Unpacking the Academy Award nominations--and snubs

By Sarah Sluis

Early this morning, the Motion Picture Academy announced its nominees. With ten movies in the Best Picture section, this category actually had the least amount of drama. The five-nominee sections actually narrowed the field, removing strong contenders who had critics rooting for them.

The two tiniest films in the Best Picture nominee section, The Kids Are All Right and Winter's Bone, both assembled a smattering of nominations in other sections. Especially for Winter's Bone, this was a big accomplishment. John Hawkes, who hadn't received nearly as much buzz as Best Actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence, scored a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. After adding in the Ozark drama's Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, Winter's Bone scored a total of four nominations.

The Kids Are All Right had a similar scorecard: two acting nominations (Annette Bening for lead female, Mark Ruffalo for supporting male), Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. Julianne Moore, who was just as worthy as Bening in my book, was left off. Maybe it's a question of seniority? Or Moore's terrible Boston accent on "30 Rock"?

One tiny movie that barely got any love from the Academy was Blue Valentine. Michelle Williams is in the mix for Best Actress, but her co-star Ryan Gosling was left off the ballot. A bit of an indie dark horse, it's not that surprising this movie struck out at the Oscars. In all honesty, I think it skewed a little young. There was a lot more talk about Another Year, which skewed older, than Blue Valentine. It's only the fact that Valentine is distributed by Weinstein Co. that it got as far as it did. Another Year's Lesley Manville failed to get an acting nomination despite getting raves for her performance, though director Mike Leigh's script is nominated in the original screenplay category. With just one nomination each, both of these films just barely made it into the Oscars.

The Academy treated a few films very well: 127 Hours rallied with six nominations, though some in lesser categories. Director Danny Boyle didn't get a nod, but he and his co-writer (Slumdog Millionaire Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy) are nominees for the Adapted Screenplay Oscar. True Grit, which got completely snubbed at the Golden Globes with Z-E-R-O nominations, received an astonishing ten nominations, leading the Coens to release a statement saying "Ten seems like an awful lot...we don't want to take anyone else's."

This summer's blockbuster Inception scored eight nominations, but the only big ones were for its script and Best Picture. Director Chris Nolan has now made three Oscar-worthy films (Memento, The Dark Knight, Inception) without earning a directing nomination for himself. One thing's sure, however: Inception will bring home a lot of those more technical awards. Whatever the movie was lacking, jaw-dropping special effects and technical prowess were not among them.

The announcement of the Oscars still puts us over a month away from the big day (33 days away!). Awards fatigue has definitely set in, at least for me--I mean come on, giving out awards for 2010 three whole months after the year ends? Now that the nominations have been announced, however, there will be plenty of time to strategize Oscar picks (hint from Awards Daily: The Social Network) and win the office pool.

Top Ten Movies of 2010

By Sarah Sluis

This year has been an odd one at the box office. Last year it was all about Avatar, the big, Hollywood crowd-pleaser that everyone could get behind. It was the kind of film all blockbusters should aspire to. In 2010, commercial fare has been much more disappointing. Even films angling for Oscars often didn't meet my expectations. Unlike others, I wasn't wowed by The Fighter and The Social Network didn't live up to my (perhaps unfairly high) expectations. What follows, in no particular order, are the films that got me excited this year. These are the films that didn't just do something well, they did it differently, and often with an uncommon eye for realism.

1. How to Train Your Dragon. Pixar may be the king of CG animation, but this DreamWorks Animation movie had the entire package: striking cinematography, a lovable male hero, and a unique world for audiences to explore. The dark, shadowy look of the film was very adult, but the movie's appeal was universal.

2. Tabloid. I saw this movie at the Doc NYC Fest, and it's yet to find a distributor. I may be jumping the gun, but I predict this documentary will be showing up on "Best Of" lists in 2011. Errol Morris' comedic turn tops even his early work on Gates of Heaven. The story of a beauty queen and her kidnapping of her Mormon ex-lover is so crazy, it could only be true. The third act twist that will leave your mouth agape.

3. The King's Speech. This feel-good awards movie is one I really can get behind. Directed by Tom Hooper ("John Adams"), this fact-based tale actually breathes, with quiet moments that delicately lead us through the lightly comedic story. At the end, I was rooting for King George's speech like it was a sports match (I hope I don't denigrate the film by comparing it to the stirring end of The Mighty Ducks). This may be a "traditional" Oscar film, but it's done so impeccably, it's hard not to like. Added bonus: It's gentle and inoffensive enough to bring the whole family to without embarrassment.

4. Tiny Furniture. Actress/director/writer Lena Dunham is one to watch. I may be biased: She's a just-out-of-college Oberlin grad, I'm a few-years-out-of-college Wesleyan grad, making us of the same ilk. In this semi-autobiographical film, the whole post-graduate experience becomes an opportunity to make fun of her character in an extremely naturalistic, painfully funny way. She has no fear, and not only makes herself look unflattering in front of the camera, she stages some truly cringe-worthy scenes--and did I mention she cast her mother and sister as her mother and sister?

5. Winter's Bone. In television, there's that "sitcom" living room and kitchen, which never seem to change no matter who the family is supposed to be. Film has the same problem, with the same glossed-over settings used again and again, and production designers that just can't help themselves from designing adorable spaces for supposedly average families. Winter's Bone changes all of that, filming in the Ozarks and using local actors to show outsiders what it's like to live in a rural, meth-infested world. I saw a part of America I'd never seen before.

6. Cyrus. Most romantic comedies are terrible, which is too bad, because I really like hearing funny stories about relationships. Cyrus was filled with moments that registered as funny because they were so close to real life, and didn't overplay its hand when it came to the battle between a woman's boyfriend and her son. Last year's (500) Days of Summer had the "rom-com" spot on my list, and this year it goes to Cyrus.

7. Somewhere. Sofia Coppola has the ability to slip you into this moody state of mind, and it's a pleasure to spend an hour and a half following a movie star with a mildly tragic case of ennui. His daughter (Elle Fanning) is charming, and even an "is-this-it?" ending didn't scratch this one off my top ten list.

8. Restrepo. This was a tough one, as Alex Gibney's Casino Jack and the United States of Money was also one of my favorites. But keeping to my theme, originality and reality won out. Like Winter's Bone, Restrepo presents a world that I never knew existed. The stakes of war feel so different here than on the evening news or in a war drama. I sensed that the filmmakers, Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, really cared for the soldiers I sensed that the movie's creators, Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, really cared for the soldiers they filmed in Afghanistan, but they aren't afraid to show moments that raise questions about their actions. The film offers a nuanced look at the impact of these Americans who are both making things worse and making things better. One thing's clear: it's time to bring our troops home.

9. Mother and Child. Weeks after leaving this movie, what I most wanted was to see more of Kerry Washington (she's currently in Night Catches Us), who plays a super-eager type-A wife who desperately wants to adopt a child. But she's just one part of the whole picture, with the cruelly cold Naomi Watts and sad Annette Bening offering three perspectives on mother-child relationships. A kind of modern melodrama, director Rodrigo Garca's sadly overlooked tale left a deep impression.

10. Blue Valentine. This Ryan Gosling/Michelle Williams tale of an imploding romance made it to the list because of its intense realism. Screenwriters Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis and Kami Delavigne have this incredible ear for toxic conversations, and it's awe-inducing to hear this couple break each other down without even raising their voices (though there are plenty of screaming matches), through seemingly innocent requests and comments. The sad story has a scientific level of precision, able to capture in detail the seismic activity that precedes a volcanic eruption. For that, it's one of my favorite films this year, and one that I hope will be rewarded at the Oscars.

'Winter's Bone' leads Gotham Independent Nominations

By Sarah Sluis

The Gotham Independent Film Awards released their nominations, and with three nods, Winter's Bone leads the pack. The film now occupies the place in the awards arena that The Hurt Locker held last year Of course, that's no guarantee that the movie will end up gleanding the most awards, as The Hurt Locker did, but it has well-positioned Winter's Bone for the awards season.

While the Gotham Independent Awards stays close to its mission and really does reward movies with small budgets and under-the-radar followings, its picks occasionally appear in that holy grail of awards ceremonies, the Oscars (besides The Hurt Locker, Capote and Sideways have ended up with Oscar nods for Best Picture).

Winter's Bone has the best chance of securing the following Academy Award nominations: Best Actress for newcomer Jennifer Lawrence (though she doesn't have nearly the amount of momentum as last year's ingnue nominee, Carey Mulligan), and Best Film. With ten nominees for the top film, the drama has a definite chance of squeezing in.

Then there's the subject matter. Winter's Bone is the anti-Blind Side. It's a "flyover state" movie without the sentimentality. Its depressing realism makes the based-on-a-true-story The Blind Side seem like a fairy tale. Jennifer Lawrence plays a young woman whose father has skipped bail after putting the family house on the line as collateral. She journeys through a meth-riddled criminal world in a quest to find her father and save her home in the Ozarks. This is the kind of movie that can make L.A. and New York-based Oscar voters feel like they "know" or "get" the in-between states. In the name of cross-geographical understanding, who wouldn't want to vote for this film?

I'm putting Winter's Bone back in my list of contenders. So far, many of the awards-seeking movies have failed to top Winter's Bone, and I'm rooting for this quiet underdog. Here's hoping Roadside Attractions can mount a campaign for it.

Debut of 'Resident Evil: Afterlife' marks new high for franchise

By Sarah Sluis

The franchise responsible for Resident Evil: Afterlife is alive and well. The fourth installment of the video game adaptation debuted higher than all three previous movies, finishing the weekend with a robust $27.7 million. Consistent with many action/horror/sci-fi genre films, the movie had its biggest night on Friday, to

the tune of $10.8 million, before slowly declining over Saturday and Sunday. Afterlife inched out the last Resident Evil film by $4 million. The reason for Afterlife's stunning performance, however, may not be the health of the franchise but the profitability of 3D. The 141 IMAX screens (compared to 3,000 regular screens) contributed $2.6 million to the box office, and over two-thirds of the screens were shown in 3D theatres charging premiums for seats.

The race for second place between holdovers Takers and The American ended with Takers on top with $6.1 million. Though the slick heist movie finished below The American last week, it declined just 43% to The American's 55% fall. The latter film, starring George Clooney, was expected to have a more leggy run due to its appeal among older audiences, so its second-week slump to $5.8 million could be telling.

Joaquin Phoenix's sorta-documentary I'm Still Here just surpassed $100,000 over the weekend, playing at 19 locations with a $5,500 per-screen average. Phoenix is expected on "Letterman" Sept. 22, a

year after his bizarre interview with the late-night host that circulated virally, so that added publicity could be a boon to its box-office take two weeks from now.

The all-star cast of The Romantics helped earned the film a stellar $22,200 per-screen average during its opening weekend at two screens in New York and Los Angeles. Leading lady Katie Holmes hasn't been seen much on screen lately, but if that wasn't a draw, "True Blood" star Anna Paquin, Elijah Wood, Josh Duhamel and Malin Akerman gave this movie an above-average roster.

The re-release of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse failed to do much--including to push the movie over the $300 million vanity mark. Its $745,000 was far below the low single-digit millions predicted, but represented a 71% boost from the previous week. That's right, this "re-release" is actually still playing in select theatres.

Specialty releases showing big increases included director Rob Reiner's Flipped, which went from 28 to 442 screens and boosted its gross 863% to $490,000. Its $1,000 per-screen average is a less promising figure, but positive reviews from critics like Roger Ebert and its family-friendly reputation could propel this film further.

In its fourteenth week, Winter's Bone rose 21% to $143,000, adding to its over $5 million gross. When I saw the movie, I was surprised by the representation of Ozark life, sensing the authenticity of its realism; apparently the movie has played quite well in the Ozark region, where audiences have responded to its mirror-like realism and thriller feeling.

Another mover-and-shaker in the specialty market is Animal Kingdom, which has amassed almost $750,000 in five weeks. The Australian crime drama rose 9% this week, and the 61-screen release accumulated another $122,000.

This Friday, four wide releases enter the mix: Warner Bros.' Boston crime drama The Town, the 3D animated Alpha and Omega, teen sex comedy Easy A, and horror picture Devil. The much-buzzed documentary Catfish and the spare but heart-wrenching Never Let Me Go will also make their debut on specialty screens.

'The Karate Kid' revives franchise with high-kicking weekend

By Sarah Sluis

This weekend, one '80's spin-off flopped and another soared. The Karate Kid, a feel-good remake of a popular franchise first launched in 1984, opened above expectations at $56 million. Our critic Ethan Alter was right on the mark when he called the movie a "formulaic but savvy remake." Well-made genre movies

always have an extra edge at the box office, in my opinion. The kid action movie's success will most likely spawn a remake. The original franchise spanned four films and included different stars (Hilary Swank starred in the final one, The Next Karate Kid, in 1994), so a similar future could be in store for The Karate Kid. I also have my money on an uptick in kids signing up for martial arts classes.

Iraq-set action comedy The A-Team opened with $26 million, a more modest debut. The movie was met with a 53% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes compared to The Karate Kid's 70% rating, so

perception of quality could have made a difference. Still, the opening number was high enough that Variety felt the "Iraq box office curse" had lifted.

Among returning releases in the top ten, Shrek Forever After fared the best. The animated movie finished in third place with $26 million and boasted the lowest week-to-week drop in the top ten, 38%. The remaining movies in the top ten fell 40-60%. Get Him to the Greek stayed in the seven-digits with a $10.1 million take, and Killers finished its second week with $8.1 million. Kid-directed pet movie Marmaduke fell 48% even with competition from The Karate Kid, wrapping up with $6 million.

Sundance Grand Jury Award prizewinner Winter's Bone debuted with a strong $21,000 per-screen average on four screens. Last year's prizewinner in that category, Precious, made a splash at the box office and the Oscars, but this movie will be taking a quieter route.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, Sony Pictures Classics' second Chanel-themed release in less than a year (after Coco Before Chanel), posted a $16,000 per-screen average on three screens. The Lottery, a Tribeca documentary about charter schools (featured in Screener during the festival) opened on a single screen and finished up with $17,200.

This Friday, Toy Story 3 will lead the pack of releases, opening opposite action-driven Jonah Hex.

'Karate Kid' and 'A-Team' offer action-driven entertainment

By Sarah Sluis

A new Hollywood legacy could be in the works with The Karate Kid (3,663 theatres). Jaden Smith, who starred with his father Will in The Pursuit of Happyness in 2006, has his first lead role in the kiddie action

movie, which also stars Jackie Chan. The remake of the 1984 movie takes the Detroit-bred kid (Smith) to China, where he is beaten up by bullies and must turn to his building's janitor (Chan) to learn a way to fight back. Reviews have been fairly positive, and parents who feel sentimental toward the original movie could augment its performance. Our critic Frank Lovece called the movie "formulaic but not in a bad way" and praised the "naturalness" of Smith's performance, who seems "like a genuinely irritating 12-year-old and not a ham-fisted, obnoxious movie 12-year-old."

Another remake, this time of an 80's television show, The A-Team hits 3,534 theatres and will be duking it out at the box office with The Karate Kid. This remake, however, is "almost comically nonsensical"

according to critic Ethan Alter. The filmmakers "spend two hours covering the exact same ground that the show handily summarized in the voiceover narration that played over the opening credits." Iraq serves as the backdrop to much of the action, in contrast to the more serious, reality-driven movies that have set the action in the country.

The two new releases will have to go up against Shrek Forever After, which has been in first place for four weeks, as well as Get Him to the Greek, which has held strong in second place during the weekdays. Last week's release Killers, in contrast, has fallen down rather sharply, despite opening in the same range as Greek.

A number of specialty releases round out the weekend mix. Winter's Bone, the winner of the

Sundance Grand Jury Prize, will open in four theatres in N.Y. and L.A. Reviewing this "grim story of persistence," critic John DeFore predicted that the "grit and the tenacity of its young heroine will resonate with some viewers," and I count myself as one of them. I also agree with his warning that the movie is "slow to get going and uningratiating," but it's worth it for the look at Appalachia culture.

Documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work will entertain audiences in seven theatres. It's an overwhelmingly positive portrait of the comedian, but critic Doris Toumarkine enjoyed the insights into "what fuels her ineffable drive and what keeps her up at night."

On Monday, results of The A-Team vs. The Karate Kid will be in, and we'll see which specialty film opened high enough to dominate in weeks ahead.