Santa Cruz Good Times

Thursday
May 23rd
Text size
  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size

Silent night

Thursday, 23 February 2012 11:00 Lisa Jensen Film - Reviews and Times
 E-mail
film artistlights, camera, action Meryl Streep, George Clooney, and Brad Pitt are all gunning for Oscars this year—find out who we think will win. Best Picture nods include (clockwise), The Artist, The Descendants, The Help and The Tree of Life.Audacious 'Artist' poised to make big noise at 84th Academy Awards

Imagine my surprise to find so many of my favorite movies of 2011 up for major Academy Awards this year. Are my tastes becoming more mainstream, or is the Academy getting a clue? But whichever, some surprises in the pre-Oscar awards season and the usual free-for-all resulting from nine Best Picture nominations, ought to make for a lively Oscar show. Time to dust off the ol' crystal ball and make a few fearless predictions.



film descenBEST PICTURE
To my shock and awe, four of my favorite movies, Midnight In Paris, The Artist, Hugo, and The Descendants are all nominated in this category. All four have also scored nominations for their directors, along with (surprise!) Terence Malick for The Tree Of Life. Rounding it out are four also-ran films whose directors weren't nominated: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Moneyball, and War Horse. Last month, the Golden Globes set this up as a photo finish between The Descendants and The Artist (each won a Best Picture Globe in its respective category, Drama and Comedy/Musical), but since then, The Artist has pretty much devoured everything in its path. As much as Hollywood adores George Clooney, the audacious homage of The Artist to Golden Age Hollywood itself may prove irresistible.  
And the winner is: The Artist. My favorite: Midnight In Paris. 


BEST DIRECTOR
Martin Scorsese picked up a Globe in this category for Hugo, another loving homage to the early days of moviemaking, but he hasn't repeated the feat at any of the other pre-Oscar award events. Michel Hazanavicius is the front-runner for The Artist, having steamrolled the competition everywhere from the British BAFTA awards to the Hollywood Director's Guild—whose members also vote in the Oscar race. Terence Malick, for the occasionally brilliant but woefully uneven The Tree Of Life, and Alexander Payne, for The Descendants, will just miss the mark. Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris is still my favorite film of the year, but even I would vote for Hazanavicius here, for his sheer chutzpah in getting a black-and-white silent film made at all.
film tolAnd the winner (and my favorite) is: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist. 

BEST ACTOR
Gary Oldman's nomination for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a surprise; his performance is so muted, he practically blends into the wallpaper. He's good, but actors usually have to do something more showy—play an alcoholic, pass as a member of the opposite sex—to get noticed. Another interesting nomination is Demian Bichir, as a Mexican immigrant trying to keep his son out of gang life in the barely-seen A Better Life. Only Brad Pitt in Moneyball is nominated this year for playing an actual historical person (Oakland A's manager Billy Beane). But it looks to be a two-man race between George Clooney (The Descendants) and Jean Dujardin's starmaking turn in The Artist. Both were absolutely terrific; they also split Golden Globe acting prizes for Drama and Comedy/Musical (although Dujardin has won every contest since). It won't break my heart if Clooney wins, but...
The winner (and my favorite) is: Jean Dujardin, The Artist.
film help
BEST ACTRESS
Golden Globe co-winners Meryl Streep and the wonderful Michelle Williams were poised to go mano-a-mano for playing Margaret Thatcher (The Iron Lady) and Marilyn Monroe (My Week With Marilyn), respectively. Then Viola Davis won the Screen Actors Guild award as the stoic maid who dares to tell her story in The Help. SAG members also vote for the Oscars, so now all bets are off. (I still think Streep has the momentum here, but don't be surprised if there's an upset.) I thought Glenn Close would be in the running too, for her role in Albert Nobbs, but the film is getting a cooler reception than expected. It's interesting to see Rooney Mara nominated for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but it seems like hindsight after the Academy overlooked the sensational Noomi Rapace in the same role last year in the original Swedish trilogy.
And the winner is: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady. My favorite: Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn.
film midnightAND THE NOMINEES ... include (top to bottom) Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, Hugo, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and War Horse.SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christopher Plummer has won every single pre-Oscar prize there is in this category as a 75-year-old widower who comes out as a gay man to his bewildered but loyal son in Beginners. I loved him in this role and I'll be cheering when he takes home the gold. Sorry, Jonah Hill (Moneyball), Kenneth Branagh (My Week With Marilyn), Armie Hammer (J. Edgar), and Nick Nolte (Warrior). And the winner (and my favorite) is: Christopher Plummer, Beginners.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Like Plummer, there has been an absolute consensus throughout the awards season for Octavia Spencer's sassy maid in The Help, and there's no reason to suppose the Academy will choose otherwise. For me, Janet McTeer gave the year's gutsiest perforfilm hugomance in Albert Nobbs, outdistancing fellow nominees Berenice Bejo (The Artist), Jessica Chastain (The Help), and Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids). But how could the Academy overlook Shailene Woodley as George Clooney's teenage daughter in The Descendants? She was phenomenal in the role—poised, edgy, and as subtly nuanced as Clooney himself. And, what, no Judi Dench for her gracious Dame Sybil Thorndike in My Week With Marilyn? And the winner is: Octavia Spencer, The Help. My favorite: Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Here's where I think Midnight In Paris may have the edge; not only does the Academy love Woody, but The Artist wasn't nominated in this category by the Writer's Guild—suggesting it might be perceived not so much as an achievement scriptwise as in overall style and panache. Bridesmaids, Margin Call, and the excellent Iranian film, A Separation, round out the category. And the winner (and my favorite) is: Woody Allen, Midnight In Paris.
film exloud
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
And here's where I think The Descendants will pick up its big award of the night, over Hugo (again, not exactly a writer's movie), Clooney's own, The Ides of March, and stiff competition from Moneyball and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
And the winner (and my favorite) is: Alexander Payne, et al, The Descendants. 

MISCELLANY
Look for A Separation to win the Foreign Language award, the artful 3D Hugo to win for Visual Effects, and The Artist to take home the prize for Original Musical Score. I'd go out on a limb and predict The Artist to sweep all the "gorgeous" categories—Cinematography, Art Direction, and Costumes—but I have a hunch Hugo  will take at least one of them. (Probably Art Direction.)
The Academy Awards will be broadcast at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, on ABC. Let the games begin!
Comments (0)Add Comment

Write comment
smaller | bigger

busy
< Prev   Next >
 

Share this on your social networks

Bookmark and Share

Share this

Bookmark and Share

  • Search

    •  

    Free Angela

    Political activist and UC Santa Cruz Professor Emerita Angela Davis commands the spotlight in a riveting new documentary. PLUS:  UCSC’s Bettina Aptheker opens up about the political upheavals of the ’60s and ’70s—and today. Angela Davis is not a human being who can be easily summed up in several sentences or paragraphs—books maybe, but, even then, capturing the political activist, scholar and author in the most comprehensive light is downright complex. That’s because Davis is an undeniably unique political creature, one who should be seen and heard to be fully absorbed and downloaded. Which is what makes Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, the new documentary about Davis and the turbulent political upheavals she faced during the late-1960s and ’70s, so inviting. In it, filmmaker Shola Lynch marks the 40th anniversary of Davis’ acquittal on charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy with a historical vérité style of filmmaking to illuminate a side of Davis few may have seen (or can recall), and captures the events that thrust the woman into one of the most fascinating orbits of notoriety and political intrigue of the 20th century.

     

    No Big Surprises

    The highly anticipated draft Environmental Impact Report for desal is finally out. Will it change anything? When scwd2, the group pursuing the proposed joint desalination plant for the Santa Cruz Water Department and Soquel Creek Water District, set up a booth at the Santa Cruz Earth Day festival in 2012, its reception was less than warm. Signature gathering for Measure P, the “right to vote” on desal ballot measure, was in full swing, as were tensions over the controversial project, which would produce up to 2.5 million gallons per day of desalinated water and cost an estimated $100 million. What were representatives of an energy-intensive desal plant doing among the recycling and conservation booths? That was the attitude Melanie Mow Schumacher, public outreach coordinator for scwd2 (pronounced “squid squared”), remembers sensing.

     

    The Maya-Ixil Move Forward

    Local nonprofit works to educate and create opportunity for indigenous communities in Guatemala In an isolated region of the Guatemala mountains called Ixil, the indigenous Maya population was devastated by a civil war between the government and leftist guerrilla factions that spanned 1960 to 1996. During that 36-year war, the Guatemalan military eradicated entire Mayan communities. In what amounted to genocide, soldiers burned Mayan farmlands and homes, raped and tortured the people, and scattered families. By the end of the war, 200,000 Mayans had been killed, 7,000 of whom were Maya-Ixil.

     

    Public Thinking

    Watsonville teens host TEDx event Santa Cruz County is no stranger to the TED brand. TED—which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design—talks have come to the area through independently organized events 10 times since 2011. This month, the gathering returns to the county with a new twist, thanks to the Watsonville Youth City Council. TEDxYouth@Watsonville, which will take place Sunday, May 19 at the Henry J. Mello Center for the Performing Arts in Watsonville, will feature only speakers younger than 19 years old and will traverse topics from racial stereotypes and renewable energy to traditional Mexican dance.

     

    Transoceana

    Danny Moriarty’s musical influences have been known to impact his life beyond his local rock band, Transoceana. “I went through two periods,” confesses the singer, guitarist and songwriter. “I borrowed Bono’s mullet look from the ’80s for a while, and then I dressed like I was from the ’70s and had big hair like Jimmy Page.” Bono and Page are also symbolic of Transoceana’s evolution as a band during their three years together.

     

    Cruzin’ for Inspiration

    Former resident pays homage to Santa Cruz with locally shot thesis film When he left Santa Cruz for the University of Southern California’s graduate film program in 2010, Christopher Guerrero had completed the film major at UC Santa Cruz in 2008 and worked on campus in the film and digital media department. It wasn’t until he headed south, that Guerrero began to reminisce about the coastal town. “It was really really hard when I moved to L.A., to acclimate and find friends,” he says, adding that—counter to the philosophical, conversational culture of Santa Cruz—he found nowhere in his new town where he could simply sit and talk about life with someone. “I didn’t really realize why I love [Santa Cruz] so much until it was gone.”

     

    Beck to the Future

    In celebration of Beck’s solo acoustic show at The Rio, GT explores Song Reader, the alternative rock icon’s most ambitious interactive art piece yet. Here’s an odd little paradox of the digital revolution: The more sophisticated our technology gets, the more our musical milieu begins to resemble that of a bygone era, when song ideas were passed around from musician to musician, perpetually taking on new twists. Dozens of different YouTube users might try their hand at setting somebody’s rant about cats or double rainbows to music, or you might hear the Belgian musician Gotye turning the many and varied covers of his song “Somebody That I Used to Know” into a virtual orchestra (see below).

     

    Growing Berries Without Bromide

    Researchers test a new alternative to a controversial chemical The scarecrows perched in Santa Cruz strawberry fields do little to scare away the birds, much less the insects and fungi harbored in the soil. Everything likes to eat strawberries, which makes growing them a risky business. This predicament led UC Santa Cruz professor Carol Shennan to take an unconventional approach to pest management. Nine years ago, the fatal plant disease Verticillium wilt was wiping out strawberry plants at the university farm. Chemicals hardly phase the pathogen, and Shennan saw little improvement with crop rotation, which is typically used to treat infested fields. A visiting plant pathologist from the Netherlands recommended a little-known organic technique called anaerobic soil disinfestation, and, with so few other options, Shennan decided to give it a try. 

     

    Uniting All That Has Been Separated

     

    Legal Battles Drag On

    More than a year after the 75 River St. occupation, four defendants remain embroiled in ongoing case  More than a year and a half since a group occupied the former Wells Fargo building on River Street in an act of protest, felony charges linger on for four of the original defendants and a trial may be imminent. Gabriella Ripley-Phipps, Brent Adams, Cameron Laurendeau and Franklin Alcantara were scheduled to begin trial May 13 in connection with the late 2011 protest. That trial now has been pushed back to September due to scheduling conflicts. The four face a felony charge of vandalism and a misdemeanor for trespassing.
    GTemail_tileTomorow's GTW Today.
    Sign up for Tomorrow's Good Times Today
    Upcoming arts & events

    Latest Comments

     

    The Pleasure of Süda

    Süda is a happening place. As my friend Jan and I were enjoying dinner, every table in the restaurant filled up and nearly all the outdoor seating was occupied as well. Located in the Pleasure Point area, Süda is a magnet for just about everybody hanging out in that neck of the woods.

     

    The Power of Conversation

    Local author Cecile Andrews emphasizes importance of community engagement in newest book Cecile Andrews, author of the new book “Living Room Revolution: A Handbook for Conversation, Community and the Common Good,” probably wouldn’t get along too well with Larry David’s character from HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, known for hiding his face and avoiding communication with anyone he runs into on the street. Andrews is a longstanding part-time Santa Cruz (part-time Seattle) resident who says something that’s struck her about this town over the years is people's willingness to participate in a practice she’s dubbed the “Stop and Chat”—which is exactly what it sounds like.

     

    What do you know about Monsanto?

    Santa Cruz | Self Employed  

     

    Best of Santa Cruz County

    The 2013 Santa Cruz County Readers' Poll and Critics’ Picks It’s our biggest issue of the year, and in it, your votes—more than 6,500 of them—determined the winners of The Best of Santa Cruz County Readers’ Poll. New to the long list of local restaurants, shops and other notables that captured your interest: Best Beer Selection, Best Locally Owned Business, Best Customer Service and Best Marijuana Dispensary. In the meantime, many readers were ever so chatty online about potential new categories. Some of the suggestions that stood out: Best Teen Program and Best Web Design/Designer. But what about: Dog Park, Church, Hotel, Local Farm, Therapist (I second that!) or Sports Bar—not to be confused with Bra. Our favorite suggestion: Best Act of Kindness—one reader noted Café Gratitude and the free meals it offered to the Santa Cruz Police Department in the aftermath of recent crimes. Perhaps some of these can be woven into next year’s ballot, so stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy the following pages and take note of our Critics’ Picks, too, beginning on page 91. A big thanks for voting—and for reading—and an even bigger congratulations to all of the winners. Enjoy.  -Greg Archer, EditorBest of Santa Cruz County Readers’ Poll INDEX | Shops | Food & Drink | Arts & Entertainment | Health & Fitness | Professionals | The Rest |

     

    Poetic Cellars

    Poetic Cellars makes the most romantic wines. With a verse or two of beautiful poetry on every label, mostly poems of love and romance, this is the perfect wine to open up over dinner with your sweetheart. I particularly love winemaker Katy Lovell’s Syrah ($28) with its voluptuous velvety textures and dark fruit flavors.

     

    The Gypsy

    French-born jazz vocalist Cyrille Aimée lives for musical freedom and improvisation Cyrille Aimée is a musical gypsy. Her sound incorporates elements of Latin American, American, Brazilian and other styles of jazz, she has recorded albums as a duet with Diego Figueiredo, she currently performs with the Surreal (same pronunciation as her first name) Band, and she is working on a new album with yet another band. As it happens, Aimée can actually blame gypsies for her love of jazz. “I grew up in Samois-sur-Seine, which is a little town in France where Django Reinhardt used to live,” she says. “Every year they have the Django Festival in his honor, and so gypsies from all parts of Europe come and honor him and play guitar. I started hanging out with the gypsies and became obsessed with their music, their way of living, their freedom. What drew me to jazz music was the freedom of it, all the improvisation, and the fact that it’s a style of music that is constantly changing.”

     

    May Day in the Alps

    When my daughter returns to Santa Cruz from her new home in Los Angeles, she comments on how quiet it is here. It was even more so during a trip to Ben Lomond, when we set out for a sample of her second favorite macaroni and cheese. Sitting at the front of the Tyrolean Inn restaurant, the green tarp with plastic windows kept out the chill as well as the noise of an occasional passing car. A new draft beer celebrating the German spring, Maibok ($6) was refreshing, served in a hefty glass stein, but specialty cocktails are unique as well.

     

    Exposed

    David Cay Johnston’s new book explains how big companies rob us blind In his late teens David Cay Johnston started to ask questions. “Why do we have these guys in uniforms with guns driving around in cars all day?” “Why is the Santa Cruz County Courthouse being built in such an unusual shape?” He wrote an article, while still living in his hometown of Santa Cruz, proving that the off-kilter courthouse building, which officials had promised would save money, actually cost more than a conventional building.

     

    What are you a total sucker for?

    A cold beer after a long bike ride, gossip, and fighting over politics. Kyle McKinley Santa Cruz | Lecturer