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Oh, What an Awards World We Live In!

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Recently, I pointed out that the Academy would be stupid to not nominate The Dark Knight for Best Picture.

The Academy is stupid.

The Academy, or at least a slim majority, seems to not realize how thoroughly they’ve killed their viewership for this year. They had plenty to gain and nothing to lose. Unfortunately, they’ve instead nominated a series of predictable, sure to be soon forgotten Oscar bait. I fret for my beloved AMPAS, I truly do, but with a non-comedian at the podium and a series of films that few theater goers are going to care all that much about, I’m not looking forward to learning about this year’s Oscar ratings.

Let’s grumble in-depth, shall we?

Best Actor: I’ve heard terrific things about Richard Jenkins in The Visitor, which adds a little spice to the nominations. The other nominees are easy to predict, but each actor did solid work this year, so I’m not disappointed. Mickey Rourke will win.
Best Actress: I’m not sure if any of these performances made much of an impression. Not so much the Academy’s fault as the fault of filmmakers, though I was impressed by much of Jolie’s work in Changeling.

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger. It’s practically guaranteed he will win, though Brolin did good work in Milk and Robert Downey Jr. was quite a bit of fun in Tropic Thunder. Not a horrible ballot this year.

Best Supporting Actress: Taraji P. Henson? Was she the motherly black woman? What is it with the Academy and “strong black women?” Otherwise, it’s a predictable list. My money’s on Penelope Cruz or Marisa Tomei.

Best Animated Feature Film: Predictable. WALL-E shall surely win, but while the other nominees are the best work of their respective studios in some time, I can’t help wondering whether there was anything better to put in.

Best Art Direction: Not much to say here, though I’m honestly in favor of The Dark Knight.

Cinematography: I’m surprised The Reader was nominated instead of Revolutionary Road. Deakins should win his Oscar, but it won’t happen this year. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button seems most likely to win.

Best Costume Design: Nothing in particular stands out. The Duchess may win, as it’s a “costume” drama.

Best Director: The same nominees as the Golden Globes. Boring.

Best Feature Documenatry: Werner Herzog oughta win the Oscar he should have won in 1982 for Fitzcarraldo.

Best Editing: It’ll most likely go to Slumdog Millionaire, though The Dark Knight wouldn’t be a bad choice.

Best Foreign Language Film: I must have misheard the rules, because Waltz with Bashir is up here. My money’s on that one.

Best Makeup: An impressive ballot, especially with Hellboy II making the showing that its predecessor deserved back in 2004. I doubt it will win, but I’m still hopeful.

Best Score: Between Slumdog Millionaire and WALL-E, this wasn’t a bad list, but it’s lacking many that certainly outranked Banjamin Button and Defiance…such as The Dark Knight.

Best Original Song: I’m glad Peter Gabriel was nominated, and he’ll probably win. However, there were a number of good songs, such as Springsteen’s for The Wrestler, who truly deserved a nod. Not bad for what it includes, but underwhelming for what it excludes.

Best Picture: Of these, Slumdog Millionaire and Benjamin Button seem most likely to win. I’m not going to lie, though: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a sore disappointment to me, with its mechanical script and melodramatic performances. As a fan of such saccharine populist trash as Forrest Gump and Big Fish, seeing the arthouse version of those films sounded like my kind of film. Unfortunately, I found myself being bored and not particularly enlightened. Strangely, Fincher’s vastly superior Zodiac film wasn’t even afforded a single nomination last year. Try to explain that.

Best Animated Short Film: Being a member of the Pixar groupies, I have to root for Presto. I’ll know for sure when these shorts are screened.

Best Live Action Short Film: Can’t speak for this category, having not seen any of these films.

Best Sound Editing: Ben Burtt better win this. I’m rather disappointed in Hellboy II’s exclusion, though.

Best Sound Mixing: Ben Burtt.

Best Visual Effects: Again, Hellboy II was robbed. It’s not a bad list, but I’m sorely disappointed that they’ve passed over the best visual effects of the year. I predict a win for Benjamin Button.

Adapted Screenplay: It’s between Benjamin Button and Peter Morgan, of which Morgan probably deserves it the most.

Original Screenplay: As there are no clear-cut winners, I’m rooting for WALL-E. It was a script of depth, humor, and poignance, and it accomplished this with a silent protagonist. Overall, there are a few interesting nominees here, but I’m disappointed with both screenplay categories.

I love AMPAS. I truly do. However, this year’s Awards show seems to be careening toward a disastrous showing. Someone needs to knock some sense into these Academy members, because they seem more concerned with appearing “respectable” than actually making some money and connecting with those of us who are sick of Oscar bait. Are we to return to the days when something like Cimarron can win Best Picture?

For shame, Academy members. For shame.

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Cameron’s Magic Oscar Ball

Monday, January 19th, 2009

99% more accurate than that other ball, the Golden Globe.

Alas, my schedule has picked up just as this year’s films did. So desperate was our situation at the beginning of ‘08 that I proclaimed Speed Racer and The Incredible Hulk some of the best movies of the year (both of which I still like, and of which Speed Racer still sticks in my mind as the most unfairly treated movie of ‘08). However, with Eastwood’s Gran Torino, Howard’s Frost/Nixon, and a whole bevy of other films which I’ve not had time to see, 2008 seems to be taunting me like a Ghiradelli Bar atop a mountain of Hersheys’.

In addtion to ’08’s being a step down from ‘07, it’s quite a bit less predictable just who will win the Oscars this year. There’s no hailed quirky underdog comedy, there’s no cinematic epic, and the greatest live-action critical darling of the year wasn’t even recognized at the Golden Globes (mostly owing to the fact that the Foreign Press is in such a state that they can give best picture to something like Atonement).

The Oscars haven’t always been reliable, but they’ve usually been more trust-worthy than the Golden Globes. So, who can we expect to be nominated this year?

2008 has proven to quite literally be the year of the underdog, which makes Slumdog Millionaires nomination in the category of Best Picture quite guaranteed. Alongside this, we should see a showing from veteran directors Ron Howard and David Fincher, with Frost/Nixon and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button respectively. The Reader and Revolutionary Road aren’t so set, though there is a real possibility of their representation. However, two films overlooked by the Foreign Press stand a strong chance of nomination: Milk, and The Dark Knight. Milk has a number of factors which stand in its favor, such as a veteran Oscar-nominated director, a powerhouse performance from Sean Penn, and the fact that it’s a biography. Though a Hollywood blockbuster, The Dark Knight has made such a critical and financial splash that to ignore it is for the Academy to deal a major blow upon itself. It will be nominated, and you can quote me on this.

Best Actor nominations seem guaranteed for Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, Sean Penn in Milk, Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon, and Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It’s difficult to predict who the fifth nominee will be, though Javier Bardem, Robert Downey Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio, and Colin Farrell each stand a chance as the wildcard. Best Actress nominations are likely for Kate Winslet, Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway, Sally Hawkins, and either Frances McDormand or Meryl Streep. In supporting roles, the male category will definitely go to Heath Ledger, as there isn’t much competition in the field this year. Expect Robert Downey Jr. and Philip Seymour Hoffman to show up on this year’s ballot. The female category has no clear-cut leader, but the Globes nominations of Winslet, Amy Adams, Penelope Cruz, and Marisa Tomei seem to be an accurate enough prediction.

Best director seems as if it should be shaken up for Oscar time. Danny Boyle, David Fincher, and Ron Howard can rest easy, but Daldry and Mendes should be nervous. If the Academy makes the smart decision and nominates The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan should simultaneously pick up a nod. Potentional surprises include Woody Allen for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Clint Eastwood for Gran Torino, and Gus Van Sant for Milk.

Screenwriters Simon Beaufoy, Erich Roth, Robin Swicord, and Peter Morgan (for Slumdog Millionaire, Benjamin Button, and Frost/Nixon) are guaranteed a carry-over from the Globes to the Oscars, as well as a number of others for the categories of original and adapted screenplay. Probable nominees include Woody Allen, the Coen brothers, Robert Siegel, (who has created his greatest masterpiece with The Wrestler since The Onion Movie) Dustin Lance Black, and Nolan/Nolan/Goyer (does The Dark Knight count as original or adapted?).

The Oscars have a habit of giving Best Original Score out as a concession prize to the film that barely missed winning Best Picture, but as there are no clear leaders in that category we can’t expect to know who will win in this. Expect an unexciting ballot, with A.R. Rahman, Alexandre Desplat, and Hans Zimmer standing the best chance of nomination, though I’m personally praying for Thomas Newman to be nominated for his work on WALL-E (as Michael Giacchino was deservedly nominated for Pixar’s Ratatouille). Again, Zimmer and James Newton Howard will most likely see a nomination for their work in The Dark Knight. Best Song will definitely be occupied by Bruce Springsteen and Peter Gabriel, as well as the theme to Gran Torino. It is doubtful that AMPAS would allow a nomination for Hannah Montana, though that’s certainly not a promise.

This year’s Foreign Film favorite, Waltz with Bashir, is not nominated in this particular category. As a result, we’re left without any clue of who stands the best chance of winning. Of all this year’s films, only Gomorrah seems especially noteworthy enough to consider, though the first half of Che by Steven Soderbergh might poke in for a nomination.

Only three animated movies will be nominated this year, which makes WALL-E and Waltz with Bashir shoe-ins while the third entree remains up for grabs. Most likely, it will be occupied by either Dreamworks and Kung Fu Panda or Disney’s Bolt, of which the former stands a good chance. This stands a major contrast to next year, which appears as if it will revitalize the entire genre, with such films as Up, Ponyo on the Cliff, 9, Coraline, The Princess and the Frog, and Tales of Earthsea seeing their US debuts, though Dreamworks seems to have abandoned the precedent set by Kung Fu Panda to go back to making Shrek remakes/sequels.

Now for those technical awards. Rather than boring my readers with my grumblings and rants, I’ve listed my predictions in list form:

Cinematography:

-Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire

-Roger Deakins, Revolutionary Road

-Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

-Harris Savides, Milk

-Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight

Art Direction:

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

-Revolutionary Road

-The Dark Knight

-Changeling

-Doubt

Costume Design:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Revolutionary Road

Milk

Sound:

-WALL-E

-The Dark Knight

-Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Editing:

-The Dark Knight

-Slumdog Millionaire

Sound Editing:

-As soon as I figure out the point of this category, I’ll let you guys know.

Visual Effects:

-Iron Man

-Hellboy II: The Golden Army

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Makeup:

-Hellboy II: The Golden Army

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

-The Dark Knight

Having not seen any of this year’s documentaries or short films, I’m not going to attempt to make any predictions.

Do any of our members have their own predictions? Go ahead and post a comment if you do.

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Nicholas Zabaly on Animated Biographies and Autobiographies.

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Though I failed to post this up when I should have, I am correcting my mistake a week later (hence the reference to the Golden Globes). It gives a hint of what is to come from Nicholas.

Waltz With Bashir and the Animated Biography

By Nicholas Zabaly

This article is the first in an intended series on the personal and political in animation, a sort of jumping-off point or hub if you will, which I hope will inspire, both from writer and reader, delving into further investigations of this multi-layered and fascinating film group. In the articles ahead, I hope to explore some of the deeper aspects of why animation is used to tell these types of stories, and how the art form itself has become associated with certain themes, messages, and viewpoints. Additionally, I want to attempt to consider how, for certain of these films, the animated story has reflected the culture in which it was created, and how the culture in turn reflected on and was influenced by the final work. This topic holds great interest for me, and I hope that it will for readers as well.

Ever since Sunday night, when the Hollywood Foreign Press awarded Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, animation fans, documentarians, and the Israeli film world have been on cloud nine. Not only is it just the third Israeli movie to win a Golden Globe (not including Paradise Now, winner in 2006, which hailed from the Occupied Palestinian Territories), but also it is only the second full-length animated film to be made in Israel, and the first in many decades. Besides this, it is the first non-fiction film to win the Foreign Film Globe, and the only documentary to be awarded a prize since 1977. However, most impressively for animation fans, it is only the second animated foreign film to ever be nominated (Persepolis, from 2008, takes the honor of being the other), and the first to actually win. Amid all these record-setting statistics, however, remains the important notion that Waltz With Bashir also fits into another select group: the animated biography. While several high-profile films, including Persepolis and John Canemaker’s 2006 Oscar winning short The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation, can also claim this status, Waltz With Bashir is one of the first to rise to true international prominence, due to a timely theme (made all the more pertinent by the latest Israeli-Palestinian war), a mastery of surreal images, and a true documentary approach. Furthermore, Ari Folman and his Bridgit Folman Film Gang were able to produce their film, albeit over a number of years and on a tiny budget, the way they wanted to. Freed from conventional studio restrictions, this model for the independent feature-length animated film provides an inspiration for filmmakers and animators looking to tell more personal (and perhaps relevant) stories.
At an event hosted by the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood on January 10th, the day before the Golden Globes, Ari Folman answered many questions regarding his breakout film for eager audience members. Although he was originally a live-action director and writer (who was recognized for his work by the Israeli Film Academy with top prizes in the past), his experience working on animated sequences for a television documentary inspired him to try and tell his personal war stories via animation. Working over a period of six years, with a budget of just $1.7 million dollars supplied largely by the Israeli government, Folman and animation director Yoni Goodman worked with a team of two lead and six regular animators, later expanded to include a seventh as well as two assistant animators, to complete the film in a combination of Flash, 3D animation, and some limited hand-drawn sequences. Literally every available animator in Israel was tapped for the project, and despite a desperate search for more artists, Folman was unable to locate anyone else. Thus, the tiny crew became a representative sample of the best (and only) that Israel currently offers. Fascinatingly, despite being extremely critical of the aggressive Israeli role in the 1982 war against Lebanon, the government not only did not discourage the film, but actively helped promote it. Folman speculated the reasons were to highlight Israel’s talent in animation, and also because the film accurately lays the blame for the terrible massacre of Palestinian civilians at the feet of Christian evangelical militia terrorists. Correcting the record in this fashion, Folman said, was “publicity money can’t buy” for the government, and thus, the film was given approval. Nonetheless, the director remains very critical of aggressive government action, insisting Waltz With Bashir be seen as an anti-war film. The personal experiences of his friends and himself, as depicted in the film, serve as both historical time capsule and political statement. And, when asked about the timeliness (and timelessness) of the film, Folman stated that, while associates lamented the fact the movie was not ready in 2006 to capitalize on Israel’s renewed military actions against Lebanon, he wryly and sardonically reminded them that it was only a matter of time before “the [Israeli] government cooked up another war.” As fate would have it, the US release of Waltz With Bashir almost perfectly coincided with the fighting in Gaza, further bringing Folman’s point home. Autobiography, in the form of history captured via animated dream vision, thus becomes a biting contemporary commentary on current war and conflict.
Ari Folman, perhaps unsurprisingly, is not unique among directors who have sought to confront issues of war in biographical animation. Marjane Satrapi, first in her award-winning graphic novel Persepolis, and then in the film of the same name (co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud), gives a more than cursory look at the effects of the Iran-Iraq War, in one scene documenting the bombing of her childhood neighborhood, and elsewhere showing (again in surrealistic form) the battles between the opposing nation’s soldiers. Equally affecting, though far less known in the United States, is Isao Takahata’s 1988 masterpiece Grave of the Fireflies, based on Akiyuki Nosaka’s semi-autobiographical novel. Grave of the Fireflies, despite being a film about war, is almost entirely the opposite of Waltz With Bashir: scenes of battle are almost non-existent, and the focus remains squarely on two young siblings, older brother Seita and younger sister Setsuko, as they struggle to survive without a mother, father, or other helpful relative in the midst of Japan’s final days before defeat. Although somewhat fictionalized (Nosaka had two sisters instead of one), the story still contains many incidents and situations which befell non-combatants and particularly children during the war. With superb artistry courtesy of the famed Studio Ghibli, the film is hauntingly beautiful and utterly tragic, providing real insight into the civilian conditions for those on the losing side of a war. When he came to Los Angeles some years ago for a retrospective of his work, Takahata, like Folman, voiced a strong anti-war sentiment and hoped the film, which also incorporated details from his own life, would convince others not to continue to support conflict in the world. Another Japanese production, 1982’s Barefoot Gen, deals with the atomic attack on Hiroshima in startling and soberingly graphic terms. Produced by Studio Madhouse, the film is based on the autobiographical manga (comic book) of Keiji Nakazawa, who credits his survival of the blast to having a brick wall collapse on top of him, shielding him from the shockwave. Nakazawa wrote the screenplay to the film himself to ensure the accuracy of what he remembered. These two works, however, stand virtually alone as the sole major studio biographical animated feature films, although (of course) Japan’s animation budgets are, even for large projects, just a shadow of the typical Disney production. For other works, like Persepolis and Waltz With Bashir, individual project-based production companies have been established, and crews assembled on a case-by-case basis. In essence, these are true independent productions, perhaps necessarily so, given the personal (and frequently political) focus of the subject matter. While an anti-war message in animation in Japan is considered the norm (and even encouraged, based on the sheer number of such fictional projects that have been produced and prospered), in much of the rest of the world, these films take a much more grass-roots approach to spreading their messages and individual stories.
If one of the key elements of the animated biography is to provide a political statement, then it may be that such movies remain a minority. But, Ari Folman’s comments at the Egyptian Theater do provide hope for more meaningful and true-to-life animated works. Referring to his own experience making Waltz With Bashir, as well as the experiences of other animation filmmakers, Folman suggested that a new period of “serious animation for adults” may be just on the horizon. Via the independent system, and national subsidized financing (such as exists in many European nations), small-budget animated films are now more possible than ever to make. Whether they are done as personal, autobiographical stories, or as fictional films such as Tatia Rosenthal’s Annie Award nominated $9.99 (which took ten years to realize), only time will tell. But whatever the case, the door has been opened wider than ever before to the feature-length ambitions of personally driven animators the world over. With films like Persepolis and Waltz With Bashir to urge them on, there’s never been a better time to dive into storytelling, animation style.

In conclusion, and on behalf of the entire global animation community that has eagerly watched and celebrated with Ari Folman and his team for their well-deserved successes, I want to congratulate the Waltz With Bashir crew on their amazing, history-making accomplishment. I can find no more fitting words to sum up than those with which Mr. Folman himself concluded his acceptance speech on Sunday night:

“I want to dedicate this prize, as we promised to do, to the eight beautiful production babies who were born in our tiny studio in Tel Aviv, during the making of Waltz with Bashir, [over the period of] four years. And I hope one day when they grow up, they watch this film together, and they see the war that takes place in the film, it will look to them like an ancient video game that has nothing to do with their lives whatsoever.

Thank you so much.”

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Review of Zhang Yimou’s “To Live” for AP World History

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Thought I might as well share this with the society.

Zhang Yimou’s To Live is a dense and extremely powerful account of the communist takeover of China, told in a sweeping and literary sort of style over a period of several decades. Films with this much ambition can be compelling and rich or bloated and portentous, depending upon its execution. To Live, however, is every bit a masterful work of complexity and nuance, though it’s as cinematic as a film should be. It can be difficult to watch, and at times, rather painful. Yet, through its own honesty, it successfully transports us into day-to-day life during this period, from its costs to its trivialities. It is a mighty achievement for these and other reasons, making it a must see for anyone seeking to better understand the people and history of China.

The film starts well before the Communist takeover, with the collapse of the Xu family. Fugui, the father, loses his home and family with a single night of gambling. Eventually, he reforms himself and returns to his wife, but must tour the country as the leader of a puppet troupe in order to make a living for her and their two children. During one performance, his troupe is kidnapped and forced into the army of Chiang Kai-shek to battle against Mao Zedong. He survives the harrowing experience and the army’s collapse to return to his family once more, but now lives beneath the government against which he was previously forced to battle. The rest of the film details the changes and tragedies that ensue.

Amazingly, though Yimou was forced to complete this film under the very government which this story takes place, there is some degree of subversion and subtle criticism running throughout. A factory accident is portrayed as an isolated incident, Zedong’s troops are kind to Fugui when he’s captured, and public officials take their treatment as justly deserved desserts. However, one must suspect Yimou sees little good in the proletariat revolution, which causes grave results in the film and a graphic reminder of the dangers of generational disconnect. Though certain execution scenes take place off-screen, and the methods are never directly criticized, these sequences still seem unjust and terrifying to anyone who does not already support them. Yet, in between these events, the Xus simply try to live as normal a life as they can, always running into trouble with communism but never directly condemning it. Though not a pro-Communist film, To Live makes it clear that the people of this time were quite ordinary, in spite of their conditions being separate from ours.

As a piece of technical filmmaking, Yimou particularly impresses with his use of color. He captures the cold of winter with a few browns and greens set against a wasteland of white. The interior of a bar features all the warm reds you’d expect for a place of danger and sought comfort. Yue Lu captures these bright colors perfectly with his cinematography. However, though Yimou composes his visuals wiith the sure hand of a master, he takes a restrained approach which presents the locales and characters without any unnecessary virtuoso flash or camera movement. Besides this, there’s very little to say about the technical elements of the film, as they remain quite consistent and unchanging throughout in telling its story.

To Live is a film recommended to anyone with a strong will and a thirst for historical storytelling. There are times when watching this uncompromising work can be painful, death’s effect on the family is displayed fully and with absolute sincerity. However, if one can endure, he or she will find a rich tapestry of history, familial strength, and sub-plot which wraps up in the end as the portrait of a day in the life of a family like yours or mine. This is Yimou’s version of King Vidor’s The Crowd, another great film concerning an average family in early twentieth century New York. However, this film shows how these people exist in a country berated by some living here in America. More than anyone else, those people should see To Live in order to view how similar we can be to these people in our artistry and our souls.

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