Oscars 2013: Final thoughts

So it’s all over for another year.  Take the diamantes back to the unusually trusting jewellers; take a couple of nights of from watching movies; and please please PLEASE stop blogging.  AND THE WINNER IS…

Courtesy of Natasha Searston – http://www.natashasearston.com – @natashasearston

A full rundown of the winners is here, and below are some thoughts which, to my eternal shame, are substantially tainted by a haze of whisky and sleep deprivation.

The ceremony will be one of the least memorable in history (and, if my memory serves me correctly, it has some pretty forgettable competition).

Other than a couple of zingers, Seth MacFarlane – who courted much enthusiastic expectation beforehand – put in a flat performance.  If we learnt anything from Hugh Jackman’s brilliant turn as host, song and dance men are far more successful than out-and-out comedians.  The latter will always be judged on the strength of their one-liners, which are perennially tame.

Jennifer Hudson and, much to my surprise, Catherine Zeta-Jones were belting and the Les Mis set-piece was stirring, but no other musical number stood out (other than the “We Saw Your Boobs” one by MacFarlane which was an amusing diversion but not enough to redeem him).  The Bond tribute was hugely under-cooked.   A few clips we’ve seen a thousand times before (Andress/Berry/Craig emerging from the sea; Blofeld stroking a cat; some explosions; etc) and then one song by the admittedly awesome Shirley Bassey.

And the presenters were utter tat; the highlight somehow being the underwritten exchange between Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy.  That’s when you want to wheel out the funny folk.  Where was Stiller?  Where was Ferrell?  Galifianakis? Jack Black?  Fey?  Gervais?  Carrell?  Even perky Emma Stone, who was the best bit about last year’s show.  Captain Kirk’s appearance was amusing for about 10 seconds, but then that just got weird.

God, the more I think about it, the more annoyed I am.  They have all year to plan the thing.  They know its coming, but still they so consistently underwhelm.

But the results, regardless of their predictability, will be dredged up time and again by Oscar bores…like me:

–  Daniel Day-Lewis, a proper actor rather than a Hollywood archetype, became the most decorated lead man in Oscar history.

–  Best Picture went to a film not nominated for Best Director, for the first time in over 20 years.

–  Jennifer Lawrence’s win will be the first of a good few.

–  Ang Lee won Best Director for the second time – but neither were accompanied by Best Picture.

–  First Oscar for a Bond film in over 45 years.

–  Adele is an Oscar winner (and Seth MacFarlane is an Oscar nominee).

–  Michael Haneke finally picked up an Oscar after two Palme d’Ors.

–  And is this the end of Spielberg?  If Lincoln isn’t good enough, then maybe this is the voters’ way of telling the old war horse that he just isn’t relevant any more.

And that’s all I have to say about that.  Stop typing…finally…any second…now

2013 Oscars: The Winners

Best Picture:

Argo

Courtesy of Natasha Searston – http://www.natashasearston.com – @natashasearston

Best Actor:

Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln

Best Actress:

Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director:

Ang Lee for Life of Pi

Best Original Screenplay:

Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Chris Terrio for Argo

Best Original Song:

“Skyfall” by Adele and Paul Epworth for Skyfall

Best Original Score:

Life of Pi

Best Production Design:

Lincoln

Best Editing:

Argo

Best Supporting Actress:

Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables

Best Sound Editing:

Skyfall

AND

Zero Dark Thirty

Best Sound Mixing:

Les Misérables

Best Foreign Language Film:

Amour (Austria)

Best Documentary:

Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary Short:

Inocente

Best Short Film:

Curfew

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

Les Misérables

Best Costume Design:

Anna Karenina

Best Visual Effects:

Life of Pi

Best Cinematography:

Life of Pi

Best Animated Feature:

Brave

Best Short Animation:

Paperman

Best Supporting Actor:

Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained

Oscars 2013: The final predictions

[Insert typically long-winded climactic intro to the last ditch Oscar predictions here.]

Or, just don’t.  Predictions listed, plus some waffle, and something short sometimes about who I want to win.

…

…

…

GO

Courtesy of Natasha Searston – http://www.natashasearston.com – @natashasearston

Best Picture:

Argo

Being snubbed for Best Director is probably the best thing to have happened for Argo’s Best Picture chances.  It has crashed through the British Bulldog awards season like a juggernaut.  Lincoln is the rightful winner, but Argo’s momentum will see Affleck (and Clooney) getting his big moment tonight.

Best Actor:

Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln

Best Actress:

Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actor:

Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained

Waltz has collected most of the gold this season, despite some strong peers.  But Tommy Lee Jones’s is a career defining performance, and he should be heading home with his second Oscar.

Best Supporting Actress:

Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables

Hathaway’s had this in the bag for about a year.  Nobody’s going to touch her and that’s fine by me.  Despite about only 15 minutes of screen time, she steals Les Mis.

Best Director:

Courtesy of Jade Ogden – http://jadeogdenjewellery.blogspot.co.uk/

Steven Spielberg for Lincoln

Best Original Screenplay:

Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty

It would be an utter travesty. Haneke’s Amour is the best of a disappointing bunch.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Chris Terrio for Argo

Chris Terrio’s WGA win puts him in pole position, but Tony Kushner’s screenplay has everything and should take the award after losing out in 2006 for Munich.

Best Animated Feature:

Wreck-It Ralph

High on originality and fun and is slightly better than strong competition from Frankenweenie and  The Pirates!

Best Foreign Language Film:

Amour (Austria)

But No from Pablo Larrain is a more accessible work with more to say and style in abundance.

Best Original Song:

“Skyfall” by Adele and Paul Epworth for Skyfall

A genuinely brilliant and original Bond theme.  Might be beaten by Les Mis but host MacFarlane looks set to lose out.

Best Cinematography:

Life of Pi

Claudio Miranda should win here at the second time of asking, after The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  His impressive graphics for Life of Pi should see off Roger Deakins for Skyfall – yet again.

Best Editing:

Lincoln

Spielberg’s long time collaborator Michael Kahn deserves his record breaking 4th win.  He some how conjures up a parliamentary procedural drama to run swiftly and coherently in its 2-and-a-half hour running time.

Best Production Design:

Les Misérables

Eve Stewart brings the West End feel and cranks it up to the big screen.  But its a shame that Anna Karenina’s creative theatre-bound setting will miss out.

Best Costume Design:

Mirror Mirror

Brilliant, innovative costumes for a dreadful, dreadful film.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Peter Jackson’s creation should be back on the Oscar stage after 9 years away.  Certainly a lot better than Hitch’s  ropey old fat suit.

Best Original Score:

Anna Karenina

Dario Marianelli won for Atonement and his Russian-influenced score should suit him out for another.

Best Sound Mixing:

Les Misérables

Les Mis’s original use of live mics should give it the edge here.

Best Sound Editing:

Life of Pi

All sea this and animals that.  Another technical award for Life of Pi.

Best Visual Effects:

Life of Pi

All sea this and animals that.  Another technical award for Life of Pi.

Best Documentary:

5 Broken Cameras

A remarkable insight into Palestinian/Israeli relations on the front line.  Searching for Sugar Man is interesting in its own way, but lacks the transcendent resonance.

Best Documentary Short:

Inocente

Best Short Film:

Asad

Best Short Animation:

Paperman

Guest Picture: Lincoln

A riddle: What’s the difference between Jade Ogden and Abraham Lincoln?  One is devilishly attractive and has drawn a Guest Picture for this Bloscars blog and the other is Abr…do you know what actually, I haven’t really thought that through properly.  Forget that one, I’ll try again another time.

But yes, Jade Ogden is a super duper art bod, and below is her ace picture for Lincoln (reviewed here):

Jade’s website

Courtesy of Jade Ogden – http://jadeogdenjewellery.blogspot.co.uk/

85th Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees: Lincoln

Courtesy of Jade Ogden – http://jadeogdenjewellery.blogspot.co.uk/

And finally, to bring an emancipation to this trek through the Best Picture nominees, we at last arrive at Lincoln.  And – in true Spielbergian fashion – I’ve decided to end on a crescendo.  My pick of the pics.  For me, Lincoln should win the whole caboodle.

Rather than towing the typical biopic line, Lincoln spans only a few months.  As he struggles to finally bring union to his bitterly Civil War-torn country, he believes (by God, does he believe) that creating a law to make slavery illegal will bring the conflict to a juddering stop.  Using the dual forces of  silver-tongue and underhand promises of power to the swing voters, he does everything he can to bring about the 13th Amendment, even if it kills him.

Lincoln demonstrates, in a good way, exactly what a Best Picture should be.  Its subject matter is clearly weighty and historically crucial (if not always, I understand, accurate). It is high in drama and low in subtlety.  It delivers the definitive depiction of one of history’s most significant and written about leaders.  It is a parliamentary procedural drama – one indeed of which we are blatantly aware of the outcome – yet it is compelling from start to end.

Of course it is undeniably aided by an unforgettable eponymous performance.  Daniel Day-Lewis isn’t just like (our idea of) Lincoln, he is (our idea of) Lincoln.  Expecting a fully charged, both-barreled Bill the Butcher/Daniel Plainview act-athon, Day-Lewis’s portrayal is measured and humble.  Inevitably, it stirs when it needs to but it consistently convinces.

The rest of the cast shouldn’t be forgotten.  Tommy Lee Jones in particular is fully deserving of his nomination and, in my view, should pick up his second statue.   His radical pro-emancipation Thaddeus Stephens is a larger than life belligerent old bastard, and in Jones is clearly enjoying Tony Kushner’s witty diatribes.  A key scene in which he resists the goading of his younger, more educated opposite number, to give a reasoned testimony instead of yet another soapbox topped rant, is wonderfully played, and resonates even more deeply at the film’s conclusion.

Despite how big Spielberg’s picture is, at times it feels theatrical.  One can imagine Day-Lewis delivering his pitch-perfect anecdotes while treading the boards, while the House of Representatives exchanges would be a marvelous thing to witness on stage.

If Spielberg has made any missteps, it is ironically in casting such a well-established supporting cast.   There are so many other players that it is easy to get distracted in spotting them all.  That guy from Mad Men.  That bloke from Flight of the Conchords.  Robert California from The American Office.  Robin.  The Pin from Brick.  The pedo from Little Children. Oh, and John Hawkes, who could well have been Oscar nominated this year in his own right.  Oh, and Sally Field is reeeeeeeally annoying.

But if they are the only things I can find to criticise (and I really do try), then I figure that Lincoln must be a bit special.

Lincoln; 2012; Dir: Steven Spielberg; Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn; 150 mins; 9/10; 12 nominations (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing)

Bloscars’ Best Picture chart

1. Lincoln

2. Beasts of the Southern Wild

3.  Argo

4.  Silver Linings Playbook

5.  Les Misérables

6.  Amour

7.  Lif of Pi

8.  Django Unchained

9.  Zero Dark Thirty

Guest Picture: Life of Pi

Life lesson learnt.  If you need something doing at the very last minute, ask a 5 year old.

Luckily, for reasons I’d rather keep to myself, I know a couple (they’re my niece and nephew, witch hunter).  And young Hayden Marshall came up trumps (which is what he does best) with a genuinely splendid Guest Picture for Life of Pi (reviewed here by me, although you’ll be forgiven for thinking it was by a 5 year old):

Courtesy of Hayden Marshall (aged 5)

85th Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees: Life of Pi

Courtesy of Hayden Marshall (aged 5)

Much like the titular character from Life of Pi (whose name I have momentarily forgotten) I am a figure who will make you believe in God.  But unlike him, I’m not that damn lazy that I’ll sit around for 227 days doing bugger all.  Indeed, imagine how many blog posts I could write that nobody’s going to read in that time.  Literally lots probably.

To the contrary, time is running very thin now, with the 2013 Oscars (as it’s apparently to be known) so very, very close.  So this little write up will have to be as quick as an attack by a Bengal Tiger.

Pi.  Family.  Zoo.  Boat to Canada.  Sinks.  Lifeboat.  Boy + Zebra + Orangutan + Hyena + Tiger – Family + Death = Life.  French chef?  Island.  Teeth.  Saved.  Story.

Got it?  Good.

As much as it shouldn’t be, it is vitally important to fans of Yann Martel’s novel that the film is a fair representation of the Booker Award winning text.  And they won’t be disappointed (at least…I wasn’t (i.e. I’ve read the book) (i.e. look how well-read and brilliant I am))).  Everything from the source material that needs to be there is – from Pi’s belief of the Christian, Hindu and Muslim faiths, to the urine-based Battle of the Boat (which makes it sound far more putrid than it actually is).  And it looks incredible; the technique of using a combo of real and animated tiger is seamless.

That said, and despite the widely applauded use of 3D – even by Luddites like Mark Kermode – I found some scenes, for example the storms, a little too cartoony.  And of course the ubiquitous problem of colour reduction taints what should be a bright and dazzling palette.

The double Pi performances are strong.  Debutante Suraj Sharma as the young strandee of course, but more strikingly the excellent  Irrfan Khan as the older version telling the incredulous Rafe Spall (with a decidedly annoying North American accent) the unbelievable tale.  He brings a humility and affability to the character.

But even Khan’s nuance can’t inject the magic of the book into Ang Lee’s adaptation.  The ending falls slightly flat, when it should knock you sideways, like being sideswiped by a flying fish.  And that’s what should stop it from being in the running for the big prizes tonight.

Life of Pi; 2012; Dir: Ang Lee; Stars: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Rafe Spall; 127 mins; 7/10; 11 nominations (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Original Song, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing)

Bloscars’ Best Picture chart

1. Beasts of the Southern Wild

2.  Argo

3.  Silver Linings Playbook

4.  Les Misérables

5.  Amour

6.  Lif of Pi

7.  Django Unchained

8.  Zero Dark Thirty

9.

85th Academy Awards Nominees: Best Director

Michael Haneke for Amour

Ang Lee for Life of Pi

David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook

Steven Spielberg for Lincoln

Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild

A category probably more notable for who isn’t nominated than who is, and I have to share the gaping-mouthed wonder.  Ok, so I was happy to see Kathryn Bigelow’s half snooze-fest, half riveter miss out, but Ben Affleck (Argo) and Tom Hooper (Les Misérables) should be within the five.  Affleck’s opus is utterly gripping and almost flawless, while nobody can dispute the authority with which Hooper transformed West End stalwart into a huge silver screen success.

On the contrary, David O. Russell’s largely likable Silver Linings is even messier than Django Unchained (Tarantino is another notable, but justified, omission) and although he is rightly acknowledged for his writing, the direction is, at times, bewildering.

Haneke shows once again shows is imperious expertise in tone, pacing and emotion.  But the very fact it is a foreign language picture will trigger the Academy to say something along the lines of “Près, mais pas le cigare” (and I’d like to thank the Academy for Google Translate).

You can’t help but to admire Ang Lee’s vision and ambition in bringing the “unfilmable” book Life of Pi to the screen.  On announcement of the nominations, I thought he might do a 2006 and win Best Director but lose out on the big one.  But, despite ticking all of the boxes (raking in 11 nominations) it should, it somehow (understandably) lacks the magic of the novel.

And while magic is something with which Beasts’ bathtub overfloweth, I think that Spielberg is the only viable option.

Exactly as you’d expect, he has presented a proper huge Hollywood ‘movie’.  Ok, so it might well be deliberate Oscar fodder, but nobody does it better and, with Lincoln, this is exactly the film with which Spielberg should join Frank Capra and William Wyler with three Best Director wins.

Steven Spielberg on the set of Lincoln (Credit unknown)

Who should win: Steven Spielberg

Who will win: Steven Spielberg

Guest Picture: Django Unchained

Jon Hill’s an enigma of a man.  For starters: he says he’s Welsh, but he sounds English.

…that’s about it, actually.  He does all art n’shit bloody well as well.  For example, for Django Unchained (reviewed here) he done the below.  And there’s more where that came from for you to defo look at, by sneaking a peeker at his website:

www.jon-hill.co.uk

Courtesy of Jon Hill – http://www.jon-hill.co.uk/

85th Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees: Django Unchained

Courtesy of Jon Hill – http://www.jon-hill.co.uk/

Nobody was more surprised than me, particularly after its dreadful trailers (“An’ ah WANT mah scalps”) when Inglourious Basterds was one of the finest films of 2009.

And so carrying such high expectations into Django Unchained must explain why it was such an unforseen disappointment.

Django (Jamie Foxx) is freed from his 1850s southern state chain gang by the eccentric ‘travelling dentist’ turned bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). Liberated for his knowledge of one of the German’s targets, it soon becomes evident that Django is a fine hitman in his own right and the two form a deadly partnership.  But the only mission on Django’s mind is to free his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), from mandingo owner Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

The film starts strongly with a couple of fierce set pieces.  The freeing of Django and a wonderful scene in a town saloon in which Schultz openly kills the sheriff and still ingeniously walks away scot-free.  These scenes owe a gaping debt to the unsettling brilliance of Waltz.  On top Inglourious form, his weird, deliberate delivery allows him once again to steal the show.

But then, all of the performances are splendid (except perhaps for the rather irritating Kerry Washington and, of course, the dreadful Australian cameo).  From DiCaprio’s yellow-toothed dandy, to Samuel L. Jackson’s dilapidated king of the serfs; there is something about Tarantino’s direction or, more likely, his dialogue that allows his cast to give memorable performances.

But despite everything there is to like about Q’s films – and there are the usual plenty of laughs to be enjoyed in   – he has to take the blame for its failings too. His self-indulgence has again proves his own nemesis.  At 2h45m it is way, way too long and the idea just doesn’t have the legs to fill it.

The second act encompasses a couple of genuinely unpleasant violent scenes and is supposed to escalate the tensions between DiCaprio & Jackson versus Foxx & Waltz.  But everyone knows that the tag team bout is heading towards the inevitable mass shoot out.  And, when it comes 2 hours later, it is a predictable melee of spraying blood and exploding heads.  Quentin, it’s not big and it’s not clever.  And it’s not amusing or interesting or original or climactic or, importantly, fun.  It’s just a bunch of fairly deplorable blokes shooting at another guy who we’re supposed to like solely because he’s black and he’s good with a gun.

But it doesn’t stop there.  Sorry Quentin.  Two more bones to pick with you (and please don’t get all steppy steppy again):

i) This peculiar solipsistic assertion that you’re putting about that you’re presenting the horrors of slavery to a new generation and giving the disenfranchised black populous a new hero.  Codswallop and bunkum.  You wanted a new historical setting for your ridiculous shooting gallery and Nazi- occupied France was already taken (by you).  As, friend of the blog, Si Hill pointed out, black America has its heroes in Jay-Z, Michael Jordan and that fella who I always forget…urm…you know, the chap who lives in that big house in Washington…and, you know, is President of the fucking country.  They don’t need you to foist a new gun-toting one upon them; and

ii) THAT cameo.

Django Unchained; 2012; Dir: Quentin Tarantino; Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio; 165 mins; 6/10; 5 nominations (Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing)

Bloscars’ Best Picture chart

1. Beasts of the Southern Wild

2.  Argo

3.  Silver Linings Playbook

4.  Les Misérables

5.  Amour

6.  Django Unchained

7.  Zero Dark Thirty

8.

9.