Oscar contenders - Best Actor: Colin Firth

First posted 2 Jan 2011:

Time to start looking at the Best Actor race.

Colin Firth is right on the top of the pile. Fresh off his acclaim for A Single Man last year, he has walked into career-best reviews this year for his very Oscar-friendly turn as royalty with a speech impediment in Tom Hooper's inspirational tale of leadership & friendship, The King's Speech.

Awards Daily’s Sasha Stone is Colin Firth’s biggest fan. She swears he has been brilliant in everything, ever, & is the most underrated actor in the business.

I’ll concede that you have to search long & hard to find a bad Colin Firth performance (although merely having your name in the Mamma Mia! titles is not great for anyone's credibility), and that he is always imminently watchable, but I will admit that I find many of his past performances to be a bit same-ish.

Colin Firth is already embedded in the hearts of discerning female BBC mini-series watchers across the world as the unsurpassably perfect embodiment of Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy. And he deserves it. It is a perfect performance.

To his credit, he also managed to mine new charms in a Darcy repeat role in Bridget Jones’ Diary. He is a remarkably subtle actor that lives into his characters, and perhaps it is only due to a lack of strong roles that he has, in the past, been confined to the 'reliably solid' category (in my mind, at any rate). But all that has been changing in the last few years, with a series of increasingly excellent gems culminating in his soon-to-be Oscar-winning performance in The King's Speech.

As the grieving widower trying to work through his & his daughters’ hurt in Michael Winterbottom’s enigmatic grief snapshot, Genova, Firth employed his usual techniques to channel new depths of subtle emotion and carry the mood of the film.

In the unexpectedly good Noel Coward adaptation, Easy Virtue, he plays a war veteran & long-suffering (or is he?) husband of somewhat highly strung (but with reason?) Kristin Scott Thomas. With biting wit & sorrow and a few surprises up his sleeve, he showed us a Firth we have not quite seen before.

Last year saw the biggest leap in his career since Pride and Prejudice, with his role in Tom Ford's adaptation of A Single Man, channeling all his understated skills to play George, a grieving Literary professor mourning the loss of his young lover with a quiet, palpable ache that scored him a richly deserved Oscar nomination. Although Firth's depressed gay professor was never going to beat The Dude himself essaying a spectacular boozer wooing Maggie Gyllenhall with beautiful, sad country songs, many felt he stood the best chance of stealing the award from Jeff Bridges.

He didn't. But this year he’s back in a role far easier for Oscar to digest and, by general consensus, his best to date. As another George, this time King George VI, he plays a man feeling the weight of his responsibility as his country's leader when he has to overcome a debilitating stutter in order to deliver a speech that will lead his country in a time of war. Although it is his humanity that really makes the performance, the equation adds up even if all the Academy voters see is the trailer: British royalty: tick. Physical disability: tick. Great Reviews: tick. Guaranteed Best Picture nominee film: tick. Leftover acclaim from A Single Man: tick. Likeability: tick. Colin Firth cannot lose.

The cherry on top of the cake is that the performance is, reportedly, more than the sum of its Oscar-friendly parts. Like Helen Mirren before him, he embodies the hidden pressures & emotions of a real person with royalty thrust upon him, trying to navigate the best interests of his country and his personal struggles. He plays a good man coming into his own as a King and finding the courage to be a leader, while building an unexpected friendship with Geoffrey Rush’s eccentric voice coach. It just gets better and better, and makes for some welcome lightness after all the grief of his recent work.

Barring any major upsets or catastrophes, Colin Firth should have no trouble riding this one all the way home.

Pride & Prejudice:

Genova:

The trailer really doesn't show off his performance, but it is the best I could find. Gosh people post weird stuff on YouTube (home-made montages of bad quality stills from the film set to cheesy piano music... not cool). Liking Arcade Fire on the soundtrack.

Easy Virtue:

That cheesy American voiceover really sucks, but I really actually enjoyed this movie.

A Single Man:

Such a slick trailer

Oscar contenders - Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence

First posted on 2 Jan 2011

20-year-old Jennifer Lawrence has been on the radar since Winter’s Bone won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance early in 2010. Lawrence was not a known name, the film was a small, female-directed indie & the Oscar race was still wide open with potential big names, so no-one could know for sure if she would last in the race to the end. But, like Carey Mulligan in An Education last year, her breakthrough performance has proved to be an enduring hit with critics, that has secured Lawrence recognition at nearly every awards list released & a sure spot on the the Best Actress list. With Winter's Bone itself picking up momentum towards a possible Best Picture nomination, and Debra Granik becoming a real contender for Best Director.

It is also noteworthy that, in a year of challenging, neurotic female characters, Lawrence's Ree Dolly is a fiery, heroic presence.

Elsewhere, Jennifer Lawrence is now big news, and will show up next year opposite Mel Gibson in Jodi Foster’s The Beaver & in X-Men: First Class.

Her most notable previous screen credit was her skilled & bruising performance opposite Charlize Theron & Kim Basinger in Guillermo Arriaga's The Burning Plain.

Winter's Bone:

The Burning Plain:

Tree of Life Trailer

Originally posted: 2 Jan 2011

Anything by Terrence Mallick is always big news. Just four films to his name, and a planet of acclaim. Badlands & Days of Heaven in the 70s, then a 20-year wait before 1998's The Thin Red Line (Saving Private Ryan with more nature, poetry & more indie names in the cast). His most recent, The New World, did not impress everyone, but I loved it. The story dragged on & perhaps the characters did not convince, but with Mallick's potently poetic combination of images, music & internal monologues, I could sit through hours of ineffective plot & mopey Colin Farrell.

His latest is a sprawling epic that takes in everything from dinosaurs to a troubled father-son relationship (Brad Pitt is the father, Sean Penn is the son - in two different timelines, of course).  

Leans toward pretentious, but oh so beautiful. I could watch this trailer all day.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World Trailer

Originally posted: 2 Jan 2011

Based on the popular Graphic Novel series, Edgar Wright's latest contribution to the pop culture oeuvre:

Music by Beck.

Edgar Wright Top 10 Underrated Films

Originally posted on 2 Jan 2011:

I'm pretty sure I stole these from www.slashfilm.com. I like: 

Edgar Wright’s Top 10 underrated or underseen movies of 2010

1. “Four Lions” – If this was a bigger hit, I’d worry for the safety of its makers. It’s a ballsy satire that never wimps out. Chris Morris made my favourite TV comedy show of all time, “Brass Eye” and his debut feature is no less ballsy and hilarious.

2. “Enter The Void” – The most stunning visuals of the year for me.  A rewarding, if grueling experience where the viewer essentially takes the POV of a drug tripping ghost. This is an out of body experience in every way possible .

3. “Splice” – This film was awarded a Cinemascore of F on the basis of two audience losing sex scenes that caused audible ‘What the fuck’ cries when I saw it in the cinema. I applauded them. This is a great twisted little piece of science fiction that deserved to be lauded for its smarts and guts.

4. “Tiny Furniture” – This film announced a great young voice in Lena Dunham and its beautifully detailed look at New York’s directionless youth was fresh and funny. Unlike its mumblecore predecessors, the camerawork was nicely composed and thought out. Hugely impressive for its budget.

5. “Never Let Me Go” – This film did not get nearly enough credit for having the courage of its convictions. It’s rare to see a piece of science fiction this spare and intelligent in 2010. Mark Romanek made a haunting piece of cinema that was both emotional and brilliantly chilly.

6. “The Last Exorcism” – The TV spots did something of a bag switch with this one. The actual film is not what was advertised, it was better. It’s original title of ‘Cotton’ better sets you up for the mock documentary tale about huckster evangelist Patrick Fabian whose faith is tested by the deeply troubled Ashley Bell.

7. “MacGruber” – In 2007, Akiva Schaffer brought us “Hot Rod.” In 2010, Jorma Tacconedirected “MacGruber.” Now Andy Samberg has to make another cult comedy in 2013 to complete the Lonely Island trilogy of underrated movies destined to become stoner classics. “MacGruber” is so fucking stupid, yet I cannot deny I watched it every night on the ‘Scott Pilgrim’ press tour in every hotel I slept in. The team up montage, the begging scene, Will Forte excruciating response to the accidental massacre of his team and the two aforementioned unforgettable sex scenes are comedy highlight of the year.

8. “Life During Wartime” – Todd Solonz’s sequel to “Happiness” barely got released and yet it was as sharp and as strong as any of his work. The theme is this is one of forgiveness and the film has a memorable haunted mood. It sometimes feels that you’re watching all the characters in some waking purgatory, so spooky are the performances of Shirley Henderson, Michael Kenneth Williams and Paul Reubens. While the complete cast swap of this sequel is probably down to not being able to bring back all the original actors, it actually seems meant. I’d like to see Solondz return to these characters in 2023. It can be like his very own [Michael Apted doc] “7 Up.”

9. “Please Give” – Somewhat overshadowed by the equally great “The Kids Are All Right,”Nicole Holofcener’s ensemble comedy is sprinkled with ace work from Oliver Platt, Amanda Peet and the brilliantly crabby Ann Guilbert.

10. “Frozen” – “127 Hours” and “Buried” made more festival noise, but Adam Green’s ski lift bound thriller was a just as worthy addition to the single location Lifeboat genre. Making the most of the tiny budget, the film gets maximum impact with its sickening twists. A great one to watch with friends and scream ‘Don’t do that!’ at the screen.

Also worthy of mention are a host of films that either did festivals in 2009 or were U.K. releases that opened in the US in 2010. All well worth checking out are…

– “Mother,” “Fish Tank,” “Youth In Revolt,” “MicMacs”, “Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee and “Best Worst Movie.” Please also bear in mind there’s a whole lot I’ve yet to see, “Monsters” being the first on my list to see as soon as possible.

Detroit Film Critics name their best

Originally posted: 11 Dec 2011

Nominations from the Detroit Film Critics Society.

Some interesting nominations. Nice to see Winter's Bone in the Best Film Top 5, and awesome to see Edgar Wright nominated for Best Director - inspired, even if it is as a 6th wheel add-on.

Also nice to see some variation in the Best Actress race, with Michelle Williams & Carey Mulligan replacing the usual Anette Bening & Anne Hathaway.

Jeff Bridges also pops up again & is starting to feel like a sure-thing. It's great to see Ryan Gosling also nominated for Blue Valentine. My biggest Oscar wish is that Gosling & Williams are not overlooked. I think it has been getting so much press due to the NC-17 Rating debacle that, hopefully, it will stay on everyone's radar.

On the Supporting Actor front, it's nice to see John Hawke's keep a steady pace & Sam Rockwell landing in the race. As for the ladies, it seems we have a 'locked' 4 in Melissa Leo, Amy Adams, Helena Bonham Carter & Jacki Weaver - with the critics at any rate. Pretty cool to see Greta Gerwig pop up in the 5th slot, although it is not likely that we see her again. A very deserving performance, though.

Full list of nominees, courtesy of the lovely people at AwardsDaily.

Best Film

127 Hours

Inception

The King’s Speech

The Social Network

Winter’s Bone

Best Director

Danny Boyle – 127 Hours

David Fincher – The Social Network

Debra Granik – Winter’s Bone

Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech

Christopher Nolan – Inception

Edgar Wright – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges – True Grit

Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network

Colin Firth – The King’s Speech

James Franco – 127 Hours

Ryan Gosling – Blue Valentine

Best Actress

Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole

Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone

Carey Mulligan – Never Let Me Go

Natalie Portman – Black Swan

Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale – The Fighter

Andrew Garfield – The Social Network

John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone

Sam Rockwell – Conviction

Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right

Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams – The Fighter

Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech

Greta Gerwig – Greenberg

Melissa Leo – The Fighter

Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

Best Ensemble

The Fighter

The Kids Are All Right

The King’s Speech

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Winter’s Bone

Breakthrough Performance

Andrew Garfield – The Social Network/Never Let Me Go

Greta Gerwig – Greenberg

Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone

Chloe Moretz – Kick Ass/Let Me In

Mia Wasikowska – The Kids Are All Right

Baumbach's next

Originally posted: 9 Dec 2010

This landed on Twitter a few days ago, via Living in Cinema's Craig Kennedy:

LivingInCinema Craig Kennedy 

Stiller & Franco apparently attached to Baumbach's next WHILE WE'RE YOUNG. offers out to Gerwig and Blanchetthttp://ow.ly/3iAS5 @Vulture

Great news. Noah Baumbach has fallen out of favour since his adored debut, The Squid and the Whale, but to me his films are always an event.

Ben Stiller & James Franco are an intriguing combo for the, presumably, maturity-stunted leads & anything with Cate Blanchett is worth seeing (her only previous collaboration with Baumbach is one of her most underratedly hilarious performances, in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zisssou, which Baumbach co-wrote).

Greta Gerwig was great in Baumbach's most recent Greenberg (below).

Oscar Contenders - Best Actress: Natalie Portman

Originally posted on 1 Dec 2010:


Natalie Portman is the second lock this year for her boundary-pushing performance in Darren Aronofsky's psychological thriller Black Swan. 

Portman plays Nina, a ballerina who has devoted her life to the art of ballet, at the expense – seemingly – of her healthy emotional development. She is prompted to push herself to the brink of obsession when her demanding choreographer, Thomas (Vincent Cassell), doubts her ability to embody the ‘Black Swan’ required to cast her as the lead in ‘Swan Lake’. Thomas’ challenge to Nina is to channel the darker recesses of her psyche to become a true artist, and this seems to be director Aronofsky's challenge to Portman as well, and Portman’s responding performances has critics raving.

This is Portman’s breakthrough performance as a proper ‘grown up’ actress (hard-earned for a child actress), and she is a ‘lock’ for a Best Actress nomination. As dark & challenging as the performance might get, Portman in real life remains lovely & lovable – a winning combo on an Oscar ballot. Whether she will campaign hard enough to beat Anette Bening remains to be seen, but more on that later.

Todd McCarthy calls the film 'Red Shoes on acid', which is, admittedly, enticing. Aronofsky's films are complex, intense, admittedly heavy, but creatively invigorating and, as AwardsDaily's Ryan Adams aptly put it, never less than mesmerising. His stories and characters may not be the easiest to watch or love, but Aronofsky is one of our most creatively potent directors, and his films are always an event. 

Black Swan Trailer:

Richard Brody's intriguing Top 25, & great praise for 'Somewhere'

Originally posted on 11 Dec 2011:

The New Yorker's Richard Brody releases an intriguing 'Best of' List, with Shutter Island, The Social Network & Sofia Coppolla's Somewhere as his Top 3.

His praise for Somewhere is particularly enticing:

Somewhere

One of the most radical films ever made in Hollywood, if the root of the cinema is the conjuring of inner life through outer particulars. The gap between the life lived and the life perceived—a quiet tragedy, Sartre-style—is traversed with the tender, near-weightless glide of a Ferrari on a freeway.

His list:

1. “Shutter Island” (Martin Scorsese)

2. “The Social Network” (David Fincher)

3. “Somewhere” (Sofia Coppola)

4. “Greenberg” (Noah Baumbach)

5. “Black Swan” (Darren Aronofsky)

6. “Around a Small Mountain” (Jacques Rivette)

7. “Daddy Longlegs” (Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie)

8. “The Strange Case of Angelica” (Manoel de Oliveira)

9. “Tiny Furniture” (Lena Dunham)

10. “Our Beloved Month of August” (Miguel Gomes)

11. “Ne Change Rien” (Pedro Costa)

12. “The Father of My Children” (Mia Hansen-Løve)

13. “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” (Woody Allen)

14. “Hereafter” (Clint Eastwood)

15. “The Portuguese Nun” (Eugène Green)

16. “The Army of Crime” (Robert Guédiguian)

17. “Outside the Law” (Rachid Bouchareb)

18. “Audrey the Trainwreck” (Frank V. Ross)

19. “Boxing Gym” (Frederick Wiseman)

20. “Catfish” (Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman)

21. “Cyrus” (Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass)

22. “Open Five” (Kentucker Audley)

23. “Get Him to the Greek” (Nicholas Stoller)

24. “Spring Fever” (Lou Ye)

25. “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” (Edgar Wright)

Read more here.

Somewhere trailer:

Apologies - refurbishing

Apologies for the blog overload that's about to happen.

I'm relocating my old blog to Sumup film.

Carey Mulligan is Daisy in Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby (if it happens)

Originally posted in November 2010:

I like it best on Twitter (via LivingInCinema's Craig Kennedy):

'Mulligan is Daisy opposite DiCaprio's Gatsby and Maguire's Nick in Luhrmann's adaptation of THE GREAT GATSBY.http://ow.ly/3amNG DHD'

Enough said, really, but I stole these quotes from some Luhrmann quotes from The Deadline, to add some colour:

“The Great Gatsby” adaptation, directorBaz Luhrmann has confirmed to Deadline that he has officially given her the role. “Regarding the role of Daisy Buchanan, I was privileged to explore the character with some of the world’s most talented actresses, each one bringing their own particular interpretation, all of which were legitimate and exciting. However, specific to this particular production of The Great Gatsby, I was thrilled to pick up the phone an hour ago to the young Oscar-nominated British actress Carey Mulligan and say to her: ‘Hello, Daisy Buchanan.’”

However, be warned - 

“There are a few elements that I feel need to be resolved before I would categorically state that this is my next film.”

There you have it. 

I like this bit on Mulligan's reaction, though (also from The Deadline):

"Mulligan was on the reception line for The Fashion Council Awards in New York when she got the call on her cell phone from Luhrmann, just a few minutes ago. She burst into tears on the red carpet in front of Karl Lagerfield and Anna Wintour."

The photo was taken by Baz Luhrmann during rehearsal sessions where he workshopped his script with a number of actresses to see who played best off Leo DiCaprio.