Awards Season 2013

[mfunk9786]

After Trent Reznor would love to see U2, Karen O or William Butler from Arcade Fire get an Oscar.

It's actually Edwin Farnham "Win" Butler III, for the record.

Wow, someone needs to tell the Academy cuz' that's how he's listed on their site.
Edit - actually it's correct, it's Win's brother Will that wrote the score with Owen Pallett.

So many layers of folks standing corrected!

[domino harvey]

Interestingly, Her is the first contemporary film since Inception to be nominated for Production Design

[Black Hat]

I think she's a solid actress and from a physical standpoint find her very attractive but back to back Oscar winner is a bit much.

What does that have to do with whether she should win back to back Oscars?

Nothing at all but I seem to remember physical appearance being something of a factor throughout the history of Hollywood. My larger point is I'm not clear as to why Lawrence is the huge star that she is.

[wattsup32]

Aside from the humor she brought to the role that I don't know if another actress could have pulled off (thinking specifically of her dressing down of Bale over the "science oven") I have to agree with you, it doesn't stand out in my mind as a performance worthy of recognition over Margot Robbie's in The Wolf of Wall Street. Robbie played the various stages of her character's expectations and frustrations with Belfort perfectly, beginning as a feathery seductress and concluding as a woman brimming with justifiable rage and disappointment, and seemingly every step along the way.

I definitely laughed hard at the "science oven". I will chalk that up to her, and not the script, since Russell gives his actors such latitude to ad-lib. Still, and maybe this is being nit-picky on my end in part because I am subject to that goddamn accent all the time, but her accent was terrible. It was both inconsistently held and horribly inaccurate when she did manage to hold it.

I don't recall if it was mentioned in the film, but does someone know how old the character was supposed to be? The character was, no doubt, supposed to lack maturity, but in my estimation Lawrence lacked the maturity as an actress to play the character's lack of maturity authentically. But, I could be wrong about that. If that character was supposed to be between, say, 17 and 20, I am in the wrong in my assessment.

[Feego]

Has anyone heard of Alone, Yet Not Alone, which was nominated for Best Original Song? I have not been able to find any major critics' reviews for it. Looking at its Wikipedia page, it had an extreeeemely limited release, but there is this one interesting tidbit:

The film's musical score was composed by William Ross who was the Musical Director for the 85th Academy Awards ceremony.

[knives]

It's supposed to be a racist religious indie.

[matrixschmatrix]

There's a piece on it at The Dissolve.

[DarkImbecile]

The comparison of Robbie and Lawrence in their respective roles in Wolf and Hustle seems a bit off to me; only superficially similar characters from whom their films were asking very different contributions. Lawrence's instability and borderline lunacy at times is both vital to the plot and pretty consistently funny; Robbie's basically the younger, hotter version of Edie Falco's character in The Sopranos, who tries to simultaneously wallow in her husbands wealth and resent him for the behavior that brings in the money without ever seriously confronting the criminality of it. Both do very well with their parts, but Lawrence's struck me as more substantial, challenging, and memorable (perhaps because, having lived in Philadelphia for several years, I was closely acquainted with several Southern Jersey housewives with borderline personalities...).

[Roger Ryan]

Interestingly, Her is the first contemporary film since Inception to be nominated for Production Design

I don't think "contemporary" would be the right word to describe the time period of HER. I'd say the film takes place at least 25 years into the future and the production design of those futuristic elements is probably what members of the Academy are enthused about. INCEPTION did appear to be more contemporary in its design, but in an "alternative universe" kind of way. Perhaps that's how HER could be seen as well.

Either way, I'm pleased HER was nominated in this category; the production design is witty yet believably organic to the world the film is set in.

[Emak-Bakia]

Paul F. Tompkins described August as an overacting competition in which there is a 14 way tie.

I think the review of August: Osage County in the latest Film Comment pretty perfectly sums up what bugs me about the trailer:

Streep’s extravagant arsenal of gestures, facial tics, and inflections has become so familiar by now that she constantly seems to be treading a line between sublime expressiveness and SNL parody.

Except I'm only getting the SNL parody and none of the sublime. But what do I know? I've only seen the trailer.

Anyway, I'm happy with the nominations since I at least have several films/people I can root passionately for come Oscar night (Gravity, June Squibb, Miyazaki, Ernest and Celestine - this last one is never going to happen, I know.)

[Dylan]

Has anyone heard of Alone, Yet Not Alone, which was nominated for Best Original Song? I have not been able to find any major critics' reviews for it. Looking at its Wikipedia page, it had an extreeeemely limited release, but there is this one interesting tidbit:

The film's musical score was composed by William Ross who was the Musical Director for the 85th Academy Awards ceremony.

I guess William Ross scored the film but the music for the nominated song is credited to Bruce Broughton, who is (or was) head of the Oscar music branch (not to mention an extremely talented 1980s composer who dropped off the map in the '90s - he scored my childhood favorites Young Sherlock Holmes and The Monster Squad, did scores for Tiny Toon Adventures, and is perhaps best known for Silverado and The Rescuers Down Under!). But even knowing who Broughton is doesn't make this nomination (for a film hardly anybody has heard of much less seen, with a horrible photoshopped poster to boot) less bizarre. This is also the first time in recent memory that a music nomination looks like an inside job just from the sheer (seeming) randomness of it. That said, I won't complain if this nomination leads to Bruce Broughton scoring a high profile film again.

[Matt]

I'm not sure I'm prepared to mount a point-by-point case on why Jennifer Lawrence might deserve to win an Oscar for American Hustle, but let's remember the baseline standard here. Though this is a very good selection of performances this year (from what I gather, I haven't seen all the films), this is the award that Beatrice Straight won for a single scene, that Jennifer Hudson is widely acknowledged to have won for singing one song, that Judi Dench won for a single monologue, that Hermione Baddeley was nominated for for a two-and-a-half-minute performance, and that has been awarded to some otherwise pretty indefensibly awful performances (I won't name names). Is Jennifer Lawrence's performance at least as good as these? Yes. Are there deserving performances that didn't get nominated and nominees whose performances were not deserving? Yes, as always.

I've seen a lot of criticism (not here, but elsewhere) of Lawrence in this role (focusing not on specifics of her performance but on minutiae like how old her character was supposed to be in the film), and I absolutely don't get it. I never questioned her appropriateness for the role because she is a very compelling actress and I believe her as that character, even if maybe she doesn't have the appropriate number of wrinkles or accurate dipthongs. I love watching her on screen, especially in a film like this where she is given leave to cut loose. I guess maybe a criticism that people seem to have with her performance and with the film in general is that she and the other actors don't disappear into their roles completely enough (see concerns about accents, age, makeup and hairstyles, etc.) I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who watch a movie and expect to forget that they're watching a movie. For a movie that is almost entirely about people playing roles that are maybe a little bit beyond their grasp and that was made in a very fast-and-loose, improvisatory fashion, I expect to notice "performance."

I think it would be great if she won. I think it would also be great if Sally Hawkins won (mainly as a catch-up award for Happy Go Lucky). I am not as enamored of June Squibb's performance as others, and I haven't seen the other two films.

[Luke M]

Sorta shocked Blue is the Warmest Color wasn't nominated. Not even a Best Foreign Film nom?

[Matt]

Sorta shocked Blue is the Warmest Color wasn't nominated. Not even a Best Foreign Film nom?

It was not eligible for Best Foreign Film.

[Luke M]

Sorta shocked Blue is the Warmest Color wasn't nominated. Not even a Best Foreign Film nom?

It was not eligible for Best Foreign Film.

Ah, thanks. I had no idea.

[Matt]

I have to say, I am very happy to see Christian Bale nominated. I was afraid his performance would be lost in this year's very crowded field (and I suppose I might feel differently if I had seen more of the contenders that are considered to have been snubbed).

[warren oates]

One of the bigger crocs of shizzle in the noms is the weird persistence of a documentary like Dirty Wars, which is like a cross between a lame news magazine segment and an infomercial for the worst aspects of Jeremy Scahill's personality, instead of, say, an A/V compendium of his more interesting contributions to war reportage. There are easily dozens of more compelling and vital documentaries that ought to have that slot instead. It's a film that can only seem interesting to audiences who've previously paid no attention at all to what it purports to be covering.

And the absence of The Grandmaster for best foreign film, while not entirely unsurprising, feels equally stupid.

[Matt]

And the absence of The Grandmaster for best foreign film, while not entirely unsurprising, feels equally stupid.

Not a popular opinion, I'm sure, but I'd trade a Best Foreign Film nomination for recognition of William Chang's spectacular work any day. This man has long deserved a truck full of awards for his contributions to WKW's films.

[warren oates]

Yeah, but in which category? Production design or editing? I'd agree that even in this amazing year for cinema world wide Chang easily deserves both awards.

[Luke M]

One of the bigger crocs of shizzle in the noms is the weird persistence of a documentary like Dirty Wars, which is like a cross between a lame news magazine segment and an infomercial for the worst aspects of Jeremy Scahill's personality, instead of, say, an A/V compendium of his more interesting contributions to war reportage. There are easily dozens of more compelling and vital documentaries that ought to have that slot instead. It's a film that can only seem interesting to audiences who've previously paid no attention at all to what it purports to be covering.

I think you nailed it. I was very much underwhelmed. I would've substituted Blackfish in it's place.

[Matt]

Yeah, but in which category? Production design or editing?

He's nominated for costumes, but you're correct that he deserved noms for all three. He's probably going to lose to Michael Wilkinson for American Hustle (but I'm pretty okay with that actually).

[warren oates]

Ah, I didn't even see his nomination for costumes. Yeah, the guy's incredible. He deserves some kind of special lifetime achievement award for his unprecedented contributions to WKW's films. I don't know why the folks at festivals like Cannes haven't given him one already. There's one other editor-composer I can think of. But nobody who can design a film like that visually and then cut all of that amazing footage into a coherent whole.

[dad1153]

I'm glad to see the Lone Ranger get two nominations--and for the right aspects of the film.

Seconded. There might me a lot that's troubled or bad about this movie (and this coming from someone that ranked it as his #2 favorite movie of 2013) but make-up and SFX were top-notch throughout.

[captveg]

Initial thoughts before reading others' comments:

- A couple minor noms for Cinematography and Sound for Inside Llewyn Davis? Total bummer. Deserved far more, but just didn't find its audience.

- Still can't quite grasp the love for American Hustle. Fine performances aside it's such a vapid film

- Hanks shut out is right decision despite two fine performances. Field's just too crowded.

- 9 BP noms seems to be the way it goes when 5-10 is the option.

- Gravity, Wolf, and 12 Years pretty much got what was expected, and rightfully so.

- Dallas Buyers Club has become the late dark horse.

- The Butler and Fruitvale Station lockout: expected with the recent fading, but still somewhat surprised at no representation whatsoever.

- Monsters University (one of the funnier films of the year) has to be better than The Croods (which admittedly I have yet to see)

- Oscar Isaac in ILD is one of the Top 3 performances of the year next to Ejiofor and DiCaprio. I expected the lack of recognition, but it still stings me.

- Golden Globe win, apparently loved film, and all other nominees are prior winners? Expect Amy Adams to win Best Actress, folks, even though she's the least effective performance of the movie.

[captveg]

Interestingly, Her is the first contemporary film since Inception to be nominated for Production Design

Yeah, but both are arguably slightly "in the future".