SAG nominations and my predictions

The SAG noms are out. My predictions of the winners in Bold:

Screen Actors Guild awards nominations MOTION PICTURE

Actor
Richard Jenkins - "The Visitor"
Frank Langella - "Frost/Nixon"
Sean Penn - "Milk"
Brad Pitt - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Mickey Rourke - "The Wrestler"

Actress
Anne Hathaway - "Rachel Getting Married"
Angelina Jolie - "Changeling"
Melissa Leo - "Frozen River"
Meryl Streep - "Doubt"
Kate Winslet - "Revolutionary Road"

Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin - "Milk"
Robert Downey, Jr. - "Tropic Thunder"
Philip Seymour Hoffman - "Doubt"
Heath Ledger - "The Dark Knight"
Dev Patel - "Slumdog Millionaire"

Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - "Doubt"
Penelope Cruz - "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Viola Davis - "Doubt"
Taraji P. Henson - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Kate Winslet - "The Reader"

Ensemble Cast
"Doubt"
"Frost/Nixon"
"Milk"
"Slumdog Millionaire"
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Stunt Ensemble
"The Dark Knight"
"Hellboy II: The Golden Army"
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"
"Iron Man"
"Wanted"

Latest screening: Seven Pounds

Now here's an odd one. A film essentially as bland as the poster advertising it (see left) and yet oddly kind of involving! I have to say i neither particularly liked nor disliked Seven Pounds. Some people will rail against it's vaguely self-involved messianic central character, others will embrace it whole-heartedly i suspect. It left me with a kind of "meh!" feeling.

Will Smith at first appears kind of an ass in the movie but it's Will Smith so you know this is leading somewhere more feel-good. Even so when i got to the end of the movie his character seemed somewhat selfish and self-absorbed.

No-one makes a particular impression on the acting front. Smith is fine doing his Pursuit Of Happyness thing, Barry Pepper has little to do but look anguished and Woody Harrelson has even less. Only Rosario Dawson gets decent screen time apart from Smith and while she does well with what she has her character is under-developed and is kind of at loggerheads with the gradually revealing back-story of Smith's character as to make you question the motivation used for the story. There does seem to be a fairly simple and less complex solution that would have made the film more likeable and accessible even if not actually better, but never mind.

Generally it passes the time but this is not one to charge out and see and a good many people i know will actively hate it. Personally i'm sticking with my indifference!

Awards chances: Meh!

BAFTA Screeners - the must-sees

Okay, so i don't want to influence peoples voting and if i could get everyone to see everything i would but it's just not practical and since i've been asked by time-constrained friends which of the 45ish screeners i would prioritise i offer here an in-order top 10 with 5 runners-up in no order. This list assumes that everyone will already have seen WALL-E and The Dark Knight and is for those not in the foreign-language chapter. This is not necessarily my favourite 10 (two of the runners-up would be in that) but the 10 i think need to be seen.

1 Waltz With Bashir
2 The Reader
3 The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (though better seen on big-screen if possible)
4 The Wrestler
5 Revolutionary Road
6 Slumdog Millionaire
7 Doubt
8 I've Loved You So Long
9 The Changeling
10 Milk

Runners-up: Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Rachel Getting Married, The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, Frost/Nixon, The Visitor

Latest Screening: Australia

One of the things you have to admire about Baz Luhrmann is he takes risks. On all three of his previous movies i went in expecting to hate them: a ballroom-dancing comedy? a modernised Romeo & Juliet with guns? a pop-song musical? But damn it if i didn't love all three. Australia is an equal risk and i admire Luhrmann once again for making a film no one would, hell probably could make. Unfortunately this time it didn't work.

Australia's biggest problem is tone. It is daft. Tonally it fits with Strictly Ballroom or Moulin Rouge! but that tone doesn't work for this subject. It is often intentionally funny in the first half but the humour comes from a high-camp angle. The lingering soaped-up shot of Jackman; the almost moustache-twirling villainy of David Wenham; the blatant process-shot FX; the CG settings; the outrage and outrageousness are all deliberately silly but the film is going to get serious and at its heart is a frankly rather beautiful story element about the stolen generation of aboriginal children that is done a massive dis-service by this early and lingering tone.

The film doesn't recover. When the second world war comes along the film would love to be, as judging by the marketing Fox would like you to think too, Gone With The Wind; but Gone With The Wind didn't spend its first half being His Girl Friday! - both great films, but hardly a good tonal match.

The film's saving grace is the fantastic performance by Brandon Walters as Nullah, the aboriginal child Kidman comes to mother, and that Jackman and Kidman do there best. But here, ultimately, Luhrmann has doomed the whole enterprise with a style and approach that really seems at odds with his story. Had he gone the full Gone With The Wind old-fashioned epic i suspect this may have worked. Shame.

Awards chances: not a chance!

Latest screening: Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Finally! It's been a long time coming and i wasn't sure it would happen but we finally have a big, brash, epic, wonderful Hollywood movie in the awards season.

So far it's been all big performances in little-feel movies and character pieces, but Benjamin Button is glorious. It shares a distrinctly Tim Burton-Jean Pierre Jeunet feeling with its odd-people populated world and its quirkiness, but has the feel-good elements of writer Eric Roth's Forrest Gump. "Aargh!" I hear you cry. Don't worry, because this is David Fincher, not Robert Zemeckis, and you can rest assured the saccharine has no place in Fincher's world.

Benjamin Button is a superbly realised film on every level. The performances are spot on, especially a truly memorable turn from Taraji P Henson as Benjamin's adoptive mother; the visual effects are excellent; the score is complementary and beautiful; the photography is luxurious. I really can't find significant fault with Benjamin Button and it is unlike the rest of this year's pack on so many levels it will be a hard one to call once the nominations start flying.

Rest assured though Fincher has to be a front runner because here he has brought together a collective of faultless element into a seemless and damn entertaining film, while making something wholly different from anything he's done before.

Awards chances: Pitt and Blanchett are good (as usual) but work within the film's world rather than stand out from it - good for the film but unlikely to gain them the necessary attention for awards. The film though is a shoe-in in both major (Picture, Director, Screenplay) and technical categories. And i'm planting my flag in Fincher for Best Director right now.

Golden Globe nominations and a knee-jerk feeling of winners!

Golden Globe noms have just been announced. Here's the full list of film nominations and my knee-jerk prediction for the winners (in bold):

BEST FEATURE - DRAMA
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"Frost/Nixon"
"The Reader"
"Revolutionary Road"
"Slumdog Millionaire"

BEST FEATURE - COMEDY
"Burn After Reading"
"Happy-Go-Lucky"
"In Bruges"
"Mamma Mia!"
"Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

ACTOR - DRAMA
Leonardo DiCaprio - "Revolutionary Road"
Frank Langella - "Frost/Nixon"
Sean Penn - "Milk"
Brad Pitt - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Mickey Rouke - "The Wrestler"

ACTRESS - DRAMA
Anne Hathaway - "Rachel Getting Married"
Angelina Jolie - "Changeling"
Meryl Streep - "Doubt"
Kristin Scott Thomas - "I've Loved You So Long"
Kate Winslet - "Revolutionary Road"

ACTOR - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Javier Bardem - "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Colin Farrell - "In Bruges"
James Franco - "Pineapple Express"
Brendan Gleeson - "In Bruges"
Dustin Hoffman - "Last Chance Harvey"

ACTRESS - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Rebecca Hall - "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Sally Hawkins - "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Frances McDormand - "Burn After Reading"
Meryl Streep - "Mamma Mia!"
Emma Thompson - "Last Chance Harvey"

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Tom Cruise, "Tropic Thunder"
Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"
Ray Fiennes, "The Duchess"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"
Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, "Doubt"
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Viola Davis, "Doubt"
Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler"
Kate Winslet, "The Reader"

SCREENPLAY - MOTION PICTURE
Simon Beaufoy - "Slumdog Millionaire"
David Hare - "The Reader"
Peter Morgan - "Frost/Nixon"
Eric Roth - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
John Patrick Shanley - "Doubt"

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
"The Baader Meinhof Complex" (Germany)
"Everlasting Moments" (Sweden)
"Gomorrah" (Italy)
"I've Loved You So Long" (France)
"Waltz with Bashir" (Israel)

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
"Bolt"
"Kung Fu Panda"
"Wall-E"

Question of the day: LA Critics!

The LA Critics have announced their best of 08 list and best film went to WALL-E. Yet best animated film went to Waltz With Bashir. Since WALL-E is animated and is apparently "the best picture" shouldn't that automatically make it "the best animated picture"?!

Personally i think i'd give it to Bashir over WALL-E anyway but surely this makes no sense!

Animation review: Bolt

Since when i did my analysis of the animation contenders i hadn't seen Bolt (which doesn't qualify for BAFTA but does for the Oscars) it seems only fair now i have to give it a mention.

I have to admit Bolt was a pleasant surprise. Between cutesy trailering, a DreamWorks-esque placing of star names on the poster and documented issues with the film, such as the style and design being changed significantly half way through, i had kind of written this off. But lo! Here we have a genuinely funny family film. It has no pretensions of Pixar's grace and beauty, this is intended purely to entertain kids and the adults. Nothing wrong with that and it completely works at that.

The sidekick character of Rhino (a hamster in a running ball) is inspired and really helps the film avoid a center-stage lag. There's nothing stunningly original here - in fact fans of Inspector Gadget may find the TV show within the film strikingly familiar - and the voice cast, with the excpetion of Rhino (Mark Walton), don't particularly stand out. But at the same time they all work. I saw the film in 3D, which i continue to love, but here, as with 2006's Monster House the film is actually worth seeing regardless of 3D, which has been rare so far with the relaunch of the technology (yes Polar Express, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Beowulf, i'm looking at you!).

Awards chances: It isn't going to threaten the triumvirate of WALL-E, Kung Fu Panda and Waltz With Bashir for the three nominations but it's better than most of the others i've seen and kids will love it.

Screener watch: The Visitor

For those following the screeners sent for BAFTA you should now also have The Visitor - a wonderful independent film with excellent central performances by Richard Jenkins and Hiam Abbass. It's directed by Tom McCarthy who did Station Agent, and is as good a watch, but don't expect Station Agent type of film. Definitely one to watch, especially as they've had the sense to send it ahead of the pack.
Recommended.

Best Animated Feature: the lowdown

As we all now know 14 films have been submitted for consideration for Best Animated Feature at this season's Oscars. These include the big boys: Pixar's WALL-E, DWA's Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Disney's Bolt, Fox/Blue Sky's Horton Hears A Who; Universal's Tales Of Despereaux; independent titles: Delgo, Fly Me To The Moon, Igor, Dragon Hunters; and foreign titles: Waltz With Bashir (Isr-Ger-Fr), $9.99 (Aus/Isr - but English language), and The Sky Crawlers and Sword Of The Stranger (both Japanese). For the BAFTAs Persepolis (Fra) will qualify, but Bolt, Delgo, Dragon Hunters and the foreign offerings except Waltz With Bashir won't.

WALL-E - (http://adisney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/wall-e/flash_site.html?deeplink=Video) Quite simply one of the most beautiful animated films ever made. It's good enough for a Best Picture nom potentially, although i think the status of having a separate animated category will keep it out. From the ingenius Keaton-esque almost silent comedy first 45 minutes to the slightly more general audience friendly and not as good, but still great, second half WALL-E delivers on every level. One of the greatest animated characters ever created, not just in the artistry but in the heart, voice and personality. The scenery in the first half is so astonishing it is hard to believe you are watching animation and consultant Roger Deakins' influence is evident. A wonderful film that thoroughly deserves to win this category. Pixar continues to set the bar ever higher!

Kung Fu Panda - (http://www.kungfupanda.com/) It is a shame DWA choose to deliver their best film since the original Shrek in the same year as Waltz With Bashir and WALL-E, they just don't stand a chance, and that genuinely is a shame. Panda is not only hugely entertaining - far funnier and more consistently enjoyable than probably any of the studio's previous efforts - but it also showcases some extraordinary animation - the chop-stick battle between Po and his master is stunning. A very good effort, well worth watching and hard not to enjoy. It should, and i am sure will, bag a nomination but the competition is just too stiff this year.

Bolt - (http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/bolt/trailer.html?t=med) Disney goes the DreamWorks route: voice talent names above the poster, blatant kiddie humour grabs in a film that opens domestic this week but won't make Bafta this year due to a Feb half-term launch. Looks cute and reasonably funny but don't expect it to be considered a great and with Disney behind Pixar's WALL-E they have their nom in the bag for that. That said, i haven't seen it so who can say for sure... right?!

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - (http://www.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/madagascar2/large3.html) A surprisingly decent sequel to a film i hated, this looks better (the animation is fantastic on the scenery etc, although the ugly character design from part 1 doesn't quite gel with the upgrade on everything else!) and is much funnier. It is still inconsistent though. The central characters just aren't that funny or likeable. Sacha Baron Cohen is great and the Penguins once again provide a lot of laughs but this is not a great film, certainly not on a par with the Panda, and it is a sequel which won't help it. DWA have their nom in the bag with Kung Fu Panda so this one will miss out.

Waltz With Bashir - (http://www.sonyclassics.com/waltzwithbashir/trailer.html) Wow! This film is stunning. I've reviewed it on here so i won't repeat everything but i expected a worthy, but hard to love film like Persepolis and got a gripping, entertaining, roller-coaster or humour and horror. This film could and would win Best Animated Film in almost any year, but against WALL-E? I can't see it. That said in a way i hope it does. I love WALL-E but Pixar has the acclaim already and i wish more people than will would see this fantastic film. I can't recommend it more. A nomination is assured if there's any justice in the world.


The Tale Of Despereaux - (http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/thetaleofdespereaux/) Could be painfully cutesy and naff, could be a new American Tail. The animation looks good and it different in style from the others on offer. The trailer has its moments without being remarkable. The only one i haven't seen that i feel i need to just in case.

Delgo - (http://www.delgo.com/flash_site.html) I can't comment too far as i haven't seen this but look at the trailer and you'll see how awful it looks. Not a hope.

Sword Of The Stranger - (http://www.stranja.jp/) Looks quite exciting (see 9th red tab on left side of site for very slow-loading trailer) but necessarily better than so many other animated films that come out of Japan, and with two Japanese qualifies i can't see this standing out.


Dr Seuss' Horton Hears A Who - (http://www.hortonmovie.com/) A fun but inconsistent film that passes the time enjoyably enough but doesn't leave you wanting to watch it again. There is also nothing special about the animation. Blue Sky won't be worrying Pixar and DWA at the Oscars with this effort.

The Sky Crawlers - (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4CWZ8BANVE) The fantastic animation on the plane sequences and landscapes doesn't seem to gel with the character animation in the trailer - an obvious mix of computer and hand-drawn animation, that may count against this. The story (from what you can tell from watching a Japanese-language trailer when you don't speak it!) looks possibly more epic than Sword Of The Stranger (which looks far more entertaining) but with the power of Bashir's story and the elegance of WALL-E's animation i can't see this breaking through.

$9.99 - (can't find a trailer) No way to judge this as can't find a trailer and haven't seen it. A good voice cast including Geoffrey Rush and Anthony LaPaglia are on it. Judging from stills it's stop motion. It had better be pretty special to challenge by top three predictions.

Fly Me To The Moon - (http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/flymetothemoon/) Haven't seen it myself but those i know who have say it is one of the worst animated films they've ever sat through! The trailer would seem to support this statement. Count this one out.

Igor - (http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/igor/large.html) Speaking of worst animated films ever, this painfully mis-judged effort wants badly to be Tim Burton but fails on every level. The jokes that are meant to be dark are just unpleasant. The character designs miss both charming and kooky. The story is hackneyed, obvious and pointless. Most of the voice cast are lazily doing what they've done so so so many times before (the work of Jennifer Coolidge, John Cleese and Eddie Izzard here is unforgivable!) What's worse is it feels like it could have been a good idea at some point. Steve Buscemi's suicidal immortal rabbit provides a (very rare) occasional smile but this won't even flit across the mind's eye of voters.

Dragon Hunters - (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6NBPXplDYA) Trailer looks horrible, and curiously Igor-esque. Ugh!

Persepolis (BAFTA only) - (http://www.sonyclassics.com/persepolis/) An impressive film, but it is hard to truly love. Given that many will see it as a year old despite its qualifying status for the British Academy and that Waltz With Bashir provides similar, superior edginess to the category expect this one to fall by the wayside given that you only get 3 nominations in this category.

Final predictions: The nominations for Oscars will be WALL-E, Kung Fu Panda and Waltz With Bashir. WALL-E will win, although Waltz With Bashir is good enough to cause an upset. BAFTAs will nominate WALL-E and Waltz With Bashir and probably Kung Fu Panda. Again WALL-E will win.

Latest screening: Milk

Yet another case of performance over film here. Milk, like Doubt, is elevated as a film by uniformly excellent performances but the film itself is not great. Comparably to something like Monster or Capote, it is not that the film is bad per se, but that it is fairly forgettable. I challenge people that say it is a great film to remember much of the actual style and delivery of the film itself a month on. I'll bet they will remember little beyond the performances.

Of course such cases and dominating the awards season this year and an ensemble film like this could elevate it to best picture and best director status simply because there isn't a weak link in the actors on screen. See Crash for a recent example of this - the acting and the issue at its core drove its nominations and eventual win not it's actually being the best film of the year (which it plainly wasn't). With the recent hoopla over Prop 8 in California this is incredibly timely and so it does have the issue-ensemble angle that Crash had - it's also a better film.

It's not a great film though. The contrived way around of delivering narration Van Sant uses grated on me from the first instances and some of it was too laudatory i felt. I like me biopics with a sense of perspective and Milk was unashamedly in awe of its God-like (movie portrayal not opinion) subject. No doubt this will go down great in the US but i just didn't buy it, i wanted more from it.

Awards chances: It has the pedigree for Best Picture and Director noms in a slow year (which this is) but Sean Penn is electrifying and completely deserves the Best Actor nomination so is assured. It truly is a fantastic year for Best Actor possibilities this year (the one really hard to call category) and many deserving performances are going to miss out.

I am officially retracting my Josh Brolin prediction though. He's good here but he's just not in it enough. If he had already lost for a robbed central role (like Judi Dench) then it could happen, but his presence at the core of No Country and great turn in W. won't be enough for this.

Latest Screening: Che, Part One

Again, this was a pleasant surprise. I had come to believe from Cannes reviews of the full film that it was bloated and dull. Well, i don't know how Part Two plays but i found Part One (which is the only half that qualifies for this awards season in the UK) to be fast moving and fascinating.

Benicio Del Toro commands your attention as Che and the intercutting between Che in New York in the 60s and the younger Che getting involved with and then becoming a key player in the revolution worked well, with Soderbergh using black-and-white for the New York scenes, to evoke the documentary camera crew aspect that ties in with his being directly interviewed.

This is Del Toro's film and while Catalina Sandino Moreno, Julia Ormond and a few other recognisable faces appear from time to time no one can make headway against his impact. Del Toro can make a poor film better by his usually solid presence but he is truly excellent here and you can see how he won the Cannes Best Actor trophy.

The cinematography and production design work well, Soderbergh being typically stylish, but unlike in Traffic the alternating styles to denote time or place changes is less jarring.

Awards chances: Del Toro should have had a good run at Best Actor but it is a tough year even to get a nomination and the fact the film has been split in two may dilute his impact. As i've noted before the last two Americans to win Best Actor at Cannes (Tommy Lee Jones in Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada and Sean Penn in She's So Lovely) didn't even receive Oscar nominations, though Jones deserved one far more than he did for In The Valley Of Elah last year! Equally no Cannes Best Actor or Actress winner has gone on to win the Oscar since Holly Hunter in The Piano 15 years ago. So, slim perhaps but possible.

Latest screenings: Waltz With Bashir, The Wave (Die Welle)

Waltz With Bashir surprised me. I had heard it was good, but i thought it would be one of those films i would admire, like Persepolis, than really like. It would be different. An interesting alternative to shake up the Best Animated Feature or Best Foreign Language Film categories. I never expected to find one of the best films of the year!

Thought provoking, funny, shocking, entertaining, disturbing, beautiful. Waltz With Bashir is so many things, what it isn't is over-rated. This is simply a must-see. I would vote for this as Best Foreign Language and Best Animation, and the way things are going it may well be in my Best Feature and Best Director lists - certainly will be for the long-list first vote.

Awards chances: This will 100% feature in the Animation nominations (see above). For BAFTA i think it also has a fantastic shot at a foreign language nomination. It deserves so much more. Quite simply: Brilliant!

The Wave (Die Welle) - Talking of thought-provoking, Monday night i saw an excellent German film called The Wave that i was recommended. Momentum has it in the UK so hopefully they'll send it out, and if they do i encourage all to watch it. It has moments bordering on melodramatic but on the whole is a very well made and handled film about a teacher trying to really get through to his students on a controversial topic - the film asks, does he prove his point or go too far. Watching it you know exactly how the media would spin it and it will make you consider news stories in different ways, even though that is not what it is about.

Awards chances: For BAFTA it may have a shot in foreign language if it gets sent out because it is a very good film that strikes a chord.

Oscar Documentary short list

The Academy has unveiled the shortlist of 15 documentaries that will advance to the next stage in 81st Academy Awards.

The 15 films are:
At the Death House Door
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Blessed Is The Match: The Life And Death Of Hannah Senesh
Encounters At The End Of The World
Fuel
The Garden
Glass: A Portrait Of Philip In Twelve Parts
I.O.U.S.A.
In A Dream
Made In America
Man On Wire
Pray the Devil Back To Hell
Standard Operating Procedure
They Killed Sister Dorothy
Trouble The Water

Can't make much of a comment here as the only one i've seen is Man On Wire - which is excellent, and amazingly compelling (especially given there is no recorded footage of the wire-walk at the centre of the story!)

The British Academy doesn't have a documentary section so am unlikely to see many if any more of these. I saw Taxi To The Dark Side earlier this year which was also superb - it won the Oscar last year.

On a related note: saw Religulous last week. Hilarious if you happen to be an aetheist, which i am, and no doubt deeply offensive otherwise. Kind of poorly made and very cheap looking to be honest and it makes Michael Moore look even-handed. Very much only one to see if you are pre-disposed to the subject and want a cheap laugh.

Coming soon:

Been hectic at work last coupla days but watch this space tomorrow for:

My take on Milk and Che, Part One

A run down at the Animated contenders including Waltz With Bashir, Madagascar 2, Kung Fu Panda, WALL-E, Igor

A look at a couple of Bafta foreign language contenders

Latest screening: Dean Spanley

A pleasant Sunday afternoon diversion type film, this is one to see with no knowledge of what it's about and watch on a screener.

I'm not going to go into what it's about because i knew nothing going in and that helped. The first half of the film if slow and starts to seem a bit ludicrous and i was thinking this is going to be shit, but found myself won over by the whimsy of it all by the end. Of course if you don't like whimsy then this isn't for you. It is completely mad.

The performances, production design are all fine but nothing stands out and it seems to me the only reason for even bothering with awards season screenings is to try and get O'Toole another shot at the elusive prize! He won't get it here though. He is good, though this again comes through in the second half. For the first half he seems to be just classic cantankerous O'Toole, enjoyable but not remarkable. Like the film he gets better but this is too instantial overall.

Awards chances: O'Toole is a long shot nomination but given he's been nominated 8 times before i suppose it's possible. I'd rule out anything else though. If they send screeners though it is a pleasant diversion.

Trailer: Up

God bless Pixar! One for the 2009 Best Animated Feature award? Probably

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/up/trailer_large.html

Trailer: Crossing Over

Not a factor for this awards season but i find this trailer interesting. Could be just another one of those Crash-type moral-issue ensemble pictures that are becoming over-common, but i actually quite like the look of this.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809837407/video/10646018

Latest screening: Slumdog Millionaire

Now here's an interesting one. A film that truly has everything. It is funny and disturbing. It is emotionally charged and an easy watch. It has great performances but is never overwhelmed by any. It is, to say the least, memorable.

The winds seem to be suggesting Slumdog Millionaire could be a best picture contender this year and i have to agree. It is not that it is necessarily a film you watch thinking, "this is great, i must vote for it", nor just it entirely avoid cliche and predictability but it is a satisifying, well made watch and in this particular year that may be enough.

Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy and everyone involved has crafted an elegant, hard to dislike film. Can you find fault in it? Sure. But it lingers in the mind and scenes come back to disturb you, to make you laugh, to lift your spirit.

Where it stands such a good chance it that the film is one of the few this year where the film as 'package' is strong as opposed to one aspect. Most of the film's currently clamouring for awards voters' attentions (Doubt and Frost/Nixon - and i hear Milk - being prime examples) are cases where the performances are strong but not necessarily the film. Films that in most years would not see picture noms, just acting ones, are suddenly in contention. Slumdog Millionaire stands out because while Dev Patel and all the actors here are excellent it is not the performances that stand out, it is the film itself. It is uplifting but it gets (perhaps slightly eyebrow-raisingly melodramatically) there through a rollercoaster of shocks, laughs, violence and joy.

Added to this the fact that Fox Searchlight, the true masters of securing the "smaller indie slot" best picture nomination (Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine being just two recent examples) have the domestic rights.

Awards chances: A very good film that may not have been a best picture contender in many year's but may have found itself in the right place at the right time this year, where the overall 'package' really stands out. Expect Best Picture, maybe Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography nominations.

Oscar predictions: The 1st attempt

It's 101 days until Oscar night and well over two months until the nominations but i'm going to shoot off my first predictions for this year's main categories. I will be keeping a record of these predictions as i make new ones, as well as other individual category ones and nominations predictions down the right hand bar. I will never re-edit any of them, and i will date all so i can see how close i got and when i did get it right (if at all) how far out I got it. All predictions will also get a post with a Predictions 2008 label so it can seen i'm not cheating and editing the right-hand tracker!

So the first set! Wednesday November 12, 2008 Days to Oscars: 101

Best Film: too early to call as i haven't seen Benjamin Button, Reader and Australia yet so i can't agree with or dispute the early Button buzz. For my money the best i've seen to date and a guaranteed nominee is Revolutionary Road.

Best Director: As Film

Best Animated Film: WALL-E - without a doubt, this is a lock and anyone who's seen it knows that to be true.

Best Actor: Mickey Rourke or Frank Langella. Langella was my early favourite because he's extraordinary in Frost/Nixon and he has elder-statesman angle but Rourke is the 'story' vote this year and Langella will suffer if a lot of other political-edged bio performances take other slots (these could include Brolin in W., Del Toro in Che, Penn in Milk). If they don't he'll be a stronger contender. I suspect Langella will get the BAFTA and Rourke will get the Oscar.

Best Actress: Kate Winslet - While Streep will be nominated and is current favourite this feels like Kate Winslet's year. That said if she is nominated for both Revolutinary Road and The Reader she could split her chances and then Streep or even Angelina Jolie could take the prize. BAFTA may well plump for Kristin Scott Thomas in I've Loved You So Long. This is the best of all the performances but politics will ensure she doesn't win the Oscar - she may be British, but it is a French-speaking role and the Oscars will never give a French-language performance Best Actress two consecutive years. For now i'm saying Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road.

Best Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin in Milk - This could all change (i haven't even seen the film yet, seeing it next week). But i don't think Ledger's going to get this. He'll be nommed. But think Brolin. He was the (excellent) centre of a great film last year (No Country For Old Men) but got almost no recognition himself as Bardem had the bravura performance and TLJ had the pre-film profile. Add to that his stunning turn in W. for which he will not win whether nominated or not and you have a lock on Best Supporting Actor in my opinion. If bookies are taking bets now that's where i'd put my money.

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams in Doubt - Similar to Brolin, Adams is a rapidly rising force to be reckoned with. Always good she has a recent Oscar nom under her belt for Junebug and was glorious to behold in the delightfully daft Enchanted. Add to that recent strong turns in films like Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day and Charlie Wilson's War. Adams is the foundation on which Doubt is built. Streep and Hoffman may have the showier roles (and if she was unknown she'd be lost underneath them) but she manages to stand out. In not a terribly strong year for supporting actresses anyway i think she has to be the frontrunner - it will also give Doubt the token acting win it must get to allow for Streep not winning.

So today that's where i stand. This may, and likely will, all change. I'll update as necessary.

Latest screening: Doubt

I have no doubt that Doubt will feature heavily come the awards nominations. While the film itself may be a long shot - it is another of this year's seemingly unending set of solid films with incredible performances - the four leads are uniformly excellent.

The film manages to avoid the trappings of its stage origins well, a particular surprise given that director John Patrick Shanley is both writer of the screenplay and of the original play, and hasn't directed a film since the painful Joe Versus the Volcano (the Hanks/Ryan collaboration most people conveniently forget!) This may largely be due to typically stunning cinematography by Roger Deakins (presumably the film that prevented his working with the Coens on Burn After Reading). It is an intimate film as necessitated by the play construct though and that is perhaps why the film does not resonate like the performances do.

Much will, and already has, been made of Meryl Streep's performance and rightly so but Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and, in a single but memorable split-scene Viola Davis, all bring their A-game and match her. There is a feeling in Hollywood right now that Streep will take best actress and it would be no bad thing were she to, but i suspect not. Streep, like Hoffman, is typically excellent here but there are other performances this year as good (see my first predictions later today) and this feels like a nomination not a win. Personally for my the performance that really resonated was Adams.

Awards chances: Expect to see Streep and Adams get nominations with possible spots for Hoffman (although with best actor so strongly contested this year i suspect not) and maybe Davis who, despite very limited screen time, makes an impression and supporting actresses worth nominating currently seem few and far between. The screenplay if also likely in the adapted category and Deakins may well find himself short-listed once again. The film is more in doubt, though it is not a strong year so it could do. Director i'd be very surprised.

Great news for adult UK cinemagoers

Vue cinemas are to start doing over-18 only screenings of under-18 films, the adult equivalent of toddler screenings.

No more putting up with parents too lazy or cheap to get a baby-sitter dragging their kids bored and confused 5 year-olds to 12As. No more teenagers tittering through 15s. The chance to see Pixar films without screaming, crying, whinging children.

Yeh!

Let's hope Cineworld, Odeon etc follow suit.

Full story on the Beeb: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7713781.stm

Latest screenings (UK wkd openers): W., Pride & Glory, Easy Virtue

Three new films in the UK this week, all passing by the executioner's chopping block.

Best of the week: W.
Oliver Stone has returned to form with W. - his best film since Nixon. Stone attempts to fairly even handed in his treatment of Dub-ya, which has annoyed many critics who were out for blood, but he can't avoid a few swipes that are the film's biggest problem. Making Bush look stupid by using this own sayings is fine and accurate, but two or three moments, including the use of the song Robin Hood are overdone and smack of the film the left-wing hoped he'd make and the right-wing thought he'd make. He can't have it both ways and they feel out of place in this film. As does Thandie Newton's sketch-show gurning as Condoleeza Rice. She is hilarious but it's too much really.

Brolin though is excellent. You feel sorry for his W. while at the same time seeing the figure of ridicule we love to mock. Brolin has been gaining more and more momentum in the past few years and this is a stunning turn. No matter how good or bad those acting around him (and most are very good for one reason or another) Brolin is so good that by the second half you just feel like you're watching footage of the 43rd president. It's spooky.

Awards chances: Brolin should get a nomination and it'll be interesting to see if should he get a supporting nod for Milk whether this will happen. He should, but the Milk nod may be seen as a good excuse to avoid the hot potato that W. will no doubt be in awards season. A Bafta nom for him seems more certain. The film may be too soon for much Oscar attention beyong Brolin but Stone is a two time Best Director winner and this is the best film he's made in a decade and it comes in a poor year (so far) for Best Picture certainties so i wouldn't rule it out. Personally i suspect come Jan 22 we won't be seeing key noms for this one outside of Brolin.

He'll never win for this, but if he is nommed for W. as Best Actor and Supporting Actor for Milk then expect to see Brolin walk away with the supporting trophy - especially only a year after he was the central glue to, but most ignored part of come awards season, of last year's Best Picture winner No Country For Old Men. I'm seeing Milk next week and confirm my thoughts on this then.

Pride & Glory - Much better than it has any right to be, this cop thriller is as predictable as it looks and offers little new to the genre, but it is efficiently made by director Gavin O'Connor and his team and raises its game with uniformly strong supporting performances.

It is odd that of all the performances the weak link is Edward Norton, not because he's bad (is he even capable of being so) but because he's sleep-walking through his performance. But Farrell tries valiantly to inject a depth to his character that the script has not provided, Noah Emmerich and Jennifer Ehle shine throughout and Jon Voight shows just how good he can be. A scene with Voight drunk at a family dinner is a masterclass in how to play drunk realistically - if you were told be sank a few shooters ahead of the take you'd believe it.

Awards chances: Not a chance. The film is solid entertainment but unremarkable and has no awards traction at all. Still, it's leagues better than the excrable Righteous Kill!

Easy Virtue - A funny and entertaining adaptation of the more serious Noel Coward play, but it suffers from pendulum swings in tone. Kristin Scott Thomas does her cold and calculating best, Colin Firth is fine if unremarkable and Jessica Biel shows a lightness and skill she hasn't previously displayed. Biel should certainly continue to show people what she is capable of in choices like this and The Illusionist, things we could never have guessed from watching the likes of Blade Trinity and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But Ben Barnes is terrible. Yet another in a long line of good looking wooden young British actors, much like Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightley - not that it hurt their careers.

The script can't balance the humour with the more serious elements retained from the play and it struggles to not fall into a peaks and troughs pattern of enjoyment and boredom.

Awards chances: As always with this type of film costume and production design and related technicals are possible - especially with the period film friendly BAFTA. But there is nothing here in script, film or acting of particular note. Scott Thomas is the best here but she's just playing the cold and witty role she always does and shouldn't get attention here which could distract from her assured (for BAFTA at least) Best Actress nom turn in I've Loved You So Long. I'm surprised awards screenings are going on, but like i said BAFTA is period film friendly so that might explain it.

It you want to see how UK audiences voted with their wallets on opeing weekend:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2008/nov/10/2

Latest screening: Changeling

It's very possible that Clint Eastwood is the best director currently working. Consider the recent work: Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags Of Our Fathers (which works better on repeat viewings), the superb Letters From Iwo Jima. The man has defined the western with films like Outlaw Josey Wales and Unforgiven, and flips genres with ease. And his next one, Gran Torino, looks great:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/grantorino/large.html

This brings us to Changeling - hailed at Cannes but meeting mixed reception in the US. A.O. Scott in the New York Times for instance said of Jolie, "It insists on being redarded as a great performance and may, indeed, be mistaken for one."

I have to disagree with this statement. I think you can apply that to Jolie's (failed) Oscar-bait performance in A Mighty Heart or Halle Berry's cynical turn in Things We Lost In The Fire, but here i found Jolie much more restrained than i had expected. There are scenes when she seems so small, so lost, so frail - Lara Croft! For me this was her best work since Girl Interrupted, once again showing what has so easily been forgotten in the Brangelina, world-adopting image of her in recent times.

Eastwood's economy of filmmaking is again present and while it is true that applied to period settings his style can sometimes appear a little straight-forward and idealised this is after all a film, not a documentary. He and his collaborators create an effective 1920s world, that takes you there rather than feeling like a backlot (the only really grating thing being the use of a period Universal logo at the head of film which is now becoming overdone). It is not Eastwood's best film but it is an admirable one and as usual from Eastwood he has drawn the very best out of both every cast member and the crew.

Awards chances: Excellent. Jolie seems certain for a nomination and must be a good shot at the gold, although Kate Winslet may have something to say about that and Kristin Scott Thomas should figure prominently. Still with a French-language performance winning last year and Winslet potentially having two roles that could both be up and cancel each other out Jolie has a very good chance, and Eastwood has been a dab hand recently at bringing home gold for his actors. Technicals like production design, costume, hair & make-up are all assured at least at nomination level. The film probably wouldn't be in a highly competitive year but no clear winner has emerged from those i've seen so far this year and i suspect Changeling may well feature alongside Revolutionary Road in the five nominees this year.

New trailers: Tale of Despereaux, UK version of Che

Two new trailers are up now. Can Tale Of Despereaux put up a fight for the third animation nom spot beside what will surely be guaranteed places for WALL-E and Kung Fu Panda? There's a lot of varied competition from Madagascar 2, Igor (and in the US, Bolt) to Waltz With Bashir (and in the UK, Persepolis). That said the scream moment in this trailer already surpasses the entirety of the excrable Igor so you never know:

http://movies.yahoo.com/holiday-movies/Tale-Of-Despereaux/1809420569/trailers/164

Second up with have a Cannes best actor winner Benicio Del Toro throwing his hat into the best actor ring with Che. Del Toro of course won his supporting actor Oscar in a Soderbergh film but it is worth noting that no Cannes actor or actress winner has gone on to win the Oscar since Holly Hunter for The Piano in 1993! And the last two Americans to win best actor at Cannes (Tommy Lee Jones in 2005 for Three Burials, and Sean Penn in 1997 for She's So Lovely) weren't even nominated at the Oscars (shame for Jones).

But this could be the fourth political nom (alongside Langella's Nixon, Penn's Harvey Milk and Brolin's Bush) that can count each other out and help Mickey Rourke's Randy "The Ram" Robinson to be the first wrestling Oscar winner. Go Ram go!

http://download.wire9.com/substance/che_trailer/che_trailer_850k.mov

It's good to share: Iron Sky

Frankly awesome pre-sales teaser for a Scandie film called Iron Sky. I hope it gets mad 'cause this conceptual trailer is all kinds of awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KEueJnsu80

Now it isn't just in the movies...

I know this is not a film related matter but i had to post a note about the fantastic results of the US elections. A Democratic house, a Democratic senate and most importantly Barack Obama headed to the White House (and Sarah Palin headed back to Alaska hopefully never to be heard from again!)

John McCain made a gracious concession speech about 4:20/30am London time this morning, and i can't help thinking that if that John McCain, the one whose voice is so clear in Hard Call, his recent book, had run this campaign he'd have done better (that and not having Palin) but i believe the best man won. I now look forward to seeing whether Obama can achieve any of what he sets out to but i believe he believes he can and i hope that in 4 years, in 10 years, in 50 years this day is seen as a great day not just an historic day (as it also undoubtedly is).

I am exhausted having watched until after President-Elect Obama's victory speech, which ended around 5:30am here, but i am elated and it's all balancing out.

This e-mail was sent by the Obama campaign just before that to his supporters this morning:

"I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first. We just made history. And I don't want you to forget how we did it. You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change. I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next. But I want to be very clear about one thing... All of this happened because of you. Thank you, Barack"

Will it be Winslet vs Winslet?

The Reader trailer is up and it looks good: http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/thereader/

Winslet is superb in Revolutionary Road and seems sure of a nomination for that. Could she go head-to-head with herself? Seems more than possible off the evidence of this.

For that matter Fiennes is always good and the best thing about The Duchess so perhaps he might fight for two noms too.

Bringing the axe down: Quantum Of Solace

The new Bond may have scored the biggest UK 3-day weekend ever but that's surely only thanks to how great Casino Royale was.

Quantum Of Solace is such a drag. It is fine to be more serious, to throw out the silliness of Moore or the desperation of Brosnan adventures but to have zero sense of humour, to be so unrelentingly bleak - this is not Bond.

I found the new Bond completely forgettable. I enjoyed some of the set pieces while they were happening but to be honest two days on i can't really remember what it was all about, what the villain was up to, what the locales were, etc.

Craig was fine but didn't build at all on his fantastic turn in Casino Royale. Olga Kurylenko was suitably sexy. Gemme Arterton clearly thought she was filming a Roger Moore episode - awful. The saving graces here, who were both memorable and provided the rare wry smile the film could muster were the incomparable Judi Dench and the always reliable Jeffrey Wright (if only they'd give him more to do - maybe next time).

Forster brings some style and it is interesting to see what at times becomes the art-house Bond, but it is strange he's been saddled with a plot with zero character development. It's just one set piece after another and none are "wow" enough to make an impact.

Really disappointed in this one.

Awards chances: Strictly technical, sound mixing, sound effects and such maybe - although it won't even win these which surely only WALL-E and Dark Knight are really contesting (perhaps Iron Man). Craig may have been the first Bond to get a Bafta nom with Casino Royale but he won't see a repeat this time around.

Latest screening: The Wrestler

Another week, another great film. And the best actor race is getting impossible. Frank Langella, Josh Brolin now Mickey Rourke.

I have already posed the question in an election between George W Bush and Richard M Nixon just who exactly would you vote for? The answer could well be Randy "The Ram" Robinson.

A film which really took me back to the 80s with great 80s tunes, the original 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (which i still have and occasionally use like the character in this film) and a wrestling plot seeing a big blonde American hero vs the Ayatollah (Hulk Hogan vs Colonel Mustafa and Sgt Slaughter if ever i saw an inspiraction). Gotta love that nostalgia.

But The Wrestler is so much more than that, chiefly a superb performance by an agonising Mickey Rourke. Got to have an excellent Oscar shot. Bafta? Maybe less so because British old school voters might shy away from the wrestling theme, which would be a shame.

On a side note - apparently Leo DiCaprio is "a guarantee", really? For what? Certainly not for the dull, over-cooked Body Of Lies (more on this soon) and i question Revolutionary Road. Great movie but he is the least impressive of the performances here. Thanks to his reputation he may score a nom but in a year with a lot of very strong actor performances i suspect he may not make the cut.

Awards chances: Rourke has a great chance here, especially if all the other noms go to the politically themed films (Frost/Nixon, W., Milk, Che) and help Rourke's down-on-his-luck wrestler stand out from the pack. The film is solid but less likely, this is Rourke's show, like Hurricane or Monster the performance is the film. In a slow year Rachel Evan Wood is good enough to stand a chance at a supporting nom but it's a small part so competition could be too high - after all no matter how good Christina Ricci was in Monster no one noticed because she was so overshadowed by Theron, that Charlize's performance was all you remembered.

Bringing the axe down: Mamma Mia!

So Mamma Mia! is the highest grossing British film of all time in the UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7701723.stm

How is this possible? How did a mediocre at best musical full of kitsch songs and terrible singers (yes Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Julie Walters i am particularly looking at you) become so successful? And as if this is not a big enough question, how in god's name did this Universal film produced by Tom Hanks Playtone company suddenly become British?!?!?!!?!

I am despairing both at the UK Film Council's ridiculously broad definition of a British film (did a key grip born in Manchester work on it, okay then it counts!) and the British cinema-going public.

Was it a wretched, terrible movie? No. But the second highest grossing film ever! What is wrong with people. This is how Sarah Palin has people that believe in her!