Predictable to the very last, the 25th Film Independent Spirit Awards honored the most Oscar-favored contender in almost every category they could. (Including a Best Foreign Film win for “An Education.”) Kris might have some first-hand perspective later; in the meantime, check out the winners at The Circuit.
Author: Guy Lodge
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Terry Gilliam calls bullshit on the Oscars
As certain as carols on Christmas Eve, you can always rely on the pre-Oscar weekend to bring a surfeit of “why the Oscars don’t matter” pieces — all other angles on the race having been exhausted in the preceding months. Hey, I sort of did one myself yesterday.True to form, today we have David Thomson in the Guardian dismissively asking, “Who cares about the Oscars?” (If Mr. Thomson did some digging around the web, he’d be in for a nasty surprise.) Elsewhere, you’ll surely be stunned to learn that Armond White doesn’t approve of the annual ceremony, either: Kathryn Bigelow is better than a stinky Oscar, runs his general argument.
Both pieces contain several nuggets of truth, but highbrow film critics kicking the Academy to the curb is hardly revelatory. More fun, then, is Vanity Fair’s slightly more inside view from filmmaker Terry Gilliam, a one-time Oscar nominee for “Brazil” whose latest effort, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” will compete in two technical races on Sunday.
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THE LONG SHOT: Happy Oscar (War Is Over)
So this is Oscar. And what have you done?Speaking for myself, lately, not a hell of a lot. In the three weeks that this column has been on hiatus – apologies to the handful of you who missed it – it’s remarkable how little the O-word has been on my mind.
Yes, I’ve been busy: a trip to the Berlinale here, a stretch of scriptwriting there, the occasional interference of an actual personal life in between. But even if I hadn’t been, and even if the estimable Nathaniel Rogers hadn’t borrowed most of my remaining awards-talk energy for his Oscar Symposium, I doubt I would have found much that was fresh or consequential to fill this space.
I’m not alone. In an awkwardly scheduled season that saw the most crucial precursors announced before Oscar nomination day, and nary a shift in the frontrunners since, Phase Two of the season has amounted to little more than a month of journalistic thumb-twiddling, while most of the nominees wearily float above it all. Remember when the Oscars took place in late March, or even April? Today’s surfeit of Oscar bloggers would have died in wait.
It’s almost enough to make you admire the brazen transparency with which the L.A. Times attempted to drum up drama in the latter stages of voting, rather like a cranky toddler, bored of behaving himself at the supermarket, throwing a tantrum in the checkout line.
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Stumping for (or against) Mauro Fiore
This year, one of the biggest trip hazards for those filling out their office Oscar pool sheets is the Best Cinematography awards. A race with four potential victors (sorry, “Harry Potter” fans) and wildly mixed signals from the precursors, there’s less consensus over this one than any of the feature categories.We’ll put the debate to you when we cover the category in our Oscar Guide series on Thursday. Vanity Fair’s Claire Walla, however, seems to think she has it sussed out, declaring Mauro Fiore’s work on “Avatar” without peer in the race, given that it “completely redefined what it means to make an image.” To this end, she discusses with Fiore the challenges of lighting a film produced mostly by technologies with which the DP was uninvolved:
“The most difficult part is marrying those two images,” Fiore said of working with a physical set that exists in a virtual world. For a scene that takes place outside a research laboratory on one of Pandora’s floating mountains, for example, the physical set consisted of two structures and scattered Pandoran shrubbery. The entire backdrop—including the light source—was represented on set only by a green screen. Fiore thus had to light the characters and structures on set according to where the sun would be had the characters actually been on Pandora and not on a soundstage in New Zealand … “It was tricky because every scene involved some sort of interactive light,” he added.
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‘Rabbit à la Berlin’ trailer
You might recall Kris and Anne disagreeing in last week’s Oscar Talk over the relative merits of this oddball nominee in the Best Documentary Short race. If you were wondering what they were on about, here’s an idea. (Thanks to The Auteurs for the tip.)
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I had no idea that…
… “Navi” is Hebrew for “A Prophet.” Presumably, you all did, and I’m just behind the curve. What can it all mean?
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Giacchino dominates IFMCA Awards
Kris was wondering what became of the last precursor of the season, the International Film Music Critics Association Awards. Right on cue, you can check out their choices at The Circuit. No surprise that they’re all about Michael Giacchino this year, but nice to see some love for “A Single Man” too.
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Siding with Sidibe
Any discussion of this year’s Best Actress category can get so heated, so quickly, I almost hesitate to point you to this, but Nick Davis’s meticulous review of the five nominees is too good not to recommend. No critic I know analyzes performance with quite such consideration and generosity.Here’s his case for why Gabourey Sidibe should (not will) take the gold on Sunday:
[T]he first sign that Sidibe was capable of more arrived in her bored but exasperated truth-telling to her school principal about how she got pregnant: “I had sex, Mrs. Lichtenstein,” she deadpans, illuminating Sidibe’s potential for combing out subtle gradations and conjuring real personality from within the character’s perma-gloom. The obstacle and the near-miracle of the performance from this point forward emerge from the fact that Sidibe has a fairly narrow emotional range in which to work (and she holds with conviction to that narrow range, refusing, for example, to be incongruously elated by the arrival of her child), and yet she nonetheless manages to broadcast when Precious is being mischievous, insolent, self-doubting, superior, distractable, suspicious, morbid, or unrelievedly depressed.
As for those of you who care only about the battle between Hollywood’s current two favorite leading ladies, he falls on the side of Streep. Wonderful stuff; read the rest here.
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Lynn Barber on making ‘An Education’
I’m not sure why the Wall Street Journal is reprinting a preface to a book that his been in print for over nine months — indeed, I quoted the very same piece in Page to Screen back in July — as fresh content. Still, if you haven’t yet read it, Lynn Barber’s reflection on the journey her memoir “An Education” took to screen is worth a look.Among other things, Barber picks up on the counter-intuitive choice of Nick Hornby, Britain’s king of “lad-lit,” to adapt this female-focused story:
I also learned that the scriptwriter [producer Amanda Posey] had in mind was her boyfriend -– now husband –- Nick Hornby. This made the whole idea more plausible, especially when I met Nick. I found it odd (still find it odd) that this preeminently ‘boy’ writer should so completely understand what it felt like to be a 16 year-old schoolgirl who was on the one hand very bright but on the other very ignorant about the world but, miraculously, he did. He even seemed to understand my parents, which is more than I could ever say myself.
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‘A Prophet’ takes nine César Awards
I know, I know … quelle surprise. One week after taking the BAFTA, Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” obliterated the competition at its home awards ceremony, the Césars. The foreign-language Oscar nominee took a massive nine awards, including honors for Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Supporting Actor.Tahar Rahim was a double winner, in fact, adding a breakthrough award to his Best Actor win. (Well, obviously.) Benefitting from the fact that “A Prophet” had no lead actress was veteran star Isabelle Adjani. It’s nice to see a documentary win for the excellent “Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno,” but a Best Foreign Film win for “Gran Torino” is really pushing the Gallic adoration for Clint Eastwood a bit far.
“A Prophet,” of course, opened Stateside yesterday — if you haven’t seen it yet, rectify that. Read our interview with Audiard here. Full list of winners after the cut.
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Siding with Sandy
Nathaniel Rogers’s annual Oscar Symposium wrapped last night over at the Film Experience, and I must say I had a great time taking part. The final day’s conversation wandered all over the map, taking in the original score race (I’m not alone in my love for “The Hurt Locker” there), the merits of The Ten and visions of Mo’Nique in “Nine.”But it had to end with this year’s most discussed Oscar duel: Bullock versus Streep. And between us, support was fairly evenly split. As a taster, here’s Tim Robey’s reluctant case for the “Blind Side” star:
Don’t we want Meryl to win her third for a truly epochal performance? … (Make no mistake — I’d happily watch Meryl take the garbage out daily, I love her so, but I really want her to win this thing for absolute top-drawer work.) I don’t think Carey Mulligan is ready to be crowned just yet, and I don’t think it would actually do her career any favours if she was. Sandy, on the other hand, has just the one shot at this, and I say why the hell not. I’ve always liked her. I’d have nominated her for The Lake House! (I’m not joking.) And I agree that her Blind Side performance, while entire skyscrapers away from the Brockovich league her spin-meisters would have us believe, is pretty nimble and watchable, and the only thing that got me through that numbskull movie alive.
Good stuff all round. If you haven’t been keeping up with the Symposium, read the rest here.
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WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Hurt Locker’ BAFTA sweep, minor fracas
• “The Hurt Locker” continued its cruise through the precursors, taking six awards at the BAFTAS.• The pile of guild awards grew as the writers, costume designers and sound editors all picked their winners.
• In our ongoing Oscar Guide series, we broke down the lead actress, documentary feature, documentary short, original score and original song races.
• Off the Carpet took stock of a quiet season, mainly just counting down the days.
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A.O. Scott celebrates Meryl Streep
Just when it seems as if pundits and critics alike have run out of fresh things to say in praise of Meryl Streep, A.O. Scott comes along with this beautifully written valentine to Oscar’s favorite actor.The piece essentially amounts to the longest, most eloquent For Your Consideration ad of the season, but even I — a relative agnostic on the merits of the master’s performance in “Julie & Julia” (more on that in the Film Experience’s Oscar Symposium later today) — was given pause by this very intelligent argument in its favor:
[T]hese days impersonation is the province of every aspiring biopic star. Ms. Streep’s Julia Child is never anything other than a performance, a fusion of two strong personalities rather than the absorption by one into another. You never forget that you are watching Meryl Streep inhabiting a version of Julia Child, and instead of distracting you from the truth of Julia, this awareness is what enables you to understand her. It is our familiarity with Ms. Streep that makes her exploration of a more private Julia Child both credible and exhilarating. Similarly in her frequent forays into the world of cinematic statecraft, she can be an entirely convincing senator or cabinet secretary while still being, in every syllable and flourish, Meryl Streep.
Plenty of other quotable passages in the article, but the actress’s legions of devotees will be better off reading and savoring every word. Enjoy.
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The price of Variety
Ever heard of “Iron Cross?” Don’t blame yourself if you haven’t: a Nazi revenge drama from freshman director Joshua Newton, opening in theaters next week, it appears to be notable principally for being the last film of the late Roy Scheider.Newton, however, had such high hopes for the film that he talked investors into a $400,000 ad campaign in Variety, enough to buy daily For Your Consideration ads in the trade paper from November to the end of nomination voting in January. Following this, Variety itself selected the film for its screening series aimed at Academy members, alongside far more illustrious awards contenders.
Must be good, right? Well, Variety’s own critic Robert Koehler didn’t think so in his damning review of the film, which he denounced as “preposterous” and “hackneyed,” among other choice adjectives. A slightly embarrassing result for a film the paper had previously boosted, but as Gawker’s John Cook reports, Variety solved the problem quite easily — by removing Koehler’s review from their website altogether, after “Iron Cross”‘s producers complained.
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Better and better
Two weeks ago, Kris expressed his (and, well, pretty much everyone’s) excitement over Todd Haynes’s HBO reimagining of “Mildred Pierce,” with Kate Winslet stepping into Joan Crawford’s Oscar-winning shoes in the title role.
Today, The Playlist passes on two further reasons to anticipate the project, namely Guy Pearce and Evan Rachel Wood. The latter, in particular, strikes me as a smart get — assuming, of course, that she’s filling the place of Ann Blyth. The longer I think about it, the more easily I can see Wood as Winslet’s daughter.
Does this have to be on TV? I’d watch four hours of this in a theater, frankly.
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A whole lotta Oscar talk
One of my favorite annual Oscar-blog institutions kicked off last night: Nathaniel Rogers’s three-day Oscar Symposium, in which six awards “experts” (remove quote marks as applicable) gather to discuss, debate, dismantle and generally disrespect this year’s Oscar race.I’m on the panel this year, but don’t let that put you off — Sasha Stone, Karina Longworth, Tim Robey, Peter Knegt and, of course, Nathaniel himself are all on hand with abundant wit and insight. Join the fun here. As a taster, meanwhile, here’s Sasha’s frightening trip into the mind of a harried voter:
Avatar – no, that one made me nauseous and dizzy. The Hurt Locker. What’s the Hurt Locker? What IS a Hurt Locker? Who’s in it? Who? Oh. Who’s he? It won all of those awards, that’s right. I remember seeing an ad about it last night. Huh. Up in the Air, I did see that. It has George Clooney in it. It wasn’t bad. Kind of depressing. The Blind Side – that was a really good movie. And Sandra is so beautiful. She was going to star in that film I almost made. Anyway, It was so nice to see someone do something positive. I think I’m going to vote for that one.
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Shankman and Mechanic on teamwork
In last Friday’s edition of Oscar Talk, Anne Thompson alluded to something of an elephant in the room regarding the upcoming Oscar ceremony: that curiously matched co-producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic are “not getting along.”As whispers to this effect continue to circulate around the industry, the pair have clearly aimed to dispel that notion in this interview with USA Today’s Anthony Breznican. Still, while they play up the “odd couple” angle with good humor — Shankman the highly-strung showman balancing out the more pragmatic (and aptly named) Mechanic — they don’t make you read between the lines to see the strain:
“It’s a meritocracy,” Mechanic says. “Whoever has the best idea wins. We haven’t had a blow-up. But we’ve definitely had disagreements, and definitely gotten heated a few times. He got me going one day, probably by mistake …”
“With an e-mail,” Shankman says. “As it always is these days.”
“At 5:45 in the morning, and I probably didn’t read it the way he intended it,” Mechanic says. “And I got (angry) and uppity.”
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Best Picture race, illustrated
This is a terrific idea that the Academy really ought to steal, particularly in light of this year’s dismal official Oscar poster. BAFTA commissioned Dutch Uncle Agency illustrator Tavis Coburn to create designs for each of their five Best Film nominees, for use on this year’s official BAFTA programme covers. The retro-inspired results are quite gorgeous. My two favorites below; the rest here.
