oscar doc picks

It's time once again for my annual foray into the world of Oscar. This year, I'm sad to say, I've missed out on many of the main live-action nominees. But I was able to catch most of the documentaries with a major assist from Netflix. Without further ado, I present my 2013 Oscar prognostications for the categories of feature-length documentary and documentary short.

FEATURE-LENGTH DOCUMENTARY

Should win: 5 Broken Cameras -or- The Invisible War [tie]
Although this year's candidates are all very strong, I find it impossible not to give special kudos to those movies for which lives were literally on the line during their making and/or subsequent promotion. Case in point is 5 Broken Cameras, a maddening film about a Palestinian village in the West Bank that suffers relentless encroachment by Israeli settlements. While the main filmmaker, Emad Burnat, and his neighbors strive to protest these land-grabs in peace, the local Israelis do not respond in kind. Instead, they harass, threaten, arrest, and attack, often illegally and brutally. During four years of filming, Burnat burns through five video cameras, four of which are shot or otherwise destroyed, and one of which literally saves his life. 5 Broken Cameras is the sort of film that could serve as a poster child for Witness, a human rights organization with the motto "See it, film it, change it;" for that, I think it's well deserving of the Oscar.

Risking one's life, or certainly one's reputation, is also apparent in my other top pick for this year's Oscar docs: The Invisible War, a deeply moving, highly-charged account of sexual abuse in the U.S. military. Watching this film, I was brought to tears as, one by one, proud women (and one man) who wanted nothing more than to honorably serve their country recounted how they were coerced, harassed, beaten, and raped by their colleagues and superiors—and then ignored, belittled, and persecuted when they reported these events. Even more troubling were statistics about just how common such assaults in the military are today; by all accounts, at least 19,000 service members were sexually abused in 2010 alone. We also learn that prosecution of such cases cannot be handled effectively in the current system, since they are processed not through a federal court system but through the military chain of command, where serious conflicts of interests often lie. Of the five nominees, I feel this film has the most potential to create change as a result of its nomination, and it's heartening to know that even if it doesn't win, system reform may already be on the horizon.

Will win: Searching for Sugar Man
While it lacks the gravitas of the other four contenders, Searching for Sugar Man is the film to beat in this year's feature-length documentary category. It tells the improbable story of the search for a Dylanesque singer-songwriter named Sixto Rodriguez who all but disappeared after his 15 minutes of fame in the U.S. came and went in the early 1970s. It's a truly heartwarming tale, much akin to 2010's Winnebago Man. The movie could probably win on buzz alone, but it doesn't hurt that there are two contenders on the subject of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (which will likely split votes), plus a very hot-button challenger in The Invisible War, the topic of which some Academy voters may shy away from.


DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Should win: [Draw]
I'm slightly handicapped in this category this year by the fact that I've only been able to watch three of the five nominees: Kings Point, Mondays at Racine, and Inocente. Of these three, I thought the latter was the strongest, most unique, and most artfully told, and not just because its protagonist is a 15-year-old artist herself. The film's cinematography was well done, and the combination of themes—immigration, homelessness, abuse, and arts education—was a refreshing reminder of many of the contemporary social problems we Americans like to sweep under the rug. In comparison, while I was moved by both Kings Point and Mondays at Racine, I honestly don't think either one has what it takes to take home the golden statuette. Finally, I hesitate to comment on the other two nominees, Open Heart and Redemption, without having seen them, but I will say that their trailers lead me to believe they're both excellent films. So, I'm actually going to give this category a pass on final judgment, but if it were between the three I watched, my vote would be for Inocente.

Will win: Open Heart
Call me crazy, but if you see a pattern in what the Oscar voters like, you stick with it. Two short documentaries that have won this category in recent years, Smile Pinki and Saving Face, were about savior doctors helping poor citizens of developing countries with free medical procedures to fix crippling conditions—cleft palettes in the first case and facial disfigurement from acid attacks in the second. In this year's Open Heart, poor children from Rwanda are brought to the Sudan for potentially life-saving heart surgery. Sound familiar? Until the Academy proves me wrong, I'm picking this story line every time. ∞

picking the shorts

With the Oscars ceremony just two days away, it's time once again to offer up some thoughts on the Academy Award-nominated films! This year I'm going to focus on the three categories of short films: live action, animated, and documentary. I've been increasingly drawn to the shorts in recent years, and I wish they could be given more exposure. That said, it's great to know there's been significant effort on the part of Shorts International, which coordinates licensing rights, to get the films onto as many movie screens as possible in the weeks before Oscar night. (They're also mostly available on iTunes and through various video-on-demand systems.) If you have a chance to check them out, do! If not, at least my picks should help you out in your Oscar pool...

LIVE ACTION SHORT SUBJECT

Should win: Tuba Atlantic When a curmudgeonly old Norwegian living on the rocky North Atlantic coast finds out he has only six days to live, he receives a visit from a "death angel," a young woman charged with seeing him through his final days. In the days that follow, she manages to coax from him the secret behind the mysterious giant tuba he's built next to his house. I loved this film for being at once quirky, funny, and tender. I hope it wins!

Will win: Time Freak The live action short subjects are always extremely varied: you have foreign films mixed with more home-grown material, and the topics range from super-dramatic to highly comedic or otherwise in-your-face. In recent years the Academy voters seem to have gone with more upbeat American pickings in this category. That would describe 2011's Time Freak, a cute film about a Brooklyn man who decides to use his time machine to relive events from his very recent past. I won't be completely surprised if the voters decide to go for something more dramatic this year, but I'm calling Time Freak as the favorite.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Should win: Saving Face In many ways, this short documentary is not easy to watch. It tells of the horrific trend in South Asia in which abusive men—often with the help of their families—maim women and girls with corrosive acid. It's impossible not to be affected by the damaged faces of some of the women shown in the film, but the point here is that this isn't some made up tale; these attacks have become an accepted part of the male-dominated cultures in which they occur. Stepping in to help is a Pakistani-born plastic surgeon who, like the rest of us, cannot fathom how such horror could be perpetuated in his home country. The film follows several of the victims he treats and documents new legal challenges to the penal codes for men accused in such attacks. As unlikely as it seems, there's a bright ending to Saving Face, which is eye-opening in more ways than one.

Will win: Saving Face This is a tough category this year. Much ado has been made about the Iraq War short Incident in New Baghdad, which details the now infamous 2007 helicopter shootings of unarmed civilians and two Reuters journalists through the eyes of one of the American soldiers on the ground, Ethan McCord. McCord has apparently received death threats for appearing in the film, in which he recounts his experience and expresses deep reservations about the Iraq mission and the American military in general. The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom is another powerful film about the complete destruction of one Japanese city in the wake of last year's tsunami disaster, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that one come away with the statuette. But the Academy seems to have a soft spot for "hopeful intervention" short docs, and this year's offering on that front is a great one, so I'm going with Saving Face.

ANIMATED SHORT SUBJECT

Should win: Wild Life I loved this rare bird of a film, which tells the story of a Briton who transplants himself to the Canadian frontier. The unusual duck-out-of-water story is supported by gorgeous animation, which comes off like a moving painting. Add to this the fact the protagonist's plight is compared throughout the film to that of a comet, and you've got a winner in my eyes.

Will win: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore It's difficult to summarize this tale, which takes cues from both The Wizard of Oz and Fantasia. At its core, The Fantastic Flying Books... is a heartwarming story of a man in search of himself. The film reminds us all of the power of literature and of the tendency of fictional characters to enter our lives and become our friends. It's an imaginative piece that tugs at the heartstrings and is, in my view, the only real contender to take home the Oscar. ∞

oscar doc predictions

It's been three or four years since I started getting obsessive about seeing Oscar-nominated documentaries prior to the big red carpet event. But let's face it: Most Americans don't do docs. It's a damn shame, if you ask me. Documentaries are like college classes, without the tuition and without the prerequisites. True, you have to be prepared to get angry or upset, but docs teach you what the world is really like, without the sugarcoating of shows you might see on cable networks, even the ones that purport to offer "in depth" coverage of real-world events. And before you complain that documentaries do nothing but make people feel helpless, I'd counter that the best docs often reveal how one person, or a small group, can make a big difference, even in the face of powerful, monstrous forces.

Fortunately, it's been getting easier to find the Oscar docs in theaters here in New York over the past few years. The Paley Center in midtown Manhattan now shows all nominated docs, both feature-length and short, every year on the weekend of the Academy Award ceremony, and at least this year, the IFC Center screened all short subject nominees each day for more than a week. But you'd expect docs to show in New York and LA; it's time to get more of them out to places like Wichita and Montgomery and Albuquerque so everyone can watch and learn!

This year's crop of Oscar-nominated docs features a few recurring themes: big business's devastating impact on the environment; the plight of American soldiers during and after war combat; and funky-ass art. But there are some powerful and moving wild card topics, too. So on the eve of the Oscars, here are my picks for who should win and who will win in both of the documentary categories! You can find synopses and trailers for all 10 nominated docs on this page; some are also available for purchase from iTunes. ∞

Documentary Short Subject

Will Win: Strangers No More The most upbeat and heartwarming of the five nominees in this category, Strangers No More tells the story of a unique school in Tel Aviv, Israel in which refugee children from around the world come together to form the ultimate melting pot. There are really no losers in this year's batch of doc shorts, but considering the Academy's choice in the past two years of the similarly hopeful Smile Pinki and Music By Prudence, this seems like a pretty good bet to take home the statuette.

Should Win: The Warriors of Quigang Whether we like it or not, China is going to have to lead the environmental movement of tomorrow. This doc gracefully captures how one small city in Anhui Province is attempting to battle both an unruly local polluter an unrepresentative and unresponsive government. Here's one great example of a film that not only explains where the big problems lie but also makes heroes out of ordinary citizens trying to better the ugly hands they've been dealt.

Documentary Feature

Will Win: Gasland I had never heard of hydraulic fracturing, or "hydrofracking," before I saw this film, and what I learned scared the bejesus out of me. There's been quite a bit of press coverage about this doc since the nominees were announced, mostly due to the unsurprising loud reaction from the natural gas lobby over the film's depiction of their use of what can only be described as a poorly regulated and highly toxic method of extracting gas from the ground. While some have criticized certain methods of director Josh Fox, I think that in seeing this film, Academy voters will have come away with a pretty powerful overall message. What's more, the time seems ripe for a major environmental movie to take home the big doc prize.

Should Win: Inside Job Okay, boys and girls, here's the one movie that everyone in the country needs to see, and pronto. Director Charles Ferguson does an epic job of weaving one-on-one interviews together with easy-to-follow narration and infographics to explain how the recent financial crisis of the late '00s came about. At the end of the day, the lesson is obvious: Our economic policies have been set by the very cronies who masterminded what one interviewee describes as the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. What's more, the film makes it crystal clear that our government is deeply embedded in the pockets of a few powerful corporations, who literally gamble away our security in order to make billions for themselves—with no reprecussions whatsoever when everything collapses. I happened to catch this film in a theater, and the rage of the audience was palpable; people shaking their heads over and over, guffawing and sighing out of frustration at just how blatant the deception was and continues to be. Aside from the surprising production value, which I thought was super considering how dry a subject finance might seem to the average American, this doc needs to win for the sheer power it has in making people see why increased financial regulations—not to mention campaign finance reform—are absolutely essential to the future of our country, and indeed the entire global economy.

an odd night for fashion

Well, the Oscars are all over for 2009 (make sure to check out my final reviews for movies I saw prior to the ceremony), and I must say that the dresses this year were among the strangest set I've seen to date for a glamorous red carpet evening. In my opinion, there was way too much chiffon, too many pleats that didn't belong, trains running out of control, and basically just bad prom dresses all over the place. There were a few notable exceptions, but overall, I'd give this year a thumbs-down for Oscar night fashion.

The following were my favorite gowns of the evening...



...and here are just a few of the clunkers.



I'll also take a moment to call out Jennifer Aniston for best hair and Mickey Rourke for what was surely the biggest waste of expensive hair product ever, in the history of mankind. ∞

oscar flicks, in 15 words

Now that the Golden Globes have been doled out, it's officially Oscar time again! My one true disappointment upon hearing the nominations this morning was the snubbing of Kristin Scott Thomas, who absolutely rocked in the übertense drama, I've Loved You So Long. That said, I'm glad the Academy didn't fall for all the garbage that Clint pulled in Gran Torino. Yeesh.

Okay, nitpicking aside, and without further ado, here are some 15-word reviews, to be updated regularly as I scramble to see more movies until the Academy Awards are presented on February 22nd! ∞

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Main concept was brilliant, but the execution much less so. Also, t'was way too long.

The Dark Knight: Everything a sci-fi superhero movie's supposed to be, and then some. Ledger should win.

Doubt: I'm boycotting what should have been O'Byrne and Jones's shot at Oscar. Business as usual.

Encounters At the End of the World: Herzog deftly captures how life—human, avian, aquatic—thrives on the bottom of the earth.

Frost / Nixon: The tension is palpable in Ron Howard's gripping recreation of David Frost's historic Nixon interview.

Frozen River: Worlds collide in this stark view of poor, Northern life. Prepare to be on edge.

The Garden: This is the kind of eye-opening film that just makes you mad. Greed really sucks.

In Bruges: Three hit men blundering in Belgium. The plot's fun; Ralph plays an excellent bad boy.

Iron Man: Would that we could fly! Downey's spot on, but the effects really steal the show.

Kung Fu Panda: Black leads a stellar cast of characters in this whimsical, yet eye-popping, animated kiddie comedy.

Man On Wire: The stunning story of a dreamer's impossible feat seems unreal, despite archival footage. RIP, WTC.

Milk: Could be confused for a documentary. Penn nails the role, but something is still missing.

Rachel Getting Married: Hathaway is remarkable in her struggle against an unbeatable personal demon. Intense but rewarding ride.

The Reader: Winslet, Fiennes, and the superb Cross master the subtleties of their characters' complex, turbulent histories.

Slumdog Millionaire: Feel-good movie of the year will probably take top honors. It's as good as any.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona: Another Woody fantasy. Catalan identity? Yeah, right. Acting is fine, but plot seems forced. Meh.

The Visitor: A fable for our generation. Jenkins richly deserves a nod for his searing, understated performance.

WALL-E: Utter saccharine, though the characters are lovable. Animation (excepting humans) is out of this world.

Waltz With Bashir: Fresh graphics, moody electro soundtrack, and moving remembrances of mind-bending war experiences. It's a winner.

The Wrestler: Like a car wreck: Seriously depressing, but Rourke is so mesmerizing, you can't turn away.


And for the shorts, we'll make it 5 words:

Smile Pinki: Modern medicine saves the day!

La Maison en Petits Cubes: Global sea rises, spirit lives

Lavatory - Lovestory: Everyone loves a secret admirer

Oktapodi: Run, quick, for the sea!

Presto: What's really up his sleeve?

This Way Up: That's what I call "deadication"

Auf der Strecke (On the Line): A devastating mistake costs dearly

Manon on the Asphalt: Today could be your last

New Boy: Starting anew: frustrating but invigorating

The Pig: Can't we all get along?

Spielzeugland (Toyland): Some mistakes do save lives

and the oscar goes to...

Every year, I eagerly await the Oscar ceremony and make a special point to see as many nominated films as I can prior to the big night. This year is no exception...so without further ado, I present the first annual Annals of Spacetime Oscar predictions!

ACTOR
Will win: Daniel Day-Lewis
Should win: Daniel Day-Lewis
An excellent field this year, but there's really only one complete standout, and that's Mr. Day-Lewis. Pretty much anything this guy touches becomes gold, and for good reason: He turns his juicy roles into extensions of his personality more than actor I can think of. Bravo.

ACTOR - SUPPORTING
Will win: Javier Bardem
Should win: Casey Affleck
I have issues with Javier Bardem's role appearing in the supporting category, for it could easily have been listed as a lead. That said, he'll walk away with the statue for his searing portrayal as a robotic mass murderer. It's a bit of a shame, though, since Casey Affleck deserves recognition for his nuanced performance as the disturbed killer of Jesse James.

ACTRESS
Will win: Julie Christie
Should win: -NA-
I'm gonna refrain from suggesting a favorite here since I only saw two of the nominated performances (Linney and Page) and I don't think either one is or should be a contender. So far there has been buzz aplenty around Julie Christie for her portrayal of a woman with Alzheimer's, so I'm guessing she'll take the prize.

ACTRESS - SUPPORTING
Will win: Saoirse Ronan
Should win: Tilda Swinton
I have a feeling the Academy may be looking to annoint a new child star... But while Ronan did give a nice performance as a prissy aspiring young writer, I'm pulling for Tilda Swinton. Swinton has had some meaty roles over the last few years, but none (that I've seen) has been as palpable as her nerve-racking portrayal of a corrupt business executive.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Will win: There Will Be Blood
Should win: The Assassination of Jesse James by the
Coward Robert Ford
Wow, this is a toughie. All five are deserving, all for different reasons. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly has probably the most unique shots, but I'm gonna go with The Assassination of Jesse James, which features breathtaking vistas of the wintery West captured in artistic, untraditional ways. I'm guessing There Will Be Blood will pull in the award, though.

ANIMATED FILM
Will win: Ratatouille
Should win: Ratatouille
I was a big fan of Marjane Sartrapi's Persepolis graphic novels, but I keep hearing the film version is actually pretty flat. (I have yet to see it, though, so I may yet change my mind!) However, I think it's obvious that this year's animation prize will go to Ratatouille, and deservedly so. Wonderful animations and a cute story. And it is the year of the rat, you know.

DIRECTOR
Will win: Paul-Thomas Anderson
Should win: Julian Schnabel
While I think P.T. Anderson is very much deserving for his vision of Upton Sinclair's (truly) muckraking Oil! I have to give props here to Julian Schnabel, for turning the improbable autobiography of a man paralyzed but for one blinking eye into a somewhat fantastical full-feature film. My only suggestion, though, Julian: Skip the U2!

PICTURE
Will win: There Will Be Blood
Should win: There Will Be Blood
This category is by no means a walkover; there are four excellent films in the running this year, plus a token "fan favorite." That nomination would of course be Juno, which was a cute flick but nothing more. Atonement was a devastating love story, and its execution was more than competent, but I just wasn't as compelled by the film as I thought I should be; for instance, some of the war scenes really dragged, which was my one major criticism of the book, too. Michael Clayton is probably the most gripping mind-bender of the bunch, but despite its all-star cast, hot-button political message, and fresh score, I have a feeling it won't win the Academy over. I think there will be some split over the two Westerns, but in the end, the powerful acting and intriguing story behind There Will Be Blood will and should prevail. ∞