Top Ten: Zero Dark Thirty

This year for the Hollmann Awards, we're counting down my Top Ten of the Year -- one entry per day, coupled with two categories -- leading up the naming of Best Picture of the Year.

#5. Zero Dark Thirty

dir: Kathryn Bigelow

wr: Mark Boal

cin: Greig Fraser

Let's get this out of the way. I am not someone who regularly judges a film's merits based on whether or not I can gel with it politically. I don't think Nixon was some sad-sack boogeyman, and I ain't sure about the second shooter question re: JFK, but you better believe I'm an Oliver Stone fan. Simply put, his movies are masterfully edited, audaciously shot, ambitiously written, and fucking entertaining. If a movie turns me off and I cite the stance it takes as a reason, it's probably more to do with a failure to comfortably integrate said point-of-view within the context of the narrative.

Which is all a long way of saying that I have no idea what Zero Dark Thirty's stance is on torture, and really, I find that it doesn't matter all that much. All I know is that I saw a thriller that had me engrossed from beginning to end, even through the slower, middle section.

Top Ten: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

This year for the Hollmann Awards, we're counting down my Top Ten of the Year -- one entry per day, coupled with two categories -- leading up the naming of Best Picture of the Year.

#6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

dir: Stephen Chbosky

wr: Stephen Chbosky, from his novel

cin: Andrew Dunn  

The surprise of the year for me was The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I didn't think much of the trailer, which had some good music looked like it was selling every high school movie I could think of ("we accept the love we think we deserve"? who says that?!). But I went to see it because my best friend recommended it and because I see everything. And I swear to you those tears started coming when titular wallflower Charlie got off that wall and joined in a dance to "Come On, Eileen". This movie got me, and we were only fifteen minutes in. Maybe less, I don't know.

Actors Nomming Actors: SAG

The Screen Actors Guild nominees arrived this morning at (roughly) 5:55AM, PST. I had an alarm set and everything, almost falling back asleep with the thought, "Eh, it's just the Globes, I'll read everyone's take later." Which is wrong in many ways. What kind of monster would choose to sleep during the Globe nominees? Had I already forgotten last year, when announcer Woody Harrelson objected to Rampart's complete absence, and when Sofia Vergara Charo'd out with her pronunciation of Scorsese's name (Ma-reen Scor-sez)?

Not that that matters, because that's tomorrow. What matters is this: SCREEN ACTORS GUILD nominees!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin, Argo

Javier Bardem, Skyfall

Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

SURPRISE!: Bardem gets in for his Bond villain, the first time the franchise has been honored by any of the major guilds (WGA, DGA, PGA, SAG).

HOORAY: Bardem obviously, but even though they're pretty much locks, I'm always rooting for Hoffman and Jones in their respective films. I didn't care much for The Master, but I think Hoffman does a magnificent job of presenting the subtle manipulations and irrepressible charm of Lancaster Dodd, as well as the little weaknesses that weaken his own fortitude.

As for Jones in Lincoln: bad-ass. (You saw the Cinemaniacs review of Lincoln, right?)

MIA: Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained); I blame the late arrival of the film, since Tarantino's flicks usually pick up some steam at these things

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sally Field, Lincoln

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy

Maggie Smith, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

SURPRISE!: Kidman gets in for her white trash sexed-up Barbie doll in Lee Daniels' dark, camp thriller The Paperboy.

HOORAY: SAG gave out pleasant surprises higgledy-piggledy this year: Kidman gave one of the strongest performances of the year (even if it isn't, in my mind, a supporting one). Also appreciate the continued love for Hunt's work in The Sessions, though hers is not a supporting performance either.

MIA: Ann Dowd (Compliance), Amy Adams (The Master), Samantha Barks (Les Miserables), Judi Dench (Skyfall)

BEST ACTOR

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

John Hawkes, The Sessions

Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables

Denzel Washington, Flight

SURPRISE!: None. For me, anyway. I know others were expecting Joaquin Phoenix in The Master, but I sure as hell wasn't.

HOORAY: No Phoenix!

MIA: Joaquin Phoenix (The Master), Anthony Hopkins (Hitchcock), Jean-Louis Trintignant (Amour)

BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Helen Mirren, Hitchcock

Naomi Watts, The Impossible

SURPRISE!: This goes into MIA as well, but the absence of both Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant for Amour surprised many today. I'm assuming that they weren't eligible, or at least unseen by the members of the nominating committee. Mirren and Watts making it in raised my eyebrows.

HOORAY: Cotillard, whose film I just saw last night, is superb.

MIA: Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), Judi Dench (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel)

BEST ENSEMBLE

Argo

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Lincoln

Les Miserables

Silver Linings Playbook

SURPRISE!: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel!

HOORAY: Argo, Best Exotic, Lincoln and Silver Linings all boasted superlative casts with great chemistry; in some cases, they saved the movie (but you've seen the Cinemaniacs reviews of Silver Linings Playbook, right?). I haven't seen Les Mis, so only time will tell.

MIA: Strong ensemble work this year - Moonrise Kingdom, Magic Mike, Damsels in Distress, The Sessions, The Paperboy, and Cloud Atlas all deserved nods here, but I wouldn't know which of them to choose and which of these solid nominees to replace.