“Honey” awarded Golden Bear at Berlinale ‘10

After a disgruntled two weeks of coverage, critics were heard loudly lamenting the lacklustre quality of this year’s selections, especially in the Competition section. When such buzzy titles such as Chomet’s enormously impacting The Illusionist and Lisa Cholodenko’s easily entertaining The Kids Are Alright are unceremoniously shunted to off-centre locales in favour of Caterpillar, a widely reviled “paraplegic Kama Sutra” flick, such consternation is more than understandable. So it is with some surprise that we report “Honey” as the film that came up tops in a jury headed by director Werner Herzog. In a nod to the troubled Roman Polanski, currently on house arrest in Switzerland while facing child sex charges, The Ghost Writer took out Best Director honours while Caterpillar’s Shinobu Terajima and “How I Ended the Summer” leads Grigory Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis seized the Actress and Actor trophies.

Full list of winners (courtesy of In Contention) after the jump:

Berlinale ’10: L’illusioniste (The Illunionist), The Kids Are Alright

A survey of the “Oscary” films playing at Berlinale ’10

A scene from "L'illusioniste" (The Illusionist)

I’ve never seen Sylvain Chomet’s debut The Triplets of Belleville but I am well aware of its esteemed reputation. So I was especially pleased to see the enthusiastic notices  for his latest piece, an animated partner that may very well top its predecessor.

In an unqualified rave, Guy Lodge finds an immensely enjoyable experience, one that benefits from Chomet’s tight yet patient directorial control and dynamic auteurist signature. Lodge finds the story less strange and more emotionally resonant that Belleville, which lends itself to the first masterpiece of Berlinale ’10. High praise indeed:

It took six days and an awful lot of films, but the Berlinale has finally turned up a masterpiece. Moreover, it’s a rare case of one of the fest’s most eagerly awaited titles managing to meet, and even subvert, expectations.

“The Illusionist,” French animator Sylvain Chomet long-gestating follow-up the 2003 Oscar nominee “The Triplets of Belleville,” confirms a truly singular auteur sensibility, while revealing a more disciplined artist and storyteller within. A streamlined character study, less deliriously eccentric in tone and structure than his debut feature, “The Illusionist” nonetheless boasts an emotional heft that handsomely repays its creator’s restraint.

He dares to use the “O” word, laying the case for an Oscar nomination in the Animated Feature category here:

Animators not already charmed by the affable storytelling can’t fail to impressed by its dazzling technique; even this early in the year, the film looks a strong threat for a 2010 Oscar nod.

Variety’s Leslie Felperin is similarly appreciative, calling the picture a worthy partner to Chomet’s acclaimed debut that makes for a brilliant “marriage of Tati’s and Chomet’s distinctive artistic sensibilities”:

Following up his debut, the acclaimed animated feature “The Triplets of Belleville,” writer-helmer-animator-composer Sylvain Chomet doesn’t disappoint with his delightful sophomore outing, “The Illusionist.” Based on an unproduced script by Jacques Tati, the pic’s tale of a French conjuror (modeled on Tati) who befriends a naive lass in late-1950s Scotland is a very happy marriage of Tati’s and Chomet’s distinctive artistic sensibilities.

On the detailed traditional animation on display:

Following up his debut, the acclaimed animated feature “The Triplets of Belleville,” writer-helmer-animator-composer Sylvain Chomet doesn’t disappoint with his delightful sophomore outing, “The Illusionist.” Based on an unproduced script by Jacques Tati, the pic’s tale of a French conjuror (modeled on Tati) who befriends a naive lass in late-1950s Scotland is a very happy marriage of Tati’s and Chomet’s distinctive artistic sensibilities.

Lisa Nesselson of Screen Daily also finds nary a toe out of line, celebrating the film whose parts are as rewarding as its whole:

Five years in the making, master animator Sylvain Chomet’s follow-up to The Triplets Of Belleville deploys superb hand-drawn imagery to bring to life an unproduced screenplay the late Tati finished in 1959. Told with no dialogue but carried along by deeply evocative sound design, this visually rewarding film’s timeless, near-universal appeal should translate to widespread critical praise and art house play.

And if that wasn’t enough, Nesselson goes in for the kill:

The imagery excels at depicting less-harried times: as a train chugs over a trestle bridge in the country, its reflection in the water below is as stunning as the changing light over Edinburgh. And somehow the animated rain seems more real than the wet stuff in live-action films.

A scene in which the magician returns to his hotel drunk is dazzling – as the protagonist struggles to maintain his balance, one would swear Tati’s hand-drawn stand-in has a functioning inner ear.

Oscar prospects: If the reviews didn’t make it clear enough, we seem to have our first lock (dare I say it?) nominee for 2010 Animated Feature. Given Chomet’s Belleville managed to score an Original Song nod in addition to the aforementioned animation citation, The Illusionist may be able to figure into the music races (Original Song and Original Score), with Song being the more likely. Though I would like to call a Best Picture nomination possible for a second animated film in two years, it’s yet to be seen whether anything non-Pixar has enough muscle to break into the category. Fantastic Mr Fox managed only an animated and original score nod despite a strong, critic-proof screenplay and early claims of competition for perennial Pixar favourite Up. Still, if enough people cotton on to its wondrous artistry, anything’s possible.

Berlinale ’10: Please Give, Winter’s Bone, Exit Through The Gift Shop

A survey of the “Oscary” films playing at Berlin ’10

A scene from new Nicole Holofcener dramedy "Please Give"

Originally bowing at Sundance, “Please Give” stirred up warm responses for frequent Holofcener muse and indie staple Catherine Keener. Should make for an interesting sit after her indifferently received “Friends With Money”.

Justin Chang, writing for Variety, enjoys the film’s attempts at social commentary but feels like it overreaches ever so slightly:

In this latest tart but sympathetic ensembler, which bites off a bit more than it can chew yet retains Holofcener’s unfailingly perceptive ear for everyday human pettiness, frustration and insecurity

Cinematical’s Erik Snider fattens up the film’s belly, saying it’s a film “you’ll like but probably not love”:

It could be said that Please Give is simply a retread of Holofcener’s other movies, especially Lovely & Amazing — but, then, most people didn’t see those movies, so maybe it doesn’t matter. Still, while Please Give is often very funny, it feels a little perfunctory. It’s a movie you’ll like but probably not love. Don’t tell the characters that, though. Their sense of self-worth is fragile enough already.

Katey Rich of Cinemablend all out loves it:

If there’s a message to the movie, it’s that– take care of each other as best you can, and the small stuff will work itself out. Luckily Please Give is also very funny, making the sentimentality much easier to handle when it starts creeping in near the end. It’s one of those indie movies in which not much happens and everyone talks a lot, but the good humor and easily relatable stakes of all the relationships make it a compelling comedy as well. With great performances all the way down to line– Hall in particular gets better to watch every time she’s onscreen– Please Give is satisfying on pretty much every well. It makes you wish every comedy could be this good.

Oscar prospects: Best Supporting Actress (Keener or Hall) or Original Screenplay would seem to be the only chances for this film with Keener more likely as the respected veteran actress. Still, neither is really much of a threat given the diminutive nature of the film and the “timely” but unappealing subject matter (look how well that did for fading (once) Best Picture frontrunner Up in the Air.

Berlinale ’10: Greenberg, The Ghost Writer

A survey of the “Oscary” films playing at Berlinale ’10

Ben Stiller and Baumbach spouse Jennifer Jason Leigh star in Baumbach's "Greenberg"

I thoroughly enjoyed The Squid and the Whale, but Baumbach has been unable to recapture that since. The trailer for “Greenberg” didn’t inspire too much confidence and the critical consensus seems to agree on this front.

Todd McCarthy at Variety finds the film’s unconventional stylings a treat but a touch inexplicable and cold in its languidness:

“I just don’t know what I’m doing with my life,” declares the 25-year-old nanny/assistant played by Greta Gerwig in “Greenberg,” and the same could be said of everyone else who drifts through Noah Baumbach’s unemphatically comic new feature. As a study of stasis and of people conscious of not living the lives they had imagined for themselves, the picture offers a bracing undertow of seriousness beneath the deceptively casual, dramatically offhand surface, even if the characters’ vague ambitions and aimless actions leave the film seeming relatively uneventful on a moment-to-moment basis.

THR’s Kirk Honeycutt goes to bat for the film with considerably more gusto, calling it more of the Baumbach-same but with significantly less (if any) laughs. He is bothered by the unsympathetic depiction of the characters and setting, which suffer from a repetitive structure to the script:

Noah Baumbach again investigates psychologically screwed-up people, although this time with much less comedic impact…such is the repetitive nature of the story that the characters go in continual circles. Those circles do widen though so you gain a greater appreciation of the root cause of Roger’s dysfunctional behavior. But understanding is one thing, sympathy another.

Screen Daily appreciates the delicate balancing act on display, admiring the performances of Stiller and Gerwig but is put off by the “forensic” one-note plotting of the characters that hammer home emotional wreckage at every possible opportunity:

The attention to detail in the characterisations is often forensic and none of the characters comes across as anything but damaged

Oscar prospects: Original Screenplay is probably it’s only shot (and a long one at that), being a tiny film unlikely to greet mainstream audiences. Most likely it’ll get lost in the shuffle just like his other people-are-damaged flick Margot at the Wedding.

Berlinale ’10: Tuan Yuan (Apart Together), Shutter Island

A survey of the “Oscary” films playing at Berlin ’10

Berlin fest opener "Tuan Yuan" (Apart Together)

The 60th Annual Berlin Film Festival kicked off with Apart Together, the latest from 2003 Golden Bear winner Wang Quanan. This modest domestic drama has drawn comments from critics as being an unusual choice, bearing none of the crowd-pleasing allure of Fox Searchlight’s (who’ve guessed?) My Name is Khan nor marquee stars (Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer and Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island are also playing at the fest).

Maggie Lee at The Hollywood Reporter calls the film “universal” but ultimately superficial:

Drama about a family separated by civil war has universal resonance but skims over deeper historical and psychological trauma.

Variety’s Derek Lee is on a similar train of thought, emphasising the film’s familiar, unfussy feel:

A well-played, light family drama that references major historical and political issues beneath a low-key front, “Apart Together” continues a quality career course for mainland Chinese writer-director Wang Quanan (“Weaving Girl,” Berlin Golden Bear winner “Tuya’s Marriage”) without significantly advancing it or springing any surprises.

Dan Fainaru at Screen Daily also mentions a wafer-thin texture, hinting at political motives in the script quashed somewhere during execution:

An original choice to open Berlin on its 60^th anniversary, this modest family melodrama  turns out to be a thin – if kindly – bittersweet autumnal romance. Whatever political intentions may have been buried in Apart Together’s script, which follows a Kuomintang solder’s attempted reunion with the woman he left behind in Shanghai forty years previously, there is little trace of them left onscreen.

Oscar prospects: Best Foreign Language Film, and only if it can make it through the Academy’s notoriously sticky screening process that dolls out the outragious snubs (yes, that 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days snub still hurts) as often as the pleasant inclusions.

Leonardo Dicaprio in the star-studded thriller "Shutter Island"

Meanwhile, Guy Lodge at In Contention is mixed on Scorsese’s latest, praising Scorsese’s  “decade-long quest to find the hardest way to make an easy living” while underscoring the pic’s shallowness:

…when the elements align, it can work to smashing effect — as in “The Departed,” a nifty pop movie-movie winkingly intended as the prototypical “Scorsese film” that casual cinemagoers attributed to him, but that he’d never actually made. When they don’t, however, you get “Shutter Island,” a film awash with beauty and trademark stylistic flourishes, attached to a narrative that he never seems all that into. A near letter-faithful adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s pulpy source novel, itself something of a genre lark for the author, it surprises principally by offering more intrigue as a Scorsese picture than as an entertainment. As an artistic investigation of B-movie construction, it has all the impeccable craft, and a measure of the cinephile intelligence, of “The Departed” or “Cape Fear”; but a lot of the fun is missing.

Todd McCarthy of Variety likes the film a whole lot more, observing a filmmaker at the height of his creative powers. He goes on to place Shutter Island in Martin Scorsese’s filmography in a similar place as The Shining in Kubrick’s. Slightly baffling.

Expert, screw-turning narrative filmmaking put at the service of old-dark-madhouse claptrap, “Shutter Island” arguably occupies a similar place in Martin Scorsese’s filmography as “The Shining” does in Stanley Kubrick’s. In his first dramatic feature since “The Departed,” Scorsese applies his protean skill and unsurpassed knowledge of Hollywood genres to create a dark, intense thriller involving insanity, ghastly memories, mind-alteration and violence, all wrapped in a story about the search for a missing patient at an island asylum.

Screen Daily’s Tim Grierson is similarly drawn in, seeing a slick genre flick raised up by Scorsese’s greatness:

Clearly flawed but entirely involving, Shutter Island is a superb genre thriller elevated by director Martin Scorsese’s consummate skill. Based on Dennis Lehane’s novel about two federal marshals trying to track down an escaped patient from a remote mental institution, this occasionally operatic psychological drama weaves an impressive spell, and even though it overstays its welcome, the film is simply too engrossing to deny.

Kirk Honeycutt, in an admittedly strange review, crafts an analogy of Scorsese as circus performer. He is evidently taken with Scorsese’s portrayal of reality, perception and paranoia:

Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” is a remarkable high-wire act, performed without a net and exploiting all the accumulated skills of a consummate artist. It dazzles and provokes. But since when did Scorsese become a circus performer?

Oscar prospects: Genre bias and a delayed release date from last year means its best bets are in the technicals, particularly Cinematography. Art Direction (spooky horror landscapes not really being their thing, Pan’s Labyrinth excepted which is a complete fantasy film – fodder for the art directors branch), VFX and sound categories only if the Academy goes nuts for it.

Next up: Greenberg and Roman Polanski’s latest “The Ghost Writer”.