If I Picked the Oscars - Part 2

We're now only three days away from the big night, so I better get my picks in for the rest of the awards:



Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay):

    • “127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
    • “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
    • “Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
    • “True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
    • “Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini


I liked "The Social Network", but felt it never really got inside the skin of Zuckerberg. For me, "Winter's Bone" stands out for its perfectly nuanced and balanced storytelling.

My Pick - "Winter's Bone"
Oscar's Pick - “The Social Network”  



Best Writing (Original Screenplay):

    • “Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
    • “The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
      Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
    • “Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
    • “The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
    • “The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler

"The Fighter" and "Inception" were great.  "The Kids Are All Right" was funny and poignant.  "The King's Speech" was... well, I'll get into that later.

 My Pick - "Inception".  This multi-layered Borges meets the Matrix head-spinner was complex, thought-provoking and yet personal at the same time.

Oscar's Pick - “The King's Speech”.  Ok - here's the deal.  This was a good film.  There was nothing wrong with it.  It is a simple story told well.  But it's just so damned safe.  It takes absolutely no chances.  It is basically an ABC afterschool special: dude has stuttering problem... dude overcomes stuttering problem, except the dude just happens to be the future King of England.

When you compare this to really great movies, this one story arc would just be a subplot, woven into a bigger, more compelling whole.  Really folks, get over it.  Does this movie come even close to "The Godfather",  "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest",  "Amadeus", or "Silence of the Lambs"?

I didn't think so.




Best Documentary (Feature):

    • “Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
    • “Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
    • “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
    • “Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
    • “Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

This is a very strong category this year.  "Gasland" is a compelling personal journey through the toxic wasteland of Natural Gas Drilling.  "Restrepo" does a tremendous job showing the viewer what life is truly like for U.S. soldiers serving duty in Afghanistan's Korangal Valley.  And "Inside Job" explores the nausea-inducing reality of the wall-street players who continue to hold the White House hostage.

For me however, "Exit Through the Gift Shop" stood out for its unique journey that explored the concepts of art, fame, and media manipulation.  And I'm still not even sure it was a documentary...

My Pick - "Exit Through the Gift Shop"
Oscar's Pick -  This is a toss-up here.   I'll guess they give it to "Inside Job" to send a message to the controlling interests that rule Wall Street, the Republican Party, the Top 1% high-income earners, the Tea Party...  not to get on a political rant or anything here...




Best Actor: 

    •  Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
    •  Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
    •  Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
    •  Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
    •  James Franco in “127 Hours”

This one's tough because I've only seen "Social Network" and "King's Speech" and to be honest, I wasn't blown away by either performance.  In all fairness I really shouldn't make a pick in this category, but who said this was fair anyway?  I'm going to give it to Javier Bardem because I've heard great things about the movie and the guy is a total acting stud - so there.

My Pick - Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Oscar's Pick - Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”  The Academy loves them some feel-good movie and especially any acting gymnastics.  A king who overcomes a speech impediment is an easy, safe pick.



Best Actress:


    •  Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
    •  Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
    •  Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
    •  Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
    •  Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”


An easy pick for me.  It comes down to Natalie Portman and Jennifer Lawrence.  They both carry their films - the entire narrative rests on their shoulders.  Both bring extraordinary performances.  For me however, Jennifer Lawrence was a revelation.  She created such an authentic, understated yet dynamic and powerful performance as a sixteen-year old desperately trying to hold her family together, that I think she deserves it the most.

My Pick - Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
Oscar's Pick - Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”  Portman's performance as a ballerina at the tipping point of madness is a tour-de-force, and she deserves all the accolades she has received.  She is the obvious choice and will most likely win.



Best Director:

    • “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
    • “The Fighter” David O. Russell
    • “The King's Speech” Tom Hooper
    • “The Social Network” David Fincher
    • “True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

 Ok - down to the nitty gritty here.  I love Fincher and the Cohen Brothers, but don't think their work was Oscar-level this year.   Tom Hooper makes nice ABC after-school specials... er, I mean movies (actually, I liked "The Damned United" much more than "King's Speech"), but c'mon.. let's get real here.

That leaves Aronofsky's "Black Swan" and David O. Russell's, "The Fighter" (and I would also add, Debra Granik for "Winter's Bone".)  Aronofsky showed true film mastery with absolute control of his psychological thriller.  All elements of the film were fully realized to support the central theme.  Russell showed a lighter touch, though no less effective, letting his actors control the scenes and weave a heart-heavy tale of redemption, balancing humor and pathos and never regressing to melodrama.
Debra Granik, like Russell, chose a verite approach to weave her neo-noir tale - perfectly nailing the appropriate tone for such a story.

My Pick - “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky.  I'm torn here, but give Aronofsky the slight nod over Russell and Granik.  Great jobs by all.
Oscar's Pick - “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky.  I think this one is a slam dunk for Aronofsky.  He is one of cinema's shining lights.

And now...  Drumroll please...  Time to get the kids to bed and drain the last of the drinks, 'cuz the show's almost over.  Just one last Oscar to give out...



Best Picture:

    • “Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
    • “The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
    • “Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
    • “The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
    • “The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
    • “127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
    • “The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
    • “Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer
    • “True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
    • “Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers



Dang... that's a long list!  But I'll make this short, because by now, you pretty much know my take on these films.


It's a close call, and I love them both, but I have to give "Winter's Bone" the slight edge over "The Fighter", simply because of its more original story.  If "Black Swan" had walked the line a little more convincingly between horror and psychological thriller (ala "Rosemary's Baby" "Jacob's Ladder", "Angel Heart") then that would have been my choice.

My Pick - "Winter's Bone"
Oscar's Pick - "Black Swan".     If "King's Speech" wins, please shoot me and put me out of my misery.

Your Worldview Terrifies Me: Se7en and the Four Shades of Horror

When it came time to shoot the final scene of my short horror movie, Enter the Dark, I knew it had to have a certain tone.  This dark ending had to deliver a crushing psychological blow, like the amazingly resonant movies of David Lynch - especially Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive.

A few days before shooting the final scene, I got this gnawing feeling that I needed watch Se7en, one of my all-time favorite films.  As I sat in admiration of the incredible skill involved in that movie - the script, the acting, art direction, cinematography and of course, David Fincher's overall vision, I was mostly overcome by the absolute bleakness of its ending, and especially the amazing performance by Brad Pitt as he is forced to make an impossible decision with the realization that no matter what he does, evil has already won.

I knew I was watching the embodiment of what my ending had to be.

The night that we shot our ending, I had my actor, Charles step into my office, and we alone sat in the darkness and watched that ending of Se7en.  Then we stepped into my hallway and shot our scene.

This got me thinking - what about this movie (Se7en) makes it so above the ordinary for me?  Why does it emote such feelings of dread in me, while other so-called horror films seem so shallow.  It struck me that in this movie, the key issue is that evil has already won.  Throughout the film, Somerset tries to warn Mills that society is rotten to its core, but Mills only learns after he has paid the ultimate sacrifice. 

To me, it is this pessimistic worldview that ultimately terrifies me.  As I examined some of the films that have effected me the most, I realized that most of them contain elements of this same worldview.  Extrapolating this further, I realized there are really four different worldviews that a horror movie (or any story, for that matter) can be set in.  How a storyteller sees the world will greatly influence the shades of horror that he or she creates.

There are 4 primary worldviews: Light, Grey, Dark, and Empty.  (I know these may sound silly - bear with me with the names, you'll see where I'm headed in a sec.)

-LIGHT - In this world, people are inherently good.  The systems they create: Science, Education, Politics, The Media, The Police, The Military, The Church are all essentially good.  Therefore, the world in which we live is essentially good.  The occasional outbreaks of bad behaving people are anomalies that are swiftly and effectively dealt with by the systems we set up to protect us.

There is no evil - no monsters, no demons. There are simply misbehaving individuals that may have been damaged as children.  Rehabilitation is always the best way to deal with misbehaving individuals. They can always be fixed - there is always a cure.

Good ultimately and always triumphs.  The perfect refinement of our systems will ultimately lead to peace and nirvana.

-GREY - All people have good and evil within them.  Who they become is determined by their upbringing, and ultimately their actions.  Every one of us, every day by our own actions choose to be good or evil.

However, there definitely is real Evil in this worldview - some of which can never be rehabilitated.  The systems we create may be corrupted by this evil and at times work against us. However, Good can always battle back when enough people band together to take a stand and fight against the exposed Evil.

The battle rages on...

-DARK - People are inherently selfish, greedy, violent, sadistic and destructive.  The systems they create reflect their diseased state.  Occasionally there may be glimpses of people who try to do good, but they are ultimately taken down by the true wretched state of mankind.

The systems we create perpetuate a vision that they are protecting us simply to keep us passive - like sheep being led to the slaughter.

Dystopia and destruction are the ultimate outcome.

-EMPTY - There is no good or evil, no right are wrong.  Things just happen.  There is no meaning.

The systems we create do what we tell them to - no more or no less.

In this Nihilistic vision, there is no final judgement -no God or Devil.  What you do, how you treat your family, how you interact with the world matters not.

You are ultimately alone in the universe.

So, if we go back to my old pal, Se7en you might say that it lives squarely in the Dark worldview. I think that is what makes it so damn frightening to me.  If you were to draw a graph (and you know how much I like graphs) and place Se7en on a spectrum from Light to Dark, you might see something like this:

Now, most films will not live entirely within one of these worldviews, but will tend to have elements of one or more.  Looking at a bunch of my favorite movies, if I had a bunch of time to waste, I might graph them like this: (click on image to enlarge)

 

I find this to be an interesting way to look at movies, and horror movies in particular.  You can see that most of my favorite movies tend to live in the areas of Dark or Empty, or some combo of both.  You'll also notice that almost no horror films live in the Light worldview (no surprise there) so I added some stuff like E.T. and Care Bears Movie so you can see what would live there.  And if anyone can find a movie that is both Light and Empty, please let me know.  A happy, positively nihilistic film is something I'd like to see someone pull off - perhaps the ending of Life of Brian comes close??

Of course this is all open to interpretation, which is ultimately what makes it so interesting.  So, I invite you to argue with me, make your own graphs, chart tv shows, books, comic books do whatever.  It might help illuminate why you've always been attracted to or repelled by certain stories.

The question also becomes then, how do you view the world?  Where would it be charted in the above graph?  I think for me, I'd like to live in the Light world, but know that's a fairy tale.  More and more, I'm convinced we live in a Grey world - somewhere between Grey and Empty. Yeah, we exist in a world somewhere between Alien and Jaws.

Heaven help us all...

Name my Movie!

Ok dear readers... time to get to work.

I've completed principal photography on my horror short movie that up to this point I've been calling Spook Hunt.
After finishing the first rough cut, it has become obvious that the title is not doing the movie justice.

I need another title.

Here is where you come in.

First, read the following synopsis of the movie, watch the new opening scene, and then look over the list of possible names.
Let me know what best matches the feel of the movie and also grabs your attention.

Spook Hunt is a short film that takes you into the dark recesses of a haunted house and the even darker fathoms of the human soul.

Charles has a problem.  There's something in his house scaring his family and it just won't leave them alone.  They've all heard voices, seen dark shapes moving in the shadows, felt that uneasy sensation of being watched.  Finally Charles captures something on his audio recorder that proves they're not all going crazy.  He decides to make a stand, enlisting the help of his long-time buddy, Rob Tupper, to delve into the mystery of his unwanted guest and hopefully send it on its way.  If they can somehow figure out what the entity is and what it wants, maybe they can all finally have some peace.

Rob's worried about his buddy.  He's been acting really strange lately ... well, even stranger than usual.  Rob knows that things have been rough for Charles - struggling to make ends meet in a down economy, dealing with the unexplained disappearance of his brother-in-law, Marcus, and now these claims of some ghost harassing his family.  Rob is skeptical that there's anything paranormal going on, but he agrees to help his friend out if only to find out the real nature of the problem.

With the lights out, they are led on an adventure of paranormal encounters: cold spots, an eerie talking children's book, unexplained apparitions and a final mystery that leads to an unforgettably disturbing ending.

Ok, now to the possible titles:

Elemental Fear
Primal Darkness
Up From the Dark
From the Darkness
Enter the Dark

Turn Out the Lights
Out Go the Lights
The Disembodied
 
Deliver
Deliver the Darkness
Among the Darkness

Among the Shadows

Alone in the Darkness
Don’t Fear the Darkness
Don’t Dread the Night

Dread the Night
Dread of Night
Into the Dead of Night
Into the Dark of Night
Whispers of Dread

Night of the Abyss
Abyss of Night
Into The Abyss
Repossessed
The Inhabitant

Alright, now get to work and VOTE!

M. Night Shyamalan and the Career Arc of a Director

No, I haven't seen The Last Airbender yet.

And I'm not gonna.

Know why?  Two words - The Happening.

I loved Sixth Sense - liked Unbreakable - loved Signs - tried to like The Village - was totally unimpressed with Lady in the Water.

I figured I'd give M. Night one more chance with The Happening.  But do you know what happened at The Happening?...  He took my 10 bucks and spit in my face.

Really.

That movie is an affront to filmmaking - either one of the worst, most tone-deaf movies made in the last 30 years, or the most brilliant satiric self-immolation ever put to film.  I seriously thought he was trying to purposefully trash his career so he could get out of his current contract by making the worst movie ever.

Then he made The Last Airbender... and it's getting even worse reviews.  I don't need to see it.

How can this be possible?  How can the same guy who made Sixth Sense and Signs, two of my favorite movies of the last decade, slide steadily into absolute dreck? Has he totally lost his mind?  Does he not care anymore?  Did someone else write and direct his first three movies for him?

I wanted to see just how bad it really was, so I did what I always do...

I made a chart:

This chart shows the ratings (per Rotten Tomatoes) for every M. Night directed movie.  As you can see, it looks like a big ol' slide to wretchedness.

That got me thinking... What do other director's charts look like?

Actors I'd Most Like to Cast in My Next Movie

Not that it would ever actually happen, but if I could pick up a phone and attach any of these actors to my next project, I'd be a happy camper. 

Hey, I can dream can't I?!


Steve Buscemi











Don Cheadle











Toni Collete










Zooey Deschanel









 

Morgan Freeman









 

Paul Giamatti









 

Luis Guzman









 

Philip Seymour Hoffman









 

Holly Hunter









 

Jason Isaacs









 

Catherine Keener









 

Harvey Keitel









 

Laura Linney









 

William Macy









 

Frances McDormand









 

Ian McShane