The obligatory oscar post

Last year I had published just 1 (yep... One...) post on this blog. That was because I just couldn't not make my obligatory oscar post. With that sort of history, and my recent claim about reviving my blog, there is really no way out this time either. So, here goes... as usual a hurried post, but an oscar post nevertheless.

Only writing about the categories about what I have any opinion one way or another. Bold is for "probably going to win", italics are for "my choice among the ones I have seen" while * means "still have to see this movie".

Best Picture: The Artist, (The Descendants or Hugo could also win.. though The Artist is the frontrunner), Hugo (Loved it!), *Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Best Lead Actor: Jean Dujardin (though I won't be surprised if Clooney wins... I'll actually be pleasantly surprised if Oldman wins, but perhaps that's not going to happen). *A Better Life

Best Lead Actress: Viola Davis (Streep might win it too.. I haven't seen 3 movies here, so no strong opinion anyway) *The Iron Lady, *My Week With Marilyn,  *Albert Nobbs

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer (I'm not sure if she is really the frontrunner, but she really elevated The Help by her performance.) *Albert Nobbs, *Bridesmaids

Best Director: Hugo (Perhaps The Artist is the frontrunner.. but i don't know... maybe they WILL give it to Scorsese.. if the do, I'll be happy.. I actually will also be pleasantly surprised if Terrence Malick gets it for The Tree of Life, but that is probably not going to happen)

Original Screenplay: A Separation (I don't know who will win. haven't seen Bridesmaids, and I didn't think Margin Call was THAT good.. any of the others won't be a big surprise but I REALLY want A separation to win, as you might've guessed by my last post :) ) *Bridesmaids

Adapted Screenplay: Moneyball (perhaps this will go to The Descendants, and I won't mind that too much. Though Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was pretty good too) *The Ides of March

Cinematography: All beautiful movies here! But I prefer The Tree of Life and War Horse  over others. Maybe they'll give it to The Tree of Life.. or perhaps it is going to be the day of The Artist.

Original Score: The Artist had to breathe through its score, and it was really good. Though all the other contenders were really good too.

Foreign Language Film: A Separation (though I haven't seen any of the others.. still, a movie will have to be awesome to beat A Separation, and that can only be good! Another great movie to see! But I really do think that is probably not going to happen.) *In Darkness, *Footnote, *Bullhead, *Monsieur Lazhar

Animated Feature: Rango (not seen 3 of the contenders, but I'll be surprised if Puss in Boots beats Rango.. and mildly surprised if even Kung Fu Panda 2 wins.. no idea about the other two. They might actually be good enough to win) *Chico & Rita, *A Cat in Paris

Live Action Short: No personal favorites really. All were nice. Though perhaps Tuba Atlantic and The Shore might be more 'oscar like' and might win.

Animated Short: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (Though Pixar's La Luna was pretty cute too, and might win.. all the other 3 were nice enough actually.. but TFFBOMMLessmore (phew!) was easily my favorite among all 5. 

Oscar Nominations 2011

The nominations were announced about half an hour ago, so here is the obligatory 'reaction post' (even though the equally obligatory 'my wishlist post' never made it beyond my facebook status message).


Delighted:

- for A R Rahman, of course. Twin nominations, once again! And this time it feels even better than 2009 because that year those nominations were almost inevitable, unlike this year. 127 Hours lost a lot of steam because a lot of people just weren't interested in watching it (the theme/story doesn't really make it an audience magnet). Also, right at the fag end of the year True Grit released and sort of pushed around some of the not-so-sure nominees out. I was afraid that 127 Hours might've missed the bus. But it didn't!!! :) Now I'm getting greedy. I actually am hopeful that he'll WIN one of these. Perhaps not for original score, but If I Rise must stand a very good chance!

- for Pixar, as usual. Best picture and Best animated feature were a given but I didn't think the screenplay would get the recognition. Moreover, I had completely forgotten about Day&Night being in the run for the best animated short.. so that was a pleasant news!

- for Jackie Weaver. Animal Kingdom was a movie well worth watching, and Jackie Weaver's performance essentially carries the movie through the extremely engaging last hour or so of the movie. Ben Mendelsohn was actually really good too, but one can't have everything!

- for Winter's Bone. 4 of the biggest nomination categories!! Picture, actress, supporting actor and screenplay! It was a pleasant surprise to see that people remembered this small movie even though it was released way back in the summer. (unlike The Ghost Writer, which released pretty early in the year and was completely forgotten)

- for The Kids Are All Right. see 'Winter's Bone'. except that this actually did release closer to the oscar season, and hence wasn't really a surprise.

- for Javier Bardem. Haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm always delighted whenever a performance in a foreign language movie gets such attention. He missed out on a nomination for Mar Adentro, but perhaps this will be his year again (after Anton Chigurh got him a well deserved oscar). Then again, Colin Firth (or James Franco) might have something to say about that..

- for all the obvious nominations of The Social Network and Inception. There's no way they were going to miss out on the obvious ones like best picture, screenplay, music etc... Then again.....


Sad/Dejected/Disappointed


- for Nolan. now THIS I didn't see coming. He has never been nominated for direction before (actually, before today he had only 1 nomination.. for Memento's screenplay), but this should really have been his. The guy has had an astounding decade. I think they will soon give him a lifetime achievement award (at age 45!) to atone for all these sins.

- for Inception editing! If anything could be even more disappointing and puzzling than the Nolan snub, it had to this! Inception, NOT nominated for editing! I have no idea what to think. I REALLY need to see those other movies. 

Movies 2007 - My Tentative Top Ten

I've watched some of the oscar-buzz movies since writing that Movie post. And it is now somewhat clear what form my 2007 list might look like. I still have to see some movies that will topple some of the movies in the current top 10. Some of these movies that I have not yet seen but are likely to be really good, possibly worthy of a top 10 place (a couple of them are in with a chance of coming in even at number 1), are:
There Will Be Blood
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
3:10 to Yuma
Taare Zameen Par
Persepolis
The Great Debators
The Kite Runner
Jab We Met
Eastern Promises
Once
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Away From Her
Gone Baby Gone
Black Book

The reason Black Book is included in this list even though it was part of last year's oscar nominations is because it did not get a wide enough release in USA till some time into 2007. Which means I could not have included it in last year's list. Now that I have its DVD with me, I'll probably watch it soon enough and if it is REALLY good, it might figure in this year's list.

So, a couple of special mentions first. These are the movies that weren't great enough to figure in the top 10 for me at this time, but any of them might come in at #5-#10 if you ask me to make the same list 10 days from now. :) As it often happens, except for the top 4-5 movies, the rankings for the rest are quite dynamic. So, the special mentions...

16. Hot Fuzz
15. Chak De India
14. Cheeni Kum
13. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
12. In the Shadow of the Moon
11. American Gangster

Aaaaaand, here is the tentative top 10 list. Chances are that the bottom half might drop out later on, but the first 4-5 movies will probably still be in the list even after I get to see all the movies mentioned above, though not necessarily at the current rankings. So..

10. Juno : Saw it just yesterday, and it is quite funny. Really well written dialogue throughout the movie. Very often, in a comedy/dramedy at least some of the humor does not work for me. There might be some jokes that just fall flat or sound lame to me (as is true for everyone). But I don't remember a single line in this movie where I felt that way. But more than anything else it is Ellen Page's performance. This girl is just about 20 years old, and looking at her in this movie I'm sure Roger Ebert is right about her in saying that she is going to be one of the great actresses of her generation. See this movie if only for Ellen Page. But even if you see it for her performance, I assure you you'll find plenty to chuckle about.

9. Black Friday : Finally I got to see what all the hype about Anurag Kashyap was. His screenplay for Satya was brilliant, and his Paanch never got released. So, this was my first chance to see why people keep saying that he is SO good. And even though I haven't seen No Smoking yet, and even though it was almost universally panned, I think Black Friday was enough to convince me that AK is a director who can make some really good movies in future. some of the scenes in this movie are just superb! But then again, I thought there are some sequences where he just overindulges himself. It becomes too slow at times, and for a movie that is shot as if it were a docu-drama it has some very bollywood-y scenes (specially Tiger Memon's depiction. While Pawan Malhotra performed really well, everything just felt too over-the-top about those sequences).

8. Into the Wild: A wonderfully shot movie with some amazing performaces. Emile Hirsch will probably get a well deserved oscar nomination, and I'll be really happy if this also gets at least one supporting actor/actress nomination. Hal Holbrook will probably get it, even though his charater has only about 20 minutes of screen time. But then, Atonement might get a supporting actress nomination for a 3-minute role. So... :)

7. Lust, Caution: Ang Lee's new movie that won't be able to get a foreign-movie nomination because of some confusion about whether it is "foreign" enough and, if so, whether it belongs to China or Taiwan? Again, superbly shot with some great sets and amazing leading performances. I didn't like it as much when I saw it, and I'm surprised myself at finding it in my top 10! This is what I mean by the "aftertaste" of a movie. Some movies grow on you after every successive watch, but some grow on you (or at least me) without even watching them again. I just think back to some of the scenes/sequences and I realize that I enjoyed them more than some of the other movies in the list. So, here is Lust, Caution at 7!

6. Zodiac : A really well made serial-killer movie that showed more of the investigation into the murders than the murders themselves. This movie didn't really get its due at the box office and most of the critics have probably forgotten all about it because it came so early in the year. I have always liked Jake Gyllenhall but it is Mark Ruffalo who overshadows everyone in this one. He'd have got a supporting actor nomination had this movie come later in the year, but nobody is talking about it now. sigh!

5. The Bourne Ultimatum: I LOVED the second Bourne movie but this one was even better. It is essentially a mindless action movie disguised as an intelligent spy movie. And it is done REALLY well. Fun ride from first scene to the last.

4. Ratatouille: People still have a bias against animation movies. There is still a feeling somewhere that these are "kid movies" and probably don't deserve to compete against some of the "serious" stuff. But Pixar will probably slowly change all that. The Incredibles was nominated for its original screenplay and I'd dance all night if they remember to do so with Ratatouille too. Hopefully Pixar will keep coming up with such amazing movies and we'll see a Pixar movie getting its thoroughly deserved nominations for screenplay, music, direction, acting (even if just voice!) etc in 2015. Maybe even a best picture nomination! Ratatouille rocks! It is not quite Pixar's best, but that is like saying this is not Sachin's best century. It still is a Sachin century and it probably had more gorgeous shots than anyone else's 200. So, this might not be as good as The Incredibles but there are delightful sequences throughout Ratatouille that are way better than most live-action stuff that we get to see around. As for comparing with other animation movies here in the US, you must be joking! The Shreks and Ice Ages only seem like pretenders when you come out of a screening of something like Ratatouille!

3. No Country For Old Men : I've already written about it in the previous post. Read it here.

2. Atonement: Saw it only 2 days ago, so chances are that I might be over-estimating it due to the recency-factor, but then I saw Juno yesterday and it doesn't figure at number 1. So....
I LOVE movies with great visuals and sounds and most period costume dramas are great that way (most of the good ones, anyway). But this is something more than just that. Its a great story (apparently from a prestigous and popular novel), adapted into a really, REALLY good screenplay. It moves from British family drama to war epic to love story with amazing skill and keeps you interested for every single second of the movie. I normally do not like war movies a lot, so it helps that the war probably only takes up about 30% of the screen time. And it also helps to have a STUNNING 4-5 minute long single-take scene during that war sequence. I don't know if that scene really is single-take or it is made to look that way but, whatever the case might be, I was looking at it with open-mouthed amazement. I had no idea about how good this movie might be when I went to see it. Maybe that is why I am rating it so highly, because it just surprised and delighted me throughout its running length. I can't wait to go and see it again at the first chance. And I can't wait to buy the DVD whenever it comes out (and becomes cheap enough so I can afford it! :) )

1. The Lives of Others : I almost did this movie a great injustice by forgetting about it entirely initially. It got the foreign language movie oscar last year, and so should probably be considered as a 2006 movie but just like Black Book it came to the theatres later in the year so I could not include it in the last year's list. If I had, it would be one of the three best movies of last year (along with The Departed and Pan's Labyrinth). Its a great movie about socialism in East Berlin in 1984 (the year, not the book.. but it probably is intentional). Without telling you much about it, I'll just say that it is a spy thriller/drama about an official of Stasi - the government's secret police - who is given the task of arranging surveillance of a famous writer and his girlfriend, a theatre actress. A web is then spun about corrupt officials, fearful citizens, conspirators/rebels and the protagonist - an idealist whose faith in the system of government that he is serving slowly unravels as he observes what is happening around him. And for a movie that seems to be constantly moving towards doom, it has a strangely uplifiting end.
Best movie of the year. By far.