Well, it's that time of year again.
It's time to break out the champagne, butter up the popcorn and place your bets in time for this upcoming Sunday's telecast of the 84th annual Academy Awards.
2012 may be that rare year where the Grammys garner a larger North American audience than the Oscars. Nearly 40 million people tuned into the music industry's celebrations on Feb. 12, merely 24 hours after Whitney Houston's death became international news. Last year's Oscar telecast only drew in an audience of 37.6 million, quite low for the Academy's standards.
What makes the outlook more dour this year? Well, there are very few bona-fide blockbusters competing for the top prize. Only one of the nine Best Picture nominees for 2011 grossed over $100 million at the U.S. box office, and that was The Help.
Meanwhile, the frontrunner in that category, The Artist, has grossed about $30 million so far (about one quarter of what 2010's winner, The King's Speech, had made by Oscar night last year). While that is a formidable number of receipts for a silent, black-and-white film, it would become the second lowest-grossing winner upon its likely win on Sunday night (or early Monday morning, depending on how the networks pad the timing this year).
But... you still have two days left to check out any Best Picture nominees that you missed. Here are snippets from the reviews I wrote for this year's nominated films.
Although I didn't write a review of The Help, I gave it an honourable mention in my year-end Top 10 list. It's a solid ***1/2 and features the finest work by an ensemble cast of any film from 2011.
Hugo: ****
(nominated for 11, including Best Picture and Best Director)
"A visually wondrous and deeply sentimental adventure that ranks as one of [Scorsese's] richest and most accomplished works... Adapted from Brian Selznick’s whimsical bestseller The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the film feels timeless from the first frame."
The Tree of Life: ****
(nominated for 3, including Best Picture and Best Director)
"An audacious, glorious symphony of sound and image, and an endlessly fascinating coming-of-age tale. It is a daunting but glorious work of art that beckons to be seen and seen again."
Midnight in Paris: ***1/2
(nominated for 4, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay)
"A film that’s as dreamy and delightful as anything [Woody] Allen’s ever made, a film with plenty of Oscar caliber behind it that’s also the sunniest piece of summertime escapism to hit theatres so far this season."
Moneyball: ***1/2
(nominated for 6, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay)
"A film that does not invigorate the love of the game but deconstructs it. It is a sad reflection of America’s pasttime at the current moment, and it explores this with nuanced performances and spare but powerful direction."
The Descendants: ***
(nominated for 5, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay)
"With a relaxed, languid pace, this is Payne’s sunniest and most romantic film... Clooney is magnificent: bitterly sharp as usual but with a piercing vulnerability cruising underneath. Hollywood’s favourite bachelor hasn’t played many fathers during his career, but now that he’s starting to look and sound like one, he captures the strain of raising a family with aplomb."
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: ***
(nominated for 2: Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor)
"More streamlined in its transition to the screen... Daldry’s adaptation succeeds in covering a breadth of emotionally charged terrain with insight and honesty."
War Horse: ***
(nominated for 6, including Best Picture)
"As a battle picture, War Horse is more heartfelt than harrowing... [but] with a magnificent beating heart at its centre, it’s a perfectly sincere piece of holiday feel-goodery, and a terrific tribute to the bygone days of boundless Hollywood epics."
The Artist: **1/2
(nominated for 10, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay)
"The film sometimes takes its experimental gimmick for granted... for all of its charm and “artistic” ambition, [The Artist] becomes simplistic in its storytelling as it progresses. Hazanavicius’s film handles the tribute to silent black-and-white Hollywood with an original style, but without much originality elsewhere."
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