Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild, 2012
Directed by Benh Zeitlin
Nominated for 4 Oscars

Going into this movie a week ago, I really had no idea what to expect since every summary I kept reading was extremely vague, and I couldn't understand why they couldn't be more descriptive. After watching the movie, I understood. If someone asked me what Beasts of the Southern Wild was about, the only reply I could really give is "A girl named Hushpuppy lives with her dad in The Bathtub, and are dealing with the polar ice caps melting". And most people would deem this as extremely unhelpful. Which it kind of is. But it is really what the movie is about.

Hushpuppy is 6 years old. She lives in a community called the Bathtub, a community which she loves. They have more holidays, more parties and are much friendlier. It's a community unlike any of us have ever lived in, nor could imagine living in. Her father, an angry man is dealing with health issues, and Hushpuppy is starting to wonder what is wrong with him. She lost her mother along time ago, and even though her father is harsh, she doesn't want to lose him either. As the polar ice caps are melting, and a storm comes brewing, the Bathtub floods, due to a levy the neighboring city has built to keep the water out, which means the Bathtub is constantly"filling up". While many people fled the Bathtub community before the storm hit, many stuck it out and are now dealing with the consequences of living in a flooded community.

I watched this movie with my parents, my sister and my sister's boyfriend. Watching movies with them is never a good idea. They talk and talk and poke fun and make comments and it's distracting when trying to watch a movie you honestly want to get a hold of and understand. And when the people around you aren't so keen on a movie and are verbal about it, it sways your opinion a little bit.

To sum it up, this movie was extremely odd. In this years awards race, I had this film and Moonrise Kingdom on a similar plain- they're both indie movies, with their main characters being children. While Moonrise Kingdom was quirky and funny, this movie was just different and odd. Intertwined with the story of Hushpuppy and her father is the aurochs, an extinct creature from the ice age. But when the ice caps melt, the aurochs are released from cryogenic sleep and are on the loose again, heading straight for the Bathtub. I think I would've enjoyed the film a lot more had the storyline of the aurochs not been included. It was strange and unnecessary and gave a slightly confusing end to the film (and also slightly anti-climatic, though it was supposed to be more symbolic than anything. Whatever).

But Quvenzhane Wallis was fantastic. She truly was. She was funny, and heartbreaking, and just so so good.  Its pretty unbelievable that she was only 5 when she filmed this. She was utterly believable, and so powerful. If I liked anything about this film, it was her performance.

Other than Wallis's performance, I was overall not too enthralled with the film. It was interesting, but the aurochs storyline made it pretty unrealistic, and distracted from the overall story. The score was also really good, and thought it was super cool that Zeitlin, the director, was the co-composer! I've never really seen that before and thought that was really neat. But overall, the film was just okay for me, with Wallis being the total standout of the film. I really hope she's able to build a fantastic career as she's already very talented (and next up she's starring with Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender in Twelve Years a Slave. Nice move up in the world!). While it was an alright film, I'd have still rather seen Affleck up for director rather than Zeitlin, and Moonrise Kingdom up for picture over this, but that's just my opinion it seems!

7/10

85th Oscar Nominees

Wow, this year was definitely interesting! Every year the Oscar love to mess us up, throw in surprises, and throw in a ton of snubs, this year not excluding. I had attempted to guess the nominees, but it looks like my guesses weren't too accurate.

Best Picture
Amour
Life of Pi
Argo
Lincoln
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Silver Linings Playbook
Django Unchained
Zero Dark Thirty
Les Miserables

Out of these 9 (again, 9! I had been thinking it would be a smaller batch this year but hey), the "for sure 6" I had predicted are all in there, while Django and Beasts were the next in line. However, I did not predicted Amour being nominated, which was surprising for me! (8/9)

Best Director
Michael Haneke- Amour
Benh Zeitlin- Beasts of the Southern Wild
Ang Lee- Life of Pi
Steven Spielburg- Lincoln
David O. Russell- Silver linings Playbook

Now here's the category where everything kind of went out the window for me. I had though Bigelow, Lee, Spielburg, Affleck were sure things, with Russell and Hooper vying for the last spot. How wrong I was. Haneke and Zeitlin were able to sneak in here. The Academy obviously has huge support behind these 2 films that I wasn't expecting. The biggest, most obvious snub here is poor Ben Affleck. I had been rooting for Argo since I watched it back in October, and thought of everyone Spielburg and Affleck were locks in this category. Well, snubbed before, snubbed again I guess. (2/5)

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper- Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis- Lincoln
Hugh Jackman- Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix- The Master
Denzel Washington- Flight

We all knew Phoenix had a better chance of getting in here than anywhere else, but with his exclamation of awards being stupid, and the fact he'd been snubbed many other places, many overlooked him for nomination. However Phoenix made it in. All the other 4 nominees were expected. I'm very pleased to see Cooper in here. While I was skeptical of him before I saw SLP, he was definitely a standout for the whole movie. Very excited! (4/5)

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain- Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence- Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva- Amour
Quevenzhane Wallis- Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts- the Impossible

The biggest surprise here is the exclusion of Marion Cotillard. She had racked up a lot of nominations for her work in Rust and Bone, and while she wasn't a lock for a nomination, she was the most likely of the bunch vying for spots. And again, we see more support for Amour (I really should've taken this films possibilities more seriously, am I the only one who didn't see any of this coming?). And interestingly, we have both the youngest ever nominee and oldest ever nominee for Best Actress, which is always interesting. Either way, it's a two horse race between Chastain and Lawrence at this point. (4/5)

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin- Argo
Robert De Niro- Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman- The Master
Tommy Lee Jones- Lincoln
Christoph Waltz- Django Unchained

Arkin, De Niro, Hoffman, and Jones were all expected nominees. And it was a definite race for the last spot between the guys from Django (Waltz, DiCaprio), Javier Bardem, and anyone from Les Miserables. While I had predicted DiCaprio to get nominated (and earlier in the year to win!) it seems his co-star Christoph Waltz has decided to nab his second Oscar nomination. (4/5)

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams- The Master
Sally Field- Lincoln
Anne Hathaway- Les Miserables
Helent Hunt- The Sessions
Jacki Weaver- Silver Linings Playbook

No huge surprised here. The 5th spot had been up for grabs for a while and while names like Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Nicole Kidman, and Jacki Weaver were thrown around, Weaver stole it. (4/5)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook

Not a huge surprise, but Beasts of the Southern Wild took the spot of Les Miserables. All the others were predicted and no surprises here. (4/5)

Best Original Screenplay
Amour
Django Unchained
Flight
Moonrise Kingdom
Zero Dark Thirty

Flight was able to sneak in here and steal the spot from The Master, which seemed a likely nomination given how they recieved acting nominations in 3 categories. Alas, Flight being nominated is not hugely surprisingly. (4/5)

Best Animated Feature
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It-Ralph

Personally, I didn't see The Pirates! making it in over Rise of the Guardians, but hey, what do I know about Animated Movies? (4/5)

Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall

Honestly, to me, the technical awards are pretty much up for grabs. Though, 4/5 of these nominees were also up for the American Society of Cinematographers Awards, and Django also managed to get a nomination. (3/5)

Best Film Editing
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

I got this whole category right! And honestly, this is what Best Director should've looked like, but anyway...
(5/5)

Best Original Score
Anna Karenina- Dario Marianelli
Argo- Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi- Mychael Danna
Lincoln- John Williams
Skyfall- Thomas Newman

I had been hoping for a Dark Knight Rises score win from the beginning but I guess it wasn't to be so. Also, I knew Desplat would be in, but whether it was for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty I was unsure. Glad to see him in either way. The surprise here (ish) is for Thomas Newman for Skyfall. Newman is no stranger to this category, but chances are he won't win (again). (3/5)

Best Original Song
"Before My Time"- Chasing Ice
"Everybody Needs a Best Friend"- Ted
"Pi's Lullaby" Life of Pi
"Skyfall"- Skyfall
"Suddenly"- Les Miserables

I had no idea what I was doing for this one other than "Suddenly" and "Skyfall". I'm really happy to see Pi's Lullaby in here. It really is lovely and I thought it was a longshot adding it in to my nominees. Nominations for Ted and Chasing Ice were unexpected. Brave and Django were shut out of this category. (3/5)

Best Sound Mixing 
Argo
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall

Academy decided to go with already recognized films rather than blockbuster films. Though the exclusion of Zero Dark Thirty is interesting. Same with Flight. However, I'm not complainig. The more nominations for Argo the better! (2/5)

Best Sound Editing
Argo
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty

This year, only 3 films match up between Mixing and Editing. Usually its 4, or 5. Nice to see a little variety, though I still feel like these categories are so similar. (2/5)

Best Production Design
Anna Karenina
The Hobbit
Les Miserables
Lifeof Pi
Lincoln

The Hobbit managed to sneak in here, which is great, because the production design truly was so good. Anything technical for the Hobbit is definitely deserved! (4/5)

Best Visual Effects
The Hobbit
Life of Pi
The Avengers
Prometheus
Snow White and the Huntsmen

The biggest omission here is Cloud Atlas, which I heard had very good visual effects. However, Snow White and the Huntsmen had pretty good effects. But Life of Pi is the overall winner here so it doesn't even matter. (4/5)

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Mirror, Mirror
Snow White and the Huntsmen

I was really hoping to see more Moonrise Kingdom love, but sadly there's barely any. Though it is interesting to see both Snow White films competing against each other. However I'd love to see Anna Karenina take this one. The costumes are divine in that film. (4/5)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Hitchcock
The Hobbit
Les Miserables

The biggest surprise here is no nomination for Lincoln! With all the nominations it had, I'm surprised it wasn't included in here! This category could really go to anyone at this point! (1/3)

Well, overall, the only real big surprises/snubs for me was in Best Director. And with Affleck and Bigelow out on that category, it looks like Lincoln will definitely be the movie to compete against. I'm still hoping something like Silver Linings Playbook or Life of Pi will win (I liked these 2 films infinitely better), but we'll see. I scored pretty well this year, getting 4/5 on most categories and an overall score of 69/97, meaning I got 70% of the nominees right, which is definitely a lot better from last year.

Anyway, Happy Oscar Season everyone! And may the Academy be ever in your favour!

85th Academy Award Nomination Predictions

With the Academy Award nominations out on Thursday, I thought I'd release my final predictions! So here goes:

Best Picture
Lincoln
Argo
Les Miserables
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Life of Pi

(if more than 6, in order)
Django Unchainced
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Moonrise Kingdom
The Master

Best Director
Steven Spielburg
Ben Affleck
Kathryn Bigelow
Ang Lee
Tom Hooper

Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis
Bradley Cooper
Hugh Jackman
Denzel Washington
John Hawkes

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain
Jennifer Lawrence
Marion Cotillard
Naomi Watts
Quvenzhane Wallis

Best Supporting Actor
Tommy Lee Jones
Robert De Niro
Leonardo Di Caprio
Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Alan Arkin

Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway
Sally Field
Helen Hunt
Amy Adams
Maggie Smith

Best Adapted Screenplay
Lincoln
Argo
Life of Pi
Silver Linings Playbook
Les Miserables

Best Original Screenplay
Django Unchained
Zero Dark Thirty
The Master
Moonrise Kingdom
Amour

Best Animated Feature
Wreck-it Ralph
ParaNorman
Frankenweenie
Brave
Rise of the Guardians

Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina
Life of Pi
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty
The Master

Best Film Editing
Argo
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Life of Pi
Silver Linings Playbook

Best Original Score
Life of Pi
Anna Karenina
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty
The Dark Knight Rises

Best Original Song
Skyfall (Skyfall)
Suddenly (Les Miserables)
Learn Me Right (Brave)
Freedom (Django Unchained)
Pi's Lullaby (Life of Pi)

Best Sound Mixing
Zero Dark Thirty
Les Miserables
Flight
The Dark Knight Rises
Skyfall


Best Sound Editing
Zero Dark Thirty
Les Miserables
Flight
Skyfall
The Dark Knight Rises

Best Production Design
Anna Karenina
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Les Miserables
The Master

Best Visual Effects
Life of Pi
The Hobbit
The Avengers
Cloud Atlas
Prometheus

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina
Lincoln
Les Miserables
Mirror Mirror
Moonrise Kingdom

Best Makeup & Hairstyling
Lincoln
The Hobbit
Cloud Atlas

Well, we'll see how well I do come Thursday morning. I probably won't do that well, but it's always fun making predictions and doing research!