The State of the Race: Of Bridesmaids and Dragon Tattoos – Year of the Woman or Just Another Year?

January 16, 2012 by Sasha Stone in 84th Academy Awards, featured, State of the Race | 86 Comments

 

It was hard not to notice Robin Wright at the Critics Choice awards, striding out onto the stage with her still impossibly youthful legs, and announcing that 2011 was the Year of the Woman.  She referenced Bridesmaids and Dragon Tattoos, probably because she couldn’t say housemaids.   Either way, Bridesmaids, The Help and The Girl with Dragon Tattoo have reinvented what defines a hit and what defines an “Oscar movie.”  All three have been underestimated for one reason or another and yet have managed to stay relevant, even if the majority of the other films are more traditional male-driven narratives.  But the year of the woman?  Could it really be?

Look a little closer and you see a lot of strong female characters — Chloe Moretz in Hugo is a writer and drives much of the action.  Shailene Woodley is the best and most forceful thing about the Descendants and in Midnight in Paris it is the women who show Owen Wilson the way. One pulls him in, one pushes him out.  And then there’s Gertrude Stein (who punched him in the mouth).  Finally, The Artist is about two different careers and in the end the one who emerges from the ashes, saves the protagonist from ruin is a woman.   Of course, in this year’s awards race, Bernice Bejo is stuffed into the supporting category (where she belongs, damnit!) but in fact, she really is a co-lead with Jean Dujardin.

January 16, 2012 by Sasha Stone in 84th Academy Awards, featured, State of the Race | 86 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race: DGA Fallout – And Yeah, David Fincher

January 10, 2012 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, featured, State of the Race | 145 Comments

It’s been a funny year for Oscar movies. The trial separation between critics and the industry has widened to a full blown divorce. The Artist and Moneyball are heading down the track to Oscar’s Best Picture with the most outstanding response from critics. Decent reviews have befallen most of the other top films, but only those two received near universal acclaim. It isn’t that the critics didn’t love any movies, it’s that the movies they seemed to love can’t get arrested in this year’s Oscar race. Signs and wonders. And so it was with this that the biggest surprise in the race so far was delivered yesterday by the Directors Guild, which giveth to David Fincher and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and taketh away from Steven Spielberg and War Horse.

It must be said that War Horse probably wasn’t conceived to be an Oscar juggernaut. It was made as and marketed as a family film. The studio’s concern is to make money, which it is doing. All of the Oscar bluster around it was self-generated inside the bubble movie writers inhabit. As the presumed defacto frontrunner there was simply no way it could win — the hype destroys even the best of films. All you have to do is place a film in the frontrunner’s spot and it is ripe for overtaking. Why, because we define ourselves by how we vote. And if we vote for what everyone else is voting for what does that say about us? People who vote just to be contrary or separate themselves from the herd annoy me to no end every year: pick the movies you love and be done with it.

January 10, 2012 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, featured, State of the Race | 145 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race: The Changing of the Guard

January 2, 2012 by Sasha Stone in 84th Academy Awards, featured, State of the Race | 123 Comments

As I re-watched Avatar last night, or tried to, I was thinking about the future of cinema. I was thinking about how hard it is to sell dramas now to the general public. I was thinking about the Academy, and how difficult it must be for them to evolve out of the old way of presenting films to the new way they will be sold from now on. The only film that sort of addresses this changing of the guard is Hugo, which is traditional storytelling utilizing modern technology to ramp up the showmanship; the fresh enticement to get people out of their houses to buy tickets. We have to audiences a reason. An Avatar-like reason to shell out the dough. And with Hugo, the money is coming but it isn’t MI:4 money. It isn’t even Sherlock Holmes money or Twilight money or Harry Potter money or, alas, Bridesmaids or The Help money. And so people start talking about that like it actually matters. We can’t even count on our critics anymore to help us out here. They hard line it without considering the bigger picture, without seeing what’s coming next.

When it was down to Avatar vs. The Hurt Locker, most people knew by the end that the Academy would opt for the more nuts and bolts, traditional filmmaking –both as a way to silently protest the changing tide, but also to stem the tide for performance capture, 3-D technology and movies that cost a lot of money to make. That’s all fine and well if the nuts and bolts films make money and get good reviews. The Hurt Locker made no money but it was helped along by the critics. This year, you can mostly forget the critics. They’ve all but gone on vacation. Advocacy was never really their thing but it is even less their thing this year, after what happened last year.

January 2, 2012 by Sasha Stone in 84th Academy Awards, featured, State of the Race | 123 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race: “Write Me Well”

December 20, 2011 by Sasha Stone in AWARDS CHATTER, featured, State of the Race, THE WRITERS | 41 Comments

This year there are more writer/directors than there have been in a long while.   Scripts, original and adapted, usually power the engine that makes a great movie great.  All of the wonderful writing in the world, however, can’t save a film that a director, producer or studio has strangled within an inch of its life.  One decision can completely derail the best screenplays, just as a minor change can sometimes mean the difference between a good movie and a great one; we tend to think always of Roman Polanski and Robert Towne on Chinatown, still one of the best films ever made and much of that is due to Polanski’s singular decision to change the ending, to not give it a happy one.  Chinatown would probably not be considered the masterpiece it is today without that significant change.  It’s hard to imagine a studio taking such a gamble now, as films cost too much money to take such a risk.  At that time, though, it seemed that they were more concerned about making a great film than they were about how much money that film would make.  Priorities have shifted as the cost to make big Hollywood movies has soared.  Making something more palatable for audiences, though, can often detroy the film’s intent.  Witness the end of Charlie Wilson’s War as written by Aaron Sorkin versus the glossed over, neutered ending that the Mike Nichols film ultimately delivered.  The whole point of the film was lost with that one decision.  But it’s like William Goldman wrote, nobody knows anything, and in truth, you make your best call and let the chips fall where they may.

December 20, 2011 by Sasha Stone in AWARDS CHATTER, featured, State of the Race, THE WRITERS | 41 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race — Rage Against the Machine

December 15, 2011 by Sasha Stone in featured, State of the Race | 74 Comments

 

Reviews, like the Oscars, like your own impressions, are moments in time captured.  Some of that enthusiasm or hatred will last a long time.  You might be surprised to find, for instance, that Chicago got more scores of 100 on Metacritic than American Beauty, The English Patient, Unforgiven, and the Silence of the Lambs.  You might also find that no film ever won Best Picture since 1990 without having at least one score of 100.  The lowest was Gladiator with 2.  The highest was Return of the King with 26.  Yes, there are more critics now, but even when you average it out, the top get is still Return of the King, which makes it the best reviewed film in twenty years.  Gladiator is the worst. In the time that the awards season has exploded, post-Gladiator, the overall score and critical acclaim for Best Pictures has risen.  The number of critics Metacritic counts as valid has also risen.   The top ten of best scores of 100 per the amount of critics giving reviews have mostly occurred since 2000, with two exceptions: Schindler’s List and Shakespeare in Love.  The two films that didn’t hit very high and hover low on the list of high scores: A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator and Crash.

But it seems safe to say that Best Picture winners, even last year included, have been very well reviewed films.  There seems to be a wider and wider disconnect, though, between the public and the critics.  And since many of the members of the public are now coming of age and becoming critics themselves things feel a little strange “out there.”  There are always a few movies that hit with “the internet” but not so much with critics or with the public.  One of those movies this year is Drive.  The internet likes Harry Potter, Melancholia, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and is okay with The Artist.  But if you want to see how the straight-up  majority of internet users (who are young people — coming of age online, reared on the kind of mediocre entertainment mainstream Hollywood has been dishing out to them for years) you’ll see a list something like MSN’s users top ten:

MSN Movies Users’ Top 10 Poll

1. Harry Potter
2. Twilight
3. The Help
4. Bridesmaids
5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
6. Captain America
7. X-Men: First Class
8. Fast Five
9. The Descendants
10. Moneyball

December 15, 2011 by Sasha Stone in featured, State of the Race | 74 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race — Now is the Winter of Our Discontent

December 6, 2011 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, State of the Race | 80 Comments

artist8

Every year, hope springs eternal until the awards actually start being handed out. The disappointment of not seeing your favorite film remembered and awarded is probably the worst part of the year. And of course, the flipside, when you see a movie you loved honored what could be better. Last year when The Social Network swept the National Board of Review it was not only like Christmas morning for me but it was like that one Christmas where you got the really great Barbie doll camping kit? You know, the one on TV like all the rich people have? You know, the thing that makes you forget the miserable reality of your day to day life?

I digress.

Yes, it was a beautiful moment. And we awards watchers, crazy though we may be, ruining the film industry though we may be (the fanboys are ruining it MORE!) cling to every win like a Christmas treasure. For me NOW, every Christmas is staring at my computer screen, bleary-eyed, half-frantic, half-awake as I wait for another piece of the awards puzzle to drop. Though we bought our Christmas tree over the weekend, my daughter and I had a naked tree for the last few days until I couldn’t stand it anymore and had one of those single parent moments where I drove to the Walgreens at 10pm and plunked down my debit card for a few boxes of cheap Christmas lights, pushing my unwashed hair out of face and trying to find some Christmas cheer. And now, those lights, so optimistic, the Christmas tree still not totally dried out yet — indeed, there is hope.

December 6, 2011 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, State of the Race | 80 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race: First out of the Gate

December 2, 2011 by Sasha Stone in State of the Race | 164 Comments

hugo15

The decision to move the New York Film Critics up to be announced before the National Board of Review was an interesting experiment. I don’t know if it will prove worthwhile when all is said and done; after all, one of the NBR’s biggest problems, and blessings I suppose, is that their awards seemed to always reflect the race as it stood early, before things got swinging.  It could turn out that the New York Film Critics end up there by the time this confusing year comes to an end.

When the Social Network won everything, to an astonishing, unprecedented degree, only to see the industry shun it in favor of the King’s Speech, it was akin to killing off the Queen Ant.  Now, it feels like critics groups might scatter in different directions, but without any kind of overreaching leader.  So far, we have The Artist, which won many audience awards heading into the race, and has been thundering wildly along since it debuted all the way back in May at the Cannes Film Festival.  When does that happen? The only time I’ve seen it happen, in fact, was when No Country for Old Men thundered through, winning everything, including the Oscar (one of the most deserving Oscar wins in their history).  The Artist, charming as it is, brilliant as it is, isn’t quite No Country for Old Men, but it’s possible it could keep thundering onward, taking the big prize at the end.  Most will be predicting this by the end of this weekend.

December 2, 2011 by Sasha Stone in State of the Race | 164 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race: The Wide Open Landscape of the Best Picture Race

November 23, 2011 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, State of the Race | 318 Comments

This year, there are only a handful of films that have run the gauntlet and came out the other side. As we head into the season of the critics awards, more favoritism and preference will fall into place. As of today, though, Best Picture is anyone’s game.

The critics, an ever-changing and growing chorus, seem not to agree this year on any one film. There is no Social Network, Hurt Locker, No Country for Old Men, or even a King’s Speech – there is certainly no Slumdog Millionaire. Each new film that comes out has its supporters and its detractors, passionate detractors, in fact, who are maybe a little less inclined to agree with their peers after last year’s unanimous push for one film. Perhaps they didn’t like being lumped into one big group aligning behind one film.

Either way, things feel like they’re all over the place. So unless we’re talking about Harry Potter or Rise of the Planet of the Apes, any film could take the lead right now and it wouldn’t be that surprising. The Descendants and The Artist seem to be the two most popular choices among films that can win. But we’re not even at that stage; strangely enough, we’re still wondering what might get nominated.

November 23, 2011 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, State of the Race | 318 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race: A Storm’s Coming

November 16, 2011 by Sasha Stone in State of the Race | 78 Comments

When we look back on the movies of 2011, what will we remember? Will we remember the giant genre movies that took a bite out of the box office? Will we remember the animated sequels that worked the first time, then worked the second time and sometimes even worked the third time. Will we remember the movies that helped ease the pain? The ones that made us laugh and cry? Or will we remember the Cinema of Unease that has crept into American film?

These are dark days in America. We thought it was bad when Bush was in office but we couldn’t see Wall Street coming. There is fundamental distrust of our government, a revolving circus of Republican clowns, and a President who is out of town just as the Wall Street protests begin to erupt violently. We’re a man short.

The fear and despair has been expressed brilliantly by films that will likely never see the light of day, Oscar-wise. The growing unease is something noted passionately by film critics, and might perhaps earn some productions a few critics awards, but we know that the public, ergo the voting Academy, need more sugar in their cup of tea.

Those that shine a light on the way out of this mess we’re in will be rewarded both at the box office and on stage at the Kodak. We cling to them, flail towards them in the dark, in hopes that we can, momentarily, leave behind the grotesque, unanswerable world we’ve built for ourselves.

November 16, 2011 by Sasha Stone in State of the Race | 78 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race: A Storm's Coming

November 16, 2011 by Sasha Stone in State of the Race | 39 Comments

When we look back on the movies of 2011, what will we remember? Will we remember the giant genre movies that took a bite out of the box office? Will we remember the animated sequels that worked the first time, then worked the second time and sometimes even worked the third time. Will we remember the movies that helped ease the pain? The ones that made us laugh and cry? Or will we remember the Cinema of Unease that has crept into American film?

These are dark days in America. We thought it was bad when Bush was in office but we couldn’t see Wall Street coming. There is fundamental distrust of our government, a revolving circus of Republican clowns, and a President who is out of town just as the Wall Street protests begin to erupt violently. We’re a man short.

The fear and despair has been expressed brilliantly by films that will likely never see the light of day, Oscar-wise. The growing unease is something noted passionately by film critics, and might perhaps earn some productions a few critics awards, but we know that the public, ergo the voting Academy, need more sugar in their cup of tea.

Those that shine a light on the way out of this mess we’re in will be rewarded both at the box office and on stage at the Kodak. We cling to them, flail towards them in the dark, in hopes that we can, momentarily, leave behind the grotesque, unanswerable world we’ve built for ourselves.

November 16, 2011 by Sasha Stone in State of the Race | 39 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race – It isn’t the 1%, it’s the 9%

November 7, 2011 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, featured, State of the Race | 69 Comments

My candle burns at both ends,
it will not last the night
But oh my foes, and oh my friends
it gives a lovely light

As we barrel towards the end of the year things start to move much more quickly.  I’ve been spending most of this season fretting the 1% – not as in the richest Americans 1% but the magic number a contender needs in order to make it into the first round.  But thanks to Ryan’s quick thinking, I have come to accept the fact that it really isn’t about the 1% at all, but about the second round’s magic number, that 9% or 11% or whatever it is that will ensure a nomination.

Why does that matter more? If you think of the 1% as being around 50 or, better, 60 (means more people voted), you can figure many films will make that cut.  You have to suck hard not to get at least 50 #1s.  Most of our contenders right now will sail through that – even Tree of Life.  Maybe even Drive.  But after that, you’re looking at films to make number 2 and number 3 spots.  This is where polarizing films run into problems.

November 7, 2011 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, featured, State of the Race | 69 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race – It isn't the 1%, it's the 9%

November 7, 2011 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, featured, State of the Race | 69 Comments

My candle burns at both ends,
it will not last the night
But oh my foes, and oh my friends
it gives a lovely light

As we barrel towards the end of the year things start to move much more quickly.  I’ve been spending most of this season fretting the 1% – not as in the richest Americans 1% but the magic number a contender needs in order to make it into the first round.  But thanks to Ryan’s quick thinking, I have come to accept the fact that it really isn’t about the 1% at all, but about the second round’s magic number, that 9% or 11% or whatever it is that will ensure a nomination.

Why does that matter more? If you think of the 1% as being around 50 or, better, 60 (means more people voted), you can figure many films will make that cut.  You have to suck hard not to get at least 50 #1s.  Most of our contenders right now will sail through that – even Tree of Life.  Maybe even Drive.  But after that, you’re looking at films to make number 2 and number 3 spots.  This is where polarizing films run into problems.

November 7, 2011 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, featured, State of the Race | 69 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race – There Still Is No There There

November 3, 2011 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, State of the Race | 76 Comments

From Movie City News' Gurus of Gold

Gurus link

In our ongoing search for Oscar’s best picture winner, which doesn’t necessarily define the best film in a given year, we continue to grope around in the dark. War Horse began screening in various theaters around the country in pop-up screenings, as Paramount’s Young Adult also has (although Para did have one preview here in LA this week). But for the most part, we have to conclude, the blogosphere has been cock-blocked. Enough with the overhype, enough with the bad buzz, enough with not being able to control output. Enough.

Bloggers and VIP-invitee film critics are simply not getting a chance to see the movies but will have to wait until mainstream critics and even Academy members start to see them. Remember Oscars old school? Remember when the first word you heard on a movie was Todd McCarthy at Variety? Remember when reviews that came out of Cannes early in the year were few and far between? Remember when you had to wait until late Thursday to get all of the major reviews? I certainly do. I remember chasing them down in the days before Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. I remember having to manually type reviews from Entertainment Weekly that came out in print. I remember a reader jotting down all of EW’s Dave Karger’s Oscar picks just as his Entertainment Weekly arrived in his mailbox. Yes, times have changed.

November 3, 2011 by Sasha Stone in BEST PICTURE, State of the Race | 76 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race: The Calm Before the Storm

October 25, 2011 by Sasha Stone in featured, Moneyball, State of the Race, The Artist, The Descendants | 104 Comments

As we contemplate where we’re going and where we’ve been it’s important to take note of how things stand right now. To my mind, there are three films that could win Best Picture if the Oscars were held today. So many movies have yet to open, some of them completely shrouded in mystery, others seem to be deliberately avoiding being screened here in Los Angeles. Reports are trickling in on how the films are doing but one can’t help but think there is a concerted effort to gauge audience reaction without the most vocal bloggers getting a crack at it.

It really is as true today as it’s ever been: “Nobody knows anything.” What William Goldman meant by that is this: all of the planning and good intentions can vanish in an instant when the film hits audiences. The great movie everyone expected and hoped might suddenly turn out to be a disappointment at best, a total bomb at worst. It’s the publicity department’s job to help mitigate this. It worked well for The Blind Side to avoid the bloggerati completely, to go straight to the people and the major news outlets that aren’t in the business of determining artistic value but are perfectly content to simply tell the film’s story to the world. Even though no one has yet seen J Edgar, you could see Clint Eastwood doing 60 Minutes with the film profiled and have absolutely no idea whether the film was good or not: you would simply want to see it. Publicity old school. It worked then; it works now.

But blogs work too. Grass roots publicity campaigns pretty much rule the Oscar race these days. Even if The King’s Speech won without any significant support from critics or bloggers — almost all of whom preferred a different film — it was still important for the filmmakers responsible to work the bloggers at festivals long before its preordained Oscar win. Jason Reitman’s Young Adult seems to be screening in various locations, as pointed out by Kris Tapley on Twitter, but isn’t being screened here in Los Angeles yet. A few people seem to have seen Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close but that film, according to the studio, isn’t yet finished. We Bought a Zoo, The Iron Lady, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and War Horse have not yet been seen by anyone. There are no trickle down reports. J Edgar will be unveiled in early November at the AFI Fest. The others most likely in November, some maybe even December.

October 25, 2011 by Sasha Stone in featured, Moneyball, State of the Race, The Artist, The Descendants | 104 Comments
Read More

The State of the Race: The NYFCC Shakes Things Up

October 19, 2011 by Sasha Stone in State of the Race | 52 Comments

This morning, the New York Film Critics announced that they’re moving up their voting date to November 28, before the National Board of Review announces and becoming the first major critics groups to announce their choices.  This could have been done for two reasons.  The first is that they want to put distance between themselves and the other award announcements. This, because they can no longer tolerate being one more member of the orgy.  It could also be because they want to be first.  I doubt that’s the reason. I think they are trying to create distance.

Let’s face it.  No critics group with any self-respect wants to be associated with the ongoing circus of the awards race.  They are all jointly horrified as to what it’s become.  If they are somehow forced to write about it they must do so with either mild apathy or bemusement.   Writing about the Oscars is itself judged fairly harshly by many film critics.  Why, because to them it’s not about the films it’s about the contest, the sport, the competition, the money, the publicity.  It’s about everything it shouldn’t be about.  It has been polluted.

Writing a blog about the Oscars is sort of like being known as the girl who works the red light district.  Everyone wants to know you but no one wants to admit they know you.  Perhaps I’m overstating things.  Either way, not a lot has changed. The fact remains that the film critics who take film criticism seriously do not take the Oscar race seriously.

The move to November 28 would be more suspect if it were any group BUT the NYFCC.  While I don’t believe any group that hands out awards is immune to the inherent corruption that goes on in any sort of ceremony that requires voting, winners and losers — the NYFCC does try to maintain their integrity, as in, they want to sit as far across the room from Oscar as they possibly can.  Here are the main reasons and let’s ruminate on the repercussions of this move:

1. It’s about the movies, stupid, not about the awards

It’s hard not to take them at their word when they say they are voting for the films and performers they thought were the best of the year.  Full stop.  It’s always hard to reach a consensus, though, ain’t it?  Their press release mentions Oscar, just as it also mentions the need to disassociate from Oscar.

October 19, 2011 by Sasha Stone in State of the Race | 52 Comments
Read More
← Older posts




More Recent Posts on AD


Page 1 of 712345...Last »











Slider by webdesign