Awards Season 2013: The 85th Annual Academy Awards

So last night saw the 85th Annual Academy Awards, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This year's Annual Giving Out Of The Little Gold Naked Men (as the Razzies call it) was occasionally funny, occasionally touching and sometimes cringeworthy but nonetheless a great celebration of film.

Seth MacFarlane took up hosting duties for the first time this year and I was a little nonplussed by him, if I'm honest. His opening schtick was nearly twenty minutes long and felt like it, and a few nice touches aside (Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron dancing, Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt joining him for 'High Hopes') it wasn't great. Whilst the idea of having William Shatner come on as Captain Kirk and show MacFarlane destroying the Oscars might have sounded good in theory, in practice it didn't work so well. After he settled into the role, things improved but I don't expect the Academy to be beating his door down to host again. But I will say this: Sally Field is incredibly game for a laugh.

The theme for this year's ceremony was 'music in movies' and a lot of the incidental music was done well- I particularly liked the use of the iconic Jaws theme music as a kind of countdown to wrap the speeches up. I particularly loved the celebration of movie musicals, with Catherine Zeta-Jones vamping it up through a brilliant rendition of 'All That Jazz' from Chicago, Jennifer Hudson belting out 'And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going' from Dreamgirls and the cast of Les Miserables doing a medley of 'Suddenly', 'I Dreamed A Dream' and 'One Day More'. There were also storming performances by Shirley Bassey (singing 'Goldfinger' during the brilliant tribute to 50 Years Of James Bond) and Adele ('Skyfall', naturally). Barbra Streisand also gave a touching rendition of 'The Way We Were' and a personal tribute to the late Marvin Hamlisch at the end of the In Memoriam segment.

As usual, the guest presenters were very hit-and-miss: Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy were deeply, almost painfully, unfunny hosting Best Animated Short and Best Animated Feature, and the cast of The Avengers just about muddled through their awards (with Samuel L Jackson proving the best of them). Mark Wahlberg and Ted were pretty good hosting Sound Mixing and Sound Editing (even with Ted's expected Jewish joke) whilst Christopher Plummer was absolutely great presenting the Best Supporting Actress award. There was also a surprise co-presented for Best Picture... none other than First Lady Michelle Obama!

So, on to the awards themselves.

I was amazed to find my predictions were 100% right. Really wasn't expecting it. I did like that each of the acting winners acknowledged their fellow nominees; it shows a certain level of class, I think. All four nominees were well deserving of their honours. Jennifer Lawrence becomes the second youngest winner of the Best Actress Oscar (second only to Marlee Matlin who won for Children Of A Lesser God) and her speech was controlled and tight, despite her tripping on the stairs on the way up. Christoph Waltz has two Oscars from two nominations, which can't be at all bad. The Best Supporting Actor award was the first one awarded in the ceremony, so at least he got it over with early. Anne Hathaway's acceptance speech was lovely and Daniel Day-Lewis's was probably the best of the evening: how I would have loved to see him play Margaret Thatcher! Day-Lewis now has a unique place in Oscar history as the first actor to win three Best Lead Actor Oscars, and well-deserved it is too.

There was no real runaway winner this year. Life Of Pi won four Oscars (Best Director, Cinematography, Original Score and Visual Effects), with Argo (Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing) and Les Miserables (Best Supporting Actress, Sound Mixing and Make-Up) with three each. Lincoln, Django Unchained and Skyfall all walked away with two Oscars apiece. I was over the moon that 'Skyfall' won Best Original Song, and was pleased that Paperman won Best Animated Short- I caught that before Wreck-It Ralph recently and thought it was beautiful.

---------------- 
Below is the full list of winners at the 85th Annual Academy Awards:

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Argo

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

Best Director: Ang Lee (Life of Pi) 

Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio (Argo)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Brave 

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: Amour

Best Cinematography: Life of Pi

Best Editing: Argo

Best Production Design: Lincoln 

Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Les Misérables

Best Original Score: Life of Pi 

Best Original Song: 'Skyfall'

Best Sound Mixing: Les Misérables

Best Sound Editing: Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty (tied)

Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Best Documentary (Feature): Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary (Short Subject): Inocente

Best Animated Short Film: Paperman 

Best Live Action Short Film: Curfew 


Congratulations to all winners!

Tez

Awards Season 2013: Tez's Official Oscar Predictions 2013

Tonight, the great and good of Hollywood will convene to celebrate the best of filmmaking in 2012 at the 85th Annual Academy Awards, hosted for the first time by Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane. It has become a tradition for me to predict the nominations and the winners in the main six categories (the four acting categories, Best Director and Best Picture).  I've done this since 2003 with varying degrees of success. So, without further ado, here are my predictions for who will win.

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)

I will be shocked if any of the other names are read out for this award. Hathaway's performance as Fantine is probably the best thing about the film and her bravura heartrending rendition of 'I Dreamed A Dream' is just sublime. She's been the runaway winner throughout the 2013 awards season and I don't see anyone stopping that at the Oscars.

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

This is one of the more open categories and we could well see any one of the five nominees named. For the first time in the Academy Awards' history, the Best Supporting Actor category is completely comprised of previous Oscar winners. There has been no clear runaway winner in this category throughout this awards season, but Waltz's wins at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs puts him ahead. His performance as Dr. King Schultz, a talkative dentist-turned-bounty-hunter, is a warm and effusive one and the film does suffer when he is not present. If not Waltz, then I think Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln.

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

With no disrespect meant to the other nominees, this has been pretty much a two-horse race since awards season began. Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence have been neck-and-neck, claiming major awards apiece. Whilst Chastain's performance in Zero Dark Thirty is undeniably powerful, her character is a blank slate. You never get to know who Maya is behind the job. Whereas Tiffany, Lawrence's character in Silver Linings Playbook, has a full backstory and is a more rounded character. It's an astoundingly mature performance from a young actress- in one scene she more than holds her own opposite Robert de Niro which is no mean feat. I'm gonna say Lawrence for Best Actress but won't be surprised if it's Chastain (or even Emmanuelle Riva for a real left-field suggestion)

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Day-Lewis' performance as the eponymous President is just amazing. He really disappears into the role (as he always does) and what's left behind is a stoic, determined, dignified performance. As with Anne Hathaway, it's been Day-Lewis' show from the beginning of the awards season and I really don't see any other nominee coming close. If he does win, he will be the first actor to win three Best Leading Actor Oscars (Jack Nicholson also has three but one is for Supporting Actor) and he'll be the first actor to win an Oscar playing an American President. 

Best Director: Ang Lee (Life Of Pi)

This is the one I’m really not sure about. Usually you can count on the winner of the Directors Guild Award to also get the Oscar but this year's winner- Ben Affleck- wasn't nominated for the Oscar, so that theory goes for a burton. Whilst David O Russell and Michael Haneke get great performances from their respective casts, I didn't find the direction inspiring. Benh Zeitlin's direction of Beasts Of The Southern Wild is impressive, especially since he's dealing largely with a cast of non-actors. As you would expect, Spielberg's direction of Lincoln is polished, eliciting great performances across the board. But I think the technical challenges of Life Of Pi as well as a rare impressive use for 3D puts Ang Lee ahead. However, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's Spielberg.

Best Picture: Argo

Argo's blend of Hollywood satire and tense thriller might, on paper, seem like an odd combination- but it works. It ticks all the boxes that previous Oscar winners have- it's about films, it's about a real-life moment in American history, it's a surprisingly well crafted film- so it's kind of the whole package. If it's not that, I would imagine Lincoln would get it.  

Last year, I got 5 out of 6 (stating George Clooney would win Best Actor instead of Jean Dujardin). I have to be honest, I'm not even that confident this year. I'll be happy if I get 3 out of 6.

Check back on the blog on Monday February 25th for my thoughts on the Oscars ceremony and a full list of winners

Tez

Programme 27: Les Miserables, Django Unchained, Gangster Squad and Musicals

The Watchers Film Show: Ep 27 from The Watchers Film Show on Vimeo.

Programme 27 is our first show of 2013... and it's a giant!

With the release of Les Miserables, Tez and Rhys discuss their favourite big-screen musicals and also cast their eye over Les Mis itself. 

To balance things out, there's also reviews of Gangster Squad and Django Unchained; plus Tez talks Oscars and there's the usual round-up of movie news.

Enjoy!

Awards Season 2013: Guild Award Winners

So, awards season is really starting to hot up with several of the Guild Awards being handed out. As the Guild Awards are often voted for by people who are also members of the Academy, it can sometimes be a handy indicator of the way things are standing re: the Oscars. Of course, it doesn't always work out like that as we'll see shortly.

Producers' Guild Award

The PGA Awards were given out on 26th January and the film results are as follows:

Feature Film: Argo

Animated Film: Wreck-It Ralph

Documentary Film: Searching For Sugar Man

This is a major boost to Argo's chances for being named Best Picture come February 24th. There's a good correlation between winning the PGA and winning the Best Picture Oscar, although it's not a perfect record: 16 out of  23 PGA winners have won the Best Picture Oscar (notable exceptions being Apollo 13, Brokeback Mountain and Little Miss Sunshine).

Screen Actors Guild Awards

The SAG awards were handed out on January 27th - the film winners are below:

Outstanding Performance By A Cast In A Motion Picture: Argo

Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Leading Role: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Supporting Role: Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)

Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)

Again, Argo does well to get the SAG's equivalent of Best Picture. Further wins for Hathaway and Day-Lewis further cement their chances at getting the equivalent Oscar, whilst Lawrence's win may put her slightly ahead of Jessica Chastain in the Best Actress category. 

Interesting again that a different name- Tommy Lee Jones- has picked up the Best Supporting Actor nod. It's a wide open field this year (Christoph Waltz picked up the Golden Globe, but Philip Seymour Hoffman won Critics' Choice). It'll be interesting to see who BAFTA give their award to.

Directors' Guild Award

Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Motion Pictures: Ben Affleck (Argo)

Now this is where things get really interesting. Usually, the winner of the DGA award is a practical shoo-in for the Best Director Oscar. However, Ben Affleck was overlooked for the Best Director Oscar. But, as with the PGA and Best Picture, whilst there's a very strong correlation between winning the two awards, it's by no means guaranteed (as we can see here). This does however suggest that Argo is well thought of among the Guild (and by extension, the Academy) voters.

The next major awards to be handed out are the BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday February 10th.

Review: Amour (UK Cert 12A)

Winning the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and garnering widespread critical acclaim, Amour is the first film since Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar as well as a Best Foreign Language Oscar. The film's nomination in the top category- and Haneke's nod for Best Director- came as a surprise to some, making this in some ways Haneke's most mainstream movie to date.

Let's clear this up before we begin. Michael Haneke does not make happy films. If you want a night of cozy escapism at the cinema, go elsewhere. You'll find little comfort here. Haneke's films (Funny Games and the US remake, Hidden, The White Ribbon) are often dispassionate and unflinching in their portrayal of the darker side of life and the crueler impulses of humanity. Despite appearances to the contrary, Amour is no different.

Georges Laurent (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and his wife Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are retired music teachers, both in their eighties. When Anne has a stroke and is paralysed down her right-hand side, Georges decides to care for her himself at home as he doesn't want her to go into a nursing home. What follows is an uncompromising and occasionally harrowing look at a situation few would want to find themselves in.

Haneke's films often show a family's life being disrupted by an outside force- here, it's not two psychopathic young men or sinister videotapes, but the effects of ageing and ill-health. Anne's physical deterioration is intensely portrayed (a sterling job by the make-up artists) and it is a real tour de force performance by Emmanuelle Riva. Early on, just after she returns from hospital, she makes an impassioned plea to Georges, stating that things will just get worse and she doesn't want to put them through it. In that one moment, I could hear tears falling. Going from an erudite cultured woman to little more than a helpless child is a tremendous feat and Riva is well deserving of all the plaudits that she's receiving.

That said, Jean-Louis Trintignant matches her with a performance of intensity and occasional tenderness. A stubborn man determined to do what he thinks is right, it seems remiss that his performance is not being recognised. He has several scenes with Isabelle Huppert who plays their daughter Eva and his mulish determination in the face of Anne's increasing invalidity is breathtaking. Interestingly, Haneke wrote the script specifically for Trintignant. Isabelle Huppert (who has previously worked with Haneke on The Piano Teacher) gives a strong performance; Eva can see that Georges has taken on more than he can handle but is unable to make him change his mind.

Haneke uses an almost Dogme-style of direction here-  long takes, no external soundtrack (save a few classical pieces played on piano or CD)- but crucially he doesn't try to manipulate the audience's feelings towards the characters or Anne's plight. There is a coolness there, a detachment. Haneke's almost standoffish: as if he is saying 'here are the people; make your own judgements, I am not going to guide you'. And I'm sure that for every person who sees Georges' actions in the final part of the film as a deep expression of his love for Anne, there will be someone else who will see it as an act of craven cowardice and selfishness. 

All said, I found it powerful and absorbing and extremely well acted. I walked out of the cinema feeling emotionally drained and wondering what I would do in the same position. Thought-provoking stuff, but not exactly enjoyable.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

Review: The Master (UK Cert 15)

I wanted to like The Master; not only like, but enjoy. I've enjoyed some of Paul Thomas Anderson's other films (Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood especially) and it has two actors that I like (Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman). On paper, it seemed like a cert. The reality is somewhat different.

Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) is a man with a few issues. Demobbed from the Navy after the end of the Second World War, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, he is truly damaged goods: a violent borderline alcoholic who can't hold down a job and has sex on the brain. He stows aboard a ship which is being used by 'The Cause', a pseudoscientific cult led by Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman). Rather than throwing him overboard, Dodd takes Quell under his wing, seeing a chance to redeem him.

Quell is a fundamentally unlikeable character which made it difficult for me to have any empathy towards him or even care about his 'journey'. It didn't help that Phoenix's performance felt a bit hammy in places; the constant slurring and mumbling got annoying as well. As things dragged on, my patience with Phoenix's mugging and mumbling wore out so- by the time of the final meeting between Quell and Dodd, which should have been a real powerhouse (akin to the end of There Will Be Blood)- I couldn't have cared less what happened.

Hoffman is miles better as Dodd, a charismatic orator with a mass following. The Cause seks to use what seems to be past-life regression to deal with present-day issues and Hoffman at least makes the cod philosophy Dodd espouses sound believable. There are two moments where The Cause is challenged; one by a sceptical onlooker at a gathering and the other by a member of The Cause over the use of the word 'imagine' rather than 'recall' (maybe giving credence to Dodd's son's dismissive statement that he's making it up as he goes along). Both times Dodd explodes. There's a dangerous underswell in Dodd which isn't really utilised. In the final scene, Hoffman manages to make 'Slow Boat To China' seem tender and sinister at the same time.

Perhaps the best- and most surprising- performance in the entire film comes from Amy Adams, who plays Dodd's wife Peggy. There are some intriguing hints that she is 'the power behind the throne' and is a staunch supporter of Dodd's ideology almost to the point of fanaticism. She is underused, perhaps, but makes an impact every time she's on screen. It's a performance full of steel and ice, miles away from the family friendly good girl of Enchanted or Julie & Julia.

The 'processing' scenes at the beginning are quite intense and filmed well, but several other 'treatments' (such as Peggy reading sexually explicit prose to Quell, and Dodd asking Quell to walk back and forth between the wall and the window) seemed baffling to me. There was some controversy when the project was first announced that it was inspired directly by Scientology; people with a better grounding in those practices than I could probably point out the deeper similarities, but there does appear to be at least a passing correlation between Scientology and The Cause.

My main issue with The Master comes from the script: in places, it has the turgid, pretentious air that can sometimes come when you have an auteur behind the lens. Plus there's too little that is adequately explained- don't get me wrong, some ambiguity can provoke interest (whilst spoon-feeding the audience can be patronising and unwieldy) but there is such a thing as being too elliptical. There's some surreal imagery which doesn't add anything and Jonny Greenwood's jarring, intrusive and atonal score got to be very irritating.

Sadly, some good performances can't redeem this muddled mess of a film.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Tez

Review: Zero Dark Thirty (UK Cert 15)

Chronicling the CIA's ten-year manhunt to find Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty is a tense, taut thriller by the same writing and directing team behind The Hurt Locker. Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal had to rewrite their original script when news broke in May 2011 of Bin Laden's death and there have been accusations that they have had improper access to classified information of the raid in which Bin Laden died. Indeed, the film's release was bumped back from October so as not to be used as political propaganda for the 2012 election in America.

The main character, Maya (Jessica Chastain), is allegedly based on a real-life female undercover CIA agent. As a character, Maya remains unknowable, defined entirely by her job and by the hunt for Bin Laden. We know precious little about her life, apart from the fact she was recruited by the CIA straight from high school. Tenacious, brave and dedicated, she remains convinced of the strength of her intelligence even when others doubt it. Evidence of that is her writing the number of days without action on her boss' window which we see creep up and up as the story goes on. The final scene of the film packs an emotional punch and it is to Chastain's credit that this doesn't feel indulgent or sentimental. It's a bravura performance by Chastain throughout; I haven't seen her give a bad performance yet and the chances of her winning the Best Actress Oscar seem incredibly high- it would be well deserved if she did.

Chastain's performance has been garnering much of the attention but the rest of the cast provide equally compelling performances, notably Jason Clarke (last seen in Lawless) as Dan, an agent brought to the edge by the work that he does; Jennifer Ehle as Jennifer, a colleague of Maya's whom she forms a friendship with; Kyle Chandler and Mark Strong are excellent as Maya's bosses, really giving Chastain something to spark off, and the assembled cast of Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt and Taylor Kinney as members of the US Navy SEALs division that carry out the final raid.

A lot has been made of the scenes of torture that are included in the film. In my opinion, it would have been disingenuous in the extreme to not acknowledge that torture was used on suspects. We know it was; to not even mention it would be an arrant weakness. The moral and ethical rights of the use of torture is another argument entirely and it's one I'm not getting into here. From my point of view, the film does not glorify or hold the use of torture up as a good thing; it shows that it happened (in brutal and uncompromising detail) but, crucially, it does not implicitly state that it was because of information gained in torturing captives which led them to the compound.

The raid on the compound in Abbottabad (which makes up the film's final act) is thrilling and tense, even though we know what the outcome will be. The entire film has a grave and slightly grim inevitability to it, as each terrorist attack is shown and the intelligence builds up. It's not an easy watch by any means- the use of real-life telephone calls from the World Trade Center and a devastatingly authentic recreation of the Tavistock Square bus bombing that happened in London in 2005 pack a real gut-punch- and it will provoke fierce debate and make you question your own position on the issues raised. It's a film that has been playing on my mind since I saw it, and I feel it will continue to do so for some time to come.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Tez  

Review: Lincoln (UK Cert 12A)

A biopic of the Sixteenth President of the United States could cover a multitude of subjects, but Steven Spielberg's Lincoln focuses specifically on the President's efforts to get the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution (which outlawed slavery) passed by the House of Representatives. Please note, there is no vampire hunting here.

There is an absolutely towering performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln. Exuding great charisma and a quiet stoic dignity, Lincoln is a softly-spoken man absolutely determined to get the Thirteenth Amendment through. A scene towards the start of the film explains his position clearly: were the Civil War to end before the amendment was passed, any slaves freed by the Emancipation Proclamation may be re-enslaved. Every word is considered, thoughtful, intelligently spoken; it appears Lincoln was a formidable orator and a good storyteller and Day-Lewis rises to these challenges with aplomb. 

The star-studded supporting cast all rise to the challenge set by Day-Lewis and all deliver sterling performances. Whilst the performances of Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln (steely, damaged, devoted) and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens (wry, determined, forthright) have also been rightly acclaimed during awards season, there are several equally as brilliant performances throughout. David Strathairn is great as Lincoln's Secretary of State William Seward who counsels Lincoln against pushing for the Thirteenth Amendment against the conclusion of the Civil War; similarly Hal Holbrook gives a nice turn as Republican politician Francis Preston Blair who tries to arrange an agreement between the Union and the Confederacy. There are nicely turned performances by James Spader and John Hawkes as two operatives used by Seward (and Lincoln) to procure the necessary votes to get the Amendment through. 

There isn't a great deal of physical action in this film- the opening scene of the battlefield is short and the rest of the action takes place in darkened smoke-filled rooms as the verbal pyrotechnics begin. Screenwriter Tony Kushner crafts a strong, dense web of words for the actors to negotiate. This is a very talky piece, make no mistake, and- at two-and-a-half hours long- your attention span may well get tested. It could almost be a stage-play. But despite that (or maybe because of it), this is an intelligent piece of film-making. Spielberg's direction is, as always, assured and passionate; cinematographer Janusz Kaminski does some of his best work here and (as you would expect) John Williams' score is just sublime.

Despite the fact that you know the ending before you go in (spoiler alert: the Amendment is passed), the final vote of the House is a masterclass of filming as each name is called and asked to vote. It's beautifully done as Mary keeps tally for the votes left needed to win and the Union soldiers on the field receive the scores by telegraph. Meanwhile, the stoic Lincoln sits and waits in the White House.

This is my type of film. Well-written, expertly directed and wonderfully acted, it touches on an important moment of history and doesn't dumb it down. I have a slight niggle with the ending (as I didn't see it necessary for it to end on his assassination) but it's a purely personal matter and doesn't detract from the preceding two and a quarter hours of pure cinematic brilliance.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

Tez 

Review: Silver Linings Playbook (UK Cert 15)

Adapted from the 2008 novel by Matthew Quick, David O. Russell's follow-up to The Fighter is a combination of romance, comedy and drama which won the People's Choice Award at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and has been a major presence during this year's awards season. Not an easy watch in places, due to subject matter, but it's full of heart and warmth.

After eight months in a Baltimore mental health institution, Pat Solitano Jr (Bradley Cooper) is released to the care of his parents (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver) in Philadelphia. Pat's recent diagnosis of bipolar disorder following a violent attack on his wife's lover led to his admission. Now he's out and determined to get better so he can get back with his wife. As he tries to find the silver linings, he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a girl with troubles of her own. Soon a pact is made; Tiffany will deliver a letter to Pat's wife if Pat will take part in a dance competition with her.

Silver Linings Playbook is the first film in over thirty years to garner an Oscar nomination in each of the four acting categories and that's certainly no fluke. All four main actors- Cooper, Lawrence, de Niro, and Weaver- give naturalistic performances. It's very easy sometimes, especially when dealing with issues like mental illness, for the performances to be very showy, for the actor to almost play up to the cameras as they emote. I didn't feel like there was any of that here.

Cooper shows that he can do more than be a pretty face as his determination to get his wife back and his burgeoning friendship with Tiffany show some real acting chops. Lawrence's performance is mesmerising as the unapologetic but equally as messed-up Tiffany; bizarrely, there is an age difference of nearly fifteen years between Cooper and Lawrence but such is the maturity of her performance that it is not noticeable. De Niro is great as the Philadelphia Eagles obsessed Pat Sr, full of supersititons and borderline OCD whilst Weaver is a warm and engaging presence as the rock who holds things together.

There are other great performances by John Ortiz as Pat Jr's friend Ronnie, Anupam Kher as Pat Jr's counsellor Dr Patel and- I'm surprised to even write these words- a lovely turn by Chris Tucker as Danny, Pat's friend from Baltimore. Usually, Tucker has me gritting my teeth as soon as he opens his mouth but here he's more than bearable and actually kind of likeable. 

The portrayal of mental illness is sensitively done but unflinching in their power; they're certainly not sugar-coated or sanitised. Pat Jr's manic episodes are played straight down the line; they're not trivialised or played for laughs which is to the film's credit. Some scenes are difficult to watch, most notably when Pat Jr is looking for his wedding video. The script is decent (Russell adapting Quick's novel himself) with moments of humour subtly weaved in. My only bugbear is the occasional lacklustre direction which lets things down.

You don't need to be a fan of American football to enjoy the film, nor do you need any passion for dancing. Ultimately, it's a touching and occasionally funny film about two damaged souls finding a connection and it's well worth two hours of your time.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

Awards Season 2013: Academy Award Nominations

As announced earlier today, here is a selection of the nominations for this year's Academy Awards:

BEST PICTURE

Amour

Argo

Beasts Of The Southern Wild

Django Unchained

Les Miserables

Life Of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

BEST DIRECTOR

Michael Haneke (Amour)

Ang Lee (Life Of Pi)

David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)

Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

Benh Zeitlin (Beasts Of The Southern Wild)

BEST ACTOR

Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables)

Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

Denzel Washington (Flight)

BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

Emmanuelle Riva (Amour)

Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts Of The Southern Wild)

Naomi Watts (The Impossible)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin (Argo)

Robert de Niro (Silver Linings Playbook)

Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)

Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams (The Master)

Sally Field (Lincoln)

Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)

Helen Hunt (The Sessions)

Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)

I make it 27 out of 34 predictions, which I work out to be 79% successful. Better than last year (where I got 25/34 or 73%). A few surprises on the list, notably Amour for Best Picture and Michael Haneke for Best Director. Congratulations to all nominees, but especially to Emmanuelle Riva and Quvenzhane Wallis; they are (to date) the oldest and youngest Best Actress nominees respectively.

In other categories, Skyfall received five nominations (Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Song for 'Skyfall', Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing), whilst Avengers Assemble gets a nod for Best Visual Effects (along with Prometheus, Snow White And The Huntsman, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Life Of Pi). 

Sadly, The Dark Knight Rises is not nominated for any Academy Award, a slightly egregious oversight if you ask me. But Seth MacFarlane's movie Ted gets a nod for Best Original Song!

A full list of nominees can be found here.

The 85th Annual Academy Awards will take place on Sunday 24 February 2012 with Seth MacFarlane taking up host duties. If his banter with Emma Stone is anything to go by, it's going to be an interesting night. Looking forward to it!