Saturday, February 23, 2013

2012 Endy Awards, with Oscar Predictions


It's time to announce the best of the best for 2012. Nominations and eligibility rules for the Endies can be found here.

Each Endy winner is paired with my prediction for the Academy Award winner in its category. I'll amend this after the Oscar telecast to show the actual winners.

And the Endy goes to. . .


Best Picture:

Endy: Moonrise Kingdom
Oscar: Argo

This is a tougher choice than it looks, though Moonrise was my #1 film at the end of the year, I'd only seen it once, and all the other nominees were fresher in my mind. But I watched it again, and yeah, it's great. Anderson's dollhouse, DIY, 90 degree angle aesthetic is the ideal match for a children's fantasy of adventure and escape. The need for the kids to create their own universe contrasts eloquently with the sad rigidity of the adults. Some of the other nominees are more mysterious, but no movie this year is more perfect.

Best Director:

Endy: Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom
Oscar: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Actor:

Endy: Denis Levant, Holy Motors
Oscar: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

This was the toughest category for me to choose. In the end, Levant's versitility and centrality to the film edge out Phoenix's remarkably physical, extreme-method performance, and Day-Lewis's uncanny ability to breathe life into an impersonation, either of which would be more than worthy winners in any other year.

Actress:

Endy: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Oscar: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Another close call, but Chastain takes a character with no backstory, no personality, no apparent interests outside the plot and makes her feel like a fully-developed character, almost entirely with her eyes, body position and tone of voice. Her best scenes are when she gives her 'action movie' lines just the right amount of maniacal awkwardness. She doesn't fit in, her certainty beyond that which she can prove makes her as dangerous to us as she is to bin Ladin. In a film that undermines and critiques much of what it presents, her performance is essential in pushing us to read beyond the surfaces.

Supporting Actor:

Endy: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Oscar: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Supporting Actress:

Endy: Amy Adams, The Master
Oscar: Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables


Original Screenplay:

Endy: Abbas Kiarostami, Like Someone in Love
Oscar: Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty

The seemingly innocuous structure of Kiarostami's film, a series of apparently mundane conversations with wildly spinning depths that over time accumulate such weight, such possibility, that builds to a crescendo that is the year's most shattering momentum, wins out over Boal's screenplay that is more than just the effective distillation of a decade of history, but a radical (for Hollywood at least) rethinking of character and a fascinating, open-ended exploration of what counts as evidence and certainty in the post-Iraq War world.

Adapted Screenplay:

Endy: Tony Kushner, Lincoln
Oscar: Chris Terrio, Argo

In a year with unusually great films about argument and reason, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, The Master, it's Kushner's screenplay that is the best. He had me as soon as the President explained the complexities of the Emancipation Proclamation's post-Civil War legal status in three minutes or less. The later rhetorical flourishes are wonderful (Stevens's ripostes to his interlocutors, Lincoln's powerful clothing) but the trust and clarity and efficiency of Kushner's exposition is truly remarkable.

Argo, on the other hand, represents the worst in Hollywood rhetoric. The kind of film where someone wins an argument by emoting loudly. Where two characters bond over a hamburger by talking about their (otherwise totally irrelevant but for "character building" box-checking) divorces, even though they said they were going out for tacos.

Foreign Language Film:

Endy: Like Someone in Love
Oscar: Amour

All year this had been In Another Country for me. But after rewatching it, while I still love it, it just doesn't resonate as strongly as the more ambitious Kiarostami and Ruiz films. This might be my favorite Kiarostami movie.

Documentary Feature:

Endy: Three Sisters
Oscar: Searching for Sugar Man

Documentary Short:

Endy: -----
Oscar: Inocente

Live Action Short:

Endy: Walker
Oscar: Death of a Shadow


Animated Short:

Endy: Paperman
Oscar: Paperman

Animated Feature:

Endy: Brave
Oscar: Wreck-It Ralph

Film Editing:

Endy: The Master
Oscar: Zero Dark Thirty

The hypnotic rhythms of The Master, perfectly synced with the film's score and the dueling psyches of Phoenix and Hoffman win out over the masterful precision of Bigelow's suspense sequences.

If Argo wins this award, it'll be a bigger travesty than if it wins Best Picture. Its editing is almost incompetent. Continuity errors, needless choppiness, bizarre action mismatches. It's a mess.

Cinematography:

Endy: Mihai Malaimare Jr., The Master
Oscar: Roger Deakins, Skyfall

Using 70mm to film interiors and close-ups rather than, as was traditional, expansive vistas and landscapes was a stroke of genius. The Master's images just barely win out over the old school inventiveness of Night Across the Street's sepia tones and rear projections and Moonrise Kingdom's crystal-clear storybook aesthetic.

Production Design:

Endy: Moonrise Kingdom
Oscar: Anna Karenina

Costume Design:

Endy: Moonrise Kingdom
Oscar: Anna Karenina


Make-Up:

Endy: Holy Motors
Oscar: Les Misérables

Sound Mixing:

Endy: Neighboring Sounds
Oscar: Les Misérables

Rarely is sound design more important to a modern movie than in Neighboring Sounds. It's right there in the title. Kleber Mendonça Filho's Recife is connected not by spatial geography, but by the way sounds bleed together in an urban environment, trumping class and racial barriers.

Sound Editing:

Endy: Zero Dark Thirty
Oscar: Argo

Visual Effects:

Endy: Night Across the Street
Oscar: Life of Pi

Original Score:

Endy: Mekong Hotel
Oscar: Life of Pi

I really want to give this to Moonrise Kingdom, for Alexandre Desplat's suite that complements and builds upon the Hank Williams and Benjamin Britten music on the soundtrack. But Chai Datana's guitar score for Mekong Hotel, a meandering bluesy acoustic guitar melody that wanders and swirls and circles back on itself, is fundamental to that film's evocation of life by a river, where past and present, myth and reality fuse.

Soundtrack:

Endy: Something in the Air

Original Song:

Oscar: "Skyfall", Skyfall

Friday, February 22, 2013

Some Notes on the 2012 Endy Awards


Yesterday I announced the nominations for this year's Endy Awards.  Here's a brief look at some of the nominees, in anticipation of tomorrow's big announcement.

Films ranked by number of nominations:

10 - The Master
9 - Moonrise Kingdom
8 - Night Across the Street
7 - In Another Country
6 - Like Someone in Love & Zero Dark Thirty
5 - Django Unchained & Holy Motors
4 - Lincoln
3 - Mekong Hotel, Something in the Air & Tabu
2 - Nine films
1 - Five Films


Of the five Best Picture/Director nominees, four are directors who have previously won Endies:

Abbas Kiarostami in 1997 for Taste of Cherry (Film Editing), 1999 for The Wind Will Carry Us (Foreign Language Film) and 2010 for Certified Copy (Best Picture, Foreign Language Film).

Paul Thomas Anderson in 1997 for Boogie Nights (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay), 1999 for Magnolia (Original Screenplay), 2002 for Punch-Drunk Love (Best Picture) and in 2007 for There Will Be Blood (Adapted Screenplay)

Wes Anderson in 2001 for The Royal Tenenbaums (Best Original Screenplay) and 2009 for Fantastic Mr. Fox (Adapted Screenplay and Animated Feature)

Hong Sangsoo in 2010 for Oki's Movie and Hahaha (Best Original Screenplay).

If I ever get around to revising these awards (most of which I handed out back in 2008, four and a half long years worth of movie-watching ago), the fifth nominee, Raúl Ruiz, will likely pick up an award or two for his 2010 film Mysteries of Lisbon.


So, will this year see the first Best Picture win after several award-winning screenplays for Wes Anderson? Will Hong Sangsoo become the first Korean filmmaker to win Picture or Director? Will Abbas Kiarostami accomplish the rare feat of winning Best Picture with back-to-back films, something only Terrence Malick (with The New World and Tree of Life), Alfred Hitchcock (North by Northwest and Psycho) and Powell & Pressburger (Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes) have done before? Or will longtime Endy favorite Paul Thomas Anderson pick up his third Best Picture Endy, making him the most decorated filmmaker of his generation? Tune in tomorrow morning to find out.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Endy Nominations: 2012

Reviving a tradition I had to abandon last year after spending the second half of 2011 in a baby-induced movie-free zone, it's time to nominate some movies for some end of the year awards.  I'll list the nominees in each category here, and then on Saturday publish the winners, along with my predictions for the winners of that other set of awards. As always when assigning dates here at The End, movies are categorized based on their imdb date, which means that a number of films that would be Endy favorites (Damsels in Distress, Margaret, The Deep Blue Sea, etc) are not eligible for this year while several films that won't open theatrically in the US until 2013 are eligilbe.


Best Picture:

1. In Another Country
2. Like Someone in Love
3. The Master
4. Moonrise Kingdom
5. Night Across the Street

Best Director:

1. Hong Sangsoo, In Another Country
2. Abbas Kiarostami, Like Someone in Love
3. Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
4. Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom
5. Raul Ruiz, Night Across the Street

Best Actor:

1. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Amour
2. Denis Levant, Holy Motors 
3. Tadashi Okuno, Like Someone in Love
4. Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
5. Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Best Actress:

1. Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
2. Isabelle Huppert, In Another Country
3. Santi Ahumada, Thursday Till Sunday
4. Nai An, When Night Falls
5. Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Supporting Actor:

1. Ben Whishaw, Could Atlas
2. Samuel L. Jackson, Django Unchained
3. Yu Jun-sang, In Another Country
4. Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
5. Gustavo Jahn, Neighboring Sounds

Supporting Actress:

1. Amy Adams, The Master
2. Samantha Barks, Les Misérables
3. Lola Créton, Something in the Air
4. Ana Moreira, Tabu
5. Jennifer Ehle, Zero Dark Thirty


Original Screenplay:

1. Hong Sangsoo, In Another Country
2. Abbas Kiarostami, Like Someone in Love
3. Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
4. Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom
5. Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty

Adapted Screenplay:

1. Wachowskis & Tykwer, Cloud Atlas
2. David Cronenberg, Cosmopolis
3. Li Luo, Emperor Visits the Hell
4. Tony Kushner, Lincoln
5. Raul Ruiz, Night Across the Street

Foreign Language Film:

1. Holy Motors
2. In Another Country
3. Like Someone in Love
4. Mekong Hotel
5. Night Across the Street

Documentary Feature:

1. In Search of Haydn
2. People's Park
3. Reconversão
4. Shut Up and Play the Hits
5. Three Sisters

Animated Feature:

1. Brave
2. Wreck-It Ralph

Animated Short:

1. The Longest Daycare
2. Paperman


Live Action Short:

1. My Way (Ann Hui)
2. Walker (Tsai Ming-Liang)
3. You Are More than Beautiful (Kim Tae-young)

Film Editing:

1. The Last Time I Saw Macao
2. The Master
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. Night Across the Street
5. Zero Dark Thirty

Cinematography:

1. Katsumi Yanagijima, Like Someone in Love
2. Mihai Malaimare Jr., The Master
3. Robert D. Yeoman , Moonrise Kingdom
4. Inti Briones, Night Across the Street
5. Rui Poças, Tabu

Art Direction:

1. Cosmopolis
2. Lincoln
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. Night Across the Street
5. Skyfall

Costume Design:

1. Django Unchained
2. Holy Motors
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. Night Across the Street
5. Something in the Air

Make-up:

1. Holy Motors
2. Lincoln
3. Django Unchained


Sound Mixing:

1. Django Unchained
2. The Master
3. Mekong Hotel
4. Neighboring Sounds
5. Shut Up and Play the Hits

Sound Editing:

1. The Avengers
2. Django Unchained
3. Flight
4. Skyfall
5. Zero Dark Thirty

Visual Effects:

1. The Avengers
2. Flight
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. Night Across the Street
5. Prometheus

Original Score:

1. In Another Country
2. The Master
3. Mekong Hotel
4. Moonrise Kingdom
5. Zero Dark Thirty

Soundtrack:

1. Holy Motors
2. Les Misérables
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. Something in the Air
5. Tabu

Monday, February 18, 2013

This Week in Rankings


The movies I've watched or rewatched of the last several days, and where they place in my year-by-year rankings. I've been tracking the movies I watch on letterboxd as well. You can read the little bits I've said about some of these, as well as check out some lists over there, or by following the link on the movie title. I've also updated my Review Index to include some of the shorter reviews I've written over the last couple of years.


Gabriel Over the White House - 25, 1933
The Longest Nite - 13, 1998
Running Out of Time - 6, 1999
Running Out of Time 2 - 7, 2001


Running on Karma - 7, 2003
Throw Down - 9, 2004
Mad Detective - 9, 2007
The Five-Year Engagement - 48, 2012