No matter what David Chase chose to do with his feature debut, it was always going to be judged against the work he did on HBO with ‘The Sopranos’. Had he made a gangster movie, it would have been setting himself up for disaster. Instead, Chase has written and directed the coming of age story ‘Not Fade Away’, and it’s likely to still underwhelm those expecting more mob dealings. This is instead a love letter to growing up and listening to rock music in the 1960′s, and despite not being what many expect from Chase…it’s a wonderful little film. From Chase’s writing to the lead performance of John Magaro and the scene stealing supporting work from James Gandolfini, so much of this flick is a treat. It’s too small to really catch the eye of the Academy at this point, but it’s a dark horse contender for my year end Top 10 list, which I’ll be revealing in a few weeks time. Out this Friday, ‘Not Fade Away’ is the kind of movie that likely have to wait for home video to truly be appreciated. That’s a sad fact of life for Chase’s work, but I’m confident that it will receive the recognition it deserves before all is said and done.
The 2012 New York Film Festival is now in the books ladies and gentleman, so there’s no better time to double back and take a look at what the 50th installment of the festival was actually like. This was my first time covering a festival of any sort. I saw some fantastic films, some very odd ones, and almost no terrible ones, so that’s a great success in my book. Overall I saw 28 of the films shown at the fest, though one I saw at an outside screening…though I’m counting it anyway. Of course I saw the big ones like the trio of ‘Flight’, ‘Life of Pi’, and ‘Not Fade Away’, along with the other high profile titles like ‘Amour’, ‘Frances Ha’, and ‘The Paperboy’, plus of course the “secret” screening this year, which turned out to be ‘Lincoln’. I’m going to start with the 10 best films that were screened at the fest, at least in my eyes.
The Awards Circuit staff puts together a packed agenda for your listening pleasure. If this is your first time listening, The Awards Circuit Power Hour encompasses many of the writers getting together to speak about the current affairs of either the Oscar race or films opening by the week. It’s not always business because there’s always room for some fun with our many segments and taking questions from our dedicated readership. A great way to support the Awards Circuit is not only by listening to us here via our website but we are featured on Stitcher Radio, where you can download the app to any mobile or electronic device and take us everywhere. If you can’t find it in your heart (or wallets) to donate directly to the site, downloading the app and putting “AWARDSCIRCUIT” in the promo code will support us in a big way. We greatly appreciate the support. Also, as an added bonus, if you download the app with the promo code, you are automatically entered to win $100. Who can’t use an extra 100 bucks these days? Click on the “Hear Us On Stitcher Smart Radio” button after the jump along with an itinerary of today’s episode! Read more on Awards Circuit Power Hour Episode 23: NYFF Closing, Seth MacFarlane, Original Song category…
It’s that time of the year again folks! The name of the game here is to make an early grouping of the hopefuls for all the main categories. Beginning with Best Picture and categorizing the contenders by their assumed chances. I’m not ashamed to admit that my success rate has been only decent with these in the past, but that kind of comes with the territory of Oscar prognostication and I’m hoping for a good showing this year. This time around I’m sticking with last year’s model of a larger slate than in previous years, which still has to do with the relative uncertainty that this year’s race has surrounding it again. For one thing, how many nominees will we ultimately have? Less than the 9 we had last year? How many films will actually be able to get the required amount of #1 votes to qualify for a nomination? All of this remains to be seen of course, but for now, I’ve tried to grab all the viable contenders for Best Picture and laid them out for you below. Lots can change between now and the nominations, but this is where I think things stand now at this current and precarious moment. At the very least, it’ll be interesting to see how this matches up to the eventual nominees (last year I correctly predicted 6 of the 9 eventual nominated films from the article).
Myself and Joey will be attending the New York Film Festival for the next few weeks. As Toronto Film Festival comes to end, another one begins.
There are many films scheduled to make their big debuts including Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, David Chase’s Not Fade Away, and Robert Zemeckis’ Flight. We will be bringing you content each day following a slew of screenings and hopefully will attempt to clear up more of this Oscar race.
I spoke briefly this week about Matthew McConaughey and his chances for Oscar attention in the Supporting Actor category for Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike. With a great showing in Cannes, Jeff Nichols’ film Mud was looking for a distributor and McConaughey is believed to deliver one of his best turns yet. It’s been announced that Lionsgate has acquired Mud but they will be releasing it in 2013.
Also, David Chase’s Not Fade Away starring Jack Huston and James Gandolfini is set to screen as Gala Centerpiece at the New York Film Festival. Is there room in the Supporting Actor category for James Gandolfini who also has a role in Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly with Brad Pitt later this year.
The second half of the year is upon us. The race is about to heat up with big Oscar hopefuls coming down the pike. Our John Foote will be in attendance at the Toronto International Film Festival and many films will be unveiling themselves to critics alike. There is a very unclear yet still feasible shape to the race looking from ten thousand feet.
There are internet jitters building for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master starring Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman. With the trailers released and now the film being pushed up to September, it looks as though we may be in store for a master class in filmmaking. Phoenix also looks to be a lead contender for his first Oscar after delivering in his previous nominated works, Gladiator (2000) and Walk the Line (2005). Phoenix does have tough competition ahead of him including what looks to be a critical darling-type performance coming from John Hawkes in Ben Lewin’s The Sessions. Early word is very positive for the film and the turns by Hawkes along with co-stars Helen Hunt and William H. Macy. Since Hawkes’ initial nomination two years ago for Winter’s Bone, he hasn’t shown any signs of letting up. He was arguably left off last year in Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene and will be seen later this year in Julia Dyer’s The Playroom and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. There seems to be a tremendous following and support for him in his current state. Speaking of Spielberg, we’re still awaiting some type of marketing material for his upcoming Lincoln biopic. No poster or trailer has been released with very few stills leaked online. One starts to think if it will even be ready in time.
No matter what David Chase chose to do with his feature debut, it was always going to be judged against the work he did on HBO with ‘The Sopranos’. Had he made a gangster movie, it would have been setting himself up for disaster. Instead, Chase has written and directed the coming of age story ‘Not Fade Away’, and it’s likely to still underwhelm those expecting more mob dealings. This is instead a love letter to growing up and listening to rock music in the 1960′s, and despite not being what many expect from Chase…it’s a wonderful little film. From Chase’s writing to the lead performance of John Magaro and the scene stealing supporting work from James Gandolfini, so much of this flick is a treat. It’s too small to really catch the eye of the Academy at this point, but it’s a dark horse contender for my year end Top 10 list, which I’ll be revealing in a few weeks time. Out this Friday, ‘Not Fade Away’ is the kind of movie that likely have to wait for home video to truly be appreciated. That’s a sad fact of life for Chase’s work, but I’m confident that it will receive the recognition it deserves before all is said and done.
