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.
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