I Gotta Feelin....

Thursdays seem to be appropriate days for blogging; let's start today's entry off with a recommendation - see Up. In 3D if possible. Reviews for Pixar's latest 'toon had been through the roof, and it should be noted that it was the first time ever that a 3D animated film opened Cannes. The buzz on the Croisette after the screening was deafening, and the audience was raving. A couple friends saw it the weekend it opened and also echoed the rapturous praise it had received from critics. I ventured up to Danvers to see last night (at 9:30 no less - those who know me know that's an extremely late night, ha) and, would like to add to the chorus. It was excellent and made it 100% official, Pixar is incapable of making bad movies. An old man and a young wilderness explorer scout go on an adventure in South America (they travel there via his house and about a million balloons) to see Paradise Falls. Of course, as has become the standard for Pixar films, there's a much broader, meaningful message than might initially seem. This one deals with endangered species, loss, families, outsiders...you name it, Up probably touched on it at some point. And, as in other Pixar films (at least, IMHO) the story takes a backseat to the breathtaking animation, and Up has some of the most sensational images I've seen. One in particular stands out- the house floating in the clouds. The shot lingers for about 10 seconds, long enough to let it sink in and enjoy the beauty and simplicity of the image. The colors, of course, are extremely vibrant, and clean, crisp lines dominate the animation, and the score was also quite good - I've been looking for it online but can't seem to find it. I would definitely recommend seeing it in 3D, I think it adds a whole other layer to the experience (yes, this is an "experience"). I'm going to go out on a limb and predict Up as the winner of the 2010 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. See it. In 3D. Grade: A

The Tony awards were last weekend and as expected, Billy Elliot cleaned up winning 10 awards including Best Musical, Actor, Featured Actor, Director and Choreography. Next to Normal (my favorite musical of the past 10 years) fared well too, winning 3 awards, the most after Billy; Best Actress for Alice Ripley's heartbreaking performance as Diana, Best Original Score (a Billy upset, the writers beat Elton John AND Dolly Parton) and Best Orchestrations (a tie with Billy). Hair won Best Revival of a Musical, and Brett Michaels (yes, THAT Brett Michaels, from Poison) broke his nose when a fly hit him in the face. It was awesome. NPH did a great job hosting, complete with a great song at the end. Technically speaking, the show was a mess, the sound was terrible, botched camera shots - I did a better job directing OTV when I was in high school.

I had a session with a personal trainer yesterday at Planet Fitness that I was really excited about, until I found out that the "session" was one of the guys who works behind the desk showing me how to use the circuit training equipment. Excellent! However, I think that's really all I need to do, and working my core will help my running, it will improve my balance, stride and hopefully help me improve my time. He told me if I did the circuit training 3x a week (it takes about 30 mins to do) I should be good to go. Huzzah!

Trailer for Shutter Island is out and it looks pretty intense....could this be the role that Leo finally wins an Oscar? Probs not...

oh, and I have tickets to see Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark. PUMPED!

Additional thoughts...

Now that I've had a chance to digest this morning proceedings, here are some of my thoughts:

• I really am surprised that The Dark Knight didn't get in for Best Picture and even MORE surprised that Christopher Nolan didn't get a Best Director nod. The Academy has been concerned about the ratings and critics have been bemoaning how out of touch the Academy is with the general public. There was a sense that this year could buck that trend with two critical and fan favorites that could wind up with a Best Picture nomination, The Dark Knight and Wall-e. Swing and a miss.
  
  
• Surprised that Dev Patel didn't pick up a supporting actor nomination for Slumdog Millionaire. He certainly had enough precursor support, including a SAG nomination. If Slumdog wins Best Picture, which, currently it's certainly the early favorite, it will be the 11th time a film has won Best Picture without a single acting nomination. The last film to do so? The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King in 2003.
  
  
• I don't get the lovefest for The Reader. I guess it just goes to show that the Academy loves their Holocaust-themed films. But props to Stephen Daldry, he's directed 3 feature films, and has scored a Best Director nomination for each of them; Billy Elliot, The Hours and now Also somewhat upset that THIS is the performance that Kate Winslet was nominated for, her performance in Revolutionary Road was nothing short of exquisite.
  
  
• Pumped for Brad Pitt's nomination in Benjamin Button, but this seems to be a case of the Academy making up for past mistakes- he should have been nominated (and won) for Babel in 2006.
  
  
• Bummed that Bruce Springsteen didn't get a nomination for Best Original Song for "The Wrestler"...in fact, Slumdog Millionaire picked up double noms in Best Original Song for "Jai Ho" and "O Saya"...don't really think "O Saya" needed to be there. BUT! VERY excited that "I Thought I Lost You" was NOT nominated, I wouldn't be able to handle "Academy Award Nominee Miley Cyrus".
  
  
• Speaking of Bolt -it's nominated for Best Animated Feature over Waltz with Bashir....SERIOUSLY?!
  

Other than that, I'm pretty content with the nominations, although I do think that the ceremony is going to be a snooze fest, there are definite front-runners in each category. So here are the big winners this morning

13 Nominations
including Best Picture, Best Director (David Fincher),
Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actress (Taraji P. Henson)
Best Adapted Screenplay

10 Nominations
including Best Picture, Best Director (Danny Boyle),
Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score (A.R. Rahman),
Best Cinematography, Best Editing

8 Nominations
including Best Picture, Best Director (Gus Van Sant),
Best Actor (Sean Penn), Best Supporting Actor (Josh Brolin),
Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score (Danny Elfman)

8 Nominations
including Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger),
Best Cinematography, Best Editing,
Best Visual Effects

6 Nominations
including Best Animated Feature, Best Original Screenplay,
Best Original Score (Thomas Newman), Best Original Song "Down To Earth"

5 Nominations
including Best Picture, Best Director (Ron Howard),
Best Actor (Frank Langella), Best Adapted Screenplay

5 Nominations
including Best Picture, Best Director (Stephen Daldry),
Best Actress (Kate Winslet), Best Adapted Screenplay

5 Nominations
including Best Actress (Meryl Streep), Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman),
Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams), Best Supporting Actress (Viola Davis)

Check out oscar.com for the full list of nominations.

For early predictions, I'm gonna go with Slumdog Millionaire taking Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score and Song, Kate Winslet for Best Actress, Mickey Rourke for Best Actor, Penelope Cruz for Best Supporting Actor, Heath Ledger for Best Supporting Actor, In Bruges for Best Original Screenplay (a longshot), Wall-e for Best Animated Feature and Waltz with Bashir for Best Foreign Language Film.

As for my nominees predictions? I was 29/48 (60%) and 34/48 (70%) with alternates...not terrible, but not great either.....

ok, enough for now, I have to get some work done today

time to start anew!

hello readers!

i know that i said waay back in august that i was starting a new blog to coincide with the new adventure that i was embarking on (moving to somerville), so apologies for not totally following through on that promise. anyways, i decided, since today is oscar nominations eve, my 3rd favorite day of the year after christmas and my birthday, i would do an update, and, naturally, post my predictions for oscar nominations tomorrow. but, before i get to the good stuff, here is a quick update on life.....

....nothing exciting to report, EXCEPT, that i'm training for a half marathon. yes friends, i will be running 13.1 miles on may 24th, 2009 in boston's run to remember half marathon. i've been training since mid-november, and so far things have been going well. i'm up to about 3 miles a day, although it is somewhat frustrating that 3 miles on a treadmill is NOT the same as 3 miles outside. i'm trying to work a schedule so that i run outside at least 2 days a week, but in the winter, that often proves difficult. i will, however, keep you all posted on my progress. i'm running in a 5k next weekend with nick, katie and mike arnold, so i'm sure i'll blog about that. and now, on to what you've been waiting for....








2008 was a fairly good year for films, if i were making a top 10 list, my top films would be: Slumdog Millionaire, Wall-e, Waltz with Bashir, The Dark Knight, In Bruges, The Wrestler, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Revolutionary Road, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Oscar nominations are tomorrow morning, and the following are my predictions for the top 10 categories;

Best Picture
Slumdog Millionaire
The Dark Knight
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Milk
Frost/Nixon
alt: Wall-e, The Wrestler

Four of those five appear to be locks (Slumdog, TDK, Button and Milk) and I would love to see either Wall-e or The Wrestler sneak in. other potential upsets: Revolutionary Road and The Reader. I'm all in for a Slumdog Millionaire win, it was, in my opinion, hands down the best film of the year. Yes, it had some flaws, but it's been a LONG time since I've been so swept up and taken with a movie.

Best Director
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Christopher Nolan - The Dark Knight
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Gus Van Sant - Milk
Darren Aronofsky - The Wrestler
alt: Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon, Andrew Stanton - Wall-e

it is rare for best pic/director to match 5/5, so this is where I think The Wrestler will be recognized. There usually are a few surprises in the director race, and I think Aronofsky will be it.

Best Actor
Sean Penn - Milk
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
alt: Leonardo DiCaprio - Revolutionary Road, Colin Farrell - In Bruges

I have yet to see The Visitor (I'm going to watch it tonight), but I've heard nothing but good things about Richard Jenkins performance. However, having not seen it, I was inclined to put DiCaprio in the 5th slot, but the lack of precursor love for Revolutionary Road may not help him. Colin Farrell is a no guts, no glory prediction, he was fantastic in In Bruges.

Best Actress
Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky
alt: Melissa Leo - Frozen River
In all honesty, this is the category I care least about, as I feel that there are really only 3 deserving nominees, Kate, Meryl and Anne...and I'm going with Kate for the win...next...

Best Supporting Actor
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Robert Downey, Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Dev Patel - Slumdog Millionaire
Josh Brolin - Milk
Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
alt: Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road, James Franco - Milk
This is basically Heath Ledgers award to loose, although no one has won a posthumous Oscar...perhaps this is the year? Robert Downey Jr. is also pretty safe for Tropic Thunder for playing "the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude!" and Dev Patel should get swept up in the Slumdog love (although his performance is really leading).

Best Supporting Actress
Kate Winslet - The Reader
Penélope Cruz - Vicky Christina Barcelona
Marissa Tomei - The Wrestler
Viola Davis - Doubt
Amy Adams - Doubt
alt: Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
This is a pretty set category, with Henson possibly getting in over Tomei. For the win- it's between Winslet and Cruz...Cruz should have won in 2006 for her fabulous performance in Volver.

Best Original Screenplay
Milk
The Wrestler
Wall-e
Vicky Christina Barcelona
Waltz with Bashir
alt: In Bruges

Best Adapted Screenplay
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
alt: Revolutionary Road

Best Animated Feature
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-e
Waltz with Bashir

Best Foreign Language Film
Everlasting Moments (Eviga Ogonblick) - Sweeden
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Der Baader Meinhof Komplex) - Germany
The Class (Entre les Murs) - France
Three Monkeys (Uc Maymun) - Turkey
Waltz with Bashir (Vals Im Bashir) - Israel

Nomination Totals
The Dark Knight and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 13
Slumdog Millionaire - 9
Milk, Frost/Nixon, Wall-e - 6
The Wrestler - 5

That is it for right now, you can bet I'll be back with an update tomorrow morning to see how well I faired, I doubt I'm going to be able to go 48/48, but we'll see...

and I promise that I will try and be a better blogger and keep my updated more frequent from now on.