Talk About Awards For Love and Mercy

[Summertime Blooz]

I think the most likely acting nom for this movie is probably Elizabeth Banks for Supporting Actress. She has the hottest career right now (having directed Summer blockbuster 'Pitch Perfect 2') and has the more admirable heroic role in the movie. As they say every Oscar season, "It's her (or his) time." The female acting categories are also usually less competetive. Plus Banks kills it in her scenes with Giamatti. I don't see Dano or Cusack getting nominated for their work even though it was pretty solid. It will be interesting to see what happens. A sound editing or mixing nomination could be in the cards as minor consolation for no Best Picture nom.

[Pretty Funky]

It was a good movie but I really don't think it will win the Oscar for best picture.  Probably best shot is acting nominations for Dano, Cusack or Giamatti.

Tough doing a split role for Dano and Cusack but I hear you on Giamatti.

[Wirestone]

Realistically, the best shot is original song. The Academy loves to nominate living legend types because they will show up to perform. I can totally see them nominating Brian simply so he and band plays at the telecast. I don't know if it would win, but I bet the producers push it (and the car radio playing the song in the film strongly suggests they already have that in mind).

[debonbon]

I think it could possibly get a nod for sound editing but can't really see it getting any Oscar noms. Nothing in it stands out to me but who knows.

[Emdeeh]

I think the odds of nominations and perhaps even a win or two is better with the Golden Globes. L&M strikes me as the kind of film the Foreign Press Association finds appealing.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

Dano and Giamatti are worthy in my opinion. Possibly best picture. Objectively though, I think it should win all the awards!

[Cam Mott]

I liked the movie a lot. Among my favorites this year. I'm not expecting much, if any, Oscar action but will be tickled if it comes.  

[Paul J B]

Like it says on the Blu Ray cover...The best musical biopic in decades, Chicago Sun times. How can you argue that?

The categorically award nominated/winning Walk The Line was good, but L&M is superior on so many levels. The recreations are stunning. Look at that Sloop John B video again. To recreate that EXACTLY as it was is top notch incredible film making. The opening scene with Dano, talking about "losing it" as the projector breaks to black screen and sounds/voices flood in...wow and I mean WOW. The bedroom montage imagery alone is fantastic, then hearing In My Room to start and finishing with Till I Die......talk about nailing a sequence.

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of L&M in general is that the movie lets the viewer decide when to feel emotional. The "ok this is where you should get choked up" moment is absent. The viewer can get choked up, or feel disgust for Landy, or frustration with Mike, but its all subtle. This movie IS Pet Sounds on film. Sad scenes about sad times and sad scenes about happy times.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Like it says on the Blu Ray cover...The best musical biopic in decades, Chicago Sun times. How can you argue that?

The categorically award nominated/winning Walk The Line was good, but L&M is superior on so many levels. The recreations are stunning. Look at that Sloop John B video again. To recreate that EXACTLY as it was is top notch incredible film making. The opening scene with Dano, talking about "losing it" as the projector breaks to black screen and sounds/voices flood in...wow and I mean WOW. The bedroom montage imagery alone is fantastic, then hearing In My Room to start and finishing with Till I Die......talk about nailing a sequence.

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of L&M in general is that the movie lets the viewer decide when to feel emotional. The "ok this is where you should get choked up" moment is absent. The viewer can get choked up, or feel disgust for Landy, or frustration with Mike, but its all subtle. This movie IS Pet Sounds on film. Sad scenes about sad times and sad scenes about happy times.

Yes, but you are assuming that the Oscars reward creativity and they don't really. A little bit -- but not much. That fact that only one Coen Brothers movie and one Scorsese movie has won best picture and other great filmmakers never had a movie win Best Picture is a testament to that. The Academy Awards typically like status quo, inoffensive, middle of the road kind of movies. They tend to avoid schlocky popcorn flicks (unless they made a ton of money) but they also tend to avoid really creative, unique, and challenging movies too. This is why I see Love & Mercy as being by and large shut out from the Oscars.

I would also add that I think that I'm Not There is a better film than L&M and it was all but denied any Oscars. It received one nomination, I think, which was Cate Blanchett in a performance that was almost intended to get a nod. But given the calibre of that movie (which, along with The Squid and the Whale and Nebraska, I consider to be the best film of the 21st Century) I think it should have been nominated for about ten awards and it was nominated for one.

[Komera]

Maybe not wins, but at least nominations.  The people who make DVD covers LOVE to put nominations on the covers.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Maybe not wins, but at least nominations.  The people who make DVD covers LOVE to put nominations on the covers.

Again, though, for the reasons I gave above, I would be pleasantly surprised to see L&M getting nominated.

[Lee Marshall]

Love and Mercy is shockingly direct.  Here I thought I knew the story of Brian Wilson and what he went through as a person.  What I didn't know AT ALL/In any way, shape or form was what it was like to go through that endless little tunnel as Brian Wilson.  I couldn't and can't even begin to imagine what it was like.  And every time, along the way, that Brian enjoyed some kind of public triumph as a person and as an artist I incorrectly assumed that things were on the mend, improving, that there was plenty of light at the end of some imaginary passageway to normalcy.

Award shows and Halls of Fame and things of that ilk do what they do based on reasons which make little or no sense and which pay no heed to the reality of what sits before the decision makers as their various real and honest 'choices'.

I KNOW...though...what one of the most important movies for my life, passions, interests and tastes is.  It is Love and Mercy. 

I honestly don't know how he ever recorded the song let alone managed to finish that first solo album.  My emotions when it comes to Brian and the various assholes who've played him for way too many decades both in person and then with their never-ending ramifications which continue[d] are almost IMPOSSIBLE not to loathe.  The only thing which saves his father from the instant call for retroactive abortion is the fact that his 'input' was needed in order to supply us with Brian, Carl and Denny.

Will Love and Mercy be recognized?  Like Pet Sounds, like SMiLE, like Brian himself...perhaps someday.  The SOONER the BETTER.  I'm sure it means a great deal to both Brian and Melinda and because of that I hope it happens at the next Academy Awards event.

Gawd!!!  I thought I knew... ... ...and I really had NO idea.  What a sensational and IMPORTANT movie it is.  Real industry recognition is DUE.

[Emily]

Love and Mercy is shockingly direct.  Here I thought I knew the story of Brian Wilson and what he went through as a person.  What I didn't know AT ALL/In any way, shape or form was what it was like to go through that endless little tunnel as Brian Wilson.  I couldn't and can't even begin to imagine what it was like.  And every time, along the way, that Brian enjoyed some kind of public triumph as a person and as an artist I incorrectly assumed that things were on the mend, improving, that there was plenty of light at the end of some imaginary passageway to normalcy.

Award shows and Halls of Fame and things of that ilk do what they do based on reasons which make little or no sense and which pay no heed to the reality of what sits before the decision makers as their various real and honest 'choices'.

I KNOW...though...what one of the most important movies for my life, passions, interests and tastes is.  It is Love and Mercy. 

I honestly don't know how he ever recorded the song let alone managed to finish that first solo album.  My emotions when it comes to Brian and the various assholes who've played him for way too many decades both in person and then with their never-ending ramifications which continue[d] are almost IMPOSSIBLE not to loathe.  The only thing which saves his father from the instant call for retroactive abortion is the fact that his 'input' was needed in order to supply us with Brian, Carl and Denny.

Will Love and Mercy be recognized?  Like Pet Sounds, like SMiLE, like Brian himself...perhaps someday.  The SOONER the BETTER.  I'm sure it means a great deal to both Brian and Melinda and because of that I hope it happens at the next Academy Awards event.

Gawd!!!  I thought I knew... ... ...and I really had NO idea.  What a sensational and IMPORTANT movie it is.  Real industry recognition is DUE.

Pet Sounds, SMiLE, Brian Wilson himself, Love and Mercy, and your post. I was born and raised, probably conceived, with a Beach Boys sound track and a dad who made sure I learned about Brian Wilson along with Shakespeare and Rodin, but L&M gave me an emotional education.

[Shady]

Just going by recent Oscar nomination articles it looks like L&M has been buried by all the recent releases.. Lost in the shuffle.

Will be seriously disappointing if it doesn't pick up any noms but not surprising 

[guitarfool2002]

Talk of an Oscar nod for Elizabeth Banks in Love & Mercy:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/09/oscars-2016-best-supporting-actresses-and-their-anchors/


And for Paul Dano:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/09/oscars-2016-best-supporting-actor-is-crowded-already/

[bonnie bella]

Dano sounds like a good chance.  Elizabeth Banks (by far the best looking of the lineup) might just surprise us.  I thought she was great.

[guitarfool2002]

Watch for the scene where Murry shows up at the studio with the new Sunrays record, and focus in on Dano standing in the studio doorway. Then take a look at some of those studio photos from 1966, from Jasper Dailey or Guy Webster, like this for one example:



And consider how much skill as an actor Dano brought to capturing the littlest details of Brian from that era, even the non-verbal aspects. Definitely deserving of any awards he gets nominated for.

[sea of tunes]

From Variety

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/straight-outta-compton-love-mercy-oscar-buzz-1201605599/

With the New York Film Festival (Sept. 25-Oct. 11) adding new titles to the Oscar buzz after Venice-Telluride-Toronto, it’s time for Oscar voters to catch up on some films that opened in the distant past — i.e., between January and August.

That list definitely includes Roadside Attractions’ “Love & Mercy” and Universal’s “Straight Outta Compton.” The former is out on DVD, and the latter is still in theaters.

The two are fact-based tales about the music scene in Southern California; they respectively deal with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in the 1960s, and with N.W.A in Compton in the 1980s. They’re very different in tone and approach, but both are about the creative act, and how artists can be frustrated but eventually nourished by their surroundings.

Both require a little patience from viewers. At first it’s jarring to have two familiar actors, Paul Dano and John Cusack, playing the same character in “Mercy,” but when the film kicks in, the casting makes sense. Both are excellent.

With “Compton,” AMPAS voters may be reluctant to watch a film about a “gangsta” culture that seems too foreign. Considering the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences demographic, it’s a safe bet that many of them grew up with Beach Boys music; it’s also a safe bet that few have ever bought an album by N.W.A. But in truth, the “Compton” milieu is as foreign-yet-familiar as “Jersey Boys.”

The first 40 minutes of “Compton” require some work, as it introduces a lot of characters. But don’t give up. About an hour into the movie, the film shifts into high gear with a sequence of N.W.A performing “F**k the Police” at a Detroit concert. It’s a piece of bravura filmmaking from director F. Gary Gray and his artisans that simultaneously shows the relationships among the group members, as well as all the reasons why fans loved N.W.A — and why the authorities didn’t. “These are not bangers, these are artists,” says Paul Giamatti (who happens to be in both films).

Each movie features a scene in a recording studio as they work on albums. Hollywood’s musical biopics often have trouble depicting the creative act, lamely showing a poet sitting at his desk, or a composer looking skyward for inspiration and then suddenly beginning to play the piano. But the sequences in “Love & Mercy” and “Compton” hit the nail on the head, showing the creative process in ways that are illuminating and entertaining.

Universal’s “Straight Outta Compton” is hot-button topical; “Love & Mercy,” less so. But both are about universal truths about self and family. So voters should catch up on the work of directors F. Gary Gray (no relation) and Bill Pohlad, and their teams of filmmakers. A lot of films from the January-to-August period have faded from the conversation, but these two still remain players.

[HeyJude]

Talk of an Oscar nod for Elizabeth Banks in Love & Mercy:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/09/oscars-2016-best-supporting-actresses-and-their-anchors/


And for Paul Dano:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/09/oscars-2016-best-supporting-actor-is-crowded-already/

I should preface this by saying that, apart from my BB fandom, I think "Love & Mercy" is a great *film*, and does deserve some nominations.

But, as objective as I can be about this as a film, I'm not sure Banks's work in the film is literally Oscar-worthy. She did a great job, and I wouldn't argue with a nomination just to get this film more eyes. The performance (unlike, say, Dano's) never struck me while watching as a "wow, this is Oscar-caliber work"  sort of moment. I do think Dano's work falls into that category. I'm not sure even Cusack's is quite in that territory (again, I liked his work in the film), but his part in the film is certainly the secondary "Oscar bait" sort of role in the film (obviously).

[sea of tunes]

Talk of an Oscar nod for Elizabeth Banks in Love & Mercy:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/09/oscars-2016-best-supporting-actresses-and-their-anchors/


And for Paul Dano:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/09/oscars-2016-best-supporting-actor-is-crowded-already/

I should preface this by saying that, apart from my BB fandom, I think "Love & Mercy" is a great *film*, and does deserve some nominations.

But, as objective as I can be about this as a film, I'm not sure Banks's work in the film is literally Oscar-worthy. She did a great job, and I wouldn't argue with a nomination just to get this film more eyes. The performance (unlike, say, Dano's) never struck me while watching as a "wow, this is Oscar-caliber work"  sort of moment. I do think Dano's work falls into that category. I'm not sure even Cusack's is quite in that territory (again, I liked his work in the film), but his part in the film is certainly the secondary "Oscar bait" sort of role in the film (obviously).

I agree with all of this.

[Paul J B]

It also deserves a nomination for best screenplay. Aside from the daunting task of weaving two periods 20 years apart, and pulling it off seamlessly, the script is loaded with really intelligent sequences and imagery. Not to mention great characters.

[astroray]

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2015/10/full-thomson-repost-the-most-eloquent-testimonial-for-elizabeth-banks-love-mercy-performance-anywhere-by-anyone/

[the professor]

The Academy Awards sometimes make good choices such as for example jk Simmons  who won Best Supporting Actor for the movie whiplash. In other instances, often with the best picture, they make idiotic choice such as that wretchedly bad movie 12 years a slave, Birdman from last year, Dances with Wolves, crash, and a series of other films, often those of temporary cultural value because of their perceived political correctness. The movie love and mercy is 10 times better than any of those that I have listed.

Also consider the execrable Robin Williams winning over Burt Reynolds for Best Supporting Actor. Most of all from love and mercy, I hope that Brian's song that ends the film will win. One kind of love is one of my favorite Brian Wilson songs including the entire Beach Boys corpus.

[GoodVibrations33]

Pretty good article:  http://deadline.com/2015/10/paul-dano-elizabeth-banks-love-mercy-brian-wilson-netflix-aaron-sorkin-1201581968/

The short interview the writer has with Brian is classic!  The way it ends is great!

This is interesting:

I also asked Pohlad about the Oscar strategy where Dano is being pitched for Supporting Actor and Cusack for Lead even though they pretty much equally share the role.

[Wirestone]

Really don't get the hate for Birdman. It's great!

As for L&M, I expect a nom or three, but the acting slots always see a bunch of competition. We shall see!