Catchin' up with The Oscar Hut

A few things of importance have gone down in the last week since I posted my Golden Globes predictions, so I'm going to do a rundown of my thoughts on the big events of the last seven days.

The Independent Spirit Awards announced their nominees for this year's best in independent film, which apparently includes Precious, The Last Station, (500) Days of Summer, Sin Nombre and Amreeka. I was a bit disappointed that A Serious Man didn't make the best feature or screenplay cut, being one my favorite films of the year, but at least it received Director and Cinematography citations, both deserved. I was pleased with the acting nods for the most part, but snubs for Carey Mulligan, Zooey Deschanel, Ben Foster and Michael Stuhlbarg were disappointing. Overall, I doubt the spirit awards made that big of an impact on how the rest of awards season will look, but they no doubt helped (500) Days of Summer get back into the picture.

(500) Days of Summer was also greatly helped by the National Board of Review who named it one of the ten best films of the year.
Always kick starting the awards season, giving us the first real ideas about what and who will shape the upcoming Oscar race, The National Board of Review helped out a great many films to set out on the road to an Oscar nod, and perhaps a win.
Up in the Air undoubtedly received the largest boost out of the proceedings,taking home their Best Picture trophy along with a Best Actor award for George Clooney (tied with Morgan Freeman for Invictus), Best Supporting Actress for Anna Kendrick and a Best Adapted Screenplay award for the film's director, Jason Reitman and co-writer Sheldon Turner.
I think this is going to translate to a large success for the film at the Oscars where it'll probably take home the Best Picture, Director and Screenplay trophies.
Also making a big splash was Invictus, the Nelson Mandella biopic/sports drama that won Clint Eastwood yet another NBR Best Director citation, Morgan Freeman Best Actor and a spot on the NBR's top 10. While I'm sure these nomination will be echoed come Oscar time, I doubt the film will win Clint his third Best Director award, the NBR's just seem to have a hard on for the guy as evident in every film of his since Mystic River getting a spot in their top ten. I'm also pretty sure that Freeman wont be able to repeat his victory, especially when he's competing with Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth and even George Clooney.
This year's Best Actress award went to the well deserving Carey Mulligan for her career defining performance in An Education. A great choice, Mulligan seems poised for front runner status at the show, yet she still faces competition from the beloved Meryl Streep and Gabourey Sidibe who may be her biggest threat for the award.
The Messenger and A Serious Man also got boosts with top ten citations, along with both winning a second award. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen picked up the Best Original Screenplay award, hopefully signalling a sign of things to come. The Messenger's second award may have been one of the more suprising of the winners. Essentially shaking up the Best Supporting Actor race, the NBR awarded Woody Harrelson for his excellent performance in The Messenger. With Matt Damon pretty much out of the race the last spot up for grabs will be a hotly contested one. Christoph Waltz, Stanley Tucci, Alfred Molina and Christopher Plummer all seem pretty locked in, but who does that last spot go to? Woody's win places him squarely in the lead for it, but Alec Baldwin has been getting early raves for his turn in It's Complicated, and being one of the co-hosts helps his chances at getting a nod. We also need to keep an eye on Peter Sarsgaard for An Education, he's yet to receive a nod and his work in this buzzed about British indie was excellent.

A few new movies were released this week, the most notable of which was Brothers, the latest film from Academy Award nominated writer-director Jim Sheridan. While it's certainly not his best work, and at times a bit ridiculous and barely sensible, Brothers features some of the year's best performances. Jake Gylenhaal and Natalie Portman give decent work here, both doing their best work since 2007, but they seem limited by the film that surrounds them, giving their performances a muted effect. The same goes for Sam Shepard who was fantastic as a grizzled father, but he gets little to work with screenplay wise. The film does however give us two wonderful supporting performances by the young girls who play the children of Tobey Maguire and Portman. They play off their adult co-stars perfectly and emote in ways better than most actresses twice their age, and both are deserving of recognition for their work. If you've noticed the lack of any real mention of Tobey Maguire so far, it's because I'm trying to save the best for last. Maguire's work in Brothers is riveting, a career best piece of work for the man best known as Spiderman. Maguire completely becomes Sam Cahill, and during his performance his character arc is visible through his mental and physical transformation from a calm family man to a war ravaged POW survivor forced to return to domestic life. Maguire definitely delivers on the promise he showed in films like Wonder Boys with Brothers, and though his chances for an Oscar nomination this year are slim, he'll have to pull a Tommy Lee Jones, he can rest assured knowing that his performance is one of the years best.

And that's it for my catch up! Not much happened yet so much happened. Movies opened died while their performances thrived. Awards groups announced nominations and winners, some were snubbed, some should have been snubbed.
All in all it was a good week for lovers of film and the Oscars, so, here looking at next week!