Winter’s Bone Leads Independent Spirit Awards Nominations

After taking home the top prize at last night’s Gotham Awards, Winter’s Bone leads the pack in nominations for the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards, just announced a little bit ago. The dark story of a girl searching for her estranged, meth-addled father netted seven nominations, which combined with its Gotham win, could strongly bolster its chances with the Academy Awards. The comedy The Kids Are Alright mustered up five nominations itself, while Blue Valentine, which both Jonah and myself enjoyed, was snubbed, only grabbing one nod for Michelle Williams. Here’s the complete list below, along with a few links to our reviews of some of the films.

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the Producer)
127 Hours
Black Swan
Greenberg
The Kids Are All Right
Winter’s Bone

BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Danny Boyle, 127 Hours
Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik, Winter’s Bone
John Cameron Mitchell, Rabbit Hole

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to the director and producer)
Everything Strange and New
Get Low
The Last Exorcism
Night Catches Us
Tiny Furniture

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
(Given to the best feature made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer)
Daddy Longlegs
The Exploding Girl
Lbs.
Lovers of Hate
Obsedila

BEST SCREENPLAY
Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, Winter’s Bone
Nicole Holofcener, Please Give
David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole
Todd Solondz, Life During Wartime

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Diane Bell, Obselidia
Lena Dunham, Tiny Furniture
Nik Fackler, Lovely, Still
Bob Glaudini, Jack Goes Boating
Dana Adam Shapiro, Evan M. Wiener, Monogamy

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Greta Gerwig, Greenberg
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

BEST MALE LEAD
Ronald Bronstein, Daddy Longlegs
Aaron Eckhart, Rabbit Hole
James Franco, 127 Hours
John C. Reilly, Cyrus
Ben Stiller, Greenberg

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Ashley Bell, The Last Exorcism
Dale Dickey, Winter’s Bone
Allison Janney, Life During Wartime
Daphne Rubin-Vega, Jack Goes Boating
Naomi Watts, Mother and Child

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Samuel L. Jackson, Mother and Child
Bill Murray, Get Low
John Ortiz, Jack Goes Boating
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Adam Kimmel, Never Let Me Go
Matthew Libatique, Black Swan
Jody Lee Lipes, Tiny Furniture
Michael McDonough, Winter’s Bone
Harris Savides, Greenberg

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director)
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Marwencol
Restrepo
Sweetgrass
Thunder Soul

BEST FOREIGN FILM (Award given to the director)
Kisses
Mademoiselle Chambon
Of Gods and Men
The King’s Speech
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

SXSW Film Reviews – March 12-14

So, despite my efforts at doing so here, I was not prepared for SXSW. The mass of people. The lines at everything. I’ve gone to places I’ve been to a bunch before, like the Drafthouse and the Paramount Theater, but they were unrecognizable. Nonetheless, here’s my summary of what I’ve done so far:

FRIDAY:

Friday was like an education for me in how to do SXSW. I showed up to Kick-Ass an hour before it started and didn’t get in. Then I didn’t get into Trash Humpers (which I’m kind of okay with) and the Predators preview event. So it was basically a wash.

SATURDAY:

Film: Dogtooth
So, I started my festival with the dark, dark Greek film Dogtooth, which won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes last year. Dogtooth is about a husband and wife who, for reasons that are left frighteningly vague, keep their three children locked up in their country estate. They teach the kids different meanings for words, so they can’t communicate with anyone except each other, and feed them with lies about the dangers of the outside world (cats are the most dangerous animals; stepping outside of the gate will cause you to die). Into this sheltered world comes an outsider who the parents are paying to sleep with their son, and things only get more messed up from there. Dogtooth swings from darkly funny to genuinely disturbing in a whiplash inducing way. The movie stays with you after its over, and some of the weirder setpieces are still eating at me a little. I wish the film was a little more stylistically polished (the colors are a little washed out and the camera work is, at times, kind of flat), but for a Lynchian contrast between a bourgey, rustic setting and the terrible things that the people who live there do, you can’t do much better than Dogtooth.

Grade: B+

Micmacs

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s follow-up to Amelie is going to be a film you either love or hate. If your tolerance for unironic whimsy, childlike magic, and absurdity are low then you will likely check-out somewhere around the first five minutes. But, if you are locked in on Jeunet’s particular brand of playful filmmaking then you’re in for a delightful and fun night out. Micmacs is the story of a band of misfits who team up to take down a couple of arms dealers, but its strength is much more in the high number of comic setpieces and the thrill of watching things play out. The movie draws from a number of inspirations – ranging from Pixar to Tex Avery to Ocean’s 11 – but the main touchstone is Buster Keaton. Jeunet uses as few words as possible, making for a visual (and visceral) experience that is able to mine laughs in a truly cinematic way. Some of its jokes are as old as Keaton films, but the flair and pizzazz that Jeunet uses to tell them makes them funny nonetheless. While its ending draws the film’s politics to the fore a little too much, Micmacs is still a delightful piece of filmmaking.

Grade: A-

Cyrus
The Duplass Brothers’ greatest strength – their emotional honesty and verisimillitude – is also their greatest weakness. Their films are so rough and unpolished that its easy to sit at the end and wonder what, exactly, was the point of it all. But that’s a feature, not a bug, and, with Cyrus, they’re poised to break out in a big, big way. Their first movie with stars, Cyrus is about a guy, played by John C. Reilly, whose life is in a lonely tailspin, until he meets and falls in love with Marisa Tomei. Things are going great, but there’s a big obstacle to their love, in the form of her emotionally stunted, 21-year-old son Cyrus (Jonah Hill) who still lives at home and is in a weird, somewhat creepy co-dependent relationship with her. The movie doesn’t strain for laughs but lets them flow naturally, drawing from a loose, naturalistic style (helped by the actors’ improvisation and the Duplass Brothers’ trademark, documentary-style camerawork) and feeling very real. Its helped on by some great performances. John C. Reilly is his typically great self, but I was surprised by Jonah Hill (best known for Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall) who gave a very natural and poignant performance that was miles away from his Apatow persona. It feels a tad slight – treading the line between loose and lazy – but its a very funny film with the potential to be a huge smash at the box office.

Grade: B

SUNDAY

Winter’s Bone
The only film I managed to see on Sunday was Winter’s Bone, a smash at Sundance that should be getting released later on in the year. The movie is set in the Ozarks, focusing on a young girl who, with her mother struck with mental illness and father in and out of jail, has to take care of her family and household (including her two younger siblings) on her own. Things get complicated when the cops show up and say that, if her Dad doesn’t show up for his court date, the family will lose their house, which he put up for his bond. The movie looks absolutely gorgeous – getting full effect out of the rustic, mountaneous backdrop – but is also an intricately realized and very full story. While the Coen Brothers are an obvious influence, this movie never mocks or satirizes its characters. The movie is all about the innate, deeply held mistrust of others and pervasive sense of “minding one’s own business” that is held by residents of the area and only exacerbated when Jennifer Lawrence’s character starts asking questions that make some very scary people bristle. The movie boasts some fantastic performances – especially Lawrence’s weighty work in the lead and John Hawkes (who was just killed off on Lost) as her tough, tempremental uncle – and the last 15 minutes are absolutely wrenching. It takes some time to get going, and a few scenes are too on-point (especially one with the only army recruiter in America who actually turns away potential recruits), but Winter’s Bone is a richly detailed mystery that forgoes the typical hyperbole and conventions of the average noir/thriller in favor of a more subtle and human story.

Grade: A-

TONIGHT: Macgruuuuuuuuber

SXSW Preview: Film

Looking at the gauntlet that’s in store for this year’s South By Southwest can be pretty intimidating, so we here at TUIW are going to try to sort through the noise and find the stuff that’s worth doing. This preview is by no means complete, and it reflects my own particular biases (free food, free drinks, and eclectic, left-of-the dial leaning rock), but here goes.

Before we get into the music proper, though, there’s the first weekend, which is primarily dominated by the Film and Interactive festivals. There are a few bands, and a bunch of parties, but the emphasis is more on film and new media. I only have a badge to the Film Festival, though, so let’s start by looking at that.

If you don’t have a badge, you can still get a local film badge for $70 over-the-counter from the Drafthouse. They’ll also be selling individual tickets to movies (assuming there’s room, of course) for $10. So, what films should you shell out for?

FRIDAY:

Kick-Ass – 7:00 – Paramount Theater
As much as I hate the comic (which comes from the second phase of Mark Millar’s career, known as “Let me make comics specifically so they can be optioned into films), the latest trailer has finally gotten me psyched about this movie. The idea of a real-world, mocking deconstruction of superhero mythology sounds fun enough, especially the always batty Nicolas Cage and Hit Girl, a 9-year-old girl who is also a ninja.

Dogtooth – 6:45 – Alamo Lamar
Of course, if Kick-Ass fills or if your tastes are a little artier, there’s this well-recieved film, which has been making the rounds after debuting at Cannes last year (where it won the Un Certain Regard award). The film is about three teens who are locked away in isolation in their family’s rural estate, cut off from the world and forced to live under their father’s strict rules. Director Yorgos Lanthimos’ style has garnered a lot of acclaim and people who see the film love it, so I’m curious to see it. (Its also running a week later, on the 19th at 5:00 PM)

SATURDAY

Micmacs – 6:45 PM – Paramount Theater
Jean-Pierre Jeunet made one of my favorite films of the 2000s (that would be Amelie) and Micmacs looks like a return to manic form for the director. The film is being sold as an imaginative comedy about a scrappy group of people who live in a junkyard and seek revenge on an evil industrialist, but given its Jeunet, I’m willing to go in relatively cold and enjoy the ride.

Cyrus – 9:30 PM – Paramount Theater
A Sundance selection, Cyrus is the Hollywood debut of the Duplass Brothers, who aim to leave mumblecore behind with this comedy. John C. Reilly stars as an awkward dude who falls for Marisa Tomei but has to deal with her creepy, socially inept son, Jonah Hill. Given the Duplass’ talent for awkward, honest humor and the funny trailer, I have high hopes for this film.

SUNDAY

No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson – 11:00 AM – Paramount Theater
Just like how Winning Time premiered at Sundance, this installment of ESPN’s 30 For 30 series premieres here at SXSW and looks really interesting. Directed by Steve James (who made Hoop Dreams), it looks at the racial and social divides in Hampton, Virginia, which were exacerbated by the trail and imprisonment of Allen Iverson in 1993.

Winter’s Bone – 4:15 PM – Alamo Lamar
Winter’s Bone took Sundance by storm last month drawing comparisons to No Country for Old Men. The story concerns a 17-year-old girl who has to trek through the Ozarks to track down her absent father before he defaults on the house she lives in with her mother and leaves them homeless.

The Parking Lot Movie – 5:00 PM – Alamo Ritz

Set in a parking lot in Charlottesville, Virginia, Parking Lot Movie  aims to use the trials and experience of the attendants there and project them into something larger about Us As a People. Even if the summary makes the film seem a little overwrought (including this line: “Something as simple as a parking lot becomes an emotional weigh station for The American Dream”), its still an interesting concept.

MONDAY

Strange Powers: Stephin Merrit and the Magnetic Fields – 7:15  PM – Alamo Lamar
This promises to be a fascinating look at one of the prickliest, and most talented, songwriters working today.

MacGruber – 9:00 PM – Paramount
Can SNL produce their first good movie since Wayne’s World? The trailer made this film look far more promising than it seemed at first and it should be nice to break up the heavy, festival fare with a goofy movie like this.

Enter the Void – 11:59 PM – Alamo Ritz
Gasper Noe’s newest film promises to be another taxing, dark journey through the horrors of the human mind. It debuted at Cannes where the response could be generously called divisive, and its midnight time slot should allow for the weirdness and mindfuckery to have its maximum effect.

THE REST

The Runaways – Thursday at 8:00 PM – Paramount
Its time for another drugs, sex, and rock and roll biopic, this time starring Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart as Cherie Curie and Joan Jett, repsectively. I don’t have terribly high hopes for this one (and will probably be going for one of the music showcases instead), but the buzz on Michael Shannon’s performance is really solid.

Waking Sleeping Beauty – Saturday at 12:00 PM – Paramount
While this video is the most important bit of Disney you’ll see all month, Waking Sleeping Beauty runs a close second. A documentary looking at the 1990s resurgence of Disney feature animation, it promises to be an interesting peek behind the curtain of one of the most interesting showbiz stories of the 1990s.

Four Lions – Saturday at 7:00 PM – Paramount
The closing film of the festival is another Sundance alum, this one getting buzz as the next In the Loop, mainly because its a dry British satire. Director Chris Morris’ film focuses on four jihadists who plan to carry out a terrorist attack, which should make for an interesting public reaction if it ever sees a real release.

Next: A look at the free parties this weekend (and the following Monday and Tuesday) as SXSW begins in earnest.