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2013 Oscar Predictions: “Just when I thought I was out…”
“…they pull me back in.” That’s right folks. It has now been nearly nine months since my last official post on The Edge of the Frame and I am severely out of practice. The close of last year’s Oscar season ironically coincided with my being hired into full time employment. Spending nine hours a day composing upwards of seventy-five emails and compiling online data have made coming home and getting behind a computer screen a not-so-welcoming scenario. A couple of hours of “The X-Files” on Netflix or “The Sopranos” on DVD have become a much more viable way to close out an evening. All of this partnered with a summer of fantasy baseball and my engagement to the woman I love have left comparably little time for my beloved little website.
However, as it turns out, old habits die hard. I’ve been watching the Oscars religiously for fifteen years and been dipping my toe into prognostication for the last seven. There’s no way I can sit this one out. There’s a lot of work to be done. Working full time has more or less hindered my rate of viewing new releases. I’ve got a schedule of about 36 films to see, both on Netflix and in theaters, over the next three months. However, with the first of the critics’ awards just around the corner, things are about to get very busy. Even before everything is seen and done, it’s about time that I offer a bit of perspective on how this year’s race is going to play out.
Some of the year’s biggest contenders have retained their position at the head of the race (“Les Miserables,” “Lincoln,”), practically since they were originally announced. Others have taken a hefty fall from grace (“The Master,” “The Dark Knight Rises”). A few projects have sprung up from out of the blue to become bonafide Best Picture threats (“The Silver Linings Playbook,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild,”), while a couple that have barely been seen at all remain a mystery to many (“Zero Dark Thirty,” “Django Unchained”).
However, it’s never too early (or too late, in my case) to start putting the pieces together and assembling a picture of how the board will look almost exactly three months to the date. Listed below are my predictions for the 85th Annual Academy Award nominations. They’re ranked by the chances of each film (or individual) getting nominated. Winning does not come into play here. As complicated as it is, sometimes a person could have a lot easier a path getting nominated for an Oscar, then they ever would of winning. Ask Peter O’Toole if you need more info…
Enjoy, and remember that this whole chalkboard might be completely erased and scribbled down again, a month from now:
BEST PICTURE
1. “Argo”
2. “Lincoln”
3. “Les Miserables”
4. “Silver Linings Playbook”
5. “Zero Dark Thirty”
6. “The Master”
7. “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
8. “Moonrise Kingdom”
9. “Life of Pi”
10. “The Sessions”
Alt 1: “Django Unchained”
Alt 2: “Amour”
Alt 3: “Flight”
NEW “Contagion” Trailer
Yesterday, I got a shaky, poor-quality glimpse of the bootleg “Dark Knight Rises” teaser, said to be officially premiered tonight at midnight. Didn’t think this week could get much more exciting. I was wrong.
This has definitely been a film that’s been high on my must-see radar of 2011 for quite some time. Steven Soderbergh teaming with Matt Damon is always a treat (this is their fifth collaboration). However, it certainly doesn’t hurt to also bill Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, John Hawkes and Kate Winslet. It’s not much of a stretch to call that the best cast of the year, what with 14 nominations and 4 Oscar wins between them, already.
The trailer screams one word more than anything else, and it’s all I could have ever hoped for: DARK. Many pieces of entertainment featuring lethal outbreaks and deadly diseases have come about over the years, Wolfgang Petersen’s film “Outbreak” and Tom Clancy’s novel “Rainbow Six” being the most prominent. What all of those works seem to portray is what MIGHT happen in the case of a deadly virus unleashed upon the world’s population. Instead of following that same formula, “Contagion” seems to portray instead what DOES, or what WILL happen in that case scenario. And in the hands of such a capable director, one who is known for taking a no-holds-barred approach to tense subject matter, this film might not only be genuinely frightening, but also brilliant, as both a white-knuckle thriller and a touching human tragedy.
This having been shot in Chicago, I know a number of people who worked on it. Through them, I’ve been privy to a few scenes that definitely back up some of the themes I just foreshadowed. However, I really hate to spoil anything at all, so I’ll just keep them to myself. I am a little miffed that they’ve pushed up the release from October to September. Having only finished shooting in the last month, I’m surprised they’re so confident in such a quick release. Also, September has become known as a no-man’s land for studios to dump films that get left over from summer’s slate, yet are not quite so confidence-inspiring to warrant a fall/holiday push. I hope that “Contagion” has not been lumped into said category.
Anyway, check out the fantastic trailer in full HD quality, below.
“The Dark Knight Rises” Villains Revealed
Well, it has been months and months of speculation about just what the hell the next Batman movie is going to be about and who’s going to be in it. We’ve been through Joseph Gordon Levitt to Marion Cotillard to Phillip Seymour Hoffman with rumors ranging from the Riddler to Harley Quinn and the Penguin. Now, we have the official news from Christopher Nolan, himself.
That’s right, Warner Brothers reports that it’s going to be Catwoman, and Anne Hathaway is playing the part. This will be the first time Catwoman has been portrayed on screen since 1992 (I refuse to acknowledge the 2004 film because, really, what’s the point?). Anne Hathaway won the part in a competition that included, well, virtually every young actress in Hollywood. A fantastic choice if I do say so, myself. Hathaway is not only, what I would consider, one of the top ten most gorgeous women in show business, but an amazing actress to boot. Whether or not this part will require the same level of acting chops as the Joker (if that’s even possible) is a big question. However, it should be interesting to finally have some real sexual tension, or sexuality in general, in a Nolan Batman film.
In other news, the lid is off on who Tom Hardy will be portraying. I reported back in October that Hardy would be rejoining Nolan in the new film after a very successful venture with “Inception.” We now know that Hardy will be portraying Bane, the teddy bear-wielding, prison-born villain with drug-induced super-strength. Bane is best known for breaking Batman’s back in the comic book series. Tom Hardy is probably one of the best casting choices in a film since, well, Heath Ledger in the “The Dark Knight.” He’s an extremely capable and versatile actor, known for supporting roles in “Black Hawk Down” and “Band of Brothers,” as well as a lead role in the British psycho-drama “Bronson.” He is now ready to break out into super-stardom, and a great turn in this closing Batman chapter could do the trick.
Now, many people remember Bane being portrayed in “Batman and Robin,” really quite stupidly, if I may say so. But really, what didn’t “Batman and Robin” portray, stupidly? Still, the enormous character of Bane is difficult to imagine fitting into the realistic, contemporary atmosphere of Christopher Nolan’s Gotham City universe. This is one of the more fantastical comic book characters and I have trouble imagining the villain without the movie descending into silliness. However, in Nolan I trust. If he can twist the Joker into completely different, yet wholly believable and terrifying concept, then I believe that he can knock this one out of the park, as well.
All of this news is a bit less exciting to me as I would like, given the studio’s recent decision not to shoot in Chicago. Rumors are circulating that principal photography will be shot in Los Angeles, the UK, Louisiana and probably Detroit. This just angers me on so many levels. It pisses me off that one of the best parts of watching the first two installments is getting to see so much my town featured, not to mention the fact that Chicago is a perfect backdrop. I’m also pissed that Chicago won’t pony up the same incentives that other cities, like Detroit, are. Screw all of the parties involved. But hey, maybe if we’re lucky, Detroit can get hit by a meteor, get wiped off the face of the Earth and the production will come home where it belongs. I will keep you updated.
But seriously, folks, how do you find a better location? It bleeds Gotham.
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