I really need to post these blog entries when they're still relevant. Even though it's been only a week since the 85th Academy Awards, that seems like forever in the world of newsworthy gossip and current events. So despite the fact that every surprise, moment, and controversy from last week's Oscars is pretty much yesterday's news, there's still plenty on my mind about the ceremony and I feel compelled to share it. So... here are my thoughts on this year's Academy Awards.
The Host :)
Seth Macfarlane, I must admit, was a very surprising choice to host the ceremony. I'll admit that while I'm not a "fan" of his per se, I do think that the guy has some natural comedic ability. That said, I consider him to be one of the most hit-and-miss comedians (or comedic performers, whatever he is) working today. His stuff is either laugh out loud hilarious or painstakingly unfunny. Family Guy (used to love it, now I hate it), American Dad (used to hate it, now I kind of like it), and his feature film Ted (has some really funny scenes but was overall average) have shown that despite some real talent, the quality of his material is inconsistent. His hosting duties this year for the Oscars too have received very mixed results, some loving him some hating him. Personally... I'm in the pro-Seth camp. Considering how lackluster the Oscar hosts have been the last few years, the fact that Seth's schtick actually got a few solid laughs has to count for something. Did all of his jokes work? No, there were more than a few that fell flat... but there were also plenty that worked. His material was a little more edgy that Oscar usually presented, but I have a feeling that's what they were going for. I never thought he crossed a line or went unnecessarily offensive. Was he an excellent host? No, I wouldn't say that, but he was a good one that made for an entertaining night. For that, I give him a pass.
A Few Good Surprises :)
One of my major gripes about the last few awards ceremonies is that there was a real lack of suspense or surprises when it came to the award choices. Typically, there was only one or two films that had any real prestige with Academy vying for most of the major awards, with the other nominations basically hiding in their shadows. Last year it was The Artist (good but fairly overrated) and the year before it was The King's Speech (better and slightly less overrated than The Artist). This year, there was a good variety of films and nominations, and while not every pick was particularly surprising (Argo was expected to take Best Picture, Daniel Day Lewis got his expected third award, and Life of Pi swept a good chunk of the tech categories), there were some legitimately surprising calls that I did not see coming. The two biggest surprise, for me at least, were Ang Lee winning Best Director and Christoph Waltz winning Supporting Actor for Life of Pi and Django Unchained respectively. With Ben Affleck failing to receive a director nod, it seemed like Spielberg was up for a third Oscar of his own, but instead Ang Lee received his second statue the flawed but still impressive Life of Pi. As for the Best Supporting Actor category... while that category was arguably the hardest to predict, it still seemed like a two-way race between Robert De Niro and Tommy Lee Jones. In fact, Waltz seemed like the least likely candidate since he was the most recent nominee to claim the award (in 2010 for Inglorious Basterds... another Tarantino film). Can't say I have a problem with Waltz pulling a surprise victory... dude's a great actor and Django was an awesome movie.
Variety of Films Received Awards :)
The only thing more boring than a ceremony with no surprises is one where only one film sweeps all the major awards and leaves it's competition in the dust. It's one thing if the film in question is truly as good as claimed, though that's pretty rare. 2012 saw a lot of good movies, but no real huge masterpieces (maybe time will tell, who knows?) and as a result, most of those said good movies received some sort of honors. Argo took Best Picture, Life of Pi got Best Director, Lincoln for Best Actor, Silver Linings Playbook for Best Actress, Django Unchained for Supporting Actor, and Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables... been a while since it's worked out like that. It was also nice to see Django pick up a screenplay win, Skyfall for best song and a tie for sound editing (another surprise I forgot to mention), and Amour for the Foreign Language category. Would have liked to see Zero Dark Thirty take a few more but overall I have no major complaints.
The Best Picture Nominees
Here's the point where I give a rundown of all the Best Picture nominees and briefly share my thoughts on each of them. So... let's get too it.
Amour
Director Michael Haneke's French-language drama, Amour, kind of snuck up on audiences when it appeared on the ballot. The movie itself is good... really good actually. Haneke's subtle hand as a director benefits this drama immensely, elevating what could have been an uninspired melodrama into a beautifully tragic character-drama reminiscent of the works of filmmaking legend, Ingmar Bergman. It may drag a bit at times, but the perfect performances of it's two leads, the always interesting story, and sheer artistic vision make this a worthy entry of the Best Picture lineup. It was nice to see it receive Best Foreign Film too.
Argo
The winning movie! I'll talk more about this one below.
Beasts of the Southern Wild
This was the year's true outcast nominee, not only sneaking onto Best Picture's lineup but also scoring a Best Director nomination for Benh Zeitlin. Most of the film's hype and discussion has centered less on the film itself and more around it's young star, Quvenzhané Wallis, becoming the youngest Best Lead Actress nominee at age 9. I liked Seth Macfarlane's little quip in his introduction, "So you got nominated for an Oscar... something a 9-year-old could do." The movie itself is... quite good overall. The premise is interesting, Wallis is a natural talent, and the movie has some legitimately intriguing moments. It comes off as a tab bit pretentious at times, but fortunately not too often. If you haven't seen this one yet... I say check it out.
Django Unchained
Hell Yeah! I already wrote a full review for Tarantino's epic tribute to spaghetti westerns/ condemnation of racism, so I won't dwell too much on it here. I will say, however, that Django Unchained is another outstanding flick courtesy of a man who seems like he can do no wrong in the realm of filmmaking. An ambitious concept, incredible script, spot-on cast, over-the-top violence, and buckets of blood make this my favorite movie of the year. I knew it wasn't going to win Best Picture (though that would had been awesome), but the nomination still makes me happy.
Les Misérables
Also reviewed this one in more detail already, so this will be just another brief summary. The long awaited film adaptation of one of broadway's longest running musicals (which itself is based on a book by Victor Hugo) is ambitious, grand, and... quite awkward. It benefits from some enjoyable songs plus strong performances from Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway but is held back by some questionable direction from Tom Hooper. The sets look decent enough but the odd camerawork and editing left me a bit puzzled, not to mention that the abstract and theatrical style of the play doesn't translate as well on screen as opposed to the stage. Oh and as for Russell Crowe... dude's a great actor, but he's no singer.
Life of Pi
I'd like to point out that I actually adapted Life of Pi to film before Ang Lee. When I was a college freshman back in 2006, myself and a few of my classmates made a short film based on Yann Martel's novel for our English Class. Granted our 5-minute film, complete with cheap costumes, flat acting, and cheesy green screen effects didn't have the same flair or stylistic edge as Ang Lee's, but since we made ours first, I think the studio should be paying us a royalty for this movie. Okay, joking aside, both the book and the movie for Life of Pi are quite interesting. Like Lord of the Rings and Watchmen, Life of Pi was once considered an un-filmmable novel (I don't believe in such a thing personally) brought to life in great looking form from the accomplished Ang Lee. His ambitious direction, the great cinematography, stellar production design, and neat looking effects (that tiger looked pretty rad) amount to a good, at times even great, movie held back somewhat by an overly quirky and slightly pretentious narrative. The general idea of Pi being stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger for company is interesting, but the thought of it being used as a religious allegory doesn't work as well as it thinks it does. The underlying message is ultimately, believe in religion because it's more fun and interesting that way. That's a worthy effort, but it isn't a very provocative or compelling sentiment really isn't it? Still, that shouldn't dissuade anyone from seeing Life of Pi. If nothing else, the film is one hell of a visual experience and a frequent feast for the eyes. For that alone, it's worth checking out.
Lincoln
This one originally seemed like the most likely film to take home the Best Picture statue, but after the Best Director controversy, Argo became the favorite (and of course winner). Lincoln was one of my favorite films this year, partially for the usual reasons (great actors, great director, good historical subject matter, etc.) but also because of the underlying themes and messages in it's screenplay. Less of a awards bait historical biopic, Lincoln is more of a political thriller with compelling subtext regarding the good and dark side of the political system... ultimately saying that sometimes the only way to get your point across is to play dirty. Lincoln's efforts to abolish slavery, utilizing everything from double dealing and bribing, certainly raise some interesting questions of ethics. Ultimately, it portrays Abraham Lincoln as a hero, who knew that the only way to end the heinous institution of slavery was to break some of the rules. For all of those reasons, Lincoln is a damn good movie.
Silver Linings Playbook
Here's one that sure struck a chord with critics and audiences. I'll write a full review for it soon, but in short, I think this dramedy is good but not great. It takes some worthy subject matter in the context of mental illness and makes a strong effort to provide an accurate and emotional depiction of the subject... it partially succeeds. The film strongly benefits from the excellent cast, four of whom came away with mostly well-deserved awards nominations (and one win for Jennifer Lawrence). Unfortunately the story, for all of it's good intentions fell victim to overdone cliches and a formulaic ending that I saw coming from a mile away. While it means well, it's neither a particularly enlightened or engaging study on either family values or mental illness... mainly just telling familiar stories that have been done before, and often better. Still, it's not a bad movie at all. Like I said, the cast is great, the movie has some really emotional (and funny) scenes, and it tries hard, but it's just too uninspired and passé to be anything truly memorable.
Zero Dark Thirty
Now we come to my second favorite film of 2012. I was on the fence about this one throughout the film's production, but upon seeing it, I can happily say that Zero Dark Thirty is one of the most compelling, suspenseful, and dynamic movies to come around in years. The dramatized retelling of America's decade-long manhunt for Osama Bin Laden features a dramatic and often depressing story fully realized by Mark Boal's great screenplay, Kathryn Bigelow's subtle hand as a director, and Jessica Chastain's intense performance. It's not always a particularly easy movie to watch, but the sheer power of it's storytelling (and controversy for that matter) makes it a dynamic and risky film that's worthy of all it's nominations.
The Best Picture Winner: Argo :)
In the last couple of years, the films that ended up being named Best Picture were mostly good but fairly uninspired choices. Honestly, how many are honestly still watching The Artist or The King's Speech? Neither of those movies were bad, just kind of safe, predictable, or uninspired. Argo isn't exactly a groundbreaking film but it's definitely one of the better choices in recent years. I've taken a bit of flack for not including Argo in my Top 10 of 2012 list, and I'll admit that this was the one I felt the worst about leaving off... so consider it my 11th favorite movie of 2012. The premise is great, the real life implications are interesting, the finale is suspenseful as all gets out, Alan Arkin and John Goodman are as entertaining as always, and Ben Affleck's steady hand as a director holds the film together. Ultimately, though, I wasn't quite blown away by it like many were. While none of the acting was bad, some of the cast lacked a bit of energy and at times the dragged because of it, though Arkin and Goodman were the exceptions, every time they were on screen the movie was great. Also, while the real life premise was a great idea on which to base a movie, it fudged one too many historical facts for the sake of drama while immensely downplaying the role the Canadians played in the mission. Still, the movie is well made and overall consistently entertaining. I don't quite see this one becoming a classic down the road but I can honestly say it's a more worthy addition to the Best Picture lineup in recent years. I would have preferred to see Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty, or Lincoln take the prize, but I have no real complaints.
Overall
This year's Oscars, I have to say, were a notable improvement from the last few ceremonies. Overall, I'm happy with them. Seth Macfarlane wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed his stint as host, the awards given out were varied and mostly well earned, and the event had some memorable moments and surprises. Always love the Oscars, can't wait until next year.
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