American Horror Story: Asylum - Episode 2.13 - "Madness Ends"

     On its own, "Madness Ends" is a great episode of television, but as a conclusion to American Horror Story's second volume, I'm not sure it really gives a proper ending to anyone, aside from Lana.  The series' anthological structure allows it to kill off most of its primary characters 2 or 3 episodes before the season finale, which is exactly what both Murder House and Asylum have done.  Unfortunately, it is that very structure that seems to inhibit Ryan Murphy and company from creating full arcs for characters like Sister Mary Eunice, Dr. Arden, or Monsignor Howard.  The former two were killed off in episode 10 for unknown reasons other than to shock the audience, considering much of the conflict of the season had depended on them.  However, by (quite unfairly) cutting their stories short, it would ostensibly allow for a tighter focus on characters like Lana, Kit and Jude, each of whom had been put on the backburner.  This tighter focus is exactly what they did, but there were also characters such as the aforementioned Monsignor, Oliver Threadson, Alma, Grace, and Pepper to deal with.  For the most part, each of these characters was interesting, yet it seems like the writers didn't think so.  Over the last few episodes, Lana shoots Threadson rather unceremoniously, Pepper dies offscreen, Grace gets axed in the back by Alma, who quickly dies at Briarcliff, and Monsignor Howard commits suicide in a bathtub, despite the writers giving no indication that he would ever do such a thing. He was nailed to a cross for Christ's sake! (pun intended) These things feel significant on the page but the way each of these scenes is directed makes them feel so inconsequential that it becomes difficult to feel anything when they die.

American Horror Story: Asylum - Episode 2.12 - "Continuum"

Umm...

???

1st Annual Filmiest Awards - Nominations

I hereby present the 1st Annual Filmiest Awards, otherwise known as my own personal awards for the year 2012. This has been a banner year for film, which made this list of nominations very difficult to make.  Nevertheless, here are my nominations in 16 categories:

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Big Machine” from Safety Not Guaranteed

“Freedom” from Django Unchained

“Safe and Sound” from The Hunger Games

“Skyfall” from Skyfall

“Who Did That To You?” from Django Unchained

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Dwight Henry as Wink in Beasts of the Southern Wild
Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Lancaster Dodd in The Master

Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen in Django Unchained

Eddie Redmayne as Marius Pontmercy in Les Miserables

Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Argo 

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Cloud Atlas

Life of Pi

The Master

Zero Dark Thirty (Bigelow, 2012)

     Whenever I would see a great movie back in the day, I would embarrassingly gush, throwing around words like "masterpiece" and "one of the best films ever!"  This hyperbolic tendency has deteriorated over the years as my knowledge of film and its process has increased.  Other films that have come out this year, such as Life of Pi and Moonrise Kingdom have thoroughly satisfied me as a moviegoer but they didn't give me any indication that they would become modern classics.  And keep in mind, these are my #3 and #4 movies of 2012.  However, one film has come along and stolen the #1 slot for Best Film of the Year, and that film is Zero Dark Thirty.  Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal are no strangers to tackling the war in the Middle East, having both won Oscars for their work in The Hurt Locker.  When it was announced that the team would return to tell the story of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, anticipation was high.  And then the conversation changed.  Early reports about the various torture scenes caused a huge scandal in our nation's capital.  Senators and representatives who hadn't even seen the film were condemning its supposed condoning of torture and its implications that said torture was ultimately what led the CIA to bin Laden.  An investigation was even launched to determine the full legality of Bigelow and Boal's access to classified CIA intel.  While accepting the Best Picture award at the New York Critics Circle, Bigelow stated: “I thankfully want to say that I’m standing in a room of people who understand that depiction is not endorsement”.  This could not be more true.  In fact, the film takes a decidedly impartial stance, not just on torture, but on the true cost of war and revenge.

Amour (Haneke, 2012)

     I'll admit, I had never seen a Michael Haneke film before Amour, but I immediately understood the heaps of praise that's been loaded upon the Austrian director's latest film when the credits started to roll.  Amour, literally "Love" in French, is an unflinching examination of what it means to carry out the full extent of long-kept vows, namely "til death do us part".  The film opens on a shot of police officers breaking into an apartment and reacting to the rancid smell throughout.  They stumble upon the corpse of an old woman lying on the bed, surrounded by an assortment of flowers, and then the title card appears in simple white lettering against a black background.  It becomes clear that this film isn't concerned with the end result as much as the process of getting to this end.  We flash back to the old woman, Anne (Emmanuelle Riva), quietly eating breakfast with her husband Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant).  When Anne begins to stare vacantly, not responding to her husband's pleas of concern, his sudden realization is heartbreaking.  She snaps out of it a minute later, having no idea the incident had even happened.  This slow disillusionment of life and the desperation of a man trying to care for her as long as he can becomes the conflict of Amour.

American Horror Story: Asylum - Episode 2.11 - "Spilt Milk"

     At this point in the second season of American Horror Story, half of the principal cast is dead, people we thought were dead are coming back to life, everyone has seen their life threatened on many occasions, there are babies being born left and right, and that's not even scratching the surface: aliens preying on women, the Devil inhabiting an innocent nun for seven straight episodes, numerous lobotomies, an evil Nazi scientist, "Bloody Face", a completely out-of-the-blue song and dance number, and a legless Chloe Sevigny scarring school children for life.  And just when I thought they couldn't throw in any more horror, the episode began with Dylan McDermott sucking the milk out of a hooker's breast.  Yeah.

     Lana remains the show's heroine as her quest to leave Briarcliff and expose its horrendously wicked corruption comes to fruition in the form of a merciful nun who wishes to see the institution shut down.  The nun discreetly coordinates an escape route for Lana and away she goes, but not before giving Oliver Threadson the finger and showing him his confession reel that she intends to use as evidence to lock him away.  It's a great moment, one of many for Lana in this episode, and Sarah Paulson completely owns it, as she has all season.  The scene with Lana in Oliver's house, which cuts back and forth with Dylan McDermott's excursion with the hooker is interestingly composed, with shots fading into each other elegantly.  And just like that, Oliver is dead, shot by the woman he raped.  It's a gratifying moment, one that only could have come from Lana shooting him.  Her final scene where she breastfeeds her newborn baby while looking up at the cross on the wall through tears is a truly powerful end to the episode, and very well-directed.

30 Rock - Episode 7.09 - "Game Over"

     It's beginning to feel like the end, folks. 30 Rock is a show that has never truly felt a dry spell in its seven seasons, which is a remarkable feat for any show spanning that long.  Sure, the ratings have gone down significantly since Tina Fey's red-hot year in 2008 when she impersonated Sarah Palin, skyrocketing her to nationwide attention, but the show's core audience never strayed, myself included.  The writers stay true to form in "Game Over", an episode reminiscent of the show's second and third seasons where guest stars were lining up to join the wackiness of Jack Donaghy and Liz Lemon and the jokes were flying a mile a minute.  Listing all of this episode's guest stars is truly incredible: Will Arnett, Steve Buscemi, Ken Howard, Chloe Grace Moretz, Megan Mullally, Chris Parnell, and last year's Oscar winner Octavia Spencer.  Put these actors in the same episode in any other show and it becomes a jumbled, overstuffed mess, but here it works with the show's zany nature.  Saying goodbye to Dr. Leo Spaceman (Chris Parnell) was sad as he was one of my favorite recurring characters, but his final line, "That's a series wrap on Leo Spaceman, suckers!" may be one of the best exits of all time.

Oscar Nominations for the Year 2012: Acting Categories

To continue my Oscar nominations coverage, I will delve into the hotly contested acting categories, starting with BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Alan Arkin as Lester Siegel in Argo

Robert De Niro as Pat Solitano, Sr. in Silver Linings Playbook

Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Lancaster Dodd in The Master

Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens in Lincoln

Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained

This was one of the categories I actually nailed 5/5 in predictions. And this also marks the first category in Oscar history where every nominee has won before, one of many records broken in this year's nominations.  Arkin, Hoffman and Jones had received nominations from the Golden Globes, the SAG awards, the Critics Choice, and the BAFTAs, which are usually strong indicators that they'll be supported at the Oscars as well.  Arkin is an industry favorite who, despite not doing much in Argo, has enough of a screen presence to get in.  Hoffman essentially plays a version of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in The Master and it's one of the best performances of his career.  Jones is the only actor playing a real-life person whose philosophy about slavery and equal rights most mirrors our own, making him one of the most relatable characters in Lincoln.  On paper, Robert De Niro plays "the dad" role in Silver Linings Playbook but his years of experience and expressive face help to elevate the role significantly. He has always been embraced by the academy, having two Oscars already and he may very well add a third next month.  Waltz has been a last minute contender in this race, with many predicting co-star Leonardo DiCaprio months before the Django had even come out.  Waltz, who already won an Oscar for another Tarantino production Inglourious Basterds, plays a similar character here, which may explain his presence here.  Early buzz for a winner has been on Tommy Lee Jones, but De Niro and Hoffman are right on his tail.

Oscar Nominations for the Year 2012: Reactions

Wow. As someone who's become pretty good at predicting the Academy Awards over the years, I don't think I ever could have foreseen the craziness of this year's nominations.  

To start, let's tackle the BEST PICTURE race:

Amour

Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Django Unchained

Les Miserables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

I predicted 8/9 of these nominees to get in (missed Amour for The Master). A pretty eclectic group of nominees if you ask me, though the general theme seems to be history: who made it and how it was made. Five movies: Argo, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Lincoln, and Zero Dark Thirty concern themselves with either real-life historical events or historical fiction. This theme is a bit of a repeat of last year, with The Artist, The Help, Hugo, and Midnight in Paris having significant nods to history. Perhaps this isn't a surprise considering the median age of the average academy member is 62, but it's an interesting trend nonetheless.  

The clear frontrunner at the moment is Lincoln. The Spielberg-helmed historical drama about Honest Abe leads the pack with 12 nominations overall, edging out 11 nominations for Life of Pi, the spiritual adventure film about a boy and his tiger. These two were expected nominations in this category, as were Argo, Les Miserables, Silver LInings Playbook, and Zero Dark Thirty. Django Unchained has proven to be an audience and industry favorite, so it's no surprise it got in. The last two slots went to quiet indie dramas that have been enormously successful with critic groups: Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Foreign language films hardly ever make it into this category, and Amour is the first since Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima in 2006 (though some count The Artist from last year).  The drama about a couple growing old together and facing death is heavy stuff, and so is Beasts of the Southern Wild. Led by 6-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, the indie drama first received acclaim at Cannes and Sundance.  

Welcome!

I'll start by introducing myself: I'm Kevin Jacobsen a movie and TV fanatic. Both are huge parts of my life that I invest hours of my days consuming and studying.  I've also been following both the Academy Awards and the Emmy Awards since 2006.  Though I don't always agree with their choices, they are often the pinnacle of the respective movie or television season for me.  

For these reasons, I am creating a movie and TV review blog with a focus on awards potential. With each movie or TV show I see, I will give my thoughts on the quality of the work and assign it a letter grade, A through F.  Some of my posts will exclusively be about the Oscars or the Emmys, analyzing different categories in the interest of predicting a winner. 

I hope you enjoy your stay at Filmiest. Cheers.