WAR HORSE

What has been missing from the awards season in recent years has been the sweeping epic that is not only a critical success and emotional powerhouse, but also a box office hit, think ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Gladiator’.  And while the box office hit aspect is yet to be determined (not looking incredibly promising however), this season’s grandiose against-all-odds tearjerker is found in Steven Spielberg’s ‘War Horse’.  Spielberg’s second film to open this December (the first being ‘The Adventures of Tintin’) marks a return to his roots of classic nostalgia filmmaking.  What many critics have been saying is ‘E.T.’ meets ‘Saving Private Ryan’, less the buckets of blood.

This film is truly an epic in every sense of the word.  The story begins with the friendship forged between a boy, Albert (Jeremy Irvine), and his horse Joey.  After Albert’s father buys Joey at auction to be a plow horse for his crops, a very undersized horse for the job, it is up to Albert to train Joey to help salvage the family farm.  Following the unimaginable success Albert and Joey have at plowing the field, some days after the crops have started growing a storm wipes them out and Albert’s father is forced to sell Joey to an English WWI captain.  Albert catches Joey just in time to tell him he will find him no matter what and they will be together again.  Joey is looked after by the captain but after an early battle is seized by German soldiers.  From there Joey is rescued by two adolescent German soldiers and left in the care of a young girl on the French countryside, then recaptured by German soldiers, all while Albert enlists in the English army to find him.  The emotional journey concludes in No Man’s Land between English and German trenches, where the fate of Joey is determined by the flip of a coin.

At the Globes ‘War Horse’ suffered a similar fate as ‘Dragon Tattoo’, nominated for Best Picture Drama and Score, but nothing else (Spielberg being the obvious snub).  As stated previously this could be due in large part because the film wasn’t release until after the HFPA announced their nominations.  There are two things ‘War Horse’ has going for it that ‘Dragon Tattoo’ does not; ‘War Horse’ isn’t intended to be a “actor’s film” so it won’t suffer from lack of nominations there (probably won’t have any acting noms at the Oscars either) and what it should do well in, some art/technical categories (cinematography, costume), are not included in the Globes.  These aspects coupled with the fact it is being talked about in greater volume in Oscar circles should make for a better showing with The Academy.  The only category ‘War Horse’ will have to worry about heading to the Oscars will be Best Director.  Again, sounding like a broken record now, Fincher suffered the same fate and somehow Clooney was nominated for directing for ‘Ides of March’.  I expect Spielberg to supplant Clooney in the Oscar race and if Fincher has a chance he’ll have to knock Woody Allen or Marty Scorsese off the list, not an easy task.  It should be interesting to see what happens with ‘War Horse’ in a few weeks when the Oscar nominations come out but I believe it has been tragically underappreciated so far and hope that changes.  If it was my choice Best Picture would be a two horse race, no pun intended, between ‘The Artist’ and ‘War Horse’ rather than the overhyped ‘The Descendants’.   

Oscar Chances:

Best Picture: Lock

Best Director (Spielberg): Lock

Best Screenplay: Lock

Best Cinematography: Lock

Best Editing: Lock

Best Sound Editing and Mixing: Highly Likely

Best Costume Design: Lock

Best Art Direction: Lock

Best Score: Lock

Best Make Up: Possible

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

“The Feel Bad Movie of Christmas”, how one trailer over the summer described ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, is just that.  For those of you who haven’t read the first entry of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, the story deals with murder, rape, deception, and extreme violence, all the things attached to most international best seller novels.  Wait, what?  Where’s Harry Potter when you need him.

The film (and book as I’ve read it is a fairly faithful adaptation) follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist’s (Daniel Craig, ‘Casino Royale’, ‘Defiance’) efforts to uncover a family murder mystery in northern Sweden after losing a libel case against industrial billionaire Hans-Erik Wennerstrom.  What started out as an investigation to take Mikael’s mind off his legal woes quickly turns into a race to unravel the Vanger family’s web of lies.  With the help of a brilliant yet emotionally disturbed research assistant, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara ‘The Social Network’), Mikael closes in on the truth of what happened on the Vanger family island 40 years ago, but will it be too late?

Unfortunately for ‘Dragon Tattoo’ it’s Oscar buzz is at a slow simmer right now.  Whereas Fincher’s 2010 effort, ‘The Social Network’, received universal acclaim and was a major player in a number of races.  ‘Dragon Tattoo’ was a glaring omission from many of the Golden Globes’ major categories (only receiving two noms, Best Actress Drama Rooney Mara and Best Score Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), George Clooney Best Director for ‘Ides of March’, seriously?  Luckily this is not always an indicator of things to come.  The Globe nominations come out before the last two weeks of each year and often times films that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (governing body of the Globes) hasn’t seen can be overlooked.  The other distinct difference between the HFPA and The Academy is the number of members, 90 vs. 6,000 respectively.  The HFPA has members from 55 different countries (less than half then are American) an The Academy has a much larger sample size and is made up primarily of industry-related Americans.  The conclusion being although usually the frontrunners, top 3 or 4 nominees in a specific category, stay the same from the Globes to the Oscars, there is usually at least one nomination change in almost every major category, hopefully a good sign for ‘Dragon Tattoo’.

I don’t put either as locks but I do believe the nominations for Mara and Reznor carry over to the Oscars.  For the remained of major categories I have ‘Dragon Tattoo’ with a possibility of sneaking into a few of them, with the technical categories (Editing, Art Direction, Cinematography) having the best chance.  Again with the aforementioned differences between the HFPA and The Academy anything is possible but I am still hearing a lack of support among Oscar blogs and from the industry folks.  I believe this is mostly due to two things, subject matter which is a shame because I believe Fincher might have one upped himself from last year’s ‘Social Network’, and a much cluttered field of good but not great films this year.  Regardless, go see it if you haven’t yet.

Oscar Chances:

Best Picture: Possible

Best Director (Fincher): Possible

Best Adapted Screenplay: Possible

Best Actress (Mara): Highly Likely

Best Supporting Actor (Skarsgard): Long Shot

Best Score: Highly Likely

Best Cinematography: Lock

Best Editing: Possible

Best Make Up: Possible

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN

 

Steven Spielberg brings two films to the silver screen this December, his tear-jerking war drama ‘War Horse’ and his animated directoral debut ‘The Adventures of Tintin’.  The latter, based on the European comics of the 1940s, chronicles the events that conspire after Tintin, a young virtuoso journalist, and his dog Snowy unravel a mystery after purchasing an antique replica ship.

The only reason for including ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ in my Oscar blog, the only reason to include any animated feature most years for that matter, is the possibility of Best Animated Feature.  There was some uncertainty about the eligibility of the film due to the use of extended motion capture animation (example Gollum in ‘Lord of the Rings’).  Because the technology is used primarily in adding animation to non-animated films, there hasn’t been a precedent set deeming it an acceptable medium in Oscar terms (The Best Animated Feature award has only been around for 10 years and all winners ‘Up’, ‘Wall-E’, ‘Shrek’, ect. have been full animation and in the case of ‘Wallace and Gromit’, claymation).

Last week ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes and has won previous awards within other circles.  The Golden Globes are often looked at as barometer for what will follow with The Academy.  I believe the Globes allowing ‘Tintin’ a nomination will prompt the Oscars to follow suit.  Unlike other years where animated films have been included in the Best Picture conversation (last year with ‘Toy Story 3’) I think ‘Tintin’ will solely be limited to Best Animated consideration and, as long as it’s nominated, will have a very good chance of winning in a weak field this year (no real Pixar threat after ‘Cars 2’ bombed).

Oscar Chances:

Best Animated Feature

BEGINNERS

 

Just 11 days remain for Oscar hopefuls to release their films. This means two weeks of up to 6 films about to hit theatres for me (Tin Tin, Sherlock, MI, Dragon Tattoo, Tinker Tailor, and War Horse all yet to be released at Regal in Louisville).  While waiting in heated anticipation I decided to take to Red Box over the past weekend to catch up on films released earlier in the year.  Searching specifically for three, ‘The Help’, ‘Tree of Life’, and ‘Beginners’, all with chances in some of the major categories.  Unfortunately both ‘The Help’ and ‘Tree of Life’ were out of stock so I turned my attention solely to ‘Beginners’.

‘Beginners’ follows Oliver (Ewan McGregor) and Anna (Melanie Laurent, ‘Inglourious Basterds’) as they start a relationship after a chance encounter at a party,  and how both Oliver’s and Anna’s relationships with their fathers play an influential role on their future together. Christopher Plummer (‘The Last Station’, ‘Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus’) plays Oliver’s gay father who doesn’t come out until the age of 75 after his wife’s death.  Oliver examines memories from his father’s last few years, and his memories of his mother from childhood, to come to terms with his life and death and establish the grounds for his life with Anna.

Early buzz (and only buzz) for ‘Beginners’ centers on current best supporting actor favorite Christopher Plummer.  In a weaker field this year, right now the only true challenger is Albert Brooks for ‘Drive’, and although I loved ‘Drive’ and Brooks delivers a great performance, I don’t think there is much from holding the Academy back from recognizing Plummer with his much deserved first statue (it’s a shame Nick Nolte hasn’t received any attention for ‘Warrior’ especially considering the weak field).  Due to ‘Beginners’ small scope and overtly art house feel, other than a long shot for a screenplay nom, I don’t see a flood of Oscar attention for the film.  It does many things well, but nothing is brilliant and ultimately the film borders on intellectual challenge and Saturday nap inducer, not the ideal place to be.

Oscar Chances:

Best Supporting Actor (Plummer): Lock

Best Original Screenplay (Mike Mills): Long Shot

A COUPLE OF BLOG CHANGES

While re-examining why I decided to start this blog it occurred to me the only thing I really cared to dissect was films’ Oscar chances, including festival buzz, and the politics behind them.  So in an effort to reduce the strain of research I do for my reviews as well as to focus on what I am most passionate about I am changing my blog’s format.  Instead of reviewing each film for overall quality, structure, and technique I will give a brief synopsis of each film I see and then dive headfirst into Oscar info.  In conjunction I have also changed the name of the blog to…The Sealed Envelope: Case Closed Oscar Blog.  The new web address is thesealedenvelope.blogspot.com

In addition, leading up to major award ceremonies and festivals (Golden Globes, SAG, Sundance, Cannes, ect.) I will post information about predictions and major news.  I will also severely limit my posts from after the Oscar ceremony in February until “Oscar season” picks back up towards the end of the summer with TIFF and Telluride.  Due to the lack of quality films released between February and the beginning of summer (blockbuster season) I thought it would be quite a boring and strenuous task to find review/post worthy material throughout the timeframe.  However if something Oscar relevant does surface I will be sure to post it.

Hope everyone enjoys the new look!

GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS ARE OUT!

 Here's a look at this year's Golden Globe nominations.  Unfortunately no love for 'Melancholia' (the biggest robbery of the year) and Gosling was nominated for 'Ides' rather than 'Drive', idiotic, but it's good to see 'American Horror Story' getting some attention on the TV side, although it comes at the glaring omission of 'Breaking Bad'.  The awards will take place on January 15th at 8pm EST on NBC.

http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/

Always seems to be more snubs at the Globes than Oscars and this year follows suit, here's a list:

http://www.accesshollywood.com/golden-globes-2012-nomination-snubs-and-surprises_article_58021

OSCAR CHANCES FOR FILMS I HAVEN'T AND MAY NOT SEE

Seeing every Oscar hopeful film in a season can be a laboring task.  Most every year, or at least the over the last few I have been following closely, there are a handful of films that I miss due lack of interest, availability in local theaters, or just plain viewing fatigue (November/December I average 2-3 theater films a week for 8 weeks straight).  For the most part these films usually include best foreign, documentary, and short film but a big Oscar baiting film or two always seems to slip by.  Here is a list of possible contenders I have yet to see, along with categories they have chances in:

THE HELP: Best Picture, Best Actress (Viola Davis), Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer)

J. EDGAR: Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio)

CORIOLANUS: Best Supporting Actress (Vanessa Redgrave)

THE TREE OF LIFE: Best Picture, Best Director (Terrence Mallick),

BEGINNERS: Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Plummer)

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE: Best Actress (Elizabeth Olsen)

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS: Best Picture, Best Director (Woody Allen)

ALBERT NOBBS: Best Actress (Glen Close), Best Supporting Actress (Janet McTeer)

This list includes only films that have been released or are currently playing in theaters.  I missed these due to early release dates (specifically The Help and Midnight in Paris were summer releases) before any Oscar buzz was attached, films not playing in local theaters, and only in J. Edgar's case, my lack of interest.  Some of these will have DVD releases before The Oscars so I will still be able to get my reviews/opinions in but along with J. Edgar, I will most likely not see 2-3 of these.

The season is just about to get into full swing, 'War Horse', 'The Adventures of Tin Tin', 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo', 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close', 'Sherlock Holmes', 'My Week With Marilyn', and 'Mission Impossible' are all still to come, this weekend, 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'!!!

Get out and see some of these!

HUGO

 

‘Goodfellas’, ‘Raging Bull’, ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘The Departed’, all cornerstones of legendary director Martin Scorsese’s impressive catalog.  What all these, and most of his collection, have in common?  You probably wouldn’t call them “children’s movies”. Enter ‘Hugo’, the story of a family-less boy, (“Hugo” played by Asa Butterfield ‘The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas’) who spends his days maintaining clocks within the walls of a train station in 1920s Paris.

Aside from keeping the clocks running at the station, Hugo looks for/steals parts to aid his attempt to fix his automaton (a creation he and his father found and started to restore before his father’s ill fated passing).  He is caught stealing a needed piece from station toy shop owner Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley, ‘House of Sand and Fog’, ‘Gandhi’).  He begins to repay his debt by working in Georges’ shop and befriends his goddaughter Isabella (Chloe Moretz, ‘Kick Ass’).  Together Hugo and Isabella work to fix the automaton while learning secrets regarding Georges’ past and his (Georges) reasons of not letting Isabella go to the cinema.  Little does Hugo know his search for spare parts to help fix his and his late father’s automaton project will lead him to uncover the history of a forgotten cinematic artist and forge friendships that will last a lifetime.

The most curious aspect of the film, and one that most will ponder before entering the theatre, is Scorsese’s choice to do a children’s film.  It seems completely out of his element in relation to his past works.  Luckily for Marty and the audience he completely nails it.  From a purely visual standpoint Scorsese has always been a very reliable director.  Meticulous in all of his shots, no detail left unnoticed, he makes the interworking of a train station clock system mesmerizing (especially in 3D).  Not to take away from the visuals but they aren’t the most important piece Scorsese brings to the table.

Perhaps Scorsese’s best direcotral attribute is his narrative ability, and there is no difference here.  Apart from a few unnecessary, but visually stunning nonetheless, dream sequences plastered in the middle of the film, Marty seamlessly moves the story from fixing the automaton, to Hugo’s past, to his friendship to Isabella, and finally to the heart of the story, Georges former life as a film director (what really ties all the storylines together very nicely in the end).

Scorsese is aided greatly by some terrific performances by his cast.  Butterfield, having a limited screen history at age 14, is a complete natural.  It is hard to tell how much of it is acting and how much of it is his own personality (after seeing ‘Stripped Pajamas’ it’s easy to tell he has range).  Moretz brings a compassionate intellectual presence to Isabella, think Hermione without the attitude, and puts forth a believable and caring effort.  Kingsley and Sacha Baron Cohen (who is a harsh but hilarious station inspector, a role played with much similarity to his work in ‘Sweeny Todd’) are both their reliable selves in their share of screen time.  

‘Hugo’ is delivered with new age visual thrills and classic movie innocence reminiscent of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’.  It connects emotionally through its performances and most emphatically through its direction.  Martin Scorsese is one of the great directors of the modern film era, and ‘Hugo’ defiantly reinforces his vigor, versatility, and passion for film as an artistic medium.

Oscar Chances:

Best Picture: Highly Likely

Best Director (Scorsese): Possible

Best Supporting Actor (Kingsley or Baron Cohen): Possible

Best Adapted Screenplay: Possible

Best Art Direction: Lock

Best Visual Effects: Lock

Best Cinematography: Highly Likely

Best Editing: Possible