Oscar Predictions!

I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the Oscars this year.  We'll see how I do tomorrow!

Best Picture: Lincoln
Ebert is convinced that Argo is taking it home, and after all the reactionary press Ben Affleck has gotten after his snub, he might be right - but tomorrow I think we're looking at a return to traditional Oscar values, and Lincoln simply has more weight on its side.  I think that the combined powers of Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis, the historical biopic subject and the epic scope are going to be too much for the Academy to resist.

Best Director: Steven Spielberg
I really don't see any other contenders in this category (not that the other directors don't deserve to be nominated!).  IF Affleck had been nominated, these two categories might be harder to predict - as it is, I think we're looking at a Lincoln-takes-all kind of evening.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
It's the performance of his lifetime.  It's the performance of several lifetimes.  He can't lose.

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Her real competition is Jessica Chastain, but I think Zero Dark Thirty is suffering a little on the awards circuit because of how similar it is to The Hurt Locker.  Lawrence has been getting more and better press than Chastain, plus her performance was unforgettable.  Granted, I haven't seen ZD30, and both women are turning into the kind of actresses that change the landscape of film, but I think the scales are tipped just slightly in Lawrence's favor.

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
If Lincoln is losing anywhere, it's here - and that's because Django isn't winning any other category (in my opinion).  Tarantino is pushing too hard for the Academy to take him seriously, when his material doesn't stand up to that assertion.  Waltz, however, is becoming a virtuoso that plays in Tarantino's key - if anyone can snag an award for Django, it's him.

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
For serious, they should just play the clip of Hathaway singing "I Dreamed A Dream" and let it speak for itself.

Animated Film: Wreck-It Ralph
For the first time in a while I don't think Pixar has a lock on this category.  I waffled hard on this one, because of how much I want ParaNorman to win - unfortunately, too often the Academy plays it conservative with the animated feature, and I think this year Disney's name is going to be too much to resist.  HOWEVER, Wreck-It Ralph was still an excellent movie, and will deserve the award.

Other Awards!

Cinematography: Life of Pi
Costume Design: Mirror Mirror
Film Editing: Argo
Makeup: The Hobbit
Music: Life of Pi
Music/Original Song: Adele, Skyfall
Production Design: Lincoln
Sound Editing: Argo
Sound Mixing: Les Miserables
Visual Effects: Life of Pi
Writing/Adapted Screenplay: Lincoln
Writing/Original Screenplay: Django Unchained

Chuggin' Along

So!  I have been dangerously delinquent on updating this blog.  I don't know if it was resolution fatigue or what, so I'm going to make a couple of preemptive statements regarding the future of this blog:

- Setting myself deadlines, it turns out, makes me not want to update.  SO.  Updates will go back to a "Whenever I feel like I have something to say" schedule.  Hopefully this will lead to an increase of words.

- Going forward, I am still going to try to keep to the "post reviews within 48 hours of seeing a movie" clause, because the fresher a movie is in my brain the better I can tell you all about it.

I'm playing with the idea of combining this blog and my book blog (Alternative Read) into one giant media entity, because then I can also flail all over about the tv shows I'm watching (spoiler alert: I get a lot of feelings about tv) and everything can be in one happy location.  I'm still trying to figure out what platform would best serve that purpose, so I'll keep you updated and, in the meantime, try to keep these things updated, as well.

ENOUGH ABOUT THAT, LET'S TALK ABOUT MOVIES.

Since last I spoke here, I've seen:

Mama.  I know, I KNOW.  Apparently I can't claim that I don't do horror movies anymore, because not only did I pay to see this in a theater, but I didn't actually have any nightmares after!  (I do have to make a studious effort to get it out of my brains if I think of it pre-bedtime, though.)  It was good!  Surprising no one, because Guillermo del Toro, duh.  Jessica Chastain and the little girls are fabulous - the girls especially do a great job of being creepy and endearing and feral and a whole bunch of other stuff.  The ending veers into melodrama territory, and is maybe a touch too overblown and tragic, but it's satisfying and ultimately makes sense.  I do confess to keeping my eyes glued on my knees during many of the scenes where you actually see the ghost, but: baby steps.

Fat Kid Rules The World, which: AWESOME.  This was one of the best YA books I read for my YA literature class in library school, and I was really excited when I found out that it got made into a movie and then successfully Kickstarted a distribution.  I got to see it when I went out to the American Library Association midwinter conference in Seattle, because someone from YALSA (the young adult division of ALA) e-mailed the director and said she wanted to screen it - he sent her a complementary copy and some awesome bumper stickers (proclaiming DON'T F*CK WITH THE FAT KID).  The movie, while obviously a slimmed down version of the story, captures the important stuff - and I felt like the people who made it really got the book.  It's about self confidence, self acceptance, punk rock, dealing with family issues, high school bullshit...all that teenage angst wrapped up in Troy, the titular fat kid, as he navigates what starts off as a pretty shitty life - but improves significantly when he gets involved with a drug addict/punk guitarist, Marcus.

Silver Linings Playbook, which was fabulous - the story itself has the skeleton of a typical rom-com, but the cleverness and sensitivity of the writing as well as the stellar performances elevated the whole thing.  Jennifer Lawrence, who I seriously want to be when I grow up (except that she's YOUNGER than me, which doesn't give me self esteem issues at all, thank you very much), is seriously charming - she's all broken edges and enviable hair and sharply witty remarks.  I like Bradley Cooper more and more, because I think he's very willing to step outside of his comfort zone and push his characters to the max; he does a whole host of things here that I haven't seen from him before, and it makes Pat's manic-depressive fluctuations believable, scary, and ultimately sympathetic.  Robert De Niro and Jackie Weaver as Pat's long suffering parents are also pitch perfect, especially Weaver, who plays Pat's mother with a quiet tolerance that speaks volumes even when she doesn't.

Warm Bodies: I don't actually have a whole lot to say about this one, which speaks plenty in and of itself, I think.  It was...ok.  A serviceable zombie movie with an interesting perspective.  I didn't like how many things happened because Reasons (like the big plot hook, shown in the trailer - zombies are coming back to life because of...love?  OK, sure.), and the pacing felt off to me.  The acting is charming, but all in all I could have waited for the DVD release.

My Oscar Predictions go up on Friday.  Are YOU watching?