Sunday Top Ten - Pet Peeves of the 2011-12 Oscar season

This little custom of mine has become a nice form of post-Oscar therapy for me. It's perfect for bringing some closure to the season and releasing the pressure valve on the season's many frustrations. You may note that I didn't include any of this year's big nomination snubs, and there were plenty to choose from: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for Art Direction, The Tree of Life for Visual Effects, Captain America for Original Song... but I came to terms with those a month ago, so it's more useful for me to unload my other awards season woes, some of which you might share, others you might disagree with. You'll have to keep reading to find out.

One Category at a Time: Picture

Last year, I continued my practice of narrowing down the Best Picture field by simple analysis of which films possessed the necessary three nominations (Editing, Directing, Writing) to win Best Picture. Only three films met all the requirements, and those films went on to win a combined nine Oscars, including seven of the eight major categories. So let's do more of the same:

The Artist: Editing (Y), Directing (Y), Writing (Y)
The Descendants: Editing (Y), Directing (Y), Writing (Y)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Editing (N), Directing (N), Writing (N)
The Help: Editing (N), Directing (N), Writing (N)
Hugo: Editing (Y), Directing (Y), Writing (Y)
Midnight in Paris: Editing (N), Directing (Y), Writing (Y)
Moneyball: Editing (Y), Directing (N), Writing (Y)
The Tree of Life: Editing (N), Directing (Y), Writing (N)
War Horse: Editing (N), Directing (N), Writing (N)

So, the only three that can win (by this logic, that is) are The Artist, Hugo, and The Descendants.

CDG preview

The last guild to sound off this season is the Costume Designers Guild, which announces its winners tonight. It won't have any influence on the Oscar race because final ballots are due to the Academy today, but we can still have fun guessing what the costume designers will want to reward.

Excellence in Period Film contains four of the Oscar-nominated costumers, the odd one out being Sharen Davis' swell threads from The Help which fell pray to the grabby ruffles and frills of Anonymous with the Academy's costume branch. I'll guess that Hugo, my Oscar alternate, will rule the day, but a win for The Artist (which won the BAFTA a little more than a week ago) would be perfectly understandable and deserved.

I'm still miffed that Excellence in Fantasy Film found room for Thor and X-Men but not the year-best costumes of Captain America. At any rate, I'm guessing it'll end up being Harry Potter, simply on account of it being the best reviewed nominee of the five, and as a final tip of the hat to the series. With all the Oscar attention it gets in Art Direction, people forget that Jany Temime has indeed done outstanding work on the entire franchise as well.

Excellence in Contemporary Film usually serves only as an excuse for the guild to recognize a Best Picture contender, which leads me to believe they'll spring for The Descendants here, even if it should be Drive by a country mile.

One Category at a Time: Film Editing

For ten consecutive years, the winner of the ACE Eddie has gone on to win the Academy Award for Film Editing, proving a reliable barometer for pundits. It's usually the ACE winner for Drama that shoulders the most Oscar clout, but this is a rare year in which the ACE winner for Comedy is an equally (or even more) viable contender on account of being the Best Picture frontrunner.

Descendants rounds out good weekend with WGA win

It was a good couple of days for The Descendants, which took home an unexpected editing prize from the ACE and a less surprising USC Scripter award last night, and just this evening nabbed the Writers Guild of America's honour for Best Adapted Screenplay. It is likely on its way to the Oscar as well, and it bugs me to no end. Not to be too harsh, but lazy voice-over narration and tonal inconsistency aren't exactly qualities of a brilliant adaption. I had held out hope that the guild might opt for the dense thematic fibers of Moneyball, thus boosting its Oscar hopes, but no dice.

Meanwhile, Woody Allen collected another Original Screenplay award for Midnight in Paris to go along with his Critics Choice and Golden Globes awards. This comes to precisely nobody's surprise, especially with its chief competition for the Oscar, The Artist, out of the running on one of the guild's maddening technicalities. Here's hoping the momentum will carry over with the Academy.

As has become a trend this year, the guild's documentary category gives us absolutely no help for predicting the Oscar, as the Documentary Screenplay category went to the un-nominated Better This World. This is the first year I can remember when none of the Best Documentary nominees had a single guild win.

ACE winners clarify Best Film Editing race

Only one notable surprise at last night's American Cinema Editors awards. While The Artist predictably took home the Best Edited Feature prize in the Comedy/Musical category, and while Rango continued its precursor dominance in the Animated Feature category (I'd have liked to see Michael Kahn win that for Tintin), it was the subdued editing of The Descendants that beat out the Best Picture buzz of Hugo, flashier editing of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and superior editing of Moneyball in the Drama category.

ACE, CAS, WGA, MPSE preview

It's a busy weekend for guild awards looking to have their say before Oscar polls close on Tuesday.

The American Cinema Editors would be a more important announcement if it weren't for their separation of the nominees into Drama and Comedy categories. The Artist is obviously going to win in the Comedy category, while Drama is probably going the way of Hugo (although I could see it going to Dragon Tattoo as well). As for the Oscar, it'll be down to The Artist and whatever film does win for Drama, as the Oscar winner for Editing has won the ACE Eddie for the last ten years in a row.

The Cinema Audio Society only nominated two films that went on to receive Sound Mixing nods from the Academy; Hugo and Moneyball. I'm anticipating Hugo will take it from the Society, but am still sticking with War Horse to impress the Academy.

The Writers Guild of America is probably going to award Midnight in Paris for Original Screenplay and Moneyball for Adapted, a pair of winners I wouldn't be surprised to see repeat at the Oscars, though I am expecting The Descendants to come out on top with the Academy.

Finally, the Motion Picture Sound Editors have a few categories in which to acknowledge the year's best sound editing. The important category in terms of Oscar is Best Sound Effects and Foley, where I'm guessing it'll be War Horse. Interesting to note: for four of the last five years, the winner of that category with the MPSE as gone on to win the Oscar for Sound Editing, and since the two Sound categories so often go to the same film, this guild is possibly a more accurate bellwether of Best Sound Mixing than the CAS.

One Category at a Time: Director

The die has been cast in the Best Picture category for several months now, but it seems that every year pundits start pontificating the possibility of a Picture/Director split. Is it just boredom with the scent of inevitability?
Is it wishful thinking from the frontrunner's detractors?
Is it skepticism that a first-time nominee can win over more established, Oscarless filmmakers? Whatever the reason, every year some people seem to come up with some excuse to predict a split. But don't do it! Splits are rare and when they do occur there's no consistent rhyme or reason as to why.

One Category at a Time: Actor

There will be plenty of suspense leading up to the opening of this envelope on Oscar night. The writing seemed to be on the wall early in the season, but a turning point at the SAG Awards had signaled a tight two-horse race (one made a little less tight by the BAFTAs this past Sunday). The other three nominees will have to sit back and enjoy the show. At least a couple of them can can count themselves lucky that they managed to squeak into the slate when high profile hopefuls Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Fassbender were somewhat surprisingly shut out along with the films they represented.

One Category at a Time: Adapted Screenplay

As it is with Best Original Screenplay, the crop of Adapted Screenplay nominees this year includes the two legitimately best adapted screenplays of the year, but also a couple I could have done without. It's still a good lineup on the whole, and the race between the two frontrunners is just close enough for me to have an active rooting interest in this category.

ADG, Annie preview

Not much to do nowadays but twiddle our thumbs waiting for February 26th, but at least some scattered guild announcements will keep us from nodding off to sleep.

The Art Directors Guild will have its say tonight, where I expect Oscar nominees Hugo and Harry Potter will come up big in the Period and Fantasy categories respectively. They seldom show much imagination in the Contemporary category, which usually goes to whatever nominee has the most Best Picture buzz. At that, I'll make my guess for The Descendants, even though it should be The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by a country mile.

Meanwhile, the Annie Awards also land tonight. I'm not sure how they'll be distributed, but you can expect the feature film categories to be shared between Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots.

Reactions to 84th Oscar nominations

It all went down this morning more or less as expected. Hugo and The Artist unsurprisingly led the field of 2011/12 nominees with 11 and 10 Oscar nominations respectively. The next closest were Moneyball and War Horse with six apiece, followed closely by The Descendants and Dragon Tattoo with five (although the latter was squeezed out of the Best Picture lineup).

The most notable of the few inconsequential surprises was the breadth of the Best Picture slate, which ended accommodating nine nominees. Apparently Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close wasn't dead in the water after all; it was just extremely quiet and incredibly close to a Best Picture nomination. I thought I had dodged a bullet in not having to watch this critically derided film, but now I'll have to check it out. With only one other nomination under its belt (for sentimental favourite Max von Sydow, who could stealthily usurp Plummer's long overdue Oscar), one can't help but feel that this particular Best Picture nominee is out of place. This year's Blind Side? I'll hold off on a true opinion until I see it.

The Artist, Descendants triumph at Globes

The Artist took three and The Descendants took two.

I went nine for fourteen with my predictions, and of the five I got wrong, four of them were my alternate guesses. But we know how easy it is to predict the Globes. I should probably have done better. The notable discrepancy from my predix and the final results was Meryl Streep usurping Viola Davis' Best Actress (Drama) award, robbing her of the chance to give what could have been another deal-sealing acceptance speech. Weinstein has the HFPA wrapped around his not-so-little finger. The SAG showdown next Sunday will prove to be an important tiebreaker.

Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners Another classy and witty acceptance speech
Original Score: The Artist As if we didn't already know, Oscar is sewn up
Original Song: "Masterpiece", W.E. Well, this does little to clear up the Oscar picture
Actress, Comedy/Musical: Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Sly throw-in by presenter Seth Rogen; "...the hysterical comedy My Week with Marilyn"
Animated Feature: Tintin! Sweet!!!
Screenplay: Midnight in Paris Woody "couldn't" be here tonight
Foreign Film: A Separation I'm still iffy on its Oscar chances
Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help
Her speeches could use some work, but the Oscar could be hers. Besides, save the killer speeches for Davis
Director: Martin Scorsese, Hugo One that Weinstein let get away
Actor, Comedy/Musical: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
His toughest competition is in the Drama category
Actress, Drama: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady Hmmmm... Weinstein at work
Picture, Musical/Comedy: The Artist Naturally
Actor, Drama: George Clooney, The Descendants No surprise
Drama: The Descendants Overrated

My Awards nominations: Supporting Actor

Supporting Actor:

ALBERT BROOKS in Drive:

Brooks finds the seedy darkness inside an outwardly affable facade that makes his villainous mob boss all the more threatening.

ROBERT FORSTER in The Descendents:

Even though he only appears in a couple of scenes, the impact he leaves is palpable. The only way he knows how to cope with the grief of his daughter's inevitable death is bitterness and anger, but we can sense his love and his hurt.

EZRA MILLER in We Need to Talk About Kevin:

We don't get much exposure to Miller (as the older Kevin) until halfway through the movie, but once he's there he carries a ubiquitous presence that you can't shake. His depiction of a disturbed youth is as unsettling as they come.

BRAD PITT in The Tree of Life:

With a galvanic performance that bests any other of his career, Pitt becomes the personified embodiment of Mallick's idea of Nature; raw, unrelenting, pure, instinctive. It's hard to play an abstract theme instead of an arc, but Pitt nails it.

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER in Beginners:

Plummer's warm portrayal of dying man finally finding his identity in his last year of life is as inspiring as it is sad; a masterful stroke that blends the joy of his character's sexual liberation with the sorrow of knowing his own mortality.

Just missed:
Hugo Weaving in Captain America, Ben Kinsgley in Hugo, Nick Nolte in Warrior,
Patton Oswalt in Young Adult

ADG nominees announced

Excellence in Production Design for a Period Film:

Anonymous
The Artist
The Help
Hugo Here's your winner
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Not sure why War Horse is missing from this category, but I should think it'll score with the Academy's art direction branch nonetheless. The Young Victoria scored an Oscar nom without an ADG nom two years ago, so the guild isn't necessarily a requisite qualifier.

Excellence in Production Design for a Fantasy Film:
The Adventures of Tintin
Captain America: The First Avenger
Cowboys & Aliens
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Winner?
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Glad to see Rick Heinrich's terrific work on Captain America turn up here. As for Tintin, I'm happy with anything it can get, but if there had to be an animated entry in this category, I'd have preferred the gorgeous stylings in Kung Fu Panda 2.

Excellence in Production Design for a Contemporary Film:
Bridesmaids
The Descendants
Drive
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Not much to discuss here. None of these are likely to be nominated by AMPAS.
I guess The Descendants will win on the goodwill of Best Picture buzz.

LA Film Critics annoint The Descendants

It's been a busy day for critics awards, starting off with the Boston Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Online handing out their year-end accolades, and capping off with the renowned LA Film Critics Association. But while the BSFC and NYFCO were trend-following, handing top honours to current Oscar frontrunner The Artist, the LAFCA was going their own way, shutting out the crowd-pleasing silent film entirely in favour of some more offbeat choices.

Ultimately, however, it was Alexander Payne's overrated The Descendants coming out on top, but I absolutely dig the support shown for The Tree of Life, with Terrence Malick winning his first directing prize of the season, while Emmanuel Lubezki remains undefeated on the year for cinematography awards. In addition, I love that they gave Best Screenplay to Asghar Farhadi's brilliant Iranian drama A Separation, for which I will post a brief review sometime this week.

By the way, someone should tell these critics groups that they aren't doing Jessica Chastain any favours by giving her these blanket awards that encompass her entire 2011 filmography. They need to get behind ONE performance in order to help her to a nomination

Best Picture
The Descendants

Runner-up: The Tree of Life

Best Director
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

(Runner-up: Martin Scorsese, Hugo)

National Board of Review annoints "Hugo"

Scorsese's venture into the realm of 3D family fantasy has yielded a somewhat surprising Best Picture and Best Director winner with the National Board of Review. I admit to being somewhat sceptical of it chances in the major Oscar categories, but maybe I've been underestimating it.

The other big winner, after being shut out by the NY Critics two days ago, was Alexander Payne's The Descendants, landing awards for George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, and its screenplay.

All winners after the cut.

Review - The Descendents

The Descendants, Alexander Payne's eagerly anticipated followup to Sideways, tells a sad, drawn out tale of grief and growth with a mellow Hawaiian flavour.

George Clooney plays Matt King, a landowner from Oahu whose wife is in a terminal coma following a boating accident. With his two daughters Alex and Scotty (Shailene Woodely and Amara Miller) struggling to cope in their own unique ways, and with a pending business transaction that would make Matt and his extended family very wealthy at a moral cost, the stress has already reached a smothering level. The discovery that his wife was cheating on him with a slick realtor is only the grain of salt that tips Matt's scale in the direction of (for once in life) taking action, setting him a personal mission to confront his wife's lover in the hopes of finding some kind of closure – or maybe something else entirely.

One Category at a Time: Best Actor

Johnny Depp, one of America's most elite actors (though it may be easy to forget, given his resume of late), stars in an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary, written and directed by Barry Robison. I'm sure everyone is eager to see Depp take on a role that doesn't involve Jack Sparrow or Tim Burton. I know I am.

Ryan Gosling probably missed a nomination this past year by the skin of teeth, having given one of 2010's best performances in Blue Valentine. If the Academy wants to make it up to him (not saying they necessarily do), they may pay closer attention to his work in George Clooney's The Ides of March, in which he plays a disillusioned political staffer.

As for George Clooney himself, after laying low in 2010, he's on course to have a big year starring in Alexander Payne's The Descendants and his own directorial project The Ides of March. He faces internal competition from the latter's Ryan Gosling, but he is the main attraction in the former, which will allow him to tap into that well of understated emotion that he does so well.

David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method has two prime contenders in Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender, playing Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung respectively. Will vote splitting ruin both their chances? Will one be pushed to Supporting? Can they both sneak in? These questions depend on a number of factor's, including how well the film is received, but for the time being, it's safe to assume that biographical roles are in for their fair share of awards attention.

And finally, is Hollywood ready to forgive Mel Gibson? He's got a plum role in Jodie Foster's The Beaver, as an unbalanced man who can only communicate with others through a hand puppet. Oscar loves a good comeback, although it may still be too soon after Gisbon's tabloid antics for them to welcome him back to the flock with a nomination. We shall see.

Predicted five:
George Clooney in The Descendants or The Ides of March
Johnny Depp in The Rum Diary
Mel Gibson in The Beaver
Ryan Gosling in The Ides of March
Viggo Mortensen in A Dangerous Method

Also consider: Antonio Banderas The Skin That I Inhabit, Damien Bichir A Better Life, Matt Damon We Bought a Zoo, Michael Fassbender A Dangerous Method, Ralph Fiennes Coriolanus, James McAvoy The Conspirator, Brad Pitt Moneyball, Michael Shannon Take Shelter.

One Category at a Time: Best Adapted Screenplay

There look to be a lot of previous Oscar nominees (and winners) for screenwriting back in play this year for high profile adaptations. Certainly more than in the original field, but that doesn't make it that much easier to predict from a year out.

Alexander Payne won this category for his last feature film Sideways with his writing partner Jim Taylor. He's got two new collaborators in Nat Faxon and Jim Rash with whom he's adapted the Kaui Hart Hemmings novel The Descendants, which fits with Payne's style of balancing smart humour and real emotion. I'm looking forward to it.

Another past Oscar winner in this category is Christopher Hampton, who received his Oscar back in 1989 for Dangerous Liaisons which was based on his own play. For this year he's adapted another one of his own plays with the word ''dangerous'' in the title; A Dangerous Method, which explores the work of and relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.

And yet another pair of previous Adapted Screenplay winners with a project in the race this year are Steve Zaillian (Schindler's List) and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network), who have teamed up to adapt Moneyball, Michael Lewis' nonfiction account of Billy Beane's computerized drafting system of MLB prospects, for the screen. I'll be interested to see where they can go with it.

George Clooney and Grant Heslov were nominated five years ago for writing Good Night and Good Luck, and are collaborating again to bring us their adaptation of Beau Willimon's play The Ides of March. Political dramas are never an unwise bet, and this one has enough star power to make it a big awards magnet for Clooney and Heslov.

Back in the realm of more traditional Oscar bait is Steven Spielberg's War Horse, based on Michael Morpurgo's novel which is also coming out as a Broadway play this year. Richard Curtis and Lee Hall have written the screenplay, which is sure to catch many an Academy member's fancy with its sentimental story and hefty WWI setting.




Predicted five:
A Dangerous Method
The Descendants
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

Also consider: Albert Nobbs, A Better Life, Coriolanus, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Iron Lady, The Help, The Skin That I Inhabit, Water for Elephants, We Bought a Zoo, We Need to Talk About Kevin.