INTERNET FILM CRITICS SOCIETY ANNOUNCES

Best Director

Ben Affleck (Argo)

Best Actor

Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

Best Actress

Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

Best Drama

Argo

Best Comedy

21 Jump Street

Best Horror or Science Fiction

Looper

Best Action Film

The Avengers

REVIEW - ZERO DARK THIRTY

Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty zips through its 2.5-hour-plus runtime with a brio and an enthusiasm for storytelling that is terrific to behold, yet also with diligence and meticulousness. As a procedural, for, as we are aware of the ending, it can only be that, it captures the breadth of the CIA's efforts (or of one woman's efforts, more specifically) to find Osama bin Laden, covering almost the entirety of the last decade. The route from its opening scenes to its closing ones is presented as long, and with many seemingly insurmountable obstacles along its winding way - the American characters tend to surmount them rather expediently, although sacrifices must be made to factual minutiae in condensing such a vast story into a feature film, and the film is successful anyway in its documenting and relation of these events. We are, at times, reminded of Bigelow's past as the director of sexy early-90s action films, yet the comparative sobriety she brings to Zero Dark Thirty, no doubt influenced by Mark Boal's screenplay, prodigious yet straightforward, is apt. The screenplay, indeed the events it covers, is what drives this film, although Bigelow's innate sense of space, and ever-developing sense of character are apparent in every frame, and her grip on Zero Dark Thirty's tone, and the progression of its climactic raid sequence, is sure. A wise decision to tell this film through the eyes of its protagonist throughout - here called Maya, and played by Jessica Chastain, a great chameleon as an actor, with an unforced emotional range that she knows both when and how to employ. As she sits, alone, on a plane to a life she neither knows nor wants, she sheds a tear. America may have had its victory, its somewhat nugatory victory, but Maya has been hollowed out, left without a purpose. Bigelow won't give the audience its fist-pump moment. We have come to know this resolute, inwards, unsociable woman, and understand her. For her, and for us, this is no happy ending.

WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA NOMINATIONS

Best Original Screenplay

Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master)

Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola (Moonrise Kingdom)

Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty)

John Gatins (Flight)

Rian Johnson (Looper)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) – based on his book

Tony Kushner (Lincoln) – based in part on the book ‘Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln’ by Doris Kearns Goodwin

David Magee (Life of Pi) – based on the novel by Yann Martel

David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) – based on the novel by Matthew Quick

Chris Terrio (Argo) – based on a selection from ‘The Master of Disguise’ by Antonio J. Mendez and the Wired Magazine article ‘The Great Escape’ by Joshuah Berman

CENTRAL OHIO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION WINNERS

Best Film

1.     Moonrise Kingdom

2.        Argo

3.        Django Unchained

4.        Zero Dark Thirty

5.        The Cabin in the Woods

6.        Silver Linings Playbook

7.        Lincoln

8.        Looper

9.        The Master

10.     Les Misérables

11.     Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Director

1.     Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom)

2.        Ben Affleck (Argo)

Best Actor

1.     Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

2.        John Hawkes (The Sessions)

Best Actress

1.     Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

2.        Naomi Watts (The Impossible)

Best Supporting Actor

1.     Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

2.        Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained)

Best Supporting Actress

1.     Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

2.        Ann Dowd (Compliance)

Helen Hunt (The Sessions)

Best Original Screenplay

1.     Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola (Moonrise Kingdom)

2.        Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon (The Cabin in the Woods)

Best Adapted Screenplay

1.     Tony Kushner (Lincoln)

2.        Chris Terrio (Argo)

DENVER FILM CRITICS SOCIETY NOMINATIONS

Best Film

1.        Argo

2.        Silver Linings Playbook

3.        Django Unchained

Best Achievement in Directing

1.        Ben Affleck (Argo)

2.        Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)

3.        Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master)

Best Lead Performance by an Actor, Male

1.        Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

2.        John Hawkes (The Sessions)

3.        Denzel Washington (Flight)

Best Lead Performance by an Actor, Female

1.        Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

2.        Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

3.        Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Best Supporting Performance by an Actor, Male

1.        Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

2.        Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)

3.        Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook)

Best Supporting Performance by an Actor, Female

1.        Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

2.        Amy Adams (The Master)

3.        Sally Field (Lincoln)

OSCAR PREDICTIONS 10 - 1 WEEK TO GO

Just one week left and still no closer to knowing how the Best Picture and Director races will shape up. Nor most of the others, actually. In fact, none of them. Fs. Final predictions will be posted just before nominations are announced (definitely not after)!

Best Picture

·          Argo

·          Django Unchained

·          Life of Pi

·          Lincoln

·          Les Misérables

·          Moonrise Kingdom

·          Silver Linings Playbook

·          Zero Dark Thirty

Best Directing

·          Ben Affleck (Argo)

·          Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)

·          Tom Hooper (Les Misérables)

·          Ang Lee (Life of Pi)

·          Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

Best Actor in a Leading Role

·          Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)

·          Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

·          John Hawkes (The Sessions)

·          Hugh Jackman (Les Misérables)

·          Denzel Washington (Flight)

Best Actress in a Leading Role

·          Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

·          Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

·          Helen Mirren (Hitchcock)

·          Naomi Watts (The Impossible)

·          Rachel Weisz (The Deep Blue Sea)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

·          Alan Arkin (Argo)

·          Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained)

·          Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

·          Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)

·          Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

·          Sally Field (Lincoln)

·          Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

·          Helen Hunt (The Sessions)

·          Nicole Kidman (The Paperboy)

·          Maggie Smith (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel)

Best Writing (Original Screenplay)

·          Amour

·          Django Unchained

·          Looper

·          Moonrise Kingdom

·          Zero Dark Thirty

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

·          Argo

·          Life of Pi

·          Lincoln

·          The Perks of Being a Wallflower

·          Silver Linings Playbook

ART DIRECTORS GUILD NOMINATIONS

Best Production Design – Period Film

Rick Carter (Lincoln)

Sarah Greenwood (Anna Karenina)

J. Michael Riva (Django Unchained)

Sharon Seymour (Argo)

Eve Stewart (Les Misérables)

Best Production Design – Fantasy Film

Hugh Bateup and Uli Hanisch (Cloud Atlas)

Nathan Crowley and Kevin Kavanaugh (The Dark Knight Rises)

David Gropman (Life of Pi)

Dan Hennah (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey)

Arthur Max (Prometheus)

REVIEW - THE DEEP BLUE SEA

In The Deep Blue Sea, Terence Davies' adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play, we too are caught. Our heroine, played by Rachel Weisz in a deeply affective performance, claims to feel 'caught between the devil and the deep blue sea'. And there seems not a breath of life in post-war London's dark, ravaged streets, nor in the close, dimly lit interiors, smoky pubs, smoky flats. Desperate Hester Collyer has not the will nor the energy to allow her fickle emotions to surge up and consume her and all around her; she allows them to trickle out, rotting away at the stagnancy in her life, stagnancy she lets develop, her mind always somewhere else. Her mind is searching itself - she is unsure of whom she is, whom she wants to be, and she changes so often, without warning either to those close to her or even to herself. In this millennium, she would be described as a woman, just. There is nothing so remarkable about her character. But she, lacking the skill and/or the desire to suppress her emotion, no matter how damaging it may prove to be when expressed, is out of place in this city in this era. Rattigan and Davies evidently have the utmost respect for her - others are devoted to her, and in casting Rachel Weisz, who is surely impossible to dislike, Hester assumes the demeanour of a classic, tragic heroine of the stage, all imperfect, and perfect in her imperfection. Weisz never plays her as such, though, and stresses her ordinariness throughout; when she erupts, if only momentarily, it's riveting. Visually, spatially, Davies establishes a languorous, claustrophobic sensation that is effective, and most evocative, from beginning to end. Tonally, it's in the doldrums, exactly where it ought to be, but Davies can't shift the literariness of much of Rattigan's prose, which is occasionally a little too invasive and descriptive - it cuts through the intimacy, rather than enhancing it.

PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA NOMINATIONS

Best Picture

Argo (Ben Affleck, George Clooney and Grant Heslov)

Beasts of the Southern Wild (Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey and Josh Penn)

Django Unchained (Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone and Stacey Sher)

Life of Pi (Ang Lee, Gil Netter and David Womark)

Lincoln (Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg)

Les Misérables (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh)

Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, Steven M. Rales and Scott Rudin)

Silver Linings Playbook (Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti and Jonathan Gordon)

Skyfall (Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson)

Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal and Megan Ellison)

Best Animated Feature

Brave (Katherine Sarafian)

Frankenweenie (Allison Abbate and Tim Burton)

ParaNorman (Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner)

Rise of the Guardians (Nancy Bernstein and Christina Steinberg)

Wreck-It Ralph (Clark Spencer)

REVIEW - THE IMPOSSIBLE

Juan Antonio Bayona's The Impossible depicts a tale of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in the hope of eliciting a tsunami of tears from the audience; I don't object to the occasional bout of emotional manipulation, but I was so distracted by the ham-fisted filmmaking in other arenas to be able to subject myself to it. Bayona lurches between scenes, aiming for wholly different effects with each sequence, and often with the full force of his directorial abilities - there is utterly nothing subtle about this film. It is as he intends it to be, whether harrowing and sad, brutal and disturbing, fast-paced and tense, or uplifting and inspiring. He's jammed so many different movies into one chaotic, hysterical mess. Just as the waves batter their victims with debris, we too are lobbed with a brash, rather indistinctive score, sub-Lubezki-esque cinematography and crass, inelegant dialogue. Elements of the film do have a brutish power, though, and the recreation of the tsunami, if unimaginative, is respectful of those who experienced it, in its angry vividness. Bayona is in finest form when torturing us, and his characters, and The Impossible is onto a winner from the moment the wave hits to the moment young Lucas leaves his mother, and the sap starts to seep through. Naomi Watts spends most of the film in physical agony, which is familiar ground for her, and she excels once again, fully settling into the role as soon as she's been battered about a bit. Things drag once the focus shifts away from her - really, the less injured the characters are, the less interesting. But the whole leading cast is more than able, and deserved of more than this guilelessly made soap opera, from a director who's capable of much better.