The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
Jose here. When the New York Film Critics began announcing their awards yesterday the biggest shock, for me, came early on as they decided to award Greig Fraser with Best Cinematography for Zero Dark Thirty. Don't get me wrong. I have absolutely nothing against Mr. Fraser and up to that moment I hadn't even seen the movie (I did later and ZOMG!). Anyway, what surprised me the most is that a contemporary movie had been recognized for an award that usually goes to period or fantasy movies. It's as if awards bodies don't feel that modern life is "pretty" enough to give it a photographic award.
Yet the fact that people assume that "best" cinematography instantly means "prettiest" cinematography might be the greatest mistake in a category whose winners sometimes defy all logic...
I have been remiss at sharing good stories and posts from around the web so I hereby return to it.
Pop Matters Jose takes another look at Marion Cotillard's work in Rust & Bone and contemplates Oscar Pop Elegantarium Alexa loves the screwball comedy of David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook Sam HitiOnce Upon a Time in the West fans should check out this artists tumblr The Hot Blog David Poland on the NYFCC winners Cinema Blend two Woody Allen classics coming to Blu-Ray this January
EW top ten lists from popular critics Owen (Lincoln @ #1) & Lisa (Zero Dark Thirty @ #1). They both choose one Oscar hopeful among their "5 worst of the year" lists, too. E! Online Rose McGowan is the latest actress trying to achieve Michelle Pfeiffer's now immortal Scarface look Antagony & Ecstasy wonderful piece on Life of Pi by one of the web's best critics The Carpet Bagger talks to the editor of Flight about the plane crash scene My New Plaid Pants who wore it best: animated decapitation In Contention I totally forgot to mention the Golden Satellite nominations. Lots of love for Les Miz but also weird nominations for films that never opened in the States like Kim Ki-Duk's Piéta so I'm not sure what their criteria is for eligibility anymore
Coming Soon Anne Hathaway recently burst into tears when asked about doing a Catwoman spinoff, adding
...assuming there was enough Kleenex in the world, I would love to do a spin-off
Vulture Speaking of Anne Hathaway. Sort of. a screening of Les Misérables that I would've killed to be it for Academy and Globe members. Hugh Jackman sang and lap danced for birthday girl Amanda Seyfried Gawker on the 13 most powerful images of naked celebrities for 2012 In Contention Pedro Almodóvar, as you know my favorite living filmmaker, will be getting an Academy tribute in London. I'm so jealous of Guy Lodge right now who gets to attend these London events Stale Popcorn Glenn on Australia's film award nominations (formerly AFI and now called AACTA) . The musical The Sapphires leads. Cinema Blend Casey Affleck stayin' creepy. He aims to play the Boston Strangler in a new film
Finally, Grease superstars of yore, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John made a new video together for their Christmas album.
No comment. My inner child loves Livvy & Grease too much to comment. (Other than that John Travolta who not so unrecently commanded $20 million a movie maybe could have spared two hundred thousand dollar bills so this didn't look like it was made for two!)
The Grammy Awards are not, as a general rule, anything that merits the attention of The Film Experience but it doesn't mean we can't discuss them briefly as an intermission between Oscariffic posting. Obviously I'm rooting for "Call Me Maybe"THE song of the year and indefatigably fun. And you already know that I wish Record of the Year Nominee "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"was the title of a movie.
But given this blog's metier, we have to focus on movie-related categories first and foremost.
BEST COMPILATION SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA The Descendants (Various Artists) Marley (Bob Marley & The Wailers) Midnight in Paris (Various Artists) The Muppets (Various Artists) Rock of Ages (Various Artists)
I've never understood quite what people saw in The Descendants soundtrack (ooh, Hawaiian music. How obvious!) but I love the nomination for its fellow 2011 Best Picture nominee Midnight in Paris.
QUESTION: Will this be the only award outside of the Razzies that the Rock of Ages film adaptation receives?
SNUBBED: Excuse me but where the hell is the Smash CD?
Michael C. here. I hope everyone has had a chance to see Ang Lee’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. I’ve been dying to dive into spoiler territory since the film’s premiere at the New York Film Festival.
If you haven’t seen the film I recommend you do. Lee has created a visually magnificent fable that transfers the book’s expansive imagination to the screen better than I thought possible. It’s a terrific return to form for Lee following the face plant that was Taking Woodstock.
But then there’s that nagging problem of that ending. I’ve struggled with it in the book and now I struggle with it in the film. Try as I might, I just can’t get behind it.
And things were looking so super extra competitive this year! Just a few days ago Les Miz, Argo, Lincoln, and Zero Dark Thirty all seemed to be on somewhat equal footing and to a lesser extent Beasts of the Southern Wild, Silver Linings Playbook, and Life of Pi had all received enough warmish embraces from critics, audiences and Oscared corners of the showbiz culture that we could look forward to a real competition once the Oscar nominations were announced on January 10th. But with the one-two-zero-dark punch of the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review, the Oscar race suddenly looks a bit less like a clusterfuck and a ltitle more like a done deal. Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow's engrossing account of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, is suddenly apparently way out front.The NBR generally attempts to spread the wealth but not so this year since they gave ZDT three of their top prizes (Pic, Director, Actress)
Will enough critics groups and precursors disagree or is this just one of those years that seemed competitive and then suddenly wasn't... like, oh, so many years in the past!
Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 12:00PM 
