2011 Oscar Buzz

[Emperor]

BEST PICTURE

 

The Social Network

The King’s Speech

Toy Story 3

127 Hours

Another Year

The Kids Are All Right

True Grit

The Fighter

Love and Other Drugs

Black Swan

 

Other Contenders: Blue Valentine, The Company Men, Conviction, Fair Game, Hereafter, Inception, Made in Dagenham, Never Let Me Go, Somewhere, The Town, The Way Back

 

BEST DIRECTOR

 

David Fincher (The Social Network)

Danny Boyle (127 Hours)

Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (True Grit)

David O. Russell (The Fighter)

Other Contenders: Mike Leigh (Another Year), Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), Clint Eastwood (Hereafter), Christopher Nolan (Inception), Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right), Edward Zwick (Love and Other Things), Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go), Sofia Coppola (Somewhere), Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3), Peter Weir (The Way Back)

 

BEST ACTOR

 

Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

James Franco (127 Hours)

Robert Duvall (Get Low)

Jeff Bridges (True Grit)

Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter)

Other Contenders: Paul Giamatti (Barney’s Version), Javier Bardem (Biutiful), Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine), Jake Gyllenhaal (Love and Other Drugs), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Stephen Dorff (Somewhere)

 

BEST ACTRESS

 

Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)

Lesley Manville (Another Year)

Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Anne Hathaway (Love and Other Drugs)

Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)

Other Contenders: Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine), Hilary Swank (Conviction), Naomi Watts (Fair Game), Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right), Sally Hawkins (Made in Dagenham), Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go), Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

 

Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Sam Rockwell (Conviction)

Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)

Andrew Garfield (The Social Network)

Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)

Other Contenders: Vincent Cassel (Black Swan), Chris Cooper (The Company Men), Bill Murray (Get Low), Andrew Garfield (Never Let Me Go) Justin Timberlake (The Social Network), Jeremy Renner (The Town), Josh Brolin (True Grit)

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

 

Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Miranda Richardson (Made in Dagenham)

Elle Fanning (Somewhere)

Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech)

Bryce Dallas Howard (Hereafter)

Other Contenders: Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom), Barbara Hershey (Black Swan), Mila Kunis (Black Swan), Amy Adams (The Fighter), Keira Knightley (Never Let Me Go), Kristin Scott Thomas (Nowhere Boy), Dianne Wiest (Rabbit Hole), Rebecca Hall (The Town), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

[Krakalakachkn]

Colin Firth! Colin Firth!

[Emperor]

To get everyone excited, I am going to give some write ups on some of the movies I listed.

 

 

Every film festival benefits hugely from a strong opening film, and they don’t come a lot stronger than Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller set in the world of New York ballet. Powerful, gripping and always intriguing, it also features a lead performance from Natalie Portman that elevates her from a substantial leading actress to major star likely to be lifting awards in the near future.

 

She plays Nina Sayers, a member of the corps in her company, feeling that time may be passing her by. But then Tomas, the company’s artistic director (Vincent Cassel) dispenses with his star ballerina (Winona Ryder) and gives Nina her first lead role - as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake.

 

But it’s clear that Nina has emotional problems that will be exacerbated by the pressure of stardom. She lives with her mother (an excellent Barbara Hershey), herself once a dancer with thwarted ambitions, who cossets and infantilises her daughter. Nina, meanwhile, is prone to self-harm, random acts of petty theft and disturbing fever dreams.

 

Having established the territory of the story (scripted by Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz), Aronovsky goes to town on it. He’s a director with a taste for the flamboyant and over-ripe - qualities that serve the narrative handsomely. Thus Tomas is revealed as a sexual predator from whom Nina Instinctively recoils. And the arrival of Lily (Mila Kunis), a hedonistic newcomer to the corps, increases Nina’s sense of being undermined.

 

All this comes to the boil nicely, as Nina’s big first night approaches. She starts to fall apart, suffering from lurid delusions and feeling herself alone against a hostile world. The story is told from her point of view, but it’s increasingly clear that she’s an unreliable witness to her own life.

 

Tomas chides her that through she can play the White Swan capably - her technique is fine, and she aims for perfection - she cannot play the Black Swan because she cannot be passionate and find it within herself to seduce an audience. Lily’s comment “You never lose yourself” strikes a similar chord, and hints at Nina’s sexual timidity.

 

Portman, while playing this complex character with considerable expertise, also threw herself into the discipline of dance. While she is clearly substituted for some long shots, and on other occasions is filmed dancing from above the hips only, some of the sequences are obviously her, and she acquits herself credibly.

 

Aronovsky makes great play of a colour scheme featuring mostly black and white (while Tomas dresses mainly in grey). But some details are tellingly observed - the preponderance of pink in Nina’s bedroom,a collection of soft toys, and the Swan Lake ringtone on her phone that lets her know Mother’s calling.

 

Tchaikovsky’s music takes on an unsettling quality as Nina’s descent progresses, all the way to the disturbing but perfect ending. Black Swan is an exhilarating if uneasy ride, one that could deliver Aronofsky his second Golden Lion here in three years (he won in 2008 with The Wrestler). As for Portman, she can expect a busy few months at awards dinners.

[Cadsuane]

Black Swan was not on my radar at all, but now it' top of my list! Natalie Portman + mental instability + ballet = intriguing at the least.

[Emperor]

I am intrigued and from what I keep hearing about Franco's performance I will be searching the small theatres to catch it.

 

 

PLOT: The true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco), who was trapped in a canyon for 127 HOURS after a loose boulder pinned his arm.

 

REVIEW: Seeing as how 127 HOURS is the follow-up to Danny Boyle's Best Picture winning SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, expectations for this film could not be higher. That was clearly obvious at the press screening I attended for this at TIFF, as some technical difficulties resulted in the film being delayed by ninety minutes (the same length as the film itself)- yet not a single journalist worth his salt dared ditch the screening. We knew we'd be seeing something special, and sure enough, 127 HOURS is a special film.

 

It's also s a strikingly different film from SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, and, to that extent, very different from anything Danny Boyle's ever done before. His films are known for their energy, but here, he's made a very intimate film as the majority of it takes place in a remote canyon, with a character who's unable to move.

 

Still, Boyle manages to make it exciting, and NEVER boring. The way Ralston's plight is set up is terrific. The first twenty minutes of the film is quite a bit like SLUMDOG, in that Franco's Ralston never stops moving around, with tons of quick cutting, and phenomenal music courtesy of A.R Rahman. We get a sense of Ralston as a fun loving guy, as he befriends a couple a cute hikers (Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn). We also realize that despite his affable nature, Ralston's a true loner- with him taking off on his hike without telling anyone where he's going, which is why he realizes nobody's going to look for him.

 

For James Franco, this is essentially a one man show, and he's brilliant. No matter what, Franco's going to get nominated for an Oscar, as this is truly a knock-out performance. Franco's a very likable guy, so we're rooting for Ralston throughout. Once he takes certain desperate measures to escape (a quick Google search will reveal what he did, but I won't spoil it here), you'll be in agony watching him suffer (the theatre was echoing with groans and winces from the presumably hardened industry audience).

One of the reasons 127 HOURS works so well is that Boyle opens up the story, so that it's not just ninety minutes of a guy stuck in a canyon. Once he's pinned, we take a journey inward, as Ralston reflects on his family, including sister Lizzy Caplan, who's about the get married. We also reflects on his aborted relationship with a woman (Clemence Poesy from IN BRUGES) who might have been the love of his life had he been able to let her in.

 

One rumor that must be laid to rest is whether or not large chunks of the film are silent. While yes, the dialogue is sparse in many scenes, as he's alone, Ralston never stops talking to himself. He also uses a camcorder to document his struggle once his food and water begins to run out. One gets that the video he's making is more for himself than anyone who might find it, and the way Franco opens up to the camera about his family, and ex-lover is moving. In particular there's one scene where he curses himself for being such a loner that's one of the highlights of a film chock full of highlights.

 

For Danny Boyle, 127 HOURS is a another triumph. While personally, I prefer SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, TRAINSPOTTING, and 28 DAYS LATER, this still compares favorably with his best work. The fact that he was able to finish this less than two years after SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE proves what a hugely talented, and versatile director he is. I can't wait to see what he does next, but considering how in the zone he is these days, I'm sure it'll be fantastic.

[Krakalakachkn]

I've always considered myself a big James Franco fan (other favorites include NPH before his current famedom, Nathan Fillion, Colin Firth, Paul Bettany (who I still think is underrated), Michael Sheen (who is very underrated), and Sam Rockwell (who is extremely underrated...go watch Moon))

 

 

And this isn't the only reason I love Franco:

 

 

 

 

I can't wait to see 127 Hours

[Emperor]

True Grit - The remake from the Coen Brothers

 

I don't have much on this film as it is coming out so far in the future...

 

 

In 1969, John Wayne won an Oscar for the role of Cogburn in the adaptation of the Charles Portis novel. The Coen’s take on the story is said to be closer to the book, tracking the 14-year old Mattie as she hires Cogburn to help her avenge her father’s death (Josh Brolin plays the drifter they are chasing). They are joined by Texas Ranger Matt Damon. The movie also starred Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper in roles now played by familiar war-film face Barry Pepper (Flags of our Fathers, Saving Private Ryan) and Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter, Never Let Me Go.

 

True Grit opens on Christmas Eve—just in time for awards season consideration.

[Emperor]

The King's Speech

 

 

For Albert "Bertie" Frederick Arthur George, the Duke of York who would become Great Britain's King George VI just prior to the start of World War II, the act of speaking was a death struggle between him and the words he was trying to say. Crippled by a stammer for as long as he could remember – the result of a brutal royal family upbringing that included forced right-handedness, leg splints, and nothing more than a "daily viewing" with his parents – Bertie could not get through a sentence without a Herculean effort to subdue the syllables that refused to cooperate.

 

When you are the Duke of York, second in line for the throne, one can see how this would be a serious problem. As his wife puts it with impeccable English understatement in Tom Hooper's The King's Speech, "his job requires a bit of public speaking." Every speech doctor in the realm has had a go, to no avail. Bertie's ready to give up, but the wife finds one last hope: an unconventional therapist in a seedy part of town who seems, somehow, to have a clear view of the mental blocks and hang-ups that make up Bertie's impediment.

 

The therapist, Lionel Logue, is played by Geoffrey Rush at his most Geoffrey Rush-ish – quick-witted, hyperarticulate, and fearless. He insists on calling His Royal Highness Bertie, and insists on seeing him every day. Bertie (Colin Firth)– repressed, exhausted, and weighed down by the burdens of his position – is deeply skeptical, but Logue believes in him, and he comes around after Logue gets him to read Hamlet's soliloquy with perfect, uninterrupted diction by blasting music into headphones so that Bertie can't hear his own voice. Together, the two begin to chip away at the problem, and ultimately form a bond. Meanwhile, Bertie ascends to the throne, where he is told his job is to "consult and be advised."

 

The King's Speech is essentially a recontextualized iteration of the underdog sports movie, complete with an unconventional coach, a training montage, a big game, and even the scene where someone on the rival team exposes a secret that angers the players. The film hews so closely to this formula that it's hard to work up any real enthusiasm for it. It broaches some serious issues, most notably the plight of a good man forced into a difficult task for which he is terribly ill-prepared, but the neat, predictable structure tends to trivialize them.

 

Still, The King's Speech skillfully executes a familiar plot – and the plot itself, it should be said, is nothing to sneeze at. The mechanics of the way Bertie and Logue attack the former's elocution problem are entertaining and often very funny. Rush and Firth are great fun together, Rush's confident Australian irreverence a perfect foil for Firth's aristocratic, prim-and-proper repression. Tom Hooper (The Damned United) has a nicely off-kilter visual style; he likes wide shots in front of bright, surreally colorful backdrops, and rarely puts his characters in the center of the frame. One rehearsal scene late in the film is a delirious masterpiece, a symphony of frustration, cursing, yelling, and bursting into song.

 

Firth will get a lot of awards attention for this, though it almost seems too easy: if there's a faster track to a surefire Oscar nomination than playing a monarch with a speech impediment, I'd like to know about it. That's probably unfair, since his work in The King's Speech really is quite good, his performance a restrained simmer punctuated by bursts of rage and agony. Firth, who made his name in the States as the slightly foppish love interest in the likes of Love Actually and Bridget Jones' Diary, has, with this and his Oscar-nominated turn in A Single Man, shown a facility for playing fundamentally decent men attempting to shoulder impossible burdens.

 

But the highlight of movie is a near-cameo appearance by Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill. Growling, glowering, and chewing the scenery, Spall was apparently imported from a gutsier, more colorful film. When he's on the screen, The King's Speech briefly seems like more than the perfectly acceptable award-season crowdpleaser that it really is.

[Krakalakachkn]

Fifteen features have been accepted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the The 83rd Academy Awards.

 

The list includes:

 

Alpha and Omega

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

Despicable Me

The Dreams of Jinsha

How to Train Your Dragon

Idiots and Angels

The Illusionist

Legend of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

MegaMind

My Dog Tulip

Shrek Forever After

Summer Wars

Tangled

Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue

Toy Story 3

 

Four of the films - The Dreams of Jinsha, The Illusionist, Summer Wars and Tangled - have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. Under the rules for this category, in any year in which 8 to 15 animated features are released in Los Angeles County, a maximum of 3 motion pictures may be nominated.

 

Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also may qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories.

[Krakalakachkn]

The Academy reveals the Documentary shortlist:

 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced fifteen films in the Documentary Feature category which will advance in the voting process for The 83rd Academy Awards.

 

The list includes:

 

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer

Enemies of the People

Exit Through the Gift Shop

GasLand

Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould

Inside Job

The Lottery

Precious Life

Quest for Honor

Restrepo

This Way of Life

The Tillman Story

Waiting for Superman

Waste Land

William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe

 

Selected from one-hundred and one submissions, the Documentary Branch Screening Committee viewed all the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting and will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist. Those five will be announced live on Tuesday January 25th.

 

The biggest surprise is the several high profile omissions from this list - "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," "Catfish," "The Art Of The Steal" and "Marwencol" among them.