Drive posters, re-imagined

submit to reddit

A series of re-imagined posters of Drive here. This one is my favourite:

Read More...

Golden Globes 2013 Winners

submit to reddit


How are the hostesses doing?
"When it comes to torture, I would trust the woman who was married to James Cameron for 3 years."
"[Ann Hathaway in Les Miserables looked] so abandoned, like when she was on stage at the Oscars."
"You know what Taylor Swift, stay away from Michael J. Fox's son. She needs some me time."
Endorsement of the night / guest of the night / how is the Oscars going to compete with this? Bill Clinton!!?
Best reaction / presenters: Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell ("you get out!" They should host the Oscars?)


Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz
Best Score: Life of Pi
Best Song: Skyfall - Adele
Best Actress (Comedy): Jennifer Lawrence ("thank you Harvey for killing whoever you needed to kill to get me up here.")
Best Supporting Actress: Ann Hathaway
Best Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino
Best Foreign Film: Amour
Best Animated Film: Brave
Best Director: Ben Affleck
Best Actor (Comedy): Hugh Jackman!?
Best Picture (Comedy): Les Miserables!
Best Actress (Drama): Jessica Chastain! (yay!)
Best Actor (Drama): Daniel Day Lewis
Best Picture (Drama): Argo!

Well that was a fun show, especially the first half. After Jodie Foster came out, it kinda went unfunny. This Globes show clears up nothing for the Oscars, except J. Law is winning Best Actress.  And Daniel Day Lewis is winning Ben Affleck. And, right, Adele.

Read More...

Shock & Awe: Oscars 2013

submit to reddit

A truly shocking set of nominations were announced yesterday by the Academy. Of all the years that I've been following the awards season game, this one takes the cake in the crazy department. A part of it, I believe, had to do with moving the nominations up so early: people had little guidance from traditional precursors before casting that ballot. A part of it, too, might be that only a handful of films had truly reached the heart of the balloteers. There may be too many second tier films - in heartstring matters - to fill the rest of the ballots with, that they vary wildly across the field. Or maybe I'm just talking out of my wazoo. Anyway, here are some yays and nays:

YAY:
Amour surprised with Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Script and Best foreign film nomination. And it's doing that without being a blockbuster action film! Haneke, in particular, made the Director category so much more prestigious by his nomination. He's no middle-brow director. What was the Academy thinking?

Acting nominations for The Master cast, which put on a master class of its craft (you can rap this line out). It helps to ease a little pain from P.T. Anderson's no show.

NAY:
The biggest shock is Bigelow's lack of nomination. I don't know how good the movie is just yet (I'll know soon), but judging from the trailer and everyone's breathless praise of Bigelow, I don't get how she could be left off the ballot, no matter who's nominated. If it was my ballot, I would take O. Russell out. How was that film best directed of the year again? No offense to Russell, as I like him just fine, but Playbook is no great gift of direction in any year.

Tabu and Holy Motors had no chance in hell, but this was such a crazy year that I feel like they really missed their chance at some much deserved gold glory.

To elaborate further, here are some sane thoughts by guest contributor, Griz:

While the Academy tends to throw in a few surprises each year, this year they decided to throw out everything we thought we knew and gave us something completely different. It was a shocker to even the most seasoned Oscar geeks, but mostly a pleasant shocker (as long as your last name wasn’t Affleck or Bigelow). But at least Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow can take solace in the fact that they both garnered Best Picture nominations as producers of their respective films, and that they missed out on directing nominations to one of the most solid and worthy line-ups in years.

So why did their nominees end up being so different from what most were expecting? Was it the earlier deadline, which meant voters were able to make up their own minds rather than having guilds and other awards shows dictate which ones to pick? Did the switch to online voting (and the troubles that brought along) affect the result? Whatever the cause, as much as I initially thought January 10th was too early to announce nominees, I am now fully on board with them doing it like this for all years to come.

The financial success of the traditional Oscar films is also one of the stories of the year, and what may be responsible to some degree for the extremely poor showing by summer blockbusters. When you’ve got films like Lincoln, Django Unchained, Argo and Les Misérables (and soon Life of Pi) making over $100m in North America, who needs Batman? No one, apparently, seeing as The Dark Knight Rises garnered not a single nomination (compared to the eight nominations and two wins The Dark Knight earned). The Avengers could only muster one nomination, the same for Prometheus. The Hobbit could only manage a meager three. Even the sound categories, typically the bastion of blockbusters, were dominated by the Best Picture nominees.

Anyway, here’s what I liked and didn’t like about this year’s nominations:

THE GOOD:

• The Academy going their own way and nominating the likes of Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild for Best Picture. One can only hope this is a sign of things to come.

• Tim Burton scored the second Oscar nomination of his career, and I’ll always be happy seeing him nominated, even if it is “only” for Best Animated Feature.

• Even though I didn’t quite love it as much as others did, I was really happy seeing Wes Anderson (and Roman Coppola) getting a screenplay nomination for Moonrise Kingdom.

• The same could be said for Aardman’s terribly-titled but very enjoyable The Pirates! Band of Misfits. I fully expected it to get nominated, but was still pleased to see it get in.

• Song nominees worth a damn. When they only managed to nominate two songs last year I thought the category should be scrapped altogether, but this year’s slate is actually pretty good, even if they left off a few more deserving contenders.

• The Best Actress category featuring the oldest- and youngest-ever nominees in Emmanuelle Riva and Quvenzhané Wallis is like a feelgood Hollywood movie in its own right.

THE BAD:

• The snubbing of Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow. Even if all the directors that were nominated are equally worthy, it’s hard not to feel for these two stumbling on the final stretch.

• I just don’t see what everyone else saw in Alan Arkin’s performance in Argo. He’s funny, gets a few great lines, but that’s it. There’s nothing even remotely substantial about his role, and there were many other far more worthy contenders left out.

• Another undeserving nominee would be Thomas Newman for Skyfall. I’ve always loved his scores in the past, but he was a real mismatch to score a James Bond movie and the result is pretty bland.

• Speaking of Skyfall, Judi Dench missing a Best Supporting Actress nomination stings considering she was the heart and soul of the movie.

• The Hobbit, for all its flaws, deserved much better than its three nominations. Production Design, Score and Song were just as worthy as anything that was nominated in those categories.

• Prometheus, another flawed film, also deserved better than its sole visual effects nomination. Ridley Scott knows how to put a film together, and I would’ve loved to see it grab a few more.

• Though all five Best Actor nominees strike me as very deserving, it’s hard not to feel for John Hawkes, who likely was sixth on the ballot and probably missed out mostly because he’s not well-known enough.

Read More...

Oscar 2013 nominees! Amour! Beasts! Shock, shock all around!

submit to reddit

PICTURE
Argo
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Amour!!!

Alt. Beasts of the Southern Wild!!!

DIRECTOR
Steven Spielberg
Ang Lee
Michael Haneke
Benh Zeitlin
Alt. David O. Russell!

Wow, DGA be damned. No Kathryn Bigelow! Benh Zeitlin AND Haneke surprise!!

ACTOR
Daniel Day Lewis
Hugh Jackman
Danzel Washington
Bradley Cooper
Joaquin Phoenix

ACTRESS
Jennifer Lawrence
Jessica Chastain
Naomi Watts
Emmanuelle Riva
Quvenzhané Wallis!!!

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin
Tommy Lee Jones
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Robert De Niro
Christoph Waltz

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams
Sally Field
Ann Hathaway
Helen Hunt
Jacki Weaver!
They really loved Playbook!

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Zero Dark Thirty
Moonrise Kingdom
Django Unchained
Amour
Flight

The Master got screwed!

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Lincoln
Argo
Silver Linings Playbook
Life of Pi
Beasts of the Southern Wild

EDITING
Zero Dark Thirty
Argo
Lincoln
Life of Pi
Silver Linings Playbook!!!
Wow, Playbook for EDITING? Really??

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Anna Karenina
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall
Alt. Django Unchained

ART DIRECTION / PRODUCTION DESIGN
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Les Misérables
Anna Karenina
The Hobbit

COSTUMES
Anna Karenina
Les Misérables
Lincoln
Mirror Mirror
Snow White and the Huntsman

The hobbit was snubbed! Maybe they think it's all recycled from the previous series?

SOUND MIXING
Lincoln
Skyfall
Les Misérables
Argo
Life of Pi

SOUND EDITING
Argo
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty
Django Unchained
Life of Pi

FOREIGN FILM FEATURE
Amour
No
Kon-Tiki
A Royal Affair
Alt. War Witch
No Intouchables!!

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Gatekeepers
Searching for Sugar Man
How to survive a plague
5 Broken Cameras
Alt. The invisible war

ANIMATED FEATURE
Brave
Frankenweenie
Paranorman
Pirates 
Wreck-It Ralph

VISUAL EFFECTS
The hobbit
The Avengers
Life of Pi
Prometheus
Snow White and the Huntsman

What is with Snow White showing up places?

MAKE UP and HAIRSTYLING
The hobbit
Les Miz
Hitchcock!

SCORE
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Anna Karenina
Skyfall

SONG
Skyfall
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Chasing Ice?
Ted

Read More...

Oscars 2013 Nominations Predictions!

submit to reddit

Oh thank goodness the interweb came crawling back, because I was without it for hours and thought this list would not happen! Tradition can not be thwarted! The nominations will be announced tomorrow morning, and once again I make predictions. I will also try to do live nominations, with the birds. This year is one of the trickiest years for Oscars predictions in, like, forever. My special guest, Grizzly, helpfully contributes (in purple?!).

*A special note for the Picture category - the rule is as follows:
"... all active and life members of the Academy who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five pictures. The pictures receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Best Picture award. There may not be more than ten nor fewer than five nominations; however, no picture shall be nominated that receives less than five percent of the total votes cast."

PICTURE
Argo
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Alt. Beasts of the Southern Wild

• Argo
• Django Unchained
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty

Alternate: Amour
Adding in the uncertainty of this year's weak flock of birds is the fact that the rule makes it so we could have a very unholy number of best picture nominees rather than a nice, even 5 or 10. So we're going for 7 here, and I may be kicking myself for not adding Skyfall. I'm torn, because Skyfall seems like a good bet, but a Bond movie for best picture sounds rather out of AMPAS' snuggie zone. So there's that. I have no horse in this race - my horse is not even galloping anywhere near the Oscar radar. It's too busy eating rainbows to bother with AMPAS gold? Loner, forever.

DIRECTOR
Ben Affleck
Steven Spielberg
Ang Lee
Kathryn Bigelow
Tom Hooper
Alt. David O. Russell
• Ben Affleck - Argo
• Kathryn Bigelow - Zero Dark Thirty
• Tom Hooper - Les Misérables
• Ang Lee - Life of Pi
• Steven Spielberg - Lincoln

Alternate: Quentin Tarantino - Django Unchained
The DGA is throwing Tom Hooper into the race for fun here, but what of Weinstein's clout to push one of his directors for a nomination? For now, I'm going with the DGA, but O. Russell may just make a break for it. Why not Quentin Tarantino, you say? Because ... I'm not feeling Django, man.

ACTOR
Daniel Day Lewis
Hugh Jackman
Danzel Washington
Bradley Cooper
Joaquin Phoenix
Alt. John Hawkes
• Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
• Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
• Hugh Jackman - Les Misérables
• Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
• Denzel Washington - Flight

Alternate: John Hawkes - The Sessions

I do have a horse in this race: Joaquin Phoenix!!!! Please let SAG be wrong. I haven't seen John Hawkes in The Sessions, but sight unseen I'm gonna take him out to make space for Joaquin. Or maybe Danzel could move aside to make room for both?

ACTRESS
Jennifer Lawrence
Jessica Chastain
Marion Cotillard
Naomi Watts
Emmanuelle Riva
Alt. Rachel Weisz
• Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
• Marion Cotillard - Rust and Bone
• Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
• Emmanuelle Riva - Amour
• Naomi Watts - The Impossible

Alternate: Rachel Weisz - The Deep Blue Sea

The only reason I'm sticking with Emmanuelle Riva, even though it doesn't really make sense (if you're nominating her, why don't you nominate the film?) is because I don't believe Deep Blue Sea has been seen by enough people. Heck, I hadn't even heard of it until her name started to pop up in the precursors. I'm pretty sure that if enough people had seen her in it, she'd get a nomination, simply because she's just such a darling and a beautiful actress and quite honestly if you don't love her you are made of drift wood.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin
Tommy Lee Jones
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Robert De Niro
Christoph Waltz

Alt. Leonardo DiCaprio
• Alan Arkin - Argo
• Robert De Niro - Silver Linings Playbook
• Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
• Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
• Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained

Alternate: Javier Bardem - Skyfall

I really hope one of the Django actors makes it in, and may that person be Christoph Waltz. What is Alan Arkin doing in this category? He really does not deserve a spot in this category this year. It's one of those names that got stuck in the precursors and just won't die.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams
Sally Field
Ann Hathaway
Helen Hunt
Nicole Kidman

Alt. Judi Dench
• Amy Adams - The Master
• Sally Field - Lincoln
• Anne Hathaway - Les Misérables
• Helen Hunt - The Sessions
• Nicole Kidman - The Paperboy

Alternate: Judi Dench - Skyfall

Maggie Smith did get a SAG nomination, but I'm thinking one should never underestimate the good will towards Dame Dench and the Bond blockbuster. It may just happen.


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Zero Dark Thirty
Moonrise Kingdom
Django Unchained
The master
Amour

Alt. Looper
• Amour
• Django Unchained
• The Master
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Zero Dark Thirty

Alternate: Looper

I have ordered my predix according to what I'm most sure with. After Moonrise Kingdom though, I have no clue if any of the rest would make it in. IT IS THAT UNCERTAIN.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Lincoln
Argo
Silver Linings Playbook
Life of Pi
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Alt. The perks of being a wallflower
• Argo
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Silver Linings Playbook

Alternate: Beasts of the Southern Wild

The fifth spot is really shakey, but Beasts, if it has any fan at all, will make an appearance here. AMPAS likes rewarding small indie movies in the writing category, out of pity.

EDITING
Zero Dark Thirty
Argo
Lincoln
Life of Pi
Les Misérables
Alt. Django Unchained
• Argo
• Django Unchained
• Les Misérables
• Lincoln
• Zero Dark Thirty

Alternate: Life of Pi

As much as I love Tarantino, Django's weakest aspect is its editing. I'm semi-voting here by leaving Django out, but also because I believe Life of Pi is way more popular than people give it credits for.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Anna Karenina
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall
Alt. Django Unchained
• Anna Karenina
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Skyfall

Alternate: Django Unchained

I'm just following the ASC nominations. Plus, they're all big guns. Hard to imagine them missing the bullet. Yeahhhhh that makes no dollar.

ART DIRECTION / PRODUCTION DESIGN
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Les Misérables
Anna Karenina
The Hobbit
Alt. The Master
• Anna Karenina
• Cloud Atlas
• The Hobbit
• Les Misérables
• Lincoln

Alternate: Django Unchained

There are many worthy nominees in this category, so we'll see how we're gonna fare comes tomorrow morning. The hobbit may not make it, though that would be a travesty.

COSTUMES
Anna Karenina
The hobbit
Les Misérables
Lincoln
Django Unchained
Alt. Cloud Atlas
• Anna Karenina
• The Hobbit
• Les Misérables
• Lincoln
• Mirror Mirror

Alternate: A Royal Affair

Django's entries: the KKK precursors' regal, and Django ridiculous blue get up. FTW!

SOUND MIXING
The hobbit
Lincoln
Skyfall
Les Misérables
Zero Dark Thirty
Alt. The Dark Knight Rises
• The Avengers
• Django Unchained
• The Hobbit
• Lincoln
• Skyfall

Alternate: Les Misérables

Thank you, precursors.

SOUND EDITING
Argo
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Les Misérables
Alt. The hobbit
• The Avengers
• Django Unchained
• The Hobbit
• Prometheus
• Skyfall

Alternate: Lincoln

No thank you, precursors.
FOREIGN FILM FEATURE
Amour
The Intouchables
No
Kon-Tiki
A Royal Affair
Alt. War Witch
• Amour (Austria)
• The Intouchables (France)
• No (Chile)
• A Royal Affair (Denmark)
• War Witch (Canada)

Alternate: Kon-Tiki (Norway)

Other than Amour, I don't know what else would be there. Surprise time!

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Gatekeepers
Searching for Sugar Man
How to survive a plague
Bully
Queen of Versailles
Alt. The invisible war
• Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
• The Gatekeepers
• How to Survive a Plague
• The Imposter
• Searching for Sugar Man

Alternate: This Is Not a Film

I have only heard of Queen of Versailles. This category last year was so random, I don't expect anything less confusing this time around.

ANIMATED FEATURE
Brave
Frankenweenie
Paranorman
Pirates
Wreck-It Ralph
Alt. Rise of the Guardians
• Brave
• Frankenweenie
• ParaNorman
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits
• Wreck-It Ralph

Alternate: A Liar’s Autobiography

So very weak sugar. There should really be only 3 nominees?

VISUAL EFFECTS
The hobbit
The Avengers
Life of Pi
Prometheus
The Dark Knight Rises
Alt. Skyfall
• The Avengers
• The Dark Knight Rises
• The Hobbit
• Life of Pi
• Prometheus

Alternate: Cloud Atlas

Life of Pi really has a chance of winning here. Skyfall could sneak in just for being well liked, in place of Prometheus. But that would be lame.

MAKE UP & HAIRSTYLING
The hobbit
Les Miz
Lincoln
Alt. Looper
• The Hobbit
• Lincoln
• Men in Black 3

Alternate: Looper

I'm laughing at my Looper alternate. I'm only putting it in because I remember how much the Academy likes prosthetic nose. It's pretty hard to miss the giant distraction that is JGL trying to look like Bruce Willis.

SCORE
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Anna Karenina
Brave
Alt. Cloud Atlas
• Anna Karenina
• Argo
• The Hobbit
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln

Alternate: Brave

I really can't remember any of these scores. Okay, maybe Life of Pi. And The Hobbit. Why am I putting Lincoln here? I work in such mysterious ways.

SONG
Skyfall
White Snow & the Huntsman
Les Misérables
Django Unchained
Life of Pi

Alt. Brave
• Brave
• Django Unchained
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Skyfall

Alternate: The Hunger Games

No Taylor Swift!!!! Ineligible! Ha!

Read More...

 

Recently Seen (out of *****)

  • One night in Miami (King, 2020) ***
  • Mank (Fincher, 2020) ***1/2
  • Coming 2 America (Brewer, 2021) **1/2
  • Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Wolfe, 2020) ***1/2
  • I care a lot (Blakeson, 2020) **

Copyright © 2016 Cinema Psychologia All rights reserved.
Converted To Blogger Template by Anshul Theme By- WooThemes