Oscar 2010 Predictions: Art Direction

If it seems like I'm pegging The King's Speech as the potential upset in most categories it's nominated for, that's because I am. When it comes down to it, there are only two categories that Tom Hooper's film deserves to win for, and the rest are undeserving. I'd be a little lighter on it in terms of this category if there wasn't such vivid competition. The visuals in the film are only occasionally inspiring, but definitely not more than the other nominees. Alice in Wonderland, while rendered hideously revolting by the visual effects, has some of the most stunning and colorful art direction of 2010. That being said, it's chances are squashed by the end product.

As far as period films go, Joel & Ethan Coen's True Grit has the upper hand in terms of visualization, although much of that is due to Roger Deakins' cinematography. I don't expect much in terms of art direction. The film I think is most deserving of the win is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. The sets they built for Malfoy Manor, the Weasley Wedding, and the Ministry of Magic, along with the unprecedented scope of the set design really should put this at the head of the pack. Somehow it doesn't, so I'm going to say the film that most likely will win is Christopher Nolan's Inception. In a film entirely dependent on elaborate architecture, the prowess is brought much closer to the surface by Ariadne's character. You look around at the surroundings because it's part of her creation. The King's Speech might take that away, but I dearly hope not.

Oscar 2010 Predictions: Original Score

Definitely one of the most competitive competitions this year is for Original Score, and even though this should be a two horse race, somehow it's been made into something more by The King's Speech. I'm not going to lie due to my affinity towards Alexandre Desplat, because The King's Speech is the least deserving score on this slate. I take into account 127 Hours, whose sole melody I remember "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers. Desplat's work on the film boiled down to the simple suites that he's been doing for year, and it was nowhere near as expansive and emotional as his work on Deathly Hallows: Part 1, nor anywhere close to the originality he brought to The Ghost Writer. I absolutely adore Desplat's work, which is the main reason I acknowledged him as the greatest contributor of 2010. He deserves to receive recognition, but not this year, and not for this score. He's got better work on the horizon, most notably Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and The Tree of Life.

How to Train Your Dragon was John Powell's greatest achievement in years, weaving so many memorable themes that equal the works of John Williams in his heyday. That being said, he's not going to take the gold with this particular work. The two scores in this race with the greatest chance at victory utilized the electronic in a fascinating way. My personal pick is quite obviously Inception, which is Hans Zimmer's most original score in years. Nobody else could have done it like him. The other is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' work on The Social Network. Whoever has griped at the score not expanding the feel of the film should shut it. They're only pissed that TRON Legacy didn't get in, and while I appreciate Daft Punk's work, I didn't realize until just recently how similar their score is to the score for The Dark Knight. Getting back to Reznor and Ross, their score defined our generation in a way that the film came just short of, not that they were aiming at capturing that. The Golden Globe win in favor of The Social Network raised the stakes of this particular race, and it'll be interesting to see what goes down later this month.

1. Inception
2. The Social Network
3. How to Train Your Dragon
4. 127 Hours
5. The King's Speech

Will Win: The Social Network
Should Win: Inception
Potential Upset: The King's Speech
Should Have Been Nominated: The Ghost Writer

Awards 2010: Producer's Guild of America Nominations

We're finally getting somewhat past the repetitive critics awards, and into the guild award part of the season. The PGA is one of the more important awards, because it gives us a reliable idea of what to expect when the Oscar nominations for Best Picture are released. On the other hand, we already had a clear idea of what was probably going to make the list. Another Year's chances have dwindled by far. The Town is seeming like a more likely candidate, but I'm still pulling for Winter's Bone to make the cut. Ultimately, there isn't much diversion from what we already suspected. The major surprise for me is that Exit Through the Gift Shop didn't make the cut for the documentary category.

The Weekend Report: The Wicked Flee

What? There are absolutely no new releases this weekend? Well that makes another one of these posts seem rather superfluous, but I might as well do it anyway. There were a lot of under-appreciated films released this year, mostly on account of the fact that people were stupid with their time and money and decided to see The Last Airbender, Yogi Bear, and Little Fockers. As a matter of fact, at the end of this, I'm going to give you a list of all the films you shouldn't see. There are better ways for you to use your time, and that's pretty much the inspiration for this series.

Among the early and unappreciated films of the year was Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer. It's gotten a somewhat strong following from critics this year, but there's a broader audience that I believe would truly embrace it if they gave it a chance. Another film people were afraid to give a chance until it was released was How to Train Your Dragon. I'm not sure if there are still people out there who haven't seen it out of disgust with Dreamworks' other features, but it's definitely worth checking out. There were also a great many films that inexplicably bombed at the box-office. MacGruber was never expected to do well, but it's an extremely funny film for what it is. It's not exactly good, but it's entertaining.

Auditory Expansion: Best Musical Scores of 2010

Sorry for the confusion, but I still have to see True Grit and Black Swan before posting the cinematography list, so this will do until then. 2010 wasn't quite as successful as it should have been in terms of films, but it undeniably was a fantastic year for music. This was confirmed from the beginning with Howard Shore's dark score for Edge of Darkness. The film failed on several counts, but the music wasn't one of them. John Powell, whose scores have been consistently exciting and entertaining, churned out him best work to date attached to How to Train Your Dragon. Danny Elfman had a bad year, first with the complete failure of The Wolfman, but I liked his score for the ill-formed Alice in Wonderland.

James Newton Howard had even worse luck, working on rather pedestrian scores for Salt, Love and Other Drugs, and The Tourist. The best work he made this year was, regrettably, his score for The Last Airbender, which sucks because the score was so fantastic, but the film so abysmal. If the film turned out to be good, James Newton Howard would be nominated for an Oscar this year. A few secretive gems include Nigel Godrich's score for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Daft Punk's electrifying work on TRON: Legacy. True Grit and Black Swan got sadly sidelined from the Oscar race for Original Score the other day, but they're more than worthy of note. Biggest failure in this category this year was John Debney whose massive failures with Iron Man 2 and Predators just brought those films down. The most successful composer was surely Alexandre Desplat, but more about him later on.

3. Let Me In by Michael Giacchino

There are very few horror films that have an effective emotional core attached to them, which is probably the main reason that Michael Giacchino was brought in to work on this score. There's also his previous experience of working with director Matt Reeves, but when news broke out that he was doing the score, it was a lot easier to put my faith in this film. I'll agree that it took some time for the score to synchronize with film, but I blame that a bit on the editing. The score itself is hauntingly beautiful, with tracks like Sins of the Father and Polling for Owen building intrigue and suspense. It's sometimes joyful and happy with tracks like A New Day On an Old Lake. Then we plunge right back into the spine-tingling horror roots, and the best example of that is the best track of the score, Dread on Arrival. End Credits beautifully caps off everything with a tragic melody that hints at the truth of the rest of Owen's life. The score is a powerful extension of the film, and that's what the definition of any effective score should be.

2. Toy Story 3 by Randy Newman

I haven't the slightest clue why Randy Newman's work on the latest and last installment in the Toy Story saga is being so minimalized by people when it comes to the Original Score category. The man has always put together wonderful and heartfelt tunes, and I know the songs are what he's best known for. However, he really pushed the envelope this time around, and brought as much closure and excitement as a soundtrack can give you. The opening number of Cowboy brings you into the fold with an extraordinary sense of wonder. Then it brings you a little further down to earth before grounding you. It builds up as the film goes on, gets really exciting when To The Dump hits, and then climaxes with the breathtaking and tear-jerking The Claw. It ends on a beautifully soft note with So Long, and it eases you into the inevitably end of this franchise. It's sweet, emotional, and weaves in some core themes from past installments. A worthy closing.

1. Inception by Hans Zimmer

Definitely the most expansive and revolutionary soundtrack of the year came in the form of Hans Zimmer's score for Inception. Rather than go the easy route and create something that merely fit the film, Zimmer decided to do something new, which caused a bit of worry when the word "electronic" was used to describe his work. Fret not, because using the advanced medium does not detract from Zimmer's natural talent to register excitement and emotion. The first track that leaked out was a portion of The Dream Is Collapsing, which soon became the main theme for the film. It's not an easy theme to start humming, and it exists on so many different levels and layers, just like the dream world of the film. That sort of theme continues, and it's hard to find a legitimate climax of this soundtrack, because it sustains the excitement through. It's a success on every level, from the amazing action tracks like Mombasa, to the deep and emotional chord that Time creates. Every scene in the film is amplified by the work, and the experience becomes something else entirely than what it was before.

Awards 2010: Annie Award Nominations

Today has included a massive unloading award wins and nominations, and I can't help but hope this is the last one we'll be seeing today. The Annie Awards are often a mixed bag, as they have a tendency to skew towards Dreamworks rather than Pixar. These nominations are rather routine, and I feel hurt that Randy Newman didn't get a music nomination for Toy Story 3. Check them out below, that is if you have any sustained interest left at this point.

Best Animated Feature:
Despicable Me
How to Train Your Dragon
Tangled
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

Directing in a Feature Production:
Sylvain Chomet (The Illusionist)
Pierre Coffin (Despicable Me)
Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars)
Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois (How To Train Your Dragon)
Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3)

Music in a Feature Production:
Sylvain Chomet (The Illusionist)
David Hirschfelder (Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole)
John Powell (How To Train Your Dragon)
Harry Gregson Williams (Shrek Forever After)
Pharrell Williams, and Heitor Pereira (Despicable Me)

Voice Acting in a Feature Production:
Jay Baruchel as Hiccup (How To Train Your Dragon)
Gerard Butler as Stoick (How To Train Your Dragon)
Steve Carrell as Gru (Despicable Me)
Cameron Diaz as Fiona (Shrek Forever After)
Geoffrey Rush as Ezylryb (Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole)

Writing in a Feature Production:
Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3)
Sylvain Chomet (The Illusionist)
William Davies, Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon)
Dan Fogelman (Tangled)
Alan J. Schoolcraft, Brent Simons (Megamind)

Oscar 2010: 15 Films Qualify for Best Animated Feature

Yesterday, after talk had begun to disperse about whether or not we'd have a five film Best Animated Feature race, the official list of films that qualifies showed up to disappoint everyone. Everything that we expected would get in, did make it in, including Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist, and Tangled. As a matter of fact, the only notable film that didn't make it in was Yogi Bear, and that's for probably two obvious reasons. The first of which is that it isn't animated. The second is that the film will most likely suck. I challenge anyone who dares disagree with me. Anyway, here's the list in case you want to see it for yourself. I do find it surprising that Cats and Dogs 2 made it in, but in all honesty, it won't get far.

-Alpha and Omega
-Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
-Despicable Me
-The Dreams of Jinsha
-How to Train Your Dragon
-Idiots and Angels
-The Illusionist
-Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole
-Megamind
-My Dog Tulip
-Shrek Forever After
-Summer Wars
-Tangled
-Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue
-Toy Story 3

"How to Train Your Dragon" on DVD!

As of now, anybody who still thinks of Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon as a juvenile mess like most other Dreamworks films has obviously not seen it. The film is already tapped for a sequel, and it now seems like a television series is in the works. The latter is a point I'm not too happy about, because I worry that some of the delightful visuals will be lost in translation. Still, this film remains the first great film of the year, and I do hope it will endure on standard DVD. I'm quite obviously used to the 3D version, having seen it in theaters three times, but I'm sure it won't detract from the experience. If you're going to catch a film this weekend, it should be this one.

"How To Train Your Dragon" Sequel Coming in 2013

I'd personally like to apologize a bit to the makers of How To Train Your Dragon. Before Toy Story 3 was released, most people were under the delusion that the Dreamworks adventure could beat out Pixar this year. I've skewered this opinion in the past, but I never had anything against the film. As a matter of fact, I absolutely loved How To Train Your Dragon. By the end of the first trimester of this year, it was the only truly great film out there. I was very worried that the film wouldn't go on towards success and would probably end after this first installment, but lo and behold, it is now a franchise.

After becoming the biggest sleeper hit of the year, the folks at Dreamworks have announced the production of a sequel to be released in 2013. Dean DeBlois is set to write and direct the film from a story crafted by the creative team of himself, Chris Sanders, and Bonnie Arnold. I'm glad that they're taking their time with it, and I look forward to another visually stunning and emotionally activating installment in what may be Dreamworks' best franchise to date.