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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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      Shutter Island: Take Two

      Boy am I glad I watched Shutter Island again. The first viewing, last Thursday, in a terribly inebriated state, resulted in me seeing about 15 minutes of the movie while falling asleep and generally having no idea what the hell was going on. Add to this the not so stellar reviews it’s been getting and I was well within my rights to give it a miss, but the pride I have misplaced in my unofficial movie reviewer role got the better of me.

      Firstly, what’s with all the negativity surrounding it?! Scorsese might have bitten off more than he could chew with that ending and the amount of information that was crammed into it, but god damn the journey there was enjoyable. The score was just perfect, with those heavy, jarring violins so beautifully capturing the mood [apparently it sounds Hitchcockian, like Vertigo], and then there’s the imagery.

      Every second of that first dream sequence was to die for, and seems so far removed from what I’ve seen of Scorsese. I absolutely loved all the war flashbacks and Ward C scene with Jackie Earle Haley, with an oh-so-creepy Michelle Williams towards the end of the movie. I don’t know if I even need to mention DiCaprio, but good lord he totally owns the movie, churning out another spellbinding performance. Can anyone else really pull this kind of role off?

      Media_httpbabbleon5fi_zchra

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      A Single Man [the movie, not me]

      Movie course day 3, and we are back on the road to awesome, with A Single Man.

      Every single frame of this movie was so meticulously and beautifully shot, and knowing this was Tom Ford’s directorial debut made it all the more impressive; I guess that’s what happens when a fashion designer directs. Some people thought it was overkill [too many close ups, too much color saturation], but I loved every second of it!

      Add to this the large dose of dark humor and a wonderfully depressing cast and story, and you have yourself a great movie.

      Oh, I should probably mention what the movie is actually about, but I might as well let Tom Ford do that.

      “It is a deeply spiritual story, of one day in the life of a man who cannot see his future. It is a universal tale of coming to terms with the isolation that we all feel, and of the importance of living in the present and understanding that the small things in life are really the big things in life.”

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      The Wolfman

      Movie course day two, and I sure as hell didn’t think we’d see The Wolfman. I can see Andrew Urban’s reasoning in giving us a completely different experience to Precious, but this was disappointing.

      Biggest gripe, didn’t think there was a solid enough reason that Del Toro’s character became afflicted with the curse in the first place. I feel this has to happen for these types of movies to work, and the redemption angle wasn’t the greatest either.

      The gore… Totally unnecessary
      and laughable for the most part. I am shit scared in even the weakest horror movies and I found myself laughing in this. And the horror genre “expert” who tried to justify werewolves decapitating people must’ve been smoking something.

      If this is supposed to be in the upper echelon of werewolf movies, bring on better made vampire movies please. Mythology wise, they kick so much more ass.

      UPDATE:

      Almost forgot, every time the CG transformation happened, all I remembered was The Hulk; looked exactly the same.

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      Voice-overs

      I saw Adaptation today, and found this quote, addressed to a screenplay seminar class regarding voice-overs, pretty darn hilarious.

      …and God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That’s flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.

      Clearly Kaufman doesn’t take himself too seriously, but then, all I could think of Dexter, and the huge role it plays in that show as a story-telling device. As much as Michael C. Hall can act, it sure has made getting into the mind of a morally ambiguous serial killer a lot easier, and I’m not sure on what level the show would work without it.

      And on the topic of serial killers, another choice quote from the movie…

      Charlie Kaufman: The only idea more overused than serial killers is multiple personality. On top of that, you explore the notion that cop and criminal are really two aspects of the same person. See every cop movie ever made for other examples of this.

      Donald Kaufman: Mom called it “psychologically taut”.

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      New man-director crush: Darren Aronofsky

      I had a Darren Aronofsky marathon today, which resulted in a few things.

      Requiem for a Dream is now my favourite movie. Ever. Perfect in every single way, and shot like I’ve never seen anything shot before.

      Then I watched Pi, and I’ve now had the scene below on repeat for a while. In three minutes, it tackles some *big* issues in such an elegant, simple manner, and explains obsession so well.

      I ended the marathon with The Fountain, and relatively speaking, it was a disappointment. I think I got used to his style, and liked it so much that I just wanted more of the same, but his leap into into time jumping, sci-fi romance was very different – not that I didn’t still enjoy the heck out of it.

      Also, screw you and your copyright blergh YouTube, not allowing me to embed the video above. I had to instead d/l it as an mp4, and then email it to Posterous, which in a matter of minutes transcoded it into Flash and threw it in its player; Posterous++

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      2009: The year in movies

      I only had one real goal this year; to watch a 100 movies at the cinemas. Sadly [sadder than the fact that that was my one real goal of the year [and year before too]], I’m stuck on 99, and I don’t know if I’m going to squeeze in a screening of The Lovely Bones tomorrow.

      w00t! Scratch all that. I found a ticket stub for a Japanese Film Festival movie I missed that wasn’t in the IMDB database / my IMDB list [and people shake their head when I mention that I collect all my movie ticket stubs – this has saved me from another year of pain and guilt!]

      Anyway, here’s the list, ranked, without explanation, as always [the list was completed 2 hours after I wrote this…I really need to do it as a dynamic, weekly list next year].

      1. Okuribito [Departures]
      2. Up
      3. Avatar
      4. Revolutionary Road
      5. Der Baader Meinhof Komplex [The Baader Meinhof Complex]
      6. Beautiful Kate
      7. Star Trek
      8. I Love You, Man
      9. The Girlfriend Experience
      10. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

      11. The Cove
      12. District 9
      13. Balibo
      14. Whatever Works
      15. This Is It
      16. Samson and Delilah
      17. Changeling
      18. Inglourious Basterds
      19. Doubt
      20. The Informant!
      21. A Serious Man
      22. Låt Den Rätte Komma In [Let The Right One In]
      23. Los abrazos rotos [Broken Embraces]
      24. The Wrestler
      25. Sunshine Cleaning
      26. Gran Torino
      27. The Reader
      28. Disgrace
      29. Moon
      30. It Might Get Loud
      31. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
      32. Seppun [The Kiss]
      33. Che: Part One
      34. Che: Part Two
      35. (500) Days of Summer
      36. Julie & Julia
      37. Genova
      38. Drag Me to Hell
      39. Funny People
      40. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
      41. Brüno
      42. An Education
      43. Whip It
      44. Mary and Max
      45. The September Issue
      46. Hansamu sûtsu [The Handsome Suit]
      47. Coraline
      48. State of Play
      49. Yes Man
      50. Anvil! The Story of Anvil
      51. Watchmen
      52. Amreeka
      53. Zack and Miri Make a Porno
      54. Adam
      55. Fast & Furious
      56. Paper Heart
      57. Mao’s Last Dancer
      58. Rachel Getting Married
      59. The Boys Are Back
      60. Sherlock Holmes
      61. The Invention of Lying
      62. Is Anybody There?
      63. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
      64. Milk
      65. Ghost Town
      66. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
      67. The Soloist
      68. Synecdoche, New York
      69. Gomorra [Gomorrah]
      70. Chi Bi [Red Cliff]
      71. Role Models
      72. 9
      73. Duplicity
      74. Terminator Salvation
      75. Gravity’s Clowns
      76. Seven Pounds
      77. Gururi No Koto [All Around Us]
      78. A Christmas Carol
      79. Monsters vs Aliens
      80. Flammen & Citronen [Flame + Citron]
      81. Angels & Demons
      82. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
      83. Bronson
      84. Year One
      85. Blindness
      86. Surrogates
      87. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
      88. Valkyrie
      89. Transporter 3
      90. The International
      91. Séraphine
      92. Zombieland
      93. Gake no ue no Ponyo [Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea]
      94. Public Enemies
      95. Where the Wild Things Are
      96. The Hangover
      97. Capitalism: A Love Story
      98. Push
      99. Kei hei hup [Metallic Attraction: Kungfu Cyborg]
      100. 2012 [I seriously stand by my tweet on this. Just, please stop, Mr. Emmerich]

      Ok, a line of analysis… #1 – #50 are all pretty darn good and worthy of a second viewing. #73 onwards is where I go from like to dislike, and #98, #99 and #100; I do not wish the type of punishment I endured during them upon anyone.

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      All things Avatar

      A collection of all things Avatar that I’ve come across / found interesting. Feel free to throw anything else in the comments…

      James Cameron’s Avatar Movie Performance Capture Featurette

      A video showing how the “performance capture” was done for Avatar.

      @massawyrm’s Avatar movie review

      This review pretty much sums up my thoughts verbatim

      Avatar: The Making of the Bootleg

      Free Love Forum takes you behind the scenes of the revolutionary new bootleg of the revolutionary new movie. Hilarious stuff!

      Please mount my hot blue alien

      Analysing why James Cameron really made Avatar – alien porn!

      “When we would draw Neytiri and she had fins on her back and gills and all kinds of weird protuberances and so on in odd places, the question was, well, would you want to do her? No? OK, let’s back off from that.” – James Cameron

      The Data-Crunching Power Behind Avatar 

      A look at some of the high-density server and networking gear inside the Weta Digital data center used to render the animation for Avatar.

      A final copy of Avatar equated to 17.28 gigabytes per minute of storage.”

      UPDATE:

      James Cameron’s Avatar screenplay

      Fox recently released all 152 pages of James Cameron’s Avatar screenplay online as a PDF

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