Oscar Aftermath: The Horror, The Horror

Note to the reader: In the future when I write about the Oscar Nominated Shorts and I spew venom about the ones I liked the least, those are the ones that you choose in your Oscar pool. I found the wins for "Paperman" and "Curfew" disappointing and safe, but was pleasantly surprised by the acknowledged dark horse "Inocente" beating out "Open Heart" and especially "Mondays at Racine" for the short documentary award. Add in Searching for Sugar Man as the doc feature winner and it's apparent the Academy was having a very arts/music focused year.

As for the show, I thought Seth McFarlane was a serviceable host. Jokes were hit and miss -- to be expected -- with the Sound of Music gag being the humor highlight. He seemed pretty at ease and delivered crass and class in equal measure, never going too far below the belt without also taking a shot at himself in the process. The musical milieu was a bit tedious, delivering some solid moments (Jennifer Hudson, Shirley Bassey, Adele) along with some stinkers (Catherine Zeta-Jones's distracting lip synching; The PBS-Fund-Drive-approved Les Mis chorus's decent arrangement, erratic singing, and atrocious mixing). Working in all of those numbers ate up a lot of time, however, and the last four or five categories felt incredibly rushed. The rest of the show was relatively forgettable.

Pickwise, the Academy really spread the wealth around this year. I'm scoring myself at 16 out of 25. Yes, I realize there were 24 categories. I'm giving myself two points for my cowardly split vote for Sound Editing resulting in a tie between my two picks, Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty.

"I got your Goldfinger right here."
"Fair 'nuff, m'lady."

So that's nine misses, three in the short films as discussed above. Should have stayed with my original Supporting Actor pick for Waltz, and I'm happy to see Tarantino and Ang Lee each pick up statue number two in what were essentially toss-up categories.

A little annoyed by Lawrence's win over Riva, but I should have figured it was coming. I don't hate her, and appreciate her candor, was just lukewarm on Silver Linings Playbook and immensely floored by Amour and Riva in comparison.

Not sure I like the Anna Karenina costume precedent, basically winning on the idea of "Hey let's throw 1950s Chanel gowns into 1870s Russia. That will look dashing!" Then to perhaps contradict myself, instead of Lincoln's historical accuracy in production design, I really preferred Karenina's inventive work, incorporating moveable sets that must have required exhausting choreography with the DP and lent a dizzying layer of spectacle to an otherwise tepid adaptation. Apart from that, things played out pretty much as I expected.

We'll return to regularly-scheduled programming now that the show's over, and I'm hopefully back in the flow of things. I encourage anyone to feel free to make comments and share your thoughts on the films I've covered, or submit a request if you have something you'd like to see reviewed. Stay tuned!

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.

Oscar Homestretch, Part One

Oscars are breathing down my neck, so it's nitty gritty time. I've already looked at the Animated Shorts, Live Action Shorts, Documentary Shorts, and Documentary Features that are nominated for this Sunday's show, now I'll get to the categories that most people actually had a chance to see. Mostly the Animated films and a few-odd other categories today, finishing up with the big awards by Sunday afternoon.

A quick list of all nominees here. And away we go...

Best Animated Feature
Nominees:

• Brave
• Frankenweenie
• ParaNorman
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits
• Wreck-It Ralph

I only caught the last half of Pirates!, and while I adore Aardman’s bravado and sense of humor, I count it out of the running this year. Like a 6-year old hopped up on Mr. T Cereal I took in all four of the rest in one stellar Saturday.

I hope Tim Burton makes a sunny musical one of these days just so he can reset expectations a bit and I can start to re-appreciate what he does, because it’s frankly getting a little stale. Apart from Martin Landau the voice acting in Frankenweenie falls flat, and despite the many homages to classic horror/monster flicks it never seems like any of the characters are in much danger. Cute, but frustrating.

That said, I have two clear personal favorites in this category: The first, not-surprisingly, is Wreck-It Ralph. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a child of the 80s and old-fashioned when it comes to video games. The first thing I did when I heard about the asteroid near-miss last week was fire up my little triangular ship and start blasting away. Anyway, this is a joy to behold. Fresh, funny, original, and visually stimulating. The King Candy/Ed Wynn character is gold(, Jerry! Gold!) and the attention to detail and non-stop references make it Turbo-tastic!

I must say, though, that I found it a little bizarre that they intentionally designed the four main characters to physically resemble their respective voice actors so closely, and their mannerisms are too acutely tied to personae that those actors have previously exhibited. I guess you could call it on-the-nose casting, but in doing so it risks losing a level of immersiveness; I couldn’t help picturing Kenneth from 30 Rock bouncing around with a hammer trying put the moves on Sue Sylvester.

My second favorite, to my happy surprise, is ParaNorman. Despite a pretty awful title this tickled my funny bone in just the right spot with its non-sequiturs and adult-tinged humor sprinkled throughout, and it brought things home with some really stunning visual sequences. The story revolves around a twisted little witch/zombie curse, allowing it to pickup and run with a broad batch of horror tropes stocked mostly with formulaic characters, but there is enough character arc in a few of them to allow for some growth to wiggle through. Plus, it delivers a strong underlying lesson for the kids. It’s not uncommon for animated films to celebrate “being different” -- come to think of it, ALL of this year's nominees touch on that theme to some extent. ParaNorman ratchets that up another level and reminds us “Hey, bullying is bad, m’kay?” The makers even caused a little extra controversy by having one particular character admit to being gay. It occurs flatly and without fanfare, and marks a first in an animated film (though I always had some questions about the various Prince Charmings, not to mention Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.) Compared to ghosts, zombies and witches, homosexuality is extraordinarily mundane.

Despite my preferences, word on the street is Brave may get the nod, but although the visual style is lush and pretty, it didn't really grab me as anything revolutionary. I like that the strong, independent princess has no need for a prince, making the focus more on the parent/child relationship, but I have some other issues: the story is too classic (read: unoriginal), and nobody seems to really care that bears have been extinct in Scotland for 1000 years before the story supposedly takes place. (Yes, I’m intentionally ignoring the witch/magic angle and only focusing on this one point of non-realism.)

Want to win: A lean to Wreck-It Ralph

Will win: Brave, and I will say, "Ugh, ParaNorman was waaaay better."

Best Foreign Language Film
Nominees: 

• Amour (Austria)
• War Witch (Canada)
• No (Chile)
• A Royal Affair (Denmark)
• Kon-Tiki (Norway)

Amour notching a straight-up Best Picture nod basically makes the Foreign pick a gimme this year, which is good because it's the only one I've yet had an opportunity to see. I'll have more to say when we get to the prime-time categories.

Want/Will Win: Amour

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

Nominees:

• Anna Karenina - Dario Marianelli
• Argo - Alexandre Desplat
• Life of Pi - Mychael Danna
• Lincoln - John Williams
• Skyfall - Thomas Newman

In my opinion, the best-scored film of the year was Moonrise Kindgom, but since it is relies heavily on Benjamin Britten, Alexandre Desplat's contribution was not considered enough to garner a nomination. He did some other pretty damn good work this year, though, working with Middle Eastern themes and instrumentation in scoring both Argo and the mournful Zero Dark Thirty. 

While you should never count out John Williams, who has his 39th(!) nomination in this category, or the perpetually-fecund Thomas Newman, their work this year owes too much to Aaron Copland and John Barry, respectively. I think Mychael Danna will add to his Golden Globe win with his Indian-flavored score, which nestles beautifully into the remarkable imagery of Life of Pi.

Want: Desplat

Will: Danna

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

Nominees:

• Chasing Ice, "Before My Time"
• Les Misérables, "Suddenly"
• Life of Pi, "Pi's Lullaby"
• Skyfall, "Skyfall"
• Ted, "Everybody Needs a Best Friend"

After only two nominees last year and an epic win for the Rhymenoceros, the Academy fleshed things out again and let in five from a broad range of films. Shoehorning a maudlin new song into Les Mis was probably a bad choice for a few reasons, but mostly because the song doesn't fit thematically with Valjean's character at that point in the film. "Before My Time" and "Pi's Lullaby" are both beautiful, wistful and much more heartfelt.

Bond themes are a memorable cultural boon (Think Goldfinger, A View to a Kill) but have never won an Oscar and have surprisingly only garnered 3 nominations: Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me ("Nobody Does it Better,") & For Your Eyes Only. In fact, the last Bond to win ANY Oscar was a Special/Visual Effects award for Thunderball way back in 1965! I think it's a pretty safe bet that trend gets bucked this year with Adele’s dark, sultry turn for one of the best Bond films in the 50-year history of the franchise. Ironically, while Seth McFarlane’s ribald Ted takes a jab at Octopussy’s theme, his own loungey, Randy Newman-lite opener will likely lose out to the very franchise he sent up.

Want/Will: "Skyfall"

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

Nominees:

• Argo
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Skyfall

Want: Skyfall - While the Best Original Song is the best best to end Bond’s drought, there’s a good chance it will already have ended (perhaps twofold) before all the songs have been sung. An outside chance for Life of Pi, but it’s likely going to the action flick or the musical, so I’m hedging a bit.

Will: Les Mis - I was a bit disappointed in the mix, finding myself lost in the intelligibleness of a lot of the company scenes, but again, there’s a bustle in my hedgerow.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing:

Nominees:

• Argo
• Django Unchained
• Life of Pi
• Skyfall
• Zero Dark Thirty

Want/Will: Zero Dark Thirty, with another chance for Skyfall to get Bond off the schneid.

More picks to come in a day or so...