Oscars – Page 2 – The Movie Gourmet

LOOKS LIKE AN AMAZING FALL SEASON FOR MOVIES

October 1, 2016 by movie gourmet

Every October through New Year, Hollywood rolls out its most cinematically aspirational movies to compete with indie and foreign Oscar bait. This shaping up to be a killer Prestige Season – the depth of the upcoming offerings is especially promising. We know about them because they’ve been screened at major film festivals earlier this year, and the buzz has leaked out. These movies start rolling out into theaters on October 7 and 14 (Birth of a Nation and Certain Women) and continue opening through January 20 in the Bay Area (Toni Erdmann).

The top candidates for the Best Picture Oscar are looking to be:

Arrival stars Amy Adams as a linguist dispatched to communicate with alien lifeforms Directed by Denis Villaneuve (Incendies – my top movie of 2011, Prisoners, Sicario).
La La Land is a big studio musical a la Singing in the Rain with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.
Loving tells the story of the Virginia couple whose 1967 US Supreme Court case overturned state laws banning inter-racial marriage. Stars Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga. Directed by Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, Mud, all three of which made my Best of the Year lists).
Manchester By the Sea, a family drama from writer-director Kenneth Lonergan, the genius behind the little-seen Margaret. Stars Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams and Kyle Chandler. Big hit at Sundance.

Other major releases that could break through:

Lion stars Dev Patel as an Australian adoptee returning to India to search for his biological parents; costarring Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara.
Birth of a Nation – Nate Parker writes, directs and stars in this depiction of Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion. This was an awards favorite after Sundance in January, but the buzz has been sinking after the publicizing of director Parker’s own involvement in a 1999 campus rape case; (he was tried and acquitted).
Jackie – Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy.
Hacksaw Ridge is the true story of the WWII conscientious objector who served as a battlefield medic and earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. Being a Mel Gibson movie, the battle scenes are realistic and vivid.
And the big family hit of the Holiday season may turn out to be, of all things a documentary about a Mongolian girl – The Eagle Huntress; reportedly it’s both a crowd pleaser and spectacular eye candy.

LOVING Credit: Ben Rothstein/Focus Features

Then there is an entire herd of foreign and indie films that will grace the art houses. Some will break through as popular hits and, undoubtedly, some will spawn Oscar nominations for acting, directing and writing awards.

Toni Erdmann is writer-director Maren Ade’s perspective of a father-daughter relationship, creating a totally original and unforgettable father who takes prankstering into performance art. You might not expect an almost three-hour German comedy to break through, but I’ve seen it, and I think that it’s a lock to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture.
Nocturnal Animals is a violent thriller with Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon.
The Handmaiden is a mystery romance set in Japan, from Chan-wook Park of Oldboy.
Julieta is Pedro Almodovar’s latest. That’s enough for some of us.
Aquarius, stars Sonia Braga as a woman battling developers to protect her home; Braga is still luminous 40 years after Donna Flor and Her Two Husbands.
Certain Women comes from Kelly Reichardt of Wendy and Lucy, starring Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern.
The Salesman is another personal drama from Asghar Farhadi of A Separation.
Personal Shopper is a Parisian ghost story that stars Kristen Stewart. From director Olivier Assayas.
Elle, from director Paul Verhoeven, stars Isabelle Huppert in, what else?, a psychological thriller with disturbing sex.
Paterson Adam Driver stars in this drama from Jim Jarmusch.

Keep coming back to The Movie Gourmet. and I’ll keep you current on this year’s Big Movies.

An Oscar Dinner after all, thanks to The Wife and Trader Joes

February 28, 2016 by movie gourmet

OK, so I just posted that we would skip our annual Oscar Dinner because we were returning from an away weekend, but The Wife insisted on meeting the challenge of catering it from Trader Joes. So here we are:

Water, rushing so extravagantly from Immortan Joe’s cliff-side fortress in Mad Max: Fury Road;

Pint of Ale from one of the Boston bars in Spotlight;

Bison Jerky from The Revenant (no raw bison liver available at TJs);

Spaghetti, which Ellis mastered eating, after much practice, in Brooklyn;

Peas and carrots from the Donovan family dinner in Bridge of Spies (served in vintage Corning ware – also on the Donovans’ table);

Potatoes (but not cultivated in our own waste) from The Martian; and

Cake as an homage both to Jake’s birthday cake (sans candles) in Room and to the Las Vegas convention dessert that Mark Baum disgustedly consumes in The Big Short.

No Oscar dinner this year

February 28, 2016 by movie gourmet

Every year, we have watched the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. We’ve had sushi for Lost in Translation, cowboy beans for Brokeback Mountain, Somali chicken suqaar for Captain Phillips, etc. The photo above shows last year’s Oscar dinner, finished with the courtesan au chocolate, the elaborate filled pastry smuggled to Gustave (Ray Fiennes) in The Grand Budapest Hotel.

But this year, The Wife and I are spending an away weekend with our daughter and son-in-law, so we just can’t pull it off.

But, if we were going to stage our dinner, we would have considered:

spaghetti from Brooklyn;
potatoes (but not cultivated in our own waste) from The Martian;
pub pints from one of the Boston bars in Spotlight;
Steve Carell’s Las Vegas convention dessert in The Big Short;
and I like the idea of raw bison liver from The Revenant, but The Wife was never going to agree to that.

Below is our 2011 pièce de résistance, our Severed Hand Ice Sculpture for 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone.

The Movie Gourmet's culinary tribute to 127 HOURS and WINTER'S BONE — The Movie Gourmet’s culinary tribute to 127 HOURS and WINTER’S BONE

Mill Valley Film Fest – see it here first

September 17, 2015September 17, 2015 by movie gourmet

John Tururro in MY MOTHER — Margherita Buy and John Turturro in MY MOTHER

The Mill Valley Film Festival always showcases many of the most promising prestige films that are scheduled for release during Award Season. It’s the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies. Last year’s fest featured an array of Oscar winners and Oscar-nominated films: The Imitation Game, Whiplash, Wild, Foxcatcher, Mr. Turner and Two Days, One Night, along with Force Majeure, which made it on my Best Movies of 2014 list.

Again this year, the film fest is especially rich with Oscar bait:

Bridge of Spies – Steven Spielberg’s espionage thriller with Tom Hanks;
Carol – fest favorite about lesbian awakening with Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett;
Dheepan – the French immigration thriller that won the Palm d’Or at Cannes;
The Danish Girl – Eddie Redmayne portrays one of the recipients of gender reassignment surgery;
Son of Saul – the Hungarian movie about Auschwitz that stunned critics, both for its intense brilliance and for the discomfort in watching it;
Suffragette – Carey Mulligan wins women the vote; and
The Assassin – an especially epic Chinese costume epic.

I’m especially looking forward to My Mother from Italy, about a film director who is simultaneously dealing with her dying mother, challenging teenager and hilariously pompous leading man (John Turturro). I’m also eager to see I Smile Back – Sarah Silverman has been getting buzz for a reportedly searing performance as an alcoholic.

Those are the Big Movies, but there’s also a promising assortment of the indies, foreign flicks and documentaries that I usually cover. Here’s the schedule.

The fest runs October 8-18 in Mill Valley, San Rafael and Corte Madera. Tickets are now available to members and will go on sale to the public on September 19.

Sarah Silverman in I SMILE BACK — Sarah Silverman and Josh Charles in I SMILE BACK

One last glance at the Oscars

February 23, 2015 by movie gourmet

The Academy has just gotta do something because this show is becoming more and more unwatchable every year. The three hours and 9 minutes of this year’s extravanagnza had only seven memorable “Oscar moments” and six of them were not in the script – the heartfelt acceptance speeches of winners J.K. Simmons, Patricia Arquette, Pawel Pawlikowski, Common, Graham Moore and Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The ONLY brilliant moment in the telecast that had been planned by the producers was John Legend’s performance of the song Glory from the movie Selma.

But, generally, the Best Song category chews up way too much time and is often a buzz kill. Except for Legend, it was bad this year, too – and the Everything Is Awesome number was hallucinogenicly bad.

In the last two years, the Academy has even ruined the Memorium montage – usually one of the most moving and evocative moments. This year, the producers didn’t even show any stills or clips from the artist’s cinematic work, and they bracketed it with an acting school emoting lesson by Meryl Streep and an irrelevant song by Jennifer Hudson.

The worst of the broadcast, of course, was the serious of forced gags like the one about Octavia Spencer guarding the Neil Patrick Harris’ Oscar predictions; unfunny the first time, it wore and wore until Harris’ and Spencer’s dignity were completely eroded. Horrible.

As to the awards themselves? I was deliriously happy that Ida got its due as Best Foreign Language Picture, a choice that proved that some taste and decency lingers in the Academy. I was sorry that Boyhood – the best movie of the decade, let alone the year – didn’t win Best Picture, but Birdman is pretty special, too.

Coincidentally, I was recording the 2006 Children of Men during the Oscar broadcast, so afterwards I could revisit the amazing 8-minute battle scene shot by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (deserving winner for Birdman). One of the greatest single shots in cinema. Felicidades, Chivo.

planning the annual Oscar dinner

February 20, 2015 by movie gourmet

Every year, we watch the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. For example, we had sushi for Lost in Translation and cowboy campfire beans for Brokeback Mountain – you get the idea.

On my Oscar Dinner page, you can see past menus and some photos. In 2009, Frost/Nixon and Milk were stumping me until I realized that they were all set in the 1970s. So we had celery sticks stuffed with pimento spread, pigs in a blanket and Tequila Sunrises. And we’ll never top the Severed Hand Ice Sculpture for 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone (above).

Anyway, here’s our menu for 2015:

Table decorations

Lilacs – In Birdman, Riggan asks for camellias for his dressing room and wants anything except roses; his daughter later brings him lilacs. (We could have also gone with the theater critic’s martinis or the sliced lunch meat in Riggan’s dressing room.)

Beverages

Pub pints of beer – Frequently consumed in pub scenes in The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything. (I drink Ballast Point Sculpin, but we’re going to pretend that it’s Newcastle.)

Starter

Pizza – from the pizza date in Whiplash.

Hummus – Chris Kyle and his buddies share a family meal at the Iraqi home of the guy hiding a cache of arms in American Sniper. (With so many excellent recent movies set in the Middle East, we’ve had Hummus before along with Kabob Koubideh, Khoresh Ghormeh and Fatayer bi Sabanekh.)

Graduation party appetizers – from Boyhood , a movie with MANY unforgettable scenes (lots of family dining, snacks and the diner scene), but with pretty unmemorable food choices.

Main Course

Fried chicken and fixins – requested by the appreciative Southern Christian Leadership Conference team upon their arrival at their hostess’ home in Selma.

Dessert

Courtesan au chocolate – the elaborate filled pastry smuggled to the Ray Fiennes character in The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Mill Valley Film Festival: see it here first

September 11, 2014 by movie gourmet

Mr. Turner: A period biopic by Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake, Another Year). Lots of Oscar buzz for lead actor Timothy Spall. Most of us won’t be able to see this in theaters until January.
Foxcatcher: Ripped from the headlines psychological drama with possible acting Oscar nods for Steve Carell AND Channing Tatum AND Mark Ruffalo.
The Homesman: Writer/director/star Tommy Lee Jones takes Hilary Swank on a pioneer road trip.
Whiplash: J.K. Simmons (Juno) plays the tough love music instructor for drummer Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now). Huge hit at Sundance promises to be one of the Fall’s top audience-pleasers.
Wild: Reese Witherspoon backpacks solo across the Pacific coast for emotional closure.
Force Majeure: This Swedish satirical disaster thriller won the Un Certain Regard jury prize at Cannes.
The Imitation Game: Lots of buzz for Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as gay WWII code-breaking genius Kenneth Turing.
St. Vincent: Big crowd pleaser here: Single mom (Melissa McCarthy) leave young son with boozy, lecherous babysitter (Bill Murray). The kid actor is getting raves, too.
Two Days, One Night: The latest urgent drama from the Dardennes brothers (The Kid with a Bike, The Son). Their movies always make my annual top ten list – and this one features Marion Cotillard.
The Judge: Mixed reviews so far at Toronto for courtroom drama with Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall.

Those are the Big Movies, but there’s also a promising assortment of the indies, foreign flicks and documentaries that I usually cover. Here’s the schedule.

The fest runs October 2-11 in Mill Valley, San Rafael and Corte Madera. Tickets are now available to members and will go on sale to the public on September 14.

Steve Carell (yes - that's really him) and Channing Tatum in FOXCATCHER — Steve Carell (yes – that’s really him) and Channing Tatum in FOXCATCHER

Weighing in on the Oscars

March 3, 2014 by movie gourmet

Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey in DALLAS BUYERS CLUB

Yeesh, what a bore – and I used to LIVE for the annual Oscar show.

There were heartfelt and classy moments from Jared Leto, Lupita Nyong’o and Bill Murray. Jamie Foxx added some unscripted foolery and Best Song winners Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez delivered a clever rhyming acceptance. That was it – five worthwhile moments in a three-hour drudge through self-congratulation and scary cosmetic surgery.

How does one celebrate our most vivid, immediate and accessible art form and make our eyes glaze over? Apparently, the most effective means is to devote a fifth of the telecast to live musical performances, mostly from the worthless Best Song category. This show is supposed to be about cinema, not the mediocre songs that dot a few of the films. Wasting yet more screen time with Twitter jokes didn’t help. They’ve also sucked the pathos out of the In Memoriam montage, which has generally been my favorite part of the show.

As to the winners themselves? They all seemed deserving to me. I would have preferred The Act of Killing to win Best Documentary and Before Midnight to win Best Original Screenplay, but there weren’t any forehead-slapping boners this year. 12 Years a Slave is undeniably a fine film, but I don’t know many folks who will actually ENJOY the two-and-a-half hours of unremitting brutality before Brad Pitt shows up in an Amish beard.

Bottom line: good year for the awards and bad year for the award show.

Dallas Buyers Club: worth it for Jared Leto

February 6, 2014 by movie gourmet

Dallas Buyers Club is a well-paced us-against-bureaucracy drama. It’s yet another fine acting performance by its star, Matthew McConaughey, who – in a superb second career phase – has turned in a remarkable spate of winning performances in the past three years (Killer Joe, The Paperboy, Mud, Magic Mike, The Wolf of Wall Street, True Detective). Set in the early panicky days of the AIDS epidemic, it’s the based-on-fact story of a homophobic Texas cowboy who contracts AIDS and wages a guerrilla war against the FDA, Big Pharma and the medical establishment to distribute non-approved but effective medications. Dallas Buyers Club has been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar but I found it too formulaic to be THAT good.

The best reason to see Dallas Buyers Club is the supporting performance by Jared Leto as a drag queen. I am generally skeptical about performances that get a lot of buzz because the roles require the actor to take on a handicap or another gender, to age many years or some other flashy crap – but Leto is the real deal here, and he deserves his Academy Award nomination – and I would be pleased if he won the Oscar. He goes beyond the wise cracking queen to plumb many layers of charisma, addiction, self-expression and family rejection. It’s a profoundly affecting and ultimately heartbreaking performance. (And, in a couple early scenes, he’s actually prettier than the female lead Jennifer Garner.)

weighing in on the Oscar nominations

January 16, 2014 by movie gourmet

Captain Phillips Barkhad Abdi — Barkad Abdi from CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

I’m pretty satisfied with this year’s Oscar nominations. The Best Picture nominees do represent the best Hollywood films of the year, which is the most that we can expect. I’ve seen all of them except for Dallas Buyers Club, and no stinkers got nominated. There’s a pretty strong overlap with my Best Movies of 2013, the 23 movies that I think are the very best – the ones that you think about in the days AFTER you’ve walked out of the theater. (Most of my choices are indies, documentaries and foreign films – not big Hollywood movies.)

Captain Phillips, which has the #10 spot on my top ten, is my favorite Hollywood film of the year. (And I’m particularly glad that the Academy recognized Minneapolis actor-limousine driver Barkad Abdi with a nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a Somali pirate in Captain Phillips.) Nebraska, American Hustle and Her also were among my 23 top movies. Although they didn’t make my list, I also liked The Wolf of Wall Street, Gravity and Philomena. I admired 12 Years a Slave – which is undeniably a fine film – but it’s not on my list because it is such an ordeal to watch.

My choice for the second best film overall in 2013 is the Danish drama The Hunt, which is competing for the Best Foreign Language Oscar with another film that I admire, Italy’s The Great Beauty. My choice for the very best movie of the year is the French film Blue Is the Warmest Color, but it was not released in time to be nominated by France for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

The Academy took a chance in nominating the uncomfortable and jaw-dropping documentary The Act of Killing (my #9) for Best Documentary Feature, but, in this year’s biggest Oscar mistake, failed to recognize my #4 film overall, the wonderful Canadian documentary Stories We Tell by Sarah Polley.