Reaction to the Golden Globe and SAG Nominations

Hello there Readers!

I have not be able to post any of my reactions to this years award-season films yet and am very happy to update on some great films I have seen! The Help lived up to the hype and was a fantastic ensemble piece worthy of it's acclaim. Shame is daring and gripping and Michael Fassbender will hopefully be recognized. Ides of March was a complete surprise and impressed me (I was not a fan of Good Night and Good Luck).

In terms of my early summer predictions of "People to Watch", I did not see Dicaprio's J. Edgar to be poorly received and I was strongly disappointed with some of the over-acting of Knightley in A Dangerous Method (the performance felt a tad forced but I give her respect).



Now onto the Nominations!

Sag Award Nominations

Surprises: Demian Bicir for Lead Male Actor for A Better Life. Patrick J. Adams, Best Male Actor Drama Series, Suits.

Snubs: Parks and Recreation and Community.

 For Full List of Nominees go here: http://www.imdb.com/oscars/nominations/screen-actors-guild

Golden Globe Nominations

Surprises and Snubs: No Gary Oldman. No David Fincher, No Alan Rickman, No Harry Potter love, No Best Original Song nominations for The Muppets or "So Long" from Winnie the Pooh.

For Full List of Nominees go here: http://www.imdb.com/oscars/nominations/golden-globes

Final thoughts: The Artist, The Descendants, and The Help are the front-runners, leading the nominations. George Clooney is leading towards a Best Actor Oscar with Jean Dujardin gaining on him. Glenn Close and Viola Davis also seem like a tight race. I am mostly pleased but would love to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Muppets receive Supporting Actor and Original Song talk.


Full reviews and thoughts on the Best of 2011 coming soon along with a BAYLEY AND NAPOLI VIDEO BLOG of our TOP TEN BEST OF THE YEAR.


See you at the Movies!


-Bayley

Oscars Watch 2012!!!!

It's October again. One of my favorite times of the year: Football is in full swing, Baseball is coming to an epic close, the leaves are changing, there's an autumn-ish smell in the air, so on and so forth. But....it is also time for award season in Hollywood, with films aiming to garner praise from critics and audiences alike. One of my favorite things to do each year is to see as many films as I can, review them with my fellow film-enthusiast Michael Napoli, and make predictions on what films will get nominated for the top awards. Usually, we will predict the Oscar nominations around October (almost as a round-up of top films to see based on word of mouth and film-crews), then make final predictions the week before the nominations are announced. (Sidenote: We like to bet burgers on who will come closest to the final nominations. Try it, it's a hoot). Then we predict the winners. Welp, here are my choices for the nominations from the 2011 films. Leave comments on who you think will be nominated this year, films you cannot wait to see, and what you feel about my rankings.

Final note: The #1 slot is who I am predicting to win at this moment. This is all based on trailers, predictions, word of mouth, actor praise, etc. Yes, they are ranked in order.

Best Supporting Actress

1. Keira Knightley: A Dangerous Method

2. Bernice Bejo- The Artist

3. Vanessa Redgrave- Corialus

4. Octavia Spencer- The Help

5. Carey Mulligan- Shame

Best Supporting Actor

1. Christopher Plummer- Beginners

2. Albert Brooks- Drive

3. Kenneth Branagh- My Week with Marilyn

4. Robert Forster- The Descendants

5. Alan Rickman- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Best Actress

1. Glenn Close- Albert Nobbs

2. Michelle Williams- My Week With Marilyn

3. Viola Davis- The Help

4. Rooney Mara- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

5. Elizabeth Olsen- Martha Marcy May Marlene

*I am also watching out for Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia. Must note this.

Best Actor

1. Leonardo Dicaprio- J. Edgar

2. Gary Oldman- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

3. Jean Dujardin- The Artist

4. George Clooney- The Descendants

5. Michael Shannon- Take Shelter
*Johnny Depp for The Rum Diary is also a very big contender.

Directing

1. Steven Spielberg- War Horse

2. Michel Hazanvicius- The Artist

3.   Clint Eastwood- J. Edgar

4. David Fincher- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

5. Alexander Payne- The Descendants

Best Picture

1. War Horse

2. The Artist

3. The Descendants

4. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

5. The Help

6. J. Edgar

My reasoning is this. Kiera Knightley seems to be bringing her "Oscar game" in the A Dangerous Method trailer. She's been nominated before. I think she may have a real shot this year. Glenn Close is playing a woman pretending to be a man and is getting critical buzz for her performance so she's a frontrunner at Best Actress. Christopher Plummer is a veteran actor who has NEVER WON. This is nuts. This could be his year. Finally, Dicaprio has been crying out for an Oscar ever since The Aviator. He is a multiple nominee that everyone wants to see win. He is teamed up with Clint Eastwood's direction in a biopic that seems to be fully utilizing him in a vehicle showcasing his craft. If this isn't his year...then I don't know what to say. 

I'm a David Fincher guy and my most anticipated film of the year is The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. But War Horse is a Tony Award winning play adapted into a film by one of the greatest film-makers of all time who hasn't won Best Director or Picture since Schindler's List. The Oscars may want to show him some love if he can pull this off. Also, if you haven't seen The Artist trailer, go NOW and see it. If pulled off as a crowd-pleaser, it could win it all.

-Daniel Bayley

"Crazy, Stupid, Love" Review -Bayley

Crazy, Stupid, Love is just so gosh-darn lovable that it's flaws have brought me into a state of confusion. Do I love it because it was "crazy" and a little "stupid" or did I find some of it to not work? What I can tell you is that it has a heart to it. It's sweet and funny and will put you in a great mood. What else could you really ask for from a romantic comedy now days, right?


Steve Carrell (The Office) plays Cal: A man who in the first scene of the film has his heart broken by his wife, Emily (played by Julianne Moore), as she asks for a divorce at dinner in a restaurant. This causes him to repeatedly go out to a cocktail lounge to drink away some misery, until Jacob notices him. Ryan Goslings' "Jacob" takes it upon himself to give Cal a confidence boost by going with him on a shopping spree montage of fine clothing and giving him a few helpful tips and one-liners to pick up women. It works. Not only for the character Cal, who gains confidence and even meets a lovely, energetic nutcase (Kate, played by Marisa Tomei), but it works for us as the audience. Cal is so funnily heartbroken and Gosling's performance as Jacob strikes just the right chord between effortlessly cool and spot-on sharp, that their likability just enhances the chemistry.

The only problems are that there are so many sideplots that it actually hinders the story in a few places. With Cal's son falling for the family babysitter, to Emma Stone's "Hannah" finding herself into Jacob's life, to Emily's affair with David Lindhagen, played by Kevin Bacon, there is a nice balance to it all but it's only inevitable that something would get shortchanged. I found it to be Emily's backstory. Why did she find herself sleeping with David Lindhagen in the first place? What was going wrong in her marriage with Cal? She never really tells us fully. We never know. We are supposed to side with both characters in the divorce because they are sympathetic and we want them to reconnect. We're supposed to get into the present and forget that past but that's bothersome because that's the catalyst for the entire plot!

One other problem bothered me about this film that stops it from being perfect.....

(MINOR SPOILER ALERT)


There is a climax in the plot at the son's graduation scene where speeches are made and character's get their revelations, so on and so forth. The film almost feels very realistic, for a romantic comedy in it's formula anyway. This scene breaks that off and goes into such unrealistic territory that it's annoying. Why did this script need this scene? Why couldn't the setting have changed?

(END SPOILERS)



I will say this. The script does have plenty of twists and surprises to keep you thoroughly engaged. It's rare to have things come up where, in this day and age, you do not see them coming, but writer Dan Fogelman at least was able to have it happen. My full fledged praise for this film goes out to the cast, particularly Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Ryan Gosling is truly one of the most talented young actors working today. He has had his serious and intense roles but he owns this role, giving us something new and enjoyable to watch once again. If Jacob was too much of his "character", he could have been tiring and we could have thought he is purely all outer persona and not anything within. With Gosling working, we keep wanting more Jacob. He steals every scene until Stone shares it with him. Her personality is too attractive to not enjoy. She has a presence and talent there. You can see it fully-fledged in Easy A but here,when you are the most memorable person in a film full of this cast, you have to give credit to her. 

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a good film and an enjoyable film that could have been perfect. That is the only reason as a review it may seem a tad harsh. But with every character being fun to watch and a story told well enough to have you smiling, if you were looking to see the film, it just may be the ticket you will want to buy.

Bayley:  3/4 Stars.

Alan Rickman is leading the Supporting Actor Oscar race! -Bayley

Harry Potter is a cultural phenomena. I don't need to say what hasn't already been said. At this time, on August 5th, the "final" film of the franchise Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 has grossed $1, 018, 425, 686 worldwide and is also the #8 highest grossing film of all-time (imdb.com).  The crazy thing is by next week all these statistics will be obsolete as it racks in more money. I have seen the film twice and feel that it is a worthy edition and finale in the most successful film franchise of all-time and is quite possibly the best of all eight films. But the surprise chatter about this film is actor Alan Rickman's, Severus Snape, character. With famous critics such as Ebert and Roeper giving Oscar-worthy predictions and praise to him, it's something to think about. Critics and fans start the catalyst of buzz and while it is hard to maintain this buzz all the way til Oscar season (starting roughly at the beginning of October), one could say this is sure to withstand the months. But why?

Well, Rickman is a screen veteran. Having starred in films and television since 1971, I will always remember him as Hans Gruber from Die Hard ("Now I have a machine gun....ho ho ho"......what a guy!).  He is definitely most famous for this role of Severus Snape, whose mystery and complexity have given readers enough for some to call him their favorite character. In the films, his story arc is slow to gain its complete stride. In Sorcerer's Stone he is introduced as a possible villain and is in the spotlight but for films 2-4, he is merely doing his "Snape" thing, so to speak. This is in no way a bad thing. Rickman has fun with the role, even giving a certain "broken down" sentence verbalization of the lines that has now become synonymous with the role. In 5-8, he gets much more to do. From helping Harry to keep Voldemort from penetrating his mind, to the final moments on screen, we get the character we thought was a villain, become just a pissed off teacher, to a villain, to a misunderstood hero. Woah.

"I wish I had another change of clothes in these films..."

But the point I truly wanted to make was about this final film and final performance. Here, the character of Snape is revealed for who he is. All the readers wanted to see how this character would be portrayed in his pivotal moments. I must say, it did not disappoint anyone I think I have spoken to at all. The scene in particular that many point out as THE scene from the film, is the montage of Snape's memories. It's the emotional pull of the film (besides the ties your Harry Potter-reading heart's had when you realized your childhood was ending before your eyes). Rickman is only in a few scenes of the film but he was able to play everything perfectly and not break his moody character but rather add a heart to it that we always knew was there and were waiting to see revealed.

Can Rickman get nominated for Best Supporting Actor come Oscar time? Yes. Why? Three main reasons come to mind...
1. The Academy wants to acknowledge the Harry Potter Series- The films may have been tucked away as 'just blockbusters' or "children's films", but this one hit a dramatic level that critics and audiences are fully embracing.
2. Rickman has never been nominated for an Oscar before- The Academy loves to acknowledge under-appreciated actors with long careers, especially with a character that solidifies their career. Here you go...
3. If Judi Dench can win Best Supporting Actress for Shakespeare In Love in 1998 for being on-screen for eight minutes, why not Rickman?- Right?

Leave your feedback on this year's Oscar contender's so far and if you are on board with me about Alan Rickman. And please, if you haven't seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 yet (and you're reading this?), then please go see it and rent all the films previous to it because they truly will be remembered films.

Bayley and Napoli "At the Movies"!

-Hello Everyone!

We have been planning to do this for some time and the blog is finally here! Daniel Bayley and Michael Napoli are two students studying film at St. Johns University and Desales University, respectively. Daniel has written film reviews for TheCinemaSource.com and the two have compiled lists for the Best Films in Hollywood for the past six years. We have been inspired by film critics, such as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, since we were children and have always wanted to collaborate online about our thoughts on films. Look out for our film reviews, lists of favorites of 2011, and podcasts with some of our friends! We look forward to your feedback and your thoughts on films...because that's what it's all about! Filmmakers share art and we want to talk passionately with all those who enjoy it as much as we do. We look forward to the future because where we're going....we don't need roads.

-Bayley and Napoli At the Movie Theater