Awards Season 2023: Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominations

Today (Tuesday 22nd November) saw the announcement of the nominees for the 38th Film Independent Spirit Awards, announced by Taylour Paige (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Zola) and Raúl Castillo (The Inspection, Army Of The Dead).  

As you're probably aware by now, these awards recognise films made wholly or partly outside the traditional studio system. From this year, the budget for eligible films has been increased to $30 million. 

Also, from this year, the Film Independent Spirit Awards are making their acting categories (for both film and television) gender neutral; for the film awards, the categories will be Best Lead Performance and Best Supporting Performance (with up to ten nominees in each category). 

Below is a selection of nominations:

Best Feature

Bones And All

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Our Father, The Devil

Tár

Women Talking

Best Director

Todd Field (Tár)

Kogonada (After Yang)

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Sarah Polley (Women Talking)

Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies)

Best Lead Performance

Cate Blanchett (Tár)

Dale Dickey (A Love Song)

Mia Goth (Pearl)

Regina Hall (Honk For Jesus, Save Your Soul)

Paul Mescal (Aftersun)

Aubrey Plaza (Emily The Criminal)

Jeremy Pope (The Inspection)

Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie)

Taylor Russell (Bones And All)

Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Best Supporting Performance

Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway)

Nina Hoss (Tár)

Brian d'Arcy James (The Cathedral)

Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Trevante Rhodes (Bruiser)

Theo Rossi (Emily The Criminal)

Mark Rylance (Bones And All)

Jonathan Tucker (Palm Trees And Power Lines)

Gabrielle Union (The Inspection)

A full list of nominees can be found here.

Everything Everywhere All At Once leads the field with eight nominations; Tár has seven, whilst Aftersun has five. 

The Film Independent Spirit Awards will be given out in a ceremony on the Santa Monica beachfront on Saturday 4th March 2023.  

Congratulations to all nominees!

So, we are off again on the awards trail. Next stop is in a couple of weeks with the Golden Globe nominations. 

Review: Ready Player One (UK Cert 12A)

Ernest Cline's debut novel Ready Player One was released in 2011 and critics were impressed by the , with one reviewer calling it 'the grown-up's Harry Potter'. Unsurprisingly, a film adaptation was commissioned almost as soon as the book was published. Now, it comes to the big screen, under the direction of Steven Spielberg (The Post, Lincoln), with a screenplay by Cline and Zak Penn. 

In 2045, the world has become desolate. To escape these harsh realities, people spend most of their time in the OASIS, a virtual universe where anything is possible. OASIS was created by the brilliant James Donovan Halliday, a 1980s pop culture aficionado. When Halliday died, he released a video announcing a treasure hunt through the OASIS, looking for the three keys that would unlock an Easter Egg which would give the winner Halliday's vast fortune... and total control over the OASIS. 

In the five years since Halliday's death, despite many attempts, nobody has completed the first task- a high-octane road-race- to get the key. That is until a young man called Wade Watts, who lives in Columbus. Ohio, and goes by the online name of Parzifal, works out how to beat the race. The contest is then on to find the other two keys- but Parzifal's victory puts him in the sights of Innovative Online Industries (IOI), a multinational corporation who seek to control OASIS for their own profit. 

First off, I haven't read the book, so I can't tell you how faithful an adaptation this is. But what I can tell you is that I now want to go and read the book- and I really feel I need to see the film again. It's just superb. 

Produced under the Amblin banner (who brought us the 1980s delights of ET, The Goonies, and Back To The Future, amongst others), the film is a loving tribute to geek culture in all its forms. There's been a bit of updating since the book was first published- there's references to 'Twitch streams' and one of the first places you see in the OASIS is a Minecraft world- but there are still references to classic Atari games, Dungeons & Dragons, John Hughes movies, The Iron Giant, anime, and so much more. In a way, it's almost overwhelming how much has been put on the screen; things like the scene in the Distracted Globe nightclub and the climactic end battle feature so many little easter eggs and references that repeated viewing would be needed to get them all. 

In the same kind of way that Avatar blended real world with fantasy, the film does a great job of differentiating between the two. Wade's real world in 'The Stacks'- mobile homes piled high on one another- looks drab and grim and gritty, whilst the OASIS looks bright and sumptuous. The CGI on the avatars looks great, and the worlds created in the OASIS all look amazing- even a note-perfect version of the Overlook Hotel from The Shining! 

So, visually, it's stunning- no surprise there. But Ready Player One also has substance beneath the sheen. There's some pointed social commentary on the use of technology to escape reality, the nefarious plans of corporations to monetise and control people, how the real world compares to the fantasy world created online, even down to making the simple point that you may know people online but how much do you really know them? There's a lot to think about. Plus there's also the quest narrative (something I particularly enjoy) to get invested in. 

Performances are strong across the board with Tye Sheridan (Cyclops in X-Men: Apocalypse) taking the lead role of Wade/Parzifal. He's great as the hero, a young man whose real world experiences are dreadful and seeks refuge in the OASIS, only to find the actions of the online world having real-world consequences. He's a geeky obsessive but one with social skills, and you really get behind him as he progresses through the egg hunt. Olivia Cooke plays Art3mis, another participant in the egg hunt whom Parzifal has an attraction to. Their relationship blossoms in both the real world and in the OASIS. Lena Waithe is superb as Aech, Parzifal's friend in the OASIS, who turns out to be someone very different in the real world. Win Morisaki and Philip Zhao complete the motley crew known as the Hi-5 as players Daito and Shoto respectively, with Zhao getting a lot of the laughs when his real-world identity is revealed. 

Ben Mendelsohn is great as Nolan Sorrento, the weaselly yet powerful head of operations for IOI. His attempts to manipulate the game in order for IOI to win are particularly villainous, which really gives you something to root against. Even when he tries to pass himself off as not just a corporate suit, he's just so supercilious and unpleasant that you can't wait to see him fall. He's provided with great support by Hannah John-Kamen as F'Nale, a handler for IOI who does the dirty work in the real world, and by T.J. Miller who voices an OASIS character called i-R0k, who does his dirty work in the virtual world. Miller riffs on his Deadpool character as the snarky support and also gets a few laughs.  

One other performance to note is that of Simon Pegg, who appears as Halliday's former business partner Ogden Morrow. Pegg makes the most of limited screen time to provide some heart to the situation. He also makes an uncredited cameo elsewhere in the film which is particularly nice when it's revealed. Finally, Mark Rylance reunites with Spielberg after Bridge Of Spies and The BFG to play Halliday. Halliday is a shuffling eccentric who finds the real world just that little bit too difficult to navigate, hence why he built the OASIS. It's a lovely supporting performance by Rylance, who also provides the voice of Halliday's avatar in the OASIS- a wizard with the rather lovely name of Anorak.

I cannot recommend Ready Player One highly enough. Chockfull of geeky references to keep even the most avid trivia buff busy, it's also got a lot of heart, a lot of adventure and more than enough going on to make the running time of 140 minutes disappear in the blink of an eye. Superb stuff.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Tez

Ready Player One is on general release from 29th March 2018.

Review: Dunkirk (UK Cert 12A)

The evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk in 1940 is one of the best known events of the Second World War (and notably one of the few which isn't a battle or a massacre). The Allied forces were cornered on the beaches at Dunkirk, awaiting evacuation, whilst German planes took out rescue convoys heading to help. In amongst all this, civilians who owned small boats sailed across the Channel to aid in the evacuation process. This extraordinary show of determination in the face of danger, and the willingness to help each other out in times of crisis, has even led to a phrase: the Dunkirk spirit.

Now, Christopher Nolan (the Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar) brings this story to the big screen. It's not the first film to deal with the event- there have been previous films in 1958 and 2004- but this is on a huge scale.  

Three separate storylines run through the film. On land, a young British soldier (Fionn Whitehead) must wait to be evacuated from the beach; at sea, an older man and his son (Mark Rylance and Tom Glynn-Carney) use their small craft to assist in the rescue mission; in the air, two RAF pilots (Tom Hardy and Jack Lowden) seek to stop German planes from destroying the rescue convoy. 

My advice would be, see this in the cinema and see it on the biggest screen you can. You really get a sense of the vastness of the Dunkirk beach (kudos to director of photography Hoyte Van Hoytema for some sterling work) which is just amazing. In the 2007 film Atonement, there's a beautiful eight minute unbroken tracking shot which follows Robbie round the beach. Imagine that but turned up to eleven and you've got the idea.

Performances are really solid across the board. There's been some canny casting with the soldiers- they all look very young. It's also a canny idea to give the lion's share of the action to new (or maybe less experienced) actors; both Fionn Whitehead (as Tommy) and Aneurin Barnard (as Gibson) are exception, especially Barnard whose performance- bar one very important line- is silent. Much was made of this film being Harry Styles' acting debut, and the One Direction singer acquits himself well in his role as a bolshy soldier. 

The more experienced cast are, as you would imagine, superb. Mark Rylance is great as Mr Dawson, a man who takes his own pleasure craft out to help the soldiers. He has such a magnetic quality to him, so much happens behind his eyes but you can't take your eyes off him whenever he's on screen. Kenneth Branagh is strong as the stoic Commander Bolton, determined to get his men to safety. Frequent Nolan collaborators Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy are similarly strong as a traumatised soldier and one of the RAF pilots accordingly, and there's even a lovely uncredited cameo by Michael Caine.  

This is not a film of earnest speechifying; in fact, there's not a great deal of dialogue throughout (the script itself ran to approximately 85 pages). Visuals and sound are used instead. There are some very tense moments, such as Tommy's run through the deserted town before he gets to the beach, and the struggle of one of the pilots to get out of his downed plane (which had me absolutely squirming). The sound design of the film is superb with every whistle, shot, and ricochet clear and crisp. I've already praised Van Hoytema's cinematography and Hans Zimmer's music is superb. He uses themes from Elgar's Enigma Variations (especially the famous 'Nimrod' at one pivotal moment) to stirring effect and- whilst it is unashamed emotional manipulation- you can't help but get swept up in that moment.

Because of the kind of film Dunkirk is, it's difficult to say I enjoyed it (much as in the same way, I can't say I enjoyed Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List). I very much admire the film and I think it's a film that a lot of people should see. It's still quite some months away but I would be surprised if Dunkirk doesn't get a lot of love in the 2018 awards season.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Tez

Review: The BFG (UK Cert PG)

2016 is the centenary of Roald Dahl's birth so it's entirely apt that this year sees the release of an adaptation of one of his best-loved books: The BFG. A live-action version of Dahl's 1982 book has been in development for almost twenty-five years- there was a Cosgrove Hall animated version released on TV in 1989- but it's Steven Spielberg who has managed to get it onto the big screen.

It's perhaps no accident that one of the production companies logos that appears before the film is Amblin Entertainment - known for producing some of the best childrens' films of the 1980s (such as ET, The Goonies, *batteries not included and Who Framed Roger Rabbit). The tone of the film is reminiscent of some of Amblin's best films, which makes for a strangely nostalgic feel to the film.

The film follows the story of a young orphan girl called Sophie who, one night, comes across a giant walking the streets of London. Afraid that Sophie will tell the world about him, the giant grabs her and takes her off to Giant Country. Soon, Sophie realises that this giant is very different to the others- he's smaller and is bullied by the bigger giants, he doesn't eat humans (preferring to eat slimy vegetables known as snozzcumbers) and he likes to go collecting dreams. Sophie then decides she's going to call him the Big Friendly Giant- or BFG for short. Between them, they come up with a plan to get rid of the other giants but they're going to need some help- from none other than the Queen of England!

It's a combination of live action and motion capture, with some of the most beautiful visual effects you'll see in cinema this year and a truly warm and wonderful lead performance by Mark Rylance as the BFG.

Reuniting with his Bridge Of Spies director, Rylance puts in a lovely and very gentle performance as the BFG, handling the mangled form of speech like a pro- there's never a truer word spoken when he says 'what I says and what I means is two different things'- and providing a very believable empathy with Sophie. Similarly, Jemaine Clement is clearly having a ball as the villainous Fleshlumpeater, main antagonist and bully of the BFG (although I did at times think it may have been Sacha Baron Cohen).

Ruby Barnhill's performance as Sophie mostly eschews the annoying precocious child-actor cliches and- considering she would have been playing against a man in a motion capture suit- does well to convey the sense of size and scale. Penelope Wilton is mostly dignified as the Queen- the rather bizarre Blazing Saddles-esque fart scene notwithstanding-, and there's lovely support by Rafe Spall and Rebecca Hall as members of the Queen's household.

Visually, it's an absolute treat- and may even be worth catching in 3D if you can (although I saw it in 2D). The cinematography of Janusz Kaminski and the visual effects by Weta Digital are truly sublime; the BFG's foray into Dream Country is especially stunning. Even the dark, rainy, cobbled streets of early morning London have a real charm to them. John Williams' magical, whimsical and balletic score is the cherry on top of the cake.

Adaptations of Roald Dahl's books have, for me, been a bit patchy. However, The BFG is an absolute triumph. Gloriumptious, as the big man himself might say,

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

Awards Season 2016: The 88th Annual Academy Awards

The 88th Annual Academy Awards were held last night at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Like last year, it came up with one or two surprises and more than a few talking points.

You'd kind of have to have been living under a stone to have missed the #OscarsSoWhite controversy which engulfed social media in January when, for the second year in a row, all 20 Oscar acting nominees were white (which, given the brilliant performances by Michael B. Jordan in Creed and Idris Elba in Beasts Of No Nation seems like a bit of an oversight). Many column inches were written and several high-profile names- Spike Lee, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith- boycotted the event. Given this powderkeg background, there was bound to be some nervousness over how host Chris Rock would address it. 

He did it as only he could; head on and unapologetic. His opening monologue was funny but sharp, calling Hollywood out on its 'sorority racism'. Generally speaking, Rock was more comfortable as host than he was in 2005 and handled what could have been a massively awkward situation extremely well. Not every joke found its mark, not every joke can, but he did well. Trying to raise money for his daughters' Girl Scout pack by selling cookies to the audience is a bit random, but this is the ceremony that gave us a social-media-crashing selfie and Neil Patrick Harris in his underwear, so I guess it's all relative.

The evening followed the life of a film, from genesis to execution, so the first awards of the evening were for the screenplays (something I appreciated). With wins for Spotlight and The Big Short- two films with strong social messages- the political aspects of the acceptance speeches started early with an astonishingly blunt message from Adam McKay about not voting for presidential candidates who are in the pockets of big business or banks. 

The political speeches continued with Jenny Beavan speaking about the reality that the dystopic future Mad Max: Fury Road presents being scarily close, to Leonardo DiCaprio's plea for something to be done about climate change, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's call to eliminate prejudice and the powerful message given by Vice President Joe Biden about sexual abuse on campuses before introducing Lady Gaga to sing 'Til It Happens To You' from The Hunting Ground (a sobering documentary about the epidemic of campus abuse). I thought Sam Smith's acceptance speech- dedicating his award to the LGBT community- was sweet in intention but could have done with some fact-checking (no openly gay actor has won the Best Actor Oscar, but openly gay men and women have won Oscars in the past). 

On to the awards themselves:

Not a clean sweep for me this year but I'm incredibly happy with 5 out of 6 (especially given certain uncertainties, if that makes sense)

There were a couple of surprises- mostly, Mark Rylance winning Best Supporting Actor and Alicia Vikander winning Best Supporting Actress- but generally the awards fell where expected. I was gobsmacked yet overjoyed that Spotlight picked up Best Picture- it was the right decision. I was also pleased by the Oscar wins for Amy, the Original Screenplay win for Spotlight, Emmanuel Lubezski's third consecutive Cinematography Oscar (after Gravity and Birdman) and Ennio Morricone for his superb score for The Hateful Eight. I was surprised by 'Writing's On The Wall' winning Best Original Song, but that's down to a matter for personal taste rather than anything else. 

Mad Max: Fury Road was the big winner of the evening, with six Oscars. The Revenant took home three, with Spotlight winning two. Despite multiple nominations, there were no wins for The Martian, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Brooklyn or Carol.


Below is the full list of winners at the 88th Annual Academy Awards:

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Spotlight

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

Best Actress: Brie Larson (Room)

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance (Bridge Of Spies)

Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (The Revenant)

Best Original Screenplay: Spotlight

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Big Short

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Inside Out

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: Son Of Saul

Best Cinematography: The Revenant

Best Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Production Design: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Costume Design: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Original Score: The Hateful Eight

Best Original Song: 'Writing's On The Wall' (SPECTRE)

Best Sound Mixing: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Sound Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Visual Effects: Ex Machina

Best Documentary (Feature): Amy

Best Documentary (Short Subject): A Girl In The River: The Price Of Forgiveness

Best Animated Short Film: Bear Story

Best Live Action Short Film: Stutterer


Congratulations to all winners and nominees!

Tez

Review: Bridge Of Spies (UK Cert 12A)

Inspired by true events, Bridge Of Spies tells the amazing story of James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks), an insurance lawyer who- during the height of the Cold War- was asked to defend Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy (Mark Rylance) who had been arrested for espionage. Later, Donovan was asked to help negotiate the prisoner exchange of Abel for a captured American pilot (Austin Stowell).

Hanks is always a safe pair of hands. Here, he's an engaging presence as Donovan, a gee-shucks All-American guy, determined to play fair even in the toughest circumstances. It's the kind of role James Stewart would have played if this had been made in the 1950s. He puts his professional reputation on the line, first by defending Abel and then trying to appeal the decision. It puts his family in the firing line (literally, at one point) but he is prepared to go all the way to Berlin- and have to lie to his family- to help facilitate the exchange. It's a solid performance throughout.

Rylance puts in a dignified and measured turn as Abel, his voice barely raising throughout. He's remarkably calm, even in the face of a possible death penalty. When asked if he's nervous or afraid, Abel replies stoically 'would it help?' His accent wanders occasionally, although generally settles on a Scottish burr. He has some great interplay with Hanks and the two make a good pairing. As for the other actors, it's a solid job across the board even if the characters aren't particularly fleshed out. Amy Ryan isn't given much to do as Donovan's wife (although she is a warm and sympathetic presence) whilst Alan Alda feels wasted in the role of Donovan's boss. Stowell does well as the clean-cut All-American boy although his characterisation doesn't really go much beyond that. 

The script- by Matt Charman and Joel & Ethan Coen- is tightly plotted and, in places, surprisingly wry. The threat of nuclear war is ever present and the point comes home in Donovan's young son and his school lessons. Steven Spielberg's direction is as good as you'd expect. It's a long film (141 minutes) but really doesn't feel it; you get swept up in the story. The entire look of the film is just superb - the period detail is spot on and even the bombed out ruins of Berlin look authentic. 

I went into Bridge Of Spies with, admittedly, not very high expectations. I was expecting a solid drama. Instead, I got an exceptional piece of film-making, telling the story of an American hero who very few people will have heard of (and more should). 

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez