Oscar Predictions

TOMORROW IS OSCAR DAY!!!

Have I mentioned I’m a fan of the Oscars? I’m sure it must have come up once or twice. In any case, this has been a bit of a tough year to call, I’m not going to lie. I’ve found that in previous years, there’s been one film that’s stood up and slapped me in the face, telling me that yes, that’s the film that’s going to win, but that’s not the case for me this year. I think that the film that should win Best Picture (Zero Dark Thirty) and the film that I think will win (see below) are two different things. There just seems something wrong about the way the nominations played out – there are some very glaring omissions from this year, especially when it comes to the Director category.

Anyway, for today, my brother and I have listed who we think will win the Oscars (as well as who we think should come in second place – it’s our ‘safety net’ to determine who wins the tipping competition [we’re very competitive when it comes to awards and we’ve drawn too many times]).

So, who do you think will take home the trophy? Who do you think is most deserving?

I just can’t wait.

Category	Me	My Brother
Best Picture	Argo	Zero Dark Thirty
	Lincoln	Argo
Lead Actor	Daniel Day-Lewis	Daniel Day-Lewis
	Hugh Jackman	Bradley Cooper
Lead Actress	Jessica Chastain	Jessica Chastain
	Jennifer Lawrence	Jennifer Lawrence
Supporting Actress	Anne Hathaway	Anne Hathaway
	Seriously?	Amy Adams
Supporting Actor	Christoph Waltz	Christoph Waltz
	Tommy Lee Jones	Robert DeNiro
Best Animated	The Pirates! Band of…	Wreck-It Ralph
	Wreck-it Ralph	Frankenweenie
Cinematography	Life of Pi	Life of Pi
	Lincoln	Skyfall
Costume Design	Les Miserables	Anna Karenina
	Lincoln	Mirror Mirror
Directing	Steven Spielberg	David O. Russell
	Ang Lee	Steven Spielberg
Editing	Argo	Argo
	Zero Dark Thirty	Zero Dark Thirty
Foreign Language Film	Amour	Amour
	No	A Royal Affair
Makeup and Hairstyling	The Hobbit	Les Miserables
	Les Miserables	The Hobbit
Original Score	Life of Pi	Life of Pi
	Skyfall	Skyfall
Original Song	Skyfall	Skyfall
	Everybody Needs A…	Everybody Needs A…
Production Design	Life of Pi	Life of Pi
	Les Miserables	Les Miserables
Sound Editing	Zero Dark Thirty	Zero Dark Thirty
	Django Unchained	Life of Pi
Sound Mixing	Les Miserables	Les Miserables
	Life of Pi	Lincoln
Visual Effects	Life of Pi	Life of Pi
	The Hobbit	The Hobbit
Adapted Screenplay	Lincoln	Argo
	Argo	Silver Linings Playbook
Original Screenplay	Django Unchained	Zero Dark Thirty
	Zero Dark Thirty	Moonrise Kingdom

Lincoln

I wrote a much longer post before, but then the wonders of the internet lost that to the cosmos, so now you’re stuck with this much shorter and much lower quality blog post.

Lincoln was awesome. The acting was sensational and will bring home the gold come Oscar time – while I would like to see Hugh Jackman win the award, they’ve got to engrave Daniel Day-Lewis’ name into the base when the time comes, he was brilliant; not to mention Tommy Lee Jones’, who stole every scene he was in with a very passionate performance. Sally Fields was deserving of her nomination, but it won’t be able to stop the Hathaway Express as it picks up an award at every station along the line, every station not on the line, and every station that’s still in the process of being built.

I think that giving the film Best Picture is a very easy decision, not in that it towered above every other film out there, it’s just the obvious choice, the safest choice. I would prefer to see something like Zero Dark Thirty or Django Unchained take home the prize – they were more challenging or more willing to try new things, whereas Lincoln was a very solid, yet standard film. Holding the films scene-by-scene against each other, Lincoln probably got more balls in the hoop, but the hoop it was aiming for wasn’t as high as the others.

Never the less, it was one of the best films of last year and every award that the film has earned is well deserved.

I have a minor quibble with the ending, which was good, but would have been more effective had it ended five minutes earlier, on a much more striking image. That said, I thought the inclusion of Neil Patrick Harris and ‘The Ballad of Booth’ might have spruced it up a bit.

2013 Oscar Nominations

Today is a glorious day. Today, Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone announced the Oscar nominations for the upcoming ceremony. Today, the speculation can begin!

It’s no secret that my brother and I are avid followers of the Oscars, so you can imagine that the most common topic of today were the nominees – what we were happy with and what we were… less happy about. So today, I’m going to go through some of the nominations – the ones I can actually talk about – and tell you my opinions on them. And please! Let me know how you feel about today’s announcement – what surprised you? What did you expect? Do you care about the Oscars at all?

Best Adapted Screenplay
I’ve only seen two of the five nominations, but it looks pretty good. I think that Argo and Silver Linings Playbook were both deserving of nominations, but I’d definitely pick the former of the two, even though I do have issues with both of them. I have a feeling that something like Lincoln will win this one.

Best Original Screenplay
This was the one category I had hope for – my favourite movie from 2012 was Seven Psychopaths, written by the brilliant Martin McDonagh, and as much as I enjoyed it, I resigned myself to the fact that it probably wasn’t going to get a Best Picture nomination (if it was up to me, I probably would have given it the award, but there you go). Still, I remained happy, because I knew that the Academy like McDonagh – they nominated his first feature film, In Bruges, in this category, as well as giving him an Oscar for his Short Film, Six Shooter – and that surely, they would award Seven Psychopaths with an Original Screenplay nomination. Surely! But no… No… They didn’t. Damn you, Academy. Damn you. Either Django Unchained or Zero Dark Thirty will win – seeing the latter tomorrow, so I’ll tell you how it holds up!

Best Animated Feature
I’m hoping for a The Pirates! Band of Misfits win – it was a very smart and funny film, fun for everyone – children and adults. Brave and Frankenweenie were pretty good, and I haven’t seen ParaNorman or Wreck-it Ralph (although I really, really want to) but I’ve heard good things. I’m just a pirate guy, I suppose. Call it a bias, I call it ‘being awesome’.

Best Director
This was a really surprising category, I’ll be honest. My picks were mostly wrong. I’m incredibly surprised that favourites Ben Affleck and Quentin Tarantino were overlooked, as well as Katherine Bigelow. I thought that Affleck was very much robbed of this nomination, and as much as I enjoyed David O. Russell’s work, I thought that Tarantino was better. That said, I’ve heard nothing but good things about the nominees, so I probably shouldn’t complain that much. I imagine that Steven Spielberg will win.

Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway is going to win.

… What, you want more? Do I need to?

My brother keeps giving me into trouble for saying that Hathaway has it in the bag, as the award hasn’t been engraved yet and there’s still a chance that she won’t. So I should really say ‘Anne Hathaway has a very strong chance of winning’, but pshh… whatever. The other nominees are all great actresses and deserving of nominations – even if Jackie Weaver’s nomination was a surprise; she is a great actress and delivered a great performance, but I thought she didn’t deliver to that ‘Oscar standard’. But, let’s not forget, it doesn’t matter. Hathaway is getting an Oscar this year.

Best Supporting Actor
This is a tough one, as there isn’t a definite stand-out performance amongst them. They’re all pretty awesome. Personally, I thought that Brian Cranston delivered a stronger performance than Alan Arkin, but Arkin was great too. Robert De Niro was excellent, but I felt that some other nominees were better (which does speak to the standard of this year’s performances). I haven’t seen Tommy Lee Jones’ performance in Lincoln, but I’ve only heard rave reviews (and according to my brother, he’s possibly the favourite). My personal pick would be for either Phillip Seymour Hoffman or Christoph Waltz, and I’m finding it hard to pick between the two – Hoffman’s performance was outstanding and mesmerising, while Waltz’s turn was so engaging and interesting and proves his range, playing quite a different character from the role which earned him his last Oscar. I’m surprised that Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t gain a nomination, but then again, it was a tough category and it was unlikely that two performances from Django would get nominated.

Best Actress
I’m sad to say that I’ve only seen one film that’s been nominated, but I thought that Jennifer Lawrence’s performance was fantastic and well deserving of the award. Jessica Chastain is a phenominal actress, so I’m expecting great things from her in Zero Dark Thirty. I’m really excited to see the other nominees, I just wish that I had more to say about this category… I’ve heard that Lawrence and Chastain are the favourites, so I’m expecting one of those two to take the prize.

Best Actor
This is a topic of great contention between my brother and myself. According to the critics, Daniel Day-Lewis is the front-runner; my brother thinks that Joaquin Phoenix gave the performance of the year and deserves the award, while I think that Hugh Jackman’s performance was Oscar worthy. We both loved Bradley Cooper’s performance, and we’ve only heard good things about Denzel Washington’s performance, but we’re divided on who should actually take the statue home. I’m sticking with Jackman, but the more analytical side of me thinks that it’ll go to Day-Lewis. There’s a chance that my gut will be right, but I probably won’t be seeing a Jackman win, and that makes me sad.

Best Picture
I’ve seen four out of nine! Got a lot more to see! Out of the four I’ve seen, I’d like to see a Django Unchained or a Les Miserables win, but they’re probably going to be overlooked for Argo, which I wouldn’t be too annoyed with, or Silver Linings Playbook, which was very good and very enjoyable, but I wouldn’t name it the best film of the last year. However, unless there’s a big surprise, I imagine that Lincoln will take home the top prize.

Films That Were Snubbed In General

Looper

This film definitely deserved some sort of nomination – it was another that I thought would get an Original Screenplay nomination, as it deserved it. I thought it would have gotten some of the technical ones, maybe visual effects or art design, so I was surprised that it didn’t get anything. Hopefully Rian Johnson will be rewarded for his fantastic work soon.

The Dark Knight Rises

There were so many high hopes for this film and, I’m not going to lie, not all of them were met. We had hoped for a Return of the King situation, in which the last film of the trilogy would be awarded for the efforts of the entire trilogy. There was so much weighing on the shoulders of The Dark Knight Rises, and it was just too much. That said, Nolan made a damn great film, I’d even call it fantastic. It had issues, but almost every film does, and while I wouldn’t have nominated it for Picture, or Director (as painful as that is to say), or Screenplay, it deserved a lot of technical nominations. Christopher Nolan has put together an exceptional team of people to help him make his films and they did an awesome job in TDKR. But to not nominate the film at all? I think that’s overlooking some great talent, there.

Top Five Films of the 2012 Oscar Season

My brother and I view years of film in terms of whether or not they could be nominated for an Oscar, which can make things confusing if a film came out in early 2012, before the Oscars, which would mean that my brother and I would not count it as a ‘2012’ film… It’s confusing, but it works for us.

In any case, here are my Top Five Films of 2012 (released after the end of February, because that’s when the Oscars were).

5) The Intouchables
Omar Sy plays a pragmatic, enthusiastic young man who comes from a troubled neighbourhood who is given a job by a rich tycoon, paralysed from the neck down as his constant carer, played by Francois Cluzet. This French film is a very simple story, one that we’ve seen before, but I can’t think of another film that does it better. The acting is impeccable, some of the best performances on screen, and you don’t need to understand what they’re saying to understand how they’re feeling. The performances really make this film – while the script/direction/etc. are great, it’s really the acting that makes it incredible. While I will admit it’s a simple premise with a simple story, but it’s such an enjoyable, feel-good film that made myself and my entire family laugh constantly. This seems like a film that will always put a smile on my face.

4) Les Miserables
I don’t think I can talk about this film any more than I already have. I loved it from start to finish, with some slight exceptions, but the film’s strengths made up for the few weaknesses that could be found. This film isn’t for anyone – if you’re not a fan of musicals, then you probably won’t be interested, and if you’re looking for something happier, I definitely suggest… almost anything else. Otherwise, Les Miserables is an incredible, emotional watch.

3) Django Unchained
Holy crap, this was an awesome film. Tarantino has been one of my favourite film makers for a long time and he always delivers – Django is no exception. It isn’t for the faint of heart – there are a lot of racist characters throwing racist slurs and then getting shot and killed, horribly, but it’s a lot more meaningful than I make it sound. Jamie Foxx plays Django, a slave rescued by Dr. King Schultz, Christoph Waltz, and turned into a bounty hunter. They eventually team up to rescue Django’s wife, Broomhilda – Kerry Washington – from the deliciously evil plantation owner, Calvin Candie – Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s a hell of a ride, a lot of fun, and looks at an incredibly serious topic – racism – through the lens of a hilarious, fun genre film, which provides a lot of mood whiplash, going from incredibly funny to incredibly dramatic in seconds. I honestly can’t pick between Waltz and DiCaprio when it comes to the better performance, but I know that one of them deserves an Oscar for this film. The other actors are fantastic – everyone plays against type in this film and plays it well, Samuel L. Jackson’s was probably the most surprising and effective. As usual, Tarantino’s direction and writing was incredibly strong and interesting to watch, and made me thrilled that Django Unchained was the last film I watched in 2012.

2) The Dark Knight Rises
Of all the films to come out in 2012, this was the one I was most looking forward to. I’ve been looking forward to this film since the credits to The Dark Knight ended, so a lot of hype was built up. If I was to say that it completely and utterly lived up to that hype, I would be lying, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t love it. It wasn’t a perfect film, but no film on this list was – but it was a fantastic and satisfying end to the Nolan Batman trilogy, filled with great action sequences and interesting characters. I still can’t decide whether Nolan’s Bane or Catwoman was better, which I suppose is to the film’s credit. I’ve already talked this film to death since it came out, so I’ll just finish by saying that I’m glad that the trilogy has come to an end, because now I get to be excited about Nolan’s next project, which I’m sure will blow my mind and make the top five list that year as well. Batman is awesome.

1) Seven Psychopaths
Martin McDonagh has written and directed two feature films, this and In Bruges, and I love both of them. His scripts are always filled with foul language and some impressive violence, but they’re also incredibly introspective and great character studies. Seven Psychopaths is about a struggling writer, Marty, trying to write a script entitled ‘Seven Psychopaths’, taking influence from the outrageous stories that he hears from the outrageous characters he meets. It’s metafictional, deconstructive, subversive and absolutely hilarious. There are some incredibly strong performances from the entire cast – Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Chistopher Walken, Woody Harrelson and Linda Bright Clay are all fantastic,  but my favourite performance came from Tom Waits, he featured in two scenes – probably ten minutes all up – but he absolutely stole the show and had the entire theatre engrossed his his words. I thought this film was absolutely incredible and easily the best film of 2012.

So, there are my favourites of this year. Honourable mentions would be:

Silver Lining’s Playbook
The Master
Argo
Looper

With Looper just missing out on a place in the top five. It was a good year in film, this year, although I’ve probably seen better. There are still a few big Oscar contenders that I haven’t seen yet – Lincoln has gotten a lot of buzz, so I should check it out eventually – but I have my own feelings as to what will win and what won’t. I’m fairly certain that a majority of my top five won’t even get a Best Picture nod… But, we’ll find out come January!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the Top Ten Best Films I Watched in 2012 (not including the ones on this list). Man, I’m really pedantic when it comes to lists….