Issue 118 May 2015 A NEWSLETTER OF THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY For Your Consideration – Crystal Ball Edition Ji m K e l l e r The early part of the Oscar race is a moving how they affected his family life and pos- my most anticipated films of the year. Eg- target. There are a few awards stops along sibly his health. Michael Fassbender plays gers won the Directing Award in the U.S. the way: Sundance, SXSW, and Cannes, Jobs and could figure prominently in the Dramatic category at this year’s Sundance to name a few, but by and large spitballing Best Actor race. Film Festival. what may come down the slippery slope of Why I’ve got my eye on it: Like Hoop- the Oscar pike is tricky. For one, a lot of the er, Boyle is permanently on the Academy Macbeth (director: Justin Kurzel): films do not have distributors yet or have watch list ever since his go for broke Slum- Why you might like it: Michael Fass- soft release dates. This makes it easy for dog Millionaire swept the 2009 Oscars and bender stars in this drama, based on Wil- films to be pushed to the following year. won eight awards including Best Picture liam Shakespeare’s play of the same name, Second, the films discussed here haven’t and Best Director. Here he is paired with as the ill-fated duke of Scotland who re- screened, so it’s really impossible to know Aaron Sorkin, an Oscar perennial since his ceives a prophecy from three witches that what kind of film they are—all we have to 2011 Best Adapted Screenplay win for The he will become King. At once consumed by go on is the log line and the talent attached. Social Network. And of course, there’s the ambition and goaded by this wife, Macbeth Sometimes we get lucky and the films stick aforementioned Fassbender, who always murders the king and takes the throne. the Oscar nomination landing (FYC’s gives deserving performances and who Why I’ve got my eye on it: See above, Crystal Ball Edition covered four of nine earned a Best Supporting Actor nomina- Fassbender has yet to win an Oscar and this 2014 Best Picture nominees), but out of the tion for 2013’s 12 Years a Slave. could do it. Further, the prospect of seeing eight 2015 Best Picture nominees only one Marion Cotillard, (who is in the hunt for was featured. Here are some films of inter- Joy (director: David O. Russell): her second Oscar after her 2008 Best Ac- est debuting this year that could wind up in Why you might like it: The biopic tress win for La Vie en Rose) as Lady Mac- this year’s Oscar conversation. chronicles the life of Joy Mangano (Jenni- beth is scintillating to say the least. fer Lawrence) the struggling Long Island The Danish Girl(director: Tom Hooper): single mom who invented the Miracle Mop Brooklyn (director: John Crowley): Why you might like it: Based on David and became one of the most successful Why you might like it: This film adap- Ebershoff’s novel of the same name, the film American entrepreneurs. tation based on Colm Tóibín’s novel of the depicts the true story of Danish artists Lili Why I’ve got my eye on it: Russell has same name follows young Ellis Lacy who is Elbe (Eddie Redmayne) and his wife Gerda been after the Oscar since his Best Direc- forced to choose between two men and two (Alicia Vikander) whose marriage is tested tor nomination for 2010’s The Fighter. Jen- countries after she moves from a small Irish after Lili becomes one of the first known re- nifer Lawrence is amazing in almost every- town to Brooklyn, NY in the 1950s. cipients of sexual reassignment surgery. thing she does (RIP 2014’s Serena) and with Why I’ve got my eye on it: Saoirse Why I’ve got my eye on it: Redmayne Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro on- Ronan has been a favorite of mine since she is on fire after his Best Actor Oscar win for board, the chemistry exhibited between the earned a Best Supporting Actress nomina- last year’s The Theory of Everything. What’s three since 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook, tion for 2007’s Atonement. This early on in more, early pictures of Redmayne as Lili are which landed all three Oscar nominations, the Best Actress race she is considered the intriguing and the transgender topic has thrives. de facto frontrunner by some after a warm been gaining steam. After helming 2011’s reception for the film at this year’s Sun- Best Picture winner The King’s Speech and The Witch (director: Robert Eggers): dance Film Festival. winning Best Director for it, Hooper is al- Why you might like it: It’s a horror ways on the Academy’s radar. film that takes place in a devout, Christian Money Monster (director: Jodie Foster): 1630 New England homesteading commu- Why you might like it: This drama/ Steve Jobs (director: Danny Boyle): nity. When a series of strange events start thriller concerns TV personality Lee Gates Why you might like it: This biopic happening a family begins to turn on one (George Clooney) who is taken hostage by a of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs was another. It’s a chilling portrait of family viewer (Jack O’Connell) on-air after he loses adapted from Walter Isaacson’s biography unraveling within their fear and anxiety, his family’s money on a bad tip from Gates. of the same name. It explores the modern leaving them vulnerable to inescapable evil. The film is said to have elements of such clas- day genius’s triumphs and tribulations and Why I’ve got my eye on it: This is one of sics as Dog Day Afternoon and Network. 1 Why I’ve got my eye on it: Foster’s Why you might like it: The film -ad last film 2011’s The Beaver earned the ac- aptation of Jesse Andrew’s novel of the Editorial Board tress turned director the respect of her same name concerns a teenage filmmaker EDITORIAL BOARD peers and I’m curious to see what she can (Thomas Mann) who befriends a classmate do with more serious subject matter. Also, with cancer (Olivia Cooke). Jim Keller, Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor O’Connell has been climbing the rungs to Why I’ve got my eye on it: After pre- Peng Kate Gao, Copy Editor, Oscar after his one-two punch performanc- miering at this year’s Sundance Film Festi- Assistant Managing Editor es in last year’s Starred Up and Unbroken. val, the film earned a standing ovation and Aileen Marshall, Assistant Copy Editing Clooney is of course always in the Oscar went on to win both the U.S. Grand Jury Manager conversation and he has yet to win a Best Prize: Dramatic and the Audience Award Susan Russo, Copy Editor, Distribution Actor Oscar, despite his Best Supporting for U.S. Drama. Last year’s winners for Jason Rothauser, Production Designer Actor win for 2005’s Syriana. Finally, it’s the same awards? Eventual 2015 Best Pic- Qiong Wang, Copy Editor, Webmaster, a timely piece for these economically hard ture and Best Director nominee Whiplash. Public Relations Manager times—though there is a strong possibility Cooke, who stars on TV’s Bates Motel, is of a 2016 release. also one to watch in the Supporting Actress selections.rockefeller.edu [email protected] race. Black Mass (director: Scott Cooper): Why you might like it: This crime dra- Beasts of No Nation (director: Cary Fu- Houses of Parliament in the UK and is be- ma depicts the true story of Whitey Bulg- kanaga): ing done with full permission of members er—the brother of a state senator and the Why you might like it: Based on of parliament (MPs). most infamous violent criminal in the his- Uzodinma Iweala’s novel of the same name, tory of South Boston, who became an FBI it’s a drama about the experiences of a child Knight of Cups (director: Terrence Malick): informant to take down a Mafia family in- soldier whose family was torn apart by Why you might like it: True to form, vading his turf. It’s based on the book Black militants fighting in the civil war of a West the latest from the helmer of 2010’s The Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance African country. Tree of Life (nominated for three Oscars Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Dick Why I’ve got my eye on it: I was capti- including Best Director and Best Picture) Lehr and Gerard O’Neill. vated by 2012’s War Witch, which dealt with is shrouded in mystery, but the plot is said Why I’ve got my eye on it: Cooper’s similar subject matter. Idris Elba also stars to concern themes of celebrity and excess. films, for better or worse, end up being as Commandant, which could translate to Regardless, if you’re a fan of the auteur, bandied about during the Oscar race ever recognition. The film is being distributed chances are, you’re all-in. since his first film 2009’s Crazy Heart won by Netflix, it would be interesting to see if Why I’ve got my eye on it: I’m a fan of Jeff Bridges the Best Actor Oscar. Also, it Netflix can garner Academy attention as it the director as well as everyone in his re- stars Johnny Depp as Whitey and Benedict has done for the television voting bodies.