Cinematic Paradox

7x7 Link Award

2012-03-18T20:11:00.000+13:00

Another award is making the rounds, and this one is pretty fun. Thanks to Anna, it is time to get a little bit blog nostalgic.

But first things first, time to share something that nobody else knows about:
-This kind of hard considering I don't usually keep a lot of secrets (what's the point?). But eh, I've not told anyone that I'm currently writing a script. Which is kinda hard considering my head moves faster than I have time to write the thing, so chances are, it'll never amount to anything. I wish I could just sit around all day like William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love with my quill and write pages and pages. Alas, school gets in the way of creativity (and madness).

Right, now I shall have to link back to my posts in the following categories:

Most Beautiful Piece. Surprisingly, they're both based on Steven Spielberg movies (I couldn't pick just one). I originally hated this 'review' of Schindler's List, but I look back on it and in all it's 10 paragraph glory I can't believe I've ever written anything like it. And as for this post about why I was looking forward to War Horse, well, anything I could write about my Katie is sure to be beautiful.

Most Helpful Piece. Back in my '16 Days of Birthday' series I broke down all of the old Hollywood studios and what impact they had. Seriously, if you got me started on this, I would talk you into a deep sleep.

Most Popular Piece. Allegedly, it is this post which is basically me defending the large possibility that Rooney Mara would be great as Lisbeth Salander. And guess what? She got an Oscar nomination. But the mammoth pageviews only came from image searches. If I were to choose, my most popular post would be my conversation with the people who voted at the MTV Movie Awards.

Most Controversial Piece. I don't really aim to rock the boat, but the cowardly 'Anonymous' haters seemed to not like this one a whole lot.

Most Surprisingly Successful Piece. I don't think there's a better fit for this one. I post a random essay I did at school (and possibly one of the best things I've ever done at school) and then I get a call from Paramount. How's that for surprising success?

Most Pride-Worthy Piece. Probably my review of Hunger. I don't know, it just really sounds like I know what I'm talking about. Even if it is two pages long. Or this one about film censorship. I don't know why, but I just love this one.

And now I gotta pass this award on to seven other deserving bloggers (I'm not sure who already has it or who doesn't):
-Cherokee @ Feminising Film
-Lesya @ Eternity of Dream
-Sati @ Cinematic Corner
-SDG @ U, Me and Films
-Tyler @ Southern Vision
-Mette @ Lime Reviews and Strawberry Confessions
-Andrew @ Encore's World of Film & TV

(Sorry for no Underrated Showcase Sunday - I've been quite sick over the past few days and while it is Sunday, I've been busy podcasting and whatnot. I'm rather tired, so I think it'll be an early night tonight. Plus, I'm pretty sure my past two posts haven't made a heckload of sense, haha)

A Dated Look at the Future (LAMB MOTM)

2012-03-17T21:24:00.001+13:00

Film: Blade Runner
Year: 1982
Director: Ridley Scott
Written by: Hampton Fancher, David Peoples.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Daryl Hannah, William Sanderson, Brion James, Joe Turkel.
Running time: 117 min.
Note: I believe I watched the 2007 'final cut', if that makes any difference.

Okay. No, I hadn't seen Blade Runner before now. You can finally put the pitchforks down: it is crossed off my essential watchlist.

Yet, you might wanna hold onto the pitchforks a little longer. Chances are, I probably didn't like it as much as you.

Now, let me rephrase that: I did quite like the film. Hell, there were even parts that I loved about it. But let's just say this was more of an "it's not you, it's me" kind of situation. My aversion to both sci-fi films and 1980's films kinda let me down, hampering the entertainment sides of things. But while I may not have been fully into it, I could definitely appreciate it.

Blade Runner is a fairly complex story, of the world as it would be in 2019. Set in Los Angeles, a few 'replicants' (human clones with fixed lifespans) have come to Earth to lengthen their lifespan, and must be 'retired' (in other words, executed). Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a retired 'blade runner', who is put back into the force to retire these replicants. And yes, things just go forth from there.

The film is nearing it's 30th birthday, and soon we'll be nearing the year in which it was set. I love watching futuristic sci-fi's like this, just because they had such an advanced vision for us that we probably won't be reaching by their set dates. Hey, a lot can happen in seven years, but I don't think flying cars are going to come for us any time soon. Immature thoughts on Blade Runner's future aside, I thought the art direction and special effects were perhaps the best that I've ever seen. Neon is certainly used a lot, which contributes to the dated look (neon was so 80's), but the lit up, claustrophobic atmosphere used in the futuristic Los Angeles is a sight to behold. In a world where these effects are achieved by using over-saturated CGI which usually doesn't look at all real, Blade Runner's effects are like a breath of fresh air. Ridley Scott's direction matches that, particularly in the wide shots where you see Los Angeles which are, for lack of a better description, mind-blowing. Jeez, if I saw this back in 1982, I would have probably had a heart attack or something.

I think my problem with the film, though, was the narrative. The film, for the most part, ticked all of the boxes. But just as I was presented with this strange, complicated world, I never felt like the actual story matched up with that. The film has very odd pacing, which threw me on my first watch. I guess I was one of those people who was expecting a badass, action-packed film, which is certainly different to what I got. When I first watched the film (a week ago), I found it hard to appreciate it, but upon a second watch, I started to get a little more involved with it. The themes of humans without emotions was quite interesting, and one I'd probably get even more invested in if I watched it again. But as it was, I found it extremely hard to get emotionally invested in the film, which is something that I always search for - because I'm old-fashioned like that. Mind you, the ending (which I understand is different depending on what version you watch) was pretty darn cool, I thought. That final line - "it's a shame she won't live, but then again, who does?" - sends shivers down my spine.

However, it is easy to see the influence that the film has had on some of the films we see today. It is complex and visceral, and often delving into the dark side. It is an important part of film history, becoming a definitive, yet very different part of the science fiction genre. Yet, while it's influence does seep through into today's films, I don't think anyone could make a film like it. It is the kind of film that was great for when it was made, but got even better as time went on. While I'm hesitant to say things like "this is the best movie I've ever seen!", there's no denying that this is an important film. My appreciation towards it doesn't know any bounds. Alas, it doesn't go much further than that.

Come back to me in a few years. I have a feeling that great things take time.

What I got:

Is Anyone Seeing This?

2012-03-16T21:05:00.001+13:00

Film: Take Shelter
Year: 2011
Written and Directed By: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Tova Stewart, Katy Mixon, Natasha Randall, Ron Kennard, Scott Kinsley, Robert Longstreet.
Running time: 120 min.

With the 21st of December fast approaching, people are either anticipating an apocalypse or laughing at the people who are scared that it will actually happen. But still, people have good intentions when they plan these so-called apocalypses: just take a look at all the stuff that has happened on the Earth in this past couple of years, the earthquakes, tsunamis, all of the other major disasters. They put these pieces together and suspect the worst is going to happen, sending themselves into fits of paranoia. That is exactly what happens to Curtis (Michael Shannon) in Take Shelter. He has dreams that turn him against the people and things around him - like his dog biting his arm, which results in the dog being left outside - and they culminate in a fear of an impending apocalypse. As the dreams get worse and worse, he finds himself comforted by a building project. This isn't the kind of building project that does any good right now, much to the dismay of his wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain). It is the kind where he takes out a risky home improvement loan to do up his storm shelter and create a haven in which he and his family can survive in if his visions do indeed come true.

It doesn't matter which side of the fence you are on: whether you believe in an apocalypse or not, it is as equally hard to side with Curtis as it is to turn a blind eye. The vivid, terrifying dreams he has make his plight something we could believe in. But then there are the people around him who think that he is taking his fear a step too far. He steals equipment for it, he sleeps out in the storm shelter, he even spends the valuable money needed to treat his deaf daughter Hannah (Tova Stewart). He seems to be bringing a storm to his small town, unleashing all sorts of bad things upon the people around him. But just as those people are quick to judge his actions as those of a crazy man, we know about what is going on in his head. We know about the confusion he feels towards everything that is happening to him, about the fact that his mother had schizophrenia at around the same age. You feel sorry for him, just as much as you ponder his sanity. This is what makes Take Shelter a perfect portrayal of the human mind at it's most vulnerable and intense. And that is exactly what makes this such a terrifying picture.

I've always been a fan of slow-burning thrillers, finding the intoxicating feeling you get from them far more effective than the cut-and-run nature of basic Hollywood thrillers. Take Shelter is indeed a slow-burner - a little too slow in some areas. Despite the pacing issues, writer/director Jeff Nichols gives you plenty to chew on about both the state of Curtis' mind and the possibility of his apocalyptic visions coming true. He creates a true atmosphere, filled with uncertainty and ultimately isolation. As you would expect, there are quite a few ambiguous, frightening shots, particularly during the dream sequences. The film begins with Curtis standing outside with oily rain falling upon him. Nichols takes one thing and flips it on it's side like this, and doesn't dress it up with jumpy editing or over-exposure. He gives you one shot for you to observe and absorb, and it manifests itself into a terrifying vision with a hundred different meanings. That is the work of a true artist. Add on a sometimes violent, sharp, ambient score and you have the makings of something that requires a little thought to be truly scary, but once you get there, you can't help but being on edge.

What Take Shelter deserves to be the most proud of, though, are the performances from both Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. They play off each other perfectly, first creating the idyllic family life with their deaf young daughter, then weaving their way through their married life. As that is set in stone, along comes the problems that Curtis faces, adding another layer to their dynamic. Shannon, an Oscar nominee for his scene-stealing performance in Revolutionary Road, gives another stellar performance here. I may sound like I'm adding to redundant cliché, but he really was screwed out of an Oscar nomination. He carries his character with sympathy and doesn't make himself out to be a monster, which is the vital key to the scene where he refuses to open the door to get out of the storm shelter. You believe that his visions have taken over his brain from just a simple look, which is a remarkable achievement from an actor. Chastain is also extraordinary in her role (but isn't that what we've come to expect?). While Shannon has the task of performing the meltdown, Chastain has to react to it. She does this with a quiet complexity, playing the terrified to Shannon's terrifying actions. They're both perfect - and hey, they should make more films together.

The film's climax, though, is the best thing about it. The sheer ambiguity of it makes it something that manifests in your brain long after the credits have rolled. From the first instance of trouble, to the revealing shot, to the final thing that Samantha says...it is so beautiful composed that it left my head reeling. It was the perfect way to close off a film that made me want to sit down and write a film myself. But I should wait until I can shake the full effect of this film off before I try and write something that makes sense.

What I got:

A Conversation with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

2012-03-15T20:39:00.000+13:00

I've noticed that since I started this series up again, I've been 'interviewing' some quite bad films. But they're the easiest to talk to, aside from films with great scripts (like anything by Paul Thomas Anderson - or L.A. Confidential, I had great fun with that one). Oh well, I only aim to entertain, and taking the piss out of a Twilight film is one of the best ways to do that. If you are unsure of how this series works, check back here for previous entries. The skinny is that my 'interviewer' Christopher (no reference to anyone living or dead) has a 'chat' with a specific movie. And today's movie just so happens to be The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1.

CHRISTOPHER: Hello there. Would you mind stepping out of the dark so I can see you?
BREAKING DAWN 1: I'm a vampire movie. I don't do lights.

C: That's an odd thing to say, considering your main vampire Edward spends a good deal of time sitting outside, in the sunlight, playing chess, and not sparkling.
BD1: He gets a lot of shit for sparkling.

C: I hate to break it to you, but vampires don't sparkle. They're not supposed to be fairies.
BD1: This argument has been going on since 2008. Just let Edward and his vampire family be. If they want to be fairies, they can let their freak flag fly.

C: Hmmmm. So far, we've had the love story between Edward and Bella, and Bella has been killed almost fifty times, plus there's something about some werewolves, one in particular who likes to take his shirt off. What do you have to offer to this obviously epic 'saga'?
BD1: Well, Bella and Edward get married, and Bella almost gets killed again. There's a really short sex scene in there, too - we didn't want to freak any little girls out.

C: So Bella almost gets killed again, what a surprise. How does it happen this time?
BD1: She gets pregnant. With a vampire/human hybrid. Now ain't that excitement for all the little fangirls?

C: Oh yes. I imagine a fetus that's half human is very exciting to whoever still likes you after all this time.
BD1: I still have fans. Mainly the mothers of teenagers who have already outgrown me. Mothers dig that sort of stuff.

C: That is quite surprising, as the series has just got worse and worse. You started out as an indie, which was fine, but then you got all cocky and the budgets got bigger.
BD1: As long as we're making money and winning lots of MTV Movie Awards, we're happy.

C: Are you aware that you're nominated for 8 Razzies?
BD1: Are you aware that that is probably more nominations than Drive got for anything this awards season? See, we're on the top of our game.

C: I'm not even going to say anything to that. Now this is only the first part to the final book. Tell me, why does hardly anything happen?
BD1: What do you mean, 'why does hardly anything happen?'. Edward and Bella play chess for at least 50% of the movie. And everyone thinks that is so romantic. Plus, chess is a game which needs to be brought back out into the spotlight. Harry Potter had a go at making it cool and all, but I think Edward and Bella really nailed it.

C: Yes, I'm going out to buy myself a chess set and hope that some clumsy, boring girl comes to play it with me on a beach. So romantic.
BD1: It is romantic, for the fangirls, their mothers, and the teens that claim to be hipster but only think that chess is cool because I showed them it in a romantic light.

C: Oh yay. So you expect them to believe in true love at first sight, with both a vampire and a werewolf, as well?
BD1: Yes.

C: Isn't being in love with a vampire kinda dangerous?
BD1: Do teenage girls think? No.

C: Oh well, if it were dangerous, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson don't do a good job of showing it.
BD1: Who cares? Everyone thinks they're good looking.

C: And what does she see in Taylor Lautner?
BD1: True emotion. You see how he furrows his eyebrows all of the time? And how he got so angry about the wedding invitation that he ripped off his shirt and went for a run? That boy has no heart of stone.

C: Just a face of stone. Thankfully, we only have to endure one more of your films. But you picked a stupid moment to end yourself on.
BD1: It is called ambiguity. All the cool movies end with a shot like that. I mean, you saw that movie called Inception, right? It had that spinning top at the end. And even though I didn't understand that, I thought that last shot was cool because spinning tops are so 2002 which is soooooo retro. So I decided to end with a shot like that, and everyone would be like, that shot is so cool. I mean, how else could I end?

C: I don't know, by fitting the entire book into one film so we could only have four films instead of five?
BD1: You don't understand. The longer we keep milking this vampire thing, the more money we can make. They'll be rebooting the series in a couple of years.

C: Oh God, now I really do hope the apocalypse happens. Do you have any final words?
BD1: TEAM EDWARD 4EVA XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO!!!

What I got:

Lies May Lead to Truth.

2012-03-14T20:21:00.002+13:00

Film: A Separation
Year: 2011
Written and directed by: Asghar Farhadi
Starring: Peyman Moadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shabab Hosseini, Sarina Farhadi, Merila Zare'i, Kimia Hosseini, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh.
Running time: 123 min.

I've always been a big advocate of words being more effective than violence, thrills or laughs on screen. Some Hollywood films abuse that fact, by either using the violence and other visual things to get their point across, or by wasting words on needless exposition. But A Separation, an Iranian film written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, seamlessly uses words in all of their glory. It is a seemingly simple story about a married couple (Simin and Nader, played by Leila Hatami and Peyman Hatami respectively) who decide to divorce; Simin wants to leave Iran to let her daughter live a better life elsewhere, but Nader wants to stay in Iran and look after his ailing father who has Alzheimer’s. The story, without the use of guns, bombs or killing, captivates from the very beginning, and becomes a thriller where words speak louder than actions. And that is the way it should be.

Asghar Farhadi uses words like the knives or guns that you’d expect to see from a typical thriller, using them to create a tense, taut film that you perhaps wouldn’t expect from such a simple storyline. From the very beginning, he draws you into the world of Simin, Nader, and their child Termeh (Sarina Farhadi), usually confined to their dusty apartment. It is the kind of apartment that has been lived in, the kind of confines that become familiar straight away, the place in which you call home for the two hour duration. The characters that fill it, whether it be the family or their maid Razieh (Sareh Bayat) and her daughter Somayeh (Kimia Hosseini), are so well-written that they become people that you feel like you’ve had in your life for much longer. What Farhadi does is create atmosphere: first with his script, and then with his mostly handheld camera which documents their lives. You go in and out of the apartment, driving around town with them, go to the hospital with them - never for a second does it feel like slaving your way through an extremely observational film. You feel a part of their lives, not just an outsider looking in, which is the scariest part about this film.

But that Farhadi does the best is challenge your perceptions. I won't go into major specifics about the plot (because that would ruin the experience of the film), but there are a couple of important scenes which are quite challenging. You think you know what happened, and go along for the rest of the film thinking that you have resolved the entire issue, but then the movie has a way of twisting it. It is only then that you realise that you didn't have enough facts to begin with, and if you were to argue your case, you probably wouldn't have a lot of evidence to back it up. This isn't because you're stupid or ignorant - it is because when we watch films, we're so used to having everything handed to us on a silver platter that we generally make our own summations of how the story goes because we know what will happen. And usually, it does happen the way we've planned. In A Separation, you won't find that is the case. You'll be lucky to find any silver platters in this film.

Being a film made in Iran about Iranian people for Iranian people, you'd expect that it perhaps wouldn't translate so well to a wider audience. For example, religion plays a huge role in the film, which was a very different experience for me to watch. The film isn't aiming to teach you anything about the Iranian way of life - it just comes with becoming involved with these people and the problems that they face. But there is something that resonates with everyone, in one way or another, as it is a realistic look at actual humanity, and not the kind that Hollywood conjures up. The performances give it that final touch, playing up the story as real life. For me, there wasn't really a stand-out because they were all so good. The best examples of the terrific acting come from both the opening scene and closing scene, which bookend the film as a story which is kind of its own. The final scene, particularly, was the one that resonated with me the most, as I've been in that situation before (to a lesser extent though). It is such a perfect way to end, to leave the audience in that way, but it could haven't been any better.

It is stirring to think about everything that happened in this movie and how everything could possibly fit together. But what is more stirring to think about is just how great this film is.

What I got (kind of ironic rating):

Tuesday Links and Other Stuff #15

2012-03-13T19:30:00.000+13:00

What I'm watching tonight...

Well, I know that I'm watching In Time tonight. But there is a place open for another movie, which may be filled up with Drive, if my sister delivers it to me tonight. It will be nice to see that movie without airline censorship (I never heard a swear word from the version I watched...). However, while this week is big, I don't feel the need to freak myself out by revisiting Contagion, and although I like the cast, I'm not sold on Dream House (I'll check it out later). Tomorrow I shall finally be checking out Take Shelter, which I think is more exciting than my birthday, and giving The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 a whirl since I want to complete the series, and see how bad it is. So don't be alarmed if there's no post tomorrow, because I'm at my Dads, which means that I can't just have dinner when I want and watch movies when I want. Ugh.

Video of the week...

I meant to post this last week, but I ran out of time to do one of these posts. When I was in bed with laryngitis the other day, dreading going to work without a voice, the lovely Diana tweeted me the trailer to Now is Good, starring Dakota Fanning and my fourth husband Jeremy Irvine. I'm actually quite looking forward to this one!

Links...

Kate Winslet is perfection, and Mette at Lime Reviews sums up on the heavenly creature that she is.

Another person to jump on the 'hundred things I learnt from the movies' is Nikhat of Being Norma Jeane, who predictably has some awesome quotes.

I couldn't really pick out which post I wanted to feature from Tyler's Southern Vision, so I'll just go for both: his review of the worst movie in the world, The Room, and his post all about my favourite score ever from The Social Network.

At the moment, in English we are writing reviews on Braveheart for our assessment - a movie which I thought was quite average. Steve Honeywell from 1001 Plus seemed to like it enough. And our introductions are basically the same!

The On the Road trailer finally hit this weekend, and it looks very good. But no-one is more excited for it than Diana, who sells the movie to us all!

Speaking of Aziza's Picks, if you wanna help a blogger out, make sure to give her some feedback at the LAMB's Brutally Blunt Blog Blustering page!

I do love it when Ryan at The Matinee slows down to do a personal kind of post (in fact, when anyone does one, I love it), and he takes some time to reflect on podcasting. It almost makes me want to do a podcast myself, but I'm a busy wee lassie!

Andrew at Encore's World of Film & TV has been reviewing 2011 in film, and his supporting actress ballot is particularly cool. Why? Double Jessica Chastain :)

Finally, Jandy at Row Three made up the most epic list - ranking all of the Best Picture winners she'd seen. My golly, that would have been exhausting.

Final word:

What is your favourite podcast?

Underrated Showcase Sundays: Quiz Show

2012-03-11T20:20:00.000+13:00

Underrated Showcase Sundays is a pretty straight-forward: every Sunday I'll shed some light on a film which I think doesn't get enough love. The showcase will be largely unstructured (well, compared to my other reviews) and will often just be random thoughts. It doesn't matter if I've seen it before or not. Tonight's instalment is one I've seen twice before, and had to go to a whole different country to get myself a copy of it on DVD (that sound more dramatic than what it actually happened).

Right in the midst of my huge obsession with Ralph Fiennes, I found two films of his that I had never heard of before: Strange Days hiding on the thriller shelf at Blockbuster and Quiz Show, which I queued up. Each of them were distinctly great films, offering a look at Fiennes just after his work in Schindler's List - a.k.a the best performance of all time. While Strange Days had him playing the fast-talking, smooth yet kinda seedy street hustler, Quiz Show has him playing a role completely different to anything he has ever done: the vulnerable, well-to-do pretty boy who acts his way into the heart of millions. If you look at Fiennes' filmography, you'll find it rich with varied characters and films, but one performance and film that sticks out for me the most is his Charles van Doren in Quiz Show.

I'm not entirely sure about how Quiz Show fared back in its day...I probably wasn't even a little sea monkey back then. But I know for sure that this would be the kind of movie that they'd laud as 'Oscar bait' these days: a stylish film telling a true story that we all can't believe ever happened, with an equally stylish cast to match. However, back in 1994, while it was nominated for four Oscars (Best Picture), it had to contend with the mega year of movies: Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, Three Colours: Red, Four Weddings and a Funeral and the once flopped but now classic The Shawshank Redemption. It is probably because of that fact that Quiz Show, the flawlessly done story of the Quiz Show scandals of the 1950s, has not enjoyed the post-1994 success that it should have. Which is a shame, because this film would work as a perfect companion piece to The Social Network - all about faking it until you make it, landing yourself in hot water, trying not to be the bad guy. Yes, it is The Social Network for before computers were but a fragment of ones futuristic imagination.

Quiz Show succeeds on almost every level: the script, the way the narrative is presented, the direction from Robert Redford (whose career seems to be slowly declining), but especially the great performances. It is hard to pick the stand out: Ralph Fiennes succeeds with his charm, his vulnerability and of course his un-earthly good looks that the camera is obviously making love to; Paul Scofield is perfect, helping his son along in a tricky situation; John Turturro breaks hearts as the misunderstood awkward genius Herb Stempel; even Martin Scorsese, of all people, gets a cameo. The film reaches a high point where Charles van Doren gives his "flying on borrowed wings" speech before Congress. It is such a beautiful end to a surprisingly dirty movie, showing what really went on behind the seemingly harmless quiz shows. The verdict is that you must see this movie - it definitely ranks as one of the very best that 1994 had to offer, and it had sure had some competition.

What I got:

An Ode to Ambition

2012-03-10T21:20:00.000+13:00

"When there is a will, there is a way..."

Anyone heard that line before? It is one of my favourite clichéd, life lessons in one sentence kind of lines. Why? Because I have lived by it as much as I can.

Take for example, the time when my favourite horse Katie cut her leg open when she got caught in a fence. While my parents agreed to not put her down, they didn't hold much hope for her. Basically, it was me who kept her from going back to her former home. Every morning, I'd get up and rub honey on the wound. When she got a bit better, I started riding her in light work. When we got tired of that, I started jumping her to stretch her leg. And where could we go from there? Maybe to the races. Now she'd never been the fastest horse. And I had this thing where my favourite horses would always be the slow ones that would eventually leave us. But I thought that Katie might have something in her. People would always take one look at her leg and tell us that it was cruel to race her - but if we didn't, she would have gone crazy. She went on to win two races.

While I'm the first to admit I wasn't the driving force behind her winning two races (although I did take the two bottles of wine we got from them, which remain unopened in my room), there were a great deal of things involved that made the two victories ever so sweet. Drive, hard work, passion, love, but most of all, ambition.

Right now, I'm at the beginning of my second to last year of high school. It is like I'm standing in a city, looking up at the skyscrapers, and wondering how the heck I'm going to get to the top. And that scares me. I'm not the kind of girl who looks to the past and hopes for it to replicate itself. I am the kind of girl who always looks into the future - as you may be able to tell with my refusal to look at just highly-revered older films as the best films of all time, I seek out the new stuff and predict that they'll have a similar future. I worry about the future often. I worry that maybe things won't go right, that I won't get what I want. And most of the time, I don't. But there's this thing called ambition. Sometimes, it never gets fulfilled. But on the occasional chance that it does, the failures in the past and the work put into that fulfilment always outweigh anything in my world.

At the risk of sounding self-obsessed, I'll admit that I have achieved quite a bit in the last year or so. Someone actually said to me "what is there left for you to achieve?" They were sweet achievements too. I had spent a whole lot of time wondering how I could be better at what I do, thinking I wasn't good enough, but not giving up. I don't give up unless I have a really good reason to. I do think pessimistically sometimes, but is pessimism going to get me the results that I want? No. Realism might. More often than not, though, 'when there is a will, there is a way' got the better of me.

One thing that is going to test my ambition, though, is a new job which I got earlier this week. I got announced as the director of our school production. I'd half-heartedly put my name down the week before, thinking I would not get it. I had very good reason to think that way - usually year 13s, not year 12s, are chosen for such a job and to be honest, unless you read the local paper, I'm not that well known around the school. But here, it has happened, and I have a big future to look ahead to now.

This is not our average kind of school production. There's a much bigger budget, we have a bigger hall, a bigger production to do. When it gets going, it is going to be every single night, overseeing everything. I'm not going to have a life outside of school at all. Somehow, I don't mind all that much. Sure, my ultra-secret project will have to be delayed and this blog won't get as much love as it used to (which is a shame, I was hoping for some LAMMYs this year, haha). But every time I've been in a production, I've loved getting on stage after all of that hard work. And I know that this time, my ambitions will be fulfilled.

Plus, this is good for what I want to do when I 'grow up'. Yeah, I still want to be a director of films. Mainly because I don't want to be in a job that feels like a routine. I want to be in a job where ambition is the best way you can succeed. I'm an ambitious wee lassie, and it would take a lot for me to give up.

After all, if a guy like Michael Bay can make shit-tacular's like Transformers: Dark of the Moon, then who says I can't pick up a camera and shoot some robots?

I always feel bad about posting personal things, but I felt like this needs to be said. Soooooorry!

Quick Limerick Reviews: Anonymous, One Day, Fright Night + More

2012-03-09T20:50:00.000+13:00

Yeah, I'm rolling out the poetry again...even though I dislike it to no end. Just in case you don't know what a limerick is, here is the buzz:
-There are five lines.
-Lines 1, 2 and 5 all rhyme with one another. Lines 3 and 4 rhyme with one another, too.
-Lines 1, 2 and 5 have between 7 and 10 syllables in each line.
-Lines 3 and 4 should have between 5 and 7 syllables in each line.
-Ideally, it should be funny (here's hoping).

With these stellar creations that are all about the syllables, I shall be reviewing Anonymous, One Day, Fright Night, Tanner Hall and The Three Musketeers.

Anonymous (2011)

So you think Shakespeare is a fraud?

That sure is a question for the bored.

And hath boring it is

Very pretty, but no fizz

And no apocalypse, thank the lord.

What I got:

One Day (2011)

Is it really that hard to be a Brit?

Or make romance that is romantic?

Good idea, at the time

But just as sweet as a lime

And Anne Hathaway's accent is shit.

What I got:

Fright Night (2011)

Another remake, what a surprise!

Its strange the things that money buys,

There aren't many scares,

Nor is it a funny affair,

But Anton Yelchin is still a cuddly guy.

What I got:

Tanner Hall (2009)

Back when Rooney Mara had long hair

And no dragon tattoos to wear

Being a girl was hard

But it's vision is quite marred

Still, here's the start of Rooney's big career.

What I got:

The Three Musketeers (2011)

A classic novel, the way to go

Just make it work for generation 'whoa'

Stick in some flying boats,

Then it's only fun for goats,

Is it at all cool? Heavens no.

What I got:

What do you think of these movies? Have any poetry to share about them?

A Conversation with I Don't Know How She Does It

2012-03-08T20:57:00.000+13:00

Most of you probably haven't seen Sarah Jessica Parker's latest ~~War Horse~~ I Don't Know How She Does It, but that doesn't matter. Our 'interviewer' Christopher (named after the ginger cat I never got for my birthday) is going to interview it since it is the perfect film to interview (you'll see why). Basically, if you're new to all of this: I rebooted this series about a couple of weeks ago - missing those weeks because of the Oscars and a school trip - where my fake interviewer Christopher 'chats' to a specific movie. You can find past entries here. Let's get into it, shall we?

CHRISTOPHER: Hi there. I think the obvious question to start with is why the hell do you have such a stupid title?
I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT: Because, silly, who does know how she does it?

C: What, how does Sarah Jessica Parker still keep getting work?
IDKHSDI: No. What I intend for the audience to see is the ins and outs of being a mother. And everyone has to look up at our heroine, Kate Reddy and say "I don't know how she does it!" every five minutes. It is all about girl power, girlfriend.

C: Well in that case, I'm glad that I'm fake so I don't have to have children and have a wife running around like her.
IDKHSDI: I'm obviously not for males. I'm for mothers to put their hands up to and worship, since I am obviously the bible for the working mother.

C: With Sarah Jessica Parker playing your heroine?
IDKHSDI: ...yes. You saw Sex and the City. That was the bible for the fashionable woman! This is like, the sequel.

C: The sequel where Carrie Bradshaw catches lice?
IDKHSDI: Yes.

C: And doesn't bake anything for the bake sale so she just buys a pie from the shop?
IDKHSDI: ...yes.

C: And just about has an affair with Pierce Brosnan?
IDKHSDI: ...yes...

C: Wow, I really don't know how she does it.
IDKHSDI: Exactly. She has to deal with all of those problems.

C: Okay, so you are a girl power movie being the bible for the working mother. But why are you made in such a strange way?
IDKHSDI: I am made in a documentary style so it all feels more real. So everyone can somewhat relate to it. And how else could we get across the point that Kate Reddy is so amazing? We had to tell the audience all the time just to remind them. Just in case the title wasn't enough of a clue.

C: Have you ever heard of something called subtlety? It is in right now.
IDKHSDI: Considering one of the highest grossing movies of the year was Transformers: Dark of the Moon - which was not very subtle - I was going with the crowd. I was just expanding that idea.

C: But why did you have to have so many annoying characters explaining a character just as annoying?
IDKHSDI: Have you not read the chick flick handbook? It says that behind every lead female character, you need the trusty best friend who feels the need to crack dirty jokes all the time (Christina Hendricks), the sassy guy friend (Seth Meyers), the nemesis who may look like the perfect mother but actually isn't and has anger issues (Busy Philipps), the younger girl who idolises the heroine but can't get her life straight (Jessica Szohr) and the uptight career obsessed woman who won't let anything get in her way, including emotions (Olivia Munn). And then there's the people who don't have to explain them: the men. The doting husband who is so sensitive of course we have to feel sorry for him (Greg Kinnear), the over-powering 'I wish I was more family-oriented' workaholic (Pierce Brosnan) and the mean 'I don't give a shit' boss (Kelsey Grammer). All of these people are supposed to generate support and emotion towards Kate Reddy, obviously.

C: And is breaking the fourth wall another technique to get us to care about Kate Reddy?
IDKHSDI: Of course we need to know what she's thinking all of the time. And if SJP's husband can do it in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, then she can too.

C: Ah, but you see, that was actually a good movie.
IDKHSDI: And I'm not?

C: Unless you count having every cliché in the book. Mind you, I now know why you have that stupid title. If any woman makes it through this movie, then she I don't know how she does it.
IDKHSDI: See? My title is great after all.

What I got:

All the Clichés, But All the Heart Too.

2012-03-07T20:48:00.000+13:00

Film: Warrior
Year: 2011
Director: Gavin O'Connor
Written by: Gavin O'Connor, Anthony Tambakis, Cliff Dorfman.
Starring: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Kevin Dunn, Maximiliano Hernández, Vanessa Martinez.
Running time: 135 min.

Imagine how Warrior must have looked on paper: another fighting movie about two brothers from a stuffed up family who are the underdogs that have to fight there way up and win against all odds. I can imagine the money-grubbers turning their heads away and wondering when the next movie about boxing robots was going to be pitched. Alas, even though Hollywood is partial to their clichéd stories that generally make everyone feel good, Warrior had the incomparable task of making Hollywood like it, and everyone else too (if you think about it, not many films succeed in that area). Like the story in the movie, Warrior was a film that not many of us expected great things to come out of. It was indeed the underdog who achieved some great things.

So if it was so clichéd or overdone, then why did it become such a success? Because it is not the movie you thought it was. Look at the trailer. It is trying to sell you this movie like it is some sort of Disney movie for adults. It isn't. For the most part, it plays out a little like The Fighter (and there's nothing wrong with that), before leading you into a trap that you saw coming the whole time but you don't know how to deal with it. If you're anything like me, you will probably feel an explosion of emotions because of the decisions that have to be made. And it is torture. What this film does, and does so well, is present to us something that we are all well used to seeing, and then punch us in the face when it comes down to it all. That's exactly what I like to see from a movie. But to be honest, who doesn't love an underdog triumphs all story?

While the film may comfort you with its scattered clichés, chances are that you won't be comforted by the characters and the stories behind them. We are first introduced to Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy), a former US Marine, returning to visit his former alcoholic father Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte). Tommy joins up with a local gym to train as a Mixed Martial Arts fighter, and despite his bitter attitude towards his father, he asks him to train him so he can go forth and win a huge tournament. His brother, Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton), who doesn't know that he is around, is a physics teacher with a wife (played by Jennifer Morrison, who is currently on the hit TV show Once Upon a Time) and two kids. Even though it would seem that they live a good lifestyle, they have run out of money. Instead of declaring bankruptcy, Brendan tries to earn money by fighting MMA in the carpark of a strip club, before also going forth to train for the huge tournament. These characters are wondrously crafted, with their stories running along side each other showing two people desperate to win that tournament. It doesn't throw huge issues like alcoholism at you like a ball of guilt. Everything is crafted so it is realistic, especially as it shows themes of reconciliation and human spirit without dipping it in treacle first.

It is a powerhouse of emotion, which is due to the great performances which its international cast draw out. Joel Edgerton may not be ground-breaking, but he plays his part of a man doing anything to keep his family afloat well. I'm glad to see that he is slowly getting more and more roles, and this film should be an advocate for that. In all honesty, though, this is Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte's film. They spend the large majority of the film together, and they create some of the best celluloid 2011 had to offer. Hardy plays the bitter and remorseful ex-US Marine with vigour, dripping anger off his every word. This creates a stark contrast to Nolte's character, who has searched for a better life after alcohol. Tommy teases and taunts him, brushes him off, tears him apart. It is heartbreaking to watch, especially when Paddy brings in an old record from Tommy's school days and he pushes him away. There are small moments like these when Paddy realises that there isn't any chance of reconciliation (nor is there any with Brendan, either), but when it all gets too much, it is absolutely shattering. That was the moment where Nolte not only earned that Oscar nomination, but had there been no Christopher Plummer, he should have won. And had this year's Best Actor race not been so cramped up, Tom Hardy should have snagged a nomination for himself, too.

Sports movie? Eh, this is not a sports movie. It is one hell of an emotional rollercoaster, with some pretty well filmed MMA fight sequences put in between. At 135 minutes, this movie only just overstays its welcome, but otherwise, it is one of the best films that 2011 had to offer. It goes above and beyond what that shonky pitch said that it would offer.

What I got:

Lame Trailer Clichés: The Kettle

2012-03-05T19:44:00.000+13:00

Yes, another weekly feature. It was something I came up with while selling someone a Lotto ticket at work and gazing at the TV playing the trailer disc. I've seem craploads of trailers in my time thanks to working a DVD shop, and more often than not they're pretty silly. So every Monday, I'll look at a certain lame trailer cliché that seems to pop up in quite a few of them.

Do you ever look at your kettle and think, what a sinister appliance?

Do you ever listen to your kettle boiling and think, "blimey, that makes my life so much more exciting"?

Do you ever think, if I were in my own action movie, I want a kettle boiling in the room just to make it that more intense?

If you answered those three questions with a no? Well, the movies seem to think that kettles are pretty intense, and they like to stick a shot of one and the boiling providing a soundtrack to a choppily edited segment of all of the exciting parts in the movie. For the record, my kettle kind of sounds like Darth Vader letting out a really long breath. And I'm not sure that it would make anything more intense, even Star Wars.

So if you go and watch last year's Liam Neeson thriller Unknown or straight-to-DVD horror Rogue River, keep an eye out for the kettle. They seem to play it out like the kettle could indeed be eligible for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. That appliance that makes you a nice cup of tea/coffee? It is much more of a movie star than you originally thought.

This little humdinger appears at about 2:20

Like Unknown, this one doesn't get his star moment until quite the way through the trailer. Look out for him at 1:40

Do you think that kettles should get their own Oscar category for 'Best Supporting Appliance'?

100 Things the Movies Have Taught Me

2012-03-04T20:38:00.000+13:00

I was inspired by a couple of posts to compile a list of 100 quotes that stuck with me after watching the movies that they belonged to. I like compiling lists, and this seemed like a good one to do. The answers to what movies the quotes belong to is in white, so you'll have to highlight them in case you get stuck.
(NOTE: There won't be any 'Underrated Showcase Sunday' this weekend. I have many ideas and only so many days to do them, so it got shafted)

1. We are supposed to be righteous. That's a beautiful thing. And we're losing it. If I lose that, that's everything. That's my soul. Munich

2. The nuns taught us there were two ways through life - the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you'll follow. Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries. Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things. The nuns taught us that no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end. The Tree of Life

3. Every parting from you is like a little eternity. Waterloo Bridge

4. Cabbage has a cabbage smell. Meet Me in St. Louis

5. I've stood on the shoulders of life and I've never gotten down into the dirt to build, to erect a foundation of my own. I've flown too high on borrowed wings. Everything came too easy. Quiz Show

6. I've got the guts to die. What I want to know is, have you got the guts to live? Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

7. Don't forget, a great impression of simplicity can only be achieved by great agony of body and spirit. The Red Shoes

8. This song of the Man and his Wife is of no place and every place; you might hear it anywhere, at any time. For wherever the sun rises and sets, in the city's turmoil or under the open sky on the farm, life is much the same; sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

9. No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure. Midnight in Paris

10. You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling. Inception

11. Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? Pulp Fiction

12. You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. The Dark Knight

13. I like how you can compliment and insult somebody at the same time, in equal measure. Blue Valentine

14. Hello. How 'bout that ride in? I guess that's why they call it Sin City. You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack. But when my sister brought Doug home, I knew he was one of my own. And my wolf pack... it grew by one. So there... there were two of us in the wolf pack... I was alone first in the pack, and then Doug joined in later. And six months ago, when Doug introduced me to you guys, I thought, "Wait a second, could it be?" And now I know for sure, I just added two more guys to my wolf pack. Four of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine. So tonight, I make a toast! The Hangover

15. If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person? Fight Club

16. Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't. That's what the Emperor said. A man steals something, he's brought in before the Emperor, he throws himself down on the ground. He begs for his life, he knows he's going to die. And the Emperor... pardons him. This worthless man, he lets him go. That's power, Amon. That is power. Schindler's List

17. Fuck this shit, I'm getting the bazooka! Kick-Ass

18. You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an asshole. The Social Network

19. Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

20. Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts. Memento

21. You can't join Mathletes, it's social suicide! Mean Girls

22. I don't know how to tell you this, but... there's a Chinese family in our bathroom. (500) Days of Summer

23. Tell it to the cleaning lady on Monday. Because you'll be dust by Monday... because you'll be pulverized in two seconds. The cleaning lady? She cleans up... dust. She dusts. 'Cause... it's Friday now, she's the weekends off, so... Monday, right? Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

24. Great balls of fire. Don't bother me anymore, and don't call me sugar. Gone with the Wind

25. You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went. You could swear, curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

26. Now Woody, he's been my pal for as long as I can remember. He's brave, like a cowboy should be. And kind, and smart. But the thing that makes Woody special, is he'll never give up on you... ever. He'll be there for you, no matter what. Toy Story 3

27. You went upstairs? Why didn't you just crawl into bed with her ask a bedtime story? The Devil Wears Prada

28. *I'm* the only "cause" I'm interested in. Casablanca

29. Men get such hardons from putting their names on things. You guys don't grow up. It's like you need to pee on everything. Up in the Air

30. You, my friend, are a victim of disorganized thinking. You are under the unfortunate impression that just because you run away you have no courage; you're confusing courage with wisdom. The Wizard of Oz

31. Plastic little spastic. Hairspray

32. You're just some guy who made me laugh at a party once. Revolutionary Road

33. Oh, you think you're so special because you get to play Picture Pages up there? Well, my five year old daughter could do that and let me tell you, she's not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed. So why don't you go back to night school in Mantino and learn a real trade. Juno

34. Studying is hard and boring. Teaching is hard and boring. So, what you're telling me is to be bored, and then bored, and finally bored again, but this time for the rest of my life? This whole stupid country is bored! There's no life in it, or color, or fun! It's probably just as well the Russians are going to drop a nuclear bomb on us any day now. So my choice is to do something hard and boring, or to marry my... Jew, and go to Paris and Rome and listen to jazz, and read, and eat good food in nice restaurants, and have fun! It's not enough to educate us anymore Ms. Walters. You've got to tell us why you're doing it. An Education

35. What lingered after them was not life, but the most trivial list of mundane facts: a clock ticking on a wall, a room dim at noon, and the outrageousness of a human being thinking only of herself. The Virgin Suicides

36. Just get through the goddamn day. A Single Man

37. Memories are wonderful things, if you don't have to deal with the past. Before Sunset

38. I feel something important is happening around me. And it scares me. Three Colours: Red

39. Deliberate cruelty is unforgivable, and the one thing of which I have never,ever been guilty of. A Streetcar Named Desire

40. They are poems that just occur to him on the spot. Last night he said to me, "Dawn, your face is a brilliant moon in my empty room. Your love is like a beating drum. Ba bum ba bum ba bum ba bum." Waitress

41. It has nothing to do with Satan, Mama. It's me. Me. If I concentrate hard enough, I can move things. Carrie

42. And you, pose as a playwright? A situation pregnant with possibilities and all you can think of is everybody go to sleep. All About Eve

43. I never did like the idea of sitting on newspapers. I did it once, and all the headlines came off on my white pants. On the level! It actually happened. Nobody bought a paper that day. They just followed me around over town and read the news on the seat of my pants. It Happened One Night

44. Not everything comes along just when we want it. There are times when decisions just have to be made, or you certainly will miss out. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

45. You have a wonderful sense of humor. I wish I had a sense of humor, but I can never think of the right thing to say until everybody's gone home. My Man Godfrey

46. When a man is wrestling a leopard in the middle of a pond, he's in no position to run. Bringing Up Baby

47. Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he? It's a Wonderful Life

48. I'm going to be on television! Requiem for a Dream

49. The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return. Moulin Rouge!

50. I drink your milkshake! There Will be Blood

51. Do what I do: Imagine the audience naked. The Muppets

52. Nothing can hurt us now. What we have can't be destroyed. That's our victory - our victory over the dark. It is a victory because we're not afraid. Dark Victory

53. You're dumber than you think I think you are. Chinatown

54. You see, friendship is more than one person constantly doing favors for the another. Strange Days

55. I want to be perfect. Black Swan

56. Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled. The Prestige

57. Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80's movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life. Easy A

58. It had never occurred to me that our lives, so closely interwoven, could unravel with such speed. If I'd known, maybe I'd have kept tighter hold of them. Never Let Me Go

59. You're a fucking inanimate object! In Bruges

60. Well you figure, you sleep one-third of your life, that knocks out eight years of marriage right there. Lost in Translation

61. Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

62. You've done some bad things, sweetie. Animal Kingdom

63. What am I doing? I'm quietly judging you. Magnolia

64. I decided to stop pitying myself. Other than my eye, two things aren't paralyzed, my imagination and my memory. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

65. Why does Noddy have a bell on his hat? 'Cause he's a cunt! Cemetery Junction

66. It's a business lie, it's different from a life lie. Sunshine Cleaning

67. Everyone has one thing they're good at. I've always been stupid, but I'm good at this. Breaking the Waves

68. Fuck! Seriously? It's like you're Photoshopped! Crazy, Stupid, Love.

69. People get hurt. There's only so much we can do to protect ourselves, our children. The only thing we can do is be there for each other when we do fall down to pick each other up. Trust

70. Maybe I'm spending too much of my time starting up clubs and putting on plays. I should probably be trying harder to score chicks. Rushmore

71. I think the world would be better without Dogville. Dogville

72. I just missed your heart. Hanna

73. You are more beautiful than Cinderella! You smell like pine needles, and have a face like sunshine! Bridesmaids

74. Wait for the crème. Inglourious Basterds

75. Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. The Shawshank Redemption

76. I'm handsome even when I sleep? Enchanted

77. I'm like cat here, a no-name slob. We belong to nobody, and nobody belongs to us. We don't even belong to each other. Breakfast at Tiffany's

78. You're great at creating difficult situations. Rear Window

79. Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints... show me all the blueprints... show me all the blueprints... show me all the blueprints... The Aviator

80. You know, I've been thinking. Everything is... just comes together. It's me. I chose this. I chose all this. This rock... this rock has been waiting for me my entire life. It's entire life, ever since it was a bit of meteorite a million, billion years ago. In space. It's been waiting, to come here. Right, right here. I've been moving towards it my entire life. The minute I was born, every breath that I've taken, every action has been leading me to this crack on the out surface. 127 Hours

81. That's my wife, Carolyn. See the way the handle on her pruning shears matches her gardening clogs? That's not an accident. American Beauty

82. You is kind. You is smart. You is important. The Help

83. Slowly things return to normal and life goes on. People do what they did before as best as they can. Within a few weeks taste becomes a distant memory and different sensations takes its place. Perfect Sense

84. Wherever you are, I will find you and I will bring you home. War Horse

85. Audiences don't know somebody sits down and writes a picture; they think the actors make it up as they go along. Sunset Blvd.

86. The last time we talked, Mr. Dodd, you reduced me to tears. I promise you, it won't happen again. The Country Girl

87. I don't read the script. The script reads me. Tropic Thunder

88. I doubt you've ever taken a stupid breath. Don't start now. L.A. Confidential

89. We would have injected vitamin C if only they had made it illegal! Trainspotting

90. Hello, little guy! It's the sweetie man coming! District 9

91. You've got an old fashioned idea divorce is something that lasts forever, 'til death do us part.' Why divorce doesn't mean anything nowadays, Hildy, just a few words mumbled over you by a judge. His Girl Friday

92. Oh, we're going to talk about me again, are we? Goody. The Philadelphia Story

93. It couldn't be that you're afraid, afraid somebody'd insult me and you'd find it necessary to defend me. Jezebel

94. We all need discipline. You said yourself they're like children. Without discipline we should all behave like children. Black Narcissus

95. I'd imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. Hugo

96. But again, truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty you need only look into a mirror. V for Vendetta

97. The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug. The Hurt Locker

98. I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you. Taken

99. Because I have a right to be heard. I have a voice! The King's Speech

100. Are we married yet? Beginners

Do you have any quotes that you have learned from? Do you know many of these?

The Daylight Beauty.

2012-03-03T21:35:00.001+13:00

Film: Belle de Jour
Year: 1967
Director: Luis Buñuel
Written by: Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli, Genevieve Page, Pierre Clementi, Françoise Fabian, Macha Meril.
Running time: 101 min.

How does one start a review for a Luis Buñuel film? After seeing The Exterminating Angel for the first time, I though I had enough to piece together a review, but once I hit the keyboard, nothing was forming into anything that made sense. No, it wasn't writers block - it was the simple fact that Luis Buñuel's work isn't easily interpreted by words. Well, words that make sense, anyway. Now, I've only seen two of his films so far, but I like how darn strange they are. The other day, my English teacher said that when we go to the movies we are asked to "suspend our disbelief". That is exactly the key with Buñuel. While Belle de Jour may not need much suspension of your disbelief like The Exterminating Angel does, there is plenty of ambiguity to wonder and wonder and wonder about.

Belle de Jour stars the impossibly beautiful Catherine Deneuve, two years after her sexual repression thriller Repulsion, as young housewife Séverine Serizy. She is happy in her marriage, but hasn't achieved anything sexually, though she has masochistic fantasies. One day, she comes across a brothel, and decides to spend her afternoons working there as a prostitute named Belle de Jour. At night, she returns to her blissfully unaware husband, who she hopes to keep the secret from for as long as possible. However, there is only so long that her secret can remain uncovered, and a client, young gangster Marcel (Pierre Clementi) threatens to do just that when he demands that she run away and live her life with him.

Made just out of reach of the days when the production code ruled the film world, the film doesn't exactly present the no-holds-barred sexuality that you would probably see in a film from today. It uses subtlety as it's key, presenting a wholly erotic yet demure masterpiece. It's much more of an observation of the life of a secret prostitute rather than offering any hard-hitting, generally depressing narrative which is usually used in a film like this. Séverine is a character who is basically running around in a revolving door where she comes across many men with strange desires, wanting total control over her, and she succumbs to each one of them for that short time. Only, she's hoping that the revolving door goes fast enough so that a) her husband doesn't find out and b) she can get away from the privileged, yet isolated life she lives with him. She is a woman of two lives, and aside from those early moments where she's just getting into the business, you never see an ounce of Séverine coming through in Belle de Jour...which is strange, or somewhat bewildering to see...but Catherine Deneuve plays it all out so well.

The beauty of Belle de Jour, though, is in its impeccable pacing. Considering the amount of ambiguity scattered throughout the entire film, the film needed to be paced to perfection, so the audience still had something to chew on if they were left blind-sided by everything else. Being one of those observational films, it doesn't have a clear narrative but what it has to say is slightly unsettling, and in that revolving door that Séverine finds herself in is a constant array of problems arising in her clandestine lifestyle. When Marcel comes to the party, it is quite late in the film, even though it could arguably the largest plot point of the film. You would expect needless exposition and at least ten minutes devoted to their 'relationship' to show that he was going to truly move in on her, but Buñuel deals with it in a realistic fashion - that revolving door just keeps on going and people don't stay around before they decide that it needs to switch directions. Then you have the fantasy excerpts, and the final scene...nothing is definitely as it seems, and you could have twenty different explanations which will never make complete sense. But somehow, it doesn't matter. The intense beauty of both what is on screen and Deneuve, and the way that Buñuel makes you wonder yourself into oblivion is intoxicating - an experience which cannot be perfectly put into coherent words.

What I got:

February in Movies

2012-02-29T20:03:00.000+13:00

Happy leap day everyone! I actually didn't realise until half way through the day that it was in fact the leap day...after spending half of the day trying to figure out when the leap day was. Gosh I'm cool. Anyway, that is February over. And if I'm being honest, I'm glad to see the back of it. I have always disliked February (aside from the madness of Oscar season) because everything is so up in the air at school, and by the end of the month we're out of that "ugh I miss the holidays so bad" phase and into the "can't wait for the holidays, but let's get some work done please" phase. The sooner I can get earning some credits, the better.
While last month was really good in terms of movie-watching, this one definitely wasn't. I'm still getting used to the fact that I lose over six hours of my day to school, which means less time to do stuff that I actually want to do. And then I just got into The Hunger Games series, so reading that has taken over most of my nights. Hopefully time management will fall into place in March.

Movies I had never seen before until the month of February...

Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1983 - I don't think I ever got the chance to stick this on last month's one. If you have not seen the trilogy, YOU NEED TO SEE IT.
Perfect Sense - In one of my classes we had nothing to do, so I filled out my film journal (must update that page) instead. Someone grabbed my book and they were flipping through it, and everyone seemed to be quite taken by Perfect Sense's page. Hopefully more and more people get to see it.
Kung Fu Panda - I know, I should have seen this in 2008. I'm so slack.
Kung Fu Panda 2 - WAY cooler than the first one. Which is quite an achievement.
Hallam Foe - My friend had this at her house, and being suddenly in love with Jamie Bell, I jumped on it. It was quite impressive, and it was also by the director of Perfect Sense.
Trespass - When it was Valentine's weekend we had these little love hearts saying which movies were good for couples to watch. One was on this movie. I nearly lost faith in humanity. No one should see this movie, let alone couples.
Sin City - Am I the only one who didn't like this film?
The Exterminating Angel - Was going to review this one but then I realised that there weren't many ways to review it. So odd...yet so great.
Flashbacks of a Fool - My friend had this too, and since it has Mark Strong, Olivia Williams and Felicity Jones (oh, and Daniel Craig) in it, I felt obliged to watch it. Nice enough movie - but Felicity Jones' general amazingness made the movie for me.
13 Assassins - Surprisingly my first live action Asian film. I almost got shot for saying that. Don't worry guys, I'm going to make amends...
The Beaver - We're watching Braveheart at school at the moment. And somehow, I'm having trouble picturing Mel Gibson without a beaver puppet on his hand. That's how much The Beaver damaged me.
Moneyball - It is so sad that this didn't come away with any Oscars.
Dark Victory - I love old films. I know that makes me sound like a hipster (and good lord do I hate hipsters), but anything black-and-white with muffled sound is good to me.
Munich - I'm catching up with all of the Steven Spielberg movies this year so I can truly justify my love for the ~~god~~ guy. I really liked this one, even though for a while I had problems trying to figure out what accent Daniel Craig was trying to achieve.
The Three Musketeers - If I had a say, I would have nominated this for Best Art Direction. It looked BEAUTIFUL. But then we got flying boats and a whole lot of other crap...yeah, I can see why it got snubbed.
Monte Carlo - Wasn't as bad as I was expecting. But do you expect me to believe that a goody two shoes like Selena Gomez would go to Paris with people like Leighton Meester and Katie Cassidy, who are both known for more, ah, risqué roles? So confusing.
Fright Night - I was so disappointed with this one. I thought it would be kinda entertaining, but it just wasn't. Still, I want to give Anton Yelchin cuddles.
Shakespeare in Love - Watched this in class for our Shakespeare unit, on video (what are the odds?!). Okay, so maybe Gwyneth Paltrow didn't exactly deserve Best Actress, nor did the film deserve Best Picture, but it was still pretty cool. And it is obvious that looks run in the Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes family.
One Day - Such a good idea, but it was so shallow. Anne Hathaway's accent was atrocious. I still love her, though.
Tanner Hall - It was so weird seeing Rooney Mara with long hair and looking all girly. But you could see that she would one day be an Oscar nominated actress. This was quite a good film for the most-part, but like One Day, it was completely ineffective.

Films I've already seen before but the need to watch again because I'm cool like that...

The Help - Every time the trailer for this comes on at work I wait for Jessica Chastain to come on (in a small clip where she's jumping around and hugging Minny) and I have a full-on spaz attack. Every. Damn. Time.
Strictly Ballroom - I should rewatch my entire Baz Luhrmann set. I'm so excited for The Great Gatsby.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. - This movie keeps renting and renting. Which is fine by me. Laughs+Ryan Gosling's abs=worth more than the price of the rental.
Inglourious Basterds - Still utter perfection, no matter which way you look at it.
Lost in Translation - Oh gosh, this movie is almost perfect. I want to be Sofia Coppola.
Thor - Watched this for a third time with my friends. I grew more attracted to Tom Hiddleston. But my goodness, THERE ARE SO MANY CROOKED ANGLE SHOTS!!!!
Friends with Benefits - A 12am movie with my friends. You know that fake movie with Jason Segel and Rashida Jones that is put into the movie? I really wanna see that. (Also, this is the first movie that I've seen twice this year. Weird.)

What do you think about any of these movies? Watched anything good this month?
NOTE: I'll be gone for the next couple or three days. I'm going to the Arts Festival down in Wellington with my class to see a couple of Shakespeare plays, and won't be back until 2.30am on Saturday morning (and then I have work on Saturday afternoon, so who knows if I'll get anything posted?). Don't miss me too much!

Tuesday Links and Other Stuff #14

2012-02-28T20:00:00.002+13:00

What I'm watching tonight...

Well, I got home a little late from work, so hopefully I have enough chance to catch up on One Day, this week's sole DVD release, and Tanner Hall, a Rooney Mara film which I picked up off Fatso since we didn't get it from Blockbuster. I've heard it isn't so good...but I'm down for anything with Rooney in it and it looks interesting enough.

Video of the week...

Another song...an Oscar winning song, as we would have it. Written by a New Zealander, too. Sorry, I can't get enough of 'Man or Muppet', as I've been singing along with it ALL DAY. Plus, I've been pulling the "I know an Oscar winners Dad" all day, too. Haha.

Plug...
Listen to me on the LAMBcast. It has been a while since I took part in the show (like, a long freaking time), so it was fun to get chatting again. We (Nick, Dan, Steve and Jessica) talk about what we've been watching lately (I chose to chat about Moneyball)...and I love Jessica for bringing up War Horse, haha. Also, I get quite angry during the rant session.

Links...
One movie I've been recommending like crazy is Perfect Sense, and Film Intel reviews it and gives us more reasons why more people should see it.

Tyler @ Southern Vision continues his All-Time Favourites series with The Double Life of Veronique, one of my favourite movies of all-time too.

Another underrated film I love is Please Give, which Steven @ Surrender to the Void loved too.

Speaking of the LAMB, we all voted for our ten favourite movies of 2011. And they rocked, guys.

And speaking of fellow LAMBcaster Dan, he reviews one of my all-time favourite films Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.

Cherokee blessed us with a post recently, all about Bridesmaids and why it isn't as great as everyone thinks it is. Unless you're watching it at 2am with your best buddies, you will probably laugh at everything.

The lovely Diana of Aziza's Picks just celebrated her 23rd birthday with a very lovely post indeed. Go wish her a belated happy birthday!

Well, the Oscars may be over, but Rachel @ Rachel's Reel Reviews posted a very good post on what to hate about Oscar season. I may love the Oscars, but I agree with all of these.

Again, as Nikhat has seen everything (apart from Shame), she can unleash her official favourite movies of 2011. Such a great list.

Feeling like you could offer some feedback for a blog? Lime Reviews wants to know what you think. Even though Mette's blog is perfect.

There have been so many Leo vs. Oscar jokes this week, but this is my favourite.

Final word...
Now that Annual Awards Nerdism is over, did you enjoy the series?

AAN: It Is All Over. And This is My 800th Post.

2012-02-27T20:09:00.000+13:00

I only watched half of the Oscars. I decided not to go home 'sick' after all and I managed to not get my phone taken off me in class even though I checked it at least 20 times for winners. In fact, today has been an exciting day. In my English class, the teacher decided to ask the class for the 24 categories at the Oscars. Me being me, I knew all of them. As soon as the bell rung, I bolted out the door - and then the fire alarm went off, which was weird. I got home, found an online stream, but that got taken down. Luckily, a link I'd saved for last year's show worked this year. My life does not get more exciting than this.

All in all, even though I wasn't as excited this year, I was still jumping for joy all day at school. I'm sad it is over. I cried during the montage, because I'm going to miss the films like War Horse breaking my heart. Now, I will go through my year catching up on all of the films I missed - The Artist, A Separation, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy...I can't wait until May when they start rolling out all of the awards season movies on DVD. While I felt that last year was better, at least it wasn't The King's Speech fronting this year of film.

My thoughts on the winners:

-We all knew that The Artist was going to win Best Picture. But I was doubtful, considering how strong Hugo was at the start of the show. Hopefully the win will speed up The Artist's expansion in NZ.

-I AM SO UNBELIEVABLY PISSED THAT VIOLA DAVIS DID NOT WIN BEST ACTRESS. I wanted Rooney Mara to win (and what a clip they showed of her), but this was the year for Viola. Anyway, Meryl Streep is a goddess. I loved what Colin Firth said to her. I miss him winning things.
-Even though I haven't seen The Artist, I am so glad that Jean Dujardin won. Anyone but George Clooney. I loved Jean's speech, too, I learned a thing or two from that.

-I missed Octavia Spencer winning, but I'm happy about her win. I'm not even pissed about Jessica Chastain losing, because I know that she is the next Meryl Streep.

-Christopher Plummer had one of the best speeches of the night. There were many great speeches, but his was awesome. I love Beginners...I suddenly feel like watching it again.
-Michel Hazanavicius won Best Director. Knew it was going to happen. I thought it was cool how the actors talked about them, and Jessica Chastain talked about Terrence Malick. But at least I learnt how to spell Hazanavicius (achievement of the year).
-Best Original Screenplay for Midnight in Paris. Oh Woody Allen, I love how you choose not to show up.
-I was quite pissed that The Descendants won Adapted Screenplay. And that they played a clip of Sid, aka the worst written character I've seen in quite some time, for it. But all was forgiven when one of the writers took the piss outta Angelina Jolie.
-Best Animated for Rango. A couple of my classmates asked me why the hell Tintin wasn't nominated. I wasn't sure how to answer.
-I still need to see A Separation. Hopefully it's win will push along some NZ cinemas.
-LOL. Undefeated was my 'overwhelmed Owen' for the Doco Oscar. LOL.
-Harry Potter didn't win anything. I can't understand the logic behind all of this.
-I also can't believe that The Tree of Life lost Best Cinematography. I'm so unbelievably pissed about that one...it literally made it impossible for me to concentrate on biology because I was so pissed.
-Hugo won a lot of technical awards. It was a bit of an Inception. Arghhh I miss Inception winning stuff.

-But the win of the night was definitely Bret McKenzie winning for 'Man or Muppet'. I'm so happy, and couldn't be a prouder Kiwi...and I can officially say that I know an Oscar winners Dad (how many of y'all can say that?) 'Man or Muppet' is such a great song - I've had a The Muppets medley in my head all day. I love what McKenzie said backstage that New Zealand produces a lot of Oscar winners "because you can do what you want there. Everyone in America is so obsessed with their careers." Bless him. That's why I want to be another one of those NZ Oscar winners. If only.

I don't have much to say about the actual show other than the fact that it was much better than last years, the montage at the end was lovely, and that there were actually standing ovations this year. That makes me all gooey inside. Anyway, for the best dressed of the night...

-Michelle Williams is so angelic...when Colin Firth was talking about her she literally looked like she was sent from the heaven's above. I loved her dress, plain and simple.
-Octavia Spencer has looked so consistently great this awards season. It may not top her purple Golden Globes dress, but she still looked like an Oscar winner.
-And my idol/queen Jessica Chastain looked AMAZING. Her hair is the most luscious thing I've ever seen. I wish I was her. WHY IS SHE SO PERFECT?! (I love how she gets all emotional at these shows too. I look forward to next year. And the year after that. And the year after that. And the 50 years after that)

And the worst dressed, just because I'm like the fashion police...

-Why was Anna Faris at the Oscars? Eh. I don't like sequins at the best of times, but black sequins with a sleeved dress isn't my idea of an Oscars dress.
-Eh, Jennifer Lopez. It looks like a strangely cut picnic cloth.
-Again with the sequins! It's not that I don't like Judy Greer, but that dress would probably not work on anyone.

Anyway, the Oscars are over, which means that Annual Awards Nerdism is over for another year (I'm gonna cry now). I only got 13 predictions right...which is not my best year at all. I'm definitely going to miss this series. I'm going to miss Happy Fassy, Lowkey Loki and Overwhelmed Owen. It feels like just yesterday that I thought of them! If you kept up with the series, thank you so much. From the bottom of my heart. I know it is so boring to have countless awards posts clogging up your field and that mine was just another one of them, so thank you for reading! Bring on the 2013 awards season!

Oh yeah - and this was my 800th post! Amazing stuff!

AAN: Oscar Predictions - Best Picture

2012-02-26T20:33:00.001+13:00

Welcome to part five of my official Oscar predictions - this season of Annual Awards Nerdism is just about done. Tonight I will rank the 7 Best Picture nominations that I've seen (in order of how much I like them) and end with my final prediction for the big winner, but first, I have a few words about the Oscars this year.
PAST PREDICTIONS: Acting; Writing and Directing; the 'Bests' and Visuals; Sound and Design.

If I've been taught anything about this past year of film, it is that I am big on emotional manipulation. When I go to the movies, I like to have something to show for it when I first come out of the cinemas. Two films that made me show my experience clearly were The Help and War Horse. If you saw me after seeing those films, you would have thought that someone had stabbed me in the heart or something, because the tears just kept coming and coming. And when you cry in a movie, you obviously got something out of it. So where people were turned off by the emotional manipulation, I succumbed to it, and as I watched more and more 2011 films I started to find it was a vital ingredient. Which is perhaps why I didn't take after The Descendants, a film with barely any sentimentality, or I wasn't convinced by Moneyball's emotional coldness. I need emotions - I have to be able to connect with a film, which I believe is the main basis of this blog.

Anyway, enough of all of that deep stuff. A lot of people have been turning off the Oscars this year. Even 'prominent awards bloggers' (what does that even mean?) have been turning off in the Oscars. While I admit that I'm nowhere near as excited for the awards as I was last year, I'm still very much willing to jump to the defence of them. Sure, there are some strange nominations this year. Sure, the ones that did get nominated weren't the most exciting choices. Sure, this awards season has been predictable. But as I said before, I like emotions. And the Oscars are full of those. I like watching the reactions, the gushing speeches, the applause - I like seeing people rewarded, because film-making obviously is hard work, and when you make a movie good enough for the Academy, you did something right. I just think it is a magical day, no matter what happens. That probably stems from my dream to actually win an Oscar one day...I honestly couldn't think of anything cooler. Whatever the outcome of tomorrow, I'll still be checking my phone like crazy in my last class of the day (well, providing the teacher is distracted enough), I'll be rushing home after school to hopefully get a good online stream, I'll probably be squealing over some good wins. Because I'm cliché like that.

Alas, I still miss last year's award season - the pregnant Natalie Portman, Jesus Bale, Colin Firth being adorable, The Social Network boys, Christ Nolan. I also miss the fact that this time last year, I'd seen a good chunk of the film's nominated, including all of the Best Pic nominees. This year, I'm missing the front-runner, The Artist, and the tail-ender, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It is hard to really feel involved, but the other seven I managed to see were all quality - just not as quality as last year's. However, after all of this waffling, it is time for me to rank the seven Best Picture nominees that I've seen - and don't hate me for the way that they're placed...

7. The Descendants - Dir. Alexander Payne
When I first saw this movie half way through January, I was going in with high expectations because it looked like the kind of movie that I'd like, and everyone else seemed to like it too. Considering I'm someone who usually goes with the flow, you'd think I'd be quick to jump on the bandwagon. Wrong. Just after seeing it, I kept trying to will myself to give it an 8/10, then a 7/10, and then I felt guilty all night for settling on a 6/10. Right now, I'd be willing to give it much less - but this is the overhype talking, and if I ever saw it again I'd probably be able to agree with that rating. In all honesty, I just didn't see the love for it, or for George Clooney's performance, and again, that Sid character was extremely poorly written. I did love Shailene Woodley, though, and I'm damn glad that she got that Spirit award today.

6. The Help - Dir. Tate Taylor
Okay, this isn't a perfect movie. When I went to see it back in September, I had just read the book, which I was in love with, and the movie definitely impressed me. There are two main things I like about it, though: the first is that it is a solid movie which the people of Dannevirke (and I imagine anyone else who probably doesn't take to movies that much) can mostly agree on. And you can't deny that it is a solid female ensemble film, which we don't see too often. Oscar nominees Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain are all great in it, as are Bryce Dallas Howard, Emma Stone and Sissy Spacek. I'm a sucker for good performances, and this movie definitely did have a few examples of that.

5. Moneyball - Dir. Bennett Miller
I don't know my baseball from my basketball but that didn't matter. Moneyball is written by two screen-writing Gods, Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zallian, who could probably write a movie about two chickens crossing a road and it would still be wildly interesting. Moneyball is smart, and it isn't all about the sport that I know nothing about - it is about Brad Pitt's character and the struggles he comes to. He anchors the film, with his charismatic portrayal of Billy Beane, in one of his best performances. Plus, Moneyball is expertly made - the cinematography, editing and directing is among the best of the year. Unfortunately the film probably won't walk away with anything, and probably won't be too well remembered after awards season is finish, but that's just the way the wind blows.

4. Hugo - Dir. Martin Scorsese
I'd actually love for Hugo to take this award home, as it perfectly captures why I love movies. Alas, even with the 11 nominations, The Artist's love for movies will probably have it beat. I feel sad when people say that they didn't like this movie, because the second half is all about the movies, and if you didn't feel any sort of emotion, do you really love films? I don't know. Hugo was a beautiful, beautiful movie, and while it may have failed to be a perfect kids movie, I still got a lot out of it. Long live Martin Scorsese.

3. The Tree of Life - Dir. Terrence Malick
This was the first of the nominees that I saw, and it is by far the one that sticks out in my mind the most. I know that it isn't the easiest to follow, it may be a little too ambitious and pretentious, and it isn't the best for anyone with movie ADHD, but it is a darn beautiful movie with more meaning than I ever could have wished for. It is such an odd, perplexing film that I'd hesitate to recommend to anyone I know, even though that it part of it's beauty. Plus, it features the best use of Jessica Chastain's face in 2011. That should become an official Oscar category.

2. Midnight in Paris - Dir. Woody Allen
It's such a shame that the DVD release of this movie had to be delayed for three weeks, because I was really looking forward to falling in love with this movie all over again before the big night. I have so much to thank this movie for - especially the fact that I now have a pretty good idea of the literature of the 1920's, which makes me sound smart (and is the basis of one of my assessments this year). Up until now I've never liked a Woody Allen (mind you, I wasn't really picking from the cream of the crop), but I absolutely loved this one. It was just so magical.

1. War Horse - Dir. Steven Spielberg
Yeah, I'm going to get a lot of crap for choosing this as my favourite of the Best Picture nominees. Because it is basically everyone's least favourite nominee. But you all know how I feel about this movie, and the fact that I got all of the connection I could have wanted from it. I realise that it wasn't perfect at all, but it was perfect for me, which is all that could have mattered. And I was a sucker for how darn beautiful the cinematography was. I love horses. I love Steven Spielberg. I love War Horse like there's no tomorrow.

OFFICIAL PREDICTION

I think the race goes like this (from most likely to win to least likely to win):
1. The Artist
2. Hugo
3. The Descendants
4. Midnight in Paris
5. The Help
6. The Tree of Life
7. Moneyball
8. War Horse
9. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Even though War Horse is my favourite of the nominees, I'm actually gunning for The Tree of Life to take the award because that would show that the Academy were actually capable of doing something ballsy. Alas, we all know that The Artist will win the award. And we all know Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the longshot, because everyone was so surprised that it even made it in.

So there's my final prediction. What do you want to take out the big prize? I shall see you tomorrow with my recap of the big night - even though you probably won't need another post about it!

AAN: Oscar Predictions - Acting

2012-02-25T20:02:00.000+13:00

Welcome to part four of my official Oscar predictions, which 2012's Annual Awards Nerdism has been coming down to. Tonight I'll take a look at the four acting categories, in poetic form again, of course.
PAST PREDICTIONS: Writing and Directing, the 'Bests' and Visuals, Sound and Design.

Just in case:
Happy Fassy - Who I really want to win.
Lowkey Loki - Who will really win.
Overwhelmed Owen - Who really won't win.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir - A Better Life / George Clooney - The Descendants / Jean Dujardin - The Artist / Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / Brad Pitt - Moneyball

Having no Fassy caused a bit of strife,
there was a surprise nomination for A Better Life,
Gary Oldman finally got his first big nom,
and Brad Pitt was indeed the bomb,
the race comes down to two that are slick,
George Clooney or Jean Dujardin are everyone's pick,
but the Cloon has been awarded before,
and I can't say his work deserves an award,
so give it to the Frenchman, whose words are few,
even though I feel like Brad Pitt is probably due.

Only seeing two performances out of this category - Brad Pitt's and George Clooney's - it is a bit hard to properly pick a winner, but my money is definitely on Jean Dujardin. And to think I left him out of my initial predictions. I'm gunning for Brad Pitt, though, because he was fantastic in Moneyball...and you all know how I feel about The Descendants. It would be nice, and totally unsurprising, if Gary Oldman took this award, though.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs / Viola Davis - The Help / Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady / Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn

We have a woman dressing up as a man,
a maid who turns in her writing hand,
an imitation of a lady who took away milk,
a very famous starlet as smooth as silk,
if there's anyone I think should win by a mile,
it is a girl with a tattoo of a reptile,
alas, my dreams will never come true,
as Viola Davis and Meryl Streep are in the winning view,
Which will it be? The minister or the maid?
I think that Davis was the best played,
so Streep will have to go on and lose again,
I'm sure it won't cause her too much pain,
but the one I love will get votes that are few,
and that's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Like the actor category, I've only seen two of these performances - Rooney Mara's and Viola Davis' - both performances which I absolutely loved. However, I'm very much on the Mara camp, even if people say that she was just 'imitating' Noomi Rapace, who was also great in the role, but they were very different. Anyway, she falls behind in the race, as she was as close to a surprise nomination as this category could have had. Michelle Williams and Glenn Close don't seem to factor into this award much either. It is basically 50/50 between Meryl Streep and Viola Davis - which makes it extremely hard to pick. I'm going with Viola Davis though, because Meryl Streep can go another year sitting there not getting anything.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn / Jonah Hill - Moneyball / Nick Nolte - Warrior / Christopher Plummer - Beginners / Max von Sydow - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I think we know that this race has been won,

and the win has taken a long time to come,

Christopher Plummer deserves the award for his old gay man,

Could anyone beat him? I doubt anyone can,

there may be a Thespian in the mix,

Max von Sydow was one of the unexpected picks,

Nick Nolte's alcoholic father is Oscar bait,

Moneyball featured Jonah Hill with more weight,

but of them all, there's only one stunner,

and that is the brilliant Christopher Plummer.

We've known since the very beginning that Christopher Plummer was going to win this award. I don't think anything has changed in the past few months.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo - The Artist / Jessica Chastain - The Help / Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids / Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs / Octavia Spencer - The Help

There's an odd mix here, that's for sure,
but I think one actress has her award secure,
Octavia Spencer will win for her sassy maid,
even if I thought Celia Foote was better played,
if The Artist takes over the show,
the award could indeed go to Bérénice Bejo,
Melissa McCarthy's bridesmaid may have inspired,
but she hasn't got a lot that the winner requires,
Janet McTeer may have been a woman being a man,
but her movie didn't win many fans,
if there is one person I want to reign,
it is the a-ma-zing Jessica Chastain.

I honestly thought the best thing about The Help was Jessica Chastain. Celia Foote was my favourite character from the book, and I was worried that someone might over-play her and miss all of the heart that makes the character work. But Chastain did not do that. She was warmly hilarious, but when you realise what is also going on with her character it is heart-breaking. Many actresses struggle to find that balance. While I'd love to see her win, I know that she has many Oscars ahead of her so I don't mind her missing out. Octavia Spencer is a fine choice to see get the award, even if her award was just the 'sassy maid'. I can see Bérénice Bejo pulling an upset, though. If The Artist is as popular as we all think it is going to be on the night, she has a bigger chance of winning than most people give her credit for.

There are my predictions - what are yours? I'll see you back here tomorrow where I'll rank the seven best pic nominees that I've seen.

AAN: Oscar Predictions - Writing and Directing

2012-02-24T21:36:00.000+13:00

Welcome to part three of my official Oscar predictions, the big one that this season of Annual Awards Nerdism has boiled down to. Tonight I'll be looking at Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director.
PAST PREDICTIONS: 'Bests' and Visuals; Sound and Design.

Just in case you are not familiar with how Fassy, Loki and Owen are used for predictions, here is a refresher:
Happy Fassy - If this person wins, I will let out a squeal in my biology class that will probably get my phone taken off me...why do I have to have school while the Oscars are on?
Lowkey Loki - This is the only prediction you should really listen to, because it is the one who I think will take home the prize.
Overwhelmed Owen - There ain't no way this movie is going to win that prize.

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash - The Descendants / John Logan - Hugo / George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon - The Ides of March / Steven Zallian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chevrin - Moneyball / Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I have not seen the March that has Ides,
and I still fail to get my tongue around Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,
but the film loving Hugo left me impressed,
I was one of the few who thought The Descendants was a mess,
Moneyball was the one who united two screen-writing Gods,
since we're talking baseball it should have the best odds,
but The Descendants has George Clooney and kids,
so I wouldn't be surprised if it actually wins,
I'll just have to sit in my bitter disappointment party alone,
and wish that the winner was really Hugo.

While I did like The Descendants to some degree, I'm not one of the ones who has been singing it's praises at each corner. I actually think that it is probably the most overrated film of 2011. The screenplay itself was just okay...it did well with the realism and the lack of sentimentality, but I did not think that the character of Sid was very well-written at all. In fact, he is one of the worst written characters I've seen in quite some time. So I have to wonder why so many people love this film, because he was a real deal-breaker for me. (and rant is over) The Descendants has a good chance of taking this award since it won the WGA, but I wouldn't count out Moneyball since Steven Zallian and Aaron Sorkin did such a bloody awesome job with it. I think Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy could pull an upset, too. Look to this as one of the more exciting categories of this year's Oscars.

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist / Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo - Bridesmaids / J.C. Chandor - Margin Call / Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris / Asghar Farhadi - A Separation

Out of the five I've only seen two,
and one of those will win by a few,
Midnight in Paris is an English nerd's dream,
with everyone from Hemingway to Salvador Dali,
Bridesmaids is all about shitting in a sink,
I'm sure that A Separation makes you think,
Margin Call is all about the smart,
The Artist is, well, pure art,
while it may be short on words,
it seems to be flying as high as the birds,
this will be the year nostalgia goes head to head,
but I hope Midnight in Paris comes out ahead.

I think it is pretty safe to say that Midnight in Paris will definitely win this award, but I wouldn't rule out The Artist and it's BAFTA win/probable takeover of the Oscars. However, if Midnight in Paris doesn't win this award, you will hear my cries no matter how far away you are from NZ. And I'm not even a huge fan of Woody Allen.

Best Achievement in Directing

Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris / Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist / Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life / Alexander Payne - The Descendants / Martin Scorsese - Hugo

This is actually quite the tight race,
with Michel Hazanavicius setting the pace,
right behind him Martin Scorsese's film for kids,
and then there is Terrence Malick's artistic bid,
Woody Allen's huge nostalgia-fest,
Alexander Payne trying his best,
which one will win? I can't decide,
with Best Picture this is sure to abide,
so Michel Hazanavicius will take the award home,
which won't cause me to moan and groan,
even if I think it should be Malick's year,
for the beauty he created made me shed a tear.

Yeah, I'm in the Terrence Malick camp, but he has next to know chance of winning this award. It is very much a race between Michel Hazanavicius (DGA winner) and Martin Scorsese (Golden Globe winner), but everyone else is on practically equal footing. I wouldn't rule out an upset in this category, but I'm hesitant to predict anyone other than Hazanavicius.

There are my predictions - what are yours? And sorry for the bad quality of poetry. I'm not very good at it, but I find it fun to rhyme words. Be back tomorrow for my acting predictions!

AAN: Oscar Predictions - the 'Bests' and Visuals

2012-02-23T20:19:00.000+13:00

Welcome to part two of my official Oscar predictions, the big one that this 2012 series of Annual Awards Nerdism has come down to. Tonight, I'll be looking at the 'Bests' (Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, Best Documentary - Features) and the Visuals (Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Editing, Best Achievement in Visual Effects). NOTE: I'm not going to attempt the awards for the Shorts because I'll end up looking like a fool.
PAST PREDICTIONS: Sound and Design

Just in case you can't remember what Fassy, Loki and Owen are used for in the prediction process, here's a quick reminder:
Happy Fassy - Who I want to win. Doesn't mean that they will win, though.
Lowkey Loki - Who I think will win. The only prediction of mine that really matters.
Overwhelmed Owen - The longshot. If this wins, it will be stranger than the Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Best Picture nomination.

The 'Bests' Awards

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

A Cat in Paris / Chico and Rita / Kung Fu Panda 2 / Puss in Boots / Rango

I've already talked out my feelings about this category, so go here for more. We all know that Rango is going to win, though.

Best Foreign Film of the Year

Bullhead / Footnote / In Darkness / Monsieur Lazhar / A Separation

No, I haven't seen any of these films. And there's a slim chance that I will ever see any of them (not because I don't want to, but because I'm largely sheltered from foreign films where I come from). But I don't think I need to see any of them to know that A Separation will take out the prize. I haven't seen that kind of acclaim since last year's The Social Network. I'm guessing that Bullhead is the longshot, as I've looked at some of the statistics and this one comes out at the bottom.

Best Documentary - Features

Hell and Back Again / If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front / Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory / Pina / Undefeated

This category would be so much easier if Senna was nominated, like it rightfully should have been. Alas, we live in a world where no good things can happen, so I'm left dumbfounded with this list. Of all of these nominees, Pina is the one that I know the most about, and as far as I'm concerned, Pina has the best chance. However, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory has a good chance of derailing it, so I wouldn't rule out it's chances just yet. Anyway, I'm a little stupid when it comes to this category, so don't take my word for anything (I did get my prediction right last year, though, just as a guess).

Visuals awards.

Best Achievement in Cinematography

The Artist / The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Hugo / The Tree of Life / War Horse

Call me a nerd, but this is one of my favourite categories. And it is no wonder why, when this category is so full with quality. However, while I loved the Swedish grey tones of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the fancy 3D Hugo, and the amazingly beautiful War Horse (and I'm sure that The Artist's black and white photography is great, too), but if The Tree of Life does not win this award I am going to go after some Academy voters. I can't think of any film more deserving of this award in the past, I don't know, ten years or so. Even if you didn't like The Tree of Life, you can't deny that it wasn't motherfudging beautiful to look at. In fact, as far as pushing for a winner goes, this is the movie I'm pushing the most for. Trust me, I'll lose my head if it doesn't win.

Best Achievement in Editing

The Artist / The Descendants / The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Hugo / Moneyball

I love looking at editing in films, and if my career as a director ever fails, I'd love to be a film editor (ha, but neither of those will happen). Aside from The Artist, I've seen all of these films, and the film's editing that struck me the most was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's, but I highly doubt that it will win. Moneyball had some great editing, too, but I think that this film will probably go home empty handed on the night. The Descendants...yeah, I don't think the editing was anything special - but it did win the 'Eddie', so therefore it has a bigger chance than it deserves to have. It is pretty much a two horse race between Hugo and The Artist, in my opinion, and I think The Artist will be the one to take it out. Unless The Descendants does win it, though, in which case I'll cry. Eh, Senna should have been the one to win this award.

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 / Hugo / Real Steel / Rise of the Planet of the Apes / Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Looking at this category, each nomination was definitely deserved. But this year, it is going to be New Zealand's turn to win a couple of Oscars. The first will be in the Best Original Song category, and the second will be in this category for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. You can't deny that the effects in this movie were pretty darn good, especially because all of the apes look so damn realistic. I'd love to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 get something, though, so it is my #2 choice. I'm not sure if Apes has enough to win the award, with Hugo in tow and all, but I think it should probably have a pretty good chance. Well, I hope so.

There are my predictions. What are yours? I'll see you here tomorrow for my writing and directing predictions - with lame poetry!

AAN: Oscar Predictions - Soundies and Design

2012-02-22T20:46:00.000+13:00

Welcome to part one of my official Oscar predictions, which is what this series of Annual Awards Nerdism has boiled down to. In the five nights leading up to the Oscars I'll share my predictions with y'all...with some poetry to come in some categories. Tonight, I'll be dealing with the 'soundies' (Best Achievement in Sound Editing, Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures - Original Song, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures - Original Score) and the 'design' awards (Best Achievement in Art Direction, Best Achievement in Makeup, Best Achievement in Costume Design).

As per usual, I shall be using Fassy, Loki and Owen for my predictions. Just in case you don't know what they mean in prediction terms:
Happy Fassy - Who I want to win. Doesn't necessarily mean that they will win, though.
Lowkey Loki - Who I think will win. This is my official prediction.
Overwhelmed Owen - The longshot. If this wins, there'll be a bit of an outrage.

Soundies awards.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Drive / The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Hugo / Transformers: Dark of the Moon / War Horse

Okay, so out of all the categories sound editing is the one I know the least about (apart from the shorts). But surprisingly, I've seen all of these films, so I should have a good idea of how great their sound was edited. A huge part of me wants Drive to win, since this is it's only nomination and it deserves so much more than this. However, I had MAJOR problems with the sound when I was watching this on the plane...which is probably just a by-product of how crap their sound system is. However, out of all of the nominees, I think that Hugo has the best chance of winning, since I think it will sweep most of the technical awards. And that's all I have, since I didn't go into any of these movies with the sole purpose of watching, or, er, listening to their sound editing.

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Hugo / Moneyball / Transformers: Dark of the Moon / War Horse

It always makes me a bit sad to see that a movie like Transformers: Dark of the Moon has two Oscar nominations, but many films went without. But to be honest, those nominations were deserved, since all I remember about that film is the sound. As loud and obnoxious as it was, it did give my TV/Blu-Ray a good work out. I wouldn't be too sad if it won, but I don't think it will happen. I personally thought the sound was great in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I'm doubtful that it will get the award. It is very much a two-horse race (haha) between Hugo and War Horse. Again, I think that Hugo will sweep the technical awards, but if they're wanting to give War Horse an award this is the only thing it will get. So I'm going to go with War Horse here, but Hugo is just behind it.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures - Original Song

'Man or Muppet' - The Muppets / 'Real in Rio' - Rio

Awkward how there are only two nominees in this. They could have filled up the entire category with songs from The Muppets and there wouldn't have been any regrets. If Bret McKenzie does not win for his brilliant song 'Man or Muppet', I will get everyone in NZ to start a riot. Because we take out Oscar nominees seriously in NZ. I don't even care if Jesse Eisenberg sings in his song from Rio.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures - Original Score

The Adventures of Tintin / The Artist / Hugo / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / War Horse

Since none of these scores are the 2011 scores that I have on my iPod, I just listened to one song from each of these. Now I've seen Tintin, Hugo and War Horse so I've heard their scores at length, but nothing really stuck out. Tintin's score was really fun, and Hugo's genuinely was quite beautiful. Despite being War Horse's ~~only~~ #1 fan, I wasn't too happy about the score. However, the song I listened to was 'The Reunion', which brought me to tears. John Williams' score is so old-fashioned that whenever it is not thrashing five hundred instruments around my ears, it knows how to get to my heart. Anyway, John Williams probably won't be getting his sixth Oscar for either of his scores. The Artist's Ludovic Bource had the task of making the music speak louder than the words for an entire film, so he'll definitely get the prize. I just think this category needed more Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Design awards.

Best Achievement in Art Direction

The Artist / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 / Hugo / Midnight in Paris / War Horse

I think this award will be definitely going to Hugo. 3D spectacles usually fare the best here, and while Harry Potter has the fantasy vibe running through it, I think they'll go with Hugo's train station and whatnot. Though I can see that Harry Potter will provide some good competition, being it's last year of eligibility and all. The Artist has a good shot considering the fact that it is probably going to sweep all of the top awards, so it could sneak in here, too. I'm not sold on either Midnight in Paris or War Horse, though. While Midnight in Paris has some brilliant art direction (and this was definitely an inspired nomination), I don't think it has gained enough traction with the voters. War Horse, on the other hand, is mostly just field and mud...which I imagine would have been very hard to portray, but I don't think it is anything special compared to the likes of Harry Potter or Hugo.

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Anonymous / The Artist / Hugo / Jane Eyre / W.E.

This is a funny category to look at because you can see all of the usual suspects here: the period movies. But I just don't know which one to pick. I think that The Artist will win, since it has been popular in all this category for quite some time (and the rest of the show), but I can't shake the rest of the nominees. If anything, I want Jane Eyre to come away with something. I think Hugo has the worst chances here costumes weren't as special as any of the others...but the general hate for W.E. definitely won't win it any favours.

Best Achievement in Makeup

Albert Nobbs / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 / The Iron Lady

Eh, all I have to say is Harry Potter for the win. Apart from the fact that the 'old age' makeup totally didn't work on Harry and his crew. I've not seen Albert Nobbs or The Iron Lady so I don't know how their makeup fared, but I think Harry Potter will get it.

What do you think will win these awards? I'll be back tomorrow with my predictions for the 'bests' (animated, doco, foreign) and the 'visuals' (cinematography, editing and visual effects). See you then!

Tuesday Links and Other Stuff #13

2012-02-21T19:36:00.002+13:00

What I'm watching tonight...

This week is another one of those weeks where I don't particularly have any interest in the movies coming out (apart from the love of my life Midnight in Paris, which I'm going to add to my collection tomorrow), but I feel obliged to watch them all. I watched The Three Musketeers last night, which would have been followed by Fright Night (which has the guy I want to give cuddles, Anton Yelchin), if I hadn't accidentally picked up the 3D Blu-Ray thinking it could be played on my normal Blu-Ray. So thanks to my ignorance, I'll be watching it tonight, along with Monte Carlo (just to see if it is bad like I think). I might get around to watching Paranormal Activity 3 next week, since I can't be bothered going through a three movie night on a school night. It is exhausting.

A bit of randomness...

Tomorrow, I'll start my official Oscar predictions. Like last year, they'll be divided into specific groups for each day. That means that there won't be much else happening on the blog until at least Tuesday, as posting twice or three times a day generally doesn't work on this blog in terms of readership and stuffs. And for anyone who was around last year - yes, there will be prediction poetry!

A bit more randomness...
I literally just passed 150 followers. While that might not be the biggest achievement to most of you, it excites me quite a bit - but it scares me, because I think I'm going to let all 150 of you down somehow! Oh well, thank you 'Fulmer' who can be found on Twitter here, for being my 150th follower.

A plug...
The first plug is for a great fellow blogger Andy Buckle at Andy Buckle's Film Emporium. He recently changed his URL but had a bit of trouble doing that. You can now find his blog at http://thefilmemporium.blogspot.com so if he's missing from your blogroll or subscriber, make sure you are aware of the changes. I feel so sorry for him - and equally scared to change my really immature URL. But despite the problems, Andy is still rolling out some great stuff!

Links...
There's a lot happening on the LAMB at the moment, with the LIONS (like the Oscars, just voted by us movie bloggers who know where it is at) being added to that list. Check out the winners each day!

Speaking of the LAMB, I recently returned to the LAMBcast (which will be up sometime next week), and the lovely Jessica from The Velvet Cafe decided to chat about War Horse on there. She thought she'd get a lot of crap for liking it - but then I came along!

Getting into the spirit of 'best of' 2011 lists in Nikhat, who I swear has seen everything. Her list of the best scenes of 2011 is great!

Tyler, the master of epic lists, unveils his 50 Essential Arthouse Movies. He'll be proud of me - in class we had to write about genres of films and I wrote about arthouse, drawing a lot of inspiration from this list!

Scott @ Front Room Cinema asks the question to watch or not to rewatch? I ask this question quite often!

One movie I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing is The Deep Blue Sea, starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston. Aziza gives a nice review of it!

A great site I just discovered is Letterboxd, which CS @ Big Thoughts from a Small Mind thoroughly recommends as well. And guess what - it was designed in NZ!

Final word...
On a scale of 1-10, how excited are you for the Oscars this year?

Bette Davis' Blind Eyes

2012-02-20T20:10:00.000+13:00

Film: Dark Victory
Year: 1939
Director: Edmund Goulding
Written by: Casey Robinson
Starring: Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers, Cora Witherspoon.
Running time: 104 min.

1939 is known as the Golden Year of Hollywood. I mean, when one year can produce two monumental films like Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz and then have movies like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Stagecoach and The Rules of the Game scattered in between, you know that something was in the water. One film from that great year that tends to get forgotten is Dark Victory, a Warner Bros. production based on an unsuccessful Broadway play starring Bette Davis. This is a film that deserved to be dragged out into the spotlight now, because this is everything the romantic films of today can't be. It is the kind of melodrama that doesn't skip the human emotion.

Today, this film would be one huge cliché. Judith Traherne (Davis) is a free-spirited young woman who is diagnosed with a brain tumour. Dr. Frederick Steele (George Brent) has it removed, and Judith proceeds to live a normal life again. However, Steele discovers that the tumour cannot be completely removed and while Judith feels perfectly fine, she is going to get progressively worse, eventually going blind and dying. He decides not to tell Judith, but her secretary/best friend Ann (Geraldine Fitzgerald) finds out, and decides to remain silence. All the while, Steele and Judith fall in love, thus complicating the awful secret that she is being protected from.

What struck me about Dark Victory is the fact that it was probably just another Warner Bros. flick made to fill up schedules and to hopefully make some money. It was a 'Bette Davis vehicle', and a 'vehicle' movie is different now to what it was back then: vehicles were born on a production line, and the actor put in the drivers seat was expected to make the best of their material. Movies born on a production line these dies are usually B-grade at best, but that was not the case in 1939. This is a movie which was obviously born on a production line, but everyone in it could convince you that it was anything but. The performances are beyond fantastic, even if a few characters, such as Humphrey Bogart's, are thinly written. Bette Davis delivers an extraordinary performance which you almost expect from her. While her character starts off as being the kind of self-obsessed pretty little rich girl, she breaks your heart as she goes about life even though every force is acting against her. It may be a Bette Davis showcase, but her chemistry with George Brent is what makes this movie spark, especially as the two embarked on an affair on set which lasted for a year after.

Surprisingly, Dark Victory was just one of the films released in 1939 to be directed by Edmund Goulding and starring both Bette Davis and George Brent. They also did the even lesser known The Old Maid, both achieving admirable success. Edmund Goulding went on to direct yet another film that year, too. These days, it is surprising to see people working like this, but in those days, everyone consistently produced quality. This is one of the best examples of that. No expense is spared, and you genuinely do feel like crap after watching it - it is devastatingly heart-breaking when you look at the predicament at face-value. The final scene, particularly, is one of the most tragic things I've ever seen. You could probably see this movie being a high subject matter in a soap, but this is indeed a film, and what a film it is.

What I got:

Underrated Showcase Sundays - Chico & Rita

2012-02-19T20:06:00.001+13:00

Underrated Showcase Sundays is a pretty straight-forward: every Sunday I'll shed some light on a film which I think doesn't get enough love. The showcase will be largely unstructured (well, compared to my other reviews) and will often just be random thoughts. It doesn't matter if I've seen it before or not. Tonight's instalment, though, is one that I hadn't seen before, and decided to post now as we near the home stretch for the Oscars.

In amongst the chameleon antics of Rango and the big franchise players Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots is the Spanish film Chico & Rita, which was lucky enough to get a place in the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars. It may not be in 3D, nor does it employ the almost 'realistic' looking animation that Rango did, but there is no denying that Chico & Rita is a beautiful, moving tale that could actually serve as a great companion piece to The Artist (I'm guessing). It is a simple tale of two people in love: Chico, a young piano player and Rita, a beautiful singer. Just as soon as they've fallen in love they are torn apart by the allure of fame. Rita is discovered by an impresario named Ron, and takes her to New York where she has a lot of success, and while Chico follows her there, he doesn't take as much as she does. As her star rises, his talent goes ignored, and there's no way that the two could remain together.

Chico & Rita doesn't exactly have the most original storyline, but it does approach it in a different sort of way. I'm not an expert on 'animation for adults', as this is the first of it's kind that I have seen. While I felt like it may have been more suited to being a live action film, looking back on it, it definitely made a statement by being animated. The animation, though simple and also the endangered 2D drawing technique, is absolutely stunning. The colours are in blocks, which might create a flat atmosphere, but it manages to be lively and vibrant. Each frame looks like a beautiful painting. Last time I checked, that was what animation was made for. It was made to look like a moving painting or drawing. With the advent of CGI that makes all of the scales on Rango's skin pop or the whiskers on Puss look as if he were a real cat, Chico & Rita reminds us of a time gone by when animation was animation and wasn't trying to look realistic. It also harks back to the days of the 1940's in Cuba, where jazz music ruled (and that music was fantastic). 2011 was definitely the year of nostalgia, with The Artist and Hugo and whatnot, and Chico & Rita just adds fuel to that fire. Which I don't have a problem with at all.

Chico & Rita does have its fair share of flaws, though. They are mainly to do with the clichéd story and the screenplay not really doing a lot to help that. All in all, that doesn't really matter though. There is such beauty to this story, even if it does use the old-fashioned old man living in regret/pining after the good old days inter-cutting the happier times. The end is bound to get a few tears going, just because of the sheer simplicity. You've got to wonder though, how this film would have turned out if it were made differently. Perhaps if it was an American live action film starring two blockbuster leads, it would be the kind you'd find in the Oscar race in the place of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. If it were just a normal live action movie, it probably wouldn't have gone very far. But since it is a Spanish animated film pushing the boundaries of story-telling in that format, it is something special and something to treasure. Seek it out if you can, it is well worth a look.

What I got:

10 2011 Films I Want to See in 2012

2012-02-18T20:55:00.000+13:00

By now, you've probably seen all of these films. You're probably sitting there, laughing at me for not seeing any of these films yet. But in NZ, it is still 2011, and will stay that way until at least May/June. 2012? What is this year you speak of? You futuristic beings.

This list is in alphabetical order, just because there's no particular order in which I want to see them.

50/50
So, it would be nice if someone gave this a release date here. I know that Australia is getting it next month or so, but I can't see the same happening here. Like Warrior, it will end up going straight-to-DVD, even though it probably deserves a whole lot more. Why do we do this - give lots of crappy movies a proper release and leave the good-looking, critically acclaimed ones to get put straight on the shelf? It sucks. I might just buy this Blu-Ray off Amazon, because I might actually get to finally see Joseph Gordon-Levitt's latest to tide me over until his mammoth 2012 kicks in to gear.

The Artist
This actually came out last week, but there have been a few problems. First of all, it is only showing in nine small cinemas across the entire country. Second of all, the closest place it is playing to me is three hours drive away. I don't know what the heck is going on here, especially as we're pretty good with showing every movie up for an Oscar in every bloody cinema there is. I think the cinemas are a bit cagey because it is silent, but it has been on the news basically every night (with the most terrible puns I've ever heard - "it was a silent film that made the most sound" etc). I hope it does eventually come to cinemas, just so I can justify my love for Jean Dujardin and Uggie.

Carnage
As anyone, I'm a pretty big fan of Roman Polanski. So it will be pretty damn interesting to see him doing a comedy. This is specifically my type of comedy - it is based on a play, so that means for the most part the sets are pretty restricted, letting the dialogue show through. It also has a very simple idea, too, which I like. Plus, the cast is pretty cool, too. Christoph Waltz is always perfect. I thought this film would have got more attention than it did, so I'm not terribly unhappy that it currently has an April release date. However, I would be surprised if it even made it to many cinemas here.

Like Crazy
This came out two weeks back, but like The Artist, it isn't playing anywhere near me. Don't ask me why I want to see this so much, because I honestly don't know. Maybe it's because I want to give Anton Yelchin a cuddle so much (gosh I love the word cuddle). Maybe it's because I LOVE Felicity Jones. Maybe it is because it looks like exactly like my sort of film - romantic, but realistic. It looks like it could rip my heart out. And I like that feeling every now and again (no, I'm not an emo or goth or whatever you call them now).

Martha Marcy May Marlene
I'm SO incredibly pissed that I missed this at NZFF. And even though I haven't seen this, I'm still kinda sad that it didn't get much Oscar love. I would have loved to have seen an up-and-coming actress like Elizabeth Olsen getting an Oscar nomination. But whatevs, Oscar or no Oscar, I still really want to see this film. Just the idea of a cult (and an apparent great use of editing, which I always love - such a nerd) is enough to get me excited. I think this comes out in March, but again, I doubt it will come to any cinemas near me. If it does, my butt is right on that seat!

A Separation
One of my biggest regrets of 2011 was that I didn't go and see this film at the NZFF. I remember that it played directly after Melancholia, and I did ask Mum whether I could see it as well but nothing ever amounted so I let it go. When I got out of Melancholia, the screening was completely sold out. Now, I have to wait until April (hopefully) to see this Iranian film which is apparently quite amazing. Please please please Palmerston North, GET THIS FILM AT YOUR CINEMAS!

Shame
Okay, so here's one I won't be seeing in cinemas, unless I sneak in as I threatened to do when I go to the capital on a school trip next week. People always look at me strangely when I say I want to see this movie, and then I have to explain that it is about a sex addict and it stars my fifth husband and blah blah blah. But trust me, my reasoning for wanting to attempt sneaking in is because this actually looks like the type of film I'd like to make. I like the idea of harrowing addict dramas. And I know I shouldn't judge a movie by it's trailer, but that trailer makes me want to make a movie so much. Then there's the whole Michael Fassbender and his...golf stick.

The Skin I Live In
If I were to judge my anticipation just by watching the trailer, I would not want to see this film. The trailer is so odd, with the feel good, slightly porn-ish sounding music playing in the background when I'm sure this is supposed to be a serious movie. But I've read plenty of good things about this film, and I always like to see something a little out of the ordinary. And I'm glad that Antonio Banderas has decided to do something a little different to voicing an extremely seedy cat. I knew I should have hunted down one of the smaller cinemas in Melbourne (but it was hard enough trying to find the two huge ones that I did...THAT PLACE IS SO BIG) so I could see this, but I'm waiting for an April cinema release.

Take Shelter
Here's another movie that I should have seen at NZFF, but I actually couldn't. Why? Because it was playing on my birthday. And despite the fact that all I wanted for my birthday was a few tickets to the film fest, I didn't get to go over to see it. Which was fair enough, because it was playing pretty late and I had school the next day. But it is okay, as it is coming out on DVD next month. I placed many warnings in my emails to my Dad on the order, threatening all sorts of things. I sincerely hope he did end up getting it (because he only said "I think I did"), because I need another Jessica Chastain movie like I need to breathe air. Seriously.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
I shouldn't complain too much about this one, since it is my own fault that I haven't seen it yet. It came out in cinemas a month ago, but I still haven't seen it, because I haven't had a chance to go over to Palmerston North to see it. I can't really be bothered begging and pleading to have someone drive me over, but my parents just seem to go over whenever I can't go (which sucks). Oh well, I should keep trying to learn how to drive, even though my Mum's car hates me. Otherwise, it'll be a DVD watch for me, which is more than okay: I can try my best to wait for a cast like Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch, directed by the excellent Tomas Alfredson. If I can live without gluten, I can do this too.

What do you think of all of these films? What are some 2011 films that you still need to see?

Let's Talk About Baseball...With Brad Pitt.

2012-02-17T21:01:00.000+13:00

Film: Moneyball
Year: 2011
Director: Bennett Miller
Written by: Steven Zallian and Aaron Sorkin
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Chris Pratt, Stephen Bishop, Brent Jennings, Kerris Dorsey.
Running time: 133 min.

"It's hard not to get romantic about baseball." - those words are some which are stowed away in a planet far away from me. I don't know the first thing about baseball, apart from the fact that when a ball comes at you, you should try and hit it. There's something about running around all of these bases, too. But that's as far as my knowledge - or interest - goes. Like Senna, Moneyball had to do the monumental task of winning me over, despite the sporty trimmings and the lack of familiarity. Unlike Senna, Moneyball couldn't hit the ball right out of the park for me (see, I learnt something), but it hit it far enough. Even if I couldn't quite get romantic about baseball, I had quite a good time watching people talk romantically about a sport from another planet that I don't inhabit.

Many people have called Moneyball out for being an unconventional sports movie. I couldn't think of anything more true. Moneyball may be a story of the underdog doing something extraordinary, but it rarely ever confronts that. There aren't many moments of people hugging and leaping about in joy over their triumphs. Instead, there is a lot of talking out how the underdogs are going to succeed - which may prove frustrating for some, but let's not forget that all of this talking comes straight from the Oscar-winning brains of Steven Zallian and Aaron Sorkin. You could expect a The Social Network-esque dialogue driven drama, and you could also expect something of a character piece.

Our hero is Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) who is at his wit's end being the general manager of the Oakland A's. They barely ever win, and they don't have the huge budget that allows other teams to snatch their players and leave them in the dust. Billy and his team need something of a miracle to drag them out of the mud and start making the best of what little they have. Enter Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a young Yale graduate who is working for the Cleveland Indians. He believes that the players that the Oakland A's need aren't the ones aren't the ones who want truckloads of money and their names up in lights. Thanks to some computer-generated statistical analysis, Peter has a good idea of who could actually work for their team minus the heavy pricetag. Problem is, these players are considered to be an "island of misfit toys", and couldn't possibly form a winning team in the eyes of everyone else.

While the underdog becoming top dog story is one that we all know by heart, Moneyball almost never lets that part come to the spotlight. If anything, this is one of those 'behind-the-scenes' dramas, where people look disappointingly at the downtrodden who are trying to come up again, whisper about their disapproval behind their backs and wonder what the hell they are trying to do. At the centre of all of that disapproval and disappointment is Billy Beane, who is the movie's primary concern. Beane is an interesting character, who is oddly charismatic and slightly radical, distant yet filled with his fair share of optimism. As the movie goes on it becomes clear that it isn't concerned with the sport being played or the players who are playing it - Billy Beane is the one we see the triumphs and hardships through. Brad Pitt becomes a perfect representative of that. His performance truly is something special, even if I didn't find it to be his best. He encapsulates every intriguing weave in Beane, producing a textured, yet subtle performance. I thought this might be Pitt's year to take home the Oscar, but that's not the case, which is a sad thing indeed.

Despite the fact that Beane is an interesting character, he's also quite an emotionally distant one, which puts a damper on the occasion. The film on a whole is very hard to feel emotionally attached to, especially as it doesn't tend to show things from the player's side all that often. I found myself warming to the little moments, like when Beane's daughter is singing to him, or the flashbacks to Beane's failed baseball playing days, or when Scott overcomes his fear, a lot more than anything else. That's not to say that the film was all exposition and nothing else - there just wasn't a lot of heart put in when the film needed it most. It is a lot like The Social Network, or it is trying hard to be like The Social Network, where a radical idea is put through it's paces by a slightly cocky and ambitious lead character. It has all of the whipper-snapper conversations bounding from person to person. But what Moneyball is missing is that is doesn't really have much to say. It may be a true story and it may speak wonders about how we really can do anything if we put our minds to it, but that's it. If I were a baseball fan, maybe I'd come away with more of a sense of purpose behind the film. I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed with Zallian and Sorkin's efforts here, as they nailed the dialogue as best as they could and made the story a little interesting to someone has unknowledgeable as I. But between the odd pacing and some of the strange reliance on flashbacks that never seemed to quite fit with what they were following, Moneyball missed it's target. Only just.

Where everything else fails, though, Moneyball makes up with by being an extremely well-made film. The editing and camera work (by the brilliant Wally Pfister, who often works with Christopher Nolan) is beautiful, especially during the game scenes. It is also beautifully cast, particularly with Jonah Hill playing against type and going all the way to an Oscar nomination. He didn't blow me away, but it was nice to not see him play a loud and obnoxious version of himself.

Now, I might not be getting romantic over baseball just yet, nor do I feel compelled to travel to that faraway planet any time soon. That doesn't stop me from taking quite a shine to little old Moneyball, which may not have won me over, but probably will get there on a second watch.

What I got:

A Conversation with 'The Beaver'

2012-02-16T20:16:00.000+13:00

What is she talking about, you say? Have my chronic headaches that have plagued me all week or my new gluten-free diet sent me into a world of hallucinations, and now I'm resorting to have conversations with a beaver? No. Loyal readers, or readers who have been around these parts since around May last year, will remember I did this 'A Conversation with...' series where I got a fake 'interview' called Christopher (after the ginger cat that I never got) and I 'became' the movie and answered some questions. It is pretty high-tech stuff. So, coming at you each Thursday night (hopefully) is another season of the Conversation series - which is just my naive way of saying that during the July school holidays I lost my creative juices and gave up on reviewing films this way, but I feel like it needs to come back. So let's start off with 'Season 2', where we'll chat with Jodie Foster's The Beaver first.

CHRISTOPHER: Hello there. Now, before we begin, I don't know who I am supposed address, you or the beaver puppet?
THE BEAVER: I am no 'puppet'.

C: Right, so I suppose you're going to tell me that you're a 'real boy'...
TB: I would, if I was Pinnochio. You're supposed to just go with it.

C: But what if I want to talk to the actual film and not just...you?
TB: Well then you're cripes out of luck. You've only got me.

C: Well I guess that shall suffice. Okay then, tell me a bit about yourself/the movie.
TB: This is a picture of Walter Black, a hopelessly depressed individual. Somewhere inside him is a man who fell in love. Who started a family. Who ran a successful company. That man has gone missing. No matter what he's tried, and he's tried everything, Walter can't seem to bring him back. It's as if he's died, but hasn't had the good sense to take his body with him. So mostly what he does is sleep.

C: Mhm...so where do you, the Beaver, come into the story?
TB: I lend a helping hand to our Walter...or rather he lends me a hand! You get it?

C: Wow, you're jokes are almost as bad as that of How Do You Know, whom I interviewed last year.
TB: I have big stars in my cast, too.

C: Speaking of 'big stars', let's talk about Mel Gibson.
TB: How'd I know that would be on your question list?

C: Because he's the reason nobody wants to see you.
TB: Well, that's not my fault, now is it? He's not even the star of the movie. *I'm* the star of the movie. People shouldn't care about him. They should care about *me.*

C: You're kinda sounding like Miss Piggy right now...
TB: What, just because we're both puppets?

C: I think that's where the comparison ends. In terms of 2011 puppet movies, The Muppets comes out on top.
TB: Well, I can't really compete with the feel good nature of that movie, nor do I have any song or dance numbers.

C: No...your film is more on the 'downbeat' sides of things.
TB: As you start to realise that I mean business and this isn't Mel Gibson's film any more, things do start to get a bit serious. Especially as we dwindle down to the end, we realise that old Mel really does have a bit of a problem and I may have caused it...even though it is not my fault.

C: Yes...things do get very dark towards the end. It kind of detracts from the philosophical moments scattered throughout the film.
TB: Well, at first, I take care of all of the philosophical moments. I'm almost like a self-help guide, except I'm a puppet. Maybe they should make lots of beaver puppets and distribute them around the place or something. I can just imagine what they would have on their packet: "Hello. The person who handed you this card is under the care of a prescription puppet, designed to help create a psychological distance between himself and the negative aspects of his personality. Please treat him as you normally would, but address yourself to the puppet. Thank you." But anyway, I digress. I thought I might leave the philosophical to the two teens, Norah and Porter.

C: They did have some interesting things to say, particularly towards the end, but their characters felt a bit redundant compared to everything else happening in the film.
TB: I guess *I* do take most of the attention. But they're played by Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence, two fine young actors who can rustle up a bit of attention by themselves.

C: That's true. Finally, Jodie Foster has proved herself as an actress, but she was a good choice to direct your big 'starring role'?
TB: She was just fine, but I think the proof is in the pudding. I had some good material to work with, but then I also had some really, well, shit material to work with. She didn't do a lot to elevate that, but she did what she could. It's nothing new. I can't help but feel a little short-changed.

C: Hey, well at least Ricky Gervais made a joke about you at the Golden Globes.
TB: He made a joke about Johnny Depp, too. And where is he at now? Exactly.

What I got:

No Pixar, No Problem: I Talk Out the Animated Oscar Race.

2012-02-15T20:48:00.000+13:00

This was posted this morning at the LAMB for their 'LAMB Devours the Oscars' series. You can check it out there, or check it out here...do as you please...

I actually wrote a post about the animated film category a LONG time ago, and I was predicting that should The Adventures of Tintin be eligible, it would sweep this category. I received confirmation that it was indeed eligible, but once it came for nomination time, no dice. If that didn’t win, I was gunning for Winnie the Pooh to take the prize, just because it was so awesome, but nothing happened there, either. So now, we have an extremely weird and incredibly ‘meh’ line-up for this year’s animated Oscar...without any PIXAR (suck on that, Cars 2). Let’s get into it, shall we?

A Cat in Paris

This one was the only animated feature I didn’t get to catch in time for writing this post, even though it is out on DVD here (it just continues to elude me). I’d always had a feeling that this would get in, but only if they took five nominees, which in other words means it has no chance of winning. But you can see just how much the Academy loves cats – this is the first of two movies to feature a cat. Maybe if Snowy out of Tintin was a cat, it would have been nominated?
The Drawcard: Generally positive consensus. Cats.
The Drawback: Not seen by a wide enough audience, and there are better films nominated.
Chance of Winning: 25%

Chico & Rita

Let it be said that this is not animation for kids, this is animation for adults. In a lot of ways, I felt like this one would have been better as a live action film rather than an animated film, mainly because its story is so beautiful, but also so overdone. As for the film’s chances, they’re about next to none. While being a perfectly good film, A Cat in Paris definitely beats it to the punch for being the ‘better’ foreign animation, and this one still remains to be seen by a lot of people. However, whilst watching it I was remembering The Princess & the Frog...this is a very Disney style animation, just a bit more adult. That could work in its favour.
The Drawcard: Being an animation for adults.
The Drawback: Has anyone besides me actually seen it? It stands virtually no chance.
Chance of Winning: 10%

Kung Fu Panda 2

This one came as a bit or a surprise to me, as I knew it had been quite positively received but I didn’t think that it would be enough to get it in. However, I just watched this one and its predecessor the other day and I was quite impressed. Being a long time since I’ve seen Rango (which I loved), I’m very much in the Kung Fu Panda 2 camp at the moment, and see it as the only one that could possibly beat Rango. Because, of course, it has twice the awesomeness.
The Drawcard: Generally positive consensus, good box-office take, original also got nominated in this category back in 2009.
The Drawback: Rango.
Chance of Winning: 50%

Puss in Boots

I caught this one on the plane, so forgive me if I didn’t think it was so spectacular on a 10” low-def screen. But no, this was quite a good movie, bringing light to one of my favourite characters from the Shrek franchise. However, since Puss was in the whole movie, I could tell how insanely creepy he was. Like, seriously, should he even be fronting a movie for kids? He is...well...quite seedy. Anyway, does this have any Oscar chances? Well, for me it was a bit of a surprise nomination, and I can’t see it beating Rango at all. It was pretty run-of-the-mill, but an improvement of the last two Shreks.
The Drawcard: Spanning from a popular franchise, being genuinely beautiful to look at. Cats.
The Drawback: The lead cat being largely inappropriate for target audience. Rango.
Chance of Winning: 40%

Rango

It is pretty darn obvious that this is going to win. Despite the fact that it came out literally ages ago, it has held up this entire time and people seemed to like all of the Western references it has going on in it. Rango is a really cool movie, there’s no doubting that, but I’ve yet to physically meet someone who actually liked it – I either mix with really bad people who don’t have taste or they’re seeing something that I don’t. Perhaps it is one for us people who like our movie references and chameleons...and hopefully the voters are one of us, too. I won’t be grumbling if this takes the prize.
The Drawcard: Everything, from the references to the impeccable animation to Johnny Depp.
The Drawback: Slightly hesitant response from the people of Dannevirke, New Zealand. That should hurt its chances badly.
Chance of Winning: 95%

And this is what a year looks like without PIXAR...how many more of these years are we going to see in our lifetime?

Tuesday Links and Other Stuff #12

2012-02-14T19:31:00.001+13:00

What I'm watching tonight...

As planned last week, my Tuesday Movie Nights consists of Crazy, Stupid, Love. (again) and The Beaver. Because no-one loves me and I'm alone and feeling poorly on Valentine's Day. LOL JK, Valentine's Day doesn't exist in my world. Unless Jeremy Irvine wants to call me up tonight.

Video of the week...

Jean Dujardin's Villain Auditions from Jean Dujardin

So, I've accepted the fact that I'm not going to see The Artist in the near future. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to change my name to Jean Dujardin or laughing until I cry over his 'villain auditions'. I think that We Bought a Zoo Too or Bridesmaids 2 look like the best.

Links
Contesting for my favourite post of the year is Sati's incredible '48 Hidden Images from Black Swan'. I want to shove this post in the face of everyone I know who hated it and show them what a freaking masterpiece it is. And I applaud Sati for paying attention to the movie so much!

You know what movie I still have nightmares about? Abduction. Mike @ Front Room Cinema reminded me of why it was so bad. I still like joking about it, though.

Tyler's excellent Southern Vision just hit the one-year mark...hasn't he done so well? Go wish him and his blog a happy birthday.

Candice @ Reel Talk has a chat with the director of the brilliant animated film Chico & Rita, which is far more underrated than it deserves.

These may not be the 30 best films of the 2000s, but there are some great things on this list. Max @ Anomalous Material hit the nail right on the head with most of them.

Another person on The Muppets bandwagon is Aziza. Seriously, y'all need to see this film.

On a completely different bandwagon is Surrender to the Void, who loved Incendies just as much as I. Y'all need to see this film too.

But a bandwagon I'd like to be on is for Tyrannosaur, which I really want to see. Bonjour Tristesse makes a strong case for why I should be on that bandwagon.

Final word:
Which Jean Dujardin villain do you want to see the most?

AAN: The BAFTAs are Better than the Oscars.

2012-02-13T20:32:00.001+13:00

There, I said it. I think I might just base my whole awards season around the BAFTAs and end it there. Because the Brits know where it is at. You won't find any Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close here.

I don't really have a tremendous amount of things to say about the BAFTAs since I didn't watch the show and they won't have a lot of impact on the Oscars at all. So just some sprawled thoughts on the winners - which may not make a lot of sense, since World War 3 is still going on in my head (okay, I think ever since I watched Trespass the excessive screaming from that movie has been stuck in my head wreaking all sorts of havoc).

-The Artist won Best Film. Can't say that was a surprise. Hopefully every cinema in NZ will take note so maybe it won't be playing in only nine cinemas and might actually come to Palmerston North before the Oscars. Just a thought.
-Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for the Best British Film. I still need to see this movie...but no-one has found the kindness in their heart to drive me over to the cinemas. Eh.

-I'm going to change my name to Jean Dujardin. I like the way it rolls off my tongue...it sounds so sexy. I don't care if I'm a girl.
-So, I guess that means Jean Dujardin will win the Oscar? Anyone but George Clooney, baby. But I'm sad that Fassy didn't win, because I would have yelled 'SUCK ON THAT, OSCARS!' from the rooftops (...of Dannevirke, New Zealand).
-Oooh, Meryl Streep won Best Actress, just as I predicted it. I think the race is practically 50/50 between Davis and Streep...it'll be interesting to see who gets it. But you know me, my heart is with Rooney Mara all the way.
-Christopher Plummer got Best Supporting Actor. Usually I get sick of people sweeping all of the awards, but not Plummer. He was amazing in Beginners.

-I'm sorta surprised that Octavia Spencer won Best Supporting Actress, even though I'm not sure who else it could have gone to. Alas, my dream of seeing Jessica Chastain deliver an acceptance speech this season is quashed :'(

-Will Michel Hazanavicius win the Best Director Oscar? I'm still somewhat uncertain...I think they could still go with Martin Scorsese and his kids film.
-Ahahaha. The Artist for Best Original Screenplay? I guess the BAFTAs were just throwing awards at it. But I'm not sure how a screenplay for a silent film could beat a screenplay like Midnight in Paris.
-I actually predicted Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for Best Adapted Screenplay. Yay me.
-Best Cinematography for The Artist. Oh well, The Tree of Life wasn't even nominated here.
-OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG SENNA GOT BEST EDITING!!!!!!!! This news literally made my day, even though none of my friends knew why I was so excited.
-Seriously, you peeps may be surprised about that award, but unless you have seen the film, you wouldn't understand. That movie owns the world of editing.
-Shame on you Oscars for not nominating it for editing.
-Hugo got Production Design. It did look very purdy.
-Oooh, The Artist gets thrown another award, this time for Best Costume Design. When I become a director, I'm going to make a 2 second silent, black-and-white film to hark back to the days of 1888, when cinema started. You'll see the Oscars pouring in for me. (that was a joke)
-I feel kinda sad that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's score won't get recognised this season, but I guess that The Artist's score had a big job to do.
-Wow, didn't see The Iron Lady winning Best Makeup/Hair. Everyone loves it when they make people look old. That doesn't mean you, J. Edgar.
-Heh, at least The Artist didn't win Best Sound. Hugo, for the win.
-Oh, so Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 only gets Best Visual Effects. This movie deserved so much more, y'all.
-I was quite surprised that The Skin I Live In got Best Foreign Film over A Separation. But I think it is safe to say that this won't be repeating at the Oscars.
-Eh, Rango will be winning Best Animated Feature.
-SENNA WON BEST DOCUMENTARY!!! SHAME ON YOU, OSCARS!!!!

-Oh, Chris O'Dowd was right. Adam Deacon did indeed win the Rising Star award. Shoulda been Tom Hiddleston. (but Christina Hendricks looks so beautiful. I'm so jealous of her)
-Aaaaaaand Paddy Considine and Diarmid Scrimshaw won the Best Debut award for Tyrannosaur. Would love to know when this movie is out here.

Random thoughts that aren't really about the winners:

-Ralph Fiennes has a beard again. I am attracted. Just don't get it that really bushy state it was in back in September.
-Just about everyone was wearing black. Meh.

-I am very attracted to Jeremy Irvine. That's an understatement - how can one man on this Earth possess so much attractiveness?!
-Despite The King's Speech winning lots and lots of awards, I kinda miss last year's awards season. Well, I kinda miss Amy Adams looking beautiful.

-But I have another redhead to feast my eyes upon. Jessica Chastain looked so beautiful that the first time I saw her I may have been blinking away a few tears. I wish I was her!
-And as for the only thing of the actual show that I saw...Meryl Streep losing her shoe and Colin Firth picking it up for her. Such a sweet moment.

So, what did you think of the winners? Do you think the Oscars are set in stone just yet?

Underrated Showcase Sundays - Strictly Ballroom

2012-02-12T20:49:00.001+13:00

Ah, weekly features. I figured that the blog needs some more of those (with a bit of luck, you shall see the return of a weekly feature that y'all loved sometime soon). This weekly feature, the Underrated Showcase Sundays, is pretty straight-forward: every Sunday I'll shed some light on a film which I think doesn't get enough love. The showcase will be largely unstructured (well, compared to my other reviews) and will often just be random thoughts. It doesn't matter if I've seen it before or not. For example, I'm starting with Strictly Ballroom, which I first watched three years ago and has had it's place in my DVD collection for two of those years. Let's get into it, shall we?

(NOTE: If this doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense, bear with me. World War 3 is going on in my head right now and I feel like if anyone touches it, it might fall to pieces. It's probably not doing me a lot of good to be staring at a computer screen, but I'm determined to do this.)

Back when I was 13, I had a huge Baz Luhrmann phase. I'm not sure how it started - if my memory serves me correctly, it may have been the million watches of Romeo + Juliet I went through, because back then, I'd never seen anything like it. But between the stylish modernism of Shakespeare's romance, the lavish and spectacular musical Moulin Rouge! and the slightly disappointing and over-ambitious Australia, people tend to forget Luhrmann's first effort, Strictly Ballroom. In saying that, back in it's day (in which I was not alive to see), the film was a huge hit in Australia and it even scored a Golden Globe nomination for Best Comedy, losing out to Mrs. Doubtfire. Yet, while Luhrmann has had bigger fish to fry in Hollywood - including his up-coming 3D adaptation of The Great Gatsby - his smaller roots are not to be ignored.

What I love about Strictly Ballroom, aside from the fact that it is one of the few Australian movies I actually really like, is that it plays with stereotypes. From the beginning, which is shot mockumentary style, you can see stereotype after stereotype: the over-bearing, crazily ambitious mother (Pat Thomson); the also crazily ambitious, but pampered princess dance-partner Liz Holt (Gia Carides); the quiet, misunderstood and neglected husband/father (Barry Otto); the 'Ugly Duckling' restricted to beginners dance classes Fran (Tara Morice) and finally the pretty-boy with all the talent who wants to break free of the rules Scott (Paul Mecurio). Some of them break out of their stereotypes, but the large majority of them don't...which is why Strictly Ballroom is so fun to watch. There's a great deal of familiarity about it, with clichés happening all over the place. But that is okay, because they are done in such a way that it almost feels like a fresh piece of movie-making. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that the large majority of those Disney Channel movies, a la High School Musical are trying to be like Strictly Ballroom but are dismally failing because, well, they're Disney Channel movies.

Watching this film today, the age is starting to show; that's something that I always find when I'm watching 90s films, because their Technicolour seems to show the cracks more than any other decade, for some reason. However, Luhrmann's style remains timeless, especially compared to his other films. I've always loved him as a director because he tends to exaggerate moments of drama or comedy...but he only exaggerates if they need to be exaggerated. He isn't afraid to use colour or whirlwind camera movements; with his debut he instantly has his signature style, whereas most directors take a few movies to really get into it. I actually can't wait to see what he does with The Great Gatsby, despite the fact that it is in 3D.

As a closing point, the performances are quite good. Usually it is quite hard for me to warm to Australian actors using their native accents, because, like us Kiwis, their inflection is terrible and it is tremendously hard to act convincingly with them. Battling with the stereotypes/cliches and their poor inflection, everyone does a great job, particularly the late Pat Thomson as the mother and Tara Morice coming out of her shell and becoming a beautiful dancer. Props should also go out to Paul Mecurio, who I only remember as a judge on the NZ version of Dancing with the Stars. Who knew that he could act? Even if he is far better at dancing...

What I got:

BAFTA Predictions w/ Fassy, Loki and Owen

2012-02-11T21:41:00.000+13:00

Well...here we go. We're on the home stretch. The BAFTAs are generally my favourite awards of the season because the Brits usually know what they're talking about, even though there are a few oddball nominations here. Now, I know you might be a little sick of awards talk (even though I think it has been curiously absent and it is more about the backlash this year), but bear with me. My pageviews/comments have been down for a little bit, and I don't think this post will help with that...but it needs to be done.

Now, a refresher on the way Fassy, Loki and Owen are used for predictions:
Happy Fassy: Who I want to win, but doesn't necessarily mean that they will win.
Lowkey Loki: Who will win. My final prediction.
Overwhelmed Owen: The complete longshot.

Best Film:
The Artist / The Descendants / Drive / The Help / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I'm going for Drive all the way, as I'm still fuming over how ignored it was at the Oscars. Actually, I think that Drive and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, two films which failed to get a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars have a better chance of winning this award than actual nominee The Help. I'm surprised that the BAFTAs loved The Help as much as they did, but I can't see it taking many awards apart from the acting ones. As for the actual winner, it'd be stupid not to pick The Artist, as that seems impossible. But I wouldn't be surprised if the most overrated movie of the year The Descendants takes the award...every seems to love that one for some strange reason.

Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year:
My Week with Marilyn / Senna / Shame / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / We Need to Talk About Kevin

This is possibly one of the hardest categories to pick, considering how much quality there is in it. I think that My Week with Marilyn is the longshot considering it was the lowest rated out of all of them, but the fact that it has a lot of nominations in the acting categories could mean that it isn't such a longshot. Alas, my heart is with Senna, my favourite film of 2011, and I could definitely see it taking out the award. However, with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy having a Best Film nomination and all, it has the advantage over everyone. I wouldn't go past Shame and We Need to Talk About Kevin to take away the award, though...can they all just win?!

THE REST AFTER THE JUMP!

Best Actor:
George Clooney for The Descendants / Jean Dujardin for The Artist / Michael Fassbender for Shame / Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / Brad Pitt for Moneyball

If Michael Fassbender has any chance of winning an award before the season ends, it is for this. I actually wouldn't be surprised if he got it, but he has Gary Oldman riding on his back, too. However, I don't think they'll get past Jean Dujardin. The two Americans, Clooney and Pitt will be left in the foreign dust...well I'm hoping that Clooney doesn't win another award for his 'meh' work in The Descendants.

Best Actress:
Berenice Bejo for The Artist / Viola Davis for The Help / Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady / Tilda Swinton for We Need to Talk About Kevin / Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn

Okay, this is a pretty hard category to pick. According to the Oscars, Berenice Bejo 'belongs' in the supporting category, but I think she has a perfect chance of winning this award. You can look at this category in many ways...if the BAFTAs end up giving everything to The Artist, then Bejo will win. If they take to The Help, then the award is Viola's (but I'm not sure that she has a huge chance here...). Since they seem to love My Week with Marilyn, Michelle Williams stands a perfect chance. Since We Need to Talk About Kevin is 'homegrown', they might go with the un-Oscar nominated Tilda Swinton. Meryl Streep's perfect mimicry of someone from their history (who they'd probably rather forget) might get her the award. It is impossible to pick a winner, as I think that these awards have the power to branch out from the two front-runners Streep and Davis, but I think Streep has the biggest chance. I don't know...it could literally be anyone.

Best Supporting Actor:
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn / Jim Broadbent for The Iron Lady / Jonah Hill for Moneyball / Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Ides of March / Christopher Plummer for Beginners

This one is a lot easier to predict. Christopher Plummer all the way. Though I wouldn't put it past them to choose Kenneth Branagh, just to be different.

Best Supporting Actress:
Jessica Chastain for The Help / Judi Dench for My Week with Marilyn / Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids / Carey Mulligan for Drive / Octavia Spencer for The Help

I'm not completely sold that Octavia Spencer will win this award, but since she's won everything else, I think they'll give her this one too. Eh, I wish that Jessica Chastain would win something.

David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction:
Tomas Alfredson for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist / Lynne Ramsay for We Need to Talk About Kevin / Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive / Martin Scorsese for Hugo

I honestly don't know how anyone could pick a winner in this line-up, because it is dripping with greatness. Literally. I'd love to see Nicolas Winding Refn win, since his direction in Drive is probably the best of the year, but I think the award will go to The Artist...especially if it gets Best Film. I wouldn't go past any of the others, though.

Best Animated Feature Film:
The Adventures of Tintin / Arthur Christmas / Rango

Being the only Oscar nominee, I think that Rango will win this one, but The Adventures of Tintin stands a huge chance since it is actually eligible here. Tintin for the win.

Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award:
Adam Deacon / Chris Hemsworth / Tom Hiddleston / Chris O'Dowd / Eddie Redmayne

Okay, we've got to remember that this is voted for by the general public. If it was my pick, I'd go with Tom Hiddleston, but I am not the British public. Chris O'Dowd himself has said that Adam Deacon will take the award, but I have, well, never heard of him (oops). Maybe O'Dowd is right and maybe he is really popular in Britain. But I'm going to predict Chris Hemsworth, since people really liked him in Thor and stuffs. I'm just surprised that Jessica Chastain didn't make it through to the shortlist.

ALL OF THE OTHER AWARDS, WHICH I WON'T GO INTO A LOT OF DETAIL OVER. Anything in bold is who will win, anything underlined is who I want to win.

Best Screenplay (Original):
The Artist / Bridesmaids / The Guard / The Iron Lady / Midnight in Paris

Best Screenplay (Adapted):
The Descendants / The Help / The Ides of March / Moneyball / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Cinematography:
The Artist / The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Hugo / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / War Horse

Best Editing:
The Artist / Drive / Hugo / Senna / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Production Design:
The Artist / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 / Hugo / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / War Horse

Best Costume Design:
The Artist / Hugo / Jane Eyre / My Week with Marilyn / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music:
The Artist / The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Hugo / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / War Horse

Best Make Up/Hair:
The Artist / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 / Hugo / The Iron Lady / My Week with Marilyn

Best Sound:
The Artist (lol) / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 / Hugo / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / War Horse

Best Achievement in Visual Effects:
The Adventures of Tintin / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 / Hugo / Rise of the Planet of the Apes / War Horse

Best Film Not in the English Language:
Incendies / Pina / Potiche / A Separation / The Skin I Live In

Best Documentary:
George Harrison: Living in the Material World / Project Nim / Senna

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Producer or Director:
Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) / Will Sharpe, Tom Kingsley and Sarah Brocklehurst (Black Pond) / Ralph Fiennes (Coriolanus) / Richard Ayoade (Submarine) / Paddy Considine, Diarmid Scrimshaw (Tyrannosaur)

So there are my predictions. The show is on Sunday, UK time (Monday morning in NZ, luckily during my computer period so I can keep an eye on the winners :D). Who do you think will win big?

Another Gem from the 'Nic Cage Has Bills to Pay' Franchise

2012-02-10T22:00:00.000+13:00

Film: Trespass
Year: 2011
Director: Joel Schumacher
Written by: Karl Gajdusek
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Ben Mendelsohn, Cam Gigandet, Jordana Spiro, Liana Liberato, Dash Mihok, Emily Meade.
Running time: 86 min.

Maybe we treat Nicolas Cage unfairly. Maybe, in some better world, his attempts at rebooting his career are actually good. Or maybe, Nicolas Cage is just messing with us and he's inventing a new form of comedy: where he tries too hard with so little. I think there is something that we can take away from the past few years of his career: he is a more is more kind of guy, and unfortunately that doesn't work when you are an Oscar winning actor. His recent effort, Trespass, is possibly his worst film to date. And that doesn't even have that much to do with him. His 'more is more' technique seemed to rub off on everyone else in the movie: everyone screamed at the top of their lungs even though no-one could hear them, the villains were so over-the-top they were measly caricatures, and then there was Jordana Spiro...but we'll get to her later. I don't know whether anyone was trying to compete with Nic to get the 'most over-the-top' award or something, but everyone managed to annoy me more than Nic's worse films and Cam Gigandet's entire filmography combined. It is the longest 86 minutes I've ever had to sit through in my life.

Now, a home invasion is literally my worst nightmare. You ask anyone: I'm the most paranoid person in the world. Even if I'm just going to my backyard, I lock the doors so no-one can get in. So you'd think that a film like Trespass, which is about a home invasion, would get me really unsettled, right? Wrong. David Fincher did that with Panic Room. Joel Schumacher just makes a home invasion about as unsettling to me as Season of the Witch. It is hard to know whether to side with the trespassed or the trespassers. Kyle and Sarah (played by Cage and Nicole Kidman) are an unhappily married couple living in a flash mansion with their daughter Avery (Liana Liberato) who disrespects them. She sneaks out to a party, and while she is gone Kyle and Sarah are invaded by four thieves masquerading as the police. They include the leader Elias (Ben Mendelsohn), his stripper girlfriend Petal (Spiro), his younger brother Jonah (Gigandet) and an intimidating man called Ty (Dash Mihok). All they want is for Kyle to open the safe where they hope to get lots and lots of money and run off to live happily ever after...but of course, that doesn't go to plan. They just run around screaming and swearing...and yet, no-one really cares about the people going through this terrible ordeal, nor do we give a shit about the 'baddies'.

Okay, so if I was going through this kind of 'ordeal' I would probably be repetitively screaming the same stupid stuff that these guys do. I'd tell people to "RUN!" every five seconds. But the truth is, when I watch a movie I don't need to see my life happen before my eyes. I need to see a proper story that isn't repetitive and has something relatively new to bring to the table. So let it be known that home invasions do not make good movie material. There are only so many ways it can go, and Trespass is the perfect example of that. You know how people tell you to lather, rinse, and repeat? In Trespass terms, that is "RUN!", get caught, get threatened, find your way out, back to the beginning again. It just goes round and round and round, adding in a little 'baddie' twist here and there, and then flashing back to a supposed affair between Jonah and Sarah which is supposed to 'complicate' things. When you look at all that happens in Trespass, everything would be extremely terrifying. Alas, as I said, this is not real life happening on screen. Yet, it is not a proper movie, either. It just provides an artificial experience where you probably have to be the kindest person in the world to feel for any of the characters (who are criminally under-developed), or have the weakest stomach to be even so much as biting your nails because of what is happening on screen. The movie is wrapped in plastic, and it is almost impossible to get through to it and actually understand what the hell it is going on about.

However, unlike most of the really bad movies of 2011, there is some decent enough acting going on here. Nicole Kidman, who I forgot was an Oscar nominee for her brilliant work in Rabbit Hole last year, did the best she could with the weak material at hand, but there wasn't a hell of a lot she could do. She didn't succumb to becoming completely off her knocker like most of the others did...she had control, for the most part. Ben Mendelsohn, another Australian, who I was impressed with in Animal Kingdom, slaps on an American accent and plays the head villain, slightly sliding in between a parody and a truly disturbed man. While he was a bit too much at times, I don't doubt that there's a good career for him in the 'fucked up villain' stereotype...and he's a good enough actor to come out the other end smiling. Rounding out the 'good' actors in the movie is Liana Liberato, who was extremely impressive in Trust, and hows here that not all teen actresses have to act like complete airheads. Which I'm grateful for.

But then there's the bad side to the acting. I was on the fence about Nicolas Cage's efforts here, as he wasn't so crazy, nor was he that impressive. He was about as banal as his character's stereotype, and came across as a little, well, creepy. There was something so unsettling about his large-glasses and suit wearing fast-talker/hopeless husband and father...something more unsettling than the home invasion itself.

I'm not really sure if that's a good thing.

Cam Gigandet and Jordana Spiro, playing the robbers, are absolutely tragic in their roles. The former just annoyed me because he has always annoyed me, and his character is so helplessly hopeless it is laughable. But the latter? The latter. If anyone is headed for a Razzie nomination this year, it better be her. She plays a stripper/junkie, and you can just imagine her ticking off her checklist: smudged eye makeup, excessive swearing, floppy arms, trying to look seductive while wearing a ball dress but smoking at the same time, talking really loud and angrily...this girl is more out of control than Nicolas Cage on a good day.

And that is not a good thing.

Trespass was made for $35 million, but only grossed just under $25,000 in the USA. After ten days, it was pulled by theaters. Eight days later, it was released on DVD. I always feel so sad when films fail...but I couldn't imagine anything better happening for this tired, stupid, hopeless little film. Because it is really that bad.

What I got:

It Seems I Got Myself an Award

2012-02-08T20:21:00.000+13:00

I vaguely remember the 'Liebster Award' thingy going around sometime last year, and I think I may have received one, but I never took action (you can just imagine me at the Oscars, I won't even turn up for that shit, LOL JK). However, it is making the rounds again somehow, and the lovely Nikhat (blogging soul sister) from Being Norma Jeane gave me this award. Thanks for that! Now I have to pass it on to five other bloggers who have under 200 followers. I've seen this Liebster thing on a couple of blogs now, so if your site was nominated on those two blogs, I'm sorry but you're ineligible. I'm gonna go with some new peeps ;)

1) It is only fitting to give this award to an awards blogger. Never Too Early Movie Predictions is the most awesome prediction site ever, I tell ya!
2) One site's design that I'm truly jealous of is Film Flare's, which is tended to by the lovely Maria Sofia. Such a beautiful site.
3) I've championed Cherokee's site Feminising Film a lot, and there is a reason for that. She may not have posted anything this year (come on, get onto it! haha) but when she does post there is so much awesomeness.
4) There are always awesome reviews on Surrender to the Void...reviews which I do get extremely jealous of!
5) that's...So Freaking Hollywood is a site that I don't nearly go to enough but there are some awesome things happening here. I always learn something new!

So there, if you wanna accept this award, accept it. If you don't, then don't. To be honest, I don't usually buy into these awards too much, but I didn't have anything to post tonight and I'm in a very grateful/giving mood, so there ya go :)

Tuesday Links and Other Stuff #11

2012-02-07T20:50:00.000+13:00

What I'm watching tonight...

Okay, so before last night I was like "wholey crap! Five films I kinda have an interest in seeing this week! What should I do?" But then I planned it all out: I was going to watch The Help (again) and The Beaver tonight, Crazy Stupid Love (again) and Trespass next week since there's nothing coming out, and save 13 Assassins for when I'm in the mood for a foreign film (I do really want to see this film, but just not when I'm having one of my crazy movie watching nights). Alas, this was not the case. I rocked up at work this afternoon and the only DVDs that had arrived were The Help and Trespass. I'm fine with The Help, but I'm not in the mood for any Nicolas Cage shit tonight (but I'll still watch it, because I like to have a good laugh every now and again). So cheers, Sony, for sending your DVDs on time. As for any of the other distributors: you're off my Christmas card list already.

Video of the week...

I'm thinking this segment should really be called 'song of the week', but my iPod is bursting with so much goodness at the moment I have to share it. This week's song is the brilliant song 'Nightcall' by Kavinsky feat. Lovefoxxx from the Drive soundtrack. I'm getting so jealous of all you Americans watching Drive over and over again on Blu-Ray and the fact that I have to wait until next month, but I have my Drive soundtrack on repeat to get me through these tough times. I feel so badass listening to Nightcall while I'm walking uptown. Hee.

Links
Unfortunately missing my sorta-local cinemas (just like The Artist is going to this week, fuck you Palmerston North) was Jason Reitman's latest Young Adult. Scott @ Front Room Cinema reminds me of what I'm missing.

Next month I'll finally be able to see Take Shelter. Andrew @ Encore's World of Film & TV becomes the millionth person I know of to be quite enthusiastic over it.

I love Downton Abbey. And I'm not the only one. Sati @ Cinematic Corner makes a good case for why you should be watching it too.

One film I feel like never gets enough love is Mary and Max. Raghav @ Ticker Talks Film thought it was something really special.

Again with the movies I want to see but can't yet! A Separation is definitely high on my watchlist, and Diana @ Aziza's Picks gives me another reason to keep it there!

Still pissed off about the Oscar nominations? The LAMB wants you to vote in their annual LIONs for LAMBs poll, where you can pick your own winners. Mister Poll has stopped packing a sad!

I'm a sucker for editorials, and Andy @ Andy Buckle's Film Emporium offers up one of the best I've read in quite sometime, all about expectations and repeat viewings. They're funny things.

Lesya @ Eternity of Dream has returned to the internets and has some lovely things to say about Hugo, definitely one of my favourites from 2011.

And from the files of things that made me laugh this past week comes this gem of a 'post' I saw on Tumblr. I can actually imagine this happening!

Final word:
What kind of reviews do you prefer to see: ones on movies everyone has heard of (i.e. recent theatrical releases) or more 'unknown' films like Perfect Sense?

Without Love There is Nothing.

2012-02-06T20:28:00.000+13:00

Film: Perfect Sense
Year: 2011
Director: David Mackenzie
Written by: Kim Fupz Aakeson
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Ewen Bremner, Connie Nielsen, Stephen Dillane, Denis Lawson, Liz Strange, Richard Mack.
Running time: 92 min.
It is to my understanding that this has been released in cinemas this week in America. It shall be released on DVD in NZ on March 22nd by Madman Entertainment.

Just for one moment, imagine this: you can no longer taste anything, feel anything, see anything, smell anything or hear anything. One by one, your sensory perceptions are taken away. How would you react? Would you give up, just as your senses are? Would you learn to live with it? Would you realise all of the things that your senses have made you miss, or miss the senses that let you explore the world? There is a moment in Perfect Sense where lovers Susan (Eva Green) and Michael (Ewan McGregor) are sitting in the bath and take a huge bite out of a bar of soap. Crazy, you say? They can't taste anything, much less smell anything. They can do whatever they like, eat whatever they like. It's an interesting point that the film brings up: if we lost our taste, would that bring out an endless supply of things we could eat? The film is constantly doing that, bringing up all of these interesting points involving how helpful our senses are or how they could be holding us back. Yet, in most cases, the film also fails to capitalize on them, leading to what is quite a middling experience, but interesting all the same.

Perfect Sense is a film that sits somewhere in between the medical paranoia of Contagion and the apocalyptic nihilism and beauty of Melancholia. First and foremost, it is a romance between Susan, a scientist and Michael, a chef, who meet just as this medical epidemic is taking over the world. They grow closer as everyone around them is disappearing, and as their senses slowly dissipate, starting with smell. But will their senses end up controlling their relationship as they prepare for the inevitable? No, this isn't a lovey-dovey story where there's endless amounts of hope, and love defeats all, including and especially an unstoppable epidemic. At first, you kinda feel like Susan and Michael shouldn't really be together, as she is distant and he isn't the kind of man looking for a long-term relationship - neither of them believe in love, but somehow they are thrust into it. And in some ways, everything that's happening around them forces them to appreciate love a little more, even though everything is working against them. Yet, as I said, this doesn't offer you hope or present Nicholas Sparks-esque emotional manipulation. It is a frightening look at people who came together at the wrong time, and must lose everything before they're allowed to lose themselves.

When Susan and Michael are at the forefront of the movie, it succeeds. However, when the movie starts trying to offer medical explanations and attempts to make sense (no pun intended) or the disease, it falters. It does offer many scenes of panic and poverty with mini-montages scattered throughout the film, which reminded me of a more morbid version of the 'this is what people look like...' montages from McGregor's other film, Beginners. They look just about accurate and are realistically terrifying, but anything that goes further than that doesn't quite take. The film almost doesn't need an outside look at all of the damage the disease is doing; the film-making is enough to make it hit home. As the characters lose their senses, the audience loses their senses too. As their taste went, my taste was somewhat missing, as watching the characters bite into soap would have made me squirm, but I felt nothing for it. When they lost their hearing, there's barely any actual sound in the movie at all, apart from the narration from Susan. I applauded Contagion for making me more aware of the germs around me. But Perfect Sense goes one step further: it makes me more aware of the world around me.

The film takes an awful long time to get going, but the final two thirds make up for the lousy first one. In that sense, it is a bit like Melancholia, and could have easily been directed by Lars von Trier for all the nihilism scattered throughout the film and the beauty that lies beneath such sadness. David Mackenzie, whose last film was the awful Ashton Kutcher film Spread, does a perfectly good job, though, creating what is almost a poem of sadness and desperation, rather than an exposition heavy thriller. Eva Green and Ewan McGregor both give great performances, even though their chemistry isn't always in check, which is probably a good thing considering the nature of their character's relationship. It makes me sad, though, that McGregor continues to go largely unnoticed for his brilliant work in any film. Give him the right role, like either this, Beginners or The Ghost Writer and he excels. He's a much better actor than people give him credit for.

Don't expect a happy ending where the virus is solved and everyone goes back to normal. The end is perfectly ambiguous, but it struck me in a way that I had hoped for more, but knew that there was no way the movie could have gone on. Instead, I played a scenario out in my head of what could have happened; and that was a terrifying place to be.

What I got:

Evil Lives Here.

2012-02-05T20:59:00.000+13:00

Film: Red Riding Trilogy (In the Year of Our Lord 1974; 1980; 1983)
Year: 2009
Director: Julian Jarrold (1974), James Marsh (1980), Anand Tucker (1983)
Written by: Tony Grisoni
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Rebecca Hall, David Morrissey, Paddy Considine, Robert Sheehan, Peter Mullan, Warren Clarke, Jim Carter, Eddie Marsan, Sean Harris, Maxine Peake, Sean Bean.
Running time: 295 min.

I've always somewhat disliked television, but what I dislike even more are made-for-TV films. They usually don't have much going for them, have no stylistic intentions whatsoever and employ a who's who of B-grade actors. All too often have I likened completely average movies with a huge amount of potential to the made-for-TV area, or used it as a whipping stick of some sort. However, there was a trilogy of movies made for British televisions in 2009 which was good enough to get a theatrical release in America in 2010. It was also good enough to change my attitude towards the television movies I so disliked before. The Red Riding trilogy, based upon David Peace's quartet of books looking at a series of murder and crime in Yorkshire, is one heck of a trilogy, ranking up there with the best. In fact, you wouldn't even be able to tell that this started out as a television project, because of the high-calibre of actors and well-informed production and stylistic values.

The first instalment is In the Year of Our Lord 1974, which is directed by Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane, Brideshead Revisited). As any good first film does, this one lays out the basis of the whole series, introduces the bad guys who remain for the rest of the series and sprinkles the all important clues that will be helpful later. Yet, it manages to stand alone as a well-rounded film that deals with everything under the sun; murder only being the start of all the problems. Andrew Garfield, just before his whirlwind 2010, stars as Eddie Dunford, a young, cocky reporter who takes it upon himself to investigate the murders/disappearances of several young girls from the area. He also becomes involved with one of the mothers of the missing girls, Paula (Rebecca Hall) and ends up getting on the wrong side of town businessman John Dawson (Sean Bean - whoops, spoiler). This film is definitely the darkest, most violent and depressing one of the series, setting the tone for what is to come so you won't be too surprised by it's nature by the end. Perhaps the relationship between Eddie and Paula at the forefront and their multiple encounters would make you think that there are much lighter things at hand, but then you remember the nature of their relationship and what's going on behind them - and therefore, any chance of this having happy material is gone. It is just that which makes this instalment the most effective of the series, as they both have a little hope. This one, especially with the end, doesn't have any at all.

In the Year of Our Lord 1980, directed by acclaimed documentary maker James Marsh (Project Nim, Man on Wire) follows with a further look into the world of corrupt cops and the Yorkshire Ripper case. Paddy Considine takes the lead here as police officer Peter Hunter who is brought into assess the murders, uncovering more than he ever wished to. This film is more of a slow-burner, which eventually pays off because the end is so good. It is probably the most dialogue heavy of the trilogy, giving up the secrets slowly and sparingly, all the while still offering a rewarding and disturbing ride. It also delves deeper into the corrupt cops who were also largely criticised during the Yorkshire Ripper case - though not for the same reasons. While this film isn't as heart-breakingly dark as the first one, it definitely gives you more to chew on and the direction improves here. There's barely any light in it, from what I can recall, hitting the atmosphere right on the head. Marsh produces the best directorial effort of the series, fully realising what he has to do with the material and keeping it consistent (the other two waver, slightly). What I like about this one the most, though, is the fact that it has such a great ending, which offers everything you need to know about the events in the first two films, but isn't even half of the story when you get to the final film.

Rounding off the series is In the Year of Our Lord 1983, which is directed by Anand Tucker, delivering something unlike his previous works Leap Year and Shopgirl. I can't really say too much about this film as giving away the smallest detail would threaten to unravel the entire yarn of intrigue. It furthers everything we found out in the first two segments but wraps up everything that we wanted to know from the very beginning, while leaving a shred of ambiguity. I could be persuaded into thinking that this is the best instalment considering that it is the one that offers all of the answers, but admittedly there is no way to choose which one is the best. They all have their strengths: the first for the effectiveness, the second for the atmosphere and this one for the story. To say this one takes you to a place you don't want to go is a bit of an understatement. It literally took me to my worst nightmare, and I didn't rest well after I watched it; everything was too horrible to imagine, but even more horrible to imagine that this kind of thing actually happens in our world. David Morrisey, who plays Maurice Jobson throughout the entire series takes centre stage in this one, and is perhaps a less effective hero than either Eddie or Hunter, but gets the job done. However, this one relies heavily on the use of flashbacks, accounting for a solid third of the film, which seamlessly brings in the clues from the past and reminds us that many of the characters aren't really dead - their legacy lingers long and hard, refusing to go away.

Even though each of the films are marketed as individual films up for individual assessment, it is almost impossible to accurately do so since they all offer so much but rely on the rest of the series as well. As I said, each has a strength, but each has a weakness, as well. I personally found the middle film to be the weakest of the lot as the material was a little too meandering, but there is literally nothing separating the quality of each film. Being directed by different people, you'd expect the styles and tones to be different. Surprisingly, there is a bit of consistency, but each director brings a new look and approach to the dark material at hand. I, for one, will never forget one of the 'softer' scenes in 1974 where Eddie is being led out of Dawson's lit up party, with fireworks going off just outside the window. I don't know why that shot struck me, but it was just a reminder of how cruelly corrupt this world was, that evil still lived in what seemed like a happy occasion. I'd go as far as to say that this trilogy is a little like a stylistic experiment to see exactly what could be done with the made-for-TV medium. Considering that the Millenium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo etc) was made under those circumstances and definitely pushed the boundaries content-wise, it definitely doesn't have the zing that Red Riding has. Red Riding is much more alert, much less average (there, I said it) and definitely much more satisfactory.

One thing to savour from Red Riding, though, is the huge ensemble cast, which has people coming and going at the snap of the fingers but consistency can be found in all of them. I thought that both Andrew Garfield and Rebecca Hall delivered the best performances of the series, even though the were only used for the one film (Garfield did appear in flashbacks throughout the others, though). Their characters were definitely the most effective, and both played out of their comfort zones to produce little masterpieces of performances. Recurring actors like Sean Bean, David Morrisey, Paddy Considine, any of the people playing the corrupt police officers and especially Peter Mullan (this guy is really creeping me out in anything he's in) all do spectacular jobs, with differing levels of evil underlying their performances. But the one that impressed me the most was from young up-and-coming actor Robert Sheehan playing male prostitute BJ, who is by far the most memorable character of the series even without a huge amount of screen-time. He's about as close as you could get to finding somebody without any sort of evil hiding beneath them. Because everyone in this set of films has evil around them, and it is almost impossible to believe that innocence could ever exist in their world. That is first and foremost the reason why Red Riding is something really special, and a trilogy which I personally wish was more recognised under the shadow of the much more popular Millenium trilogy.

Whoever said that 'the devil is in the details' was definitely hoping for it to be used as an understatement for Red Riding.

What I got (for the whole trilogy):

Quick Limerick Reviews: Jane Eyre, Footloose, Super + more

2012-02-03T20:34:00.000+13:00

Okay, so I'm no poet. I loathe poetry. Well, the poetry you have to write at school filled with metaphors and similies and crap like that...yeah, I don't like it. However, I have tried my hand at poetry on the blog in the past, and it was quite a hit. So, to clear up a few movies that I'd like to get some recognition on the blog but can't be bothered doing a full review on, I've decided to review them via limerick, a poetry technique we learn in our fourth year of school (I think) here. What's a limerick, you ask? Well, in case you don't know, it is like an extended haiku: it is all about the syllables. Here are the basic rules:
-There are five lines.
-Lines 1, 2 and 5 all rhyme with one another. Lines 3 and 4 rhyme with one another, too.
-Lines 1, 2 and 5 have between 7 and 10 syllables in each line.
-Lines 3 and 4 should have between 5 and 7 syllables in each line.
-Ideally, it should be funny (here's hoping).
I shall be reviewing Jane Eyre (2011), Footloose (2011), Super, Texas Killing Fields, What's Your Number?, and Chalet Girl. Here goes...(remember to remind yourselves of the new rating system here)

Jane Eyre (2011)

Charlotte Bronte's book Jane Eyre

A book that film adapters never fear

Has a fresh re-run

That's stylish and handsome

All without revealing Fassy's man gear.

What I got:

Footloose (2011)

A town where dancing is still outlawed?

MTV thinks that will still strike a chord

Add in some hip-hop shakin'

Take out Kevin Bacon

...Wait, why did this need to be restored?

What I got:

Super (2010)

Yeah, this is just like Kick-Ass

It just didn't move as fast

Instead, it was really dark

I mean like really dark

But my oh my, it's darkness was a blast.

What I got:

Texas Killing Fields (2011)

One of the many films with Jess Chastain

And where Worthington's 'accent' is a pain

It's gothic and bleak

Not really my cup of tea

BUT OMG JESSICA CHASTAIN!

What I got:

What's Your Number? (2011)

Okay, I'm not going to pretend,

That this rom-com was my friend.

Entertaining, yes

But one huge cliché mess

Oh, she sleeps with Chris Evans in the end.

What I got:

Chalet Girl (2011)

I always find the Brits quite funny

And Felicity Jones is sweet like honey

She is the saving grace

Nothing else falls into place

I do wish that I was a ski-bunny.

What I got:

What do you think of these films? Got any limericks of your own?

New Rating System is Here!

2012-02-01T21:52:00.000+13:00

The last of the changes on the blog for the time being is my brand spanking new rating system. Unlike the previous ones, the movies that inspired them weren't all from one year - I've spread them out a little. There are also eight ratings instead of five, which I'll explain further. So, without any further ado, let me introduce them to you...

One of my favourite quotes from last year was "nyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!", given to us courtesy of Ralph Fiennes and his Voldemort. I frequently use it in intense moments of rage (well, I would if I ever had them). And bad movies sometimes inspire rage. That's why I chose Voldemort to be my poster boy for any movies that I rate either 1 or 2 out of 10. Because you can't really get much worse than that.

There are so many great quotes from Fight Club that I had to use one, even if most of them didn't fit well with being a rating anyway. So I chose Tyler Durden's words that would change the world (quite literally) to describe the emotions I get when I watch a movie on 3 or 4 basis. Sometimes I do feel like saying this to someone when I watch a bad movie, because I can't believe I wasted my time on that.

I'm actually quite surprised about the fact that The Social Network didn't feature in last year's ratings considering how into that movie I was back then. But one of my favourite quotes from the movie fits in perfectly here to go with a 5/10 movie. Basically, if you go on Rotten Tomatoes, a 50% movie is rotten and a 60% movie is fresh, so I needed a rating to distinguish the two. So this one is for the movies that I liked enough, but not enough to give it a fresh rating.

When I watched and reviewed Hanna, someone said to me that a 'I just missed your heart' rating would have been perfect for it. It is pretty much perfect for a 6/10 rating, which means that it was good but just missed great...or my heart.

Ugh, that photo is so bad quality...but there are like, no individual photos of Gretchen Wieners online. Anyway, this is for a movie that I'd give a 7/10 to. Basically, it was really cool, but just not on 8/10 level. Like the word fetch, this movie being really something just wasn't going to happen.

I thought it would be kinda funny to have the king of bad movies as my 8/10 rating. I could have picked any crappy line out of The Room, but I thought this one fit perfectly. Mainly because the movie was just a great story, and I was probably left smiling like good old Tommy Wiseau up there. I just don't look as creepy. I hope.

My favourite line ever gets to be my 9/10 rating. I always felt like I should have a 9/10 rating, because too often I watched movies that were almost really amazing and I'd have to give them the 'I was perfect' rating, when they weren't actually perfect. Like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. So they were indeed a bingo, but just not on par with my next rating...

Okay, so this was an opportunity to have a cute dog like Cosmo from Beginners hang around the site a lot more. But his quote is perfect for a 10/10 rating. I think I said to someone after I watched Midnight in Paris that if I could marry a movie, it would be that one. Which must mean that it was pretty darn special.

Anyway, what do you think of the new ratings? Are they easy to understand, good choices, whatever? Sorry that I'm asking for a lot of feedback, but it won't be for much longer...

January in Movies

2012-01-31T21:52:00.000+13:00

Wow, that is the first month of 2012 over, just like that. Hopefully ever month goes as fast as this so it'll be the Christmas holidays again in no time. Because after three months of no school, it is going to be amazingly hard to get back into it. Especially because it'll be impossible for me to watch 44 movies in one month again...

Movies I'd never seen until the month of January...

The Debt (2007) - The original, Israeli version, which I found in the preview drawer. It was actually quite good, if a little dull on the film-making side of things. I liked it though, and I can't wait to finally see the American version!
The Piano Teacher - ...interesting...
Fargo - I do tend to like anything by the Coen brothers, and this one sure didn't disappoint. There is just something so special about the way they make movies that is familiar just like that...and I'm not quite sure what it is.
Repulsion - I got three Roman Polanski movies from Fatso at the exact same time. This was the first that I watched, and I really did like it. It was so creepy and twisted.
Chinatown - I'm not trying to slag off modern cinema in any way, but they honestly couldn't make a film like this nowadays. It was just too brilliant for words.
Colombiana - Did anyone see Zoe Saldana's dress at the SAGs? I saw the body that she has in this movie - and that dress did not do any justice to it at all.
I Love You Phillip Morris - I actually really dug this movie. Jim Carrey and the ever-brilliant Ewan McGregor were beyond excellent in it.
The Muppets - I still need to buy the soundtrack to this.
The Adventures of Tintin - And I still have to buy a little Snowy figurine of some description from this.
Rosemary's Baby - The last of the Polanski films. It was not what I was expecting, at all.
The Smurfs - I worry about kids entertainment nowadays. Especially when it turns out like this.
Bunraku - Ummmm, I've forgotten this movie now. Probably because it bored me so much that I did a colouring competition while 'watching' it.
The Change-Up - 'Twas an alright movie. I loved the heart from Leslie Mann's character, but the excessive excrement turned me off.
Super - Wow, this movie was bloody dark. And rather graphically violent. I was surprised. But it was a pretty good movie...just no Kick-Ass.
Cedar Rapids - An interesting enough movie. Ed Helms kinda annoys me, though.
Drive - I had serious audio problems with this on the plane. I couldn't hear the talking (when there was talking), so I'd turn it up. But then there'd be some car chase or some really loud music so I'd have to turn it down before my eardrums burst. It wasn't cool.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - I have a nagging desire to go and see this movie again. Just for the opening credits and OSCAR NOMINEE ROONEY MARA's badassery.
The Descendants - I believe I am still alone in not liking this movie a lot.
Hugo - Directed by Martin Scorsese (you can take a drink now).
Puss in Boots - I'm so glad that I watched this on the plane, considering it is now an Oscar nominee. But did anyone notice what a total sleaze Puss is? Like, that's not good for kids.
What's Your Number? - Decided to watch this on the plane, too. Surprised that all of the swear words in that one didn't get censored like they did in Drive.
Friends with Benefits - Everytime I think of this movie (which isn't very often) I get that 'Closing Time' song stuck in my head.
Black Narcissus - I do love Powell and Pressburger films, and this one was just excellent. Not as good as The Red Shoes though.
Youth in Revolt - It is weird seeing Rooney Mara pre-Lisbeth...she was so pretty. She still is, obviously, but I do miss her long hair.
Abduction - That "I'll be responsible for the deaths of all your Facebook friends" line gets me every time.
Chalet Girl - How lovely is Felicity Jones? I wish I could see Like Crazy but it is not coming to Palmerston North cinemas (major sadface).
Win Win - Really nice script, but nothing different to what I've seen before.
Jane Eyre - I'm going to marry Michael Fassbender one day. Just as soon as I finish the book. Which will never happen.
War Horse - My horse might be in Dannevirke this weekend and I have to work. I don't care if I need the money, that horse is worth more than everything in this world to me.
Chico & Rita - One of the Animated Oscar nominees. Was a really nice film - but it would have worked better as a live action film.
RocknRolla - People need to give Mark Strong a lead role. Pronto.
Spider - My first David Cronenberg film, would you believe. Was really creepy, and Ralph Fiennes was brilliant like always.
Texas Killing Fields - Only for my darling Jessica Chastain. Who was underused, but really good. Shame that Sam Worthington couldn't decide what accent to do, though.
Footloose (2011) - I admit to some foot-tapping, but it shouldn't have been made.
Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974 - Pure brilliance, but not happy material. Loved Andrew Garfield and Rebecca Hall in it!
Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1980 - Literally just finished watching it. What a god-smacking finale. I will be watching the last one soon, so that can go on next month's review.

Movies I've seen before but felt the need to watch again because I'm cool like that...

Inception - Technically watched last year, but I didn't put it in last month's review. First time in Blu-ray, and still as awesome the 17th time around. Mind you, I don't think I'll be rewatching it very often from now on...it is awesome, but I'm growing tired of it.
Sunshine Cleaning - Was on TV on New Years. Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are fantastic in this movie; it is so underrated.
Senna - Someone came into the shop and went on to someone else who was working about how 'awful' this movie was. And then they tried to convince my colleague that my opinion was so wrong and no-one should have read my staff pick. Sure, they're entitled to their opinion, but I wanted to smack them in the face for the way they went about it. And what do you know? After the weekend my staff pick was gone. I'm seriously starting to think everyone at that shop hates me.
The Social Network - I love this movie to death. Apart from every time that I watch it I cry because I can't write a tenth as well as Aaron Sorkin.
Marie Antoinette - This wasn't really a rewatch. I had watched it when I was 11/12 and I 'didn't like it very much'. I decided to give it another go coz I love Sofia Coppola and all, and it seems as if I didn't watch it very well it all, coz I didn't remember any of it at all. It is still Coppola's weakest work, though. But Tom Hardy was in it!
The Tree of Life - Third time. It was so hard to cram my staff pick in for this one. I love this film more and more every time I see it, but I also become more aware of the many flaws that plague it. It could be best described as a flawed masterpiece.
Sarah's Key - Watched it on the plane, which made me a little depressed. Ah well, this is a brilliant movie, even if Kristin Scott Thomas' storyline was almost completely unnecessary.
Beginners - Completely fell in love with this movie the second time around. I need a dog like Arthur.
The Virgin Suicides - I literally scoured all of Melbourne to find this movie, but it was nowhere to be seen. Then I decided to go back to one of the million JB Hi-Fi's they had there (reason #5498901 why I'll be much better off in Melbourne) and there were ten copies sitting there staring me in the face for only $4.98. Upon a rewatch I'm convinced this deserves a place in my top 10.
Quiz Show - When I went to Melbourne this was the first DVD I was looking for. And it was the first DVD I bought there (found it straight away! suck on that, NZ). What a brilliant film - probably one of the most underrated of all time.

Seen anything good this month?