"Extra Consideration"

The Escapist decided to let Your's Truly, Zero Punctation's Yahtzee and Extra Credits' James Portnow have a lil' email debate and assemble the result into a column. In other words: Two of the most important voices in the gaming world... and, for some reason, also me ;)

Here we are, debating the state of console gaming: Take a look.

Annie Girardot

There are news that touch you and learning about Annie Girardot death not only touched me but made my eyes wet. For me she's an icon of French cinema and of those that love her incredible performances in so many movies that traveled the world. Since 2007 she made no more films as she had Alzheimer but her long and prolific career started since 1955. Yes I met her when I was very young and started to watch non-commercial cinema and since then I followed her career and enjoyed her films.

In my mind she belongs to a triumvirate: Annie Girardot, Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau. Today one is gone but I now she will always LIVE in her films.

Rest in Peace Annie Girardot.

Oscars

Feh.

Near-sweep for a safe, milquetoast, wholly-uninteresting bit of Weinstein-backed mediocrity in the top categories, the better among the nominees get to settle for cleaning up in the tech categories.

Feels like old times ;)

new "OverThinker" now live

For those interested, here's what's happening over on The Other Blog:

CUTAWAYS: 976-EVIL II

Um, if you in any way hold It’s A Wonderful Life to be sacrosanct, then perhaps it’s best if you skip the following clip. However, if you don’t mind seeing a time-honored piece of movie history get goofed on, and especially if you happen to know the original Night Of The Living Dead frame by frame, then by all means, press play and enjoy.

Seriously, do you have any idea how hard it’s going to be now to watch Capra’s Christmas classic without hearing Leslie Ryan’s voice in my head yelling out “No, Zuzu, no!”? Oh well, it’s still just a movie. Really no big deal when things are said and done.

Unfortunately, in the real world, when some mental images get tainted, they can’t be recovered from so easily. In the recent book Light Of The World, when asked to comment on the sex abuse scandals which have rocked the Catholic Church over the past decade, Pope Benedict XVI admitted, “It was really almost like the crater of a volcano, out of which suddenly a tremendous cloud of filth came, darkening and soiling everything, so that above all the priesthood suddenly seemed to be a place of shame and every priest was under the suspicion of being one like that too… It is a particularly serious sin when someone who is actually supposed to help people toward God… abuses him instead and leads him away from the Lord. As a result the faith as such becomes unbelievable, and the Church can no longer present herself credibly as the herald of the Lord.”

You see, the Pope recognizes that even though the Church has made steps to minister to and compensate the victims, as well as address the problem internally so as to eliminate as much as possible the chance of such a thing happening again, the scandal has left an indelible taint on the mental image many hold of the Catholic Church. Hell, you can’t toss a rock these days without hitting some desperately “cutting edge” comedian making pedophile priests jokes (Come back to us Dennis Leary. I’ve seen The Ref four times, so I know you can be funny sometimes.). All in all, it can get pretty disheartening for someone who holds the faith dear.

But when asked if the scandals, along with the ensuing media onslaught, ever made him consider retiring, Benedict answered simply “One can resign at a peaceful moment or when one simply cannot go on. But one must not run away from danger and say that someone else should do it… I think that whereas we must not minimize the evil and must sorrowfully acknowledge it, by the same token we must also still be grateful for how much light streams forth from the Catholic Church and should make that visible.” And as for those “who have only these negative perceptions, no longer see then the overall picture, the life of the Church. All the more reason that the Church must strive to make this vitality and greatness visible again, despite all that is negative.”

So, fair or not, that is the burden and calling of this generation of Catholics, to shine forth through the example of our daily lives in order to refocus the attention of the world on what is good and true within Christianity, so that the image the world holds of our faith is the original one put forth by Jesus and not the re-envisioned one that has resulted from the scandals. Easy? Nope. Probably not going to happen in our lifetime. But we’re the ones who have to get the ball rolling. And considering the heavy hitters on our side (God, the angels, and over 10,000 named saints), I think we’ll do okay.

It’s A Wonderful Life, on the other hand, is toast. No, Zuzu, no!

83rd Academy Awards Winners

Winners are in *BLUE. 

--//--

1/25/11

A few minutes ago main categories were announced on live TV and yes there are some very good surprises! The lead film, with most nominations, is The King’s Speech with 12 nominations

Here is the complete list with all categories.

Best Film
The Social Network
*The King’s Speech
Black Swan
The Fighter
True Grit
Toy Story 3
The Kids Are All Right
Inception
127 Hours
Winter’s Bone

Animated Feature Film
The Illusionist, Sylvain Chomet
How to Train Your Dragon, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
*Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich

Foreign Language Film
Biutiful, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexico
Κυνόδοντας Kynodontas (Dogtooth), Giorgos Lanthimos,Greece
*Hævnen (In a Better World), Susanne Bier,Denmark
Incendies, Denis Villeneuve, Canada
Hors-la-loi (Outside the Law), Rachid Bouchareb, Algeria

Best Director
David Fincher for The Social Network
Darren Aronofsy for Black Swan
*Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech
Joel & Ethan Coen for True Grit
David O. Russell for The Fighter

Best Actress
*Natalie Portman in Black Swan
Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone
Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole
Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Actress
Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit
Helena Bonham Carter in The King’s Speech
*Melissa Leo in The Fighter
Amy Adams in The Fighter
Jacki Wever in Animal Kingdom

Best Actor
*Colin Firth in The King’s Speech
Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network
Jeff Bridges in True Grit
James Franco in 127 Hours
Javier Bardem in Biutiful

Best Supporting Actor
Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech
*Christian Bale in The Fighter
Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right
Jeremy Renner in The Town
John Hawkes in The Winter’s Bone

Cinematography
Black Swan
*Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
True Grit

Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Hereafter
*Inception
Iron Man 2

Writing – Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours
*The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Writing – Original Screenplay
Another Year
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
*The King’s Speech

Film Editing
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
*The Social Network

Art Direction
*Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit

Costume Design
*Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King’s Speech
The Tempest
True Grit

Makeup
Barney’s Version
The Way Back
*The Wolfman

Sound Editing
*Inception
Toy Story 3
Tron: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

Sound Mixing
*Inception
The King’s Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

Music – Original Score
How to Train Your Dragon
Inception
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
*The Social Network

Music – Original Song
Coming Home from Country Strong
I See the Light from Tangled
If I Rise from 127 Hours
*We Belong Together from Toy Story 3

Documentary – Feature
Exit through the Gift Shop, Bansky, USA and UK
GasLand, Josh Fox, USA
*Inside Job, Charles Ferguson, USA
Restrepo, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, USA
Waste Land, Lucy Walker, Karen Harley, and João Jardim, UK and USA

Documentary – Short Subject
Killing in the Name, Jed Rothstein, USA
Poster Girl, Sara Neeson, USA
*Strangers No More,;Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon, USA
Sun Come Up, Jennifer Redfearn, USA and Papua New Guinea
The Warriors of Qiugang, Ruby Yang, USA

Short Film – Animated
Day & Night, Teddy Newton, USA
The Gruffalo, Max Lang and Jakob Schuh, UK and Germany
Let’s Pollute, Geefwee Boedoe, USA
*The Lost Thing, Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan, Australia and UK
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary, Bastien Dubois, France

Short Film – Action
The Confession, Tanel Toom, UK
The Crush, Michael Creagh, Ireland
*God of Love, Luke Matheny, USA
Na Wewe, Ivan Goldschmidt, Belgium
Wish 143, Ian Barnes, UK

To check list at official site go here.

Have to admit that’s a HUGE surprise for me that no song from Burlesque was nominated and that they nominated only four original songs, I was hoping to watch Cher singing at the show (lol!).

Of course can’t believe that Dogtooth got a nomination and for the sake of my photographer friend I’m going to write it clearly: Dogtooth is VERY similar to a film by Arturo Ripstein!!! I'm talking about Ripstein's 1973 Castillo de la Pureza. I don’t particularly enjoy Ripstein work, so it was NO Surprise that I couldn’t watch (completely) Dogtooth even after trying several times to continue watching. I’m sure that Academy members that selected this film in the final vote round ARE NOT Ripstein fans as surely they will have noticed HOW SIMILAR stories are.

So haven’t seen the other four, but soon will be watching one and of course I’m ‘dying’ to watch Denis Villeneuve, Susanne Bier and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s films. It is most amazing that in the Foreign Language Film category we have ONE female director! Excellent! Hope to watch film soon, but her film has been collecting major honors all over the world so I hope gets the Oscar but competition will be tough especially from Villeneuve acclaimed film.

I know that when we speak about visual effects most of us, as well as Academy members, are attracted to ‘spectacular’ visual effects, so not surprised for the nominated films in the Visual Effects category, especially that Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter only nod is in this category. But, I hoped that Black Swan was nominated in this category as even if effects were not of the ‘spectacular’ kind, the few the movie has were so crucial for the storytelling; shame that were overlooked.

It is VERY surprising that Waiting for Superman didn’t got a nomination in the Feature Documentary category; so surprising that I double checked and yes, is not there. I’m glad that Lucy Walker’s acclaimed Waste Land got a nod.

Also very glad that the American Academy is recognizing the high quality of French animation and honor not only the Illusionist but also the short film by Bastien Dubois.

Been delaying watching many of the few films I haven’t seen from above list, but think that will watch them if I want to get a better idea of who the winner will be in each category; so yes will watch even the one animated film haven’t seen (the dragon movie), the one where some people faint (127 Hours), another dysfunctional family in Animal Kingdom and Another Year, the follow up to Tron (Legacy), action fill Unstoppable, maybe not-so funny for me Barney’s Version as I’m really curious why this and the other two films were nominated in Makeup (have seen The Wofman), and will try to watch all documentaries and short films.

I know haven’t been writing reviews but will soon as have been watching key films like Blue Valentine (very depressing), Illegal (excellent female-oriented drama) which didn’t got a nod, and others.

The InSneider's Top 10 and Worst 10 of 2010

Earlier this evening, Entertainment Weekly's John Young posted a Top 10 list that reminded me I hadn't formally posted one of my own.

Seven of John's Top 10 films made my own list, and I haven't seen I AM LOVE (his #10) or WAITING FOR SUPERMAN (his #8), though I have screeners of both. Clearly we have very similar taste in movies, as the only one we seem to disagree on is INCEPTION. While I admire Christopher Nolan's mind-bending original vision, I can't say I was a huge fan of his multi-layered narrative, which ultimately left me cold.

Without further ado, here are The InSneider's Top 10 Films of 2010, as well as the Worst 10 Films of 2010. Feel free to weigh in with your own in the comments section.

TOP 10

Honorable Mention: THE KING'S SPEECH, A SERBIAN FILM and MESRINE (PART I: KILLER INSTINCT & PART II: PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1)

10. THE GHOST WRITER
9. EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP
8. NEVER LET ME GO
7. CATFISH
6. THE FIGHTER
5. BLUE VALENTINE
4. BLACK SWAN
3. TOY STORY 3
2. KICK-ASS
1. THE SOCIAL NETWORK

WORST 10

Dishonorable Mention: DEFENDOR, DAYBREAKERS and CASE 39

10. TRON: LEGACY
9. SEX AND THE CITY 2
8. CITY ISLAND
7. THE KILLER INSIDE ME
6. REPO MEN
5. BURIED
4. DOUBLE TAKE
3. ALICE IN WONDERLAND
2. SOMEWHERE
1. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

2010 Film Independent Spirit Awards Winners

Winners are in *BLUE. Was fun to follow it in twitter as many of my "friends" were twitting, some tweets were very funny. Still it's a true shame that was not streamed live, they and so many others need to CHANGE with times and use the net to promote awards shows and movies. It's a true shame that things change so slowly... sigh.

Use link at bottom of post to check winners in all categories at official site that will be posted later on.

--//--

11/30/10
With not many surprises and what we have already imagined after the Gotham awards, the Spirit nominations were just a few minutes announced and here they are.

Best Feature
127 Hours, Danny Boyle
*Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky
Greenberg, Noah Baumbach
Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko
Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik

Best Director
*Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan
Danny Boyle for 127 Hours
Lisa Cholodenko for The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik for Winter’s Bone
John Cameron Mitchell for Rabbit Hole

Best First Feature
Everything Strange and New, Frazer Bradshaw
*Get Low, Aaron Schneider
The Last Exorcism, Daniel Stamm (USA and France…hmm)
Night Catches Us, Tanya Hamilton
Tiny Furniture, Lena Dunham

Best Female Lead
Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole
Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
Greta Gerwig in Greenberg
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone
*Natalie Portman in Black Swan
Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Female
Ashley Bell in The Last Exorcism
*Dale Dickey in Winter’s Bone
Allison Janney in Life During Wartime
Daphne Rubin-Vega in Jack Goes Boating
Naomi Watts in Mother and Child

Best Male Lead
Ronald Bronstein in Daddy Longlegs
Aaron Eckhart in Rabbit Hole
*James Franco in 127 Hours
John C. Reilly in Cyrus
Ben Stiller in Greenberg

Best Supporting Male
*John Hawkes in Winter’s Bone
Samuel L. Jackson in Mother and Child
Bill Murray in Get Low
John Ortiz in Jack Goes Boating
Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right

John Cassavetes Award
*Daddy Longlegs (aka Go Get Some Rosemary), Ben and Joshua Safdie, USA and France, 2009
The Exploding Girl, Bradley Rust Gray, USA
LBS., Matthew Bonifacio, USA, 2004
Lovers of Hate, Bryan Poyser, USA, 2010
Obselidia, Diane Bell, USA, 2010

Best Cinematograhy
Adam Kimmel for Never Let Me Go
*Matthew Libatique for Black Swan
Jody Lee Lipes for Tiny Furniture
Michael McDonough for Winter’s Bone
Harris Savides for Greenberg

Best Screenplay
*Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg for The Kids Are All Right
Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini for Winter’s Bone
Nicole Holofcener for Please Give
David Lindsay-Abaire for Rabbit Hole
Todd Solondz for Life During Wartime

Best First Screenplay
Diane Bell for Obselidia
*Lena Dunham for Tiny Furniture
Nik Fackler for Love, Still
Robert Glaudini for Jack Goes Boating
Dana Adam Shapiro and Evan M. Wiener for Monogamy

Best Foreign Film
The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper, UK and Australia, 2010
Kisses, Lance Daly, Ireland, 2008
Mademoiselle Chambon, Stéphane Brizé, France, 2009
Des Hommes et des Dieux (Of Gods and Men), Xavier Beauvois, France, 2010
Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives), Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Netherlands, 2010

Best Documentary
*Exit Through the Gift Shop, Bansky
Marwencol, Jeff Malmberg
Restrepo, Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington
Sweetgrass, Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaining-Taylor
Thunder Soul, Mark Landsman

To check information for each film as well as nominees in other categories go here. Awards ceremony will be on Saturday, February 26th, 2011 at 10pm ET; will be broadcasted on IFC and probably also have a live stream at the awards site.

Was reading a Variety article about the difference between the Gotham and the Spirit awards; the best phrase is that they are as different as New York and Los Angeles and you can tell by the inclusion of some films like Greenberg (?!) or The Last Exorcism that will not watch it even when I learned that is an USA and France co production. But there are some films that last night saw clips that will probably watch if I can find them. Why is so hard to find indie films?

Winter’s Bone got seven (7) nominations and I believe is the film that has the most nods at these awards too. In the best foreign film category there is a film from 2008 that has to be very hard to watch and think will skip, Kisses; but obviously the other four are must be seen for me and just wonder why other great films got snubbed in favor of this movie. My only question regarding this category: When am I going to be able to watch the 2010 Cannes winner? The wait has become excruciating.

With these nominations I’m sure that three films head to the Oscars, Winter’s Bone, Black Swan and The Kids Are All Right. Will they make it to Best Film category? Not sure, but know they will be honored in one or more other categories.

As noted in a previous post this year there are many excellent roles for actresses so it’s no real surprise that there are six actresses nominated; the surprise is to find an actress from Greenberg! Maybe I should watch this film.

Recent Movie Bits

Yes have not been posting reviews but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been watching movies. So, here are some mini-unusual reviews for some movies that have seen lately.

127 Hours by Danny Boyle - While watching couldn't help but to recall Tom Hank's solitary role in Cast Away a film that was too much for me; maybe knew too much about story but film didn't "shock" nor move me. A lot less interesting than what story could have been and I find James Franco's performance acceptable but not much else. Enjoy!!

À Deriva (Adrift) by Heitor Dhalia – Wanted to watch film because I really enjoy Vincet Cassel performances and wasn’t disappointed here but I also enjoyed very much Laura Neiva unusual performance as Filipa; still nothing much else was interesting in this film that had an unpredictable not-interesting story with not interesting tech specs. If you skip it won’t be missing much. Enjoy.

A la deriva by Ventura Pons – Not so interesting story with good performance by Anna Azcona; as always in Pons films there is a gay character and this film is not the exception. Film is not as good as other Pons film but still if you like his style maybe you will enjoy it. Enjoy!!

Ça commence par la fin by Michaël Cohen - I really love Emmanuel Béart but couldn’t take her performance here –with real life husband as her love interest- was so boring and annoying that had to stop watching as became too repetitive and so not-interesting that gave up. Sigh.

The Company Men by John Wells – Entertaining with interesting story, wished Ben Affleck was more expressive but other performances by Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper are good. Enjoy!

Duk haan chau faan (All About Love) by Ann Hui – Entertaining and quite amusing lesbian interest film from Hong Kong that could entertain many that enjoy the genre. Not your usual story nor style in the genre but if you decide to give film a try probably will laugh, smile to this good production values film with acceptable oriental style performances. Story is basically about fear of commitment. Enjoy!!

Exit Through the Giftshop by Banksy – Hilarious, surprisingly entertaining and great story message, no matter if is a hoax or not. DO NOT MISS IT! Big Enjoy!!!

Illégal (Illegal) by Olivier Masset-Depasse) – Outstanding performance by Anne Coesens with an interesting story that applies to many other countries in the world that have illegal aliens living there or crossing by. Worth watching especially for those that enjoy women centered stories. Enjoy!!!

Le bruit des glaçons (The Clink of Ice) by Bertrand Blier – Story and film became really annoying after a while but sustained watching. Not worth it, if you skip it won’t be missing much. Still Anne Alvaro performance as Louisa saves some moments. Sigh.

Les petits mouchoirs (Little White Lies) by Guillaume Canet – Love to watch Marion Cotillard performances and here is all right but she’s overshadowed (too much for me) by other ensemble cast performances like great François Cluzet and Benoît Magimel that had more interesting roles thus more flashy performances. Film looks and feels like any of those films that have talkie large ensemble stars cast but somehow I kept comparing it to Darbareye (About Elly) without the interesting crime twist. Only to watch if you really like Marion Cotillard performances. Enjoy!!

Map of the Sounds of Tokyo by Isabel Coixet – Had to stop watching as couldn’t take it anymore. I usually like Isabel Coixet films and also Sergi López performances (btw his cameo in Potiche was fabulous!) but film style became unbearable and annoying. Sigh.

Mother and Child by Rodrigo Garcia - Great Annette Bening performance wish she could be nominated for this performance and not the terrible movie she got nominated for. Story and film are entertaining but story is too predictable. Enjoy!!

Potiche by Francois Ozon – Don’t miss this film highly enjoyable comedy “a la francaise” with outstanding performance by Catherine Deneuve. LOVE this movie that absolutely cheered me up. Enjoy!!!

The Next Three Days by Paul Haggis - Entertaining at moments but story and film is uneven; Russell Crowe as a weak character doesn’t do it for me, even when in this film his character became the driven force, was not credible for me. Still film is watchable considering those recent mainstream American cinema releases. Enjoy.

Vénus noire (Black Venus) by Abdellatif Kechiche - Was expecting a very hard to watch film and was a LOT more harder to watch than what I imagined; so hard it hurt. But it’s an amazing dramatization of a true story with extraordinary and very expressive –yet silent- performance by Yahima Torres as Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman. Don’t skip film and stay until credits to watch real-life scenes. Amazing, yet very hard to watch, not a story to enjoy but one that everyone in the world should watch. Big Enjoy!!!

White Material by Claire Denis – Excellent performance by Isabelle Huppert but not much else; story seems like many others told many times before. Enjoy!

Hope didn’t forget films that have watched. So this is it for this movie bits post. Good news is that after tomorrow Sunday, February 27th industry news will be back to normal, so probably I will be back to normal writing reviews… lol!

Ho!

CBM has your first (posted) look at the trailer for the new iteration of "Thundercats."



All the leaping, whooshing-backdrops, etc. won't do anything to assuage the irrational, blinding hatred some people have for Anime design-sensibilities (ironic, given that the original show's lasting-legacy is that it's animators eventually became Studio Ghibli) but in some respects it looks almost absurdly-faithful: The quick glimpse of Mumm-Ra could be a direct lift, and even Snarf seems to have made it over.

And I'll say it: "Teenage Lion-O" is an improvement. It's destined to become the poster child for fanboy bellyaching over "chickification" (his nickname will be Lion-Emo, calling it now) but one of the goofier things about the original series was that Lion-O was written as an impulsive, immature "kid" who the others were tasked with whipping into leadership-shape... but he was drawn and voiced with the same generic deep-voiced muscleman persona as every other would-be He-Man of the 80s. Assuming the premise is even somewhat close, making him look closer to 18 than 35 makes more sense. I also like that they look more like cat-people than people in bodypaint.

The real question, of course, is whether the intended audience for this - actual children far too young to remember or give a damn about an admittedly-obscure relic of the mid-80s - will actually care.

GI Joe 2 has a new director

I recognize that I'm in the minority of people who A.) really enjoyed the first "GI Joe" movie and B.) was dissapointed that director Stephen Sommers wasn'tgoing to return for the sequel. I still contend that, had everyone been wearing a "faithful" uniform, you essentially would've had a live-action episode of the series - what else did people want?

In any case, I'm now given to genuine curiousity as to what the fans holding out hope for a gritty, mature, hardcore reimagining of, eh... nicknamed super-soldiers fighting snake-themed terrorists... will make of the new boss-man, John Chu - director of the later two "Step Up" sequels and the Justin Beiber movie.

...yeah, that's what I thought.


Chu has actually been lobbying pretty heavily for the gig - he's only about 33, i.e. the right age to have been a fan of the show and/or toys. No word on if he is/was, though if he so much as nodded approvingly at an episode while channel-surfing back in the day you can bet he'll be described as "a big fan" in the studio press.

This'll be easily the biggest thing he's ever had his name on, and it's actually something of a coup (the boxoffice for the Beiber movie probably put him over the top) for a new guy on the scene. He's been one of those lauded USC wunderkinds people have been expecting to break out for awhile now, with credits on mostly videos and dance material until now... though I learn from the IMDB that he was apparently inside one of the monster-suits in "Freaked," so that's pretty cool.

Incidentally, I was in a roundtable interview a few weeks back with Channing Tatum during the "Eagle" press tour, and since - shockingly! - everyone ran out of Eagle questions pretty quick I asked him if he was going to do GI Joe 2. He said yes, but had no idea what was going on with the script, which he thought might be a "reboot" or something of the kind. So... there's that.

Escape to the Movies: "Oscars 2011"

Intermission: The Farrelly Bros.

36th César Awards Winners

Winners are in *BLUE. To check winners in all categories go here.

1/21/11
Today the President of the Academy, Alain Terzian, announced the nominations and here they are for some categories.

Best Film
L’Arnacoeur (Heartbreaker), Pascal Chaumeil
*Des hommes et des dieux (Of Gods and Men), Xavier Beauvois
Gainsbourg (vie héroïque), Joann Sfar
Mammuth, Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern
Le Nom des Gens (The Names of Love), Michel Leclerc
The Ghost Writer, Roman Polanski
Tournée (On Tour), Mathieu Amalric

Best First Film
L’Arnacoeur (Heartbreaker), Pascal Chaumel
*Gainsbourg (vie héroïque), Joann Sfar
Simon Werner A Disparu (Lights Out), Fabrice Gobert
Tête de turc, Pascal Elbé
Tout ce qui brille, Géraldine Nakache and Hervé Mimran

Best Animation Film
Arthur 3 La Guerre des Deux Mondes (Arthur 3: The War of the Two Worlds), Luc Besson
L'homme à la Gordini (The Man in the Blue Gordini), Jean-Christophe Lie
*L’Illusionniste (The Illusionist), Sylvain Chomet
Logorama, François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy, and Ludovic Houplain
Une vie de chat, Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol

Best Director
Mathieu Amalric for Tournée (On Tour),
Olivier Assayas for Carlos, le film
Xavier Bauvois for Des hommes et des dieux (Of Gods and Men)
Bertrand Blier for Le bruit des glaçons (The Clink of Ice)
*Roman Polanski for The Ghost Writer

Best Actress
Isabelle Carré in Les émotifs anonyms, Jean-Pierre Améris
Catherine Deneuve in Potiche, François Ozon
*Sara Forestier in Le nom des gens (The Names of Love), Michel Leclerc
Charlote Gainsbourg in L’Arbre (The Tree), Julie Bertucelli
Kristin Scott Thomas in Elle s’appelait Sarah (Her name was Sarah), Gilles Paquet Brenner

Best Supporting Actress
*Anne Alvaro in Le bruit des glaçons (The Clink of Ice)
Valérie Bonneton in Les petits mouchoirs (Little White Lies), Guillaume Canet
Laetitia Casta in Gainsbourg (vie héroïque), Joann Sfar
Julie Ferrier in L’Arnacoeur (Heartbreaker), Pascal Chaumeil
Karin Viard in Potiche, François Ozon

Best Female Newcomer
*Leïla Bekhti in Tout ce qui brille, Géraldine Nakache and Hervé Mimran
Anaïs Demoustier in D'amour et d'eau fraîche, Isabelle Czajka
Audrey Lamy in Tout ce qui brille, Géraldine Nakache and Hervé Mimran
Léa Seydoux in Belle Épine (Dear Prudence), Rebecca Zlotowski
Yahima Torres in Vénus noire, Abdellatif Keniche

Best Actor
Gérard Depardieu in Mammuth, Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern
Romain Duris in L’Arnacoeur (Heartbreaker), Pascal Chaumeil
*Eric Elmosnino in Gainsbourg (vie héroïque), Joann Sfar
Jacques Gamblin in Le nom des gens (The Names of Love), Michel Leclerc
Lambert Wilson in Des hommes et des dieux (Of Gods and Men), Xavier Beauvois

Best Supporting Actor
Niels arestrup in L’homme qui voulait vivre sa vie (The Big Picture), Eric Lartigau
Francois Damiens in L’Arnacoeur (Heartbreaker), Pascal Chaumeil
Gilles Lellouche in Les petits mouchoirs (Little White Lies), Guillaume Canet
*Michael Lonsdale in Des hommes et des dieux (Of Gods and Men), Xavier Beauvois
Olivier Rabourdin in Des hommes et des dieux (Of Gods and Men), Xavier Beauvois

Best Male Newcomer
Arthur Dupont in Bus Palladium, Christopher Thompson
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet in La princesse de Montpensier (The Princess of Montpenseier), Bertrand Tavernier
Pio Marmaï in D’Amour et d’eau fraiche, Isabelle Czajka
Rafael Personnaz in La Princesse de Montpensier (The Princess of Montpenseier), Bertrand Tavernier
*Edgar Ramírez in Carlos, le film, Olivier Assayas

Best Foreign Film
Les Amours Imaginaries (Heartbeats), Xavier Dolan
Bright Star, Jane Campion
El Secreto de sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes), Juan José Campanella
Illégal (Illegal), Olivier Masset-Depasse
Inception, Christopher Nolan
Invictus, Clint Eastwood
*The Social Network, David Fincher

Best Documentary
Benda Bilili!, Florent de la Tullaye and Renaud Barret
Cleveland Contre Wall Street, Jean-Stéphane Bron
Entre Nos Mains (Into Our Own Hands), Mariana Otero
*Océans (Oceans), Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud
Yves Saint Laurent – Pierre Bergé, L’Amour Fou, Pierre Thoretton

Best Short Film
*Logorama, François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy, and Ludovic Houplain
Monsieur l'abbé, Blandine Lenoir
Petit Tailleur, Louis Garrel
Un Transport en Commun (Saint Louis Blues), Dyana Gaye
Une Pute et un Poussin (A Whore and a Chick), Clément Michel

César d’Honneur: Quentin Tarantino

To check nominees in other categories go here to download a pdf file with the complete list. Awards ceremony will be on Friday, February 25 at 9:00pm (Paris time) and will be broadcast by Canal +; most interesting is that the ceremony will be presided by none other than Jodie Foster who will be in Paris filming Le Dieu du carnage (God of Carnage) a comedy by Roman Polanski. Ceremony host is Antoine de Caunes.

To my surprise I have seen some of the honored films, but still have many that haven’t seen with three that I’m ‘dying’ to watch: Potiche, Elle s’appelait Sarah and Les petits mouchoirs. Nominations are interesting and quite different to the Lumières, most remarkable is the absence of Juliette Binoche with her marvelous role in Copie Conforme in the Best Actress category which I absolutely regret.

Have to admit that I didn’t enjoy some of the nominated films and didn’t wrote something in this blog; my love for French cinema is not blind and sometimes I really dislike films than later on become the object of major honors. Well, c’est la vie!

Is unbelievable that the ONLY short film I haven’t been able to watch (doesn’t load) in the French Festival is nominated in the Best Animation Film category; I really hope that fest organizers fix their technical problems ASAP as now has become must be seen for me. I’m talking about Jean-Christophe Lie’s The Man in the Blue Gordini. Two other films, Bus Palladium and A Whore and a Chick (have seen them) are in the VOD festival and if you haven't seen them I suggest you watch them as both are worth-watching.

One trend that these awards show is to have Clint Eastwood nominated in the Best Foreign Film as last year was nominated for Gran Torino and this year for Invictus. I really liked both films so I’m glad that the French Academy honors him with well-deserved nominations while the American Academy tends to ignore his great films.

Eventually –after watching those films I’m dying to watch- will play the guessing game and will post my predictions to this award that are not that easy to predict, at least less easier than the American predictable awards.

Cheers!

Temporal Dissonance

"Hall Pass," which opens today, is about two middle-aged upscale-suburban married guys (Owen Wilson and Jason Sudekis) getting into hijinks during a weeklong "hiatus" from marriage (or, rather, from marital-fidelity) bestowed by their fed-up wives (summary of charges: they check out other women). The logic at play is that married men "romanticize" their single days, and being reminded how difficult the dating scene is - and how out-of-practice they are - will bludgeon the guys into appreciation of of homebody-hood.

Dopey premise, to be sure, especially when you remember that no mainstream comedy would DARE let the story go in any direction other than "monogamy: It's the bee's kness!" But it's got it's moments, and it's a step back up to "average" for the Farrelly Bros. after "Heartbreak Kid." Except... something about it just rang incredibly false to me, and I'm a little annoyed that it took this long for me to pinpoint it.

SPOILERS ON!




Okay, so... wicked-shocker: They don't really get much action, and 90% of the comedy is seeing them strike out in bars, clubs, resturaunts, massage-parlors, whatever. Now, admittedly, it's about what you'd expect from two married suburbanites trying to jump back into the game... but for some reason I wasn't buying it. At all. I couldn't really explain it, and then it hit me (literally) a minute or two ago: The internet doesn't seem to exist in this movie.

Think about it: This premise has ZERO verisimilitude in the age of the online-hookup. These guys aren't trying to have affairs, they're openly just going for a succession of one-night-stands. And they aren't exactly paupers - these are well-off dudes with big houses in the burbs. What the FUCK are they doing on the club scene!? "Married men seeking discreet quickie" is their predicament in the movie - but in real life it's the near-literal selling point of hundreds of extremely lucrative businesses. But it NEVER comes up once in the movie! (Unless I missed it.)

Am I nuts, or is this up there with doing a present-day "lost in the woods" movie and not even addressing cell-phones? I mean, show of hands - if any married 40something guy you know got this kind of "Pass" from his wife in the real world... his first (or at least within-first-five) "moves" is to get on the equivalent of Craigslist, no?

"We Dare" - Ubisoft's latest crime against humanity

hat-tip: Devin

Ugh.

Everyone knows I'm a big defender of The Wii - not just in terms of "there ARE actually good games on it" but also of so-called Wii "waggle game" titles themselves. Greater varieties of people gaming is a GOOD thing, and well-done motion-control party games are fun to play. BADLY done ones - or ones cashing in on the craze with minimal effort and a superficial "hook" on the other hand... no thanks.

With that in mind, behold "We Dare" - a "naughty adult party game" from Ubisoft...



Here's what I want to know: How did this get "ok'd" by Nintendo? Granted, the "Seal of Quality" isn't exactly what it used to be, but their still notorious for micromanaging third-parties and for guarding their family-friendly image like a Samurai Walt-Disney... so how exactly did they NOT have an issue with Ubi producing a Wii game where "shove Wii-remote down girlfriend's pants" is part of the control scheme, with an advertisement that - depending on your point of view - either looks like an Ashley Madisson spot or the lead-in to a deleted scene from "American Psycho?"

Obama gets one right

Because largely-symbolic political gestures that effectively do little more than kick the can down the road to the point where it'll ultimately be settled by the courts which as going to happen anyway ain't just for Republicans anymore, the Obama Administration announces that it will no longer defend the asinine "Defense of Marriage Act" in federal court. Furthermore, they've publically declared intent for this to be a lead-in to an eventual repeal of the act. Translation: "Gay Rights supporters? Get out and vote for our guys next time - we need a majority to make this happen."


"DOMA" was essentially a packet of provisions that prevented any laws, particularly those concerning partner-benefits, from "blurring" the line between same-sex couples and married heterosexual couples; so all this really means is that the lawsuits against discriminatory practices in this particular realm can now be made without the innevitable prospect of "DOMA" being used to block it from going through. So... not really a sea-change, but a win is a win.

We now return to our regularly scheduled program of Republicans and Democrats both pretending A.) to be shocked - shocked! - that the other side is dealing with social issues before "creating jobs;" and B.) to believe that they can actually do anything about "creating jobs" in the first place.

Last 2011 Oscar Predictions Final

For the first time ever will try to predict winners in all categories, surely my record of good predictions will not be the same as before when predicted only main categories. Still will be fun to find out how do I do.

My crystal ball says the following...

Best Film
Will Win: The King’s Speech
Should Win: The King’s Speech
My Oscar goes to: Black Swan

Animated Feature Film
Will Win: Toy Story 3
Should Win: The Illusionist (has better animation)
My Oscar goes to: None.

Foreign Language Film
This category is NOT easy for me as haven’t seen three movies that of course I’m “dying” to watch.
Will Win: Hævnen (In a Better World), Susanne Bier, Denmark (an educated guess)
Should Win: Incendies, Denis Villeneuve, Canada (this is the other film with much buzz)
My Oscar goes to: Not to the two I have seen.

Best Director
Will Win: Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech
Should Win: Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech
My Oscar goes to: Darren Aronofsy for amazing Black Swan

Best Actress:
Will Win: Natalie Portman in Black Swan
Should Win: Natalie Portman
My Oscar goes to: Natalie Portman

Best Supporting Actress
Will Win: Melissa Leo in The Fighter (IF she wins will be more for her performance in Frozen River)
Should Win: Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit
My Oscar goes to: Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit

Best Actor
Will Win: Colin Firth in The King’s Speech
Should Win: Colin Firth
My Oscar goes to: Colin Firth (for his later body of work and especially for his amazing performance in A Single Man! – he was robbed last year… he, he)

Best Supporting Actor
Will Win: Christian Bale in The Fighter
Should Win: Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech
My Oscar goes to: Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech (marvelous performance!)

Cinematography
Will Win: Roger Deakins for True Grit (more buzz than any other)
Should Win: Matthew Libatique for Black Swan
My Oscar goes to: Matthew Libatique for Black Swan (I’m very visual and from nominated this film have awesome non-special-effects visuals)

Writing – Adapted Screenplay
Will Win: Aaron Sorkin for The Social Nework
Should Win: Aaron Sorkin
My Oscar goes to: Aaron Sorkin

Writing – Original Screenplay
Will Win: David Seidler for The King’s Speech
Should Win: David Seidler
My Oscar goes to: David Seidler

Visual Effects
Will Win: Inception
Should Win: Inception
My Oscar goes to: Inception

Film Editing
Will Win: Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter for The Social Network
Should Win: The Social Network (in my opinion has the best editing of all nominated)
My Oscar goes to: Andrew Weisblum for Black Swan (but this film has the most “emotions-generator” editing of all nominated)

Art Direction
Will Win: The King’s Speech
Should Win: Alice in Wonderland
My Oscar goes to: The King’s Speech (most traditional yet interesting)

Costume Design
Will Win: The King’s Speech (classical period costumes)
Should Win: Alice in Wonderland (great costumes)
My Oscar goes to: True Grit (for each and every Hailee Steinfeld’s fashion statement costumes)

Makeup
Problems here as have seen only one movie.
Will Win: The Wolfman
Should Win: No idea
My Oscar goes to: None of the nominated, but of course goes to Black Swan!

Sound Editing
Will Win: Richard King for Inception
Should Win: Richard King
My Oscar goes to: Richard King

Sound Mixing
Will Win: Inception
Should Win: True Grit
My Oscar goes to: Inception

Music Original Score
Will Win: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Social Network
Should Win: Alexandre Desplat for The King’s Speech
My Oscar goes to: None of the nominated called my attention. But of course goes to Black Swan!

Music Original Song
Will Win: We Belong Together from Toy Story 3
Should Win: None of the nominated.
My Oscar goes to: None of the nominated. Of course goes to You Haven’t Seen The Last of Me from Burlesque

Documentary Feature
Will Win: Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs for Inside Job
Should Win: Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley for Waste Land
My Oscar goes to: Banksy and Jaimie d’Cruz for Exit through the Gift Shop (really hope wins, but is too controversial to win)

Documentary Short Subject
Will Win: Sara Neeson for Poster Girl
Should Win: Jennifer Redfearm and Tim Metzger for Sun Come Up (stunning visuals)
My Oscar goes to: Sara Neeson for Poster Girl (powerful and emotional)

Short Film Animated
Will Win: Teddy Newton for Day & Night (early and continuous positive buzz, also is Pixar animation)
Should Win: Jakob Schuh and Max Lang for The Gruffalo (classical detail attention animation with great story)
My Oscar goes to: Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann for The Lost Thing (Awesome!!!)

Short Film – Action
Will Win: Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite for Wish 143 (emotional melodrama with much buzz)
Should Win: No idea.
My Oscar goes to: Luke Matheny for God of Love (not for all tastes but definitively for mine!)

I have a huge problem with my predictions as can’t forget that True Grit got 10 nominations which made it the number 2 film after The King’s Speech; but to be honest besides great directing, good screenplay and excellent Hailee Steinfeld performance film was ‘normal’ for me and in those categories favorites are also my favorites, so I really hope that Hailee wins so film will get at least two Oscars.

As we know the awards with a few exceptions have become less predictable than what we could imagine especially after the HUGE difference between critics/press and academics awards. But still the race is between two films: The King’s Speech and The Social Network. You know that I liked more TKS than TSN, so don’t doubt that my predictions are influenced by what I like better even when I’m trying to guess what Academy voting members may do.

But the REAL winners are WE, show viewers, as we will celebrate when our favorites win and will be appalled if they don’t win; which means that we probably will have a good time watching the announcements besides hoping than in-between winners announcements show is entertaining. Can’t deny that my biggest concern is that show has been transformed to hopefully attract younger viewers and IF The Social Network–a favorite of many, especially younger audiences- doesn’t win then many will be hugely disappointed and surely will transfer it to show. So let’s hope that PricewaterhouseCoopers professionally does their work and may the BEST film win.

13th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards Winners

Last night the Guild had their award ceremony and from general news winners are in *RED. Use link at bottom of post to later check all winners.

With this last piece of information we are ready to start "playing" the Oscar winners game; expect my predictions soon.

--//--

1/21/11
Today the CDG announced the nominations and here they are.

Excellence in Contemporary Film
*Black Swan
Burlesque
Inception
The Social Network
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Excellence in Period Film
The Fighter
*The King’s Speech
True Grit

Excellence in Fantasy Film
*Alice in Wonderland
The Tempest
Tron: Legacy

To check nominees names at official site plus nominations in TV categories go here. Awards ceremony will be on Tuesday, February 22.

Shark Sandwich, But With Awesomeness

It's somewhat comforting to know that classic-scifi archivist and B-movie maven Fred Olen Ray - who was doing schlock-for-schlock's-sake when The Asylum and Syfy's guys were in diapers - is still doing his thing. io9 brings to my attention and yours his latest opus: "Super Shark;" the epic tale of a giant shark that can hop around on dry land when it needs to... and the four-legged walking tank dispatched to fight it.



Seriously now, how great is that mecha-tank thing? It literally looks like their storyboard session was watching a four year-old smash his Shark and Robot bath-toys together. Glorious.

See You in September

2011 Bodil Awards Nominations and Winners

Last Sunday the Danish Film Critics Association had their awards ceremony and here are the winners in *RED.

Best Film
*R, Tobias Lindholm and Michael Noer
Hævnen (In a Better World), Susanne Bier
Klovn: The Movie (Clown), Mikkel Nørgaard
Sandheden om mænd (Truth About Men), Nikolaj Arcel
Submarino, Thomas Vinterberg’s

Best Actress
*Trine Dyrholm in Hævnen (In a Better World)
Julie Brochorst Andersen in Hold om mig (Hold Me Tight)
Ellen Hillingsø in Eksperimentet (The Experiment )
Bodil Jørgensen in Smukke mennesker (Nothing’s All Bad)
Mille Hoffmeyer Lehfeldt in Smukke mennesker (Nothing’s All Bad)

Best Actor
*Pilou Asbæk in R
Jakob Cedergren in Submarino
David Dencik in Broderskab (Brotherhood)
Mikael Persbrandt in Hævnen (In a Better World)
Peter Plauborg in Submarino

To check nominees and winners in other categories go here available only in Danish.

Big Picture: "Correctitude"

Who Will Stand?

As of right now, craven scumbags voted into office by ignorant cretins and hyper-religious nutcases Republican Congressmen still riding the "Tea Party" wave are digging into their favorite "to-do" item NOT involving bestowing personhood on petri-dishes: Defunding PBS, NPR and other entities of "Public Broadcasting." The last time they got this close to gutting the CPB was right at the beginning, during the Nixon administration. Back then, Fred Rogers - one of the last "Men of God" who can really be said to have deserved the title in my estimation - took to the U.S. Senate to defend the medium. If you've never seen it, here's the video of his testimony:



Who, if anyone, will be the hero this time? Or do we simply not have those anymore?

The RoboCop Statue WILL Stand in Detroit!

The world we live in now: If you want something done, make sure it's something The Internerds will take vaugely-ironic pleasure in. A privately-funded, web-donation-based effort to install a statue of RoboCop in Detroit has exceeded it's financial target, and they're going ahead with it.



io9 has an interview with the guys in charge. I know some people aren't crazy about this - wishing the money had gone to other more useful sources, viewing the whole thing as a silly fit of geek/hipster irony, etc. There's probably some truth in that... but on the other hand there's going to be a statue of Robocop in Detroit. Awesome.

58th Golden Reel Awards Winners

Yesterday the group had their awards ceremony and from general news in *Blue are the feature film winners. To check winners in other categories go here and later on to the link below for the official site.

--//--

1/21/11
The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) today announced their nominations and here they are.

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue, ADR and Music in an Animation Feature Film
Despicable Me
*How To Train Your Dragon
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
Tangled
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue, and ADR Music in a Feature Documentary
Babies
Catfish
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Inside Job
Restrepo
*Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
Waiting for Superman

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Foreign Language Film
Biutiful
Lebanon
*Micmacs
Mother
North Face
The Girl Who Played With Fire
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Best Sound Editing: Music in a Feature Film
Alice in Wonderland
Black Swan
Get Low
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 1
*Inception
Let Me In
The Losers
The Social Network

Best Sound Editing: Music in a Musical Feature Film
Burlesque
*Country Strong
Step Up 3D
Tangled

Best Sound Editing: Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film
Black Swan
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
*The Social Network
Tron: Legacy
True Grit

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film
127 Hours
Black Swan
*Inception
True Grit
Iron Man 2
Salt
Tron: Legacy
Unstoppable

To check nominees names and nominations in TV and other categories go here. Awards ceremony will be on February 20. We are about to finish the guilds/associations/societies nominations and soon we will be able to predict better winners in Oscar “other” categories.

Oscar Nominated Shorts Analysis

Trying to predict ALL Oscars categories is not an easy task so you have to "prepare" as much as you can and today together we are going to explore the Oscar nominated shorts using clips from each film.

Animation

Day & Night by Teddy Newton



Watch full short here.

The Gruffalo by Max Lang and Jakob Schuh



Watch full short here.

Let's Pollute by Geefwee Boedoe



Watch full short here. (is in French)

The Lost Thing by Andrew Ruhermann and Shaun Tan



Watch full short here.

Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage by Bastien Dubois



Watch full short here.

All right the clips are references but had to watch them completely before daring to do my analysis. So since posting been watching the shorts and the one I like the best is The Lost Thing that has great visuals plus good animation and story (you know me I'm very visual). Then for the story I liked The Gruffalo that also has good animation but is more classical for my taste.

But probably the winner will be Pixar's Day & Night that's the favorite for many and the one gathering more buzz. Another that could have a chance is Let's Pollute for the message and because is done by an ex-Pixar.

So, I'll be picking the ONE I think will win when I do my predictions. Now to the next section.

Live Action

The Confession by Tanel Toom



The Crush by Michael Creagh



God of Love by Luke Matheny



Na Wewe by Ivan Goldschmidt



Wish 143 by Ian Barnes



Watch full short here.

Documentary

Killing in the Name by Jed Rothstein



Poster Girl by Sara Nesson



Strangers No More by Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon



Sun Come Up by Jennifer Redfearn



Stunning visuals!!!!

The Warriors of Qiugang by Ruby Yang



To read summaries of each short film go here. Have seen a few complete but now let's analyze what we see from clips.

2011 EDDA Awards Winners

Yesterday the Academy had their awards ceremony and winners are in *BLUE. To read the full list of winners in English go here and for Icelandic please use the link at the bottom of the page.

--//--

2/7/11
The Icelandic Film and Television Academy recently announced the nominations for annual EDDA Awards that honor films released during 2010 and these are the nominees for some categories.

Film of the Year
*Brim (Undercurrent), Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson
Órói (Jitters), Baldvin Zophoníasson
The Good Heart, Dagur Kári

Director of the Year
Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson for Brim (Undercurrent)
Baldvin Zophoníasson for Órói (Jitters)
Baltasar Kormákur for Inhale
*Dagur Kári for The Good Heart
Gunnar B. Guðmundsson for Gauragangur (Hullaballo)

Actress in a Leading Role
Hreindís Ylva Garðarsdóttir in Órói (Jitters), Baldvin Z
Jóhanna Vigdís Arnardóttir in Réttur 2 (Court 2nd) (TV)
Lauren Hennessy in Clean (Short)
*Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir in Brim (Undercurrent), Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson
Ólafía Hrönn Jónsdóttir in Sumarlandið (Summerland), Grímur Hákonarson

Actor in a Leading Role
Atli Óskar Fjalarsson in Órói (Jitters), Baldvin Zophoníasson
Brian Cox in The Good Heart, Dagur Kári
*Ólafur Darri Ólafsson in Rokland (Stormland), Marteinn Thorsson
Ólafur Egill Ólafsson in Brim (Undercurrent), Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson
Pétur Jóhann Sigfússon in Hlemmavideo (TV)

To check nominees in all categories go for English here and for Icelandic here, which is the official site. Award ceremony will be on February 19 and will be broadcast live on Channel 2.

Found interesting the particularities that regulate these awards, especially finding that in the selection process the public votes even when it only counts for 20%; 80% is responsibility of Academy members. That’s true democracy as whoever wins also has the vote of audiences and maybe because this peculiarity “usually well over half of the entire population watches the show” on television. This is what Oscar needs to raise ratings, even if audience vote counts only like 5% -for example- and wouldn’t be fantastic IF World audiences could vote too? Check more information about the awards procedure here.

Another cinema that I enjoy and of course I’m looking forward to be able to watch Inhale by Baltasar Kormákur but also Summerland by Grímur Hákonarson seems interesting as nothing is better than (dark) Icelandic humor in a comedy about “an unusual business of elf tourism and spiritual sessions”.

47th Annual CAS Awards Winners

Last night The Cinema Audio Society (CAS) announced their awards and there is only one for Motion Pictures with more for Television and others that you can check at the society official site that’s here.

And the winner is...

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Pictures: True Grit

61st Annual ACE Eddie Awards Winners

Last night the group had the award ceremony and from general news winners are in *BLUE. To read all awards go here or here for the official site that's not updated yet.

--//--

1/14/11
Today the American Cinema Editors (ACE) announced the nominations and here they are.

Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic

Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The King’s Speech
*The Social Network

Best Edited Feature Film – Comedy or Musical

*Alice in Wonderland
Easy A
The Kids Are All Right
Made in Dagenham
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Best Edited Animated Feature Film

Despicable Me
How To Train Your Dragon
*Toy Story 3

Best Edited Documentary

*Exit Through the Gift Shop
Inside Job
Waiting for Superman

To read announcement and check nominees in television go here.  Awards ceremony will be on Saturday, February 19.

My Normal

Here we have two points of view about the same movie, so it's perfect for the series Chaos Says/Storyteller Says.

CHAOS SAYS

I just read Storyteller’s “Enjoy!!” at the end of the review concerning this movie and skipped the rest of the review because, well, I couldn’t believe there was a good review about this movie; so here goes what I think:

"My Normal" is the story of a young lesbian who works as a dominatrix, wants to be a film maker and, apparently, thinks she can do all that and still have a normal relationship with a girlfriend. Now, here we have what could have been a really interesting story told in such way that it actually makes it ordinary and uninteresting, which I didn’t think would be possible to do. I mean, how can you fail with this kind of starting point?



Poorly directed, acted (is that acting at all?) and scripted, the movie is almost borderline porn at times and seems to waste its best asset: the actresses’ good looks. I have nothing against porn, but again, even if this movie was porn, it would be the kind I consider crappy porn. Even the soundtrack contributes to make it sound…well, cheap.

There is nothing surprising or thought-provoking (who would think?) about this movie that you will forget 5 minutes after watching it. Where it should have been daring, it wasn’t and at times became almost a caricature; where it should have been self-restrained it also wasn’t and became sleazy. I can’t even define the genre…is it a failed comedy? A bad drama? Both? None? Is it a draft of a movie? I would love to see a good director with a good crew do it all over again...I would accept the same actresses after someone proves to me they can actually act.

That said, I have to admit I watched the all thing; I feel kind of voyeuristic about it. Not my finest hour, watching something that I felt at every second was not worth spending my time on.

You are all warned to proceed with caution.

Yellow light!

...and now I can go back to read Storyteller's review :)

STORYTELLER SAYS

Believe me when I tell you that this is a VERY different film in the lesbian interest genre as film style plus story are not usually seen in the genre. The style looks and feels as porn or XXX but if you overcome the shock that you surely will have with the opening scene plus other scenes within the movie, then you’ll notice that deep inside story is not so bad as –according to me- is all about tolerance. Tolerance in its many forms.

Before writing was checking the trailer and found my comment that reads: “this is a little bit strange for me…” Gosh if I found strange the trailer have to share that I also found strange the movie; but thanks to main actress fabulous screen presence kept watching with my eyes wide open as you already know I don’t like porn and for moments film looked exactly like that, especially because actresses performances which were of the very bad kind. But at the same time I wondered if the “bad acting” was not done on purpose like an exaggeration that could make film look like a satiric farce, at least at many scenes. Who knows, but truth is that when film was over I got the most amazing (and surprising) sensation as I liked this so strange movie more than what I’m willing to accept publicly. Odd, very odd but yes, I like this movie!

Story is about Natalie, played by French born Nicole LaLiberte (suggest to check her video at Vogue), a very assertive young woman that’s struggling to find balance between her dreams of becoming a filmmaker and finding a partner who accepts her as she is, especially after partner learns that she works as a dominatrix. As predictable as it comes Natalie will find a cute girlfriend who will struggle with accepting or tolerating her and her friends work/ lifestyle but story ends on a positive note for Natalie, the filmmaker. Obviously there are many –maybe too many- scenes with Natalie at work and unfortunately even if there is nothing shown absolutely everything looks and feels like sadomasochist porn. Still LaLiberte screen presence plus her looks (she was a model first) and incredible character transformations will help you (a lot) to keep on watching.

Film as a film is… what? Not worth saying much as everything except LaLiberte is on the very bad side of the filmmaking spectrum. Well, maybe the best the film has are some amazing costumes and great makeup.

Very unsure if I should recommend or not this film as surely movie is not for all genre audiences but if you dare to watch a very different film in the genre then maybe, maybe you will have a similar experience to the one I had. Still, I believe that everybody should “meet” Nicole LaLiberte and now I’m very curious about her previous film that I been delaying watching: 2010 Cannes Queer Palm winner Gregg Araki’s Kaboom.

Enjoy!!

Watch trailer @MOC

61st Berlin International Film Festival Awards Winners

With a nice, fast and entertaining ceremony the fest gave the main awards to winners and here are almost all the winners of the many awards from the festival.

Buzz, news and me were expecting Bela Tar's oeuvre to win, but was a surprise that top award went to another film that also got both actors Silver Bears: Nader and Simin, A Separation.

During the festival most news talked about the "flat" festival as seems that those that covered it didn't got excited with any of the films; still fest was a big success selling tickets and most important, selling films to buyers from many countries including USA who seems was most interested in Scandinavian films. Have to share that when I read the news had the most obscure premonition that told me that USA buyers want audiences to identify movies that are fit for a Hollywood remake! That's almost a nightmare, but my nightmarish premonition probably is true. Sigh.

Everyday checked everything Berlinale even when I didn't wrote a thing here, the daily blog coverage still belongs only to Cannes; by the way, is true that my mind is already there especially after checking the movies that many speculate will make the Official Selection.

So, the Berlinale is over and next week will be all about the French Cesar and predictions for Oscar.

Competition Awards

Golden Bear: Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader And Simin, A Separation), Asghar Farhadi, Iran

Silver Bear Jury Grand Prix: A Torinói Ló (The Turin Horse), Béla Tar, Hungary, France, Germany, Switzerland, and USA

Silver Bear Best Director: Ulrich Köhler for Schlafkrankheit (Sleeping Sickness), Germany, France and Netherlands

Silver Bear Best Actress: Female ensemble in Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader And Simin, A Separation), Asghar Farhadi, Iran
Silver Bear Best Actor: Male ensemble in Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader And Simin, A Separation), Asghar Farhadi, Iran

Silver Bear Outstanding Artistic Achievement (tie):
Wojciech Starton for the camera in El Premio (The Prize), Paula Markovitch, Mexico, France, Poland, and Germany
Barbara Enriquez for the production design in El Premio (The Prize), Paula Markovitch, Mexico, France, Poland, and Germany

Silver Bear for Best Script: Joshua Marston and Andamion Murataj for The Forgiveness Of Blood, Joshua Marston, USA, Albania, Denmark and Italy

Alfred Bauer Prize: Wer wenn nicht wir (If Not Us, Who), Andres Veiel, Germany

To check the official announcement go here.

Best First Feature Award: On the Ice, Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, USA, 2011
Special Mentions
The Guard, John Michael McDonagh, Ireland, and UK
Die Vaterlosen (Fatherless), Marie Kreutzer, Austria

To check the official announcement go here.

Generation

Generation Kplus

Children's Jury
Crystal Bear for Best Film: Keeper`n til Liverpool (The Liverpool Goalie), Arild Andresen, Norway, 2010
Special Mention: Mabul (The Flood), Guy Nattiv, Israel, Canada, Germany and France, 2010
Crystal Bear for Best Short Film: Lily, Kasimir Burgess, Australia, 2010
Special Mention: Minnie Loves Junior, Matthew Mullins, Australia, 2010

International Jury
Grand Prix: Jutro będzie lepiej (Tomorrow will be better), Dorota Kędzierzawska, Poland and Japan, 2010
Special Mention: Keeper`n til Liverpool (The Liverpool Goalie), Arild Andresen, Norway, 2010
Special Prize Best Short Film: Land of Heroes, Sahim Omar Kalifa, Belgium, 2010
Special Mention: Dimanche (Sunday), Patrick Doyon, Canada, 2011

Generation 14plus Youth Jury

Crystal Bear for Best Feature Film: On the Ice, Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, USA, 2011
Jury Statement: This film had us in its grip from the very first moment and it never let go, right up to the end. Between solitude and endless expanses, a stifling and constricting atmosphere has been created, using simple means. Our winning film took us off to a world that was totally unknown to us. A world where everything seems submerged in darkness, even though the sun never goes down.

Special Mention for Feature Film: Apflickorna (She Monkeys), Lisa Aschan, Sweden, 2011
Jury Statement: Showing your feelings makes you vulnerable. And being vulnerable makes you lose control. A game of love and power. A film that is confusing and disturbing, chilling and startling, it triggers an avalanche of thoughts and questions but also some answers.

Crystal Bear for Best Short Film: Manurewa, Sam Peacocke, New Zealand, 2010
Special Mention: Get Real!, Evert de Beijer, Netherlands, 2010

To read official announcement go here.

Short Films

Golden Bear: Paranmanjang (Night Fishing), PARKing CHANce (Park Chan-wook and Park Chan-Kyong), South Korea, 2011
Silver Bear Jury Prize: Pu-Seo-Jin Bam (Broken Night), Yan Hyo-joo, South Korea, 2010

EFA Short Film Nominee Berlin: Aterfödelsen (The Unliving), Hugo Lija, Sweden, 2010
DAAD Prize: La Ducha (The Shower), Maria José San Martín, Chile, 2010

To read official announcement go here.

Prizes from Independent Juries

FIPRESCI Awards
Competition: A Torinói Ló (The Turin Horse), Béla Tar, Hungary, France, Germany, Switzerland, and USA
Panorama: Dernier étage gauche gauche (Top Floor Left Wing), Angelo Cianci, France and Luxemburg
Forum: Heaven’s Story, Zeze Takahisa, Japan, 2010

Prizes of the Ecumenical Jury
Competition: Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader And Simin, A Separation), Asghar Farhadi, Iran
Special Mention: The Forgiveness Of Blood, Joshua Marston, USA, Albania, Denmark and Italy
Panorama: Lo Roim Alaich (Invisible), Michal Aviad, Israel and Germany
Special Mention: Barzakh, Mantas Kvedaravicius, Finland and Lithuania
Forum: En terrains connus (Familiar Ground), Stéphane Lafleur, Cananda, 2011
Special Mention: De Engel van Doel (An Angel in Doel), Tom Fassaert, Netherlands and Belgium, 2011

NETPAC Prize: Heaven’s Story, Zeze Takahisa, Japan, 2010
Special Mention: Halaw (Ways of the Sea), Sheron Dayoc, Philippines, 2010

C.I.C.A.E. Prizes
Panorama: Here, Braden King, USA
Forum: Amnistia (Amnesty), Bujar Alimani, Albania, Greece, and France, 2011

Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas: Wer wenn nicht wir (If Not Us, Who), Andres Veiel, Germany, 2011
Label Europa Cinemas: Über uns das All (Above Us Only Sky), Jan Schomburg, Germany
Dialogue en Perspective: Die Ausbidung (The Education), Dirk Lütter, Germany, 2011
Caligari Film Prize: The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, Marie Losier, USA and France, 2011
CINEMA fairbindet Prize: Bad o Meh (Wind & Fog), Mohammad Ali Talebi, Iran, 2011

Femina Film Prize: Julia Brandes for costumes in Lollipop Monster, Ziska Reimann, Germany, 2011

Peace Film Award: Jutro będzie lepiej (Tomorrow will be better), Dorota Kędzierzawska, Poland and Japan, 2010
Amnesty International Film Prize: Barzakh, Mantas Kvedaravicius, Finland and Lithuania

Audience Awards
Panorama Fiction Film: También la lluvia (Even The Rain), Icíar Bollaín, Spain, France, Mexico, 2010
Panorama Documentary Film: Im Himmel, Unter der Erde. Der Jüdische Friedhof Weißensee (In Heaven Undreground – The Weissensee Jewish Cementery), Britta Wauer, Germany

Berliner Morgenpost Reader's Prize: Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader And Simin, A Separation), Asghar Farhadi, Iran
ELSE Siegessäule Readers' Choice Award: Stadt Land Fluss (Harvest), Benjamin Cantu, Germany, 2011
Tagesspiegel REaders' Prize: Nesvatbov (Matching Mayor), Erika Hníková, Czech Republic and Slovak Republic, 2010

To read all prizes from Independent Juries go here.

This is it for this year and hope next year's Berlinale will have many more films, especially the kind that compete for a Teddy award!

Danke schön Berlinale!