And the Oscar goes to… (2013 edition)

OK, so I'm probably a wee bit late on this one.

Earlier this Summer It dawned on me that pretty much all the Best Picture nominees have been released on DVD by then.

Mind you, my comments below are based on personal preferences, and don't take into account popularity at the box office, which I'd bet fudges the award in Hollywood sometimes.

Additionally, it should be stated that I'm watching these as DVDs become available through the Alameda County Library system, and so the mini-reviews were written over several months, not immediately, back to back.

So without further ado here are my thoughts on this year's Best Picture Nominations for the 2013 Academy Awards presentation.

AMOUR – Amour takes us through the struggles an elderly couple faces when one experiences some debilitating disorders.

Foreign films are always at a disadvantage when it comes to the Best Picture nomination. In fact, only nine foreign films have been nominated in the 85 years of the Academy Awards.

The film was hard to watch at times because it truthfully captured what happens when an elderly person is stricken with a severe ailment, and they spiral towards the inevitable outcome.

Unfortunately, the movie jumps forward at times with no explanation, and the ending leaves some unanswered questions.

It's really a shame Emmanuelle Riva lost the Best Actress Award to Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook). Her performance, despite having little dialog beyond Stroke-induced grunts and stuttering, is what made this film.

ARGO – Argo depicts the intricately planned rescue of six American embassy personnel, who had got out prior to the 1979 embassy takeover in Tehran, Iran.

Most Americans are probably aware of the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Less are perhaps aware of the Canadian government helping six people to escape. I have to admit, I'd never knew the involvement of the American government until I saw this film.

It has to be said that Ben Affleck is an amazing actor, and has now become an amazing director as well. Unfortunately, it can't be said that his portrayal of CIA operative Tony Mendez was amongst his best.

There seems to be no enthusiasm in his delivery, and it pretty much stays the same throughout the film.

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD – Beasts of the Southern Wild, follows young child as she grows up in the fictional Louisiana delta island nicknamed  "The Bathtub."

To be honest, I'm torn on this film. The story and plot kept me watching.

However, at times it was really hard to watch due to about 90% of the film being shot handheld, without the use of a steady-cam. I realize he probably did that to give it a documentary look. But, it became annoying at times.

One the positive side, the acting was amazing when you consider the two lead characters Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) and Wink (Dwight Henry) were played by people who had never acted before. In fact, most of the supporting cast was made up of locals from Terrebonne Parish.

DJANGO UNCHAINED – Django Unchained, was released to much publicity last Winter. Much of it was pretty abysmal. Some called it blatant racism. Director Spike Lee, when asked what he thought of the film, said "…It's disrespectful to my ancestors…" and would not be seeing it.

Heated racist attitudes aside, I was disappointed when I finally got to see it. It was way too long and uneven.

It started out as an homage to the Spaghetti Western film genre. But, there were comedy sketches thrown in that were more fitting for a Mel Brooks flick, and they interfered with a constant flow of action.

The sound track was all over the place. I'm still trying to figure how someone thought Jim Croce's I got a name fit.

LES MISÉRABLES – Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, Les Misérables chronicles the cat and mouse game between Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) and Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe).

Musicals are always a hard fit when it comes to the Oscars, especially when talking about Best Picture of the Year.

They took an interesting gamble with this rendition of Les Misérables, as there is NO dialog throughout the entire film. Or more precisely, there is is no spoken dialog. Every line spoken by every character is sung.

The film is gorgeous, especially with the mesmerizing opening act as French prisoners are dragging a huge Man O' War into dry dock.

Unfortunately, it became rather tiresome after awhile, as I awaited the plot to run its course. Not even the stellar performances of Jackman, Crowe, nor Anne Hathaway (Fantine), made me excited.

Perhaps I might have felt different had I seen this on the big screen.

LIFE OF PI – Life of Pi, takes us along on the journey of a young Indian boy, who is shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean, with a Bengal Tiger as his only company.

Absolutely stunning. Critics poured lots of praise on this film, and it was justified.

It's a one person cast, with a handful supporting actors thrown into the beginning and end to help guide us along. What makes this even more amazing is that this was Suraj Sharma's film debut. Usually actors have other actors to interact with. Sharma had sock puppets and little black dots stuck on things…nothing more.

Virtually all of this film was shot on one of the World's largest sound stages, using special effects married to footage in a computer. I was shocked to find out that certain scenes that looked so natural had actually came out of a computer.

LINCOLN – Lincoln deals with the relatively short three month time period between the 1864 Presidential Election and the passage of the 13th Amendment.

Being a history buff, I wasn't turned off by this being a heavily dialog-driven film. The script revolved around the relationships between several Washington power brokers, and carried that off very well. Without this give-and-take, it would have been a really boring film.

Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal of Lincoln was a career performance. His vocalization had a subtle softness to it not present in many of his other rolls. That, coupled with a wonderful makeup job, completed the package.  

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK – Pat (Bradley Cooper) is a husband who has recently been released to home stay after being hospitalized in a mental facility due to the violent breakup of  his marriage.

When friends try and fix him up with Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), sparks fly, but he still intends to get back together with his ex.

First the positive. The acting is AMAZING! Both Cooper and Lawrence did great jobs at portraying people on the edge where very little pushes them over.

But, with that said, it was a very hard movie to watch during lots of it. Mental illness is not something to be joked about, and so the movie treated, many scenes very real, with lots of yelling, shouting and even some violence.

After the first half of the movie I almost turned the DVD off though ended up watching the whole thing to see where it would go.

Fortunately, it never devolved the campiness that it might have.

ZERO DARK THIRTY – Zero Dark Thirty takes us inside the super secret efforts to find Osama Bin Laden, and the eventual raid on his secret compound.

Film creators chose to take risks by opening the movie with a black screen with a muffled audio track full of actual sounds from the 9/11 attacks. This was followed by several minutes of brutal torture scenes at the hands of CIA personnel.

To be honest, I cringed at this portrayal. After all, we're supposed to be the good guys, right?

However, once this scene passed, the film settled down to an intense "who dun it" path as CIA operatives tried finding someone close to Bin Laden, only to find the head man himself.

The final 40 minutes recreated the actual raid, with lots of night footage, which could have been mistaken for actual military footage. This, coupled with a haunting soundtrack, had me sitting on the edge of my seat during to the very end.

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So what would have been my choice for Best Picture?

The Life of Pi

The acting was superb, especially when you consider 95% of it was done against a green screen, with the actor not knowing what was in front of him.

movie review: Lincoln (2012)

(reviews may contain spoilers for those that have never seen the film or are unfamiliar with the characters.)

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LINCOLN (2012)

I've been meaning to catch Lincoln ever since I saw the first trailers during the summer. For whatever reason, I kept putting it off until I found out it's showing at the Rialto Cinema Cerrito, in El Cerrito. Being this is in walking distance I had no excuse not to escape the real world for 2 1/2 hours of movie magic.

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After all these years you'd think that movies on Abraham Lincoln have been done to death (no pun intended). Most seem to cover Lincoln with a global view, all the way from his days as a Congressman to that fateful day when he was murdered at Ford's Theater.

This movie takes a different angle, concentrating on the short three month period of time between the 1864 Presidential Election and the House of Representative's passage of the 13th Amendment.

Partially based on Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, we see the political intrigue which was common place in the 1800s, when you needed a score card to know which way any politicians might swing on a topic, even within the same political party!

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Be forewarned. If you hate films laden with dialog and are only entertained when things go boom every ten seconds, or when special effects turn a character's skin from tan to blue at the drop of a hat, this film is NOT for you.

Lincoln relies heavily on dialog, and the relationships among several Washington DC power brokers, as they jump though all sorts of hoops in an effort to abolish slavery in the United States.

Makeup was fantastic. While Longstreet's beard in Gettysburg still  draws chuckles, there should be no laughs here. Everyone's makeup was very believable and, with the exception of Tommy Lee Jones' very recognizable face, blended into the history books I used to read in college.

Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal of Lincoln is a career performance. Prior to this my favorite performance of his was Bill Cutting (Gangs of New York). However, a good portion of that screen time was shared with Leonardo DiCaprio. Though there are plenty of other actors with important parts in Lincoln, they are clearly playing second fiddle to Day-Lewis, who character carries the film.

I was intrigued by Day-Lewis' vocalization of Lincoln. Normally, he has a very forceful voice in most of his roles (see Daniel Plainview, in There Will be Blood, for an extreme example of what I'm talking about).

By 1864 the real Lincoln had been worn down by several bloody years of war, not to mention a tenuous reelection battle. Day-Lewis spoke in character with the usual "folksy" tone that many an actor have portrayed Lincoln with, and there was a "frailness" sound to it.

Interestingly, Day-Lewis was not the first choice as Lincoln; Liam Neeson was. However, Neeson pulled out before actual filming started. It's 20/20 hindsight, but I just can't see him giving a performance anywhere near what Day-Lewis accomplished.

Sally Field did an adequate job as Mary Todd Lincoln, especially considering what she had to work with, as Mrs. Lincoln had a small amount of screen time when compared to the male characters.

The supporting actor list is absolutely thick with talent; too many to name everyone. Three particularly standing out are David Strathairn (William Seward), Tommy Lee Jones (Thaddeus Stevens), Bruce McGill (Edwin Stanton) and Lee Pace (Fernando Wood)

It should be no surprise that any film dealing with Lincoln and the Civil War will usually end with Lincoln's assassination. However, Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner chose not to show the actual event, instead wrapping up with inspirational oratory.

This morning Lincoln received seven Golden Globe nominations, the most for any movie, and it won't surprise me if they repeat a similar feet when it comes to Oscar nominations in mid-January, especially  Day-Lewis (Lead Actor), Kushner (Best Screenplay) and Best Picture.

Perhaps a little picky, but I did knock off a star because of a bit of time compression at the end and for a couple of scenes that, while adding to the flavor of the movie, are doubtful at ever happening, according to some historians. (Though only a sub-plot in passing, I would have liked to have seen more information on the peace overtures from the Confederacy).

RATED: 9.0 out of 10 STARS

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Lincoln will be showing at the Cerrito at least through December 21st, and is also showing at several other theaters throughout the area.  Further information on show times and locations can be found at Fandango.