12 Years Spot/Llewyn and Oscars and John/The Visible Invisible/Brolin Talks Labor Day/Oscar Matters

Good Monday to All...

12 YEARS SPOT

Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" has run its first television promo.  It's here:

I'm still of a mind that this film is the best film I'm going to see all year.

LLEWYN AND OSCARS AND JOHN

The Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" is not going to be everyone's cup of tea.  It's certainly Coens-y but it sets its own distinct tone and isn't afraid of that.  Its title character isn't warm and fuzzy.  The film is an interesting mix of comedy and drama...mostly comedy, I think, but of a sly, low key sort.  Some have suggested that it's plotless which I think is a little silly.  There's certainly a plot, it's just not big and grand.  It's small and introspective.

All of the above is offered as I get to these posts from this week about the film.  The first is an examination from FirstShowing's Joey Magidson regarding the awards prospects for this difficult-to-pigeonhole film:

http://www.firstshowing.net/2013/where-do-oscar-isaac-inside-llewyn-davis-fit-into-the-oscar-race/

The other post is a look at John Goodman's career in the films of the Coens including his turn in "Llewyn" that I believe has a chance to earn Goodman his first Oscar nomination.  The post is from Greg Cwik for CriticWire/IndieWire:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/john-goodman-the-coen-brothers-common-man


THE VISIBLE INVISIBLE

Ralph Fiennes' "The Invisible Woman" has a trailer out this past week.  Here it is:

I've also linked a number of posts from around the web tied to the release of this trailer:

http://www.firstshowing.net/2013/watch-felicity-jones-in-ralph-fiennes-the-invisible-woman-trailer/

http://movies.yahoo.com/video/invisible-woman-trailer-211016775.html

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-charles-dickens-has-a-secret-in-trailer-for-ralph-fiennes-the-invisible-woman-20131004

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/watch-first-trailer-ralph-fiennes-invisible-woman/


BROLIN TALKS "LABOR DAY"

Recently HitFix's Greg Ellwood sat down with "Labor Day" star Josh Brolin to talk about the Jason Reitman film.  Here's a link to that interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSRZiUK_M4A&feature=youtu.be&a


OSCAR MATTERS

Scott Feinberg has updated his Feinberg Forecast for The Hollywood Reporter.  His "scorecard" for Telluride films looks like this at the moment:

Best Picture:
Frontrunners: "12 Years", "Gravity", "All is Lost".
Major Threats: "Inside Llewyn Davis" and "Nebraska".
Possibilities: "Blue is the Warmest Color" and "Prisoners".
Long Shots: "The Past" and "Labor Day"

Director:
Frontrunners: McQueen/12 Years and Cuaron/Gravity.
Major Threats: Chandor/Lost, Coens/Llewyn and Payne/Nebraska
Possibilities: Villenueve/Prisoners, Kechiche/Blue
Long Shots: Farhadi/Past, Reitman/Labor

Actress:
Frontrunners: Bullock/Gravity
Major Threats: Exarchopoulos/Blue, Winslet/Labor, Bejo/Past
Possibilities: Gerwig/Frances Ha (TFF #39)

Actor:
Frontrunners: Redford/Lost, Ejiofor/12 Years
Major Threats: Dern/Nebraska, Issac/Llewyn
Possibilities: Jackman/Prisoners
Long Shots: Fiennes/Invisible

Supporting Actress:
Frontrunners: Nyong'o/12 Years
Major Threats: Leo/Prisoners, Squibb/Nebraska, Seydoux/Blue
Possibilities: Mulligan/Llewyn, Jones/Invisible
Long Shots: Paulson/12 Years

Supporting Actor:
Frontrunners: Fassbender/12 Years
Major Threats: Gyllenhaal/Prisoners
Possibilities: Clooney/Gravity, Brolin/Labor

Adapted Screenplay:
Frontrunners: 12 Years
Possibilites: Labor Day
Long Shots: The Invisible Woman

Original Screenplay:
Frontrunners: Inside Llewyn Davis
Major Threats: Gravity, All is Lost, Nebraska
Possibilities: Prisoners
Long Shots: Bethlehem, The Past, Frances Ha (TFF #39)

Animated Feature:
Frontrunners: The Wind Rises

Documentary:
Frontrunners: Tim's Vermeer, Stories We Tell (TFF #39)
Major Threats: The Unknown Known, Jodorowsky's Dune, The Act of Killing (TFF #39)
Long Shots: Salinger

For those keeping track, Feinberg has Telluride films  listed as Frontrunners in these "Big 8" categories 15 times, "Major Threats" 20 times, "Possibilities" 12 times and "Long Shots" 11 times.

Here's the latest Scott Feinberg Forecast from The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/feinberg-forecast-updated-projections-21-639287

In other "Oscar Matters", Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elksewhere references David Thomson's look at Robert Redford and J.C. Chandor's "All is Lost" and suggests that the Best Actor race is all but over.  I'm not so sure that's the case.  Take a look here:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2013/10/redford-vs-chewy/


 More on Thursday...