Oscar Predictions-Film Awards (i)

Best Director

Most likely winner : Steven Spielberg for Lincoln. Leaving out Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow and Quentin Tarantino pretty much made this Spielberg's to lose. And doesn't reflect too well on the Academy either.

Backup Pick : David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook. The production company of Weinstein have been campaigning hard for this and it's a good film with the acting performances set up well. The thing about best director is it's the easiest award to give to someone the academy likes because it's ambiguous and the academy doesn't really love Russell.

Most deserving : Michel Haneke for Amour. Haneke has the most carefully crafted film here. All in all it is definitely his film in every scene. His presence is all around the film and it is an excellent film. If they give it for the greatest impact a director has on the film, this is it.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Most likely winner : Lincoln from Tony Kushner from Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I haven't read the book but everything about this screenplay is excellent and with the hype surrounding this film it should win. Every line of dialogue is perfect and sends the movie forward while building upon the past scenes. Excellent composition to create suspense and anxiety even when we all know the outcomes in this story.

Backup Pick : Silver Linings Playbook from David O. Russell from The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. Significantly different from the novel, this one definitely is an adaptation. I found the dialogue representative of mental disorder and that realism portrayed in every scene. But even then love stories are hard to write without being cliche. And this film avoids every cliche while still embracing the universality of love.

Most deserving (My pick): Life of Pi from David Magee from Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I always like it when a good book becomes a good film (doesn't happen too often, Revolutionary Road and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy come to mind recently). I read this book about 15 times before the movie came out and the movie lived up and matched every mental visual I had from the book.

Best Original Screenplay

Most likely winner : Amour by Michael Haneke. A very un-Haneke film in the sense that it isn't cold and remote but about the universal human experiences of love and death. It's an original view, to me anyway, about dealing with suffering of a loved one, and though it isn't the cold Haneke film you still get the sense he's addressing some of the same themes of isolation and desperation.

Backup Pick : Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino making homages to his favourite genres. Again. I hope he does a sci-fi or spy film homage next. Every time he writes a screenplay you can see how much hours of watching genre films he has done, because his films capture the moments that you expect, those moments that make a genre film what they are. Perfect homage to the spaghetti western.

Most deserving (My pick): Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola. Wes Anderson writes strange films about strange families. And they're very good. This one is about summer time and summer camps and those times where so much seems to happen so quickly. The focus on the children is especially great because it serves somewhat as an idea of what the adults in Wes Anderson's films were like as children.

best comedians of the decade

criteria : must do stand-up comedy. only judged from stand up and sketch . 10.Demetri Martin why: He likes constructing palindromes. That's reason enough. Uses all sorts of visual aids and sketches. Great with the one liners too. Most unconventional comedian since Gallagher.Maybe. 9. Russell Brand why: Obnoxious, loud and very strange. Known as much for his off stage antics than his comedy. But one of the best young 'angry' comedians out there. Although there's a sneaking suspicion the accent makes him cool (er). 8. Robin Williams why: Back in2002 with LIVE on Broadway, the show broke several records for a comedy show. Showed he's still funny, hasn't let success go to his head and can still make it all up on the spot. 7. Ricky Gervais why: In the Office for the first part of the century, everywhere else for the last. Most people know him for his film roles, but he's great on the stage too. Doesn't shy away from the controversial topics. And it isn't

Best Films of the Decade - 2010s - Third Part

11. Get Out (2017)- Directed and written by Jordan Peele. Horror seems to be an excellent medium to describe racism and it's somewhat amazing how obvious it seems in hindsight. One of the best debuts of a director in recent times, with a script that amps up the tension marvelously and serves up a twist in the tale that was impossible to see coming. Normally horror movies are seen as niche, but this film was popular with the wide audience and also at the award ceremonies further proving everyone was able to be captured by the film's quality. There has been talk of the film fitting into horror-comedy, probably due to Peele's comedy background, but while it is never laughably funny but does serve as a clever satire on the state of racial affairs. 12. The Death of Stalin (2017) - Directed by Armando Iannuci. Written by Armando Iannuci, David Schneider and Ian Martin. Few topics are as ripe for satire as the workings of communist governments (provided one can

Best Films of the Decade - 2010s - Second Part

As always, a giant list. The first 10 can be pretty much interchangeable depending on my mood. 21. John Wick (2014) - Directed by Chad Stalehski . Written by Derek Kolstad. Keanu Reeves already had experience as the face of an action franchise but it's possible in the future that we remember more for John Wick than as Neo. A film that came out of almost nowhere and managed to simultaneously be a homage and a way forward for action movies. Building off of an extensive source of knowledge of the films of John Woo, Jean Pierre Melville, anime and spaghetti westerns, it's the closest anyone has come to replicating the Gun-Fu Hong Kong classics. The well crafted world of John Wick keeps expanding too, with even more additions to the series in the works. Long may it continue. 22. Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - Directed by Denis Villeneuve . Written by Michael Green and Hampton Fancher. A sequel to one of the most beloved and acclaimed sci-film films of

a blog about a lot of things

Search This Blog