Oscar Nominations = Pie in the Sky Wishing and Hoping

The Oscar nominations are announced tomorrow morning!

Even though fuck the Oscars, really, it's also sort of interesting and exciting only insomuch as it's important to others and thus interesting to discuss. Particularly because this year I've seen more movies than any year previous.

So I thought I'd make a list not of my predictions because hell if I know, but rather a list of what I'd really love to see happen tomorrow morning.  What would be fair and right, if Hollywood had those words in its vocabulary.

Best Foreign Language:

My favorite foreign films of last year were Planet of Snail, Polisse and Kid With a Bike.  None of these made it onto the short list of nine films that have a hope of being nominated. I'm not sure they were even eligible.

Of those nine films I've only seen four, the best of which is already the favorite to win (Amour).  As long as none of the four I've seen are passed over for The Intouchables (which was good, not great) I'll be happy.

Best Documentary:

My favorite documentary of 2012 was The Invisible War, an emotional, maddening, tragic, informative, and ultimately influential film about rape in the military that actually lead to changes in policy after it was shown to a few senators on Capitol Hill.   Thankfully, this film is on the short list of 15 docs that have a chance of a nomination.

I'll be happy with any nomination list that includes The Invisible War.  And I hate to begrudge any documentary's success since I'm such a passionate appreciator of the genre.  That said, I don't understand the rallying around Bully.  That film took on such a monumentally important topic and turned it into a mediocre film, at best.   The subject deserved much better.  I also wasn't blown away by Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God nor did I love Detropia like I was hoping to. Ethel is another doc garnering fanfare I can't quite understand.  Good films, but not of the caliber of the remainder of the list - standouts like How To Survive a Plague, The House I Live In and The Impostor.

I did not see This Is Not A Film, and I am ashamed for every passing day that continues to be true.  I wish they'd show it somewhere before the awards.

Best Animated Feature:

Didn't see enough of these to care, beyond loving Wreck-It Ralph and being total underwhelmed by Frankenweenie.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Beasts of the Southern Wild please! Please! If not that, Lincoln. If not that, anything but Silver Linings Playbook.

Best Original Screenplay:

Take This Waltz? Would never happen, but a girl can dream.

Best Supporting Actress:

Pulling for Ann Dowd to make it onto the list. Compliance all the way.  Is Anette Bening eligible for Ginger & Rosa? I guess that is next year.

It would be pretty awesome if they nominated Nicole Kidman for The Paperboy since it would show a funny side of the Academy that I didn't think existed before.  'Cause surely nobody would want to legitimately recognize that movie or her performance in any serious way, right? I mean.

Best Supporting Actor:

I would be pretty jazzed if Javier Bardem got recognized for Skyfall.  Beyond that I've got to keep rooting for Beasts of the Southern Wild. I think Dwight Henry has a chance.

Best Actress:

Quvenzhane Wallis from Beasts of the Southern Wild was great, of course, and I would be tickled to see a nomination just because I think the film deserves as many accolades as it can collect.  That said, I also think it's a bit silly to revere the performance of a six year old.  She was great, yes, and I fully expect her to have a storied career. But I'd probably owe most of her greatness to the director.

From there, I'd say Marion Cotillard from Rust and Bone, and Emayatzy Corinealdi from Middle of Nowhere. 

Or how about just anyone except Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook.

Best Actor:

I'm good as long as DDL and Joaquin make it in.

Best Director:

In my dreams, Sarah Polley for Take This Waltz.   Venturing back to the world of the even remotely possible though?  It's all about the Andersons.  PT and Wes.

Obviously Benh Zeitlin for Beasts.  Obviously.

Best Picture:

I will be just delighted if Beasts of the Southern Wild makes it into the final list.

My Year in Repertory Cinema

For as long as I can remember, I have been deservedly derided by my friends for having seen so few classics, despite being such a huge movie person. This was the year I decided to start to change that.  Slowly, of course – it’s an uphill battle at this point. Plus, it’s harder for me because I fail miserably at watching movies at home.  It’s just not my ideal environment – too many tempting distractions, and I cannot abide watching films with distractions.  That leaves me with theatrical experiences. But, I’m in luck; I live in the best city in the world for seeing older films.    

 

I wound up seeing around 42 “older movies” in theaters this year – mostly at the IFC Center, but also The Film Forum, Museum of the Moving Image and MoMA.

To be fair, I also saw Goodfellas and The Game this year, but not in a theater. Loved them both, especially the latter.  Oh, and I also watched Ghostbusters for the first time.  Twice!  It’s hard to appreciate a movie like that as much as I know I would have if I’d seen it as a kid – but I do at least totally “get” what the fuss is about.

I took advantage of some awesome programming from local movie houses – my favorite of which being the Universal 100 this summer at the Film Forum, where they showed multiple double features in honor of Universal’s 100^th anniversary. I saw my first, second and third Douglas Sirk films as a part of that. Such good stuff.

 

But, the IFC Center also spoiled me by showing a different Alfred Hitchcock film every weekend at 11 AM for months in a row. Of his notable ones I missed Rope, The Birds, Dial M for Murder and The Man Who Knew Too Much.

I want next year to be an even better year for me in terms of catching up on classics.  Also, I’m going to make an effort to improve my watch-at-home habits. And also to improve my keeping track of my watch-at-home habits. 

Here are a few notable “bests:”

Best Hitchcock (of the 11 I saw for the first time in 2012): Vertigo

Most Embarrassing Confession:  This was the year I finally saw Back to the Future 1 and 2

“What’s the Big Deal” Award: American Graffiti. Meh!

Most Fun: Miami Connection

Top Five Overall

5. Wake in Fright

4. Annie Hall

3. Imitation of Life

2. Vertigo

1. Three Colors: Red

Also amazing were Life is Sweet, The Conversation, Psycho, L’Enfant, Nashville, Oldboy, The Battle of Algiers, To Catch a Thief, Rebecca, Rosemary’s Baby

Here's the full list of older movies I saw theatrically in 2012:

Zelig

L'Enfant

Life is Sweet

Marathon Man

Annie Hall

The Conversation

Nashville

Oldboy

Funny Face

Murder!

The Battle of Algiers

Cape Fear

Shadow of a Doubt

Saboteur

Psycho

To Catch a Thief

The 39 Steps

Rear Window

Lifeboat

Hello, Dolly

Imitation of Life

American Graffiti

Vertigo

Baraka

Magnificent Obsession

Written on the Wind

Rebecca

Big River Man

Wake in Fright

Miami Connection

Robocop

The Spy Who Loved Me

Gasland

Torn Curtain

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Rosemary's Baby

ExistenZ

Three Colors: Red

Annie

Back to the Future

Back to the Future 2

Ninotchka

The Ones that Got Away

As I prepare to write some kind of summary post wrapping up all my cinematic adventures this year (a top ten list, sure... but  more) I am reminded that despite the high octane film consumption these past twelve months, there were a handful that simply slipped between my fingers.

Here's my list of movies I meant to see and just didn't manage.  I am aware that oceans separate some of these in terms of quality. Nevertheless, they were either at one point high enough on my list that I still want to see them despite bad reviews, or never made it onto my radar, but now need to be:

A Royal Affair

Almayer's Folly

Being Flynn

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel

Girl Walk//All Day

Goon

Killer Joe

Lola Versus

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Sing Your Song

Sister

Ted

The Bay

The Color Wheel

The Flat

The Grey

The Turin Horse

This Is Not a Film

To Rome with Love

Walk Away Renee

I would say that the three I want to see before any other are This Is Not a Film, Killer Joe and Girl Walk//All Day.  This Is Not a Film is the only documentary on the shortlist that I have not seen, which is pretty embarrassing considering it played for a long time at the Film Forum just down the street from my apartment.

I welcome comments shaming me for not seeing some of these, or steering me clear of some of the bad ones.   I particularly encourage comments advising me how I can see This Is Not A Film immediately.

Movies Left to See in 2012

Here go all the movies I hope to see this year still, in theaters:

Out Now:

On the Road
A Late Quartet
A Royal Affair
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel
Hyde Park on Hudson
Jack Reacher
The Guilt Trip
This Is 40
The Impossible

Out next week:

Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Promised Land
Tabu

Very tentative Sundance schedule

If all goes well, here's my schedule. Blue means that I have a ticket. Everything else is still needed.

Jan 17^th:

May in the Summer (MAYIN17CE)

Twenty Feet from Stardom (TWENT17CN)

Jan 18^th:

Who Is Dayani Cristal?

God Loves Uganda

Sound City

Circles

Pussy Riot, No, or a party (?)

We Are What We Are

January 19^th:

Don Jon’s Addiction

Touchy Feely

I Used to Be Darker

Cutie and the Boxer

Blackfish (BFISH19TN)

S-VHS

January 20^th:

Breathe In

Milkshake

The East (EASTT20CA)

Stoker (STOKE20CE)

Before Midnight (BEFOR20CN)

January 21^st:

?? The Crash Reel or naps

Toy’s House

Pitstop

Google and the World Brain (GOOGL21PE)

Charlie Victor Romeo

Blue Caprice

January 22^nd:

The Way, Way Back

The Spectacular Now

In a World…

Houston

Lasting

Magic Magic

January 23^rd:

?? Pussy Riot, TBA, Kill your Darlings or Lovelace

Interior, Leather Bar

Documentary Shorts Program 1

Newlyweeds

After Tiller

Ass Backwards

January 24^th:

A.C.O.D.

99%

Soldate Jeanette

Escape from Tomorrow

Citizen Koch

The Rambler

January 25^th:

Aint Them Bodies Saints

Running from Crazy

The Lifeguard

This Is Martin Bonner

Gideon’s Arm

Kink

January 26^th:

C.O.G.

Concussion

Upstream Color

The World According to Dick Cheney

Mud

The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman

January 27^th:

?? TBD

?? TBD

?? TBD

?? TBD

Movies I need to see

No matter how many movies I see, I always seem to be behind on key titles!

Here's what's on my must-see list for this weekend, in order of urgency.   I've got to accept that I may just not fit them all in, I'm afraid.

1. Middle of Nowhere
2. Skyfall
3. Killing Them Softly
4. Anna Karenina
5. All the Romanian movies playing @FilmLinc except those I’ve already seen
6. A Royal Affair
7. Walk Away Renee
8. The Flat
9. Hitchcock
10. Rise of the Guardians
11. Lincoln again
12. Cloud Atlas again

The sheer size of that list is grounds for requiring at least a four-day weekend.    Gonna go work on trying to figure out how to stop time. 

In the meantime, suggest revisions to the order of that list and/or let me know if you want to join me!

Minnesota Movie Madness - Catch Up Post!

While I have every intention to actually update this blog less frequently, I am nonetheless compelled to mention my last week or so of movie consumption.

Thanksgiving found me thousands of miles away from my home, the documentary-laden cinematic paradise that is New York City. I spent the holiday with my folks in Saint Paul, MN, which is far from a wasteland for a movie-lover, but certainly the list of choices is just a bit shorter than my spoiled self is used to. No worries - I saved a pile of mainstream titles for this reason only.

And you know what? It ended up being a pretty good movie week.

First of all, I got to meet my Twitter pal Chris and chat about film over a cup of coffee. Something tells me he's quite pleased tonight, his favorite film of the year (still, I think?) having won the Best Feature at the Gotham Awards. (Moonrise Kingdom!)

I'm also glad to have caught up on five movies I wasn't about to miss. Those are:

Flight - which I saw thanks to my old friend Nick dropping by unexpected and whisking me away to the theater in the middle of a tense day on the home front. Flight was honestly a little better than expected. It's fair to compare it to a Lifetime movie, or worse, an after school special. You can't get around that. But aside from the shmaltz, it was a solid performance and what everyone says about that crash landing is dead on - harrowing stuff. I did struggle to understand the film wanted to make about religion. It was brought up too much to be an accident, but I didn't see an over-arching point or resolution to where it started to go with it.

Lincoln - My favorite of the weekend and definitely one of the best of the year. I totally screwed up going to this by myself since my parents would have been floored by this one. I did make them promise they'd go see it. I was thinking this was gonna be a lot more accessible than it was, and I found it being meatier, smarter, and actually even funnier than I was expecting. There were a few flourishes that did leave me with a "yeah this was made with Oscars in mind" but I thought those would punctuate every scene, and there were only a handful. I'm actually hoping to see this again.

Silver Linings Playbook - Could NOT have been more excited about this one. Jackie Weaver is basically the absolute best, it won the big prize at TIFF, AND it has Jennifer Lawrence running around in skimpy clothes? Where do I sign? I was trying to temper my expectations but almost everyone I knew (except a contrarian or two) was raving. Guys - I just don't get it. Not only what was the big deal about this movie, but where's the outrage? C'mon! We're smarter than this! And the movie was, too, for a good 45 minutes! You don't go from being that realistic (and trust me, I know, that shit was a little TOO real) to the complete fairy tale unrealistic "you've gotta be kidding me" lobotomy that got dumped on us. I'm genuinely curious as to how that even happened. Failures on so many levels. And I get why the general population bought it. My parents even came around at the end and left with that "awww!" look on their faces. But I can't help but raise an eyebrow at the super positive critical response. What do I know, I guess. Expect some snarky tweets if this one gets any major awards. Not now, guys, not in SUCH a jam-packed-with-quality year.

Wreck-It Ralph - This one wasn't even on my radar but I read a few super-positive tweets about it and figured it would make a good Dor/Micah girls night out. My niece is eight (and a half!) and perfectly willing to take a break from Angry Birds on my iPad for long enough to see a movie. What a satisfying ride. I loved the visuals and the voices and the concept overall. It could have been weird or bad but it was instead executed nearly perfectly, even if it did lose me ever so slightly in the third act. But, the eye candy and overall sweetness (pun intended) made it impossible to anything but adore this. Surprisingly great and more than anything, totally original.

Life of Pi - Didn't read the book. Don't know the story. Didn't see a trailer. Went because it's Ang Lee and because I thought my parents would dig it. They definitely went ape shit for the darn thing, and it gets no complaints from me either. Though I will happily kvetch about how my mom made an audible "awww!!!" sad little whimper every time something sad happened. I guess that's how I can tell she was engaged. Well that, and she turned to me half-way and whispered "This is really good!" Ah, sweet vindication. (I may or may not have mentioned that my mom is crazy particular about movies and I won't hear the end of it if I choose unwisely.)

My only movie-related regret of my Minnesota trip would be that I did not get a chance to visit the new Uptown theater, which has finally been renovated.

2012 - What a Great Year for Documentaries!

While I waited for my next screening at DocNYC to start, I took out my phone earlier today and tweeted something about it being such a great year for documentary film, that the Academy must allow for 15 nominees and 5 wins. Alas, if I ran the world!

That prompted some further discussion and a request for supporting evidence which I am more than happy to provide.

I've seen, at last count, about 90 documentary films this year - mostly at film festivals, so it's safe to say the bulk of them haven't been released yet. Do I make a list of just those that were shown in the US so far this year? Sure, OK. I'll do that, even though it excludes my two favorites.

So here's the best of what's come out this year, according to me.

The Invisible War
Planet of Snail
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Samsara
How To Survive a Plague
Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet
Beauty is Embarrassing
The Revisionaries

And while I wouldn't call them personal favorites (perhaps only by virtue of the crowded playing field) - also very good and totally worthy of praise would be Searching for Sugarman, The Queen of Versailles, The Impostor, West of Memphis, Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present, Chasing Ice.

And while I'm thinking of it, I also really enjoyed Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Health Care.

The movies I expect will be on my list next year, providing they are released:

The Act of Killing
Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Vivan Las Antipodas!
The Source
Rewind This! (Just kidding - I haven't seen that one yet, though I have no doubt it's a masterpiece)

I'll probably see another 20 docs this year (12 more this week alone) so I wouldn't call this my definitive "best docs of 2012 list" just yet.

Doc NYC Adventures Thus Far

Annoying cell-phone users (and a few loud late-comers I haven't mentioned yet) notwithstanding, I have had a lovely experience at Doc NYC so far.

It's my first year attending this festival which seems to have been created and set up just for me.  A week of documentary film, including several hot titles I regrettably missed at other festivals?  Held at the IFC Center, mere blocks from my apartment? YES, PLEASE.

I've caught three films so far - Venus and Serena, Ethel and Bettie Page Reveals All.  Enjoyed aspects of all three - Ethel stands out as the best one so far. I've been so far struck by the passionate audiences and the relative ease / low stress element of attending screenings.

I'll write more later about my impressions of the films and the sheer awesomeness of the festival.

Anybody in New York who doesn't have their tickets already should be planning on seeing what all is still available for the rest of the festival which goes until the 17th.  Do not miss out! As for me, I am super psyched to see West of Memphis tomorrow, The Central Park Five next week, and like 15 more movies in between.

Know what else I am super excited for? Getting exactly six hours of sleep before my alarm goes off tomorrow for a five-movie day.  But don't worry - if I get tired, I'll just wake myself up by taking flash pictures of my last movie.  That doesn't bother anyone, right?

Bad Behavior at the Movies

Tonight I can say I've seen it all.  I thought I had seen it all before, but I was wrong. Now, I've seen everything.

Nearly sold-out crowd for a midnight documentary.  People are jazzed up. Some are dressed up like the subject, as a kind of tribute. Everyone's cheering for the intro, folks are into the movie.

So everyone will behave, right? Surely they've come to actually, I don't know, watch the movie?

Not so fast. Two people seemed to have other agendas. Mr. Texto on the left, several rows in front of me, lost focus with the film not even 15 minutes in, and instead of having the decency to just graciously nod off, the emboldened sonofabitch thought he might see if anything on his mobile phone could entertain him further. Answer, unfortunately, was yes, as he proceeded to distract himself (and ~100 of his fellow movie-goers) every ten minutes for the next hour.

But our little attention-deficit poster child only gets takes the 2nd place trophy in the Most Annoying Person at the Midnight Movie contest I was holding in my own mind tonight.

No no - the big prize goes to Sally McSnapperson who, I presume, loved the movie so much that she felt the need to further document it by taking photographs with the camera of her smartphone.  She held the damned thing up to the light a few times, and an eager audience of filmgoers watched that shutter close more than once.  Sad news, though - the pics didn't turn out to her liking.  Don't worry though, guys, she wasn't going to give up that easily.  She could do better. The flash! She switched that feature on and went to town.  I'd say ten flash pictures from a two-minute period of the film are now sitting idly in her phone, ready for her to swipe through fondly as she rides the subway back to New Jersey or wherever the hell she crawled out of.

I'd now like to address the people sitting to her immediate left and right, as well as the full row directly behind her.  Were you just a bunch of raging pussies, or had someone actually bound your fingers for some reason, rendering you completely incapable of tapping the budding shutterbug?  I won't hear any excuses of just being too drawn into the film to have noticed it, because even if such captivation was possible, this was not the film to inspire such a comment.

Yours truly was of course the brave soul who wandered from the back row of the theater down to the middle of the third row to tap the crazy person on the shoulder and hiss "EXCUSE ME BUT THE LIGHT FROM YOUR CAMERA IS EXTREMELY DISTRACTING." She gave me a look of immediate compliance mixed with pure mortification that indicated it hadn't crossed her mind that there were other actual humans sharing the same space as she.

Because I'm a good person I will choose to forgive, but I will never forget.