Oscar 2014 - VFX

From the five nominations on VFX for this year, I've already had individual entries on four movies. So, since I'm anyway writing again at some weird hour in the middle of the night, I'll try not to spend much time and leave the visuals to tell more .. ( it should be in the "spirit" of the category after all :) )

First on the list is "Gravity". I'll stick to the opinion in my last year's entry that this movie is quite overrated. But I have to admit, despite the lack of impact as story feeling, that technically-wise the level achieved is pretty high. And that makes the VFX to be probably one of the easiest to predict categories of the year = my bet goes here. Following, one of the many pieces composing what you get to see on screen, and how much is behind it ...

I don't know if I'm right to say that "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" is better on VFX than the first part, but I think what we get to see on this one is a bit more varied. And you finally meet the Dragon ;) The guys from Weta Digital did their job again, as it can be seen below ...

"Iron Man 3" is the only title here about which I didn't write before. Considering how much I "like" super-hero movies, this was a nice surprise. Actually, I guess it's the only movie in 2013 on this genre that I managed to digest without any problems. Way above "Iron Man 2" (I still can't get over the association: Mickey Rourke = evil brilliant scientist), and I think even a bit better than the first in the series. Since it's one of the increasingly rare cases when the movie offers quite a lot beyond what the trailer gives (if I remember correctly), I'll refrain from extra spoilers. Getting back to VFX, as far as I know is a collaboration between multiple studios (including also the above mentioned Weta). The costume animations seem to come from Trixter .. as the nice following montage tells us ..

"The Lone Ranger" was the most unpredictable nomination to get here. As pleasantly surprised I am to see that it's still possible to get 2D movies appreciated for VFX, I am intrigued by the "Pacific Rim" absence (well, I think I said something about too much of that movie being "shot" on night during rain :P). Here we have plenty of CGI, especially for simulated environments - trains, trees, more trains, more trees, even rabbits ..

It seems highly unlikely for "Star Trek: Into Darkness" to have a chance here, but I'm glad it got at least the nomination. Unlike for instance the music score, reason (on which I can also add the absence of "Rush" there) for which I guess this year I'll boycott that section. Getting back on topic though, I'll wrap up the entry of today with the VFX in one of the best SciFi I've seen in the recent years (and one with a decent story, unlike the other end of this list) ...

Oscar 2014 - Nominations

So .. here we go again :) Since last year I managed to recover a bit on the prediction matching, I'm not giving up this unhealthy habit of dedicating almost two blog months for Oscars (although, looking at the 2014 nominations, I doubt I can repeat the accuracy rate). In any case, the motivation is, as usual, less awards related and more to stop a bit on a movies selection which on average is above average :) + to dissect some details that are typically lost behind the "big picture" .. well, in my own "expertise" limits = expect the usual risks for nonsense ramblings (especially if the entries are written late enough). I won't re-re-restart the blah-blah on "why for Oscars, and not for Globes or smth else ?". In brief, the reason for that relates to the voting system, which remains pretty much the most balanced among all (maybe excepting the BAFTAs). So, let's cut it short, and check out the nominations for this year:

BEST PICTURE

- “American Hustle”
- “Captain Phillips”
- “Dallas Buyers Club”
- “Gravity”
- “Her”
- “Nebraska”
- “Philomena”
- “12 Years a Slave”
- “The Wolf of Wall Street”

LEADING ACTOR

- Christian Bale in “American Hustle”
- Bruce Dern in “Nebraska”
- Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street”
- Chiwetel Ejiofor in “12 Years a Slave”
- Matthew McConaughey in “Dallas Buyers Club”

SUPPORTING ACTOR

- Barkhad Abdi in “Captain Phillips”
- Bradley Cooper in “American Hustle”
- Michael Fassbender in “12 Years a Slave”
- Jonah Hill in “The Wolf of Wall Street”
- Jared Leto in “Dallas Buyers Club”

LEADING ACTRESS

- Amy Adams in “American Hustle”
- Cate Blanchett in “Blue Jasmine”
- Sandra Bullock in “Gravity”
- Judi Dench in “Philomena”
- Meryl Streep in “August: Osage County”

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

- Sally Hawkins in “Blue Jasmine”
- Jennifer Lawrence in “American Hustle”
- Lupita Nyong'o in “12 Years a Slave”
- Julia Roberts in “August: Osage County”
- June Squibb in “Nebraska”

ANIMATED FEATURE

- “The Croods”
- “Despicable Me 2”
- “Ernest & Celestine”
- “Frozen”
- “The Wind Rises”

DIRECTING

- David O'Russell for “American Hustle”
- Alfonso Cuarón for “Gravity”
- Alexander Payne for “Nebraska”
- Steve McQueen for “12 Years a Slave”
- Martin Scorsese for “The Wolf of Wall Street”

CINEMATOGRAPHY

- Philippe Le Sourd for “The Grandmaster”
- Emmanuel Lubezki for “Gravity”
- Bruno Delbonnel for “Inside Llewyn Davis”
- Phedon Papamichael for “Nebraska”
- Roger Deakins for “Prisoners”

ORIGINAL SCORE

- John Williams for “The Book Thief”
- Steven Price for “Gravity”
- William Butler & Owen Pallett for “Her”
- Alexandre Desplat for “Philomena”
- Thomas Newman for “Saving Mr. Banks”

FILM EDITING

- “American Hustle”, Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers & Alan Baumgarten
- “Captain Phillips”, Christopher Rouse
- “Dallas Buyers Club”, John Mac McMurphy & Martin Pensa
- “Gravity”, Alfonso Cuarón & Mark Sanger
- “12 Years a Slave”, Joe Walker

SOUND MIXING

- “Captain Phillips”
- “Gravity”
- “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”
- “Inside Llewyn Davis”
- “Lone Survivor”

SOUND EDITING

- “All Is Lost”
- “Captain Phillips”
- “Gravity”
- “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”
- “Lone Survivor”

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

- “American Hustle”
- “Blue Jasmine”
- “Dallas Buyers Club”
- “Her”
- “Nebraska”

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

- “Before Midnight”
- “Captain Phillips”
- “Philomena”
- “12 Years a Slave”
- “The Wolf of Wall Street”

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

- “The Broken Circle Breakdown” - Belgium
- “The Great Beauty” - Italy
- “The Hunt” - Denmark
- “The Missing Picture” - Cambodia
- “Omar” - Palestine

PRODUCTION DESIGN & SET DECORATION

- “American Hustle”
- “Gravity”
- “The Great Gatsby”
- “Her”
- “12 Years a Slave”

VISUAL EFFECTS

- “Gravity”
- “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”
- “Iron Man 3”
- “The Lone Ranger”
- “Star Trek Into Darkness”

COSTUME DESIGN

- “American Hustle”
- “The Grandmaster”
- “The Great Gatsby”
- “The Invisible Woman”
- “12 Years a Slave”

MAKEUP

- “Dallas Buyers Club”
- “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa”
- “The Lone Ranger”

ORIGINAL SONG

- “Alone Yet Not Alone” from “Alone Yet Not Alone”
- “Happy” from “Despicable Me 2”
- “Let It Go” from “Frozen”
- “The Moon Song” from “Her”
- “Ordinary Love” from “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

- “Aquel No Era Yo”
- “Avant Que De Tout Perdre”
- “Helium”
- “Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa?”
- “The Voorman Problem”

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

- “Feral”
- “Get a Horse!”
- “Mr. Hublot”
- “Possessions”
- “Room on the Broom”

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

- “The Act of Killing”
- “Cutie and the Boxer”
- “Dirty Wars”
- “The Square”
- “20 Feet from Stardom”

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

- “CaveDigger”
- “Facing Fear”
- “Karama Has No Walls”
- “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life”
- “Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall”

As usual, we'll start next week to "browse" the categories, as many as I'll have time for. Probably breaking the ice with VFX, as in the previous years ...

Dead Silence (2007)

At the end of a dreadful week (about which I'm really not in the mood to give details), I noticed that I didn't have time to write the usual blog entry. Since "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" was too depressing, "47 Ronin" too cliche (although relatively catchy, as revenge stories usually are), and "12 Years a Slave" or "Philomena" I prefer to postpone for the incoming Oscar season, I'll enjoy a guilty pleasure today: "Dead Silence".

James Wan is probably more known for the first "Saw", "Insidious" and the highly praised "The Conjuring" (which I still didn't see yet). In between, the guy made also some other movies, more obscure as box-office success, one of them being the subject of today's entry. As the above list suggests, and probably the poster too, we're talking about a horror. However a pretty light one both as blood & gore, and as scary effect. And that's good, but I'll get back to it later. Let me dig into the story a bit first ;): Jamie Ashen receives by its door an unsigned package containing a ventriloquist puppet. Since I've mentioned the poster earlier, what follows is far from "Child's Play" remake, as it might be thought (= no Chucky rampage here). Getting over the details, several hours later to the delivery, Jamie finds his wife murdered in the apparently locked apartment, without any signs of breaking and entering. Following the event, he starts "suspecting" an urban legend from his hometown. A story used to scare children, having as main character a ventriloquist woman, and which in summary sounds like that: "Beware the stare of Mary Shaw. She had no children, only dolls. If you see her in your dreams, be sure you never, ever scream or she'll rip your tongue out at the seam." Obviously, the detective assigned with the murder case doesn't buy such stories, but apparently he also doesn't have enough evidence to detain the main suspect either. So, mister Ashen decides, despite his traveling restrictions, to take the puppet and leave to his hometown in search for the mysterious sender.

I avoided giving too many details because the movie is quite predictable. Except the ending. Which manages to add enough to the balance on the good side. For the bad parts I can mention the script, that varies in many places between hilarious and imbecile, or the casting, that with some exceptions is eloquent for the tight budget. All these result in an action development that gets far from credible, which has though a good side. As I was saying, it makes the movie less scary. If we also add the (fortunate) budget restrictions on overusing red paint, what results is more like a campy fun ghost story than a rated R horror. Stuff that makes it more watchable. Not to mention that it's a pleasure to count all the present "classic bits" .. not to call them cliche :) both on the story side and at the production level. We already have the urban legend which gets into flashbacks that detail it piece by piece, we have the short poem above that reminded me the counting from "Nightmare on Elm's Street", we have an isolated town with a dark past and the perfect name: Ravens Fair, we have a stepmother and an old father hiding secrets, we have a graveyard, fog in the graveyard, deserted graves in the graveyard :), we have a swampy pond and a derelict theater on the other shore, we have the old undertaker who knows the history of the place since Adam and Eve (or well, since he was a kid), etc. What we have on top of all these is a cinematography which adds max to the "the eerie feeling". At least for me was enough the contrast between the red convertible that the main character uses to drive around and the "Silent Hill"-like grey and dark small town. And the color filters are not everything. Not the least, we also have a superb score, which convinced me that Charlie Clouser is the best composer at the time for horrors. Although different, the soundtrack has something from Carpenter's "Halloween" score, and I guess that's enough to describe it. As an extra, a song played at the end of the credits reminded me about the existence of "Concrete Blonde" (or well, that they "re-activated") or more precisely about the lead vocal, Johnette Napolitano, and that I should check them out from time to time.

As a final thought the movie is far from a masterpiece. But it's a title worthy to be watched on its genre, especially if you have a soft spot for '80s-'90s scary movies, a la Wes Craven. Which usually are more fun than scary ;)

Rating: 3 out of 5 (with a big plus for production design, but not enough to get to 4)