The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2013 03:34 PM PST FEB 23 – It's that time of the year again when the attention of the (movie-crazy) world is on the upcoming 2013 Oscars. Even if you're an anti-Hollywood film geek, you just can't help but be interested in what's going to happen come Oscar time. The nominations this year have been very interesting (and probably better than the last few years'), but it's so varied that it's kind of hard trying to predict who will win. But try I must! Best Picture – Lincoln (with an outside chance of Argo stealing it) Of all the nominees, the only one I haven't managed to see is Silver Linings Playbook. Lincoln would be the traditional Oscar favourite, as it is what you would call a "prestige" picture, and the fact that it's a commercial success as well (ringing up US$175 million or RM543 million at the US box-office) brings memories of recent Oscar winners like The King's Speech and The Artist. But since it's likely that Lincoln would be winning quite a few of the big categories, Argo might just steal Best Picture to make up for the fact that Ben Affleck was snubbed of a Best Director nomination, and the fact that it has the most momentum right now after winning the Critics Choice, the Golden Globes, the Producers and Screen Actors Guild awards. Best Director – Steven Spielberg (Lincoln) Benh Zeitlin's nomination is already a win. Michael Haneke's film is a foreign language one, so his nomination can also be already considered a win. No one seems to really love Ang Lee for Life Of Pi, which leaves only David O. Russell a contender for Silver Linings Playbook (which I haven't seen). If Ben Affleck was nominated he'd be a real challenger, but since he wasn't then a win for Steven Spielberg is more than likely. Best Actor – Daniel Day Lewis (Lincoln) I think there's not even the slightest doubt that Daniel Day Lewis will be the winner here for his finely understated performance as Abraham Lincoln. Bradley Cooper may be excellent in Silver Linings Playbook, but comedies rarely take home the main acting awards. Denzel Washington has already won a Best Actor Oscar, so it's unlikely he'll win again for Flight (even if it's a much better performance than Training Day). I'd personally pick Joaquin Phoenix's masterclass in method acting in The Master, but this is Day Lewis' award to lose. Best Actress – Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) The tide is clearly in Jennifer Lawrence's favour here, with French legend Emmanuelle Riva gaining momentum for her work in Amour. Nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis' nomination can already be considered a win for her and I loved both Jessica Chastain and Naomi Watts' performances, but I'm predicting here and not making my own personal choice so I will not ignore the tireless vocal and critical support for Lawrence. Best Supporting Actor – Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln) Christoph Waltz is the most entertaining one for his performance in Django Unchained, Alan Arkin is the funny one in Argo and Philip Seymour Hoffman is the consummate professional in The Master. But Tommy Lee Jones' role is pretty much the heart and soul of Lincoln, and nobody leaves that movie without being touched by his alternately grumpy, funny and soulful performance, so he'll probably and deservedly win it. Best Supporting Actress – Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables) I'd go for Helen Hunt's wonderfully warm performance in The Sessions any day. Even Sally Field's tortured Mary Todd Lincoln is a vital part of Lincoln. But who doesn't love Anne Hathaway, and the fact that she sang and acted the hell out of her part in Les Miserables will probably result in a win. Best Foreign Film – Amour When a foreign film also gets nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay, you can be sure that it's most definitely a lock for winning the Best Foreign Film category. Anything less than a victory for Amour here would be shocking. Best Animated Film – Wreck It Ralph This is a really tough category to predict. My personal favourite would of course be the gorgeous black & white shadow play of Frankenweenie, and it probably does stand a good chance at winning, but Wreck It Ralph's conceptual brilliance (it's Tron meets Toy Story!) probably puts it ahead of the pack. Best Original Screenplay – Amour vs Django Unchained vs Zero Dark Thirty Another very tough category to predict as the nominees are all equally good in their own ways. Flight is slight, and Moonrise Kingdom is probably too quirky to win an Oscar, so they're out of the picture. Amour has got to win something, so there's a good chance of a win here, but right now the Academy is getting younger and younger so there's always hope that Tarantino's deliciously entertaining Django Unchained might get a look in as well. And if The Hurt Locker was an Oscar contender and winner, the even better Zero Dark Thirty (from the same writing-directing team) should at least get something too, right? Best Adapted Screenplay – Lincoln Tony Kushner's screenplay for Lincoln is quite simply a work of art. As good as Argo and Life Of Pi are as adaptations, the masterfully literary Lincoln is the one looking very likely to win it. * This is the personal opinion of the columnist. |
| AVB safe… but he’s the only one Posted: 22 Feb 2013 03:29 PM PST FEB 23 – With less than a third of the English Premier League season remaining, we're faced with the strange situation where only one of the managers in the top six can be regarded as a certainty to still be leading his team next season. Somewhat contrarily, that man is Tottenham's Andre Villas-Boas, who wasn't the most popular choice amongst Spurs fans to replace Harry Redknapp but has done more than enough to earn himself another season in the hot seat. Of the other five, Sir Alex Ferguson obviously has one of the most secure jobs in the sport but there's always a chance that this summer – at the age of 71 – will be the time he finally decides to step down into a well-earned retirement. I don't think he will. Ferguson seems to be enjoying himself too much to stop now, and the fact that Pep Guardiola – who would be a major frontrunner to succeed Ferguson – made the early commitment to take over at Bayern Munich leads me to believe that there will be no vacancy at Old Trafford just yet. If Guardiola had any reason to suspect that the Manchester United job might become available in June – and Guardiola is on friendly terms with Ferguson and is therefore well placed to judge the situation – he would have surely delayed his decision rather than preparing for life in Bavaria. A few miles east of Fergie, second-placed Roberto Mancini is under increasing pressure for his failure to mount a title challenge or guide his Manchester City team past the group stage of the Champions' League. I quite like Mancini but he does invite criticism with his tendency to say some strange things, such as his declaration earlier this week that he's the best manager in England. Of course, it's obvious that he was referring to his success in leading City to the EPL title last season, but why not just stick to that? Why give the media machine a ready-made headline with such a silly soundbite? Soundbites won't ultimately decide Mancini's fate, though – his club's hierarchy are too smart to be swayed by irrelevancies of that nature. They will, however, be concerned by the fact that Mancini has taken his team backwards this season, in no small part due to his apparent inability to decide upon his strongest team or even strongest playing system. Whether or not Mancini stays at City next season could come down to the question of who might be available to replace him. City's bosses will be disappointed to have missed out on the chance of landing Guardiola, and they may decide that there are no better options currently available. This weekend's big game in the EPL sees the perhaps-to-be-departing Mancini coming up against the definitely-to-be-departing Rafa Benitez, whose time as "interim manager" at Chelsea will surely come to an end in May. Benitez hasn't actually done that badly since moving to Stamford Bridge – they've only lost three of their last 18 games – but surely it would have required outlandish success to have persuaded owner Roman Abramovich to ignore the objections of the baying masses and give the Spaniard a longer deal. In any case, Benitez probably won't want to stay in the toxic environment that prevails at Chelsea any longer than he simply has to... and which sane man would? His brief tenure at the Bridge has succeeded in putting him back in the forefront of club chairmen's minds as they ponder their recruitment plans, and it was no surprise to hear Benitez expressing his love for Real Madrid – who will almost certainly need a new manager in the summer – on Spanish radio earlier this week. From Benitez's perspective, enduring an unpleasant few months at an unpleasant club, working for an unpleasant owner and being brayed at by unpleasant fans will have served its purpose. It is a means to the end of getting him a better job – and when it comes to managing a major football club, there is scarcely a worse job than Chelsea. Ferguson, Mancini and Benitez could all therefore be regarded, with differing degrees of certainty, as potential candidates to leave their jobs in the summer. And the same can certainly be said of fifth-placed Arsene Wenger, whose reign at Arsenal continues to unravel due to his stubborn refusal to modify his idealistic philosophy. Bayern Munich's walk in the park at the Emirates on Tuesday night demonstrated just how far behind the elite Arsenal have now fallen, and Wenger's pretence that he is keeping the Gunners competitive at the highest level cannot be sustained for much longer. If Arsenal finish outside the top four and therefore miss out on next season's Champions' League, he could easily decide to walk away in the summer – especially if the Paris St Germain job comes calling. The final member of the managerial top six is David Moyes, who has performed admirably at Everton for more than a decade but has announced that he will wait until the end of the season before deciding whether to accept a new contract at Goodison Park. Moyes would definitely become a leading candidate if any of the top five jobs become available. And I'm quite happy to state with a degree of certainty that next season Moyes will be managing Everton, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City or Arsenal. The question is: which one? * This is the personal opinion of the columnist. |
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