MADness—the Blog

The big winner of the night, with four Academy Awards including Best Picture, is The King’s Speech.  Not my pick but hardly a surprise, either.  I’m disappointed that The Social Network won only three Oscars; it deserved to win for director and picture too.  The Academy’s taste for good, respectable fare with a British royal and a suitable accent knows no bounds.  The Weinstein brothers, who once lassoed a Best Picture for Shakespeare in Love, were not a team to bet against.

A few highlights from the evening:  Aaron Sorkin, ever the writer, with the most eloquent speech of the evening; David Seidler, the self-proclaimed oldest winner in the writer category; Susanne Bier, just the third woman director to win in the foreign-language category; and the too-brief appearance of Billy Crystal, who gave me the first laugh of the show.  (The best hosts in the history of the show have been the great comedians—Crystal, Hope, Carson.  The show succeeds when it’s funny.  The Academy should find a funny, classy comedian who’s young, if that’s where the Academy is aiming, and if there isn’t one—can’t think of a name off the top of my head—they should find someone older who can provide a bit of entertainment.)

Because you probably cannot find a list of winners anywhere else on the web, I offer one below.  (The * indicates winners that I had predicted.  I finished 17 of 24, respectable—and better than Ebert, for what it’s worth—but not likely a winner in the pool.)

Summary of Oscar wins by feature film:

The King’s Speech — 4
Inception — 4
The Social Network — 3
Alice in Wonderland — 2
The Fighter — 2
Toy Story 3 — 2
Black Swan — 1
The Wolfman — 1
In a Better World — 1
Inside Job — 1

Winners by category:

Best Picture

WINNER:  The King’s Speech

Actor in a Leading Role*

WINNER:  Colin Firth, The King’s Speech

Actress in Leading Role*

WINNER:  Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Actor in a Supporting Role*

WINNER:  Christian Bale, The Fighter

Actress in a Supporting Role*

WINNER:  Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Directing

WINNER:  Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech

Writing (Original Screenplay)*

WINNER:  David Seidler, The King’s Speech

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)*

WINNER:  Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

Animated Feature Film*

WINNER:  Toy Story 3

Documentary (Feature)*

WINNER:  Inside Job

Documentary (Short Subject)

WINNER:  Stranger No More

Foreign Language Film*

WINNER:  In a Better World

Short Film (Animated)

WINNER:  The Lost Thing

Short Film (Live Action)

WINNER:  God of Love

Art Direction*

WINNER: Alice in Wonderland

Cinematography

WINNER:  Inception

Costume Design

WINNER:  Alice in Wonderland

Film Editing*

WINNER:  The Social Network

Makeup*

WINNER:  The Wolfman

Music (Original Score)*

WINNER:  The Social Network 

Music (Original Song)*

WINNER:  “We Belong Together,” Toy Story 3

Sound Editing*

WINNER:  Inception

Sound Mixing*

WINNER:  Inception

Visual Effects*

WINNER:  Inception

Name that Best Picture nominee.  Need a hint?  Not likely, but the answer can be found at ForeverGeek, along with renderings of all ten Oscar nominees in LEGO art.  Alex Eylar is the film buff/artist.

Last week we looked at Sundance films from years past.  Here are the top award winners from Sundance 2011, presented over the weekend:

Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic:  Like Crazy
Drake Doremus, director
Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones and Jennifer Lawrence
A cross-continental relationship drama

Audience Award, Dramatic:  Circumstance
Maryam Keshavarz, director
An The Iranian lesbian romance drama (sui generis, I’d bet)

Grand Jury Prize, Documentary:  How to Die in Oregon
Peter D. Richardson, director
A heartrending look at Oregon’s right-to-die law

Audience Award, Documentary:  Buck
Cindy Meeh, director
The story of Buck, the real-life horse appearing in the Robert Redford film The Horse Whisperer

You can get more info and the rest of the winners at the festival blog.

It’s official.  Ricky Gervais will not be hosting the Golden Globes next year.  His body was found this morning in a Dumpster behind the Beverly Hills Hotel.  Apparently he was the victim of a brutal attack following the show last night.  The list of suspects includes Bruce Willis, Johnny Depp, Scarlett Johansson, and Charlie Sheen.  Local police say they will not investigate.

Meanwhile, the award winners can be found here.

Several of the things I’ve been reading this week in one way or another relate to women in Hollywood.  Here are a few links, in case you’re interested.

How Oscar Found Ms. Right
There are times when I think the best writer covering film today is Manohla Dargis at the New York Times.  When I read this article it was one of those times.  Dargis gives the best take I’ve read on the Oscars for Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker and takes on a few other women to make her point.  (Read more about scopophilia here and here.)

Unless they star Meryl Streep, movies about women are routinely dismissed because they’re about women, as the patronizing term “chick flick” affirms every time it’s reflexively deployed. But chick flicks are often the only movies that offer female audiences stories about women and female friendships and a world that, however artificial, offers up female characters who are not standing on the sidelines as the male hero saves the day. It might not be much and usually isn’t, at least in aesthetic terms, but it’s sometimes all there is. Ms. Bigelow doesn’t make those kinds of movies. (Her vampires don’t sparkle, they draw blood.) She generally makes kinetic and thrilling movies about men and codes of masculinity set in worlds of violence. Her technique might be masterly [sic], because she learned from the likes of Sam Peckinpah. But she is very much her own woman, and her own auteur.

Pretty ugly: Can we please stop pretending that beautiful women aren’t beautiful?
I don’t watch TV much.  At some point in my adult life, I came to the conclusion there were better things to do with my time.  But I watched a lot when I was younger, and I remember having very much the same conversation back in a college dorm.  Actresses you see on TV, or on the big screen, for that matter—even the ones you who are supposed to be playing “ugly”—and still quite beautiful by almost any standard, and yes, that distorts even further what society thinks about women and beauty.  (Some things never change.  Bette Davis at times described herself as the ugly ducking.  You wouldn’t know it from looking at the picture here.)

Does a Best Actress Oscar Lead to Divorce?
Something  more than coincidence seens to be going on, I’d say.

Much has been made  about the oversights for the In Memoriam segment at the Oscars on Sunday.  Most of the complaints have been about Farrah Fawcett, Bea Arthur, and Gene Barry, all actors who worked in movies but were better known for their TV roles.

There was no excuse at all for leaving off composer Maurice Jarre, who’s featured in the Friday Minute on the front page today.  Not only is Jarre one of the great composers in film history, he’s easily the most honored of all members of the Academy who died last year, with nine Oscar nominations and three wins.

Inexplicable.

There’s not much to say about the show.  The two hosts, Martin and Baldwin, hardly did anything to make the night memorable.  I remember reading stories about Billy Crystal when he was hosting—there’d be four or five months of tireless preparation that went into the show, especially the opening act.  It showed.  It was funny.  Something to remember.  I suppose they don’t do that anymore.

But we’re not tuning in for the show anyway, right?  There are the awards!

The big winner, I was glad to see, was The Hurt Locker, winning Best Picture, Best Director, and six Oscars altogether.  I have lost track of the times I’ve been disappointed at the end of an Oscar show, so it’s gratifying to see the Academy do the right thing.

Tom Hanks, oddly, didn’t read the ten nominees.  Was that intentional, or did he forget?  Or was I nodding?  One other oddity:  the reading of the prize winners was not consistent.  Kate Winslet’s “…and the Oscar goes to…” was a contrast to the reading of other presenters, ”…and the winner is….”  Which is it these days?

The final tally:

6 — The Hurt Locker (Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing)
3 — Avatar (Cinematography, Art Direction, Visual Effects)
2 — Precious (Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay)
2 — Up (Animated Feature, Score)
2 — Crazy Heart (Actor, Song)
1 — The Blind Side (Actress)
1 — Inglourious Basterds (Supporting Actor)
1 — Star Trek (Makeup)
1 — The Young Victoria (Costume Design)
1 — El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Foreign-language Film)
1 — The Cove (Documentary Feature)
1 — Music by Prudence (Documentary Short)
1 — Longarama (Animated Short)
1 — The New Tenants (Live-action Short)

For what it’s worth (not a lot, actually), I was 16 of 24 on my predictions.

It takes three days for the accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers to count all the ballots of Academy voters.  They’ll be done sometime today, at which point exactly two people will know the names of the winners.  The rest of us get the news Sunday night.

In the meantime we can make predictions.  If we didn’t make predictions, we wouldn’t have any surprises.  I hope there might be a few at the big show, but at this time it all looks very predictable.

You can take a look at what I see in my crystal ball, my picks for the Oscars.

Best Picture

• Avatar
• The Blind Side
• District 9
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up in the Air

The winner:  The Hurt Locker
The verdict:  Oscar gets it right!  All the talk is that it’s a two-picture race.  If so, it really shouldn’t be close.  Avatar is technically stunning and visually imaginative, but it doesn’t compare to The Hurt Locker as a complete film.  With District 9 in the running, sci-fi fans have another place to put their vote.  That should help Kathyrn Bigelow’s film.  I’ve read that the new preference voting procedures also will work against Avatar, but I don’t think anybody really knows which film will benefit from the new process.

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges Crazy Heart
• George Clooney Up in the Air
• Colin Firth A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman Invictus
• Jeremy Renner The Hurt Locker

The winner:  Jeff Bridges
The verdict:  It’s about time!  I can’t seeing anyone else winning, but if there is a longshot winner, it’ll be Colin Firth.

Best Supporting Actor

• Matt Damonin Invictus
• Woody Harrelson The Messenger
• Christopher Plummer The Last Station
• Stanley Tucci The Lovely Bones
• Christoph Waltz Inglourious Basterds

The winner:  Christoph Waltz
The verdict:  A terrific performance and a well-deserved win.  The dark horse is Woody Harrelson.

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe Precious
• Meryl Streep Julie & Julia

The winner:  Sandra Bullock
The verdict:  Somehow the thinking with Academy voters seems to go like this:  Meryl Streep gave a great performance this year, so let’s give her a nomination—but let’s give the Oscar to someone else.  It’s been 27 years since her last win (she has 16 noms altogether), and there’s no reason to keep her waiting any longer.  Perhaps if they had preference voting for Best Actress (it’s only used for Best Picture, though), Streep would have a third little man for her mantel.  That said, my rooting interest here is for Carey Mulligan.

Best Supporting Actress

• Penélope Cruz Nine
• Vera Farmiga Up in the Air
• Maggie Gyllenhaal Crazy Heart
• Anna Kendrick Up in the Air
• Mo’Nique Precious

The winner:  Mo’Nique
The verdict:  No contest.

Best Director

• Avatar James Cameron
• The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow
• Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino
• Precious Lee Daniels
• Up in the Air Jason Reitman

The winner:  Kathryn Bigelow
The verdict:  The headlines will be:  A Woman Wins (Finally).  Bottom line:  Bigelow deserves it.

Foreign Language Film

• Ajami Israel
• The Milk of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada) Peru
• A Prophet (Un Prophète) France
• The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) Argentina
• The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band) Germany

The winner:  A Prophet
The verdict:  It’s a powerful film, but not the kind of material that often wins the Oscar.  I have not yet seen the South American films so I can’t judge, but the buzz for the Argentine entry is strong, and it has an excellent chance to win.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• District 9 Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
• An Education Screenplay by Nick Hornby
• In the Loop Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
• Precious Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
• Up in the Air Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

The winner:  Up in the Air
The verdict:  A smart screenplay.  Writing is a lot more than dialogue, but the dialogue is what people remember, and the dialogue in Up in the Air is sharp and reminiscent of Hollywood classics of the past.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• The Hurt Locker Written by Mark Boal
• Inglourious Basterds Written by Quentin Tarantino
• The Messenger Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
• A Serious Man Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

The winner:  The Hurt Locker
The verdict:  The Hurt Locker by a nose, but don’t count out Tarantino.

Animated Feature Film

• Coraline Henry Selick
• Fantastic Mr. Fox Wes Anderson
• The Princess and the Frog John Musker and Ron Clements
• The Secret of Kells Tomm Moore
• Up Pete Docter

The winner:  Up

Art Direction

• Avatar
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
• Nine
• Sherlock Holmes
• The Young Victoria

The winner:  Avatar

Cinematography

• Avatar Mauro Fiore
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Bruno Delbonnel
• The Hurt Locker Barry Ackroyd
• Inglourious Basterds Robert Richardson
• The White Ribbon Christian Berger

The winner:  The Hurt Locker
The verdict:  I wouldn’t mind seeing The White Ribbon win, but I’m a sucker for black-and-white.

Costume Design

• Bright Star Janet Patterson
• Coco before Chanel Catherine Leterrier
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Monique Prudhomme
• Nine Colleen Atwood
• The Young Victoria Sandy Powell

The winner:  Coco Before Chanel
The verdict:  Everyone in the know is picking The Young Victoria, but I need to be a contrarian somewhere.

Documentary (Feature)

• Burma VJ Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
• The Cove Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens
• Food, Inc. Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
• Which Way Home Rebecca Cammisa

The winner:  The Cove

Documentary (Short Subject)

• China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
• The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
• The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• Music by Prudence Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
• Rabbit à la Berlin Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

The winner:  Music by Prudence

Film Editing

• Avatar Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
• District 9 Julian Clarke
• The Hurt Locker Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
• Inglourious Basterds Sally Menke
• Precious Joe Klotz

The winner:  The Hurt Locker

Makeup

• Il Divo
• Star Trek
• The Young Victoria

The winner:  Star Trek
The verdict:  A well-liked sci-fi film (though I was lukewarm) gets its one Oscar.

Music (Original Score)

• Avatar James Horner
• Fantastic Mr. Fox Alexandre Desplat
• The Hurt Locker Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
• Sherlock Holmes Hans Zimmer
• Up Michael Giacchino

The winner:  Up
The verdict:  Michael Giacchino’s score was just terrific.

Music (Original Song)

• Almost There (from “The Princess and the Frog,” by Randy Newman)
• Down in New Orleans (from “The Princess and the Frog,” by Randy Newman)
• Loin de Paname (from “Paris 36,” by Reinhardt Wagner, Frank Thomas)
• Take It All (from “Nine,” by Maury Yeston)
• The Weary Kind (Theme from “Crazy Heart”) (by Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett)

The winner:  The Weary Kind
The verdict:  I’m not sure it was the best song in the film, but it’s the best of the nominees.

Short Film (Animated)

• French Roast
• Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
• The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
• Logorama
• A Matter of Loaf and Death

The winner:  A Matter of Loaf and Death
The verdict:  Never bet against Nick Park.

Short Film (Live Action)

• The Door
• Instead of Abracadabra
• Kavi
• Miracle Fish
• The New Tenants

The winner:  Kavi
The verdict:  Picking winners when you haven’t seen the films is a little like picking racehorses based on their names. 

Sound Editing

• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Star Trek
• Up

The winner:  Avatar

Sound Mixing

• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Star Trek
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The winner:  Avatar

Visual Effects

• Avatar
• District 9
• Star Trek

The winner:  Avatar

This is the last day of February, which gives my son great joy.  He got to mark off another day on the calendar and turn the page to the next month.  March has a cool picture of a Mustang.  He doesn’t know what a Mustang is—he’s four—but he’s excited about it anyway.

Expect the excitement to pick up in Hollywood this week.  Next Sunday we’ll know who the winners are, finally.  Which means a week of hype and predictions and office pools and rumors and gossip and loss of all perspective about what it all means.  I’ll try to be careful what I watch and what I read.  It’s the silly season.

Awards, in a way, are silly to begin with, and awards for making movies are even sillier.  I understand the need for champions in sports; there you have competitors whose sole focus is to win.  Movies operate in a very different realm.  A movie isn’t made to beat anything else but to engage and entertain its audience.  Yes, some movies do that well and some don’t, and I appreciate the need to recognize excellence.  Some effort goes into making the Oscars about quality, but there are so many other factors at play, and the nature of determining what’s best is so inexact anyway, that the awards are often, if not usually, about something else. 

The Oscars started as a p.r. campaign for the industry, and it’s been a very effective one at that.  The Oscars are the best promotion that the film industry has ever dreamed up.  The Oscars get people’s attention, even people who don’t go to movies often.  I’m glad for that.  I’m glad the movie business gets three or four hours of prime-time TV to promote itself.  Even when the show stinks, it’s still a great advertisement for the movies. 

I wish somehow the awards didn’t mean so much.  But since they do, I wish they’d pick better winners.  I’d like to say I take it all with a sense of detachment, that I don’t take it too seriously.  I should know better.  How often have I been disappointed.  But this is what happens.  I start reading stuff.  I start thinking:  this year they’re gonna get it right.  This year—yes, this year, at last!—they’re going to do the right thing and agree with me! 

You’ll have to excuse me.  If I didn’t get excited, it wouldn’t be the Oscars.

The Hurt Locker won six BAFTA Awards last night in London.  The acting honors, no surprise (and with no argument), went to two Brits.  Here is a rundown of the major prizes:

Best Film — The Hurt Locker
Best Director — Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Outstanding British Film — Fish Tank, Kees Kasander, Nick Laws, Andrea Arnold
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer — Duncan Jones (Director), Moon
Best Leading Actor — Colin Firth, A Single Man
Best Leading Actress — Carey Mulligan, An Education
Best Supporting Actor — Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress — Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Original Screenplay — The Hurt Locker, Mark Boal
Best Adapted Screenplay — Up in the Air, Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner
Best Animated Film — Up, Pete Docter
Best Film Not in English Language — A Prophet, Pascal Caucheteux, Marco Cherqui, Alix Raynaud, Jacques Audiard

Avatar won two awards, for production design and visual effects.

Notable line of the night was from Colin Firth:

Firth drew laughs by thanking “the fridge guy” in his acceptance speech, that being the refrigerator repairman who knocked on his door just as he was about to shoot an e-mail to director Tom Ford declining the role of a bereaved gay professor.

“All I know is, don’t ever press ‘send’ until you have had your fridge repaired,” Firth said.

 A recap of awards handed out earlier in the season is here.