Welcome to 2013. Aside from the NFL Playoffs (although…wait… hockey is back just in time to fill in that pre-baseball void making everything alright with the world!), the top race to watch grow, speculate on and bet against is that of the Academy Awards. As with every year there are the sure things and the surprises. The surprises, of course, are what make you take that second breath and make the whole process fun, especially, and mostly in hindsight, when those surprises turn out to be the better choice. After all, as hopefully everyone can now admit, CRASH was a much-better film than BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.
As the nominations are about to be officially announced, I’d like to take the time to send out a few reminders to Academy for their consideration.
From New Zealand With Love
The HOBBIT trilogy will most likely follow the same golden path as that of its big brother predecessor, The LORD OF THE RINGS, and bag all of the Lonely Mountain’s gold in two years hence with Film, Screenplay, Director and, hopefully, Actor (in Martin Freeman) all gaining top honors. However, the Academy should at least recognize the years of pre-production work prior to filming all during MGM’s financial restructuring – work that was helmed and meticulously overseen by one Peter Jackson. Let’s not make this chap have to wait an additional two years.
Supporting Should Not Mean Forgotten
Think quick, fanboy: what was the best part of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES? Answer: Sir Michael Caine. Caine not only nailed the personae of Bruce Wayne’s aide de-camp and moral guidance in Alfred Pennyworth, but he gave the audience a reason to listen to his words, witness his dream, and see the love for his son. His character’s presence was notably missed during the film’s lengthy third-act. He presented solemn sorrow at the titular funeral, while giving hope and joy in his character’s conclusion.
The only other well-presented father figure in film this year was Robert DeNiro’s electric presence in the otherwise mild SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.
And Christoph Waltz’s nomination is already in the bag. Right?
Remember the Avatar – and District 9 for that matter
The Academy does not despise Sci-Fi. Okay, they don’t often recognize it either outside of the Technical Achievement categories but hey, even Rush made it to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame this year, so, similar to Princess Leia’s plea, there is always hope.
PROMETHEUS, then, although not quite reaching the levels of hype and anticipation, was still a cool SF piece with a fantastic look about it. And just as cool was star Noomi Rapace who, alien abortion scene notwithstanding, proved that she was the perfect successor – or perhaps predecessor seeing as how this film is a prequel – to Sigourney Weaver’s action star with acting chops. Also not to be forgotten is Michael Fassbender’s David who was as chilling as Lance Henriksen’s Bishop was cool. Fassbender being no stranger to nominations with a… ahem… swing to it.
Can the Avengers get some love?
Okay, the AVENGERS already have received love, in fact, 623 million bits of love. And although the film won’t be delighting in the honorifics of its acting achievements, where its most memorable performance belongs to a CG-generated gamma giant, writer-director Joss Whedon deserves his props.
As a director, Joss Whedon worked within one of the biggest of studio machines – Disney no less – while creating output that was pleasing to fanboy and tagalong wife alike and appeared… fresh. As a screenwriter, Joss scripted eight A-type characters, each with a unique presence, added as many punch lines as there were punches, threw in the occasional Gen-X pop culture reference, and made the audience cheer (loudly) for the aforementioned CG behemoth.
Whedon has mad skills. More often than not, mad skills do not win Oscar statuettes, but gaining another “Nominated” tagline added to your name raises eyebrows.
Oscar nominations are released on Thursday, 10 January. Certainly there will be many, and all-too worthy, toasts exclaiming, “ARGO (see the move to complete the toast)…”.
I plan to exclaim at least one of those toasts.
As always,
theJOE
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