Oscar Surprises On The Upside

Gael Garcia Bernal stars in Pablo Larrain's superb Chilean
political dramedy NO - deservedly nominated for Best Foreign Language Film

This may well be the least controversial set of Oscar nominations in decades.  No obviously great works are missed, except in the Best Documentary category, where I would have expected to see WEST MEMPHIS THREE, MEA MAXIMA CULPA and CHASING ICE.  Similarly, the large set of nominations for LES MIS seems, frankly, bizarre, but this is more than offset by the utterly genius inclusion of Pablo Larrain's Chilean political dramedy, NO.  I'm sure it will be beaten by Haneke's AMOUR, but the nomination alone should raise awareness of this funny, politically astute and technically brilliant film starring Gael Garcia Bernal.

All this aside, the  key message was that the early lead established by Ben Affleck's superb thriller, ARGO, has been usurped by Ang Lee's imaginative and visually stunning LIFE OF PI, and Stephen Spielberg's mesmerizing LINCOLN.  I suspect LINCOLN may well sweep the major categories with LIFE OF PI, ARGO and maybe ZERO DARK THIRTY sharing the rest of the spoils.  However, of these first three major films, I'd be happy no matter who takes the Oscars, as all three are stunning pieces of work.  A true upset would be if SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK won anything other than Best Screenplay or LES MIS got any awards at all.

As usual, you can see the full list of noms below. I've put the likely winner in UPPERCASE and placed an asterisk by the nominee I think deserves to win.

Ben Affleck's brilliant political thriller ARGO has lost its early lead to
LINCOLN and LIFE OF PI

BEST PICTURE: Amour; Argo; Beats of the Southern Wild; Django Unchained; Les Misérables; Life of Pi; LINCOLN*; Silver Linings Playbook; Zero Dark Thirty.

BEST ACTOR: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook; DANIEL DAY-LEWIS*, Lincoln; Hugh Jackman, Les Mis; Joaquin Phoenix, The Master; Denzel Washington, Flight.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Alan Arkin, Argo; Robert de Niro, Silver Linings Playbook; Philip Seymour Hoffman*, The Master; TOMMY LEE JONES, Lincoln; Christopher Waltz, Django Unchained.

BEST ACTRESS: JESSICA CHASTAIN, Zero Dark Thirty; Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook; Emmanuelle Riva*, Amour; Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild; Naomi Watts, The Impossible. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Amy Adams*, The Master; SALLY FIELD, Lincoln; Anne Hathaway, Les Mis; Helen Hunt, The Sessions; Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook.

Daniel Day-Lewis must be a dead cert for Best Actor as LINCOLN,
and should lead this film to the most Oscar wins.

BEST ANIMATED FILM: Brave, Frankenweenie, PARANORMAN, Pirates!*, Wreck-it Ralph.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Seamus McGarvey, Anna Karenina; Robert Richardson, Django Unchained; Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi; Janusz Kaminski, Lincoln; ROGER DEAKINS*, Skyfall.

BEST COSTUMES: Jacqueline Durran, Anna Karenina; Paco Delgado, Les Mis; Joanna Johnston, Lincoln; EIKO ISHIOKA*, Mirror Mirror; Colleen Atwood, Snow White and the Huntsman.

BEST DIRECTOR: Michael Haneke, Amour; Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild; Ang Lee, Life of Pi; STEVEN SPIELBERG*, Lincoln; David O Russell, Silver Linings Playbook.

BEST DOCUMENTARY: 5 Broken Cameras; The Gatekeepers; How To Survive A Plague; The Invisible War; SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN*

BEST EDITING: William Goldenberg, Argo; Tim Squyres*, Life of Pi; Michael Kahn, Lincoln; Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers, Silver Linings Playbook; DYLAN TICHENOR AND WILLIAM GOLDENBERG, Zero Dark Thirty.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: AMOUR, No*; A Royal Affair, War Witch.

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIR: Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel, Hitchcock; Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane*, The Hobbit; LISA WESTCOTT AND JULIA DARTNELL, Les Mis.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Dario Marianelli, Anna Karenina; ALEXANDRE DESPLAT, Argo; Mychael Danna*, Life of Pi; John Williams, Lincoln; Thomas Newman, Skyfall.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: Before my time, J Ralph, Chasing Ice; Everybody needs a best friend, Walter Murphy and Seth MacFarlane*, Ted; Pi’s lullaby, Mychael Danna and Bombay Jayashri, Life of Pi; SKYFALL, Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth, Skyfall; Suddenly, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil, Les Mis.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer, Anna Karenina; Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent and Simon Bright, The Hobbit; EVE STEWART AND ANNA LYNCH-ROBINSON, Les Mis; David Gropman and Anna Pinnock, Life of Pi; Rick Carter and Jim Erickson*, Lincoln.

BEST SOUND EDITING: Erik Aadahl and Ethan van der Ryn, Argo; Wylie Stateman, Django Unchained; Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton, Life of Pi( Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers, Skyfall; Paul N J Ottoson, Zero Dark Thirty.

BEST SOUND MIXING: John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia, Argo; Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes, Les Mis; Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin, Life of Pi; Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins, Lincoln; Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson, Skyfall.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White, The Hobbit; Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott, Life of Pi; Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick; The Avengers; Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill, Prometheus; Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson, Snow White and the Huntsman.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Chris Terrio, Argo; Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild; David Magee, Life of Pi; Tony Kushner*, Lincoln; DAVID O RUSSELL, Silver Linings Playbook.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Michael Haneke, Amour; Quentin Tarantino*, Django Unchained; John Gatins, Flight; Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom; MARK BOAL, Zero Dark Thirty.

London Film Fest 2012 Day 4 - BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

I came to BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD with high expectations. The debut feature from writer director Benh Zeitlin had been widely praised at Cannes and Sundance, winning the Camera d'Or and the Grand Jury Prize respectively.  I actually passed up the opportunity to watch the movie in my hotel suite in the US a month previously (such being the oddities of a widely spaced international release calendar) because I wanted to experience it for the first time on the big screen.

The movie left the gate with a furious energy and an anarchic magic that was captivating and entrancing.  Little Quvenzhané Wallis plays Hushpuppy, a young girl living in 'The Bathtub' - a derelict, ramshackle island off the coast of New Orleans - amongst a close-knit community of resolutely independent, wonderfully eccentric, ramshackle people.  Hushpuppy can hear animals hearts beat and takes all the wild tales of aurochs and icecaps cracking and women so beautiful they can set water to boil literally.  And half the joy of the film is listening to this little girl express herself with fierce conviction about things to wacky and weird that you fear for her future but also hope she'll never be dressed up and sanitised like a 'normal' kid.

And that's of course happens. The first act of the film ends with a Katrina like storm that the Bathtubbers refuse to flee. The second act sees them laugh at the 'pussies' who left, but struggle to survive as the saltwater refuses to drain and the animals start to die.  The third act sees them forcibly evicted and transported to a sterile camp - the fate of Hushpuppy and her father hanging in the balance. 

What I love about the film is that it turns every preconception you had on its head. To be sure, Hushpuppy is a glowing advertisement for childhood neglect - her father (beautifully played by amateur Dwight Henry) is a violent alcoholic - on the other hand he fills Hushpuppy with self-belief and brutal raw survival skills.  We should be happy when we see her cleaned up in a pretty dress, but that's not how it is. As raw and brutal as that relationship is, it's so authentic an so brave you have to appreciate it.

Director Benh Zeitlin lifts up
Quvenzhané Wallis 

What I didn't love about the film was the shooting style - and that's a surprise because after all, it won the Camera d'Or.  I see how Ben Richardson's close up cinematography captures the gnarliness of nature, but so much of the handheld work is just too shaky for comfortable viewing. So many times I thought, this is a great concept, and I see what they're trying to do here, but I wish there was a more experienced DP involved.  

I also felt that the movie lost a lot of pace and energy in its final act.  I guess that's the point in a way - being forcibly evicted saps some of the gonzo energy of the Bathtub crew and besides, Wink is in a bad way.  But still, there should have been a counter-veiling force - a build in energy and magic and wonder from the appearance of the big southern beasties.  But no, that attempt to genuinely jump the magic realist shark just didn't pay off for me.  My sense is that if Zeitlin had wanted to go down that route he should have done it much bigger and much earlier.

So, I did have a lot of problems with the movie, some of which were to do with the hype, but others of a more technical nature, which I think would've bugged me anyway.  But overall, I love the fact that this movie got made - that such a specific culture got documented, and that such wonderful actors were discovered. There's something really new and unique about the perspective and the story in the film, and you don't say that too often in contemporary cinema.  Even if I have my reservations about this movie, I'm still astounded and happy it got made, and I can't wait to see what Benh Zeitlin does next.

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD played Cannes 2012 where it won the FIPRESCI prize, the Camera D'Or, the Prize of The Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention and the Prix Regards Jeune.  It played Sundance where it won the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic and the Cinematography Award Dramatic. It opened earlier this year in Russia, Canada, Israel, the Czech Republic, Puerto Rico, Australia, South Africa and Poland and opens this week in the Netherlands and the UK. It opens on Dec 12 in Belgium, on Dec 20 in France and Gemany, on Jan 3 in Denmark and on Jan 4 in Sweden.