The National Board of Review Gives It Up For “Hugo”

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It took them a while but, earlier today, the folks who made up the National Board of Review (nobody’s quite sure who they are) finally announced their picks for the best of 2011. And the winner is — Martin Scorsese’s Hugo! As anyone who was on twitter earlier today knows, this was something of a surprising result and most of the self-appointed film experts out there seemed to be convinced that the NBR would honor either War Horse or The Artist. Seeing as it took the NBR longer than usual to announce the winners, I’m assuming that the voting was fairly close. The NBR is usually considered to be a precursor to the Academy Awards so, if nothing else, this result would seem to bode well for Hugo‘s chances to pick up a best picture nomination. Here are the winners with the occasional editorial comment from me:

Best Film:
Hugo

(I loved Hugo, though my favorite film of the year remains, at this point, Hanna)

Best Director:
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Best Actor:
George Clooney, The Descendants

(I may be the only person in America who thinks that The Descendants is overrated. Certainly, the members of the NBR disagree with me on that point.)

Best Actress:
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

(This was kind of surprising since I think the conventional wisdom was that Meryl Streep would win everything for The Irony Lady.)

Best Supporting Actor:
Christopher Plummer, Beginners

(I have a feeling that Plummer’s going to be the sentimental favorite at the Oscars.)
Best Supporting Actress:
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Best Original Screenplay:
Will Reiser, 50/50

(Yay! This film has been strangely underrated as an awards contender but it deserves a lot more attention.)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants

Best Animated Feature:
Rango

(Another yay!)
Breakthrough Performance:
Felicity Jones, Like Crazy

Breakthrough Performance:
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

(Bleh. On twitter, I already went into a rant about how too many of my fellow film bloggers have allowed themselves to be co-opted into a conspiracy to both force The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo remake down our throats and to try to make us forget about the original trilogy and the fact that Noomi Rapace gave a brilliant performance as Lisbeth. I’ll hold off on going into that again until it’s time to review the remake but seriously, people — the Hollywood establishment is not going to give you a promise ring, I don’t care how much you kiss their ass.)

Debut Director:
J.C. Chandor, Margin Call

Best Ensemble:
The Help

(Believe it or not, I still need to see this one.)

Spotlight Award:
Michael Fassbender (A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, X-Men: First Class)

(Oh. My. God. So. Hot.)

NBR Freedom of Expression:
Crime After Crime

NBR Freedom of Expression:
Pariah

Best Foreign Language Film:
A Separation

Best Documentary:
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Special Achievement in Filmmaking:
The Harry Potter Franchise – A Distinguished Translation from Book
to Film

(This is probably my favorite award to be given out by NBR. Seriously, the Harry Potter franchise provided me — and so many others — such a blessed escape whenever life seemed overwhelming.)

Top Films (in alphabetical order)

The Artist (Can’t Wait To See It)
The Descendants (Overrated)
Drive (Yay!)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Bleh)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Yay!)
The Ides of March (One of the worst films of the year)
J. Edgar (Bland and forgettable but well-made)
Tree of Life (Yay!)
War Horse (Going to see it but I feel obligated to do so and I resent it, to be honest)

Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order)

13 Assassins
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Footnote
Le Havre
Point Blank

Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order)

Born to be Wild
Buck
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Project Nim
Senna

Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order)

50/50 (Yay!)
Another Earth (Whatever, this was a terrible movie)
Beginners (A good film that deserves to be seen)
A Better Life (Overrated)
Cedar Rapids (Likable but nothing spectacular)
Margin Call (Need to see it)
Shame (Fassbender!)
Take Shelter (Yay!)
We Need To Talk About Kevin (Looking forward to it)
Win Win (Yay!)

And finally…The Independent Spirit Award Nominations

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In one final bit of Oscar Season news, the 2011 Independent Spirit Award nominations were announced on Tuesday. Because of the sheer number of nominees and awards, I’m just going to post the nominees and refrain from offering up any commentary beyond noting that 1) it’s nice to see Drive, Take Shelter, and 50/50 recognized and 2) that the Independent Spirit Award nominations have a pretty iffy record when it comes to predicting and/or influencing the actual Oscar nominations.

Best Feature
50/50
Beginners
Drive
Take Shelter
The Artist
The Descendants

Best Director
Mike Mills, Beginners
Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive
Jeff Nichols, Take Shelter
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants

Best First Feature
Another Earth
In The Family
Margin Call
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Natural Selection

Best Male Lead
Demian Bichir, A Better Life
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Ryan Gosling, Drive
Woody Harrelson, Rampart
Michael Shannon, Take Shelter

Best Female Lead
Lauren Ambrose, Think of Me
Rachel Harris, Natural Selection
Adepero Oduye, Pariah
Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

Best Supporting Male
Albert Brooks, Drive
John Hawkes, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
John C. Reilly, Cedar Rapids
Corey Stoll, Midnight in Paris

Best Supporting Female
Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter
Anjelica Huston, 50/50
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Harmony Santana, Gun Hill Road
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

John Cassavetes Award for films made under $500,000
Bellflower
Circumstance
Hello Lonesome
Pariah
The Dynamiter

Best Documentary
An African Selection
Bill Cunningham New York
The Interrupters
The Redemption of General Butt Naked
We Were Here

Best Cinematography
Joel Hodge, Bellflower
Benjamin Kasulke, The Off Hours
Darius Khondji, Midnight in Paris
Guillaume Shiffman, The Artist
Jeffrey Waldron, The Dynamiter

Best First Screenplay
Mike Cahill & Brit Marling, Another Earth
J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Patrick DeWitt, Terri
Phil Johnston, Cedar Rapids
Will Reiser, 50/50

Best Screenplay
Joseph Cedar, Footnote
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Tom McCarthy, Win Win
Mike Mills, Beginners
Alexander Payne, The Descendants

Best International Film
A Separation
Melancholia
Shame
The Kid With a Bike
Tyrannosaur

Piaget Producer’s Award
Chad Burris, Mosquita y Mari
Sophia Lin, Take Shelter
Josh Mond, Martha Marcy May Marlene

Someone to Watch Award
Simon Arthur, Silver Tongues
Mark Jackson, Without
Nicholas Ozeki, Mamitas

Truer Than Fiction Award
Heather Courtney, Where Soldiers Come From
Danfung Dennis, Hell and Back Again
Alma Ha’rel, Bombay Beach

Robert Altman Award for ensemble
Margin Call (Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto, Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci)

2011 Gotham Awards Recap

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In my previous post, I announced the start of “Oscar season” by offering up a recap of the films and performers honored by the New York Film Critics Circle earlier today. However, the Oscar season was actually kicked off on Monday night with the Gotham Awards. Much like the Independent Spirit awards, the Gothams are meant to honor the best in the year’s independent films. Below is a recap of which films were honored at this year’s ceremony.

Best Feature

Beginners(tie)
The Tree of Life(tie)

The big news here has been that Beginners and Tree of Life tied for best picture. (Actually, I’m not surprised as both films pretty much explored the same themes of memory, aging, and love.) It’ll be interesting to see if either one of these films manage to maintain the momentum of their victory through the rest of the Oscar season.

As for me, I have a new mission and that is to see Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same.

The New York Film Critics Circle Names “The Artist” Best Picture of 2011

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is my favorite time of year. It’s Oscar season, the time when films and actors manuever to win nominations and awards. This is the time of year when anything seems possible, when you think that maybe Exit Through The Gift Shop will get a best picture nomination or perhaps Christopher Nolan will be nominated for best director for Inception. In short, this is the month and a half before bitter disillusionment sets in.

During Oscar season, several mysterious groups hand out awards of their own. These groups are made up of critics desperately trying to convince themselves that they matter and the awards that they hand out are often seen as an indicator of what will eventually end up getting nominated. Last year, just about every single critical group named The Social Network as best picture and David Fincher as best director and we all remember how little that actually meant once it came time for the actual Academy Awards to be handed out.

Earlier today, the New York Film Critics Circle helped to start things off by announcing their picks for the best of 2011. Reportedly, they held off a day on selecting their picks so that they could attend a special screening of David Fincher’s remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. And how did that work out? Well, check out what won:

Best picture: “The Artist”

Best director: Michael Havanavicius, “The Artist”

Best actor: Brad Pitt (“Moneyball,” “Tree of Life”)

Best actress: Meryl Streep (“The Iron Lady”)

Best supporting actor: Albert Brooks (“Drive”)

Best supporting actress: Jessica Chastain (“The Tree of Life,” “The Help” and “Take Shelter”)

Best screenplay: Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, “Moneyball”

Best cinematography: Emmanuel Lebezki, “Tree of Life”

Best non-fiction film (documentary): “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”

Best foreign language film: “A Separation”

Best first feature: “Margin Call”

Just a few comments on these awards: I have yet to see The Artist but I’m really looking forward to it. I have a feeling I’m either going to love it or else I’m going to hate it with a passion. It just appears to be one of those films. I also haven’t seen Margin Call because its subject matter — Wall Street — makes me go “Bleh!” But I may have to see it now because it appears to be becoming a bit of an awards dark horse.

I have a feeling that Brad Pitt’s going to win an Oscar for his performance in Moneyball but I really didn’t think it was anything that special. I thought Pitt was likable but not much else. Some of that could have had a bit to do with the fact that I couldn’t really follow the film as I’m about as interested in baseball as I am in Wall Street. Hopefully, I won’t have to sit through another Aaron Sorkin acceptance speech at next year’s Oscar ceremony. Seriously, there’s only so much time I can spend listening to a pompous millionaire talking about how he thinks the world works.

I haven’t seen The Iron Lady yet but its going to be boring and people are going to feel obligated to pretend like they got something out of it.

Finally, yay to the NYFCC for awarding both Albert Brooks and Werner Herzog’s The Cave of Forgotten Deams.

The Toadsuckers Have Spoken: 15 Semi-Finalists for Best Documentary And Still No Room for Werner Herzog

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the titles of the 15 semi-finalists for the Best Feature Length Documentary Oscar. This list will, of course, be narrowed down to the 5 final nominees.

Without further ado, here’s the 15 semi-finalists:

Battle for Brooklyn(RUMER Inc.)
Bill Cunningham New York(First Thought Films)
Buck(Cedar Creek Productions)
Hell and Back Again(Roast Beef Productions Limited)
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front(Marshall Curry Productions, LLC)
Jane’s Journey(NEOS Film GmbH & Co. KG)
The Loving Story(Augusta Films)
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory(@radical.media)
Pina(Neue Road Movies GmbH)
Project Nim(Red Box Films)
Semper Fi: Always Faithful(Tied to the Tracks Films, Inc.)
Sing Your Song(S2BN Belafonte Productions, LLC)
Undefeated(Spitfire Pictures)
Under Fire: Journalists in Combat(JUF Pictures, Inc.)
We Were Here (Weissman Projects, LLC)

My response as I look at this list is: “Huh?” Which is to be expected because I live in Flyover country and, as a result, our local theaters don’t get sent all that many documentaries. Still, I have to say that, as someone who tries her darndest to keep up with these things, I’m not familiar with a lot of these films. I saw Buck in the theaters and I watched Bill Cunningham New York via OnDemand after my sister recommended it to me. I meant to see Project Nin when it briefly played at the Dallas Angelika but, for whatever reason, I missed it. (I may have been burned out on movies about chimpanzees after seeing Rise of the Planet of the Apes.) I’ll definitely see Paradise Lost 3 if it ever manages to get down to my part of the world.

If anything surprises and disappoints me, it’s that Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams isn’t on the semi-finalist list. Neither are two other documentaries that I loved — Jig and Resurrect Dead. (I have to admit that I’m not sure if those two films were submitted for consideration or if they would have even been eligible to be considered. I just know that I enjoyed them when I saw them OnDemand.) I’m also surprised that The Paper isn’t on the list of semi-finalists. I haven’t actually seen The Paper but just judging from the trailer and the subject matter (The New York Times struggling to remain relevent), it seemed like the type of documentary that traditionally seems to get nominated.

Finally, despite the fact that I haven’t seen it, I would kinda like to see Paradise Lost 3 win the award if just to honor the entire Paradise Lost series. After all, if not for those films, the West Memphis 3 would still be sitting in prison. Every year, during the Academy Awards ceremony, we have to sit through some pompous speech about how documentaries can change the course of history. Well, the Paradise Lost films actually did and, again taking into consideration that I haven’t seen the actual film yet, it seems like that deserves to be honored, no?

(And before any of you excitable types start bitching and whining — and you know who you are — Undefeated is a documentary about a high school football team and should not be mistaken for The Undefeated, the documentary about Sarah Palin that also came out this year.)

Billy Crystal and the Holy Grail?

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, here I was all excited and everything because I had an excuse to start another one of my never-ending polls and what happens? Less than 24 hours after I set up my poll asking you who you think should replace Eddie Murphy as the host of next year’s Oscar ceremony, Billy Crystal tweets that he’s got the job.

Seriously?

They couldn’t just leave us in suspense for an extra day or two?

Anyway, Billy Crystal isn’t really a surprising choice as people were mentioning his name from the minute Murphy stepped down. However, he is a rather boring choice and I guess that the show’s producer, Brian Grazer, has decided not to do the whole “edgy” thing. Which is probably a good thing since the Academy Awards version of edgy tends to be … well, it’s hard to say what it is but it’s distinguished by smoothed corners and a definite lack of sharp edges.

I guess what I’m saying is that the Oscars are a big round table and apparently, Billy Crystal is going to be King Arthur next year. Though, according to our poll, you would have much rather seen either myself or the Muppets holding court.

Here Are The 18 Films Eligible For Best Animated Feature Film

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, everyone! Well, I am in a much better mood than I was when I wrote my last post and that’s because I just remembered that November is the start of Oscar season! Yay!

Now, I know that a lot of people make a big deal about how little they care about the Oscars and they always sit around and bitch about how such-and-such movie didn’t win and how the Academy always honors mediocrity and the Academy is biased towards the mainstream and blah blah blah blah blah. As I explained many times last year, I am aware of all of this and I don’t care. On an annual basis, the Oscars prove themselves to be a big, tacky, spectacular train wreck and I love them!

Anyway, as Oscar season slowly creeps to life (it won’t really be here until the various critic groups start handing out their equally silly awards in December), the Academy has released the list of the 18 films that have qualified to compete for the title of Best Animated Film. Since there are 18 contenders, that means that we’ll actually have five nominees this year as opposed to just three and I for one say, “Yay!” to that. Whenever I see only three films listed in a category, I have flashbacks to trying to understand the concept of the Holy Trinity.

Anyway, here are the contenders:

The Adventures of TinTin

“Alois Nebel”

“Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked”
“Arthur Christmas”
“Cars 2”
“A Cat in Paris”
“Chico & Rita”
“Gnomeo & Juliet”
“Happy Feet Two”
“Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil”
“Kung Fu Panda 2”
“Mars Needs Moms”
“Puss in Boots”
“Rango”
“Rio”
“The Smurfs”
“Winnie the Pooh”
“Wrinkles”

I have to admit that this has been kind of a strange year for animated films, largely because, as my fellow contributor Leonard Wilson once pointed out on twitter, this is the first year in which it appears that Pixar might not have a contender. I recently saw Cars 2 and did not shed a tear and quite frankly, going to a Pixar film and not crying is a bit like going to New Orleans, flashing your boobs, and not getting any beads. It just makes you question everything. Winnie the Pooh made me cry. So did Rango and Kung Fu Panda 2 for that matter. I haven’t seen Puss In Boots yet but I expect I’ll love it because it’s about a cat and I love cats. However, I have a feeling that the award will be given to Adventures of TinTin just to keep Steven Spielberg from throwing a hissy fit after War Horse fails to live up to expectations.

Let’s Second Guess The Academy: 2006 Best Picture

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi there and welcome to the latest, long-delayed edition of Let’s Second Guess The Academy. Previously, we second-guessed the Academy’s choice for best picture of 1990, 1994, 1998, and 2002. It seems only fitting that we now jump ahead another 4 years and reconsider the race for best picture of 2006.

The Academy nominated five films for best picture 0f 2006. Those films were Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, and The Queen. They ultimately named The Departed the best film of 2006. Were they right?

And now, here’s my favorite part of second guessing the Academy. What if none of the five nominated films had been released in 2006? Which other films would you have nominated? Below is a list of some of 2006′s most acclaimed and memorable films. You can vote for up to 10 replacement nominees and write-in votes are allowed.

As always, vote once, vote often, and have fun!

Eddie Murphy?

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I don’t follow football, baseball, or any other sport created by putting something random before the word “ball.” Why would I ever need sports when I’ve got the Oscars? A few nights ago, I found myself asking Arleigh just what exactly was meant by all this talk of “fantasy football.” Seriously, I assumed that it was some sort of football team made up of hobbits, elves, and talking Narnia animals. Turns out I was wrong but it also turns out that whereas some of you have got your fantasy football drafts, I’ve got my fantasy Oscar season. And you know what? My fantasy Oscars always turn out to be a lot more interesting than the real Oscars.

But, ultimately, it’s the real Oscars that matter and, as we enter the Fall, the real Oscar season is heating up. Not only are the self-styled Oscar contenders lining up to be released but the pieces of the eventual ceremony are starting to come together as well.

Each year, one of the most important pieces of the ceremony is the announcement of just who exactly will be hosting the big event. Last year, James Franco and Anne Hathaway were announced as hosts and we all know how that eventually went. Perhaps that’s why the producer of the upcoming show, hack director Brett Ratner, has decided to go the opposite direction. Rather than picking someone who represents the future of Hollywood, he has instead picked someone who very much represents the past.

The host of the 84th Academy Awards will be Eddie Murphy.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Eddie Murphy is also appearing in Ratner’s upcoming film, Tower Heist. (By the way, I’ve already predicted that Tower Heist is going to suck just on the basis of the trailer. Hopefully, I’ll be wrong because, quite frankly, it makes me happy when Ben Stiller gets to appear in a good film. But seriously — even the title is lazy.)

I can’t really say for sure how I feel about Eddie Murphy as host of the Oscars because, to be honest, I really haven’t seen that many of his films. I thought he was kinda good in Dreamgirls but otherwise, Eddie Murphy has always come across as being … well, the term that comes to mind is “washed up.”

Personally, I’m a part of the minority who feels that Anne Hathaway and James Franco weren’t half as bad as everyone seems to think. Hathaway, I felt was likable and goofy and Franco — well, I kinda sorta like James Franco. The fact that the two of them were so ill-suited for their hosting duties brought a very nice sort of unpredictable vibe to the show. You never knew if James Franco was going to suddenly chop his arm off on-camera.

Say what you will about Eddie Murphy, I know he’s not going to chop off his arm on live TV.

Let’s Second Guess The Academy: 2002 Best Picture

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi there and welcome to the latest edition of Let’s Second Guess The Academy. Previously, we second-guessed the Academy’s choice for best picture of 1990, 1994, and 1998. It seems only fitting that we now jump ahead another 4 years and reconsider the race for best picture of 2002.

In 2002, the Academy nominated five films for best picture. Those films were Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Pianist, and The Hours. They ultimately named Chicago the best film of 2002. Were they right?

And now, here’s my favorite part of second guessing the Academy. What if none of the five nominated films had been released in 2002? Which other films would you have nominated? Below is a list of some of 2002’s most acclaimed and memorable films. You can vote for up to 10 replacement nominees and write-in votes are allowed.

As always, have fun!