Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 154: Just Before Eve

For most film fans the name Joseph L Mankiewicz will be most familiar as the director and writer of All About Eve one of the most nominated Oscar films of all time. However one year prior to this success Mankiewicz won the directing and screenwriting awards for another film entitled A Letter to Three Wives. The three wives of the title are Jeanne Crain's Deborah Bishop, Ann Sothern's Rita Phipps and Linda Darnell's Lora Mae Hollingsworth who are all informed via a letter that one of their husbands has ran off with mutual acquaintance Addie Ross. The problem is that Addie's letter doesn't reveal which husband it is so all three women, who are about to board a boat to volunteer on a picnic for orphans, have to play the waiting game until they reach dry land. Addie Ross narrates the piece from beginning to end showing us around the neighbourhood and introducing the three women however she is never seen. In flashback we see the state of the three marriages and why the husbands may've run off with Addie. Firstly Deborah, who is married to Addie's first love Brad, a farmer's daughter who met her husband while they were both in the navy and is now nervous about meeting his friends whom she feel are in a higher class than herself. In the flashback we see her journey to her first dance with the other couples and getting so nervous that she drinks too much and ends up throwing up just as Addie turns up at the end. Next we see Rita's marriage to school-teacher George, played by Kirk Douglas, who writes for the radio and is often dominated by her boss who demands constant re-writes. George often feels emasculated by his wife who earns more than him and we flashback to a dinner party thrown in her boss' honour however she is so busy that she has forgot her husband's birthday something that Addie hasn't done giving him a record as a present. Finally Rita Mae's marriage to retail king Porter is depicted in detail showing her living in squalor next to the railway tracks and wanting to be a wife to someone of Porter's status but there is a hint that he himself is also taken with Addie as there is a picture of her on his piano. The end of the film reveals who it is that has run off with Addie and the consequences that this revelation has.

At first watching A Letter to Three Wives I felt that I was getting some soppy melodrama but once I learnt that Mankiewicz was involved and I was introduced to the characters I really got into it. I could really see elements of All About Eve in the film including the narration from someone who isn't necessary involved in all parts of the story as well as a strong female presence and the themes of advancing in social circles. Indeed the film also features two uncredited roles for All About Eve cast-members with Thelma Ritter playing the Phipps' home help Sadie who is very similar to the role of Birdie that she would play in Mankiewicz's next film while Celeste Holm was also present in voice form only giving an airy quality to the mysterious Addie. Of the six central performances I think Kirk Douglas was brilliant as the put-upon George a man who has to deal with his lot in life and the fact that his wife earns a lot more money than he does. Of the wives themselves Linda Darnell is both sexy and compelling as the woman who has come the furthest and who secretly loves her husband even though you wouldn't know it. The script is incredibly clever and the direction is masterful and while this film isn't as great as Mankiewicz's classic it is certainly a pre-cursor to what this man would produce the following year.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 152-153: Opening the Book

This time on the Oscar Blog two films that were based on popular novels and both that won awards for cinematography and editing as well as the second winning many more.

But we start with King Solomon's Mines, a nominee from the 1951 ceremony, which was based on the novel by H Rider Haggard. Obviously this version, which starred Raymond Massey as the explorer Allan Quatermain wasn't the first adaptation of the book or the last but was arguably the most successful due to its exterior locations which at the time would've surprised audiences. The main story sees Quatermain tasked as guide to John Goode and his sister Elizabeth Curtis played by Deborah Kerr so that they can hope to find her husband who went on a mission to discover the mines of the title. During their time the trio come across a menagerie of African wildlife, a British fugitive and are almost trapped in a cave by a dastardly African king. The end of the film sees rebel forces try and overthrow the king while the whereabouts of Elizabeth's husband are also revealed. King Solomon's Mines is quite a stilted film and indeed the directorial style of Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton is rather basic. Some of the scenes between Elizabeth and Allen feel very cold and there is no chemistry between the pair who are supposed to be your romantic coupling. Massey isn't a particularly commanding lead so it isn't surprising that he wasn't the original choice for the role while Deborah Kerr tries her best but doesn't get a lot to do other than look frightened by what's going on. Instead the real star here is location scout Eva Monley who picked some of the best African backdrops to host the film which to a 1950s audience would seem quite new and exciting as would all the African rituals and the numerous beasts that the trio run into throughout their adventures. As a postcard from Africa it does the job fairly well but I didn't find it very exciting and though it wasn't particularly long it still felt baggy and lagged in several places.

But if King Solomon's Mines was baggy I think that Around the World in 80 Days, the winner at the 1957 ceremony, must be described as incredibly overlong. The whole film clocks in at a whopping 183 minutes which includes an intermission and a lengthy and well-produced end credits sequence which in fact is one of the best things about the film. It even has a convoluted start with journalist Edward R Murrow showing footage of George Melies' A Trip to the Moon and linking it together with the stories of Jules Verne. We all know the basic story of the film which sees Phileas Fogg wager with his fellow reform club members that he cannot navigate around the globe in eighty days. He sets off on a mission with his new manservant Passepartout as they journey around the world on different forms of transport including balloons, steam liners and trains which are constantly breaking down. The film also introduces a romantic aspect as the pair rescue Shirley MacLaine's princess from being burnt alive while in India and she forms a romantic attachment to Fogg while he is also being chased around the globe by Robert Newton's Mr Fix a Scotland Yard detective who believes Fogg to have stolen from the Bank of England. That's about all the plot as the film jumps from set-piece to set-piece a lot of which feature Passepartout fooling around whether it is at a bull-fight or performing on stage he is given more spotlight than Fogg mainly because he is being portrayed by Latin American comedian Cantinflas who was one of the main draws of the film. To be fair Cantinflas is a lot more engaging than David Niven, who plays Fogg, almost acting as a sort of modern day Charlie Chaplin and he does indeed steal the film. This version of Around the World was conceived by producer Michael Todd, the third husband of Elizabeth Taylor, who fancied himself as a bit of Cecil B De Mille type and had a grand vision of what he wanted this film to look like. Indeed this film is heavy on scenery if light on plot with all the different locations being well-scouted and well-shot so I do think it deserved that cinematography Oscar. The film also has a cavalcade of cameos from Frank Sinatra playing the piano to Buster Keaton as a train conductor there were about fourty appearances of this nature so after a while this began to get a bit tiresome. Whether it deserved the Best Picture Oscar we will discover when I come to the end of the 1950s but this is a film that looks stunning and has a great slapstick performance from Cantinflas even if it is far too long and has too many unnecessary elements to it I feel that certain elements will stick in my mind long after I have watched the film something that can't be said about King Solomon's Mines. So out of these two films I would say that Around the World in 80 Days is definitely the superior of the two but I don't think that's a particularly hard battle to win.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 151: Musical Mayhem

As we've seen in the 1950s thus far that the rise of Technicolour and cinemascope meant that a lot of big epics were being made as they now looked spectacular on the screen. Another genre that saw a rise was that of the musical and two big named musicals were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1955 and 1957 respectively. First up is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers a jolly musical film that features plenty of physical violence and the multiple abduction of women by the roguish brothers of the title. It kicks off with Howard Keel's Adam journeying from his mountaintop farm to find himself a wife a task he carries off with ease hooking up with the innocent Millie and taking her back to his house to live with his six brothers. Millie tries to hammer some civility into these boys and it works for a while as she gets them clean and learning proper courtship rituals but when they are provoked at a barn raising contest they lose their temper and get into a fight losing their girls in the process. Adam convinces his brothers to go and kidnap the women and indeed the townsfolk can't rescue them after an avalanche meaning that the girls and Millie end up taking the house banishing the brothers to the stables. However as is often the case the girls soften as the snow begins to thaw and as the title would suggest there is a mass wedding ceremony to end the film. Obviously as you can tell I really wasn't taken with the brutish nature of this film nor did I think that Millie did a particularly good job civilising the men or keeping the women from them. What I did like however were the songs and also the use of Technicolour in particular the pastel colours that the men wore and how they interlinked with the dresses that their intendeds were also wearing. The songs, of which Bless Your Beautiful Hide is the most famous, are also fairly catchy and there are some great little set pieces including the aforementioned barn-raising however as a film I didn't think it was particularly well constructed and I didn't warm to any of the characters.

The same cannot be said for The King and I which makes you feel for even the brutish King of Siam before it comes to its conclusion. This time we find Deborah Kerr as a widowed English teacher travelling to Siam with her young son to become the teacher to the children and wives of the king. Obviously when I think of this film it is Yul Brynner's King who tries to change his attitude to women and his subjects after meeting Kerr's Anna. In the more innocent 1950s I don't think you could use the term sexual tension but that really was what these two displayed as they went on in their shouting matches and eventually came to a mutual understanding. Obviously Anna becomes disgusted after the king won't let his 'present' the young Tuptum leave with her lover so she leaves the king but when he falls ill she journeys back. For me The King and I draws you in with its two lead performances with Brynner winning an Oscar for Best Actor with other awards going to the costumes, music and art direction. Someone who missed out on an Oscar here was Kerr whose strong yet warm Anna anchors the film but then Kerr still holds the record for the most nominations for an actress without a win despite the fact her male co-stars such as Brynner, Frank Sinatra and David Niven seem to come away with the statues. Again there are some great set pieces with Getting to Know You and Tuptum's show for the English being the highlights but for me romance doesn't get any more perfect than Brynner and Kerr's routine in Shall we Dance. Obviously my favourite of the two musicals by a country mile and one that lost out on the Oscar to a film which some say was undeserving but as I'm yet to see it I will reserve my judgment for now.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 150: Lonely Hearts

There were mixed responses to the fact that The Artist won Best Picture at last Sunday's Oscar awards as some sort is as a great film while others thought it was a fad. However isn't the greatest marker of an award winning film longevity? So films I have watched such as Gone with the Wind and Casablanca are still watched today but others such as 1956 winner Marty is now a film that barely anybody knows which is a shame. Ernest Borgnine also won the Best Actor Oscar for playing the titular character a heavy-set butcher who is the only bachelor in his family with all of his younger brothers and sisters having flown the nest after getting married. The opening scene shows us perfectly of the community's feelings about Marty as his customers, who he is perfectly civil to, tell him he should be ashamed of himself for not having got married yet. His mother convinces him to go with his friend to a ballroom where he feels out of his depth and none of the girls want to dance with him because of his size. He then gets approached by a caddish fellow who wants to pay him to look after his plain date because he has had a better offer. Marty is disgusted by this offer but later approaches Clara and the two begin dancing and spend the night walking around the city. They discover they have a lot in common as they are both looked down on by the opposite sex so essentially they find solace in each other. However Marty's friends and mother who all meet Clara try and disuade him from calling her the next day but mainly for their own selfish reasons so the question is will he try and make a date with the only girl who has ever made him happy?

Even though I'd never heard of it you can see the influence in Marty through a lot of films featuring male protagonists from The Apartment, which would win Best Picture five years later, to the Oscar nominated male menopause movies of Alexander Payne. At the heart of this film is the central performance from Ernest Borgnine who is able to convey Marty's friendliness and also his heartbreak in equal measure we get the feeling that this is a decent guy who is just misunderstood by a lot people. However Borgnine would be nothing without director Delbert Mann or especially screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky who also got Oscars for this piece. Of the other cast members I thought Betsy Blair was a great Clara some would call her mousy but she really comes out of herself after her initial meeting with Marty. I also enjoyed Esther Mincotti and Augusta Ciolli as Marty's mother and aunt with these two old Italian women representing a different time and the two scenes in which they both feature are terribly moving and funny in equal measure as I suppose is the film itself. I suppose there are many reasons that Marty hasn't stood the test of time maybe because it's a fairly quiet film and it's one of the shortest Best Picture winners of all time but perhaps some people feel it dated. But for me this is a great little character study and maybe go as far as to say that this is a forgotten gem which got me wondering will we be saying the same thing about The Artist in 56 years time?

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 149: Bette, Jenny, Tony and Sid in catch-up special

So I'm trying at the moment to catch up with the three reviews I missed here before carrying on to the last films I have to review from the 1950s. These are going to be brief as I watched them last August and one in particular really hasn't stuck in my memory.

But first to All About Eve a glorious film and a classic which I ashamedly hadn't watched previously. It did win the Best Picture award in 1951 but shockingly only one acting award for George Sanders' memorable performance as the bitchy journalist. The film starts with Bette Davis' Margo Channing and Celeste Holm's Karen Richards both reminciscing about the first time they met Anne Baxter's Eve Harrington as she wins an award for her acting. Karen, the wife of a scriptwriter, introduces Eve to star actress Margo who eventually hires her as an assistant despite suspicions from her current helper Birdie played with vigourr by the brilliant Thelma Ritter. As the film goes on Eve plants herself into Margo's life more with the actress now becoming paranoid it seems that Eve has now become Margo's understudy later garnering rave reviews after intentionally making Margo late for a performance. Eve then starts flirting with Sanders' Addison who thinks he's figured out but then she starts lying to him about an affair she is having with Karen's wife Lloyd. Addison finally unravels Eve's backstory and then the whole thing finally comes full circle when a girl like Eve comes to her doorstep claiming admiration for her. Everything is right about All About Eve which is evident from its fourteen nominations and only six wins. It's always obvious to wax lyrical about Baxter or Davis but for me it's Celeste Holm who holds everything together by not playing a person who is part of the showbiz set and who is genuinely taken with the young innocent Eve. This is a film that demonstrates the perils of fame and what some people will do to get ahead but is presented in a way that never alienates the audience by in the end letting the characters get their just deserts. Overall a brilliant film that deserves all the accolades it picked up at the 1951 ceremony.

The film I can't really remember is the second on the list Love is a Many Splendored Thing which stars Jennifer Jones and William Holden. As you can probably imagine from the title this is a romantic drama set in Hong Kong in the 1940s with Jones playing it bordeline racist as Han  a Eurasian doctor who falls in love with Holden's reporter Mark  a man who was previously married but is now separated. The two enjoy a love affair which is later tarnished by racial barriers as Han is ostracised by her Chinese community for falling in love with an American which is further complicated by the fact he was previously married. I don't want to give the plot away after that for those of you who may want to watch it but for me this was a predictable melodrama that somehow was nominated for eight awards and stopped classics like To Catch a Thief, Guys and Dolls and Rebel Without a Cause from getting a nomination. The only thing really memorable about this film is its award winning title tune and that's about it both Jones and Holden have been in better films and both should've known better.

Finally a film that I did enjoy with two Oscar nominated Best Actor performances for both Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones. Curtis and Poitier play John and Noah respectively who are two criminals that escape from a chain gang and are stuck with each other despite their mutual loathing. As you could imagine from a film released in the late 1950s race comes into play as John has a hatred of Noah based on the colour of his skin while Noah hates John's prejudice towards him. Though over time they learn a little bit about each other and despite their differences they learn to get along for the hope of actually escaping from their lives as prisoners. The final third of the film sees them happen upon a young boy and his mother a lonely housewife who falls for John and wants to escape with him leaving Noah behind to fend for himself. But by this point in the film the two have formed an unbreakable bond and John has to make his mind up whether to be free or stick with his newfound friend. I really enjoyed The Defiant Ones, which was a film I wasn't familiar with before I watched it, as it is a tense cops and robbers film with the camera also following the police's attempts to apprehend the two escapees. In his first starring role Poitier really goes for it and becomes a star while Curtis is also brilliant in a role which shows off his gritty demeanour. The fact that this lost to the very twee Gigi just shows how wrong Oscar gets a lot of the time but I will now be listing this as one of my favourite films I've watched so far which I'm sure is some consolation to those involved, or perhaps not.

So there you go we're all up to date and hopefully they'll be more reviews to come soon.

Oscars 2012: Why Billy Crystal is an awesome host

Obviously there have been a lot of controversies surrounding this year's Oscars and one in particular concerns the hosting duties which were taken over by Billy Crystal after Eddie Murphy left when producer Brett Ratner was fired. Now I know a lot of people were looking forward to hearing Murphy's opening gambit but for me the news of Crystal's hosting is brilliant seeing as last year we had the terrible James Franco and the just about bearable Anne Hathaway. In a night in which The Artist will no doubt sweep the board Crystal's brand of old-school Hollywood will be fitting with the evening's proceedings. But for those unfamiliar with Crystal's hosting style and in particular his opening song I present to you the previous eight opening numbers from the man and my commentary on each.

1990 

Crystal's first stab at hosting saw him hit some nerves during his opening monologue hitting out at the academy for not nominating Bruce Beresford for directing eventual Best Picture winner Driving Miss Daisy. His opening song was very short and some films didn't get very much time to be sung about but even still we knew that there was more to come and Crystal had definitely established himself as a great Oscar host.

1991 

This was the year that Billy Crystal's opening medley became the star of the show however he still was able to put in a few digs in about studio heads and Donald Trump. This year showed how adept he was at putting the names of the nominated films into popular songs and the finale where all five were put together was pure class.
To see this video in full go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0lWrZL0EHE&feature=relmfu

1992 
Once again Crystal did the old tease saying he wouldn't launch into the song before doing it and this year it was a beauty coming to a crescendo with a tribute to Barbara Streisand whose film The Prince of Tides was nominated despite her not getting a directing nod. The whole thing was sung to the Don't Rain on my Parade theme which obviously can be linked back to Babs herself. This was also the year of Crystal's infamous Silence of the Lambs parody.
To see this video in full go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCAi1744Sa0&feature=relmfu

1993
This year Crystal actually came on dragging the Oscar and then he came on and talked about how everybody want him to come on as someone from their movie. The Crying Game got a lot of jokes made about it as we all know now there was a big reveal involving a certain private area. He also ended up bringing out some props to resemble various nominees before launching into his yearly musical number. This time it ended with the infamous moment where Crystal sat on Clint Eastwood's lap while singing about his film Unforgiven to the tune of Unforgettable.
To see this video in full go to : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF6fpn8Ts68&feature=relmfu 

1997
After four years away Crystal returned and by this time was a steady pair of hands not even teasing the fact that he might go into the medley this was also the first time that Crystal announced the number of nominees for Best Picture. From his breathless sing-a-long to a Shine piano track to singing the plot of Secrets and Lies to the theme of The Brady Bunch his big finale saw him sing about Fargo to Frank Sinatra's Chicago song. This year definitely proved that Crystal still had it and that's why he was invited back the following year.
To see this video in full go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSMB4r5QmTg&feature=relmfu

1998
Predictably entering the stage on Titanic, Crystal launched almost immediately into his opening medley pausing briefly between songs mainly to get a picture taken while sitting on Jack Nicholson's lap. The two highlights for me was As Good as it Gets sung to Let's Call the Whole Thing Off and The Full Monty sung to Hello Dolly.
To see this video in full go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYR2YJhRwTU&feature=relmfu

2000 
Now the highlight of his set Crystal starts by singing then goes into addressing some of the guests, including The Sixth Sense's Hayley Joel Osment currently residing in the where are they now file, before going back to sing about that film to the tune of People. For me it is his ode to Michael Caine which is the highlight here sung to the tune of Mame and includes a dig at him for making Jaws 4 but hey he did get a house out of it. 
To see this video in full go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK76GlXddyw&feature=relmfu

2004

We thought at the time this might be Crystal's last ceremony as after this the Oscars looked to edgy more contemporary hosts such as Chris Rock, Jon Stewart and Ellen however after Steve Martin co-hosted a couple of years back it was only a matter of time before Crystal returned. But eight years ago he still had it making references to Sofia Coppola putting a horse's head in Peter Jackson's bed and also singing about how long the Lord of the Rings trilogy was something we all know too well. 


So what will his songs be about this year well I've got a hunch that The Tree of Life could be sung to That's Life while I think The Artist's musical number will be performed in silence but there's only one way to find out and that's to watch and remember i will be live tweeting the event so follow me @mattstvworld

Matt's Alternate Oscars

It's Oscar Time again and obviously on Sunday night there will be much tweeting from me and then the Oscar Blog will follow soonafter but for the first time I'm presenting my films that should've been there and don't be surprised if a lot of names turn up in the same categories. Apart from in the Best Picture category I'll try and keep my comments about the nominees brief but you know what I'm like I do waffle on.

Best Picture: Drive

Not only should Drive be nominated for this year's Best Picture but there's no doubt in my mind that it should win the top prize. If you don't want to take my word for it then how about Denzel Washington's wife, who watches all the nominated films on DVD when her husband can't be bothered, she also believes this was the film of the year and should win. But why? Simply it's an exquisitely joyous piece of cinema evoking memories of times gone by while simultaneously keeping things modern. Great performances from Ryan Gosling as the mysterious Driver backed up Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman and Bryan Cranston all add to the film as does the great soundtrack. I think you just know when you're watching a great film and when I watched Drive I felt just that.

Nominees:

Bridesmaids - To be fair Oscar has at least acknowledged comedy with The Artist but this brilliant all-female affair should be nominated for me than its excellent screenplay. The fact that this proved that women could do the gags just as well as the men meant that this was a fairly landmark piece of work and it was bloody hilarious.

Poetry - This Korean film made very few end of year lists but was a beautifully shot piece with a masterful lead performance. A film about growing old and losing part of yourself while still trying to do the right thing is set against an old lady trying her hardest to write a poem. Completely heart-breaking but at the same time strangely uplifting this film deserved to be seen by more people.

Senna - A brilliantly shot film about a man taken to soon which was brilliantly shot and engaging so much so that you wouldn't think that this was a documentary. Asif Kapadia's film about the life of Ayrton Senna took me by surprise the first time I saw it as I wasn't an F1 fan but the great trick of this film is making you see the man behind the sport. On the way to the inevitable ending there was rivalry, greed and a man who wanted to give back to the town from which he came and I personally loved every minute of it. 

Shame- Steve McQueen's story of a sex addict trying to deal with his life and look after his emotionally unstable sister is a supremely artistic work by a man who has an eye for detail. Every shot is perfectly crafted giving you a look into this man's world and the way he thinks. I was totally taken aback with how much I admired this film, especially given the content, so McQueen and lead actor Michael Fassbender did a brilliant job making you see through the nudity to a study of a torn and complex individual.

The Skin I Live In - I think generally Pedro Almodovar's output has been great but this was a film that I found a lot darker than his usual Penelope Cruz starring comedy drama. This film was a thriller with both sex and violence and an intriguing lead performance from Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon wanting to create a new skin but being driven by revenge after an incident involving a family member. This was shocking but incredibly well put-together and written by Almodovar and his brother just a great watch that held my attention from beginning to end

Take Shelter - I watched this film very recently and am still intrigued why it wasn't nominated for any Oscars seeing as that it is an American production starring two Academy Award nominees. At its heart is a terrific performance by Michael Shannon, see below, as Curtis  a man who is convinced that a disaster is on its way and is desperate to try and protect them. The great thing about this film is how director Jeff Nichols takes us inside Curtis' head so we're never sure if we're seeing his own visions or what is actually happening. This is a well written film letting the actors say a lot with saying very little and even the young actress playing Curtis' deaf daughter is fantastic. This is what modern American film-making should look like it's just a shame Oscar focuses on saccharine melodrama instead.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - A couple of nods for Gary Oldman and the film's script means that this has at least been given some sort of recognition. However Tomas Alfredson's big screen adaptation of John Le Carre's classic work deserved to be given a great deal more nominations that it was. This is a moody and atmospheric piece full of great supporting performances and a real feeling that you are there with Smiley as he carries out his investigations on his spying colleagues. I think a lot has been said about Oldman's performance but if others like Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch weren't there to back him up then he wouldn't seem half as good. This was much more than a film just about spies and the characters really resonated once the film had finished.

Tyrannosaur - Paddy Considine's debut feature showed that the actor had learnt well from the directors he had previously acted for. It's a shame that Oscar seems to skip over British realism films as this odd romance between a drunk and a battered woman was involving and deftly crafted by Considine who kept the story simple yet involving. Two great leads in Peter Mullan doing drunk and gruff and Olivia Colman doing timid yet strong and both excel in these roles as does Eddie Marsan as Colman's violent husband. While some of the material here could be seen as clichéd Considine and his cast create something beautiful out of the hatred on display and really make you think about other people's lives and their daily grind.

We Need to Talk About Kevin - Quite a lot has been said about this film which shows how a mother's love can get over even the worst atrocities that her son commits. Tilda Swinton's harassed Eva is the star here as we see her dealing with motherhood and then with a tragedy that Kevin has caused and in each instance director Lynne Ramsay gives us reason to care for her and even the outwardly evil Kevin. This film is about whether we are truly born evil or if we are a product of our environment and how our views can change about our own families. Ramsay has a great eye and keeps the dialogue brief but effective which ultimately produced one of my favourite films of the year.

Best Director: Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive)

As well as being brilliantly acted, Drive is definitely the best directed film of the year thanks to Nicholas Winding Refn's skill at bringing out the best in his characters like he did with Bronson a few years ago. I just love how he was able to put together this crime story and romance together and guide you through the streets of L.A. and Driver's world. Winding Refn will hopefully be noticed by Oscar soon, as he has already done by BAFTA, but when he does we can all say we got there first. 

Nominees:
Tomas Alfredson (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) - Like with Let The Right One in it was Alfredson's way of diverting this film away from the genre in which it should sit that made it so satisfying.
Pedro Almodovar (The Skin I Live In) - When Almodovar has a film out he should always be recognised as best director, even though he rarely is, The Skin I Live In was for me his best film in years but even in a film involving major plastic surgery you can still see all his directorial markings. 
Steve McQueen (Shame) - Not all former artists can make the transition to film director so seamlessly but after Hunger it seems that McQueen has a real eye for focusing in on characters and with his first fully fictional work he gives a film all about desire whether it is wanted or not.
Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin)- After years away from the director's chair, Ramsay returned with a very hard job to make this film featuring mass murder and somewhat unlikeable characters a cinematic hit and she did this and more making We Need to Talk About Kevin one of the best reviewed films of the year.

Best Actor: Michael Shannon (Take Shelter)

Take Shelter - Bad dream by teasertrailer
Michael Shannon was nominated for an Oscar three years ago for being the best thing in Sam Mendes' now forgettable domestic period piece Revolutionary Road. In Take Shelter he brings his sort of nervy looks to the forefront to play Curtis a hard-working family man with a deaf daughter who starts getting visions of a possible disaster and decides to spend all of his time and money on putting together a strong enough shelter for his family. Shannon's skill is making us wonder whether Curtis is completely bonkers or there is something more to his visions and he also gives a man who clearly loves his family and is worried about the future. I'm completely shocked that Shannon wasn't nominated in a category which sees fairly ordinary turns from Brad Pitt and George Clooney but then they have the star power that Shannon unfortunately doesn't possess. 

Nominees: 
Michael Fassbender (Shame) - If you can get over seeing his member multiple times in the first five minutes then you'll totally be won over by Fassbender's performance as Brandon a man with a fragile past who gets by on the thrill of sex who has to deal with his unreliable sister for me his turn bought to mind Christian Bale in American Psycho, which surely isn't a bad thing.
Brendan Gleason (The Guard) - Building on his great turn in In Bruges, Gleason once again hit the right tone between comedic and dramatic as Sergeant Gerry Boyle a small town policeman who has to deal with a large scale drug deal and forms an odd couple relationship with Don Cheadle's US Cop.
Gleason had me laughing throughout although he also handled the moments of poignancy perfectly this was certainly a role that didn't get the credit it deserved.
Ryan Gosling (Drive) - A role that wasn't showy enough for Oscar, but then I suppose you could say the same about Gary Oldman, Gosling's central performance in Drive was what tied everything together and he let his face do the talking throughout as Driver was a character with few words but a lot of intensity. I thought definitely the law of averages would see one Gosling performance be nominated but sadly this wasn't the case.
Daniel Henshall (Snowtown) - With Animal Kingdom last year Australia had a strong showing however no love seems to have been given to Snowtown in which Daniel Henshall is completely captivating as a drifter who charms all the people in a small Australian suburb before going on a killing spree convincing some of the locals to join him in bumping off people he felt deserved to die. Henshall's ability to make John Bunting seem charismatic one minute and then the next completely terrifying surely deserves recognition but this sadly wasn't the case.

Best Actress: Catherine Deneuve (Potiche)

It is shocking to me that in her lengthy career the legendary Catherine Deneuve has only been nominated for one Oscar and that her role in the brilliant comedy Potiche has completely gone unnoticed. In the film Deneuve essentially plays a trophy wife who is called to run her husband's company once he is taken ill and changes things for the better. Deneuve makes Suzanne her own and makes the screen sparkle as her diminutive frame makes its away around this factory as she brings colour to this drab institution. Deneuve's chemistry with Gerard Depardieu was also great allowing these two legends to sparkle together including a very interesting dance sequence. A combination of both great comic timing and a sprinkling of pathos made this for me one of the best roles of the year but was left out of Oscar's list presumably because it was in a foreign language, from a comedy and saw an older woman who was comfortable in her own skin. 

Nominees: 
Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur) - Probably best known for her comedic roles, Olivia Colman had a great year impressing in both Tyrannosaur and The Iron Lady and it is her performance in the former that I thought was fantastic. As Hannah she shows us a woman who is desperate to get on with her everyday life despite the fact that her husband treats her horribly and eventually finds solace in her relationship with a kindly drunk. Colman's everywoman persona fit well in but we also saw her flex her acting chops in some of the film's grittier scenes.
Jeong-Hi Jun (Poetry) - Like with Deneuve it's no surprise that another older foreign lady got left out of the running because what Jeong-Hi Jun demonstrated in Poetry deserves some sort of recognition. She was able to effortlessly portray a woman who has to deal with the fact that her grandson has been involved in a gang rape while at the same time finding out she is going senile. Her small frame and timid nature completely contrast with everything that is happening to her and Jun's expressions and body language perfectly portray what this woman must be going through.
Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) - I suppose Oscar couldn't include everybody in its list but I would've preferred to see Olsen's turn as the young girl taken in by a cult than Rooney Mara's impression of Noomi Rapace from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Olsen's talents are evident as she is able to give us the two sides of this character the one that is receptive to the cult's charms and the other who is trying to shake off her old life and readjust to normal society. I hate to use the word star-making turn but that's exactly what this was and for me Olsen should've been this year's Jennifer Lawrence in the Best Actress category.
Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) - No surprise here either with Swinton's Eva being one of the most captivating characters of cinema in 2011 as a woman who has no desire to be a mother in the first place but sticks with her role despite the fact that her son does some disgusting things. Like with all the performances featured here it's not so much about the words given as the performance as a whole and that's especially true of Swinton as the scenes which focus on Eva in the present day are almost without dialogue and she is still able to give us a full-fleshed performance which is more that I can say for some of those that are nominated for an Oscar this year.


Best Supporting Actor: Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Clip 2 by teasertrailer
Well I think we all know that anybody donning a motion capture suit was never going to be nominated for an Oscar but I think it's about time they did because as Caesar, Serkis was definitely the heart of Rotpota. In fact I think putting him in the supporting category is almost doing him a disservice as he has to lead so much of the action he could almost feature in the lead category. It must be such a difficult job to convey so much emotion without saying a single word but Serkis manages this as he leads the ape uprising against Brian Cox and Draco Malfoy out of Harry Potter. He is able to combine ape mannerisms with the human ones that have been bestowed upon him by his master and most of all we are able to sympathise with his plight and understand why he did what he did in the first place. Serkis is a great actor with or without the motion capture, as we saw when he played Ian Dury, but in the apes film he proved that this new technology can still produce top notch performances. 

Nominees: 
John Hawkes (Martha Marcy May Marlene) - To me Hawkes was better here than in Winter's Bone last year as the charismatic cult leader who is able to charm the girls in his group only to abuse them later on.
Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin) - As the older version of Kevin, Miller is both sinister and creepy but in the final scenes he still lets us sympathise with his character.
Michael Smiley (Kill List) - Hitmen don't come any more charming than Smiley's Gal in this British horror thriller as he convinces his old mate to do one more batch of killings.
Luis Tosar (Cell 211) - Almost a list of villains here, Tosar is brilliant as the prison top dog who takes the lead during a prison break unaware that one of the supposed inmates is the institute's newest guard.

Best Supporting Actress: Sarina Farhadi (A Separation)

A Separation has done surprisingly well during this awards season with a Best Foreign Film award definitely on the cards as well as a nod in the screenplay category. However with most Iranian films director Asghar Farhadi looked close to home when casting the daughter of the warring couple in the film as his own daughter Sarina ended up getting the part. For me her role was the pivotal one in this film and she played it with a wide-eyed innocence which gave way to a better understanding of the way the world works as the film goes on. Her Termeh has to decide which of her parents to live with and her decision is seemingly based on an incident that happens during the film which is something that makes her question her trusting nature. I thought Sarina was completely natural in front of the camera and easily one of the best things about the film but as I've said before performances in films not in the English language tend to be overlooked in the acting categories. 

Nominees: 
Jessica Chastain (Take Shelter) - She has been nominated for The Help but for me Chastain's best performance of the year was where she played Michael Shannon's worried wife who has to take control once she realises her husband's altered mental state.
Elle Fanning (Super 8) - After wowing in Somewhere the more talented of the Fanning sisters was once again a strong presence in Super 8 as Alice the young teen who all the boys love but has got a lot of family issues.
Carey Mulligan (Shame) - For so beautifully singing her own version of New York, New York Mulligan deserves a nomination for me she captured the fragility of her character perfectly.
Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) - As George Clooney's elder daughter, Woodley has garnered a few nods but Oscar seemingly bumped her possibly because of her age which is a shame as she perfectly handled the role of a troubled teen forced to be a role model to her young sister following her mother's accident.

Best Original Screenplay: Abi Morgan and Steve McQueen (Shame)

The beauty of Shame's screenplay is to give us a central character who is seemingly unlikeable yet is able to convey a sense of humanity to the audience. There is also a lot of scenes that don't feature any dialogue yet speak volumes and the relationship between Fassbender and Mulligan's brother and sister is never fully explored so Morgan and McQueen let us make our own mind up about what has happened in the past. It is a testament to both of them that we never really think about how great these characters are and how hard it must be to write a script that features few heavy dialogue led scenes.

Nominees: 
Drake Doremus and Ben York Jones (Like Crazy)- Doremus and Jones' bare bones script allowed the two lead actors to improvise to an extent but at the same time they understood how two people who start dating and then fall in love would interact with each other.
Michelangelo Frammartino (La Quattro Volte) - Though The Artist's screenplay will highlight the fact that a silent film still has a script but it is Frammartino's completely silent goat movie which still gives us a great character who is a man who interacts better with animals than he does with other people.
Ignazio Martinez De Pison and Fernanda Trueba (Chico and Rita)- The two men involved with writing this surprise animated film nominee perfectly capture the jazz scene in Cuba and give us one of the best cinematic romances of the past few years.
John Michael McDonaugh (The Guard) - Perfectly combining a cop story, a comedy and a character study McDonagh's screenplay is equally as great as his brother's work on In Bruges.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Lynne Ramsay and Rory Kinnear (We Need To Talk About Kevin)

Lionel Shriver's source novel is written as a series of letters from mother Eva to her son Kevin and through that the readers learn the backstory between the two and how Eva's life has changed since the incident that Kevin has caused. But obviously this couldn't work on the big screen so Ramsay and Kinnear had to turn this into a multi-layered screenplay and turn the content of the letters into a compelling story with equally real characters. Though the performances is what the critics have focused on I think the adaptation is equally as important for the filmic version of this popular yet hard to read novel. 

Nominees:
Augustin and Pedro Almodovar (The Skin I Live In) - The Almodovar brothers have created a screenplay that keeps you guessing to the character's motives and identities until the very last word.
Hossein Amini (Drive)- It's a testament to Amini that I didn't think Drive was based on a book and the dialogue that he uses seems completely original and the characters different from anything else that has been seen this year.
Richard Ayoade (Submarine) - A film that relies heavily on its dialogue and its lead character's first person narrative is lucky to have the brilliant Ayoade adapting the source material as well directing.
Shaun Grant (Snowtown) - Grant's screenplay is based on true events and the books written around it but he still has worked hard to recreate and imagine various conversations that happened before and during the atrocious murders that the film centres on.

Best Documentary: Senna

I do think enough has been said about this film apart from the fact that it is ridiculous that it hasn't even been nominated for an Oscar as it seems like the obvious choice to win the award.

Nominees:
Bobby Fischer against the World - A film not just about chess but about a tortured individual who was addicted to his game.
The Interrupters - A great documentary that I would've chosen as the winner had Senna been nominated for an Oscar this follows a group of former gang members who now try and stop the violence in their native Chicago
Life in a Day - Kevin McDonald's ambitious project where people sent in video diaries about what happened to them on a certain July day in 2010 and from there is able to create an interesting and thought provoking film.
Project Nim - A film about an ape who didn't form a planet but that was taught to sort of behave like a human only to end up in captivity and one that wasn't played in motion capture by Andy Serkis. 

Best Animated Film: Arietty

As happy as I am to see Chico and Rita nominated in this category I would love to see it sit alongside the latest Studio Ghibli outing as the team adapt The Borrowers to fit in with their own unique animated style. Here director Hiromasa Yonebayashi creates another fantasy world with brilliant characters and as you can imagine from a Ghibli film the animation is just completely beautiful. As both Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle got nominations I was surprised that this masterful film wasn't nominated in a category that includes Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2. 

Nominees: 
The Adventures of Tintin - Though this wasn't great it still is superior to some of the other nominated films and anything that features a script written by Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright deserves recognition somewhere.
My Dog Tulip - A film that's brilliant animation makes up for its uneven story this was another film that didn't make an impact on its release but if we're honouring animated films then this deserves to at least be nominated.

Best Film Not in the English Language: The Skin I Live In


I have said a lot about this already but the fact that this Spanish film hasn't even been recognised by Oscar shows a great discrepancy between the American awards and the BAFTAs in which it won this award.

Nominees: 
Cell 211- A gripping and engaging prison break thriller from Spain is a lot better than most of the thrillers currently being release in Hollywood.
How I Ended This Summer - A film that relies slightly on the cabin fever that occurs with two men on a desolate station in the Arctic Ocean, this Russian movie has two great performances and a simply yet affecting screenplay.
Poetry - I've already talked about the beauty and brilliant performances in this Korean masterpiece in my list of Best Films of the year so have a read of that.
La Quattro Volte - A film coming out of Italy looking at four seasons in a small village and the reliance on goat farming it sounds like it would be completely dull but on the contrary this is one of the most compelling films that I saw throughout last year.

Quick Picks: 
Cinematography: Newton Tomas Siegel (Drive)
Editing: Chris King and Greggers Sall (Senna)
Art Direction: Carlos Bodelon (The Skin I Live In)
Costume Design: Pascaline Chavanne (Potiche)
Make-Up: Victoria Down (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)
Visual Effects: Wayne Eaton (Super 8)
Sound: Mark Ulano (Super 8)
Sound Editing: Ben Burtt (Super 8)
Score: Cliff Martinez (Drive)
Original Song: Brett McKenzie - Life's a Happy Song (The Muppets)

That's my opinion so tell me what you think leave a comment below.