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Leading actor

Nominees:
- Brad Pitt (Moneyball)

- Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

- George Clooney (The Descendants)

- Jean Dujardin (The Artist)

- Michael Fassbender (Shame)

The winner is: Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

It’s great to see Fassbender and Oldman featured in this year’s awards, especially the former as he was controversially not among the recent Academy Awards nominees for the same category.  Clooney and Dujardin have been highly praised for their respective roles and are the favourites to win.  Personally, I’d love to see Gary Oldman to lift the prize, because, like his Academy Award nomination – it’s long overdue.

Leading actress

- Bérénice Bejo (The Artist)

- Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)

- Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn)

- Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin)

- Viola Davis (The Help)

The winner is: Viola Davis (The Help)
Competing against Meryl Streep is a bit intimidating…she has been nominated 14 times!  All nominees receive acclaim from Williams’ performance as the vulnerable Marilyn Monroe to Bejo’s delightful Pepy Miller.  Viola Davis is my choice – her role as The Help‘s Aibileen is inspiring, emotional and understated.

Best Supporting Actress

Nominees:

- Carey Mulligan (Drive)

- Jessica Chastain (The Help)

- Judi Dench (My Week with Marilyn)

- Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids)

- Octavia Spencer (The Help)

The winner is: Octavia Spencer (The Help)

I love that Melissa McCarthy has been praised for her hilarious performance in Bridesmaids – its not often you see a lady who shits in a sink get nominated for  an Academy Award and a BAFTA!

It is strange to see Mulligan get nominated for a small role in Drive in comparison to her bigger and more pivotal role in Shame and it must have been hard to choose which film to nominate Chastain for after her bumper year of The Tree of Life, The Help and The Debt.  It is surely in the bag for Octavia Spencer – her performance as Minny is the more quietly funny performances and a role she was born to portray.

Best Supporting Actor

Nominees:

- Christopher Plummer (Beginners)

- Jim Broadbent (The Iron Lady)

- Jonah Hill (Moneyball)

- Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn)

- Philip Seymour Hoffman (Ides of March)

The winner is: Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
It is strange to see Jonah Hill feature in the Best Supporting Actor categories – this is the kid from Superbad, for crying out loud!
Broadbent, Branagh and Hoffman are all previous winners but none of them have been singled out so much as veteran actor Plummer.  My money is on the veteran

Best Director

Nominees:

- Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)

- Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive)

- Martin Scorsese (Hugo)

- Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

- Lynne Ramsey (We Need to Talk About Kevin)

The winner is: Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive)

This is probably the closest category – with Drive, The Artist and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in the running, the nominees have a pretty even chance of getting that prize.  First things first: Scorsese shouldn’t win.  He is going to receive a Fellowship to BAFTA so he doesn’t need another prize; talk about rubbing it in…!
It’s difficult to agree with Hazanavicius’s homage to silent cinema, Refn’s moody and reclusive Drive, Ramsey’s emotional turmoil drama and the grainy outlook of Tinker Tailor Solider Spy.  Seeing how overshadowed Drive has been during the awards season, Refn deserves the prize for his critically acclaimed film.

Best Film

Nominees:

- The Artist

- The Descendants

- Drive

- The Help

- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

The winner is: The Artist

Ahhh, Best Film – the big prize.  Always the one people want to receive and the hardest prize to award one film.  All of them are equally brilliant yet each have a certain quality that makes them shine brighter than the rest.  I think The Artist will win Best Film as it has managed to revive a genre most people thought was long gone, which was a gamble that has paid off handsomely.

Be sure to comment or even make your own predictions!

With pickings as slim as they are at local multiplexes for anything approaching a good time, Greek is a perfectly fine midsummer trifle.

Get Him to the Greek

Directed by Nicholas Stoller

Now that The Hangover has officially ended the Judd Apatow monopoly on raunchy bro-comedy, it makes sense that we’d get an Apatow production that seems like a House of Judd reprise of that movie’s rollicking hedonism, albeit with an added dollop of sentimentality. It’s not as effective as director Nick Soller’s last effort, the sweet but raucous Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but it’ll do in a pinch.

Glammy UK export Russell Brand reprises his role from that film as Aldous Snow, a sort of amalgam of Pete Doherty’s prodigious drug use and tabloid currency, a touch of Bono’s noxious superiority, with a bit of Weilandesque glam sleaze for good measure. He’s meant to be performing a 10th anniversary gig at the Greek Theater in LA in order to boost his label’s sagging bottom line, and eager trained monkey Aaron (Jonah Hill) has been tasked with getting him there in one piece, relatively drink- and drug-free. Since this is an Apatow production, we also have (tender!) romantic complications, here provided by two unlikely actresses mostly known for their work on basic-cable dramas, Rose Byrne (Damages) and Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men).

Most of Greek‘s pleasures tend to be derived not from the debauchery on hand, but from the comic rapport between its leads, as well as a madcap comic turn from Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, who goes for broke as the label head with a habit of “mind-fucking” people into submission. That Diddy can act shouldn’t be a surprise (lest we forget he had a celebrated Broadway run a few years back), but his outright scene-stealing is a bit shocking. That said, Hill finds his best showcase yet here, playing Aaron as actually somewhat less of a schlub than the usual Apatow protagonist. Brand dials down his persona a bit to allow some sensitivity to creep into the appropriate scenes.

Unfortunately, Greek does not blend its broadly comedic and dramatic elements nearly as well as Marshall or even Knocked Up did, relegating its female support to hollow plot points – Moss in particular is wasted as a character who literally sleepwalks for three-quarters of the running time, which is especially disappointing since her contribution to the film’s last half-hour proves she’s actually pretty funny when afforded the opportunity. Outright useless is Byrne’s Jackie Q character, a vacuous UK pop singer who holds the key to Snow’s heart. Byrne does her best in an odd role (including some more-than-suggestive music videos), but the efforts made to complicate Snow’s character through her are very transparent. (A brief appearance from Colm Meaney as Snow’s father is a little more successful.)

That being said, with pickings as slim as they are at local multiplexes for anything approaching a good time, Greek is a perfectly fine midsummer trifle, neither disappointing nor truly transcending expectation, but providing a decent time at the movies if you’re willing to forgive a few glaring flaws. (Final complaint: can we retire the idea, in all circles of culture, that midtempo, three-to-five member rock music is the pinnacle of all possible musical or even artistic endeavors? Whenever this line gets trotted out the urge is felt to reach back in time and have Jann Wenner killed before his first Cream concert.)

Simon Howell

When super villain MegaMind (Ferrell) defeats his archrival Metro Man (Brad Pitt), the world should be his oyster. But instead, MegaMind falls into total despair. It turns out that life without a rival is life without a point for him. So, he creates a new superhero rival, Titan (Jonah Hill). Unfortunately, the new hero wants to be a super villain, too. Caught in the middle, star reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) asks the tough questions: Who can we turn to? Who has what it takes to stand up to this menace? Who will defend the innocent? MegaMind! That’s who.

A romance laced with psychological poison, “Cyrus” is a well-performed but superficial drama of emotional co-dependency that is unlikely to venture past the select-site/festival circuit. This Fox Searchlight drama, starring John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei, had its world premiere at Sundance and aroused tepid admiration.

Creating a hero has been easy for Judd Apatow; whether you’re a 40-year old man who has never had sex or a 20-something freeloader accidentally knocking up a girl during a one night stand, you best be sure these people will rise to the occasion. The hero in Apatow’s new much anticipated tragicomedy, Funny People, however, is hard to distinguish. The characters are surrounded by their own personal demons brought on by their strong desire for fame, fortune and the perfect life, and also by their sexual insecurities (insert penis joke here), which make them out to be overgrown, whining children. But that’s okay, because they are all funny comedians. Well, sort of.

The film is about a struggling stand-up comedian Ira (Seth Rogan) who is hired by popular comic and movie star George Simmons (Adam Sandler) to be his personal assistant and joke-writer. Not long after, George tells Ira he has been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. Apprehensive about the way he has lived his life, George decides to restore his relationships with friends, family members and above all, the love of his life, Laura (Leslie Mann), who is now married with children.

The film stands out as an escape from Apatow’s previous films (The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up) and enters a realm that many fans may find reminiscent to his Freaks and Geeks days. The film is more sitcom than it is motion picture worthy, where every nook and cranny in the script is filled with flaky characters and fluffy plot points. As such, Funny People could easily have been told as an hour long television episode, rather than its excruciating two and a half hour runtime.

Sandler gives a decent performance as the self-loathing George, with similar attributes to his character from Punch-Drunk Love. Reckless, cold-hearted and confused, it’s easy for audience members to get lost in George’s puppy-dog eyes, but still very hard for us to escape from his childish antics, even in a time of life reevaluation. In short, Adam Sandler plays more nuanced version of past Adam Sandler roles.

What is disappointing is Mann’s unappreciative Laura. Noticed in other Apatow films as the quirky sidebar, Mann finally takes on the female lead, a woman hurt in the past by the unreliable, commitment-phobic George and is not sure if he can be trusted again. In the end, are we able to trust Laura? Mann’s story line sticks out like a sore thumb that can leave audience members with a bitter taste in their mouths.

Some of Hollywood’s biggest comedic names provide cameos throughout the film, which are more or less there to perk audience’s attention (or to distract them – Eminem? Really?). An Apatow film would not be complete without the many euphemisms and jokes based on male genitalia. Man-children of the world, unite!

The film is beautifully shot by frequent Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kaminski. Kaminski is able to capture images with best intention, playing with elements of light, dark and shaky close-ups to bring out emotional instability. But in an Apatow film, Kaminski’s cinematography seems out of place. We have to constantly ask ourselves, is this really an Apatow film? Or is this just his way of being artsy?

Funny People has the intention of being this summer’s biggest comedy. But in the end, the film turns out to be an over-indulgent Terms of Endearment wannabe with dick jokes. There are a lot of fantastic one-liners, sure to catch on with fans, but the film as a whole fails to bring viewers its much anticipated Apatow-esque feel. Although the drive is there, Funny People misses its punch line.

Eric Hatch

The trailer for the Ricky Gervais written and directed comedy The Invention of Lying (orginaly titled The Other Side of the Truth)look to be promising.  With a great cast (that includes Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill, Christopher Guest, Jason Bateman, and Jenifer Garner) this film looks conventional enough to attract a mainstream audience while still keeping that trademark Gervais humor.  The film takes place in a world where no one has ever told a lie, until of course a writer (Gervais) takes full advantage of this world for personal gain.  It opens wide on September 25th.

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Jody Hill’s first studio feature, “Observe and Report,” is already one of the year’s most contentious films; critics are divided right down the middle, including us. In our altest comedy special, ee hash out our differences while also exploring three connected films – Hill’s low-budget debut, “The Foot Fist Way,” the Seth Rogen career-launcher “Knocked Up,” and another contentious flick, the Anna Faris-toplined “House Bunny.” Al Kratina had to sit this one out, but we made him watch “The House Bunny” anyway. As always, keep an ear open for our Trailer Talk and news segments as well.

Also, we’re experimenting with new equipment this week, so apologies if the sound quality isn’t quite up to par.

Writer-director-producer Judd Apatow has created a certified name for himself. He is the “it” man in Hollywood. His TV shows Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, were quickly cancelled but they found an enormous cult following on DVD. He broke through big time with The 40 Year-Old Virgin and then Knocked Up. Each film was a box office success making over two hundred million dollars world wide. Now he is taking the directors chair in what seems to be more of a serious drama as appose to the usual Apatow brand which includes tons of profanity and dirty sex jokes. He has never been the star of his films, but his name is as much a draw as the stars that he has recruited, but can his name really sell seats to this sort of film? The new movie is called Funny People and, appropriately enough, it is about the world of stand-up comedy.

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Welcome to the house Apatow built – the comedic landscape forged by director/writer/producer Judd Apatow, who in a few short years went from a pop-culture reject (with two quickly-cancelled TV series and a flopped film to his name) to Hollywood’s most consistently successful – and well-received – purveyor of comedy. His reign of terror / laughter began in proper when he directed the smash hit The 40-Year-Old Virgin, then things got really busy in 2007 with the teen sex romp Superbad and Apatow’s second directorial job, Knocked Up. This year, things get complicated. Greg Mottola, who directed Superbad, launches his debut as a writer-director in Adventureland. Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, both Apatow familiars, costar in I Love You, Man. Neither movie has Apatow on board – is his golden touch really as important as it’s made out to be? Here to help us ponder this by looking at these two new films as well as touching on Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall is recurring guest Derek Gladu. All this and more on this episode of Sound on Sight.