Best Lead / Supporting Actor Oscar 2013 - July Predictions

Well, we certainly got our first lock (if there is one) in Robert Redford, after J.C. Chandor's All Is Lost debuted at Cannes.  The Hollywood Legend received rave career-best reviews, and it has been almost four decades since his first and only acting nomination for The Sting.  Additionally, Tom Hanks (Castaway) and Spencer Tracy (The Old Man and the Sea) managed to get into the field in the past with similar material.  The pensive one-man tale was a festival favorite which certainly holds strong chances at making it into major categories for 2013, including Best Picture. The writer/director already has a screenwriting nod for his last film Margin Call, which was also put out by the same studio, Lionsgate.  The distributor also released Mud at Cannes the previous year, which has turned out to be one of the few arthouse hits of 2013 thus far.  The coming-of-age drama received almost universal acceptance on Rotten Tomatoes, though its rank on other major aggregates is considerably lower.  Still, Liongate has two seemingly solid contenders.  Like Chandor, Mud's Jeff Nichols is also an up-and-coming filmmaker and may even be looking at an original screenplay nomination for himself.  Still, Lost's chances, at minimum, seem to boil down to a bid for Redford's third Oscar (after directing Ordinary People in 1980, and winning an honorary statue in 2002).  The only obstacle I can see the film facing is a comparison to Gravity, but that's really a stretch.

I decided some time ago that Matthew McConaughey's emaciated AIDS drugstore cowboy has to be Too Baity to Fail.  Focus Features has so little on its plate at this point (that could all change once the Fall Festivals hit), that a nod for the Texas actor seems imminent (they also have The Place Beyond the Pines which made a respectable critical and commercial show in its own right already).

Remember a few months ago when the possibilities were more endless, and though there was little chance, there were five seemingly Best Actor contenders who happened to be black?  Well, there still are, but the chances of even two of those men getting in seem the best possible scenario at this point.  For one, Harvey Weinstein is behind the majority of them (Michael B. Jordan, Idris Elba, both of Forest Whitaker's films) and there is only so much he can do, especially when it's not his strongest category.  I suppose I have to count 42's Chadwick Bosman out at this point.  Jordan already has a decent base of festival reviews for Fruitvale Station, and even though there are those who believe (and have seen) Chiwetel Ejiofor has a long road ahead of him with 12 Years a Slave, I still fancy him being a contender to some degree.

There is plenty of chatter about Leonardo DiCaprio, because, well, he's Leonardo DiCaprio, and he's teaming up with Martin Scorsese for a fifth time.  There are those that have compared The Wolf of Wall Street as being a white-collar Goodfellas.  After watching the first trailer, as well as skimming the entire 500+ pages of the memoir, I have to concur.  And, if it is, would a retread really earn equal or greater accolades from The Academy?  I have to wonder.  I dropped Wolf from my Top Nine slightly, only to add it back in for July, though I'm tempted to leave it out entirely.  I'm trying to be better about not making any rash leaps up or down, so it'll probably just rest at the "bottom" of the top until the film finally hits.  I can't imagine why I would be bullish on any other category for it, including Best Actor.  It certainly is possible that DiCaprio might end up pulling out a career-defining performance with his narcissistic financial trader and swindler and erase all remnants of his lackluster turn with Django Unchained; though, I wonder if the AMPAS will really go for it.

From a recent measure, they seem to like their antagonists broad (The Silence of the Lambs, Misery), unruly/bloodthirsty (The Last Kind of Scotland, There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, The Dark Knight, Inglorious Basterds) and/or unrepentant (Wall Street, Training Day), ambiguous (Reversal of Fortune), insecure (Michael Clayton), or damaged/handicapped to the point of sympathy (Monster, The Reader, Precious).  The moral ambiguity seems to work better with women.  And it didn't pan out for him with Catch Me If You Can, an arguably battier role.  People might try to trot out Michael Douglas' Gordan Gekko, but there was also a distance between villain and audience with the Charlie Sheen character, torn between temptation and what he was taught.  Interestingly enough, the critical and commercial box-office bomb The Bonfire of the Vanities just a few years later also examined its self-designated Master of the Universe from afar.  These men of excess were cautionary tales judged for their lack of humanity.  They weren't someone to aspire to and serve as a vicarious outlet.  To me, on paper, Wolf seems like a showier Henry Hill at best interested in exploring the psychology of gluttonous man who wasted millions of dollars on drugs, prostitutes, and taking advantage of other people.  Is this something the somewhat recent 99% might not be interested in indulging?  Or will this be an iconic, entertaining examination of the 21st-Century (er, 20th-Century) unchecked male ego?  Who knows.  We'll have to wait and see.  The conventional wisdom seems to be that if DiCaprio could almost get into the race with that stinker J. Edgar, he should have no problem here.  I can't come up with enough of a convincing argument to the contrary, but I'm pretty bearish on his chances right now.  He's a bubble-pick.

As for the other slots, some are thinking Christian Bale, and the transformation alone supports that (especially if he channels his real-life counterpart in the original script).  His character's similarities to DiCaprio's may or may not be a disadvantage.  Both of their chances may rise or fall with how their film is received overall.  And, there are other possibilities.  Oscar Isaac has strong reviews in a likely Best Picture nominee.  And, depending on his campaign, Bruce Dern might muscle his way into the more competitive lead category.  God help us if The Butler gains traction, but with Harvey in its corner, the obviousness of his release strategy in the context of The Help can't be underestimated.  We first need to see the receipts.  And, though I predicted this is going to be a trainwreck, I can't presently now say it doesn't have a chance at a nod or two (yuck, I feel so unclean after typing that).

I like a little variety, and if Redford, McConaughey, and DiCaprio/Bale all pan out, it wouldn't be unheard of for two relative unknowns sneaking into the race.

Best Actor
1 (+19). Robert Redford, All Is Lost
2 (+3). Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
3 (-1). Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station
4 (+2). Christian Bale, American Hustle
5 (-4). Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis

6 (+11). Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
7 (-3). Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave 
8 (--). Forrest Whitaker, The Butler
9 (+14). Benedict Cumberbatch, The Fifth Estate
10 (-7). Bruce Dern, Nebraska (supporting?)

11 (-1). Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
12 (-6). George Clooney, The Monuments Men (supporting?)
13 (-6). Idris Elba, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
14 (-3). Leonardo DiCaprio, The Great Gatsby
15 (-6). Ben Stiller, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
16 (-3). Michael Fassbender, The Counselor
17 (-1). Tye Sheridan, Mud (supporting?)
18 (-4). Matt Damon, The Monuments Men (supporting?)
19 (+15). Forrest Whitaker, Black Nativity
20 (+4). Philip Seymour Hoffman, A Most Wanted Man

21 (+12). Michael Pena, Chavez
22 (+3). Daniel Brühl, Rush
23 (+5). Colin Firth, The Railway Man
24 (+5). Colin Firth, Devil's Knot
25 (-13). Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
26 (+16). Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight
27 (+18). Robert DeNiro, Malavita
28 (+21). Joaquin Phoenix, Her
29 (+8). Casey Affleck, Ain't Them Bodies Saints
30 (-11). Josh Brolin, Labor Day (supporting?)

31 (-4). Hugh Jackman, Prisoners
32 (--). Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
33 (-12). Miles Teller, The Spectacular Now
34 (+10). Josh Brolin, Oldboy
35 (-4). Ralph Fiennes, The Invisible Woman
36 (+10). Chris Hemsworth, Rush (supporting?)
37 (+6). Chadwick Boseman, 42
38 (-16). Ali Mosaffa, The Past
39 (-13). Tom Hanks, Saving Mr. Banks (supporting?)
40 (-10). Will Forte, Nebraska (supporting?)

This is a tough category to call for just about every slot, if not all of them.  Who knows where Bruce Dern will end up.  It could go either way.  I really don't know what I'm talking about, as I haven't seen the film, and there are those who insist that he's strictly a lead and there is no way around it for the studio to commit category fraud.  I guess it's the tempered reviews that have got me second-guessing that notion.  With all this talk about villainy earlier, perhaps Michael Fassbender may find himself finally competing in the big leagues.  This is also the category Harvey Weinstein has the least play in, so, I foresee him getting behind at least one of his August men.  I've decided to suddenly switch out McGregor and Cooper for Cumberbatch, without any rhyme or reason, other than it's an unusual role and the actor is super-hot right now.  It's still hard for me to imagine the AMPAS not nominating Walt Disney as played by Tom Hanks.  And, will strong reviews and a potential hit finally get Sam Rockwell some due recognition?

Supporting Actor
1 (New). Bruce Dern, Nebraska (lead?)
2 (+5). Michael Fassbender, Twelve Years a Slave
3 (+7). Benedict Cumberbatch, August: Osage County
4 (-3). Tom Hanks, Saving Mr. Banks (lead?)
5 (+6). Sam Rockwell, The Way, Way Back

6 (+8). Matt Damon, The Monuments Men (lead?)
7 (+5). Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
8 (--). Josh Brolin, Labor Day (lead?)
9 (New). Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
10 (+24). Jeremy Renner, American Hustle

11 (+11). Philip Seymour Hoffman, A Most Wanted Man (lead?)
12 (+2). George Clooney, The Monuments Men (lead?)
13 (New). Steve Coogan, Philomena (lead?)
14 (-1). John Goodman, The Monuments Men
15 (New). Daniel Brühl, The Fifth Estate
16 (+7). Matthew McConaughey, Mud
17 (-15). Chris Cooper, August: Osage County

18 (-14). Ewan McGregor, August: Osage County
19 (+2). Chris Hemsworth, Rush 
20 (-15). Colin Farrell, Saving Mr. Banks (lead?)

21 (+10). Javier Bardem, The Counselor
22 (-3). Tim Roth, Grace of Monaco

23 (New). Sean Mahon, Philomena 
24 (New). Jean Dujardin, The Monuments Men
25 (+5). George Clooney, Gravity
26 (-6). James Franco, Spring Breakers
27 (+10). Joaquin Phoenix, The Immigrant
28 (-19). Steve Carell, Foxcatcher  (lead?)
29 (-13). Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
30 (-2). Harrison Ford, 42

31 (-1). Woody Harrelson, Out of the Furnace
32 (+4). Jake Gyllenhaal, Prisoners
33 (-1). Ben Foster, Ain't Them Bodies Saints
34 (-31). Will Forte, Nebraska (lead?)
35 (-6). Adam Scott, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
36 (-3). Terrence Howard, Prisoners
37 (-10). Tahir Rahim, The Past
38 (-13). Benedict Cumberbatch, Twelve Years a Slave
39 (-4). Matthew McConaughey, The Wolf of Wall Street
40 (-8). Brad Pitt, The Counselor

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Movie Spoiler: The Silence of the Lambs

Part of my original agenda for this blog was to finish out a few things that I started.  One of them was the Oscar Revisionism series, which just wrapped up last month.  One day, I hope it inspires someone to take it further and give the series a more in-depth, improved treatment.  Another thing I set out to do were detailed movie spoiler summaries for my most favorite films.  While I have written a lot of plot rundowns over the last two years, they've mostly been from current films.  I've been lagging, with only one for Basic Instinct, and another for Pee Wee's Big Adventure (yes, those are two of my favorite films, shut up.  I didn't say they were classics).  I have about three more, and I'm happy to say that I've just finished one of my favorites, if not possibly my favorite, The Silence of the Lambs.  Now, I don't know what this says about me as a person, but I try not to care.  I mean subject matter aside (which, I admit, does gross me out), it's really a brilliant movie that can be watched from two completely different perspectives: 1) An earnest, yet chilling horror-thriller about a young FBI cadet coming into her own as she hunts down a serial killer or 2) High camp with glorious production values and sophisticated taste.  I usually opt for the latter, though I appreciate both.  That being said, it's a smart and solid film from ANY perspective.  The story, while outrageous, and probably unlikely elements, aren't altogether unbelievable (for the time it was made) for a layman watching in 1991.  And the dialogue is wicked sharp.  Anthony Hopkins helped create one of cinema's most memorable villains, and Jodie Foster one of its heros.

The film won Best Picture for 1991 (a year after its successful release), along with director, screenplay, lead actress, and actor (or the Big Five).  Only two other movies managed this feet.  Hopkins' lead nomination received some flack for his lack of screentime.  Yes, certainly, his role doesn't hit the traditional marks that can denote a "true' lead: title character, how often we seen the character, arc, transformation, etc.  But, he's integral to the plot, and controls the story the whole time.  It's Foster who we follow on her journey, and her arc to be had, but the heart of the film is her relationship to Hopkins.  Everything else is, shall we say, "incidental."  I'd also like to make mention due to some misinformation out there, that if you actually clock all of the scenes in which Hopkins is a part of, whether we see him or not, his technical screentime runs around forty-five minutes, a little less than 50% of the movie (it's often suggested that he's in it much less).  Consider the elaborate Memphis escape sequence, for one.  There's all kinds of SWAT activity and elevator business where we don't see "his face or body" and he has no lines, but he's in it all the same!  For close to the first half of the second hour, it's all about him.  He then disappears for about another half our, but, not for nothing, he's technically in the final shot while the entire end credits roll.  Yes, it counts!

Anyhow, it's one of the few Best Picture wins I'm truly excited about.  When author Thomas Harris finally put out a sequel in 1999, Hollywood jumped on that shit and put out a movie adaptation within practically a year.  I give Foster kudos for declining the big payout and passing on the project.  It's something you don't see often, especially today.  The movie was awful, because it wasn't a story that needed to be told (the book is worse than the movie, if only because the film's ending is better and not plainly ridiculous), but it did bad-ass box-office numbers.  There was a second adaptation of Harris' Red Dragon (a movie I didn't like the first incarnation), and another new Harris novel that was worse than Hannibal, and failed to make a profit.  The truth was, Jonathan Demme's Lambs was lightning in a bottle.  All the principal talent would not shine as brightly again: not the director, Harris, screenwriter Ted Tally, Hopkins, Foster, and Hopkins!

In all my viewing pleasures, I've never actually watched the whole film with such attention to detail until now, and there were some fun little things that I noticed.  Small things.  Like when Catherine Martin is kidnapped, it's her pet cat she leaves behind in the second floor window hovering above her.   While trapped in the pit, she managed to pull her captor's pet dog down to her level, when the tables turn.  Whether unintended or not, the juxtaposition is killer.  It just occurred to me that the only reason the manhunt for Buffalo Bill got more intense was because the latest victim was a senator’s daughter, showing how easily power and influence attracts the necessary attention to get something accomplished in contrast to the average person.  And doesn't the main hook of Howard Shore's score have a Danny Elfman Batman feel to it?  Whatever the case, Shore should have gotten nominated!  Have you noticed any interesting details you'd like to share?

I'd also like to mention that, last year, I saw a musical spoof of Lambs in Los Angeles that was absolutely to do for.  You can read my review here.

Movie Spoiler Summary
(I used the DVD chapter titles to give this long post some organization)

Main Title/Intro

Over the opening credits, Special Agent Clarice M. Starling (Jodie Foster) negotiates an obstacle course in some woods near Quantico, VA.  The introduction seems very television movie to me, but that’s all about to change.  (Scott Glenn gets third billing before the title!)  Oscar winner Foster gets first, but this film will become her highest grossing film ever sold on her being the biggest star (a record that would remain to this day).  A superior, Agent Burroughs (Lawrence T. Wrentz), calls her to the office of Jack Crawford.  She sees her roommate Ardelia Mapp (Kasi Lemmons, who has gone on to have a successful career as a director) on the way there and enters an elevator full of men, some not in the best of shape.  The moment is supposed to indicate that, as a female, she’s outnumbered and has to negotiate through her environment from a different perspective than her male counterparts. 

An Interesting Errand

She waits for Crawford in his Behavioral Science Services office observing a bulletin board full of photos and clippings regarding the active Buffalo Bill serial killer case.  Crawford (Glenn) greets her, commends her as a student, though he misremembers the exact grade he gave her on a course she took from him, and she administers her first of many corrections to him.  He enlists her for “an interesting errand” that he says is a rudimentary profiling of captive serial killers, but he’s actually using her to extract information regarding the Buffalo Bill case.  “Do you spook easily, Starling?” he asks her, hoping that she’ll be able to assist with an uncooperative subject in the study.  He gives her a special ID, a dossier on Hannibal Lecter, and questionnaire, along with a request to report, at minimum, the demeanor of his living quarters, as well as his activities.  Before she leaves, she asks him if there is a potential connection to Buffalo Bill, and Crawford lies to her.  He also warns her not to share anything personal with him, “You don’t want Hannibal Lecter inside your head.”  

Don’t Touch the Glass

When she first meets with the asylum director Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald) in Baltimore, he describes Lecter as “a monster, pure psychopath, so rare to capture one alive.  From a research point of view, Lecter is our most prized asset.”  He then hits on her, “This can be quite a fun town if you have the right guide.”  She turns down his advances for an assortment of reasons, with the primary one being that she’s on assignment for official, time-sensitive business.  Wounded, he immediately grows cold, and assumes a bitchy tone with her for the duration of their interactions.  Chilton comments on how Lecter probably hasn’t seen a woman in eight years, ending with, “oh, oh, are you ever his taste, so to speak.”  Starling schools him that she’s an educated woman with degrees and they’re not from “a charm school.”  He relays the rules to her regarding dealing with Lecter and even mentions one that he later breaks, which eventually turns the city of Memphis upside down (“no pens”).  As a warning of exactly what she’s about to deal with, he shows her a picture of a nurse who attended Lecter and became a horrific example of one his victims.  Chilton shows her a picture, but we as an audience never get to see it.  Only, we don’t have to.  Chilton does enough by explaining what happened as Starling observes the picture: “The doctors managed to reset her jaw, more or less, save one of her eyes.  His pulse never got above eighty-five … even when he ate her tongue.”  The clever Starling, thinking ahead, requests that Chilton, who described himself earlier as Lecter’s “nemesis,” doesn’t escort her all the way to the inmate’s cell.  When he expresses his irritation at having even taking her down to the basement in the first place, she soothes his ego with, “Yes, sir, but, then I would have missed the pleasure of your company, sir.”  (Damn, she’s good!)  The attendant, Barney (Frankie Faison) is a sweetheart who tells her that he’ll be watching over her and she’ll do fine.

“Closer!” (Clarice/Hannibal Scene #1)

On her way to Lecter’s at the end of the hall, there’s cell after cell of freak shows, including “Multiple” Miggs (Stuart Rudin) who confesses to being able to smell Starling’s “cunt.”  Lecter is ominously standing in the middle of his cell awaiting Starling.  She introduces herself with a professional demeanor, but it’s clear she is green behind the ears.  He asks to see her credentials, and the specifies for her to bring them into better view, “Closer, please … CLOSER.”  He steps toward her, with an enforced glass partition between them taking in an eyeful of the young agent, before looking at her badge.  “That expires in one week.  You’re not real FBI, are you?” he rhetorically asks her with a sly wink.  When she explains her true rank, Lecter is offended.  “Jack Crawford sent a trainee to me?”   While she’s obviously an amateur, she’s tough, by-the-book, and stands up to Lecter, as she has her own way with words. 

She has a seat and Lecter gets some busy details out of the way, asking Starling what his neighbor hissed at her just minutes ago.  “I can smell your cunt.”  Lecter: “I myself cannot.”  He takes a whiff through the breathing holes in the partition and shares what he can smell, making Starling visibly uneasy: “You use Evian skin cream.  And sometimes you wear L'Air du Temps … but not today.”  She quickly regroups and changes the subject to Lecter’s drawings, “All that detail just from memory, sir?”  “Memory, Agent Starling, is what I have instead of a view.”  Starling rushes their pleasantries, by delivering a pun, “Well, perhaps you’d care to lend us your view on this questionnaire, sir.”  “No, no, no, no,” he purrs with a smile.  “You were doing fine.  You had been courteous, and receptive to courtesy.  You had established trust with the embarrassing truth about Miggs.  Now, this ham-handed segue into your questionnaire,” clicking with his tongue.  Starling fires back that she’s just doing her job.  He toys with her and brings up the origin of Buffalo Bill’s nickname.  She confirms that she’s aware that it started in Kansas City homicide as a bad joke about skinning humps.  (If you listen closely, you can hear someone coughing in the background.)  Lecter, listening intently to Starling, asks more about Bill, “Thrill me with your acumen.”  She shares that most serial killers keep trophies from their victims.  “I didn’t.”  “No, no, you ate yours.” 

Starling places the dossier in the drawer attached to Lectors cell.  He smiles and winks at Starling, while resting against a post and pretending to thumb through the pages.  “Oh, Agent Starling, you think you can dissect me with this blunt, little tool … You’re so ambitious, aren’t you?  Do you know what you look like to me with your good bag and your cheap shoes?  You look like a rube.  A well scrubbed hustling rube with a little taste.  Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you’re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?  And that accent you’ve tried so desperately to shed: pure West Virginia.  But, what does your father do?  Is he a coal miner?  Does he stink of the lamb?  You know how quickly the boys found you.  All those tedious, sticky, fumbling’s in the backseats of cars, while you could only dream of getting OUT, getting ANYWHERE, getting all the way to the FBI!” 

Lector has just ripped her to shreds, but, the sturdy Sterling acknowledges his sharp assessments and spits right back at him in calm, collecting tones.  “You see a lot, doctor.  But, are you strong enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself?  What about it?  Why don’t you, why don’t you look at yourself and write down what you see.”  Smugly, “Or, maybe you’re afraid to.”  It was a valiant attempt to play at that adult table, but Lecter nips any notion she has of being his equal in the bud, shoves the profile back into the drawer, and delivers one of the film’s most famous lines (which is totally different in the book!): “A census taker once tried to test me.  I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti,” ending it with a chilling sound he makes between his top row of teeth and bottom lip.  “You fly back to school now, little Starling.  Fly, fly, fly.  Fly, fly, fly,” his voice trails as he turns his back to her.  She picks up her briefcase and as she passes Miggs’ cell.  He’s masturbating, talking about how he bit his wrist, and throws a load right at her (I was so naïve when I first saw this; I had no idea what was going on).  So gross.  This causes pandemonium and Lecter summons her back.  He insures her that he had nothing to do with Miggs’ discourteous behavior and gives her the first clue to solving the Buffalo Bill case: “Look deep within your self” and instructs her to find a former patient of his, Miss Hester Mofet.  He sends her out and promises her that she’s safe from another one of Miggs’ special deliveries so soon. 

Starling leaves the asylum naturally distraught and has her first flashback to her childhood involving her father (Jeffrie Lane).  Later, Starling trains with other cadets in a mock sting, except she’s not focused.  “You’re dead Starling,” the instructor holds an unloaded gun to her head as an indication that she failed the test for not checking her danger area (“the corner”).  Later, Ardelia and Starling quiz each other while jogging.  She follows that with some research on Lecter with the microfiche.  (Remember MICROFICHE?)  Ardelia summons her over to a call from Crawford. 

Your Self

He informs her that Lecter convinced Miggs to swallow his tongue, which resulted in his death, and matter-of-factly counsels her that she has no reason to feel an emotional investment.  Discussing the case, Starling shares that she thinks she ascertained a clue from Lecter, which leads her to Your Self Storage facility.  When she visits the location, the supervisor Mr. Lang (Leib Lensky, an 87-year-old in his final film performance), who is a character unto himself, allows her to investigate Hester Mofet’s unit, which has been unattended, but paid in full for ten years.  He can’t assist her with the rickety door, and his driver (George ‘Red’ Schwartz) “detests physical labor” (and looks like a grump), but the resourceful Starling uses a car jack from the back of her Pinto.  Before she enters the unit, with the door barely off the ground providing enough space for her to slide through, she tells the supervisor, “Oh, if this door should fall down,” she forces a chuckle, “Or anything else,” and hands him a card with the information of the Baltimore Field Office.  She rips her pants and cuts herself while entering the unit, which is pretty fucking huge, and filled with some random shit like a stuffed owl with its wings spread out, dismembered mannequins, and an old-timey car covered in an American flag.  She enters the vehicle, and finds even wackier items like a headless elegantly dressed mannequin holding a vintage cigarette holder.  The propped up garage door falls, but Starling is too fascinated in her trove of discoveries to be bothered.  Her prize find is Mofet’s pickled head in a jar.

Hannibal’s Helping Hand(Clarice/Hannibal Scene #2)

She immediately rushes back to the asylum in the rain to have her second visit with Lecter.  She has figured out that ‘Hester Mofet’ is an anagram for: ‘The rest of me.’  “Miss the rest of me, meaning you rented that garage?”  I’m not sure how on earth she came to that conclusion, but Lecter, from all the way in the back of his cell, shoves open the drawer besides Starling, which contains a towel for her to dry off.  She’s suspicious at first, but takes it anyway and thanks him.  She’s surprised that he knows she’s bleeding, but then plays it off like it’s nothing.  We see her from Lecter’s POV that Chilton has set Lecter’s television to constantly play an evangelical channel (featuring Jim Roche). 

He asks her for the Buffalo Bill case file and she stays on the subject of Mofet.  He relents a tidbit of information: “His real name is: Benjamin Raspail, a former patient of mine, whose romantic attachments ran to, shall we way, the exotic.  I did not kill him, I assure you.  I merely tucked him away very much as I found him away after he missed three appointments.”  Starling asks him who killed Raspail, but he confesses to have no idea.  “Who can say?  Best thing for him really.  His therapy was going nowhere.”  Starling theorizes that Raspail was a transvestite, but Lecter corrects her: “Garden variety manic-depressive … a fledging killer’s first effort at transformation.”  He asks her how Starling felt when she first saw Raspail and she answers candidly, clinically, “Scared at first, then exhilarated.”  He asks her if she thinks Crawford “wants her sexually … do you think he visualizes scenarios, exchanges … fucking you.”  Starling, quick on her toes, shaking her head, quips, “That doesn’t interest me, doctor.  And, frankly, it’s the sort of thing Miggs would say.”  Lecter, not to be outdone: “Not anymore.”  Suddenly, Barney turns on the lights in Lecter’s cell.  Starling notices that his drawings have disappeared from his walls and he explains that Chilton is punishing him.  Sedately, he shares, “Doctor Chilton does enjoy his petty torments.” 

Lecter begins negotiating with Starling.  “I’ve been in this room for eight years now, Clarice.  I know they will never ever let me out while I’m alive.  What I want is a view.  I want a window where I can see a tree, or even water.  I want to be in a federal institution far away from Dr. Chilton … I’m offering you a psychological profile on Buffalo Bill, based on the case evidence.”  Turning to her, “I’ll help you catch him Clarice.”  She foolishly demands he tell her who decapitated Raspail.  He quells her impatience: “All good things to those who wait” and lets her know that Bill has already kidnapped his latest victim, or is close to it already.

Help From a Size 14

Cut to Senator Ruth Martin’s daughter Catherine (Brooke Smith) driving to her Memphis home while singing to Tom Petty’s “American Girl.”  Jame Gumb aka Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) watches her enter the parking lot from his night-vision goggles and then proceeds to pretend to need help moving a couch into his van with no windows.  He looks disheveled, scary, and “Molly, you in danger girl” suspicious.  The girl greets her cat sitting on her second floor window while carrying her groceries, before choosing an awfully unfortunate moment to be civic.  “Can I help you with that?”  “Would you?”  She further pushes the boundaries of stupidity by actually taking the end of the couch that puts her inside the van (did I mention it has no windows?).  He asks her if she’s “about a size fourteen” and then pummels her.  He closes up the van, checks her clothing tags which indicate that she is indeed a size fourteen (God, he must have been at this for a while), and slices up her dress admiring her skin.  He drives off leaving her groceries and dress behind, as well as an unfed cat. 

Girl From the River

At Quantico, Starling is called out of physical training with other cadets to travel with Crawford to examine a body that was just found in Clay County, West Virginia, “A Buffalo Bill-type situation.”  In a copter, Starling holds a report while Crawford explains that Bill keeps his victims alive for a couple of days, but doesn’t rape or physically abuse them while in captivity.  All mutilation is “post-mortem.”  He “shoots them, skins them, and dumps them” in a different river each time, Crawford explains while Starling looks at photos of Fredericka Bimmel, who was weighed down and ended up being the third body found.  “After her, he got lazy.”  They look at a map, before the plane lands, greeted by the state police.  In the car, Crawford quizzes Starling on Bill’s profile, “He’s a white male; serial killers tend to hunt within their own ethnic groups,” a homeowner or apartment renter, in his 30/40s, possess physical strength, “cautious, precise,” and “he’ll never stop … got a real taste for it now.  He’s getting better at his work.”  She asks Crawford about Lecter’s transfer request and calls him out on using her to get to Buffalo Bill.  Crawford explains that her ignorance initially was imperative to the case. 

A Little Privacy

At the Grieg Funeral Home in Clay County, the FBI team walk through an ongoing service to the preparation room holding Bimmel’s body, guarded by the local Sheriff Perkins (Pat McNamara) and his posse.  The Sheriff isn’t pleased about the presence of the FBI.  Crawford leaves Starling outside in a room full of male troopers.  She has a flashback to her father’s funeral.  Crawford calls Starling into the preparation room. 

Signs of Bill

She sends the troopers out, who are reluctant to acquiesce her authority at first, before the FBI team conducts the body examination for the case file.  The agents all place camphor ointment under the noses (apparently unnecessarily, but for cinematic effect) before Dr. Lamar (Tracey Walters) opens the body bag.  The smell is putrid.  Starling records her observations, while another takes pictures.  She estimates that the girl isn’t local due to her three piercings and glitter nail polish.  Looking at one of the pictures, Starling notes a foreign object in her throat.  Lamar shares, “When a body comes out of the water, lots of times there’s like leaves and things in the mouth.”  But, the rare bug cocoon they discover was probably placed in her mouth deliberately.  The fast thinking Starling preserves the specimen in liquid.  With the body turned over, they take note of the slabs of skin that were removed.  In the car later, Crawford tries to climb his way out of the manner he acted in front of the troopers earlier.  Starling holds her own, “It matters, Mr. Crawford.  Cops look to you to see how to act.  It matters.” 

Moth Men

Starling visits the Smithsonian (played by Carnegie Museum of Natural History) and enlists the help of some entomologists Roden (Dan Butler, best known as raving heterosexual Bulldog from Frasier) and Pilcher (Paul Lazar), who are playing chess with live bugs when she arrives.  She tries to ingratiate herself by asking, “If the beetle moves one of your men, does it still count?”  The socially ignorant Roden responds defensively, “Of course it counts, how do you play?”  Pilcher is immediately enamored by her, tells her to “ignore him, he’s not a PhD,” and starts flirting with her and talking about cheeseburgers when she’s “not detecting.”  The bug guys identify the insect as a Death Head’s Moth, native to Asia, which was well taken care of. 

Cut to Buffalo Bill’s creepy basement lair filled with moths and bugs, Colin Newman's "Alone" playing, and Catherine pleading for her life off in the distance.  Bill’s dog Precious (played by Darla, may she rest in peace) mills about, while he sits naked at his desk working on a project. 

A Senator’s Plea

At the training facility, Starling and Ardelia watch a TV report of Martin being Bill’s latest victim, the news of which has made it all the way up to the President of the United States (George Bush, Sr, at the time), who is “intensely concerned.”  Her senator mother makes a plea for her daughter’s life, with the assumption that the killer actually watches television. 

Quid Pro Quo (Clarice/Hannibal Scene #3)

Chilton tries to make matters difficult for Starling when she pays Lecter a third visit.  “I am not just some TURN KEY, Ms. Starling.”  She gives him the contact info for the U.S. Attorney and then proceeds to Lecter.  Chilton decides to remove Lecter from the facility and show Starling a thing or two.  But, before he does, she grills Lecter with some questions.  This time, though, he has quid pro quo of his own.

Starling promises Lecter a fake deal supposedly made with Senator Martin.  If his profile contribution on Bill successfully finds the serial killer andsaves Martin, he will enjoy “a transfer to a VA hospital at Oneida Park, New York, with a view of the woods nearby, maximum security still applies, of course.”  She tries to ply him with “reasonable access to books … best of all, though, one week of the year, you get to leave the hospital and go here: Plum Island.”  She holds up a map to his window as he breathlessly stares at the window with eager eyes (eager for Lecter anyway).  “Every day of that week, you may walk on the beach, you may swim in the ocean … for up to one hour.”  Starling brushes off the next provision like it’s no big deal, “Under SWAT team surveillance, of course.”  She submits the Buffalo Bill case file, as well as the senator’s offer to Lecter.  She gets all business like as she slams the drawer with its contents, “This offer is nonnegotiable and final.  Catherine Martin dies: you get nothing.” 

Lecter immediately springs into action when he takes a quick glance at the offer, “Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center,” he deadpans.  “Sounds charming.”  The confident Starling gets defensive and begins to stutter dropping her articles, “That’s only part of the island.  There’s very, very nice beach.  Tern’s nest, there.  There’s beautiful …”  Lecter seizes an opportunity to interrupt Starling with some wit and redirect the conversation: “Terns?  Hmmn.  If I help you Clarice, it will be turns with us too.  Quid pro quo: I tell you things, you tell me things.  Not about this case, though.  About yourself.  Quid pro quo: yes or no?”  Lecter waves Catherine’s life in Starling face as enticement and she agrees, as much as she wants to comply with Crawford’s initial warning about sharing personal information with the psychological mastermind.

He inquires about the worst memory of her childhood.  She tells him it was her father’s death.  “Don’t lie, or I’ll know,” follows his desire to hear more details.  She shares he was a single parent and Town Marshal who died a month after being shot by two burglars while investigating a robbery.  She was ten and naturally devastated.  Lecter’s impressed by her frank answer and when Starling presses him for Buffalo Bill details, he asks her about “Miss West Virginia, was she a large girl … big through the hips … roomy?”   Starling confirms this detail and shares information private to the case concerning the object placed in her throat.  Lecter figures out it was a moth.  Starling also shares that one was recently found in Raspail’s throat.  Lecter explains: “The significance of the moth is change.  Caterpillar into chrysalis or Pupa, from thence into beauty.  Our Billy wants to change too.”  Starling points out that transsexuals don’t generally reconcile themselves with violence. 

Lecter commends Starling’s acumen, and then requests more personal details about her childhood.  When she’s hesitant and looks down, he comments without looking at her, “I don’t imagine the answer is on those second rate shoes, Clarice.”  She reveals that she moved in with distant maternal relatives on a sheep and horse ranch in Montana, but ran away after two months.  “Why, Clarice?  Did the rancher make you perform fellatio?  Did he sodomize you?”  Quite the opposite, Starling tells him that they did no such thing, and switches attention back to the case, “Quid pro quo, doctor.”  He explains that Bill was not a transsexual, but was mentally deranged and convinced he was one.  He recommends she contacts the three hospitals which offer sexual reassignment surgery and investigate names of candidates who had been rejected.   “Look for severe childhood disturbances associated with violence.  Our Billy wasn’t born a criminal, Clarice, he was made one through years of systematic abuse.  Billy hates his own identity.  You see, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual.  But, his pathology is a thousand times more savage, and more terrifying.”  (I’d like to add that this was a portion of the dialogue people who protested this film ignored when they accused Lambs of being transphobic.  But, anything for knee-jerk publicity, right?)   

Lotion in the Basket

Gumb, cuddling his miniature little shit of a poodle Precious, hovers above the pit containing Catherine and instructs her repeatedly, “It rubs the lotion on the skin or else it gets the hose again.”  She finally agrees, all the while begging him with tears to release her.  It all gets to be too much for him when he lowers the bucket for the moisturizer: “PUT THE FUCKING LOTION IN THE BASKET.”  When light shines revealing bloody scratches on the wall, Catherine screams in agony.  Gumb tries to imitate her cries while pulling at his shirt with his fingers signifying that he has female nipples. 

A Deal for Dr. Chilton

Chilton lies on Lecter’s bench mocking him for being fooled by a fake deal between the FBI and Senator Martin, while Lecter is strapped and muzzled to a gurney while wearing a straight jacket.  Chilton secured his own deal with the congresswoman that if Lecter provides the real name of Bill that results in Martin’s safe return, he’ll be transferred to a Tennessee state prison.  The whole time, all Lecter’s focus is on a pen Chilton leaves unattended (“no pens,” Dr. Chilton, you said yourself!).  Lecter gives him the false name of Louis Friend, but then begins calling the shots on how everything will go down. 

FBI Director Hayden Burke (the legendary Roger Corman who played mentor to director Demme) calls Crawford and admonishes him for using a trainee to offer Lecter a phony deal.  Agent Paul Krendler (Ron Vawter, who gives some pretty sick line readings for such a generic fucking part) has been assigned to replace Crawford on the dealings with Lecter. 

Muzzled for the Senator

In possibly my favorite scene in the whole movie, Senator Martin (Diane Baker) meets with Lecter at the Memphis International Airport.  When Chilton searches for his pen to sign transfer papers, low and behold, HE CAN’T FIND IT!  Agent Krendler escorts the senator to Lecter.  The lead up to their meeting is all VERY dramatic.  She encourages her entourage to stay back by intimating with her hand, I can handle this.  She presents the official paperwork of their deal to Lecter.  He makes it simple: “I won’t waste your time or Catherine’s time bargaining for petty privileges.  Clarice Starling and that awful Jack Crawford wasted far too much time already.  I only pray that they haven’t doomed the poor girl.  Let me help you now and I will trust you when it is all over.”  (Can I just say how much I love that Lector uses the word ‘awful’ as a descriptor of Crawford here?)  She agrees and asks Paul to take notes.  Apparently, her aide either has the same name as Krendler, she’s made the FBI agent her bitch, there was an error in the script, or Diane Baker didn’t have her names straight!  Whatever the case, her aide (Jim Dratfield) pulls out a small pad and fastidiously takes notes.

Lecter proceeds to share false information.  “Buffalo Bill’s real name is Louis Friend.  I met him just once.  He was referred to me April or May of 1980 by my patient Benjamin Raspail.  They were lovers, you see.  But, Raspail had become … very frightened.  Apparently, Louis had murdered a transient and done things with her skin.”  An impatient Krendler butts in with an amazing line read, “We need his address and physical description.”  Offended, Lecter changes the subject and has a little fun with the mother of the missing young woman.  As the helicopter propellers begin to rotate, he says, “Tell me, Senator, did you nurse Catherine yourself?”  She’s taken aback, so Lecter helps her a little bit with the definition of nurse, “Did you breast feed her?”  Krendler butts in again, but the senator takes the bait, “Yes, I did.”  Lecter goes in for the kill, “Toughened your nipples, didn’t it?”  “Son of a bitch!” Krendler exclaims indignantly.  Lecter’s on a roll: “Amputate a man’s leg and he can still feel it tickling.  Tell me, Mom, when your little girl is on the slab, where will it tickle you?”  Offended, she reaches all the way down to the pit of her gut to dismiss him, “Take this thing back to Baltimore!”  Lecter bargains for her attention by offering more information about Louis Friend: “Five-foot-ten, strongly built, about 180 pounds, hair blond, eyes pale blue.  He’d be about thirty-five now.  He said he lived in Philadelphia, but may have lied.  That’s all I can remember, Martin.  But, if I can think of anymore, I will let you know … Oh, and, Senator, just one more thing: love your suit.”  Bam!

At the Shelby County Courthouse, Chilton advertises to reporters that he was responsible for the “breakthrough” in the case.  Agent Krendler doesn’t go out of his way to hide the fact that he had little to do with the “development.”  Starling manages to bluff her way into Lecter’s holding area, which is something else really.  You really have to see it to believe it.  While Starling plays anagrams with her writing pad, the agent escorting her up the elevator, Officer Murray (Brent Hinkley) asks, “Is it true what they’re saying?  He’s some kind of vampire?”  She checks in with the guards and approaches Lector’s free-standing Gothic holding cell (HOW did they get that in there?). 

The Screaming Lambs (Clarice/Hannibal Scene #4)

He’s reading with his back to her, “Good evening, Clarice.”  She places some of his drawings, nicely rolled up, on the ground before his cell.  He admonishes her for the fake deal she helped set up.  He turns around with his hair slicked back, and says with a sinister, but playful glare, “People will say we’re in love.”  He then goes back to reprimanding her, “Anthrax Island.  That was an especially nice touch, Clarice.  Yours?”  She admits it was.  He releases a breathy, elongated, “Yeah” and approvingly comments, “That was good.”  He then toys with her, “Pity about poor Catherine, though.  Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.” 

She returns with calling him out, “Your anagrams are showing doctor.  Louis Friend.  Iron sulfide?  Also known as fool’s gold.”  “Oh, Clarice, your problem is you need to get more fun out of life,” and tells her everything she needs is in the case file.  “First, principles, Clarice: Simplicity.  Read Marcus Aurelius.  Of each particular thing ask what is it in itself.  What is its nature?  What does he do, this man, you seek.”  (emphasizing the “kah” sound at the end of seek.)  She is already anxious at this point, as she knows her cover is going to be blown and she’ll be pulled out of the room at any moment: “He kills women.”   But, she should know by now that you can’t just wave off Lecter with thoughtless, empty responses.  “No, that is incidental … what is the first and principle thing he does?  What needs does he serve by killing?”  She pulls out more generic responses.  “NO!  He covets.  That is his nature.  How do we begin to covet, Clarice?  Do we seek out things to covet?”  She can’t keep up, so he continues to educate her.  “No, we begin by coveting what we see every day.  Don’t you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice?  Don’t your eyes seek out the things you want?”

He grows tired of her desperation, “You don’t have anymore vacations to sell” and insists that she continue where they left off with her personal history (and doesn’t want her to skimp on details, either).  She wants the shortcut to Bill, but he insists, “NO, I will listen now.”  She tells him that when she ran away from the ranch, she started early and first tried to free the lambs, but they wouldn’t leave their pen.  She grabbed one of the lambs who was going to be slaughtered and ran a few miles.  She was picked up by the Sheriff and sent to the Lutheran orphanage in Bozeman and her lamb was killed.  “You still wake up sometimes, don’t you?  You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs … and you think if you save poor Catherine you can make them stop, don’t you?  You think if Catherine lives, you won’t wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the lambs?”  He thanks her and they’re joined by others.  “Dr. Chilton, I presume.”  He sends her off with: “Brave Clarice.  You will let me know when those lambs stop screaming, won’t you?”  As guards pull Starling away from the cell, she breaks temporarily away to grab her case file from Lecter, who slowly caresses her hand with his index finger during the exchange.  Clarice flies in to D.C.

His Second Meal

Lecter readies himself for his rather uncivilized meal—a baked potato, corn, peas, and extra rare lamb chops (his request)—while listening to Bach’s Goldberg Variations.  The guards joke while Lecter removes a pen component from his mouth and places it in his hand while in his private lavatory quarters (how is it in twenty-two years it never dawned on me that Lecter would have to have a place to go to the bathroom somewhere?).  The guards cuff him.  They’re about to set his meal down, but he buys time, “mind the drawings, please,” in reference to the illustration of Starling holding a lamb (! I so WANT THAT picture of Jodie Foster holding the animal!).  Lecter cuffs Lt. Boyle (Charles Napier) to the cell and injures Pembry by slamming the door on him before soaking his teeth into his face, knocking his head against the bars, and finishing him off with chemical mace.  He then beats Boyle with a baton.  Lecter takes a break to enjoy some more Bach.  When one of the guards foolishly tries to climb his way out of the room, Lecter grabs a knife, “Ready when you are, Sergeant Pembry.” 

“Lector’s Missing!”

At ground level, the commanding hottie with the handlebar mustache Sgt. Tate (Danny Darst) notices that the elevator is going up to the fifth floor.  They hear three shots fired.  The elevator starts to goes down to the third floor.  They call for backup.  They take the stairs to the third floor.  The elevator is open and empty.  In Lecter’s holding room, in a rather over-the-top manner, Boyle is hanging from the top of the cell with his arms spread along some streamers in a pose not unlike a crucified Jesus Christ.  On the ground lies Lecter, except he’s wearing Pembry’s uniform … and his face, fooling everyone.  They report Lecter missing and armed. An officer notices that “Pembry” is still breathing, but doesn’t know what to say.  His superior shouts at him, “It’s Jim Pembry, now talk to him damn it!”  

Pembry’s Ambulance

SWAT, which includes that Wicked Game looker Chris Isaak, arrives, along with the ambulance.  While escorting “Pembry” down the elevator, they notice blood dripping on the gurney.  When they get to the bottom floor, they open the shaft from a higher floor, and see Pembry on top of the elevator lying face down, covered in Lecter’s blood-soaked clothes.  They shoot the body in the leg, but it doesn’t flinch.  They open the hatch, and when the body falls out, it’s that of a faceless man.  In the ambulance, Lecter rips off his mask behind an unassuming EMT.  At Quantico, Ardelia runs from the hallway phone to inform Starling that Lecter is on the loose. 

What Do We Covet?

The ambulance was found at the Memphis Airport with a dead crew; a tourist perished as well.  Starling isn’t worried about Lecter coming after her: “He would consider that rude.”  She’s more concerned about cracking the case.  Meanwhile, Gumb sews some skin together (gross!).  Ardelia sees a note on the map from Lecter in the case file that suggests the body drop-offs were deliberately random.  Starling, by the way, is wearing some pretty obnoxious pajamas.  (She needs to si’down!)  They decide that the key to the case is Fredericka Bimmel, who was weighed down, unlike all the subsequent bodies.  They go over Lecter’s words about coveting and figure out that Bill must live closest to Bimmel in Belvedere, Ohio. 

The Tailor You Know

Starling visits her father (Harry Northup), who is accommodating and allows Starling to check out her old bedroom.  There’s a poster of Madonna circa 1985 on the wall, as well as plenty of pictures.  Inside a music box, she finds some hidden half-naked polaroids of Bimmel.  She also learns that she was a seamstress.  She calls Crawford with her realization that Bill uses big girls as victims, so he can starve them a few days to loosen their skin, before he slices it off.  Crawford brushes Starling’s discovery off, as he believes he is on his way to finding the killer in Calumet City, Illinois.  From information culled at one of the hospitals that rejected Bill, John Hopkins, he believes his real name is Jamie/Jame Gumb (aka John Grant).  Convinced he has Gumb’s current address, as he has cross-referenced it with a shipment of Surinamese caterpillars.  He tells her to remain in Belvedere and finalize linking Bill to Bimmel. 

A Treat For Precious

In Gumb’s actual lair, Catherine gets crafty.  She uses her meal to hatch a plan.   “Thanks for the scraps, asshole,” she tells herself, referring to her captor.  She tries to lure Precious with chicken bones.  Meanwhile, Gumb puts on makeup in the mirror to Q. Lazzarus’ despondent “Goodbye Horses.”  He has a tattoo, which, for the life of me, I have never figured out what it was (a bleeding vagina?), as well as a nipple ring.  “Would you fuck me?” he asks himself.  “I’d fuck me.  I’d fuck me hard.  I’d fuck me so hard.”   (A real wordsmith that Gumb.)  Catherine’s plan is frustrating and slow-going at first.  Meanwhile, the oblivious Gumb doesn’t realize he met his match in Martin and dances in front of a video camera, after tucking himself.  He imagines himself a female butterfly transformed and reborn, as he spreads his arms.  The Air National Guard dispatches in Chicago; Crawford joins them. 

“Sewing Was Her Life”

At Moxley’s Drugs, Starling interviews a bored, monotone girlfriend of Bimmel, Stacy Hubka (Lauren Roselli, who was a member of one of the bands featured on the soundtrack and went on to star in three more Demme pictures).  The girl with short, dark bangs explains that Bimmel was impressed with her job at a teller: “Toaster giveaways and Barry Manilow on the speakers all day.  She thought it was such hot shit.  What did she know, big dummy.”  Stacy reveals that she possibly didn’t know much about her friend either (RE: those half-nudie shots Starling found in the music box).  She also provides the winning piece of information in the case: Mrs. Lippman’s address where Stacy used to help Bimmel do alterations. 

A Raid in Illinois

There is then a brilliant setup with what will end up being a vacant house once owned/or rented by Jame Gumb (aka John Grant) in Calumet City.  We then cut to Gumb in his actual basement sorting through some mouths.  There is quick crosscutting between the SWAT outside of the Calumet home and Gumb’s basement.  He realizes Catherine is holding Precious prisoner at the bottom of the well.  “Down here, you sack a’ shit,” Catherine demands a telephone and holds the dog in an intimidating hold.  “She’s in a lot of pain, mister, she needs a vet.”  While Gumb freaks out, a delivery person brings flowers to the doorstep of the Calumet home.  Gumb grabs his gun hidden under his Nazi-themed (!) quilt.  The delivery person rings the Calumet home twice, and we see a separate shot of a bell ringing in a basement (it could be Gumb’s or both bells that will soon be shrewdly called into question).  Next, we see Gumb, who has put on some clothes, entering his kitchen upstairs. 

Mrs. Lippman’s House

He opens the door and who is it?  It’s Clarice!  The next shot is of the FBI breaking into a vacant home.  Whoops.  As she insists on speaking with Gumb about Bimmel, Crawford realizes Starling is in danger.  Gumb gives her another alias with JG initials: Jack Gordon.  He finally figures out what Starling is investigating, “Oh wait, was she a great big fat person?”  “Yes, she was a big girl, sir,” Starling confirms that fact as well as corrects his language.  He offers to give Starling the business card of Lippman’s son and invites her in.  He asks her about any progress on the case, “The police around here don’t seem to have the first clue.”  Starling spots a moth and unclicks the safety on her gun.  Jackpot!  When he reaches out to give her the card, she stays in the same spot and asks him in measured tones to use his phone.  He gets suspicious and ducks out of view before Starling can shoot him.  On his way to the basement, he grabs his gun.

Sniper in the Dark

Starling is in pursuit.  She locates the well holding Catherine and Precious, and “secures” the room by closing all the doors and blocking them with obstructions, begging the question: how many fucking doors does this room have?  “FBI, you’re safe.”  Even though Starling is basically lying, instead of being grateful for someone finding her, Catherine is a real überbitch.  The blind leading the blind, Starling asks her of Gumb’s whereabouts.  “How the fuck should I know?  Just get me out of here.”  Starling orders Catherine to shut the dog up and tries to rationally explain that she has to leave the room to find Gumb.  Needless to say, Catherine is not happy: “No, don’t you leave me here you fucking bitch, no!”  Starling pulls “the police are on their way” card in, hopefully, Gumb’s earshot.  She enters the moth nursery and is very jittery, covering every corner, just like she was scolded to do in FBI school.   When she enters a room with a tub containing a rotting corpse, the lights go out.  

We then see Starling in infrared from Gumb’s POV wearing the night-vision goggles he used to kidnap Martin.  He’s voyeur for a few minutes while she desperately tries to find her way out.  He reaches out to touch her before cocking his gun, upon which, she blows him away with a series of shots, killing him, as well as creating an opening in the wall to let a little daylight in.  Gumb is on his back with his arms curled up near his head, taking the form of dying beetle, sputtering blood.  She kicks his gun out of the way and there are several moments depicting various remnants, including a butterfly-themed wind ornament, of a sick fuck who just met his maker.  Medics escort Catherine out of the house.  Crawford comforts Starling, as reporters arrive.  On Graduation Day, Starling and Ardelia receive their certificates, along with the rest of their class. 

Dinner Date/Credits

At the reception, they’re serving a cake with what looks like the world’s most disgusting dark blue frosting (but the coconut brushing on the outer edge might make it worth it).  Ardelia alerts Starling of a phone call and Roden, who is there with Pilcher (!), asks him to take his picture with Ardelia.  How Winona Ryder/Gwyneth Paltrow/Matt Damon/Ben Affleck circa late 1990s!  Before Starling takes her call, Crawford pulls her aside to congratulate her and there’s a close-up of their handshake.  Whoop, whoop.  Starling arrives at the phone to hear Lecter’s voice, “Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?”  He assures her that she is safe and he’ll never come after her.  We see that he’s in South Bimini Island, Bahamas, wearing an awful blond wig under a fedora about to employ his cannibal brand of revenge on one unsuspecting Dr. Chilton.  The final shot is of Anthony Hopkins walking down a road disappearing into a crowd of locals while the credits play until the very end.  There’s never a blackout until they finish.  

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Oscar 2013: Pacific Rim (spoilers)

Well, I've been absent for a while without warning.  Truth be told: my days at blogging regularly are over.  But, I will check in from time to time with random spoiler summaries, and, most definitely Oscah! predictions.  In the meantime, I had read the script to Pacific Rim several months back.  It's from the imaginations of Guillermo del Toro and screenwriter Travis Beacham.  I have to say, out of all the scripts I've read thus far, Pacific Rim is right up there with The Counselor when it comes to density (but for different reasons).  Spelling and grammar errors, as well as non-traditional screenplay style aside, The Counselor was full of thick narrative and its subject matter of drug smuggling was tricky to follow and full of developments that were implied rather than explained.

With Pacific Rim, Beacham's dialogue rolls along without much incidence, and the storytelling methods are pretty straight forward, subject matter aside (it's pretty out there).  And, I have to say, out of every script I've read so far, THE SPELLING WAS IMPECCABLE.  The presentation: unbelievably super clean.  So clean, you'd think it was a final draft--a real final draft (it wasn't).  The difficulties involved mostly being a very conceptual film ... with its own glossary!  At first, I felt like I needed computer science AND biology degrees.  There are several very unique terms which appear to have little relation to the English language, and more Asian-influence.  After a while, I grew accustomed.  I read an old version of the script, which has a major female character (a widow of the male protagonist's brother named Flick--I pictured Allison mack from Smallville for some reason), but, judging from the IMDb, she has totally been axed.  

The gist of the story (if I can remember correctly--but, I could totally be getting things wrong here, so don't shoot me!), is that it's set in the future and there's a war going on.  We live in global community, though a good part of the film takes place in the East Asian and Oceaniac regions.  By cosmic intervention, there are these monstrous, destructive creatures--called kaiju--emerging from underneath the Pacific Ocean, at least, physically, though, metaphysically, this "place" is another dimension.  They're attacking cities all over the world.  I seem to recall Peru, Korea, and Japan being three of their targets.  They're wreaking havoc everywhere.  I got a serious Godzilla vibe from all of the mayhem.  To combat and defeat them, soldiers, who work for a united coalition that involves most, if not all, countries on the planet, must operate these Jaegars (both these and the kaiju each have names that reminded me of race horses).  Each of these "vehicles"--which also gave me a Godzilla meets Starship Troopers (without the irony) vibe--seat two officers.  Their brains are somehow synced with each other, as well as their machine, and the only way for the Jaegars to function is cerebrally via the soldiers; everything is controlled by brain waves.  How effective they are at defeating the kaiju depends on how emotionally sound they are and connected with each other.  There's a love story between two of them.  There was also another love story between reporter Flick and a scientist trying to discern the source of the kaiju, but that seems to have been cut.  

The story was fun, inventive, and definitely original.  The film touches on battle fatigue, as well as damaged souls finding each other (think the Korean set-piece in Cloud Atlas).  While fascinating, my empathy for the characters was lacking.  I just couldn't get there emotionally (maybe I'm dead inside?).  Perhaps, I was burnt out from having just read Elysium.  Rim had a lot of action scenes, which may easily be brought to life, judging from the trailer.  And, while Elysium's conceit wasn't fully realized and rather oversimplified, Rim threw enough scientific jargon my way that I was less critical and more accepting of its more metaphysical elements. 

I can't really properly review it, though, as a non-science-fiction aficionado.  I really have to leave it to the experts.  I mean, this script was hard core science-fiction.  This is the kind of movie Sheldon and company from The Big Bang Theory would enjoy, though I imagine he would have more than his share of problems with technical details (that would actually make a good scene).  Like I said, there was a glossary and the script was very conceptual.  And, I was left wondering about its commercial prospects.  I had serious doubts that this script would draw a large audience, at least stateside, to make up its budget.  I imagine the adjustments dumbed a lot of the film down for the average filmgoer.  And, I hope, for the sake of the fans of del Toro, it wasn't too much.  This is his first film since Pan's Labyrinth that doesn't have Hellboy in his title.  Hopefully, it will be a hit.  I don't care if it's crap.  There are so many known properties being made into films repeatedly, we really need people paying money to watch more unique fare.  

Plot Summary (spoilers)

(Please note: This is based on an early version by Beacham and is, by far, not the version that will be released in theaters)

At his counselor’s office, Raleigh Antrobus (Charlie Hunnam) is plugged into a virtual incident he experienced a year before, but then disengages.  The counselor implores him to confront his past in order to work through it.  He leaves the office and there are monitors in the lobby showing Tokyo under attack.  Pilot Aki Seto died.  Cut to the actual scene, where Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) comforts the surviving copilot, the distraught Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi).  You have to understand that they were pilots of these massive robotic machines, which they operated with their minds working on the same plane. 

In her car parked in a driveway of a bar and grill in Port Hueneme, California, reporter Felicity “Flick” Kincaid (character axed from script?) discusses the location of a source with Jim, which turns out to be outside of Lima, Peru.  She decides to fly there.  She gets out of her car after spotting Raleigh, the brother of her dead ex-fiancée Yance, and questions him about monsters (or kaiju, one of those huge robots from the trailer) coming out of the Pacific Ocean.  When she brings up The Interstice, which happens to be a region five miles underneath the ocean that separates the universe from the anteverse, Raleigh goes cold. Raleigh and Yance were copilots in a jaeger, a virtual vehicle of sorts, which means they shared each others' most intimate thoughts, which included those of Flick.  

At his home, Lt. Commander Roscoe Calhoun enlists Raleigh to man another jaeger in Tokyo with Mako.  Flick falls asleep while looking at a framed Vanity Fair cover sporting the Antrobus brothers, for which she wrote the article.   She has a nightmare about Yance, surrounded by pools of blood, involving a kaiju spreading wildfire. 

At central command in Tokyo, on a man-made island connected by causeway, Pentecost greets Raleigh.  In the locker room, Mako shares some words with pilot Kaori Jessop.  Pentecost prepares Raleigh.  He introduces him to Kaori and her husband Duc, shows him his Mark-1 jaeger, called Gipsy Danger, and introduces him to Mako.   They begin a series of exercises to train for their time in the jaeger together. 

A driver takes Flick up to the Calixto Particle Observatory near Lima, Peru, to meet Dr. Newt Gottlieb (Charlie Day or Burn Gorman?).  He consults with his colleague Myron Toynbee.  They share data with her that on the day of the attack on Osaka, a parallel universe opened up in the Pacific Ocean with aliens putting out signals.  A scientist Ivo Czerny was working on it and was close to a breakthrough, but got transferred to the Australian outback.  Flick believes the alien life forms are going to start a war.  Newt invites himself along to Flick’s journey to Australia.  Before they leave, an alarm goes off in the city and an “unholy fusion of tarantula and dragon” called Dengue attacks.  A fleet of copters drop a Mark-2 jaeger Puma Real.  Newt gives up his scooter to a desperate man.  The two giants square off in battle.  Newt and Flick hide with others in a drainage pipe.  Dengue, along with the city of Lima are, destroyed. Newt waits at the airport with Flick, as she contacts Raleigh about what she has found out. 

Raleigh is sent on a mission.  We enter his virtual world of operating Gipsy Danger, along with Mako (Pentecost translates), while they do battle with enemy Slattern.  Mako experiences a drift—a memory of hers that Raleigh will also witness as if it’s his own—to the day she lost her partner Aki.  She drifts again to her childhood in Osaka when her father dies in the wake of the first kaiju, Trespasser.  Raleigh aborts their mission, which turns out to be a simulation. 

At an international meeting, a panel of countries interrogate Sci-Division General Takada on the frequency of attacks, as well as the plan to stop them.  In private, Pentecost requests that Takada graduates a cadet pair early.  Raleigh shoots hoops with Duc and confides in him about Mako’s past.  Pentecost has Raleigh and Mako slow dance with each other.  There is a montage of ghost drifts including Yance, Mako as a young girl dealing with her father’s death, Raleigh processing his brother’s death, Mako discovering Aki dead, Tortuga battling Coyote Tango, etc.  Raleigh and Mako begin to see each other for all of what they are.  In another ghost drift, Raleigh and Mako meet, and find themselves dancing naked in a grove of cherry blossoms, kissing.  They both wake up and almost leave their rooms to meet each other. 

Cut to Flick and Yance on the Santa Monica pier at sunset, as Tortuga and Coyote Tango battle.  She then realizes the pier is deserted, but it’s a dream.  Newt tends to Flick’s wounds and she accuses him of having feelings for her.  They travel to the Eschaton Institute in Australia to visit Czerny.  Meanwhile, South Korea is the latest attack and battle site between a jaegar and kaiju, draining the country of its power.  Duc and Raleigh watch on TV as the kaiju gives birth mid-attack in Busan.  An alarm sounds summoning Raleigh and Mako to action.  They’re loaded into their jaeger Gipsy Danger.  Takada presides over their activity, as they struggle to sync with each other.  Copters transport Gipsy Danger to Busan.  While they battle Invidia, they both drift, before finally connecting with each other and overpowering their opponent.  They drift again, before they’re able to neutralize Invidia.  Everyone celebrates in a bar afterwards.  Duc sings the karaoke version of Alphaville’s “Forever Young.”  Raleigh and Mako go back to their living quarters and make love.

Czerny explains to Flick that the monsters are from the anteverse located in the Pacific Ocean beyond the interstice which divides them from the human world, of which they created.  Newt is more concerned with stopping the signals being carried out in the universe, but Czerny is fascinated about exploring the anteverse.  Later, Czerny busts Flick who is snooping around. He takes her to a backroom where he holds a kaiju’s brain.  While doing snooping of his own, Newt finds a pair of reading glasses which allow him to see holographics invisible to the naked eye.  Czerny secures Flick and proceeds to connect her to the brain.  Thumbing through holographic files, he is able to examine the interstice.  Flick gets a taste of the ugly anteverse.  Czerny busts Newt.  When Newt tries to stop Czerny from pulling out a bomb, he pushes him out of the way.  They continue to scuffle.  Despite getting stabbed with a letter opener, Newt breaks free and saves Flick, narrowly escaping the detonating bomb.  After he performs CPR on her, she wakes only to wish to die having seen the anteverse and the imminent doom which lie ahead. 

In Pudong, Shanghai, Gipsy Danger prevails over Oolong in simulation.  Pentecost gives Mako his approval for having relations with Raleigh.  Raleigh and Mako make more love.  They ghost drift to the battle between Tortugo and Coyote Tango operated by Raleigh and Yance and process his brother’s death. 

Nearing Mt. Fuji, Newt hatches a plan to destroy the interstice.  Flick kisses him.  Duc and Kaori prepare for battle.  A kaiju Komodo descends upon Yokohama and takes on Tacit Ronin.  The jaeger ends up killing Komodo, only to have to deal with Fulcrum.  As Duc and Kaori prepare for death, Gipsy Danger saves them.  The two jaegers tag-team the kaiju, freezing Fulcrum, before he falls and shatters into pieces.  Flick shows up, as the mess is hauled away.  Raleigh implores Pentecost to listen to Newt.  He gives a presentation for the soldiers, as well as Pentecost and Takada, for closing the interstice.  He wants to use a bomb, but the commanders school him on there not being enough uranium to power the explosion.  Raleigh disagrees, suggesting using a jaeger as a bomb.  Pentecost and Takada deliberate over sending Raleigh and Mako on a suicide mission.  Takada confirms that Czerny found a way to through the interstice.  Raleigh and Mako discuss sacrificing themselves for the greater good. 

Techs prepare Gipsy Danger for the mission, crossing the eject buttons.  Flick says goodbye to Raleigh.  Everyone salutes Raleigh and Mako as they load in for their final mission.  Takada explains the plan to the press.  Report comes that dozens of kaiju are bursting out of Midway—the epicenter of the interstice.  Cities across the world prepare their jaegers.  On their way to Midway, a kaiju narrowly misses attacking Gipsy Danger.   Copters drop the jaeger into the ocean towards Midway.  In Odaiba, Tacit Ronin is surrounded by kaiju Tengu, Pharoah, and Scunner.  Gipsy Danger enters the throat of the interstice and battles kaiju on its way down.  Tacit Ronin loses an arm.  After destroying two of the kaiju, and depleting its coolant reservoirs, Tactit Ronin must take care of Scunner.   Kaori is severely injured.  Mako drifts.  Kaori recovers, and Tacit Ronin is victorious over the final kaiju.  Mako drifts again.  She embraces in a kiss with Raleigh and they engage the self-destruct function, as well as eject.  The bomb goes off and the interstice collapses.  Raleigh and Mako both make it to safety.  The End.

Box Office/Oscar Prospects

I have no idea if this will be a hit or a miss.  My instinct is that it will be too much for mainstream audiences to swallow, even if the revisions dumb everything down (or especially so).  That being said, I hope it's a massive hit!  As far as Oscar chances, I'll say the predictable thing and go with: Visual Effects, Sound Effects Editing, and Sound Mixing.  Perhaps an outside shot at Cinematography end Editing.

Previous Editions:

American Hustle     August: Osage County     The Counselor     Elysium      Foxcatcher     Fruitvale Station     Grace of Monaco     Gravity     Labor Day     Out of the Furnace     Pacific Rim      Prisoners     Rush     Saving Mr. Banks     The Secret Life of Walter Mitty   

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