By ALEX
FUNG
Last updated: 2001/12/12
Early thoughts on the imminent New York Film Critics Circle awardsAwards season was launched with the unveiling of the National Board of Review's slate of winners last week, but this week will likely be far more significant as two of the major legitimate film critics organizations weigh in with their selections; the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle announce their winners tomorrow (Thursday), while the influential Los Angeles Film Critics Association chime in on Saturday.
Although a great percentage of the Gotham group's recent selections for Best Film have gone on to score Oscar nominations in the Best Picture category -- over the past ten years, only Topsy-Turvy, Leaving Las Vegas and The Player have failed to do so -- I'm not particular confident that the trend will hold up with this year's selection. As far as I can tell, most of the films already in release which have been greeted particularly strongly en masse by the New York film critics have been independent fare such as Memento, Ghost World, Mulholland Drive and The Man Who Wasn't There that are longshot Oscar hopefuls, while among the major Oscar-bait studio films due for release in the last half of this month, it appears that only A Beautiful Mind (and arguably The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, if you want to consider that as an Oscar bait film as well as a cash cow) seem to be getting especially strong word from all corners. From my perspective, there's no slam-dunk obvious leading contender this year for tomorrow's NYFCC Best Film prize -- in addition to the previous films listed, one can't count out Moulin Rouge, which has a number of fans amongst the membership; The Royal Tenenbaums hasn't been received as strongly as Rushmore, but could be a possibility; In The Bedroom is getting good reviews but does it have the required base to score the big prize with this crowd?; I wouldn't bet on Shrek, whose chances for crossover Oscar success seem somewhat overrated in the opinion of this writer. If I had to make a guess, I'd pick critical darling Memento to win the NYFCC Best Film award and Ghost World to get significant support, but I wouldn't be surprised if some other film took it -- for that matter, it wouldn't shock me in the least if the prize went to a film I failed to mention altogether. (As long as it's not Amélie...)
While I view the NYFCC Best Film race with a fair amount of uncertainty, I am reasonably confident that Mulholland Drive's Naomi Watts will factor into this group's Best Actress race; if I were a betting man (well, I am, actually), I'd say that she'll either win the category outright or wind up as the unofficial first runner-up. Some more possibilities: I get the feeling that Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi of Ghost World may place in tomorrow's listings. Christopher Nolan for Screenplay? startup.com for Non-Fiction Film? Shrek for Animated Film? We'll see tomorrow.
[Incidentally, this year sees the New York Film Critics Circle expand by three, with Village Voice contributor Michael Atkinson, Newsday's Jan Stuart and Time Out New York lead critic Mike D'Angelo joining the roster. Longtime internet film buffs may recognize D'Angelo as the veteran online personality that launched his review web site some seven years ago; that an early online reviewer has gone on to be inducted into arguably the loftiest of film critics organizations is a noteworthy first, and hopefully demonstrates that buried amidst the staggering prevalence of dross, blurbmeisterism and wanton quote whorery on the internet can be film writing of substance. (Needless to say, the accomplishment is obviously that of the man, not the medium; congrats md'a.)]
Oscar Gets Animated
Although the creation of the new Best Animated Feature Academy Award category (the first addition to the Oscar slate since the Best Makeup category was introduced in 1981) was approved in September 2000, its fate for this year's ceremony was momentarily in serious doubt; AMPAS rules dictates that at least eight animated films must to be submitted for consideration for the category to be in play, and going into the deadline date of November 1st, 2001 only seven pictures had filed with the Academy. "If there are enough for a category, then we'll have one," noted Oscar spokesman John Pavlik. "But if there's not, there's not."
Two films apparently squeaked in by the November 1st 5 p.m. deadline, thereby enabling the Best Animated Feature category for its inaugural year. The nine films under consideration for this category are Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Marco Polo: Return To Xanadu, Monsters, Inc., Osmosis Jones, The Prince Of Light, Shrek, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Waking Life. Three of these candidates will be named as Oscar nominees come mid-February, with one of them eventually taking the Academy Award in March.
There are some noticeable absences in the list of submitted animated films. While Recess: School's Out received a fairly wide domestic release in February but was not submitted for consideration, the more glaring absence has to be this year's Disney summer animated feature, Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Despite a reasonably strong promotional push upon its theatrical release in June, the film by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise (of Beauty And The Beast fame) failed to meet commercial expectations and was considered a relative disappointment by Disney. They reportedly chose to neglect submitting Atlantis: The Lost Empire for consideration in the Best Animated Feature category in order to focus all of the company's campaigning resources on their heavyweight candidate Monsters, Inc. rather than splitting their efforts across multiple campaigns for different films; this once again demonstrates that plotting and maneuvering factor into Academy Award races and illustrates the significant role that strategy plays in terms of Oscar bids.
It clearly goes without saying that Shrek and Monsters, Inc. are obvious certainties to receive Oscar nominations come mid-February. (Shrek seems like the favourite.) The major question in the Best Animated Feature category will be the identity of the third (or filler) nominee. Two of the other seven submitted films -- Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Marco Polo: Return To Xanadu -- have yet to theatrically open in Los Angeles (their eligibility status can be revoked should they fail to open by the end of the year), but among the three highest-profile remaining candidates, I'd peg the Fantastic Voyage-esque comedy Osmosis Jones to be reasonably unlikely to score the final Oscar slot. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within poses an interesting dilemma: putting aside the clunky storytelling, the film does mark a major step forward in computer-generated animation in terms of presenting a feature-length film with semiplausible psuedo-realistic human figures. While it will never be considered a great film, it may be looked upon as a significant one in much the same way that Tron can now be reflected upon as one of the pioneers in marrying computer graphics with live action in feature films. Of course, as innovative as it was, Final Fantasy nevertheless faces a major stumbling block in that the picture was a indisputable financial disaster, costing well over $100 million and grossing a fraction of that in the U.S. market; pictures which belly-flop at the box office are generally unlikely to be rewarded by the community with Academy award nominations. This leaves the more adult-oriented Richard Linklater film, Waking Life, which has received positive reviews and employs a distinctive visual style.
Early Prediction
Unless I've forgotten a film, is there any reason to expect that Rick Baker won't win this year's Best Makeup award for Planet Of The Apes?
Mailbag Q: Do you really think Mulholland Drive is out of the running? I adored the film (sounds like you liked it too) and personally can think of no better nominee for Best Director this year than Lynch and no better Best Actress nominee than Naomi Watts. In my opinion it's the best thing Lynch has ever done, and I can't easily think of a much more challenging (and successfully executed) female role than that of Betty/Diane Selwyn.
Oscar's been surprisingly kind to Lynch in the past -- that nom for Blue Velvet was surprising, despite the critical accolades, and Diane Ladd even managed to snag a Supp. Actress nom for Wild At Heart (Richard Farnsworth in The Straight Story was much more mainstream Academy, I think) -- and I've sort of been hoping that Awards Season could really help push this film into its deserved spotlight. I was heartened by NBR's placement of the film in their Top Ten and by their singling out of Naomi Watts as their Breakout Performer. NY and LA Critics were very positive on the film, weren't they? And I can't recall a positive, or even mediocre, review for this film that didn't mention Watts as being fantastic. Couldn't we hope for some attention from NYFC and LAFC for this one? I guess we'll find out within a week.
p.s. Tell me that Watts' audition scene wouldn't make the world's greatest Oscar clip ever.
- Matt Anderson
December 10th, 2001A: Hi Matt. Thanks for writing. My opinion is that David Lynch is a possibility (albeit not a particularly strong one) for Best Director, and Naomi Watts has an outside shot for Best Actress (her chances might improve should she start to rack up critics awards), but I would not bet on Mulholland Drive to receive serious consideration for a Best Picture nomination. (The last half hour in particular, I expect, may disorient and/or alienate moderate Academy members.)
The National Board of Review's selection of Naomi Watts' work in Mulholland as a co-Breakthrough Performance of the Year was a shrewd one; unlike their selection of co-winner Hayden Christensen (of Life As A House), whom one suspects would not have been on their list were he not being built up as a Star of the Future due to his upcoming Anakin Skywalker role in the impending Star Wars films, Watts' revelatory turn was a bonafide breakthrough that launched her from near-obscurity -- consider, if you will, that her previous credits include supporting roles in Dangerous Beauty, Tank Girl, Wide Sargasso Sea, Matinee, and Flirting. (It would make for nice synchronicity of she were to be nominated for Best Actress alongside friend Nicole Kidman.)
You're right -- most New York and Los Angeles-based critics were positive on the film; Turan and Dargis liked it, Bernard gave it her four-star rating, Gleiberman gave it a B+, Hoberman was complementary, and Sarris liked it and claimed that the film added up to more than the sum of its pieces. On the other hand, Rex Reed declared it "the worst movie I've seen this year", describing it as "a load of moronic and incoherent garbage".
The audition scene would be -- is -- terrific, but in order to fully appreciate it they'd have to include the preceding rehearsal segment with Laura Elena Harring for contrast, and that would make it just too long to air as a clip.
Is this going to be, like, the worst year ever in the Best Song category? What is there? [For the record: 2001 Diane Warren entry = "There You'll Be", Pearl Harbor.] Feedback or inquiries are welcome -- e-mail me. (Please indicate if you wish to remain anonymous; pseudonyms are also acceptable.)
Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca)
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