Helena Bonham Carter Wins- 2011 Oscars Postmortem

Another night of eating Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes and chicken burgers until 4.30am was topped off with a clean sweep for Helena Bonham Carter. Sure, she didn't win in the category she was specifically nominated for, and The King's Speech only won a trifling four Academy Awards, which was just as many as Inception, but let's not forget that Alice in Wonderland won two as well, which places the entire ceremony as a celebration of Tim Burton's missus and occasional psychotic Death Eater.

The film won Best Picture and, predictably, Colin Firth got a deserved Best Actor nod. The award for Best Director was also hoovered up, and surely Helena's Fight Club director David Fincher hasn't been fucked like that since grade school. I can't say that Tom Hooper was undeserving though, even if Christopher Nolan clearly deserved it for Inception and wasn't nominated at all, bizarrely. Nolan also lost out to The King's Speech in the Best Original Screenplay category, which did give David Seidler a chance to take the stage and give a fantastic speech.

The Social Network stands, as I have said before, as an important film, and one that is of more significance in the 21st century than the film that eventually won Best Picture today. Films like that have a habit of being underestimated in their day, like Network in the 1970s and Fincher's own Fight Club in the 1990s. The film still picked up a predictable gong for Aaron Sorkin's script, as well as winning Best Original Score and Best Editing.

The Fighter also made a decent showing, picking up both of the Supporting awards for acting. Christian Bale did a great rendition of a chimney sweep, and I'm looking forward to whatever accent he settles on next- I'm hoping for Geordie. Melissa Leo went and dropped an F bomb as part of what was inarguably the most interesting sequence of the three hour ceremony. This year's outing was more of a boring affair than last year, but here are some things I learned on my all-nighter.

Christopher Nolan always looks the same.

It had never occurred to me until I had to sit through the drudgery of the red carpet coverage and I was looking for something, anything to latch onto, but Nolan always seems to dress the same. He has the same hairstyle, he wears that same suit. Not that I hold it against him, because he's a stylish motherfucker. But better yet, he is the anti-red carpet man- permatanned fashion Orcs quail in terror at the sight of this modern master! Now someone actually give him a fucking Oscar!

Christian Bale should keep his beard for The Dark Knight Rises

The story for some was the accent, but come on, what else could possibly ramp up the stakes after The Dark Knight? It might be that the "BLADDY 'ELL" inflection was a test run of the replacement Bat-voice, but what the Caped Crusader could really use is A GREAT BIG BUSHY BEARD, as Frank Butterman might term it. Get the Bat-beard in. If anybody makes a joke about Batman and Robin, and Catwoman being Batman's beard, then you're dead to me.

Kirk Douglas and Melissa Leo must surely host next year's Oscars.

I didn't outright hate James Franco and Anne Hathaway's efforts, but it was very much the Academy's attempt to be hip and relevant to young Americans, as lampshaded throughout. You can't quite carry it off when you give the Best Picture award to a period piece about British royalty, so why not go back to basics? It would be lovely to see Billy Crystal have a go next year, because his brief appearance this year was a highlight, but for proper intriguing television, they should reunite Douglas and Leo, who enlivened proceedings and made the ceremony as unsafe as it could possibly get for two or three minutes.

True Grit is appealing even when nobody loves it.

10 nominations and no wins for the Coen brothers' latest Western, after previously doing well at the Kodak Theatre with No Country for Old Men in 2008. Saddest of all is that a well deserved win for Inception cinematographer Wally Pfister was marred by the fact that it meant Roger Deakins still didn't win, on his ninth nomination. It still appeals though, because the coverage reminded me that I really need to see the film a second time, and so I'll do that this week. You won't catch me doing that for The King's Speech this week!

For three hours, it's still padded out!

The whole she-bang opened with Tom Hanks giving a tribute to Gone with the Wind and Titanic, which seemed random. Then the randomness continued all through the night, in much the same way as last year brought us sporadic asides about genre and the year before was musical-tastic. Sometimes, the asides were amusing, as with the Autotuned dialogue scenes from Harry Potter and Twilight. And other times, they involved James Franco in drag. At the point where a choir of kids from New York's PS22 were brought out to sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow at the end of the show, the mob from The King's Speech could be seen leaving quickly, to angered shouts of "HEY, WE STAYED FOR YOUR KIDS!"

There's not really a lot else to say- there were few surprises, Toy Story 3 didn't win Best Picture like it should have done, and the Academy invalidated themselves by failing to notice Never Let Me Go. But if you want to follow the excitement of the night as it happened, with excitement ('Once again, I will shit myself and die if Aaron Sorkin doesn't win this.') and resignation ('"The sky has become the limit"- I know there's something grammatically wrong with that'), you can look through my tweets from the night.

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and I for one welcome our new Bonham Carter overlord/lady...

THE KING'S SPEECH- Review

There's a certain type of film that comes out around awards season, and The King's Speech broadly fits into it. I don't mean British period drama, a sub-set that seems to fascinate Americans and particularly Academy voters, but a film that markets historical events to its audience with the same maniacal fervour as Bill Murray's network executive hocks his version of A Christmas Carol in Scrooged. ("They have got to be so scared to miss it, so terrified!")

The story itself concerns Prince Albert, the Duke of York, and his problems with a debilitating speech impediment. His sympathetic wife seeks slightly unorthodox help for Albert from a jobbing Australian actor called Lionel Logue, and the two make some progress together as they strike up an uneasy friendship. Matters escalate however when Albert is suddenly bumped up a couple of places in the line of succession to the throne. As war looms over Europe, Britain needs a king who can speak straight...

Two years ago, the first new film I saw in 2009 was Slumdog Millionaire. It ended up being my favourite film of the year. Danny Boyle's next film is also released this week, but after going into The King's Speech with some scepticism about its awards-worthiness, I came out worried that 2011 may have similarly peaked already. The King's Speech is fantastic, dazzling, brilliant and whatever other superlatives you can conjure up. I realise I erroneously predicted The Lovely Bones would stay in my memory as one of the best of 2010, this time last year, but let me explain what makes this one so good.

I'm not a big fan of period dramas set in Eng-Land (run at it the same way as Kevin Costner runs at "Notting-Ham" in Robin Hood- Prince of Thieves), especially of those in the Shakespeare In Love caste- films that shop shamelessly to the Academy voters and ultimately aren't anything special. I can't say I've often found compelling drama in the lives of privileged and entitled characters, and it's for that reason that last year's much-acclaimed Downton Abbey passed me by completely. The King's Speech is actually a tale of empowerment in which the protagonist is the future King of England, and I adored it.

The Damned United director Tom Hooper has rightly got everyone's attention with his second big film, bringing a distinctive and very stylish directorial look to the feature, and allowing all of the separate parts of the whole to breathe, from Alexandre Desplat's lovely score to Eve Stewart's sumptuous production design. Crucially, he's prepared to show off his highly talented cast and let them get on with their work to the very best of their abilities, as each of them continues to up their game whenever sharing the screen with a colleague.

Most obviously, we see that in the dynamic between Colin Firth as the King in waiting and Geoffrey Rush as his irreverent therapist. Firth gives a phenomenal turn that never screams "Just give me the Oscar now", but conveys pretty much the same message. It's not only in his entirely believable stammer, but in how utterly sympathetic his plight is. With great pathos, he dominates scenes where we see the full extent of his affliction- he can't even read a bedtime story to his young children without tripping over his words, such are his nervous issues.

Rush forms one of the great screen bromances with him as Logue, and his scenes with Firth largely occur in long, almost theatrical two-hander scenes that are always the highlight of the film. Much of his own struggle is in bringing the already nervous Albert down a notch or two without completely destroying his confidence. These men must become equals. As mentioned, these two actors make each other's performances better simply by being there.

Yeah, it's a crowd-pleaser, in much the same way as Slumdog Millionaire was when it impressed me so early in 2009, but so what? It doesn't mean it can't be great. You're part of a crowd, aren't you? Take a chance that this one will please you, at least, rather than whatever other films crowds will flock to this year! I didn't go into this one particularly expecting to be impressed, but the overwhelming thing about the film is how much it makes you care, and how quickly it ingratiates you in the characters and the setting. It's got a great sense of humour, great performances, great cinematography and rarest of all, it has Helena Bonham Carter looking human for a change, for what feels like the first time since before she married Tim Burton.

It takes a cynical mindset, more cynical than even my own, to come out of The King's Speech feeling like it was pandering or cloying or false, and these are all things I halfway expected going in. It's going to pick up a clutch of awards, at the BAFTAs, if not at the Oscars, and it deserves every one. It's a film that's determinedly winsome and inclusive, and it's the consistently feel-good film that everyone actually claimed Slumdog was. I'm not declaring it the film of the (very young) year right now, for obvious reasons, but I will say this- if 2011 gets much better, I'm in for a hell of a good 12 months at the cinema.

The King's Speech is showing in cinemas nationwide from Friday.
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If you've seen The King's Speech, why not share your comments below? If you remember to take your Harry Potter spotter's guide, you'll pick up a whole bunch of stars from the films- Helena Bonham Carter, Timothy Dalton, Michael Gambon

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

Missing Muchness

Avatar has been sitting atop the UK box office since its release on December 18th, dazzling people with its stunning 3D vistas and comparatively negligible story. On the eve of its almost certain triumph at the Academy Awards, a similar competitor has burst onto UK screens, Tim Burton's Disney's Alice in Wonderland by Disney. After arguments between Disney and UK cinema chains getting film fans worried about whether or not the film would ever arrive on these shores, this should really take down Avatar this weekend. If it doesn't, that film needs slaying with a fucking vorpal sword or something, but onwards!

As something of a regular disclaimer, it's only my opinion here- others are available. As ever, mild spoilers may occur in the process of reviewing, but never so far as to spoil any major plot developments.

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As with Disney's A Christmas Carol, Disney's Alice in Wonderland covers ground that the House of Mouse have been to before, but they've enlisted Tim Burton to "re-imagine" the story. There've been hits and misses with that strategy in the past, and the story of this one veers wildly between the two. Alice Kingsley has been plagued by dreams of talking animals and a magical world all of her young life, and while escaping from a dreary but insistent suitor, she stumbles down a rabbit hole and lands in that very same world. But far from Carroll's curiouser and curiouser little girl, observing the absurdities of this fantasy land, Burton's Alice is The Chosen One of Wonderland (Underland?), and is sent on a quest to retrieve a magic sword from the tyrannical Red Queen.

Did this story need a Narnia vibe? It almost certainly didn't, and it has to be said from the start of the review that this decision hobbles the third act entirely. Although the action towards the end is surprisingly well directed by Burton, who's come a long way since the slightly shonky fight scenes in 1989's Batman, it all feels unnecessary in a story that's supposed to be about a dark and whimsical place rather than prophecies and battles. Similarly out of place is the gender empowerment angle on Alice, who ends up wielding a vorpal sword, donning armour and riding a Bandersnatch into battle. Given how it's about the adventure, I doubt Carroll would've minded too much if it had to be "Alec in Wonderland", but Mia Wasikowska can't really be faulted for her winsome and arresting performance.

Another general failure of the film is the depth in which the Mad Hatter's madness is explored. A similar exploration of Depp's Willy Wonka was the most laboured part of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, although the Hatter's reminiscences are mercifully sparse. In that slightly over-hyped role, Johnny Depp is as competent as he always is, but there's really nothing new there. He's good in almost everything, but I maintain that his best performances were as Ed Wood and as J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland, and those were relatively normal roles- the wackiness is starting to wear now. As for the other fixture of Burton's films, Helena Bonham Carter plays Miranda Richardson playing the Red Queen, with the actual casting presumably down to Richardson having already done that role. She chews the scenery with aplomb and remains an entertaining villain throughout.

The rest of the rather sterling cast is somewhat obscured by the three leads and by the visuals, much like the early Harry Potter films. Anne Hathaway gives a floaty and fey performance as the White Queen, looking and sounding as if she stepped right out of a fairytale and thus being perfect in the role. Matt Lucas makes a decent comic relief showing as Tweedles dum and dee, looking particularly surreal in CGI fleshy-potato mode. But then Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Frances de la Tour, Christopher Lee, Michael Sheen, Lindsay Duncan, Crispin Glover and Timothy Spall are all lost in the frantic chaos of this unofficial sequel. If anything, that flaw is the closest the film gets to the oddities of its source material- there is so much to take in that it probably warrants repeated viewings to fully appreciate everything.

And there is a fair amount to appreciate. Despite the fact that if you've seen one gnarled tree by Tim Burton, you've seen them all, there's a great visual sensibility at work, if not a unique one. The art direction and wardrobe work as a whole is just astounding, even if the CGI isn't totally convincing if we take Avatar as the new benchmark for computer-generated worlds and creatures (especially in 3D). It also gambols along at an entertaining pace, with the right combination of laughs, thrills and spills to engage most audiences. It taps into that mainstream of oddball that Burton has cultivated over the course of his career, thankfully looking and feeling closer to The Nightmare Before Christmas than to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. At the same time, Disney's guiding hand is felt in the battle-oriented radicalisation of the monomyth, and so this still veers close to his studio-mandated Batman.

And once again, I'm saving the 3D rant for the end. I saw it in 3D just to catch a glimpse of the new Doctor Who trailer on a big screen- I am nothing if not an unscrupulous fanboy. I saw it in full knowledge of the fact that it was shot in 2D and then "upgraded", even though the intention was always to release it in 3D. And it really shows. If the 3D in Avatar didn't work, with Cameron painstakingly syncing up the background with the foreground to immerse the audience, it certainly doesn't work here. This is typified by the scenery being out of focus in several scenes, in a technical sight that's only in films, not real life- the real world doesn't slide out of focus when you're looking at someone in front of you. Immediately, you're distanced rather than immersed in the film, and Burton's colourful Underland also suffers as a result of the 30% colour-loss that troubles 3D. There's more eye-popping going on in the film itself, courtesy of a sword-happy Dormouse voiced by Barbara Windsor. Hollywood can shove the money-grubbing technology up their rabbit hole.
Alice in Wonderland is an oddly droopy continuation of Lewis Carroll's tale, ignoring the fact that Carroll wrote a sequel himself. There's always the feeling of a "missing muchness", as the Mad Hatter puts it to Alice. In its darker moments, Burton's work really shines through, but the entire third act could have been much improved by the omission of a destiny angle on the heroine. It feels somewhat like Disney has stunted the potential of Burton's interpretation, but this remains a fun and visually astounding romp that families can enjoy immensely. That said, you should definitely go and see it in 2D if you go at all, or else wait for the DVD release in 13 weeks' time (go Odeon!) Oh, and it lost a whole mark out of five for me when Depp started breakdancing. Urgh. As a whole though, it's flawed, but a rather frabjous effort.

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If you go and see Alice in Wonderland in the next few weeks- and I'm sure you will, this thing is going to be huge- then why not share your comments on the film and on my review below?

Next up: awards speak, probably. The Oscars go out on Sunday night/Monday morning. As for reviews, there's a fair few films in cinemas this week that I haven't covered- Legion, The Crazies, Crazy Heart and Ondine.

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.