ASC AWARDS GREIG FRASER IN SURPRISE RESULT

It was all going La La Land's way this awards season en route to Oscar glory, until the American Society of Cinematographers rang in. Long-underappreciated DP Greig Fraser wins the ASC's top award for Lion in a remarkable coup - many thought he wouldn't even be nominated - as Garth Davis' debut feature film continues to pick up goodwill with awards voters and audiences alike. Don't expect him to surprise at Oscar - that's probably still La La Land's - but this is a pleasant victory for Fraser and his film nonetheless. And an excellent choice in the Spotlight category too. Check out the ASC's nominations at this link.

Theatrical Award
Greig Fraser (Lion)

Spotlight Award
Gorka Gomez Andreu (House of Others)

Vilmos Zsigmond Graduate Heritage Award
Andrew Jeric (Prisoner)

Vilmos Zsigmond Undergraduate Heritage Award
Emmett Sutherland (Closer)

Haskell Wexler Student Documentary Award
Colin F. Shepherd (Into the Microscope)

Board of Governors Award
Denzel Washington

Presidents Award
Nancy Schreiber

International Award
Philippe Rousselot

Lifetime Achievement Award
Edward Lachman

DAMIEN CHAZELLE WINS DGA FOR LA LA LAND

A busy weekend on the awards scene, but a busy(-ish) weekend for me, so this is all old news to you. Damien Chazelle wins the top award from the Directors Guild of America for La La Land, and nobody is surprised. Check out the DGA nominations here, and all the film-related winners below.

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film
Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary
Ezra Edelman (O.J.: Made in America)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director
Garth Davis (Lion)

REVIEW - XUAN ZANG (HUO JIAN QI)

The stodgy experience of being dragged through an illustrated history textbook is compounded by sickly spirituality in Xuan Zang, a Chinese studio epic that's big on budget, small on taste. At least the illustrations are spectacular, if woefully overcooked; sometimes it's the most basic details that are also the best, and it's thus with gratitude indeed that I embraced this film's own simple embrace of colour. Beneath the heavy-handed grading and CGI, Xuan Zang's images are quite captivating, and necessarily so, for their duty is to cover up the void of interest and inspiration that otherwise pervades this tiresome historical drama. It's a journey through buddhist theology without the enlightenment, a routine exploration of select events in the famous travels of its titular monk. There's surely a limitless array of fascinating situations to be examined in this decades-long tale, yet Huo Jian Qi's film displays practically zero concern for anything of the sort, preferring instead to rhyme off theological platitudes in place of a properly stimulating interpretation. Xuan Zang ambles aimlessly along, a montage of glittery sights and glib sounds, both leading nowhere and getting nowhere. Huang Xiao Ming is a fitfully hollow presence in the lead role, as emotionally vacuous as the film around him, where the potential existed for proving the worth of its own existence, to give the film some tangible purpose. As it is, Xuan Zang's only such raison d'etre appears to be for appearance alone, as a selection of screensavers for the spiritual soul. I'll stick with my Windows ribbons tyvm.

OBIT - RICHARD PORTMAN

Academy Award winning sound mixer Richard Portman has died. He passed on the 28th of January due to complications following a fall. One of the most influential figures in sound design in the global film industry, Portman pioneered new techniques in sound re-recording mixing, and was the very first artist to mix an entire feature by himself. During his career, he won one Oscar from 11 nominations and two BAFTAs from five. Among the titles on which Portman worked are such indisputable classics as Harold and Maude, The Godfather, The Way We Were, Papillon, Young Frankenstein, 3 Women, Star Wars, The Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate. A true maverick, and a great loss indeed for film. We'll value Portman's invaluable contribution to cinema for many years to come.

REVIEW - THE WHITE HELMETS (ORLANDO VON EINSIEDEL)

A worthy portrait of an exceptional group, comprised of Syria's best and bravest. The White Helmets, the volunteer civilian organization that has saved thousands of lives in the aftermaths of government attacks on its own population throughout Syria, should put the rest of us to shame in our manner of living, our baseless concerns and complacency, our trepidations and travel bans. Their boldness is matched by that of the filmmakers, accompanying this rescue crew on missions into the very heart of a war zone, capturing footage of immense political value and emotive power. Several steps beyond the objective detachment of a news report, this is close-range, intensive, integrally humanistic material with a clear purpose and in direct style - you've likely been similarly chastised before for not responding to certain content in other films, but it'd truly take a heart hard as stone not to be moved deeply by The White Helmets. Excursions to Turkey to chronicle elements of the training process for this defence team are afforded immediate relevance as the distance creates its own problems, while the massacres continue unabated. This too is strong footage, though less so than that preceding it, and thus contributes to a reduction in the film's core emotional import. Better to retrospectively regard The White Helmets in reverse, as a noble document of unsung heroes, its impact enhanced by the inclusion of some of the most extraordinary real-life sights you'll ever see on film.

REVIEW - T2 TRAINSPOTTING (DANNY BOYLE)

The brazen, boisterous impulsivity of youth comes crawling back to the screen, wearied by age if not maturity. What lust for life remains may only be a lust for a life long since lived, the heady intensity of its highs and lows now supplanted by poignancy and regret for them. T2 Trainspotting arrives bang on time, the distance between it and its predecessor sufficient to meaningfully distinguish between the two - this film and 1996's Trainspotting exist in genuinely different times, and have genuinely different comments to make. There's perverse joy to be wrought out of a nostalgia trip into past perverse joys, though as organic as these sensations might be, and as faithfully depicted, they're inescapably muted. The real, substantial joys of T2 are in the perpetuation of that same energy that engendered those of old, and it's thus that the eternal innovator, Danny Boyle, spins a success out of a conceptually suspect sequel. He seeks to engender new highs and lows from cloth sourced from past, present and the furthest, dankest corners of warped imagination. There are overt nods to that nostalgia, though T2 goes through nostalgia altogether and out the other end, but everything about this film is overt, including the sheer, simple entertainment value it near-constantly insists on supplying. Boyle has always been an audience-attentive filmmaker, and always at his best when he has put their interests first. As ever before, this ramshackle construction falls apart so swiftly when provoked by plot necessity, and director and writer John Hodge alike yet again prove themselves apparently incapable of resolving any particular plot with any particular skill. But they've done the right work in the right places otherwise, and T2 is thus an exemplary follow-up to a bona fide classic, against all the odds.

REVIEW - MISS SLOANE (JOHN MADDEN)

The pitfalls of propagandistic filmmaking loom large over Miss Sloane, bearing down upon it with a force that its makers must surely have hoped was directed elsewhere. Were it not for the procedural narrative's innate, engaging sense of drive, and a compelling lead turn, this entire enterprise would crumble. Writer Jonathan Perera's heart is in the right place, but his goal of fusing that heartfelt passion with the cool cerebrality of a political thriller is one of only suspect possibility, and neither he nor director John Madden have the skill to achieve it. Miss Sloane is blighted by baffling errors, each presumably made as a concession to the development of plot and the eventual arrival at a particular conclusion. Never mind the implausibility of such a neat outcome - this is propaganda, after all - it's the liberties taken en route that dilute the impact of Miss Sloane's message, and the character inconsistencies in the protagonist, perhaps devised to make this figure more palatable to a broader audience, that undermine the application of that message. Jessica Chastain perseveres through this silly stew of muddled intentions, wholly unable to invest any semblance of legitimate earnestness in either character or scenario, but dogged enough to hold our interest and perhaps elicit our concern. With her, we weather Miss Sloane's easy, familiar plotting and the basic satisfaction that it offers - a film always moving forward is a good thing in itself, regardless of its intended destination. Such films have this quality on which to fall back, though few should ever need to; this is one that, unfortunately, does need to, and it's a sorry fall to see.

SAG AWARDS: HIDDEN FIGURES WINS ENSEMBLE CAST!

You didn't see this coming, did you? With La La Land out of the way, the Ensemble award from the Screen Actors Guild was perceived by most to be a race between almost any of the nominees, though few predicted Hidden Figures, not least with its lack of wins in the individual categories. Alas, this likely only strengthens La La Land's Oscar potential, given that its closest rival, Moonlight, continues to lose the big guild awards. A largely predictable SAG ceremony was closed out by two big shockers, in the Ensemble Cast choice and in a surprise pick for Lead Actor  - Denzel Washington in Fences, winning alongside his costar Viola Davis. Check out SAG's film nominees here.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Emma Stone (La La Land)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Denzel Washington (Fences)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Viola Davis (Fences)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)

Outstanding Performance by a Cast

Mahershala Ali, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Taraji P. Henson, Aldis Hodge, Janelle Monae, Jim Parsons, Glen Powell and Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures)

Outstanding Stunt Performance by an Ensemble

Hacksaw Ridge

Lifetime Achievement Award

Lily Tomlin

REVIEW - THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE (ANDRE OVREDAL)

The Autopsy of Jane Doe is the kind of nifty little genre nibble for which the more discerning horror fan may wait for months to find - it's unexpectedly excellent, which makes its otherwise-inevitable capitulation to the tropes those fans may wish it had avoided equally unexpected. For all its good surprises and for all its bad ones, this is overall just an average little genre nibble, never quite sufficiently satisfactory. Andre Ovredal might be the director attached to the screenplay, but it's the screenplay that ends up affecting his work, undermining the value he provides the project. A skeletal schlock scenario is given unusual cinematic eloquence by Ovredal, whose restrained eye for detail and commitment to the human relationship at its centre lay some meat on writers Ian B. Goldberg and Richard Naing's premisal bones. Aided by a capable crew, evidently enthused by the opportunity to work on a lean, style-focused genre piece as often they are, Ovredal makes The Autopsy of Jane Doe a much more memorable film than it alternatively might have been, and crafts a work of moderate artistic import that's supremely enjoyable. The enjoyment wears off rapidly, however, not least due to the kind of third-act decline in quality typical of horror movies. One is primed to suspend disbelief not only in reasonable anticipation of the content of a movie of this variety but by every early development in its plot, though still the stupidity seeps through, alive despite all efforts to the contrary. For what it is, and for what it intended to be, The Autopsy of Jane Doe is by no means the kind of little genre nibble you'll regret tasting, though it's really only good for a taste, not for a swallow.

AND THE 2017 PGA WINNERS ARE...

...boring af.

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

La La Land (Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt)

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

Zootopia (Clark Spencer)

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures

O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow)