2013 Oscar Film Season

2013 Oscar Film Season

The 2013 Oscar Film Season will soon officially - unofficially begin starting from September 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013.

Now, according to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, in order for a film to quality to be considered for Best Picture a feature-length motion picture "must have a running length of more than 40 minutes and have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format. The films must open in a commercial theater, for paid admission, in Los Angeles County between January 1 and midnight December 31, and run for seven consecutive days. Films that receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release are not eligible for Academy Awards in any category. Official screen credit forms and copies of the main and end title credits must have been submitted to the Academy by December 1. Films are not eligible if they have appeared on the Internet, on home video, or on television prior to their theatrical releases. Got it? Good!

So, to get ahead of the game and to have a bit of fun, I have taken the time without having seen most of the potential films (because they haven’t been released yet) that I believe will be in the discussion late this year for a coveted 2014 nomination for the most recognizable prized awards in all of entertainment industry both in history and worldwide – the golden bald statue from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science called Oscar.

Based on research from various sources and a lot of guessing on my part I have listed what I believe will be the no more than 10 and no less than 5 films that will nominated for Best Picture for the 2013 film season.

There are 35 films listed below of which only 6 films have already been widely released, so I am throwing a lot of caution to the wind here and at the same time giving you the potential heads up of what could be on everyone lips as being an Oscar worthy effort.

A Bolder Font suggests having a higher probability of getting a nomination based on internet buzz - speculation. Of course, there is always a surprising film each year that no one has heard of just yet.

2013 Best Picture Contenders

All Is Lost

American Hustle

August: Osage County

Before Midnight

Blue Is the Warmest Color

Blue Jasmine

Captain Phillips

Diana

Foxcatcher

Fruitvale Station

Gravity

Grace of Monaco

Her

Inside Llewyn Davis

Labor Day

Lee Daniels' The Butler

Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

Mud

Nebraska

Oldboy

Out of the Furnace

Philomena

Rush

Saving Mr. Banks

Serena

The Counselor

The Dallas Buyers Club

The Fifth Estate

The Hunt

The Monuments Men

The Past

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Spectacular Now

The Wolf of Wall Street

Twelve Years a Slave

Lee Daniel's The Butler - Review

Lee Daniels The Butler – Review

"Lee Daniels' The Butler" tells the story of a White House butler named Cecil Gaines whose early child hood is marred by both illiteracy and the brutal hardship of back breaking work as cotton pickers on a plantation in rural segregated Georgia with his father and mother.

Upon witnessing an unbearable event for anyone much less a child, the plantation owner takes young Cecil under her wing (so to speak) by teaching him what appears to be both a practical and suitable skill for Negroes at that time as a house servant. It is from this point we see young Mr. Gaines seize upon this misfortunate opportunity as a way to honing his new found trade into a highly marketable skill leading to his eventually securing rare employment at the nation’s White House as a butler where he served eight American presidents over three decades of his life.

LD’s The Butler may not be or end up being the best picture of the year; it is clearly one of the more moving films I have seen this year. And while the first 20 minutes of the film seemed to be a bit hasty, the remaining film is adroitly executed by maintaining its story telling to an even pace with a balance of genuine tenderness, human reflection, well timed clever intelligent humor and noted history.

I personally have a problem with any film that tries to sum up anyone’s entire life in a two hour time frame, especially in this unique case where Mr. Gaines story has so many major historic events that are filtered through his personal and professional life. Still, Director Daniels manages not only to pull it off skillfully he does so with a sweeping patient and sense of respect to all the principles involved whether they be historic by name or they operated in perpetual anonymous shadows. And so it is with his patience Daniels keeps this brave and determined mans story in steady focus throughout the film as we are witnesses to his life’s few small joys and his many quiet moments of torment and pain.

What I especially like about Daniels direction is he manages to revisit some all too well known brutal images of our racial past without being mean, vitriolic, spiteful or venomous about it. He doesn’t rub racial bigotry spitefully into the audiences face, instead he simply shows various images of it in such a way as to illustrate just enough of what these harsh events were about and to poignantly remind us of our country’s past without making any of the viewing audience to feel any need to withdrawal into guilt or react in rage. He’s uses these historic images with the expressed interest of connecting the overall story’s dots; meaningful historic dots if you will in such a tangential and respectful way as both a parallel backdrop to a nations tragedies and to Cecil’s life.   

It is way too early to talk about Oscar nominations with so many other films to come. But I would not be a bit surprised if in late January 2014 Forrest Whitaker is nominated as Best Actor, as he was simply immersed and amazingly so as both Cecil the individual man as well as the symbolic embodiment of national pain through a tumultuous period in our history. Also, Oprah Winfrey who plays his wife could get a Best Supporting nomination as well as she was splendid in her performance as his emotionally committed, but equally conflicted by the temptations of loneliness and alcohol as Cecil’s wife and devoted mother to their two boys. She from the very first moments of the film transitions with incredible ease away from her real life iconic figure we all know her for to a touching, uniquely funny and loving partner to Cecil’s story.

In addition, it has been along time since I could honestly say that I saw so many actors in one film that were nearly perfectly cast to round out the overall film, with especial attention given to some fine performances by Terrence Howard as the philandering neighbor, Daniel Oyelowo as the oldest son and Cuba Gooding Jr. as the head White House butler and family friend. Also, the cinematography was richly elegant looking as well as the wardrobe designs seemed to be especially proper in its detail and reflective of that period of time.

In the end LD The Butler is a sweet, gentle and moving film. But what makes this film uniquely special is it’s simplicity by telling a story of a single self made man, who while somewhat flawed was nevertheless a kind man diligently dedicating himself to over come his flaws by working daily with a keen sense of professional purpose inside the walls of the world’s most iconic symbol of democracy, freedom and equality and yet be wholly deprived of these very same virtues in every meaningful way.

Cecil Gaines story is the more shadowy low profile version to Jackie Robinson’s more high profile illuminated story. That being when we do hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, if given the chance to living out that wonderful creed than people like Cecil and others like him will be equally valued as people who are trustworthy and hard working too.

4 Stars

      

Elysium Review

“Elysium” – Review

Starring Academy Award Winners Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, the film takes place in the year 2154, where the Earth has been devastated by pollution, overcrowding, poverty, crime, and disease. The wealthy class have finally found a solution to Earth’s hardship existence by leaving it entirely and living on a luxurious space station in orbit called Elysium where all of their needs are met with optimum care and where all illnesses are curable. For in the future the wealthy few have left the rest of earth’s humanity bound to fight over the scraps they left behind to survive on the scarred planet.

The central character is Max (Damon) who as a small child along with his playmate friend named Frey use to dreamed endlessly about one day of living on Elysium, but when Max grew to adulthood he engaged in criminal activity that relegated his life to more hardship as a labor in a factory where he is constantly harassed by all forms of authority and former partners in crime.

But one day when he is accidently exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, Max realizes that his only hope for survival is to figure away to get to Elysium to use one of their Med Lab devices to cure him before dying in five days.

What Elysium has working for it is an amazing conceptual vision of the future where the director brilliantly and masterfully created a symbiotic mixture of endless poverty, arid desert, harsh looking city skylines, unique flying ships, robotic devices and the beautiful constructed Elysium all seemingly very dependent and connect to each other and yet from a humanity standpoint they are very much disconnected from one another when viewed through the life prism of the benefits gained from accumulated wealth.

I also like the fact the Director took great risk throughout the film by not being afraid to be creative at every turn in his set design and innovative use of new technology to push the story along, even to the point where Damon’s character Max uniquely looked like a mix of a man crossed with used industrial parts, computer wiring and a satellite navigation system.

While, it’s very clear watching this film that the Director was heavily influenced by previous movies such as 2001; A Space Odyssey, Mad Max and The Matrix, it rushed itself a bit too much in a few critical moments. Specifically what made the movie hiccup if you will was the lack of pacing patience to let the characters personalities develop a bit more. Instead the film felt a bit jagged from the leaping about in action scenes and dialog making the overall connection from scene to scene not to transition as well or as smoothly as it could have.

In addition, actor Sharlto Copley who was the lead in “District 9” played a ruthless and unremorseful assassin name Kruger who spoke with such a heavy rapid fire Afrikaner accent that it was at times very hard to understand what he was saying. And as much as I am huge Jodie Foster fan, she too with her strangely contrived slightly French erudite smug accent was hard to understand as well. In fact her performance in the film was cold, flat and uninspiring throughout. Not one of her best at all.

One side note to Foster’s portrayal of Secretary Dealcourt as the second in command on Elysium. She clearly reminded me and I believe it was intentional on her part to create a female personification of an actual American male politician who I think will be easily recognizable if you give it a bit of thought.

Elysium at its core is a political film where it analyzes the issues of health care and to some degree immigration fast forwarded to our own future. And just like in our current times we the viewers get to examine down the road what the possible consequences are under a cinematic microscope of what our future may hold on these matters when fairness, accessibility, power, greed, wealth, privilege and class are the variables thrown in the mix.

But with the political themes aside, Elysium is still simply a fictional movie that is very entertaining with enough innovative visual stimulation and decent story intrigue to keep you glued to your seat.

3 -1/2 Stars

"2 Guns" - Review

“2 Guns” - Review

In “2 Guns you have two time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg starring together along with Bill Paxton, Edward James Olomos and Paula Patton in an explosive and action packed filled film.

In the beginning, we see Bobby Trench (Washington) and Marcus Stigman (Wahlberg) both reluctantly and yet respectfully working together as two big time players in a false IDs in exchange for drugs deal with a Mexican drug cartel boss played by Olomos that they both have been task to take down. But there in lies the huge problem with their unique alliance, for the past 12 months neither men knows that the other man is an undercover federal agent with Trench being with DEA and Stigman as undercover Petty Officer with United States Naval Intelligence.

Of course with such a secretive alliance something early has to go dramatically wrong at a critical moment that leave both undercover men scrambling to find why they are now being hunted by a myriad of pursuers who want to kill them. Thus with a great deal of suspicion they both come to the realization that the only two people they can count on are each other if they have any hope to ever come out of the messy situation alive.

What works in “2 Guns” is a lot of smart, snappy, hilarious and zinging dialog, mostly when Washington and Wahlberg are on the screen together. These two actors displayed a lot of natural witty chemistry together that was very sharp and believable. Also Bill Paxton delivers an equally strong supporting role as a man who is largely mysterious through out most of the film with a no holds barred bad ass attitude to anyone and everything that gets in his way – clearly not someone to be trifled with. And finally film Director Baltasar Kormakur does create the right mix of action, smart dialog and film pacing that made this movie effort largely entertaining throughout its many plot twists and turns.

My complaint is that the plot twists and turns of the film felt largely murky and incoherent for the most part with an ending that bordered on just being convoluted and piled on.

Still for the real great acting chemistry, look and pace of the film, I had a good time.

3 – 1/4 Stars

"The Hunt" - Review

“The Hunt” - Review

Starring Danish actor Mad Mikkelsen “The Hunt” is a brilliant, disturbing story of how a simple innocent lie can not only become a life devastating truth, but a false truth that takes rapid flight on nothing more than a baseless gossip that is allowed to continue to flourish endlessly without anyone making the minimum effort to working with all due diligence to getting to the real truth.

Written in subtitles, The Hunt takes place in rural Denmark where we see Mads playing a day care school aid named Lucas whose life from on the very onset of the film has been turned upside down due to a recent divorce and custody battle. But his circumstances are made even worse when he is clearly falsely accused of having inappropriate contact with one of the children at the school.

The brilliance of this film is the stellar performance of Mikkesen who delivers an Oscar worthy performance as a kind, earnest decent, somewhat lonely but personable man who only wants the minimum joys out of life, that being the respect of his friends and colleagues, the love of his son and the comfort of his loveable dog Fanny who walks with him to work each day.

This film showcases many traits of human nature. For one the subtle strength of how an unfounded lie can move brutally quick through the minds of supposedly adults with an unrelenting cancerous affect on the collective conscience of that community, as well how it can attempt to strip away the decency out of an innocent man’s life. It also a reaffirming story  about the importance of how many people routinely and casually  proclaim in their life how many multiple friends they have or think they have.

Specifically, the film magnifies the fact very succinctly that Lucas as well in real life for many of us as well, when a dire and awful circumstance arises, when times truly test friends commitment to you, it is then you may discover, dramatically and even disastrously so that you may be only lucky to having just one person in you in your life that you deem worthy to refer and truly to believe is your friend.

The Hunt clearly examines down to its marrow how rare it is for someone to stick with you in the ups and downs of life; unflinchingly against all accusers and false claims with a profound display of reverence for unbridled loyalty to you above all others.

Finally we see very meticulously the many ugly sides to human nature when a brazen lie takes hold. But what it also does is give greater appreciation for the perseverance of one’s own inner fortitude, the quiet strength to maintain your decency and the need to hold to on to ones dignity when life deals you with things that put you in a very lonely struggle.

This is really a very good film, fabulously acted all around and led masterfully by Mads Mikkelsen who won the Best Actor Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for this role.

4 Stars

"Fruitvale Station" - Review

“Fruitvale Station” – Review

I own an hour glass and when I first bought it several years ago, I do what everyone does who has ever owned one would do. I flipped it over to watch those perfectly tiny shaped grains of sand slowly filter through from the top glass receptacle to the bottom, wondering if it will take an actual hour to empty from the top; does it keep good time. Watching the true story of 22 year old Oscar Grant’s last 24 hours of life on New Year’s Eve reminded me of my hour glass, but not about time so much. I’ll come back to explain later.

Fruitvale Station, an actual Subway Station in Oakland, CA is the title to the film of Oscar’s story where in the first 120 seconds you see the actual Oscar Grant being filmed by a passenger from the train’s door with Oscar laying on the stations platform floor and two Oakland area police men kneeling over him in a bit of a struggle when you hear a single gun shot.  Actually what happens is Oscar is shot fatally and it at that point the film starts to reverse to it’s beginning of his last 24 hour of his life leading up to that tragic conclusion.

There is nothing profoundly unique about Oscar. You see him in various pedestrian situations through out the film; scenes where he appears to be for the most part a good and decent young man with a good heart, who loves his immediate family and who also loves his daughter and girl friend passionately. He also seems to be very personable and charming with a genuine desire to correct what even he recognizes as a chaotic path of poor decisions that some young men are prone to make early in their adult lives regardless of race.

Early in the film he comes to grip with these poor decisions he has made that have clearly hindered his ability to make progress in his early life, especially in those intimate and personal weight matters regarding his relationship with his girlfriend and their future together. But what uniquely shines out about Oscar’s story is largely for the benefit of the viewing audience. Watching this young man with all of his best intentions on that day was in fact a man living his last few hours of life like those tiny grains of sand in that hour glass mirroring the last of everything he will ever do or ever say in his brief life.

Like a laser to my consciousness I looked at the film uniquely through the prism of those grains of sand in that hour glass with each speck representative of the last time Oscar would have a conversation with his mother, the last time he kisses his daughter, the last time he says I love you, the last time he does a compassionate deed. And with that perspective in mind you have to ask that while Oscar did nothing wrong in his life that night, it still comes down to the theme of the seemly subtle steps we consciously and subconsciously make in our brief lives.

I won’t say too much about the pivotal scene on that station’s platform, clearly Oscar is needlessly shot and killed that night, but I could not stop wondering if just one person on that fateful night had reacted just a bit differently, if anyone including police officers had chosen another type of strength just for a moment to hit pause, to lower the temperature just a bit would Oscar still be alive today?. Would so many lives have not been devastated?

To me “Fruitvale Station” is a very good film about the choices we make; even seemingly insignificant choices should never be taken for granted as being meaningless. And while the rendering of the legal verdict to Oscar’s murder trial did have some comparisons to a recent high profile Florida murder trial, the larger aspects to his story and his last 24 hours of life did not. Oscar life and death was a stark reminder to making every effort to live and to move in the absolute right direction each and everyday even when it’s so, so hard and even when the rewards of those choices do not offer any of its reward immediately.

Oscar was more typical than not. He like some young men, sometimes, somewhere, on some occasions seem to struggle with an awkward juxtaposition dance that at moments in life, the actually living part in that moment he felt he was invincible; indestructible to all things and the consequences of his actions he took in the moment are no more than short term, ephemeral at best. Fruitvale Station hauntingly offers us the reverse to be true, that it is our choices, decisions, actions that can have an invincible lasting impact and its life itself by any general measure of time that is always all too brief.  

So just like the sand, I was reminded as cliché as it may sound, that every thing we do matters, all the time, everywhere, no matter what we say, who we say it to,  no matter who we love and no matter who professes to love us back, live life fully, but work to live it wisely.

3 – 3/4 Stars

The Lone Ranger - Review

“The Lone Ranger” – Review

Taking the time to stop and watch someone damn up over flowing water. Checking the time at least  12 times a day on your new wrist watch. Reflecting with a sense of accomplishment at your freshly cut lawn.  Spending some quality time on your lunch break looking upward with wonder at new high rise construction. Making due with water on your breakfast cereal instead of milk. Singing casually to a song on your radio at a gas pump. Making your coffee differently this time with no cream or sugar. Asking your dog questions as if he will finally answer you this time in English instead of with a bark. Reheating spaghetti in a frying pan instead of a microwave because you saw someone else do it once and it looked like it might taste better. Drinking a pilsner size glass of beer through a straw. Locating those 6 cents you lost under your car’s floor mat. Finding a $10.00 off food coupon to some item you will never need.

Oh, oh, I apologize, I am completely sorry, I digressed for a moment. You  see what happen is I started to sit down to write my review on “The Lone Ranger” and for some unexplainable reason I just started to wander off listing all of the many things that could be potentially far more interesting to do than spend money to see “The Lone Ranger”.

Now to be fair, it is not horrible. But what it is, is completely both story wise and directorially incoherent right from the beginning and remains so through out its 2 hours. Why? I think the director, writer or producer; who ever green lighted this finalized script wanted it to be a movie to all things and to all people. It wanted to be a western; a drama, a comedy, have some satire, show some romance, provide some suspense, have some historical context and even a bit of slap stick included that would be all etched and hopefully held together with some timely and highly choreographed action. The problem is you can’t have these genres meandering in and out of each other and hope the story feels real, sensible and honest. Midway through the film I felt the only thing I had not seen that was missing from this goulash of a film was a Broadway musical scene performed by the cast of “A Chorus Line”. Actually, I did step out for a minute so I am not sure they didn’t.

You want more incoherence? Besides the Ranger stating early in the film he doesn’t want a gun because he doesn’t believe in them (What – huh, this is a western right?) there was one scene I will never forget where the Ranger is in a Tipi talking to a solemn looking acutely silent Native American Chief making a case to the Chief that he should not take his tribe into war with an approaching US Army Calvary. When the Chief finally moves from his mode of silence to respond to the Ranger’s verbal pleadings, he uttered his lines not within the historical context style where English might not have been his first language, he instead recites his lines with the resonance of some mob boss with a New Jersey accent from the movie The Godfather.

As far as the acting, well Johnny Depp played Tonto similar to the grumbling sounding voice of his Jack Sparo character with at least an appropriate effort to recite his somewhat broken English lines tastefully. We also see him incorporate his trademark self invented odd ticks of rolling eye balls and uniquely unusual Depp-ish acting gestures to round out his vision of Tonto. His co star Armie Hammer to me was a mess who devised to playing the Ranger so submissively it was as if they’re roles had reversed and it was he who was subordinated to the needs and plot interest to his companion Tonto. From what I saw in the theater I began to wonder if this movie shouldn’t had been entitled “The Lone Tonto” and his masked man side kick named “Ranger”.

Armie Hammer has delivered solid work in past films such as in the Best Movie nominated film “The Social Network” and as the implied paramour Special Agent Clive Tolson to FBI Director Hoover in the film “J. Edgar”. But here he seems so overly affected in his manner, so emotionally self involved, so stripped of any masculinity and so prissy whimsical I thought I was watching someone doing their rehearsal interpretation of The Lone Ranger for the show “America’s Got Talent”.

So, what was good about “TLR”? Well, I liked the humor and talent of the white horse. I also got a bit stirred up and excited at the famous theme song of The William Tell’s Overture originally composed by Rossini. And finally given the movie was clearly shot digitally, the cinematography and the backdrop of the American west was just breath taking to look at in all of its majestic beauty of rock laden Monument Valley with its wonderful isolation and other rolling mountain range vistas. That area of the country is always a joy to see in the big format of a movie screen.

Is there anything else to mention? Nope, that pretty much sums it up. A lot of millions of dollars of technical wizardry went into making this film entertaining such as watching Tonto taking a running 100 foot leap off of a moving train down onto another moving train filled with huge rocks and not be injured, so I will never tell anyone not to see that amazing feat. But if this movie has you drawn to it for what ever reason whether its part of your youth, you like Westerns or Johnny Depp, you be advise to place this on your rental list. Way down on your rental list. Ah, maybe more so, like when it’s free on your basic cable viewing night.

1 – 3/4 Stars