Month: February 2011

Categories
NEWS

MAGNET’s Oscar Predictions

UPDATED FEBRUARY 28: WINNING PICKS IN RED. WE GOT 20 OF 24 RIGHT.

Three of the four acting spots are pretty much locks, and The King’s Speech has stolen all of the best-picture momentum The Social Network had slowly built up throughout the awards season, but a number of the 24 categories still seem up in the air. MAGNET editor (and longtime amateur Oscar predictor) Eric T. Miller tells you who will win in each category. (He was 18 for 24 last year.)

The second year is the charm for having 10 best-picture nominees, as finally all are deserving, unlike The Blind Side last year. (But really, where is The Town?) I will be shocked if The King’s Speech doesn’t win the big prize, but I think the bigger question is whether it can run the table. I don’t think it will, but if you see it start to win categories such as art direction, costume design, score or sound editing, it could pull off upsets in supporting actor, director, cinematography and, less likely, supporting actress and film editing.

Colin Firth is a lock for best actor, as much for a great performance as he is because it’s his “year,” just like it was Jeff Bridges’ “year” last year. This is far from a new phenomenon, rewarding a deserving actor or actress who has never won an Oscar with a sort-of lifetime-achievement nod. So since Bridges and Javier Bardem already have their Oscars and James Franco and Jesse Eisenberg, given their relative youth, will have plenty of chances for future awards, the academy has no choice but vote for Firth.

As for the other acting categories, there is a chance that Annette Bening could top Natalie Portman and that Geoffrey Rush could beat Christian Bale (see the The King’s sweep theory above), but it’s not very likely. The only really interesting category to watch is supporting actress. Melissa Leo has been the frontrunner throughout the awards season, but a couple of different scenarios might play out. She and Fighter co-star Amy Adams could split the vote, leaving it open for Hailee Steinfeld or Helena Bonham Carter. I think that will happen, with Steinfeld coming out on top. But if the academy thinks Steinfeld’s performance should have been placed in the best-actress category (which it should have, since she has more screen time than anyone else in True Grit) or that the 14-year-old has a long career ahead of her to win an Oscar, Bonham Carter could win. (Sorry, Jacki Weaver. You are as deserving as any for your terrific performance in the stellar Animal Kingdom, but you have about as much chance to win as I do.)

David Fincher should be a lock for best director, unless there’s a King’s sweep, in which case Tom Hooper would win. But I think The Social Network triumphs over The King’s Speech here as well as film editing and score. Both films will lose out to True Grit in cinematography because that movie’s Roger Deakins is way overdue (nine Oscar noms, no wins) and also because Deakins is about the best cinematographer who ever lived (check out his filmography if you aren’t familiar with him).

But who cares what I think? Here’s what I know:

Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Best Original Screenplay: David Seidler, The King’s Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins, True Grit
Best Animated Film: Toy Story 3
Best Foreign Language Film: In A Better World (Denmark)
Best Documentary: Inside Job
Best Film Editing: Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, The Social Network
Best Score: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network
Best Song: Randy Newman, “We Belong Together,” Toy Story 3
Best Art Direction: Robert Stromberg and Karen O’Hara, Alice In Wonderland
Best Sound Editing: Richard King, Inception
Best Sound Mixing: Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick, Inception
Best Costume Design: Colleen Atwood, Alice In Wonderland
Best Makeup: Rick Baker and Dave Elsey, The Wolfman
Best Visual Effects: Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb, Inception
Best Documentary Short: Strangers No More
Best Animated Short: The Gruffalo
Best Live Action Short: God Of Love

Categories
GUEST EDITOR

From The Desk Of The Jayhawks’ Gary Louris: Writing And Singing With Mark Olson

Gary Louris and Mark Olson left Jayhawks fans in a lurch when they parted ways rather abruptly in 1995. Turns out Olson had tired of all the obligations and trappings that came with the Minneapolis-spawned group’s hard-won success. So he escaped to the Mojave Desert to ply a rootsier, salt-of-the-earth trade with the help of wife Victoria Williams. Ah, but time—and perhaps a little fiscal motivation—has a way of smoothing over the rough patches in many productive creative partnerships. (Unless you’re Bob Mould and Grant Hart.) And 15 years later, the Jayhawks have returned to us more-or-less fully intact. For how long, no one really knows, but they just did a string of shows to back the enhanced reissues of 1992’s Hollywood Town Hall and 1995’s Tomorrow The Green Grass (American/Legacy). With their sugary (if unrefined) harmonies, rugged intelligence and casual accessibility, the albums are to the alt-country movement what One Of These Nights and Hotel California were to ’70s SoCal country rock—even if the comparably modest sales figures may not indicate as much. Louris and Olson will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Louris.

Louris: Now I want to make it clear that I love the Jayhawks, including Marc Perlman, Tim O’Reagan and Karen Grotberg. But I just want to zone in on this one aspect of the band and what has branched out into our duo career. I have done alot of co-writing with other people. Sometimes it is fun, sometimes it is a disaster. But with Mark, it is always magical. It comes down to the fact that we trust each other and we seem to balance each other. I am the symmetrical one. He is the writer who ends up with some very atypical constructions. We have rubbed off on each other. But we always get it done, we do it fast, and it is always interesting. And we don’t mull it over until it kills the original idea. The same with the singing. His low, loud baritone offsets my sometimes overly sugary-sweet tenor, and somehow they become another person altogether. The so-called “Univoice.”

Categories
VIDEOS

Film At 11: The Kills

Following up on 2008’s Midnight Boom, the Kills are back with a vengeance. The first single from forthcoming album Blood Pressures (out April 5 via Domino), “Satellite” eschews the duo’s earlier taste for minimalism and snarl and replaces it with echoing vocals and a dirty, danceable groove. The video, directed by Sophie Muller, is in traditional Kills style, providing an intimate portrait of the band with disorienting noir undertones. Watch the video below, read our 2008 feature on the band, and don’t miss the Kills when they go on tour this March.

Categories
GUEST EDITOR

From The Desk Of The Jayhawks’ Mark Olson: Songwriting (The Wah-Wah Banjo)

Gary Louris and Mark Olson left Jayhawks fans in a lurch when they parted ways rather abruptly in 1995. Turns out Olson had tired of all the obligations and trappings that came with the Minneapolis-spawned group’s hard-won success. So he escaped to the Mojave Desert to ply a rootsier, salt-of-the-earth trade with the help of wife Victoria Williams. Ah, but time—and perhaps a little fiscal motivation—has a way of smoothing over the rough patches in many productive creative partnerships. (Unless you’re Bob Mould and Grant Hart.) And 15 years later, the Jayhawks have returned to us more-or-less fully intact. For how long, no one really knows, but they just did a string of shows to back the enhanced reissues of 1992’s Hollywood Town Hall and 1995’s Tomorrow The Green Grass (American/Legacy). With their sugary (if unrefined) harmonies, rugged intelligence and casual accessibility, the albums are to the alt-country movement what One Of These Nights and Hotel California were to ’70s SoCal country rock—even if the comparably modest sales figures may not indicate as much. Louris and Olson will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Louris.

Olson: Victoria Williams lives in Joshua Tree, Calif. Go out and find Happy Come Home and play it for your neighbors, children and parents. These are the ones that they’ll want to hear again and again. You can pack up in a van and drive out to the middle of nowhere and run low on provisions and break down, and it won’t really matter. The music contained on this album is some kind of litmus test of the soul. You’ll be able to talk with these people and wait out the long night, and when dawn comes, help will arrive.

Video after the jump.

Continue reading “From The Desk Of The Jayhawks’ Mark Olson: Songwriting (The Wah-Wah Banjo)”
Categories
FREE MP3s

MP3 At 3PM: Low

Low‘s new album, C’mon, is out April 12 via Sub Pop. The Duluth, Minn., trio recorded the 10-track LP in an old church in its hometown and mixed it in Hollywood with producer Matt Beckley. Frontman Alan Sparhawk has described C’mon as “warm, pretty, large like Nashville without the country,” but we need to spend more time with the album to see if we agree. Low kicks off a month-long North American tour April 14 in Duluth, with European dates to follow later in May. Until then, download an mp3 of C’mon opener “Try To Sleep” below.

“Try To Sleep” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/TryToSleep.mp3