10 January 2013

Filmbook: Oscars 2013: Doris Kearns Goodwin knows how to party

Expect stacks of TEAM OF RIVALS movie tie-ins to mysteriously appear at your local bookstore as "Lincoln" chugs along toward Best Picture with its 12 Oscar nominations, announced this morning. Other big winners: Yann Martel, with "Life of Pi" picking up 11 nominations despite its middling reviews*, Victor Hugo and playwright Lucy Alibar, whose adaptation "Beasts of the Southern Wild" (beginning life as "Juicy and Delicious") was a surprise Best Picture and Best Director nominee, along with the youngest Best Actress nominee ever.

Losers: Leo Tolstoy ("Anna Karenina" picked up 4 including production design, which it deserves, but no acting or directing nominations) and J.R.R. Tolkien with 3 for part one of "The Hobbit" (better luck in 2015, right?)

Now if you will excuse me, I have some movies to watch.

5 comments:

D.H. Sayer said...

Don't forget Matthew Quick and Silver Linings Playbook, which I'm starting to get the sinking feeling Harvey Weinstein will power to a Best Picture win, a la Shakespeare In Love.

Ellen said...

Oh good grief, he was the reason I was going to write about this and I completely forgot! He was on Twitter congratulating Bradley Cooper's character, which I'm sure was just related to the earliness of the hour of the announcements.

I take it you didn't like the movie very much? I liked it, but am pretty sure the book is better.

D.H. Sayer said...

I actually haven't seen it yet, one of the 3 best pic noms I haven't seen, the others being Les Mis and Amour. My personal favorite out of the 6 I've seen is Django (Leo wuz robbed!), but in no way am I passionate enough to actively cheerlead for it. So SLP may in fact be the best movie, but regardless it's amusing to me that Weinstein always gets his pet movie in, and most of the time he gets it the big trophy, too. How do we let him get away with it every year?

With that said, I wouldn't mind him playing spoiler to Spielberg again, because Lincoln is by far the worst movie on this list, in my opinion.

Ellen said...

I find the Weinsteins fascinating. Did you know someone wrote a DEVIL WEARS PRADA-style chick lit novel about working for them called THE TWINS OF TRIBECA? It's not as revealing as I would wish, however. But I think even their championing of "Silver Linings Playbook" will not be enough to take it over the top this year.

I have seen all of the Best Picture nominees except, ironically, "Lincoln" and "Life of Pi." None of them were my favorite movie of the year, so I'm not sure who I'm rooting for, but I'll probably back "Zero Dark Thirty" or "Argo." "Amour" is an incredible movie but too dark (I'm thrilled it was even nominated).

D.H. Sayer said...

I did not know about that book but I'll be sure to look it up. Amour is definitely on the to-watch list. Heneke is a director of interest; Cache might be one of the best films of the last 10 years.