OSCAR 2011 PREDICTIONS: Film Editing

I shudder at the quality of the nominees masquerading in the film editing department of this year's Oscar race. It's to be expected that the frontrunner is always a player, so I'll forgive "The Artist". Of all its below-the-line skills, editing isn't the most deserving, but it'll suffice more than the others. My greatest complaint of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was the choppy as all hell editing job, and it's only beat out by how obscure the work on "Hugo" was and how plainly unimaginative "The Descendants" was. If the world is a good place, they'll give it to "Moneyball", the unsung technical marvel of this year. But that won't happen.

OSCAR 2011: If I Chose the Nominees

I've been fuming ever since the Oscar Nominations were announced just yesterday. I think we all have been, as we knew we'd be disappointed, but we had no idea exactly how disappointed we eventually would be. That's been the tone of the entire season, with very few things truly certain about the eventual endgame of the Oscars, the ceremony included. It is currently looking to be a dull and absolutely unmotivating affair, so why care? The films we loved all still exist, so why not celebrate them as they still lay. I had arrayed this list as my dream ballot for release before the nominations announcement, but it is just as appropriate now as it was then. So here are my nominations for 2011.

BEST PICTURE

• "Certified Copy"
• "Drive"
• "Martha Marcy May Marlene"
• "Meek's Cutoff"
• "A Separation"
• "Shame"
• "Sleeping Beauty"
• "Tomboy"
• "Weekend"
• "We Need to Talk About Kevin" 

Second Tier: "The Artist", "Cold Weather", "Melancholia", "Midnight in Paris", "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol", "The Muppets", "Rango","Senna", "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "Tyrannosaur"

Further Thoughts: I dispatched with the Foreign Language Film and Animated Feature races for two reasons. One is that there aren't enough good toons out there this past year to warrant the latter, and secondly because there are three films that could be deemed Foreign Language in my Best Picture list. There is no way in hell any of my ten were going to be reciprocated by the Academy. "Martha Marcy May Marlene", "Meek's Cutoff", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Weekend" all skew too low key. "Shame", "Drive", and "We Need to Talk About Kevin" are all too hard edge for them. They'll constantly make excuses for why they don't belong, but none of them really hold up.

AWARDS 2011: BAFTA Nods

Sorry for the holdup, but I've been busy attending to other things. I know I say that a lot, but the day of the SOPA/PIPA internet protest is different. It's odd for them to be considering a piece of legislation that is so vague in its description. But enough of the heat of the moment. I am rather happy about the nominations for the BAFTA awards, though they are exactly what we expected. Probably the only thing that saddens me is that Olivia Colman is not nominated for Best Actress. Overall, I have few qualms with the nods.

Best Film

• "The Artist"
• "The Descendants"
• "Drive"
• "The Help"
• "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"

Best British Film

• "My Week With Marilyn"
• "Senna"
• "Shame"
• "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"
• "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

Weekend Report: Tale as Old as Yesterday

It's kind of odd to have absolutely no horror films coming out on Friday the 13th, unless you count the few theaters "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is hitting up. Instead we have a fairly simple array of typicality, from action to faux-inspirational, but the film that's really going to make a hit this weekend is "Beauty and the Beast 3D". Disney made a massive mint on "The Lion King 3D", and they're in place to do it again with a similar margin of success. Keep in mind, this one does have a touch less adoration going its way than the last one, but the amount of people I've spoken to who plan to see it this weekend give me just as much reason to believe it'll be the top hit this weekend.

And then you have the side players, which are going to make their own share from their respective demographics. Mark Wahlberg is a steady enough draw for action-oriented viewers, and I wouldn't doubt "Contraband" hauling close to $20 million these next three days. "Joyful Noise" too, which consistently irritates me whenever the trailer plays in front of something I'm seeing, is still going to get its share of people looking for a good time with the family. No way in hell I'm suggesting it, and if there's a film that's liable to not meet expectations, I'd bet on this one.

For Your Anticipation: I Am the Context

I'm not entirely sure if I posted something back in its initial run in December, but "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is being "officially released" this weekend, whatever that means. I'm not entirely sure why they couldn't have officially released it back in December, but I'll quell my own frustration. You're no doubt aware by now of my deep love for Lynne Ramsay's domestic-horror flick that paints the crevices of Tilda Swinton's tormented mother as she deals with guilt, fear, and frigid loneliness as a by-product of her son. If there is a "Black Swan" of 2011, I'd be willing to make a case for this film. It made me feel very much similar to the way Aronofsky's film haunted me last year.

Dance on our Graves: Duncan's Top 20 Films of 2011

I have said, and will continue to say for some time, I'm certain, that I was not too happy in 2011. Of course the fact that I could not make a proper list of just ten films this year seems to dispute that, and there were even some films that I felt pretty good about that nonetheless got shoved off by the time I finalized it. So why the persistent attitude? It's mostly that I had my eye set on presents that I did not get, even though what I received was more than fine. Of course when we get around to Oscar time, it's more likely than not that nobody will notice the best there is to notice. There are precious few on this list that will gain such attention.

As per usual, the first several months of the year were as despairing as you'd expect them to be. It was a poor reminder of how little most people care about cinema, and it's a pathetic dropoff from where we left off at the end of the year. The only real comfort was the mild entertainments of films like "Source Code" and "Hanna", as well as the festival films from the previous year beginning to trickle out. And it's a just portrait of the times that when we did get to the summer, so much of what we found was as unsavory as could be predicted, for me anyway. For some reason, I just didn't get the excitement people felt behind "Super 8", "Harry Potter", and "X-Men: First Class".

Even "The Tree of Life", a recurring figure in the top ten lists of this year, left me cold outside of the performances of Hunter McCracken and Brad Pitt. Truth is, most of the films out this year were good, but few really reached the potential that they had set for themselves, and that's a lot of where I came off ill. The year didn't really kick in until the last trimester, as it usually does. But I'm obviously not speaking of most of the Oscar heavyweights this year. Films like "The Help" and "Moneyball", while not terrible, were severely lacking in spark or spunk. I fail to see the passion invested behind "Hugo", a soulless automaton in itself. And I could so easily live without ever seeing "The Descendants" and "War Horse", though I'm inevitably doomed to sit down to them eventually.

AWARDS 2011: San Francisco votes up "Tree of Life"

Is anybody else getting severely tired of these critics awards? I need a long break to regain my sanity after being numbed by repressive output. If nothing else, San Francisco made a great deal of more than just solid choices for their branch of critics. Sure, "The Tree of Life" reminded us once again of how blindly supportive its followers are, but in the film's defense there is heart to it. It's just buried under a heap of misguided non-narrative detour. Other than that, specifically in the performance branches, they get a lot of things right. It's nice to see Gary Oldman finally pick up an award, and it's even nicer to see Tilda Swinton continue on her march to the Oscars.

BEST PICTURE: “The Tree of Life”

BEST DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life”

BEST ACTOR: Gary Oldman, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”  

BEST ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton, “We Need to Talk About Kevin”

Weekend Report: Bring on the Noise

This weekend's suffocating surplus of new releases is diluted by the fact that the two wide releases aren't appealing in the slightest of manners. Remember how "Valentine's Day" was completely idiotic, but you enjoyed the parts with Taylor Swift? "New Year's Eve" has a depressing lack of Taylor Swift, and in its place are a bunch of barely B-list actors. Gary Marshall's previous flick had Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, and even Kathy Bates. What does "New Year's Eve" have? Seth Meyers, Jessica Biel, and Lea Michele. Color me not just uninterested, but stagnantly against this garbage. Need I remind you of the C-Section?

And then there's "The Sitter", but I'm not interested in that one at all either? It's the typical story, but as per usual, delivered in the most tried and unfunny of ways. So no, I am not amused with the main stream of this weekend. If I didn't have "Melancholia" and "Take Shelter" playing independently in town this weekend, I'd be resting my head under one of the imposing legs of my bed. The saving grace of this weekend is that there are some really great films out this weekend, just not nationwide yet.

For Your Anticipation: An Acquired Taste

I haven't been much in the loop of things this week, hence the four clip posts in a row with no other news published. It's not that nothing's going on. It's that I've been painfully busy with other things this week, and will get back into the loop of things next week. I did want to give a second to raise interest for one of the greatest films of this year, which I caught during Telluride by the Sea in September, and shortly later gave one hell of a plug for. Chances are unlikely that you'll catch "We Need to Talk About Kevin" this weekend, for whatever reasons. The brutal subject matter or the lack of availability. In any case, the film is gaining speed with the awards circuits, particularly for Tilda Swinton.

AWARDS 2011: Chris O'Dowd and "Tyrannosaur" Rule BIFA Awards!

Last year's British circuit was just dire, with "The King's Speech" blinding the market from the choices of logical thinking. This year brought us back to the class and quality we expect of the British cinema industry. But if there's anything that the British Independent Film Awards are commendable for, it's for putting Chris O'Dowd in the glorious hosting seat. Getting consistently more drunk with every second going by, the man was able to keep things at such a hilarious clip so as to not get sidetracked. He really stole the focus from the wonderful films being represented, which isn't at all a bad thing. He did what a good host should do. He took focus away from whatever disappointments there might have been.

But to be perfectly honest, there was nary a single disappointment in the pot this year. It was absolutely fantastic to see those deserving get appreciated, between "Tyrannosaur", "Shame", "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "Senna", and more. If nothing else, I'm beating myself up even more now for not having the chance to see "Weekend" yet. Along with "Tyrannosaur", it's placed towards the top of my hit list for the rest of the year. I was getting worried that "We Need to Talk About Kevin" would go on unnoticed for the evening, until Lynne Ramsay thankfully took Best Director. With all the focus on Tilda Swinton, it's easy to overlook Ramsay's absolutely brilliant work. Ultimately, the big winner ended up being "Tyrannosaur", with three wins before the evening was out, including the top prize. You can see the full list of winners after the jump!

AWARDS 2011: National Board of Review throws "Hugo" into the race

If we were shrugging in a somewhat disgruntled manner when the New York Film Critics Circle announced their winners on Tuesday, the National Board of Review managed to inject a bit of personality into this race. How so? Well I don't think people were quite on board with "Hugo"s Best Picture chances until just now. With Scorsese and his film taking the top prizes from NBR, which was highly expected to go to "The Artist" and Michel Hazanavicius, it feels like there's new blood in there. What gets me even further buzzed is that Tilda Swinton took the Best Actress prize for her amazing performance in "We Need to Talk About Kevin". Fingers crossed that at least this one sticks.

The wins for "The Descendants" and "Beginners", on the other hand, were pretty predictable and within the grain of what we expected. The wins for "50/50" and "Margin Call", on the other hand, are just plain silly. Their top ten are considerably more interesting than I had originally diagnosed this season, but I don't imagine this bunch will all make it to the film list, least of which "Drive", "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", and for entirely different reasons, "J. Edgar" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2".

BEST FILM: "Hugo"

BEST DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese ("Hugo")

BEST ACTOR: George Clooney ("The Descendants")

BEST ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton ("We Need to Talk About Kevin")

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christopher Plummer ("Beginners")

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Shailene Woodley ("The Descendants")

AWARDS 2011: "Tinker, Tailor" Dominates BIFA Nods

Continuing the slow unveiling of film award nominations, the British Independent Film Awards have happily added to the pot. It's a nice array of films that you should get jotted down before the year ends, and I've already gotten off to a solid start with two films in the top race already seen. Two films in particular have prevailed in the nominations above the others, though it's still mostly the same central players. "Senna" is the standout documentary nominee, and a well earned one in my own opinion. "Tyrannosaur" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin" are also strong points of interest, gaining their fair share of nods as well. I'd be very happy to see the latter get the lion's share of praise.

However, the top players here are "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", which dominates the performance categories, and "Shame", which picks up more than a few technical nods here. I'd love this to be the start of a surprise awards run for "Shame", but lets face it. That's probably not going to happen. It'll be a wonderful miracle for Fassbender to get nominated in the endgame for Best Actor. I'd consider this to be a sort of outcast lineup, with Mia Wasikowska ("Jane Eyre") and Brendan Gleeson ("The Guard") rounding out the lead actors, and "Drive" picking up a foreign independent nod amongst "Pina" and "A Separation".

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM

• "Senna"
• "Shame"
• "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"
• "Tyrannosaur"
• "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

"We Need to Talk About Kevin" Trailer

I think it goes without saying that I was mad in love with "We Need to Talk About Kevin" when I saw it just more than a month back. I maintain those gut feelings about, and in so many ways it's methods are too brilliant to work in a simple trailer. Meticulously made from the first to last shot, and I still have to revisit it when it comes out in December. This trailer works more than decently, but you never really get a feeling for how nightmarish an experience it is until you live it. But this'll do just fine. And that ticking sound is a lot less formulaic than it sounds. Trust me on that one.

Film Review: "We Need to Talk About Kevin" (****)

 

I was in a noticeably uncomfortable position in the earliest hours of Sunday morning in Portsmouth, NH. Waiting by a harshly lit streetlamp for a solid two hours after "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is a position I'd not wish amongst many, if any at all. To say that Lynne Ramsay has made her return with a vengeance would be a gross understatement. In that mystified delirium where the experiences I had been made witness to were drunkenly shooting straight through my mind, the only response I could relate to twitter was this: "I was not prepared for what was beyond the curtain."

That statement was perhaps not the most informative to send out to the uninformed masses of twitter, but I doubt I could have formed anything more coherent for my mindset in that moment. The first image we see of the film is this ethereal white curtain wavering aside an open window. It's a relatively tame image at the time, and the immediate decoder in me is dumbly thinking, "Oh, they're pulling back the curtain to show us what it's veiling." As simple as that sounds, it is in a way true. It's significance is not wholly known at the start, but once you're past it, there's absolutely no going back. You're there to the grim end. It's the only warning the audience is going to get.

TELLURIDE BY THE SEA: My Saturday Lineup

Each year brings me a unique and exciting festival opportunity in the form of Telluride by the Sea, a weekend long recurrence of six of the films that appeared at Telluride Film Festival in Colorado earlier this month. Last year was my first time at the festival, and I saw "The King's Speech" and "Never Let Me Go" there. I wouldn't have called my critiques of the two exactly accurate. I was a bit harsh on the former, and too kind to the latter. No wonder I had such a hard time in equating my thoughts on "The King's Speech". They were ultimately dishonest.

This year I had hoped to experience the full six film experience, but that fell through the moment they announced the films appearing. I just don't have the time or interest to sustain the Sunday viewings of "The Kid with a Bike" or "In Darkness", and "Albert Nobbs" follows last year's "Tamara Drewe" in the tradition of thematically lacking openers. Saturday is going to be the beginning and the end for me this year, with three films I am eager to experience and break down. I was apprehensive to "Le Havre" at first, but it looks quite honestly agreeable, and the most interesting of the lower tier festival fare.

"A Dangerous Method" has had a wide berth of reception, from excited to unimpressed to downright hateful. I had cautious optimism from the start, and still do, but I'm not going to let my optimism dictate me astray as it did last year. Cronenberg, be prepared for a proper bashing when I'm done with you. And then the late night brings me the most exciting film of the weekend, and one I was simply ecstatic to see on the list. I still haven't finished reading the book yet, but I'll have to push forward in time for "We Need to Talk About Kevin"s appearance in Portsmouth this Saturday. Color me excited.

TELLURIDE BY THE SEA: Titles Announced!

I was worried I'd have to wait another three excruciating hours just to find out what's playing, but was happy to find out at 9 a.m. this morning. So what exactly is so exciting right now? The titles for the Portsmouth, NH mini-festival, Telluride by the Sea, have been announced and narrowed down from the list we were handed yesterday. Which title am I most disappointed about? Steve McQueen's "Shame" is not on the list to appear this year. It's such a shame, no pun intended, as it's the one I've been most eager to see from the festival. On the other hand, I'm not surprised that it isn't here. It doesn't quite fit the mold that the Portsmouth Music Hall has built over the past few years.

So what am I going to be able to see come September 23-25? For one thing "Albert Nobbs", directed by Rodrigo Garcia of last year's "Mother and Child". It's a typical choice, with period influence as well as an Oscar-bait performance from Glenn Close. Can't say I'm surprised, and can't say I'm too interested either. Last year, the weekend kicked off with "Tamara Drewe", and I steered clear of that one. Depending on how critics react to the film this weekend, I might skip out on "Albert Nobbs" as well.

TELLURIDE: Wants & Desires

This week has been made nearly unbearable by the impending announcement of the films slated for the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. As gratifying as it is, I still have to wait until tomorrow to find out which will be recurring onto Telluride by the Sea in Portsmouth, NH later this month. Of course, I do have my own wishlist of "The Artist", "A Dangerous Method", "Shame", "A Separation", "We Need to Talk About Kevin", and "The Turin Horse" (Recently announced as Hungary's entry for Foreign Language Film). I must admit, I'll be terribly lucky to get just half of those. I could see them skipping out on "Shame", which would be the greatest disappointment, but the most expected. I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Finger's crossed!

· ALBERT NOBBS (d. Rodrigo Garcia, U.S., 2011)

· THE ARTIST (d. Michel Hazanavicius, France, 2011)

· BECOMING BERT STERN (d. Shannah Laumeister, U.S., 2011)

· BITTER SEEDS (d. Micha X. Peled, U.S., 2011)

· BONSÁI (d. Cristián Jiménez, Chile, 2011)

· A DANGEROUS METHOD (d. David Cronenberg, U.K.-Switzerland-U.S.-Canada, 2011)

· THE DESCENDANTS (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2011)

· DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL (d. Lisa Immordino-Vreeland, U.S., 2011)

· FOOTNOTE (d. Joseph Cedar, Israel, 2011)

· THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD (d. Joshua Marston, U.S.-Albania-Denmark-Italy, 2011)

· GOODBYE FIRST LOVE (d. Mia Hansen-Løve, France, 2011)

· LE HAVRE (d. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2011)

· HOLLYWOOD DON’T SURF (d. Greg Macgillivray, Sam George, U.S., 2011)

· IN DARKNESS (d. Agnieszka Holland, Poland, 2011)

· INTO THE ABYSS: A TALE OF DEATH, A TALE OF LIFE (d. Werner Herzog, U.S., 2011)

· THE ISLAND PRESIDENT (d. Jon Shenk, U.S., 2011)

· THE KID WITH A BIKE (d. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Belgium, 2011)

· LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD (d. Martin Scorsese, U.S., 2011)

· PASSERBY (d. Eryk Rocha, Brazil, 2011)

· PERDIDA (d. Viviana García Besné, Mexico, 2011)

· PINA (d. Wim Wenders, Germany, 2011)

· A SEPARATION (d. Asghar Farhadi, Iran, 2011)

· SHAME (d. Steve McQueen, U.K., 2011)

· THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2011)

· TARGET (d. Alexander Zeldovich, Russia, 2011)

· THE TURIN HORSE (d. Béla Tarr, Hungary, 2011)

· THE WAY HOME (d. Dr. Biju, India, 2010)

· WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (d. Lynne Ramsey, U.K., 2011)

"We Need to Talk About Kevin" Poster

GOD FREAKIN' DAMN! I'm sorry, but it's one of those moments when every single other lesser piece of filmmaking is shown up for what it couldn't do. This is one of the poster highlights of this year, and that is not an exaggeration. Strongly evoking some of the 60s/70s era horror posters, with an obvious tip of the hat to Roman Polanski, this makes it clear that it's not the cheery indie of the year. I was already getting massively excited for "We Need to Talk About Kevin", but even more so now than ever. If the French trailer was a bit soft, this certainly isn't. Take a look at the full poster after the jump!

"We Need to Talk About Kevin" French Trailer

In the pile of films I can't wait to see this year is We Need to Talk About Kevin, which has calmed down quite a bit since its bolt-from-the-blue Cannes premiere. In the weeks leading up to Telluride, I get an idea in my head for what films I hope play there, and which films I hope come to Portsmouth, NH for Telluride by the Sea. This is certainly amongst the lot, but I can't get my hopes raised too highly.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN - bande annonce by diaphana

Cannes Coverage 2011: "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

I've been dying to talk about We Need to Talk about Kevin after its debut at Cannes yesterday. I woke up and everyone was humming with praise for the film I'd barely heard of. All I knew was that it starred John C. Reilly, and the name made it sound like something of an indie comedy in the same vein as Cyrus. After pulling up a few clips from the film, I realized pretty quickly that wasn't the case, and John C. Reilly isn't close to the main focus. The film stars Tilda Swinton as the mother of a sociopath who just murdered several classmates at his local school, and is now trying to come to terms with her own guilt. It's the sort of gut punch you expect of such a great festival, but so rarely receive. Every review I've read has made me all the more interested in seeing it, and I hope that it arrives sooner rather than later. Not too soon, though, because I want the chance to see director Lynne Ramsay's first two films before seeing her third.

Guy Lodge (In Contention), ****: "Lionel Shriver’s 2003 bestseller 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' is a rare pop novel indeed: a nippy, low-comfort social essay that lures readers into messily untied arguments on topical subject matter the talk-show circuit would have far less trouble resolving. It might have made for a cluttered, stentorian film about things, particularly as the novel’s candid, epistolary format — a series of unreturned letters from an emotionally paralyzed wife and mother to her absent husband — lends itself to reams of dense, subtext-securing voiceover."