First of all, welcome to my new blog! My intent here is to take a break from writing news-style articles or creating musings on serious subjects (for that you can follow my newspaper work at www.nujournal.com or read my sports blog dksportsnuts.blogspot.com). No better way to open this blog on this Oscar Sunday than to pick some Oscar winners — I hope you enjoy this post and all posts to follow!
Cheers,
- Daniel
For the first time in my life, I succeeded in seeing most of this year's Oscar nominated movies BEFORE the ceremony. It took a bit of last-minute effort — I knocked off both "Lincoln" and "Life of Pi" in a single sitting on President's Day, a combination that put me in a pretty significantly existential mood — but I managed to see six of the nine Best Picture nominees. The only ones I missed were "Amour" (which I'm not too disappointed about, not sure I was really the target demographic), "Beasts of the Southern Wild" (though I read a long article about it) and "Django Unchained" (which I really wanted to see, maybe I can still squeeze it in before the broadcast!).
With my first-hand experience of the other six nominees, I've seen fit to delude myself into thinking that I can accurately predict the winners in the top six or so categories (we'll see how far I get). If I was making my picks based on personal bias, "Silver Linings Playbook" would win ALL the major awards, but alas, instead I will make my picks based on what I actually think is going to take place tonight. We'll see how accurate I am (I promise not to edit this blog post post-ceremony for those of you reading this post after the fact). At the very least we'll see if I can beat out the Australians that made picks for Fairfax Media.
I'll also include some brief discussion about each pick. Enough stalling, here we go with my picks!
BEST PICTURE: Lincoln
This award is the hardest to pick, but my mind was so thoroughly blown by Daniel Day-Lewis' performance and the gripping way that Steven Spielberg was able to portray a film that was largely about a vote in the United States House of Representatives that I think it stands out the most in a stellar field of nominated films. For full disclosure, I majored in history at college, so historical epics are right up my alley, so I'm hoping it was received as well by a general audience (and also overseas — though I think Lincoln's legend extends beyond international boundaries).
Argo is getting a lot of talk as a front-runner, I'm glad to see movies based on history getting so much acclaim! My FAVORITE movie of the bunch is Silver Linings Playbook, though it doesn't seem to be the kind of movie that wins Best Picture Oscars. I enjoyed the other three I saw — Les Miserables, Life of Pi and Zero Dark Thirty — but my gut feeling says that Lincoln will beat them all.
BEST ACTRESS: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
I really want to be able to pick Jennifer Lawrence for her utterly convincing Tiffany in "Silver Linings Playbook." The scene where she describes to Robert De Niro how her time with Bradley Cooper's Pat character has been a lucky combination for the Philadelphia Eagles is probably my favorite scene that I've sat through in a theater (second only to the St. Kilda Saints appearing in "Funny People" - God love you Eric Bana! Did I jump out of my seat and give fist pumps during that scene? Probably... as in yes).
However, Chastain's role as a CIA operative dedicating her life to searching for UBL was a career role for her, and I think she deserves the statuette. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Lawrence will see plenty of Oscar nominations (and hopefully awards) in her career, this is just the time for Jessica to win one on behalf of redheads everywhere (we don't have a lot of heroes to look up to!).
I hate to ever bet against an Aussie, and not having seen Naomi Watts' turn in "The Impossible" no doubt leaves me unqualified to leave her out of consideration, but I'll stick with the redhead.
BEST ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
If he doesn't win, on behalf of Daniels everywhere, I will be the first to lead the tongue-lashing directed at the Academy. But there's no way he will lose, his performance as Abraham Lincoln is pretty much the pinnacle acting performance in human civilization (I may exaggerate, but I don't think so). LOVED the way Day-Lewis made Lincoln a snarky character with an addictively wry sense of humor. I was left hoping that the actual Lincoln was EXACTLY as Day-Lewis portrayed him, but alas, he probably wasn't... I won't stop hoping that it's true, though.
I've become a mega Bradley Cooper fan for his role as Pat in "Silver Linings Playbook" — he and Lawrence were equally good in their roles, with their performances catapulting the movie from "great" to "totally epic" — but no-one is beating Day-Lewis. If there was an award for Scene of the Year, I think it would have to go to Cooper's rant against Ernest Hemingway early in the movie, with Pat waking up his parents at an absurd hour, only to toss the book right through the glass in a closed window (did I mention how much I love this movie?).
Again, I hate to bet against an Aussie, and I SO badly want Hugh Jackman to win an Oscar, just NOBODY IS BEATING DANIEL. In case that wasn't clear already.
BEST DIRECTOR: David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
It's very stupid of me to bet against Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln," but I think that Silver Linings Playbook's best shot at winning one of the top awards may actually come for its director, despite earning nominations in all the major categories. I mentioned above that Jennifer Lawrence's and Bradley Cooper's performances are what made the movie as good as it was, but as far as I understand, it was Russell's unconventional directing techniques that really let the actors come out of their shells and create a legendary movie (again, I may exaggerate with the term legendary, but I'm sticking to my guns). Beyond Lawrence and Cooper, the memorable performances were thick and fast in Silver Linings Playbook — Robert De Niro, Melbourne native Jacki Weaver, the return of Chris Tucker (YES YES YES YES!!!), Julia Stiles, other actors I can't name off the top of my head...
Spielberg deserves the award, but I have a hunch that Russell is gonna pull the upset. This award would be much closer to call if Ben Affleck had been nominated for "Argo" and Kathryn Bigelow for "Zero Dark Thirty," but their absences make me even more sure of Russell.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
An unfortunate thing about the list of nominees is that some of the roles were quite brief in nature — notably Hathaway's and Jacki Weaver's in Silver Linings Playbook. However, though brief, Hathaway's performance was a defining moment for the role of Fantine in the world history of the musical. The commitment to have her hair cut during live filming? The icing on the cake.
Just as I regret not picking more wins for Silver Linings Playbook, I feel bad not being able to pick more wins for Les Miserables. However, I think the former's big win will come at director, and the latter's big win will come with Hathaway, and perhaps a number of categories further down the bill than I'm going with my picks.
Unfortunately I missed Helen Hunt in "The Sessions" and Amy Adams in "The Master," both of whom probably stand a good chance.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Just as you DO NOT pick against Daniel Day-Lewis, I simply cannot pick against Hoffman. It's pretty mind-blowing that Hoffman has only won a single Oscar in his career — he's pretty much the poster child for what comes to mind when you think "Oscar-winning performance machine" (well, he and Sean Penn), so I don't see him failing to finally get his second statuette.
Robert De Niro was epic in Silver Linings Playbook (do I use the word epic too much?), I would love to see him get a dark-horse win and give Silver Linings Playbook some more award recognition for the print at the top of the DVD case when it comes out (EXCELLENT gift idea, if any of you are looking to get me a present anytime soon, by the way).
Christoph Waltz is becoming another Oscar-winning performance machine, and he may be the main reason I'm eager to see "Django Unchained," in addition to the criminally un-Oscared Leonardo DiCaprio. Academy — will Leo have to wait for the lifetime achievement award to get his first recognition from you???
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: Brave
Another Oscar going to redheads — tonight is our shining moment! We may have genetically recessive genes, and we may disappear as a phenotype in the not too distant future, but Oscars night 2013 is the night that us redheads will have our shining moment!!! Plus, a movie filled with genuine Scottish accents should never lose.
This post got a lot longer than I was thinking it would, but I did end up getting SEVEN categories picked! That's more that the Fairfax Media folks - take that! (I'd use a more vulgar insult, but will avoid losing the PG rating of this blog on my very first post).
Enjoy the Oscars everybody! I'll very much enjoy seeing all the Daniels and redheads winning awards, and dream of a day where redheads and Daniels (preferably red-headed Daniels) can rule MORE than just a single evening — I dream a dream!... (sigh)
- DK
