Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

The initial happiness of District 9 and Inglourious Basterds making the cut of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards Best Picture nominees almost makes it easy to overlook the fact that the mediocre-at-best film The Blind Side also ranked among the other nine films. Accompanying the aforementioned films include An Education, Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, A Serious Man, Up and Up in the Air. Of course, James Cameron's widely praised and crazy popular Avatar also took home a nom, and from the reviews and buzz I've read, what I project as the winner of the major category, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker grabbed the tenth spot. Most of the nominees were to be expected, but I feel the big story is how many great films were passed up for The Blind Side. 2009 saw such great flicks as Coraline, Moon, Observe and Report, Star Trek, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Brothers Bloom, The Hangover, Watchmen, Ponyo, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Zombieland, Where the Wild Things Are, Invictus, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, (500) Days of Summer, Paranormal Activity, Bronson, Crazy Heart, The Road and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Given, the Academy wouldn't even consider half of the films I just listed, but all are way more deserving than the ode to forgettable Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman Michael Oher, not to mention the alleged racism of John Lee Hancock's drama. There was many other overlooked performances in this past year of film, some of which are covered in a decent article by Cinematical's Erik Childress.

I would list my predictions of who I think should win, but I am still playing catch up with a few films I have yet to see, including the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man, Jason Reitman's Up in the Air and a few more. However, reading so much over this past award season, I will relinquish who I think doesn't necessarily deserve the award, but will take it home.

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart

Best Actress: Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (I know I am going out on a limb here, as most sites will pick either Sandra Bullock or Meryl Streep, but I stand by the choice as a lock.)

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air (this may be the most difficult category to predict, as all five has their supporters, and have won awards thus far into the season.)

Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds

Best Adapted Screenplay: Nick Hornby for An Education

Best Animated Feature: Up

Best Art Direction: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Best Cinematography: The Hurt Locker

Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria

Best Documentary: The Cove

Best Editing: The Hurt Locker

Best Foreign Film: The White Ribbon

Best Makeup: Star Trek

Best Original Score: James Horner for Avatar

Best Original Song: "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" for Crazy Heart

Best Sound: Avatar

Best Sound Effects Editing: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Visual Effects: Avatar

Finally, if you do crave something other than this entire Oscar business, Kevin Smith gave a great interview on Bizarre Magazine's web site on the topics of golden showers, his first sex with his wife, and providing the tidbit that the much-talked about Hit Somebody, Smith's newest project that he hopes to start next year, is actually based on a Warren Zevon song.

Monday, December 7th, 2009

I was quite saddened a few months back when I read that Robert Luketic would be taking over the directorial position on the Barbarella remake, a project that had once been in the hands of someone more familiar with exploitation film, Robert Rodriguez. Trading Rodriguez for the guy most famous for directing Legally Blonde just doesn't really click for me. Anyhow, ever since Luketic's name became attached, it seems as if the project has took another dive into development hell, as no casting or production news has came forth. Despite the lack of news, a Cinematical article takes a look at this Absolut Vodka ad starring Zooey Deschanel as a blonde and noting the similarities to the erotic science fiction vixen. Would Deschanel take such a raunchy role? Despite looking the part, I can't really see Deschanel taking the role of a sexpot and leaving her (or our) comfort zone as the quirky girl. It would be like Janeane Garofalo taking the titular role in a reboot of Barb Wire. Sure, she could pull it off, but why?

In other kind of casting news, CinemaSpy reports that Tom Waits is in talks to join the cast for The Hobbit. The eccentric actor/singer whom last appeared in Terry Gilliam's soon-to-be-released The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, carries the right audience to fit in without too much argument from the hardcore Middle-earth-to-cinema fans. Still, who would Waits play? The consensus coming from the message boards I've been surfing through is the voice for Smaug. Although, this will cross another popular Internet rumor that Ron Perlman, a frequent collaborator with director Guillermo del Toro, will be taking up the voice acting duties for the dragon. Still, something to think about as we slowly trudge forward to the next piece of Hobbit news.

Shockingly, The Blind Side took the top spot at the box office in its third week of release, toppling the current reign of The Twilight Saga: New Moon... also in its third week. Is those top two in the runnings enough to make a cineaste slightly depressed? If so, maybe it is a bit of a spirit lift to note that per theater, nothing touches Disney's latest return to traditional animation with The Princess and the Frog and Jason Reitman's highly praised Up in the Air, which landed overall in the sixteenth and thirteenth positions respectively.

Friday, November 20th, 2009

I was going to take off the day from blogging due to some school work and just consider it one proverbial long awkward pause in honor of The Twilight Saga: New Moon's release today, but then I read some good news at the hands of Cinematical to combat my rant against the local movie rental place I posted the other night. The article announces that Netflix will soon be streaming independent films for download while their still in theaters due to unavailability to most audiences due to the limited releasing. The new program will be implemented through IFC and their Festival Direct project, which shows the indie flicks that are making splashes at some of the bigger film festivals, including Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, Toronto, etc. as well as the In Theaters + On Demand service, which begins streaming certain films on the day they premiere in limited release. A lot of possibilities there, and with the rental company coming soon to Play Station 3 and my growing dismay towards Movies to Go, I'm sure I will soon be able to give a firsthand review of this.

Speaking of disappointment in the movie industry (that is, if you can consider my local rental store to be the movie industry), the short list for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards Best Documentary Feature Award has been receiving more and more controversy. I included the story of the snubbing of Capitalism: A Love Story and Anvil! The Story of Anvil on my blog the other day, but I left one major contender that was snubbed out, that being the highly reviewed James Toback documentary on the infamously bizarre and misunderstood namesake boxer in the flick Tyson. Toback himself took notice of this, as he took to an interview with The New York Times to claim that the selections process borders close to "extortion". The article goes on to give the Academy's rebuttal of Toback's claims; however, I'm sure it will not quite squash the buzz and controversy as we move ever forward to the iconic award show.

And... today is Friday, so that means new releases. Among the films in theaters this week include what looks like one of the more overrated flicks in some time, especially in regards to Sandra Bullock's performance, which the trailer at least doesn't really wow me, The Blind Side, the true story of a mediocrely famous Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman. Also, The Rock's career continues to look sadder in the animated Planet 51. We also get a helping of Werner Herzog's take on Abel Ferrera's cult classic in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, starring Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes, in a flick that most certainly has a better behind the scenes and back story than anything that will actually appear on the screen. And finally, yes, New Moon also made its debut last night at midnight. Instead of giving my take on how I feel about setting uncomfortably in a theater watching the only wet dream of Native Americans I've ever seen, I'll direct you to Roger Ebert's review, which includes the phrase "long pauses interrupt longer ones" while describing the plot. If that wasn't fascinating enough, to give a break of all the Twihard madness, here is a clip of Kevin Smith from this past San Diego Comic Con describing why we shouldn't hate the Twihards, and his feeling on the trailer of New Moon that debuted at the convention. Definitely worth a listen.