With TIFF taking place right now, there have been an explosion of tweets and a lot of sound and fury about what will get nominated for Oscar
2013. If you believe Twitter, everything
is getting nominated. But, in the realm
of reality, there are only so many positions available for competing films to
take up. Some of the exaltation will pan
out. It’s hard for me to believe that
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave won’t at least be nominated for Best Picture,
plus a slew of other categories. It now has the dubious honor of stealthily negotiated around being labeled “the
frontrunner.” Not far behind it was the
heavily accoladed technical marvel Gravity from Alfonso Cuarón. And despite the mixed reviews, I can’t
imagine that August: Osage County won’t walk away with at least a nod for the
Greatest Working Actress today in one scene-chewing of a role. However, I get a little hesitant to call very
many strong awards possibilities for a genre film like Prisoners. But, buzz is buzz, and despite the tears
and/or standing ovations, movies like The Railway Man and The Fifth Estate just
don’t seem to stand a chance this year (if they get released).
A film like Can a Song Save Your Life? is given a possible reprieve by
being bought by TWC for a Spring release and hopes of wide exposure and leaving
big impressions to last until all the way to the end of next year. (Keep in mind, that at least three future BP nominees were shown at TIFF in the four years since the field expanded.)
Sometimes, something stares you straight in the face and
takes months for it to reveal itself.
Last May, Nat Rogers of The Field Experience, one of the more nuanced
well-known Oscar prognosticators out there, made his initial “year-in-advance”
predictions. One of the films in his top
nine was Dallas Buyers Club, a Jean-Marc Vallée film set in the 1980s about a
desperate and bigoted man who has contracted HIV (played by Matthew McConaughey)
who searches for a cure while dealing with a mostly unhelpful healthcare system
dealing with a new disease. At the time,
it just struck me as too obvious. Sure: McConaughey, deathly weight loss,
throwing yourself into the part, etc. For one reason or another, I
was expecting a turkey, with little forethought, despite how apparent his
recent career remodulation was. I started
predicting McConaughey soon after, but with some hesitation. I even started predicting him for the win in early August or so, still, with skepticism, never even having it occur to me to pull up his
film from wherever I had it ranked at #20-something.
One of my main mistakes was not even giving Focus Features a
second glance. But, then, when I did, I
realized just how good they are at this game (if not always perfect).
USA Films formed in 1999 when media executive Barry Diller purchased and
merged October Films and Gramercy and produced and/or distributed Oscar-type
and/or arty fare like Being John Malkovich, Topsy-Turvy, Nurse Betty, Billy
Elliot, Traffic, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Gosford Park, as well as more
art-horse geared movies like In the Mood for Love, Monsoon Wedding,
and successful mainstream films like Pitch Black. They had their shares of disappointments (The
Caveman’s Valentine, One Night at McCool’s), but, all in all they
had a pretty good track record, considering. 
2002 – 11
nominations, 3 wins (2 out of 7 films)
The Pianist (MC: 85; B: $35M, D: $33M, WW: $120M)
Far From Heaven (MC: 84; B: $14M, D: $16M, WW: $29M)
8 Women (MC: 64; D: $3M, WW: $42M)
Possession (MC: 52; D: $10M, WW: $15M)
The Kid Stays in the Picture (MC: 75; D: $2M)
Family Fundamentals (MC: 68)
Never Again (MC: 30)
Focus Features, a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, was created in 2002 after a merger of USA
Films, Universal Focus, and Good Machine.
With Far from Heaven and The Pianist, they got their first official year
off to an outstanding start. Roman
Polanski’s World War II drama nabbed three major awards, suggesting it came
close to winning Best Picture, as well as four more nominations. Additionally, it had Todd Haynes’ Heaven
in contention, which grabbed four nods for itself and would have likely landed
in a Field of Ten, had it existed. Perhaps
you can fault the producers for letting down Dennis Quaid, but the category was filled with competitive performances, Best Picture nominees, and/or
veterans. It may or may not have worked
against Quaid that he was up against Ed Harris, who was also playing a gay
characters (three years later, the leading category would find room for both
Heath Ledger’s Ennis Del Mar and Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Truman Capote, so there's that). Other movies from that year included Francois
Ozon’s French farce 8 Women; rom-com Never Again; documentaries Family
Fundamentals about homophobia and the award-winning The Kid Stays in the
Picture about Hollywood producer Robert Evans; and another turkey from Gwyneth
Paltrow, Neil LaBute’s Possession. 
2003 – 6 nominations,
1 win (2 out of 7 films)
Lost in Translation (MC: 89; B: $4M, D: $45M, WW: $120M)
21 Grams (MC: 70; B: $20M, D: $16M, WW: $60M)
Swimming Pool (MC: 70; D: $10M, WW: $22M)
Sylvia (MC: 56; D: $1M, WW: $3M)
The Shape of Things (MC: 59; D: $1M)
Deliver Us from Eva (MC: 46; D: $18M)
The Guys (MC: 60)
Focus’ 2003 wasn’t too shabby either with Lost in Translation
and 21 Grams. They had great instincts
in taking on emerging and veteran directors and creating commercial-friendly
award magnets. They were behind Sophia
Coppola’s second feature and got her an international hit, as well as an Oscar
for screenwriting. She was also
nominated as director and producer, as was her leading man Bill
Murray. That was the same year that The
Girl with the Pearl Earring came out and made campaign matters difficult for
young star Scarlett Johansson. Focus
scooped up Alejandro González for his sophomore effort Grams. They managed to grab acting nominations for
two of the their principal actors, the third of which, Sean Penn, was on his
way to winning an Oscar for another film Mystic River. Charlotte Rampling was a bit of an also-ran
for her turn as a British mystery author in Francois Ozon’s Swimming Pool. Focus also was behind The Guys, based on an
Anne Nelson stage play about 9/11, a complete nonstarter starring Sigourney Weaver; the latest from Neil LaBute, The Shape of Things (also an play
adaptation); critically panned rom-com Deliver Us From Eva; and another
flop from Gwyneth Paltrow, this time as tortured poet Sylvia Plath.
2004 – 4 nominations,
2 wins (2 out of 5 films)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (MC: 89; B: $20M D:
$34M, WW: $72M)
The Motorcycle Diaries (MC: 75; D: $17M, WW: $58M)
The Door in the Floor (MC: 67; B: $8M, D: $4M, WW: $7M)
Vanity Fair (MC: 53; B: $23M, D: $16M, WW: $20M)
Ned Kelly (MC: 56; WW: $7M)
In 2004, Focus managed to score three above-the-line Oscar
nominations, and two wins, for Eternal Sunshine and Motorcycle Diaries, the former of which—a
Springtime release—a strong case could be made would have landed in a field of
ten. Three hundred AMPAS members placing
Sunshine at #1 when it ended up winning for screenplay and it’s still in IMDb’s
Top 250? I think so, especially if you
consider it missed a nom for a lead actor who’s considered cursed from ever
getting nominated for an Oscar (Jim Carrey, passed over for The Truman Show,
Man on the Moon, was dismissed for a third time), but still got one for
its muse Kate Winslet, and winning for Charlie Kaufman’s screenplay. It also got an adapted screenplay nod for Diaries, as well as a win for Song (it was disqualified for foreign
language film due to that dastardly “one-country of origin emphasis” rule. It didn’t do so well with its other three
players: Mira Nair’s Reese Witherspoon-vehicle Vanity Fair; John
Irving adaptation The Door in the Floor; and folk hero western Ned Kelly
(played by Heath Ledger).
2005 – 16
nominations, 4 wins (3 out of 7 films)
Brokeback Mountain (MC: 87; B: $14M, D: $83M, $178M)
The Constant Gardener (MC: 82; B: $25M, D: $34M, WW: $83M)
Pride and Prejudice (MC: 82; D: $38M, WW: $121M)
Broken Flowers (MC: 79; D: $14M, WW: $47M)
The Ice Harvest (MC: 62; D: $9M, WW: $10M)
My Summer of Love (MC: 82; D: $1M, WW: $3M)
Rory O’Shea Was Here (MC: 59)
This would be a banner year for the studio both commercially
and creatively, with three major movies in award contention. Their first effort with Joe Wright and Keira
Knightley would be Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, that would score four
nominations, including one for its lead actress. It was dig up four nods with
John le Carré’s The Constant Gardener for Fernando Meirelles’ followup to City
of God. The film likely just missed a
Best Picture nomination, but ultimately scored a win for its actress Rachel
Weisz. But its main horse in the
race was Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain.
The romantic drama managed to collect eight nominations and three wins,
controversially losing the big prize to Crash, after members of The Academy
(including Ernest Borgnine) refused to even watch the film and consider it for
any awards due to its gay subject matter.
After all was said and done, despite losing Best Picture, Focus ran
shrewd campaigns for all three of its award contenders. Other pictures it put out that year included
a drama dealing with cerebral palsy, Rory O’Shea Was Here; worldwide box-office
hit from Jim Jarmusch starring Bill Murray, Broken Flowers; inaugural film of
Emily Blunt, romance My Summer of Love; and Harold Ramis comedy thriller The
Ice Harvest.
2006 – 0 nominations,
0 wins (0 out of 7 films)
Hollywoodland (MC: 62; D: $14M, WW: $17M)
Something New (MC: 64; D: $12M)
Scoop (MC: 48; D: $11M, WW: $39M)
Catch a Fire (MC: 62; D: $4M, WW: $6M)
Brick (MC: 72; D: $2M, WW: $4M)
On a Clear Day (MC: 62; WW: $1M)
The Ground Truth (MC: 74)
After such a gangbusters year, Focus followed 2005 with a
thump, perhaps its worst ever. None of
its films panned out critically or commercially. Its most promising-on-paper was probably
Hollywoodland which brought the studio back together with Adrien Brody. It was actually a turning point in Ben Affleck’s
career after a series of flops as TV’s first Superman George Reeves. The supporting actor category wasn’t teeming
with unstoppable performances, but Affleck still couldn’t make it in, and it
was probably the closest he ever came to an acting nomination. Perhaps, once upon a time, there were awards
hopes for On a Clear Day, about a middle-aged man who decides to swim the
English channel, and the anarchist drama set in Apartheid-era South Africa,
Phillip Noyce’s Catch a Fire. Lighter
fare included the rom-com Something New; and Woody Allen’s second film with
Scarlet Johansson, Scoop. Focus also
produced the war documentary The Ground Truth and indie Brick from Rian
Johnson, who went on to do Looper. Brick
actually made a nice little bump on the awards circuit.
2007 – 8 nominations,
1 win (2 out of 6 films)
Atonement (MC: 85; D: $51, WW: $129M)
Eastern Promises (MC: 82; D: $17M, WW: $56M)
Lust, Caution (MC: 61; B: $15M, D: $5M, WW: $67M)
Evening (MC: 45; D: $13M, $20M)
Talk to Me (MC: 69; D: $5M)
Reservation Road (MC: 46; WW: $2M)
In 2007, Focus would rejoin forces with director Joe Wright
and Keira Knightley yet again to make the well-received adaptation of Ian
McEwan’s Atonement. In a best picture
race unusually full of dark dramatic thrillers, the period piece stood out and
managed to nab seven nominations, including Best Picture (as well as a win for
score). David Cronenberg helped Viggo
Mortensen obtain his first and only acting Oscar. And Ang Lee’s sexual explicit NC-17 rated war
romance thriller Lust, Caution set the world afire, but sadly, unfortunately
missed a Foreign Language Film bid due to an annoying technicality. Failed bait included
cinematographer-turned-director Lajos Koltai’s version of Susan Minot’s drama Evening starring a cadre of award-winning actress from several generations; the
followup to Hotel Rwanda’s Terry George, the hit and run crime drama
Reservation Road (which was produced confusingly around the same time as the
higher-profile Revolutionary Road); and Kasi Lemmons’ Talk to Me starring Don
Cheadle as a 1960s excon who becomes a popular radio talk-show host and
activist.
2008 – 9 nominations,
2 wins (2 out of 5 films)
Milk (MC: 84; B: $20M, D: $32M, WW: $55M)
In Bruges (MC: 67; D: $8, WW: $33M)
Burn After Reading (MC: 63; B: $37M, D: $60, WW: $164M)
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (MC: 63; D: $12M, WW: $17M)
Hamlet 2 (MC: 54; B: $9M, D: $5M)
2008 would give us mainstream cinema’s (perhaps second) gay
messiah in Gus Van Sant’s biography Milk, written by Dustin Lance Black. The film cleaned up with eight nominations,
winning two majors for Sean Penn and screenwriter Black. Academy darlings Joel and Ethan Coen
delivered with the huge hit Burn After Reading, starring Brad Pitt and Frances
McDormand, but the comedy of errors wasn’t up to snuff enough in any area to
really make a serious bit for Academy love.
(McDormand also starred with Amy Adams in the period comedy-romance Miss
Pettigrew Lives for a Day.)
Writer/director Martin McDonagh was nominated for his screenplay In Bruges,
but Focus was unable to get the Golden Globe (Comedy) winning Colin Farrell
into the pretty competitive Best Actor race.
And Steve Coogan underwhelmed with the tortuously unfunny Hamlet 2.
2009 – 3 nominations,
0 wins (2 out of 9 films)
A Serious Man (MC: 79; D: $9M, WW: $31M)
Coraline (MC: 80; B: $60M, D: $75M, WW: $125M)
9 (MC: 60; B: $30M, D: $32M, WW: $48M)
Sin Nombre (MC: 77; D: $3M, WW: $5M)
Thirst (MC: 73; WW: $13M)
Away We Go (MC: 58; B: $17M, D: $10M, WW: $15M)
Pirate Radio (MC: 58; B: $50M, D: $8M, WW: $36M)
Taking Woodstock (MC: 55; B: $30M, D: $8M, WW: $10M)
The Limits of Control (MC: 41; WW: $2M)
2009 would be the year of the big overinflated budgets. Focus would produce their most expensive
film thus far, Coraline, as well as their most costly live-feature, Pirate
Radio. While the animated film did well,
the Richard Curtis film absolutely tanked.
Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock was also no cheap venture and took a dive
financially. The really odd animated
feature 9 also struggled to barely be profitable. Sam Mendes’ road movie Away We Go didn’t cost
much, but it didn’t make much either.
Focus would also get back together with Jim Jarmusch for the mystery
drama The Limits of Control, as well as produce Chan-wook Park horror thriller
Thirst, and their first pairing with Cary Fukunaga, Sin Nombre. It would require AMPAS favorites Joel and
Ethan Coen to squeeze into the Oscar race with their screenplay and film A
Serious Man, the first year the field opened up to ten nominees. Coraline would be nominated for animated
feature, but lose to another Best Picture nominee, Up.
2010 – 4 nominations,
0 wins (1 out of 6 films)
The Kids Are All Right (MC: 85; B: $4M, D: $21M, WW: $35M)
The American (MC: 61; B: $20M, D: $36M, WW: $68M)
Somewhere (MC: 67; B: $7M, D: $2M, WW: $14M)
Greenberg (MC: 76; D: $4M, WW: $6M)
Babies (MC: 63; D: $7M, WW: $10M)
It’s Kind of a Funny Story (MC: 63; B: $8M, D: $6M)
2010 was all about the Sundance hit concerning two kids, their
lesbian moms, and that interloping sperm donor.
While the studio wasn’t able to get both of its leading ladies in, it
should be noted that it was a category chalk full of Oscary stars (well, also
including one that wasn’t quite there yet, but was about to break in a big way). The movie still was a hit and managed four
nominations, as well as a competitive run at Best Actress. They also produced Anton Corbijn’s The
American with George Clooney; the documentary Babies; the mental illness
rom-com It’s Kind of a Funny Story from the team behind Half Nelson; another
film from Sofia Coppola, Somewhere; and a misanthropic Noah Baumbach movie starring
Ben Stiller, Greenberg. Both Somewhere
and Greenberg introduced us to emerging talent Elle Fanning and Greta
Gerwig, respectively.
2011 – 5 nominations,
1 win (3 out of 8 films)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (MC: 85; D: $24M, WW: $81M)
Beginners (MC: 81; B: $3M, D: $6M, WW: $14M)
Jane Eyre (MC: 76; D: $11M, WW: $35M)
Pariah (MC: 79; D: $1M)
Hanna (MC: 65; B: $30M, D: $40M, WW: $64M)
The Debt (MC: 65; B: $20M, D: $31M, WW: $46M)
One Day (MC: 48; B: $15M, D: $14M, WW: $59M)
The Eagle (MC: 55; B: $25M, D: $20M, WW: $27M)
Focus' main player for 2011 was Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker
Tailor Soldier Spy, a film that scored a variety of nominations in three categories
including screenplay and Gary Oldman for actor.
John le Carré’s novel was original produced as a very dry British
miniseries in the late 1970s. Alfredson
presented a truncated version that cut out a lot of fat, but felt just as
dense. Technical categories that were
mentioned on the awards circuit were Hoyte Van Hoytema’s cinematography and
Maria Djurkovic’s production design, but only Alberto Iglesias’ score managed
to get an in with The Academy. Did
Tinker underperform? Or, did it make a
good show? It’s debatable, but,
considering the complexity of the plot and the opaque execution, in some light,
it actually didn’t do too badly. The
biggest get for the season, however, was Captain Von Trapp. Hollywood veteran Christopher Plummer starred
in Mike Mills’ Beginners as a widower who comes out of the closet in the winter
of his life. He pretty much ran the
boards for supporting actor that year grabbing Focus’ only win for 2011. The studio also reunited with
director Cary Fukunaga for Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, starring up-and-coming
actors Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, earning Michael O’Connor a
nomination for his costume design. The
Debt was sitting on the shelf for about a year, when Miramax bought the
worldwide rights to the Mossad thriller starring Helen Mirren and Jessica
Chastain (who was enjoying an unprecedented, banner “debut” year), and made a
pretty little penny off of it. Focus
collaborated with Joe Wright yet again, but on an extremely genre film in
contrast to his typical costume dramas.
About (male and female) assassins, coincidentally like The Debt, the international
thriller Hanna starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, and Eric Bana, also didn’t do
too badly at the box-office. The Roman
adventure story The Eagle starring Channing Tatum was a dud. And, while Lone Scherfig’s One Day, based on
the popular David Nicholls novel, didn’t do that well stateside, the romance
starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess did surprisingly brisk business
overseas.
2012 – 6 nominations,
1 win (3 out of 8 films)
Anna Karenina (MC: 63; D: $13M, WW: $69M)
Moonrise Kingdom (MC: 84; B: $16M, D: $46M, WW: $68M)
ParaNorman (MC: 72; B: $60M, D: $56M, WW: $107M)
Hyde Park on Hudson (MC: 55; D: $6M, WW: $9M)
Promised Land (MC: 55; D: $8M)
Being Flynn (MC: 53; D: $1M)
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (MC: 59; B: $10M,
D: $7M, WW: $10M)
For a Good Time, Call … (MC: 55; D: $1M)
2012 was not a good year for Focus with many misfires. Joe Wright’s fifth feature Anna Karenina (and fourth
collaboration with the studio) was to be the crown jewel of Focus’ Oscar
season. While its collection of four
technical nominations (and one win for Costume Designer Jacqueline Durran) and
international take was no small feat, the period drama ultimately failed to
meet rather high expectations. Quirky
director Wes Anderson had arguably made his most commercial feature, and
Moonrise Kingdom went on to grow legs at the box-office and collect an
outstanding $46M. However, in an
ensemble piece with such young leads, the coming-of-age romance was truly only
in play in the screenplay category limiting its reach within The Academy’s many branches. While noticed often enough by
critics, Adam Stockhausen’s production design (he’s also behind 12 Years a Slave), Robert D. Yeoman’s cinematography, and Alexandre Desplat’s score
(Monuments Men, Philomena) just couldn’t compete in the big leagues. ParaNorman, from Chris Butler (Coraline) and
Sam Fell, did very well with critic awards at the end of the year, but lost to
Brave in what was one of the most competitive, diverse, and uncertain animation
races in years. Failed bait included the
light drama Hyde Park on the Hudson starring Bill Murray as FDR; the Gus Van
Sant-directed natural gas drama Promised Land from Matt Damon and John Krasinski; and Paul
Weitz’ adaptation of Nick Flynn’s book Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
(Being Flynn for these purposes) starring Paul Dano, Robert DeNiro, and
Julianne Moore. They also produced
Lorene Scafaria’s original doomsday romance Seeking a Friend starring Steve
Carell and Keira Knightley, and phone sex comedy For a Good Time, Call …
2013
The World’s End (MC: 81; B: $20M, D: $22M*; WW: N/A)
The Place Beyond the Pines (MC: 68; B: $15M, D: $21M, WW:
$36M)
Admission (MC: 48; B: $13M, D: $18M)
Closed Circuit (MC: 53; D: $5M*)
We Steal Secrets (MC: 76)
Down
Bad Words
What does Focus have in store for 2014? Why they’re behind the much-talked about big screen version of Twilight fan fiction spinoff Fifty Shades of Grey, which had a release date and director for a spell, and just recently acquired its stars. But for 2013, t
here is going to be a tremendous weight on Dallas Buyers Club's shoulders, as it appears to be the only film that will compete for Focus at the Oscars (perhaps The World's End or The Place Beyond the Pines have remote shots at screenplay). Director Jean-Marc Vallée is no stranger to the AMPAS. After making a splash with the family drama C.R.A.Z.Y., he helmed The Young Victoria, which garnered three nominations and one win for costume designer Sandy Powell. Focus is putting a lot of faith in him, placing all of their eggs in one
basket.
Reviews Out of Toronto
However, Dallas (which once had Brad Pitt attached to star) is
beginning to accumulate the “right” kind of reviews. Not only are Matthew McConaughey and Jared
Leto being singled out, critics are commenting on the brevity of the
screenplay, as well as the direction, and even the cinematography ...
THR: The contemplative movie doesn’t advocate
self-medication, nor does it trivialize the long and hard-fought frontline
battle for effective HIV treatment in America ... by elevating the rogue
efforts of a straight guy ... While that shameful chapter of American
institutional failure to address a pandemic is explored only peripherally here,
it provides rich background texture ... But what distinguishes Borten and
Wallack’s screenplay is its refusal to sentimentalize by providing humbling epiphanies
to set Ron on the right path and endow him with empathy ...
Variety: Vallée and his team use the outrageous details to
deepen the human-interest angle ... Although shot on a relatively tight budget,
the film convincingly re-creates the period via a gritty wide screen look that
suits Vallee’s naturalistic style ... The handheld shooting style ... lends an
almost subliminal authenticity to scenes where character remains at the
forefront at all times. Not since “I
Love You Phillip Morris” has a film put such a fresh twist on the accepted AIDS
narrative, but ... “Dallas Buyers Club” works its way under their skin ... the
film manages to educate without ever feeling didactic, and to entertain in the
face of what would, to any other character, seem like a grim life sentence.
IndieWire: Describes the main character’s transition as a
little “blunt.”
The Guardian: Confesses that the film loses its “thrust” at
one point and isn’t as “dramatic or revelatory” as it could be. Still gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
Telegraph: Director Jean-Marc Vallée … might easily have
converted the material into a campy redneck soap opera, or stamped the life out
of it with excessive tub-thumping. He rises above both ... the blend of biting
character study and campaigning pharmaceutical docudrama is zesty and memorable
…
MSN: Vallee’s direction is fast, flat and unaffected, and
the shooting was done with both minimal and available light and all real
locations; no dolly-tracks or sets here. But the film’s not without a real
sense of beauty, either ... real and tough about the
way AIDS ravaged communities in the ‘80s ... the refusal to engage in TV-level
hero-making here makes the film stronger, not weaker ... But what this film
keeps coming back gays or junkies or Haitians but instead a problem for all of
us, as Americans and human beings. It’s also truly inspiring ... “Dallas Buyers
Club” is one of the best American films of the year.
Yahoo! Movies (Alonso Duralde): Didn’t care for anything except McConaughey, citing the villains as “cardboard bad guys … writers Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack awkwardly dice the tale into such bite-sized nuggets.” He calls the heterosexuality of the protagonist “problematic,” only to acknowledge the film’s ability to buck the untrue stigma HIV/AIDS has acquired. Frankly, I found this critic unreliable and question his abilities, particularly for the way he acknowledged what he perceived as an issue, even though it essentially wasn’t, and failing to display wit by comparing Jared Leto to Zooey Deschanel.
ShowBuzzDaily: ... more Erin Brockovich than Brian’s Song, and that’s why it works so well. Jean-Marc Vallee’s film ... is too angry to be sentimental ... inspiring in spite of themselves ... does a solid job of avoiding the traps of its genre, laying out its issues and chronology efficiently and vividly, and knowing when to push emotional buttons and when to hold back ... Vallee ... brings grit and scale to the material ... The movie isn’t an elegy, it’s an expose, and while it can be very moving, mostly it’s fierce.
Collider: The film itself is a fascinating look at the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s that chronicles the era from a different point of view ... Beyond the acting categories, Dallas Buyers Club may have a tougher time breaking in ... smartly avoids any easy or clichéd “let’s hug it out” moments ... while the story is important and at times very moving, it may be a bit to small-scale to break into the very crowded Best Picture race. That being said, the Academy isn’t wholly averse to true stories and this historical drama certainly has weight and relevance. The script by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack may have a shot at a Best Screenplay nod, but the screenplay race is also looking very crowded this year.
What Culture! (reviewer did not think the film was “terrific”—despite giving it 3 ½ stars out of 5—and wasn’t as wowed by the two main performances; but insists, the films was good as it possibly could be): What we have not yet seen though is a film that presents the plight of sufferers of HIV and AIDS from their perspective, without simply using their dire circumstances as a blunt instrument to make a point. I think we finally have that film in Jean-Marc Vallee’s Dallas Buyers Club ... Straight forward, direct, and objective, the film matches the personality of its protagonist, which is fitting. There are a few predictable moments demonstrating the character’s homophobia early on, only to have a scene of showing his intellectual growth later on when he is forced to defend his new transvestite friend, but the film remains pretty low-key even in these scenes and does not abuse its relationship with the audience ... it’s a solid effort that deserves some kudos. In fact, for a film of this nature, it is probably about as good as it gets. Even so, the film fails to transcend the basic “human interest story” nature of its narrative, it just maximizes it to its full potential.
Conclusion
These aren’t always empathic reviews, but neither was the
ink for Erin Brockovich. No, Dallas will
probably not make $120M+, but it doesn’t have to. It will probably be sitting pretty with
$40M. It’s shaping up to be an inspirational
story that has the potential to move and wow audiences. The movie sounds to capture the American
“can-do” spirit, while being very inclusive of people of any sexual
orientation, with high potential for an MC rating in the 80s, as well as
box-office prospects that are solid based on the transformational role of
Matthew McConaughey.
Is this another Milk (for all intents and purposes, as HIV
stories are largely beset with the stigma of being “gay” stories in the larger
scheme of things) or even Philadelphia?
With the wins of Tom Hanks and Bruce Springsteen (Best Song, “Streets of
Philadelphia”), and three more nominations including screenplay, with the
likelihood of making a Field of “Ten” back in 1993, the scope and budget
suggest perhaps not. Yet, even a smaller
scale, feisty variation on the juggernaut could still land on this side of
Oscar’s Best Picture race, especially with a studio like Focus Features behind
it, who have done quite well with "gay"-related films. It seems like it should be a
no-brainer, right? Well, to be honest,
it doesn’t feel like one right now. However, I’m choosing to bypass my instinct
in this instance and go with the data that’s available. There’s an extremely good chance that they
will have the critical and commercial support to take them to a very fruitful
nomination morning and beyond. Is it a
slam dunk? Obviously one can’t say at
this point. But, one can also look at
the evidence so far. I’m predicting four
nominations for Dallas Buyers Club, minimum: Best Actor, Best Supporting
Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Picture. (It might be a good place to mention here that out of the eleven years Focus has been competing for Oscars, it has acquired fourteen nominations for Best Screenplay. Three of those films had MC scores in the 60s/70s. Do with that what you will.)
While the studio had its heyday in the earlier part of its run so far, out of its eleven years of Oscar play, it’s evident that eight of those years would have had a Best Picture nominee in an expanded field. And, yes, two of those three years it wouldn’t have had one were the most recent. There last two years have been weak, in a way. It took producing eight films to offer three that would be competitive in the Oscar race, resulting in five to six nominations and one win each time. Those aren’t the greatest returns on investment. But, if you look at the type of films they were making and consider how they were received, it gives the whole picture much greater context. Anna Karenina did not the get ink Dallas did, and, truth be told, as enjoyable Tinker, Tailor was, it was arguably inaccessible to mainstream audiences.
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