Chasing Zero Dark Thirty Reviews

Head spinning from trying to keep up with ZDT articles. Here are a few more, plus a new pic from the Sunday Q and A.

Michael Hogan and Christopher Rosen discuss the film and Oscar chances at Huff Post 

Rosen : “I have no trouble in saying it is, by far, the best movie I've seen in 2012. Kathryn Bigelow's "Hurt Locker" follow-up is superior in almost every way to that Best Picture winner” and says his current hunch for the 5th slot in the supporting actress category is " "Les Mis" co-star Samantha Barks, with "Zero Dark Thirty" co-star Jennifer Ehle and "Silver Linings Playbook" co-star Jacki Weaver running close behind"

In her Strong Women, Ambiguous Ethics Drive Bigelow's Oscar Pic review at Movieline, Jen Yamato wrote:  “Bigelow [...] gave Jennifer Ehle (Pride and Prejudice, Contagion) the film’s second strong female role, as a senior CIA analyst who shares Maya’s drive to unearth bin Laden.”

Sasha Stone, Awards Daily calls ZDT 'unflinching, uncompromising' and talks about Oscars and the film’s central character being a woman.

“While Bigelow’s female lead doesn’t strap on the talking points from the feminist movement or even the Obama administration, it is telling that not once in Bigelow’s film does her lead stand behind a man, trust a man’s opinion over her own, or feel the need to strike up a romance with a man”

Jordan Hoffman at Screen Crushthought “This look at world’s biggest manhunt may be the best manhunt movie ever made.”  He also reveals more details about Jennifer's role than I've seen expressed before.  “Interestingly the only friction comes from another woman, played by Jennifer Ehle, who is quick to throw some odd facial expressions Chastain’s way. While the two later bond, she, a tragic character, is ultimately held up as someone who perhaps doesn’t quite have her act together. One can interpret this as someone too preoccupied with identity politics, which becomes her undoing. I may be reading too much into this, but when you consider the fact that Al Qaeda wants their women handcuffed to the kitchen, it’s impossible not to dwell on the matter." 

[Hmmm. Tragic? Can't wait to see those expressions, though!]

Jordyn Taylor in a backstage piece How 'Zero Dark Thirty' Was Cast shares this fascinating tidbit: ‘When casting director Gail Stevens auditioned actors for “Zero Dark Thirty,” she says she couldn’t let them read from the movie’s script. She couldn’t even tell them what they were auditioning for. “The script was very, very, very sensitive, and hardly anyone read it,” Stevens says. “We would get people in to read, [and] we would read from other scripts—films that had scenes that could have been used in that kind of area.”’

The confused state of best picture race is covered by Richard Rushfield in a BuzzFeed article.

Thelma Adams at The Reel Breakdown found ZDT "Engrossing. Complicated. Urgent. Spare." and says "There is not one moment of dead air or narrative padding."

Paula Puryear Martin at Revel In It was impressed, saying, “I was blown away, again and again, Bigelow and team’s ability to inject deep humanity into a story that could have been rendered in stark, us or them terms.” and calling it "a masterpiece".  She noted that it stars “the uber-talented Jessica Chastain, the tender and talented veteran actress Jennifer Ehle, and a revelatory Jason Clarke”

 

I saw hundreds of tweets from people who had seen the early screenings of ZDT. For some reason I was led to bookmark only one because I thought it just might prove to be a perfect 140-character summary of it. When I saw the tweeter’s follow-up later I had to laugh at the proof that I’d chosen very well (see the tweets below).

There is also another photo from the Sunday November 25^th Q and A (credit to Mike The Fanboy who was there)