Thoughts on the Comedy Awards

Just realized this has been sitting in drafts for about a month, but it is OK because I don’t think anyone actually cares about The Comedy Awards.  Nominations are here.

COMEDY FILM

• The Artist
• Bridesmaids
• Crazy, Stupid, Love.
• Horrible Bosses
• Midnight in Paris

So this lineup is actually better than what was nominated for best picture at the Oscars.  Though it is a complete outrage that The Muppets was snubbed here.  Especially so Horrible Bosses could get in.  That’s just silly.  I also would have slotted 50/50  and Paul ahead of both Bridesmaids and Midnight in Paris, though I can’t really get too worked up over that, I suppose.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR – FILM

• Jason Bateman – Horrible Bosses
• Steve Carell – Crazy, Stupid, Love.
• Jean Dujardin – The Artist
• Zach Galifianakis – The Hangover Part II
• Owen Wilson – Midnight in Paris

I haven’t seen The Hangover Part II, so I can’t speak to that.  Jason Bateman is fine, but I think Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 50/50 would have been a better choice.  Patton Oswalt in Young Adult too.  Other contenders: Alan Tudyk - Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil, Justin Timberlake - Friends with Benefits, and Paul Rudd - Our Idiot Brother.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS – FILM

• Jennifer Aniston – Horrible Bosses
• Cameron Diaz – Bad Teacher
• Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids
• Emma Stone – Crazy, Stupid, Love.
• Kristen Wiig – Bridesmaids

Well, it is pretty difficult to argue with any category that includes Emma Stone.  Diaz and McCarthy are also locks.  I think the Wiig is the weak link here, and I’d be willing to hear arguments against Aniston (who was surprisingly refreshing in the role).  Charlize Theron is an interesting counterpoint to Cameron Diaz and absolutely should have been included over Wiig.  If we are going for supporting actresses in a fun role, then Helen Mirren from Arthur should have been here.  A little surprised Berenice Bejo didn’t make the cut.  I think My Week with Marilyn should qualify and so Michelle Williams should be here, but I understand why it wasn’t included.  Carla Gugino in Elektra Luxx, maybe?  I’d have taken Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman from their romantic comedies over Wiig.  If Something Borrowed counts, then both Ginnifer Goodwin and Kate Hudson.  And my way out there pick, Mandy Moore from the truly terrible Love, Wedding, Marriage.  Point is, it was actually a pretty decent year for actresses in comedy, and Wiig probably isn’t in my top 20.

COMEDY DIRECTOR – FILM

• Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris
• James Bobin – The Muppets
• Paul Feig – Bridesmaids
• Glenn Ficarra and John Requa – Crazy, Stupid, Love.
• Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist

You know what?  I think this is exactly right.  And sure, Hazanavicius should win, but you might be surprised to learn that Ficarra and Requa should be a close second.

COMEDY SCREENPLAY – FILM

• 50/50
• Bridesmaids
• Crazy, Stupid, Love.
• Horrible Bosses
• Midnight in Paris

So Horrible Bosses took a decent idea and left out the humor, it clearly doesn’t belong here.  Let’s put The Muppets in and call it a night.

Thoughts on the Saturn Nominations

It is old news by now, but I wanted to point out a couple new sets of nominations for genre movies.  Here are the Saturn Awards nominees, given out annually to action, fantasy, horror, and science fiction films.  Like any list, it is maybe a little uneven.  But it is hard to argue too much with Captain America: The First Avenger, X-Men: First Class, The Muppets, Contagion, and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol all receiving noms for best film in their respective categories. Let’s go category by category.

BEST SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE

• The Adjustment Bureau
• Captain America: First Avenger
• Limitless
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• X-Men: First Class

Hard to argue too much with this category.  I’d listen to the argument that it compares favorably to Best Picture at the Oscars.  I would have slotted Paul ahead of Limitless, and I’m a little surprised Source Code isn’t in here.  My list would have included Transfer and Another Earth.

BEST FANTASY FILM

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Hugo
• Immortals
• Midnight in Paris
• The Muppets
• Thor

First off, Muppets are real.  I’m just amused that all these films ended up in the same category.  It is hard to critique the list when “fantasy” doesn’t really seem to have a strict definition.  A stacked category, but if I were running things, the atrocious Hugo would be off with Sucker Punch taking its place.

BEST HORROR/THRILLER

• Contagion
• The Devil’s Double
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• The Grey
• Take Shelter
• The Thing

I love that Take Shelter is included in this list.  I haven’t seen three of these movies, but The Devil’s Double is near the top of my queue and obviously I’m going to watch The Grey when it hits DVD.  Contagion may well be the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.  I was scared to go outside or touch anything for like a week after seeing it.  I would have found room for Kaboom here.  And also think Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil should have been in the conversation.

BEST ACTION/ADVENTURE FILM

• Fast Five
• The Lincoln Lawyer
• Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
• Red Tails
• Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
• War Horse

Nope.  I’ll give Fast Five a pass, I’ve heard a lot of people raving about it and it is near the top of my queue.  But Mission Impossible is the only other one that belongs on here.  Correct answers include: The Guard, Warrior, Bellflower, Colombiana, and Super.  And I’ve already gone over.  Want five more that are acceptable answers?  Hanna, Elite Squad 2, Bunraku, Transformers 3, and Cell 211.  But hey.  War Horse is definitely in the top 50 action/adventure films of the year.

BEST ACTOR

• Antonio Banderas, The Skin I Live In
• Dominic Cooper, The Devil’s Double
• Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
• Chris Evans, Captain America: The First Avenger
• Ben Kingsley, Hugo
• Michael Shannon, Take Shelter

A really strong group, overall, but, uh, Ben Kingsley for lead is rather egregious category fraud, don’t you think?  The easy solution is Brendan Gleeson for The Guard.  Chris Hemsworth was also surprisingly good in Thor.

BEST ACTRESS

• Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter
• Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia
• Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Brit Marling, Another Earth
• Keira Knightley, A Dangerous Method
• Elizabeth Olsen, Marcy Martha May Marlene

This category is pretty competitive with Oscar’s group, I think.  Let’s move Chastain down to supporting, where she belongs, in my opinion.  That frees up a spot for Zoe Saldana, who was fantastic in Colombiana.  And while I did like Brit Marling, I wonder if Emily Browning merits consideration.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Ralph Fiennes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Harrison Ford, Cowboys and Aliens
• Tom Hiddleston, Thor
• Alan Rickman, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Stanley Tucci, Captain America: The First Avenger

That’s a damn fine group of actors, almost all of whom are nominated for roles that maybe didn’t quite allow them to show off their talents.  I love Alan Rickman lots, but did I miss something or was in like one scene in that movie?  And to me, it wasn’t entirely clear Harrison Ford looked like he wanted to be in the film.  Hiddleston is a great pick, though.  I think you have to put Corey Stoll in here, especially if Stanley Tucci can get in for his short turn in comic relief.  Don Cheadle was very solid in The Guard.  Maybe Woody Harrelson in Bunraku.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Elena Anaya, The Skin I Live In
• Emily Blunt, The Adjustment Bureau
• Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melancholia
• Paula Patton, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
• Lin Shaye, Insidious
• Emma Watson, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

So Paula Patton is extremely pretty and probably a lovely person, but unless there were only six roles for supporting actresses this year, I think there was a mistake somewhere.  Heck, I’d take Lea Seydoux over her.  As mentioned, Jessica Chastain should drop down here.  I also want to find room for Ellen Page from Super who was…well…certainly something.  And I think we should at least talk about Hayley Atwell from Captain America.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUNGER ACTOR

• Asa Butterfield, Hugo
• Joel Courtney, Super 8
• Elle Fanning, Super 8
• Dakota Goyo, Real Steel
• Chloe Grace Moretz, Hugo
• Saorise Ronan, Hanna

I remain convinced that Elle Fanning gave the supporting performance of the year.  And Ronan was quite good in Hanna.  The category probably should have stayed with just those two this year.

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Your Oscar Guide to the Unfathomables

Oscar nomination morning comes with its share of surprises and disappointments. We can argue endlessly on the merits (or lack thereof) of the nominees and the snubbed. But it also brings a certain amount of the absurd: the sort of things that, regardless of personal opinion, just don’t make sense. That’s what I want to briefly talk about today. Three weeks after nominations and I still don’t get these.

Only two Best Song nominees

Thankfully this has gotten lots of press. This was a fairly good year for movie songs. I didn’t do my once-annual song roundup this year though not due to a lack of compelling options like last year, but just a lack of time. In the mix of fun Muppets ditties, above-average animated tunes, and compelling fade-to-black melodies from the likes of The National and Chris Cornell that appropriately encapsulate a film’s atmosphere, there were several good options.

Instead, the music branch nominated just two songs. The nomination process was tweaked two years ago. Branch members see clips of all the qualified songs as they appear in their movies then rate each on a 6-10 numeric scale. Only songs that receive an 8.25 average or above may be nominated. The result is the number of songs can fluctuate each year.

The fact that the branch felt fit to nominate only two songs annoys me, but I suppose it could be a true difference of opinion. I don’t think War Horse is one of the year’s best films, either. But what really kills me is that last year had the exact same nominating process and four songs received nominations. Last year’s list of qualified songs was really bland and the four nominated songs were totally unmemorable. I don’t know how anyone could look at that list of songs and see more quality choices than this year. Even if we disagree on which songs, there’s no way there are twice as many deserving songs last year compared to this year.

I hope the outcry this year makes the Academy rethink the nomination process.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Screwed

It’s hard to call many things locks when it comes to craft categories, but one of the surest to me was Maria Djurkovic for Best Art Direction in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Here’s a film that is heavily steeped in its setting, particularly in the memorable building housing the MI6 spy service. Djurkovic swept through critics and precursor awards. Some precursors have catch-all technical awards, placing craft artists from different disciplines together in one category. Djurkovic wasn’t just nominated but she was winning, beating out the best costume designers and makeup artists.

I just don’t get how she missed when it came to the Oscars!

SAG Predictions

SAGs start in an hour, so here are some predictions (John’s/mine).  We’ll have thoughts afterward. UPDATE: Brian’s too!

Actor – George Clooney / George Clooney/ Clooney
Actress – Viola Davis / Meryl Streep/ Streep
Supporting Actor – Christopher Plummer / Christopher Plummer/ Plummer
Supporting Actress – Octavia Spencer/ Octavia Spencer/ Melissa McCarthy
Cast – The Help / The Help/ The Artist

TV
Movie Actor – Guy Pearce / Paul Giamatti/ Giamatti
Movie Actress – Kate Winslet / Kate Winslet/ Winslet
Drama Actor – Bryan Cranston / Steve Buscemi/ Buscemi
Drama Actress – Kyra Sedgwick / Julianna Margulies/ Margulies
Comedy Actor – Eric Stonestreet / Alec Baldwin/ Jon Cryer
Comedy Actress – Betty White / Betty White / Tina Fey
Drama Cast – Breaking Bad / Boardwalk Empire / Boardwalk Empire
Comedy Cast – Modern Family / Modern Family / Modern Family

Golden Globes Liveblog, Try 2

Here’s try 2. This should work, hopefuly.

Click here to start up the liveblog!

Golden Globes Liveblog

We’ll be starting up our liveblog around 7:30 tonight. The link below should open up the coveritlive app. The link should be active now, but the thing won’t start going until we start it up.

Click here to start up the liveblog!

Golden Globe Predictions

Don’t forget that we’ll be liveblogging the Golden Globes.  Check in around 7:30 Eastern and join in the fun.

You can find the nominations here.

BEST PICTURE – DRAMA

Will Win: The Descendants
Should Win: The Help, I guess? Haven’t seen War Horse yet, but the drama category really should be better than this

BEST ACTRESS – DRAMA

Will Win: Meryl Streep, Iron Lady
Should Win: [still working on this category]

BEST ACTOR – DRAMA

Will Win: George Clooney, The Descendants
Should Win: Michael Fassbender, Shame

BEST PICTURE – COMEDY

Will Win: The Artist
Should Win: The Artist

BEST ACTRESS – COMEDY

Will Win: Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Should Win: Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn

BEST ACTOR – COMEDY

Will Win: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Should Win: Brendan Gleeson, The Guard

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Will Win: Rango
Should Win: [still working on this category]

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Will Win: A Separation
Should Win: [still working on this category]

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Will Win: Octavia Spencer, The Help
Should Win: Octavia Spencer, The Help (I still maintain Bejo should be lead)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Will Win: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Should Win: [still working on this category]

BEST DIRECTOR

Will Win: Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Should Win: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

BEST SCREENPLAY

Will Win: Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Should Win: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

BEST SCORE

Will Win: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Should Win: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

BEST SONG

Will Win: “Masterpiece”, W.E.
Should Win: [I'm writing in The Muppets here. It is pretty silly to not have a single song from the film in this category.]

BEST TV SERIES – DRAMA
Will Win: Boardwalk Empire
Should Win: Homeland

BEST ACTRESS – TV DRAMA
Will Win: Claire Danes, Homeland
Should Win: Hm. Right now I’ll say Madeleine Stowe, Revenge. But ask me in ten minutes and I might say Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife, or Claire Danes.

BEST ACTOR – TV DRAMA
Will Win: Jeremy Irons, The Borgias
Should Win: [still working on this category]

BEST TV SERIES – COMEDY
Will Win: Modern Family
Should Win: [I don't understand how Parks and Rec isn't nominated here]

BEST ACTRESS – TV COMEDY
Will Win: Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Should Win: Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

BEST ACTOR – TV COMEDY
Will Win: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Should Win: [still working on this category]

BEST MINISERIES OR TV MOVIE
Will Win: Downton Abbey
Should Win: [still working on this category]

BEST ACTRESS – MINISERIES OR TV MOVIE
Will Win: Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce
Should Win: [still working on this category]

BEST ACTOR – MINISERIES OR TV MOVIE
Will Win: William Hurt, Too Big to Fail
Should Win: [still working on this category]

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – TV
Will Win: Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Should Win: [still working on this category]

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – TV
Will Win: Paul Giamatti, Too Big to Fail
Should Win: [still working on this category]

Critics Choice Awards Winners and Recap

I’ll spare you a minute by minute recap and just try to hit the highlights.  You can see the winners here.  The headlines will be about The Artist and The Help winning a bunch of awards.  In terms of Oscar, I’m not sure we learned too much more information since the show happens too late to really affect Oscar voting and awards generally went to someone considered a favorite (heck, even I got 16/24 right and only missed one major award).

The show was hosted by Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer.  I haven’t seen any Human Giant, but I generally find the two tolerably funny, and I think getting comedians to host makes a lot of sense.  Unfortunately, most of the jokes fell flat for me.  Bits included: using motion capture to do inanimate objects, a chat with the presidents of the BFCA (Waldorf and Statler), getting a table in the audience to actually strip down to their underwear, bringing out their understudies (little Rob and little Paul, two kids dressed like the hosts) an interview with the horse from War Horse talking about his next movie (a prison film co-starring Michael Cera), and a fictional character in memoriam montage.  All are clever ideas that just were not executed well.  However, the co-hosts frenetic pace did make it seem like were moving along.

The year in film montage was, as expected, really heavy with films released in the last three months of the year.  The movies went by really quickly and it isn’t interesting enough for me to bring it up again, but some unexpected movies I believe I saw in the montage: The Beaver, Hobo with a Shotgun, Our Idiot Brother, Bellflower, The Green Hornet.

Almost all of this year’s Oscar players were in attendance, along with a decent chunk of Hollywood royalty.  Seemed like Stacy Keibler and George Clooney had the most reaction shots.  I’ll keep saying it, after What About Brian, I’m a big Stacy Keibler fan.  Also, she was born in Baltimore and was a Ravens cheerleader, so even though I can’t find any so-called proof, I’m going to go ahead and assume she’s an O’s fan.

The next few on the reaction shot rankings were Charlize Theron, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, and Emma Stone (though they showed her a bunch and the beginning and then stopped).  The most awkward reaction was when the kid version of the hosts said they liked awards season because the women wore dresses that revealed the top of their boobs and the camera went to Busy Phillips.

Funniest presenter was Patton Oswalt, who had just lost Best Supporting Actor.  His best line was probably about this night was brought to you by the letter Scotch [said as he took a swig from his flask].

Funniest line in a thank you speech was Christopher Plummer who said being honored by the critics was like going on a three week binge with the enemy.

Most disappointing presenters were Donald Glover and Mindy Kaling who made a stale joke about how Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron with both hot.

The house band was Fitz and the Tantrums.  I like Moneygrabber and I think their style translates well to this sort of thing.  The sound seemed to have minor issues off and on most of the night, but even taking that into consideration, I’m not sure the lead singer dude can really sing.

Sean Penn was pleasantly gracious about his humanitarian award, he gave his speech from Haiti via satellite.  George Clooney presented it, and good lord can that man work an awards stage.

The other pre-announced award was the music and film award to Martin Scorsese.  It is the second year they are doing the award, which I think was a brilliant idea.  Scorsese was obviously deserving of this one, which was introduced by Leo DiCaprio and Olivia Harrison.  Oddly, the montage they played featured music from his films and video from his films, but not the music that went with the video.  Bob Dylan performed “Blind Willie McTell” (because he can get away with anything) and got a rousing standing ovation (because you can’t not applaud Bob Dylan at these things).

Those are the highlights, pretty much.  They did a good job keeping it two hours, but of course they didn’t present every award they gave out.  Apatow cursed out Jerry Lewis during his speech, that was fun.  Along with the award, the kid from Everything Loud and Incredibly Close got a lot of applause when his name was first read among the nominees.

Don’t forget to follow along with our Golden Globes liveblog this Sunday!

Critics’ Choice Predictions

As I’m sure you well know, the Critics’ Choice Awards (or the BFCAs, if you prefer) will be handed out today, live on VH1.  You can find the list of nominees here.  No liveblog, but I’ll give my thoughts afterward.  Here are my will win/should wins, keeping in mind there are still a few movies I’ve yet to see:

BEST PICTURE

Will Win: The Artist
Should Win: The Artist

BEST ACTOR

Will Win: George Clooney, The Descendants
Should Win: Jean Dujardin, The Artist

BEST ACTRESS

Will Win: Viola Davis, The Help
Should Win: Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Will Win: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Should Win: Patton Oswalt, Young Adult

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Will Win: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Should Win: Octavia Spencer, The Help (I may prefer Bejo, but think she’s a leading actress)

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS

Will Win: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants (she’s the only one of the group nominated in the main categories, so there is something seriously wrong if she doesn’t win this one)
Should Win: Elle Fanning, Super 8

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE

Will Win: The Help
Should Win: The Help

BEST DIRECTOR

Will Win: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Should Win: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Will Win: Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Should Win: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Will Win: Steven Zaillan and Aaron Sorkin, story by Stan Chervin, Moneyball
Should Win: [none] (Fine, Tate Taylor, The Help)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Will Win: Robert Richardson, Hugo
Should Win: [no clue]

BEST ART DIRECTION

Will Win: Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo, Hugo
Should Win: Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo, Hugo

BEST EDITING

Will Win: Michel Hazanavicius and Anne-Sophie Bion, The Artist
Should Win: Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Will Win: Mark Bridges, The Artist
Should Win: [sorry to be a guy, but no clue]

BEST MAKEUP

Will Win: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Should Win: [only seen two of them]

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Will Win: Hugo
Should Win: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (I’m assuming)

BEST SOUND

Will Win: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Should Win: [no clue]

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Will Win: Rango
Should Win: [I've only seen one.]

BEST ACTION MOVIE

Will Win: Drive
Should Win: Anything but Rise of the Planet of the Apes

BEST COMEDY

Will Win: Bridesmaids
Should Win: The Muppets. Crazy, Stupid, Love is also an acceptable answer.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Will Win: A Separation
Should Win: [haven't seen any]

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Will Win: Project Nim
Should Win: [haven't seen any]

BEST SONG

Will Win: “Man or Muppet”, The Muppets
Should Win: “Pictures in my Head”, The Muppets

BEST SCORE

Will Win: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Should Win: [no clue]