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SXSW – The Beaver [spoilers, duh]

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Boy I love being surprised by films. The Beaver is not the film I expected it to be.

Jodie Foster introduced the film, and with a wry smile on her face, she warned the audience that this would not be a lighthearted, uplifting story, and well, she was right. Thank god she made the movie she did.

The Beaver tells four stories. A clinically depressed man that has tried all he can and is on the verge of suicide, stuck in a box that he cannot break out of. A wife at the crossroads of a broken relationship, a son desperately trying not to be his father, and a girl struggling to truly express herself.

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Oscars 2011 – My predictions

I did this last year. I ended up getting ~14 out of 16 right. I don’t think I’ll do as well this year, because it seems like it’ll either go heavily the way of The King’s Speech, which has a LOT of the recent momentum, or, it’ll go with The Social Network, the film that ran away with all the early awards, including, for what it’s worth [not much], sweeping the Golden Globes.

I’ve omitted a few categories I have no real idea about, but the full list of nominees and awards can be found here.

KEY:

What I *predict* will win – italics

What I *want* to win – bold

What ended up winning – red

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2010: The year in movies

It’s that time of the year again. The post I look forward to and dread in equal parts.

Bear in mind that this is a list of movies I’ve seen at the cinemas in Australia [with the exception of two that I saw in The States] this year, so quite a few that are ’09 releases to some of you, are in fact 2010 releases in this lagging country of ours. I can already see the same thing happening next year, with True Grit, Black Swan and The Fighter getting releases mid-January here.

Once again, this has taken 3+ hours to do. With the notable exception of Inception being best of the year by a clear margin for me, I think in future years, I’m going to have to create this list in some other way [maybe grouped by star ratings], because frankly, this is excruciatingly difficult, and probably not a completely fair way to rank movies either.

Anyway, here they are, ranked best to worst.

EDIT:

I’d omitted Scott Pilgrim vs the World and Knight and Day, so I’ve updated the list to include those two, and got to 100 in the process!

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I’m Still Here

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Or the above image, if you’re looking for another way to sum up I’m Still Here. It was two years of magnificent trolling in the public eye. I tip my hat to you, Casey Affleck, and especially, Joaquin “J P” Phoenix! The performance of a career, indeed.

Then again, I can’t imagine how I would have reacted if I hadn’t walked into this movie knowing it was a mockumentary. I’d like to think I would have easily been able to pick it as an obvious joke, with SO much absurdity coursing through the film, but so many didn’t, and I have a feeling that there would have been some level of doubt in my mind.

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Catfish [spoilers, duh]

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Go watch it. Really avoid watching the trailer [I have no idea why it’s been cut the way it has, because it’s almost doing it a disservice] if you can, but I implore you to go watch it! If Inception blew my mind and left me in awe of Nolan’s imagination and film making prowess, this blew my mind in equal parts in telling a story, a TRUE story, that will leave you shaking your head long after you walk out of the cinema. If it’s a mockumentary, then I tip my hat to a bunch of amazing writers for scripting a story so rich and running me through the emotional spectrum like I haven’t been in a long time; I would be very annoyed if it was. Damn you, cynical nature.

As if the story itself wasn’t amazing enough, I really loved the way it was told. From the montage towards the beginning told solely through emails, Facebook updates and online photos, to the way Google Maps and Street View are used to chart their travels, the use of these popular social services that are so familiar to us now was very clever!  

With all the recent Facebook privacy hoo-hah and ongoing concerns with online identity, Catfish is a film for the times, and a staggering example of the power of Facebook, and the basic level of trust millions of people put in it. Angela’s messed up, but creative mind, coupled with a basic understanding of social media services, allowed her to create a complex, but completely fake network of family and friends to live out a life and romance that was a far cry from her pretty sorry existence. It was just unfortunate that this escape came at the expense of Nev.

Thank you for screening it, Melbourne International Film Festival, but next time, maybe try not screwing up the projection for a good half of the movie?

 Oh, and check out Catfish‘s site, with Nev’s “desktop”!

Go watch it.

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Inception [spoilers, duh]

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A year’s worth of hype EXCEEDED. This will NEVER happen again. You just blew my mind, Christopher Nolan. Did I just RT myself in a blog post? Yes, yes I did, but I’ve honestly sat here trying to express my sentiment in some other way, and I really can’t. Something else not possible is doing this movie justice, but screw it, it’s my blog, and there are thoughts swimming around in my mind.

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The White Ribbon

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Controversy-courting director Michael Haneke (CACHÉ) earned the Palm d’Or at Cannes in 2009 for this arresting drama set just before World War I. In a small German village, a number of unexplained accidents beset the schoolchildren and their parents. Though they at first appear coincidental, it begins to seem that they are not, in fact, accidents at all.

One of the simplest indicators to me, in terms of how much I’ve liked a movie, is the amount of time I’ll spend at home that night reading about it. It’s bordering on 2 hours now with Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon; suffice it to say, it got my attention.

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Oscars 2010 – My predictions

Considering that I’ve seen the vast majority of contenders for this year’s Oscars, I thought I may as well list my predictions [for the categories that I’m somewhat comfortable with, anyway]. Ok, maybe “predictions” is not quite the right word since there’ll be some bias involved, so maybe it’s more my hopes for how the awards get handed out tomorrow. No, I’ll just do both; my predictions and what I actually want to win.

Pardon my stream of consciousness.

Key:

What I predict will win – italics

What I want to win – bold

Performance by an actor in a leading role

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

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

  • Matt Damon in “Invictus”
  • Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
  • Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
  • Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
  • Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Performance by an actress in a leading role

  • Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
  • Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
  • Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
  • Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
  • Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

  • Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
  • Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
  • Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
  • Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
  • Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Best animated feature film of the year

  • “Coraline”
  • “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
  • “The Princess and the Frog”
  • “The Secret of Kells”
  • “Up”

Achievement in art direction

  • “Avatar”
  • “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
  • “Nine”
  • “Sherlock Holmes”
  • “The Young Victoria”

Achievement in cinematography

  • “Avatar”
  • “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
  • “The Hurt Locker”
  • “Inglourious Basterds”
  • “The White Ribbon”

Best documentary feature

  • “Burma VJ”
  • “The Cove”
  • “Food, Inc.”
  • “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
  • “Which Way Home”

Achievement in film editing

  • “Avatar”
  • “District 9”
  • “The Hurt Locker”
  • “Inglourious Basterds”
  • “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Best foreign language film of the year

  • “Ajami”
  • “El Secreto de Sus Ojos”
  • “The Milk of Sorrow”
  • “Un Prophète”
  • “The White Ribbon” 

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

  • “Avatar”
  • “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
  • “The Hurt Locker”
  • “Sherlock Holmes”
  • “Up”

Achievement in visual effects

  • “Avatar”
  • “District 9”
  • “Star Trek”

Adapted screenplay

  • “District 9”
  • “An Education”
  • “In the Loop”
  • “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
  • “Up in the Air”

Original screenplay

  • “The Hurt Locker”
  • “Inglourious Basterds”
  • “The Messenger”
  • “A Serious Man”
  • “Up”

Achievement in directing

  • “Avatar”
  • “The Hurt Locker”
  • “Inglourious Basterds”
  • “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
  • “Up in the Air”

      Best motion picture of the year

      • “Avatar”
      • “The Blind Side”
      • “District 9”
      • “An Education”
      • “The Hurt Locker”
      • “Inglourious Basterds”
      • “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
      • “A Serious Man”
      • “Up”
      • “Up in the Air”

      The full list of categories and nominees can be found at the official Oscars Nominations page.

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