“The Help” is the Best Movie of 2011 and Sure to be a Big Oscar Player

Watching the beautiful and brilliant film The Help this weekend, I was a sniveling crying mess. That is when I wasn’t laughing like a crazy person or entranced by the luminous and fantastic performances. You see this film based on the best seller by Kathryn Stockett is a must see and by far the best movie of 2011 thus far. Sure this year hasn’t given us too many awards worthy films (aside from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Beginners and Crazy Stupid Love), but irregardless, The Help is bound to be a big Oscar player at year’s end.
The film follows Skeeter (Emma Stone) as she travels home from college to Jackson Mississippi in the early 60′s hoping to become a writer. She sets out to write a book on the experiences of the black maids of her town and the white families they work for. Through the stories of the stoic Aibileene (Viola Davis) and the sassy Minny (Octavia Spencer) and their peers, the film explores what it was really like in the South during the volatile Civil Rights era. And boy does the film deliver. It’s at times hilarious and heartfelt while also harrowing and heartbreaking. The cast is extraordinary led by the Oscar worthy performances of Davis and Spencer who breathe hard worn life into these three-dimensional brave and determined women who are fighting for a better life for their children and themselves. Davis is simply awe-inspiring. With the subtlest of reactions, she could move you to tears. Her strength and conviction are unparalleled and Spencer is a revelation. While she throws off many of the films best one liners (along with a hysterical Sissy Spacek as an older Southern woman fighting dementia and her daughter played with an extreme villainy that is simply horrifying and perfectly executed by Bryce Dallas Howard), she also embodies the abuse that was so unfortunately common at the time. However, she does it with grace and dignity. The other revelatory performance comes from 2011 “It Girl” Jessica Chastain (Tree Of Life, Coriolanus, The Debt) who plays a shunned white trash wife who battles for her own standing in the community. Simply incredible… In fact, I’ll say it again the whole cast was just wonderful with Emma Stone giving her most fully realized performance to date and Allison Janney as her mother delivering a tricky role with ease. (I don’t want to spoil anything for you there). Plus Oscar nominee Cicely Tyson is tremendous in it as well. In fact, you could fill up the whole Oscar Supporting Actress category with women from this film and clearly it will be a front-runner for the SAG Ensemble Award.
So, just where will it stand at the Oscars? Here’s where I think it will be recognized….

Definite Oscar nominations:
Best Actress: Viola Davis (she could go Supporting though)
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer
Best Costume Design
Best Original Song: “The Living Proof”- Mary J. Blige & Thomas Newman (performed by Blige)

Likely Nominations:
Best Picture
Best Original Score
Best Adapted Screenplay

Possible Nominations:
Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain

Best Art Direction

Dark Horse but Deserving Nominations:
Best Supporting Actress: Bryce Dallas Howard, Cicely Tyson, Sissy Spacek, Allison Janney
Best Actress: Emma Stone
Best Director: Tate Taylor

I cant recommend this uplifting and empowering and educational film enough. If you have a heart, you will love it. Go see it today and watch for the Awards to start rolling in. Grade: A+

And here’s the trailer for The Help:

Today’s Oscar Contender~ “The Whistleblower” is Fascinating, Harrowing and Fantastic

Rarely do Oscar worthy films come out in August, but it’s not without precedent. Two years ago, Meryl Streep grabbed her 16th Oscar nomination for Julie & Julia that month and this year several films aim to replicate that success. Out at the end of the month is the thriller The Debt with Oscar winner Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life) and Sam Worthington (Avatar), and August 8th, the highly anticipated film adaptation of the award-winning novel The Help hits theatres. This one stars Oscar winner Sissy Spacek, Oscar nominee Viola Davis, Emmy winner Allison Janney, Chastain (again), Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer and Golden Globe nominee Emma Stone and has awards written all over it… However, there is one small film opening on August 5th that deserves serious Oscar attention, The Whistleblower. This dark, compelling, and exceptionally done political thriller details the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac (played by Oscar winner Rachel Weisz) who served as a peacekeeper in post war Bosnia in the 90′s and worked to uncover a massive sex trafficking scandal. She fought different law enforcement officials from multiple countries, U.N. dignitaries, political policies and corrupt people of all stripes to bring these horrible crimes to light, and the film captures her struggle with unflinching integrity and honesty. It’s a disturbing picture to watch at times, but an important one that is wonderfully realized by first time writer/director Larysa Kondracki. It features an Award-worthy performance by Weisz who is given ample exemplary support by Moncia Belluci, Oscar nominee David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck), Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave (Julia) and a brilliant international cast. I highly recommend the film which I saw earlier this week. Check it out next week in Los Angeles and New York with other cities opening throughout the month, and hopefully Academy members will remember the film at the end of the year especially for Picture, Screenplay and Actress (Weisz). For more on the film (which I give an “A” grade to), head here and watch the trailer below.

The Whistleblower

Mary J. Blige gives you “Living Proof”

Grammy winning R&B superstar Mary J. Blige has been through it all. Drugs, booze, ups and downs with career and relationships and she always pours it out into some great music. Who can forget the brilliance of “No More Drama” for just one example? … And now, she is serving up some more dramatic music as she mines her emotions and those of the characters of the new film The Help with the first single off the soundtrack, “The Living Proof”. On this beautiful ballad, Blige sings of surviving and thriving through one’s troubles just like the ladies of the Kathryn Stockett best seller. The book and the film tell the story of a young white writer (Golden Globe nominee Emma Stone) who chronicles the lives of the black maids who she grew up with in the South during the 1960′s. Co-starring in the film are Oscar nominees Viola Davis (Doubt) and Cicely Tyson (Sounder), Oscar winner Sissy Spacek (Coal Miner’s Daughter), Emmy winner Allison Janney (The West Wing) plus Bryce Dallas Howard (Twilight Saga), Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life) and in a scene stealing performance, that like Davis’s, is getting Oscar buzz, Octavia Spencer (Ugly Betty). The much-anticipated film hits theatres in the August sweet spot (specifically Aug. 10th) that berthed the female-centric hits Eat Pray Love and Julie & Julia which as you might recall netted Meryl Streep another Oscar nod (which she should’ve won~ darn you Sandra Bullock). For more on the film, head here, and check out Mary J. Blige on what could become an Oscar and Golden Globe nominated song, “The Living Proof” from The Help.

Mary J. Blige “The Living Proof”

Two Summer Oscar contenders… The Help and Beginners

The summer movie season brings big blockbusters and big box office, but sometimes it can also bring some seriously good Oscar worthy films. In fact, last summer we had four Oscar contenders released in this busy season: Toy Story 3, Inception and the indies Winter’s Bone and The Kids are Alright. This summer we will likely see a couple of contenders arise among the indie crop most notably Beginners from Focus Films. This dramatic comedy features Ewan MacGregor as a man whose relationships all seem to fall apart and his journey with a new love played by Melanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds). All the while, he will also be grappling with the revelation that his ailing, elderly father (Christopher Plummer) has just come out of the closet. The film played to raves on the festival circuit last year and should appeal to art house, gay and adult audiences and it looks pretty great from the trailer below. I foresee the film being a serious contender in the Oscar race for Screenplay and Supporting Actor which could finally net previous Oscar loser Plummer (The Last Station) his first competitive Academy Award. We may also see it factor in the Picture and Actor races if it’s received well. Check out the trailer for the film below and watch it in theatres in June.

Beginners

One studio film that could make the race for the Oscars is the upcoming adaptation of the massively popular race relations novel of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. The film centers on a young white writer (Golden Globe nominee Emma Stone) in the 1960′s who seeks to tell the story of the African-American maids in the Southern town she grew up in. The story is ripe for laughter, tears and drama and could feature a breakout performance by Octavia Spencer. In fact, I think Spencer and Viola Davis (a previous Oscar nominee for Doubt) will both contend in the Supporting Actress race while the film could land in Picture, Costume Design and Adapted Screenplay. If it garners a following, it might even contend in Direction and Actress (Stone). Other big names in the cast include Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney and Oscar winner Sissy Spacek. For more on that film, head here and check out the trailer for The Help below. Watch for it to hit theatres in August.

The Help
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454029/

Review~ Watching “Hereafter” is like spending an Eternity in Hell

Oh, no Clint Eastwood, what have you done? Despite making some wonderful and acclaimed films like Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River, Eastwood has fallen back into the “crap” column with his latest Hereafter. Like Changeling and The Bridges of Madison Country to name a few, Hereafter is just dreadful. I honestly don’t think Clint had a clue what movie he was making. And good lord, can someone please take over final cut from him? Editing his work is clearly not his strong suit. The film is excruciatingly long and slow and really goes nowhere. It’s a pandering, predictable mess. And it’s such a shame that he squandered the talents of a miscast Matt Damon (who does his best playing a psychic medium, unfortunately, to no avail) and French actress Cecile De France  (as a popular French journalist) who has moments but is let down by the poor script and direction.
Damon and De France play two of three characters who are all touched by their experiences with death and question the existence of the “hereafter”. It’s an interesting premise. Unfortunately it’s lost in a meandering overwrought screenplay that is just plain atrocious. And playing the third main character Marcus are twins George and Frankie McLaren (as young boys with an alcoholic/drug addicted mother in London) who you just feel sorry for. Everything is so forced, manipulated and contrived, it’s hard to even go along for the (very long) ride. Aiding to the film’s issues is the tone which wanders from disaster film (the tsunami wave is the one interesting cinematic moment) to romantic comedy (some laughably bad interactions between Damon and a cloying Bryce Dallas Howard) to European art house movie to bleak drama to supernatural thriller to a political statement piece. All of that just adds up to one big mess and a wasted opportunity to explore a compelling subject matter from different characters and cultural points of view. And don’t even get me started on Jay Mohr’s incredibly annoying performance (as Damon’s opportunistic brother trying to exploit his psychic abilities) or the ridiculously bad lighting and the terrible score which sounds like it was lifted from a community college student’s first film project. I could just go on and on, but I think you get the point. Watching Hereafter is like living an eternity in hell. Grade: D-

Clint Eastwood takes Matt Damon to the Hereafter

Clint Eastwood is one heck of a prolific filmmaker for someone in his 70′s. The Oscar winner (Unforgiven) seems to make a film every year and this fall he’s offering another one, Hereafter,  starring fellow Oscar winner Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting). In a change of pace, this film focuses on the supernatural and spiritual aspects of existence and also includes a great deal of visual effects and a grander scale than we usually see from the filmmaker. In the movie, Damon plays a psychic that is haunted by mortality along with two other individuals including a journalist (Cécile de France) and a boy from London (Frankie/George McLaren) in three interlocking stories. Jay Mohr and Bryce Dallas Howard also costar. From the trailer below, it looks pretty good and here’s hoping it’s one of Eastwood’s better films (Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River) as opposed to his lackluster ones (Changeling, Flags of Our Fathers, The Bridges of Madison County). My big hope is that it moves quickly because Eastwood sure knows how to take his time and drag things out… At least with last year’s surprisingly good Invictus, he kept the pace pretty brisk and landed Oscar nods for Damon and Morgan Freeman. Perhaps we will see Damon and Eastwood on the awards circuit again this year.l Take a look at the trailer below and see the film in theatres on Oct. 23rd.

Hereafter