2 More Free Countries

Recently Uruguay passed marriage equality, and now New Zealand has joined it and the other free countries of the world in recognizing all of its citizens’ right to the freedom to marry the person you love.

From Towleroad:

New Zealand has legalized same-sex marriage in a 77-44 vote on a third and final reading of the bill.

The bill will take effect in mid August and comes 27 years after New Zealand decriminalised homosexuality.

Same-sex marriage supporters at the Campaign for Marriage Equality party in Wellington cheered loudly and applauded as the bill was passed into law.

New Zealand joins Uruguay, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina, and Denmark as the 13th nation to offer its citizens nationwide marriage equality.

Brazil, Mexico, and of course, the U.S. offer it in parts of the country.

Thank you!!

Predators

The Gist: A group of people whose line of work involves killing human beings is parachuted on an alien world where they quickly realize they've now turned into the hunted at the hands of highly evolved and merciless creatures. They're now just preys for the local predators.

The locations are absolutely fantastic, both on the planet and in the sky, and made me wish we had a similar array of moons and worlds crowding our skies. Makeup and visual effects are also excellent, as one would expect, but what impressed me most were, unexpectedly, acting and screenplay.

While we have seen other Predator movies before, this version has an original premise that makes it intriguing (even though they never really explain how our group of misfits reached their current destination). The absence of gratuitous, totally absurd, and/or ridiculous events is also a blessing.

The acting is quite good for a “popcorn” movie such as this and goes to show that if you hire people who know how to act, even a light and silly movie such as this can turn out pretty good.

The Bottom Line: I would absolutely recommend this movie to those who love action, sci-fi, or horror movies, especially if you are a fan of the Predator franchise.

Grade: 7

Hotel Transylvania

The Gist: Count Dracula, fearing the demise of all monsters at the hands of humans' cruelty, builds a majestic hotel/residence in a remote location known only to other monsters. His goal is keep them safe, including his only daughter, who has now grown into "adult" age.

The Bottom Line: A fairly entertaining animated movie that is ultimately quite light on its feet, as well as quickly forgotten, Hotel Transylvania doesn't necessarily disappoint either.

Grade: 6

Total Recall

The Gist: A blue collar worker suddenly finds himself hunted down by his wife with no idea of the reasons. His memories also start feeling mixed up with those of a life he doesn't remember living.

I appreciated this movie even though I usually shun remakes as useless wastes of precious resources that could have been put towards creating something original. At first I thought that this was going to be a full on recreation of the cool Arnold Schwarzenegger version from 1990 but thankfully they updated some key aspects of the story and made it somewhat original.

The only problem with the new Total Recall is really just that if you have seen the original, you know the main twist and won't be surprised when it's revealed. This detracts a lot from the overall effectiveness of the final product, unless of course this is the first time you see the movie.

The Bottom Line: A fast-paced, action-packed, visual effects-laden sci-fi movie that is enjoyable and overall well made.

Grade: 7

The Birds

The Gist: A lady with a penchant for mischief follows a man she finds intriguing to Bodega Bay just when all types of birds seems to start behaving badly.

Alfred Hitchcock at his best certainly knew how to create tension and keep it going. His camera work is fantastic, the score jaggedly haunting, the acting good (even though it feels quite dated when judged by today's standards) and the technical aspect (costumes, makeup, sets) very good.

The only gripe I would have is that the visual effects, while obviously good for the time, made me feel jaded because they made me smile more than feel impressed. A sign of the times we live in I guess, a time when pretty much everything we see in a movie feels so unbelievably real, we can hardly doubt it.

The Bottom Line: The Birds is a Hollywood classic for a reason. The story is compelling and the whole movie is artfully and professionally crafted from beginning to end with the utmost of cares. A must-see.

Grade: 8

Labyrinth, by Kate Moss

This book left me wanting and a bit disappointed. The story is interesting for sure, but the final product leaves a lot to be desired, especially as far as the writer’s style is concerned.

The book tells the story of the Grail, which has been recounted in many different ways. Labyrinth offers its own take and it is quite ingenious and original, almost plausible, so definitely a step up from like Raiders of the Lost Ark, which saw the Grail as what we all think of, the cup of Christ from the Last Supper, which gives eternal life to all who drink from it.

I won't spoil what the Grail is in Labyrinth of course but I will say that the story follows two heroines in two timelines.

I liked the events occurring in both and the unfolding of the plot is well laid out by the author, and yet, I was not a fan of all her literary flourishes. She clearly loves France and the towns described in the book, but she often gets lost in needless detailed descriptions of streets, lampposts, benches, storefronts, hats, clothes, trees, rivers, clouds, etc… I got the feeling that she strived to paint a picture for the reader as if we were there with the characters, but it is just too much and too long winded. So many times I was thinking, "Alright, I got it, now let's move on with the plot please."

I still remember a whole description of the area surrounding one character's apartment that must have been several pages long on paper (almost half a chapter it seemed) and was ultimately useless to the plot. That kind of detour is not really my thing in a book.

The other issue I had was with the (blessedly) few head-shaking moments when I would go, "Come on, how is she not seeing that!" or "Well, that would never happen in reality…"

Unfortunately, those negative aspects would bring down the level of any work and that is a pity because, like I said, the basic idea and the general construct are solid for sure, so much so that I started reading another book by Ms. Moss that I own.

Grade: 6

Beasts of the Southern Wild

The Gist: A little girl living in the Louisiana bayou is faced with the need to grow up quickly because of her father’s ill health and alcoholism and the constant threat to their lives posed by the powerful and capricious weather.

While I usually reserve judgment whenever child actors are involved, Quvenzhané Wallis as the little Hushpuppy comes across as a fantastic actress.  It will be interesting to see how her career evolves and where she will be 20 or 30 years from now.  And while it might be a boon for her future work chances, I have the feeling that in a few years it will feel scary and intimidating to already have a Best Actress Academy Award to her name, not to mention the need of having to prove herself.

The screenplay is certainly very original, the acting good across the board, and even in the technical department the movie is quite well made.

The Bottom Line: While I appreciated the acting and the originality of the story, I was quite surprised that a movie like Beasts of the Southern Wild would be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.  A little slow here and there and at times even esoteric, its pick left me even more puzzled than An Education’s did a couple years back.  This is a very artistic- and independent-like movie, so it’s not for everybody.

Grade: 7

The 85th Annual Academy Awards - The Winners

This year’s Oscars ceremony just ended and I have to say I couldn’t be more pleased with both the ceremony itself and the overall winners.

Seth MacFarlane, at his first hosting gig for pretty much anything, was funny, energetic, and had great timing.  His voice over for the skit of his Ted and Mark Wahlberg was great, he used his very beautiful and sultry voice for some very funny songs (his closing one with Kristin Chenoweth is a case in point), and he was never out of pace, boring, or awkward.

The stage was beautiful and used very effectively and dynamically.  I was amazed to find out that the live orchestra this year wasn’t actually in the Kodak theater but in another building across the street.  Everything went down without a glitch.

I liked:

• Seth’s initial zinger to the Academy about snubbing Ben Affleck for Argo.
• His song “We Saw Your Boobs” interspersed by some of the actresses’ reactions.
• Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum’s dance routine, as well as Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s.
• The dresses of Octavia Spencer and Jennifer Lawrence (the latter looked like a princess at the ball).
• Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy’s routine, as well as that of the five guys from The Avengers.
• Nora Jones’ performance of her song for Ted.  Not only was it good, but it was also perfectly placed, injecting some needed energy this late in the telecast.  It also explained the apparent snub of having only Adele perform her song.  Given that Les Misérables’s song had already been performed earlier in the ceremony, evidently the producers couldn’t secure the original performers for the other two songs and opted not to have them performed by someone else instead (a wise choice in my opinion).  The clips from the movies were very satisfying.

I loved:

• The tribute to the 007 franchise, both the montage and the performance of the great Shirley Bassey (damn those are powerful pipes!!).
• The tribute to the musicals: Catherine Zeta-Jones was great, Jennifer Hudson (that voice!!) was phenomenal, and the cast of Les Misérables almost brought me to tears and gave me goose bumps.  I can’t wait to see that movie now.
• Adele’s performance, even though there were some sound issues and at times her voice felt suffocated (the song was also inexplicably shortened here and there).
• The Gay Men’s Chorus.
• Barbra Streisand, who sang a wonderful tribute to her beloved Marvin Hamlisch, a great composer who left us suddenly and too soon.  When she appeared at the end of the In Memoriam montage, right under Hamlisch’s portrait, it became clear how the producers had managed to convince her to sing at the Oscars after 36 years.  She was clearly overwhelmed by his memory.  A really memorable and classy performance.  She almost felt mystical.
• Michelle Obama’s appearance at the end of the telecast and her announcing the Best Picture winner.  A remarkable feat pulled by this year’s great producing team!

So it is without further ado that I present the list of winners with some interspersed commentary:

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Winner:
Argo: Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney
So glad that Ben Affleck’s movie triumphed.  It is the best revenge for having been snubbed in the Best Director category and his speech was very nice.

Other Nominees:
Amour: To Be Determined
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Dan Janvey, Josh Penn, Michael Gottwald
Django Unchained: Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone
Les Misérables: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh
Life of Pi: Gil Netter, Ang Lee, David Womark
Lincoln: Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy
Silver Linings Playbook: Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen, Jonathan Gordon
Zero Dark Thirty: Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Winner:
Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln
Likely the most inevitable winner of the night, Day-Lewis gave a gracious and funny speech and quite surely deserved the win.  It’s still a little upsetting to thing that while last year it seemed like such a big deal to hand out the third Oscar to Meryl Streep (a woman), this year no one even mentioned the fact that Day-Lewis (a man) would have brought home his third Oscar.  Go figure…

Other Nominees:
Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook
Hugh Jackman for Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix for The Master
Denzel Washington for Flight

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Winner:
Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook
Another win that seemed inevitable, I’m happy for her because from what I have seen of her work she’s a very good actress with a brilliant future ahead.  I just wish it had gone to Naomi Watts, another fantastic actress who will not likely come upon many other chances to the home the little bald guy.

Other Nominees:
Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty
Emmanuelle Riva for Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts for The Impossible

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Winner:
Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained
One of the night many upsets, I had expected Tommy Lee Jones to win this category.  Waltz is now 2 for 2, but he’s really a wonderful actor, so I’m not that bitter.  I’m just glad it didn’t go to Robert De Niro, whose chances had lately gone up substantially, given that this onetime great actor hadn’t done any appreciable work in over 2 decades!!

Other Nominees:
Alan Arkin for Argo
Robert De Niro for Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master
Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Winner:
Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables
The second most inevitable win of the night after Best Actor, Hathaway finally took home her long sought after Oscar.  She gave a nice speech and was gracious as always.  I can’t wait to see her in Les Misérables.

Other Nominees:
Amy Adams for The Master
Sally Field for Lincoln
Helen Hunt for The Sessions
Jacki Weaver for Silver Linings Playbook

Best Achievement in Directing

Winner:
Ang Lee for Life of Pi
A big upset by Ang Lee over Spielberg, who was somewhat considered the shoo-in given Affleck’s absence in this category.  My friend Vittorio and I are convinced that there was some sort of software glitch in the online voting that assigned all of Affleck’s votes to other candidates (likely Haneke and/or Zeitlin).  Either way, from what I’ve heard of Life of Pi, this win was well deserved.  Lee is now the first director in the history of the Oscars to have won 2 Best Director Oscars without his movies taking home the top prize.
UPDATE: I stand corrected!  I had jumped on this bandwagon before verifying the information and it looks like Ang Lee is far from the only director to ever win 2 Best Director Oscars without the corresponding movie taking Best Picture.  From The Film Experience:
He is not however the only director to win twice despite having never directed a Best Picture winner. That trick was also performed by Frank Borzage in the late 20s/early 30s (his two wins: Bad Girl lost to Grand Hotel, and Seventh Heaven lost to Wings), George Stevens in the 50s (his two wins: Giant lost to Around the World in Eighty Days and A Place in the Sun lost to An American in Paris). [Note: John Ford actually won Best Director without winning Best Picture THREE times. But for How Green Was My Valley he won Best Director and the film also won Best Picture]

Other Nominees:
Michael Haneke for Amour
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Winner:
Django Unchained: Quentin Tarantino
What can I say, I’m not a fan of the guy.  Some of his work I enjoy, other I just don’t get or detest.  He sure looked like a slob on stage.

Other Nominees:
Amour: Michael Haneke
Flight: John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty: Mark Boal

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Winner:
Argo: Chris Terrio
From what I heard, Terrio adapted the whole movie from a magazine article about the whole Iranian ordeal.  Quite the feat!

Other Nominees:
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi: David Magee
Lincoln: Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook: David O. Russell

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Winner:
Brave: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman
Another upset, give that Wreck-It Ralph was the heavy favorite, but a win for Pixar is always welcome in my book.  Mark Andrews in that kilt looked totally hot!

Other Nominees:
Frankenweenie: Tim Burton
ParaNorman: Sam Fell, Chris Butler
The Pirates! Band of Misfits: Peter Lord
Wreck-It Ralph: Rich Moore

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Winner:
Amour: Michael Haneke(Austria)
Given Amour’s nomination for Best Picture, a prize it could never win, as well as other main categories, no other movie really had any chances here.

Other Nominees:
War Witch: Kim Nguyen(Canada)
No: Pablo Larraín(Chile)
A Royal Affair: Nikolaj Arcel(Denmark)
Kon-Tiki: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg(Norway)

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Winner:
Life of Pi: Claudio Miranda

Other Nominees:
Anna Karenina: Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained: Robert Richardson
Lincoln: Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall: Roger Deakins

Best Achievement in Editing

Winner:
Argo: William Goldenberg

Other Nominees:
Life of Pi: Tim Squyres
Lincoln: Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook: Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty: William Goldenberg, Dylan Tichenor

Best Achievement in Production Design

Winner:
Lincoln: Rick Carter, Jim Erickson

Other Nominees:
Anna Karenina: Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent, Simon Bright
Les Misérables: Eve Stewart, Anna Lynch-Robinson
Life of Pi: David Gropman, Anna Pinnock

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Winner:
Anna Karenina: Jacqueline Durran

Other Nominees:
Les Misérables: Paco Delgado
Lincoln: Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror: Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman: Colleen Atwood

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

Winner:
Les Misérables: Lisa Westcott, Julie Dartnell

Other Nominees:
Hitchcock: Howard Berger, Peter Montagna, Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Peter King, Rick Findlater, Tami Lane

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

Winner:
Life of Pi: Mychael Danna

Other Nominees:
Anna Karenina: Dario Marianelli
Argo: Alexandre Desplat
Lincoln: John Williams
Skyfall: Thomas Newman

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

Winner:
Skyfall: Adele, Paul Epworth("Skyfall")
So happy for Adele and she got so emotional even though her win was totally expected.  It just goes to show how “real” she is deep down.  GO ADELE!!

Other Nominees:
Chasing Ice: J. Ralph("Before My Time")
Les Misérables: Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer("Suddenly")
Life of Pi: Mychael Danna, Bombay Jayshree("Pi's Lullaby")
Ted: Walter Murphy, Seth MacFarlane("Everybody Needs a Best Friend")

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

Winner:
Les Misérables: Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, Simon Hayes

Other Nominees:
Argo: John T. Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, José Antonio García
Life of Pi: Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Drew Kunin
Lincoln: Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom, Ron Judkins
Skyfall: Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell, Stuart Wilson

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Winner:
Zero Dark Thirty: Paul N.J. Ottosson
&
Skyfall: Per Hallberg, Karen M. Baker
Witnessing an actual tie is such a rarity that this prize became an immediate sensation!

Other Nominees:
Argo: Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn
Django Unchained: Wylie Stateman
Life of Pi: Eugene Gearty, Philip Stockton

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Winner:
Life of Pi: Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik De Boer, Donald Elliott

Other Nominees:
The Avengers: Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams, Daniel Sudick
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, R. Christopher White
Prometheus: Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley, Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Phil Brennan, Neil Corbould, Michael Dawson

Best Documentary, Features

Winner:
Searching for Sugar Man: Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

Other Nominees:
5 Broken Cameras: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers: To Be Determined
How to Survive a Plague: To Be Determined
The Invisible War: To Be Determined

Best Documentary, Short Subjects

Winner:
Inocente: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix

Other Nominees:
Kings Point: Sari Gilman, Jedd Wider
Mondays at Racine: Cynthia Wade, Robin Honan
Open Heart: Kief Davidson, Cori Shepherd Stern
Redemption: Jon Alpert, Matthew O'Neill

Best Short Film, Animated

Winner:

Paperman: John Kahrs

Other Nominees:
Adam and Dog: Minkyu Lee
Fresh Guacamole: PES
Head Over Heels: Timothy Reckart, Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly
The Simpsons: The Longest Daycare: David Silverman

Best Short Film, Live Action

Winner:
Curfew: Shawn Christensen

Other Nominees:
Asad: Bryan Buckley, Mino Jarjoura
Buzkashi Boys: Sam French, Ariel Nasr
Death of a Shadow: Tom Van Avermaet, Ellen De Waele
Henry: Yan England

So that concludes the 2013 Oscar marathon.  The ceremony went grossly overtime but it was so entertaining I could have sat there another hour!!

My only disappointment is that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, a movie that’s technically impeccable, went home empty handed.  Hopefully the dragon that will take center stage in the second chapter will bring some gold to the trilogy.

It’s a wrap, see you next year!!!

Chronicle

The Gist: Three teenagers find an underground cave hiding a mysterious crystal that confers amazing telekinetic powers on them.  The three play with their newfound abilities at first, developing them gradually like any other muscle, but after a while things start to go seriously wrong.

Many Hollywood productions stand to learn a lot from this obviously bite-size budget movie.  While the visual effects are impressive for this level of production, it’s the simple and well structured screenplay that ultimately makes it a success.

The eye candy provided by Michael B. Jordan and, above all, Alex Russell doesn’t hurt…

The Bottom Line: A very interesting take on superhero-style powers and what can happen when they are bestowed upon regular folks.  Don’t dismiss it as a sci-fi movie though, it’s has nothing to do with the comic book fare plaguing us of late.  It’s original and cool at the same time.  A good movie overall.

Grade: 7

The Sword in the Stone

The Gist: A young orphan stumbles upon Merlin, a great wizard, who teaches him to become more than he thinks he is and more than everyone around him thinks he can be.

I knew the story of the boy who is able to pull the sword out of the stone when no one else could and is automatically made King of England, but I had never seen the movie version.

I found it well made but I also found a few scenes to be gratuitous in that they almost felt like they were put there to have an extra song or make the feature a bit longer.

The Bottom Line: Definitely a safe movie for the whole family.  The story is interesting and even funny at times.

Grade: 7