Final Oscar Predictions in All Categories

For the very first time in a long time I'm not passionately invested in any of the nominees this year. With exception of 2; Viola Davis in Best Actress because of her eloquence so far at acceptance speeches and TV appearances. But mostly because of her emotionally piercing performance that elevated a movie that had no right being this good.

The other nominee is A Separation, the best movie of 2011 bar none. Hopefully it will win Foreign Language and my day would be great if it rightfully wins Best Screenplay. I believe that screenplay is the most brilliant in bringing in new narrative structure since Pulp Fiction 17 years ago.

The best films of the year, in my opinion, were Drive, Shame, Weekend and of course A Separation. Of course the Academy ignored almost all of them. I'll be watching hoping for some funny moments and great speeches but apart from the 2 I mention above I don't care who wins.

Finally here are my predictions in all categories. I plan to win that pool this year!

Picture : The Artist
Director : Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Actor : Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Actress : Viola Davis - The Help
Supp Actor : Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Supp actress : Octavia Spencer - The Help
Org Screenplay : Midnight in Paris
Adapted Screenplay : The Descendants
Foreign Language Film : A Separation
Animated Feature : Rango
Original Score : The Artist
Original Song : Man or Muppet
Art Direction : Hugo
Cinematography : The Tree of Life
Costume Design : The Artist
Makeup : The Iron Lady
Documentary Feature : Paradise Lost
Sound Mixing : Hugo
Sound Editing : Hugo
Visual Effects : Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Editing : The Artist
Animated Short : The Fantastic Flying Books
Live Action Short : Tuba Atlantic
Doc Short : Saving Face

RIP Whitney

It's not right and it's not OK. There are just no words. Whitney and her songs have been a part of my life always. It is such a sad sad day. I don't think another celebrity death has ever hit me so hard.

Meryl Streep - Villian

Meryl Streep is in a neck to neck race with Viola Davis for best actress this year. I'm on Viola's side all the way. While both movies are not great, The Help was moving entertainment that I enjoyed. The Iron Lady was a terrible movie with Meryl being its only redeeming factor. I call it "Too Much Old Lady". Why chose to spend so much time with a totally fictionalized period of Thatcher's life when there is so much more to choose from? Meryl please better movie next time.

I'd like Streep to play a totally unsympathetic character. She went there slightly with Plenty, A Cry in THe Dark and She-Devil. Here is my fantasy : an aging former mob moll who is now a vicious contract killer out to kill her former boss. Get Martin McDonagh to write and direct, Morgan Freeman to play the mob boss and Joel Edgerton & Dominic Cooper to play his henchmen who are chasing her. Joseph Gordon Levitt to play her long lost son. She gets to curse and swear &kill mercilessly in long elaborate action scenes. I even have a title "Killing Sophie".

Would you see this?

My Final Oscar Predictions

The Oscars are tomorrow! My fave day of the year. I've been very lax this season with the blog. You can find me on twitter though @ME_Says.

Here are my predictions:
BEST PICTURE
Only predicting 6, I'm thinking the big 5 plus Tree of Life because there are passionate lovers of that movie.

The Artist
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Tree Of Life

BEST DIRECTOR
Again passion brings in Malick, remember The Thin Red Line?
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne The Descendants
Terence Malick, Tree Of Life
Martin Scorsese Hugo
Woody Allen Midnight in Paris

BEST ACTRESS
I'm thinking Close gets in for her strong "it took me forever to make this happen " storyline and Rooney because that movie is a hit. Sorry Tilda.
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

BEST ACTOR
Leo is in!
Leonard Di Caprio, J Edgar
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
George Clooney, The Descendants
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
Michael Fassbender, Shame

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
I'm thinking Woodley gets left behind. We will see.
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Meh. What happened here, only Plummer & Brooks deserve to be here.
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Albert Brooks, Drive
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
Nick Nolte, Warrior

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Wishful thinking on my part for A Separation one of my faves of the year.
Will Reiser, 50/50
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Ashgar Farhadi, A Separation

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, The Descendants
Steven Zaillian, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Tate Taylor, The Help
John Logan, Hugo
Stan Chervin, Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, Moneyball

What I Saw at Tribeca

My latest on Film Misery is up, notes on a few movies I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The most indelible image though is that of Rifdha (pictured above), a brave smart precocious 10 year from the Maldives. She is one of 3 young contestants at a Koran reciting competition at the heart of Koran by Heart, a documentary from HBO. She was at the screening and I felt such warmth towards her. I wanted to protect her dreams and help her accomplish them. That movie was the most inspiring I've seen in awhile.

Read more here.

Summer Movies

I don't much care for summer movies. They tend to be dominated by my least favourite genre, superhero and/or big action movies. I admit some superhero movies are OK, The first X-Men , The Dark Night. But most are just intolerable. And the last Michael Bay film I saw was Bad Boys.

So for this summer 2 movies excite me. Bridesmaids and One Day. I guess I dig chick flicks.

Bridesmaids just looks so funny. I laugh out loud through the trailer. Watch Kristin Wiig's reaction when she's told she's "the worst bridesmaid". Priceless. Or when she says "I'm ready to parrrrty". I bet you are doubling down laughing.There is another trailer that I couldn't find in which John Hamm appears, and any movie with the dapper Draper is one I can't wait to see.



As for One Day, my anticipation stems from the fact that I loved the book on which it is based. No wonder these rights were swept up so soon, the book begs for cinematic interpretation. Reading it I could imagine a movie easily as it was written very cinematically. And the writer David Nicholls wrote the adaptation. Plus Lone Sherfig, who had such a sterling debut with An Education, is directing.Finally the lovely Anne Hathaway is starring. So yes count me in.


What are you most loking forward to this summer?

How gay is Mildred Pierce?

Let's count the ways how this mini series is gay:

- directed by queer filmmaker Todd Haynes.
- a "woman's" story.
- original movie starred Joan Crawford, queen of the big gestures and the overripe drama i.e. gay gay gay.
- Kate Winslet is admittedly not much of a gay icon but she is an actress who has been nominated several times and won an Oscar. So she's kinda gay.
- Melissa Leo has a supporting role. Again the Oscar angle.
- The trailer is all about the period detail, costumes and art direction. Very gay.
- Haynes made the very gay Far From Heaven which was based on the dramas of possibly one of the gayest directors, Douglas Sirk.
- Me and many of my friends are super excited about this. That is very gay.

The only not gay thing is that I feel like I should get HBO, 3 years after I unplugged.

And by the way saying something is gay is the highest compliment I can give.

RIP Liz

Haven't seen Liz as Martha yet. Have to do that this week.

More More More

I answer a few questions including which Cate Blanchett performance I like best over at Film Experience.

Plus you'll find more of my articles here, at Film Misery.