Crisp Criticism - "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)", "Unbroken", "Into the Woods"

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Julien Faddoul

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) **

A fading actor, best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero, attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play.

A basically unconvincing story becomes piquant through its execution: Simulated to appear, for the most part, like one long shot with its excellent ensemble cast generating a world full of anxiety, bitchiness and indecency as they travel through the hallways of the St. James Theatre. It’s director’s attempt, however, to bang the drum loudly in search of emotional significance, is a bust.

d – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

w – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Armando Bo

ph – Emmanuel Lubezki

pd – Kevin Thompson

m – Antonio Sanchez

ed – Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione

cos – Albert Wolsky

p – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan, James W. Skotchdopole

Cast: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Zach Galifianakis, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Lindsay Duncan, Merritt Wever

My Reactions to the 87th Academy Awards Nominations

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Julien Faddoul

Below is the full list of nominees for the 87^th Academy Awards with my written reactions.

A few of notes:

Many people dislike the word “snub” so if I end up relying on it too heavily please forgive me.

Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel receive the most nominations with 9 each, followed by The Imitation Game with 8, American Sniper and Boyhood with 6, and Foxcatcher, Interstellar, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash with 5.

Selma takes the Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close/The Blindside position of being a Best Picture nominee with only one other nomination. This is obviously going to upset a lot of people. One could argue this is because of its somewhat late arrival to campaign. It is DuVernay’s omission that feels the queasiest. Prepare for all the sexism/racism accusations your computer can show you!

Foxcatcher receiving as many nominations as it did I think proves it just missed out of the top category by a hair’s lack of number 1 votes.

Gone Girl received only 1 nomination in the end. Oh, well.

The Hobbit ends its reign of terror with only a single nomination. Take that Jackson!

The Lego Movie! Yikes!

Nothing for Big Eyes.

The only category where I scored perfectly were PICTURE, SUPPORTING ACTOR and ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY.

My Predictions for the 87th Academy Awards Nominations

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Julien Faddoul

The nominations for the 87^th Academy Awards are tomorrow morning. Despite their nonsensicality, I always have fun predicting them every year. Here are my final predictions.

A couple of notes:

• I have made the necessary amount of predictions correlating to the limit of each category – 10 for PICTURE, 3 for MAKEUP and 5 for everything else – after which I list my alternates which I have limited myself to only 5, except in the DOCUMENTARY and ORIGINAL SONG categories. 

• Those marked in BLUE are what I consider to be locks for a nomination.

PICTURE

Those unfamiliar with recent tradition, the top category is a net that can go to up to 10 nominees. This practice has been in place since 2011, though funnily enough every year since then has always had 9 nominees. I am taking the opportunity to predict 10 though anything goes with a category that has an irresolute number. 

From American Sniper on, I get insecure. Those that are above it are pretty safe. Having now seen Unbroken, its sudden fall from grace makes sense. Though this category has had a pretty bumpy ride all year. Let’s hope something a little more interesting than Boyhood winning everything transpires.

1. Boyhood
2. Birdman
3. Selma
4. The Imitation Game
5. The Theory of Everything
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel
7. Whiplash
8. American Sniper
9. Foxcatcher
10. Nightcrawler

• Gone Girl
• Into the Woods
• Unbroken
• Mr Turner
• Wild

Crisp Criticism - "Taken 3", "Penguins of Madagascar", "Still Alice", "Rosewater"

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Julien Faddoul

Taken 3

Ex-government operative Bryan Mills finds his life is shattered when he's falsely accused of a murder that hits close to home.

Dead in the water, with a recycled plot and unintelligible cutting.

d – Olivier Megaton

w – Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen

ph – Eric Kress

pd – Sébastien Inizan

m – Nathaniel Mechaly

ed – Audrey Simonaud, Nicolas Trembasiewicz

cos – Olivier Bériot

p – Luc Besson

Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, Dougray Scott, Sam Spruell, Leland Orser

Crisp Criticism - "Dumb and Dumber To", "The Imitation Game", "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them"

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Julien Faddoul

Dumber and Dumber To *

20 years after the dimwits set out on their first adventure, they head out in search of one of their long lost children in the hope of gaining a new kidney.

Essentially unnecessary sequel with the jokes landing only about a third of the time.

d – Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

w – Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, Sean Anders, John Morris, Bennett Yellin, Mike Cerrone

ph – Matthew F. Leonetti

pd – Aaron Osborne

ed – Steven Rasch

cos – Karen Patch

p – Riza Aziz, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, Joey McFarland, Bardley Thomas, Charles B. Wessler

Cast: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Rob Riggle, Laurie Holden, Kathleen Turner, Rachel Melvin

Crisp Criticism - "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies", "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb", "The Water Diviner", "The Book of Life"

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Julien Faddoul

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

The story concludes, beginning mere seconds after the previous film.

Shorter than the previous two films but even more laborious, with battle after battle with no incentives. Good effects.

d – Peter Jackson

w – Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro   (Based on the Novel by J.R.R. Tolkien)

ph – Andrew Lesnie

pd – Dan Hennah

m – Howard Shore

ed – Jabez Olssen

cos – Richard Taylor, Bob Buck, Ann Maskrey

p – Carolynne Cunningham, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Zane Weiner

Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Stephen Fry, Graham McTavish, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Cate Blanchett, Mikael Persbrandt

Retrospective: The Last 25 Years of Walt Disney Animation Studios

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Julien Faddoul

The Jeffrey Katzenberg Era

The Little Mermaid (1989) ***

A mermaid falls in love with a prince and longs to be human.

The film that opened the door for the Disney Renaissance, reestablishing the commitment to superior animation and an excellent score. The rampant sentimentality is forgiven.

Writer/Director – John Musker, Ron Clements

Music – Alan Menken

Lyrics – Howard Ashman

Original Score – Alan Menken

Art Director – Michael A. Peraza, Donald A. Towns

Editor – John Carnochan

Visual Effects Supervisor – Mark Dindal

Layout Supervisor – David A. Dunnet

Background Supervisor – Donald A. Towns

Clean-Up Supervisor – Vera Lanpher

Supervising Animators

Mark Henn

Glen Keane

Duncan Marjoribanks

Ruben A. Aquino

Andreas Deja

Matthew O’Callaghan

Producer – Howard Ashman, John Musker

Cast: Rene Auberjonois, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Paddi Edwards, Buddy Hackett, Jason Marin, Kenneth Mars, Edie McClurg, Will Ryan, Ben Wright, Samuel E. Wright

Crisp Criticism - "Annie", "Horrible Bosses 2", "St. Vincent"

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Julien Faddoul

Annie

A foster kid, who lives with her mean foster mom, sees her life change when a business tycoon and New York mayoral candidate makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in.

Icky stock confection taped together with fabricated vocals and some truly atrocious acting.

d – Will Gluck

w – Will Gluck, Aline Brosh McKenna   (Based on the Musical Book by Thomas Meehan)

ph – Michael Grady

pd – Marcia Hinds

m – Greg Kurstin

ed – Tia Nolan

cos – Renee Ehrlich Kalfus

p – Jay Brown, Will Gluck, James Lassiter, Jada Pinkett Smith, Caleeb Pinkett, Tyran Smith, Will Smith, Jay-Z

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Quvenzhane Wallis, Cameron Diaz, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Big Hero 6 (US/2014)

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Julien Faddoul

*** (3 stars)

d – Don Hall, Chris Williams

w – Jordan Roberts, Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson   (Based on the Characters Created by Duncan Rouleau, Steven T. Seagle)

pd – Paul Felix

m – Henry Jackman

ed – Tim Mertens

p – Roy Conli

Cast: Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter, Daniel Henney, T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr., Genesis Rodriguez, James Cromwell, Alan Tudyk, Maya Rudolph

In reading other reviews of Big Hero 6, the 54^th feature film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, many critics seem to be pestered by the film’s association with Marvel Studios. The Marvel brand has, in this day and age, become a classification of its own. The movie has flying jetpacks, a gigantic city under destruction, a superhero who self-sacrifices and a Stan Lee cameo – all things that have become tiresome tropes in big-budget Marvel moviemaking. Many have identified these aspects to explain their drudging experience.

Crisp Criticism - "Serena", "Get on Up", "Why Don’t You Play in Hell?"

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Julien Faddoul

Serena *

Set in 1930s North Carolina, a man’s timber empire is in jeopardy when it becomes clear that his wife is as barren as the land he harvests.

Once again, Bier’s blockheaded use of metaphor paralyzes her own drama here, as well as the miscasting of her two leads.

d – Susanne Bier

w – Christopher Kyle   (Based on the Book by Ron Rash)

ph – Morten Søborg

pd – Richard Bridgland

m – Johan Söderqvist

ed – Pernille Bech Christensen, Matthew Newman, Simon Webb

cos – Signe Sejlund

p – Ben Cosgrove, Mark Cuban, Paula Mae Schwartz, Steve Schwartz, Todd Wagner, Nick Wechsler

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Ifans, Toby Jones, Sean Harris, Sam Reid, Blake Ritson