Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

Post by OscarGuy »

And I think I can even craft the blogger narrative for this year's Oscars.

Weinstein Takes on Spielberg. Will Spielberg win Best Director and lose to another Weinstein-flogged film? Stay Tuned!
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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Yeah. I fully expected that. Harvey's on a roll. It's been my Best Picture prediction since May, so I'm not at all shocked.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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Film wins the Audience Award at Toronto, which has often presaged a strong showing at the Oscars.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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The Original BJ wrote:This is probably a subject for another post...but is it at all possible that there will be at least some people who don't want to nominate Quevenzhané Wallis because she was all of SIX when she made Beasts of the Southern Wild? I'm kind of agnostic on the movie (and her performance in general), so maybe my off-consensus opinion is coloring my view, but I feel like there will be a claque of people who just won't accept what Wallis does as actual acting. Whether or not that group is going to be large enough to keep her out of contention remains to be seen. But I do think some naysayers will emerge eventually once the mainstream awards season gives the movie a bigger profile than it's had up until this point.
If we end up with a situation where it's six-into-five or something like that, I can see it (how Woodley got left off last season, imo). If the year stays as weakly nebulous as it is though I wouldn't be so sure. The thing is the film has a terrific uplift - I'd describe it as Slumdog Millionaire meets George Washington and I imagine it'll actually do quite well during the precursors.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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Toronto: 'The Silver Linings Playbook'
10:21 AM, September 10, 2012ι Lou Lumenick

I seem to be a contrarian when it comes to David O. Russell's "The Silver Linings Playbook,'' which has racked up 97 percent positive ratings at Rotten Tomatoes and got thundering applause at its world premiere the other night at Roy Thompson Hall. I laughed a few times, but overall I liked it far less than than Russell's "The Fighter'' and vastly less than his masterpiece, "Three Kings.'' I'd rate it in a class with the problematic (for me) "I (Heart) Huckabees.'' The performances struck me as all over the place, and as I tweeted right after seeing it, this quirky dramatic farce seems to me like 100 pounds of schmaltz in a 50 pound sack.

While it's nowhere near as dire as "The Words,'' I still have a problem with Bradley Cooper as a dramatic actor. Here he's playing a former teacher with bipolar disorder who's spent eight months at a mental institution after assaulting a colleague he caught cheating with his wife. Released in the custody of his mother (the sublime Australian actress Jacki Weaver), Cooper -- who's lost his wife and his home -- moves in with the folks, and adopts a healthy, positive regime while hoping for an unlikely reunion with his former spouse.

A lot of people are impressed with Cooper's work here, but I see a performer who never lets you forget for a millisecond that he's acting -- he never truly inhabits the character. Contrast that with Jennifer Lawrence as a policeman's widow that a friend fixes him up with. She's a nymphomaniac, and you totally buy her character -- Lawrence is terrific, and she lends Cooper some credibility. But she's not the protagonist, and it's just not enough in my book to put Cooper over as the lead.

Robert De Niro, another actor I have had huge issues with of late, plays Cooper's dad, a small town bookie who decides to lay off his life savings on a dance competition that Lawrence cajoles a very reluctant Cooper into joining with her. De Niro is notably less hammy than usual as this character, who himself suffers from a Hollywood version of obsessive-compulsive disorder and tries to bully Cooper into loving him. But despite an Oscar-mongering crying scene it's basically De Niro in his very familiar comic mode (whereas Weaver, who admittedly doesn't have an established screen persona to contend with, disappears into her character).

"The Silver Linings Playbook'' looks to be getting a big Oscar push, and if later reviews continue in this vein it might actually get there. I sure hope not. Perhaps my personal experience with the pain of bipolar disorder makes it hard for me to laugh at a film that romanticizes the condition and milks it for wacky humor.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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flipp525 wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:
Mister Tee wrote:Right now, I'd say Marion Cottilard in Rust & Bone; Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild and Keira Knightley in Anna Karenina are close to being locks with Naomi Watts in The Impossible looming on the horizon.
Funny how when I stated that the most sure-fire nominee, at what was then the early summer, was Quvenzhané Wallis using BJ's "bird in the hand" rule, it was pretty much dismissed as not going to happen. I can't recall who shot it down, I'll have to track down that thread.
It was me and I had just seen the film. I still don't think the Academy will nominate Beasts for much other then maybe screenplay adaptation and music unless all the end of year Oscar bait films starting failing with audiences and more so critics.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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This is probably a subject for another post...but is it at all possible that there will be at least some people who don't want to nominate Quevenzhané Wallis because she was all of SIX when she made Beasts of the Southern Wild? I'm kind of agnostic on the movie (and her performance in general), so maybe my off-consensus opinion is coloring my view, but I feel like there will be a claque of people who just won't accept what Wallis does as actual acting. Whether or not that group is going to be large enough to keep her out of contention remains to be seen. But I do think some naysayers will emerge eventually once the mainstream awards season gives the movie a bigger profile than it's had up until this point.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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I'm not suggesting she will. I'm saying I expect her to be pushed for Supporting for Silver Linings Playbook and leading for The Hunger Games.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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Jennifer Lawrence's work in The Hunger Games is one of those performances that could score a Best Actress nod in a weak year, but this is shaping up to be a strong one for actresses so it's either Silver Linings Playbook or nada. She won't be competing against herself at all.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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Obviously I have not seen Silver Linings Playbook. I also have not seen The Hunger Games b/c I've yet to hear anything positive about it save for Jennifer Lawrence's allegedly awesome performance. Both sight-unseen, wouldn't it make sense for Lawrence to be pushed for Supporting for SLP and Leading for The Hunger Games? If it's a weak enough year, the Hollywood Foreign-Press will surely nominate her for The Hunger Games and likely give her their award for Best Supporting Actress.

From the minute I saw the film, I said I'd be surprised if Wallis is not up for Best Actress.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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Big Magilla wrote:
Mister Tee wrote:Right now, I'd say Marion Cottilard in Rust & Bone; Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild and Keira Knightley in Anna Karenina are close to being locks with Naomi Watts in The Impossible looming on the horizon.
Funny how when I stated that the most sure-fire nominee, at what was then the early summer, was Quvenzhané Wallis using BJ's "bird in the hand" rule, it was pretty much dismissed as not going to happen. I can't recall who shot it down, I'll have to track down that thread.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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Thanks Magilla.

The thing is Helen Hunt isn't really much of a threat. As brilliant and deserving as she is in the film I really can't see the Academy giving her a second Oscar, but stranger things have happened.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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It's definitely internet "talk" but that talk has changed Oscar campaigns in the past.

Initially I dismissed it for the reasons you state - antipathy toward Hunt for winning an Oscar most people didn't think she deserved and no Oscar "bounce" after that. However, when E.W.'s Dave Karger "predicts" people listen - his track record is the most accurate of all those out there. Now even those who have seen the film (In Contention) are jumping on the bandwagon and moving her to support.

It could be coming from Fox Searchlight, which also has Beasts of the Southern Wild and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. They may not want a Helen Hunt campagin to detract from their Quvenzhané Wallis campaign. Don't know, but campaigns don't always work. Remember the campaign for Kate Winslet in support for The Reader?
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

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Big Magilla wrote:
Right now, I'd say Marion Cottilard in Rust & Bone; Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild and Keira Knightley in Anna Karenina are close to being locks with Naomi Watts in The Impossible looming on the horizon. No wonder Helen Hunt is being talked about for supporting actress rather than lead in The Sessions.
Magilla, I know Helen Hunt is being talked about as supporting on the web but just curious where and why you think this all talk started that she should be supporting. The Sessions really hasn't been seen by many too people. Since it's debut at Sundance earlier in the year it's only shown at the Melbourne Film Festival, and I understand it will be shown at the Toronto film festival that will bring it to a much larger audience. Is this coming from people who have seen the film or just internet 'talk'.

When I saw the film last month I knew very little about it and what I thought I knew about it turned out to be completely inaccurate. I got the most pleasant cinema experience I've had all year.

Having seen the film Helen Hunt is clearly co-lead with John Hawkes. Though he plays the more central role, Helen Hunt has screen time by herself and with her characters family. Her relationship with her husband (played by Adam Arkin, son of Alan) is also explored thought not in great detail. It's Moon Bloodgood, Annika Marks & Blake Lindsley (who's role is tiny but crucial - she's manages to convey so much with very little) that are the supporting actresses in the film.

On what little I have read on the internet I sense a certain hostility out there for Helen Hunt, probably because she has never been considered much of an actress and has an Oscar most people agree she didn't deserve. To be honest I've never been impressed with her until The Sessions and with her performance in the film she has finally delivered a performance worthy of an 'Oscar winner'.
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Re: Silver Linings Playbook reviews

Post by bizarre »

I think in a very open year Jennifer Lawrence could be our Best Actress winner.
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