or: The Art and Joy of Film Criticism
Things we have learned this week:
Public support from Billy Crystal for allegedly racist Dutch folklore tradition?
Sam Worthington vehicle inspires illegal money showering in Rotterdam
The Expendables 2 has a vilain and, no, that is not a spelling mistake
The Avengers has a new title (in the UK at least)
and
Russell Crowe is expecting rain
I am too young to have grown up with the television series of The Muppets. But I did spend a childhood wondering who that Swedish Chef was that my father raved on about. Then came the DVD box sets and I was hooked. A velvet frog with ping-pong balls for eyes, a diva pig and all their sticks and wire animated Muppet friends put on a terrible happy-anarchistic variety show with celebrity guest stars. What’s not to like?
Like Sesame Street on magic mushrooms, The Muppets (they are not puppets, claim their muppeteers) brought chaos, love, laughter, music and Swedish cuisine into 1970s and 1980s living rooms. The big screen follow ups were, apart from The Muppet Movie and The Muppet Christmas Carol (1979 and 1992) not very good. The last ones even went straight to video.
But now the rights to the Muppets belong to Disney, and they gave fanboy Jason Segel (who I really liked in Bad Teacher) a considerable budget to produce a new, proper Muppet movie (directed by James Bobin). Which is out now, finally, in The Netherlands (it was released in the States last October). I still had to travel all the way to Belgium to catch a screening in the original language rather than the horrendous Dutch dub, but it was worth the international adventure.
The Muppets is fantastic. There is absolutely no other word for it. It is hilariously funny and deeply moving at the same time. It has brilliant songs, courtesy of Flight of the Chonchords’ Brett McKenzie, who won an Oscar last Sunday for Man or Muppet. And those songs have brilliant lyrics. Kermit, reminiscing about Fozzie: “Your jokes were unbearable.”
The central storyline – the Muppets need to get their act back together (literally) to save their theatre from an evil oil tycoon (Chris Cooper) – is familiar and channels the very much alike Blues Brothers. It would have been a bit too simple hadn’t there been a plethora of subplots: one for Kermit and Miss Piggy, on for Jason Segel’s Gary and his muppet brother Walter, one for Gary and his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams), one for Fozzie… Even Scooter gets his moment of glory.
The jokes are spot-on tongue-in-cheek look-guys-we’re-making-a-muppet-movie brilliant. If you like such jokes of course, but then, if you don’t: what are you doing watching this movie? There is something lovely naïve, sweet and hippie-ish about The Muppets. There always has been, and if you thought that such a quality would be outdated in an increasingly cynical twenty-first century, than you have just been proven wrong. Because once Kermit plucks his banjo for the first tones of The Rainbow Connection, and Miss Piggy joins in when singing the first verse, you well up. I did. And you will.
Is there nothing wrong with this film then? Well, it starts a bit slow, and it takes too long for the Muppets themselves to show up. And its ending is a bit dragged out. And I would have liked to have seen more of the Swedish Chef. And there is a painfully unfunny, completely pointless Toy Story short preceding it. But none of these things take away that this is a movie adventure for film buffs, original fans of the television series, families, dating couples and those people who have never heard of The Muppets (all seven of them).
Because I have already devoted considerable space on this website to the brilliant trailers of this film, I won’t show them here. Instead, it’s time to play the music…
Tonight are the Oscars awarded, in a big ceremony in the Kodak theatre in Los Angeles. So over the last week(s) many people have tried to predict who is going to win. But what do we need to consider? Three types of Oscar logic work kinda against each other this year:
Oscar logic number 1: there is almost always one big favourite. This year that favourite is Michel Hazanavicius’ almost-silent black-and-white film The Artist. Last year it was The King’s Speech. Crucially, this big favourite will win awards, in the wake of winning best picture, almost automatically. Best Director and Best Original (or adapted, depending on the film) Screenplay for instance. Or some technical awards that other films might be more deserving of. So there is a chance that The Artist, apart from winning Best Film, will also win Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Music, Best Art Direction, Best Costumes, Best Editing and best Cinematography. And of course Best Actor for Jean Dujardin and Best Supporting Actress for Berenice Bejo.
Oscar logic number 2: The industry has certain demands. You wouldn’t believe it, but Hollywood thinks it is in crisis. Because of the economical crisis everwhere else of course, and because of piracy. So box office success and industrial demands do influence the votes. If a film has hardly been seen by anyone, then kiss your chances goodbye. Sorry Glenn Close (nominated for Albert Nobbs), but that is the deal. As to industrial demands: In 2009-10, Avatar broke all kinds of box office records. So it won awards. Technical ones, mostly, but still. In a strange, counter-sentimental move against Avatar and 3D the important prizes of 2010 were won by the little-seen The Hurt Locker. But this year 3D must be proven a viable option for the future, now that legendary directors Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have adopted the format. Since Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin was criminally neglected by the Academy, Scorsese’s Hugo may have a shot at some prizes, especially Editing and Cinematography.
Oscar logic number 3: On the wave of The Artist Dujardin and Bejo may win awards for their performances, but there are other factors to consider: Best Actor is a career prize. It usually goes to actors who have a long-standing reputation in Hollywood. To win, it has to be your time. Cue Jeff Bridges in 2010, Colin Firth in 2011 and now George Clooney in 2012. Or, very perhaps, Gary Oldman. In the supporting categories the Academy tends to reward eccentric, extravagant performances in socially ‘relevant’ films. So Mo’nique in 2010, for Precious, and Melissa Leo last year for The Fighter. And this year Octavia Spencer for The Help.
I do not know what will happen in Los Angeles tonight. But whatever the outcome, the three types of Oscar logic described above will play their parts.
Oscar logic number 4. Pixar wins Best Animated Film. Oh, wait, they are not nominated this year. ..
I have already reviewed six out of the nine nominees for the Best Film Oscar, which will be handed out during the big ceremony tomorrow: Hugo, The Descendants, War Horse, The Help, The Artist and The Tree of Life. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is not yet released here, but two films have been released last year that I’ve managed to miss out on so far. So here are brief catch-up reviews of Moneyball and Midnight in Paris.
Moneyball (dir. Bennett Miller) is the story of baseball manager Billy Beane (what a name!) – played by Brad Pitt – who manages the relatively poor, bottom-of-the-league team Oakland A’s. Despite his efforts, Beane sees all his best players being lured away by rich teams such as the New York Yankees, and is unable to replace them on his modest budget. It is only after he meets computer nerd and economic Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) – who has come up with a statistical analysis of players that values players who are overlooked by anyone else – that Beane is able to put together a team that can win. Eventually, because by radically rethinking baseball Beane and Brand alienate the entire club, and the wins don’t come easy.
Moneyball is very decent, and a very good sports movie, even though there is very little sporting shown. But a best picture nominee? I could think of a number of films that are more deserving of such honor. I enjoyed myself, but not much more than that. And while the nomination for Best Actor for Brad Pitt is more or less deserved (he’s not going to win anyway), the one for Supporting Actor for Hill is a joke. Hill’s role is small, one-sided and without any meat to it. He was being applauded for lpaying a role different to the usual nerd he plays in Judd Apatow like comedies. But his Peter Brand is just a very bland, grown-up version of that same nerd. Americans, ts.
Midnight in Paris is said to be Woody Allen’s best film in twenty years. I would not know as I have not seen everything he has done in that period. But I do question whether that justifies nominating the film for an Oscar. Sure, the writing nod (Best Original Screenplay) makes sense, as much of the dialogue is zingy and entertaining. But ultimately the film lacks the pull or punch to stay with you for more than an hour afterwards.
Owen Wilson is surprisingly un-annoying as the American bread-writer-with-literature-amibtions in love with a fairy-tale version of 1920sParis. And who is mysteriously drawn into that world, populated by the likes of Hemingway and Dali, when the clock strikes midnight. However, his impersonation of a 1970s/80s Woody Allen is also very uncanny, and I would have preferred novel, original character. There is some surprising, and surprisingly funny, supporting casting being done. For instance with Adrien Brody’s rhinoceros-obsessed Dali and Kathy Bates’ friendly matriarch Gertrude Stein.
Allen’s best in twenty years? I’ll believe that. But Moneyball and Midnight in Paris, despite being completely acceptable, show that the decision, some years ago, to have more than five nominees for Best Picture does not necessarily produce added value for every year’s award ceremony.
The two most Oscar-nominated flms this year are the fantastic The Artist, the big favourite that has received ten nominations, and Hugo, Martin Scorsese’s first 3D and first family film. It has received eleven nominations, mostly in technical categories, although Best Film and Best Director are also on the list. Curiously, both films are about the past of cinema. But whereas The Artist is a wonderful birthday party, Hugo is a bittersweet eulogy. At its better moments at least.
Because for the longest part of its running time, it is boring, standard fare. My list of things that I dislike about Hugo kicks off with its infuriatingly romanticized, stereotypical representation of 1930s Paris, a quality which the film curiously shares with another overhyped nominee, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. But at least Midnight in Paris admitted that this representation was a fantasy. This is literally a film in which the Eiffel tower can be seen from every window in the city.
The second problem is the story, which is strangely two-sided. There is a bit about a young boy – the titular Hugo Cabret – living in the walls of a train station, operating the clocks and trying to rebuild the automaton his late father left him. And when this story is more or less told and done with (after a little more than an hour, a proper running time for a mediocre kids’ flick) another story begins, about an old and bitter shopkeeper and his mysterious past. Needless to say, that story is much more interesting, and I would have loved to see it as a proper drama on itself.
The third problem lies very close to the second problem. It is the actors’ performances. As the depiction of Paris, they are so stereotypical that it hurts. Starting with the young Asa Butterfield (Hugo), who for the sake of his youth will be spared harsh criticism. And continuing with the also-very-young Chloe Moretz, who we have seen in such better form in Kick-Ass and Let Me In. Far more problematic is the supporting role of Sacha Baron Cohen as the station chief, who is a stumbling cliche of a man, and a painfully underused Jude Law as Hugo’s father. The only major cats member who fare better are Sir Christopher Lee as a bookshop owner, also much too little in the picture, and Sir Ben Kingsley, as the ill-fated shopkeeper. Also, what is it with the thick English accents in a film set in Paris? What is the point of that?
The good things then. First of all there is the 3D, which is actually justified in some moments; for instance when showing the inner mechanics of the station clocks, or in flashbacks to the first years of the twentieth century. It isn’t perfect, but it shows at least a bit of potential for the technology. Unfortunately an inferior variety of the technology is used – the one with the heavy glasses that give me headaches – instead of the more common and superior RealD.
The second good thing are those flashbacks, which are the crown jewels of the film and which belong to the second, more interesting, part of the story. Without giving away too much, these are the scenes that won Hugo its Oscar nominations, the technical ones as well as the ‘ major’ ones. They are the ones that won over the hearts of film ‘connaisseurs’ (rather than fans or the regular audience) and members of the Academy. There may be some rewriting of history going on in the process, when the First world War substitutes for copyright struggles and financial misadventures, but that fits the drama and is pardonable.
Director Martin Scorsese is a film connaisseur. A lover of the history of the medium and the art, as his many documentaries on the subject clearly show. In interviews he says that he wanted, for once, to make a film that his children could enjoy, who are too young for Taxi Driver or The Departed. But it was a mistake to make his first 3D film, and an ode to early cinema at the same time. The three objectives fit crudely together, much unlike the perfect mechanisms of the clocks and the automaton.
It has taken me a week, apologies for that, but let’s comment on the Oscar nominations for this year. Obviously the nominations caught up with my predictions, so these are now a bit outdated. But let’s go through the list. 10 nominations for The Artist and 11 for Hugo make those films the big contenders of this year. Other films with many nominations are The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, War Horse, My Week with Marylin, The Help, Bridesmaids and The Tree of Life.
Oscar scandals are often about those films that are not nominated. Senna, in the documentary category for instance. And We Need To Talk About Kevin, for best picture and best actress ina leading role. And why is Spielberg’s Tintin not in the animation category? What does Puss in Boots do there? Harry Potter fans, hoping for a big sweep for Deathly Hallows Part 2 in recognition of the entire series will be a bit disappointed too, with 3 technical nominations (production design, make-up and visual effects).
Personally I was very happy to see Gary Oldman nominated for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I find, however, that film’s nomination for best adapted screenplay an odd thing. And I am very pleased that the overrated, pretentious wanna B film Drive is almost neglected (apart from 1 nom for sound editing).
I am stunned that Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain are nominated for Moneyball and The Help respectively, while their performances in The Tree of Life were far superior. And the one thing that film should not have been nominated for is best picture, because it is too unbalanced.
I could go on and on. I won’t. Here is the list. The titles in italics are the ones I think should win, and the titles in bold are the ones I think will win. Please note that I haven’t seen everything. I am for instance still waiting for War Horse, The Descendants (both out today in Holland), Hugo and The Muppets. And I refrain from predicting the short film and documentary categories, because I really have not seen enough to have a judgement.
Best Picture
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
“The Help”
“Hugo”
“Midnight in Paris”
“Moneyball”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”
Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir in “A Better Life”
George Clooney in “The Descendants”
Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”
Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”
Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn”
Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”
Nick Nolte in “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”
Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis in “The Help”
Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”
Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn”
Actress in a Supporting Role
Bérénice Bejo in “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain in “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer in “The Help”
Animated Feature Film
“A Cat in Paris”
“Chico & Rita”
“Kung Fu Panda 2″
“Puss in Boots”
“Rango”
Art Direction
“The Artist”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
“Hugo”
“Midnight in Paris”
“War Horse”
Cinematography
“The Artist”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”
Costume Design
“Anonymous”
“The Artist”
“Hugo”
“Jane Eyre”
“W.E.”
Directing
“The Artist” Michel Hazanavicius
“The Descendants” Alexander Payne
“Hugo” Martin Scorsese
“Midnight in Paris” Woody Allen
“The Tree of Life” Terence Malick
Documentary (Feature)
“Hell and Back Again”
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”
“Pina”
“Undefeated”
Documentary (Short Subject)
“The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement”
“God Is the Bigger Elvis”
“Incident in New Baghdad”
“Saving Face”
“The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom”
Film Editing
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Moneyball”
Foreign Language Film
“Bullhead” Belgium
“Footnote” Israel
“In Darkness” Poland
“Monsieur Lazhar” Canada
“A Separation” Iran
Makeup
“Albert Nobbs”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
“The Iron Lady”
Music (Original Score)
“The Adventures of Tintin” J
“The Artist”
“Hugo”
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
“War Horse”
Music (Original Song)
“Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets”
“Real in Rio” from “Rio”
Short Film (Animated)
“Dimanche/Sunday”
“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”
“La Luna”
“A Morning Stroll”
“Wild Life”
Short Film (Live Action)
“Pentecost”
“Raju”
“The Shore”
“Time Freak”
“Tuba Atlantic”
Sound Editing
“Drive”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“War Horse”
Sound Mixing
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Moneyball”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“War Horse”
Visual Effects
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
“Hugo”
“Real Steel”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
“The Descendants”
“Hugo”
“The Ides of March”
“Moneyball”
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Writing (Original Screenplay)
“The Artist”
“Bridesmaids”
“Margin Call”
“Midnight in Paris”
“A Separation”
That would, in my expectation, lead to 3 awards for The Artist and 4 for Hugo and a pretty even spread accross the board. Of course I hope for some recognition for Rango, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Deathly Hallows.
But we’ll have to see. The awards will be awarded in a Billy Crystal hosted ceremony in Los Angeles on the 26th of February.
The nominations for the 2012 Oscars will be announced on January 24, but on this site we have still three predictions to make. Best Film, Best Director and, today, Best Actor. A tricky category. Last year the little golden fellow went to Colin Firth for The King’s Speech, while he should have received it in 2010 for A Serious Man. In that year, ironically, Jeff Bridges won for Crazy Heart although his 2011 performance in True Grit. The point I’m trying to make is that the Best Actor award, even more so than the Best Actress one, is a career prize. It is not about the specific movie you happen to be in, it is about it being yuor turn. That is why there is only one big favourite this year, although there are many Oscar-worthy performances.
The big favourite:
George Clooney for The Descendants.
The other ones:
Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Brad Pitt for Moneyball
Leonardo diCaprio for J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender for Shame
and
Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (my favourite, could easily work as a career prize)
The career thingy is also the reason that, while they might score a nomination, it is just still too early for Ryan Gosling (Drive), Michael Shannon (Take Shelter) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (50/50)
Well, of course there has got to be a hortlist for this category, but there is only one true favourite. Nonetheless, here are five performances that you will want to take a closer look at:
Charlize Theron for Young Adult
Tilda Swinton for We Need to Talk About Kevin
Kirsten Dunst for Melancholia
Michelle Williams for My Week With Marylin
These are all four fine actresses in wonderful roles. But there is oen this year that seems to already have a claim to an Oscar, especially because the role combines English history with a struggle for emancipation… The dead ringer for the Oscar for best actress in 2012 is…
Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
A less tough category than ‘supporting actress’, but there were still plenty of impressive performances this year to make the ‘supporting actor’ category an exciting Oscar run. I have at least a very long long-list.
Mark Strong in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Paul Giamatti in Ironclad
John C. Reilly in Carnage
George Clooney in The Ides of March
Ralph Fiennes in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
James Cromwell in The Artist
Christopher Plummer in Beginners
Albert Brooks in Drive
Kenneth Branagh in My Week with Marilyn
John Hawkes in Martha Marcy May Marlene
Viggo Mortensen in A Dangerous Method
Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Tom Hanks in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
If you ask me now for five likely nominees I say Reilly, Plummer, Brooks, Hawkes and von Sydow, although I am still to see quite a number of these films.
This will be a tough category, in terms of picking a winner. In terms of finding five nominees, well, that’s perhaps even harder.
Jessica Chastain in The Tree of Life
Jessica Chastain in Take Shelter
Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis in The Help
Jodie Foster or Kate Winslet in Carnage
Keira Knightley in A Dangerous Method
Berenice Bejo in The Artist
Kate Winslet (again) in Contagion
Vanessa Redgrave in Coriolanus
Marion Cotillard in Midnight in Paris
This has been a good year for actresses. If I would have to pick five now, then those would be Jessica Chastain, Kate Winslet, Vanessa Redgrave, Octavia Spencer and Berenice Bejo.
