Rock and Reel

50 Favorite Albums of the Late 1960s: 20-11

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:59:26 -0500

Previous: 30-21

20. Led Zeppelin- Led Zeppelin II

19. Neil Young- Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

18. Led Zeppelin- Led Zeppelin

17. The Velvet Underground- The Velvet Underground

16. Bob Dylan- Bringing It All Back Home

15. The Velvet Underground- White Light/White Heat

14. Johnny Cash- At Folsom Prison

13. Jimi Hendrix- Electric Ladyland

12. The Beatles- Revolver

11. The Beatles- Abbey Road

50 Favorite Albums of the Late 1960s: 30-21

Wed, 29 May 2013 23:54:00 -0500

Previous: 40-31

30. The Byrds- Mr. Tambourine Man

29. Captain Beefheart- Trout Mask Replica

28. The Byrds- Sweetheart of the Rodeo

27. The Flying Burrito Brothers- The Gilded Palace of Sin

26. The Rolling Stones- Let It Bleed

25. The Beatles- Magical Mystery Tour

24. Van Morrison- Astral Weeks

23. B.B. King- Live at the Regal

22. The Band- Music from Big Pink

21. Jimi Hendrix- Axis: Bold as Love

Next: 20-11

50 Favorite Albums of the Late 1960s: 40-31

Mon, 27 May 2013 14:21:00 -0500

Previous: 50-41

40. John Mayall- Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton

39. Love- Forever Changes

38. Herbie Hancock- Maiden Voyage

37. Otis Redding- Otis Blue

36. The Who- The Who Sings My Generation

35. The Byrds- Younger Than Yesterday

34. Otis Redding- Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul

33. Cream- Disraeli Gears

32. Aretha Franklin- I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You

31. Frank Zappa- Freak Out!

Next: 30-21

50 Favorite Albums of the Late 1960s: 50-41

Fri, 24 May 2013 23:41:00 -0500

Over the past year or so, I have posted my 100 favorite album lists for the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s. I originally decided to skip the 1960s because my knowledge is limited to rock music, which arguably did not master the album art form until the mid-’60s. But because I’m obsessive, I decided I would do a list for the second half of the decade. I revisited all of these albums in the last few months.

50. Bob Dylan- Nashville Skyline

49. The Band- The Band

48. The Beatles- Help!

47. Captain Beefheart- Safe as Milk

46. Creedence Clearwater Revival- Green River

45. Miles Davis- Nefertiti

44. Frank Zappa- Hot Rats

43. Sly and the Family Stone- Stand!

42. The Rolling Stones- Beggars Banquet

41. Leonard Cohen- Songs of Leonard Cohen

Next: 40-31

Top 10 Movies of 1966

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 23:16:00 -0500

1. Blowup (Michelangelo Antonioni)

2. Persona (Ingmar Bergman)

3. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo)

4. Masculin Feminin (Jean-Luc Godard)

5. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone)

6. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols)

7. The Hawks and the Sparrows (Pier Paolo Pasolini)

8. Daisies (Vera Chytilova)

9. Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene)

10. Kill, Baby…Kill! (Mario Bava)

Honorable Mention: Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson), Made in U.S.A. (Jean-Luc Godard)

Updated: May 18, 2013

Top 10 Movies of 1975

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:58:00 -0600

1. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)

2. Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet)

3. Jaws (Steven Spielberg)

4. Nashville (Robert Altman)

5. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman)

6. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones)

7. Love and Death (Woody Allen)

8. Je tu il elle (Chantal Akerman)

9. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman)

10. The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky)

Honorable Mention: Bush Mama (Haile Gerima), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman)

Updated: May 25, 2013

85th Academy Awards: Predictions and Personal Picks

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 23:26:00 -0600

Previous (skipping a year): 83rd Academy Awards

UPDATED: Correctly predicted 15/20, winners marked with asterisks below

Best Picture

Prediction: Argo*

Personal Pick: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Directing

Prediction and Personal Pick: Steven Spielberg for Lincoln

Actor in a Leading Role

Prediction: Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln*

Personal Pick: Joaquin Phoenix in The Master

Actress in a Leading Role

Prediction: Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook*

Personal Pick: Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild

Actor in a Supporting Role

Prediction: Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln

Personal Pick: Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master

Actress in a Supporting Role

Prediction and Personal Pick: Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables*

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Prediction: Chris Terrio for Argo*

Personal Pick: Tony Kushner for Lincoln

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Prediction: Michael Haneke for Amour

Personal Pick: Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola for Moonrise Kingdom

Animated Feature Film

Prediction: Brave*

Personal Pick: ParaNorman

Cinematography

Prediction: Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi*

Personal Pick: Roger Deakins for Skyfall

Costume Design

Prediction and Personal Pick: Jacqueline Durran for Anna Karenina*

Documentary (Feature)

Prediction: Searching for Sugar Man*

Personal Pick: No Opinion

Film Editing

Prediction and Personal Pick: William Goldenberg for Argo*

Makeup and Hairstyling

Prediction: Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell for Les Miserables*

Personal Pick: Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Music (Original Score)

Prediction: Mychael Danna for Life of Pi*

Personal Pick: John Williams for Lincoln

Music (Original Song)

Prediction and Personal Pick: “Skyfall” from Skyfall; Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth*

Production Design

Prediction: David Gropman (Production Design), Anna Pinock (Set Decoration) for Life of Pi

Personal Pick: Dan Hennah (Production Design), Ra Vincent and Simon Bright (Set Decoration) for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Sound Editing

Prediction and Personal Pick: Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton for Life of Pi

Sound Mixing

Prediction: Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes for Les Miserables*

Personal Pick: Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson for Skyfall

Visual Effects

Prediction and Personal Pick: Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott for Life of Pi*

Side Effects (Steven Soderbergh, 2013)

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 19:17:19 -0600

Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects tells a stupid story with irritating (sometimes offensive) plot turns, yet it somehow works. This enjoyably trashy tale of intrigue is visually slick, hypnotic with its cold edits and shallow-focus digital cinematography. Much to my relief, the movie doesn’t demonize prescription drugs but rather explores how manipulative characters capitalize on society’s fears of meds. To say much more would ruin the fun.

Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:10:00 -0600

The first time I watched Zero Dark Thirty, I was mostly impressed, particularly with its skillful plotting and the direction of the suspenseful set pieces. But as I thought more about the film, I became increasingly troubled by it, not necessarily because of its much-debated depiction of torture but due to its thin characterizations and odd mix of reportage and fictionalization. A second viewing confirmed my suspicions. Kathryn Bigelow’s latest on the hunt for Osama bin Laden is well-crafted but far from great and lesser than the sum of its parts. And from a more philosophical, theoretical standpoint it takes the medium of film for granted, never fully grasping the responsibility of representation or the baggage that comes with fictional Hollywood storytelling.

To be clear, this is not meant to be a traditional review of the film (a clarification that is becoming more and more predictable on this blog). It is instead my attempt to articulate my issues with the film and pose some lingering questions. I think much of the criticism of this film has been broad, politicized and sometimes downright silly, making it very easy for the overwhelming majority that loves the film to defuse any arguments against it. Zero Dark Thirty is a problematic film, one that reveals just how hollow and sometimes dangerous it is on repeat viewings. (And just to get this out of the way now because I really want to say it, and it isn’t really relevant to anything else: James Gandolfini’s wig is really embarrassing.)

Indeed, the film gets off to a terrible start with its most offensive, exploitative moment. With the screen completely dark, the soundtrack features desperate 911 calls from individuals in the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Certainly, this functions to remind viewers of the attack on the homeland that made the search for Osama so important in the first place, but the use of these calls, whether they’re real or dramatized, is completely unjustified. If the calls are real, imagine an audience member hearing the voice of a loved one, perhaps dead, and to have that tragedy framed as sickly ironic, with the emergency responder telling them everything is going to be okay when we know that is not the case.

But it would have been just as problematic to reenact these calls. This gets at what I see as one of the issues of the film, how it seems to misunderstand the responsibility of announcing itself from the very start as based on first-hand accounts. The beginning of Alain Resnais’ 1959 feature Hiroshima, mon amour features a series of images that present society’s attempts to depict or reenact the tragedies of the atomic bomb – footage of burn victims, shots of the museums, visits to the titular Japanese city itself, etc. But it’s all set to one of the characters insisting again and again that his naïve companion “saw nothing in Hiroshima.” It is a haunting sequence that suggests the simultaneous necessity and impossibility of representing tragedy or any moment in history, for that matter.

I’m not saying every movie should so consciously play with form, or that a fact-based feature such as Zero Dark Thirty cannot work as propulsive, classically constructed procedural. But Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal tackle the material with self-seriousness but very little self-awareness. Their film proudly suggests it can and it will do its best to provide an exciting and ostensibly sophisticated account of recent history. Other 2012 releases such as Lincoln and Django Unchained certainly pose some interesting issues of historical representation, but there is more general knowledge about those moments in times and, as a result, probably more healthy skepticism. More importantly, both of these films revel in their artifice, whether it is the icon-inscribing cinematography of Janusz Kaminski or the cinematic playfulness of Quentin Tarantino. While Zero Dark Thirty is most certainly a fictionalized account, it is dressed up and packaged to suggest otherwise. Consider the previously mentioned trumpeting of the reporting that went into the script or the documentary-esuqe hand-held camerawork. Classical Hollywood storytelling is not necessarily the wrong way to tell the story of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. But Bigelow and Boal invite us to contemplate the morality of the actions depicted without ever questioning or complicating the validity of their images.

Zero Dark Thirty follows in the tradition of classical storytelling audiences have been conditioned to expect in the movies, and one of the primary aspects of such filmmaking is narrative causality, relevant to the film’s depiction of torture. Many of those either critiquing or defending the film’s use of torture have completely overstated and sometimes misrepresented their cases. Arguments suggesting that the film completely endorses torture feel a bit simplistic, and I tend to think they are exaggerating their points and ignoring the text that exists.

But those defending the film are not always honest about the film’s representation. Watching Zero Dark Thirty again, I can confirm that torture does lead to the capture of bin Laden, at least as it is depicted in the narrative. The key to unlocking the case is the name Abu Ahmed, a name first uttered by a character who is tortured in the first few scenes. Though he offers the name under friendly conditions, the threat of “enhanced interrogation” is clearly held over his head by Jason Clarke’s Dan. The film does not necessarily endorse torture, and I think there is a deeper conversation to be had about the inherent issues of representing such horrific acts. (Francois Truffaut once suggested there is no such thing as an anti-war film because the images will inherently glorify the violence and defend it.) But many of those defending the film should nuance their arguments by acknowledging the film’s narrative does suggest that, justified or not, torture led to the capture of Osama bin Laden. Narrative causality is king in classical Hollywood storytelling, so it’s essential to get that right.

Another key element of Hollywood storytelling is identification with key characters. What’s interesting is that while the film might not glorify torture with its brutal depictions, it does villainize those that get in the way. When Mark Strong’s George butts heads with Stephen Dillane’s National Security Adviser, the characterizations unambiguously (though probably unintentionally) suggest who is in the right and who is in the wrong. As Republicans might suggest about the president he works under, the Obama official is cast as smug, condescending and a little too intellectual, looking down at his smart phone while Strong’s character complains about the CIA’s impotency without the detainee program. The advising team’s suggestion that the unknown figure in the Abottabod compound might be a drug dealer is framed as absurd. Dillane’s caricature resembles the bureaucratic bullies of the ‘80s in films like Ghostbusters. There are grey areas in Zero Dark Thirty, but praise of the film’s moral ambiguity and objectivity are overstated. I sense people have seen the movie they want to see, projecting their own inner conflicts onto a movie that, for the most part, tells a very specific version of the story. There is only so much room for reflection with a fictional procedure that is this dependent on forward momentum.

The film’s emphasis on procedure over people could prevent Zero Dark Thirty from being an enduring film. Indeed, the details are fascinating, but it relies heavily on the most sensationalistic aspects of the story. We do not see the paper-pushing discovery by a low-level worker that ultimately gives the Abu Ahmed lead the clarity it needs. (Not to mention, this character is forgotten and pushed aside as a mere footnote.) This might be defended as consistent with Maya’s perspective, but we do see Jennifer Ehle’s Jessica fall into a trap when following a false lead. Thanks to Bigelow’s knack for action, the set pieces are impressive and visceral, so we do not necessarily stop to question her decisions of inclusion and exclusion as a storyteller. However, the film undeniably focuses on the most “entertaining” aspects: the torture, the explosions, etc. Indeed, these might be a crucial part of intelligence work, but there seems to be a disproportionate amount of attention on these elements.

Although there are details that could possibly inform viewers, the film has the tricky problem of being a fictionalized narrative based on real accounts that probably cannot be verified and did not even have to depicted accurately. To me, the relationship between fact and fiction in Zero Dark Thirty seems analogous to the issue of the uncanny valley. This is the idea that as a robot or animated figure approaches a lifelike image, it eventually becomes unsettling, so close and yet so soulless. (On 30 Rock, Frank explains the phenomenon to Tracy, who is at that point working on a pornographic video game.) Zero Dark Thirty has a similar problem. Ultimately, it does not have the tangible facts or journalistic accountability to be accepted as reality, but it is also too close to the real events to be easily embraced as fiction. If it seems that I’m thinking too much about all of this, that is precisely the problem. Zero Dark Thirty might depict serious issues with superficially intellectual rigor, but it is ultimately shallow, with no new layers to peal back on repeat viewings.

When the facts and fiction seem too messy, Zero Dark Thirty turns to Chastain’s Maya to anchor the drama. The Oscar-nominated actress mostly rises to the challenge. She offers a rich performance, especially powerful when she does not say much. What’s so disappointing is how on-the-nose the film is about her character’s non-life. Conversations with Ehle’s Jessica, Kyle Chandler’s Joseph Bradley and Gandolfini’s CIA director cast her all-consuming obsession in bold, capital letters. No, she doesn’t have any friends, and she wouldn’t flirt with a co-worker. Yes, she will start yelling in the hallway until she gets what she wants. And no, she has done nothing outside of this case. The movie is too insistent on underlining the purposeful underdevelopment of the character, instead of simply letting her actions and Chastain’s expressions speak for themselves. These scenes might not be as silly or reductive as the moment Clarke’s Dan loses his monkeys, but they certainly come close. The near-anonymity might be unconventional, but the redundancy is pure classical Hollywood storytelling.

The film sets up the character’s non-existence to represent the singular obsession with Osama or perhaps to offer Maya as a cipher onto which we can project our own post-9/11 anxieties. And it all culminates in that moving but frustratingly simplistic final shot of Chastain’s face. Maya’s inability to answer a simple question of where she is going falls in line with what the film has already made clear: She has no life outside of this decade-long hunt. Like The Hurt Locker, the film ends with a tacked-on moment of character insight, incongruous and seemingly disingenuous for a film more interested in process. It feels less like a heartfelt moment and more like an empty gesture towards profundity.

Or perhaps the final close-up can be read another way. The tear rolling down Maya’s face could very well suggest the futility of the search for Osama bin Laden. She went through all of this work, and for what? What is disappointing about this possibility is that it undermines the existence of the film in the first place. If the final shot is in fact meant to signal her dissatisfaction after it is all done, one starts to wonder why we had to sit for two and a half hours to reach such a conclusion.

Yes, the journey is often more important than the destination, but ultimately, this is the question I have been struggling with: What do I take away from this film? Zero Dark Thirty offers the semblance of ethical complexity but never digs past the surface in a way that resonates beyond a first viewing. It suggests a fascination with process, but possibly only as a means to set up the action scenes, Bigelow’s strength. And it gives us a wide cast of characters encountering political and moral issues at every turn, but none of them have the interiority or lives that would make these questions more vibrant than the headlines on an editorial page. The film takes the trouble to highlight Maya as a nonentity, but the people around her are equally empty. And the film simplistically suggests that if torture has a consequence for Americans, it is to relegate us as the oppressors to the hell of office work. There might be many issues to consider here, but the propulsive plotting of Zero Dark Thirty never gives us the space to consider them.

- Todd Kushigemachi

85th Academy Awards: Below-the-Line Nominees

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:45:00 -0600

I already tackled the major categories. Here are my thoughts on (most of) the rest! In sum, I am super glad Les Miserables didn’t get cinematography or editing nominations, and it’s also nice to see the Academy recognize the stellar craftsmanship in Snow White and the Huntsman. I’m really disappointed about the Original Score nominees, and WOW, The Dark Knight Rises got nothing.

Cinematography

Anna Karenina, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

Nothing makes me happier than Les Miserables not being here. It was a horridly shot film that still had a good chance of being nominated. Zero Dark Thirty is not here, despite receiving a number of critics’ awards for this very category. (My indifference to the snubs should be a good indication of how I feel about the film.) Instead, the Academy opted for some gorgeously shot movies, Anna Karenina and Django Unchained. And I think I’m officially going to stop complaining about The Master not being nominated.

Costume Design

Anna Karenina, Les Miserables, Lincoln, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman

Some of the notable films missing from this category are Django Unchained, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Cloud Atlas, which received zero nominations. The five shortlisted films are all deserving, including (and perhaps especially) the TWO Snow White movies.

Film Editing

Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty

I have wildly varying opinions about these five films, but they are all impeccably edited. I expected all of these to be nominated. And again, we should all celebrate the absence of Les Miserables, a film cut with no sense of space or visual grammar.

Makeup and Hairstyling

Hitchcock, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Miserables

I’m mostly just glad that they didn’t nominate Looper for making Joseph Gordon-Levitt look weird. But no Lincoln? BUT HE LOOKED JUST LIKE ABE. IT WAS SCARY.

Music (Original Score)

Anna Karenina, Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

I’m really sad that Beasts of the Southern Wild and The Master aren’t here. (Oops, I lied about complaining about The Master.) They would have easily been my personal favorites to win. The nominations for Anna Karenina indicate that Academy voters didn’t necessarily like the movie but liked how it looked and sounded; that’s pretty much what I’d say about the film. I personally would have liked to see Cloud Atlas here, for the music that pulled the six stories together.

Production Design

Anna Karenina, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln

I correctly predicted that these five films would be nominated. Argo, Cloud Atlas and Django Unchained were contenders that did not make it. People who were predicting Zero Dark Thirty for this category should know that a film will probably not be nominated here unless it is a period or fantasy piece.

Sound Editing and Mixing

Editing: Argo, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Skyfall, Zero Dark Thirty

Mixing: Argo, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

I figured I’d discuss these two together, mostly to clarify the difference between the two categories. Think of sound editing as the sound effects and sound mixing as the way the different audio elements are put together. If you don’t understand the difference, don’t worry because I’m guessing most Academy voters don’t either. I did not expect to see Argo here, especially over films like The Dark Knight Rises, Flight and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Visual Effects

The Avengers, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Life of Pi, Prometheus, Snow White and the Huntsman

Again, I’m glad to see Snow White and the Huntsman here. The Queen-related effects were simply stunning. Some people weren’t predicting an Avengers nomination, but come on, the best thing about the movie was the Hulk! I personally would have liked to see the mediocre but slick Amazing Spider-Man here rather than Prometheus, but I think I’m just blinded by the insane stupidity of the writing for Ridley Scott’s movie.

Originally posted: January 10, 2013 - 8:45 a.m.

85th Academy Awards: The Nominees

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:05:00 -0600

Here are some of my early morning thoughts on the major Oscar categories, most of those announced by Seth MacFarlene and Emma Stone this morning. (Their routine had a bunch of actually funny jokes, not typical for what’s usually a dull ceremony.)

For the most part, the shortlists for the major prizes are unsurprising. It should be noted that Silver Linings Playbook was nominated for the top prize, directing, lead actor, lead actress, supporting actor and supporting actress, which I believe is the first time this has happened since Reds in 1981. Also, I want a dollar for every time a commentator goes “Riva is the OLDEST Best Actress nominee ever, and Wallis is the YOUNGEST Best Actress nominee ever. WOOHOO!” And I finally withdraw my early prediction of Argo for winning Best Picture.

Also check out my second post covering below-the-line categories.

Most Interesting Inclusions/Omissions

Michael Haneke (Amour) and Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild) nominated for directing, while Ben Affleck (Argo), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Tom Hooper (Les Miserables) didn’t make the cut
The Master didn’t make the cut for Original Screenplay
Amour nominated for Best Picture
Joaquin Phoenix (The Master) nominated for Actor in a Leading Role

Best Picture

Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty

None of these nine films are major surprises. I’m not too shocked that The Master and Moonrise Kingdom didn’t make the cut, and I didn’t think that crowd pleasers like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Skyfall would place #1 on enough ballots. Other titles missing include The Dark Knight Rises, Flight and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Directing

Michael Haneke for Amour, Ang Lee for Life of Pi, David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook, Steven Spielberg for Lincoln, Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Now this category is very interesting. I thought the nominees would align with the DGA picks: Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow, Tom Hooper, Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg. But David O. Russell was nominated, along with the more surprising inclusions of Haneke and Zeitlin. I was also ready for the possibility of a Paul Thomas Anderson mention. But given the The Master’s absence from most of the major categories, it looks like voters disliked this movie as much as I thought they would.

Actor in a Leading Role

Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook, Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln, Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables, Joaquin Phoenix in The Master, Denzel Washington in Flight

This was really a race with only six likely contenders, and it turned out to be John Hawkes who didn’t make the cut for his great performance in The Sessions. The inclusion of Phoenix is not a complete surprise, though I thought the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) snub was a bad sign. Still, it’s nice to see one of the year’s most challenging, engaging performances get some real love.

Actress in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty, Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook, Emmanuelle Riva in Amour, Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild, Naomi Watts in The Impossible

To do post this quickly and efficiently, I prepared in advance a(n unpublished) list of five predictions plus five other contenders for each category so I could note what was nominated. These were actually the five actresses I had predicted. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Marion Cotillard (Rust and Bone) or Helen Mirren (Hitchcock), as they were nominated for SAG awards, but just as I suspected, the SAG-ineligible Wallis and the foreign actress (a group commonly overlooked by SAG) Riva made the cut. *pat pat pat*

Actor in a Supporting Role

Alan Arkin in Argo, Robert De Niro in Silver Linings Playbook, Phillip Seymour Hoffman in The Master, Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln, Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained

I suspected that Javier Bardem’s homophobic Skyfall villain, nominated by SAG, would make way for Christoph Waltz’s bounty hunter or Leonardo DiCaprio’s slave master. It looks like poor Leo won’t make the cut again, after his leading role in J. Edgar was ignored last year. And as Seth MacFarlene and Emma Stone hilariously noted, all of these nominees have won this award before, making this category a “breath of fresh air.” When is Leo going to get some recognition?

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams in The Master, Sally Field in Lincoln, Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables, Helen Hunt in The Sessions, Jacki Weaver in Silver Linings Playbook

SAG nominees Nicole Kidman (The Paperboy) and Maggie Smith (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) are not here. Instead, there’s Adams and Weaver. I’m a bit surprised by the nomination of Weaver, who does fine work in Silver Linings Playbook, but it’s easily the most understated performance of the movie and thus easiest to overlook. But then again, the Academy nominated her for Animal Kingdom, which saw her give a stronger but even less conventional performance. The Academy must love her, and it’s deserved. It would have been nice to see Judi Dench here for her powerful performance as M in Skyfall, but that was more wishful thinking on my part than a realistic expectation.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Amour, Django Unchained, Flight, Moonrise Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty

WGA-nominated sci-fi flick Looper did not make the cut, and I’m not entirely surprised. However, I am surprised that Paul Thomas Anderson is not here for The Master. It’s definitely not what I would consider a typical Awards-winning screenplay, purposefully abandoning typical story structure with its hypnotically elliptical narrative, but this category often recognizes challenging work. After all, they nominated A Separation last year, and Amour was named this year. I’m not too upset though, as the Oscars don’t exist to validate my love for PTA.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook

This is a completely unsurprising list of contenders. The Perks of Being a Wallflower would have been a nice inclusion, but this was a packed category full of the year’s biggest films.

Originally posted: January 10, 2013 - 7:05 a.m.

This is 40 (Judd Apatow, 2012)

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 22:53:00 -0600

Judd Apatow’s This is 40 is a funnier, more mature film than the writer-director’s Knocked Up, but it’s still not a good movie. Film benefits from stronger leads Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann, somehow bringing warmth to the incessant fights of their characters. This time, the humor feels more organic, grounded in the drama of the story rather than a distraction. Still, it’s an exhausting movie, and when it comes to finding comedy in the tragedies of everyday life, I would take a single episode of Louie over this film any day.

I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell, 2004)

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 13:53:00 -0600

I Heart Huckabees is the rare American indie with narrative and visual quirks that function as key thematic devices rather than empty affectation. The entire ensemble successfully matches the manic rhythms of David O. Russell’s direction and writing, but Mark Wahlberg particularly stands out. He captures both the leftist rage and the heartache of his character with ease. It’s existentialism at its most excitingly wacky.

Promised Land (Gus Van Sant, 2012)

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:27:00 -0600

Promised Land too bluntly presents the fracking facts and simplifies its character’s emotional arc with an eye-rolling romance. And yet, I enjoyed the film for the most part, thanks to nuanced performances by Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, John Krasinski and Hal Holbrook. Although the movie is told from the oppressor’s perspective, it truly engages with issues like the economic downturn instead of marginalizing them (as Up in the Air did). Gun Van Sant’s direction gives the film an intimate, small-town touch. It’s an incredibly minor work for the filmmaker but a better-than-average drama overall.

Top 10 Movies of 2012

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 01:05:00 -0600

It’s obvious that most films are, simply put, stories told visually. But what’s interesting is how the very act of storytelling plays a role in many of the year’s best films. In Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, our nation’s most beloved president often halts the momentum of the film’s action by telling tangential anecdotes, often to the frustration of his cabinet members. As talking heads, the locals in Richard Linklater’s Bernie offer their takes on the ever-present yet somehow still elusive titular character. Takashi Miike’s Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samuari is told through flashbacks, each one revealing the injustices of a stratified society.

There are countless other examples: tales offering historical context in The Hobbit, the opening and closing scenes with a gnarly-looking Tom Hanks in Cloud Atlas and even good ol’ Neil Young rambling on about his childhood in Jonathan Demme’s latest documentary on the rock legend.

Despite this reoccurring motif, 2012 offered a wide variety of films. Superheroes and other franchise properties continued to offer easy targets for serious-minded critics, but I’d personally take the best of these blockbusters over some of the year’s acclaimed prestige pictures (e.g. Argo, Les Miserables, Life of Pi and, to a lesser extent, Zero Dark Thirty). Many loved Michael Haneke’s Amour, but I much preferred the Dardenne brothers’ humanistic The Kid With a Bike. This seems to me a year with little consensus, and just like every other year, I had too little time to watch all of the good movies. As I did last year, I have listed my “blind spots,” made up of Slant favorites, significant award season contenders and other major films I haven’t seen yet.

This year, I’ve also started noting which of my favorites were shot on film. Traditional projection of film is dead, but some filmmakers still insist on making their films using 16mm, 35mm or, in a few cases, 70mm film. I’m not as pessimistic about digital filmmaking or 3D as some cinephiles. Indeed, I am fascinated by the possibilities of digital cinema in the hands of those who understand how to use the tools. But it’s not the same as celluloid, and the use of film deserves to be celebrated.

1. Killer Joe (William Friedkin)

Forget Silver Linings Playbook. William Friedkin’s latest masterpiece showcases the year’s most dysfunctional family played by an ace ensemble. As vulgar and nasty as they come, Killer Joe truly deserves its NC-17 rating. Every single character in the film is a dreadful human being. They are willing to murder family members for money and sacrifice others as sexual collateral. And yet, the film somehow approaches all of the characters and the terrible things they do with understanding. The performances are uniformly excellent, particularly Juno Temple as a sexualized innocent and Matthew McConaughey as the titular hitman. In one of the year’s best performances, McConaughey plays his character with a mix of perversion and Southern charm, simultaneously demanding our disgust and our respect. This film is not pleasant, but it’s engaging from its opening shot to its pitch-perfect, hilariously bloody ending. I would take this over director Friedkin’s The French Connection or The Exorcist any day.

2. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Currently in select theaters, shot on film

This elliptical story of a master and a follower hypnotically captures the experience of a postwar drifter. It’s an often frustrating narrative that refuses to resolve itself, all in the service of tapping into the uncertainty of the times and the impossibility of its central relationship. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s cult leader and Joaquin Phoenix’s loose cannon seem to need each other. The former needs a protege for his work to have meaning, and the latter simply needs direction for his life. And yet, they are always at odds as opposite-equal forces. It’s the story of two friends, or a preacher and its skeptical congregation, a father and his son. This tension works so well because of the stellar performances by Hoffman and Phoenix. Director Paul Thomas Anderson and cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. clearly understood this, using close-ups (shot on 70mm film) to capture each and every detail of their faces. Whether it’s sex or cult, the characters here use whatever they can for a fulfilling sense of power over others. It might be the hand of a chilly wife (Amy Adams), meditation guided by a master, or a follower’s attempted reappropration of said meditation when bedding a woman. It is a constant psychosexual cycle of masters and followers. To borrow a phrase from the year’s best episode of television, these dissatisfied souls constantly strive in vain for something beautiful they can truly own.

3. I Wish (Hirokazu Kore-eda)

Available for streaming via Netflix, shot on film

From the director of the heartbreaking Still Walking, this childhood adventure similarly examines everyday life with staggering honesty and grace. It’s the story of a young boy named Koichi, struggling to cope with the divorce of his parents and the subsequent separation from his younger brother Ryunosuke. Ever optimistic, he hears that a wish, made at the exact moment and location at which two bullet trains pass by each other, is guaranteed to come true. Naturally, he sees this as the last chance to bring his family together. Koichi, Ryunosuke and several of their friends work together to escape their lives for the momentous opportunity. They all come prepared with different wishes, dreams of growing up to be an actress or naive hopes that a dead pet might come back to life. The film moves among these different characters, resulting in the story of not one family but of many children with ever-changing anxieties and desires. I Wish captures the adventures and the pains of childhood with such whimsy and insight, and the film is ultimately less about whether the wishes come true than how the children change over the course of their trek.

4. The Kid With a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

Available for streaming via Netflix, shot on film

The story is simple. A young boy clings onto a bike from his father, who has abandoned him. By chance, he meets a woman willing to care for him on weekends as a foster parent. But when the boy meets a charismatic drug dealer, acting as the father figure he desperately needs, he starts to head down the wrong path. Although this premise seems straightforward, the Dardenne brothers lend this story the intimacy and brutal honesty that characterize all of their films. Rather than blaming any of the characters, the film implicates socioeconomic issues as key reasons for its minor tragedies. Thomas Doret gives a heartbreaking performance as Cyril, a troubled kid who occasionally resorts to hurting others and himself. We feel Cyril’s pain when he feels like he has nowhere to go, and we are full of joy when he smiles. It’s a beautiful work of art unironically full of love and compassion.

5. Bernie (Richard Linklater)

Available for streaming via Netflix

On the surface, Bernie tells the story of a friendly mortician (Jack Black) and his odd friendship with the town’s nastiest bitch (Shirley MacLaine). But Richard Linklater’s film is also a fascinating exploration of a Texas community, how its members relate to each and how they tell their own story. Linklater uses the mockumentary format not simply as a gimmick, employing it as an essential tool to understanding a lead character full of contradictions. The film is also one of the year’s funniest, surprising at every turn with its dry and menacing tone. Black’s performance stands as the best of his career, combining his comedic showmanship with tremendous vulnerability. And again, McConaughey shows up with yet another winning performance as the DA with a bad feeling about the town’s most-beloved overachiever. With its dark opening scene depicting the preparation of a dead body and the sheer hilarity of McConaughey’s truly awful wig, Bernie stands as another masterful oddity in Linklater’s eclectic filmography.

6. Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai 3D (Takashi Miike)

Last year, Takashi Miike made my top 10 with 13 Assassins, essentially an hour of exposition followed by an hour of relentless bloodshed. At first, Hara-Kiri seems to be another ultraviolent revenge tale (which would have been perfectly fine with me), but what unfolds is a slow-burn drama that cries out for social justice and the dismantling of class structures. The film tells its tale of familial tragedy through two extended flashbacks. The story structure underlines the inhumanity of the privileged class, suggesting a disdain for charity to be an unacceptable personal and political doctrine. The use of 3D is haunting, allowing the film to explore the empty, unforgiving halls of the House of Li. In the end, Miike suggests that the real solution is not necessarily destroying the elite but revealing the ugliness and cowardice of their beliefs.

7. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)

Shot on film

This is an undeniably messy film. Its politics are often unsettling, the acting is overstated, and the plotting doesn’t always work. But no other film this year was so full of passion for life and the possibilities of filmmaking. Beasts of the Southern Wild is a modern fairy tale, in which a child does not escape her world but rather tries to make sense of all of its messiness. Benh Zeitlin’s debut feature challenges the lines between fantasy and reality, childhood and adulthood. Like 2009’s marvelous Where the Wild Things Are, the film captures the experience of youth, the naivety with which we approach the world but also all of the fears that come with it (often overlooked in movies actually made for children). It’s all centered around the fearless performance of young Quvenzhane Wallis, whose courage and poise is not gratingly precocious but inspiring. And when we face the disasters and the death that the world has to offer, we should be so lucky to have the triumphant score by Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin cheering us on.

8. Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)

Currently in theaters, shot on film

Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln is not a traditional biopic. Although Daniel Day-Lewis is the undeniable star, the film focuses on a political community to narrativize the legislative process. But to be clear, Lincoln is more than a civics lesson. This human story explores the messy intersection of the personal and the professional. Screenwriter Tony Kushner and Spielberg have crafted a dialogue-driven, engaging movie about the crooked deals, silly anecdotes and changes of heart that led to the passage of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery. Kushner’s most stunning achievement here is the structure, with all of the subplots culminating in a simple yea-or-nay vote that turns out to be the year’s most cathartic scene. Day-Lewis plays our nation’s 16th President not as a moralist or intellectual but as a charming storyteller with a purpose. I walked away stunned by David Strathairn, James Spader, Hal Halbrook, Lee Pace, David Costabile, Michael Stuhlbarg and, of course, Tommy Lee Jones. If every supporting actor nomination for every single award went to a cast member of Lincoln, it’d be justified. On top of it all, Janusz Kaminski’s grainy images are among the most expressive of the year. Is this my favorite of the major Oscar contenders? I say, aye. AAAAAAAAAAAYE.

9. 21 Jump Street (Phil Lord and Chris Miller)

Shot on film

Killer Joe and Bernie might be the year’s most accomplished big-screen comedies, but 21 Jump Street was easily the year’s funniest movie. Executed with impeccable timing and energy, the wildly immature jokes remain funny after even months of reflection. From the directors of Cloud With a Chance of Meatballs, the film plays like a live-action Warner Bros. short, except with a severed penis, lots of drugs and a Korean Jesus. This manic delight keep us on our toes with its sly self-awareness, undermining action-flick expectations and challenging dated high school stereotypes. When Ice Cube’s Captain Dickson teases a college-set sequel at the end of the film, I didn’t cringe with cynicism but rather sighed with relief. This might have been the most fun I had at the movies in 2012, and I would love (at the very least) a second helping.

10. Damsels in Distress (Whit Stillman)

After a 14-year hiatus, Whit Stillman returns with a film that pushes the boundaries of good taste. I felt offended or uncomfortable for much of its running time, but this otherworldly comedy is insightful and wickedly funny, poking fun at the self-absorption of young people today. At her college, Greta Gerwig’s Violet heads the Suicide Prevention Center, where troubled students take dance lessons to work through their problems. (Aubrey Plaza makes a cameo as an especially troubled case.) Every now and then, Analeigh Tipton’s Lily will challenge the surreal absurdity of the characters’ attitudes, correctly suggesting that those seeking help need therapy and possibly medication. However, her questions come and go as brief reality checks in the midst of a twisted alternate reality. Privilege and youth keep these guys and gals from seeing the world with any sort of perspective. It is a vision that’s terrifying when one of its young adults realizes he doesn’t understand the concept of color, but it seems a fun place to escape to when a dance craze is a rational solution to all of the misery in the world.

Honorable Mention (in alphabetical order): The Avengers (Joss Whedon), Cloud Atlas (Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer and Andy Wachowski) [select theaters, film], Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg), The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan) [film], The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Peter Jackson) [theaters], Looper (Rian Johnson) [select theaters, film], Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson) [select theaters, film], Neil Young Journeys (Jonathan Demme), ParaNorman (Chris Butler and Sam Fell), Skyfall (Sam Mendes) [theaters]

Blind Spots: Almayer’s Folly (Chantal Akerman), Barbara (Christian Petzold), The Color Wheel (Alex Ross Perry), The Comedy (Rick Alverson), The Day He Arrives (Hong Sang-soo), The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies), Girl Walk // All Day (Jacob Krupnick), Hitchcock (Sacha Gervasi), Holy Motors (Leos Carax), How to Survive a Plague (David France), The Impossible (Juan Antonio Bayona), Magic Mike (Steven Soderbergh), Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonca Filho), Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan), Oslo, August 31st (Joachim Trier), Rust and Bone (Jacques Audiard), Tabu (Miguel Gomes), This is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi), The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr)

Updated: January 10, 2013

Les Miserables (Tom Hooper, 2012)

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 21:43:17 -0600

If Les Miserables gets anywhere near cinematography or editing Oscars, let’s barricade Hollywood Boulevard outside of the Dolby Theatre. Everything in front of the camera is spectacular: the sets, the costumes and the ensemble cast. It’s a shame that it’s all shot and edited with no sense of composition, continuity or space. The cinematic syntax is as sloppy as it gets. Russell Crowe is not nearly as bad as critics have suggested, and Anne Hathaway’s moment in the spotlight is truly heartbreaking. Again, a flawed film has strong moments despite Tom Hooper’s direction.

Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 13:24:42 -0600

As Woody Allen suggested in Love and Death, sex without love is an empty experience, but as empty experiences go, it’s one of the best. The same could be said of Quentin Tarantino’s cinema without substance. The weakest in a strong body of work, Django Unchained is still an impeccably crafted and invigorating blood fest. The first act has incredible momentum, but the film dramatically slows down when Leonardo DiCaprio’s villain is introduced. The conversations in the talky second half feel especially deliberate and self-conscious, even for Tarantino. It’s well worth the time but not as inventive or cathartic as the masterful Inglourious Basterds. Prepare for incessant uses of the n-word, comic explosions of blood and nearly three hours sitting on your bum.

Not Fade Away (David Chase, 2012)

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 13:16:44 -0600

David Chase’s Not Fade Away has all of the creative energy of a debut feature, despite the director’s decades of TV experience. His film approaches the ’60s and its music affectionately but modestly. Instead of merely relying on its cultural references to ingratiate the audience, the low-key drama focuses on its complex characters, showing how rock music shaped their lives uneventfully and sometimes quietly. Throughout the film, Chase fascinatingly plays with sound. In the stunning opening scene, the beat of an old TV announcement signal evolves into the immortal “Satisfaction” riff, and in another bit, the members of the band jump in one-by-one to play “Bo Diddley.” The coming-of-age story feels familiar, yet it’s all executed in such a fresh way.

My 2012 Picks: Directing

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:31:00 -0600

These would be my picks if I could vote for the Oscars. (And to clarify, these are not my predictions.) Films have to be eligible for Academy consideration, which excludes most foreign films and other independent productions. These will be updated up until the nominations are announced on January 10. Click titles for links to my reviews.

This will be my final post in this series. I figured tackling the Best Picture category would steal the thunder from my upcoming Top 10 Movies of 2012 post, which will also feature several films not eligible for the Oscars. Thanks for checking in, and come back in a few days!

Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master

William Friedkin for Killer Joe

Richard Linklater for Bernie

Steven Spielberg for Lincoln

Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Skipping: Animated Feature Film, Documentary (Feature), Documentary (Short Subject), Foreign Language Film, Music (Original Song), Short Film (Animated), Short Film (Live Action)

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (John Madden, 2012)

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 00:17:00 -0600

The jokes are often obvious, the depiction of India is condescending, and everything ties up just a little bit too neatly. But damn, this charmed the socks off of me. The film works thanks to the incredibly strong ensemble, with each actor lending a deep sense of humanity to his or her thinly written role. John Madden’s direction is also impressive. He carefully crafted the film with a graceful and whimsical touch.