Looking Forward To...

Zero Dark Thirty
Release: December 19, 2012
Distributor: Sony/Columbia
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, Jennifer Ehle, Kyle Chandler, Harold Perrineau, Édgar Ramírez, John Barrowman, Mark Duplass, Taylor Kinney, and James Gandolfini

The Sambola and The Gift

While I was a bit lukewarm to Damsels in Distress itself as a film, I can't exactly deny the charms of Greta Gerwig. Similarly, I pretty much adored the final song/dance number of "The Sambola!" which was revealed yesterday as being eligible for one of five spots for Oscar's Best Song category. I highly doubt it will make it in, but more people should really see it so we can at least make it a legitimate international dance craze:


Nathaniel over at The Film Experience has the complete list of eligible songs along with a few more clips. While perusing the list, I was shocked to see that Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, the Oscar-winning pair for the absolutely amazing "Falling Slowly" in the film Once, have a song in contention from the film The Odd Life of Timothy Green. How have not heard about this until now? View the video for their song "The Gift" after the jump...

Broadcast Film Critics Association Nominations

For better or for worse, the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) try to predict the Oscars. They may not be even doing it on purpose, but year in and year out their nominations and even winners reflect what's going to happen at the Oscars a few months from now. But they are still known for going outside the box (see last year's broad support for nearly Oscar-snubbed Drive). From first look, there doesn't seem to be anything like that this year unless you count the 7 nominations garnered by Skyfall. More surprising has to be the relatively low nomination count for critic-favorite and current Oscar front-runner Zero Dark Thirty with only 5 nominations. If there was one more thing to say is that the number of nominations is just crazy. Do we really need to set aside acting wins for Comedy/Action films? What is this the MTV Movie Awards or something? More comments and a full list of nominations below...

Best Picture
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
The Master
Les Misérables
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Slowly, but surely the list of films for Oscar is coalescing into these ten films. Foreign film Amour may play "spoiler" later on, but I'd be shocked if anything else gets in. Lincoln leads with 13 nominations followed by Les Misérables with 11 and Silver Linings Playbook with 10.  As I mentioned above, Zero Dark Thirty only managed 5 nominations, but then Django Unchained only got 2. Both may have been hampered by their very late releases though.

Best Director
Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Tom Hooper, Les Misérables
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

I'm still thinking Wes Anderson, Benh Zeitlin, or Michael Haneke could also get in for Oscars, but as you can see with the names already listed here, this category is stacked (isn't it every year though?).

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Solid boosts for some of the actresses that needed more attention this awards season namely Cotillard and Watts. It's also good for Riva and Wallis who are both probably going up against the age factor. This is not good news though for Rachel Weisz or my dark horse pick Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Javier Bardem, Skyfall
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike

That's two acting nominations for Skyfall with both Bardem and Dench (see below) getting in. Could mean something or nothing, but they really were the heart of the movie. But as solid (and kind of fun actually) as this list is, I kind of wished they had gone more outside the box. Ezra Miller? Dwight Henry? I figure Christoph Waltz or Leonardo DiCaprio could figure for Oscars.

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Judi Dench, Skyfall
Ann Dowd, Compliance
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Best Young Actor/Actress
Elle Fanning, Ginger & Rosa
Kara Hayward, Moonrise Kingdom
Tom Holland, The Impossible
Logan Lerman, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Suraj Sharma, Life of Pi
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

I haven't seen Ginger & Rosa or The Impossible yet, but I 100% agree on the other nominations. If I had to nitpick, I would say Jared Gilman should also be nominated. And I was going to say how upset I am that Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) isn't getting any love, but he's actually too old!

More nominations after the jump...

Critics Groups Rundown

Time to start keeping track of what those darn critics groups are saying about what their favorite films and performances have been this year. So far only six groups out of the bazillion groups have chimed in so we're still in that fun first phase when every movie and actor still think they have a chance for some glory. The groups to have already announced are the following:

New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC), New York Film Critics Online (NYFCO), Boston Online Film Critics Association (BOFCA) Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA)

The results for the major categories are below along with a few films/actors also in discussion (for now). NBR winners are marked with an asterisk.

BEST PICTURE

• Zero Dark Thirty* - NYFCC, BSFC, NYFCO, BOFCA, WAFCA
• Amour - LAFCA
• Lincoln
• Argo
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Les Misérables
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Django Unchained
• Moonrise Kingdom
• The Master

BEST DIRECTOR

• Kathryn Bigelow* - NYFCC, BSFC, NYFCO, BOFCA, WAFCA
• Paul Thomas Anderson - LAFCA
• Steven Spielberg
• Tom Hooper
• Ben Affleck
• Michael Haneke
• Benh Zeitlin
• David O. Russell
• Wes Anderson

BEST ACTOR

• Daniel Day-Lewis - NYFCC, BSFC, NYFCO, BOFCA, WAFCA
• Joaquin Phoenix - LAFCA
• Bradley Cooper*
• Hugh Jackman
• Denis Lavant
• John Hawkes
• Denzel Washington

BEST ACTRESS

• Emmanuelle Riva - LAFCA, BSFC, NYFCO
• Jessica Chastain* - BOFCA, WAFCA
• Jennifer Lawrence - LAFCA
• Rachel Weisz - NYFCC
• Quvenzhane Wallis
• Naomi Watts
• Marion Cotillard

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Tommy Lee Jones - NYFCO, BOFCA
• Matthew McConaughey - NYFCC
• Philip Seymour Hoffman - WAFCA
• Dwight Henry - LAFCA
• Ezra Miller - BSFC
• Leonardo DiCaprio*
• Christoph Waltz
• John Goodman
• Javier Bardem
• Robert DeNiro

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Anne Hathaway - NYFCO, BOFCA, WAFCA
• Sally Field - NYFCC, BSFC
• Amy Adams - LAFCA
• Ann Dowd*
• Helen Hunt
• Samantha Barker
• Nicole Kidman
• Maggie Smith

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• Zero Dark Thirty - NYFCO
• Looper* - WAFCA
• Moonrise Kingdom
• The Master
• Amour
• Django Unchained

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• Lincoln - NYFCC, BSFC, BOFCA
• Silver Linings Playbook* - WAFCA
• Argo - LAFCA
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Perks of Being a Wallflower
• Anna Karenina

I didn't really keep track of these critics group so closely until about three years ago when The Hurt Locker and its director Kathryn Bigelow dominated the critical landscape. Fast forward to the present-day and it's feeling a little déjà vu, isn't it? Time will tell if Bigelow and film can repeat their Oscar glory of yore. The good news so far is that the rest of the categories, with the exception of Best Actor, seems to be pretty open still. How Oscar predictive these awards have been can vary greatly by category and this early on, it's even more difficult to say anything with any certainty. A few more big groups--Broadcast Film Critics, Screen Actors Guild, and the Hollywood Foreign Press (Golden Globes)--are set to chime in with their nominations in the next few days putting awards season more in focus.

AFI Top Ten Films/TV Programs of 2012

It's the American Film Institute's turn to chime in on their favorite films and TV shows of the past year. Do note that only American films and TV shows make the cut. Check them out below:

MOVIES OF THE YEAR

• Argo
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Django Unchained
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty

This is a damn solid albeit supremely dull list. Most, if not all, are already in the shortlist for Oscar nominations so what else is there to say? The inclusion of Christopher Nolan's final Batman film is slightly refreshing, but I myself would've opted for Joss Whedon's The Avengers myself. The exclusion of The Master is probably the one major snub in this list, but I would've also liked to have seen them champion Perks of Being a Wallflower or even ParaNorman. The latter especially since they championed Coraline a few years back. I do still need to see three of these films (Django, Les Miz, and Zero Dark), but since they all haven't been released yet to the general public I think I'm good!

TV PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR

• American Horror Story: Asylum
• Breaking Bad
• Game Change
• Game of Thrones
• Girls
• Homeland
• Louie
• Mad Men
• Modern Family
• The Walking Dead

We're still not sick of honoring Modern Family? I mean, yes I still like the show very much, but think outside the box, people! And Mad Men is great, but have they ever NOT picked the show for this honor? And especially with an election year, I'm surprised not to see Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Veep, or The Good Wife, which all tackled politics in one form or another this year, on this list. Then again they probably had their politics quota with Game Change and Homeland. Plus overall, I really can't fault them on this list too much. It's just not an overly exciting one for me. But I recognize that it could be much worse.

Amazing Race Season 21 and Team Chippendales

Though I haven't posted anything Amazing Race-related in probably a year, I just needed to talk about the latest season which just had its finale a little less than an hour ago. Mostly I wanted to shine a light on the delightful team made out of Chippendale dancers Jaymes and James. Now I am sad to say that I judged them wrongly off the bat. I immediately thought they would be those annoyingly aggressive and entitled alpha male teams that would tear through the race making enemies left and right. And really from the get go, they proved me wrong time and time again. They were probably the nicest team this season, not only to the other teams, but to each other. Despite their slow starts, they never got angry at one another or displayed a "woe is me" attitude. They approached the entire experience with wonder and glee that was frankly infectious and it helped that they were definitely eye candy (see their picture above). With all of that said, it's no surprise then that by tonight's finale I was rooting for them 200%. More on tonight's finale including spoilers on final outcome...

Kelly Clarkson, Stronger and Grammy-Nominated

The humble girl from Burleson, Texas with the booming voice is on top of the music world again as Kelly Clarkson was nominated for three Grammy Awards last night: Record of the Year, Pop Vocal Album, and Pop Solo Performance. Her single "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" was also nominated for Song of the Year. While she's already won two Grammy Awards, this is her first nomination in two of the top Grammy prizes, Record and Song of the Year. All of this is to say that I suddenly give a crap about this year's Grammy Awards.

And for Kelly? Well, this is just icing to the cake in a year where she sang at the Super Bowl, achieved another #1 radio hit, celebrated her 30th birthday, and more recently commemorated her 10th anniversary in the business by putting out a Greatest Hits album. It's still a relatively short career and one that has also been filled with as many highs as downs, but I'm glad she's getting much deserved dues from the industry. And how did she find out about her nominations? Well, her friends surprised her with the news as she woke up in London.

As for the rest of the Grammy nominations, it was practically a Boys Club with lots of love given out to fun., Frank Ocean, Kanye West, Mumford & Sons, and Jay-Z. For a complete list of nominations, click here.

Watch Kelly's Grammy-nominated single below:

Looking Forward To...

The Impossible
Release: December 21, 2012
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Starring: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Oaklee Pendergast, and Samuel Joslin

National Board of Review Winners

Like last year, the National Board of Review is chiming in second to the New York Film Critics Circle with their picks of the best films and performances of the year. But things seems to be coalescing early for one particular film which both groups picked for the top film of the year.

Best Film
Zero Dark Thirty

Top Ten Films
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Lincoln
Looper
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Promised Land
Silver Linings Playbook

Repeating its NYFCC win, Zero Dark Thirty looks like the film to beat so far this awards season, but it's still super early and especially in recent years, the winners of this award has gone on to lose including last year's Hugo and two years ago with The Social Network. The entire list is a bit more indicative as to which films we're going to be seeing over and over again this season, which is why the absence of supposed frontrunners Life of Pi and The Master must be slightly worrying to their fans. With that said, it allowed the organization to branch out a bit from the usual slate giving much needed boosts to film like Looper and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I've seen 6 of the 10 films so far.

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

Breakthrough Performances
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Tom Holland, The Impossible

Best Ensemble Cast
Les Misérables

Spotlight Award
John Goodman (Argo, Flight, Paranorman, Trouble with the Curve)

An acting win here doesn't automatically mean they are Oscar-bound, but it definitely increase one's chances for a nomination. This is a big win then for Bradley Cooper and Ann Dowd who will need some big industry support to catapult them to their first Oscar nominations. This also helps DiCaprio and Wallis especially with increased competition in their respective categories. Finally, we have yet to see an acting win for the Les Miz cast this season including presumed Best Supporting Actress front-runner Anne Hathaway, but the Best Ensemble win here more than helps their cause.

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Debut Director
Behn Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Original Screenplay
Rian Johnson, Looper

Best Adapted Screenplay
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Special Filmmaking Achievement Award
Ben Affleck, Argo

Best Animated Feature
Wreck-It Ralph

Like her film, Kathryn Bigelow right now is dominating the awards buzz. Can she repeat her unprecedented sweep through awards season the way she did a few years ago leading up to her Oscar win for The Hurt Locker? Time will tell! Honors for Behn Zeitlin and Ben Affleck may signal them joining Bigelow for Oscar nominations. That Screenplay win for Looper is another refreshing pick from the group. Finally, score one for Wreck-It Ralph in the all-too competitive and difficult to predict Animated race.

Top Ten Independent Films
Arbitrage
Bernie
Compliance
End of Watch
Hello I Must Be Going
Little Birds
Moonrise Kingdom
On the Road
Quartet
Sleepwalk With Me

Seeing as I've only seen one of these films, the delightful Moonrise Kingdom, I don't have much to say except to chastise myself for not seeing more films. The past two years I would've at least seen 4 of these films by now. Any recommendations which ones I should check out right away?

Best Foreign Film
Amour

Top Five Foreign Films
Barbara
The Intouchables
The Kid with a Bike
No
War Witch

Best Documentary
Searching for Sugar Man

Top Five Documentary Films
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Detropia
The Gatekeepers
The Invisible War
Only the Young

I've only heard good things about Amour, The Intouchables, and Searching for Sugar Man, but unfortunately I've seen exactly none of these films so I have nothing much to say.

William K. Everson Film History Award
50 Years of Bond Films

NBR Freedom of Expression Award
Central Park Five
Promised Land

So in summary, Zero Dark Thirty rules while Les Miz, Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, and Beasts of the Southern Wild are also out in front. Well, at least until the next organization chimes in with their picks and changes the whole story yet again.

Doctor Who Gets TV Guide Fan Favorite

The folks over at BBC America must be thrilled that Doctor Who won this year TV Guide Fan Favorite cover. That would make it the second US magazine to put the long-running British sci-fi show on its cover this year with Entertainment Weekly doing so this past summer. Seems like BBC America's mission to make the time-traveling two-hearted Doctor more accessible and popular over the pond (by hosting screenings in New York and making the cast available at various cons around the country, etc.) is coming to fruition. The show itself has more recently shot in location such as New York City's Central Park and Utah's Monument Valley for a handful of episodes.

Doctor Who is actually on the cusp of celebrating its 50th Anniversary next year and the media and fans alike are already buzzing at all of the possibilities of how the show will mark the impressive milestone. I wouldn't be surprised if current Doctor and magazine cover boy, Matt Smith, will share some screen-time with past Doctors such as David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston. For things a little bit closer to look forward to, Doctor Who's Christmas special, which will re-introduce viewers to the new companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, will be airing in a few weeks on BBC America on Christmas Day.

And just for reference, the show beat out other fan favorite shows this year such as Fringe, Parks & Recreation, The Walking Dead, Pretty Little Liars, Happy Endings, and Vampire Diaries. Former winners include Community and Supernatural.