Relax and let your mind go blank.

I know I'm not the only one who, rather baselessly, declared that Avatar would disappoint us. I thought Cameron's Avatar would fall completely on its $300 mil ass. But I'm pleased to say that I left the theater this morning swelling with emotion; it is truly a film experience like nothing you've seen before.

Cameron's Avatar pulls you into the mysterious world of his own creation, Pandora. The only production that slightly compares is Peter Jackson's Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings (which was designed by WETA, who also worked on Avatar's visuals and miniatures). Really, I haven't felt the same magic in watching film since Lord of the Rings; Avatar shares that same innovation.

The film, rather surprisingly, offers some great acting amid all the production and visual effects. This is an accomplishment on any film that employs a heavy amount of CGI or green screen, because it's hard for actors to connect with technology in the same way that they do other human beings. Sure, Sam Worthington's Australian accent peeks through on occasion and Sigourney Weaver's dialogue delivery is at times cringe-worthy, but overall they held it together in a way that is ordinarily not possible in such a heavily produced film.


The criticism towards Avatar is mostly fixated on the story, and while I won't make a case for James Cameron's writing here (was he ever really on anyone's list for a Screenplay nomination?), I will say that his story has extraordinary imagination. I agree that the dialogue was, at times, like watching an episode of Lois and Clark, but it didn't hurt the experience for me (I also don't want to rehash the same things you've already read). My complaints mostly have to do with the last act, and I don't want to spoil it here, so we'll just let that go.

I can't remember the last time I felt that Best Picture was so tight, and Avatar is very much in the running at this point. As we're moving towards the guild recognition part of the season, we may get some more insight. But really, I hope it stays this unpredictable.

My crazy, outandish, devastatingly premature prediction...

Best Picture: Avatar
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Original Screenplay: Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Somehow I see them spreading the love in this way...

Anyone else have a crazy early prediction they want to share?

It's not over until it's over.

This is the part where I have to share a small victory with you that has entirely nothing to do with the subject of this blog...

I'm done with finals!

This may sound like a small feat to you, but after this semester of research, reading, writing, revising, lather, rinse, repeat, I'm feeling like a million bucks. It was a challenging one, but I am so happy with the work I've gotten out of myself.

That being said, the Oscars are just over two months away now, and despite spending several Saturdays in the theater, I feel so behind!

In the coming weeks, I will be seeing/reviewing the following films:
The Lovely Bones
Invictus
The Blind Side
Avatar
Crazy Heart
It's Complicated
A Single Man
Nine
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Messenger
The Last Station
Sherlock Holmes (you know you want to see this one...)
The Young Victoria

Along with as many eligible docs and foreign films I can get my hands on.

I will also be taking on the completely unoriginal task of compiling my top ten of the decade, and perhaps a few other extras. Hold on to your hats, kids.

I think it's worth mentioning that although I've shown favoritism to The Hurt Locker recently, especially after it's recent critical awards success, this race is not even close to being over.

Last night, I learned from Anne Thompson's twitter feed that the Academy screening of Avatar was a resounding success—"packed house, huge applause," she says. I'm tempted to agree with her when she says, "it's now the one to beat," but again, it's not over until it's over.

A look at 2009

This video has been circulating the web today, and I thought it served as a nice reminder of how much I've enjoyed this year in film.

Many have said to me that they think it's a weak year, but I just can't agree with them. Especially coming off of last year (now THAT, my friends, is a weak year...), I have really enjoyed the innovation and variety that 2009 has offered me.

There's quite a bit missing from the video—namely Bright Star (did ANYONE else besides me see this beautiful little movie?), An Education, and A Single Man.

Enjoy. And AMPAS should really consider themselves lucky that this is the first year of ten Best Picture nominations.

SAG Nominations: The Hurt Locker continues to build momentum...

It's still hard for me to believe that this little movie I saw over the summer has turned out to be such a frontrunner in this year's Oscar race.

When I saw Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker this past July, I knew I had seen something we'd be talking about for years—a war drama that elegantly focuses on a core of three characters. The film tackles the Middle East like no other film, divorced from politics and agenda-pushing. It's an incredible look at one of the most dangerous jobs anyone has ever had to do (disarming bombs), and it let's us into the minds of three men who must do this every day.

I won't be so bold as to say that the film will win Best Picture, but I will say that it is the clear frontrunner at this time. That is, especially after the SAG nominations were announced this morning.

The important thing to remember about the SAGs is that they are a very good indicator of what AMPAS might go for. SAG and AMPAS have many mutual members, and the actors make up a large part of the AMPAS collective.

The biggest winner here, as you might gather from above, is The Hurt Locker, which scored both an Ensemble Acting nomination (the SAG equivalent of Best Picture) and a nomination for Jeremy Renner for Best Lead Actor.

Another film that was heavily rewarded today is Inglourious Basterds, which I believe we can now safely include in our predictions for a Best Picture nomination. Tarrantino's film nabbed nominations for Best Ensemble, Best Supporting Actor (I think Waltz's name is already engraved on that Oscar...) and Best Supporting Actress, Diane Kruger. It's not likely that Kruger's nomination will translate to the Oscar (I believe that spot will go to Julianne Moore), but it's a surefire indication that Harvey Wenstein's campaign engine is hard at work these days.

And while I'm very pleased with the nominations for Kendrick, Clooney, and Farminga, I'm shocked to learn that Up in the Air missed out on Best Ensemble. It really doesn't quite make sense, given the other nominations it received. I don't think it will have a great effect on the film's nomination chances for Best Picture, but it does seem to say something about it's chances of winning. If the acting section of voters did not recognize the film for Best Ensemble at the SAGS, it might mean that they're not thinking about the film as a frontrunner for Best Picture. Just a thought.

Oh, and I think I need to retire Bright Star to my list of films that are too good for AMPAS.

Full list of the film acting nominations after the cut.

Golden Globe Nominations—Reactions

I wish my time management skills were in better shape (and you'd think they would be, considering I'm going on my 20th year of continuous education), but they're not. And I didn't get a chance to properly report the Oscar happenings of this week.

If you'd like to know the winners of the Los Angeles Film Critics, the New York Film Critics, the Boston Film Critics, or any other small critical awards extension, visit one of the sites on the sidebar for an update. You'll likely find the name The Hurt Locker in there somewhere.

The BFCA (Broadcast Film Critics Association) announced their nominations a few days ago, and you can see who they've recognized here.

If you're into predicting the Oscars, in all honesty, you should probably pay more attention to the above information than what I'm about to show you.

This morning, the nominations for the 67th Golden Globe Awards show were announced. Some were bad, some were good, some were surprising, and a whole lot of them were unsurprising. However, there's something to keep in mind here...

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (the organization that hosts and votes for the GG awards) shares about 7 or 8 members with AMPAS. And for that reason, we shouldn't place too much stock into their choices. If it sounds like it shouldn't be there, it probably won't be in the Oscar nominations.

And with that in mind, I'd say that the following people got a boost today:
500 Days of Summer
Sandra Bullock (for The Blind Side)
Inglourious Basterds
District 9 (for screenplay)
Woody Harrelson
Vera Farminga
The Fantastic Mr. Fox (may give Up a run for its money...)

These people were snubbed, but it doesn't really matter:
Jeremy Renner
If he gets a SAG nomination on Thursday, he's in for Oscar—just ask Melissa Leo and Richard Jenkins.
Abbie Cornish
I'm still aboard the Cornish/Bright Star train, and I'm not convinced by her Globe snub that she's out of contention. After a SAG snub, I'll concede.
A Serious Man
It's just not their style—no big stars, pint-sized budget, and a little too eccentric.


All in all, I'm actually quite pleased with HFPA.

Creation misses out on 2009 awards consideration

A week or so ago, my friend Veronica asked me something I had been wondering myself lately:

"Whatever happened to Creation?"

Caught up in exams and catching up with new releases, I had forgotten about one of the films I was so looking forward to earlier this year. (If you're still unsure of what film I'm referring to, revisit the trailer here.)

According to the film's website, the film's U.S. distributors have stuck Creation with a January release date (the dump month for films—it will never be considered for Oscars here). As such, the film is past the deadline of release for 2009 awards consideration in America. However, as it will be released across the pond later this month, it could still pull some BAFTA noms, and I hope that it does.


And on an unrelated note, posting may be somewhat light over the next two weeks. I'm wrapping up a challenging semester at school, and I'm just not sure what I'll be able to commit to at this time. Of course, it's also possible that I'll post more than ever, especially considering that I *should* be writing a paper this very minute and not posting in my blog.

We'll see what happens.

Trailer Tuesday: Broken Embraces

I'm not sure how much longer Trailer Tuesday will be able to sustain itself, seeing as most of the films we're talking about have either already been released or are well on their way to the theaters. Also, I'm just running out of ideas. This should be apparent by today's feature, considering it is not even eligible for the Best Foreign Picture Oscar.

This is an example of a tragedy caused by some of the asinine rules for Oscar voting. In the Foreign Film category, each country can only submit ONE FILM for consideration. Can you imagine? What if the BAFTA's did this to us? Unbelievable.

Anyway, that's the rule, and like it or not, the Spanish selection committee decided to go with The Dancer and the Thief (say what?) instead. Because Almodover is somewhat of a celebrity (or at least closer to a household name than any other Spanish director), some might find this shocking. However, his relationship with Spain is somewhat questionable. This was especially apparent in 2002 when he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Talk to Her, his film that they did not submit for the Best Foreign Picture award (idiots).

So, while this film will not likely play a role in the 2010 Oscar ceremony (although I'm still hoping the Academy will recognize Penelope Cruz here, and not for Nine), I'm running out of options I felt it was worth a look.

NBR loves Up in the Air

Since 1920, the National Board of Review has selected its top ten best films of the year in December, naming one winner from the ten. They have since expanded their ceremony to include a full set of categories, including the usual Best Actor and Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, and Best Director.

This year, Up in the Air has been selected as their winner for Best Picture (the film also nabbed Best Adapted Screenplay for Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner). This is great news for the film, as only one of the past ten NBR winners have failed to receive a Best Picture nomination from AMPAS (Quills, in 2001). And while I don't have a solid statistic off the top of my head, their top tens are often a good estimate of what we might see in January when the nominations are announced.

So what's surprising here? Well, you may notice that Nine, The Lovely Bones, and Precious are absent from the list. And while I'm not convinced that this will hurt Precious *that* much in the race, it certainly does not bode well for the other two titles. I say that mostly because the NBR tends to be drawn to flashier, visual films (see their inclusion of Star Trek and Where the Wild Things Are), and Precious is neither of those things. Though, their snubbing Mo'Nique for Best Supporting Actress stings a bit.

Don't be too alarmed by the Eastwood lovin'. NBR is notorious for handing out undeserved recognition to Clint.

Full list of winners after the cut.

Trailer Tuesday: Avatar

Director James Cameron has had Avatar on his to-do list for quite a while. Fifteen YEARS, in fact. To say that this is a project he feels strongly about would be a cruel understatement.

According to various sources, Cameron has said ever since completing that giant vessel of profit, Titanic, he would go on to make Avatar. Earlier still, he began developing the script in 1994 (which, to be frank, is what scares me most about this film). He envisioned a science fiction story brought to life with cutting edge technology. After seeing Gollum in Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Cameron reportedly saw Avatar as a real possibility amid breakthroughs in CGI and visual effects.

As I alluded to in my last post, Avatar has not and will not be screened before an audience until December 10th, which is a bit risky in many ways. From an awards perspective, that's extremely late in the game; and while it builds hype, it shuts the film outside the nomination window for a handful of precursors. From a box office perspective, it means that word of mouth is not as strong, and a film with this type of budget can't afford to lose viewers.

Have a look at the trailer:



Avatar is a science fiction story about a young parapalegic man who is offered a second chance when selected to participate in an "Avatar" program. He is sent to Pandora, an extraterrestrial moon and home of the indigenous Navi. A war breaks out pitting humans against the Navi when they threaten the Navi's land and indigenous culture.

I'm intrigued, but I have to say that I have very little confidence in James Cameron's writing (okay, again with the understatements). We all cringed through Titanic's abysmal dialogue ten years ago, and I'm betting that Avatar will have some similar moments.

However, the effects. Oh, the visual effects. They are clearly the work of a masterful artist. And for that reason alone, I'm on the edge of my seat.