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Monday, 6 January 2014

Golden Stans 2013

76 films seen (a new record, beating the previous high of 73), of which 61 can compete for the Golden Stans (four films seen twice, one theatrical performance on film, two concert movies [Metallica and Muse], and nine re-releases [of which eight were in the BFI’s Gothic season]).

As ever the first award at each Golden Stans ceremony is the Cone of Shame. It is with considerable regret that I must allocate it to Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin. The premise of the story and its planned execution was intriguing – Scarlett Johansson’s alien cruises around Glasgow’s backstreets, picking up men for her own nefarious needs, shot almost as a documentary – but the viewing experience was unexpectedly tedious and deliberately off-kilter and challenging. Hell, even a naked Scarlett can’t lift this lifeless nonsense out of the scrap pile – and that is really saying something given my love for Scarlett!

Now on to the good stuff, and first it’s Best Score, fought out by three films:
  • Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood for The Master
  • Steven Price for Gravity
  • Hans Zimmer for Man of Steel
Zimmer conjured something fresh for the Superman reboot that owed nothing to John Williams’ brilliant 70s heroic theme, rather Zimmer’s main themes seemed to hint at the loneliness as much as the heroism at the myth’s core.
Price’s work on Gravity, owed something to the school of Zimmer, but added to the inevitability of disaster and doom that envelopes the script’s protagonists.
Greenwood delivered an appropriately challenging score for The Master – and he gets the gong.

The shortlist for Best Cinematography is as follows:
  • Mihai Malaimare Jnr for The Master
  • Larry Smith for Only God Forgives
  • Eric Steelberg for Labor Day
  • Barry Ackroyd for Parkland
  • Sean Bobbitt for 12 Years A Slave
  • Barry Ackroyd (again) for Captain Phillips
  • Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity
Malaimare Jnr’s compositions were beautiful; Smith manipulated darkness as if it was a member of the cast; Steelberg suffused Labor Day with the late summer, Americana light that really helps the film; Bobbitt expanded his scope with impressive ease in 12 Years; and Lubezki played an integral part in a technical marvel.
But none of them are the winner: the award goes to Barry Ackroyd for his expectedly outstanding work on Parkland and Captain Phillips.

In a year awash with sequels, prequels and adaptations, there are a number of runners for Best Adapted Screenplay:
  • David S Goyer for Man of Steel 
  • Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope for Philomena 
  • Peter Landesman for Parkland
  • Bill Ray for Captain Phillips

Goyer brought all the best revisionist versions of the Superman myth together, Coogan and Pope delivered an almost perfectly balanced argument between unquestioning faith and intelligent interrogation, Landesman shone fresh, intimate light on a well-known moment in history, and Bill Ray found space for more than just Captain Phillips’ story.
In the end, the award goes to Coogan and Pope for Philomena, whose sense of balance extended to conjuring a perfect mixture of comedy and tragedy.

The Best Original Screenplay award has the following shortlist:
  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Don Jon
  • Lake Bell for In A World…
  • JC Chandor for All Is Lost
  • Emily Mortimer and Dolly Wells for Doll & Em
  • Tobias Lindholm for A Hijacking
  • Jeff Nichols for Mud
Don Jon was a more effective commentary on the role sex, sexual imagery and porn play in our society than Shame, but suffered from trying to cover too many bases.
Lake Bell in her own film plus Doll & Em brought pleasingly real female voices and lives to the fore.
Nichols effortlessly conjured an early 70s film, brimming with strange and complex characters but probably overcooked the post-script.
Chandor and Lindholm charted the waters of survival at sea, and it is the latter that secures the award for his thorough vision and detailed execution of a freighter hijack from four viewpoints.

Now, on to the acting awards, kicking off with Best Supporting Actress. The shortlist is:
  • Amy Adams/The Master, and Man Of Steel
  • Anne Hathaway/Les Miserables
  • Helen Hunt/The Sessions
  • Nicole Kidman/The Paperboy
  • June Squibb/Nebraska
  • Sally Hawkins/Blue Jasmine
Amy Adams was brilliantly cast as the Lady Macbeth with the mousewife appearance in The Master, and she then went on to nail Lois Lane, imbuing her with intelligence and impatience.
Ignore the weight loss nonsense: Anne Hathaway suffered and sung beautifully in Les Mis – an unforgettable performance.
In a year with so many good roles for 40-something (and older) women, Helen Hunt had one of the best as the sex therapist who gets too close to her disabled client.
Nicole Kidman gave the loopiest performance of her career in The Paperboy: her simulated fellatio scene simply takes the breath away.
June Squibb clearly enjoyed spitting out the best lines in Nebraska.
And Sally Hawkins was a surprise in Blue Jasmine – and displayed such an affinity for her character that I assume Woody Allen will be using her regularly from now on.
A winner? While Hathaway was unforgettable, and she pretty much stole the film from Hugh Jackman, the role is just a little too showy, so Amy Adams gets the nod for continuing to surprise.

The shortlist for Best Supporting Actor is:
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman/The Master
  • Abdihakin Asgar/A Hijacking
  • Will Forte/Nebraska
  • Paul Giamatti/The Congress, and Parkland
  • James Badge Dale/Parkland
  • Barkhad Abdi/Captain Phillips
PSH was brilliant in The Master: cunning, intelligent, desperate and shallow all at once.
Will Forte did well with the most difficult role in Nebraska as the put-upon, loser son.
James Badge Dale stunned in Parkland as Lee Harvey Oswald’s brother, struggling to lead the family in the wake of the black sheep committing one of the crimes of the century.
Also standing out in Parkland was Paul Giamatti as Zapruder, while his doctor provided one of the few emotional connections for the audience in The Congress.
And then what does one make of 2013’s two Somali pirates in A Hijacking and Captain Phillips: brilliant performances in the moment or pieced together on the cutting room floor? We’ll probably never know, but surely no actors in 2013 had to portray characters under so much pressure (other than their respective prisoners!)?
But because he got my man of the match trophy among the huge and hugely impressive ensemble cast of Parkland, Giamatti snatches the trophy. His Zapruder has one of the great American tragedies etched across his features, his shock, his tears are the shock suffered by and the tears shed by the West.

The average age of the women on the shortlist for Best Actress is 38.6: who says there aren’t any great roles for older women? The youngest on my shortlist is 23, the oldest is 49, and seven of them are over 35. The shortlist is:
  • Naomi Watts/The Impossible, and Adore
  • Amy Acker/Much Ado About Nothing
  • Robin Wright/Adore, and The Congress
  • Sandra Bullock/Gravity
  • Lake Bell/In A World…
  • Kate Winslet/Labor Day
  • Felicity Jones/The Invisible Woman
  • Cate Blanchett/Blue Jasmine
  • Jennifer Lawrence/Hunger Games 2
  • Amy Adams/American Hustle
This is a tough category, with many of the shortlisted playing not very likeable characters.
For example, Cate Blanchett’s study of a woman falling apart is brilliant but unsympathetic, especially once we learn the story’s key plot twist and Blanchett’s role in that twist.
Robin Wright and Naomi Watts as the mothers who really should know better in Adore are equally brilliant, but it’s hard to feel any sympathy for them.
Wright has a more sympathetic role in the mess that is The Congress, while Watts excels as expected in The Impossible.
Amy Adams (again) in American Hustle is on top form, allowing us finally to work out when she’s conning and when she’s not.
Jennifer Lawrence is brilliant against type in the same film, but that’s a supporting role and doesn’t count here. What does is the conviction and believability she brought once again to Katniss Everdeen – without Lawrence, the Hunger Games movies have very little game.
Almost as convincing was Sandra Bullock in Gravity: the film pretty much rests on her as she is our only connection to the disaster for the majority of the film.
Felicity Jones was compelling and exquisite as Dickens’ new muse and lover in The Invisible Woman.
Amy Acker clearly had a rigorous understanding of the script in Much Ado (one of those rare occasions when an American actor ‘gets’ Shakespeare) and nailed her role as Beatrice.
Also delivering on the comedy front was Lake Bell, who fronted, wrote and directed In AWorld…, providing a unique girl geek voice.
And la Winslet was her usual excellent self in Labor Day, languorously adding to the film’s lazy, sunny afternoon intimacy and eroticism.    
In the end, I’m going for Naomi Watts, who finally picks up a Golden Stan, for making the impossible and the unbelievable seem real.

The shortlist for Best Actor is:
  • Tom Holland/The Impossible
  • Hugh Jackman/Les Miserables
  • John Hawkes/The Sessions
  • Matthew McConnaughey/Mud, Paperboy
  • Daniel Bruhl/Rush
  • Bruce Dern/Nebraska
  • Robert Redford/All Is Lost
  • Josh Brolin/Labor Day
  • Chiwetel Ejiofor/12 Years A Slave
  • Tom Hanks/Captain Phillips
Another tough category with a diverse mixture of performances to relish. Teenage Tom Holland was a knock-out in The Impossible – his character, by dint of his screentime, was crucial to the movie and at no point did he fail to convince.
Hugh Jackman gave his all in Les Mis – his performance is such that you can’t imagine anyone else pulling it off.
John Hawkes was the opposite of Jackman’s physical presence in The Sessions, only being able to use his facial expressions. His character’s intelligence and charm seemed to be easily conveyed – and Hawkes now has a new type of character in his armoury otherwise chock full of psychos and weirdos.
Matthew McConnaughey is cranking up the number of ‘character actor’ roles he plays, and in both Mud and Paperboy his effortless Southern cool played perfectly against the dangerous and lost aspects of his characters.
Daniel Bruhl probably delivered the best impression of 2013: his Niki Lauda was note perfect, his pronounciation of “bullshit!” is worthy of an award itself. But this went way beyond impersonation: to all intents and purposes that was Niki Lauda alongside Thor.
Who knows whether Bruce Dern was slaying any personal demons in Nebraska, but he certainly made the most of the role, fooling his on-screen family and the audience into not knowing what was dementia and what was an old man on a mission.
That other oldtimer, Robert Redford, was so ridiculously convincing in All Is Lost that at times it almost felt like a documentary. His one on-screen exclamation shatters the soul.
Josh Brolin was arguably cast against type, given the understated performance required for Labor Day to succeed in the way that it does. The threat of violence is what we know him for, but he revealed a softer side we’ve not seen before, which should have women of a certain age swooning in the aisles.
Chiwetel Ejiofor suffers supremely in 12 Years A Slave, and holds his own easily against a starry cast, but I feel the impact of his performance is lost among the brutality and sledgehammer sermonising of the film.
And then we have the comeback kid, Tom Hanks, delivering one of the great performances of his life (and he’s already got a few of those) as Captain Phillips.
Picking a winner is really, really difficult here, but a winner there must be… and it’s Robert Redford, as much for his near-wordless physicality as the moment he finally breaks down and realises that all is indeed lost.

And we’re on to the penultimate award, Best Director, and the shortlist is not especially short:
  • Paul Thomas Anderson/The Master
  • Jeff Nichols/Mud
  • Tobias Lindholm/A Hijacking
  • Nicholas Winding Refn/Only God Forgives
  • Alfonso Cuaron/Gravity
  • JC Chandor/All Is Lost
  • Jason Reitman/Labor Day
  • Peter Landesman/Parkland
  • Paul Greengrass/Captain Phillips
  • David O Russell/American Hustle
Russell produced the best film of the Christmas holiday and seems to be turning into Martin Scorsese when he was good and skipped lightly on his feet.
Greengrass is the thinking man’s action film director, his Captain Phillips the best action thriller of the year.
Nichols and Reitman conjured beautiful Americana, while Landesman’s debut unlocked the human story within the assassination of JFK. Reitman worked commendably well outside his established milieu, while PT Anderson reinforced his position as the most intelligent director in America today.
Chandor displayed remarkable versatility, switching from the dialogue-heavy approach of his debut (Margin Call – which suffered from not enough focus on the editing of the story) to a commanding grasp of the sea in All Is Lost.
Also skirting with disaster and high thrills were Cuaron and Lindholm. The former delivered the 3D knock-out blow of the year, while the latter delivered possibly the most gripping film of the year: at no point does he lose focus of the suffering of the three key players.
But unquestionably the Best Director award must go to Winding Refn. His work is hard to like, but it’s hard to forget and Only God Forgives is impressive in all technical areas. While I question the quality of the story and the space given to the actors to perform, I am unable to think of a film that was so well executed from paper to screen.

Finally, it’s the big one: Best Film. Here’s the list of films that left a (good) lasting impression on me in 2013.
  • The Master: a film that has grown in stature since I first saw it in January ’13; like There Must Be Blood, it encourages questions and debate.
  • Le Miserables: I’m not a musical fan, but it was hard to ignore the film’s power, and the conviction of Jackman, Crowe and Hathaway.
  • The Sessions: great performances and a charming, moving tale.
  • Mud: the king of indie Americana delivered again. Shame about the epilogue though.
  • Man Of Steel: an almost brilliant reworking of Superman’s origin; the much-debated finale sets up the Big Blue Boy Scout’s no killing belief and effectively reinforces his position as an orphan.
  • A Hijacking: just about as tense as movies get, and what with it not being Hollywood, you are not guaranteed a happy ending; probably better than Captain Phillips.
  • Only God Forgives: the use of colour, the precision of the editing, the score, the compositions are simply remarkable.
  • Doll & Em: OK, it’s a TV show, but it was premiered at the London Film Festival, so I’m counting it as a film. Funny, touching and realistic.
  • Nebraska: not Alexander Payne’s best, but still high quality entertainment, infused with the ebbing of life that the film reflects on.
  • Gravity: a technical marvel, with high tension; pity about the pat characterisation.
  • All Is Lost: yet more tension, and a lean and mean script that nevertheless allows space for Robert Redford to excel.
  • In A World…: Lake Bell wrote, directed and starred in this loving piss-take of the Hollywood voice-over industry – a wonderful surprise.
  • Labor Day: there hasn’t been anything like this since Clint Eastwood’s A Perfect World; a prime slice of dreamy Americana; not sure the coming of age framing device was necessary though.
  • All Cheerleaders Die: a vicious, energetic, wild romp. Lesbian vampire cheerleading Heathers: what’s not to like?!
  • Philomena: top quality performances (although Judy Dench is well-within type), a brilliant script, and unfussy direction from Stephen Frears. I was raging at the screen and crying every few minutes, often at the same time.
  • Don Jon: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s comedic meditation on the effects of porn was insightful, toe-curlingly funny, and sexy, but also over-wrought and suffered from a pat ending. Ultimately it’s an unexpected paen for the allure of the older woman.
  • Parkland: an astonishing debut that shines new light on an old topic. Surely there's nothing new to be said about JFK's assassination after this?
  • Captain Phillips: gripping, tense, and a sharp focus on real people caught in the crossfire of international politics and First World v Third World economic imbalances. Almost as stunning on the IMAX as Gravity.
  • The Invisible Woman: Ralph Fiennes' follow-up to Coriolanus is a distinctly different flavour to his muscular Shakespeare actioner - a moody, intense period drama with a believable and sympathetic romance between Dickens and his lover.
  • American Hustle: remember when Scorsese had fun rather than setting out to tell us THIS FILM IS IMPORTANT? This film is like that: it has a spring in its step, a cast to die for, one hell of a soundtrack and a director on top form. Highly, highly recommended.
After much consideration the battle is between The Master, A Hijacking, All Is Lost, Philomena, Parkland and Captain Phillips. They all have a claim to the title: The Master is the most challenging; All Is Lost the most physical and immersive experience; Parkland a superb and humane debut; Philomena successfully combines righteous indignation and quiet forgiveness; and Captain Phillips is a master class in superior action thriller movie-making. But trumping that last for tension, combined with a more effective and more political scope, A Hijacking takes the Golden Stan for Best Film.  


That's it for 2013; bring on 2014!

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