Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Award Season is Crazy Season. If you follow these things at all, you have been bombarded by information about the superiority of one film above another for months now. If you blissfully ignore all that stuff, you might even not have heard that a producer on The Hurt Locker is in trouble for trying to convince Academy voters to vote for his film instead of Avatar. His crime: sending an e-mail to his friends. Yes, things are crazy. So it is a good thing that with the Oscar telecast on Sunday, Award Season will be over. Until May or so, when the first discussions for next year’s favourites and winners will begin once more.
But before the Oscars, the most important of all the meaningless awards, are handed out on Sunday, it is time for my annual Oscar predictions. Last year, I picked 19 of the 24 winners. This year, let’s try to improve on that. But unlike last year, this year I actually feel like I am entitled to my own opinion, having seen 20 of the 58 animated films, 18 of the 38 feature films, and actually having seen all nominated films in three categories. So not only will I now predict the Oscar winners as promised, I will also tell you who should win. (Yes, my opinion constitutes objective truth in these matters.) The following list is ordered rather randomly and incomplete, an alphabetical and complete breakdown of all categories and predictions follows at the end.
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Tags: 2009, 2010, A Matter of Loaf and Death, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Aardman Animations, Ajami, Alessandro Camon, An Education, Anastasia Masaro, Anna Kendrick, Armando Iannucci, Avatar, award season, Bob Peterson, Carey Mulligan, Caroline Smith, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Plummer, Coen Brothers, Colin Firth, Coraline, Crazy Heart, Das Weisse Band, Dave Warren, Disney, District 9, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, english, Ethan Coen, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Faubourg 36, Gabourey Sidibe, Geoffrey Fletcher, George Clooney, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Helen Mirren, Henry Selick, In the Loop, Inglourious Basterds, Instead of Abracadabra, Invictus, James Cameron, Jason Reitman, Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, Jesse Armstrong, Joel Coen, Kathry Bigelow, La teta asustade, Lee Daniels, Logorama, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Marion Cotillard, Mark Boal, Matt Damon, Mauro Fiore, Meryl Streep, Mo'Nique, Morgan Freeman, Movies, Neill Blomkamp, Nick Hornby, Nine, Oren Moverman, Oscar, Paris 36, Penélope Cruz, Pete Doctor, Pixar, Precious, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, Quentin Tarantino, Randy Newman, Sandra Bullock, Sheldon Turner, Sherlock Holmes, Simon Blackwell, Stanley Tucci, Star Trek, T-Bone Burnett, Terri Tatchell, The Blind Side, The Door, The Hurt Locker, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Messenger, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells, The White Ribbon, Tom McCarthy, Tony Roche, Un Prophète, Up, Up in the Air, Vera Farmiga, Wallace & Gromit, Wes Anderson, Woody Harrelson
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Monday, November 30th, 2009
Review:
Based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel, the film tells the story of a gay professor in the early 1960s, who can’t get over the death of his long-term boyfriend and decides to kill himself, only to experience his last day all the more vividly. Designer Tom Ford’s (formerly of Gucci and Yves Saint-Laurent fame) first film tackles a difficult topic with style, but sadly, little else. The film focuses to often on merely aesthetic elements, forgetting the story. Nevertheless, it is an interesting film with fine performances, especially by lead Colin Firth, who manages the balancing act between the suicidal and depressed presence with numerous flashbacks seemingly effortlessly.
Random Observations:
A Single Man at the IMDb
Nicholas Hoult plays a student of Firth’s with a strong interest in both his subject and person. But while his American accent is not nearly as atrocious as in The Weather Man, he is still noticeably British.
One of those annoying, since employed unsuccessfully, artistic quirks of the film is that whenever Firth encounters someone or something that connects him to life, the almost monochrome picture is suddenly vividly coloured. This is a nice idea, but results in a lot of people looking orange.
The film pays incredibly attention to a detailed re-enactment of the time it is set. The art director, set designers and costume people did an impeccable job.
Another film I saw at the Oslo Film Festival.
Tags: 2009, A Single Man, Adam Gray-Hayward, American Film, book adaptation, Christopher Isherwood, Colin Firth, David Scearce, Drama, english, Ginnifer Goodwin, Julianne Moore, Keri Lynn Pratt, Lee Pace, Matthew Goode, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Nicholas Hoult, Oslo Film Festival, Paulette Lamori, Ryan Simpkins, The Weather Man, Tom Ford
Posted in Minute Movie Reviews, Movie Reviews, Movies | No Comments »
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