Review - Kubo and the Two Strings

EDITOR'S NOTE: Not a return to full reviews for me, I'm afraid. Just an exercise to shake some of the rust off. It'll be back to capsules for awards season movies.

In a bustling village square, in some unnamed era of pre-Imperial Japan, a boy wearing an eye-patch and a baggy samurai robe drops a pile of paper on the ground and strums a power chord on his shamisen. As though by instinct, the crowd turns, silences, and gathers 'round with barely-contained excitement.
“If you must blink, do it now,” instructs Kubo (for that is his name), literally commanding the attention of his audience.

As he plucks the strings and taps harmonic on his instrument, his paper springs to life, folding itself into intricate figurines that run, jump, fly and do pantomimed battle with each other, acting out the drama as Kubo narrates a tale of adventure and heroism for the delighted onlookers.

We are (shrewdly) given no explanation of this sorcery, and honestly, we're too bedazzled to care. Just like the throng of villagers rapt by Kubo's paper players, when we sit down to a Laika feature we are being treated to the most elaborate puppet show ever imaginable. Or at least until Laika – the stop-motion animation studio behind this thrilling illusion – imagines a way to make it more yet elaborate for their next trick.

One Category at a Time: Supporting Actress

It's hard out here for a Supporting Actress. For a true supporting actress, anyway. Worthy would-be contenders like Elizabeth Banks, Julie Walters, Sarah Paulson, Tessa Thompson, Joan Allen and several others had to move aside for the campaign train of wicked uncle Harv, as The Weinstein Co. and Focus Features collectively managed to shoehorn not one, but two leading performances into this year's contest.

And as an extra dash of salt to the proverbial wound, two of the three legit supporting ladies are in here for performances that are a far cry from awards-worthy (Okay, that's subject to taste, but that's why it's an independently owned blog, people!). Lest my pessimism over the category turn too many readers away, why don't we start with the positives:

My Award Nominations: Actress

No dearth of quality options to choose from, as the women's category was way more competitive than the men's for a change of pace. So competitive, in fact, that a couple of legit contenders saw their campaigns sneakily shuffled to the supporting category for lack of room in this one. You'll see no such fraudulence from me, but it forced me to make some heartbreaking omissions. My Best Actress selections are:

Critics Choice Max out nominations (as usual), plus thoughts on Carol

Mad Max: Fury Road led with 11 nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Movie Awards. We know that the BFCA is prone to merely following the buzz and trying to predict the Oscars based on the most current developments of the season, so I'm still unsure of the chances George Miller's nutso action opus really has with the Academy.

The Revenant, The Martian, and Carol (which I finally saw) were close behind with nine apiece.

Todd Haynes' romantic drama -- elegantly adapted from the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt by Phyllis Nagy -- is an exquisite work of art. Haynes is a master sensualist, using image, music and sound to stimulate all our senses (not just the aural/visual ones). Edward Lachman's compositions are gorgeous and narratively astute, while Carter Burwell's score speaks volumes for characters whose true thoughts and feelings are rarely spoken.

Indeed, the emotion of the piece is powerful but never overstated, thanks largely to a quartet of superb performances. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara forge a special chemistry as the two romantic leads, while Sarah Paulson and Kyle Chandler bring thoughtful, empathetic perspectives to two very different types of jilted lovers.

Much Academy attention is deserved (particularly for director and screenplay, the latter of which it inexplicably missed both with the Critics Choice and the Globes), but unless more people get to set eyes on it, it may lose much needed buzz. Harvey, I know you think you're clever trying to keep this concealed until Oscar nominations before whisking the curtain away (et voila!), but you need to get it on more screens, pronto.

But back to the Critics Choice. Check out the long, unsurprising list of nominees, with some additional comments.

BEST PICTURE
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Sicario
Spotlight
Happy for Sicario, which is slowly growing into the year's most underrated film with every critics group that passes it over. Sad for Inside Out, which seems to be falling by the wayside.

Golden Globe nominations

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association sounded off this morning on the heels of yesterday's SAG nominations, adding fuel to the campaign fire of many a project. Flagging contenders like The Martian, Joy, and various acting hopefuls got some badly needed exposure, while the unlikely Oscar player Mad Max: Fury Road kept its engines purring with a pair of citations in top categories. The nomination leader: Critics' pet Carol, which continues its maddening lethargic roll-out. It had damn well better speed up after this successful showing.

Check all the feature film categories with some quick thoughts of mine:

Best Picture - Drama
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight
Looking more and more like Spotlight is the only movie in this scattered season with enough widespread approval to make it a frontrunner. It may be that everybody else is just playing for nominations now, but there are important battles to be won in that contest; The Globes have been proving themselves far cooler than the Academy for a few seasons now, and here's AMPAS's chance to keep in step. Putting these five on the Oscar Best Picture ballot would be a good start (I know I say this without having seen Carol or The Revenant yet, but I have high hopes, and the other three are highly deserving).

Early Oscar Predictions: The Actresses

The annual complaint about Best Actress being a less competitive field than that of their male counterparts is perhaps more believable at this early predictive stage when scoping out potential contenders – It's no less false, it's just that the great, underrated female performances of the year haven't even been seen yet. Still, you don't have to look far to find a whole bunch of leading ladies that show a lot of promise for their upcoming films.

One Category at a Time: Actress

Before the SAG Awards dropped I was pretty conflicted in this category. Based on the distribution of precursor attention, it seemed that we had a tight three woman race for the Oscar, but now that the Actors have had their say, it looks like the frontrunner has a more comfortable margin. The Oscar lineup is mostly the same as SAG’s, except that Rooney Mara (one of the best performances of the year) slid in over Tilda Swinton (THE best performance of the year!). Oy vey. She really is the anti-Meryl Streep; consistently brilliant performances every year but rarely an Oscar nod to show for it. I suppose we should be thankful on her behalf that she has one for Michael Clayton, because she honestly doesn’t care about awards. Right on, Tilda.

Anyway, the nominees – all five of whom I predicted for nominations back in April!:

My Awards nominations: Actress

Not as packed as last year's stellar slate, but I still had some tough decisions to make Here are the five Leading Actresses who made the cut:

VIOLA DAVIS in The Help:

Davis' subdued expressiveness communicates a great deal of fear and sadness, but also a gradual self-realization and growing estem which gives the character her arc. Her exposition of backstory carefully seeps through even when it's not yet there on the page.

ROONEY MARA in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:

Mara is gripping and magnetic as the misanthropic investigator who can dish it out as bad as she gets it, if not worse. The performance is mannered, distinctive, and ballsy. Mara embraces Salander's emotional maladjustment with alarming confidence, which is what makes her so fun to watch!

ELIZABETH OLSEN in Martha Marcy May Marlene:

Olsen is superbly ambiguous, every facial tick revealing unspoken anguish and uncertainty. Her internalization of an indoctrinated mind at war with itself informs her external struggle to reassimilate with her family and society, which feels painfully authentic as a result.

TILDA SWINTON in We Need to Talk About Kevin:

Swinton is becoming the anti-Meryl-Streep in that she's giving awards worthy performances every year that never seem to get awards attention. That'll hopefully change with this quietly controlled turn. She owns every moment with her subtle command of understated but deep-running emotion.

CHARLIZE THERON in Young Adult:

Theron's thorny, darkly comedic portrayal of an alcoholic, emotionally juvenille trash novelist teems with precise, bitchy mannerisms. She paints a caustic collage of depression, anxiety, and severe psychological immaturity; a woman (rather, girl?) drowning in her own bitterness.

Just missed: Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs, Stephanie Sigman in Miss Bala,
Meryl Streep in The Irion Lady, Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn

One Category at a Time: Best Actress

Even from this early vantage point, it's clear that 2011 is not at a lack for juicy leading female roles with big awards potential.

One of the most obvious contenders on everyone's radar is perennial favourite Meryl Streep in the role of former British PM Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Biopic roles are always held in Oscar's favour, even when the movie itself is not. Given Streep's incredible later-career popularity and the nature of the part, I'd say she's a very strong bet.

But perhaps she'll have some stiff competition from five-time nominee Glenn Close, a bonafide member of the "overdue club". She plays a woman who poses as a butler in 19th C Ireland in Albert Nobbs, which she also co-wrote. Sounds interesting enough to me, but will Oscar bite?

As counter point to those two established actresses, there's a chance newcomer Felicity Jones (who received strong reviews out of Sundance for her performance in Like Crazy) could be the ingenue of the year. But it's a small film, and whether or not it gains Jones any traction may come down how much critical favour it can curry.

A role which could garner some attention is recent nominee Michelle Williams as the singular Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marylin. Hollywood enjoys seeing Hollywood take on old-Hollywood, and playing that era's iconic sex symbol gives Williams a great opportunity to impress. But is she a lead or a co-lead? Vote-splitting could hurt.

Finally, I'm taking a bit of long shot on Rooney Mara (who I loved, if ever so briefly, in The Social Network), who will be tackling the role of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The same role earned Swedish actress Noomi Rapace some awards consideration just this past year. Can the American version improve?

Predicted five:
Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs
Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady
Felicity Jones in Like Crazy
Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn or Take This Waltz
Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Also consider: Anne Hathaway One Day, Jennifer Hudson Winnie, Keira Knightly A Dangerous Method, Robin Wright Penn The Conspirator, Emma Stone The Help, Tilda Swinton We Need to Talk About Kevin, Charlize Theron Young Adult, Rachel Weisz The Whistleblower

My Award nominations: Supporting Actress

BARBRA HERSHEY in Black Swan:
Mila Kunis may be getting more awards attention for her sexy confidence that triggers Nina's jealousy, but Barbra Hershey's performance as her over-protective mother lends us much more insight into Nina's psychological repression, and it fits perfectly with the film's creepy tone. Her arc from commanding to helpless is expertly realized.

LESLEY MANVILLE in Another Year:
Believe the hype. Manville's performance is possibly the best of the year in any category. It's a wonder to behold her as her witty disposition gradually fades over the course of the film into eventual resignation, culminating in a ruinous final cadence that feels so heartbreaking because the character feels so real. A masterstroke of acting.

ROONEY MARA in The Social Network:
I know, I know, she's probably got less than five minutes of screen time, but she makes the most of it. Her couple of scenes are enough to convince us of her character's insight, and in one aching reaction shot (pictured left) she hits home one of the film's cautionary messages about the Internet; it's capacity to hurt.

SISSY SPACEK in Get Low:
While it's Duvall's show in which to shine, Sissy Spacek provides a real warmth when the film needs it, as well as real heartbreak. What she conveys to us is that offering forgiveness can be as hard as asking for it. It's a graceful performance that never oversteps its bounds but leaves a fond, lasting impression.

OLIVIA WILLIAMS in The Ghost Writer:
As the icy love-starved wife of an ex British PM who she's adored and envied with equal measure all her married life, Olivia Williams sews a complex character out seemingly unconnected threads until the big reveal of the spider's web at the end. It's a subtle, intriguing, and memorably witchy performance.

Just missed: Amy Adams in The Fighter, Marion Cotillard in Inception,
Kierston Wareing in Fish Tank