Awards 2010: Phoenix Film Critics Society

It certainly looks like the critics from Phoenix had no problem whatsoever in spreading the wealth around. Just when it seemed Oscar buzz was dead with The King's Speech, it pulls off a win in a few categories here. Likewise, Inception also got a few recognitions, further aiding it in its fight against the odds. I'm still not fine with all the love for Melissa Leo's performance in The Fighter, which was more than fine, but I find it to have been highly overrated. Also not getting the love for Alice in Wonderland and Never Let Me Go, but I'm sure it'll pass. See the winners after the jump!

Power and Control: Best Performances in Otherwise Awful Films of 2010

5. Will Ferrell as Allen Gamble (The Other Guys)

I often have double takes about exactly what I thought of Will Ferrell's performance in The Other Guys, because even though a lot of people enjoyed it, I just ended up hating it. So, as is the case with many an awful film, it's difficult to pick out somebody and say they did well. I've never been a fan of Will Ferrell, but the fact of the matter is that he steps up his game for this one. He's not the same sort of child in an adult's body. He was actually a pretty decent guy, and his character felt closer to what a real person would be like in those situations. Wildly and ignorantly out of control, but close to realistic. The script just doesn't serve him well enough, as it should. Luckily, he had Megamind to turn his year around.

4. Taylor Swift as Veronica (Valentines Day)

This is probably the best cameo appearance of the year, and it's in a film that I didn't even end up paying to see. Valentines Day is the traditional romantic comedy that uses all the pathetic jokes that have been used in the genre before, as well as the same cliches. The one aspect of the film that I was ever on board with was the Taylor/Taylor cameo, featuring Lautner and Swift as a high school couple. Lautner does a pretty traditional job, but you'd have to have a cold heart of stone not to like Taylor Swift. She's always put forward that adorable and bubbly persona that put everyone on her side when Kanye West ruined her VMA moment. Here, she just displays a pure sense of joy that the rest of the film is surprisingly lacking. Feel free to rail against my choice, because I expect. I'm just glad that I'm not the only one who feels this way.

3. Alfred Molina as Maxim Horvath (The Sorcerer's Apprentice)

I both hate and love that my impatience to see Inception eventually pushed me to see this film. I knew long before the trailer came out that this film was prematurely busted and broken. There is no dignity in remaking the beloved musical short of the same name, and then reformatting it as a live-action adventure. Nicholas Cage doesn't help credibility either. The one thing that this film had going for it was Alfred Molina, the patron saint of fantastic actors in bad films. The man is always placed into these truly awful films, and he's usually the most likable actor of the group. He's got a deceptive charisma about him, and that fits most of the villains he plays. Horvath isn't exactly a well written character, but Molina's personality just clicks with relish, and we too relish every moment he's onscreen, because for that moment, The Sorcerer's Apprentice isn't painful to sit through.

2. Carey Mulligan as Cathy H. (Never Let Me Go)

Never Let Me Go was the ultimate love-it-or-hate-it film of 2010, and I unfortunately ended up in that second group of people. I know that the film must have been impeccably crafted, but it just didn't rub off on me the way it should have. Kiera Knightly and Andrew Garfield's performances began to grate on my about halfway through the film, because they both had an expiration date. Carey Mulligan, on the other hand, proved that her spectacular performance in An Education wasn't just a fluke. She doesn't have to carry this film on her shoulders, but she does, and she does it with a rich sentimentality and deep sorrow. Her character has never had hope, but she'd like to believe that it exists. It's a sweet performance tucked into a cold narrative.

1. Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn (TRON: Legacy)

You've already heard me attest to everything that is wrong with TRON: Legacy. It's derivatively plotted, it trucks along rather aimlessly at some points, and it's just a simple plot stretched out illogically to make it seem complex. It's all but saved by the music, the visuals, and most importantly, Jeff "The Dude" Bridges. I put an emphasis on "The Dude", because that's basically who the character of Kevin Flynn has become. He's been in this tripped out land of cyberspace for what must have been centuries, with his only real companion being an extremely hot higher being with stunning black hair. At the same time, he's got a major slice of God in him, with his unprecedented desire to do the right thing, no matter the cost. It's an especially poignant work that Bridges pulls off with flawless grace. Very few things in this film could have been said to be perfect. Bridges is one of them.

British Independent Film Awards Nominations!

I was beginning to worry that the powers that be were becoming content with our predictions, and that this awards season would be very predictable. Fortunately that is not the case, but it's still more than a little disappointing. Among the surprises of the British Independent Film Awards nominations is Another Year being snubbed out of the top race. What's even more surprising is what made it into that frame. Monsters just opened to mixed reviews, Never Let Me Go came and went with silence and dread, and I didn't even know Kick-Ass was a British film. On top of that, it seems a little out of character to nominate a superhero film, especially one such as this.

The King's Speech quite obviously made it into the majority of the races, so it's automatically the favorite to win. The only race it isn't in is Best Actress, and that's a complete toss up seeing as Leslie Manville was pushed into the Supporting Actress race for Another Year. What is your opinion of these nominations? Are you surprised, or have you just come to expect as much?

Best British Independent Film
Four Lions
Kick-Ass
The King’s Speech
Monsters
Never Let Me Go

Best Director
Mike Leigh (Another Year)
Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass)
Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)
Gareth Edwards (Monsters)
Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go)

Best Screenplay
Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Simon Blackwell and Christopher Morris (Four Lions)
Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass)
David Seidler (The King’s Speech)
William Ivory (Made In Dagenham)
Alex Garland (Never Let Me Go)

Best Actress
Sally Hawkins (Made In Dagenham)
Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go)
Andrea Riseborough (Brighton Rock)
Ruth Sheen (Another Year)
Manjinder Virk (The Arbor)

Best Actor
Riz Ahmed (Four Lions)
Jim Broadbent (Another Year)
Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
Aidan Gillen (Treacle Jr)
Scoot McNairy (Monsters)

Best Supporting Actress
Helena Bonham-Carter (The King’s Speech)
Tamsin Greig (Tamara Drewe)
Keira Knightley (Never Let Me Go)
Lesley Manville (Another Year)
Rosamund Pike (Made In Dagenham)

Best Supporting Actor
Andrew Garfield, (Never Let Me Go)
Bob Hoskins, (Made In Dagenham)
Kayvan Novak (Four Lions)
Guy Pearce (The King’s Speech)
Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)

Best Technical Achievement
Tim Barker: sound (The Arbor)
John Mathieson: cinematography (Brighton Rock)
Sylvain Chomet: animation (The Illusionist)
Eve Stewart: production design (The King’s Speech)
Gareth Edwards: visual effects (Monsters)

Best Foreign Film
Dogtooth
I Am Love
A Prophet
The Secret In Their Eyes
Winter’s Bone

Film Review: Never Let Me Go

It’s really hard to sit through a film like this after a film like The King’s Speech, because all you can think about is how much this production lacks in comparison to that one. I wish I had time to stay for The Illusionist tomorrow night, but I have to be headed back home tomorrow, so this is sadly the note that my stay in Portsmouth is ending on. The film follows three clones in an alternate timeline where human beings are raised and then harvested for their vital organs.

It’s a very strange premise, and this film does nothing to give it any more humanity. I’d heard going into this movie that it had divided critics between who hated it and who loved it, and I was really hoping that I’d be one of the latter. Unfortunately, this film is as cold as I feared it would be. There’s so much at fault with this picture that I can’t fathom how some people loved it. After the screening of The King’s Speech, the auditorium burst into applause, but this film ended to indifferent silence. Nobody cared, least of all me. I found it a chore to stay awake during this one, because you can immediately tell where it’s going.

The opening however many minutes that take place at the Hailsham school are completely dull, and it just drops you into the strange premise, deserting you and not giving any help. Imagine Hogwarts from the first two Harry Potter films, but without magic or anything remotely intriguing. That’s Hailsham, and I’m not underselling it. The film does get a bit more interesting as it goes on, but by that time I had lost all faith in Never Let Me Go. The “tragic” ending felt anything but, and left me a pit of my gut only because of the nearly two hours that I wasted watching it.

The performances were mostly as dull as the characters, which were mostly one dimensional at best. Carey Mulligan shines the most as Cathy, but is weighed down by the ridiculousness of the story and just the slow run down of events. Don’t expect a nomination for her in this competitive year for the category. Andrew Garfield gives the first performance of his that I genuinely didn’t like, and his character is just completely ignorant and irritating. So is Keira Knightly in her role, but she’s barely even there. The music by Rachel Portman felt recycled from some old film that was never made. The cinematography didn’t do anything special. I could go on about what I didn’t like about this film, but in the end, Never Let Me Go is just another boring Oscar-bait British drama that doesn't make you feel a thing.

C-

Oscar 2010: Post-Telluride Predictions

This weekend a number of things happened that changed the state of the Oscar race considerably. Most, if not all of them, happened at Telluride. However, of the films weakened by their premiere, at the Venice Film Festival the most obvious has to be Miral, from director Julian Schnabel. I never had faith in the film, because I believe that a film's quality should be present in the trailer and not in the name of the man behind it, and I didn't see anything significant. Fortunately enough, Miral wasn't the only card The Weinstein Company had to play.


Lingering just a little longer on Venice, the other film that was revealed not to have as high Oscar prospects as expected was Somewhere. Do not take this at all to mean that the film isn't great. It simply isn't what the Academy is looking for, which I think will work for the better of the film. Often people set up the highest expectations for films with Oscar potential, and those expectations aren't met. Somewhere looks like the kind of film that you can enjoy without worrying whether or not it will strike Oscar gold.


Without a doubt, the biggest hit of Venice so far (as they still have the rest of the week to go) has been Black Swan. The trailer was absolutely stunning, and it put both critics and general audiences behind this film, which is no easy feat. According to the reviews, it lived up to the trailer, and I've heard plenty of nice things said about this film. Problem is, I don't think this is the sort of film that the Academy will be able to wrap their head around. It looks like a genre film and in that way it will be a success and I look forward to seeing it. It probably will earn Natalie Portman a Best Actress nomination, but for now, I'm keeping Black Swan off my predictions for Best Picture.


Passing on to Telluride, the biggest disappointment of the festival would have to be the announcement that Peter Weir's The Way Back would be released in January, thus taking it out of Oscar contention. The film has gotten good reviews, and may have been nominated if people had a little more faith in it. Other than that news, the only film of the festival that even came close to disappointing is Never Let Me Go. That film, more than any other this weekend, really divided both critics and audiences. Some people were deeply touched, while some left the theater with a cold feeling, having gotten nothing from the experience. I have my doubts on this little brit, and am keeping it out in the cold until I see it.


Now getting to the films that truly made the cut, 127 Hours made its surprise premiere, and critics really appreciated it. Despite it spending nearly the entire film in a specific environment, and being a bit shorter than most dramas, playing on the screen for just over 90 minutes, this film seems to put up enough energy to keep it from being just another film. Then, I don't think there's a thing I could say that I haven't already said about The King's Speech. It delivered, and gave Harvey Weinstein something he could put into the ring as Miral failed. We have no trailers or clips for it yet, but we're still highly anticipating the opportunity to see it.


Finally, we got some confirmation on a few things that were a little uncertain of after Cannes. Critics have clearly gotten behind Another Year, and it seems like now it's a sure thing for a nomination. As for Biutiful, the consensus is still that the film isn't all that special, but Javier Bardem's performance in it is amazing. So I'll be surprised if he is not nominated for Best Actor this year. So for now, I'm filling out the rest of my Best Picture list with four films that have yet to be formally released and reviewed: The Social Network, True Grit, Hereafter, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Next stop is Toronto this Thursday.

High on "Telluride": Never Let Me Go

One of the first big films showing at Telluride this weekend, Never Let Me Go, has had a flood of reviews coming in, and the having ranged so far from positive to mixed. You have to be very careful about who you listen to, but it seems that people haven't quite agreed on this film. Lets start positive and go from there.

David Poland (Movie City News):
"In this insular world, there are few outsiders. The audience becomes one. As we accept the premise, without rage, we accept our complacency in so many of the world’s horrors. The allusions to the Jewish Holocaust are clearly there, although subtle. It’s not gas chambers you are watching, but a world that looks the other way as the trains roll by and the smoke fills the air at dusk. Why wasn’t there more screaming and fighting and rage on display from inside of those trains as rolled along in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s? Of course, we cannot judge these victims by the simple poles of right and wrong. We can’t really judge these people at all. As they see our blank faces trying to look away as they pass, it is we who should be judged by them, though they have no sense of this. They survive by their nature, adjusting without question to a world in which they do not believe they control their fates… or should."

Alex Billington (First Showing):

"There are many great elements to the film: Adam Kimmel's very beautiful cinematography, Carey Mulligan's phenomenal performance (she's primarily the focus of the film), Rachel Portman's mesmerizing score, Mark Romanek's careful direction, even the concept and story overall. My only minor complaint is that it felt like it moved a bit too quickly, we didn't get enough time with the three of them at each of their different ages. I would've actually been perfectly happy watching a longer version that extended each time period, as there was so much more I would've loved to see to build up the characters and the heart-wrenching story further."

Kristopher Tapley (In Contention):
"Shockingly... Romanek’s adaptation kept me at arm’s length from frame one. There is a distance here, a cold sense of removal from what would otherwise be an extremely moving narrative. I wanted desperately to feel for the characters and their plight (I won’t hazard particulars for fear of spoilers). But I felt nothing…at all. I wanted them to rage against their circumstances and show an ounce of the spirit they in one instance even set out to prove they have, but there was, again, nothing."

Thus far, most of the initial reaction is positive, while some have their own reservations against the film. Over the next week or so we'll get to fully understanding the quality of this film, and it's awards chances. Until then, take a look at this new clip from Never Let Me Go.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

3 to See in September!

The lineup of films this September isn't nearly a depressing as August was. That may be because the summer is over and therefore people are going to be too busy to go out to the theaters on numerous occasions. It might be because we're heading into Autumn when more Oscar worthy films tend to pop up. I strictly believe it's because there are just some good movies out this month, along with some diverting and unnecessary flops waiting to happen (You Again, Alpha and Omega, Devil). Before I get into the top three, I would like to draw attention to a few films that almost made this list, and do have the potential to be surprise hits.

Easy A, whose trailer I initially panned because I couldn't brush from my memory how disgusting Amanda Bynes looks in the film, actually looks like a moderately funny and enjoyable film. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps got some good reviews coming out of Cannes, so you might want to watch out for that. Ben Affleck's The Town has a decent amount of buzz going for it, but it looks a little too much like Brooklyn's Finest, or any other cop drama out there. However, you never can tell with Ben Affleck whether he is going to make a great film or not. Now on to my three to see.

3. MacheteThe audience favorite of the month definitely has to go to Robert Rodriguez's Machete, based on the fake-trailer that premiered in Grindhouse a few years back. One thing that Rodriguez knows how to do best is old-style gritty violence with a comedic edge to it. You can see that talent in the trailer with the title character using some poor guy's intestines as a rope to swing into a lower window. This film exists for the action within it, and for Danny Trejo to shine in a lead role. The main actor to watch in this movie is Cheech Marin, who plays the catholic priest brother of Machete. I can tell from the trailer that he's going to get most of the lines that will be remembered in this film.

2. The American Barely beating out Machete for the number two spot on my list of films to look forward to next month is Anton Corbijn's The American. I'd like to say up front that I don't think this film will be a huge presence in the awards season. Maybe for the cinematography, and perhaps for George Clooney's performance, but not much beyond that. Still, I think this will be the sort of contemplative thriller that I usually enjoy. I enjoy the slow-building intensity that those films give, instead of the quick jolts of the average thriller that you quickly get used to. This film may not be something incredibly new, but it looks like something incredibly good.

1. Never Let Me Go (Limited Release) Never Let Me Go doesn't get a wide release until later on, but it's worth nothing. It's a british drama based on a beloved book, starring Kiera Knightly, Carey Mulligan, and Andrew Garfield. It's got the most basic buzz surrounding it already, so if it actually manages to be a heartfelt and enjoyable film, it could break through to be a legitimate contender this awards season, like Atonement did in 2007. I dearly hope I'm not wrong to place my vote of confidence in this film. As it is, my other two picks on the list seem either destined not to be critical darlings, or have been too quiet to encourage confidence that they'll actually be good. So I'm going to sit back and pray that all three of these movies I want to see, including my top pick, are reviewed positively so that for once in my life, I can be right about what you should and shouldn't see.