Oscar Homestretch, Part Two

Part one is here. Shorts and docs are over here, over there, under that, and up on top of this thing. The big awards should follow by Sunday afternoon. 

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Nominees:

• Anna Karenina - Seamus McGarvey
• Django Unchained - Robert Richardson
• Life of Pi - Claudio Miranda
• Lincoln - Janusz Kaminski
• Skyfall - Roger Deakins

I'm dreading one of those frustrating Lincoln-sweeps nights where its backlit/silhouette-heavy style wins. Please, no. Thanks.

Deakins delivered some wow moments in Skyfall, especially with the night scenes in Hong Kong - the high-rise cat and mouse calls to mind Enter the Dragon's classic mirrors maze -- and the finale's spectacular inferno, evoking reminiscences of Tarkovsky's crushing The Sacrifice.
However, Life of Pi quite literally made the sky fall into the sea and is the clear frontrunner. While I have some mixed feelings about the movie as a whole I am pretty unequivocal about Ang Lee's eye for composition and color and Miranda's utterly magnificent cinematography.

Want/Will: Life of Pi

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Nominees:

• The Avengers
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• Life of Pi
• Prometheus
• Snow White and the Huntsman

Solid choices, all -- seriously, the effects are about the only reason to watch Snow White and the Huntsman.  Gollum was never more vivid and alive than in 3D HFR, but there were also some silly and under-rendered effects along the road, so we may have to wait another year to see if Smaug can step it up a notch for Peter Jackson and crew. Instead, going hand-in-hand with Life of Pi's jaw-dropping cinematography are the myriad maritime marvels and the sensational shipwreck scene. Mostly, though, this win will be for the mindfuck when I learned that there was never really a tiger in the boat. (Don't click here for visual representation of my reaction.)

Want/Will: Life of Pi

Best Achievement in Production Design

Nominees:

• Anna Karenina
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln

This used to be called "Art Direction," but they've sucked the art out of it for some reason. Always a tough one to call. Recently the Academy has mixed things up, sometimes going with period-with-a-flair (The Aviator, The King's Speech) and sometimes favoring visuals with out-of-left-field imagination and color (Pan's Labyrinth, Alice in Wonderland, Avatar.) After a late viewing I'm placing my support behind Anna Karenina's gorgeous design. The choreography of navigating through the highly stylized, ingenious set experiments makes for dizzying, dazzling viewing, although the story loses steam and winds up dead on the tracks.

Want/Will: Anna Karenina

Achievement in Costume Design

Nominees:

• Anna Karenina
• Les Misérables
• Lincoln
• Mirror, Mirror
• Snow White and the Huntsman

Again, this is always an iffy proposition, prediction-wise. Maybe next year I should have a fashionista guest-blogger handicap the wardrobe department. While I don't have a favored horse in this furlong, I suppose I'll throw out an Exacta box with Les Mis and Anna K, though the latter's fashions seem a tad modern and out-of-place for the period.

Will: Les Misérables

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

Nominees:

• Hitchcock
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• Les Misérables

Paring it down to three makes this a little easier, and even if Anthony Hopkins' impression was spot-on, the makeup was not jowly enough for me. As a Hitch purist I couldn't help but take exception to this. I liked the movie, though, perhaps more than most.

In this batch I have no probs with the Hobs, per se, but the miserables looked pretty damn miserable.

Want: The Hobbit

Will: Les Misérables

Best Achievement in Editing

Nominees:

• Argo
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty

Want: Zero Dark Thirty. Crisp, unflinching, and meticulous in tying together a story that spans a decade, then able to shift gears and play out the real-time nitty-gritty of the infamous Navy Seals raid on Bin Laden’s compound.

Will: Argo. I’m bracing myself to the idea that, without a head-and-shoulders favorite, Argo will lean on its Hollywood cred and continue to pick up awards. For me, it’s a little too straightforward and by-the-book, but the book is the book for a reason: the film succeeds in part because it is expertly paced.

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Nominees:

• Amour
• Django Unchained
• Flight
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Zero Dark Thirty

It's a bit provocative that the last quarter of Zero Dark Thirty had to basically change on the fly after UBL was caught and killed. (Oops, SPOILER!) Originally it was to end with the hunt still on. It makes me wonder if this award will be judged by the original intent or the finished product. Django could give Tarantino his second Original Screenplay win (Pulp Fiction), and this is often a category that celebrates the great, off-the-wall film that won't ever win the big one. Even so, Moonrise Kingdom, for all of its Wes-Andersonny Wes-Andersonness, is one of my favorite films of 2012, and I’m sad that this was its only nomination, so I’ll be doing a heavy dose of wishful thinking.

Want: Moonrise Kingdom

Will: Zero Dark Thirty -- but I never seem to pick this one right.

Best Writing: Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Nominees:

• Argo
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Silver Linings Playbook

I would love to see Beasts of the Southern Wild pick up an award here since its chances at bigger fish are probably going to slip off the hook. Like Django, it's a bit of a dark horse, but that might work in its favor. Here's one spot where I wouldn't mind Lincoln winning as long as it doesn't coincide with 11 other wins. For all of the movie's faults, Tony Kushner is talented as hell, and the Academy is notoriously political in doling out favor, so his conversational POTUS and the underlying equality themes might strike the right chord with voters.

Ultimately, I imagine that Argo will garner this prize, and I'll be a little bummed when this inevitably happens. Yeah, the truth is stranger than fiction, but even with its smart balance of humor and gravitas, its still a little cliché and hits too many generic beats.

Want: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Will: Argo

Well, only the big cheeses left to spread on the cracker. See you again before red carpet time.