Anyone who knows me knows that I view and celebrate the Oscars as if it's my birthday. I spend the months leading up to the big day watching as many nominated movies as I can, and having just finished watching the final Best Picture nominee, here it is, my predictions on what will (and what I think should) win at tonight's Academy Awards ceremony:
Best Picture:
What will win: No question, it's The Artist
What should win: Hate to say it, but unlike most years, I'm not insanely passionate about any one nominee; I would love it if the award went to Moneyball, Hugo, or Midnight in Paris
Directing:
Will: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Should: Martin Scorsese for Hugo
Actor in a Leading Role:
Will: Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Should: Michael Fassbender -- wait, he wasn't nominated?! Then Brad Pitt for Moneyball
Actress in a Leading Role:
Will: Viola Davis for The Help
Should: Viola Davis
Actor in a Supporting Role:
Will: Christopher Plummer for Beginners
Should: Christopher Plummer
Actress in a Supporting Role:
Will: Octavia Spencer for The Help
Should: Octavia Spencer
Animated Feature Film:
Will: Rango
Should: --
Cinematography:
Will: The Tree of Life
Should: The Tree of Life. Emmanuel Lubezki is the most talent cinematographer working today, and he has yet to win an Academy Award, which is an outrage. It doesn't matter what you thought of The Tree of Life, because it's impossible to deny that it is the most visually breathtaking movie of the year.
Art Direction:
Will: Hugo
Should: Hugo
Costume Design:
Will: The Artist
Should: Jane Eyre
Documentary Feature:
Will: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Should: --
Documentary Short:
Will: Saving Face
Should: --
Film Editing:
Will: The Artist
Should: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Foreign Language Film:
Will: A Separation
Should: A Separation
Makeup:
Will: The Iron Lady
Should: all the nominees are equally great, in my opinion
Music (Original Score):
Will: The Artist
Should: War Horse (John Williams can do no wrong!) or Hugo
Music (Original Song):
Will: The Muppets
Should: The Muppets
Short Film (Animated):
Will: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Should: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore...utterly delightful! You can watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adzywe9xeIU
Short Film (Live Action):
Will: The Shore
Should: The Shore
Sound Editing:
Will: War Horse
Should: War Horse or Hugo
Should Mixing:
Will: War Horse
Should: War Horse (though I loved the sound mixing in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)
Visual Effects:
Will: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Should: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Sorry, Harry Potter!!!)
Writing (Adapted Screenplay):
Will: The Descendants
Should: The Descendants or Moneyball
Writing (Original Screenplay):
Will: Midnight in Paris
Should: Midnight in Paris
Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston are the kind of couple that just naturally exude charm. They’re like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan – except without the successful track record. Having previously worked together in “The Object Of My Affection” and the TV show “Friends,” I knew they could certainly play off one another well. But can charm alone carry a 90-minute film?
Rudd and Aniston play George and Linda, a Manhattan couple who find themselves staying at a rural commune called Elysium after they wreck their car while frantically speeding away from a crazy naked man who was chasing them. Of course, he’s not actually a crazy naked man, but a friendly nudist named Wayne (Jo Lo Truglio), the first of many colorful residents of Elysium we’re introduced to in “Wanderlust.”
“Wanderlust” is nothing if not amusing. Actual laugh-out-loud jokes were few and far between, but I guess that’s not all that surprising considering that the jokes stay in the very familiar, “look at what those oddball hippies are doing!” territory. We have the obligatory hallucinogens scene, trust circles, skinny-dipping, and people who say things like, “I drink in the nourishment that Mother Earth gives us from her cloud teats.” This exclamation is made by the “leader” of Elysium, Seth (Justin Theroux). He has long hair and a beard. He also clearly has a thing for Linda. Don’t forget, it’s all about free love at Elysium.
“Wanderlust” is a film whose lifeline is the zany supporting cast, which includes comical performances from Alan Alda, Kathryn Hahn and Lauren Ambrose. Rudd, who always delivers in the comedy department, is certainly one of the best parts of “Wanderlust”…though there are moments where it seems like he’s trying to mash together his roles from “Our Idiot Brother” and “I Love You, Man” into one, which was all too evident in one painful scene where he gets the most obnoxious case of verbal diarrhea imaginable (“slappin’ da bass,” anyone?).
The first half of the movie breezed by, just in time for the second half to drag on enough for me to inevitably think to myself, “where is all this going?” By the end, I couldn’t tell if I was supposed to be digging the mellow lifestyle or if I was supposed to be the voice of reason that the characters would never hear.
Rating: C+
With the Academy Awards just around the corner, the Oscar nuts slowly start to show their true colors: Our Facebook statuses become increasingly more movie-related, we scurry around trying to get ahold of all the nominated films, watch every single big award show leading up to the big day, carefully put together our predictions…some even have a red carpet that they roll out in front of their house (I admit this with only a slight twinge of shame). Regardless of whether you’ve seen the nominated films, there’s something about award shows that draw in those who immerse themselves in pop culture like a moth to a flame – you want to be in the know, and be watching with your own eyes when those memorable moments go down that are inevitably going to be blasted all over E! the next day. So in that spirit, here is my list of the top 10 award show moments of 2012:
10. Christopher Plummer’s winning streak
It’s a bit shocking that 81 year-old Christopher Plummer, who has been acting on the big screen since 1958, has yet to win an Academy Award. In fact, he wasn’t even nominated until 2010 for his performance in “The Last Station.” With a much-deserved winning streak for his endearing performance in “Beginners,” Plummer is a lock for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar at this year’s ceremony – and it’s about time!
9. Uggie the Dog
This doesn’t need much of an explanation. Anyone who has seen “The Artist” can’t help but be charmed by the world’s most famous canine. Bringing him along to the TV interviews and award shows is the best For Your Consideration campaign I’ve seen in quite a while.
8. Morgan Freeman receives the Cecil B. DeMille award
I’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t love Morgan Freeman – or someone who doesn’t wish he would follow them around for the day to narrate his or her life. So it was touching and very fitting to watch Helen Mirren and Sidney Poitier present the lifetime achievement award to him, which was followed by a montage of all the illustrious work he’s done.
7. Meryl Streep’s Cinderella Moment
Meryl Streep, who is no stranger to giving acceptance speeches, pulled in laughs for two incredibly clumsy stints while accepting her Best Actress awards for “The Iron Lady.” First at the Golden Globes, when she rushed to the stage and, in her state of shock, forgot her reading glasses and dropped the S-bomb. Even more memorable, though, was her Cinderella moment at the BAFTAs, where she lost her heel as she made her way to the podium. Things just got better when Colin Firth gallantly retrieved her high heel for her and helped her slip her foot back in before she started her speech. And of course, Meryl made the whole clumsy affair seem like the epitome of grace and composure, like only Meryl Streep could.
6. Double photo-bomb at the Golden Globes
When Eric Stonestreet’s name was announced among the other nominees for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series, his “Modern Family” co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson got in his shot and held up a card saying “Whatever,” which just made everyone love the duo even more. But the evening’s photo-bombing didn’t stop there – Tina Fey made sure she got in nominee rival Amy Poehler’s shot, too.
5. Ricky Gervais hosting the Golden Globes
Maybe the anticipation of the impending controversy Gervais was going to cause was a bit overhyped, but regardless, Gervais proved again why people love watching him host, taking shots at Jodie Foster, Madonna, and my personal favorite, Johnny Depp, whom he put on the spot by asking him, “Be honest…have you seen ‘The Tourist’ yet?”
4. George Clooney compliments Michael Fassbender
During his Golden Globe acceptance speech for Best Actor in Drama, George Clooney had a few people to thank, Michael Fassbender in particular, saying,
“I would like to thank Michael Fassbender for taking over the frontal nude responsibly that I had.” He continued with, "Really Michael, honestly, you can play golf like this with your hands behind your back,” followed by him mocking golfing with no hands. His wonderfully inappropriate remark is still one of the best of the season so far.
3. Octavia Spencer
Who doesn’t love a rags-to-riches story? Octavia Spencer stole every scene she was in in “The Help,” and things weren’t much different at the award show circuit. Always impeccably dressed and made up, it has been impossible not to root for Spencer, who has consistently (along with co-star Viola Davis) delivered the most sincere, touching speeches of the season.
2. “Bridesmaids” cast introduces new drinking game
At this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, “Bridesmaids” stars Kristen Wigg, Maya Rudolph, and nominee Melissa McCarthy took the stage to introduce their film – but introduced us to something equally hilarious in the process. “You have to take a drink every time -- and I mean every time -- you hear the word Scorsese," explained Rudolph, while Melissa McCarthy stood there chugging a bottle of vodka. A drinking game for the ages!
1. Jean Dujardin's speeches
With the burst of industry support he’s receiving, Jean Dujardin has officially become the Best Actor frontrunner. Sure, everyone and their mother seems to love “The Artist” – but I’d be willing to be that Dujardin gets the big prize more because he charmed his way onto everyone’s ballot. I mean, seriously – he’s by no means my favorite male performance of the year, and even I’m rooting for him! Watch the clip below and tell me you don’t find yourself smiling.
Have you ever read an amazing book, and upon finishing, wished you could experience it again for the first time? I know I feel this way all the time. So when Leo (Channing Tatum) compared that situation to his current situation with wife Paige (Rachel McAdams) midway through "The Vow," I breathed an inward sigh of relief; perhaps there's still hope for this movie after all!
The situation they find themselves in is indeed a tricky one. After going through a car crash which lands Paige in a coma, Paige wakes up with no recollection of the past five years -- meaning she has no memory of her current life, and worst of all, no memory of her husband, Leo. Conveniently for the film's melodramatic purposes, Paige wakes up an entirely different person, a person she's long grown out of; the "new" Paige doesn't remember her life as a vegetarian sculptor who dropped out of law school and estranged herself from her family; she remembers herself as the preppy, Stepford wife-esque law student who's engaged to her now ex, Jeremy (Scott Speedman).
So, upon realizing that there's a chance that Paige will never regain her memory, Leo proposes that they start dating, and points out the one positive in a truly sucky situation: that she can experience them falling in love all over again, as if for the first time.
Despite the contrived plot, the romantic in me found myself somewhat swept away by such a grand notion; who wouldn't want to relive the honeymoon period of a relationship all over again? I could have forgiven the film all its trashy chick-flick cliche's (the voice-overs, the slow motion shots, flashbacks, cheap wigs to show the passage of time) if it had gotten this one aspect right.
To my dismay, the majority of the movie is instead littered with extraneous subplots that do nothing but take away from the film's overall message. The most eye-roll inducing comes in the form of Paige's despicable parents (Jessica Lange and Sam Neill), who embrace and encourage her memory loss as a way to force Paige back on the "respectable" and "secure" life-track they've mapped out for her.
McAdams' Paige, who often looks doe-eyed and confused, is just as much of an anomaly of a character as her parents. Instead of trying to piece together her current life, she acts standoffish and uninterested toward Leo -- no mind to the fact that he loves her unconditionally, looks like Channing Tatum, and is her husband.
By merging into soap opera territory, "The Vow" loses a lot of the romantic earnestness it should have had. I relished the date scene, as well as some of the more lighthearted scenes, such as Paige gasping and shielding her eyes after Leo walks into the room naked. He responds to this by saying, "Come on, it's not like you haven't seen it before."
Those words could apply to the film just as well.
Rating: C
The Woman in Black starts out with three little girls having a tea party; they have bows in their hair and are wearing frilly dresses. (Which, for whatever reason, makes us think, “Well, this is creepy!”) They all look towards the attic window in unison. They slowly walk towards it…and then jump out, killing themselves. Fantastic, we’re off to a thoroughly chilling start! Then the rest of the movie happens.
Daniel Radcliffe, in his first post-Potter role, has the difficult and unfair task of having to carry the entire film on his shoulders…which wouldn’t be nearly as strenuous if there were any real storyline for him to work with. Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, whose job as a solicitor leads him to Eel Marsh house. We quickly learn that all is not well with this house, which is home to a vengeful ghost who targets the young children of the village.
Radcliffe, with a wardrobe and complexion that look stolen from Professor Snape, spends the first half of the film tediously walking around the dusty, cobwebbed house with a candle. And while we’re on the subject, this house is cluttered with every cliché in the book – creaky floorboards, a rocking chair that moves seemingly on its own, and of course, the old porcelain dolls with eyes so wide they look as if they’ve been taped open a-la A Clockwork Orange.
In fact, I found the spooky scenery to be the most effective aspect of the movie; no one can say that the film isn’t successfully coated with a veil of gloom and foreboding.
The problem is that this whole set up feels as if it’s going somewhere, setting us up for some sort of shocking revelation – but has nothing to offer past its flimsy set-up. Radcliffe is startlingly dead in the eyes for most of the film. Arthur is a character who is still grieving the death of his wife, I get that. But no human with a pulse can react to the horrors happening in front of him so…unresponsively. Make a noise, run, scream, SOMETHING!
It’s okay, Dan -- the movie wasn’t scary enough to elicit said responses from the audience, either.
The Woman in Black has all the elements for what could have been a throwback to those eerie, gothic haunted house films we all know and love, but it relies too heavily on constant jump scares -- so much so that any slightly seasoned horror fan can see each coming from a mile away.
Note to the filmmakers: jump scares don’t work if you know exactly when to anticipate them…no matter how loud you make the sudden sound effects.
Rating: C-