nprfreshair:

Bradley Cooper talks to Terry Gross about the line between comedy and drama in the Oscar-nominated ‘Silver Linings Playbook’:

We never discussed the idea of whether it was going to be a comedic tone or a dramatic tone. It was all about being a real tone. … If you have two characters that have no filter and are going to have a discussion about the medicines that they take, chances are, comedy could, you know, be a byproduct. And that … occurred when Tiffany Maxwell and Pat Solitano have that discussion around the dining room table about Klonopin and trazodone and all of the various drugs that they take.

Image via NPR

According to Wynn / Encore, as reported today by the LA Times, current Best Picture betting odds in Vegas are:

“Argo” – 1 to 2

“Lincoln” – 9 to 5

“Les Misérables” – 30 to 1

“Silver Linings Playbook” – 35 to 1

“Zero Dark Thirty” – 40 to 1

“Amour” – 75 to 1

“Life of Pi” – 100 to 1

“Django Unchained” – 125 to 1

“Beasts of the Southern Wild” – 250 to 1

This year, for the first time in a while, I’ve seen most of them. (The only ones I still haven’t seen are Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild, though I’m looking forward to seeing both.) And for me:

• Argo was a good but not a great movie.
• Lincoln was actually interesting and specific in a way that kind of undercuts its otherwise total Oscar-bait elements, such that I don’t think it should win either.
• Les Mis was kind of thrilling, but not Best Picture thrilling.
• Zero Dark Thirty was subtly but deeply problematic (again, speaking just for myself) in the choices it made about how to represent the role of torture.
• Life of Pi was beautiful and thought-provoking and surprisingly good, but not Best Picture material.
• Django Unchained was fun in parts, if ridiculous throughout, and reminded me that nope, I really have become someone who isn’t particularly impressed with Tarantino these days, or likely ever in the future.

We have an Oscar party every year, and we have a ballot, and I usually suck (though a few years ago I think I tied for first?). But there’s always that decision: Do I pick the one I really love, and want to win, so if it does I’ll be doubly happy? Or do I go cold and cynical and stick with the Vegas bookies, who, after all, are completely right about what kinds of movies normally do win?

I look at the odds this year and I can’t fault them; that’s totally the way those top four choices should be ranked — in terms of the Oscar voting process, and its historical tendency to reward and not reward certain kinds of movies, and how things have been playing out this awards season.

But this year I don’t care. There’s exactly one movie (out of the seven I’ve seen) that I felt motivated to see more than once, that has grown on me each time I’ve seen it, that I would watch again and enjoy right now, that I think has a pure heart, and a beautiful message, and performances and moments that elevate it to being worthy of the Best Picture Oscar.

It’s the one with that goofball in the photo above. And it’s the one I’m marking on my ballot on Sunday, dammit.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43746473245.