Movies Ltd

by gaRis

Lincoln Is The Master

> It’s been a rough three months concerning the Oscar race. Those who follow me on Twitter (@TakisGaris) have the sad privilege to suffer along with my end of the year awards ruminations. Before I begin with my preliminary findings/observations/prognostications I strongly urge you to tweet me about all things Oscars. An answer is more than guaranteed. Let me cut quickly to the race now, bearing in mind that the list of contenders at the end of this article is a result of perplexed argumentation and stats analysis. You won’t find much theory or hypotheses here, only my thoughts’ funnel. It feels a bit tedious to draw any conclusions without having seen Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty, The Hobbit and Django Unchained, however, the buzz is strong to speculate to a certain degree. You can expect an update pretty soon, no later than a month. Less than a dozen weeks before the Academy Awards Ceremony on February 24th, a week before critics associations start revealing their preferences (New York Critics come out first on Dec 3rd), it’s high time to lay the chart(s) on the oscar roundtable and, so it begins:

> My hunch already a year ago was that this year’s showdown would be between Lincoln and The Master  Daniel Day Lewis third (record) leading actor oscar was an almost certainty. Spielberg’s also third directing win appeared a strong possibility. Lincoln proved out to be Tony Kushner’s film than The Beard’s. In fairness, a directing nod is not well deserved. The film is a history lesson; brilliantly acted by DDL-Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field and superbly scripted (some would equally argue overwrought) by Kushner. Spielberg is almost invisible and the plotline is poorly edited and ghastly lit. Regarding The Master I just want to state this: It’s insane for TWC, and Harvey Weinstein personally, to win consecutive Best Picture trophies with The King Speech and The Artist and still not being able to pull it off this year despite being the studio behind three film marvels: The Master - Silver Linings Playbook - Django Unchained. Paul Thomas Anderson – David O’ Russell – Quentin Tarantino; Names at least mouth-watering for every respectable cineaste’s mouth.

> I was here at TIFF2012, present at the people’s choice awards closing ceremony in Toronto. O’Russell was not present, neither a major star to receive the same award that brought The Artist to Oscars’ throne last year. Harvey was still ecstatic about the Venetian near-triumph for The Master  while pundits here were roaring about two films that would dominate 2012 awards; Argo and Silver Linings Playbook  The former being the definition of the infamous “overrated” aphorism. Quite good, impressive for Affleck-the director-standards, but…come on! Seriously? Affleck is not the new Clint, not even the new Clooney (the director) yet. Hopefully the balloon is going to deflate soon, handing the frontrunner status to SLP. Silver Linings Playbook is super fun, wonderfully acted by J-Law and Bobby De Niro, elevating the Academy’s least liked genre (comedy that is) to award consideration standards. Crow-pleaser without particularly eye-popping box office so far. The same TWC distribution mistake that virtually killed The Master s chances for Best Picture. So while SLP is stumbling upon its all-ends-well third act, The Master  a film beyond anything screened this year, the unparalleled achievement in directing, scripting, acting, cinematography and original score, has too many critic heads scratched and even more viewers eyes turned away. Harvey made the fatal mistake to throw the film all too early in the race, instead of releasing it during the final days of the year. We would discuss another race now had he opted for the latter.