Oscars 2012: Best Directing

Note: This is my personal ranking, listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite. Prediction for the actual winner is in orange.

BEST DIRECTING

1. THE TREE OF LIFE
Terrence Malick 

2. HUGO
Martin Scorcese 

3. THE ARTIST
Michel Hazanavicius  

4. THE DESCENDANTS
Alexander Payne

5. MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Woody Allen 

Missing: Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive; David Fincher, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I am not a big enough film snob to say I enjoyed The Tree of Life, but I am enough of one to admire and appreciate the crazy-ambitious Vision (yes, that’s a capital V, folks) of Terrence Malick’s epic, messy, indulgent, beautiful, frustrating, fascinating, narrative-adverse passion project (if you need a good laugh, google “The Tree of Life synopsis” — some folks’ attempts to explicate Malick’s infuriating-mad-genius are hilarious, because they’re true: “The universe is formed… Voices ask various existential questions.” (Thank you, Wikipedia.) His pictures are always gorgeous to behold with their frequent tangents into nature, but they’re just too out there (re: pretentious) for the vast majority of voters — even his actors are confused/embittered by his methods (my grandpa spoke out about why he would never work with Malick again). He’s been nominated twice before — screenplay and directing for The Thin Red Line — but he’s unlikely to ever win.

Most unfortunately, neither Drive or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made the cut here for their sexy-sleek direction (what have you got against these slicksters, Academy?). Woody Allen, who has bee nominated 15 times for writing (winning for Annie Hall and Hannah and her Sisters), 7 times for directing (winning for Annie Hall) and one time for acting, should keep his hopes for a win relegated to his screenplay nomination for Midnight in Paris (though the chance of a spoiler there is getting stronger…). The same goes for Alexander Payne, who impressively keeps the tone of The Descendants from veering into groan-inducing quirkiness, but it looks like Oscar will see fit to reward him for the screenplay only this time around.

The Best Directing winner is almost always tied to the Best Picture winner, with the last exception to this occurring in 2005 when Ang Lee won for Directing but not Best Picture for Brokeback Mountain. We already know that The Artist will win Best Picture (I hope I’m not spoiling my final post for y’all), and it certainly helps that Michel Hazanavicius already won the Directors Guild Award, which is an even stronger indicator of a win here — the last time both didn’t line up was in 2002 when Rob Marshall won the DGA for Chicago, but Roman Polanski nabbed the Oscar for The Pianist (despite his, um, fugitive state). All this is to say that The Artist should win this for its entirely visual storytelling, which is nicely done, though not exactly the huge risk folks are making it out to be. But then there’s Marty…

And Martin Scorcese will put up a fight, having already gotten a little feisty with his Golden Globe win. It’s hard to believe, but Scorcese only has one Oscar to his name, and he didn’t get it until 2006 for The Departed. What’s clear is that Hugo is obviously his film, with how the camera weaves in and around the bustling train station, taking loving diversions to the quirky supporting characters before swooping back into a vibrant, kinetic child-like world (in 3D, no less). And the movie-within-the-movie? Brilliant. So while chances are slim, I’m hoping for a Scorcese spoiler.

2011 Tony Awards: Best Direction of a Play

Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winner will be in orange.

BEST DIRECTION OF A PLAY

1. Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris
War Horse

2. Joel Grey & George C. Wolfe
The Normal Heart

3. Daniel Sullivan
The Merchant of Venice

4. Anna D. Shapiro
The Motherf**ker with the Hat

This is not even a competition.

But let’s pretend, for a moment, that it is. George C. Wolfe and Joel Grey‘s tight, minimalist production of The Normal Heart does exactly what it should do by focusing on content over context with a spare, direct design that draws out the the finest and most staggering ensemble work on Broadway.

Director Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County) keeps the pace quick and the intensity high in The Motherf**ker with the Hat, emphasizing an edgy humor and tense relationships that keep the play on a constant, irresistible burn. On the other hand, she favors overwrought designs — do those sets really need to revolve around so damned much? — and she’s unable to pull forth an engaging performance from a stiff Chris Rock who delivers his lines as though jokes from his stand-up routine.

One of the Bard’s most difficult works, Daniel Sullivan (Good People, Top Girls) takesThe Merchant of Venice, the so-called comedy, and smartly draws out its most tragic undertones, starting with the dimly-hued lighting and skeletal metal set to the devastating performances. Sullivan gracefully and sensitively reveals Shylock’s degredation and inner-strength in an added scene in which the Jew submits to a forced baptism, but refuses to be stripped of his dignity. It is startling in its devastation and shocking in its violation — but a microcosm of the complex production as whole.

But it’s War Horse – the rare instance on Broadway of daring artistry and collaboration — that is like nothing we’ve seen since Julie Taymor mind-erupting re-imagining of Disney’s The Lion King. Under the direction of Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, the story of a boy and his horse is told in the most beautifully complex way, played out with extraordinary, life-sized puppets; wistful projections; folksy anthems; and a dedicated, united ensemble of actors. Elliott and Morris weave all aspects together seamlessly, transforming what could have simply been a sentimental story about a boy and his horse into the most theatrically moving, visionary work of the season.

Oscars 2011: Best Directing

Note: This is my personal ranking, listed in order from best to worst, with #1 being my favorite. Prediction for the actual winner is in orange.

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky

1. The Social Network
David Fincher

3. True Grit
Joel and Ethan Coen

4. The Fighter
David O’Russell

5. The King’s Speech
Tom Hooper

This category is a mess. And by that, I mean: who I want to win, won’t; who I think/hope will win, will probably get bested; and my least favorite will walk away with the statue.

Mess.

True Grit was not to my taste, but it seems that even the most dedicated of Coen Bros. fans didn’t find this amongst their strongest work. Despite David O’Russell’s efforts, The Fighter remains an overly familiar boxing narrative, but now I’m just being redundant. Neither of these films, however, is anywhere near in the running for this award.

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan pushes boundaries and boasts the most unique aesthetic of all the nominees. Incorporating tropes from horror, drama, camp, and dance, he craftily melds them together to construct an in-your-face story of obsession and paranoia. The result is an unsettling, humorous, terrifying, and strangely relatable film about overreaching ambition and self-discovery. I was rapt from the very first moment until the last, which I can’t say about any other film of the year; and for that, my vote would go to Aronofsky.

But as you can see from my rankings above, I’m still holding out hope that David Fincher has this one on lock for The Social Network. He took what many believed to be an un-filmable topic and, with the help of word-wizard Aaron Sorkin, created an exhilarating tragicomedy of a courtroom drama about the precipitous rise of one Mark Zuckerberg. Fincher’s glossy slickness is what makes the film, about connection in all its various forms, tick at such a rapid-fire pace. And while it’s rare for Best Director and Best Picture to be split (it’s The Social Network has no chance at winning the latter), it does happen, usually to much controversy (Ang Lee vs. Crash in 2005, for example).

One thing that Fincher is not, however, is sentimental. And Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech is all sentiment, a definite advantage for an Academy in love with that characteristic. Its sure-win for Best Original Screenplay is difficult enough to stomach (such a trivial story!), but a directing win would be unforgivable, as Tom Hooper has no idea what kind of film he’s making. Is it an overcoming-a-disability narrative? A war film? A buddy comedy? A history play? What is this? Bertie’s emotional journey from stuttering prince to confident (?) king chugs along rather nicely, if predictably, for a while, and it could have been forgiven its noncommittal narrative. The final scene, however, is disconcerting, to say the least: the audience is directed to focus on Bertie’s actual speech pattern, and then to cheer when he makes it through without a single stutter. That’s all well and good if he were offering commentary on a tennis match or any mundane state affair. But the fact that Hooper chose to ignore what the speech was about (WWII), and then followed it up with crowds of folks applauding (the king? the speech? the war??) was just ludicrous and — perhaps I’m over-sensitive, but — offensive. That’s when Hooper’s film went from trivial entertainment to my least favorite of the year. But hey, that’s just me: the DGA crowned him Best Director, all but guaranteeing his Oscar win.

For some reason, though, the pundits are still giving a slight edge to Fincher…

PLAY VS. PRODUCTION: BACHELORETTE lucks out with stellar cast + director

I know I’m a little late in the game here. After all, Leslye Headland’s BACHELORETTE closed today at Second Stage Uptown’s The McGinn/Cazale Theatre after

Mean Girls: Katherine Waterston, Tracee Chimo, and Celia Keenan-Bolger in BACHELORETTE

having garnered nearly universal praise (the show’s StageGrade was A -).  But as I sat watching this brutally paced and quick-witted production earlier this week, I began to wonder: does this play (not the production) warrant all the positive fuss?

Helmed by Trip Cullman, an intuitive director who has surely met — and understands, and even sympathizes with — such greed-is-good-mean-gossip-girls-in-the-city that the comedy revolves around, this BACHELORETTE is both bitingly clever and brutally paced. Stars Tracee Chimo, Katherine Waterston, and Celia Keenan-Bolger ferociously tear into the material as the three crazy-witty and crazy-vindictive ex-best-friends who can’t bare to stop hurting each other or themselves.

Charles Isherwood has this to say in his rare rave New York Times review:

The central characters in this Second Stage Theater production . . . may be familiar: marginally more grown-up versions of the spoiled youngsters from any number of youth-aimed movies and television shows. But as written with stiletto-sharp wit by Ms. Headland, they are almost embarrassingly compelling, and expertly played by a cast of gifted actors under the pitch-perfect direction of Trip Cullman.

Isherwood points out the over-familiarity of Headland’s profane and empathetic characters, and then, for the majority of the review, sings the praises of cast and director for making said characters “embarrassingly compelling.”

While the occasional critic gently implies the distinction between writing and direction – Talkin’ Broadway‘s Matthew Murray, for example, mentions that the plot “may all sound fairly conventional, and in some ways it is” — only Alexis Soloski of the Village Voice pinpoints where the BACHELORETTE gets lucky and then runs out of it (full review here):

All the cleverness conceals some rather lazy plotting and a thematic arc that rivals Beverly Hills 90210 episodes in complexity. Happily, director Trip Cullman has marshaled an able and eccentric cast and encouraged many nicely observed moments.

When I sussed out what I truly enjoyed about the BACHELORETTE — Chimo’s hilariously antagonistically elongated valley-girl line delivery and the deliciously drunken stage choreography of the girls’ side-stepping each others’ drug-fueled land mines — I of course realized:

It’s not an A-caliber play. It’s an A-caliber production.

And it made me further wonder just how many similar experiences I’ve had in my past theatergoing:

How often to we blur the lines between script and production, bestowing praise on a writer’s work, while dismissing the  possibly more vital contributions of the director and the cast (and vice versa)?

CIRCLE MIRROR: Deirdre O'Connell, Heidi Schreck, Tracee Chimo, Reed Birney. Photo: Joan Marcus.

The best recent example I can think of is Annie Baker’s CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION. I distinctly recall walking out of the Playwrights Horizons production wondering, had the script been submitted to me as a Literary Director, would I have taken it any further? Would I have recognized it’s theatrical potential? I’m not so sure. (I would of course be kicking myself for the rest of my career, as I even listed it as one of the Best of 2009.)

Is BACHELORETTE on par with CIRCLE MIRROR? No. To my mind the latter consistently demonstrates more insight, depth, and theatricality than the former (which would work better as a film –and which adaptation may already be in the works). But what if CIRCLE MIRROR had premiered without the pitch-perfect cast (including that fabulous Tracee Chimo) and direction? Would the play(wright)  have received the accolades it(she) rightfully deserves?

And so my questions to you, my thoughtful readers:

• For premiere productions, how often do you find that credit — via critics, friends, etc — is misplaced? (If you have your own examples of plays/productions, I’d love to hear ‘em. Lord knows I have more)
• Does it, in the end, help or harm emerging writers to have a creative team that significantly improves upon their work?
• Should critics be held responsible for more precisely distinguishing between the writing and the production?
• Does it even matter who’s to praise/blame if the audience generally loves/loathes its two hours spent in the theatre?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Tony Awards 2010: Best Revival

BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY

1. A View from the Bridge

2. Fences

3. Lend Me a Tenor

The Royal Family

The winner of this category is obvious (to this reviewer at any rate), but many will vote for the still-running, star-studded Fences.  Kenny Leon‘s (Best Direction nominee) production, while wonderful in so many ways, is flawed and id not the cohesive masterpiece that many claim it to be. There is the misstep in sound design (Best Sound Design nominee) that slows the pace and confuses the tone. But the real error involves the charismatic Denzel Washington (Best Leading Actor nominee): instead of tempering Troy Mason’s bravura with equal parts fear and rage, director Kenny Leons allows Washington to highlight the endearingly brash showman within Troy, causing the final significant scenes to peter off anti-climatically. But if Washington isn’t the revelation that everyone wants him to be, no matter: for that we have Viola Davis (Best Leading Actress Nominee), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Best Featured Actor nominee), and rest of the fantastic supporting cast, who each master their own moments of heartbreak, creating an affective, if not innovative, production.

Total Nominations: 10

Lend Me a Tenor is hit and miss, but mostly it misses. The hits: Jan Maxwell‘s (Best Featured Actress nominee) hilariously tempestuous Italian wife; Tony Shalhoub as the desperate, no-nonsense opera GM; Anthony Lapaglia’s dopey Italian tenor; the fantastically frantic and fun curtain call wherein the cast reenacts the entire show in two hilarious minutes… and the blackface?  Yep, the blackface is a definite highlight. The misses: Jay Klaitz’s obnoxious singing bellhop,  the miscast Brooke Adams as the pointless Chairman of the Opera Guild; Justin Bartha’s “singing”; and much of Ken Ludwig’s script which is not so funny as it is silly. For the most part, director Stanley Tucci does what he can to keep the production moving (lots of running in and out of and slamming of doors; constant flinging onto sofas and beds and chairs; repeated spitting of indiscernible items into the audience), but this farcical production simply isn’t as good as the company it keeps in this category.

Total Nominations: 3

How does Ken Ludwig even survive in a category that includes Arthur Miller? And a damn fine production of an Arthur Miller work at that. Director Gregory Mosher (nominee) takes a quiet approach to the tragic A View from the Bridge, carefully keeping in check emotions that could easily become high-pitched and overwrought (there is, after all, a Greek chorus present). The tone is low but warm, both visually and aurally (Best Sound Design nominee), letting the melancholy design reflect the quiet anguish simmering beneath the surface, and allowing the familial tension to gradually imbue the entire production. If there was a “Best Ensemble Cast” award it would certainly go to Liev Schrieber, Jessica Hecht, Scarlett Johansson (all nominated), and the rest of the superb supporting cast. Mosher’s A View from the Bridge comes to a slow boil, and when tragedy finally fells the Carbone family, you feel your very bones ache along with them in despair, making this View a masterful production of a master’s work.

Total Nominations: 6

The Royal Family (unseen)
Total Nominations: 5

BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

1. A Little Night music

2. La Cage aux Folles

3. Finian’s Rainbow

4. Ragtime

With a whopping eleven nominations, La Cage aux Folles‘s win here is pretty much guaranteed. The performances by both Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge (Best Leading Actor nominees) have been widely praised, the costumes are absolutely fabulous (Best Costume nominee), the lighting is sexy and smart (Best Lighting nominee), choreography is cheeky and clever (Best Choreography nominee), and Terry Johnson (Best Direction nominee) smartly doesn’t get in the way of the inherent hilarity and endearing cast of characters; he simply allows those fabulous Cagelles to be What They Are, and What They Are in is a finely tuned production.

Total Nominations: 11

Tony voters’ runner- up would be my top pick. A Little Night Music is by far the most accomplished musical revived this year, and while Director Trevor Nunn’s production isn’t innovative, it’s tight and cohesive, both in direction and design (Best Sound Design nominee). The cast creates a terrific ensemble, including the always brilliant  and saucy Angela Lansbury (Best Featured Actress nominee), though decidedly excluding the shrill Ramona Mallory as the virginal Anne. All in all, a fine production of a fine musical.

Total Nominations: 4

The remaining two nominees each closed early after brief runs to mixed reviews, and so practically bow out of the running altogether. Ragtime was a mess of misguided minimalism (thanks to Best Direction nominee, Marcia Milgrom Dodge),  and Finian’s Rainbow should probably just be thankful it made it to Broadway in the first place (what an odd — and oddly delightful — obscure little musical).

Ragtime‘s Total Nominations: 6

Finian‘s Total Nominations: 3

Tony Awards 2010: Best Direction

BEST DIRECTION OF A PLAY

1. A View from the Bridge (Gregory Mosher)

2. Red (Michael Grandage)

3. Next Fall (Sheryl Kaller)

4. Fences (Kenny Leon)

A challenging category to both predict and to select a favorite within, the four directors here all created admirable work. Two stood out from the rest, however, and both are equally deserving. Michael Grandage’s direction Red is much more musical and flashier than you’d probably imagine a show about an expressionist painter to be, and yet this is an exceedingly smart approach, as very little of that visual artistry occurs onstage (Molina’s Rothko paints onstage but once, in what is by far the most exhilarating and gripping moment in the production). Grandage off-sets this dramaturgical failing by utilizing an exceedingly adept design team: while audiences don’t witness the physical painting onstage, they hear it in Adam Cork’s swirling sounds and Neil Austin’s darkly dramatic lighting. Grandage strikes a fine balance between what could have veered into over-the-top conceptual design and what is a rather static drama, pulling two moving and dedicated performances from his actors.

Gregory Mosher takes a quieter approach to the Arthur Miller tragedy, A View from the Bridge. Unlike Grandage, Mosher needn’t make up for textual shortcomings (View, in this reviewer’s opinion, is Miller’s finest work), but he does have to carefully check emotions that could easily become high-pitched and overwrought (there is, after all, a Greek chorus present). Mosher smartly keeps the tone low, visually and aurally, letting the melancholy design reflect the quiet anguish simmering beneath the surface, allowing the familial tension to gradually imbue the entire production. Mosher’s View comes to a slow boil, and when tragedy finally fells the Carbone family, you feel your very bones ache along with them in despair.

There’s something about Next Fall that doesn’t sit quite right in what is generally a solid and moving production. Sheryl Kaller achieves both hilarious and heartbreaking performances from her terrific ensemble cast, but the story of a young man struggling with his sexuality, faith, and family comes off as slick sitcom when it should be more affecting dramedy. Kenny Leon has a similar difficulty with Fences. Instead of tempering Troy Mason’s bravura with equal parts fear and rage, he allows Denzel Washington to highlight the endearingly brash showman within Troy, causing the final significant scenes to peter off anti-climatically. Fortunately, he has no such problem with the rest of the fantastic cast, all who own their own moments of heartbreak, creating an affective, if not innovative, production.

BEST DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL

1. Memphis (Christopher Ashley)

2. Fela! (Bill T. Jones)

3. La Cage aux Folles (Terry Johnson)

4. Ragtime (Marcia Milgrom Dodge)

HUCKADOO! Memphis is the surprise hit musical of the season, largely because it’s the most consistent in its storytelling. Christopher Ashley keeps his production tight: this show wants to sing and dance, and he’s more than happy to let it do so. Ashley offsets the earnest themes (civil rights via music revolution!) with performances both properly jubilant and genuine. He infuses gravitas with a light but careful hand, generously allowing the music and movement to find its natural balance.

Fela! is overambitious, and so is its director/choreographer/co-bookwriter. The musical about the Nigerian revolutionary and pop star is both astonishing and astonishingly disappointing. Bill T. Jones can’t quite find the focus of the show, and that’s likely because he didn’t write one in (is this about Fela’s personal, political, or musical life?), but what he does put on the stage is so invigorating and refreshing that you can almost forgive him the musical’s many shortcomings. In this vein, Jones does accomplish one his biggest aims: to joyfully celebrate that remarkable man, Fela Kuti.

La Cage aux Folles is incandescently light and airy, and Terry Johnson smartly doesn’t get in the way of the inherent hilarity and endearing cast of characters; he simply allows those fabulous Cagelles to be What They Are.  Marcia Milgrom Dodge, on the other hand, actually does Ragtime a disservice. In an effort to create “serious” musical theatre, she misguidedly draws attention to Ragtime‘s vague plot and sketched-in characters in a production that is spare on spectacle, but high on pretension.

By doing nothing, Baumbach does quite a lot in his latest, Greenberg

“I’m trying not to do anything,” Roger Greenberg, with a seeming shrug, informs each person who inquires what he’s doing with his life  on his dreary visit to hazy Los Angeles.  A bitter ex-musician visiting his well-off and trendy brother — who’s taking his family  on vacation to Vietnam of all places — Greenberg is a staunch New York carpenter just coming off of an indeterminate stay at a mental hospital. He’s defiantly proud and strangely unembarrassed by this declaration of the dismal state of his life, fiercely brandishing it like a sword whenever accosted by those he deems threats to his preferred aimlessness: the caustically cool twenty-somethings who carelessly consume cocktails of coke, pills, and booze and  take spontaneous trips to hip locales just to ensure their own hipness; the estranged and sad-eyed best friend who has grown up and apart from him, even as Greenberg himself stubbornly refuses to age and mature; the idolized ex-girlfriend who has married, divorced, and so moved on and beyond him that she, in one of the film’s most uncomfortably agonizing scenes, cannot manage to recall a single moment from their history together that he so clearly treasures; and finally, the younger, charmingly irresolute assistant, who genuinely — and quite bafflingly — likes  him despite his best and most intense efforts to make her feel otherwise.

Greenberg is writer-director Noah Baumbach’s latest in his patented string of highly intellectual meanderings full of difficult characters expressing their personal pain by violently thrusting it upon others while feigning self-deprecation. Sisters savagely squabble and cruelly manipulate each other in Margot at the Wedding and in The Squid and the Whale, his most acutely painful and darkly droll work, we experience a bitter and painful divorce through the perspectives of two damaged sons (Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline) who startlingly mirror their parents’ aggressive pretensions and sharply cruel wit. While none of his films could ever be mistaken as plot-driven, Baumbach loosens his grip on his characters even more so than usual in Greenberg, lovingly allowing Roger to digressively funnel his unfocused energy into hilariously articulate complaint letters to American Airlines and Starbucks (its “attempt to manufacture culture out of fast-food coffee…sucks”) and  Florence, Roger’s young and listless love interest, to drift quietly from art gallery opening to open mic night to one-night stand.

As Greenberg, a low-key (and totally fantastic) Ben Stiller casually slings the sharpest of insults when (he believes himself to be) provoked, but mostly, this keen disdain is meant for himself, and the self-awareness that Stiller infuses into the zingers is painfully obvious and remarkably acute. But it’s those moments sans dialogue that Stiller nails Greenberg’s so-slight-you-could-miss-it-if-you-blink vulnerability: surrounded by joyful children at a party, he awkwardly shuffles his feet and aloofly looks to the sky for fear of connection, or when he struggles to stay afloat whilst pathetically dog-paddling across his brother’s pool. Despite these super-brief moments and Greenberg’s signature defense that “hurt people hurt people,” Baumbach still doesn’t fully expect u

s sympathize with this outwardly selfish man-child who only confesses affection when assisted with a little cocaine courage. So in the final moments, what was building rather slowly toward the harsh realization that we simply must accept that life never turns out the way we expect it to, the film veers suddenly

into rom-com territory. It’s only when Greenberg finally gets a clue and makes a mad dash for happiness that we realize that, despite all of his contemptuousness, intentional belittling, and self-imposed isolation, we’d actually been rooting for him along. Churlish behavior and seemingly indifferent assertions a

side, Roger Greenberg was never really not doing anything; he was simply learning — in his own painstakingly guarded and grudging way — to embrace the unexpected life. In Greenberg, Noah Baumbach has once again created a hard-to-love character that we can’t help but love.

Post-Oscar Wrap-up: 2010

With only a few minor surprises last night — Precious‘s winning Best Adapted Screenplay (excuse me?) and The Hurt Locker sweeping those sound awards (Sorry, Avatar!) – everything else went off according to plan. Hooray for Hollywood! Let’s break down the evening’s festivities, shall we?

THE TALLY

Which films earned the most — and the least — little gold men.

6
THE HURT LOCKER

3
AVATAR

2
PRECIOUS , CRAZY HEART, UP

1
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, THE BLIND SIDE, THE YOUNG VICTORIA, STAR TREK

0
UP IN THE AIR, A SERIOUS MAN, AN EDUCATION, THE LAST STATION, INVICTUS, A SINGLE MAN, THE MESSENGER, JULIE & JULIA,  THE LOVELY BONES, NINE, THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS, DISTRICT 9, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, CORALINE, THE SECRET OF KELLS, THE PRINCESS & THE FROG

Since the awards failed to excite, let’s check out what did manage to thrill / appall us. And by ‘us’ I mean me.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Sandy‘s speech (adorable). And that dress (gorgeous Marchesa).
Also: turning to hug Meryl, apparently changes her mind and does a 180, leaving The Streep with empty, outstretched arms (priceless).

2. Ben Stiller, dressed as an Avatar despite the fact that Avatar was not nominated for Best Makeup (genius). Also brilliant: when plaintively states, “I want to plug in my tail.”

3. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin’s paranormal activity. Totes brills, and the only amusing moment the uber-awkward hosting duo offers all night.

4. The lovely John Hughes tribute:

When you grow up, your heart dies.
So, who cares?
I care.

5. The mysteriously included horror film tribute. Not sure why it was there, but sure glad it was.
Jaws! The Exorcist! Nightmare on Elm Street! Psycho! Nosferatu! Twilight! – wait, what?

5. Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win Best Director. Too bad cameras fail to catch ex James “I’m king of the world!” Cameron’s glower as she accepts her golden guy.

6. Fantastically inspired, the League of Extraordinary Dancers interprets each of the nominated scores. It felt like the Tony Awards. But in the best possible way.

Skip the dreadful Zimmer score and go straight to the delightful Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up sequences.

LOWLIGHTS (slash highlights):

1.Neil Patrick Harris’ opening song and dance was totally awkward and unfunny. We love you NPH, but no. Just no.

2. Charlize Theron’s cinnabons.

2. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin “banter” as the most painfully torpid and unfunny co-hosts ever by simply insulting everyone in the room. It was like that year Chris Rock hosted. Except not funny.

3. George Clooney’s sourpuss mug throughout the entire ceremony. Why so angry, George? Was it part of the dreadfully unamusing act? Or did you finally realize that Up in the Air just isn’t very good?

4. Christopher Plummer, who appeared in three of this year’s nominated films, still has no Oscar to call his own (no other actor this year appeared in more than one nominated film). Shame on you, Academy. Shame. On. You.

5. Miley Cyrus’s posture. We realize your boobs will pop out of that golden gown if you stand up straight, but perhaps you’re not a size 0 after all. Just sayin’.

6. James Cameron’s sloppy look: in Joan Rivers’s immortal words, “He looks like a lesbian.”
There’s no better words to end the night with. Thanks, Joanie.

I had a blast seeing all the nominees this year — 43 features and 15 shorts in all. Thanks for reading. Until next year!

Next Up: The Tony Awards

Oscars 2010: Best Director + Best Picture

Note: My personal rankings are listed in order from best to least accomplished, with #1 being my favorite, while predictions for the actual winners appear in orange.

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Kathryn Bigelow
The Hurt Locker

1. Quentin Tarantino
Inglourious Basterds

3. James Cameron
Avatar

4. Jason Reitman
Up in the Air

5. Lee Daniels
Precious

What I believed would become my favorite film of the year, Up in the Air, is decidedly low on my list, and that’s due to Jason Reitman’s slick, gimmicky direction (could we possibly show Clooney’s Bingham precisely and efficiently packing a suitcase one more time? We get it, we get it). What should have been emotionally striking (reactions of “real” people to their sudden unemployment) was not; instead, focus was on clever camera angles and the earnest indie soundtrack. I wanted to love this film, and the screenplay seems to indicate that that was a real possibility. Unfortunately, Reitman’s direction left me rather indifferent to it all.

Quentin Tarantino’s directorial choices matched the boldness of his historical rewrites in Inglourious Basterds, and Lee Daniels did the best he could with messy screenplay of Precious, churning out some of the year’s finest performances; in fact, if there was a “Best Ensemble” category, I’d vote for Precious without hesitation.

Admittedly, James Cameron took on the most tremendous task in his directing of the epic Avatar, and the film, regardless of its horrible screenplay and oft-times cringe-worthy performances, is striking to behold largely thanks to his helming. But let’s be honest: Kathryn Bigelow deserves this one. In the Academy Awards’ 82 years, only four women have been nominated in for Best Director, and it’s time to make some history. Just like Jeff Bridges, Bigelow deserves it. The woman made a super-tense, fantastically acted film about an incredibly difficult subject; how many other Iraq-war films can we actually say that about? (Bonus: sweet, sweet revenge of the Ex)

BEST PICTURE

1. The Hurt Locker

2. District 9

3. Up

4. Inglourious Basterds

5. An Education

6. Up in the Air

7. Precious

8. The Blind Side

9. Avatar

10. A Serious Man

Remember the simpler days of yore when voters cast their ballots for one film and the film with the most votes triumphed? This is no longer, my friends.

With the new 10-nominee craziness, there’s a chance that a film with only 11% of the vote could win if we played by the old rules. So now we’ve got a brand-spankin’ new system that makes everything a bit more complicated. Voters will now rank the films from 1 to 10. All the #1 votes will be counted and if no film has more than 50% of the votes (which will probably be the case), the last-place film will be eliminated (see ya, A Serious Man), and the voters who cast their ballots for that film will have their #2 selections counted instead. That process will continue until one film has a majority of votes. This means that the film with the most #1 votes may not actually win. (Al Gore would certainly sympathize.)

Whew.

While an upset would be fantastic – all signs point towards my #2 + #5s not garnering a single award, so wouldn’t it be ridiculously fun if either won the Big One? – it’s clear that this race is solely between the The Billion Dollar Green Screen Epic and the Little Indie War Movie That Could. Each has won approximately the same number of awards up until now, but usually the Best Picture goes hand-in-hand with Best Director, and most everyone has their money on Bigelow. But that certainly doesn’t mean you should count out Avatar just yet: remember that just 5 years ago Crash took home the gold even after Brokeback Mountain’s Ang Lee earned Best Director. As whack as that possibility is, it truly is anyone’s game.

Next Up: Oscars 2010 Postmortem