Yes, No, Maybe So: "The Hunger Games"

We watch trailers. To avoid entirely selling our souls to marketing experts or entirely caving to our preconceived biases, we try to stay balanced as we do so. Sometimes we fail with unqualified "holy hell yes" or "dear god, no!" reactions but it's good to try and keep an open mind. 

On the subject of The Hunger Games, I haven't always had one. Though I live for the movies, the past decade has been rough going for me in franchise-land as Twilight and Harry Potter fandom have reigned for so long that I've begun to feel like an outcast from my own church, the church of the cinema. And now yet another YA appeal genre franchise which promises endless movies that will not be judged on their cinematic merit but on how well they fill fan cravings for beloved characters? I CAN'T DEAL.

I felt abused by the marketing, which has released so many morsels that we know they're building not just a bread crumb trail to the box office but a superhighway.  But that wasn't the problem. It was the way each crumb, no matter how inconsequential, was treated as if it was a seven course meal. Entire movies don't get the kind of attention each little blip from this movie gets.

But then this trailer arrived and it's either so brilliantly cut together that they've finally brainwashed me, or I've just now opened my heart to The Hunger Games or, possibly both. 

YES...

While I've never really thought of Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) as an inspired visual stylist that might be mere forgetfulness since he doesn't direct features too often. There are quite a few shots I love in the trailer. I mean look at the palette, focal precision, and direct but subdued emotion of those tense crowd scene. Jennifer Lawrence, so strong in Winter's Bone and so sympathetic in Like Crazy looks to continue making good on her promise.  

If the story beats are as economically and fluidly expressed in the movie as in the trailer we're in for a treat. What great buildup and release. Too few trailers understand that the set-up is what's crucial, not the whole package. If you give us the whole movie, what's left to see in the theater? This feels as exciting as any "ready. set. go..." ever did  and I bet we're not even seeing anything beyond the 45 minute mark. 

NO...

I haven't read the source material (I know I know) so I can't be sure what is being metaphored up for us -- if it's reality television, shouldn't they all be volunteers out for fame and fortune and thus willing to exploit themselves? Personal potential pet peeve: I hate when theatricality obviously equates with evil -- and all the excessively theatrical people in this trailer appear to be the villains -- since theatricality is so fun and never hurts anybody. If this is one of those movies were physical aptitude is glorious and noble (even if used in the service of killing people) while entertaining showmanship is a sign of evil, I'm gonna be annoyed!

This is just on my mind because people worship sports and winner-takes-all competition to a scary extent and that seems to be a-ok with everyone, no metaphoric condemnation required. Just the other day I was watching the news and a crowd was literally rioting, turning over cars because Coach Paterno was fired. Never mind the sexual molestation scandal at Penn State that wasn't properly handled under his watch that prompted it... SPORTS ROUTINE INTERRUPTED? CUE: MASS CHAOS. Sports being naturally more important than the well being of children.

MAYBE SO...

The subject matter -- 24 people enter the games, only 1 can survive by killing the others, I take it ? -- has the potential to be totally icky in lots of hypocritical "are you not entertained?!?" Gladiator ways and also, if we meet 24 people are they going to divvy them up and make them easily good or evil so that it will be easy to "enjoy" as mainstream movies tend to be. Or is it actually a nuanced portrait of desperate people in which case... isn't it going to leave one feeling sick afterwards that the hero has to murder other potential heroes? The topic just seems so... ewww.

But the trailer works in that ready set... don't you wanna see what happens... go!.

So I'm now a yes. Are you a yes, no or maybe so? But more importantly... were you one of these things before the trailer arrived?

Best Actress Finale: Dresses, Reactions, Questions

Like we did with supporting actress, I've displayed the most lauded ladies of 2010 in the order of your preference: Natalie Portman stabbed all competition with a nail file "IT'S MY TURN" to the tune of 47% of your votes; Annette Bening (19%) just barely edged out Nicole Kidman (18%) in the last day of voting for second place and second place is always where Bening seems to end up (more on that tomorrow); Michelle Williams (11%) and Jennifer Lawrence (2%) followed. But look at Lawrence. She doesn't care. She had a grand time at the Oscars apparently, turning heads in the red tank dress and relaxed enough to quip to the press about bringing her brother as her date.

I'm from Kentucky, so that's normal.

It's interesting that her distinction  "Second Youngest Best Actress Nominee Ever" has been so ignored by the media; She's only 20. We might be seeing a lot more of her on Oscar's red carpet. She's already too old to nab the "fastest to two nominations in any acting category" since Angela Lansbury was 20 when she accomplished that. But theoretically Lawrence could still beat Joan Fontaine's record of fastest to two Best Actress nominations (Fontaine did the double by 24 and won) if good lead roles come soon. Up next are three supporting roles: The Beaver, Like Crazy and X-Men First Class.

Reaction shots, questions for readers and Portman's speech after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Best Actress. Final Notes

My favorite category didn't disappoint this year, offering up the strongest overall lineup in quite some time. In fact, though these 2010 Best Actress roles won't prove as iconic in the long run as 2006's primo batch, I actually think as an entire range of performances, it might be that year's equal. Would you agree?

Should Natalie Portman be nervous about her chief rival? Or is it all in her head?

The question in terms of who will win is whether Natalie Portman's long lead is going to pay off or if a recent arguable passion / mood to finally crown The Bening has grown enough in the industry to yank that shiny gold man away. If that happens, Natalie, not Annette, will be the one yelling "Interloper!"

But I don't think it's going to happen. The Bening can console herself with the knowledge that she is one of my 33 all time favorite actresses. ;)

THE UPDATED BEST ACTRESS PAGE
includesPOLL "Who Should Win?" and the reader requested "how they got nominated? silliness. Which is actually not ever entirely silly even though it's meant for fun. We all know Oscar is not only about the performances. And if you don't know that, you must have slept through Sandra Bullock's win last year.

and you can't link me down...

Nick's Flick Picks extensive thoughts on Jennifer Lawrence's (Winter's Bone) career to date.
IndieWire "a modest proposal" a chilling essay about how the new Justin Beiber movie is more of a time capsule for the here and now than The Social Network is.
Acidemic retraction. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World racks up more points.
Roger Ebert apparently if you guess ALL of the Oscar winners correctly, you can win 100,000 bucks courtesy of Ebert and MUBI. Though strangely the article has no link to an actual contest. Curious.
ABC News Elizabeth Taylor very ill in hospital. I can't deal when thinking about losing La Liz. I really can't. It'll be the end of a monumental Hollywood era. GET WELL SOON.
Movie|Line I knew that Andy Rooney 60 minutes King's Speech endorsement I mentioned earlier was going to spread online.
Vulture Channing Tatum on The Eagle and his bromance with Jamie Bell. Fun interview
Scott Feinberg on the recent new arguments that The Social Network can still win Best Picture

Finally, I saw this video at Critical Condition and wanted to share it since I know many of you reading are "Wicked" fans. An artist Heidi Gilbert storyboarded it imagining it as a movie. This was done in September I guess but if it's new to me, it's  new to some of you, too. And who can't use a bit of "Wicked" to brighten a Monday?

Defying Gravity Storyboards from Heidi Jo Gilbert on Vimeo.

Yes, No, Maybe So: "X-Men: First Class"

The trailer has arrived.

Travel back in time with me to the late 70s. Yes, I know the movie we're about to discuss takes place in the early 60s. But I wasn't alive yet and neither were many of you. Wee Nathaniel was alive in the 1970s (shut up!). Jump forward to Christmas 1979. In Nathaniel's Christmas stocking, the greatest gift he'd known until that time: The Uncanny X-Men #129. He tore through the pages, died right on the spot from joy and went to heaven. The End.

The point is this: no matter how many bad superhero movies may come, no matter how glutted the superhero genre becomes at the movies, no matter how many bad X-Movies arrive (Hi, X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. You suck!) Nathaniel will always be susceptible to Charles Xavier and the School For Gifted Youngsters. He will always hope that the movies will ever capture the magic of those first comic books. He will always be glad that Bryan Singer's X-2 (the second or third best superhero movie ever made) nearly managed it in a few scenes.

To this point the X-Men movie series has ignored The Hellfire Club, who were all introduced in this very (personally sacred) issue that changed my young life. I was a junkie thereafter for mutants, comic books, and spectacularly-bodied superheroines like Storm & Phoenix and spectacularly-bodied ice queens like Emma Frost, The White Queen. Kitty Pryde was also introduced in this movie but she was only 13. (Even then I preferred the older ladies. Storm and Phoenix were probably only 20 or something but to me that was ADULT. anyway.... reign it in. geezus!

This time the movies are going there, Emma Frost (January Jones) and all.

X-Men: First Class trailer and further anxiety after the jump! Wheeeee

Click to read more ...