Silver Linings Playbook & Anna Karenina

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 11/17/12 at 4:52pm

I did a double feature this morning and caught these two Oscar hopefuls. I was super excited for Silver Linings Playbook because I LOVED The Fighter, and the trailer gave this a Little Miss Sunshine type vibe. It wasn't really like either, and if it wasn't for Jennifer Lawrence's superb performance I wouldn't have much good to say about, though De Niro is very good here too.

Bradley Cooper's character was so unlikable, and I didn't care about him potentially getting back together with his (unseen) ex-wife. The 20-25 minutes before Lawrence enters the film were somewhat painful. My friend and I looked at each other like, "Why the hell does this movie have such buzz??" Then we get Lawrence and she's really brilliant the whole movie.

I warmed up to the story 2/3 through, and there's a sequence near the end that is genuinely funny and makes you want to clap, but it's too little too late. It just me left me cold.

Then we hopped to Anna Karenina and experienced 2 hrs and 20 minutes of bliss. Stoppard has set the story as a semi play within a play. It plays out in a theater and you see actors make their entrances, watch backdrops fly in and basically are always aware you're watching grand drama. Instead of being distracting the concept is masterfully executed. The costumes and sets are beautiful and you could watch it on mute and not be bored.

Keira Knightly is awesome- the film has been built to worship her, including allowing her to radiate beauty in an endless parade of gowns and hats.

I bet some people will complain that it's more style over substance, but I disagree. The story and acting backed up the high concept direction, and on a board of theater lovers I think many people will love this movie too.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 11/17/12 at 7:46pm

I, too, did a double feature this morning and saw SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK and WRECK-IT RALPH. I've now seen every Oscar-buzzed film except for ANNA KARENINA which I'll see next week.

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK is my second-favorite film of the year so far (first being THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER).

Jennifer Lawrence really made this film. She made me like Bradley Cooper, and when you bring that kind of chemistry, it's mesmerizing. Robert De Niro was heartbreaking for me (personal reasons) and was very good. I hope he gets an Oscar nod. It's a small part, but was the backbone of the film.

This is shaping up to be one exciting year for movies.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 11/17/12 at 8:45pm

I'm surprised there have been mixed reviews for Anna Karenina. It's a Tom Stoppard screenplay and a Joe Wright directed film. Yeah, it is going to be lush, stylistic, and flashy. Then again, I seem to have liked his last effort, Hanna (I submit to the soundtrack by The Chemical Brothers, Tom Hollander's Euro-trash mugging, and Cate Blanchett's performance that should be studied by drag queens), more than the general public.

Looking forward to Silver Linings Playbook. Jennifer Lawrence is getting serious Oscar-buzz (glad she is still going for interesting roles rather than going on auto-pilot for blockbuster franchise movies) for this and I am glad that finally a director will be using Bradley Cooper's serial killer eyes for a role that is eccentric. Glad it was David O. Russell, whose work I have liked for a while. How was Jacki Weaver as Cooper's mother? I loved her in Animal Kingdom and I was interested if she hid her Australian accent well.



Updated On: 11/18/12 at 08:45 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/17/12 at 8:57pm

I'm excited to see Anna, but it is a hard work to adapt, and I few that Wright's take might further remove audiences from the characters... (Something Bernard Rose's beautiful version did as well--whatever happened to him?)

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/17/12 at 11:48pm

I'm excited about watching both of these films, though SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK looks like it might be my favorite film of the year, I can just see myself really loving it, especially given the brilliant Jennifer Lawrence is in it (the series of nuanced, great work she has done from her breakthrough work in WINTER'S BONE reminds me of what it must have felt like to watch Meryl Streep in JULIA, DEER HUNTER, MANHATTAN and some of the early film work she did).
Just as a minor correction, the device used in ANNA KARENINA was all Joe Wright's idea. The producers presented him with Stoppard's script (which I believe was largely left untouched), a pretty straight-forward adaptation of the novel, and Wright was the one who thought he'd direct Stoppard's screenplay as it was but set the entire thing on a stage as a way to bring something new to the table that previous adaptations hadn't done.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/18/12 at 12:10am

Thanks for the correction--despite Stoppard's love of meta-theatrical devices, it seemed more like a Wright thing to me. As stated, I go very back and forth on his work--I think sometimes he falls into the trap of being too, not sure what the word is, but calculated almost. I felt that way about Atonement, comparing it to the novel, for example (it's a bit how I felt about The Hours as a movie vs the novel, though I did like the movie overall--and liked Atonement overall too--).

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 11/18/12 at 12:36am

Atonement is one of my favorite movies. I love every minute of it.

I can't wait to see Anna Karenina.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/18/12 at 1:20am

I'm not particularly familiar with Wright's work, ATONEMENT might be the only movie of his I've seen even though I've always wanted to watch PRIDE & PREJUDICE and HANNAH but just haven't gotten around to it. I wanted to love ATONEMENT but I agree it was just a little calculated and the story just doesn't work for me (I have a personal hate for fake-rape stories where the women are vilified), I always think I'm supposed to be thinking it's a much more romantic movie than I think it is, and I was just terribly bored by the middle portion set during the war. I worry I'll feel similar about ANNA KARENINA though I love the conceit and will probably get into it more. Eric, I get the comparison you draw between ATONEMENT and THE HOURS, and yet I've always been so incredibly devastated by THE HOURS, I remember watching it at the movies when I was 15 and thinking it was one of the most powerful experiences I've had watching a movie and now I can almost recite it from front to back and have taught the novel too (which is masterful on its own). Yet, I know so many people were left cold by it. People feel similar about the Anthony Minghella epics too, there's something about ambitious literary adaptations like these that raises some of those concerns. I can't wait to see ANNA KARENINA though.

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 11/18/12 at 1:37am

You'll feel the same way about Hannah then, even though the two couldn't be further apart, as far as story and characters go.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 11/18/12 at 2:08am

Thanks for the correction about Wright being the one to come up with the Karenina device. He's a terrific director and he and Stoppard better get Oscar noms here.

The more I think about Anna Karenina the more I want to go see it again.

My favorite "prestige" film this year has been Argo, followed by Anna K. Of course neither of these films comes close to the brilliance of Pitch Perfect, but I don't think we're to the point where that could even get a Best Picture nomination. But if anyone asked for my honest opinion I'd have to admit Pitch Perfect and For a Good Time Call were the two best films of 2012.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/18/12 at 2:46am

Whizzer! I can't believe someone agrees with me about PITCH PERFECT. I live in a college town in FL so movies take longer to get here (so I haven't gotten to see the likes of SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, ANNA KARENINA, RUST & BONE, etc), but I can't remember the last time I felt as filled with joy and excited about a movie as I did with PITCH PERFECT. I think I loved every single thing about it. ARGO is definitely a close second, it's one of those perfect studio movies where every single thing about it works.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 11/18/12 at 12:19pm

I thought the " rape-device" in Atonement was actually well-done. I never thought they blamed the victim and the wide assumption it was the poor, uneducated hand than the controlling, wealthy Benedict Cumberbatch character showed Robbie and Cecelia having biases too. Unless you mean Briony is to blame. Well, she gave Lola, who still seemed in shock, an out that would be easier to explain. Biony was a child who had no idea about the fact she ruined three lives.

Anthony Minghella films felt like a lesser Merchant & Ivory that are long, overextended, pretension. I never saw The Soloist but Joe Wright films for me are like moving paintings- even Hanna that is closer to John Woo or John McTieran than the Archers or Merchant & Ivory.

I was left cold by The Hours. To borrow from Liz Lemon, it should've been called The Weeks. I am not one to lionize the purity of source material, as I am not a deep reader as I am a filmgoer, but goodness the changes from the book were perplexing.

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 11/20/12 at 2:43am

What are you guys calling the "Oscar" films of 2012? It looks like so far:

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
ANNA KARENINA
LINCOLN
LES MISERABLES
ARGO
LIFE OF PI

I've only seen LINCOLN, which was truly an epic. Daniel Day-Lewis was nothing short of brilliant and Sally Field was surprisingly remarkable.

Anyone think PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER or MOONRISE KINGDOM have a chance?

Updated On: 11/20/12 at 02:43 AM

[americanboy99]

Posted: 11/20/12 at 9:17am

PERKS has no hope because it was- IMHO- terrible.

I wouldn't count out a few other movies including:
FLIGHT
AMOUR (French film, getting INSANE buzz)
THE MASTER
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
PROMISED LAND (have y'all seen that trailer?!)
THE HOBBIT
ZERO DARK THIRTY
DJANGO: UNCHAINED
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
HITCHCOCK (if those 2 leads are as good as everyone is saying)

The "Best Picture" category is STACKED this year. Remember when coming up with 9 films seemed like a task in 2010? "The Blind Side" got nominated? The films nominated in the top category- however many films that ends up being- should hopefully be really well-reviewed and well-liked films. Hopefully, "Moonrise Kingdom" can sneak in. I don't know anyone who doesn't adore that movie.

I am SO pumped to see "Silver Linings Playbook," "Lincoln" and "Anna Karenina." I've allowed myself lots of free time in the coming holiday days to do some serious movie-seeing.

Updated On: 11/20/12 at 09:17 AM

[strummergirl]

Posted: 11/20/12 at 11:35am

Haneke films get buzz but I see Amour getting a Best Foreign Language film nod and nothing more. He and the films are generally just too polarizing for the consensus to be universal, Cannes always loves his movies. Haneke is one of my favorite directors but his movies are just not for everybody.

Perks (which I did like a lot more than I expected) might get an adapted screenplay nod but I think that is a race for Tony Kushner to lose.

Flight will probably get Denzel a nomination. But it still my get the populist votes for Best Picture because hey, it's a serious Denzel movie.

I really liked Moonrise Kingdom. I think it gets a screenplay nod too.

Can Beasts of the Southern Wild still carry momentum from the summer? I feel like its buzz faded a bit. But I think the performances will get the buzz.

Hitchcock may get the nod that pisses a lot of people off based on how by the numbers it is. Yes, Mirren and Hopkins likely deliver the goods but I can see how it beats a lot more deserving pictures.

If I were betting on it the sure-things would be:
LIFE OF PI
LES MISERABLES
LINCOLN
THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
THE MASTER
ARGO

The rest fighting for the last spots:
THE HOBBIT
ANNA KARENINA- I thought this was a sure thing and then it got a lot more mixed reviews than I expected
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
ZERO DARK THIRTY- I feel like this movie is the most privy to backlash, although I loved The Hurt Locker and am just a fan of Bigelow's work
DJANGO UNCHAINED- I feel like people are tiring of Tarantino as pure pastiche but performances will still get Oscar buzz
THE PROMISED LAND
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
MOONRISE KINGDOM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/21/12 at 12:01pm

"Haneke films get buzz but I see Amour getting a Best Foreign Language film nod and nothing more."

Have you seen it? I haven't but it seems to be quite a different genre than your usual Haneke movie and more oscar-friendly. And there has been much talk about a nomination for Riva.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 11/21/12 at 12:35pm

No I haven't. I am just generally talking about how his films are the biggest things at the festivals but when they come over here people from critics to the Academy are divided by those films. Cache/Hidden got buzz as did The White Ribbon.

It's weird. I know people who have seen it deride the film his 'most hateful' film. People were still left cold by it. I am not even sure what a 'friendlier' Haneke film looks like. I don't doubt it could be great and have award-worthy performances or anything like that. I'm just skeptical of voters finally agreeing on a Haneke film.

[canmark]

Posted: 11/24/12 at 11:40am

I had high hopes for Silver Linings Playbook after it won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival (over runner-up Argo), but I felt it didn't live up to the hype.

It was an OK film. I liked the idea of a romantic comedy involving two people who have had mental illness issues. But the movie was not enough. Neither funny enough (like, say, As Good As It Gets), nor serious enough (like, say, Punch Drunk Love). And the climactic dance scene wasn't as good as, say, Strictly Ballroom.

I didn't find Jennifer Lawrence to be that outstanding, although Bradley Cooper had flashes. His facial expressioon when he was asking Jennifer Lawrence to describe her office sexcapdes was quite funny. He says that Nikki (his estranged wife) didn't like it when he talked about his sexual fantasies (which Lawrence's character seemed quite comfortable doing) and I thought, Now, here's an interesting topic to explore--one that will show why Bradley is better suited to Jennifer. But then that topic was dropped, never to be mentioned again.

Not a Best Picture calibre film in my book, but if others loved it I certainly don't begrudge that.

Updated On: 11/24/12 at 11:40 AM

[wickedfan]

Posted: 11/24/12 at 11:45am

Saw it yesterday and really enjoyed it.

I thought that the movie was at its best when Lawrence and Cooper were together. Not only were those scenes the best written in the movie, but they had wonderful chemistry. Both gave really fantastic performances.

It's not the best picture of the year (that honor, so far, still goes to Argo), but it's still a very good movie. Well structured, well written for the most part and two great performances at its core. I'll be seeing Anna Karenina tonight and could not be more excited.

[americanboy99]

Posted: 11/26/12 at 3:34pm

I was a little underwhelmed by SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, but I fear much of that might stem from how high my expectations were going in. Lawrence is fabulous but I think her role may be a little slight to garner a Best Actress Oscar. I thought Cooper and DeNiro were both really great, but the script was lacking and the overall tone/feel seemed like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be. I found Jackie Weaver a bit cartoony as well (I yearned for Melissa Leo the entire time... :/).

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/26/12 at 4:22pm

Your problems with ATONEMENT, Ray-and, are problems with the book. I am not an Ian McEwan fan and share some of your objections. But I think Wright made a very good movie from what he had to work with.

The problem at the moment may be that he is making a movie of a great book. He succeeded once before with Pride and Prejudice but can he do it again?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/26/12 at 8:02pm

See, I would respectfully disagree. I did like Atonement as a film overall, but I prefered the book, and I felt the film did try to make it too much of a... I dunno, BIG epic movie. Yes, the book sis stylistically one of McEwan's most restrained pieces (which is saying something), but things like that celebrated (and beautiful) tracking shot in the movie just seeemed to really miss the point of the book, for me. I know I'm doing a crap job of explaining why--but it goes back to what I said before about some other lit adaptations like The Hourse. They take what in the books are smaller, but extremely moving images and moments and then sorta slap you over the head with them being made into MAJOR SCENES, usually with a score to go with it.

Maybe that's unavoidable. I also think The Hours is often a very good film (I agree with Strummer that some of the key script changes from the book are simply perplexing, however), and I'm not sure I could picture a relatively mainstream film adaptation being better, really, but at the same time...

I'm seeing Anna this week, and I am excited. Even the critics who don't like Wright's direction seem to think Stoppard's screenplay is very strong (as mentioned already, apparently the conceit of having it take place on stage was not Stoppard's idea, but Wright's). And I *love* the book. Most adaptations seem to focus solely on the main love story, which I think robs the book of its richness--but then it's very hard to know how to give a fair amount of time to the other characters and stories and not make it 8 hours long. I think the best adaptation was a late 60s Soviet film--beautifully shot--that you can find on DVD now, back at a time where suddenly the Soviets seemed keen on making films of all their classics that Hollywood had largely not done well yet. But it's still a very prolematic film. So I'm interested to see what the emphasis in this version is (I assume it's the love story, again, but maybe adapted with more care). I will say the casting looks spot on--and I'm not even usually a huge Keira fan.

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 11/27/12 at 1:51am

Anna Karenina was great, but I didn't love it as much as I loved Atonement.

My favorite film of the year is still Cloud Atlas.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 11/27/12 at 3:05am

I think Silver Linings biggest problem was that it was at least 20 minutes to long. No wonder Cooper had problems, it was De Niro who was the purely crazy one.

But Lawrence and Cooper where both great and Weaver was outstanding as the mother in an under written role.

It just lacked something.

Off topic, Wreck it Ralph was the longest 90 or so minutes I have spent in a theatre this year. Droll, dull and mind numbling boring.

[Kad]

Posted: 11/29/12 at 2:33pm

I saw Anna Karenina this morning. It's certainly a beautiful film, and I loved the theatrical concept (even if it did get largely abandoned halfway through, as the plot moves away from the high society). But I found it largely cold and lacking in passion. I'd never read the novel, but I'm sure "cold and lacking in passion" is not an apt descriptor.