) The Company You Keep

11) See Girl Run

10) Would You Rather

9) Lee Daniels’ The Butler

8) Identity Thief

7) Movie 43

6) Disconnect

5) A Dark Truth

4) Freeloaders

3) Unhung Hero

2) Tyler Perry’s Temptation

And finally, my pick for the worst film of 2013…

1) Man of Steel

It’s only been recently that I’ve come to realize that Man Of Steel was the worst film of 2013. When I first saw it, I thought it was bombastic and rather silly but I also thought it was just another mediocre action film. However, the more that I’ve thought about the film, the more I’ve come to realize that Man of Steel truly represents everything that I dislike about mainstream film. Beyond the fact that it took itself way too seriously, Man of Steel spent millions of dollars to celebrate the destruction of a major city but couldn’t find five minutes to devote to character development or memorable dialogue. Two years ago, a lot of people disagreed with me when I announced that Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch was one of the best films of 2011. I wonder how those same people feel about Man of Steel.