OSCAR WANT-THINK LIST

W=Want; T= Think

Best Picture: W: BOYHOOD; T: BIRDMAN
Director: W: R. Linklater, Boyhood; T: A. Gonzalez-Inarritu, Birdman
Actor: W: M. Keaton, Birdman; T: E. Redmayne, Theory of Everything
Actress: W: Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night; T: J. Moore, Still Alice
Supp. Actor: W: Ethan Hawke or Edward Norton; T: JK Simmons, Whiplash
Supp. Actress: W: Laura Dern or P. Arquette; T: P. Arquette, Boyhood.
Foreign Film: W/T: IDA

Adapted Screenplay (the hardest one to predict): T: The Imitation Game
Original Screenplay: W/T: BIRDMAN
Original Score: W: A. Desplat, Grand Budapest Hotel; T: Theory of Everything.
Original Song: W/T: "Glory," SELMA

Cinematography: W: IDA; T: BIRDMAN
Film Editing: W: BOYHOOD; T: WHIPLASH
"Production Design" (really Art Direction): W/T: Grand Budapest Hotel.
Costume Design: W/T: Grand Budapest Hotel.
Makeup/Hair: W/T: GBH
Sound Editing: W/T: AMERICAN SNIPER
Sound Mixing: W: Interstellar; T: American Sniper
Visual Effects: W: Interstellar; T: Guardians of the Galaxy

Animated Feature: T: Big Hero 6
Documentary Feature: W: CITIZENFOUR; T: Virunga
Documentary Short: T: "Crisis Hotline"
Live Action Short: W: Butter Lamp; T: The Phone Call
Animated Short: T: "Me and My Moulton"

A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT

USA 2014

Director: Ana Lily Amirpour

Language: Farsi

It doesn't take long after delving into the world of pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers and addicts populating the streets of this fictional Iranian city (not to mention a chador-wearing vampire) that one asks oneself:  "HOW did the Iranian government ever allow this film to be made??" It breaks every taboo in the book (I will not mention the name of the book--Je suis un lâche).

I had to go online to find out that this feature film debut is, in fact, the product of a UCLA film school grad, who shot the entire movie with Los Angeles-based Iranian actors in the area around Bakersfield, CA! (I also learned that Los Angeles is home to the largest number of Iranians not living in Iran).

She certainly had me fooled ... all except for her film school background. From the opening credits, one is immediately aware of Ms. Amirpour's cinematic influences: Sergio Leone, James Dean, Italian neorealism, "Breathless" .. even Madonna!  That she can mash them all together to create this fictional black-and-white universe -- and hold the story together through it all -- is a testament to her vision and skill. It is a high compliment to think "This is a movie Quentin Tarantino would appreciate" (and surely, all lovers of film).

The titular character is indeed a vampire, but one who (under her chador) dresses like Jean Seberg (from Breathless), skateboards, listens to alt-rock, and likes to dance. Her love interest tools around in a white t-shirt and a Thunderbird convertible.While the drug dealer Saeed -- decked out in too much jewelry, tattoes and an adidas jumpsuit -- would be right at home walking the streets of Lodi, New Jersey as part of Tony Soprano's gang.

But I must mention the true star of the film: Masuka the Cat! More than a plot device, the cat serves as the Girl's spiritual cousin: wordlessly observant, unfazed, indestructible. While some scenes do drag in the film, the cat steals every scene he is in. The last scene in particular is a tour de force: a satisfying five minute resolution between the lovers where no dialog is spoken, and the Cat is literally front and center of the action. The visual pacing of that scene is spot-on, and all credit goes to the Cat's performance!

I've seen my share of "indie" films this year, but with the exception of "Boyhood." this was the most impressive of the bunch. And as far as vampire movies go, only "Only Lovers Left Alive"-- also this year, by another independent legend, Jim Jarmusch -- tops it. (He would love this movie, too!)

Careful with that finger!

OSCAR foreign film short-list screwed up again

I should have posted this at the time (but you know, the holidays!).

Whittled from a list of 83 submissions this year -- a record -- the Academy has begun the tradition of announcing a 'shortlist' of nine before the actual five nominees are announced. Usually, the list is met with howls of outrage over the significant films that were left off (Anyone remember the controversy surrounding Romania's submission in 2007: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days?) This year is no exception.

Here are the nine that did make the cut:

*Argentina, Wild Tales, dir: Damián Szifrón
*Estonia, Tangerines, dir: Zaza Urushadze
Georgia, Corn Island, dir: George Ovashvili
*Mauritania, Timbuktu, dir: Abderrahmane Sissako
Netherlands, Accused, dir: Paula van der Oest
*Poland, Ida, dir: Pawel Pawlikowski
*Russia, Leviathan, dir: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Sweden, Force Majeure, dir: Ruben Östlund
Venezuela, The Liberator, dir: Alberto Arvelo

*these films are the final five OSCAR nominees.

The overlooked film's from these four countries (respectively, TURKEY, CANADA, HUNGARY and BELGIUM) are described in the following quote:

"Many of the year’s most significant films were left off: Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep, which was this year’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes, didn’t make the cut. Nor did Mommy by Xavier Dolan, also a Cannes prize winner, taking the Jury Prize; or Kornel Mundruczo’s White God; or the Dardenne brothers’ Two Days One Night." Source: http://www.slashfilm.com/best-foreign-film-shortlist-2015/

I would add to this list of surprising omissions these three films which have had U.S. releases: ITALY (Human Capital); GERMANY (Beloved Sisters); ISRAEL (Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem); and the PHILIPPINES (Norte, the End of History).
I am all for expanding the reach of this category to include the likes of Estonia, Georgia and Mauritania (the country's first submission in this category EVER!), but to ignore the talents of Nuri Bilge Ceylan and the Dardenne brothers (who by all accounts are all at the peak of their creativity) is a damn shame.

To make matters worse, the critically-acclaimed entry from SWEDEN (Force Majeure), which was on the shortlist, did not make the final five. Below I leave you with the mosive poster of MY favorite foreign film of the year.

SELMA

SELMA

(USA 2014)

Directed by Ava DuVernay

I had the same idea as several hundred other Houstonians on the MLK DAY holiday (not on the actual day of his birth, which is Jan. 15th, as Jessica Chastain informed me during her impassioned acceptance speech at the Critics' Choice Awards that night). That idea was to go see the movie "Selma" and I am glad I did. It is an important work of historical drama that everyone in America should see (I bristle at the term "Black History," for this was a transformative moment in "American History.") 

I will defer to the historians to debate the role LBJ played in either stalling or pushing through the Voting Rights Act of 1965 -- like many important movies about U.S. history ("Lincoln"; "12 Years a Slave"; even "JFK") it sparks a debate, which is edifying. (In contrast, Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar" was a travesty of history, sympathetically depicting that monster Hoover while further sullying the reputation of Dr. King. What's next for you, Clint: "D. Cheney"?)

Back to the movie at hand: David Oyelowo was unjustly denied an Oscar nomination for his riveting portrayal of Dr. King. The movie very much rests on his performance, and rather than attempting an impersonation of King (the actor's voice and stature do not resemble King at all), Oyelowo went for a nuanced portrait of his private, reflective self, to contrast the public persona we have all come to know. It works by giving depth to his character, adding weight to his public persona that takes over later in the movie.

Englishman Tim Roth likewise delivers a believable portrait of Southern segregationist Governor of Alabama George Wallace. Englishman Tom Wilkinson doesn't fare as well as Southern President Lyndon Baines Johnson, however. Here, an all-out impersonation would have better served the iconic figure of LBJ, who was in every sense of the phrase 'larger than life.' Having not seen "Lee Daniel's The Butler", I cannot comment on the balance of acting vs. impersonation of the various Presidents (and its effect on the movie), but perhaps DuVernay asked Wilkinson for 'less, not more' in his role?

The movie seems to drag a bit before getting to the March to Montgomery itself (the movie's centerpiece), and much of the dialogue sounds like rehearsed talking points to explain the issues to the audience, as opposed to how people argue in real life. I do appreciate how the movie shines a light on the little-known 'foot soldiers' who gave their lives for the cause: Jimmie Lee Jackson, Viola Liuzzo, and James Reeb: all murdered in racist attacks. 

DuVernay is less assured in orchestrating set pieces -- I will give some examples in the [SPOILER] section at the end of this review. Strictly as a critic, I can see why the director's wing of the Academy passed-over her for the five male directors they did nominate. But it does give the appearance of an out-of-touch Academy. The same can be said of the Actors who voted on the Screen Actor's Guild nominees: "Selma" was shut-out completely!


[SPOILERS (of technique, not plot):
- DuVernay shows herself to be a second-time director with the overuse of slow motion shots to prolong the drama of certain scenes. The scene should be powerful enough without reliance on cheap tricks like that.
- The worst example of this tactic is the scene, early in the movie, of the 16th St. Baptist Church bombing that killed 4 young girls in 1963. A seminal moment in the civil rights movement to be sure, but the director plays it for shock value, then lingers over the resulting explosion with her signature slow motion. The effect is simultaneously too graphic and too artsy to earn the sympathy of the audience.
(Spike Lee did the same thing with his artfully posed corpses in the execrable "Miracle at St. Anna").
- Finally, one quibble with the end credits -- which I loved, by the way, from the John Legend & Common collaboration "Glory", to the original recording of the Selma marchers singing. The movie selectively spotlights the fates of several of the real-life characters in the film -- from the aforementioned Viola Liuzzo to, curiously, George Wallace, only mentioning his run for the presidency in 1972 and the assassination attempt that left him paralyzed, but never pointing out his later apology for his segregationist past and subsequent efforts to heal those wounds. Ignoring that salient fact, while highlighting the act of violence committed against him, is not only a missed opportunity to emphasize the human capacity to change, but also a cheap shot against a man who already had been depicted (accurately, to be sure) as an unabashed racist for the previous two hours. Sic semper tyrannis -- is that the message the filmmakers wanted to leave us with as we exited the theater?

Oscar nominations - 2015

I just read in the New York Times that there is a sub-profession of Hollywood journalists known as "Oscarologists" who predict the nominees a year in advance! It is all based on studio and publicist 'buzz,' so it is just another form of Hollywood navel-gazing, but there are worse jobs in the world.

I don't know how they fared this year, as I can count at least one snub is almost* all the categories for this year's awards.

*excluding Supporting Actor, Costumes, Make-Up, Art Direction (now called "Production Design") and the two Sound categories.

Let me start with the most-egregious omission: BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS. I have no problem with the Academy recognizing the exemplary work done by the great Laura Dern in WILD. She is fully deserving of a nomination, Keira Knightley and perennial nominee Meryl Streep, on the other hand .... are two joke nominees that come courtesy of, respectively, the Harvey Weinstein nomination machine and of the "Meryl can do no wrong" mindset that grips Hollywood every awards season.

They have robbed a spot for these three deserving nominees:
- JESSICA CHASTAIN in "A Most Violent Year"
- NAOMI WATTS in either "Birdman" or "St. Vincent"
- RENE RUSSO in "Nightcrawler"

Other snubs are listed below:
BEST PICTURE - "Foxcatcher" and "Gone Girl"
ACTOR - Jake Gyllenhall "Nightcrawler" and David Oyelowo "Selma"
ACTRESS - Amy Adams "Big Eyes"
DIRECTOR - Ava duVernay "Selma" and "James Marsh "The Theory of Everything"
FOREIGN FILM - the excellent "Force Majeure (Turist)" from SWEDEN
Original SCREENPLAY - J.C. Chandor, "A Most Violent Year"
Adapted SCREENPLAY - Gillian Flynn "Gone Girl" and Nick Hornby "Wild"
CINEMATOGRAPHY - "Interstellar"
FILM EDITING - "Birdman" and "Interstellar"
ORIGINAL SCORE - Antonio Sanchez "Birdman"** (a travesty, especially since Hans Zimmer got a free pass for his bombastic (loud!) and failed attempt to approximate Kubrick's 2001 soundscape for "Interstellar." He gets my John Williams "oh-no-he-didn't" (get another undeserved nomination) prize.
Original SONG - Lorde!
ANIMATION - The LEGO Movie
DOCUMENTARY - "Life Itself" -- about Roger Ebert; far and away, the best doc of the year!
VISUAL EFFECTS - "The Hobbit"

There you have it. Boyhood and Birdman had better sweep this year, to make it up to me!!

**An earlier post mis-identified the composer as Alex Sanchez. Also, I have since learned that hte Academy deemed his score INELIGIBLE, for having too much 'previously-recorded material.' Whatev!

TOP TEN MOVIE LISTS

As you anxiously await my 2014 Top Ten List (I have about 10 more movies to see this month), I need to revisit my list from last year.  I recently watched a movie on the small screen that I neglected to see in the theater: "HER" (Directed by Spike Jonze). I knew as soon as I saw it that it was a Top Ten lock. Well-deserving of its Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and nomination for Best Picture, I think it was the 5th Best Movie of 2013, squeezing out "THE WOLF OF WALL STREET" from the Top Ten.

The adjusted list looks like this:

1. 12 YEARS A SLAVE

2. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

3. GRAVITY

4. La Grande Bellezza ("The Great Beauty") - ITALY 

5. Her

6. Blue Jasmine

7. Nebraska

8. American Hustle

9. All Is Lost

10 (tie). Mud and Dallas Buyer's Club 

Honorable Mention

The Wolf of Wall Street
The East

The Invisible Woman

Much Ado About Nothing

Philomena

Rush

Stoker

SAG nominees announced: The Outrage!

They do it to me every time: the actors who vote on the Screen Actors Guild Awards get it wrong every year!

In the 2014 edition, they ignored the two most-vital performances of the year: by Jessica Chastain and by Jessica Chastain! (in, respectively, Interstellar and A Most Violent Year). I can't help but think Jennifer Aniston stole a nomination from someone in the little-seen "Cake." But, realistically, it was Meryl Streep ("Into the Woods") who swiped the Supporting Actress slot -- only her 16th nomination! -- that was Jessica's. I can't fault Naomi Watts for earning a well-deserved nod for her superb impersonation of a Russian prostitute in "St. Vincent"; or Patricia Arquette for what should have been a lead-performance nomination in "Boyhood."

That said, the Best Actor and Ensemble categories do track the favorites for Oscar nominations (I would add FOXCATCHER, INTERSTELLAR, and GONE GIRL to the Best Picture mix). I must give the SAGs due credit for honoring the one category of performers that the Oscars do not have the guts to recognize: OUTSTANDING STUNT ENSEMBLES. I cannot comment on the movie nominees (I haven't seen any of them), but the TV Series category is a two-team race: Game of Thrones and Walking Dead. Both worthy winners.

While on the subject of TV, the SAGs have sadly become as lame and predictable as the EMMY's: "Big Bang Theory" and "Modern Family"?? Give it a rest!! I don't know why they ignored "Mad Men" and "The Walking Dead." At least they have corrected two egregious wrongs committed by the Emmy's by recognizing the cast of "Game of Thrones" and the stellar work of Tatiana Maslany in BBC America's "Orphan Black."

Hope springs eternal, as the GOLDEN GLOBES have the power to correct these slights with their nominations -- released Thursday!!

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby

"Her/Him"

"Him/Her"

"Them"

(it is all so confusing!)

Directed by Ned Benson

Starring: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy

Originally conceived as two movies relating a relationship break-up from two opposing perspectives -- that of Eleanor and Conor in an always romantic Manhattan -- the inevitable studio pressure (i.e., Harvey Weinstein) led to the commercial release of a 'condensed' version of the story. I waited to see the original intent of the director: two movies, back-to-back, totalling 3 hours and 10 minutes of my time. As much as I hate to admit it, Harvey may have been right on this one: Rashomon, this is not!

Intrepid movie-goers (in New York, LA, and Houston) had the choice of watching one of three versions: the first version is the story from Eleanor's perspective, followed immediately by Conor's version (no intermission; my bladder objected!). Or, you could see His version first, followed by Hers (I can't imagine that being as effective as in the order I saw them). Or you can give in to Harvey and watch the "commercial" condensed version, clocking-in at a tolerable 123 minutes. (As far as I can tell, none of these options attracted large crowds)..

If all of this sounds very high-concept, it is: but does the story warrant this multi-layered treatment? In my humbe opinion, No. Neither film is completely satisfying. Given the running time, you see very little of what drew these two people together in the first place. So the story of their post-break-up relationship doesn't carry the weight it should: the viewer has never become invested in their relationship to begin with. Sure, by the end of Part Two, the story has reached a cumulative emotional power, but three hours?

The dramatic pacing was oddly flat throughout both films: the fault for this lies either with the Writer or the Director. That makes it easy, because they are the same person! Ned Benson. A surer directorial hand could have made something of this conceit. Benson got in over his head, pure and simple.

The actors do their best with the material. I was especially struck by the supporting performances of Viola Davis, as Eleanor's professor at the New School, and Ciaran Hinds as Conor's Dad. But the best scene in all of these movies involves William Hurt, as Eleanor's Dad, who delivers a heart-breaking monologue towards the end of "Her" that makes you wish the entire movie contained the emotional weight of that scene. Alas, it does not.

P.S. For die-hard Jessica Chastain fans (like moi), spending three-plus hours in her company is never a chore! (here she is playing with her dog Chaplin).

Super-Human Scarlett Johansson vs. Alien Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson's two latest movies are in the sci-fi action-thriller genre, so it is appropriate to review the two side-by-side. And we have a clear winner. 

Contestant No. 1: "LUCY" (Directed by Luc Besson) 

Number 1 at the box office on its opening weekend (which was when I saw it), it earned a cool $43.9 million. I am here to tell you not to contribute any more money to this empty, increasingly-ridiculous, pseudo-intellectual nonsense. French director Luc Besson is noted for providing a Gallic flair to the standard Hollywood genre film, usually with strong female characters in the lead. Yet Besson films have always been about style over substance (even in his best work, "The Professional" and "La Femme Nikita," you leave the theater with an empty feeling). 

This is not his best work. It starts promisingly enough: ScarJo is a party girl in Taiwan (?) who gets forced to deliver a briefcase by her loser boyfriend (it's okay: he only has one scene). She is dragged into a lush hotel suite that has been recently splattered in blood by the intended recipient of the briefcase (played by a very menacing South Korean actor named Choi Min-Sik). This scene plays out with a deft blend of terror and humor, as she is forced into being a drug mule for a new super-drug that is very cinematically-friendly: it looks like fluorescent blue rock candy--who doesn't want to snort that? In the first of many plot developments that make no sense at all, one of the thugs employed by the drug dealer ruptures the bag of drugs surgically-implanted into her body, allowing it to enter her bloodstream in massive quantities. 

Following the tenet "That which doesn't kill her makes her stronger," the drug allows her brain to function at increasingly higher capacity (I learned all this from the deathly dull lecture delivered by God/President/Professor Morgan Freeman which intercuts with (and dilutes) the scene in the hotel room). Then the movie takes off, as ScarJo is able to control people's minds, weaponry, cellphones -- yet she neglects to kill the people who are trying to kill her. Instead, she speed reads all of Dr. Freeman's theories about brain capacity, and pays him a visit in Paris. Then, the movie half-heartedly dips its toes into territory already covered by two better films: "The Matrix" and "Tree of Life." If you are saying to yourself: "Those two movies have nothing in common!", then you have hit on why "Lucy" is such a train wreck of a movie. 

Contestant No. 2: "UNDER THE SKIN" (Directed by Jonathan Glazer)

In this uncompromising sci-fi tale, Scarlett Johansson plays the hunter, not the hunted. Unrecognizable in a black wig and British accent (literally un recognizable, since many of the men she picks up on the streets of Glasgow are non-actors filmed with a hidden camera), she is the woman who fell to earth to prey upon men for her home planet's consumption (I got that plot point from the novel, as the film only obliquely references that point of her drawing these men into an icky black pool). 

Much of the movie is shot from her point of view, so the harsh landscape and heavy Glaswegian accents, combined with several wordless scenes and a sound design that is more at home in an experitmental film than a feature film (credit to Brit Mica Levi for the imaginative soundtrack), gives the audience feeling that they have entered an alien landscape, too. The director, British Jonathan Glazer, is known to embrace controversy: his previous film, "Birth" (2004) starred a radiant, short-haired Nicole Kidman as a widow who falls in love with a 10-year-old boy (who she thinks is her reincarnated husband). It was a moody/creepy tour de force. 

Glazer ups the creepiness level considerably here. We are treated not only to full frontal nudity (male and female), but to a lengthy, wordless scene on a windswept Scottish beach that is shocking in its inhumanity. The shocks keep coming throughout this unsettling film, up to and including its heart-breaking end (when the alien sees what it is like to be human). Major credit to a star of Johansson's stature to take on this challenging, exposing, non-commercial role. As in "Lucy," she is in almost every scene, and she carries each movie like a pro. We have a winner!

Return to the Classics

MOGAMBO

1953

Directed by John Ford

Starring Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly

It may be a sign of age, but more and more I find myself checking the schedule of Turner Classic Movies--and there are plenty of movies I have neglected to see: chief among them "Bridge on the River Kwai" (inexcusable!) and "Risky Business" (excusable).

So at the strong urging of foreignfilmguy's brother, I DVR-ed "Mogambo" -- a Technicolor extravanga filmed on location in Africa with 3 big name stars (see above). In spite of its impressive credentials (directed by the great John Ford, three years before his classic "The Searchers"), it received a measly two Academy Award nominations--for its female leads. Not even a nod for Best Cinematography (color)?? The nomination that year went instead to a swashbuckler called “All the Brothers Were Valiant" (I'd never heard of it, either).

"Mogambo" is a good, not great, piece of big studio Hollywood entertainment, but it is revealing in many ways. I found it quite sexually frank for 1953, even though (predictably) it was the male character who gets the free pass for his sexual adventures, while the females suffer guilt and remorse throughout the film (the ending is completely unearned, but not surprising given the attitudes of the time).

The movie also reveals why its three stars were box office gold in 1953: Clark Gable, the aging movie idol; Grace Kelly in all her cool glamour (even while sweating in the African jungle); and especially Ava Gardner, who has never looked lovelier -- and not coincidentally, is given the best lines, wardrobe, and most-flattering photography. Her comedic talents are fully on view here: she handles a cute bit of physical comedy in a scene of her feeding the wildlife, but there is a tacked-on scene later on involving her, a hippo, and a boat that feels completely gratuitous.

Here I was about to say that John Huston would later come along and show John Ford how to make a movie set in Africa that is authentic, compelling, and smart, but then I realized that "The African Queen" was released the year BEFORE Mogambo!

Finally, the studio that commissioned the movie posters -- seen below -- should be sued for false advertising! It is a grave injustice to the gorillas in the movie, who 1) aren't that big, and 2) were not exactly involved in a fair fight.