Oscar Rankings and Predictions

The Oscars are this Sunday... finally! While I'm happy this year is a bit unpredictable, it's also not fun because I KNOW I'm going to lose on my Oscar ballot at my party this weekend. Anyway, this is the first year that I've seen almost everything nominated in the main 6 six categories (I'm only missing 4 out of 34). So, here are my rankings in each of those categories (from best to worst, obviously) as well as my (probably) terrible predictions.

Best Picture
01. Zero Dark Thirty
02. Argo
03. Beasts of the Southern Wild
04. Django Unchained
05. Silver Linings Playbook
06. Life of Pi
07. Lincoln
08. Les Miserables
09. Amour (N/A)
Who Will Win: It seems momentum has shifted away from Lincoln (the borefest) and towards Argo. The only problem with this is that I actually would like it if Argo won so it probably won't. None of the films I have wanted to win has done so in the past few years. So I'm going with Lincoln because that (besides Les Mis pulling off some super upset) is the option that would piss me off the most.
Dark Horse: I think Argo, Silver Linings Playbook and Life of Pi could all conceivably win in this category. (And I would prefer any of those to Lincoln).

Best Director
01. Ang Lee - Life of Pi
02. Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
03. David O'Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
04. Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
05. Michael Haneke - Amour (N/A)
Who Will Win: Since Ben Affleck has won every other award and he's not even nominated here, again, it's hard to say. I'm thinking it's down to Spielberg and Lee at this point.
Dark Horse: Michael Haneke is a bad ass and so revered that he could probably pull off the upset.

Best Actor
01. Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
02. Denzel Washington - Flight
03. Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
04. Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
05. Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables
Who WilL Win: Day-Lewis has got his third Oscar all locked up.
Dark Horse: I guess if there's an upset, it will be Phoenix. But besides Adele winning Best Song for Skyfall, this is the nights biggest lock.

Best Actress
01. Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
02. Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
03. Q. Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
04. Naomi Watts - The Impossible
05. Emanuelle Riva - Amour (N/A)
Who Will Win: Again, who even knows. This category seems pretty wide open between Lawrence vs. Chastain vs. Riva.
Dark Horse: I'm still leaning towards Watts pulling off the big upset. Anyone with kids will likely vote for her.

Best Supporting Actor
01. Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
02. Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
03. Robert DeNiro - Silver Linings Playbook
04. Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
05. Alan Arkin - Argo
Who Will Win: I have no freaking idea... Jones??
Dark Horse: Again, I can see any one of these guys winning. This has to be the most wide open, unpredictable category of the night.

Best Supporting Actress
01. Amy Adams - The Master
02. Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables
03. Sally Field - Lincoln
04. Jacki Weaver - Silver Linings Playbook
05. Helen Hunt - The Sessions (N/A)
Who Will Win: Hathaway, who will give another terribly earnest speech which will remind me again why I just can't give in to liking her.
Dark Horse: Field could certainly win this thing. But this seems like a two person race more than anything.

Side Effects

Word on the internet is that Side Effects will mark Steven Soderbergh's final time behind the camera. And if this is true, it's a shame. Not because he's choosing to retire. Soderbergh has created a well rounded, acclaimed body of work and if he wants to retire to focus on other interests or roll around in his piles of money, then good for him. It's a shame because Side Effects is just so underwhelming. I'm not saying it's a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I truly wanted Soderbergh to go out on top and this just didn't do it for me. It's being sold as a taut thriller with twists and turns. Well, for anyone who has ever seen a movie or a really good TV show, for that matter, the twists and turns are evitable and predictable. Plus, any sort of thrilling feeling this movie delivers is all but ruined by a convaluted mess of an ending.

Side Effects is the story of Emily (Rooney Mara). She is just a young bartender in New York City when she meets a charming young man (Channing Tatum) who, I guess, works on Wall Street. Soon, she has everything she has ever wanted - the house in Connecticut, the fancy cars, the beautiful clothes, the money, a yacht. Her life is like a dream... until her perfect husband gets arrested for insider training and sentenced to four years in prison. Upon his release, Emily is thrown into a world of deep depression, cries for help, and suicide attempts. After she rams her car into a concrete wall, she begins to see a shrink (Jude Law) who helps her with a combination of therapy and pills. But, these pills have ever increasing side effects and, well, that's all I can say about the plot without giving anything away. And while I thought the end sort of ruined the movie, I won't give it away.

Side Effects wants to be a Hitchcock movie but Hitchcock was a master story teller and a master at creating thrills and expense, and while Soderbergh is a solid story teller, he's maybe just a novice with the whole suspense thing. The only character I ever truly felt invested in was Law's shrink and based soley on the fact that I find Law creepy and untrustworthy, I kept waiting for him to be found guilty of something awful, like child pornography or beating cats or something (that being said, Law is the best thing about Side Effects). Side Effects also wants to have a really great OMG moment like The Usual Suspects or Primal Fear but it lacks the cleverness of one and the intellect of the other (I'll let you decide which is which).

The performances are very hit or miss. I always found Catherine Zeta-Jones to be a little hit or miss for my taste. I find her general ability to always over act to only be suited for certain roles - say, Chicago - but, it's definitely not right for this. She's too campy and femme fatale. This is not a 60s noir movie and her performance, while small, is distracting. Channing Tatum is fine if disposable. Rooney Mara, in her first big role since The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, proves why she is such a great talent. She is perfect for this sad, broken girl, although I would like to see her do a movie where she gets to smile once in a while. But it's Jude Law who is the stand out here. Even when seeming untrustworthy, he manages to put so much heart and soul into this character, you are completely invested in his future and decisions. It's the first solidly good performance of the year and it will likely spend a few months topping my Best Actor list.

So, basically Side Effects is what it is - a decent slow burn movie with an interesting concept and some good performances. It's not some great classic thriller and it is not going to live forever in your movie memories. It should not be a great director's swan song.

Grade: C+

Warm Bodies

My problem with Warm Bodies is sort of cyclical. I had little interest in the film, originally. Then I recently read the book. I thought the book was cute, funny and charming so it made me sort of excited to see the movie. Once I saw the movie, I felt like I might have enjoyed it more had I not read the book. If you've read the book, and liked the book, the main problem with the movie is that they change a lot of stuff, unnecessarily. A possible bigger problem is that they also dumbed it and watered it down quite a bit, but more on that later.

The zombie rom-com stars Nicholas Hoult as a zombie named R. He lives in an airport and, while he enjoys collecting records and listening to music, he mostly stands around and groans a lot. While on a hunting expedition in the city, he meets, falls for, and kidnaps Julie (Teresa Palmer). He brings the pretty blonde back to his airplane home and holds her hostage although she eventually sort of begins to like the quirky zombie. After a while, however, she decides she needs to head back to her home - a walled in stadium which is run by her militant dad (John Malkovich!). While R lets her go at first, he begins to realize that their love, or whatever, is changing not only himself but the other undead, so he decides to go win her heart.

Warm Bodies the book was a pleasant surprise - funny, charming, sweet and completely satisfying. Warm Bodies the movie has a lot of the same charm but, having recently finished the book, all the pointless changes were completely distracting. And it was things that didn't even need to be changed! In the book, R wears a red tie but in the movie they change it to a red hoodie. In the book, R goes searching for Julie because he loves her. In the movie, it's because he needs to warn her she is in danger. In the book, R has a zombie wife and kids. In the movie, they don't exist. The changes they make are totally silly and don't save any time, really. A big change I wasn't fond of was how R gets into the stadium to begin with. It's much more satisfying in the book. More than that though, Warm Bodies the movie seemed sort of dumbed down so it appealed to a more general audience. I'm not saying the book is particularly brilliant or mind bending or anything, but I definitely felt like the movie more aimed itself at pleasing a certain young teenage demographic. A lot of the jokes felt almost too jokey, if that makes sense.

Still, Warm Bodies isn't without it's good points, the main one being the great cast. Nicholas Hoult is absolutely perfectly cast as the droll, intellectual, funny, sweet zombie R. He is great in the role and I think he's about to have a huge year. Teresa Palmer is great as well, although he role seems more interchangeable. Anyone could have played Julie, although I think Hoult is perfectly cast as R. Analeigh Tipton (who I think would make a perfect Andie if they and when they make the Gone Girl movie... someone better take note of this because it's gold, casting wise!) is a great scene stealer in the small role of Julie's best friend Nora. Dave Franco brings the adorable Franco brother charm to the role of Julie's recently departed boyfriend. But it's John Malkovich, of course, who all but steals the show. It's sometimes hard to tell if he's being campy or not but that sort of Malkovich blend of acting works perfectly in this movie.

Overall, Warm Bodies isn't going to change the world, and come summer time, most people will probably have forgotten about it altogether. Still, it's a cute and fun way to pass a few hours on a cold winter's day.

Grade: C