CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis"

We're so very close to the end of Cannes you could spit on it, and naturally that finally brings us this film we've all been waiting to get word on. David Cronenberg hit a rather rough patch with "A Dangerous Method", which managed to not be dangerous or truly methodical. His streak of intense place and period studies had run its course, and didn't really have much more to offer. "Cosmopolis" is exactly the film that he needed to put him not necessarily in the direction he was in before, but in the direction he needed to go from here. Naturally, word from Cannes has been positive, which seems to be too much of a slighting statement, and I doubt it will be when I get my crack at the film. It's notthing unanimous, and there's enough thorns in the works, but it's enough to inspire a metered response.

Guy Lodge (In Contention): "This is the richest, wittiest, most stimulating material Cronenberg has had to work with in a decade – not for nothing is it his first self-scripted feature since “eXistenZ” – but it will take further viewing and consideration for this writer to decide if the finished film, briskly paced and unapologetically talky as it is, quite makes good on the opportunity. As it stands, the permanently on-message postulating of “Cosmopolis” proves a little wearing, though perhaps more so to jaded patrons on their tenth day of festival viewing. Cronenberg’s keenness to cram as many of DeLillo’s words into a script that amounts to little more than a sequence of ornate two-person conversates threatens inertia, but the film largely avoids dullness."

OSCAR 2011 PREDICTIONS: Lead Actress

I am usually much more enthusiastic regarding this particular race, because the women so often transcend the talent of their male counterparts in the top categories. Not so much this year, which only really yields two good performances. Does that mean that I count Michelle Williams, Meryl Streep, and Glenn Close as bad performances in their respective films? Absolutely, yes. "Albert Nobbs" contains nothing appealing to an entertainment or quality seeking audience, and it ultimately serves to give Glenn Close this nomination. Same goes for "The Iron Lady", and it seems like these films are only created now to give Meryl Streep these catapults towards awards.

And amongst the two films Michelle Williams has done this year, it's her more obvious performance that is getting the massive portion of the heat. Something as dry as the work she does in "Meek's Cutoff" isn't likely to gain many supporters in the Academy. So that leaves Viola Davis and Rooney Mara, and I'll admit that I won't be too ornery about Viola Davis winning. She gave a strong performance that had me invested from the start of "The Help", even if the film didn't match up. Although, her endurance throughout her career doesn't change that I'd be absolutely ecstatic if Rooney Mara won for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". It was a performance that solidified her place in this business, as I know it would when I was already a fan of her a year previous for "The Social Network".

2012 Nitrate Awards

Consider this my personal superlatives list, but I need to nail the coffin on 2011 beyond any reasonable doubt before moving on to the task at hand of Oscar coverage. It's been a long first week of this year, and that's not been hastened by any piece of news. I don't quite feel the progression of this year yet, but that may be what happens when a film like "The Devil Inside" premieres at the start of the year. So I have no hesitation in going back to more pleasant times as the end of last year.

BEST PICTURE: "Meek's Cutoff"

BEST DIRECTOR: Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive")

Further Thoughts: I think there's little debating the directorial power that Refn had over this vehicle, having been given the keys to the kingdom by Ryan Gosling. This could have easily turned out any number of ways, and if it weren't for Nicolas Winding Refn at the lead, it wouldn't have become the beautiful, creative, shocking being it is now. You can't chock that up to any other director this year.

BEST ACTOR: Tom Cullen & Chris New ("Weekend")

Further Thoughts: Even if some miracle were to occur that put both these actors in this Oscar category this year, it'd be damn near impossible for either of them to win, because it's impossible to choose between either one of them. Both display copious amounts pent up vigor and expressiveness, despite being as new to the circuit as they are, and I couldn't hand that to any one actor in this category. The only one that comes close is Gary Oldman, who takes shotgun this time around.

BEST ACTRESS: Juliette Binoche ("Certified Copy")

Further Thoughts: I'm not sure what I could say for Binoche at this point. She's already won an Oscar, be it for a performance that was cuter than it was fascinating. Indeed she still has all that cuteness here, but she is working well overtime on the layers and specificities in this character as enigmatic as Ryan Gosling's similarly nameless protagonist this year. It's a role anybody would kill for, and Binoche both strives to understand and manages to have fun with it.

Film Review: Certified Copy (****)

I tell you, I've wanted nothing more than to honestly type out those four stars. It figures that it would come from a film that many saw last year, most saw before me, and has been in theaters for a few months. Spending such a long time away from intelligent cinema can be supremely alienating in a way, with nothing really to base reviews of other films off of. It's great practice in terms of forming your own identity as a film critic, away from the cattle of viewers who have no individual opinions because they try to think the way they believe they're supposed to think. Peer pressure and nonsense like that.

Wonderfully enough, the topic of impression and interpretation is entirely fitting for Certified Copy, a film whose plot can be read a multitude of ways. To give a bare bones plot description based on what trailers and such lead incoming viewers to believe, it all transpires across a lovely afternoon in Tuscany. A writer named James Miller, played by William Shimell, spends the day with a female French antiques dealer, played by Juliette Binoche. That's as empty and bare a plot as you can get, but Miller's latest book, which shares the same title as the film, speaks of how a copy of a work of art holds as much value as the original.

The film could just be these two individuals speaking on the topics of originality in art and within life, as well as other philosophical musings, and it still would've been a great film. However, writer-director Abbas Kiarostami does us one better, and has the two main characters play a game of sorts. As they travel throughout the day, people on the street begin to mistake them for a married couple, and as they play along with the insinuations, they seem to create a history and a dynamic between each other. This is where things become a bit tricky and far more captivating.