Beasts of the Southern Wild

Starring: Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry and Levy Easterly
Directed by: Benh Zeitlin
Written by: Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar
Rating: 5/5 Unicorns

Six- year-old Hushpuppy( Quvenzhane Wallis) lives in the Bathtub (southern Louisiana bayou community) with her hot-tempered ailing father (Dwight Henry), who is preparing her for life without him. When a storm approaches threatening to destroy all that she loves, Hushpuppy must begin to apply all of his lessons. With the approaching storm, the melting of the ice caps unleash the prehistoric creatures called aurochs.

Beasts of the Southern Wild has been on my radar for a couple of months now. I was completely ecstatic to see the film pick up four Academy Award nominations last week and after finally watching it they were completely deserved.  Quvenzhane is a revelation as Hushpuppy. I remember when I was her age, I could barely read yet alone be able to have that emotional integrity. Dwight Henry as Wink was riveting. You loathed and felt for him at the same time. I can't believe this was his first acting credit, talk about acting from your soul. The last scene in this movie had me crying like a two year old. It was incredibly powerful. Just remember to bring your tissues when you watch this magnificent film.

There was level of fantasy in this film and it was just beautiful to witness. You are not sure what is real and it liked that the viewer was never made aware of it. I really like the directing style of Benh Zeitlin . He has a great career ahead of him. The cinematography in this film was breathtaking and the score was beautiful especially in the final scene. I can understand way these elements were recognized by critics. Do yourself a favor and immediately check out Beasts of the Southern Wild. You will not be disappointed.

When it all goes quiet behind my eyes, I see everything that made me flying around in invisible pieces. When I look too hard it goes away. And when it all goes quiet I see they are right here, I see that I'm a little piece of a big, big universe and that makes things right. When I die, the scientists of the future; their gonna find it all, their gonna know, once there was a hushpuppy and she lived with her daddy in the bathtub.  Hushpuppy, Beasts of the Southern Wild 

Nominations are in

Earlier this morning the 85th Academy Awards nominations were announced by host Seth MacFarlane and the lovely Emma Stone. Being a great amateur film critic I got up literally at the crack of dawn  to catch the nominees. There were quite a few surprises this morning.

• Best Director

One of the biggest snubs was in the Best Director category  As you are aware I predicted that both Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow were shoo-ins for this category. These two directors have been the frontrunners along with Steven Spielberg. I was completely floored that they did not pick up a nomination. The two directors that were nominated instead were Michael Haneke for Amour and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild. I am pleasantly pleased that Mr. Zeitlin was nominated. I always knew that Quentin Tarantino was a bit of a wild card but I was hopeful he would get a nod. David O.Russel got a well deserved nomination in this category for the darling Silver Linings Playbook.

• Best Supporting Actress

One of the biggest surprises in this category was Jacki Weaver picking up nomination for her part in Silver Linings Playbook. I did not even predict her for a wild card but I am extremely pleased that she picked up this nomination. I believe that this award really is between Sally Field and Anne Hathaway. The only reason that none of them would pick up this award is if Silver Linings Playbook does a sweep. It could happen.

• Best Supporting Actor

Leonardo Dicaprio was once again overlooked by the Academy. Which I find to be a complete shame because he was absolutely brilliant in Django Unchained. I am happy that Christoph Waltz got a nomination because he was my wild card.

• Best Actress

I did a great job at predicting the nominees in this category. My wild card pick Quvenzhane Wallis is the youngest nominee in this category. As of right now Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence are the frontrunners in this category. I would not count out Emmanuelle Riva either.

• Best Actor

The only category I had 100% accuracy.  Daniel Day-Lewis is the favorite in this category but I would not count out Denzel Washington and Bradley Cooper.

• Best Picture

I was happy to see the majority of my picks getting nominated this morning. The only one that failed to pick up a nomination was Moonrise Kingdom. The Best Foreign Film favorite Amour picked up the final nomination in this category. Sources are suggesting that it will be hard for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty to win in this category because they failed to pick up Best Director nods. If that is the case Lincoln is looking as the shoo-in but I wouldn't be surprised if Silver Linings Playbook wins instead.

• Overall

Besides the snubs in Best Director and Best Supporting Actor category I am pleased with the nominees this year. Lincoln leads the list of with 12 nominations followed by the beautiful Life of Pi with 11 nominations. 

Final Predictions

Unlike previous years the 85th Academy Award nominations will be announced prior to the airing of both the Golden Globes and SAG Awards. Those awards are always great indicators for which films will be nominated for the Oscars. Now most analysts have to look at what films were awarded by critics and what was nominated for the other big awards. Here are my predictions for big eight.

Best Picture
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty
Argo
Life of Pi
Silver Linings Playbook
Les Miserables
Django Unchained
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Moonrise Kingdom
Wild Cards: The Master, Skyfall and Flight

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow- Zero Dark Thirty
Steven Spielberg- Lincoln
Ben Affleck- Argo
Ang Lee- Life of Pi
Quentin Tarantino- Django Unchained
Wild Cards: David O. Russel- Silver Linings Playbook, Tom Hooper- Les Miserables, Paul Thomas Anderson-The Master and Benh Zeitlin-Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Actor
Daniel Day Lewis- Lincoln
Denzel Washington- Flight
Bradley Cooper- Silver Linings Playbook
Hugh Jackman- Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix- The Master
Wild Cards: John Hawkes- The Sessions

Best Actress
Jennifer Lawrence- Silver Linings Playbook
Jessica Chastain- Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard: Rust & Bone
Emannuelle Riva- Amour
Naomi Watts- The Impossible
Wild Cards: Quvenzhane Wallis- Beasts of the Southern Wild, Rachel Weisz- Deep Blue Sea

Best Supporting Actor
Tommy Lee Jones- Lincoln
Leonardo DiCaprio- Django Unchained
Phillip Seymour Hoffman- The Master
Alan Arkin-Argo
Robert De Niro- Silver Linings Playbook
Wild Cards: Christopher Waltz- Django Unchained, Javier Bardem- Skyfall, Matthew McConoughey- Magic Mike

Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway- Les Miserables
Sally Field- Lincoln
Amy Adams- The Master
Helen Hunt- The Sessions
Nicole Kidman- The Paperboy
Wild Cards: Maggie Smith- The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Ann Dowd- Compliance

Best Original Screenplay
Mark Boal- Zero Dark Thirty
Rian Johnson- Looper
Wes Anderson, Roman Coopola-Moonrise Kingdom
Quentin Tarantino- Django Unchained
 John Gatins-Flight,
Wild Cards:Michael Haneke- Amour

Best Adapted Screenplay
Tony Kushner- Lincoln
Chris Terrio- Argo
David O. Russel- Silver Linings Playbook
David Magee- Life of Pi
Stephen Chbosky- The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Wild Cards: Benh Zeitlin & Lucy Alibar- Beasts of the Southern Wild, Christopher Nolan & Jonathan Nolan- The Dark Knight Rises

Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases of 2013

Happy New Year! I hope you had an incredible New Year and I hope this year is even better than last year. Below you will find  a list of films that I am most looking forward to. There seems to be a lot of incredible films coming out this year and I can't wait to see them. In the next couple of days I will post The King's Guide: Top Ten Films of 2012.  Until that time please sit back and enjoy the preview for 2013.

1. Pacific Rim
2. Star Trek Into Darkness
3. World War Z
4. Kick Ass 2
5. Thor: The Dark World
6. Gangster's Squad
7. Iron Man 3
8. Warm Bodies
9. This is the End
10. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire