Academy Awards 2013: Who Should Win and Why I’m Right

OK, this is a last minute affair, being as the Oscar show is tonight, and many of you may not even read this until after; but I wanted to see all the movies in the major categories before weighing in. As it is I finally saw the last two pictures on my list in the Best Picture category this weekend, and I did not fully cover all of the other nominated films in other categories.   But, with that apology, here’s what I think:

Best Picture:  There were several worthy movies in 2012, although none stood out head and shoulders above the rest. (BTW, having nine nominees for best picture, as opposed to the limit of five in all other categories, is ridiculous – nothing more than a marketing ploy to get more people to more movies.) Les Misérables does not belong in this group, despite its opulence and it’s coterie of diehard fans. Nor does Life of Pi, notwithstanding great special effects and cinematography. Amour was an interesting, thoughtful and brave film, but not a great one - in many ways it was more a stage play than a movie; and being French, narrow (only three characters of any consequence), slow moving and depressing it has not a whisker of a chance to win. Beasts of the Southern Wild was an intriguing and beguiling movie, with some wonderful performances, and a very cool, child-centric point of view - an amazing first effort, and I hope it wins something (maybe there should be a category of Best Feature By A New Director); yet with its independent production, extremely small budget, mostly non-professional actors and fairly limited exposure, it’s not a true contender.

The remaining five are tougher to choose from or to handicap. I thought Silver Linings Playbook was terrific. The acting was great, the story was quirky, funny and compelling (although with a fairly sappy, off-the-shelf ending) and the direction and production values generally were first rate. But I doubt it will win, and don’t think it should (that sappy ending, for one thing).  Much the same can be said for Zero Dark Thirty and Django Unchained, two extremely well wrought films.  Zero was taut, fascinating, beautifully acted, creatively rendered and provocative; Django was ironic, funny yet shocking, richly photographed, well acted, surprisingly entertaining, and provocative in it’s own right. I think the controversy about factual misrepresentations in Zero Dark Thirty – particularly regarding the implied widespread use of torture and regarding its efficacy  - will doom its chances for a Best Picture Oscar, and may damage this movie’s longer-term legacy. (See the article in today’s NYTimes by Ali Soufan, for example: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/opinion/sunday/torture-lies-and-hollywood.html?ref=todayspaper ). 

Argo was a complete film: the story was interesting; it was riveting even though we knew the outcome in advance; it was well cast and well acted; the cinematography was brilliantly claustrophobic and immediate; it walked a tightrope between tension-packed scenes and essentially comedic ones; and director Ben Affleck understood how to bring out the best work in lead actor Ben Affleck.  Oh, there were historical inaccuracies in this story, too, but they were dramatic, not meaningful. Argo may win because of Hollywood pique that Affleck got snubbed as a director, by not being nominated in that category. If it were up to me, he not only deserved that nomination, but he would win as Best Director. For best picture, however, I’m not totally convinced. As my daughter said: “It was really good, but I don’t think I’ll want to see it a second time.”

Lincoln was a masterful portrait of the icon and the man, and of a time and an historical event of consequence. The photography was evocative, grand and sweeping in some moments and deeply intimate at other times. The acting was superb – evidenced, in part, by nominations for best actor, best supporting actor and best supporting actress. The story was well told and the screenplay, by Tony Kushner, was great: erudite, human, touching, and sometimes hilarious. As with Argo, the alleged historical inaccuracies in this historical film are not meaningful (unless you’re a Connecticut patriot, that is). The movie had a sweep and grandeur to it that, in my view, sets it apart from the others. Lincoln should win.

Best Director:  Spielberg could very well win for Lincoln, for the reasons just stated, and that would be ok with me. But he is so successful – not only commercially, but nominated seven times for best director, winning twice – that voters may want to reward someone else.  Affleck should win, except for the fact that he was not nominated.

Ang Lee is a great director, and his work on Life of Pi was excellent. Usually, however, winning directors are honored for the performances they are able to wring from their cast, and Life of Pi had only one primary part, aside from the special effects tiger, Richard Parker.  To give credit for the extraordinary look and feel of this picture, much of the credit must go to the cinematographer, Claudio Miranda, who is nominated himself for an Oscar. Michael Hanneke, the French director of Amour, has been favored for this award by some art-film devotees as a credible candidate; and there’s no question that the unsparing look at end of life issues and the performance of Emmanuelle Riva as Anne in this film are remarkable; but I was unimpressed by the overly stoical portrait of Anne’s husband Georges, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant. Besides, Amour is not particularly cinematic, almost no one has seen it, and it’s French, so Hanneke does not stand a chance.

That leaves David O Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) and Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild). Zeitlin is young and Beasts, his first feature film (which he also co-wrote) is nominated for four Academy Awards, and has already garnered numerous other awards, a remarkable achievement. Zeitlin’s film manages to create a whole world, a wondrous, funky, fictional place we have never seen, “the Bathtub” in the Southern Louisiana Delta, and a magnificent 6-year-old character called Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis), who just captures your heart and sympathy. Wallis, under Zeitin’s direction, has been nominated for an Oscar herself (and she has just been cast as te lead in a new production of Annie).  Although not nominated, Dwight Henry, as Hushpuppy’s father, Wink, also turned in an award-worthy performance; and the other actors in the film, mostly non-professionals, were credible, too. Although Beasts has reaped ten times its $2 million production costs at the box office, this is still small potatoes for Hollywood, and the fact remains that the movie has not been seen by many.  It’s an honor to be nominated, but Zeitlin won’t win.

If Spielberg doesn’t get it, Russell will win Best Director, and I think he deserves it.  The acting all around in Silver Linings Playbook is just superb, garnering Oscar nominations in all four acting categories, most particularly in the several scenes where characters are engaged eyeball to eyeball with one another, talking over one another, and in the ways in which Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro each believably manifest their characters’ flawed characters. Russell also pulls together the other elements of the film - cinematography, editing, design, etc. - into a very entertaining whole (notwithstanding the aforementioned sappy ending).

Best Actor: I haven’t seen The Master or Flight yet, so I can’t fairly evaluate two of the five nominees here; but I don’t think it will matter. Danielle Day-Lewis will win for his epochal portrait of Abe Lincoln. While some credit for the amazing likeness Day-Lewis seemed to bear to old Abe has to go to cinematographer Janusc Kaminsky and the make-up department, the fact remains that Day-Lewis became Abe Lincoln. From the instant we lay eyes on Lincoln, he is real – and that’s some feat, considering his legendary, iconic status in our history and imagination.  This actor allows us to see the family man Lincoln and the charming, funny story-teller Lincoln, the canny/steely politician Lincoln and the care-worn, lonely, moral President Lincoln. Just brilliant.

Bradley Cooper was also amazing playing the manic and love-torn Pat Solitano In Silver Linings Playbook. If Day-Lewis was not on the ballot, he’d get my vote.

Best Actress:  Again, I’m at a bit of a disadvantage in that I did not catch one performance, that of Naomi Watts in The Impossible. I really like Watts, and still hope to see that one. Nevertheless, I suspect that the contest will come down to Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence.

Chastain is in virtually every shot of Zero Dark Thirty, and that is a good thing. Her Maya is an intense, tough, intelligent intelligence analyst/agent who refuses to let the bureaucracy dictate the level of effort to be devoted to the search for Bin Laden. Considering that the story is largely a procedural, that a good part of the ‘action’ occurs in government offices and over a period of many years, this could have been boring or plodding; but Chastain’s passion holds our attention and keeps her character and the story interesting.

Lawrence plays Tiffany, a kind of screwed up, young widow, who takes a fancy to the somewhat older and very screwed up Bradley Cooper character in Silver Linings Playbook. Tiffany is also driven – to get her way and to get her man. She’s mercurial, sassy, insistent, flirtatious, argumentative and charming (to us, at least). What really impressed me is how easily Lawrence slipped into the screwball/romantic comedy world for this movie, after having played the insecure, but resourceful and tough as nails heroine in The Hunger Games, and the humorless, determined, rough-hewn backwoods girl in Winters Bone a couple years ago.

Emmanuel Riva was wonderful in Amour, saying more with a gesture or a slight eye movement than many actresses could with a paragraph of dialogue. Quvenzhané Wallis was terrific as Hushpuppy, but I can’t see the Academy giving this award to an actress who was six when the movie was shot. Neither will win. My guess is Best Actress goes to Chastain, but my vote would be for Lawrence.

Other Categories (In Brief):

Best Supporting Actor: Either Robert De Niro or Christoph Waltz

 Best Supporting Actress:  Haven’t seen enough to comment, except not Anne Hathaway or Jacki Weaver

Best Cinematography:  Django or Life of Pi

Best Adapted Screenplay: Lincoln

Best Original Screenplay: Django or Moonrise Kingdom

Best Animated Feature: Frankenweenie (although I have not seen Wreck It Ralph, which I’m told could be a contender)

Best Song:  Skyfall