Picture, Director, Screenplays ~ April Foolish Oscar Predix

by Nathaniel R

I've been rubbing my crystal ball vigorously backstage to bring you the new Oscar charts. Everything is up but the acting now Let's discuss our way too early April guesswork in these categories: PICTURE and DIRECTOR and SCREENPLAYS. Thoughts? Objections? Applause?

Which 2017 releases will Oscar voters fall hard for?

Perfect on paper
Looks right on paper for major Oscar love doesn't always translate to the real thing but I've fallen for the chances of this year's World War II dramas from Chris Nolan (Dunkirk) and Joe Wright (Darkest Hour). Curiously, though both men have helmed Best Picture nominees in the past, neither have been nominated for Best Director yet. So strange but I'm predicting both of them to get in. I'm also predicting Get Out to score a Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Film Editing nods. That might sound crazy but I don't think it is. As I've often said genre pictures need time with awards bodies to cement their worth. Jump in your time machine and I'll bet you people are still talking in glowing terms about Get Out in December and everyone starts rooting for its Oscar nomination because they've accepted that it's special...

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Beauty vs Beast: Colin Farrell's Best Friends Forever

Jason from MNPP here on the eve of Oscar nominations wishing you all a good night's rest tonight - I know how you'll all be tossing and turning with visions of little golden sugar-plum statues dancing in your heads. Until then let's use this week's "Beauty vs Beast" to tackle one of the greatest movies of 2016 which may or may not get a single nomination tomorrow but if you ask me it'd be up for La La level awardage - Yorgos Lanthimos' The Lobster. And I want to further tune in one two of its finest yet totally unsung turns, both of which I maintain are as fine as any in the conversation for Supporting Actor - Ben Whishaw as John the Limping Man, and John C Reilly as Robert the Lisping Man.

PREVIOUSLY Last week it was John Carpenter's birthday so we looked through our x-ray goggles at his 1988 anti-consumerist actioner They Live, and once again it was "Rowdy" Roddy Piper's chance to pound some alien butt. Said Steven:

"I'm here to kick ass and chew bubblegum and I'm all out of bubblegum. For the Hot Rod. Still miss that man."

Colin Farrell is nauseated by his new film

Colin Farrell is reteaming with his The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos for The Killing of a Sacred Dear. Filming has just ended on the movie and we probably should not expect it for at least another year. It has this cryptic logline:

A teenager's attempts to bring a brilliant surgeon into his dysfunctional family takes an unexpected turn.

Farrell is the surgeon, Nicole Kidman plays his wife, Alicia Silverstone is the teenager’s mother.

Farrell and Kidman on set

Farrell recently gave an interview to Business Insider, ostensibly to promote this week's Fantastic Beasts,  in which he told us exactly how he felt after reading the script for The Killing of a Sacred Deer:

I’ll wait to see what the film is, but it’s set in a contemporary world, in America, there are hospitals and diners, parks, things that we will recognize and experienced ourselves but yet there’s this similar kind of uneasiness through all the interactions and all the things that take place. It was unnerving reading the script. I kind of felt nauseous after reading it.”

Knowing and loving Lanthimos’ warped sense of the world that he showed not only in The Lobster but also in his first international hit Dogtooth (2009), we are very intrigued. Specially after reading more of what Farrell said:

I can say it’s — ugh, God — it’s eerier than The Lobster. It felt pretty bleak to me. I mean, when I read the script it was extraordinary and to work with Yorgos again was amazing…There are so many interpretations that this film could be approached from. But Yorgos is so specifically minded, he’s so clinical in his direction of the film. He’s really a master I feel, I really do.

Are you intrigued by news of this film?

The Furniture: The Lobster's Phony Flowers

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber... 

In a 2014 interview, production designer Jacqueline Abrahams described her job as “creating an environment that is credible but sometimes incredible...always aiming to be authentic in spite of being made up.” As this was two years ago, she may not have had her work on The Lobster in mind. Yet the sentiment couldn’t be a more perfect fit for the weird universe of Yorgos Lanthimos.

The dystopia of The Lobster, after all, is not particularly flashy. It’s a world just like our own, only a little grayer. If every frame held immediate physical evidence of a dramatically different future, the carefully calibrated mood would collapse. Instead, the dystopia emerges subtly, through little gestures of performance and design.

Abrahams, a BAFTA-winner for her work on BBC’s Wallander, is an integral part of this achievement. Her presence is felt from the first shot, in which she makes her acting debut as the woman who shoots a donkey on the side of the road. Her design contributions are even more memorable.

The hotel for singles is a triumph of carefully planned ennui. If you look closely, you can pick up the tone from the very first scene within this last resort...

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Rachel Weisz: A Brewing Renaissance?

Currently on screen in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, Rachel Weisz has so many upcoming movies, she got Murtada wondering if a renaissance is brewing...

My Cousin Rachel

The Lobster is doing gangbusters in limited release and with critics. To these eyes it is uneven and Weisz is absent from its best part. In fact her performance is so bland, it weakens the second half of the movie particularly in comparison with the highly entertaining first act where Colin Farrell and particularly Olivia Colman are exultingly funny. Even when Weisz is front and center she seemed lost, not sure of the rhythm of the film. A supporting player like Lea Seydoux, with much less screen time, was more in sync with Lanthimos and the rest of the cast and outshines Weisz in the section they share...

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