2009 Oscar News – VFX Short List

Yesterday the Academy announced that 15 films have been selected as semifinalists for Achievement in Visual Effects and here they are.

“Angels & Demons”
“Avatar”
“Coraline”
“Disney’s A Christmas Carol”
“District 9”
“G-Force”
“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“Sherlock Holmes”
“Star Trek”
“Terminator Salvation”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
“2012”
“Watchmen”
“Where the Wild Things Are”

Have seen some of the films and in my opinion the most awesome effects belong to 2012; but there is one that after getting terrible buzz now is getting excellent reviews: Avatar. Some claim that Cameron reinvented sfx (but the story is lousy), so have to watch it to find if is true or not. To read the Academy official announcement go here.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

LATEST 2010 OSCAR PREDICTIONS

With only Nine, Sherlock Holmes, It's Complicated and The Last Station left to see, here's where we now stand in this year's race...

BEST PICTURE

An Education
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Last Station
Nine
Precious
A Single Man
Up
Up in the Air

BEST DIRECTOR

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Peter Jackson, The Lovely Bones
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

BEST ACTOR

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

BEST ACTRESS

Marion Cotillard, Nine
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker
Tobey Maguire, Brothers
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
Mo’Nique, Precious

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

500 Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
A Serious Man
Up

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

An Education
Precious
A Single Man
Up in the Air
Where the Wild Things Are

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
Up

BEST DOCUMENTARY

The Beaches of Agnes
Burma VJ
The Cove
Every Little Step
Mugabe and the White African

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Avatar
Bright Star
Nine
A Single Man
The White Ribbon

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Bright Star
The Informant!
A Single Man
Star Trek
Up

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Bright Star
Inglourious Basterds
Nine
Public Enemies
A Single Man

BEST ART DIRECTION

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Inglourious Basterds
The Lovely Bones
Nine
Star Trek

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Avatar
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The (Non-Doc/Foreign/Short) Contenders: 9, 500 Days of Summer, Agora, Amelia, An Education, Antichrist, Anvil: The Story of Anvil, Avatar, Away We Go, The Blind Side, The Boys Are Back, Bright Star, Broken Embraces, Bronson, Brothers, Bruno, Capitalism: A Love Story, Cheri, A Christmas Carol, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Coco Before Chanel, Collapse, Coraline, The Cove, Crazy Heart, Creation, Crude, The Damned United, District 9, Everybody's Fine, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Fish Tank, Food Inc., Funny People, The Hangover, Harry Brown, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Humpday, The Hurt Locker, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, The Informant!, Inglourious Basterds, In the Loop, Invictus, It's Complicated, Julie & Julia, The Last Station, London River, Love Ranch, The Lovely Bones, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Micmacs, Moon, Nine, Ondine, Ponyo, Precious, The Princess and the Frog, Public Enemies, The Road, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Sin Nombre, The Soloist, Soul Kitchen, Star Trek, The Stoning of Soraya M., Sugar, Taking Woodstock, The Tempest, Terminator Salvation, Tetro, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Up, Up in the Air, Valentino: The Last Emperor, Watchmen, Whatever Works, Where the Wild Things Are, The White Ribbon, The Young Victoria

The moment?

The critics are starting to see "Avatar," (no, I haven't yet) and the early world is damn-near through the roof... EXACTLY the kind of feedback this particular movie needed to hopefully turn around all the "Dances With Smurfs" negativity that's been building around it since people first got a look at the plot. So... is this when it happens? Is this "Titanic" all over again, where everyone was sure it was a disaster in the making and then everything comes together when it finally shows?

I dunno... but thus far the most important report I've been waiting for was from Jeff Wells, who's probably the most stridently anti-fanboy, anti-genre-blockbuster guy doing movie-blogging right now - the epitome of someone who's just NOT looking to show kindness to a $300 Million mostly-CGI tentpole about blue aliens and marines in mecha-suits. Well, as of this morning... he's calling it a masterpiece:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/12/a_fine_madness.php

In fact, I don't think I've ever seen Wells react this way to this sort of movie. Overnight, he's gone from one it's cheif nay-sayers to proclaiming that it will get (and deserves to get) a Best Picture nomination:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/12/avatar_in_the_r.php

What does this mean? I dunno, but it's unexpected and definately gives me a good feeling.

Escape to the Movies: "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans"

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/1219-Bad-Lieutenant

And here's this week's "Intermission," which is all about the film's director/adventurer/superhero Werner Herzog:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/moviebob/6866-Kneel-Before-Zog

67th Golden Globes Awards News

On Tuesday, December 15th at 5:00am PT the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will announce the nominations for the Golden Globes and while we wait here are some relevant news.

A record of 69 foreign language films are eligible for a Golden Globe nomination. As some of you recall this award does not limit one film per country, so you have several countries with more than one film. If you feel like checking the list please go here. From the list only 5 films will be nominated and honestly, it’s a hard choice from many excellent movies but I’m almost sure that A Prophet and The White Ribbon will be nominated and hope that films like Chile’s The Maid and Sweden’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be honored too.

According to a press release 173 live-action feature films (105 dramas and 68 comedies or musicals), 15 animated feature films, 133 television series (79 drama and 54 comedies), 33 mini-series or telefilms and a record 103 songs have been qualified for the awards.

This year Mavis Spences was selected as 2010 Miss Golden Globe, she’s Alfre Woodard daughter and as I already shared, great Ricky Gervais will host the show.

So we have just a few days to learn the nominees and about a month to be able to watch the movies I haven’t seen as the award ceremony will be on January 17.

THE B-LIST: SING, SING A SONG

Way, way back when we first discussed the slasher movie craze of the early 80s, we covered a lot of the tropes and clichés and possible subtexts to be found in the literally hundreds of such movies produced during that period. What we didn’t mention was the music. Now, we’re not talking about the immediately recognizable scores such as John Carpenter’s Halloween or Harry Manfredini’s Friday The 13th. No, we mean the fantastically weird theme songs which sometimes ran over the end credits. A few, like The Fat Boys’ Are You Ready For Freddy actually ended up being released as singles, but for genre nuts, the real gems are the obscure ones which you only heard if you hung around in the theater while most everyone else was making a beeline for the parking lot. What follows are excerpts from some of the most memorable…

APRIL FOOL’S DAY (1986)

This little diddy might sound like an odd choice to close out a horror movie, but from beginning to end April Fool’s Day is chock full of practical jokes (dark, dark jokes, but jokes just the same), so this tune fits right in with the tongue-in-cheek goings on.

MADMAN (1982)

As the unlucky counselors in this cult classic find out, Madman Marz is much more than just a tale told to scare the kiddies. However, that is how they’re first introduced to him, as nothing more than a legend to be recounted while sitting around the campfire. Listening to this, you can almost hear the s’mores sizzling.

MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981)

Forget the noisy, crude remake, the original MBV is much loved by fans for its authentic settings and realistic, likable cast (none of whom burst into a dwarf’s room butt naked). This folksy number perfectly captures the feel of the rundown blue collar mining town which provides the backdrop for Harry Warden’s dirty deeds.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (1981)

Melissa Sue Anderson spends much of this movie confused and tortured, and then it gets worse for her towards the end. The movie finishes on a particularly downbeat note for her character, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is more than adequately reflected in this song.

DON’T GO IN THE WOODS (1981)

This movie is legendarily bad. Nuff said.

I have to admit, as cheesy as some of these songs are, I really miss them whenever I give in and watch a modern slasher. A lot of the generic indie rock and heavy metal pieces you get at the end of today’s movies (and some of the old, let’s be fair) are tolerable enough I suppose, but you can tell they were just slapped on because that’s the song style popular with the intended demographic. What makes these old songs, even the corny ones, so much better is that they actually feel like a part of the movie, intimately connected with the story you’ve been watching. Even for dumb slasher flicks, It makes for an all around more immersive movie going experience.

In a way it’s like the stuff we’re supposed to hear at mass. As the Catechism points out, “Song and music fulfill their function as signs in a manner all the more significant when they are "more closely connected… with the liturgical action," according to three principal criteria: beauty expressive of prayer, the unanimous participation of the assembly at the designated moments, and the solemn character of the celebration. In this way they participate in the purpose of the liturgical words and actions: the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.” Needless to say, there are arguments to be made that much of contemporary liturgical music doesn’t meet these standards.

With all the other problems ongoing in The Church right now, the state of liturgical music might not seem high on the list. But In his autobiography, Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977, the future Pope Benedict XVI wrote “I am convinced that the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy, which at times has even come to be conceived of etsi Deus non daretur: in that it is a matter of indifference whether or not God exists and whether or not He speaks to us and hears us. But when the community of faith, the world-wide unity of the Church and her history, and the mystery of the living Christ are no longer visible in the liturgy, where else, then, is the Church to become visible in her spiritual essence?”

The Pope wasn’t speaking solely of music, of course, but it was part of his discussion. Music matters. As we noted in the examples above, the proper song in a movie can make for a more memorable experience. The proper song in a mass can bring a person to God.