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  • Critics’ Choice Movie Awards Preview

    What films and performances will the critics go for tomorrow?

    December 11, 2012

    Tomorrow morning, the Critics Choice Awards will bestow their nominees for the world to see.  While it might sound biased, I very much respect the organization’s choices more times than not.  While their known for predicting the outcome of the Academy Awards, they do reward powerful and eclectic cinema when everyone else seems to be ignoring.

    Last year the ten Best Picture nominees were:

    The Artist
    The Descendants
    Drive
    Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
    The Help
    Hugo
    Midnight in Paris
    Moneyball
    The Tree of Life
    War Horse

    As we all know, there were nine Best Picture nominees chosen by the Academy last year and ALL nine are represented.  The group may be more telling then meets the eye, at least in Best Picture.  The acting awards usually have their fair share of Academy picks but as you we see with nominations for Carey Mulligan for Shame, Ryan Gosling for Drive, Michael Fassbender for Shame, and Patton Oswalt for Young Adult, the group often chooses the “more” deserving and not the one’s with the “buzz.”

    Below, find my predictions for the organization.  The Critics Choice Movie Awards airs LIVE on January 10, 2013.  Better yet, the BFCA is introducing several new categories including “Favorite Fan Franchise,” where The Awards Circuit will be one of the voting beacons for all fans to vote.  Get ready!
    Read more on Critics’ Choice Movie Awards Preview…

    Author: Tiff Chai
    November 30, 2012

    Unlike the one-sided views of the tormented Holocaust victims and their suffering during Hitler’s terrifying reign, ‘Lore’ brings the audiences into the lives of a German family after the removal of Hitler from power. Winner of countless film festivals and an official selection for the 2013 Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Language Film, from Australia, from Music Box Films, ‘Lore’ is a breathtaking film adapted from the book, ‘The Dark Room’ (Rachel Seiffert). Read more on Lore (***½)…

    November 21, 2012

    On the Awards Circuit Power Hour this week, one of our esteemed readers asked why David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook was not being considered the one to beat in the Oscar race?  Was it the comedy genre factor or the likes of Argo, Lincoln, and Les Miserables trumping its parade?  It seemed unanimous that comedy struggles with true recognition from Oscar especially in the technical categories like Film Editing and that’s what will ultimately shoot Russell’s film in the foot.

    Many people can name several films they would nominate in a Best Picture lineup, but is there a true comedy you would consider the very best of the year and award the coveted Best Motion Picture Oscar to?  That is our question today, name at least one film you would award Best Picture of the Year at the Academy Awards, either this year or any year. Read more on Oscar Question of the Day – Comedy is No Laughing Matter…

    November 20, 2012

    With Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables about to seen by the first set of eyes this coming Friday, many pundits predict this could be the first musical nominated for Best Picture since Rob Marshall’s Chicago (2002).

    The question I pose to our readership today is which movie musical would you have nominated for Best Picture but sadly was not in any given year? Read more on Oscar Question of the Day – The Movie Musical…

    Box Office (11.18.12)

    Skyfall falls beneath Breaking Dawn...

    Author: Tiff Chai
    November 19, 2012

    What an extravagant change in the charts! For most of the week, Skyfall (Sony) placed #1 daily and over all in American box offices, grossing over $117 million. Wreck-It Ralph (BV) managed to hold onto #2, followed by Flight (Par.) and then Argo (WB). Staying at #5, Taken 2 (Fox) is followed by Cloud Atlas (WB) and Hotel Transylvania (Sony) drops to #10. New releases during the week included A Royal Affair (Magn.) at # 44, Dangerous Liasons (WGUSA) at #52, and Starlet (MBox) at #54. Internationally, Skyfall (Sony) holds onto #1 in most of the countries, but many expect the international reaction to continue on for some time, this being the first of the Bond series to be released internationally before nationally. Read more on Box Office (11.18.12)…

    This is 40 (***)

    Apatow's most mature while Mann shines once again...

    November 17, 2012

    Something has happened to Judd Apatow since he busted onto the scene with The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005).  Apatow has never had a real problem with entertaining and his writing has always been at the very least average to say the least if at times juvenile or unfocused.  In his newest film This is 40, the sort-of-sequel to his hit-film Knocked Up (2007), Apatow presents his most matured outing as a writer and director to date.  Perhaps it was the already made foundation from his previous film and the characters Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann), whatever it is, This is 40 very successfully encapsulates marriage and life in a tender and comedic way.  It’s one of the 2012’s great surprises. Read more on This is 40 (***)…

    Two Lead Contenders on Lionsgate Awards Plate

    Richard Gere and Naomi Watts could surprise voters in this awards season...

    November 7, 2012

    When the Lionsgate Awards site went LIVE today and listed their slate of contenders involving Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Fisher Stevens’ Stand Up Guys, Gary Ross’ The Hunger Games, Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage, and J.A. Bayona’s The Impossible, I started to analyze how this year could pan out for smaller films that are trying to make a play; even more so, the performances in them.

    I’ve touted on podcasts for weeks that Nate Parker utterly deserves a citation in Arbitrage, a raw, authentic turn that stands as one of the year’s bests.   His co-star Richard Gere is currently being predicted in the Lead Actor top five, mostly on the notion that after years of ignoring and snubbing, voter’s eyes would finally be open to the charm that Gere portrays in Jarecki’s film.  As Hugh Jackman remains a mystery of the season in Les Miserables and the word of Anthony Hopkins’ work in Hitchcock rallies some muted enthusiasm, a first-time nominee is bound to crack the top five.  Believe me, Bradley Cooper might have a leg up on Gere given his film’s Best Picture chances and the powerful Weinsteins backing, but perhaps an overdue veteran has the gas to go the distance. Read more on Two Lead Contenders on Lionsgate Awards Plate…

    Author: Tiff Chai
    October 31, 2012

    A cinematographically brilliant documentary film meant to be a guided meditation filled with breathtaking landscapes and beautiful performances over the span of 58 countries, Samsara (2012) defines the world by its very meaning, impermanence. Referring to the life cycles in the ever-changing world we live in, Samsara contains a series of comparisons between desolate images and vibrant colors. Seeing the devastation in one makes the audience appreciate the beauty in the next. Hundreds of faces, thousands of stories, and the stillness of the frame by which the audiences look through to them just draws the audience in all the more.
    Samsara is a continuation of a series of collaborations between producer Mark Magidson and director Ron Fricke. All photographed on 70mm (65mm negative), each frame of color is dripping with adventure, while whispering feels of relaxation to the audience. Edited together first, with no dialogue, Michael Stearns, Lisa Gerrard, and Marcello De Francisci were brought on after the entire film was put together to create music for the silent film. As Magidson admitted, due to music rights issues, all of the original sounds from clapping and feet stomping to machinery and wind blowing were put in to help along the feel of the film. Read more on Samsara (***½)…

    New Look and Looking Forward To ‘Iron Man 3′

    Iron Man 3's continued speculation...

    Author: Tiff Chai
    October 22, 2012

    A great poster for a story that needs no introduction. Well designed, giving nothing away, this poster is clear and to the point, without anything frivolous to distract the eyes, which are all on Tony Stark, as he looks on at his creations looking back at him. Like his suits of armor, that which keeps him alive and functioning, as he had says to Dr. Banner in The Avengers (2012), ”This little circle of light, it’s part of me now. Not just armor; it’s a terrible privilege.” Read more on New Look and Looking Forward To ‘Iron Man 3′…

    Andy Serkis to Make Directorial Debut in Animal Farm Adaptation

    The king of motion capture performance announces the first project from his new studio

    October 20, 2012

    Having mastered the ground-breaking art of motion capture acting in iconic character roles, Andy Serkis now turns his focus to directing.  The actor, whose memorable performances as the gargantuan King Kong, the intelligent Caesar from The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and of course, the legendary Gollum, plans to use his familiarity with the movie-making technology in an adaption of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

    Read more on Andy Serkis to Make Directorial Debut in Animal Farm Adaptation…

    The Four (****)

    An epic beginning to a masterpiece series...

    Author: Tiff Chai
    October 19, 2012

    Action packed, thrilling, and very beautifully shot, “The Four” takes the audience into the corrupt world of those who seek power attempting to overthrow those in power. Like an old story unfolding on the screen, the audience gets the lay of the land during the opening credits. Much like the beginning sequence of credits for “The Italian Job” (2003), the opening credits for “The Four” demonstrates how the “Divine Constabulary” operates as a team, the secret service of that society. The audience is then introduced to ‘Department Six’, the CIA of their day. The characters weave an intricate web of power struggles and self-validation before the end of the movie, where the bad guy, An Shigeng (Wu Xiubo), disappears into the night, a cliffhanger of sorts for the audience to wonder about and anticipate resurfacing again in the sequel. Read more on The Four (****)…

    Read more on The Four (****)…

    Author: Anna Young
    October 19, 2012

    Psycho is by far one of the best horror films ever made. Scream queen of the week, Janet Leigh, is one of the most memorable scream queens in the horror genre. Earning herself an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, Leigh was given the difficult task of aiding Alfred Hitchcock in changing film. Up until Psycho, the idea of a woman being stabbed to death, naked and in the shower was unheard of. Janet Leigh is absolutely perfect as Marion Crane and shocks the audience when she meets her bloody demise.

    Instead of talking about how amazing Janet Leigh is in Psycho, I figured I’d share the famous death scene that changed cinema forever. Sometimes a film can just speaks for itself. Read more on Women in Horror: Janet Leigh…

    October 19, 2012

    Joseph Braverman (***)

    Director Arnon Goldfinger’s intensely personal documentary, The Flat, is recognizably manipulative in parts yet successfully rides on a wave of tension constructed around a moment in time that, when seen in shades of grey, could completely alter your take on history.  Centered on Goldfinger’s feverish unraveling of a dark family secret that’s been kept under tight wraps for nearly six decades, The Flat winds up touching a nerve in a great deal of us – myself included – who either knew or were in some way related to the unfortunate victims of The Holocaust. What clinched my interest most was the way family and friends within the story reacted (equal parts receptive, hostile or simply unperturbed) to Goldfinger’s journey of peeling back the pages of his family’s history. Like Goldfinger, I too have yearned for complete knowledge of my genealogy, and never understood why anyone would be “disinterested” in knowing all there is to know about their own flesh and blood. While watching The Flat, I began to understand the ignorance in my thinking – perhaps the simple task of working back into the past to discover the truth about one’s family may severely hurt or emotionally cripple those who wish to put the past firmly behind them. In the case of the Goldfingers, such an escapade backwards threatens to fracture one of life’s most fundamental relationships: mother and son. Read more on The Flat (Multiple Reviews)…

    31 Days of Horror: Terrible Tuesday Way to Die (Final Destination Franchise)

    Another gory franchise gets its moment with this new look at fright flick deaths...

    October 16, 2012

    It seems that the franchise route is the one that’s most popular for this weekly part of 31 Days of Horror, so far be it from me to deviate from a well liked plan. This time around at The Awards Circuit I’m going with the ‘Final Destination’ franchise, or the ‘Final Destination’ pentalogy if you will. They are a group of 5 decent to subpar films that happen to contain some often spectacular deaths, notably the opening disaster sequences. I’ll be bringing those to you after the jump, and again…consider this very Not Safe For Work. These are a bit sillier than usual, but still rather gory, so take note of that. Enjoy the carnage below from each film in the ‘Final Destination’ franchise, all in one place this time for your convienence.

    Read more on 31 Days of Horror: Terrible Tuesday Way to Die (Final Destination Franchise)…

    The Chaneys and the Horror Legacy

    A look at the master of horror...

    October 16, 2012

    Born to deaf-mute parents Lon Chaney’s gifts for communicating without sound made him a natural for the silent screen. Though there were bigger stars than Chaney through the silent era, I am not sure there was a greater actor, meaning a pure actor capable of finding the truth in his character and bringing that to the audience with the ease he did. There was beauty in his best work, an economy of acting as he allowed his gestures and body language to speak where words could not, Though expressionistic acting it was also shockingly real and as honest as anything put on the screen at that time.
    Chaney found fame as an actor slowly, beginning on the stage before moving into film. He would begin work at Universal Studios before the paint was dry on the walls of the soundstages, becoming the company’s first superstar before the phrase was coined.  Read more on The Chaneys and the Horror Legacy…

    Read more on The Chaneys and the Horror Legacy…

    Argo (****)

    Ben Affleck outdoes himself with Arkin and Goodman standouts in the political masterpiece,

    October 10, 2012

    In the mid-2000′s Ben Affleck was the last person I would have thought would change the course of his career and become one of the finest new directors in American cinema. Success came very quickly to Affleck, winning an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay to Good Will Hunting (1997) with his best friend Matt Damon, a film in which each had a major role, though it was Damon who was nominated for the Oscar as Best Actor. In the outstanding book Dirty Little Pictures by the great Peter Biskind, the author makes clear which many behind the scenes of the Affleck-Damon relationship knew, Damon was an actor, a true artist, while Affleck was a movie star who cared about his payday. He followed who was making what and understood his own worth to a film, wanting nothing more than to be paid for such. When Harvey Weinstein pulled his infamous “what I did for you…” business with Affleck, the actor reminded the mogul that part of the success had been Affleck and his contribution, so while he was grateful to Weinstein, he was not going to keep doing work for Harvey for so little. By 2002, he was commanding fifteen million dollars a film, but for the most part they were terrible scripts, offering the actor nothing in return. While Matt Damon found challenging work in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and eventually The Bourne franchise, Affleck found his star waning. The failure and poor reviews for films such as Pearl Harbor (2001), Daredevil (2003), the woeful Gigli (2003) and Surviving Christmas (2004) had nearly ruined Affleck in the business, he was now something of a laughing-stock as an actor.http://www.awardscircuit.com/wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/wordpress/img/trans.gif

    Read more on Argo (****)…

    October 8, 2012

    From the 10th best film of all time The Strangers:

    Kristen: Why are you doing this to us? 
    Dollface: Because you were home.  Read more on 31 Days of Horror: Quote of the Week…

    Read more on 31 Days of Horror: Quote of the Week…

    October 4, 2012

    With Seth MacFarlane recently awarded the prestigious gig of hosting the Oscars in February 2013, he becomes one of, if not, the first person to host the Oscars that got his start primarily in voice-over work.  MacFarlane voices Brian, Stewie, Quagmire, and Peter Griffin on FOX’s hit-show “Family Guy,” where he’s won an Emmy Award in the show’s near thirteen year run.

    The Oscars, unbeknownst to many,  have a strict rule about nominating voice-work in films.  Today’s question asks which voice-over performance by an actor or actress would you reward with either an Academy Award Nomination or Win?

    Read more on Oscar Question of the Day – Can you reward the voice?…

    October 3, 2012

    What makes a good scary movie? Some might think it’s all in how many times the jump or scream during a viewing, how many times they contemplate running to the bathroom during a gory scene, or the amount of sleepless nights they have after seeing the movie. Last year, Joey took a crack at creating a top 50 list of the best horror films which you can see here. Not one to back down from a challenge of creating a list, I decided try my hand at it this year.  Aside from the sheer number of horror films released, it’s incredibly difficult to rank the “best” of anything as you saw when we did our top 10 films of all time. Horror has evolved so much over the years, that in order to properly rank all of these films I used a 3 prong grading system, judging on historical significance, scariness, and fun factor in order to even the playing field. Each week I’ll be breaking down my top 50, but this week you’ll get a double dip of rankings as here are the films that just missed the cut of my list.

    Read more on Top 100 Horror Films: #100-51…

    September 24, 2012

    After seeing Trouble with the Curve, at best a two star movie, with the Amy Adams performance the finest in the film, I think it is safe to say that there will be no Best Actor Oscar nomination for eighty two year old Clint Eastwood this year. It is simply not a very good film, and Eastwood’s performance, though entertaining is of the “been there, done that” school, the same sort of cranky old bird we saw in Gran Torino (2008). Now the first time we saw Eastwood in this mode it was interesting, and I quite liked his work in Gran Torino (2008) but to see him do almost exactly the same thing in this film was tiresome and more than a little disappointing. Any chance, any talk of an Oscar nod for Eastwood will stop within the week, if it has not already ceased. Read more on The Sun Has Set in the Eastwood…

    Author: Anna Young
    September 23, 2012

    Since my article two weeks ago, I’ve been quite busy watching Dexter. So busy I’m already on season six. My husband, who is ridiculously selfish, asked me to stop watching season six so he could watch too on his down time. So I did and instead rented a few movies from my local red box. I rented three movies that had received overall good reviews from the staff here at The Awards Circuit. Two of the movies I enjoyed, the other one not so much. Read more on What’s Anna Watching?…

    NYFF: Uneven “Passion,” Solid “Bay,” and “Roman” Documentary

    A couple of former A-list directors had genre entries screen at the festival...

    September 18, 2012

    Greetings again from the New York Film Festival!

    Today brought a trio of very interesting films (2 Main Slate selections and a Midnight Movies sidebar), and even if they were of varying degrees of quality, they still all had something to offer an audience. The slate consisted of Brian DePalma’s “Passion,” Barry Levinson’s “The Bay,” and the documentary by Marina Zenovich “Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out,” a follow-up/sequel to her prior documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008). DePalma was also scheduled for  a press conference following the screening but didn’t make it to the Walter Reade Theater.  Through the magic of Skype, however, we got to talk with Zenovich about her documentary. Overall, today was a better day in terms of my thoughts on the movies, but the fest is still early.  The rest of the week is jam packed as well, but for now, let’s get in to what I saw most recently at NYFF!

    Read more on NYFF: Uneven “Passion,” Solid “Bay,” and “Roman” Documentary…

    10 Years (***)

    This ensemble reunion flick manages to get by on its friendly vibes...

    September 15, 2012

    Seeking a home somewhere between ‘The Big Chill’ and ‘American Reunion’ (though far superior to its most structurally similar film ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’) in terms of high school reunion flicks, ’10 Years’ manages to be a charmer that succeeds because of the chemistry of its cast. The film is sometimes a bit of a mess, but it’s an enjoyable mess that deftly keeps things from ever getting too heavy or too silly. It’s truly an ensemble piece, though we begin by focusing in on Channing Tatum, who continues his surprisingly good 2012 (‘The Vow’ excluded, of course) with another solid piece of acting. Even though I liked the latest sequel in the ‘American Pie’ franchise, this movie captures the reunion spirit in a more authentic way and doesn’t feel the need to shortchange that aspect of the story. Read more on 10 Years (***)…

    TIFF: Byzantium, The Iceman, and To the Wonder

    Jordan delivers, Shannon elevates bad material, and Malick falters...

    September 10, 2012

    Saoirse Ronan in Neil Jordan’s “Byzantium”

    BYZANTIUM (***)…A rock solid Gothic horror film, looking for distribution Byzantium is a vampire thriller unlike any I have seen. Two women with a secret, the vicious and sexual Clara (Gemma Atherton) and Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan), a thoughtful young woman, move from town to town hunting prey realizing with a genuine terror that they too are being hunted. Forced to flee yet another home, they find themselves in a small coastal village that Clara decides will prove safe for a time. Eleanor has managed to survive two hundred years as a vampire with a conscience, feeding only on those who are ready for death, such as the old man at the beginning who has found pages of her story and asks her to end his existence on earth. Clara is up for anything and feeds on anyone and anybody she can stalk and kill. She takes risks but does so for her daughter (oh yes!) and latches on to a young man who has recently come into possession of a hotel which she turns into a brothel to make fast money. Eleanor finds herself falling for a young waiter dying of cancer, as she remembers how she and Clara came to be the creatures they are. Meanwhile those hunters are closing in on them and offer nothing more than death as they believe Clara has broken the rules of their secret society. Read more on TIFF: Byzantium, The Iceman, and To the Wonder…

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