Author Archives: Alftuba

Jan 24 2014
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Canceling Cable, Part 2: Should You?

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(This is the second in a 2-part series. Part 1 was posted posted yesterday. Read it here.)

It’s the common wisdom that we are entering a Golden Age of Television, that the best quality filmmaking is now happening on the small screen more than the large. The most talented moviemakers are flocking to TV in droves. Steven Soderbergh gave a speech last year talking about the current crisis-state of the movie industry, and why he’s only going working in the TV sphere going forward. (Or so I have read; I haven’t actually had a chance to listen to the speech myself, yet.)

It’s worth noting that even in the face of all these feature filmmakers jumping ship, we have just had one of the greatest years in recent memory for outstanding quality films, and the spectacle that is Gravity has reminded us that the small screen still cannot compete with the scale of possibility that the big screen affords us.

But it’s true. There are far more options for excellent quality on TV than ever before. (There’s far more everything on TV than ever before.) Most of the best shows are on cable channels. So it would seem that for any lover of quality filmmaking, having cable TV would be a must. But I would consider myself part of that demographic, and I would argue the opposite.

The biggest problem with cable is that the decades old channel-package model just doesn’t make sense anymore. The multiple streaming options I listed yesterday, and countless others, let you pick and choose what you want and when you want it for a fraction of the cost. Cable companies and their channels need to go back to the drawing board to compete. They could start by letting people pick and choose channels a la carte. It would be absolutely the least they could do. They could even work that into the basic structure of their old package model.

But remember that one streaming service I use? The one for an unnamed premium channel that requires a cable subscription to use? That I can only use by borrowing a friend’s password? Well, despite the excellent quality of those shows, if I didn’t have those awesome friends, it still wouldn’t be worth it to pay for cable. Even if I could pick and choose my channels, I would just wait for the DVDs. Unless I could get that channel and only that channel, just for the use of their streaming service, I would be wasting my money.

To really meet the needs of the modern public, the channels need to move away from the idea of a schedule. Life doesn’t fit into perfect 30 minute blocks that begin and end at the same time. People don’t want to be tied to that. When TiVo and similar devices first came out, people first had the option of recording a show and then watching it whenever they wanted. Ever since, cable companies have offered renting similar recording devices with your cable box. But that’s just a fix to a woefully out-of-date structure. They need new ideas.

You know who has new ideas? Netflix. They have been leading the charge against the old guard. They were the first major streaming option for TV shows, and recently the first to create original programming exclusive to a streaming service. I’m not saying they’re perfect by any stretch, but they’re paying attention to what their customers want. Now Hulu and others are following suit. This is where cable companies need to look if they don’t want to get left in the dust.

The cable companies are getting old. They are run by the most deeply entrenched corporate capitalists. But suddenly their precious free-market is scaring them. People are beginning to move away from what they’re offering. Well? Let’s let that free-market do its thing. Cancel your cable. Support the companies who are actually giving you what you want, the way you want it. Maybe they’ll get the message. Maybe they’ll change. And maybe we’ll come back if they do.

I hope so, because there really are  some great shows to be seen.

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Jan 23 2014
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Canceling Cable, Part 1: Why I Did It

My bedroom TV at home

My bedroom TV at home

Let’s break for a moment from the glut of Awards Season news, and movies in general, and look at some other screens. This is The Screen Life after all, not Awards!Awards!Awards! There is broader scope to be explored. Today: Cable TV (or lack thereof).

(Never fear, however: Movie awards are fun and this is the season for them, so expect a lot more news and analysis to come.)

I don’t have cable TV. With the exception of one 6 month experiment early last year (more on that later), I’ve been without cable since 2006, one year after I left college. At first it was a conscious decision to help my time management. I would get easily addicted to TV and watch it for hours, to the detriment of my work and sleep. I preferred movies anyway and still blew through precious hours staring at screens. But at least it was directed, scheduled watching, instead of wasting half my life watching whatever happened to be on Cartoon Network even though I could care less about it.

It turned out that the only 2 shows I really cared about – The Daily Show and The Colbert Report – were becoming available online. I would watch them from my work computer during lunch. Everything else I was interested in was available on Netflix. This was before Netflix Streaming, but I would get the DVDs. Honestly I preferred that to traditional TV. I always used to hate shows with ongoing stories that you had to watch every week, because invariably I would miss a week and then be out of the story. I’d have to wait for the DVD anyway to pick it back up.  Watching those shows all at once is just easier.

Since then, as I’m sure you’re well aware, multiple streaming services have popped up. The Netflix boom, gave rise to Hulu, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant, Vudu, and a host of others. My family gets all our TV shows from these, plus one other. I’ll leave it unnamed, because our use of it may not be, strictly speaking, entirely legal. It is owned by a cable channel and requires a premium cable TV account to get a password. Luckily, we have awesome friends.

Our own TV area is a tangle of wires and machines: Smart Blu-ray, Wii, Roku, our new Google Chromcast. Each of these connects to several streaming sites, and admittedly they’ve all got some serious drawbacks. The Wii doesn’t have high definition and uses my TV’s crappy sound rather than my surround system. The Roku is a little older and was only working intermittently, so I relegated it to our secondary TV in another room (seems to be a little better these days; I might move it back). The Blu-ray was great until it stopped streaming Neflix randomly. And the Chromecast, our current go-to, is a little glitchy and still doesn’t support very many services.

Still, all of that is preferable to dealing with and paying for cable TV. We proved that to ourselves last year. We decided to sign up for cable and try it out just for a month or two. We actually did this for network TV because our reception is terrible for some reason, despite living in the heart of St Louis. We usually host an Oscar party, so wanted to make sure we could actually watch the show without extra antenna interference from all the people. At the same time we thought we might enjoy some of the other perks.

We didn’t. There were so many options, all crap, that we couldn’t ever decide what to watch. We ended up streaming our same shows from our same other devices, all the while paying for a cable box that sat unused. The only time we turned it on was for sports and other one-off live shows, which were generally on the network stations anyway. We were throwing our money at nothing, so we cancelled. (Just cable TV, that is. Cable internet seems to be the only option strong enough to handle all our streaming, so Charter still gets our money, just less of it.)

Of course, everybody is different, and my situation may be unique. Check back tomorrow for Part 2, to examine the bigger picture and whether you should follow suit.

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Jan 21 2014
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Review – Her

her-movie-joaquin-phoenix

In the near future, a lonely sad sack falls in love with his artificially intelligent computer operating system. From a description of the synopsis it would seem Her’s thesis is all about our increasing connection to our technology, but in fact it has far more to say about the very nature of relationships. The film examines their very concept and how we form them and what it means to fall in love. It explores the expansive grey spectrum between platonic and romantic.

In doing so, writer/director Spike Jonze completely reinvents the romance genre. Up to now “Romance” has mostly become a tired, clichéd amalgam of tropes that rarely provides its passions with a foundation of true heart or warmth or depth, and hasn’t had anything new to say in ages. But Jonze digs deeper and uncovers a world of untapped beauty and complexity. His characters – despite the ostensibly “fantasy” setting – ring truer than most as they hold up a mirror to those of us sitting in the audience.

Joaquin Phoenix gives a remarkable performance. He is on screen the entire movie, and in a sense he has to carry the emotions of two characters in his face, as Samantha the operating system doesn’t have a face to express. That said, Scarlet Johansson finds a way to telegraph those wordless emotions expertly through a voice-only performance. Amy Adams, as the best friend, is fantastic as well. (I far prefer her here than her super-sexualized role in American Hustle.)

Arcade Fire’s score is more subtle than I would’ve expected from them, and perfectly complements the tone and atmosphere. But the real behind-the-scenes star is the work by production designer K.K. Barrett. It’s a simple subtle vision of the near future. Fashions, with the exception of a penchant for high-waited pants, aren’t all that different from today as you would expect from a “futuristic sci-fi.” Art and décor has a minimalist beauty. And the technology mixes modern and natural, from a brown leather-backed pocket computer to a gorgeous sleek wood-paneled desktop monitor. (Apple, get on this – I want that desktop for myself!!!)

Her received 5 Oscar nominations for Original Screenplay, Production Design, Score, Song, and Best Picture. All are richly deserved, and I would be excited if any of them won.

When I published my Top 10 list at the beginning of the year, this was the film I was most concerned about possibly leaving out, but it hadn’t opened in St Louis yet. Now that I’ve seen it, I know my concerns were warranted. If I can change my list (and I can, because it’s mine!), Her would tie with Nebraska for #2, right behind The Wolf of Wall Street and ahead of Gravity.

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Jan 20 2014
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Weekend Wrap-up: The Producers Keep It Interesting

Gravity-debris-2

This weekend the first two all-important film industry guilds announced their winners: the actors (SAG) and the producers (PGA). Next weekend the directors (DGA) will follow suit. Usually between these three a frontrunner emerges which goes on to take the top prize at the Oscars.

This race is one of the tightest in years, with essentially three frontrunners. Last week I predicted that each of those three would take one of the three main guild awards: American Hustle – SAG (ensemble), 12 Years a Slave – PGA, Gravity – DGA. It was a fairly wild guess, since that kind of thing never happens. One film always takes two, if not or all three, and then goes on to win Best Picture

On Saturday night SAG Awards (scroll to the bottom to see the complete list of winners) appeared to stick to the script. All their film winners were pretty well expected. Cate Blanchett and Jared Leto continued their respective steamrolls through Best Actress and Supporting Actor. They are the 2 surest bets for winning gold on Oscar night, as nobody has been able to beat them in any of the precursors. Matthew McConaughey continued to strengthen his frontrunner status for Best Actor. The biggest excitement was Lupita Nyong’o winner for her supporting performance in 12 Years over Jennifer Lawrence. But even that wasn’t really a surprise – the two have been neck and neck all season, and many pundits (not yours truly, though) think Lawrence will have a hard time winning back to back Oscars.

Hustle took Best Ensemble, as I and many others predicted. 12 Years surely provided stiff competition, but the former was the more obvious acting showcase. And in a very tight race, that was all that was needed to pull ahead for an award that honors the actors rather than the movie itself.

Still, the SAG ensemble very often goes to the eventual Best Picture Oscar winner, so without word yet from any one else in the industry, Hustle essentially took the lead. But in a race so tight anything could happen, literally that – “anything” – was about to.

The PGA awarded an unprecedented 2-film tie! If Hustle had been one of those two films it might have held onto its frontrunner status, but it wasn’t. Gravity and 12 Years split the prize. In a sense my prediction was correct that all three films would win a major guild award, but there was no way I could’ve imagined that would happen a week before the third would even announce.

Over the last 4 years the PGA (for comparison: the Best Picture Oscar is also awarded to a film’s producers) has become THE most predictive of the guilds, since they are the only ones besides the Academy to use a complex “preferential balloting system” (as opposed to a simple weighted ballot) to determine their winners. In this system getting 1st place votes is important, but so is getting 2nd and 3rd. So a winning film has to evoke passion in a much broader cross-section of voters. “Love-it-or-hate-it” films don’t weather this process well.

Given that complex process and the PGA’s 4,700 voting members, one would think a tie is statistically impossible to come by. Yet that’s what happened, and suddenly our best predictor is useless. (Ok, not useless, but you know…)

Of course now the DGA is the key. Whoever wins that will have 2 to everyone else’s 1, and will become considered the frontrunner. I still suspect that’s going to be Gravity. Alfonso Cuaron has been picking up director prizes more consistently than other film, making his film the safest bet. But at this point the race is so convoluted that even that safest bet wouldn’t necessarily be a safe bet.

That said, Oscar voting hasn’t even started yet. By the time they do, that frontrunner, however tenuous, will be known. AMPAS, just like everyone else, likes to rally behind a winner. Chances are the majority of voters will get behind the perceived leader, making it the de facto leader, and the eventual winner.

So, while it’s still early and I reserved the right to change my mind several times in light of new information, I am now prepared to make my first official Oscar Prediction of the season:

Gravity will win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Still, it could easily go any direction, and that’s what’s so exciting. That’s why I may be having the most fun I’ve had since I started paying attention to awards season more than 15 years ago. This is fantastic!

Here is the complete list of SAG and PGA winners. (Check them against my predictions here.)

SAG

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES
Actor – Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”
Actress – Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”
Supporting Actor – Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”
Supporting Actress – Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”
Ensemble – American Hustle

TELEVISION PROGRAMS
Actor, TV Movie or Miniseries – Michael Douglas, “Behind the Candelabra”
Actress, TV Movie or Miniseries – Helen Mirren, “Phil Spector”
Actor, Drama – Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad”
Actress, Drama – Maggie Smith, “Downton Abbey”
Actor, Comedy – Ty Burrell, “Modern Family”
Actress, Comedy – Julia Louis-Drefus, “Veep”
Ensemble, Drama – Breaking Bad
Ensemble, Comedy – Modern Family

STUNT ENSEMBLES
Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture – Lone Survivor
Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series – Game of Thrones

 

PGA

Theatrical Motion Pictures -TIE- Gravity and 12 Years a Slave
Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures – Frozen
Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures – We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks
Long-Form Television – Behind the Candelabra
Episodic Television, Drama – Breaking Bad
Episodic Television, Comedy – Modern Family
Non-Fiction Television – Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
Competition Television – The Voice
Live Entertainment & Talk Television – The Colbert Report
Sports Program – SportsCenter
Children’s Program – Sesame Street
Digital Series – “Wired: What’s Inside” (http://video.wired.com/series/what-s-inside)
The Davie O. Selznick Achievement Award – Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli
The Norman Lear Achievement Award – Chuck Lorre
The Stanley Kramer Award – Fruitvale Station
Milestone Award – Bob Iger
Vanguard Award – Peter Jackson, Joe Letteri and Weta Digital
Visionary Award – Chris Meledandri

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Jan 20 2014
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PGA: IT’S A TIE!!!

gravity-12years

BREAKING:

Gravity and 12 Years a Slave have TIED the Producer’s Guild of America (PGA)’s “The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures” They just finished announcing their awards and the results are shocking. This is the first tie in PGA history!

It seemed that American Hustle had the lead after winning Best Ensemble on Saturday night at the SAG awards. but now we’re right back to that big split I’ve been talking about.

This is a better outcome that I could’ve ever hoped for, because – as I mentioned before – it keeps the season going with wonderful uncertainty. Whoever wins the DGA next week still might take lead frontrunner status. But even then, this all important PGA tie means that NOTHING will be certain until the final envelope is opened on Oscar night.

THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!

(EDIT: See the full list of SAG and PGA winners, along with my further analysis, here.)

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Jan 18 2014
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SAG, PGA This Weekend – What to Expect

american-hustle

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Producers Guild of America (PGA) will both present their winners this weekend (tonight and tomorrow night, respectively). This usually marks the beginning of the end of the awards race: The guilds are the most predictive factor in the Oscars, and these two, plus the Directors Guild next weekend are the most important guilds of all.

The Actors are the largest voting block in the Academy, so they carry the most weight. Almost every Best Picture Oscar winner has come with a corresponding DGA win for the director. And perhaps most importantly, since a crucial rule change in 2009 every film that has won the PGA has gone on to win Best Picture.

In 2009 the Academy began using a complex preferential balloting system in their top category (and only the top category). The only other group to use this system is the PGA. The PGA is also has a large crossover membership with AMPAS, and their tastes are very similar. It’s the perfect Oscar practice run.

“But This Year’s Different!”

It’s always easy to say this year is unique. Every year is unique. Last year was insanely unique, in which the front runner winning everything didn’t even have a director nomination from the Academy, and in fact only 2 of the DGA nominees matched Oscar. Yet even then, the same film took SAG, PGA, DGA, and Best Picture. “Different” is a question of degree.

Still, I actually do think this year is different, because for the first time there is no clear frontrunner yet. We may have one in 3 days, but as of right now, it’s completely up in the air. I am going out on a limb and predicting all three to split up each of the main guilds. It’s a gutsy choice, if I do say so myself – most pundits would call me crazy. But I think each one has a specific angle for a particular guild.

  • American Hustle will win the SAG ensemble. This is the easiest call. This is an ensemble acting award, not overall film, so they do occasionally stray from the frontrunner. Gravity isn’t nominated here, and wouldn’t win even if it were because it’s “ensemble” is mostly just one person. 12 Years has a great ensemble, and three of them have gotten every nomination possible. But Hustle is the showier acting showcase. Plus, despite only one individual nomination in their own awards, the actors branch gave the film nominations in all 4 acting categories at the Oscars. (If 12 Years somehow pulls off the upset, then that it. The race would be just about over.)
  • 12 Years a Slave will win the PGA. This is the hardest call. This is the one that could really conceivably go any direction. The only thing we have to go on is other precursor awards. Gravity has won it’s share, and Hustle is the new upstart that’s been making it’s way steadily up the ranks as of late. But 12 Years has the majority of wins under it’s belt. I think that gives it the edge. (If Hustle wins this, the others are done for. It will have pulled it’s way comfortable out front.)
  • Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón) will win the DGA. There’s a narrative for each: David O. Russell (Hustle) is just about due after his 3rd major player in as many years, and Steve McQueen (12 Years) may be considered infinitely more overdue, as no black director has ever won. But Cuarón has been the most consistent winner so far this season. There have been more splits in precursor awards than ever, and he’s been cleaning up even when the other two are winning various Best Picture awards. His achievement is just too big to ignore. (If either of the others win, look for that film to take the lead at the Oscars.)

So that’s the way I see it playing out. I hope I’m right, because if I am it means the race will keep on being exciting and unexpected far longer than usual. (It already lasted longer than usual!) If I’m wrong, I expect we’ll know by Monday who our frontrunner will be, and for that frontrunner to be confirmed next weekend at the DGA.

Oh, before I forget, The Critics Choice Awards happened this past Thursday, in case you cared to know. They’re about as important as the Globes (practice for speeches and that’s about it), and a fraction as fun. I pretty much ignored them. But they did give the same split between Picture and Director, which only serves to reinforce my point.

Here’s the rest of my predictions for this weekend’s shows – SAG first, then PGA – with the predicted winners in bold. (As with the Golden Globes, my guesses on most of the TV categories were basically pulled out of my ass.)

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS

FILM

Ensemble

  • 12 Years a Slave
  • American Hustle
  • August: Osage County
  • Dallas Buyers Club
  • The Butler

Actor

  • Bruce Dern, Nebraska
  • Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave (alternate)
  • Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
  • Matthew McConaghey, Dallas Buyers Club
  • Forest Whitaker, The Butler

Actress

  • Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
  • Sandra Bullock, Gravity
  • Judi Dench, Philomena
  • Emma Thompson, Saving Mr Banks
  • Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Supporting Actor

  • Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
  • Daniel Bruhl, Rush
  • James Gandolfini, Enough Said
  • Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
  • Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

Supporting Actress

  • Oprah Winfrey, The Butler
  • Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
  • Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
  • Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
  • June Squibb, Nebraska

Stunt Ensemble

  • All is Lost
  • Fast & Furious 6
  • Lone Survivor
  • Rush
  • The Wolverine

===

TELEVISION

Ensemble, Drama

  • Boardwalk Empire
  • Breaking Bad
  • Downton Abbey
  • Game of Thrones
  • Homeland

Ensemble, Comedy

  • 30 Rock
  • Arrested Development
  • The Big Bang Theory
  • Modern Family
  • Veep

Actress, Miniseries or TV Movie

  • Angela Bassett, Betty & Coretta
  • Helena Bonham Carter, Taylor & Burton
  • Holly Hunter, Top of the Lake
  • Helen Mirren, Phil Spector
  • Elisabeth Moss, Top of the Lake

Actor, Miniseries or TV Movie

  • Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra (alternate)
  • Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra
  • Jeremy Irons, The Hollow Crown
  • Rob Lowe, Killing Kennedy
  • Al Pacino, Phil Spector

Actress, Drama

  • Claire Danes, Homeland
  • Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad
  • Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Coven
  • Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
  • Kerry Washington, Scandal

Actor, Drama

  • Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
  • Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
  • Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom
  • Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
  • Kevin Spacey, House of Cards

Actress, Comedy

  • Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory
  • Julie Bowen, Modern Family
  • Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
  • Tina Fey, 30 Rock
  • Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep

Actor, Comedy

  • Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
  • Jason Bateman, Arrested Development
  • Ty Burrell, Modern Family
  • Don Cheadle, House of Lies
  • Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Stunt Ensemble, Comedy or Drama

  • Boardwalk Empire
  • Breaking Bad
  • Game of Thrones
  • Homeland
  • The Walking Dead

PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS

Theatrical Motion Picture

  • American Hustle
  • Blue Jasmine
  • Captain Phillips
  • Dallas Buyers Club
  • Gravity
  • Her
  • Nebraska
  • Saving Mr. Banks
  • 12 Years a Slave
  • The Wolf of Wall Street

Animated Theatrical Motion Picture

  • The Croods
  • Despicable Me 2
  • Epic
  • Frozen
  • Monsters University

Documentary

  • Far Out Isn’t Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
  • Life According to Sam
  • A Place at the Table
  • We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks
  • Which Way is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington

Long-Form Television

  • American Horror Story: Asylum (FX)
  • Behind the Candelabra (HBO)
  • Killing Kennedy (National Geographic Channel)
  • Phil Spector (HBO)
  • Top of the Lake (Sundance Channel)
Jan 16 2014
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3 Films ‘Hustle’ for the Lead – Oscar Nominations Breakdown

gravity 12 years hustle split

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts ad Sciences (AMPAS) gave us plenty of surprises – both good and bad – when they announced their 86th Annual Oscar nominations this morning.

The big story is American Hustle, which tied Gravity for the lead with 10 nods each, followed closely by 12 Years a Slave with 9. Any one of them could still win, but this proves it really is a 3-way race. All 3 got the crucial Picture/Director/Editing trifecta that is often necessary to go the distance.

All 9 of the Best Picture nominees got more nominations than any of the other films. A majority of the different branches seemed to be on the same page. I feel like this kind of symmetry is actually pretty rare. (Scroll to the bottom of my complete nominations list for a list of total nominations per film.)

I’m actually pretty proud of a decent showing in my own predictions. (Scroll down to see my brag list and how I did on each category.) But there were a fair number selections and snubs that few people saw coming – including at least one that NOBODY could’ve guessed.

The Good…

  • A much stronger-than-expected showing for The Wolf of Wall Street and Dallas Buyers Club was very heartening to see.
  • Philomena for Best Pic, expected but not guaranteed.
  • American Hustle got nods in all 4 acting categories (the best thing about the movie). This is extremely rare, and yet it’s 2 years in a row for a David O. Russell film.
  • Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Actor. I predicted it, but most pundits figuring he was in 6th place. Now that he’s in, I think he actually has a decent chance for the win, though it’s still a tight race.
  • Sally Hawkins was excellent in Blue Jasmine I’m happy to see her remembered here.
  • The Hobbit’s FX and dual Sound nods. Despite the series’ chronic bloating, it still continues to break new ground on the tech front.
  • Ernest & Celestine!!!
  • Get A Horse!

The Bad…

  • American Hustle‘s tied for the most nominations makes it even more likely to steal the ultimate win from Gravity and 12 Years a Slave (two vastly superior films).
  • Zero nominations for Rush, The Butler, Pacific Rim, or The Hunger Games.
  • Captain Phillips had a worse showing than expected, with both Tom Hanks and director Paul Greengrass missing out on nominations.
  • Part of the Rush shutout, Daniel Bruhl was passed over for one of the very best performances of the year.
  • Part of The Butler shutout, Oprah Winfrey (the best part of that film) was denied.
  • The Coen Bros. missed a screenplay nod for Inside Llewyn Davis. The film itself only managed 2 mentions.
  • 12 Years a Slave’s stunning cinematography was ignored.
  •  Part of The Hunger Games shutout, the amazing costumes were not mentioned, nor the memorable Makeup & Hairsyling
  • Speaking of M&H: the Academy seemed to love American Hustle, so how did it miss out here for those amazing hairdos?
  • No love for Hanz Zimmer’s excellent score for 12 Years a Slave, or Alex Ebert’s work on All Is Lost.
  • No Pacific Rim for visual effects is a travesty. If it weren’t for Gravity, I would’ve pegged it for the de facto winner.
  • Monster’s University is Pixar’s second ever miss for Animated Feature, after Cars 2.
  • Blackfish really deserved a nomination, and it could’ve used the extra publicity to help its valiant cause.
  • Stories We Tell was also widely expected to compete for the documentary win. While I haven’t seen it yet, everything I’ve read makes me disheartened that it was left out.

The WTF??!?!…

  • Best song. This category is notorious for providing some real head-scratchers year after year. (Last year they included a little-known documentary, and the year before that they only nominated TWO songs!) This year is no different, with an unexpected snub for Lana del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” from The Great Gatsby.
  • But the real shot of crazy here is “Alone Yet Not Alone” from a film of the same name. A film which NOBODY has ever even heard of, let alone seen. It doesn’t appear on Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, or Box Office Mojo. It turns out it’s a religious film with a fairly offensive sounding synopsis, made purely for the Christian market. So how the hell did it get nominated? Perhaps because one of the composers is head of the Academy’s music branch…

Brag List
79 (+ 9 alternates) correct out of 108 predictions
2 perfect categories (+ 6 with alternates)
14 categories missed only one
5 missed two
0 missed more than two
Plus I got the one animated short I predicted, Get A Horse!

My predictions, by the numbers…

Best Picture 9/9!!!
Out: Saving Mr. Banks; Blue Jasmine

Best Director 4/5 + alternate
In: Alexander Payne, Nebraska; Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street
Out:  Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips; Spike Jonze, Her

Best Actor 4/5
In: Christian Bale, American Hustle; Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Out: Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips; Robert Redford, All Is Lost

Best Actress 4/5 + alternate
In: Amy Adams, American Hustle
Out: Emma Thompson, Saving Mr Banks

Best Supporting Actor 3/5 + alternate
In: Bradley Cooper, American Hustle; Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
Out: Daniel Bruhl, Rush; James Gandolfini, Enough Said

Best Supporting Actress 4/5
In: Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Out: Oprah Winfrey, The Butler

Best Adapted Screenplay 5/5!!!

Best Original Screenplay 4/5 + alternate
In: Dallas Buyers Club
Out: Inside Llewyn Davis

Cinematography 4/5
In: The Grandmaster
Out: 12 Years a Slave

Costume Design 4/5
In: The Grandmaster
Out: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Editing 4/5
In: Dallas Buyers Club
Out: The Wolf of Wall Street; Rush

Makeup and Hairstyling 2/3
In: Dallas Buyers Club
Out: American Hustle; The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Score 3/5 + alternate
In: Philomena; Saving Mr. Banks
Out: 12 Years a Slave; All is Lost

Song 3/5
In: Alone Yet Not Alone (Alone Yet Not Alone); “Happy (Despicable Me 2)
Out: Young and Beautiful (The Great Gatsby); So You Know What It’s Like (Short Term 12)

Production Design 4/5 + alternate
In: Her
Out: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Sound Editing 4/5
In: The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug
Out: Rush

Sound Mixing 4/5
In: The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug
Out: All Is Lost

Visual Effects 3/5 + alternate
In: The Lone Ranger; Star Trek Into Darkness
Out: Pacific Rim; Oblivion

Foreign Film 4/5 + alternate
In: The Missing Picture
Out: The Grandmaster

Animated Feature 4/5 + alternate
In: Ernest & Celestine; Despicable Me 2
Out: Monsters University

Documentary Feature 3/5
In: Cutie and the Boxer; Dirty Wars
Out: Blackfish; Stories We Tell

Animated Short 1/1

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Jan 16 2014
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86th Academy Awards Nominations

Oscar statues

Nominations for the 86th Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning.

American Hustle and Gravity lead the field with 10 nominations apiece. 12 Years a Slave was close behind with 9. The 9 nominees for Best Picture were the only films to get 4 or more nods each, which is unusual. There usually at least one or two nominees that don’t get much else, or blockbusters that get a lot of technical nods but nothing in the top category. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a year where ALL the Best Picture nominees got more than all the other films.

Scroll to the bottom to see a breakdown of total nominations per film.

Stay tuned for a breakdown of the various snubs and surprises, of which there were plenty. Until then, I’ll brag that my Pest Picture predictions were spot on! Compare the final results to the rest of my predictions here.

Best motion picture of the year
“American Hustle”
“Captain Phillips”
“Dallas Buyers Club”
“Gravity”
“Her”
“Nebraska”
“Philomena”
“12 Years a Slave”
“The Wolf of Wall Street”

Best Director
David O. Russell, “American Hustle”
Alfonso Cuarón, “Gravity”
Alexander Payne, “Nebraska”
Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave”
Martin Scorsese, “The Wolf of Wall STreet”

Best Actor
Christian Bale, “American Hustle”
Bruce Dern, “Nebraska”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Wolf of Wall Street”
Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”
Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”

Best Actress
Amy Adams, “American Hustle”
Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”
Sandra Bullock, “Gravity”
Judi Dench, “Philomena”
Meryl Streep, “August: Osage County”

Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi, “Captain Phillips””
Bradley Cooper, “American Hustle”
Michael Fassbender, “12 Years a Slave”
Jonah Hill, “Wolf of Wall STreet”
Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”

Best Supporting Actress
Sally Hawkins, “Blue Jasmine”
Jennifer Lawrence, “American Hustle”
Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”
Julia Roberts, “August: Osage County”
June Squibb, “Nebraska”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Before Midnight”
“Captain Phillips”
“Philomena”
“12 Years a Slave”
“The Wolf of Wall Street”

Best Original Screenplay
“American Hustle”
“Blue Jasmine”
“Dallas Buyers Club”
“Her”
“Nebraska”

Best Cinematography
“The Grandmaster”
“Gravity”
“Inside Llewyn Davis”
“Nebraska”
“Prisoners”

Best Costume Design
“American Hustle”
“The Grandmaster”
“The Great Gatsby”
“The Invisible Woman”
“12 Years a Slave”

Best Film Editing
“American Hustle”
“Captain Phillips”
“Dallas Buyers Club”
“Gravity”
“12 Years a Slave”

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
“Dallas Buyers Club”
“Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa”
“The Lone Ranger”

Best Music (Original Score)
“The Book Thief”
“Gravity”
“Her”
“Philomena”
“Saving Mr. Banks”

Best Music (Original Song)
“Alone yet, not alone” from “Alone, Yet Not Alone”
“Happy” from DM2
“Let it Go” from “Frozen”
“The Moon Song” from “Her”
“Ordinary Love” from “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”

Best Production Design
“American Hustle”
“Gravity”
“The Great Gatsby”
“Her”
“12 Years a Slave”

Best Sound Editing
“All is Lost”
“Captain Phillips”
“Gravity”
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”
“Lone Survivor”

Best Sound Mixing
“Captain Phillips”
“Gravity”
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”
“Inside Llewyn Davis”
“Lone Survivor”

Best Visual Effects
“Gravity”
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”
“Iron Man 3”
“The Lone Ranger”
“Star Trek: Into Darkness”

Best Foreign Language Film
“The Broken Circle Breakdown” (Belgium)
“The Hunt” (Denmark)
“The Great Beauty” (Italy)
“The Missing Picture” (Cambodia)
“Omar” (Palestine)

Best Animated Feature Film
“The Croods”
“Despicable Me 2”
“Ernest and Celestine”
“Frozen”
“The Wind Rises”

Best Documentary Feature
“The Act of Killing”
“Cutie and the Boxer”
“Dirty Wars”
“The Square”
“20 Feet From Stardom”

Best Documentary Short
“CaveDigger”
“Facing Fear”
“Karama Has No Walls”
“The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life”
“Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall”

Best Short Film (Animated)
“Feral”
“Get a Horse!”
“Mr. Hublot”
“Possessions”
“Room on the Broom”

Best Short Film (Live Action)
“A quel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)”
“Avant De Tout Perdre” (Just Before Losing Everything)”
“Helium”
“Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)”
“The Voorman Problem”

Total nominations per film:
10 – American Hustle
10 – Gravity
9 – 12 Years a Slave
6 – Captain Phillips
6 – Dallas Buyers Club
6 – Nebraska
5 – Her
5 – The Wolf of Wall Street
4 – Philomena
3 – Blue Jasmine
3 – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
2 – August: Osage County
2 – Despicable Me 2
2 – Frozen
2 – The Grandmaster
2 – The Great Gatsby
2 – Inside Llewyn Davis
2 – The Lone Ranger
2 – Lone Survivor
(All the rest got 1 each.)

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Jan 15 2014
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Razzie Nominations

Golden_Raspberry_Award

The “Anti-Oscars”. The Golden Raspberry Awards (or “Razzie’s”) are always a bit of fun to read. This years list is lead by Grown-Ups 2, with 8 nods.

What does it say about me that I’ve seen such a higher percentage of Oscar movies than Razzie movies? I dunno, but I take pride in the fact I’ve only had to sit through one of this year’s nominees: The Lone Ranger.

Worst Picture
“After Earth”
“Grown Ups 2”
“The Lone Ranger”
“A Madea Christmas”
“Movie 43”

Worst Director
The 13 People Who Directed, “Movie 43”
Dennis Dugan, “Grown Ups 2”
Tyler Perry, “A Madea Christmas,”, “Temptation”
M. Night Shyamalan, “After Earth”
Gore Verbinski, “The Lone Ranger”

Worst Actor
Johnny Depp, “The Lone Ranger”
Ashton Kutcher, “Jobs”
Adam Sandler, “Grown Ups 2”
Jaden Smith, “After Earth”
Sylvester Stallone, “Bullet To The Head,”  “Escape Plan,”  “Grudge Match”

Worst Actress
Halle Berry, “Movie 43, ”  “The Call”
Selena Gomez, “Getaway”
Lindsay Lohan, “The Canyons”
Tyler Perry, “A Madea Christmas”
Naomi Watts, “Diana, ”  “Movie 43”

Worst Supporting Actor
Chris Brown, “Battle Of The Year”
Larry the Cable Guy, “A Madea Christmas”
Taylor Lautner, “Grown Ups 2”
Will Smith, “After Earth”
Nick Swardson, “A Haunted House, ” “Grown Ups 2”

Worst Supporting Actress
Lady Gaga, “Machete Kills”
Salma Hayek, “Grown Ups 2”
Katherine Heigl, “The Big Wedding”
Kim Kardashian, “Tyler Perry’s Temptation”
Lindsay Lohan, “InAPPropriate Comedy,”  “Scary Movie 5”

Worst Screenplay
“After Earth,” Screenplay by Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan, Story by Will Smith
“Grown Ups 2,” Written by Fred Wolfe & Adam Sandler & Tim Herlihy
“The Lone Ranger,” Screen Story & Screenplay by Ted Elliott, Justin Haythe & Terry Rosso
“A Madea Christmas,” Written by Tyler Perry
“Movie 43,” Written by 19 “Screenwriters”

Worst Screen Combo
The Entire Cast of “Groan-Ups, Too”
The Entire Cast of “Movie 43”
Lindsay Lohan & Charlie Sheen, “Scary Movie 5”
Tyler Perry & EITHER Larry the Cable Guy OR That Worn-Out Wig & Dress, “A Madea Christmas”
Jaden Smith & Will Smith on Planet Nepotism, “After Earth”

Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel
“Grown Ups 2”
“The Hangover Part III”
“The Lone Ranger”
“Scary Movie 5”
“The Smurfs 2”

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