The Full List of Oscar Nominations (and my predictions)

So, the nominations are here and even though I'm spouting off on twitter I'm strangely zen about the whole affair. True, those song nominees are making me see red, but I'm sort of glib about stupity like Steinfeld for Supporting Actress and such. Let's take a look, shall we?

SOUND EDITING
I predicted 127 Hours / Toy Story III / Inception / Scott Pilgrim vs the World / True Grit. Here's how it went, Actual Nominees: Inception /Toy Story III / TRON: Legacy / True Grit / Unstoppable 
So, I get three out of five, I'm kind of shocked that 127 Hours didn't make it here, and in theory I'm glad that the sound voters recognise some less than prestigious flicks (aka Unstoppable). I suppose I was a bit a lot fanciful in predicting Scott Pilgrim vs the World here.

SOUND MIXING
I predicted 127 Hours / Inception / Shutter Island / Toy Story III / True Grit Actual Nominees: Inception / The King's Speech / Salt / The Social Network / The King's Speech
I get two out of five here; I'm not in love with 127 Hours, but the snub sure is odd. Of course good work in Robin Hood and Green Zone would be ignored, but I thought this was a shoo-in.  Just an aside, people need to quit dogging on The King's Speech, for one it's nomination makes more sense than The Social Network (although they both make worthy nominees) - I wonder if people actual get what sound mixing is. Sheesh, the hate is going overboard. The entire first ten minutes of The King's Speech depends on the blend of score with sound - which is, sound mixing.

ORIGINAL SONG
I predicted IF I RISE from127 Hours / YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME from Burlesque / CHANSON ILLUSIONIST from The Illusionist / I SEE THE LIGHT from Tangled / WE BELONG TOGETHER from Toy Story III and the Actual Nominees: COMING HOME from Country Strong / I SEE THE LIGHT from Tangled / IF I RISE from 127 Hours / WE BELONG TOGETHER from Toy Story III

I get three out of four here, but it hurts to see Burlesque snubbed here. Absolute bull-crap, but I'm going to let that go - what's the point in holding on to it?

ORIGINAL SCORE
I predicted 127 Hours / Alice in Wonderland / Inception / The King's Speech / The Social Network and the Actual Nominees: 127 Hours / How to Train Your Dragon / Inception / The King's Speech / The Social Network
Well, four of five is not bad and it's  a bit nice to see How To Train Your Dragon here. I've surrendered to the fact that Oscar choices will not be mine (you'll see those soon enough), and this is a distinguised bunch.

VISUAL EFFECTS
I predicted Alice in Wonderland / Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows / Inception / Scott Pilgrim vs the World / TRON Legacy and the Actual Nominees: Alice in Wonderland / Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows / Hereafter / Inception / Iron Man II
 I get three out of five here, and I really can't fathom the love for Iron Man II here. I understand the Alice in Wonderland love - even if I don't agree with it, but that one is a headscratcher.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
I predicted, Black Swan / Inception / The King’s Speech / The Social Network / True Grit Actual Nominees: Black Swan / Inception / The King’s Speech / The Social Network / True Grit
A perfect score here, but well this was a bit easy - no? All wouldn't make a list of my own, and I would have preferred some surprises from the cinematographers who're sometimes much more inventive - but it's a good set.

EDITING
I predicted The Fighter / Inception / The King’s Speech / The Social Network / True Grit and the Actual Nominees: 127 Hours / Black Swan / The Fighter / The King’s Speech / The Social Network
Three out of five; I can't help but hate that Boyle's ADD style earns him a nod  here even if I shouldn't fault people for their opinion.

COSTUMES

I predicted Alice in Wonderland / Burlesque / The King’s Speech / True Grit / The Tempest Actual Nominees: Alice in Wonderland / I Am Love / The King’s Speech / True Grit / The Tempest
I get four out of five here, and I can't comment on I Am Love because I've yet to see it. Truth be told, though, I'm kind of happy it's nominated if only because it's something surprising (even if, vaguely so).

ART DIRECTION
I predicted Alice in Wonderland / Inception / The King’s Speech / Shutter Island / True Grit Actual Nominees: Alice in Wonderland / Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows I / Inception / The King’s Speech / True Grit
Four out of five; I like Harry Potter but its nomination here annoys me terribly. It's still above average, but there wasn't much scope for interesting production design this year and even though I suppose my Shutter Island prediction was a pipedream it's still unfortunate.

MAKEUP
I predicted, Alice in Wonderland / True Grit / The Wolfman Actual Nominees: Barney's Version / The Way Back / The Wolfman
And I get one of three, ouch. But I'm GLAD - at least some recognition for these two films many have not seen (myself included).

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
I predicted Black Swan / The Fighter / Inception / The Kids Are All Right / The King’s Speech and the Actual Nominees: Black Swan / The Fighter / Inception / The Kids Are All Right / The King’s Speech
And, YES no Black Swan here which means I get four out of five. Sure, I'd throw out the exposition heavy Inception but I'm glad for small mercies. I suppose I have to see Another Year now, not that I'm complaining....

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
I predicted 127 Hours / The Social Network / True Grit / Toy Story III / Winter’s Bone Actual Nominees: 127 Hours / The Social Network / True Grit / Toy Story III / Winter’s Bone
The voters are absolutely crazy for deeming Toy Story as an adapted screenplay (it's a sequel, not a remake) but I get five out of five here, so whatever.

DIRECTOR
My predictions Aronofsky for Black Swan / Fincher for The Social Network / Hooper for The King’s Speech / Nolan for Inception / Reilly for The Fighter Actual Nominees: Aronofsky for Black Swan / Coen's for True Grit / Fincher for The Social Network / Hooper for The King’s Speech / Reilly for The Fighter
Foour out of five; Honestly, the Nolan snub made me laugh because I wanted to call it but then figured, nah. I'm really not incensed because it's not like he's the only one snubbed here - but Oscar dissenters can be so insular at times. Sigh. Again I say, whatever.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

My predictions were Amy Adams in The Fighter / Helena Bonham Carter in The King’s Speech / Mila Kunis in Black Swan / Melissa Leo in The Fighter / Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom Actual Nominees: Amy Adams in The Fighter / Helena Bonham Carter in The King’s Speech / Melissa Leo in The Fighter / Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit / Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom
Four out of five; I can't explain how annoyed I am at the stupidity of Steinfeld's nod here, it's borderline ridiculous and easily my LEAST favourite thing of the day. It's more than her taking a slot for a deserving supporting player, but the category fraud is heinous. I'm surprised voters went for it, but c'est la vie.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
I predicted Christian Bale in The Fighter / Andrew Garfield in The Social Network / Jeremy Renner in The Town / Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right / Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech Actual Nominees: Christian Bale in The Fighter / John Hawkes in Winter's Bone / Jeremy Renner in The Town / Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right / Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech
Four out of five; I called a surprise here, but I wasn't sure what so I didn't predict it. I'm not shocked to see Garfield go, and really the group could have been much worse.

ACTRESS

I predicted Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right / Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole / Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone / Natalie Portman in Black Swan / Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit Actual Nominees: Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right / Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole / Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone / Natalie Portman in Black Swan / Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine
It's a strong lineup, there's one or two I'd toss out immediately - not because they're bad, but because it was a great year for women - but it's a good group.

ACTOR
I predicted Jeff Bridges in True Grit / Robert Duvall in Get Low / Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network / Colin Firth in The King’s Speech / James Franco in 127 Hours Actual Nominees: Jeff Bridges in True Grit / Javier Bardem in Biutiful / Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network / Colin Firth in The King’s Speech / James Franco in 127 Hours
I'm get to see Bardem's performance, but I'm not complaining about my four out of five here. There's no absolute stinker in sight, so that's good to see.

ANIMATED FILM
I predicted How to Train Your Dragon / Toy Story III / Tangled and Actual Nominees: How to Train Your Dragon / The Illusionist / Toy Story III
And YES, Tangled is shut-out. The fact that I haven't seen The Illusionist makes me suspect, maybe I'll like it less than Tangled. But I never said I was a man of logic (just check the tagline on my banner).


PICTURE

127 Hours / Black Swan / The Fighter / Inception / The Kids Are All Right / The King’s Speech / The Social Network / The Town / True Grit / Toy Story III Alternates: Winter’s Bone / Get Low / Shutter Island
Nine out of ten with Winter's Bone subbing for The Town which I'm fine with. It's an unsurprising group, but considering my least favourites of the set is 127 Hours (C+) I suppose it's not terrible.

What's more, my prediction of The King's Speech leading the nods with 12 nominations was correct. With 72 correct of 96 options, I think I did fairly well though I just predict for the hell of it and being right doesn't really have any appeal. I know more than a few are furious, but I don't think the nominees are that poor. A few hours have passed, what knee-jerk reactions to the nominees do you have?

All the categories, including Docs and Shorts

Oscar Talk: Achievement in Directing (with random thoughts on the DGA)

The DGA nominees were announced earlier in the week and every Oscar prognosticators is wondering whether or not their shortlist of directors is going to match the list that AMPAS releases in the next few weeks. Speak to some critics and they’d tell you that the director award is more prestigious than the picture, and now with the ten-wide Picture field that sentiment seems more apt. It’s no surprise then that the DGA, like every other precursor this year, offered a list of the same group of frontrunners. I don’t have any legitimate complaint to lodge against them, because if these are the five they think have been most outstanding then there’s nothing to criticise there. The cited nominees were Arronofsky (Black Swan), Fincher (The Social Network), Hooper (The King’s Speech), Nolan (Inception), and Rusell (The Fighter) – if you’re paying attention you’ll notice that these are the five films up for the Golden Globe for Best Picture, Drama.

              

From all suppositions one could assume that this is the set of nominees that we can expect from the Academy, although most forecasters are predicting an upset for True Grit. Maybe I’m still a bit naive in this sense, but I still don’t see the correlation between boxoffice and awards’ accolades. Most are citing the surprise success of True Grit at the boxoffice as indication of a recent surge for the film awards’ wise. I’m neither here nor there on that. What strikes me as even stranger, though, is the sentiment that the DGA voted for the race as it was two months ago, and the AMPAS voters (many of them in the DGA) will have to take True Grit’s financial success into consideration to consider the race right now. Poppycock, I say. Who knows...maybe the voters are that fickle, but that just sounds absurd. Does the film being a success make it any better or worse directed? I have no idea (and by that, I mean a thousand times *no* it doesn’t). I’m thinking there will be an upset in the directing race, but I’m not sure I think it’ll be the Coens, but if not the Coen’s then who? The film that you’d most have expected to make a year-end surge (The Way Back) seems to have bowed out of the race with barely a whimper and I want to think that they’ll remember Choldenko but her work is really low-key and they’ll prefer to honour her in the screenplay category. I’ll stick to this quintet for now

                 

Predictions: Arronofsky/Fincher/Hooper/Nolan/Rusell

               

Not an awful group by any means and better in spades than last year’s line-up I did not care for. So I suppose I should be glad for small mercies.

          

Enough with predictions, though. If you had the choice to trade out one of the purported five who’d you take out? Who’d you replace them with?

Forgotten Characters 3:1 (2010 in Review)

It’s that time of year when the internet is virtually flooded with a slew of Best of Lists. I’m no year ready to turn the lights off on 2010. There are still a number of releases I’d like to see before I compile my personal picks, but now is as good a time as any to return my running feature Forgotten Characters, focusing specifically on the characters of 2010 in film. There’s a smorgasbord of picks to choose from, and this should probably carry me until the end of January which is about when I should start working on my year end awards. 

I decided I'd restart the feature with what's arguably the most talked about film of the year, Nolan's Inception - which I liked, in spots. I know a few expected Inception to be nominated for Ensemble Cast at the Screen Actors' Guild Awards, I didn't though. Of Nolan's features, it has the strongest cast but it's also the least inspired work he's gotten from an ensemble. Still, though Marion's Mal sort of steamrolled everyone around her there's another performance that I keep recalling - alone...

Cillian Murphy in Inception

 as Robert Fischer

Everyone is playing a distinctive "type" in Inception (my review), and as the literal scene of the crime to be done Murphy must play Fischer in the register of the oft-forgotten, somewhat bitter son so I'm even more proud of Murphy for managing to turn in what's probably the most emotional arc of the entire film. He's lucky, because aside from the Cobb/Mal fiasco he's the only character who has an actual backstory, and to Nolan's credit as simplistic as it is it's never tawdry. What I appreciate even more, though, is how Murphy plays it - it's as Fischer is in his own film and he's just crossing paths with the Inception folks. Like that early scene with the toy windmill. It's the sort of emotional nuances you don't expect to see (and that you sort of wish was more prevalent in the film).

                                                      

It sort of makes me feel a tad more sympathetic towards him that we're essentially going through an entire film feeding him a lie, and though that emotional centerpiece is nowhere near as delicately developed as Mal's madness it makes me appreciate Cillian more. I'm often feeling out-of-the-loop when it comes to him; as if I should like him more - but I'm rarely given a palpable reason to. Not that he breaks new ground with Fischer in Inception, but it's the sort of well played characterisation that's always well appreciated especially when it's possible to play the entire thing in a one-note register that most wouldn't mind. So, that final scene where he brushes shoulders with Cobb in the airport I wonder just what happens to Robert afterwards....

                    

What did you think of Murhpy in Inception?

                

(All the FORGOTTEN)

Dream On...

There’s a moment in Inception when Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb tells Ellen Page’s Ariadne that a dream is unique because we rarely remember the beginning or the end, because we always seem to be in the middle of it. It’s anyone’s guess if this is because the bookends are unremarkable, or just forgettable for in a way I feel that (inadvertently) Nolan might have identified one of the flaws in Inception. In a way, I suppose it’s a good thing that I saw Inception so late in the game. It’s still not accurate to say that I’ve gauged the playing field, I’ve read only one complete review of it. I’m acutely aware of the hubbub surrounding it but I can’t really discern the sides because I’ve avoided all Inception information. I have a natural inclination to overanalyse films I see and I went into Inception with that natural inclination even more heightened due to the claims that it was a cerebral experience. I’m not sure the film made good on those claims and thus my state of acute sensibility may not have been the best state to appreciate it in.

Essentially, Inception is a heist film. Cobb (along with help from his team) are noted for their ability to extract information from dreams but for personal reasons Cobb is lured into a new heist to perform the opposite – create an idea in someone’s dreams. The visceral portion of the story, which concerns the assimilation of three dream sequences, is played consciously alongside the emotional portion of the story which sees Cobb’s memories of his relationship with his dead wife Mal. Cobb’s reasons for performing this dangerous inception job is so that he can return to his two children who he is unable to see as he travels the globe avoiding arrest for the murder of Mal – an act he is apparently nnocent of. No one is a blank slate and whatever perceived objectivity we bring to a film is always tainted. In case you don’t already know I’m overly fond of Leonardo DiCaprio and despite my general indifference towards Nolan I’ll admit that DiCaprio’s presence in it piqued my interest. I don’t know it was this state of acute expectancy that made DiCaprio’s performance come off with less of a bang and more of a whimper. Considering that if it were up to me he’d have four Oscars (one, two, thee, four) I don’t think I’d say he’s untalented. And say what you will about Titanic but he proved he could at least hold our interest when the special effects were front and centre, but he seems decidedly unremarkable throughout the entire of Inception (and, yes, it hurts me to admit that) and seeing that his performance is imperative to sustain the very significant emotional arc of the story it’s no wonder that I’m left generally unmoved by it – but not necessarily uninterested.

True, Marion Cotillard ends up getting best-in-show honours but Inception is obviously NOT an actors’ showcase. In many ways Inception seems more like an extended pilot episode for a new sci-fi series and less like a complete movie. The ending and beginning, though each fair in its own right, are trite when I consider Nolan’s intent. I’m amazed at Cotillard’s skill though because she comes off with the most difficult task, being forced to move from perfect wife to shrieking siren in a mere second. She pulls off her task credibly but I’m inclined to believe that she’s not playing a real person but Cobb’s memories of her – which makes sense, in its own ludicrous way. I'm not sure if Nolan attempts to be mysterious but he ends up being esoteric because I'm not sure how the characters of Inception exist in the larger world. Was Mal as experienced at the thievery as Cobb...is it legal? I’ve heard Nolan’s biggest fan acknowledge his Achilles’ Heel as his female characters – and it’s true. But despite this Cotillard shines and though Ellen Page’s Ariadne is a woefully underrated character, and more of a glorified mouthpiece she manages to create something real, fleetingly yes but I’ll take what I get. I’m no fan of Page but I’d credit her with one of the film’s better performances managing to turn what could have amounted to a talking head into something that exists. It’s because each person in the film is playing a decided “type” that prevents the emotional connection from being salient. Other than the Mal / Cobb arc Nolan doesn’t care to turn these sketches into real people. Joseph Gordon Levitt and Cillian Murphy round out with Cotillard as the film’s strongest performances, Murphy in particular impressing me with what could have seemed to be something particularly hackneyed.

Inception has a whole lot of information it wants to convey to us and the result is that we spend a good deal of it getting a tutorial into the machinations of this dream world. It’s not that I balk at the plethora information put forth, to Nolan’s credit he is never condescending and the information is never confusing. Yet, there’s that striking feeling of lack of fulfilment. Yes, it looks good but it doesn’t take my (figurative) breath away.  Nolan spends a great deal of time focusing on the technicality of different levels of dreams that propels me to think that perhaps there's something complex for the audience to latch on to, but other than arbitrary locations there's nothing striking that differentiates any one level from the other. The technical aspects are handled well, but I'm tempted to say, "So what?" Then there's the fact that I couldn’t even love DiCaprio which threw me a bit  considering he's the film's only irreplaceable character (but not performance). Yes, it’s meticulously made - visually- but that doesn’t really thrill me. In the end, for me, Inception is merely adequate.

             

B-/C+