Garry Gillard > Australasian Cinema > awards > Oscars 2013
Oscar noms 2013 – some comments 26 January, 2013
Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012) Training film for geriatric nurses and hospice carers.
Anna Karenina (Joe Wright, 2012) Loved the theatricality of this, which I hope is down to the writer of the screenplay, Tom Stoppard. But Knightley so nearly did that neurotic thing she does with her face as Sabine Spielrein: ugly. Everyone else is earnest … because it’s a classic.
Arbitrage (Nicholas Jarecki, 2012) Greed is still good, whatever happens.
Argo (Ben Affleck, 2012) Fat guy and bald guy almost making tedious film amusing. Affleck shd seek employment in a funeral home. Good thing: foreigners who are not stoopid.
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin, 2012) I suppose it’s an allegory of … something. Well, one wouldn’t want it to be real. Very good film, and prolly shd win … except for wobblycam passim – which sux, totes.
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012) Same theme as Lincoln (freedom is good … as long as you have guns). There shd be an award for outstandingly bad acting for Tarantino and his Aussie mate Jarratt.
Flight (Robert Zemeckis, 2012) Put all the nudity in the first three minutes: at least you’ve got the attention of the males in the audience for the time being. They’ll like the macho plane crash as well. But, sadly, just another story of a drunk … oh, and penitence, and conditional (because puritanical not Roman) absolution.
Hitchcock (Sacha Gervasi, 2012) Another astonishing impersonation from Hopkins.
Hobbit: An Expected Journey, The (Peter Jackson, 2012) There was one scene with actors in it. Cate Blanchett inclined her head slightly. That was good.
Les Misérables (Tom Hooper, 2012) Excellent acting from all, and singing (except for Rusty). But a Singspiel? WTF?
Lincoln (Steven Spielberg, 2012) Hagiography of a politician. (Will win.)
Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012) Wonderful fantasy. Adults actors excellent. Ugly lead children.
Sessions, The (Ben Lewin, 2012) Surprisingly pleasant film, given the territory (overcoming or dealing with a major handicap is familiar Oscar material). Male lead SO different from his character in Winter’s Bone (a very good thing). Helen Hunt has had too much work done – to her face; body looks OK.
Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012) I enjoyed this most of all, but we can’t give Best Film to a romcom, can we? Can we?
Skyfall (Sam Mendes, 2012) Should win for cinematography. Unbelievable M (that’s not a good thing). And where has the humour from a Bond film gone: capsized, crossing the pond?
Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012) A bad film, in most meanings of the word. Attempts to justify not only murder but also torture.