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, March 1st, 2010
Review:
A US Army bomb squad in Iraq loses its leader and his replacement turns out to be less concerned with rules and safety and more with the adrenalin rush of disarming bombs. The film follows their and especially his story in 2004 Iraq in a combination of action thriller and character study. Both parts are not perfect, but the combination is intriguing, with many suspenseful scenes as well as some interesting insights into the human psyche. Sadly, the film is less of a coherent story and more of a series of anecdotes, thus preventing any real connection with the protagonists and their situation.
Random Observations:
The Hurt Locker at the IMDb
Seventh of the ten Best Picture Oscar nominees I have seen and so far the only one who even remotely deserves that award.
The film has been criticized much both for its lack in realism (apparently, there are numerous mistakes in clothing, equipment and bomb disarming technique) and for it’s stand on the Iraq War (or as I like to call it: Vietnam II). Both criticisms completely miss the point: the depiction of war as hell (at least for most soldiers) is realistic even if they have the wrong guns and the film does not take a stand on the justification of the war at all.
Tags: 2008, action movie, American Film, Anthony Mackie, Barrie Rice, Brian Geraghty, Christian Camargo, Christopher Sayegh, David Morse, Drama, english, Evangeline Lilly, Feisal Sadoun, Guy Pearce, Jeremy Renner, Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Nabil Koni, Oscar, Ralph Fiennes, Sam Redford, Sam Spruell, Suhail Al-Dabbach, The Hurt Locker, Thriller, war movie
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Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Review:
There are very few films that are very good and yet could easily be much better. This film, with the whole plot in the much too long, but also extremely awesome title, is one of them. The film is incredibly beautiful with one of the best scores I can remember. The whole cast is superb, with Casey Affleck in the titular role of Robert Ford standing out. And the story of the disillusionment with a hero and how Ford was viewed after his actions is pretty good as well. But the voice-over narration here, always a sign of lazy story-telling, is incredibly stupid - I can see that he is drinking out of the water glass, I don’t need to be told as well - and the story focuses too much on Jesse James and too little on Robert Ford and especially the events after the assassination, that are the truly interesting, yet here are only shown as an epilogue of sorts. It’s still a good film, but it could easily have been a great one and I can’t help but think of it as a missed opportunity.
Random Observations:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford at imdb.com
Casey Affleck is the younger brother of Ben Affleck and unlike him a very good actor, who manages to surprise me every time I see him. I can especially recommend Gone Baby Gone, which Ben directed.
For the whole movie I wondered where I had seen Paul Schneider before. Turns out, he was the older brother in Lars and the Real Girl, another excellent film.
I will stop talking about other movies now.
The score is by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. I didn’t know that Nick Cave did movie scores, only knowing him as a rock musician. It is honestly awesome.
I have decided that the Western is a genre which I should like and become more acquainted with. So expect more reviews of Westerns, both classics and modern day ones, in the future.
Tags: 2007, Alison Elliott, American Film, Andrew Dominik, Ben Affleck, biography, book adaptation, Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, crime movie, Drama, english, Garret Dillahunt, Gone Baby Gone, history movie, Hugh Ross, Jeremy Renner, Jesse James, Mary-Louise Parker, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Nick Cave, Paul Schneider, Ron Hansen, Sam Rockwell, Sam Shepard, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, true story, Warren Ellis, Western, Zooey Deschanel
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