Movie Review: Hitchcock (2012)

 

There are certain truisms that you hold on to in this world of vague uncertainty. The sun will rise.  The world will spin.  Anthony Hopkins will not suck no matter how bad the movie he may find himself in does.  Or at least he did…

I’m not entirely sure what Hitchcock is supposed to be.  It’s not a biopic.  The only insights we get into the great director are when he pisses someone off and they scream that he’s always doing this or always doing that.  Jessica Biel plays an actress whose career he supposedly ruined, but it’s tossed out in such a way that makes it totally irrelevant.  Everything, about the movie seems irrelevant.  The pitch is, I suppose, that Hitchcock was backed up by his wife Alma and he was really only as good as they were together.  The crucible for their marital crisis is the director’s controversial and scandalous (at the time) making of Psycho…..but the movie spends very little time on the making of it at all.  If you haven’t seen Psycho, you’d have no idea what they were even referencing most of the time.

What does the film spend its focus?  Well, there’s a lot of Anthony Hopkins parading around in the Hitchcock makeup being episodically quirky/pervy.  The makeup is not good.  It’s bad.  It’s Anthony Hopkins in a fat suit.  It looks nothing like Hitchcock and Hopkins gives the first bad performance I’ve ever seen.  He brings nothing to the character and seems partially asleep most of the movie.  Helen Mirren is stellar as always, playing Hitchcock’s wife.  Scarlett Johanssen does a good job as Janet Leigh, though she’s only in about ten minutes of the film.  The rest of the cast is as forgettable as the movie.

Bookending the film are two instances of Hitchcock directly addressing the audience as he did in his Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV show.  So that framing device frames the making of Psycho which is seen through the lens of Hitchcock’s marriage.  It’s bizarrely scattered, unfocused and-ultimately-unentertaining.  Go rent Psycho.  Read a book on Hitchcock if you want to learn something about him, because you won’t glean anything from this.
4.0/10

Oscar Week: Predictions

Our final Oscar Week article brings us down to brass tacks.  Who’s going to win?  Who SHOULD win?  Gazing into the future, here are my predictions (minus the boring categories no one cares about and foreign film-which Amour will win so mark that down).

Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Life of Pi
Lincoln
The Silver Linings Playbook
SHOULD WIN: LINCOLN
WILL WIN: ARGO
With the exception of its ludicrously clumsy beginning, Lincoln’s screenplay was a reminder of how grand and nuanced a language English can be.  That being said, Argo’s been winning this pretty consistently this awards season and I think it will win out.

Best Original Screenplay
Amour
Django Unchained
Flight
Moonrise Kingdom
Zero Dark Thirty
SHOULD WIN: DJANGO UNCHAINED
WILL WIN: DJANGO UNCHAINED
This will probably be Django’s only award and a lot of people feel Tarantino got hosed for Director.

Best Visual Effects
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Life of Pi
Marvel’s The Avengers
Prometheus
Snow White and the Huntsman
SHOULD WIN: LIFE OF PI
WILL WIN: LIFE OF PI
I expect Pi to dominate the tech awards and this is one I would narrowly give to it over The Hobbit.  Richard Parker alone was worth a statue.

Best Sound Mixing
Argo
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall
SHOULD WIN: SKYFALL
WILL WIN: LIFE OF PI
I thought Skyfall was the best, but Pi’s a strong choice and it’ll continue it’s tech romp here.

Best Sound Editing
Argo
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty
SHOULD WIN: ZERO DARK THIRTY
WILL WIN: LIFE OF PI
Pi rolls again, but Zero’s mix was a crucial part of it’s gripping account of the bin Laden raid.

Best Song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice
“Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from Ted
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi
“Skyfall” from Skyfall,
“Suddenly” from Les Miserables
SHOULD WIN: SKYFALL
WILL WIN: SKYFALL
Adele read the script before writing the song, which is fantastic and actually aided the movie (something no song in this category has done in ages). 

Best Score
Ana Karenina by Dario Marinelli
Argo by Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi by Mychael Danna
Lincoln by John Williams
Skyfall by Thomas Newman
SHOULD WIN: SKYFALL
WILL WIN: LIFE OF PI

The two best scores aren’t nominated and though Skyfall is the best of the bunch, Score usually gets swept along if there’s a run so I expect Pi to take this too.

Best Animated Feature
Brave
Frankenweenie
Paranorman
Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph
SHOULD WIN: BRAVE
WILL WIN: WRECK-IT RALPH
Pixar’s usual annual trophy will go to Ralph, but it ends up back in the Magic Kingdom regardless.

Best Makeup
Hitchcock
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Miserables
SHOULD WIN: THE HOBBIT
WILL WIN: LES MISERABLES
This is the group responsible for The Wolfman being an Oscar-winning film so I’m gambling even taking Les Miserables.  If Hitchcock wins I won’t be surprised.

Best Film Editing
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
The Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
SHOULD WIN: ARGO
WILL WIN: ARGO
Argo’s pacing is flawless and should interrupt Pi’s technical juggernaut, if briefly.

Best Costumes
Anna Karenina
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Mirror, Mirror
Snow White and the Huntsman
SHOULD WIN: LINCOLN
WILL WIN: ANNA KARENINA
This award always ends up going sideways to some film out of nowhere.  I mean, they nominated both Snow White movies.  So my logic is that those cancel each other out, Les Mis and Lincoln make sense, so they’ll give it to Anna Karenina.

Best Art Direction
Anna Karenina
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
SHOULD WIN: THE HOBBIT
WILL WIN: LIFE OF PI
I am honestly baffled about The Hobbit blowback and unabashedly love that film, but given the few nods it’s had I think the gorgeous Life of Pi will take this one.

Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall
SHOULD WIN: SKYFALL
WILL WIN: LIFE OF PI
The best shots I saw all year were on the moors during Skyfall’s climax and it should win, but I think The Life of Pi will eke this one out.

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jackie Weaver, The Silver Linings Playbook
SHOULD WIN: ANNE HATHAWAY, LES MISERABLES
WILL WIN: ANNE HATHAWAY, LES MISERABLES
There is a slight chance if Lincoln is sweeping that Field might pull an upset, but Hathaway has won most of the pre-Oscar awards and should win this.  Her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” was perhaps the best five minutes of acting by anyone all year.

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert DeNiro, The Silver Linings Playbook
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
SHOULD WIN: CHRISTOPH WALTZ, DJANGO UNCHAINED
WILL WIN: TOMMY LEE JONES, LINCOLN
DeNiro could steal this.  Jones has been the favorite for months, but DeNiro’s been gaining and he hasn’t won in 32 years.  I think Jones will hang on, but if it was me I’d give it to Waltz again for owning Django every second he was onscreen.

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, The Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
SHOULD WIN: JESSICA CHASTAIN, ZERO DARK THIRTY
WILL WIN: JENNIFER LAWRENCE, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
I honestly do not get SLP’s massive appeal.  It’s a nice romantic comedy, but that’s all it is: a very well-acted romantic comedy.  Lawrence is excellent, but Chastain’s was the performance of the year.  Lawrence has won everything though and is pretty much a lock.

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, The Silver Linings Playbook
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight
SHOULD WIN: DANIEL DAY-LEWIS, LINCOLN
WILL WIN: DANIEL DAY-LEWIS, LINCOLN
This is the biggest lock of the night and it should be.  It’s hard enough for anyone to get past the baggage of trying to imitate Lincoln, but to become him so fully that you feel like you’re in company with the man himself is a feat for the ages.  Oscar #3 for Daniel Day-Lewis.

Best Director
Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, The Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
SHOULD WIN: ANG LEE, THE LIFE OF PI
WILL WIN: STEVEN SPIELBERG, LINCOLN
The two best directing turns of the year weren’t nominated (Bigelow & Affleck) so I would laud the feat Ang Lee pulled off in adapting the unadaptable Life of Pi.  However, this is the Academy and they can’t be expected to buck themselves too much.  Assuming my next pick goes the way it will, Spielberg will get his third Best Director.

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
The Life of Pi
Lincoln
The Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
SHOULD WIN: ARGO
WILL WIN: ARGO
This is a two horse race: Argo vs. Lincoln.  Lincoln was factory designed to be an Oscar movie and it’s the comfortable choice for them.  History is on Lincoln’s side (punny) as only 3 films have ever won Best Picture with out a director nominee.  However, I think the prevailing opinion is that the Academy screwed up huge (and we’ll see if that category changes or expands like Best Picture did after The Dark Knight’s screwing).  Argo has won The Golden Globe, The Director’s Guild, The Writer’s Guild, The Producer’s Guild, The BAFTA and just about anything else giving out a statue.  In the end I think momentum will beat the establishment for once and give Argo its deserved trophy.  Now watch, they’ll split the vote so much Silver Linings Playbook will win and I’ll have to buy a new TV next week.

This is the hardest to predict show I think I’ve ever seen and even the predictions I have I think are crazy.  This is one year where you’re actually going to have to watch to see who takes nearly anything home.  I mean, I have Life of Pi winning the most awards, but not Picture or Director and different films for each of the latter.  Craziness!  OSCAR!