When I asked Shoreditch-based designery type Simon Hill to produce some artwork for Silver Linings Playbook (reviewed here), I was really hoping for a Shepard Fairey style piece of guerrilla street art, or at least an illustration of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence wearing tiny top hats and riding mini tricycles.
What he produced instead however, is arguably even better:
Courtesy of Si Hill – http://www.SiHill.co.uk – @Siiighhill
Courtesy of Si Hill – http://www.SiHill.co.uk – @Siiighhill
It dawned on me, while watching ‘Take Me Out’ the other day (it’s when I do my best thinking), that I really really HATE it when somebody describes something by speaking about it as if it were a recipe.
By way of a masochistic example, take the following:
What do you get if you take a pinch of Bradley Cooper’s charm; an ounce of Robert De Niro’s idiosyncrasies; a spoonful of Jennifer Lawrence’s nubile, vital, fresh-faced, beautiful talent; a dash of Jacki Weaver’s whatever-noun-applies-to-Jacki-Weaver; and stir it all up in a bowl of David O. Russell’s wit and originality? That’s right, it’s Silver Lin…oh dear, you’ve already chosen swift suicide. Understandable.
Despite your justifiable self-fatallisation, I’ll continue to do writing about yonder Silver Linings Playbook. It’s a faintly dark comedy about about a bipartite couple brought together by bipolar (excuse the inevitable misdiagnosis; I sacrificed accreacy for phraseology). Pat (Cooper) has just been discharged from a psychiatric unit after his wife’s infidelity got him all hitty. Tiffany (Lawrence) has been seeking to overcome the grief of her young widowhood by slagging around with her whole lucky office. And in each other they find reluctant kinship – and unlikley dance partners – which flourishes into something golden.
The success of the piece hinges on Cooper and Lawrence, and Russell’s faith is repaid with a touchdown. Cooper, in particular, impresses with his vulnerable naivety and his Best Actor nomination is well deserved; while Lawrence, as the erratic nympho, continues to establish herself as a genuine leading lady who can pull-off a spectrum of roles.
But Russell also pulls his weight with a script that is funny enough to work as a comedy, and smart and insightful enough to stand-alone as a drama. It never slips into the smugness that his previous screenplays sometimes can, the prime example being the unbearable Flirting With Disaster. The film’s critics seem to have a problem with the trivialisation of mental illness, but for me it was an honest depiction of depression and its manifestations and I did not feel that the resolution suggested that the suffering parties were, all of a sudden, utterly cured. They are people with problems, but who want to overcome them and, frankly, that’s a very useful message.
That said, Russell’s inclusion among the Best Director nominees seems unwarranted. At times the film is very clumsy and the editing scatter-gun (although Crispin Smuthers and Jay Cassidy are also nominated) – many scenes seem unfinished or jammed-in. The domestic argument set-pieces for example, in which Pat’s dysfunctional parents played by De Niro and Weaver (who make up the quartet of acting nominations, the first film to do so since Reds in 1981) evidence the possible cause of their son’s problems, are disjointed and disorientating.
Of course, I’m sure that the canny filmmakers would say that this ad-hoc cutting signifies the altered states of mind that the protagonists share in common. And on the strength of the good faith developed by the film’s other boons, it is easy to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Silver Linings Playbook; 2012; Dir: David O. Russell; Stars: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro; 122 mins; 8/10; 5 nominations (Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing)
Bloscars’ Best Picture chart
1. Beasts of the Southern Wild
2. Argo
3. Silver Linings Playbook
4. Les Misérables
5. Amour
6. Zero Dark Thirty
7.
8.
9.
Gadzooks. Wasn’t it a drama.
No, I’m not talking about War Horse (which, infamously, contained barely any drama. Except for when my good friend walked out half way through, struck with a hideous panic attack).
It’s last Thursday’s Oscar Nominations announcement (<—– linked to hither so that you can all enjoy the duo of treats that are Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone) on about which I am bashing.
Well, it all got too much for me. I’ve had to spend the last few days cooling off in Ben Affleck’s mood. But now here’s some considered and, dare I say, splendid thoughts. (Wow, I did dare to say. Good for me. Like many of the nominees, I didn’t see that coming).
As you will see, my ramshackle predictions beforehand were pretty much like something carefully designed and manufactured at the shod-factory. But don’t let that stop you from trusting in my every word inherently.
And certainly don’t let it stop you from revisiting this old site frequently over the next month for reviews of the nominees, thoughts about their chances and the odd bit of artwork here and there too. There’s literally something for everybody* (*Disclaimer – This comment assumes that everybody likes at least one of the Oscars, film reviews, my thoughts, artwork or bad writing).
Best Picture:
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
What a colossal treat. Beasts of the Southern Wild. Hurrah. A divisive film, but one loved by this blog and I’m delighted that it got the recognition it deserves.
Great to see Michael Haneke’s grueling yet life-affirming Amour sneak in there too. It is a testing work of the kind that the Academy should be recognising and, although it is the second consecutive year that the Cannes Palme d’Or winner has been nominated for the big one (following Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life) it is the first foreign languagenon-Hollywood film to make the grade since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon twelve years ago.
Other than those two, all of the suspected suspects are in there. My prediction of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom misses out, but it’s no great loss. He will console himself with his second Best Original Screenplay nomination. The only other real snub is for The Master, which only impressed the Academy’s acting branch (yep, Jonny Greenwood left empty-handed again).
On a side-note, my recollection is that the reason the Academy decided to increase the number of potential nominess to 10 was to allow blockbusters such as Skyfall, Avengers Assemble and The Dark Knight Rises to stand a chance of being nominated. Clearly this is experiment has failed, and only Inception has benefited from the change since its, erm, inception.
My immediate hunch was that Lincoln , with its competition bettering 12 nominations, will take the big prize. But with Argo succeeding at the Golden Globes, there will be plenty of time for me to chop and change my guesstimates a million and one times before issuing my ultimate predictions in late February.
Best Actor:
Joaquin Phoenix in The Master
Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln
Hugh Jackman for Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix for The Master
Denzel Washington for Flight
Amazingly, I managed to nail this category five for five. And for me, Joaquin Phoenix is a deserved three-time nominee in this very strong category.
Best Actress:
Emmanuelle Riva & Quvenzhane Wallis (Credit: GODLIS)
Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva for Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts for The Impossible
There was more shocking glee to be had in the Best Actress category, both for me as well as for Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Much has been made of the fact that Riva and Wallis at 85 and 9 are respectively the oldest and youngest performance nominees. And while Riva’s performance is quite incredible, I think there are certain ethical problems in rewarding Wallis in this fashion (on more, another time).
For the record, I was correct to say that the Academy would not likely back to foreign language actresses. Just a shame that I backed the wrong horse. No offence, like.
Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained
Best Supporting Actor:
Alan Arkin for Argo
Robert De Niro for Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master
Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln
Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained
No surprises here. And, as Emma Stone amusingly pointed out, exclusively previous winners (which, I understand, is a first for the Academy Awards). Christoph Waltz seemed to be the last to sneak in, but has immediately amplified his chances by taking home another Golden Globe.
Best Supporting Actress:
Jacqui Weaver in Silver Linings Playbook, with fellow nominees Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro
Amy Adams for The Master
Sally Field for Lincoln
Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables
Helen Hunt for The Sessions
Jacqui Weaver for Silver Linings Playbook
Jacqui Weaver is pretty much the Academy’s only ‘wildcard’ in the performance categories, in a section again entirely consisting of previous nominees (including two winners). Her nomination for Oscar-loved Silver Linings Playbook completes the full set of acting category nominations for the film – the first time that has happened since Reds 31 years ago (Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Maureen Stapleton).
Best Director:
Michael Haneke with his Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe won for Amour (Credit: Jordan Strauss / Associated Press)
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
…and the surprise fun continues. The only party that Affleck, Bigelow and Hooper are invited to is the snub-fest (oh, as well as the Academy Awards of course, what with Argo, Zero Dark Thirty and Les Mis being nominated in a host of other categories). And it wasn’t even Tarantino who shut their butts out. But instead David O. Russell, who is turning into something of an Oscar darling, Michale Haneke, whose spoof Twitter account is going to make the next month or so a laugh a minute, and newcomer Zeitlin. Again, my gut instinct is for an Ang Lee victory, but I’m sure I’ll waver more than the winner of the annual Dumb Greetings Championship.
John Gatins is nominated for Flight (Credit: Joseph Jacob)
Best Original Screenplay:
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola for Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty
John Gatins for Flight
Michael Haneke for Amour
Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
John Gatins’s screenplay for Flight soared (gerrit?) into the nominations, at the expense of the blatant shunning of Paul Thomas Anderson whose The Master crashed and burned (probably dreadfully inappropriate after today’s awful events in Vauxhall). Tarantino will surely fancy his chances to add to his Pulp Fiction screenplay win, although there’s clearly a lot of love for Haneke’s work and Mark Boal is another previous winner for The Hurt Locker.
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin are nominated for Beasts of the Southern Wild (Credit: Skip Bolen/Getty Images North America)
Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild
Tony Kushner for Lincoln
David Magee for Life of Pi
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook
Chris Terrio for Argo
As expected from my predictions, this never seemed like it was going to be a category ripe for surprise. My self-indulgent outside bet on Beasts of the Southern Wild came good, although in retrospect, the Academy’s apparent love for the film actually made it something of a certainty. This is a really hot category that could genuinely go to any of the five, particularly when you consider the Academy’s penchant for quirky, offbeat comedies (recent screenplay wins for The Descendants, Juno, Little Miss Sunshine and Sideways) and the fact that Silver Linings Playbook is a quirky, offbeat comedy.
And the rest:
Everybody knows that the Academy doesn’t really care about tunes, graphics, noise, dressing up, sets, cameras, foreign muck, cartoons, real life or anything that lasts less than 40 minutes. Famously, the only reason that there are any other awards at all is to dubiously justify the marathon running time of the ceremony.
But I care. I really do. To a degree.
Particularly, this year, about the Best Animated Feature category. Let us repress the unwelcome memories of token nominees like Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, and Kung Fu Panda 2. And let us embrace a new dawn of drawn, sculpted and computer generated jam-packed quality. Even the hotly tipped Rise of the Guardians and Golden Globe nominated Hotel Transylvania couldn’t place among a five-strong selection.
Although Amour appears to be a dead cert for Best Foreign Language film, the big talking point was that critic-proof French feelgood The Intouchables didn’t make the cut. I was glad to see Danish period piece A Royal Affair included, if only because it partially recognises the brilliant Mads Mikkelsen, who was inexplicably not even whispered about this awards season for his performance in Thomas Vinterburg’s The Hunt.
Best Original Song is always susceptible to throwing up the odd oddity, and this year is no exception – Adele and Seth MacFarlane picking up nominations for Skyfall and Ted respectively (Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. Thank you). Seth MacFarlane will be among a select (if not necessarily elite) crew of Oscar hosts who are nominated in the same year, comprising James Franco (for 127 Hours), Paul Hogan (for co-writing Crocodile Dundee), Walter Matthau (for The Sunshine Boys) and Michael Caine (for Sleuth).
And on the topic of Skyfall (the last paragraph mentioned it briefly, so that qualifies as being ‘on the topic’), much to the chagrin of many British fans, it failed to register other than in the ‘technical’ categories. I sympathise with the argument and agree that if Skyfall doesn’t cut the mustard to make it into the ‘big 5’, then the Bond franchise will forever be omitted.
And here are all those remaining categories in full:
Best Animated Feature:
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
Wreck-It Ralph
Best Foreign Language Film:
Amour (Austria)
Kon-Tiki (Norway)
No (Chile)
A Royal Affair (Denmark)
War Witch (Canada)
Best Original Song:
“Before My Time” by J. Ralph for Chasing Ice
“Suddenly” by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Herbert Kretzmer for Les Misérables
“Pi’s Lullaby” by Mychael Danna and Bombay Jayshree for Life of Pi
“Skyfall” by Adele and Paul Epworth for Skyfall
“Everybody Needs a Best Friend” by Walter Murphy and Seth MacFarlane for Ted
Best Cinematography:
Anna Karenina
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall
Best Editing:
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Best Production Design:
Anna Karenina
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Best Costume Design:
Anna Karenina
Les Misérables
Lincoln
Mirror Mirror
Snow White and the Huntsman
Best Makeup and Hairstyling:
Hitchcock
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Misérables
Best Original Score:
Anna Karenina
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall
Best Sound Mixing:
Argo
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall
Best Sound Editing:
Argo
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty
Best Visual Effects:
Avengers Assemble
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Life of Pi
Prometheus
Snow White and the Huntsman
Best Documentary:
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man
Best Documentary Short:
Inocente
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open Heart
Redemption
Best Short Film:
Asad
Buzkashi Boys
Curfew
Dood van een Schaduw
Henry
Best Short Animation:
Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head Over Heels
Paperman
The Simpsons: The Longest Daycare
Very much akin to buying expensive takeaway coffee, breathing and watching The Wire, making Oscars predictions is one of those things that you see other ‘people’ do and just can’t help but to tow the line.
And, notwithstanding that it is a completely pointless exercise (unless all of the predictions are correct, in which case one finally wins the unwavering respect and admiration of one’s peers), the Oscar fervour is a little too compelling to resist.
So here are my predictions for the major categories, together with a word or two for my reasoning which automatically makes the selection look scientific in some kind of a way. I have chosen to forego guessing the other disciplines, which is a shame because when A Royal Affair, Amour, Beyond The Hills, No and The Intouchables comprise the Best Foreign Language nominees, I’m going to look like a damned fool for not having proffered my guesses…
Best Picture:
Argo
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
I’ve ventured for 8 Best Picture nominees this year, from the possible 10. There is so much lovey love for Les Mis and Lincoln that I don’t think there’ll be enough votes left for more left-field choices to squeeze in. This, I think, will mean that the likes of The Master and Beasts of the Southern Wild will have to miss out, which is a shame because the latter is so innovative and spellbinding that it deserves to be recognised with the big boys. Argo and Zero Dark Thirty will appeal to the politicos and, if the weight of Tarantino bundled Inglourious Basterds in to the top category, then Django Unchained has nothing to worry about. Moonrise Kingdom has performed surprisingly well this awards season (despite, in my opinion, it being weaker than The Darjeeling Limited and Fantastic Mr. Fox), but is the most likely of the crop to be omitted.
In the last 5 years, the Oscar nominations for the performance categories have matched with the Screen Actor Guild Award nominations at a heady 86% (if that’s not scientific, I simply have no clue what is). That means, on average roughly 17 of the 20 SAG nominees should match (Oh my goodness, who’s even writing this thing: fucking Einstein?). Naturally then, my predictions here bear a very close resemblance to the SAG nominations.
Best Actor:
Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln
Hugh Jackman for Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix for The Master
Denzel Washington for Flight
Everybody is predicting that Daniel Day-Behemoth is going to steam-roller everybody in sight as he did 5 years ago for There Will Be Blood. If my predictions are correct, John Hawkes will feel like his milkshake has been drunk from under him…he got a SAG nomination for The Sessions. But surely Joaquin’s extraordinarily twisted performance in The Master must make the Academy see past his questionable comments on the awards circuit.
Best Actress:
Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard for Rust and Bone
Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook
Helen Mirren for Hitchcock
Naomi Watts for The Impossible
I have stuck with the Guild here. Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) and Rachel Weisz (Deep Blue Sea) have also picked up the odd nomination along the way, but the Academy are unlikley to choose two foreign language performances and and Deep Blue Sea was out so long ago that the Academy’s short memory span is likely to cast her aside.
Best Supporting Actor:
Alan Arkin for Argo
Robert De Niro for Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master
Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln
Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained
Something in my bones makes me think that the Academy will bottle it when it comes to Bond, and so Bardem’s SAG nod for Skyfall will go unheeded. But that’s largely because my bones are thoughtful and conservative in their thinking. Waltz has a few nominations already and carries with him a previous win in this category three years ago for Inglourious Basterds. If my prediction is correct, then all five of the nominees will be previous Oscar winners. Indeed, the same will be true even if Bardem does scrape in. High calibre indeed.
Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams for The Master
Sally Field for Lincoln
Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables
Helen Hunt for The Sessions
Maggie Smith for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Nicole Kidman is my only omission from the SAG list here. Judging from the trailers, I think her role as a stripping vamp in The Paperboy will be a little hot for the tastes of the Academy. I’ve drafted in Amy Adams instead after she picked up nominations at the Golden Globes and Baftas. Maggie Smith seems like she could drift out as well, which would allow the Academy to throw in a wildcard. There is talk of a hard-sell campaign for Ann Dowd in Compliance which may pique some interest. Again, if the above list is correct, it’s 5 for 5 previous nominees, which includes three previous winners, which includes two previous double winners.
Best Director:
Ben Affleck for Argo
Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty
Tom Hooper for Les Misérables
Ang Lee for Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
…and the high calibre track record continues. The above list (which is a complete rip-off of the Directors Guild of America nominees) consists of wall to wall Oscar winners. Four Best Directing wins and Affleck’s Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting. Tom Hooper has since missed out at the Golden Globes and BAFTA, and Tarantino may squeeze in front of him. Spielberg was also snubbed by the Brits, but the likes of Michael Haneke for Amour and David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook are unlikely to upset his chances of a nomination in front of his home crowd at the Dolby née Kodak Theatre particularly in a year when Lincoln is being tipped to score a record number of Oscar nominations.
Best Original Screenplay:
Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola for Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty
Michael Haneke for Amour
Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
And the Writers Guild of America Awards nominations are my muse here. They however, surprisingly picked out Flight and Looper; two films that have barely registered at other awards. Expect to see Amour get in as the token foreign picture that tends to make its presence felt in this category (think A Separation, Letters from Iwo Jima, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Barbarian Invasions, Y tu Mamá También, Talk To Her and Amélie). I refuse to believe that Tarantino won’t be included in the list and, judging from the competition, will have a good shot of winning.
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild
Tony Kushner for Lincoln
David Magee for Life of Pi
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook
Chris Terrio for Argo
Other than the dumbfounding selection of The Perks of Being a Wallflower I have matched the WGA here. To be fair Beasts of the Southern Wild is a flight of fancy, just because I think that the Academy surely must give it its moment in the sun somewhere. If it falls short, perhaps The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel well take the final spot. But they will all be ultimately crushed anyway, possibly due to the ‘unfilmable’ text, Life of Pi.
Thanks for reading, although you needn’t of bothered…the actual nominations are announced in about 4 hours. Oh well, I guess it’s one way of wasting a coffee break…
Toronto may or, indeed, may not be the city of Mounties, Bryan Adams, maple syrup and Greg Rusedski.
Irrespective of the correctitude of the above already equivocal assertion, Toronto is also – presumably by sheer serendipity – home of the Toronto International Film Festival or, if you’re cool like me, TIFF.
“Exactly how cool are you?” you may well rudely ask. Well, let’s put it this way: I wear the face of my watch on the inside of my wrist and sprinkle cinnamon on my Starbucks latte…at the same time (sometimes). That cool.
See, told you ‘TIFF’ was cool. It’s on an orange background, for cripes sake…
I’m also sufficiently cool to know that TIFF is the true starting pistol for the annual Oscars race. Forget the false starts of Cannes and Venice, whose top prizes – respectively the Palme d’Or and the Golden Lion – have only once in 110 attempts gone to the eventual Best Picture winner (that being the Ernest Borgnine comedy Marty (1955, 4 wins, 8 noms) which won at Cannes).
To drag the athletics/Olympics/athletics at the Olympics analogy to its inevitably West Indian limit, the Usain Bolts of recent years that have gone on to break the Oscar finishing tape in first place are The King’s Speech (2010, 4 wins, 12 noms), Slumdog Millionaire (2008, 8 wins, 10 noms) and American Beauty (1999, 5 wins, 8 noms). Chariots of Fire (1981, 4 wins, 7 noms) fittingly completes the golden quartet over the course of the last 34 awards.
Perhaps more interestingly (if you can imagine such a thing) is the fact that of the 20 TIFF winners that are English-language cinematic non-documentaries, 20% of the time they have gone on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. This is a pretty good strike rate, considering that the Oscars ceremony is still five months away, particularly when compared to the lousy 1.6% and 0% conversion figures of Cannes and Venice respectively.
Throw in the likes of Precious (2009, 2 wins, 6 noms), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, 4 wins, 10 noms and former BTV Film of the Week), Life is Beautiful (1997, 3 wins, 7 noms), Shine (1996, 1 win, 7 noms), Places in the Heart (1984, 2 wins, 7 noms) and The Big Chill (1983, 0 wins, 3 noms) and of all Toronto’s cinematic non-documentary winners, a third earn nominations for the big one. Bear in mind that in the vast majority of those contests, the category only allowed five nominees instead of the new system allowing up to ten, and Toronto’s victor now probably has roughly an even chance* of being nominated.
[* Note that this reasoning has been scientifically proven using the empirical measurement known as the ‘Hunch’]
So what does this mean for this year’s TIFF People’s Choice winner Silver Linings Playbook? I should imagine that it means that director David O. Russell and star Bradley Cooper are permitting themselves broad, somewhat smug, grins…
Cooper could almost see the $ signs as Russell described the concept for his Stuck on You sequel (Credit: Chris Opalla (but only for the photo…the joke was all mine))
It also means that it becomes an immediate front-runner for inclusion in the final showdown in February. David O. Russell’s name will be fresh in the hazy memory of the even the eldest of Academy members; a couple of years ago his The Fighter (2010, 2 wins, 7 noms) picked up two Oscars (a pair of supporting actor gongs (a.k.a. a “brassiere”?) for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo) and a further five nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Throw in the hottest thing in Hollywood , Jennifer Lawrence, who herself picked up a nomination two years ago for Winter’s Bone (2010, 0 wins, 4 noms), Jacki Weaver, who lost out to Melissa Leo two years ago, and Robert De Niro, and Silver Linings Playbook – whose plot revolves around two people with ‘problems’ who seek solace in each other’s weirdness – has a great chance of filling the ‘quirky-yet-philisophical’ comedy nomination that the likes of Jason Reitman and Alexander Payne have thrived on over the last few years.
The film is released in the U.K. on 21st November and, until then we’ll have to make do with the rather annoying trailer (below). But don’t let that put you off; The Kids Are All Right had an annoying trailer too and that turned out to be a brilli…actually, on second thoughts, forget that train of thought.
Bloscars 