Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014)

Like many, we at The Watchers were shocked and saddened by the news of the untimely death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was found dead yesterday in his Manhattan apartment. He was 46.

One of the finest character actors around, Hoffman was equally at ease in a big-budget blockbuster (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Mission: Impossible III) as he was in a low-budget indie drama (Jack Goes Boating, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, The Savages).

His first acting role was in a 1991 episode of Law & Order and he also had roles in Scent Of A Woman (1992), When A Man Loves A Woman (1994) and Twister (1996), before becoming recognised for his performance as Scotty J in Boogie Nights (1997), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Anderson and Hoffman would become frequent collaborators, with Hoffman appearing in five of Anderson's six feature films to date. Other notable roles are Allen the stalker in Happiness (1998), the boorish Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and grieving widower Wilson Joel in Love Liza (2002). 

In 2006, he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his stunning portrayal of flamboyant author Truman Capote in Capote. He would receive a further three Oscar nominations for his supporting roles in Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Doubt (2008) and The Master (2012).

Away from the movies, Hoffman was also a gifted stage actor, performing in The Seagull in 2001, Long Day's Journey Into Night in 2003, as Iago in Othello in 2009 and Willy Loman in Death Of A Salesman in 2012, for which he received a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Play.

At the time of his death, he was reprising his role as Plutarch Heavensbee for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and had completed work on the John La Carre adaptation, A Most Wanted Man. 

A talented actor, gone much too soon. Our thoughts are with his friends and family at this time.

The Watchers
(Rhys, Matt & 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

For Your Consideration: Possible Contenders For Awards Season 2013

Just like preparations for Christmas, it does seem like it's never too early to start considering the films and performances which might be up for the major film awards next year. Big wins at major festivals will bolster chances for nominations for the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Academy Awards.

Based on wins at major film festivals and general internet chatter, below is a list of films I would expect to feature heavily in the upcoming awards season. Please note these are not my official Oscar predictions (I will put those up on January 9th 2013, the day before the Oscar nominations are announced).

Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master seems to have Oscar written through it like a stick of Blackpool rock. A shared Best Actor win for Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman at the Venice Film Festival could see them both nominated at the Oscars (Phoenix as Best Actor and Hoffman as Best Supporting Actor, or possibly both as Best Actor) despite Phoenix's recent comments that he finds the awards season 'stupid'. Amy Adams is a possibility for Best Supporting Actress whilst the film could potentially be a Best Picture and Best Director nominee too.

Argo, Ben Affleck's third time in the director's chair, could continue the actor's run of Oscar-nominated films; both of his previous films- Gone Baby Gone and The Town- were nominated for at least one Oscar each. It's based on a true story- the unorthodox rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis under the cover that they were scouting locations for a science-fiction film- and has been lauded by critics, particularly Alan Arkin's performance as a movie producer.

Silver Linings Playbook took the main prize at the Toronto International Film Festival and there's been heavy praise for Jennifer Lawrence's performance as a grieving widow so a second Best Actress nomination for her could be forthcoming. The film could also see a Best Picture nomination and possibly Supporting Actor and Actress nods for Robert de Niro and Jacki Weaver. It could even give Bradley Cooper his first Best Actor nomination.

If this year is anything to go by, Hitchcock could feature heavily in next year's awards season. Hollywood love films about films (see The Artist and Hugo) and the story behind Hitchcock's struggle to make Psycho is an absorbing one. Judging from the trailer, Anthony Hopkins gives an uncanny impersonation of the director as does Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh. Both could be up for acting awards (as could Helen Mirren for her turn as Hitchcock's wife Alma), and the film could be a Best Picture nominee.

Nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis' precocious central performance in low-budget drama Beasts Of The Southern Wild could see her named the youngest ever Best Actress Oscar nominee. Tom Hooper's big-screen adaptation of Boublil and Schonberg's musical Les Miserables could also see some nominations; possibly Best Picture and Director and maybe even acting nods for Hugh Jackman and/or Russell Crowe (Best Actor) or Anne Hathaway (Best Supporting Actress). Mike Newell's recent adaptation of Great Expectations- starring Jeremy Irvine, Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter- might also see some nominations

Assuming both films meet the eligibility criteria, I would expect both Roger Michell's Hyde Park On Hudson and Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln to be heavy contenders for Best Actor as there's been a lot of positive feedback for both Bill Murray and Daniel Day-Lewis as US Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln respectively. Biopics traditionally do well at awards season, with performances of real-life figures also favoured, so these two films could also be nominated in other categories.

A number of foreign-language films could feature heavily outside the Best Foreign Language Picture category. Rust And Bone won Best Film at the London Film Festival recently with the main performances by Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts commended by many reviewers. It's entirely possible that a Best Picture nod and acting awards could follow. Similarly, Untouchable- France's submission for Best Foreign Language Film- could feature with the performances by Francois Cluzet and Omar Sy (as a rich white quadriplegic and his black ex-convict carer respectively) commended. Another foreign language films which may be nominated is Michael Haneke's Amour, winner of this year's Palme d'Or and also Austria's submission for Best Foreign Language Film.

One big question has been: will The Dark Knight Rises get a Best Picture nod? I think it's unlikely, sadly. Reports were that an Academy screening of Nolan's Batman film was met with a less than positive reception which will almost certainly scupper its chances. Christopher Nolan may be an outside shot for a Best Director nod but it seems more likely that The Dark Knight Rises' best Oscar shots will be- like Avengers Assemble and Skyfall- in the technical categories (although Skyfall might also get a crack at Best Original Song).

The timetable for the major awards in 2013 is as follows:

Film Independent Spirit Awards

Nominations announced: 27 November 2012

Awards Ceremony: 23 February 2013

Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award
Nominations Announced: 12 December 2012
Awards Ceremony: 27 January 2013

Golden Globes

Nominations announced: 13 December 2012

Awards Ceremony: 13 January 2013 (hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler)

Writers' Guild Of America (WGA) Award

Nominations Announced: 3 January 2013

Awards Ceremony: 17 February 2013

Directors' Guild Of America (DGA) Award

Nominations Announced: 8 January 2013

Awards Ceremony: 2 February 2013

BAFTA Film Awards

Nominations announced: 9 January 2013

Awards Ceremony: 10 February 2013

Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzies)

Nominations Announced: TBA

Awards Ceremony: 23 February 2013

Academy Awards (Oscars)

Nominations announced: 10 January 2013

Awards Ceremony: 24 February 2013 (hosted by Seth McFarlane)

There’ll be more on the upcoming awards season later in the year.

Tez