Reel Insight Episode 72: Oscar Nominations!

Check out our new episode - we discuss lots of things that annoy us and thrill us about the Oscars - and of course we never agree.  Lots of fun is had and TONS of movies discussed.  Send us feed back at reelinsight at gmail.com!

30 Days of Oscar Day 5: The Descendents

Movie: The Descendents
Year: 2012
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director - Alexander Payne, Best Actor - George Clooney, Film Editing (Kevin Tent), Adapted Screenplay (
Wins/Snubs: I'm guessing Clooney will win, but the others will go home empty handed.  Although based on other groups nominations, Editing has a good chance.  Also, if the Academy doesn't want to award Aaron Sorkin two years in a row for Moneyball, I could see this winning Adapted Screenplay as well.   As for snubs, now that I've seen it, I can get on the bandwagon for a Shailene Woodley nomination for supporting actress.  Personally, I'd trade her out for Jessica Chastain in The Help.  I think Chastain would deserve her nomination for Tree of Life but not The Help.  

There aren't a lot of movies that can stand up to a single-sentence description and rise above it, but The Descendants is one of the few.  The Descendants is the story of Matt King (Clooney), a man dealing with telling his loved ones about the impending death of his wife after finding out she was having an affair.  The movie is so much more than that.  I know Whitney (from Frankly, My Dear) hates it when a place is described as a character in a film, but Hawaii plays a particularly strong role in this film.  Matt is a lawyer who is the trustee of his family's land trust that is dissolving and selling off pristine land on Kauai.  The land has been in the family for more than a century and the concept of selling off paradise is examined throughout the film as strangers talk to Matt about his decision to sell.  This is horribly timing as Matt also has to deal with the unexpected and slow death of his wife from a boating accident.  She didn't want to be kept alive on machines, so the time has come and Matt wants to give friends and family the chance to say goodbye.  He has gone to the Big Island pick up his older daughter Alex (Shailene Woodley) at private school and bring her home to help with his other daughter during this time.  She is the one who saw her mother having an affair and now knows it's time to tell her father.  His reaction is one of the best and most real moments of someone finding out about an affair I've ever seen.  He's obviously upset, but is balancing that with the idea that maybe it doesn't matter anymore, but he still wants to know.  This battle continues as he gets some details from Alex - then he runs out the door and runs (literally) to a friends house to get the rest of the details.  

The rest of the film plays out in unexpected ways - Matt is coming to grips with what he life actually was: his anger with his dying wife, the distance he has from his daughters, and the family legacy that he is guardian of for now.  I loved seeing them travel around Hawaii, from Oahu to the Big Island to Kauai and back.  It's a really gorgeous setting to put this unbelievably difficult story of lies and betrayal and family.  But the real winner is Clooney - he is in almost every scene of the film, and even though he's dressed in Hawaiian business dress (Hawaiian shirt and pants or shorts), he's really far from being "The Man in the Suit" he's done in the past.  There are no moments of acting with only his eyebrows or his "chin and grin".  He acts better than I've ever seen him with more authenticity than almost any actor has ever done.  


In addition to Shailene Woodley being Matt's best support during this crisis, there are some terrific supporting characters that only make an appearance for a scene or two - Beau Bridges as a cousin, Judy Greer in a non-comedic role, Robert Forster as Matt's father-in-law, and newcomer Nick Krause as "Sid", Alex's dopey friend who goes on this journey with them all.  Alexander Payne did a terrific job putting this film together and I know it won't leave the Oscar's empty handed this year.  5 of 5 stars/lambs

30 Days of Oscar Day 4: Ice Castles

Movie: Ice Castles
Year: 1980
Nominations: Best Original Song, "Theme from Ice Castles (Through the eyes of Love)", Marvin Hamlish and Carole Bayer Sager
Wins/Snubs: It lost the award to "It Goes Like it Goes" from Norma Rae, though it totally SHOULD have lost to "Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie

This movie requires a little explanation for why it ended up in my list at all.  I grew up in the 1980s in Northern New York.  Figure skating or hockey are all but required for children there.  So the skating part of this movie and the Olympics of 1980 drew me in.  But really, it's because I've heard of this stupid song since I first learned to play the piano as a kid.  I would buy popular music to learn to play - Paul Simon, Whitney Houston, lots of other 80s hits.  Well, the "Theme from Ice Castles" was ALWAYS in the compilations I bought.  But I'd never heard the song or seen the movie as it came out the year I was born.  It's not even rated R so I'm surprised this wasn't on TV all the time when I was a kid.  But until I watched it for this feature, I'd really never seen it.  

Sadly, it really doesn't live up to the hype in my head.  Ice Castles is very TV-Movie of the week about a girl with natural skating ability who is recruited to train for the Olympics.  She makes it pretty far, but can't take the pressure and in a moment of pique makes a big mistake on the ice and is injured and loses her sight.  Her ex-boyfriend, who gave up med school to try to play hockey, forces her to learn to skate again, and she returns to competition.  It's not as good as The Cutting Edge for skating fun, and almost any other sports movie is more moving, and any movie about a person overcoming a disability will move you more.  However, as a movie that was nominated for it's song and theme, this movie does a great job.  The theme plays over the opening credits with lyrics.  That's the first introduction to the song and it really sets the tone and feeling for the film.  Throughout the rest of it, particularly when Lexie is skating, the theme plays without lyrics.  It's integral to the movie, which many nominated songs are not anymore.  So for that alone, I can support this nomination.  

30 Days of Oscar Day 3: The Bishop's Wife

Movie: The Bishop's Wife
Year: 1948
Nominations: Best Picture, Director (Henry Koster - went on to direct Harvey and My Man Godfrey), Sound, Recording, Editing and Score
Wins/Snubs: This film won Sound, Recording.  It lost Best Picture to Gentleman's Agreement, which I'd never heard of and now really want to see based on this win and the fact that it's directed by Elia Kazan who took the directing prize.  While Loretta Young was NOT nominated for her performance in The Bishop's Wife, she did win the Best Actress Oscar in 1948 for The Farmer's Daughter. Also nominated for Best Picture that year was Miracle on 34th Street.  

I had never seen The Bishop's Wife before now, though I had seen the remake The Preacher's Wife from 1995 starring Whitney Houston in Loretta Young's titular role and Denzel Washington in the role Cary Grant plays in The Bishop's Wife.  While not a horrible film, the original outshines the remake on all fronts.   I noted above that Miracle on 34th Street was also nominated for Best Picture in 1948.  That makes two Christmas movies nominated for Best Picture in the same year.  I'm not sure I can name a third Christmas movie after It's a Wonderful Life that would get nominated for an Oscar.  

This is a wonderfully sweet movie that follows an angel's intervention in a Bishop's marriage at Christmas.  Dudley (Cary Grant) arrives to help Henry (David Nevin), the bishop, who has been ignoring his wife and daughter in the effort to get the funding to get a cathedral built.  Dudley makes Henry's wife, Julia (Loretta Young), remember why she should be happy about being the Bishop's wife.  Meanwhile Dudley has told Henry that he is an angel coming to help him out during the holidays.  We see Dudley manipulate different situations with a bit of magic to help open people's eyes.  He does have to deal with some ruffled feathers when people think he's having an affair with Julia, which he does particularly well.  I loved watching Cary Grant in this role - he often plays the man in charge, who knows more than the viewer, and more than the leading lady at least. But this time, he knows more than everyone in the film - he's totally in charge of directing the story.  He plays it really well.  There are some funny/cute dated moments when you can really obviously seen stunt doubles ice skating.  It's incredibly heart warming, and if you're looking for a new Christmas movie next season, definitely check this one out.  

30 Days of Oscar Day 2: In a Better World

Movie: In a Better World
Year: 2010
Nominations: Best Foreign film (Denmark)
Wins/Snubs: Won Best Foreign film.  Beat out Dogtooth, Biutiful, Incendies, and Outside the Law


I saw Biutiful in theaters and heard and read a lot about both Dogtooth and Incendies.  This is probably the most of a foreign language category I've ever known.  Now that I've seen In a Better World, I'm pretty sure they got it right.  I really liked this film.  

It's two intersecting stories linked by one character.  The first follows two boys who live a really crappy existence (though both have successful parents who barely leave them alone).  Christian has just lost his mother and been brought by his dad from London to Denmark to live with this grandmother.  He meets Elias, who has been taunted ("Rat Face") every day and his bike tires flattened every day.  Christian has a lot of rage and decides to do something to stop the bullying.  The bullying does stop, but it does show something about Christian that Elias is a little unsure about (*cough* sociopath).  


The parallel story follows Elias' father, Anton, who is a doctor working in a refugee camp in Africa (I don't think they say, but it looks like Sudan).  He sees the worst kinds of tragedies - particularly the victims of a "warlord" who likes to bet on the sex of pregnant women's babies and cuts them open to find out.  Anton is trying to be a good doctor and help this.  And this work has given him perspective on the world that makes it hard for him to relate to his family when he goes back to Denmark.  He tries to impart to his sons, and Christian what it is to rise above bullies, but Christian can only see hurting them so they won't hurt you.  

This movie is really powerful, and well crafted.  You don't have too much handed to you or spelled out, but the message comes across well and the parallels are there to be drawn.  I can see how it wouldn't work for some people, but I really enjoyed it and think it deserved it's Golden Globe and Oscar.  

30 Days of Oscar Day 1: City Lights

I had so much fun running this feature last year (and got a LAMMY nomination for it) that I decided to run it again.  The point was to fill some gaps in my knowledge of award nominated films.  However, I also used the opportunity to look at films I've already seen through the lens of an Oscar nomination.  You can take a look at the movies I saw last year here.  The point was just to try to see what they saw that made them award worthy and to see who they lost to or ultimately beat for the award.


Movie: City Lights
Year: 1931
Nominations: None
Wins/Snubs: Best Picture nomination should have been a given, but silent films were already over.


I'm breaking my own "rules" right off the bat.  In honor of The Artist I wanted to watch Charlie Chaplin's best silent film.  According to Wikipedia, Hollywood had embrace talking films in 1928 and by 1931 they were almost obsolete.  Chaplin had lots of his own money and managed to get City Lights made.  Following his most famous character, simply "The Tramp", it's a romantic comedy with all the best slap-stick, mistaken identity, and humor tinged with romance and really terrific acting.  

The plot is remarkably basic - a Tramp meets a blind woman selling flowers.  He is intrigued and thinks about her all day.  At the water he meets a drunk millionaire about to kill himself.  The Tramp saves his life and they become fast friends.  However, when the millionaire wakes up sober, he doesn't remember anything.  Hijinks ensue and of course the Tramp does very well and gets the girl. The hijinks are laugh out loud funny (though if you've never seen this, they may seem overly cliched - so try to put them in context while watching it).  Virginia Cherrill plays the blind woman and is famous for this role, but also for becoming Mrs. Cary Grant.  Her interaction with The Tramp is funny and sweet.  

If you've never seen a silent movie, definitely check this one out.  If you've already seen The Artist and want another one, this is terrific.  With a wonderful score (written by Chaplin) and intertitle dialogue, it's easy to follow without getting bored.  The story is complex, but it does make you see how great a film-maker Chaplin was given the restraint he exhibits, but not filming this with speaking and limiting the actual dialogue to the necessary.  Modern filmmakers and particularly actors could learn a lot from this film. 5 of 5 stars/lambs

New Release: Animal Edition

This is a special occasion.  Two new releases at once.  And both deal with animals, War Horse and We Bought a Zoo.  I won't be surprised if War Horse gets nominated for some Oscars next week, but I doubt anything will be said about We Bought a Zoo until it gets released on DVD in a few months.  But really, these movies aren't terribly far apart in content or appeal to the average viewer.  One treads a bit more on the comedic side, and the other takes advantage of spectacular visuals to tell its story.  And while their triumphs differ quite a bit, the faults with both films are remarkably similar.

I'll start with the faults and the describe what I liked about each film individually.  The fault lies mostly with the great big gaps in the story-telling.  I'm not saying they should have held me by the hand to get from point A through the end, but I think both films fall short by setting up a rich, deep structure and then failing to follow through on the promise that the film begins.  Both films end with heart lifting triumph (though not as perfect and sweet as you might expect, there are deaths that will upset you) and overcome implausible scenarios.  But, the second act in both films, once we've left the original premise, flounders around a bit, unsure of exactly where to go.  But in neither film is this horribly problematic, it just keeps the film from being really great.

Okay, War Horse.  The story of Joey, a thoroughbred bought to be a plow horse. The bond between Joey and the little boy who buys him is the driving force for the film - will they be able to stay together.  When WWI is declared, Joey is sold to be an officer's horse.  We follow Joey through the war, changing hands and enduring horror, watching him be afraid and know fun and even joy.  I won't spoil the ending, just to say it's really a beautifully shot scene, which unfortunately doesn't fit well with the coloring of the rest of the film.  As a stand alone scene it's pretty amazing, but it just seems out of place.  I really, really liked Joey.  If it's possible for a horse to be a good actor, he is.  Spielberg did a great job getting the horse to show human-like emotion throughout.  There aren't a lot of stand out human actors, particularly in the middle of the film, but as a group they do keep the story going.

As a film about the horrors of war, it's very successful - this war SUCKED.  Does that make for a good film - I'm conflicted about that.  There was something better done about showing the problems of war in Saving Private Ryan and War Horse, for all it's softness about following a horse, tips the balance a bit far in the wrong direction about how awful humans can be during war.  Watching that kind of terror in the eyes of the soldiers and horror watching what they do and what is done to them might not be something everyone needs to see more than once.  I tend to enjoy my films best if I can't wait to see them again.  In that respect, War Horse was unsuccessful.  So I'd give the film a 3.5 of 5.  Very very good in some respects, but a near zero rewatchability.  But that's just me.

As for We Bought a Zoo, Matt Damon is the recently widowed father of a 14-year old boy, Dylan, and a 7-year old girl Rosie (scene stealer Mackenzie Elizabeth Jones).  After Dylan gets expelled from school for creating artwork that depicts death and stealing, Damon decides to move the kids out of the city.  He also needs to escape all of the memories of his late wife.  They end up buying a perfect house, that also comes with an Animal Park that is nearly kaput.  Damon's character is an adventure writer and thinks getting this park back on track will be an adventure, and Rosie of course loves it.  Dylan is still struggling but befriends the niece, Lily (an remarkably annoying Elle Fanning, see her in Super 8 instead) of the head zookeeper Kelly (Scarlett Johannsen).  The movie does a good job giving us a goal to cheer for - passing the upcoming inspection before they can open, and keeping it all from becoming ridiculous.

I've always been a fan of zoos.  I've visited small zoos in Panama, Mexico, Kenya, and Zanzibar.  We Bought a Zoo didn't do anything improbable and kept well within all the kooky standards of animal welfare for my very critical eye.  I was nervous going in that they'd pretend that this tiny zoo could have all kinds of exotic species and be really cheap.  But the movie makes everything really clear and above board - acknowledging their struggles, and not pretending too much.  The supporting cast isn't as strong as the story really requires - they have some good actors - Thomas Hadyn Church as Damon's accountant brother (the funniest character besides the animals), Patrick Fugit as the handyman, Angus McFadyn as another keeper, Carla Gallo (from "Bones") as the nosy bookkeeper and John Michael Higgins as the Inspector.  But sadly, the story isn't written well enough for any of them to really shine.  Overall, still a pleasure to watch.  4 of 5 stars/lambs.

Wednesdays Movie Mashup No. 57

Wow - the single win streak continues.  Congrats to Dave from KL5-Film for guessing last week. 


Last week's clue:  A rapper is a "rebel without a cause" who lives in 1970s suburbia and does a bit of swinging, even with lots of teenagers around.


Answer: Cool as The Ice Storm

Leaderboard 
SDG, Ryan, Dylan, Andrew, Keith, Dave - 1

New clue:  A son feels responsible for his father's death in Africa while a crusading knight tries to save a city from the Saracen king Saladin.  

The goal is to figure out the two movies who overlap in some words creating a new movie described by the clue.  Leave your answer in the comments. Good luck!