My Oscars Reactions (17/24)

¨And the Oscar for Best Picture goes to Argo¨

Last night the 85^th Academy Awards were celebrated in a big way. Hollywood´s top actors made their way through the red carpet with a lot of glamour. I´m not a fashion expert so I won´t comment on who was wearing what, but I can say that everyone looked beautiful. The ceremony began with a monologue from first time host Seth MacFarlane who got some laughs out of the audience with his song ¨We saw your boobs¨ and with a sock puppet version of Flight while he was interrupted by Captain Kirk (William Shattner) who came from the future to warn him about his terrible hosting gig. He showed us some glimpses of what went wrong and MacFarlane tried to make amends by following Captain Kirk´s advice. The jokes were funny although not that irreverent as the Family Guy and Ted director has us used to. I still enjoyed his opening and I think he did a decent job hosting the Oscars, which once again ran about three and a half hours long. I know many people complain about the length of the ceremony, but I really enjoy this once a year event and loved every minute of it.

Despite opening with a surprise win for Christoph Waltz for best supporting actor, the Oscar were pretty predictable and the heavy favorites won. I loved Waltz´s performance, and he was my favorite in that category but I didn’t think the Academy would give him his second Oscar in three years. I was wrong, and I was happy about that. I was 17 for 24 in my predictions, but I knew some of the categories were going to be close races between one or two picks. So close in fact, that in one category we had a tie which hadn’t happened since the 1960´s. Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall shared the Oscar for Sound Editing. The biggest surprise of the night was Ang Lee´s victory over Steven Spielberg in the best director category. Life of Pi was one of my favorite movies of the year so I was very pleased once again with the Academy´s decision. The other categories I didn’t predict were both writing categories which did go to the favorites: Argo (adapted screenplay) and Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino). I loved Tarantino´s acceptance speech and this was his second win after Pulp Fiction. It was a long awaited win, but he finally got his moment. Brave beat Frankenweenie in the Best Animated category (a film I really didn’t like too much), Lincoln beat Anna Karenina in the Production Design category, and Inocente beat my pick Open Heart as the best short documentary. Those were my only misses; everything else went on as predicted.

Argo finally won for Best Picture and Ben Affleck got his redemption for not being included in the best director category since he was one of the producers of the film along with George Clooney. He gave one of the best speeches of the night and reminded the audience of how young he was when he won his first Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting. He never thought he would be back, but he made it and has proved to be one of the best directors of this last decade. Daniel Day Lewis won the Oscar for his portrayal of Lincoln and also gave a gracious speech. He is the only actor to have won 3 Oscars in a leading role. He made a joke about Meryl Streep who presented the award to him and his acceptance speech felt natural and authentic. Jennifer Lawrence was also a big winner as she won for her role in Silver Linings Playbook. She tripped while climbing up the stairs and also made fun of herself while accepting the award. She was gracious enough to congratulate Emmanuelle Riva on her 86^th birthday and was very classy. Anne Hathaway won for her performance in Les Miserables in the supporting role. Amour received love in the Foreign Language film category, and Searching for Sugar Man won best documentary (one of my favorite moments of the night because I really loved that doc). Adele was also a big winner for her song Skyfall which she got to perform live on the show. There was also a tribute for the 50 years of the James Bond franchise, and a tribute to musicals as well as we saw some of the cast from Chicago, Dreamgirls, and Les Miserables perform.

The awards were pretty much scattered throughout as there wasn’t one movie to take home a lot of awards as it usually happens. This is because there were a lot of strong contenders this year. Life of Pi was the big winner of the night as it took home 4 Oscars (Director, Visual Effects, Cinematography, and Original Score), Argo 3 (Picture, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing), and Les Miserables also took home 3 Oscars (Actress in a Secondary Role, Sound Mixing, and Makeup) and Lincoln only managed to win 2 (Lead Actor and Production Design) out of the 12 nominations it had. Django Unchained won two as well (Original Script and Best Supporting Actor). Zero Dark Thirty and Silver Linings Playbook each took home one Oscar, so the only Best Picture nominee to leave empty handed was Beasts of the Southern Wild, but that small independent film was a winner simply by being nominated.

It was pretty much an even race, but Argo won the biggest prize of the night in a ceremony which I really enjoyed. I thought it was one of the best in recent memory. I don’t know why people watch the Oscars if they always complain about how bad and long it is; I watch them because I really enjoy them. My favorite moments were the big acceptance speeches from Ben Affleck, Daniel Day Lewis, Quentin Tarantino, Chris Terrio, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Lawrence, and Ang Lee. If you missed them then perhaps you might want to look them up in YouTube. I also loved the musical performance from Les Mis cast, from Adele, and from Barbra Streisand who sang during the touching memorium tribute. We can´t leave out the most expected star of the show: Ted who entered with his co-star Mark Wahlberg and made some funny remarks. I thought the was a great show and hopefully next year I will improve my score, but for now satisfied with the overall picks. 

  

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My Oscars Predictions

¨And the Oscar goes to…¨

I finally finished watching all the Oscar nominated films and therefore feel ready to make my predictions about how things might turn out on February 24^th although I expect the race to be very close this year considering the frontrunner for best picture, Argo, hasn’t received a best director nomination and that can hurt its chances. Lincoln can pick up the slack if Argo fails to deliver with the Academy although Argo has been winning all the major awards up to now. I will make my prediction on the ¨Who I think will win¨ category, I will also add the possible upset in the ¨Who might surprise¨ category, and finally I will mention my favorite nominee in the ¨Who I would vote¨ category.

BEST PICTURE

-Who I think will win: Argo

-Who might surprise: Lincoln

-Who I would vote: Life of Pi or Beasts of the Southern Wild

BEST DIRECTOR

-Who I think will win: Steven Spielberg

-Who might surprise: Ang Lee

-Who I would vote: Ang Lee

BEST LEAD ACTOR

-Who I think will win: Daniel Day Lewis

-Who might surprise: Joaquin Phoenix

-Who I would vote: Joaquin Phoenix

BEST LEAD ACTRESS

-Who I think will win: Jennifer Lawrence

-Who might surprise: Jessica Chastain or Emmanuelle Riva

-Who I would vote: Jessica Chastain

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

-Who I think will win: Robert De Niro

-Who might surprise: Tommy Lee Jones

-Who I would vote: Christoph Waltz

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

-Who I think will win: Anne Hathaway

-Who might surprise: Sally Field

-Who I would vote: Anne Hathaway for The Dark Knight Rises

BEST ANIMATED FILM

-Who I think will win: Frankenweenie

-Who might surprise: Wreck it Ralph

-Who I would vote: Wreck it Ralph

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

-Who I think will win: Life of Pi

-Who might surprise: Skyfall

-Who I would vote: Life of Pi

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

-Who I think will win: Anna Karenina

-Who might surprise: Les Miserables

-Who I would vote: Anna Karenina

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

-Who I think will win: Searching for Sugar Man

-Who might surprise: How to Survive a Plague

-Who I would vote: Searching for Sugar Man

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

-Who I think will win: Amour

-Who might surprise: A Royal Affair

-Who I would vote: A Royal Affair

BEST EDITING

-Who I think will win: Argo

-Who might surprise: Zero Dark Thirty

-Who I would vote: Zero Dark Thirty

  

BEST MAKEUP

-Who I think will win: Les Miserables

-Who might surprise: The Hobbit

-Who I would vote: Les Miserables

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

-Who I think will win: Life of Pi

-Who might surprise: Lincoln

-Who I would vote: Life of Pi

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

-Who I think will win: Skyfall

-Who might surprise: Pi´s Lullaby

-Who I would vote: Skyfall

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

-Who I think will win: Anna Karenina

-Who might surprise: Les Miserables

-Who I would vote: Life of Pi

BEST SOUND EDITING

-Who I think will win: Zero Dark Thirty

-Who might surprise: Argo

-Who I would vote: Zero Dark Thirty

BEST SOUND MIXING

-Who I think will win: Les Miserables

-Who might surprise: Life of Pi or Skyfall

-Who I would vote: Les Miserables

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

-Who I think will win: Life of Pi

-Who might surprise: The Hobbit

-Who I would vote: Life of Pi

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

-Who I think will win: Lincoln

-Who might surprise: Argo

-Who I would vote: Silver Linings Playbook

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

-Who I think will win: Zero Dark Thirty

-Who might surprise: Django Unchained or Amour

-Who I would vote: Django Unchained

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

-Who I think will win: Open Heart

BEST SHORT FILM LIVE ACTION

-Who I think will win: Curfew

BEST SHORT FILM ANIMATED

-Who I think will win: Paperman

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My Review: Zero Dark Thirty (9/10)

¨I’m going to smoke everyone involved in the op and then I’m going to kill Osama bin Laden.¨

The passion, determination, and single-minded pursuit of a female CIA operative to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden was the film that the Academy Award winning writer and director decided to pursue after their success in The Hurt Locker. Zero Dark Thirty is so intense and suspenseful that you just want Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal to continue working together forever. They make other modern war films look really bad when held up to the standards of their recent work together. Bigelow has developed such a craft and expertise as a filmmaker that during some moments of the film (especially the final 25 minute raid) you feel like you are watching a documentary of actual footage of the manhunt instead of a fictional film. She is as passionate about her work as her lead character is obsessed with hunting down this man. We can’t argue that Bigelow benefits from Boal’s extraordinary script, which manages to reduce a decade long hunt into 150 minutes of detailed procedural work without taking political sides or focusing on revenge nonsense. It just takes such a realist approach that you never feel manipulated by Bigelow which would have been easy to do considering the subject matter. This is in my opinion the best film dealing with pos 9-11 events thanks to Bigelow’s ability to remain emotionally detached and focus on her craft. Under the weight of the heavy subject matter, she somehow manages to make this film more about a character study than an actual manhunt. There is really one main character in this film as the rest of characters come and go, and without delving into her past and focusing on the decade long pursuit of bin Laden the story centers around her, and it is a very interesting psychological study of what motivates her. Jessica Chastain is just so fascinating in this film, that she single handedly carries this movie and gives the best performance of her career.

The film opens in black with several voiceovers of calls from the World Trade center during the 9-11 attacks. It is a very emotional opening scene as we later are introduced to the main character, Maya (Jessica Chastain), who has been sent to Pakistan by the CIA to hunt down bin Laden. The first place we see her is in an interrogation room where her partner Dan (Jason Clarke) is torturing a terrorist prisoner in order to find information of the whereabouts of bin Laden. Maya isn’t amused by the torture that is going on and doesn’t participate, but she is willing to accept any means necessary in order to unlock the truth and hunt down the man she’s obsessed with finding. Of all the prisoners they have interrogated there seems to be one man that is mentioned by everyone: Abu Ahmed.  Maya is convinced that this man is bin Laden’s personal courier and that if she can locate him then she will locate his leader. Her boss, Joseph Bradley (Kyle Chandler) isn’t convinced about this theory, but Maya is determined to pursue this lead. The entire film is a very detailed procedural drama of how Maya follows one lead after another (with several false and disappointing leads along the way) until she is able to locate the whereabouts of bin Laden. Her next mission is to convince the authorities that bin Laden is actually hidden in that complex without having definite proof, but her certainty ends up convincing the leaders to send the US Navy SEALS team led by Patrick (Joel Edgerton) to attack the compound and kill bin Laden.

There were a great amount of talented actors cast in this film such as James Gandolfini, Mark Strong, Edgar Ramirez, Mark Duplass, Frank Grillo, and Chris Platt, but they had very few scenes and the entire film centered on Jessica Chastain. She deserves an Oscar for her performance here, and Mark Boal deserves one for Best Screenplay. The entire film is a character study on Maya as her entire life revolves around catching this man. We see it in her eyes from the very opening scene to the very end where instead of experiencing joy for the success she had, all we can see is a sigh of relief. What comes next for Maya? She doesn’t even know as she was so focused and determined on one thing only. I love Bigelow’s style and how she downsizes the entire war and centers everything on one central character. Just like she did in The Hurt Locker where the focus is on Renner’s character and how the adrenaline of war has become an addiction for him; now the focus is on Chastain who is very driven and obsessed with accomplishing her goal. There is not anything else on her mind; it’s as if she lives for one specific purpose. In the end you don’t know if you should cheer for her or feel sorry that her work is done. In a way I felt Bigelow’s approach to the events that led to bin Laden’s death to be very powerful; and it has raised a lot of discussions about torture, but that is exactly what a great film should do: bring up conversations and make us question things at times. After a decade long manhunt, was it really a triumph to kill bin Laden? Was it worth a celebration? Does the end justify the means? Without taking sides Bigelow makes us think about these issues and that is what good movies do for the viewers.    

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