Oscar Shutout

damn

The 85th Academy Awards aired last night. I had to work and missed the entire broadcast. Looks like I didn't miss much however, since all my favorites lost in every category. That's right folks, I know how pick em'.

Here's the rundown:

Argo is a damn fine movie, I even said so HERE, but I don't think it was Best Picture worthy. Same deal with Jennifer Lawrence. She's great in Silver Linings Playbook...but Jessica Chastain and Naomi Watts are friggin phenomenal in Zero Dark Thirty and The Impossible. Daniel Day Lewis will always be my homeboy, but Joaquin Phoenix's performance in The Master is, well it's just as uncanny and fearless as Daniel Day Lewis was in There Will Be Blood. Phoenix out DDL's DDL in this case.

Speaking of The Master, Philip Seymour Hoffman was ROBBED. Flat out robbed. Christoph Waltz is Tarantino's new go to guy, and he was great as Hans Landa 2.0 in Django Unchained but he doesn't come close to Hoffman's firebrand performance. Since we're on the subject of Tarantino, he needs to be stopped. I love the bastard and really enjoyed his latest film, but he's just getting out of hand. Winning Best Original Screenplay will only reinforce his bad habits, meaning we'll be stuck with more of his overtly long, bloated and campy films for the foreseeable future.

I wish Helen Hunt, or Amy Adams would have walked away with the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, but Anne Hathaway really stole the show with her five minute performance (or so I'm told).  Notice I didn't pick anyone for Best Director. Since Paul Thomas Anderson and Kathryn Bigelow were snubbed in the category I really didn't have a favorite. I'm cool with Ang Lee (he gave me Jennifer Connelly in Hulk, I'm forever thankful), so I can't hate on him.

TLDR:None of my horses came in. Bummer.

*NOTE*
Here's a list of great films that either lost or were snubbed for Best Picture altogether:

King Kong
Modern Times
Citizen Kane
The Wizard of Oz
Rebel Without a Cause
Psycho
To Kill a Mockingbird
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Bonnie and Clyde
2001: A Space Odyssey
Easy Rider
Taxi Driver
Network
Star Wars
Apocalypse Now
Raging Bull
E.T.
Glory
Full Metal Jacket
Goodfellas
Pulp Fiction
The Shawshank Redemption
LA Confidential
The Truman Show
American History X
The Thin Red Line
Saving Private Ryan
Requiem For a Dream
City of God
Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind
Brokeback Mountain
Zodiac
There Will Be Blood
The Social Network

Fear not Zero Dark Thirty, you're in great company.

Top 5 Films of 2012.

So here it is...my top 5 favorite films of 2012.


The Master- Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
I was fortunate enough to see The Master in all it's epic, 70mm glory. PTA's follow up to There Will Be Blood doesn't offer the same instant gratification fix as it's predecessor, but it's still a marvelous film in it's own right. Every shot is breathtaking, the cast (Phoenix, Hoffman, Adams) delivers the best acting performances of the year, and the soundtrack is untouchable. The Master's plot might be foggy, but the overall experience of the film is anything but.



Silver Linings Playbook- Directed by David O. Russell
A lighthearted take on the serious and often somber topic of mental health issues in America, Silver Linings Playbook was my pleasant surprise of the year. I laughed and was generally more entertained during David O. Russel's quirky romantic dramedy then I had been in ages.  I'm also now sold on both Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence's acting chops.



Zero Dark Thirty- Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
The hunt for Osama Bin Laden could have easily been depicted as a "glorious" pile of pro-Western propaganda. I'm glad Kathryn Bigelow took a different approach with Zero Dark Thirty. The film is cold and clinical, like it's Type A personality protagonist Maya (Jessica Chastain). The tedious and often  horrific nature of the espionage/political world take center stage. The film may be dark and exhausting, but it's almost cathartic as well.



Prometheus- Directed by Ridley Scott
I don't understand the anger over Prometheus. Aside from looking absolutely gorgeous on the big screen (and I usually loathe 3D), Ridley Scott's latest film is easily the most ambitious sci-fi film in years. Was the film perfect? No. Was it entertaining and leave you craving more? For me, the answer is a definite yes! Introducing "The Engineers" and expanding the Alien mythos into a separate but equally enthralling cinematic universe was right decision. The sub-par Alien VS Predator franchise sort of killed the whole chestburster thing anyways.   



End of Watch- Directed by David Ayer
David Ayer has officially come into his own as a filmmaker. He may have written the script for Training Day, but his subsequent directorial work (Harsh Times and Street Kings), although entertaining, were less than stellar. End of Watch crushes any remaining doubts I had about his directing. Ayer's latest cop drama is, gritty, fast paced, even hilarious at times, but most of all, it's one of the most heart wrenching films of the year. Jake Gyllenhaal and Micheal Pena's chemistry as gang busting LAPD officers is uncanny and is the heart of the entire film.


*HONORABLE MENTIONS*
Some pretty rad movies I dug from 2012 that were just shy of the final cut:

The Avengers
NERDGASM OF A LIFETIME. The most fun I've had at the movies. EVER.

The Sessions
John Hawkes performance as a sexually and spiritually frustrated polio victim/quadriplegic is awe inspiring.

Dredd.
Absolute carnage. I haven't enjoyed such awesomely relentless violence on the big screen since the lobby shoot out in The Matrix.

Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty is an exhausting film. It's long and tedious. It's intense and shocking. You'll cringe and find yourself laughing at the most random, mundane things because of how dark and smothering the overall tone of the film is. As difficult as the film is to sit through, it's still amazing. A technical marvel that's beautiful to watch (even if it's content is jarring) and loaded with great performances, Zero Dark Thirty is easily one of the best films of 2012.

The film is based on the decade long manhunt for Osama Bin Laden. Jessica Chastain plays a young and determined CIA agent named Maya who devotes eight years of her life to capturing the terrorist mastermind. I shouldn't say devote, more like obsess. Her character is barely human. From her depiction in the film, Mayas work is all consuming. She barely eats, hardly sleeps and when awake, only focuses on the manhunt. Maya is a strong willed and intelligent person. She's pretty much always the smartest person in the room and must navigate through the sexist and bureaucratic nightmares of the CIA/political world, as well as the very real physical and psychological dangers she's faces in the line of duty.

Jessica Chastain's performance is the heart and soul of the film. The audience grows (colder) as Maya becomes more engrossed, and jaded, by her work. She can barely stand through the horrific torture sequences that open the film but by the second hour, she doesn't flinch. Instead you might become more enraged at how frustratingly incompetent our government appears to operate with all the behind the scenes spy stuff. Bureaucratic bungling becomes just as reprehensible as waterboarding over enough time. The film's final act, the raid on Bin Laden's compound, is dazzling. It's edge of your seat film making, which is quite a feat considering the entire world already new the end result (spoiler: they kill him). Director Kathryn Bigelow is an ace when it comes to building tension, and the way she handles all the military and CIA procedural stuff makes Zero Dark Thirty feel more like a documentary than a feature film sometimes, which reiterates just how good she really is.

I don't understand all the controversy the film has been generating. It doesn't promote torture in anyway shape or form. In fact it should be blatantly clear that the film as no agenda or political message behind behind it at all. This isn't go go USA propaganda or an anti-Muslim, pro torture film by any means. There's hardly even any real cohesive plot or narrative in the first place. The film jumps around between a span of ten years, following obsessive compulsive CIA agents damn near spiral into madness to accomplish their mission. Bigelow's film is like a two and half hour Nietzsche infomercial,

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

...that, and it's a damn fine movie.


(That is, without the doubt, the BEST trailer of 2012 also.)