DJANGO UNCHAINED

 

‘Django Unchained’ (the D is silent), the latest entry in the Tarantino collection, could have been titled ‘Inglourious Slavery’.  Taking his protagonist on a journey of revenge with the same stylized, ultra-violent direction that accompanied the 2010 hit ‘Inglourious Basterds’, ‘Django’ is essentially the same film set in the deep south a couple of years before the Civil War instead of Nazi Europe during WWII.  This is not a knock on Tarantino for being “unoriginal” as much as it’s a logical move of doing something you’re good at and knowing it works.

If you’ve seen ‘Basterds’ along with other films in the Tarantino catalog, ‘Kill Bill’, ‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and so forth, you know what you’re getting.  Moreover if you’ve taken the time to see these previous works you probably enjoy what he brings to the table.  The thing that makes Tarantino so exciting, although at times his camera work and dialogue can be predictable, is his screenplays are always incredibly original and you never know where the story will go next.  From the plot intersections of ‘Pulp Fiction’ to the machine gun eradication of Hitler in ‘Basterds’ he constantly has you on the edge of your seat.  Tarantino does it again in ‘Django’ and to describe any plot points at length would be a disservice to the audience, so just see it.

Another Tarantino trademark is the creation of characters actors have a chance to sink their teeth into, ‘Django’ is no different.  Jamie Foxx (Oscar Winner for ‘Ray’) plays Django, a freed slave that is set on rescuing his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), who is owned by Mandingo aficionado Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).  Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz, Best Supporting Actor ‘Basterds’), a former German dentist turned bounty hunter, enlists Django to help find the Brittle Brothers, Django’s former owners, to collect a bounty on their head.  Schultz, after the Brittle Brothers come to their demise, agrees to help Django find and free his wife from Candie.  Samuel L. Jackson plays a house slave, Stephen, which works for Candie and gives a hilarious performance basically playing a jovial yes man to Candie.

Foxx, DiCaprio, Waltz, and Jackson all give terrific performances with astute comedic timing and all the badass-ness that comes with a Tarantino character.  I believe Jackson steals the show and would like to see him get the acting nomination if there is only one out of the four but early returns show DiCaprio with the inside track to get the nod.

Unfortunately due to the highly violent nature, controversial subject matter, and Tarantino’s polarizing personality, ‘Django Unchained’ will likely get less credit than it deserves considering what it accomplished; reaping the benefits of nominations without the likelihood of many, if any, wins.  Time will tell but it still looks like ‘Lincoln’ and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ are the two films everyone else is chasing.

Oscar Chances:

Best Picture: Lock

Best Director (Tarantino): Highly Likely

Best Screenplay (Tarantino): Highly Likely

Best Actor (Foxx): Possible

Best Supporting Actor (DiCaprio, Jackson, Waltz): Highly Likely 1 will be nominated

Best Art Direction: Possible

Best Cinematography: Possible

Best Score: Possible

NOV-DEC WRAP UP

As the year comes to a close we are finally seeing the Oscar picture come into focus.  The Golden Globe nominees (http://www.goldenglobes.org/2012/12/nominations-2013) showed little to no surprises, and although they separate films into two categories: Drama or Comedy/Musical, they are usually a good indicator of how the Oscar nominations will break.  The Drama category usually holds a little more weight, and for those looking for nom expectations that’s where you should turn.  The Academy is doing things a little different this year and the Oscar nominations will actually be decided before the Globes telecast.  Nonetheless here are the films seen in the past six weeks or so and their Oscar hopes:

‘Life of Pi’: More of a director’s piece than anything, ‘Pi’ will certainly get attention for world-class director Ang Lee and see support in technical categories for its visual brilliance.  A Best Picture nom isn’t unforeseeable and a Best Actor nomination for Suraj Sharma would be well deserved but a bit of a surprise considering the field.

‘Flight’: It wasn’t expected to make much noise, again due to the extremely deep field this year, and it didn’t.  Zemeckis’, director of ‘Forrest Gump’, first live action picture since ‘Cast Away’ (2000) was largely uneven and its main character’s climatic revelation seemed uninspired.  However Denzel Washington gave a gritty performance as per usual and a Best Actor nomination is not out of the question.

‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’: What was thought to be the must see film this holiday season turned out to be a dud, both critically and commercially (brought home a respectable $86 million the first weekend but in comparison to the LOTR trilogy it was a major letdown).  It could see some nominations in tech categories like sound and make-up and although McKellen and Freeman give strong performances as Gandolf and Bilbo, the film may prove to be too much of a flop to compete in the ultra-competitive Best Supporting and Best Actor categories.

The Current Frontrunners: ‘Lincoln’ and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ will be going head to head in nearly every major category and each should garner at least two acting nominations each as well.  ‘Argo’, although an incredibly well received film by critics, is losing steam and seems to be suffering from too early of a release date.  Films that will still have plenty of nominations but might not have as high of expectations as ‘Lincoln’ and ‘ZDT’ are: ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, ‘The Master’, ‘Django Unchained’, and ‘Les Miserables’.

Full reviews are still to come for ‘Django’ and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ (after I’ve seen it) and ‘Les Miserables’ may or may not have enough clout to warrant a full post, if not it will be included in a wrap up.

Almost all of the contenders have been seen by critics, and after the Oscar nominations (Jan. 10^th) and the Golden Globe winners (Jan. 13^th) are announced, predictions in every category will be much easier to examine.  Stay tuned.

LINCOLN

Coming off a less than stellar commercial and critical performance with last year’s underrated ‘War Horse’, Steven Spielberg fervently returns in 2012 with ‘Lincoln’.  Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, the film chronicles the last four years of Lincoln’s life and his efforts to pass the Thirteenth Amendment prior to end of the Civil War, worrying if not passed; governing bodies would deem his Emancipation Proclamation unlawful.

There’s little left to say about Spielberg considering his body of work.  Like so many of his other largely successful and critically acclaimed efforts Spielberg relies on his ability to dictate the mood by perfectly framing scenes while keeping context, story, and pace in mind.  During the nearly two and a half hour biopic, where other directors would create a bore of a picture, Spielberg consistently has the viewer enthralled with the drama and informed with the history.  Not an easy feat.  The film has a feel reminiscent of ‘Schindler’s List’, where at over three hours in the 1993 epic, there never seems to be a dull, boring, or unnecessary frame in films that use a majority of dialogue to fill up their screen time.  My only quip if I had one was the inclusion of Lincoln’s son, Robert (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), as his scenes did little to contribute to the story and it was Gordon-Levitt’s weakest performance to date considering how successful he has been in the last few years.

However the film really belongs to Day-Lewis, as it should, and this is another aspect indicative to Spielberg’s films; letting actors immerse themselves into their roles and carry films (Liam Neeson in ‘List’, Hanks in ‘Saving Private Ryan’, Ford in ‘Indiana Jones’).  After reading multiple interviews from cast and crew there was an eerie feeling Abraham Lincoln was actually on the set while Day-Lewis got into character, with those around him having to remind themselves this is simply a film and not reality.  For Day-Lewis, well known as a method actor, this is not uncommon but when you are filling the shoes of one of the best known and important figures in American history it rises to another level.  It is hard to compare Day-Lewis’ dialect and mannerisms to Lincoln as so few are experts on how he spoke and acted but from the testaments of historians he does a brilliant job. 

If ‘Lincoln’ every decided to go to Broadway and have Day-Lewis portray Lincoln on stage, people would be lining up to simply see Day-Lewis recite lengthy historical passages, and it would be well worth the price of admission.  For my money I still like Phoenix’s performance in ‘The Master’ more than anything I’ve seen this year but it will be hard to take down Day-Lewis as his performance is definitely worth and he has a bigger studio, bigger following, bigger director, is more beloved by The Academy, and the dude’s playing freaking Lincoln!  If he wins Day-Lewis would become the first three time Academy Award Winner for Best Actor (‘My Left Foot’ and ‘There Will Be Blood’ are the others he’s won for).

Spielberg and Day-Lewis get ample help from Tommy Lee Jones, in an equally powerful role, as radical abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens and Sally Field as Mary Todd, who was a little melodramatic for my taste but still will garner Oscar attention.  As per usual John Williams contributes with a nomination-worthy score. 

As more and more of the big films this year finally open wide the races continue to heat up, however with such a deep field frontrunners are still yet to be determined.  When all is said and done, and nominations are announced in January, look for ‘Lincoln’ to have one of the larger groups of nominees leading to the ceremony in February.

Oscar Chances:

Best Picture: Lock

Best Director (Spielberg): Lock

Best Actor (Day-Lewis): Lock

Best Supporting Actor (Jones): Lock

Best Supporting Actress (Field): Possible

Best Adapted Screenplay (Kushner): Lock

Best Editing: Lock

Best Score (Williams): Lock