Nazi Julie Andrews

Man of Steel + Before Midnight Reviews

2013-06-16T23:09:11Z

Well at least there's this asshole...

Man of Steel

Pros:

1. Henry Cavill - not only was he extremely delicious but he did a great job as Clark/Superman. A character like this would've suffered had they gotten a super actor-y guy like Christian Bale for the part. Cavill was just a natural, his sincerity came off as genuine and charming, his physical presence is just ridiculous and he makes for a very very likable Clark Kent. I have a lot of confidence in how he will handle the role in sequels. Unfortunately he wasn't allowed to shine as much as he could have because the screenplay just doesn't have much life to it. There were also moments when I swore he looked exactly like Reeves, it was a bit scary. I grew up on the Reeves film, Superman was my favorite superhero by far, so I was very happy to see Cavill do this role justice.

2. The Dads and Martha Kent - Other than Clark Kent, the two more important and well-written characters were Jor-El and Jonathan Kent. Both Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner bring fantastic warmth and command to their roles, despite somewhat thin writing. Plus Crowe's accent at least helped mask how terrible the dialogue was at times. Diane Lane was also very good as Martha; the old make up maybe a little unconvincing at times but the scene at the school with Clark hiding in the janitor's closet was very strong.

3. The 1st half of the film - I really liked the early parts, other than the Krypton parts that was a little too long and got bogged down by nonsense. The stuff with Clark as a child, trying to balance his identity, fitting in, etc. That was some good stuff. The young actor was quite good and it also gives us the only truly powerful moment which is the school bus scene. I personally find the best Superman moments to be when he performs amazing feats to save people. I don't really have that much interest in seeing him punch other superpeople 50 feet over and over again. The "wow" factor of Superman to me is when he's lifting the oil rig so the workers can get to safety or Christopher Reeves catching that helicopter.

4. A lot of potential for a great sequel - This is a very talented cast, you have a perfectly cast Superman and the production team is the cream of the crop. I'm still not a huge fan of Snyder's action style but whatever, I don't particularly blame him for this. All it needs is a stronger screenplay next time around and you could have a true masterpiece.

5. The trailer - If there was an oscar for best marketing, this movie would win. The trailer was amazing but unfortunately pretty much contained all the good parts of the film.

Cons:

1. Goyer's writing - This one is really unforgivable. There is absolutely no reason why they couldn't have done a re-write on this awful script. Just get Jonathan Nolan with this thing in a room for 2 hours and you'd probably get a pretty decent result. As it is though, Goyer's writing is truly amateur. He's a okay ideas man, I do like some of the themes and motifs going on here but holy shit does his dialogue suck. It has no wit, no life, it's literally just to get the plot moving, it doesn't give us much character development. There's nothing memorable about this script at all. It tried very hard to be Nolan-esque but it fails. You need an actual Nolan to write this thing, not a cheap knock-off!

2. Lois Lane - I love Lois/Clark. As I said, I grew up on the old Superman films and the animated series and that Lois & Clark show with Terri Hatcher and Dean Cain. This is one of my favorite relationships. That said, I felt like this movie wasn't quite ready for Lois yet. It's Superman's origin story and I just felt like Lois should've waited for the next film. What I loved about the Lois/Clark relationship was the duality between their kind of screwball relationship as fellow reporters contrasted with Lois' swooning of Superman. I do think this film would've benefited from using Lana Lang first, sort of like the Gwen Stacy of the series. It certainly would've connected the childhood flashbacks better instead of how they used Lois in this film. With Lois, the romance suffers a lot from "too little/too fast", which is like what happened with Thor/Jane as well. I see a spark there but I'm not seeing epic love like the movie wants us to believe. I think Adams does a good job with what she's given but it's again one of those roles where you wonder why this great actress is doing in such a thankless part. The character development is very thin even for the most important characters so it's very hard to judge the chemistry between her and Cavill. It's very different from what we're used to seeing with Lois/Clark but I can't really make a call until they actually gives us some real meat to this relationship.

3. The villains - This is more of a "meh" for me cause I do love Michael Shannon and the actress who played his sidekick was honestly quite good and a real highlight, but yeah, I found the whole villain thing to be dull and senseless. I did like that he had a real motive for once but so much of it just didn't make a shred of sense to me. The final battle was anti-climatic and I also felt like at no point was the villain truly in danger of being in control and getting what he wanted.

4. The action - I really hate this type of action. I felt like it was just one crumbling building after another and they were just going down like they were sandcastles, and then Superman's fighting these giant tentacle things in the ocean that just bored the living crap out of me and then there's a bunch of fights between Superman and the other Kryptonians that just get dull and desensitizing after a few minutes. It also felt like it had no sense of real space. It looked like a bunch of guys in front of a green screen rolling around. It didn't have any weight of the real world behind it. There wasn't a single cheer-worthy moment. I mean, look at it this way. The Avengers had overblown action scenes too but that final battle had so much character development, was fun, witty and took the time to use its character in the right way. When the Hulk shows up and is in control and kicks some serious ass, you were totally swept up in the moment. I was just bored with these action scenes cause there was no creativity, it was like every other disaster movie where a major city gets destroyed and apparently all the people have magically cleared out of the city so the building can come down without having to deal with death on a massive scale.

5. Product placement overload - Smallville has gone full retail! There's not 1, not 2 but 3 fights that take place at retail venues! An IHOP, a 7/11 and a Sears. Yep. I mean at least in one of the Donner films when Superman crashed into a Coca Cola sign, it was actually kind of fun but this was just ridiculous. I couldn't even take the movie seriously at that point.

6. Hans Zimmer's score - This was very disappointing, especially after that amazing trailer score, I thought we were going to get more of that in the film. Nope, that theme does not even show up until the end credits and all we're left with in the film is a bunch of rehashed Batman themes.

Overall, I'm kind of neutral on Snyder's direction cause my big problem was with the screenplay so I can't really blame Snyder for having to work with this piece of shit writing. I really applaud all the actors for giving it their 100% and having to deliver these awful lines. I am still glad it's doing very well at the box office and I hope they can find a better balance between action and character development in the sequels. But seriously, get rid of Goyer asap. Grade: C+/B-

Before Midnight

I'm not even doing a pro/con list cause this movie is all pros. lol. Easily the best film of the year, no contest. If you had any attachment at all to this series, this movie will be a delightful emotional roller coaster ride. Hawke and Delpy have literally inhabited these characters so well that it's probably become second nature. There may be a few controversial points but I found them to be very effective. The location is beautiful, the screenplay completely charming and believable, and I did enjoy the other characters in the film as well besides Jesse and Celine. Grade: A+

Oscah

2013-02-25T23:13:34Z

Oscar Recaps + Review 2013

Anne Hathaway can't believe she didn't think of falling down.#Oscars
-Ethan Suplee

Wow, I don't think we've actually had a good Oscar show in many years. Granted, the job of hosting has pretty much turned into the least desirable job in Hollywood so it kind of cuts down on the potential pool of talent. I mean, who's going to want this job? The only people who would take it are people who have nothing to lose by it and basically don't care. MacFarlane is pretty much what you get. He's more known for being a behind the scenes guy anyways so he really has no image to protect and the audience for his shows/movies don't really care about stuff like this. That said, the only bit that was honestly offensive and not just tumblr's faux social justice people overreacting was the boobs song and the Zero Dark Thirty joke. The rest of his jokes ranged from okay to awkward but was hardly atypical for award shows. It's stuff that's been on Ricky Gervais' roster and even more venerable hosts like Steve Martin and Billy Crystal for years. The most offensive part of the night was the fucking Jaws music playing people off the stage. Why not just let people have their moment instead of 10 musical performances that no one will even remember the next day.

The problem with this show was that it was totally boring. The organization of the musical performances made no sense, like why not just have Adele come out and perform during the Bond tribute. The musical tribute was also just random, like who the fuck cares that Chicago won 10 years ago? I'm still trying to erase that from my memory that it beat The Pianist lol. And One Day More was awful. Poorly timed, off key, pretty much terrible other than Barks and Tveit. Catherine Zeta Jones was fine but so obviously lip-syncing. Jennifer Hudson was the only knock-out performance (and of course Babs and Shirley, singing better at 70 than everyone else).

The winners. I did ok in my predictions but like many pundits, I let my love for Riva's performance color my judgment. I just honestly cannot fathom how someone can watch Amour and think yep, Jennfier Lawrence was better. Which means I do think the reports of many refusing to watch Amour were probably accurate despite its popularity with BAFTA. Unfortunate because I think that performance will easily be remembered more. The other surprise was Christoph Waltz, not a complete surprise since he won BAFTA and GG but somewhat odd since he won so recently for a very similar performance. And I think the only other shock was the tie.. which I did not predict either ZDT or Skyfall so that was truly a big shock. Everything else, pretty much what was expected. Overall, not a bad year, especially compared to the mediocrity that was last year but not stellar either. Lawrence is pretty middle of the road in terms of Best Actress winners, better than Witherspoon, Berry and Bullock, but no where near the upper echelon of Cotillard, Theron and Mirren.

I do think Wreck-it-Ralph got shafted. It was a much better film than Brave, which I found to be sloppy, but a movie about videogames was unlikely to beat a more classy Pixar entry. And I also preferred Adam and Dog to Paperman but was not shocked at the loss. And Amy Adams, poor thing, she was so much better than Hathaway but it's just never her year. I was very happy to see QT win original screenplay instead of Mark Boal, a little payback for 2009. Kushner really deserved adapted but Terrio gave a really nice speech and I think Lincoln just became the DDL movie that they didn't feel the need to reward it anywhere else. Ang Lee winning director was great, since the worldwide success of Life of Pi really has to be attributed to his direction. It's really amazing that its made over a half a billion dollars with such an unmarketable story and no star power. Haneke needs to win sometime, cause technically the foreign film Oscar belongs to Austria. I think he will get something eventually as long as his film isn't quite as disturbing as Funny Games or Cache. Once you're in the club, it's so much easier to get back. As for Argo, again, I think it's a pretty middle-of-the-road winner. Very obvious that after 2 years of awarding inconsequential feel-good fare like The King's Speech and The Artist (and before than, Slumdog) that they would continue the trend. Argo is at least better directed and technically superior to both TKS and The Artist but will it be remembered? Probably more for its bizarre snub and its crazy award season run than anything else, although it will definitely be remembered as a huge moment for Ben Affleck's career and I fully expect the Academy to feel guilty and give him the Oscar for whatever his next movie is.

Overall, the show had a few exciting moments but mostly fell into predictability. I wonder if Tina Fey will ever accept the hosting gig now that 30 Rock is over but I have a feeling that this job has become so toxic that it probably won't happen.

Oh and fashion-wise, a lot of boring looks, a few good ones and one or two stunners. Naomi Watts' Armani Prive was gorgeous, as was Charlize Theron's Dior (so much better than Lawrence's Dior, which clearly she could not handle lol). Also liked Amanda Seyfried in McQueen. Chastain didn't look bad but she really stuck to the boring usual this time. At least it wasn't a trainwreck.

Final Oscar Predictions

2013-01-09T18:14:05Z

It's tomorrow morning but sadly I'm busy literally all day so I won't be able to post any reactions on tumblr, but I figure I might as well do my predictions finally. Now we finally have BAFTA noms, which were a little surprising but this year in general has been crazy cause of the condensed schedule. I don't think they've ever announced so many nominations in such a short period of time before. Luckily I've seen pretty much all the main contenders except for the documentaries and shorts. I'm done with all the feature films and possible acting nominations!

Best Picture
01. Argo
02. Lincoln
03. Zero Dark Thirty
04. Life of Pi
05. Silver Lining's Playbook
06. Les Miserables
07. Django Unchained
----
08. The Master
09. Beasts of the Southern Wild
10. Amour

Best Directing
01. Ben Affleck
02. Steven Spielberg
03. Kathryn Bigelow
04. Ang Lee
05. Michael Haneke
alt: Paul Thomas Anderson, David O. Russell, Tom Hooper

Best Actor in a Leading Role
01. Daniel Day-Lewis
02. Hugh Jackman
03. Bradley Cooper
04. John Hawkes
05. Joaquin Phoenix
alt: Denzel Washington

Best Actress in a Leading Role
01. Jennifer Lawrence
02. Jessica Chastain
03. Marion Cotillard
04. Naomi Watts
05. Emmanuelle Riva
alt: Helen Mirren, Quevenzhane Wallis

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
01. Tommy Lee Jones
02. Alan Arkin
03. Philip Seymour Hoffman
04. Christoph Waltz
05. Leonardo DiCaprio
alt: Javier Bardem, Matthew McConaughey

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
01. Anne Hathaway
02. Sally Field
03. Helen Hunt
04. Amy Adams
05. Nicole Kidman
alt: Maggie Smith, Ann Dowd

Best Original Screenplay
01. Django Unchained
02. Zero Dark Thirty
03. The Master
04. Moonrise Kingdom
05. Amour
alt: Looper

Best Adapted Screenplay
01. Lincoln
02. Silver Lining's Playbook
03. Life of Pi
04. Argo
05. Beasts of the Southern Wild
alt: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Best Animated Feature
01. Frankenweenie
02. Wreck-It-Ralph
03. Paranorman
04. Brave
05. The Painting
alt: Rise of the Guardians

Best Foreign Language Film
01. Amour
02. The Intouchables
03. A Royal Affair
04. War Witch
05. Kon-Tiki
alt: Beyond the Hills

Best Documentary Feature
01. The Gatekeepers
02. How to Survive a Plague
03. The Invisible War
04. Searching for Sugar Man
05. The Waiting Room

Best Music (Original Score)
01. Life of Pi
02. Anna Karenina
03. Lincoln
04. Beasts of the Southern Wild
05. Zero Dark Thirty
alt: Argo

Best Music (Original Song)
01. "Skyfall", Skyfall
02. "Suddenly", Les Miserables
03. "Who Did That to You", Django Unchained
04. "Learn Me Right", Brave
05. "Still Alive," Paul Williams Still Alive
alt: "Ancora Qui," Django Unchained

Best Film Editing
01. Zero Dark Thirty
02. Argo
03. Life of Pi
04. Lincoln
05. Django Unchained
alt: Silver Lining's Playbook

Best Cinematography
01. Life of Pi
02. Lincoln
03. Skyfall
04. The Master
05. Django Unchained
alt: Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Art Direction
01. Anna Karenina
02. Lincoln
03. Django Unchained
04. Les Miserables
05. The Hobbit
alt: Moonrise Kingdom

Best Costume Design
01. Anna Karenina
02. A Royal Affair
03. Les Miserables
04. Lincoln
05. Django Unchained
alt: Snow White and the Huntsman

Best Makeup
01. The Hobbit
02. Hitchcock
03. Men in Black 3

Best Sound Mixing
01. Django Unchained
02. Lincoln
03. Les Misérables
04. Skyfall
05. Zero Dark Thirty

Best Sound Editing
01. The Dark Knight Rises
02. Django Unchained
03. Life of Pi
04. Skyfall
05. Zero Dark Thirty

Best Visual Effects
01. Life of Pi
02. Skyfall
03. The Dark Knight Rises
04. The Hobbit
05. The Avengers
alt: Prometheus

Goodbye 2012!!

2013-01-02T03:18:14Z

Finally decided to compile a list of favorites for the year. There's still some stuff I haven't seen yet but I doubt any of them would crack my Top 10 anyways!

Top Films of 2012

The Master by Paul Thomas Anderson

Amour by Michael Haneke

Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson

Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino

Wuthering Heights by Andrea Arnold

A Royal Affair by Nikolaj Arcel

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Barbara by Christian Petzold

Looper by Rian Johnson

Holy Motors by Leos Carax

Best Male Performances
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Denis Lavent, Holy Motors
Jack Black, Bernie
Mikkel Følsgaard, A Royal Affair
Jean Louis-Trintignant, Amour
Logan Lerman, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Eddie Redmayne, Les Miserables
Jude Law, Anna Karenina
Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Samuel L. Jackson, Django Unchained

Best Female Performances
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Nina Hoss, Barbara
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone
Noomi Rapace, Prometheus
Alicia Vikander, A Royal Affair & Anna Karenina
Kara Hayward, Moonrise Kingdom
Deanie Yip, A Simple Life
Amy Adams, The Master
Emily Blunt, Looper
Samantha Barks, Les Miserables
Quevenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master (Runner up: Michael Haneke, Amour)
Best Original Screenplay: Django Unchained & Moonrise Kingdom
Best Adapted Screenplay: Lincoln (Runner up: The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
Best Production Design: Django Unchained (Runner up: Anna Karenina)
Best Cinematography: Life of Pi (Runner up: The Master)
Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina (Runner up: A Royal Affair)
Best Editing: The Master (Runner up: Skyfall)
Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi (Runner up: The Dark Knight Rises)
Best Original Score: Anna Karenina (Runner up: Beasts of the Southern Wild)
Best Original Song: "Who did that to you?" by John Legend, Django Unchained (Runner up: "Skyfall" by Adele, Skyfall)
Best Animated Film: Wreck-it Ralph (Runner up: Frankenweenie)
Best Comedy: Bernie
Best Action Movie: Skyfall
Best Villain: Leonardo DiCaprio & Samuel L. Jackson, Django Unchained

Vote!

2012-03-06T22:40:16Z

So March Madness has started! But I'm not terribly invested in the prelims cause most of my favorites are either cruising to victory or don't really have a shot. So whatever. But after the prelims it's game on cause Alice Morgan and Omar Little need to go ALL THE WAY. I mean, come on, Omar is Barack Obama's favorite character. I like that they added a whole slew of better fandoms this year cause I was getting really sick of seeing Dawson's Creek. I love that the ladies are getting so much support right now but I feel like this happens every year in the early rounds. Everyone's all GIRL POWER but then somehow it fades away and dudes win anyways. But it's nice to see Arya vs. Sansa vs. Dany for Game of Thrones as opposed to the terribly obvious Tyrion winning everything.

(LOOK AT THIS LEVEL OF FLAWLESSNESS)

For the folks who are more movie-inclined, I have an Oscar 2012 version of March Madness going on at thankyouacademy. You basically vote for your favorite characters but instead of shows, they're from the major Oscar nominated movies of the year. Last year I did a Best Picture winners tournament but there was huge bias for more recent movies (Return of the King came out on top). This year I think it'll be more of a fair match-up cause all the movies are from 2011. My teams at the moment are Ernest Hemingway (Midnight in Paris), Helen Harris (Bridesmaids), Celia Foote (The Help), Rene Tabard (Hugo), George Smiley (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), and obviously Lisbeth Salander. And... no one from The Iron Lady. GO VOTE!

Meryl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2012-02-27T22:26:21Z

This is my obligatory post-Oscar recap, not terribly coherent but as Meryl says "whatever". Also lots of fashion.

THE SHOW

I thought it was a pretty okay show, nothing terribly exciting but also not nearly as bad as the train wrecks that were the last two years. Billy Crystal mostly played it safe, which I guess is why you hire the guy. He's reliable and won't ruffle too many feathers but he's a reassuring presence on the Oscar stage. His Oscar medley was definitely not as good as his previous ones, and I suspect a lot of younger viewers who don't even remember the last time Billy Crystal hosted were probably like wtf is this. To be perfectly honest, the funniest thing he did was when they hauled out that enormous over-the-top sheet music prop for Best Score and he was like "ehhh". The joke itself is nothing special but his delivery killed it, as well as the part when he made fun of the Academy president for being stiff.

The opening pre-taped segment also wasn't his best, but I was dying when George showed up and lol the kiss. The other pre-taped segment about the Wizard of Oz was pretty hilarious though. And his recurring jokes about the Kodak theater were pretty good too (haha "chapter 11 theater"). Cirque du Soleil was pretty cool too, but I'm still confused as to their purpose here. Of course, with only 2 Best Song nominees, it was probably for the best that they got rid of the performances. The "what are they thinking" segment wasn't as good as his previous ones either, although I liked the Morgan Freeman one. But really, I think Billy Crystal has done this so many times that nothing will ever stack up some of his past hosting gigs.

As for the presenters, Emma Stone seemed like she was mocking Anne Hathaway with her overly perky attitude but it actually worked cause she's so adorable. I have no idea why they continue having the lead acting presenters do that thing where they pretend like they know the nominees personally but it's really just awkward for everyone. I mean, at least Colin made it work cause he does know some of them but holy mother of god Portman was horribly unconvincing and I was cringing through most of it.

THE WINNERS

I started off the night doing pretty well in my predictions, but then I missed Film Editing and it all went downhill. Undefeated winning documentary was big surprise cause honestly, I thought that movie was just like The Blind Side but a doc. But I guess it is probably the most uplifting and emotional of the bunch, but most of the time, they go for hard-hitting political in this category. I did predict Saving Face winning because I've only seen two in the short doc category, and that one was really really good and emotional. I'm a little mad that Rise of the Planet of the Apes lost Visual Effects cause honestly, those CGI apes were so amazing. But I get it, Hugo is the bigger horse in the overall race. Harry Potter fans need to get over it though cause when your franchise has been shut out for the past 10 years, why on earth would you expect anything? LOL. Don't even get me started on the crazies.

Of course, the big win everyone's talking about is Meryl! I honestly couldn't be happier to see Meryl finally win a 3rd Oscar, even if The Iron Lady wasn't a great movie. I still thought she was fantastic in it and it really was about time for her to win again. My personal favorite performance in the category was Michelle Williams, but it was a pretty weak slate of nominees. It's not like Meryl robbed a truly great and timeless performance here. And people need to stop overblowing Viola Davis' loss as some huge hit to her career. Winning an Oscar usually hurts more than helps anyways, and Davis was already in TWO of the best picture films this year. I'd rather see her rack up loads of nominations but have a great career than win right away and suffer the curse like many Best Actress winners.

Everything else was fairly predictable. Christopher Plummer was once again, classy and hilarious. Jean Dujardin was a charming goofball and I love that he paid tribute to Douglas Fairbanks. Meryl was flawless and spazzy as always. So pretty much your typical award show. But I loved Asghar Farhadi's speech when A Separation won, probably the most well-deserved win of the night (I had just watched Monsiuer Lazar and it seemed right up their alley and I was a little scared of that one pulling a crazy upset).

THE FASHION

My favorite is probably a tie between Jessica Chastain's McQueen and Penelope Cruz's Armani. They were both so elegant and classy, and their styling worked perfectly. Jessica's McQueen dress was so stunning and the detailing is beautiful, and I love that her hair, make-up and accessories were simple to avoid over-doing it. And Penelope just look gorgeous, like a Spanish Grace Kelly. The hair was perfect (so weird seeing her with shorter hair though) and the jewels. Perfect throwback to Old Hollywood.

Michelle Williams in Louis Vuitton is one I almost loved but didn't quite. I think cause of that little extra tu-tu layer. But it's a very playful and cute dress, which suits her style and personality but it just had a little too much around the hips that made it unflattering. Angelina Jolie was in Versace again, and ever since I saw that manip it's a little hard to take it seriously now. LOL. It's simply and sexy, which is typical Angie but the leg jutting out was kind of too prominent. Emma Stone's Giambattista Valli looks nearly identical to that red Balenciaga Nicole Kidman wore a few years ago and I think Emma is too young to be wearing something like that. On the flip side, Natalie Portman's Dior dress was too young and cutesy for her, and gave me Minnie Mouse vibes. Also, I don't like the hair.

As for Gwyneth's infamous cape dress by Tom Ford, I would've liked it more if the shoulders on the cape weren't so pointy. This silhouette just gives off a sci-fi feel, hence all the Gandalf and Princess Leia comparisons. Meryl's gold Lanvin needed a better fit, but the color was great and apparently it was good luck too! Berenice Bejo in Elie Saab was a little too safe and boring to be honest. It's a perfectly nice dress, but it doesn't quite work with her hair color and it doesn't stand out. Same with Kristen Wiig, perfectly nice dress but doesn't pop out on the red carpet. Viola Davis in Vera Wang I think popped out a little too much, especially in the bust area. It's a great color on her, but should've had a more conservation bust line. This is the Oscars and she's an older woman. You don't need to show that much cleavage here. Finally we have Rooney Mara in Givenchy and this dress just does not work on her. The boobs are just weird looking and the Spock hair needs to go. This is a very light and feminine dress, and the hair just takes away from everything.

happy presidents day!

2012-02-20T21:31:13Z

(+) Oscar simulation results have been posted. (click the banner) Thanks to everyone who voted this year! It seems like this year, your tastes are pretty much in line with the Oscars.

(+) I caught up on some TV lately and marathoned The New Girl cause I was bored. I actually like it so far, it's cute and pretty funny. From what I was hearing, I thought the Zooey Deschanel schtick would be too much but even though it is kind of a continuation of her typical persona, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was more Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky, though I realize that performance was not universally loved, than like another (500) Days of Summer situation. Like she is genuinely an optimistic dork and that feels true to the character, rather than making her into a MPDG and using her quirkiness and free-spirited nature to advance the emotional arc of a man. Anyways, so far it's pretty cute and harmless. As for ships, I'm not really sure yet cause while I like the guys' friendship with Jess, I also like their actual love interests. So as of now, I'm not really shipping Jess with anyone. I kind of like that it's not doing a typical sit-com route where there's like immediate sexual tension between two characters that culminates in something happening in the first season finale and so forth. At least so far, it doesn't seem like it's going there.

GOSSIP GIRL

Wow, I never in a million years thought they would actually go for Dan/Blair in a serious way. There's still hoards of very very aggressive Chair fans, even though Dair shippers are coming closer in terms of numbers. I just never though Dair would actually become a legit thing. But honestly, I loved how they handled everything except for the Dan as the leaker thing. It's so obvious that they're going to tease Dair for a while, but then use that revelation as a way to break them up and get her back with Chuck or something. Ugh, it's just stupid and doesn't make any sense for Dan to be the leaker. Why would it even benefit him to reveal to the world that Blair still loves Chuck? If anything, it would've driven Blair back with Chuck, assuming it ruined her wedding to Louis. That just doesn't make any sense, unless he was doing it to get Chuck and Blair back together so she could be "happy" like the bogus excuse Serena made. Plus, Dan enabling Gossip Girl in any way just seems off. He just doesn't have that kind of manipulative ability in him.

But everything else, OMG PERFECT. The build-up from the last episode was really good. Blair really needed to understand that she was taking him for granted before she could possibly come to terms with her feelings for him. I liked that she was genuinely interested in his happiness this time, just like he's been about her for the past few months. I do think re-inserting Serena into the mix is a bit overdone though. It was already clear from Dan's book that he was over Serena and knew that they weren't really good for each other. But I guess it's an interesting way to bring back the Blair vs. Serena rivalry. Hopefully it gets handled better this time.

Honestly, the less we see of Chuck, the happier I am. Not that he's been terrible lately or anything (I think he's perfectly enjoyable as a side character with a few one liners), but just the show's total willingness to let him off the hook for some REALLY gross and awful things he's done in the past still bothers me. It took the show like several seasons to address the fact that he attempted to rape Jenny at one point, and even then, it was like one episode and he's forgiven. I don't necessarily need him to like suffer immensely and get served punishment for his past deeds, but I would really like for Blair to acknowledge the horrible things he's done and understand that it's not healthy, instead of declaring her undying love for him every other week. It really weakens her character when she acts like that with Chuck because seriously, he actually physically harmed her at one point. Anyways, it's annoying enough when fandom makes excuses for sketchy male characters and sometimes that's not the fault of the show writers, but it's just fandom being idiots about "hot" guys, but when the show does it, it just drives me insane.

SMASH

So I stuck with this cause I'm pretty much giving up on Glee, and I think the second episode was better than the pilot. I still find the acting from McPhee to be very sketchy and unconvincing at times, but the drama is building in a nice way, and the other actors are pretty good. The one thing I can't stand is that the show is clearly trying to get us to be on Team Karen, because you know, she's the nice small town girl, while Ivy is the "slutty" one who slept with the director and what not. It's like this virgin/whore dynamic that's off-putting. I honestly don't find either of them to be very convincing as Marilyn, but at least they showed Ivy's acting audition scene where she almost came close to getting it. They didn't even show Karen's audition when she (presumably) did a good job, they just showed the crappy audition where she wasn't doing anything. And the entire logic of someone being "too prepared" for the role feels weird cause holy crap, if you're gonna play Marilyn Monroe, you do not just go into blindly and make it up on the spot. That's a role you do a shit ton of research for. Michelle Williams worked her butt off preparing for that role and that's kind of what needs to be done.

Ivy getting the part at this point makes more sense. A newbie like Karen needs to understudy for a while before carrying a huge show like this. I don't know why they didn't just do that. But I'm pretty sure something will happen that will put Karen back in the running (maybe people find out about Ivy sleeping with the director? although I'm not sure who would be shocked at that). But yeah, clearly they're going for Karen as Norma Jean and Ivy as Marilyn. Although Karen is not exactly giving off Norma Jean vibes to me, other than the fact that she's from a small town... and well, that's it.

Also, what did I say about Karen getting into a Devil Wears Prada situation? It's only the 2nd episode and the boyfriend already got stood up for "work". And obviously Jack Davenport will be a factor as well. At least the boyfriend guy doesn't seem like he'll become some kind of asshole, but it's so obvious where this is going. And they're going to use that as a way for Karen to ~understand~ Marilyn's troubles in love, even though that's not really what happened in Marilyn's marriages anyways.

GO VOTE!

2012-01-28T19:32:21Z

It's here! The 2012 Oscar Simulation is officially up now at thankyouacademy. Click on the banner to go vote! Instructions are also there and should be pretty thorough. If you have any questions, just ask here. Comments are screened to ensure secret ballots. Voting will be open until Monday, February 13th.

ALSO PLEASE PIMP THIS AT YOUR JOURNALS OR RELEVANT COMMS! We want to get as many people to vote as possible. Last year, it was almost 100 but more is better!

Pimp code:
<div><a href="http://community.livejournal.com/thankyouacademy/70418.html"><img alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/breakattiffanys/pic/001y1qk3" /></a></div>

And if you have a tumblr, reblog here!

happy gary oldman day!

2012-01-24T21:41:12Z

Academy Award Nominee Gary Oldman!!!!!!

OMG I AM SO GLAD I STUCK WITH YOU GARY. I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT. PRAYERS DO WORK YOU GUYS. NOW ALL I NEED IS ANOTHER MIRACLE SO GARY CAN TAKE THIS OSCAR AWAY FROM GEORGE.

DUDE WTF. THE ACADEMY PULLED A FREAKING ZHANG ZIYI ON TILDA THIS YEAR. EVEN WORSE ACTUALLY SINCE TILDA ALSO GOT BFCA. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT. WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS.

(speaking of Zhang Ziyi, I'm sad that she didn't release her ballot this year. it was soooo entertaining)

But man, I feel bad about Fassy cause I changed my Tumblr icon last night from Fassy to Gary cause I thought Fassy was safe but lol oops. Guess not. I am very sad about this but at the same time elated that Gary finally has a nomination.

Also, this means that Oscar Simulation 2012 will be up soon at thankyouacademy!!! Look for that in the coming week or two.

Best Picture
"The Artist" Thomas Langmann, Producer
"The Descendants" Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" Scott Rudin, Producer
"The Help" Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
"Hugo" Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
"Midnight in Paris" Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
"Moneyball" Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
"The Tree of Life" Nominees to be determined
"War Horse" Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

Ewwwwwww. Seriously, I cannot believe this many films got nominated this year. I mean, cut out War Horse, ELAIC and The Help, and you have a pretty decent line-up. But bleh, never underestimate the Academy's boner for Stephen Daldry I guess. But yay for Tree of Life! I did not think it had a shot anymore but this is a very nice surprise.

Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir in "A Better Life"
George Clooney in "The Descendants"
Jean Dujardin in "The Artist"
Gary Oldman in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"
Brad Pitt in "Moneyball"

I mean, you basically saw all my thoughts about this is ridiculous capslock form but whatever. I mean, I have nothing against Demian Bichir's performance at all. I knew it was a possibility since the SAG nomination, but I didn't think it would actually displace Fassbender! (unless Bichir was in all along and it was Gary who displaced Fassy... lol, which is possible cause of the Brit support being split). They did run a very very good campaign for him and I don't begrudge this kind of nomination as much as I would have a lazy Leo nomination. The people who voted for him must've had a really strong reaction to his performance, rather than just voting for him based on reputation and name rec like they would've done for Leo. But overall, since I've seen all these performances, I can safely say GARY FTW.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh in "My Week with Marilyn"
Jonah Hill in "Moneyball"
Nick Nolte in "Warrior"
Christopher Plummer in "Beginners"
Max von Sydow in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

Wow, they really did not care for Drive. Brooks was somewhat on/off this season but I was not expecting this crazy ELAIC love. It still blows my mind that Jonah Hill is now a "serious" actor. LOL. Michael Cera is crying somewhere. Oh well, go Christopher!

Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close in "Albert Nobbs"
Viola Davis in "The Help"
Rooney Mara in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
Meryl Streep in "The Iron Lady"
Michelle Williams in "My Week with Marilyn"

FUCKING TILDA WHERE ARE YOU. WHAT IS THIS BIAS AGAINST REDHEADS.This category is not good. There wasn't even a nice surprise like Gary to soften the blow here. The last time someone missed with a GG/BAFTA/SAG combo was Zhang Ziyi and a lot of people attributed that to racism. But ugh, Rooney Mara? I would've preferred Noomi getting nominated for her performance as Lisbeth.

Actress in a Supporting Role
Bérénice Bejo in "The Artist"
Jessica Chastain in "The Help"
Melissa McCarthy in "Bridesmaids"
Janet McTeer in "Albert Nobbs"
Octavia Spencer in "The Help"

I predicted Shailenne instead of Melissa but I honestly don't care either way. I preferred Rose Byrne in Bridesmaids actually. But overall, meh. Pretty much the expected bunch.

Animated Feature Film
"A Cat in Paris" Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
"Chico & Rita" Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
"Kung Fu Panda 2" Jennifer Yuh Nelson
"Puss in Boots" Chris Miller
"Rango" Gore Verbinski

LOL, no Cars 2. Did Arrietty qualify this year? Cause that was by far my favorite animated movie and I would be mad if it qualified and got snubbed.

Art Direction
"The Artist"
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"
"Hugo"
"Midnight in Paris"
"War Horse"

Tinker Tailor should be here, but not a bad set of nominees either.

Cinematography
"The Artist" Guillaume Schiffman
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Jeff Cronenweth
"Hugo" Robert Richardson
"The Tree of Life" Emmanuel Lubezki
"War Horse" Janusz Kaminski

Bleh on War Horse but yay for Tree of Life.

Costume Design
"Anonymous" Lisy Christl
"The Artist" Mark Bridges
"Hugo" Sandy Powell
"Jane Eyre" Michael O'Connor
"W.E." Arianne Phillips

Oh damn, I forgot about Anonymous.

Directing
"The Artist" Michel Hazanavicius
"The Descendants" Alexander Payne
"Hugo" Martin Scorsese
"Midnight in Paris" Woody Allen
"The Tree of Life" Terrence Malick

This was my exact prediction line-up!! Woohoo, finally got a category all right.

Film Editing
"The Artist" Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
"The Descendants" Kevin Tent
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
"Hugo" Thelma Schoonmaker
"Moneyball" Christopher Tellefsen

Another fairly predictable category.

Foreign Language Film
"Bullhead" Belgium
"Footnote" Israel
"In Darkness" Poland
"Monsieur Lazhar" Canada
"A Separation" Iran

Oh god, if the Israeli film beats A Separation, it'll be a shit storm.

Makeup
"Albert Nobbs"
Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"
Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
"The Iron Lady"
Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Music (Original Score)
"The Adventures of Tintin" John Williams
"The Artist" Ludovic Bource
"Hugo" Howard Shore
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" Alberto Iglesias
"War Horse" John Williams

John Williams will get nominated for anything. But wow, go Tinker Tailor, it did very well in below the line categories.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

"The Descendants" Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
"Hugo" Screenplay by John Logan
"The Ides of March" Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
"Moneyball" Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin Story by Stan Chervin
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" Screenplay by Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan

TINKER TAILOR! Wow, I'm actually a little amazed that TTSS managed all these nods but missed Best Picture. But

Writing (Original Screenplay)
"The Artist" Written by Michel Hazanavicius
"Bridesmaids" Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
"Margin Call" Written by J.C. Chandor
"Midnight in Paris" Written by Woody Allen
"A Separation" Written by Asghar Farhadi

OMG YAY I KNEW A SEPARATION HAD A SHOT. but I could do without Bridesmaids or Margin Call here. How the hell do those get nominated over Beginners? And where the hell is Martha Marcy May Marlene in any of this. blegh. I still have no idea how Margin Call did so well this season.

Things to note overall
-BFCA was a horrible predictor this year. Which is sad cause their main goal in life is to be Oscar predictors.
-This is the second year in a row that NBR's Best Actress winner missed out (last year was Lesley Manville). Before that, they always got nominated. whyyyyy.
-I didn't put it up here but man, documentary was weird as fuck. That category screwed me over. They didn't even start the rule change this year! what the hell.
-I guess Demien Bishir isn't this year's Hilary Swank and Jonah Hill isn't this year's Mila Kunis.
-This is an incredibly PG-13 year for Best Picture. Only The Descendants is rated R. Man, I guess Shame/Fassy didn't stand a chance.
-My predictions were meh. I got a few categories down but then completely missed others. Not great for my Gold Rush score (I think I did way worse than last year and the year before, but better than 2008 that had so much random shit like Kate Winslet's category issues and TDK snubs).
-Oh and if you want to listen to some awesome professionals talk about the nominations, check out the In Contention podcast. I'm not a huge fan of Tapely, but I like Anne Thompson and I love Guy Lodge who's a guest this time!!
-GUYS YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS. GARY AND COLIN WILL BOTH BE ATTENDING. OMG AND IF THEY DO THE 'FRIEND' PRESENTATION, THAT WOULD BE AMAZING.

GO COLIN'S WIFE. SHE HAS GOT HER PRIORITIES RIGHT.

Golden Globes Show/Winners/Fashion Recap

2012-01-16T20:06:55Z

George if you make speeches like this every time, I would be totally fine with you winning. Although it seems like someone has a bit of penis envy going on. and he also stole Brad Pitt's cane. Looks like we have a TROLL IN THE DUNGEON. Overall, the show was not as interesting as last year mostly cause Ricky was no where to be found for such a long portion and also, Mel Gilbson wasn't there. But I was so preoccupied with these last night I didn't even get to watch Sherlock!

( + ) I'm pretty much OK with most of the winners, except for The Descendants. The whole thing about it becoming a "future classic" was just wtf, although at least it wasn't Payne himself who said it. I would've preferred Hugo at least since Scorsese managed to win Director. Some of them might not be my #1 for me in the category but they're at least in the Top 5 and that's good enough for me. I'm digging the Musical/Comedy winners a lot more tbh. Jean Dujardin is charming as fuck and Michelle Williams gave the sweetest speech about her daughter. and just everyone from The Artist is ridiculously cute. A Separation winning was obvious but still made me ridiculously happy. Farhadi's speech was beautiful too. Also, Christopher Plummer can still get it.

( + ) UGGIE! Every single person from The Artist is adorable but Uggie just brings it to another level. Uggie for supporting actor. Funny enough, apparently the BAFTA voters had to be specifically instructed not to nominate a dog for an acting award. lol.

( + ) Meryl was either incredibly drunk or she's accepted so many awards at this point that she doesn't give a fuck anymore. Probably both. And then Harvey and George and Fincher get involved. It's just too much for my poor brain to handle.

( + ) The Morgan Freeman tribute was really really good, especially that hilarious Dracula commercial clip. LOL. I love when we see respected actors doing something really embarrassing in their early career. Dame Helen and Sidney Poitier presenting it was perfect.

( + ) Gervais was definitely less memorable this time. I can't really remember a really outrageous joke even. The funniest bit was when he asked Johnny Depp if he had seen The Tourist and when he made fun of Colin Firth. But the Madonna thing was.. awkward. Lady, stick to singing and leave the jokes to professionals. The fake accent needs to end though. No one believes it.

( + ) TV Awards. I honestly don't have much to say cause I only watch like 1/4 of the shows nominated. But I'm so happy about Idris Elba winning!!! And I missed his name being called cause I was getting food. Also, happy for Downton Abbey! I just have to remember that they're winning for Season 1 because it airs later in the U.S. And of course, Modern Family is awesome. Sofia Vergara doing the speech in Spanish, lol. Hilarious.

( + ) Best part of the night was all the Leo mocking at Tumblr. It's funny cause now he's like 2008 Kate Winslet and probably getting desperate so I guess we should look out for a Nazi role for him in the near future. And of course, Michael Fassbender's penis. But if anyone's penis deserves a tribute from George Clooney, it's definitely Fassy's. It is impressive. Like, really impressive.

( + ) Where the race stands at this point - the lead categories are definitely still competitive. Meryl's win here keeps her in the race, but I think it will depend on SAG. If SAG goes for Viola Davis (while BAFTA goes to Meryl), I think we can assume she wins. It's also the narrative and the fact that she's a hard-working character actress with a lead role in a big Hollywood production for the first time. It might be enough to trump Meryl's overdue factor. And the fact that The Help is getting more nominations overall than The Iron Lady. Clooney is in a good position now but there's still a chance it goes to Brad or Jean Dujardin if The Artist-mania takes over the Academy. We can see later how many nominations The Artist gets to gauge how much love there is for it. Supporting categories are pretty much set in stone now. Best Director will be competitive for sure; we'll see how DGA goes. Original screenplay is also competitive between The Artist and Midnight in Paris.

( + ) Can't wait for BAFTAs! Nominations should be out tomorrow. Finally, Gary can be nominated for something.

( + ) These were just the notable looks for me. Some of them were good, others were not. My favorites were Angelina Jolie in Versace, Berenice Bejo in Gucci, Nicole Kidman in Versace, Charlize Theron in Dior, Emma Stone in Lanvin, Tilda Swinton in Haider Ackermann, Claire Danes in J. Mendel and Evan Rachel Wood in Gucci. I think my favorite dress was probably Evan Rachel Wood's but Angelina really pulled off her look magnificently. It was simple and elegant, cause let's be honest, it's Angelina Jolie. She doesn't really need bells and whistles. Paula Patton's bright yellow Monique Lhuillier was very pretty on the red carpet and definitely stood out, although I'm not sure I liked the bottom since I tend to prefer sleek over poofy on the red carpet. Nicole is looking better than she has since the early 2000's. Charlize's dress only works on her cause she's a 6 foot tall blonde with a supermodel body. I also loved the magenta color on Julianna. Diane Lane also looked amazing in Reem Acra.

( + ) I was mixed on Michelle Williams in Jason Wu. Honestly, it looked awful in outdoor lighting on the red carpet but indoors and backstage, it looked kind of okay. The color is pretty at least. She should've skipped the headband though. Zooey Deschanel's Prada was also interesting and had a cool color scheme, but it didn't photograph well at all (especially that lime green part, it looked like some kind of primitive video game) and her hair kind of ruins it. Shailene Woodley went with a fairly safe Marchesa, which wasn't bad but she had very obvious tan lines and no jewelry or anything to cover it up. Freida Pinto's Prada was nice except for the bad waistline. The color is really pretty on her but the silhouette makes her look short and stocky, which she isn't.

( + ) Bad ones. Oh god, Jessica Chastain whyyyy. First of all, the hair. It's awful 80's and looks even worse when your hair is flaming red. And the Givenchy dress. It's interesting but completely unflattering in every way. Jessica has an amazing body and even she looked chubby in this thing. It's the white, combined with that terrible belt in the absolute worst place imaginable. Please step it up for the Oscars. Then there's Lea Michele. I guess we should be grateful it's not another poofy Oscar de la Renta but this is just awful and trashy looking. And Natalie Portman's hot pink prom dress. bleh. I know a lot of people liked Rooney Mara's Nini Ricci and it's a perfectly nice dress, it's just so boring by now. She's worn this a million times already.

Awards for everyone.

2012-01-13T03:38:28Z

( + ) Critics Choice Awards! Ok, I really hate how they don't even announce half the awards like art direction, cinematography and documentaries but whatever. This show sucks so might as well make it as short as possible. Wins I loved/liked: A Separation for Foreign Film (hopefully it can break that Oscar curse where they never let the most obvious/acclaimed film win), Michel Hazanavicius for Best Director (he's so adorable), Plummer for Supporting Actor (awesome speech), Drive for Best Action Movie, Hugo for Art Direction. Wins I'm not so crazy about: George for Best Actor (sorry dude, it just wasn't that good. If it can't be Fassy then Jean Dujardin please!), Thomas Horn for Young Actor (This kid just bothers me for some reason. He's like way too cutesy precocious), Bridesmaids over Midnight in Paris for Best Comedy, War Horse for Cinematography (uggghhh I hated this ugly glossy over-saturated look). Overall, my Gold Rush performance was not great. I went with Chastain, Williams and Dujardin so I missed 3/4 acting categories. Oh well, I need to make up for my meh score with better GG predictions I guess.

( + ) Golden Globes this Sunday! Guess it's time for some last minute predictions/who should win since I'm pretty much done with seeing the nominees.

Best Drama - I'm going with The Descendants here. The Artist is in a different category so the main competition is gone. This category pretty much sucks though.

Best Comedy/Musical - The Artist obviously, although I'm a little scared of some crazy Bridesmaids upset.

Best Director - I'm gonna stick with Hazanavicius. People love the movie and it's seen as a "director's movie".

Best Actor (Drama) - George Clooney. If he can win the BFCA, I think HPFA should be a piece of cake but I need Fassy to pull a miracle.

Best Actress (Drama) - Tough one. I don't know how much foreign journalists will really connect with The Help, although clearly they liked it enough to nod it in BP. But I'm gonna go with Meryl for this. Davis might win the SAG and it could be a close finish for the Oscar.

Best Actor (Comedy/Musical) - Jean Dujardin.

Best Actress(Comedy/Musical) - Michelle Williams. These two should be pretty easy wins. I don't see Charlize pulling this out. That movie really turns off a lot of folks.

Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer

Best Supporting Actress - I want to say Chastain. She's a hot new star and I feel like HPFA would go for that more. Spencer will more likely than not take the SAG though.

Best Screenplay - Midnight in Paris most likely. The Artist is obviously loved but not sure if they're really down with giving a screenplay award to a silent movie when you have Woody Allen's snappy dialogue here.

Best Animated Film - Rango.

Best Foreign Language Film - A Separation.

2011 Movies

2012-01-05T05:24:12Z

Films

01. 35 Shots of Rum (2008, Denis) | A-
02. The Good Earth (1937, Franklin) | B
03. Cat People (1942, Tourneur) | B+
04. Just Married (2003, Levy) | D+
05. Guess Who (2005, Sullivan) | C-
06. Blue Valentine (2010, Cianfrance) | A+ ♥
07. Please Give (2010, Holofcener) | B
08. The Fighter (2010, Russell) | A-
09. All Good Things (2010, Jareki) | C+
10. Casino Jack (2010, Hickenlooper) | C
11. White Material (2009, Denis) | B+
12. Summer Hours (2008, Assayas) | B+
13. Last Train Home (2009, Fan) | A
14. Merci Pour le Chocolat (2000, Chabrol) | B
15. Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinksy (2009, Kounen) | C+
16. The Piano Teacher (2001, Haneke) | A-
17. All About My Mother (1999, Almodovar) | A+ ♥
18. Synecdoche, New York (2008, Kauffman) | B-
19. Anne of a Thousand Days (1969, Jarrot) | B
20. Biutiful (2010, Inarritu) | B
21. She's Out of My League (2010, Smith) | B-
22. No Strings Attached (2011, Reitman) | C
23. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986, Allen) | A-
24. L'Illusionniste (2010, Chomet) | B+
25. Inside Job (2010, Ferguson) | A
26. Gasland (2010, Fox) | A-
27. Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010, Gibney) | B
28. Waiting for Superman (2010, Guggenheim) | B
29. Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941, Hall) | A-
30. Another Year (2010, Leigh) | B+
31. The Adjustment Bureau (2011, Nolfi) | B-
32. La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928, Dreyer) | A   ♥
33. Last Night (2011, Tadjedin) | C+
34. Carnal Knowledge (1971, Nichols) | B
34. Jane Eyre (2011, Fukunaga) | A-   ♥
35. Source Code (2011, Jones) | B-
36. Hanna (2011, Wright) | B+
37. Mildred Pierce (2011, Haynes) | B
38. Water for Elephants (2011, Lawrence) | C-
39. The Kennedys (2011, Cassar) | C+
40. Thor (2011, Branagh) | B
41. Bridesmaids (2011, Feig) | B
42. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011, Marshall) | B-
43. Midnight in Paris (2011, Allen) | A- ♥
44. Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011, Yuh) | B+
45. X-Men First Class (2011, Vaughn) | B+
46. Just Go With It (2011, Dugan) | D
47. Win Win (2011, McCarthy) | B+
48. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011, Yates) | B
49. Captain America (2011, Johnston) | B-
50. Crazy Stupid Love (2011, Ficcara & Requa) | B
51. Sucker Punch (2011, Snyder) | C-
52. Incendies (2011, Villeneuve) | A-
53. The Conspirator (2011, Redford) | C
54. Super 8 (2011, Abrams) | B-
55. The Tree of Life (20111, Malick) | B+
56. Certified Copy (2011, Kiarostami) | B+
57. Something Borrowed (2011, Greenfield) | D-
58. Another Earth (2011, Cahill) | B+
59. The Help (2011, Taylor) | B
60. Contagion (2011, Soderbergh) | B
61. The Ides of March (2011, Clooney) | B
62. Sleeping Beauty (2011, Leigh) | C
63. 50/50 (2011, Levine) | B+
64. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011, Wyatt) | B+
65. Like Crazy (2011, Doremus) | C
66. One Day (2011, Scherfig) | C-
67. The Descendants (2011, Payne) | B
68. Margin Call (2011, Chandor) | B-
69. Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011, Durkin) | B+
70. A Separation (2011, Farhadi) | A+ ♥
71. The Debt (2011, Madden) | B-
72. The Future (2011, July) | C
73. Melancholia (2011, Von Trier) | B+
74. A Dangerous Method (2011, Cronenberg) | C+
75. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011, Ramsay) | A-
76. My Week with Marilyn (2011, Curtis) | B
77. Pina (2011, Wenders) | B
78. Beginners (2011, Mills) | B
79. Young Adult (2011, Reitman) | A-
80. Shame (2011, McQueen) | A ♥
81. Hugo (2011, Scorcese) | A-
82. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011, Ritchie) | B-
83. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011, Alfredson) | B+
84. Attack the Block (2011, Cornish) | B
85. The Skin I Live In (2011, Almodovar) | B
86. Tabloid (2011, Morris) | B+

Best Film Performances

Michael Fassbender, Jane Eyre
Mia Wasikowska, Jane Eyre
Saoirse Ronan, Hanna
Corey Stoll, Midnight in Paris
Lubna Azabal, Incendies
Brad Pitt, The Tree of Life
Jessica Chastain, The Tree of Life
Hunter McCracken, The Tree of Life
Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy
Brit Marling, Another Earth
Viola Davis, The Help
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Albert Brooks, Drive
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia
Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Peyman Mooadi, A Separation
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Carey Mulligan, Shame
Asa Butterfield, Hugo

Books

01. The Hunger Games Trilogy (Suzanne Collins) | B+
02. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Steig Larson) | A-
03. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Dr. Oliver Saks) | B
04. One Day (David Nichols) | A-
05. Pictures at a Revolution (Mark Harris) | B+
06. Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin) | A
07. Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood) | A-
08. A Clash of Kings (George R. R. Martin) | A-
09. A Storm of Swords (George R. R. Martin) | A+ ♥
10. A Feast for Crows (George R. R. Martin) | B-
11. A Dance with Dragons (George R. R. Martin) | B

TV Shows

01. Boardwalk Empire (Season 1) | B+
02. Glee (Season 2) | C
03. The Big Bang Theory (Season 4) | B-
04. How I Met Your Mother (Season 6) | B
05. Gossip Girl (Season 4) | C-
06. The Office (Season 7) | B+
07. Modern Family (Season 2) | A
08. Game of Thrones (Season 1) | A+ ♥
09. The Borgias (Season 1) | B
10. The Big Bang Theory (Season 4) | B-
11. The Good Wife (Season 1) | B+
12. The Good Wife (Season 2) | B+
13. Luther (Season 1) | A-
14. Luther (Season 2) | B+
15. Downton Abbey (Season 1) | A
16. Avatar: The Last Airbender (rewatch) | A+
17. Downton Abbey (Season 2) | B

Icons x 43

2012-01-05T05:14:21Z

films
the artist, drive, hugo, tree of life, melancholia, midnight in paris, shame, tinker tailor soldier spy, wuthering heights, vivre sa vie

     1 - 5
     6 - 10
     11 - 15
     16 - 20
     21 - 25
     26 - 30

television
downton abbey, sherlock

     31 - 35
     36 - 40
   41 - 43

-credit please.
-comments are nice.

Movies of the year

2012-01-02T00:17:00Z

just missed the cut

Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Beginners | Another Earth | 50/50 | X-Men First Class | Hanna | Win Win | Martha Marcy May Marlene | The Skin I Live In

Instead of talking about each film separately, which would just go on forever, I'll just mention a few things here about the year in general. What I liked about 2011 was the mix of serious and light-hearted films. A lot of the time, happy/fun movies are relegated to comedies or cliched fluff. But this year, for all the movies about depression and sex addiction, there were also lighter films that were equally effective. I also appreciated several films that broke free from the cliches of their genres. Drive is far from a typical car chase movie, Moneyball avoids all the sentimental trappings of your average sports drama, Young Adult defies audience expectations with its approach, Hugo is a children's movie that probably doesn't play well with kids and Tinker Tailor is not what you'd expect of a spy thriller. There's also the theme of nostalgia being explored in different ways. Several characters in this year's films were mentally and emotionally stuck in the past, whether it was a writer wanting to escape to 1920's Paris or a grown woman unable to move beyond her high school days or an aging filmmaker whose career has declined. Finally, this is the first year quite some time in which no animated or blockbuster film has made it into my end of the year list. I actually found several of them to be quite fun, including Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Kung Fu Panda 2, but it just wasn't enough to get on the list.

15. drive (refn) - TIE

15. tabloid (morris) - TIE

14. tinker, tailor, soldier, spy (alfredson)

13. moneyball (miller)

12. the artist (hazanavicius)

11. certified copy (kiarostami)

10. the tree of life (malick)

9. young adult (reitman)

8. jane eyre (fukunaga)

7. melancholia (von trier)

6. midnight in paris (allen)

5. hugo (scorsese)

4. incendies (villeneuve)

3. we need to talk about kevin (ramsay)

2. shame (mcqueen)

1. a separation (farhadi)

bonus - favorite tv shows

3. luther

2. downton abbey

1. game of thrones

notes.
there's still some stuff i haven't seen yet so don't be alarmed if there is a glaring omission.
please don't repost anywhere (tumblr, weheartit, etc).
comments are appreciated!

Year in Review

2011-12-30T07:44:57Z

Happy almost new year! Giant ass movies of 2011 picspam will be coming shortly. I'm still tweaking a few things but watch out for that (it will be very very not dial-up friendly) very soon. Until then, here are some lists/memes for the new year!

I'm skipping Best Picture because my upcoming picspam will more than cover that.

Best Actor
1. Michael Fassbender, Shame
2. Peyman Mooadi, A Separation
3. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
4. Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
5. Jean Dujardin, The Arist
6. Asa Butterfield, Hugo
7. Ryan Gosling, Drive
8. Hunter McCracken, The Tree of Life
9. Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes
10. Antonio Banderas, The Skin I Live In

Best Actress
1. Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin (tie)
1. Charlize Theron, Young Adult (tie)
3. Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy
4. Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia
5. Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene
6. Lubna Azabal, Incendies
7. Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
8. Leila Hatami, A Separation
9. Saoirse Ronan, Hanna
10. Catherine Deneuve, Potiche

Best Supporting Actor
1. Brad Pitt, The Tree of Life
2. Corey Stoll, Midnight in Paris
3. Christopher Plummer, Beginners
4. Ben Kingsley, Hugo
5. Mark Strong, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
6. Patton Oswalt, Young Adult
7. Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method
8. John Hawkes, Martha Marcy May Marelene
9. Ezra Miller, We Need to Talk About Kevin
10. Benedict Cumberbatch, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Supporting Actress
1. Carey Mulligan, Shame
2. Jessica Chastain, The Tree of Life
3. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melancholia
4. Berenice Bejo, The Artist
5. Rose Byrne, Bridesmaids
6. Amy Ryan, Win Win
7. Melanie Laurent, Beginners
8. Jessica Chastain, The Help
9. Elle Fanning, Super 8
10. Sareh Bayat, A Separation

Best Director
1. Steve McQueen, Shame
2. Asghar Farhadi, A Separation
3. Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
4. Lars Von Trier, Melancholia
5. Tomas Alfredson, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

1. Your main fandom of the year?
Probably Game of Thrones and X-Men First Class.

2. Your favourite film(s) watched this year?
I will be posting a giant-ass picspam very very soon that will probably tell you way more than you asked for or need to know.

3. Your favourite book(s) read this year?
I read all the ASOIAF books and I enjoyed books 1-3 a lot. Also, I loved the Millennium trilogy.

4. Your greatest musical discovery?
The XX, Birdy, Marina and the Diamonds, Ellie Goulding

5. What song will always remind you of 2011?
"Rolling in the Deep" by Adele and "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO (ugh, how many times did I hear this in clubs).

6. Your favourite TV show(s) of the year?
Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, The Good Wife, Modern Family, Luther, The Hour, and Boardwalk Empire.

7. Your favourite LJ community of the year?
All my favorite icon/graphics communities!

8. Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
Game of Thrones and ASOIAF, Luther, Downton Abbey, McFassy.

9. Your biggest fandom disappointment(s) of the year?
I wasn't as impressed with The Borgias as I wanted to be. It had some good stuff going for it, but it didn't engage me fully. Also, Camelot was terrible. And Downton Abbey took a step down from Season 1. ALSO NO MAD MEN THIS YEAR. SAD. Glee also sucked but what else is new.

10. Your TV boyfriend of the year?
All the Stark dudes and John Luther.

11. Your TV girlfriend of the year?
Alice Morgan. Also Kalinda Sharma, Alicia Florrick, Margaret Schroeder and Arya Stark.

12. Your biggest squee moment(s) of the year?
Everything Michael Fassbender did this year, Tilda finally getting nominated after two years of being overlooked, The Dark Knight Rises trailer, everything that happened in Game of Thrones, the end of Harry Potter.

13. The most missed of your old fandoms?
Mad Men. It's not gone but the hiatus totally killed me.

14. The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?
I've been meaning to watch Breaking Bad, Misfits, Parks and Recreation, The Fades, Suits, and loads of other shows that I don't have time for.

15. Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year?
Mad Men.
Game of Thrones Season 2.
Sherlock Season 2.
Avatar: Legend of Korra.
That show about Broadway on NBC (can't remember the name).
The Dark Knight Rises.
Prometheus.
Bond 23 (aka Skyfall).
Titanic in 3D!!!!
Django Unchained.
Movie adaptation of Les Miserables (by Tom Hooper).
Movie adaptation of Life of Pi (by Ang Lee).
Queen Charlize in Snow White and the Hunstman.
The Hobbit.
Brave.
Dark Shadows.
Anna Karenina adaptation.

AWARDS FOR EVERYONE (except Gary Oldman)

2011-12-15T19:17:56Z

Ugh, here are my thoughts on the recent GG and SAG nods.

List of nominations

+ Ok, I honestly cannot even deal with the fact that Gary Oldman still cannot get nominated for a movie that a) has AMAZING reviews and b) is already a big hit in the UK. While Leo can get nominated left and right for a movie that bombed, both commercially and critically. What is wrong with the world.

+ At least Fassy and Tilda look like they're getting in!

+ The motion picture drama category is just... the most boring bland group imaginable. At least Hugo is in there and is a more unconventional choice, but everything else is just OSCAR BAIT x 10000000. The Help, War Horse, even Ides of March (which I liked).

+ No Malick in Best Director = FAIL. But George gets nominated. Whatever.

+ Best Actress is not too bad. I feel like Rooney Mara probably won't get much from this nominations though. Williams is in comedy here so she'll easily replace Mara and I think Charlize still has a chance too. Her, Glenn Close and Elizabeth Olsen are all fighting for the last spots.

+ The Comedy categories are actually pretty good. I like that they included Brendan Gleeson, although Paul Giamatti should've been there too. It'll probably go to Jean Dujardin pretty handily. For actress, Williams is winning this for sure. I'm surprised they nominated Jodie AND Kate though.

+ Supporting Actor - VIGGO!!!!!!!!! This category is unstable though. The only surefire bets are Brooks and Plummer, and maybe Branagh

+ Supporting Actress - this looks about right, although Redgrave could still turn up on Oscar morning. Chastain will almost definitely be nominated for The Help now (ehhh, Tree of Life please?).

ETA - Holy shit, I didn't even notice Beginners isn't nominated for Comedy! WHAT THE HELL.

List of Nominations

+ I get the Demian Beshir nod. I know they sent out screeners for the movie very early on and yeah, it's kind of middle-brow but SAG loves that and the performance was good. I don't mind this kind of nomination cause it's obvious it was due to people's genuine love for the performance. It's the lazy Leonardo Dicaprio nod that's the problem.

+ Do not get the Bridesmaids love. I liked that movie a lot but it's not a Best Ensemble really. It's more of a screenplay thing. Not that everyone wasn't good, but just not stand-out.

+ Ok, why is it that The Help has pretty much EVERYONE listed in their ensemble while Midnight in Paris leaves off the best performance in the movie (Corey Stoll)? What the fuck.

+ So overall, I think this week solidifies Fassy and Tilda as contenders, but pretty much killed Oldman's chances. It also gives Glenn Close a boost, but at the same time, Charlize Theron and Liz Olsen are still threats. It also establishes The Help as Jessica Chastain's vehicle to a nomination.

+ Lots of things are still uncertain, including Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Don't talk to anyone. Don't touch anyone.

2011-10-09T00:33:38Z

(+) I can't believe it took me this long to see Contagion, but yes, I finally caught it (yay for movie hopping!). Overall, it was a solid and well-made popcorn movie and the science is actually quite good for a Hollywood thriller. But at the same time, when you have Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law in a movie together, your expectations get a tad high.

The basic premise is that there is a fast-spreading disease popping up around the world, believed to have originated in Hong Kong (and has a mixture of bat and swine genetic material). It kills people rather quickly; at first, they experience flu-like symptoms and then it starts to resemble encephalitis, which is what doctors believe it is at first. The patient ends up having massive seizures and may die soon after. The film starts out with Gwyneth Paltrow's character returning home to Minneapolis after a business trip to Hong Kong. She experiences the symptoms and as the trailer revealed, dies. So yeah, they hired an A-list Oscar winner to die in the first 20 minutes as the set-up for the plot. At the same time, other cases of the disease start popping up in London and Tokyo, and they are also linked to Hong Kong in some way. The rest of the movie involves Matt Damon (Paltrow's husband), who is discovered to be immune, trying to keep his teenage daughter safe from the virus, as well as government officials played by Laurence Fisburne and Kate Winslet of the CDC and Marion Cotillard of the WHO trying to figure out the origins of the virus and how to contain it. A large plotline also involves Jennifer Ehle's character trying to find a vaccine for the virus and despite the fact that she was not as heavily advertised as the A-listers, her thread is probably the most consequential and important. Finally, there is Jude Law, an internet blogger based in San Francisco, who begins to gain a massive following with his conspiracy theories as chaos erupts throughout the country.

The huge A-list cast is obviously a big reason to season this movie and it is really entertaining to see these great actors on screen, but the film ends up having too many plotlines and loose ends that each actor never gets enough time to shine. Jude Law probably has the most showy role out of everyone and he does do a good job (but wtf happened to his teeth? was that on purpose?). Damon has the most emotional material to work with and does well with it. Winslet and Cotillard are both fine in their respective roles and appealing enough actresses to make us interested in what they're doing.

In terms of plot, I think the movie handled the outbreak story in a more realistic way than I was expecting. There's no obvious "villain" who was behind the whole thing. It's just something that happened unexpectedly, much like our real life epidemics. It does a nice job of subverting our expectations for these types of outbreak movies. You keep expecting some huge plot twist or revelation but it all plays in a rather contained and realistic way. The film also doesn't have a real message or point of view (until maybe the very very end); it just lets the events unfold. The science was also well-done, although there was one scene where Kate Winslet was explaining epidemiology to government health officials like they were 3rd graders, even though they should be trained professionals.

But the ending left me a little unsatisfied. Not only they did leave one major plotline COMPLETELY unresolved (you know what I'm talking about), but I don't think I really cared enough about the characters as people. It was more like I wanted them to succeed because it would suck if half the world died. Matt Damon is the most sympathetic character of the bunch but it felt as though he was just a window for the audience to see the complete and utter chaos of the situation. The atmosphere was very well-done and the situation did feel terrifying as you're watching it unfold. The jumping around different storylines also worked, despite the fact that it spans several continents. Soderbergh has always known how to blend many different plots into one cohesive thread and he does that again here. The tension builds nicely up to a certain point but the film doesn't completely follow through.

(+) Also, Ides of March!

Oddly enough, this was another movie whose ending kind of disappointed me. Not as much as Contagion's but it still didn't leave me entirely satisfied. Based on the play, Farragut North (named for a subway stop in Washington D.C.), the film centers around a young and charismatic press secretary played by Ryan Gosling. He is working for a Governor (George Clooney) who is trying to win the Democratic nomination and is in a tight race for the Ohio primary. The press secretary and the candidate both start out as idealists, who want to make a difference. Obviously, they're not going to stay that way.

First of all, this sounds a lot like Primary Colors and these two movies do have a lot of similar plot points (young idealistic campaign worker, Democratic primary, sex scandals, etc). But while Primary Colors was pretty much based on Bill Clinton, The Ides of March has more of a mish-mash of influences. The play was heavily based off Howard Dean's 2004 campaign but since people don't really care about that anymore, the film seems to have added a lot more Obama references. For example, the Morris campaign poster looks A LOT like Obama's "Hope" poster. Marisa Tomei's character also remarks that a candidate who seems so perfect is inevitably going to be a disappointment and that nothing will actually change if he is elected. So in many ways, this film is much more cynical than something like Primary Colors, which featured some disillusionment over the candidate's personal behavior but maintained a feeling of hope and optimism.

Gosling's character seems like he's in control of everything in the beginning. He's a wunderkind who is on his way to the White House. But soon, you realize that he's getting played by the more experienced politicians around him. One aspect of that involves his affair with a young intern, played by Evan Rachel Wood. Another involves a meeting with a rival campaign manger, played by Paul Giamatti. Eventually, the shit hits the fan and Gosling's character is left floundering for his political future. The question is - will he sell out his ideals to secure his own future? I'm sure you can guess.

This is a movie chock full of political talk and cameos by Charlie Rose, Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow, so it's really made to appeal to people who already have a working knowledge of that world (or for people who watch The West Wing). Much of it will not seem interesting to you if you don't follow American politics, at least during campaign seasons. That does become somewhat problematic for the film. If you watched The West Wing, it made even boring topics or situations incredibly interesting to watch because the dialogue had so much energy. The Ides of March does not have enough wit in its script to really engage an audience member who isn't already a news junkie. It seriously could've used a re-write by Aaron Sorkin to jazz it up a little.

The acting is fantastic all around. Ryan Gosling carries the movie as the central character and has plenty of charm and appeal to keep us rooting for him, even when we shouldn't be. He has shown so much versatility this past year, it's kind of unbelievable. He transitions so easily between his varying roles. Clooney was practically born to play the candidate, and although his role is a supporting one, his face is constantly seen on posters and on TV that he is a constant presence. There's also Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti as the campaign managers; both are top-notch as usual. Marisa Tomei is under-used but still effective and Evan Rachel Wood does a great job in the pivotal supporting role of the film, the intern. But while they are all great performers, no one performance stands out as an Oscar-worthy one. Gosling and Wood may be the closest, since Gosling is having such a huge year and plays the lead, while Wood has a role that Oscar voters tend to love. But overall, this movie may end up being more of a Charlie Wilson's War in terms of Oscar hopes.

(+) There are some trailers I wanted to talk about cause so many good ones are being released right now. The best one I've seen so far is definitely Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I mean, the music, the cuts, the arts and costumes, the everything. Perfect. I can't wait for that and also, Gary Oldman for Best Actor please. The fact that he's Oscar-less is a huge travesty. Most amazing cast ever award too. Also, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo looks so intense. I think it's capturing the feel of the novel slightly better than the Swedish films but at the same time, the accents are kind of distracting. Like why is Daniel Craig just talking with his normal accent but Rooney Mara is acting Swedish? But the sets and locations look almost identical to the Swedish movies. And My Week with Marilyn, Oscar bait at its finest. Let's just say I really hope the trailer is misleading and it isn't just about some guy's life being changed by a fling with her. I'm also just not feeling Michelle Williams in the role. She just looks nothing like Marilyn and sounds nothing like her; it'll have to be an incredibly amazing performance just to be convincing. Branagh also seems a bit over the top as Olivier but I'm just curious to see any Viv/Larry in the film cause they're interesting enough to have their own movie imo. Speaking of Oscar bait, there's J. Edgar. Oh Leo, you have now become Kate Winslet circa 2008. So so so desperate for an Oscar. Actually I think Armie Hammer looks the most promising as the long suffering "husband" (smashing stuff!). And it goes without saying that I'm excited for Fassy's two movies.

It's so hard to predict this year because of that BP rule change. I have no idea how Gold Rush is going to work when we don't even know how many nominees there will be for BP. But for now my predictions are..

Best Picture:
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Ides of March
The Help
J. Edgar
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse
......
Basically, if the 10 nominees rule was still in place, the above 10 would be my predictions. But since we don't know the actual number of nominees, it could be any 5-10 from that list. The Artist and The Descandents feel like near-locks at this point just from the audience and critical reaction from the festivals. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close hasn't been seen yet but it's Stephen Daldry adapting a very baity story. Tinker Tailor just looks too freaking awesome to be left out and the word from Venice was fantastic. War Horse is so fucking baity that it would have to be a disaster not to make it. Everything else will depend on the final number of nominees.

Best Actor:
George Clooney, The Descandents
Leonardo Dicaprio, J. Edgar
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
....
Those are the only ones I feel confident in right now. I want to predict Fassy or Gosling for the last spot but I'm just not sure if any one performance of theirs will catch fire and overpower the others. Most likely, it'll end up being Brad Pitt for Moneyball. But then it'll be George, Brad AND Leo. Like, that might be too much hunky star power for one year. So maybe Michael Shannon sneaks in for Take Shelter?

Best Actress:
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
.....
I feel so unconfident about this category right now. Too many question marks still. I think Close is probably in at this point. Streep will get in if her movie is at all decent and not a complete fuck up. Olsen NEEDS to get a lot of critics awards and her movie has to break out of its tiny indie mold during its release. Rooney Mara will depend entirely on how successful the movie is and if she is enough of a revelation (the Academy obviously likes her already, they invited her to join just for being in The Social Network for 5 minutes). There's the Keira Knightley question. She was everyone's frontrunner until the movie actually got screened and her performance got divided reviews. I still think she is in the race but it's not safe at all. Then, there's the possibility of Charlize Theron and Michelle Williams (waiting for some real word still) and whether Viola Davis will go lead or supporting. If she goes lead, then she will most likely get the nomination but if she goes supporting, she'll probably win.

Best Supporting Actor:
Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
Armie Hammer, J. Edgar
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
.....
I have no idea what's going on here. If Tinker Tailor does really well, I could see maybe one or two guys showing up here. Other than that, I'm just not feeling much else.

Best Supporting Actress:
Jessica Chastain, ??
Viola Davis, The Help (if she goes supporting)
Judi Dench, ??
Vanessa Redgrace, Coriolanus
Octavia Spencer, The Help
.....
Yeah, this is not much better than supporting actor. Other than these, I've heard that girl from the Secret Life is a big revelation in The Descendants.

Since everyone is doing it...

2011-10-06T03:05:39Z

Give me a fandom and I will tell you:

+ Favourite female and male character
+ Favourite scene
+ Favourite ship
+ Unpopular opinion

Meme

2011-09-07T04:24:59Z

I have so little to write about these days cause real life has become SUPER busy. But hopefully this meme will give me some inspiration! Give me fandoms and I will tell you:

› Favorite character.
› Least favorite character.
› Prettiest character.
› Character I'd marry.
› Favorite pairing.
› Favorite episode.
› Unpopular opinion.

Emmy Nods!

2011-07-15T02:30:44Z

Emmy Nominations 2011 Reaction Post

Drama Series:
"Boardwalk Empire," HBO
"Dexter," Showtime
"Friday Night Lights," DirecTV
"Game of Thrones," HBO
"The Good Wife," CBS
"Mad Men," AMC

+ I'm so glad Game of Thrones got in! I was afraid it might get snubbed because of the genre. It probably won't win but that's ok, at least it got nominated. I'm pretty much cool with this list. Very happy for The Good Wife too. It's been a while since Mad Men aired, but I can't say this was a very strong season so I'm kind of looking forward to seeing something else win this time. Boardwalk Empire seems like it might be the one to dethrone Mad Men, but I didn't find the first season to be THAT impressive after the first couple of episodes. If Game of Thrones could somehow pull off a shocking win, that would be the greatest thing ever.

Comedy Series:
"The Big Bang Theory," CBS
"Glee," Fox
"Modern Family," ABC
"The Office," NBC
"Parks and Recreation," NBC
"30 Rock," NBC

+ WTF, why the hell is Glee still getting nominated for anything? And Big Bang Theory? This was easily the least interesting and most boring season. If they were going to nominate it, then any of the last few years would've been better. Is there seriously a huge lack of comedies on the air or something? The other nominations are fine. Unless there is some huge sentimental feeling for The Office, I'm guessing it'll be Modern Family for the win.

Miniseries or Made-for-TV Movie:
"Cinema Verite," HBO
"Downton Abbey (Masterpiece)," PBS
"The Kennedys," ReelzChannel
"Mildred Pierce," HBO
"The Pillars of the Earth," Starz
"Too Big to Fail," HBO

+ Umm, The Kennedys? Really? That was the definition of mediocre, other than Barry Pepper.

Actor, Drama Series:
Steve Buscemi, "Boardwalk Empire," HBO
Michael C. Hall, "Dexter," Showtime
Kyle Chandler, "Friday Night Lights," DirecTV
Hugh Laurie, "House," Fox
Timothy Olyphant, "Justified," FX Networks
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men," AMC.

+ I love Hugh Laurie, but I think the Emmys need to get over House already. It's not good anymore. I'm sad Sean Bean couldn't sneak in, even though his role wasn't showy enough, I thought maybe the shock over his death scene might get him in somehow. Since Breaking Bad isn't in the race this year, we'll have a new Best Actor winner finally. It's probably going to be Steve Buscemi, but maybe Jon Hamm will finally win this time.

Actress, Drama Series:
Connie Britton, "Friday Night Lights," DirecTV
Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife," CBS
Kathy Bates, "Harry's Law," NBC
Mireille Enos, "The Killing," AMC
Mariska Hargitay, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," NBC
Elisabeth Moss, "Mad Men," AMC

+ These are pretty much OK with me. I love Julianna Margulies and want her to win, but I'd also like to see Elisabeth Moss finally take it home. I thought Harry's Law wasn't that well received, so I guess Kathy Bates is getting in based on her film reputation.

Supporting Actor, Drama Series:
Peter Dinklage, "Game of Thrones," HBO
Josh Charles, "The Good Wife," CBS
Alan Cumming, "The Good Wife," CBS
Walton Goggins, "Justified," FX Networks
John Slattery, "Mad Men," AMC
Andre Braugher, "Men of a Certain Age," TNT

+ I'm fine with these other than John Slattery, who did not do anything noteworthy last season. They just keep nominating him because he is the most visible of the supporting actors on Mad Men. Love the two guys from The Good Wife getting in though. Go Peter Dinklage! I think he actually has a good chance here. While the acting on GoT is fantastic, I think Dinklage was the only actor this season who really stood a chance and deserved a nod. Everyone else is great but didn't have enough material. Oh well, next year!

Supporting Actress, Drama Series:
Kelly Macdonald, "Boardwalk Empire," HBO
Archie Panjabi, "The Good Wife," CBS
Christine Baranski, "The Good Wife," CBS
Margo Martindale, "Justified," FX Networks
Michelle Forbes, "The Killing," AMC
Christina Hendricks, "Mad Men," AMC

+ Great category! I love pretty much all of these. Both women of The Good Wife would be deserving winners but I think Archie might have this again because her storyline this season was so intense and fantastic. Kelly Macdonald was also fantastic and I'd be happy to see her take it as well. Hendricks is always consistently good, but I don't think this season was all that special for her.

Actor, Comedy Series:
Jim Parsons, "The Big Bang Theory," CBS
Johnny Galecki, "The Big Bang Theory," CBS
Matt LeBlanc, "Episodes," Showtime
Louis C.K., "Louie," FX Networks
Steve Carell, "The Office," NBC
Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock," NBC

+ My first reaction: Matt LeBlanc has show right now? Wut. And also, ummm Johnny Galecki? I'm not really sure why they're suddenly nominating him.. Nothing against him, he's perfectly good but I really don't think this season represented any change for him in the series and he certainly didn't do anything new this year. Maybe they just don't have enough people to nominate these days. I'd love to see Steve Carell win.

Actress, Comedy Series:
Laura Linney, "The Big C," Showtime
Melissa McCarthy, "Mike & Molly," CBS
Edie Falco, "Nurse Jackie," Showtime
Amy Poehler, "Parks and Recreation," NBC
Martha Plimpton, "Raising Hope," Fox
Tina Fey, "30 Rock," NBC

+ I don't watch most of these so I can't really comment, but nice to see both Amy and Tina nominated.

Supporting Actor, Comedy Series:
Chris Colfer, "Glee," Fox
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, "Modern Family," ABC
Ed O'Neill, "Modern Family," ABC
Eric Stonestreet, "Modern Family," ABC
Ty Burrell, "Modern Family," ABC
Jon Cryer, "Two and a Half Men," CBS

+ Wow, four Modern Family actors get in and Neil Patrick Harris finally gets shut out. Odd since Barney had a really significant arc this season on HIMYM. Why is Jon Cryer still getting nominated though? And while I love Chris Colfer, Glee nominations still make me irrationally angry. Have no idea who will win but I kind of think all these Modern Family guys in the mix just makes these really jumbled and unpredictable.

Supporting Actress, Comedy Series:
Jane Lynch, "Glee," Fox
Betty White, "Hot in Cleveland," TV Land
Julie Bowen, "Modern Family," ABC
Sofia Vergara, "Modern Family," ABC
Kristen Wiig, "Saturday Night Live," NBC
Jane Krakowski, "30 Rock," NBC

+ So every adult actor on Modern Family gets a nomination, lol. I suppose the writing on that show pretty much makes it impossible for an actor NOT to be funny. Love Kristen Wiig getting nominated. I guess Jane Lynch will probably win this year because of her whole sister died storyline, but that's sooo drama though and this is supposed to be the comedy category.

Icons x34 (X-Men First Class, McFassy movies)

2011-06-06T07:41:33Z

34 Icons - X Men: First Class, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Fish Tank, Inglourious Basterds, Wanted, Atonement, Jane Eyre

X-MEN FIRST CLASS - 13



McAVOY / FASSBENDER - 7



McFASSY FILMS - 14
Wanted, Fish Tank, Inglourious Basterds, Atonement, Jane Eyre





-credit please (if you're using these outside of LJ, please put a link back to this post!)
-comments are nice
-enjoy!

Round 11

2011-06-01T01:56:56Z

Final Round!!!!

THE RULES

1. I picked 20 female and 20 male celebrities I find attractive.
2. Everyday (or so) I'll make a poll and you'll have to vote for the two women and two men you find the least attractive (and later on just one of each). The four celebrities with the most votes each round will be eliminated.
3. With each new poll I'll post the results with pretty pictures of the people who were eliminated.
4. Lobbying for favorites in the comments is encouraged (seriously go crazy with pictures/gifs) but no bashing!

Eliminated:

MICHAEL FASSBENDER

German-Irish actor best known for his performances in Inglourious Basterds, Hunger and Fish Tank. He will soon be seen in X-Men First Class, A Dangerous Method and Shame this year. Next year, he will co-star opposite Noomi Rapace in Ridley Scott's Alien prequel, Prometheus.

CATHERINE DENEUVE

French actress who came to fame in the early 1960s in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Repulsion. She went on to become one of the most important French actresses of her time with films like Belle de Jour and The Last Metro. She has been nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Indochine and she continues to work in films today.

The Gentlemen

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

~~Laurence Olivier (1907 - 1989)~~ | ~~Joseph Cotten (1905 - 1994)~~ | ~~Gene Kelly (1912 - 1996)~~ | ~~Orson Welles (1915 - 1985)~~ | Gregory Peck (1916 - 2003)

Paul Newman (1925 - 2008) | ~~Montgomery Clift (1920 - 1966)~~ | ~~Marcello Mastroianni (1924 - 1996)~~ | ~~Anthony Perkins (1932 - 1992)~~ | ~~Sidney Poitier (1927)~~

~~James Dean (1931 - 1955)~~ | ~~Stephen Colbert (1964)~~ | ~~Edward Norton (1969)~~ | ~~Jude Law (1972)~~ | ~~Michael Fassbender (1977)~~

~~Christian Bale (1974)~~ | ~~Heath Ledger (1979 - 2008)~~ | ~~Joseph Gordon Levitt (1981)~~ | ~~James Franco (1978)~~ | ~~Armie Hammer (1986)~~

The Ladies

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

~~Hedy Lamarr (1913 - 2000)~~ | ~~Rita Hayworth (1918 - 1987)~~ | ~~Eva Marie Saint (1924)~~ | ~~Romy Schneider (1938 - 1982)~~ | ~~Anouk Aimee (1932)~~

~~Jean Seberg (1938 - 1979)~~ | ~~Catherine Deneuve (1943)~~ | ~~Julie Christie (1941)~~ | ~~Anna Karina (1940)~~ | ~~Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993)~~

Natalie Wood (1938 - 1981) | ~~Faye Dunaway (1941)~~ | ~~Isabella Rossellini (1952)~~ | ~~Nicole Kidman (1967)~~ | ~~Penelope Cruz (1974)~~

Marion Cotillard (1975) | ~~January Jones (1978)~~ | ~~Sienna Miller (1981)~~ | ~~Gemma Arterton (1986)~~ | ~~Kaya Scodelario (1992)~~

RULE CHANGE: VOTE for the ONE man and ONE woman you find MORE ATTRACTIVE.

View Poll: Vote for the one you find MORE attractive

Icons x22

2011-05-31T04:56:53Z

22 Icons: Midnight in Paris, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hanna, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Badlands, Lola, Anouk Aimee, Anna Karina, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Midnight in Paris

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hanna, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Badlands, Lola, Anouk Aimee, Anna Karina, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

-credit please
-comments are nice
-enjoy!

Round 10

2011-05-19T06:08:00Z

Round 10

THE RULES

1. I picked 20 female and 20 male celebrities I find attractive.
2. Everyday (or so) I'll make a poll and you'll have to vote for the two women and two men you find the least attractive (and later on just one of each). The four celebrities with the most votes each round will be eliminated.
3. With each new poll I'll post the results with pretty pictures of the people who were eliminated.
4. Lobbying for favorites in the comments is encouraged (seriously go crazy with pictures/gifs) but no bashing!

Eliminated:

HEATH LEDGER

Australian actor who came to prominence in Hollywood in the late 1990s - early 2000s with films such as The Patriot, A Knight's Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You. He eventually moved into more serious films like Candy and Brokeback Mountain, which earned him an Oscar nomination. He died at the age 28 from an overdose and won a posthumous Oscar for his role in The Dark Knight.

RITA HAYWORTH

Spanish American actress who rose in Hollywood at first from musicals like Cover Girl and You Were Never Lovelier. During WWII, she was one of the most popular pin-up girls and her film roles soon became more femme fatale (like in her most famous film, Gilda). She was married to Orson Welles for 5 years and she later married Prince Aly Khan.

The Gentlemen

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

~~Laurence Olivier (1907 - 1989)~~ | ~~Joseph Cotten (1905 - 1994)~~ | ~~Gene Kelly (1912 - 1996)~~ | ~~Orson Welles (1915 - 1985)~~ | Gregory Peck (1916 - 2003)

Paul Newman (1925 - 2008) | ~~Montgomery Clift (1920 - 1966)~~ | ~~Marcello Mastroianni (1924 - 1996)~~ | ~~Anthony Perkins (1932 - 1992)~~ | ~~Sidney Poitier (1927)~~

~~James Dean (1931 - 1955)~~ | ~~Stephen Colbert (1964)~~ | ~~Edward Norton (1969)~~ | ~~Jude Law (1972)~~ | Michael Fassbender (1977)

~~Christian Bale (1974)~~ | ~~Heath Ledger (1979 - 2008)~~ | ~~Joseph Gordon Levitt (1981)~~ | ~~James Franco (1978)~~ | ~~Armie Hammer (1986)~~

The Ladies

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

~~Hedy Lamarr (1913 - 2000)~~ | ~~Rita Hayworth (1918 - 1987)~~ | ~~Eva Marie Saint (1924)~~ | ~~Romy Schneider (1938 - 1982)~~ | ~~Anouk Aimee (1932)~~

~~Jean Seberg (1938 - 1979)~~ | Catherine Deneuve (1943) | ~~Julie Christie (1941)~~ | ~~Anna Karina (1940)~~ | ~~Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993)~~

Natalie Wood (1938 - 1981) | ~~Faye Dunaway (1941)~~ | ~~Isabella Rossellini (1952)~~ | ~~Nicole Kidman (1967)~~ | ~~Penelope Cruz (1974)~~

Marion Cotillard (1975) | ~~January Jones (1978)~~ | ~~Sienna Miller (1981)~~ | ~~Gemma Arterton (1986)~~ | ~~Kaya Scodelario (1992)~~

POLL TIME - In each category (men and women), vote for ONE that you find least attractive.

Only vote for ONE man and ONE woman.

View Poll: Round 10

Round 9

2011-05-12T02:49:11Z

Round 9

THE RULES

1. I picked 20 female and 20 male celebrities I find attractive.
2. Everyday (or so) I'll make a poll and you'll have to vote for the two women and two men you find the least attractive (and later on just one of each). The four celebrities with the most votes each round will be eliminated.
3. With each new poll I'll post the results with pretty pictures of the people who were eliminated.
4. Lobbying for favorites in the comments is encouraged (seriously go crazy with pictures/gifs) but no bashing!

People Who Received Zero Votes Last Round:
NO ONE

Eliminated:

CHRISTIAN BALE

British actor who made his film debut in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun at the age of 13. He continued to work throughout his teens and 20's with films like Velmet Goldmine, Newsies, Little Women and American Psycho. He was then cast as Batman in Chris Nolan's reboot, a role he reprised in The Dark Knight and will again in The Dark Knight Rises. He won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter. He will next be seen in Zhang Yimou's 13 Women of Nanjing.

JUDE LAW

British actor who got his start on the stage in London and New York. He got his start in films with Gattaca, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Enemy at the Gates but it wasn't until the mid-2000s that he became a big star. He has since returned to the stage in Hamlet and starred as Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. This year, he will be seen in Contagion and the sequel to Sherlock Holmes.

ANOUK AIMEE

French actress best known for her performances in two of Fellini's most famous films, 8 1/2 and La Dolce Vita. She worked in French, Italian and American films. Her other notable films include Lola, Un Homme est une femme and The Appointment. She continues to work in French cinema today.

AUDREY HEPBURN

British-Dutch actress who grew up in Belgium and the Netherlands during WWII. She broke out in Hollywood her role in Roman Holiday and became one of the most popular actresses of the 50s and 60s. Her films include Sabrina, Funny Face, Charade and The Children's Hour. In 1961, she appeared in Breakfast at Tiffany's in arguably her most iconic role, Holly Golightly. Her stylish Givenchy designed costumes in her films also made her a fashion icon. She worked extensively later in her life with UNICEF and helping children around the world until her death in 1993.

The Gentlemen

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

~~Laurence Olivier (1907 - 1989)~~ | ~~Joseph Cotten (1905 - 1994)~~ | ~~Gene Kelly (1912 - 1996)~~ | ~~Orson Welles (1915 - 1985)~~ | Gregory Peck (1916 - 2003)

Paul Newman (1925 - 2008) | ~~Montgomery Clift (1920 - 1966)~~ | ~~Marcello Mastroianni (1924 - 1996)~~ | ~~Anthony Perkins (1932 - 1992)~~ | ~~Sidney Poitier (1927)~~

~~James Dean (1931 - 1955)~~ | ~~Stephen Colbert (1964)~~ | ~~Edward Norton (1969)~~ | ~~Jude Law (1972)~~ | Michael Fassbender (1977)

~~Christian Bale (1974)~~ | Heath Ledger (1979 - 2008) | ~~Joseph Gordon Levitt (1981)~~ | ~~James Franco (1978)~~ | ~~Armie Hammer (1986)~~

The Ladies

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

~~Hedy Lamarr (1913 - 2000)~~ | Rita Hayworth (1918 - 1987) | ~~Eva Marie Saint (1924)~~ | ~~Romy Schneider (1938 - 1982)~~ | ~~Anouk Aimee (1932)~~

~~Jean Seberg (1938 - 1979)~~ | Catherine Deneuve (1943) | ~~Julie Christie (1941)~~ | ~~Anna Karina (1940)~~ | ~~Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993)~~

Natalie Wood (1938 - 1981) | ~~Faye Dunaway (1941)~~ | ~~Isabella Rossellini (1952)~~ | ~~Nicole Kidman (1967)~~ | ~~Penelope Cruz (1974)~~

Marion Cotillard (1975) | ~~January Jones (1978)~~ | ~~Sienna Miller (1981)~~ | ~~Gemma Arterton (1986)~~ | ~~Kaya Scodelario (1992)~~

POLL TIME - In each category (men and women), vote for ONE that you find least attractive.

Only vote for ONE man and ONE woman.

View Poll: Vote for the one man and one woman you find LEAST atrractive