Oh, boy...
It’s now horribly clear that we’re in a critic groupthink year for films. Zero Dark Thirty has become a veritable magnet for Best Picture awards, obliterating almost everything in its path.
While this was not completely unexpected, it is more than a little disappointing.
Not because ZDT is a bad film, but with so many high quality films released this year (or soon to be) we should, logically, be hearing four or five films heralded as Best Picture. We aren’t. This phenomenon has been increasing in frequency for the last few years, and I can only attribute that to a supreme lack of independent thought from the various critics.
Ha, ha! We were the only movies critics liked this year.
Ironic that this is all from a group of professionals who spend the vast majority of the year bi*ching and moaning about the lack of creative thought in Hollywood.
So far in the award nominations season, Daniel Day-Lewis has had to share Best Actor honors with Bradley Cooper and Joaquin Phoenix a couple of times, but let’s be real for a moment. He continues to treat the category like he’s the lone daddy at a submissive convention.
Whoa… settling into that imagery… not sure I like it.
While Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain are still in great shape when it comes to Oscars, it’s rather amazing to see that in the critic circuit, Amour’s Emmanuelle Riva has stolen J.Law’s meds and dumped J.Chas right next to Bin Laden’s corpse.
Reading that back, even I’m wondering what the hell is going on with me today?
Supporting Actress seems to be the Sally Field and Anne Hathaway show. But if there were a category for most prolific scowling in a movie, Amy Adams would crush them all.
See what I mean?
At least Supporting Actor isn’t as boring… err, static. Although Tommy Lee Jones has had a nice run of things so far, Matthew McConaughey, Dwight Henry and (OMG) Ezra Miller have all won awards and made their presence known.
L.A. Hipsters
I’m wondering what the hell the L.A. Film Critics Association was thinking when they dreamt up that odd list of winners.
According to the site, which followed the Twitter feeds of various voting members, they were just tired of hearing ZDT, Lincoln or Les Misérables named as a Best anything. So certain critics’ fought to make sure certain other films didn’t have a prayer of winning.
This means their list wasn’t so much a “Best of the Year” declaration, but rather a screw Les Mis knife-fight that kinda ended up as a… “Eh, we can live with this” sort of thing.
How very Hipster of them. But that’s not what struck me as so odd.
I invite you to consider this complete L.A. induced brain-f*ck with me for a moment…
Best Film:Amour
Best Foreign Language Film:Holy Motors
And you thought Cloud Atlas was wierd.
Riddle me this.
If your pick for Best Film is a foreign language film, how could your pick for Best Foreign Language Film be a completely different foreign language film? In what universe does that make an ounce of sense?
Broadcast Critics Nominations
The mother of all Critics’ groups (in terms of TV fame and Oscar predictability), The Broadcast Film Critics Association, has announced their nominees for the year’s best. And Lincoln rules with a record-breaking 13 nominations including Best Picture withLes Miserables close behind with 11.
BEST PICTURE
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
The Master
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
While this list falls well within the realm of “expected”, the snubs of Flight and Amour could spell doom for its Oscar chances.
BEST DIRECTOR
Ben Affleck– Argo
Kathryn Bigelow– Zero Dark Thirty
Tom Hooper– Les Misérables
Ang Lee– Life of Pi
David O. Russell– Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg– Lincoln
No shockers there. But at least one of these six nominees will be snubbed for an Oscar. And due to the Academy moving up their nomination day, we will know who that is before the awards are even handed out.
BEST ACTOR
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
John Hawkes– The Sessions
Hugh Jackman– Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix – The Master
Denzel Washington– Flight
Nothing to see here, except that Anthony Hopkins missed. They just did not like Hitchcock. And what the hell does Richard Gere (brilliant in Arbitrage) have to do to get nominated?
BEST ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard– Rust and Bone
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva – Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis– Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts– The Impossible
There’s still some love for Naomi Watts. But New York winner Rachel Weisz and Helen Mirren went wanting.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin– Argo
Javier Bardem– Skyfall
Robert De Niro– Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman– The Master
Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln
Matthew McConaughey – Magic Mike
The Django Unchained triple threat of Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz threatened exactly no one on this list. As did L.A. winner Dwight Henry, which is tough.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams – The Master
Judi Dench– Skyfall
Ann Dowd– Compliance
Sally Field – Lincoln
Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables
Helen Hunt– The Sessions
The barely seen Compliance has certainly made a splash. Ann Dowd now has to be seen as a major competitor.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Quentin Tarantino– Django Unchained
John Gatins– Flight
Rian Johnson– Looper
Paul Thomas Anderson – The Master
Wes Anderson& Roman Coppola– Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal– Zero Dark Thirty
Looper is getting some help from the critics. Will the sci-fi adverse Academy see how inventively alive it is?
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Chris Terrio– Argo
David Magee– Life of Pi
Tony Kushner– Lincoln
Stephen Chbosky– The Perks of Being a Wallflower
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
I cannot overstate how huge it is that Perks’ got the screenplay nod over some really tough competition. Huge.
GoldDerby has the full list of the nominees here.
Reader Question.
Dear BriOut:
Don't you think that Magic Mike should've gotten more serious recognition at the New York Critics' Circle Awards and the National Board of Review Awards? It is very well-written - a bromance, actually - beautifully directed and well-performed, too. It was a very gritty look into a world that can only look attractive from the outside. Anyway, love your work.
Rayban
Aww… thanks, Rayban.
I’m glad you like the stew I’m cooking up every week. You had another part to the question which I didn’t include here (something about hot male actors and their Gluteus Maximus). Before I can delve into that particular subject, I will need to see more evidence of this. Pics can be sent to…
Oh, sorry. What was the question again? Ah yes. Magic Mike… Yes, I do think it should get more recognition. But this is going to be a very problematic movie for award attention. This is why.
Magic Mike was marketed as an event movie for women (and gay men). A party in the theater where we could shamelessly bask in the glow of Channing Tatum’s bulge, Matt Bomer’s perfect bubble butt and all of the stripper abs we can stand for two hours. In short, Sex and the City without all the women and feelings and stuff. We all got dressed up and flocked into theaters all across the country.
And when we came out, we were as depressed as Mitt Romney on November 7th.
Magic Mike was not the party it was advertised to be. Channing’s bulge was a cautionary tale. Bomer’s behind was a warning to us all. Become a male stripper and you will sink into a dark abyss of failed dreams, drug overdose and Viagra abuse. And those mean banks won’t loan you capitol for your weird furniture business. The horror…
And you know what? I really liked that it was dark. But other people… a lot of other people, hated it.
Critics will champion a movie that Regular Joes openly abhor (Hi there, Killing Them Softly). But critics are also largely male and mostly hetero. Magic Mike isn't up their alley. If this were a movie about female strippers and had the same script, director and somber cautionary tale trappings, they’d be all over it. Guaranteed. But male strippers won’t be viewed as important or satisfying enough for them to push it to any great degree.
But what about Oscar?
I'll say this much for him... He doesn't miss the chance to campaign.
It won't be easy. Allow me to introduce you to something I’ve taken to calling the Kirk Douglas* test. Take a film that should be in consideration for award talk and ask yourself, ‘Can I imagine Kirk Douglas sitting through it?” If you can, it’s got a great shot. Lincoln? Oh yeah. Les Mis? Absolutely. Magic Mike? Anyone… Anyone…
Now, Kirk Douglas may be the coolest man on the planet and there’s every chance he saw Magic Mike, loved it and pushed his son, Michael, to work with this Soderbergh guy on that Liberace movie. I don’t know. K-Doug is just a symbolic stand-in for any living, straight male Academy member of a certain age -- the age that makes up a healthy bulk of their membership. And those members are not going to sit there and watch Channing Tatum wave his crotch in their faces.
But one person is getting plenty of other members to, at least, consider watching their screeners. And that person is Matthew McConaughey.
He is well on track to becoming a nominee for Best Supporting Actor. He’s made a huge turn this year from bland movie star to bone fide character actor and many will want to reward him for simply refusing to do another insipid movie with Kate Hudson. That may generate enough goodwill for them to vote him in. If that happens, it won’t matter much that the movie is ignored everywhere else. Magic Mike will forever be an Academy Award-nominated movie. And there’s no shame in that.
*Used to be known as the Ernest Borgnine test. Rest in peace, E-Borg.
Trivia Time
The answer to last week’s trivia question - which actress had the fewest lines ever in an Oscar winning supporting role - is Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker. This was a record level of participation so thanks and congratulations to everyone that participated. The winner of this week's BriOut ShoutOut goes to...
Henry the 8th
To get your BriOut ShoutOut next week, be the first to correctly answer this week's trivia question...
Only one performer has ever won an Oscar for playing another Oscar winning performer. Name the actor/actress, the person they played and the film they played them in.
Fun or serious questions about the award season? Send them in to get answers. To participate, use the comments section or email me at BriOutAE@gmail.com. Answers will appear in next week's column.
