Oscar Update: 'Up In the Air,' 'The Road,' 'A Serious Man' and Robert Duvall?
A lot has happened but does it mean much?
After the Telluride Film Festival came to a close on September 7, I began thinking about putting together a new Oscar update, but all there was to talk about was the initial hype surrounding Jason Reitman's Up In the Air and the reactions to John Hillcoat's The Road, which also debuted at the Venice Film Festival before both films made the trip north to the Toronto Film Festival, which is what I was waiting for to see where things settled following the early storm of raves. It's been a busy couple of weeks of festivals and while talk is loud for Up In the Air and its position as a serious contender is assured, where it will fall is still undecided (I came dangerously close to saying "up in the air").
Recently I saw a comment online with someone referring to the 2009 awards season saying it felt more like a No Country for Old Men year than a Slumdog Millionaire year. However, like Slumdog Millionaire, Up In the Air has so far enjoyed the exact same kind of press coverage. Both films debuted at Telluride and Toronto within days of each other and both earned the same kind of open-armed fanfare at every turn.
Todd McCarthy at Variety says Up In the Air is "a slickly engaging piece of lightweight existentialism highlighted by winning turns from George Clooney and Vera Farmiga."
Stephen Farber at The Hollywood Reporter continues in the same fashion saying the film boasts "one of George Clooney's strongest performances [and] seems like a surefire awards contender." He adds, "The buzz will attract a sizable audience, even though some viewers might be startled by the uncompromising finale."
Kris Tapley at In Contention is perhaps one of the most head over heels bloggers in support of the film, and he (like others I have read) seems to have found a personal connection to the film turning in a lengthy four-star review, which concludes by saying, "Perhaps the film settled for me at the right time in my life, a crossroads of understanding the necessity to plunge into life, to grow up, to recognize the power of our relationships with people, etc. But as a friend reminded, everyone is at this crossroads, regardless of age."
Finally, perhaps one of the most shocking reviews comes from the often acerbic Jeffrey Wells who also loved the film and says it's even better than his 2009 go to favorite The Hurt Locker. Wells writes, "I've just seen the most eloquent, affecting and altogether best film of 2009…so far… Up In the Air really has it all — recognizable human-scale truth, clarity, smart comfort, the right degree of restraint (i.e., knowing how not to push it), and — this got me more than anything else — a penetrating, almost unnerving sense of quiet."
I love Wells' taste in films so his opinion is the one that really has me personally interested in seeing this film, but outside of my wants and desires we now have to look at see where this fits into the Oscar race.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
First for the actors, I see Clooney taking a major leap in the race and Farmiga is firmly now on the map. I did see a couple of Oscar bloggers mention Anna Kendrick, but she's young and I think the Academy is going to look more toward Farmiga and it seems Paramount may attempt to turn heads that way, especially considering the first clip released centers specifically on Farmiga and Clooney. (You can watch that clip directly to the right.)
Next, it would seem Reitman is a definite contender for a director nod, and many are saying he has now won folks over with three films in a row (Thank You for Smoking and Juno). When people start talking like that it means they are thinking it's about time someone got their due. Could it be Reitman's turn? I'm sure we will also be anticipating his name in the adapted screenplay department as well.
As for Best Picture, this is where this year may actually become more of a No Country for Old Men kind of year, that is if the competition coming up can fare better than did the 2008 contenders with The Reader, Benjamin Button, Doubt, Gran Torino and Revolutionary Road serving as 2008's end of year deliveries. While two of those films ended up Best Picture nominees, one of them was despised for its inclusion and the other four films weren't overwhelming favorites once everyone's eyeballs had taken them in. Up In the Air is off to a great start, but it's competition looks stiff.
To start it off you have the obvious with Clint Eastwood's Invictus and Rob Marshall's Nine. By the way, if you heard rumors Nine was moving into Spring 2010, you can go ahead and forget them, I contacted the Weinstein Co. and there's no truth in it.
Next we have an already personal favorite of mine in Precious, which Tom O'Neil at the Los Angeles Times was discussing again after it received a warm reception in Toronto. O'Neil writes saying, "Normally, gritty ghetto flicks like Precious get ignored by snooty Oscar voters, but this one has not only proven itself already as a trophy-grabber at Sundance, but it has top-notch campaigners behind it now." I hope he's right.
An Education — to me — is slowly beginning to look like one of the contenders for the 6-10 slots (I have it at #4 right now), which is where I think Amelia will ultimately end up and perhaps The Road, which I will talk about more in a second. Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones is impossible to predict at the moment since that film is going to be walking a delicate line and a couple of other wild cards in my eyes include James Cameron's Avatar and Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. I see a lot of potential for Cameron's film and Jonze's film is going to be a serious test as I think the online masses are going to fall head-over-heels for it, but I am wondering what the other half is going to say — the half that doesn't fall back on words such as "beautiful" and "glorious" as their only means of describing a film that doesn't include superheroes.
One that has me scratching my head as to where it will end up is Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story. Will he be able to get his latest doc a Best Picture nom when he couldn't get Fahrenheit 9/11 one? I'm seeing it this week and can't wait to see how it stacks up. The other curious release is Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, which was picked up by Apparition and expected to hit theaters in 2009 for an awards run but not a word has been said yet. And don't forget Up and The Hurt Locker.
RSS Feed
| 6 comments so far 
news feeds