Do you remember when J.J. Abrams‘ ABC series Alias was the greatest female spy story of its time? Premiering in 2001, just weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it starred an apple-cheeked newcomer with just the right combination of hardness and softness. For five seasons and through hundreds of costume changes — does the CIA really spend thousands of dollars on neon wigs? — Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) showed the world that a female spy could be just as clever, alluring, and badass as James Bond, even on a TV budget.
Since the premiere of Showtime’s spy thriller, Homeland, last year, however, Sydney has been retroactively exposed as Spy Barbie, a product of the girl-power fad of the 1990s. Homeland and the upcoming film, Zero Dark Thirty, which chronicles the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden, make a more serious case for feminism — or a more serious kind of feminism — by pulling their female CIA-agent protagonists from the field and eschewing gold-lamé bikinis for sensible pantsuits.
The ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ ‘Homeland’ Comparison
Zero Dark Thirty’s Maya (Jessica Chastain) and Homeland’s Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) are certainly cut from the same cotton-polyester blend cloth. They’re both young, willowy, fair-haired women hell-bent on finding a man: Maya is after bin Laden and Carrie after Abu Nazir, OBL’s fictional counterpart. They’re no-nonsense women with passion and indignation to spare, and more often than not, the smartest person in the room. They’re frequently the only women in a man’s world, but they’re not the type to make a big deal about it. Their hunches are usually ignored by exasperated higher-ups, but that has less to do with their gender than political convenience and grandstanding.
Zero Dark Thirty and…
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The Oscar Index’s head is spinning. What critics organization didn’t announce their nominees or award-winners this week? On Thursday it was the Golden Globes, on Wednesday the SAGs, and Monday the AFI and BFCA. The Boston, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, St. Louis and Washington critics associations also weighed in with their picks.
But critics don’t vote for the Academy Awards, so much of this will have little bearing on who will be nominated for an Academy Award; not Lincoln’s seven Golden Globe nominations, not Dwight Henry’s Best Supporting Actor win from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for Beasts of the Southern Wild, and not the Washington D.C. Film Critics Association’s pick of Zero Dark Thirty as the year’s best film.
By splitting its acting categories into drama and musical-comedy, the Golden Globes muddle the view of the fields, but they do afford some Oscar dark-horses like Richard Gere some necessary exposure to keep their chances alive. Meanwhile, the Screen Actors Guild Awards do matter as an Oscar precursor, as do perhaps some preemptive strikes at a probable Oscar frontrunner.
But how big a target is Zero Dark Thirty? We got a pretty good idea this week. Let’s go to the Gold Lining Playbook.
Best Picture
Zero Dark Thirty might have sustained some damage this week in the wake of several newspaper pieces that charge the film with being pro-torture and questioning the character of the real-life inspiration for the CIA analyst portrayed in the film by Jessica Chastain. A New York Times Op-Ed piece provocatively opened, “I’m betting that Dick Cheney will love the new movie Zero Dark Thirty,” Greg…
Full Story »After so much Zero Dark Thirty domination from the New York Film Critics Circle, their West Coast counterparts in the Los Angeles Film Critics Association made a splash with more art house-leaning picks, voting Michael Haneke’s Amour the best film of 2012 — technically a foreign language entry, though Leos Carax’s Holy Motors earned that honor. (I see what you did there, LAFCA — and I like it.) LA critics also showed love for Beasts of the Southern Wild, whose non-professional actor/NOLA-area baker Dwight Henry earned a Best Supporting Actor nod, launching his awards season prospects.
Get the full winners after the jump along with results from today’s awards announcements from the Boston Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Online groups, both boosters of Kathryn Bigelow and Zero Dark Thirty…
LA Film Critics Association 2012 Award Honorees:
Best Picture: Amour (Runner-up: The Master)
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master (Runner-up: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty)
Best Actress: (TIE) Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook and Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master (Runner-up: Denis Lavant, Holy Motors)
Best Supporting Actor: Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild (Runner-up: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained)
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, The Master (Runner-up: Anne Hathaway, The Dark Knight Rises and Les Misérables)
Best Screenplay: Argo (Runner-up: Silver Linings Playbook)
Best Film Editing: Zero Dark Thirty (Runner-up: Argo)
Best Cinematography: Skyfall (Runner-up: The Master)
Best Foreign Film: Holy Motors (Runner-up: Footnote)
Best Documentary: The Gatekeepers (Runner-up: Searching for Sugar Man)
Best Animation: Frankenweenie (Runner-up: It’s Such a Beautiful Day)
Best Music/Score: Beasts of the Southern Wild (Runner-up: The Master)
Best Production Design: The Master (Runner-up: Moonrise Kingdom)
New Generation Award: Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Douglas…
If American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman were a film critic, he’d be Bret Easton Ellis. When he’s not promoting his film The Canyons — directed by Paul Schrader and starring Lindsay Lohan — on Twitter, Ellis has been blowing shotgun-sized holes in some of the awards season’s biggest films.
The Less Than Zero author contends that Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow is “really overrated,” and Les Misérables makes him miserable. (According to him, it’s an “incomprehensible mess.” ) Life of Pi fares better, though Ellis would like to see that film’s young star Suraj Sharma get into porn. Oh yeah, and he also claims that the Academy “hates” The Dark Knight Rises.
Below, a sampling of Ellis’ critical stylings, not necessarily in chronological order:
Zero Dark Thirty:
Kathryn Bigelow would be considered a mildly interesting filmmaker if she was a man but since she's a very hot woman she's really overrated.—
Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 06, 2012
Kathryn Bigelow: Strange Days, K-19 The Widowmaker, Blue Steel, The Hurt Locker. Are we talking about visionary filmmaking or just OK junk?—
Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 06, 2012
Silver Linings Playbook:
"Zero Dark Thirty" might win critics awards but "Silver Linings Playbook" will win the Best Picture Oscar. This is how it always happens…—
Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 06, 2012
Les Misérables:
The film version of "Les Miserables" is so bad that it made me rethink why I ever loved the stage version. 2 hours and 40 minutes of tacky.—
Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) December 05, 2012
The one actor surviving the incomprehensible mess "Les Miserables" is Eddie Redmayne,
…
Full Story »In another major awards win for Kathryn Bigelow’s latest, Zero Dark Thirty took major nods from the National Board of Review, receiving kudos for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress for Jessica Chastain.
[Related: NY Film Critics Circle Spices Up Oscar Race With 'Zero Dark Thirty' Best Picture Pick]
Also taking major wins by the group were Bradley Cooper for Best Actor for Silver Linings Playbook, Leonardo DiCaprio (Best Supporting Actor) for Django Unchained, while Michael Haneke’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Amour took Best Foreign Language Film. Sundance ‘12 winner Beasts of the Southern Wild won both Best Directorial Debut for Benh Zeitlin and the Breakthrough Actress prize for Quevenzhané Wallis. Ben Affleck’s Argo received a Special Achievement in Filmmaking mention.
Meredith Vieira will host the National Board of Review Gala on January 8th in New York.
2012 National Board of Review Prizes:
Best Film: Zero Dark Thirty
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Best Actor: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Best Supporting Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Best Supporting Actress: Ann Dowd, Compliance
Best Original Screenplay: Rian Johnson, Looper
Best Adapted Screenplay: David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Animated Feature: Wreck-It Ralph
Special Achievement in Filmmaking: Ben Affleck, Argo
Breakthrough Actor: Tom Holland, The Impossible
Breakthrough Actress: Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Best Directorial Debut: Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Best Foreign Language Film: Amour
Best Documentary: Searching for Sugarman
William K. Everson Film History Award: 50 Years of Bond Films
Best Ensemble: Les Misérables
Spotlight Award: John Goodman (Argo, Flight, Paranorman, Trouble with the Curve)
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Central Park Five
NBR…
Barnabas Collins has risen from the grave once more via the Blu-Ray and DVD release of Tim Burton’s film adaptation of Dark Shadows, and so has spirited argument over who created the tortured vampire back in the 1960s. Johnny Depp’s interpretation of the fanged fan favorite originated by Jonathan Frid may have been D.O.A. at the box office, but, 45 years after Collins debuted on the gothic ABC soap opera and became a cult icon, the squabbling over his invention just won’t die.
Alas, one of the writers is not around to make his case. A 2009 Variety obituary for Ron Sproat, who wrote for Dark Shadows from November 1966 to February 1969, credits him with creating Barnabas, and in a 2008 interview with the blog Strange Paradise, another writer for the show, Joe Caldwell, said that the show’s executive producer Dan Curtis personally asked him and Sproat to develop the character.
Enter former Dark Shadows writer Malcolm Marmorstein, who insists that Curtis gave him the task of creating Collins. Marmorstein, who is credited with writing the episode in which Barnabas’ arm first shoots out of his coffin, joined the daytime serial in December 1966 after working as head writer of the successful NBC soap, The Doctors. He says Dark Shadows was in danger of cancellation, and he recommended that adding a supernatural element to the series would boost ratings. Specifically, he suggested to Curtis that the character of Laura Collins be turned into a phoenix, who every 100 years would die by fire and then be reborn.
The phoenix concept debuted on December 21, 1966 and ratings soon improved. A few months later, Marmorstein says, Curtis asked him to work a vampire into the storyline.
“I told Dan, ‘Absolutely, but we need different ground rules.…
Full Story »Juno Temple (recently, Selina Kyle’s special friend in The Dark Knight Rises) and Riley Keough (the granddaughter of Elvis seen briefly in Magic Mike) star in Bradley Rust Gray’s Jack and Diane, a dark romance about two young ladies experiencing puppy love and the peculiar transformations that ensue. After the jump watch the first official trailer, which sets up their sweet sapphic connection but shies away from major spoilers.
Jack and Diane burst onto the collective radar a while back with its horror-tinged setup (which I won’t ruin here) and once was set to star Juno BFFs Ellen Page and Olivia Thirlby in the title roles. As the first trailer highlights, Temple and Keough promise to bring a different dynamic to the tale — theirs is a naive, elemental chemistry, glimpsed in snatches, made ominous by animated sequences by the Brothers Quay. Cara Seymour and Kylie Minogue also co-star. Who can resist?
Still, Jack and Diane floundered with critics upon its Tribeca Film Festival debut. But between Magic Mike, TDKR, and this week’s Killer Joe (which features Temple as the object of Joe’s affections), there’s no better time for Magnolia to capitalize on their stars’ rising cache.
Verdict: Looks cute. But will it come together?
Jack and Diane debuts on VOD on September 28 and is in theaters November 2.
