Just when The Awards Circuit thought Argo would put the brakes on its steamrolling of the competition, it shocks us again with key victories at SAG and DGA. It’s now abundantly clear that Ben Affleck’s third directorial outing is the frontrunner heading into the Oscar ceremony. Read more on Circuit Round-Up (Week Ending 2/3)…
2012 went in the blink of an eye. By July of last year, I was fearful of how the year would turn out for film. At that point my top two films, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Moonrise Kingdom were very good but nothing that I wanted to be in the top-tier of my annual top ten list since neither received a top-notch review from myself. September rolled around and film after film was blowing audiences, critics, and prognosticators away. There’s always a narrative a critic and blogger tries to write for the year. Is it the year of action films? Is it the year of big studios? While large studios definitely stepped up their games, it was documentaries that pushed the boundaries of storytelling and bringing enigmatic issues to the surface. I can only hope a worthy documentary manages to get their due in the future and hit the cultural zeitgeist that will “allow” Oscar to recognize.
As I unveil my personal ballot over the next few days, looking over the citations as a whole make me very proud of what filmmakers, performers, and studios are choosing to do with their narrative techniques. Of course, our beloved readership will have a different top ten, criticize choices, and scream anarchy for glowing omissions, but that’s what the Awards Circuit is about. Make your choices known not only in the comment section but also in the Awards Circuit Community Awards which are currently underway.
Via Kris Tapley over at HitFix/In Contention, he took a look at the ballot for the Writers Guild of America upcoming awards and took note of several omissions that include Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Michael Haneke’s Amour. He counted fifteen in total.
Tarantino has never been a member of the WGA but has found success with his other films Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Pulp Fiction (1994). Tapley has explanations for many of the contenders that won’t be getting a boost from the WGA. I encourage you to take a look. The nominations for the Writers Guild Awards will be announced on January 3, the day Oscar ballots are due. The list of films DISQUALIFIED are listed below and after the jump. Read more on Writers Guild of America Disqualifies Several Films for their Awards!…
The AC Team comes together this week to try and decipher many question marks about the season. We also celebrate our 25th episode. Thanks for listening all these months. Here’s the 25 more! The agenda for today’s episode is listed below:
After a couple of days away from the festival (unfortunately the day job can’t be completely ignored!) and a disastrous experience courtesy of the London transport system (missing yesterday’s Argo screening due to a cancelled train has to be the low point of my year so far), I was finally back to Leicester Square for the second week of the BFI London Film Festival. There were plenty of highlights from week 1, which you can catch up with here, but my sixth day at the festival brought me to two great movies: Rolling Stones documentary Crossfire Hurricane, and hilarious black comedy Seven Psychopaths. Reviews after the jump…
Seven Psychopaths is a movie about…well I’m still processing the film and its many interpretations. On the surface it’s just a black comedy about crazy people acting crazy telling crazy stories. But more than that, Martin McDonagh’s film is an exploration of screenwriting and a bristling take down (send up?) of male dominated action comedies. It’s a film that will leave you puzzled, especially after a rough first half hour, but the more you open your mind to will prove revelatory, entirely engrossing and incredibly funny. While there are so many recursive elements to the story one could get lost but my pal Mark Johnson summed up the set up beautifully: Seven Psychopaths is the tale of a struggling screenwriter (Colin Farrell) who gets mixed up with the mob after his delinquent friends (Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken) kidnap an eccentric gangster’s (Woody Harrelson) precious Shih Tzu.
Ben Affleck’s third directorial endeavor, Argo,is based on true events depicting the CIA’s rescue mission of six American hostages amidst the 1979 Iranian revolution. On its way to being a solid lock for a Best Picture nomination, Argo attempts to balance both the nail-biting suspense of espionage drama with softer, often comedic tones in order to give the film a more human element. While I feel this results in delivering a more entertaining and accessible movie, it seemed to detract from the serious, life-threatening ambiance that made Steven Spielberg’s much darker and gripping terrorist drama, Munich, more effective. Still, there is little to dislike about Argo, as it is one of the most entertaining films of 2012 and is certain to end up on a lot of top ten lists in the end. (***½)
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…
If you’re a fan of ‘In Bruges’, then chances are you’ve been looking forward to this for a while now. Martin McDonagh wowed many with his last flick, and now he’s returning to theaters this year with a new film in ‘Seven Psychopaths’, which debuted a Trailer today. Starring Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, and more, this looks like a fantastically offbeat good time, not to mention being a really clever almost parody of Trailers in and of itself. You can see the Trailer after the jump, but count me in. It debuts at the Toronto Film Festival, and hits theaters in October, which can’t come soon enough for me. Take a gander below:
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.
Directed By: Martin McDonagh Written By: Martin McDonagh
Cast: Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Abbie Cornish, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Olga Kurylenko, Gabourey Sidibe, Kevin Corrigan, Tom Waits, Zeljko Ivanek
Synopsis(Courtesy of IMDB): A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster’s beloved Shih Tzu. Read more on Awards Profile: Seven Psychopaths…
Via Kris Tapley over at 
