OSCAR 2011 PREDICTIONS: Director

I know that not a lot of people want Michel Hazanavicius to win, but setting aside their love for any number of the other directors below, did any of them do really extraordinary work? Not in the slightest. Woody Allen has never been one of directorial brilliance. His films are often reliant on his writing and the actors at work. Terrence Malick comes close, as you can't help but respect the ideas he has being thrown around, even if they don't align specifically with you. Scorsese's direction, though often lovely, is utterly inert this time around, and we don't get any of the flare he gave us in the past. And Alexander Payne? Seriously? Do we even have to discuss this? It's Hazanavicius' relatively extraordinary and playful direction that takes the championship here.

AWARDS 2011: DGA Does Directors Good

I haven't done too well to keep up with the pace of the Guild awards, and in fact this awards season has been an uncharacteristically weak one for me. I guess I'm just not that invested in it. I rather respect all of the directors on the list of Directors Guild nominations, but two of them just don't deserve to be here. I'm not at all talking about Woody Allen or David Fincher, as both earned their stripes pretty well this year by my standards. I'm talking about Martin Scorsese and Alexander Payne, who are both rather fine directors who misfired drastically this year. Payne seemed to lose any strong and dramatic bone in his body with "The Descendants", and Scorsese's passion was diluted by a supremely lacking story in "Hugo". This is quite a strong list of directors, but they just shouldn't be here now.

• Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris")
• David Fincher ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo")
• Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist")
• Alexander Payne ("The Descendants")
• Martin Scorsese ("Hugo")

Oscar Park: "The Descendants"

I've fallen a great deal behind on Oscar Park, mostly because after "The Ides of March" came and went without me having the chance to see it, I didn't know much the point in predicting without seeing. But then again, I can guess pretty straightly accurate when it comes to "The Descendants" without even seeing it. The normative academy mindset is playing right into Alexander Payne's hands with this one, and I'm not about to launch an all out knock against the film, but it's a pretty simple joy to be sure. I know where this is going without even seeing it, which makes the predicting game short work.

In the Academy eye, "The Descendants" is a lock most categories out there. Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay fall right in line with expectations, but Director may be somewhat off. I don't think anyone's going to call this a director's show in the slightest, and I'm just waiting to accost it on nominations day when Payne inevitably gets a nod anyway. George Clooney is all the buzz for this film, and he's really seeming like the frontrunner at this moment, but that's what we all said two years ago about "Up in the Air". Things can change ever so quickly in this game, and Clooney might end up falling into his own trap again. Below the line, there's absolutely nothing to be had. I'd count that as solid an indication as any of this film's true merits. It's no more or less than five nods, and that's not up for debate.

TELLURIDE: "The Descendants" Reactions

I think this year is facing an overgrown case of likability. Quite often I find myself using the word "inarguable" in my reviews this year. That applied to "The Help", and then the same for "Beginners", and it certainly applies for "The Descendants". I've actually been kind of dreading this film for some time, because from the very first trailer I've had the feeling that it looks too nice. It looks kind, not unintelligent, but altogether safe. Mind you, that's not a bad thing. It can work nicely at times, but having spent seven years away from the big screen, you could've asked for more from Alexander Payne.

Again, not to cast judgment without seeing the film, and I'll have to wait a while to see it as it's not on the list for Telluride by the Sea. The reviews, meanwhile, are pretty much exactly along those agreeable lines. Todd McCarthy is absolutely emphatic, much like he was in his review for "A Dangerous Method". Kris Tapley is quite reserved in thinking it's Payne-lite, and I'm very glad to see someone with that kind of restraint to see a film's flaws. Gregory Ellwood is also sipping the kool-aid, but it serves the purpose of reminding that this is a prominent awards player. No abrasive frills for the Academy. No problem.

Todd McCarthy (Hollywood Reporter): "A major key to the film’s success are the nuances, fluctuating attitudes, loaded looks and tonal inflections among the main characters; the ensemble work is terrific. Despite her father’s admonitions, Alex continues to fling around dirty words, something then picked up by Scottie. Sid starts off seeming like a total dufus, always saying exactly the wrong thing, but even he gets a significant scene later on that completely changes the way he can be regarded."

"The Descendants" Trailer

Alexander Payne is one of the gods of filmmaking who has been sitting out the greater part of the past decade, right along with Alfonso Cuaron and Lynne Ramsay. So, The Descendants, his triumphant return to filmmaking isn't one to be ignored. George Clooney takes on the lead role in this interesting little suburban dramedy, and the trailer is enough to pique my interest, as well as incur the skeptic inside me. Any great film should do that.

Those We've Forgotten...

So it does look like this following week is going to be moderately simple in approach. I'll hand out my weekdaily clips of films coming out this week, and then pretty much try to find something to talk about or comment on in the meantime. Today, that happens to be a piece that Alex Carlson, founder of Film Misery, published today on his reworked list of the greatest working directors. Entertainment Weekly did a similar list, but they skewed far too much towards the popular. You could tell that Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorcese, and David Fincher would be closer to the top, so I found Carlson's list to be revealing in more than one way.

For one thing, he keeps heavyweights like Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan, and Sam Mendes in 20-11 range, rather than pushing them to the front. For another, I had quite honestly forgotten that some of these directors had work coming out this year. For example, do you remember Alexander Payne? No reason you should, expect that he directed Sideway, About Schmidt, and Election, three of the most interesting films released around the turn of the millennium. He has another film coming out this year, The Descendants, starring George Clooney as a man trying to reconnect with his two daughters as he deals with a developing schizophrenia problem. In a world of ten nominees for Best Picture, tell me with a straight face that's not going to be nominated.

Speaking of ten nominations, for years David Cronenberg has been just outside of the five, with fascinatingly dark films like A History of Violence and Eastern Promises. How he hasn't gotten a nomination yet is far beyond my vision. He is re-teaming with Viggo Mortensen for the third time on A Dangerous Method, the story of famed psychologists Sigmund Freud (Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). I expect another wonderfully textured and hopefully grisly feature from Cronenberg. The list goes on to feature obvious legends such as Danny Boyle, Woody Allen, Guillermo Del Toro, and Quentin Tarantino, but there were some directors I had honestly forgotten about. Check out the list here, and comment on your thoughts over at Carlson's site.