Last Minute Oscar Predictions
Well, it’s about two hours away from the show and I thought I’d finally post something about the Oscars. If I were a braver man, I’d go all in for Amour and have Alan Arkin winning his second Oscar while riding the Argo wave. After all, 2012 feels a lot like 2002, when Roman Polanski’s The Pianist won more awards than anyone was expecting. But being this being the most unpredictable Oscar year in my lifetime, it’s always good to remember William Goldman’s famous quote about the industry, “Nobody knows anything.” Category Predicted Winner Gut Feeling Actual Best Picture Argo Argo Best Actress Jennifer Lawrence Emmanuelle Riva Jennifer Lawrence Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis Daniel Day-Lewis Best Supporting Actor Tommy Lee Jones Alan Arkin Christoph Waltz Best Supporting Actress Anne Hathaway Anne Hathaway Best Director Steven Spielberg Micheal Hanake Ang Lee Best Adapted Screenplay...
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The Oscar Nominations Are Tomorrow… Here are My Predictions
The Oscar nominations are early than they have ever been before. And the voting process has completely changed with online voting available for the first time this year. What does that mean? Who knows. With no clear Best Picture front runner this year, for the first time in a very long time, it’s even tougher to gauge Academy sentiment. So, here’s my shot at predicting the nominees in bigger Oscar categories. Let me know who you think is in or out in the comments below. Best Picture Argo Beasts of the Southern Wild Django Unchained Les Misérables Life of Pi (I still have to see this one!) Lincoln Moonrise Kingdom Silver Linings Playbook Zero Dark Thirty (Out Friday.) If there’s a 10th nominee, I’m guessing it goes to Skyfall. Best Directing Michael Haneke, Amour Ben Affleck, Argo Steven Spielberg, Lincoln Ang Lee, Life of Pi...
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2,000 Completely Unnecessary Words on Why I Hate THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
The Dark Knight Rises *1/2 out of **** I haven’t written a review on this site in year. Why am I writing this one? Because I can’t contain my contempt for The Dark Knight Rises and all of its careless storytelling, unwieldy filmmaking and lazy character development. Because it doesn’t succeed on any level, outside of Nolan’s ego-driven, James Cameron-like screwing around. Because the only thing epic about the finale to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is its failure. It just doesn’t work. I won’t go heavy into plot here. I assume anyone reading this will have seen it. But for anyone who hasn’t, here’s the gist: Big bad Bane tries to destroy Gotham with a nuclear bomb fulfilling the legacy of Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Shadows introduced in Batman Begins. (Selina Kyle is in this movie,...
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BIG 6: The SpongeBob effect, Tyler Perry is so money, more
SpongeBob Found to Impair Preschoolers’ Thinking Now, I’m no developmental psychologist, but several things about the conclusion being drawn here leap out at me. First, this was a group of four-year-olds, who are not the target audience for SpongeBob, and with good reason — the humor in SpongeBob is largely based in irony and sarcasm, two concepts that few kids under the age of six are likely to grasp. Read the full Wired article The Highest-Paid Men In Entertainment That would be the multi-talented Tyler Perry. If his face is not instantly recognizable that’s because in his movies he often appears dressed in drag as Madea, the wide-hipped, argumentative, no-nonsense character who has starred in six of Perry’s movies. Madea has also shown up in one of Perry’s TV shows, House of Payne. Read the Forbes article Back in action: the fall...
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Hannibal Lecter TV series coming with Bryan Fuller on board
The thought of a Hannibal Lecter TV series might cause a knee-jerk reaction. Like mine: “Stop effing with a masterpiece.” Of course, that only really takes into account The Silence of the Lambs (and to a lesser extent Manhunter). I always forget that even Anthony Hopkins couldn’t save Hannibal or Red Dragon. And there’s Hannibal Rising, which I didn’t see and never plan to. The Hannibal Lecter TV series that was announced today as part the French studio Gaumont’s move into television has some great things going for it. First, Bryan Fuller is apparently writing the series. Fuller has created some of the best television series of the last decade, including Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls, and Dead Like Me. He was also in the writer’s room when Heroes was a good show. Second, the series will focus on Will Graham hunting Hannibal Lecter, which could make...
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BIG 6: Emotional superheroes, Creative Emmys, RIP Cliff, more
Superheroes Have Feelings, Too – Why Hollywood Should Show Them After all, Batman can’t walk around Gotham beating up bankers just on principal. So how do our heroes fit into this world of moralistic grey? Easy, they don’t. Maybe that is why the new slew of Hollywood superhero films have left us feeling, well, not so super. It’s as if we have become desensitized to the violence and gore washing over us, so maybe the only avenue left to explore is toward the within. Read the full The Wrap post The Creative Arts Emmys: The Hard Work Of Television Gets Its Due Honestly, the more cinematic television becomes, the more it competes with film, the more important these people are. Television was, for quite a while, largely very cheap-looking. There were always exceptions, of course — there was often a...
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