2010 Gotham Independent Film Awards Nominations

We officially start the awards season with the first nominations for indie films and here they are according to the live announcement and press release that can be found here.

Best Feature
Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky (lesbian Interest)
Blue Valentine, Derek Cianfrance
The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko (lesbian interest)
Let Me In, Matt Reeves
Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik

Breakthrough Director
John Wells for The Company Men
Kevin Asch for Holy Rollers
Glen Ficarra and John Requa for I Love You Phillip Morris
Tanya Hamilton for Night Catches Us
Lena Dunham for Tiny Furniture

Breakthrough Actor
Price Adu in Prince of Broadway
Ronald Bronstein in Daddy Longlegs
Greta Gerwig in Greenberg
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone
John Ortiz in Jack Goes Boating

Best Ensemble Performance
The Kids Are All Right
Life During Wartime
Please Give
Tiny Furniture
Winter’s Bone

Best Documentary
12th & Delaware, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Inside Job, Charles Ferguson
The Oath, Laura Poitras
Public Speaking, Martin Scorsese
Sweetgrass, Lucien Castain-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
Kati with an i, Robert Greene
Littlerock, Mike Ott
On Coal River, Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood
Summer Pasture, Lynn True and Nelson Walker
The Wolf Knife, Laurel Nakadate

There are a total of 26 films that were nominated across the six categories and haven’t seen one single film! There are two that are must be seen for me but I’m looking forward to watch all five nominated for best feature, which is going to be something as I promised myself that I was not going to watch the American remake of my favorite Swedish vampire movie. But I will and honestly hope to not get mad because the destruction of an excellent concept and film.

As always all the films in my favorite category, Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You, will be screened to the public at MoMa from November 18 to 22. This year the IFP created a new award, The Festival Genius Audience Award; to be eligible a USA film must have won an audience award at USA or Canadian film fest from Nov 09 to October 2010. The Festival Genius community, 200,000 film fans worldwide, will vote online for the winner. The nominees will be announced in early November and the winner will be revealed at the Gotham Awards ceremony.

The 20th Anniversary and awards ceremony will be held on Monday, November 29th at Cipriani Wall Street. Actors Robert Duvall and Hilary Swank, director Darren Aronofsky and James Schamus will each be presented with a career tribute.

Cheers!

Playing with country submissions to the Foreign Language Film

Finally today the Academy released the official list with 65 films that can be considered as ONE of the best films produced in each country and since a few days ago I been thinking about using the list as a database to play a little for fun.

Here is me dissecting the long list for useful and useless data.

Women Filmmakers

With the absence of Afghanistan announced submission, there are ONLY eight (8) films directed by women, which means that ONLY 12.3% of honored directors are women. That’s TERRIBLE!!! Not much happened around the world after and because last year a woman won (for the first time ever) the Oscar for Best Director and her film won the top award.

Countries with films directed or co directed by women: Austria, Costa Rica, Denmark, Germany, India, Nicaragua, Norway, and Switzerland.

Festivals

Doing a very “scientific research” I used the huge blog database and did a search for each of the 65 films. To my surprise almost half, exactly 47.7%,of the movies come from festivals that are listed in this blog. In this year list there are 31 films that have been at festivals since 2007 when the film submitted by Egypt was a project at Locarno, continuing with 7 films that were in 2009 festivals and 23 that were in 2010 festivals. We can say that when films travel the festival circuit they have some good chance of becoming a country submission to the Oscars.

Cannes is the festival that showcases more films that countries select to submit to Oscars; this year there are four (4) that got its premiere at 2009 Cannes and eight (8) screened at 2010 Cannes for a grand total of 12 films coming from this prestigious festival, or 18.4% of the 65 films. These are the countries that submitted films from Cannes

2009 Certain Regard: Greece, Portugal
2009 Quinzaine: Austria, Bulgaria
2010 Cannes
Main Selection: Thailand, Algeria, France, Mexico
Certain Regard: South Africa, Argentina
Quinzaine: Kyrgyzstan, Belgium

But if Cannes has a good presence in this year Foreign Language Film submissions also the Berlin Film Festival or Berlinale has a significant presence with 6 films or 9.2% of 65 films. Just these two festivals represent almost a third of the submitted films or 27.6%

The other 13 films come from other festivals like La Biennale, Locarno, Rotterdam, San Sebastian, Moscow, Montreal, Guadalajara and Pula. I don’t doubt that from the other 34 films that are not listed in this blog, some were also screened in festivals but that’s something we will not know for sure this year as I know that I haven’t covered many festivals during my long hiatus from posting at the blog. The following is the list of festivals and countries that submitted films to be considered at the 83rd Academy Awards.

2010 Berlinale (6): Turkey, Romania, Germany, Colombia, Czech Republic, Iraq
2010 Biennale (3): Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile
Locarno (2): 2007 Egypt, 2010 Switzerland
2010 Rotterdam (2): Estonia, Georgia
San Sebastian (2): 2009 Peru, 2010 Uruguay
2010 Moscow International Film Festival (1): Venezuela
2010 Montreal World Film Festival (1): Kazakhstan
2009 Guadalajara (1): Nicaragua
2009 Pula Film Festival (1): Croatia

Unfortunately have to stop here today, but maybe another day will continue dissecting the list to find that -for example- films produced and co produced by France production companies have the largest representation in the list (or maybe is another country like Germany).

If you have something that you wish to find from this list of films please let me know and gladly will try to find whatever is possible to find.

Enjoy!

83rd Academy Awards – Documentary Short Subject Shortlist

Today the Academy announced that from the 30 eligible entries, eight (8) films have been selected to continue in the selection of three to five that will be honored with a nomination. The following are the eight films.

Born Sweet, Cynthia Wade, Cambodia
Killing in the Name, Jed Rothstein, USA
Living for 32, Kevin Breslin, USA and France
One Thousand Pictures: RFK’s Last Journey, Jennifer Stoddart, UK and USA
Poster Girl, Sara Neeson, USA
Strangers No More, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon, USA
Sun Come Up, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger, USA and Papua New Guinea
The Warriors of Qiugang, Ruby Yang, China and USA

Nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 25 at 5:30am PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

2011 Oscar Foreign Language Film Submissions Final

Today the Academy released the official list with 65 countries submitting a film to be considered in the Foreign Language Film category and to check the list at the Academy official site please go here. This is the last update for this post that now has become Final.

Next post will be on January 20th when the Academy will announce the shortlist with nine (9) films and on January 25th we will learn the five (5) that will be honored with a nomination.

Albania: Lindje, Perëndim, Lindje (East, West, East: The Final Sprint), Gjergj Xhuvani
Algeria: Hors-la-loi (Outside the Law), Rachid Bouchareb
Argentina: Carancho, Pablo Trapero
Austria: La Pivellina, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
Azerbaijan: Sahə (The Precinct), Ilgar Safat
Bangladesh: জুলাই ফারুকী-তিশার বিয়ে Third Person Singular Number, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
Belgium: Illègal (Illegal), Olivier Masset-Depasse
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Cirkus Columbia (Circus Columbia), Danis Tanovic
Brazil: Lula, O Filho do Brasil (Lula, the Son of Brazil), Fábio Barreto and Marcelo Santiago
Bulgaria: Източни пиеси Iztochni piesi (Eastern Plays), Kamen Kalev
Canada: Incendies, Denis Villeneuve
Chile: La Vida de los Peces (The Life of Fish), Matías Bize
China: 唐山大地震 Tangshan dadizhen (Aftershock), Xiaogang Feng
Colombia: El Vuelco del Cangrejo (Crab Trap), Oscar Ruíz Navia
Costa Rica: Del Amor y Otros Demonios (Of Love and other Demons), Hilda Hidalgo
Croatia: CRNCI (The Blacks), Goran Devic and Zvonimir Jurić
Czech Republic: Kawasakiho růži (Kawasaki's Rose), Jana Hřebejka
Denmark: Hævnen (In a Better World), Susanne Bier
Egypt: رسائل البحر Rassayel El Bahr (Messages from the Sea), Daoud Abdel Sayed
Estonia: Püha Tõnu kiusamine (The Temptation of St. Tony), Veiko Õunpuu
Ethiopia: Atletu (The Athlete), Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew
Finland: Miesten vuoro (Stream of Life), Joonas Berghällin and Mika Hotakaisen (documentary)
France: Des Hommes et des Dieux (Of Gods and Men), Xavier Beauvois
Georgia: ქუჩის დღეები Quchis dgeebi (Street Days), Levan Koguashvili
Germany: Die Fremde, Feo Adalag
Greece: Κυνόδοντας Kynodontas (Dogtooth), Giorgos Lanthimos
Greenland: Nuummioq, Torben Bech and Otto Rosing
Hong Kong: 歲月神偷 Sui yuet san tau (Echoes of the Rainbow), Alex Law
Hungary: Bibliothèque Pascal, Szabolcs Hajdu
Iceland: Mamma Gógó, Friðrik Þór Friðriksson
India: पीपली [लाइव] Peepli [Live], (Peepli Live), Anusha Rizvi and Mahmood Farooqui
Indonesia: Alangkah lucunya (negeri ini) (How Funny This Country Is), Deddy Mizwar
Iran: بدرود بغـــداد Farewell Baghdad by Mehdi Naderi (not sure if is Khodahafez Bagdad)
Iraq: ابن بابل Son of Babylon, Mohamed Al-Daradji
Israel: שליחותו של הממונה על משאבי אנוש‎ Shlichuto Shel HaMemune Al Mashabei Enosh (The Human Resources Manager), Eran Riklis
Italy: La Prima Cosa Bella (The First Beautiful Thing), Paolo Virzì
Japan: 告白 Kokuhaku (Confessions), Tetsuya Nakashima
Kazakhstan: Заблудившийся Zabludivshiysya (Strayed), Akan Satayev
Kyrgyzstan: Svet-Ake (The Light Thief), Aktan Arym Kubat
Latvia: Amaya (Hong Kong Confidential),Maris Martinsons
Macedonia: Мајки (Mothers), Milcho Manchevski
Mexico: Biutiful, Alejandro González Iñárritu
Netherlands: Tirza, Rudolf van den Berg
Nicaragua: La Yuma, Florence Jaugey
Norway: Engelen (Angel), Margreth Olin
Peru: Contracorriente (Undertow), Javier Fuentes-León (gay interest)
Philippines: Noy, Dondon Santos
Poland: Wszystko, co Kocham (All That I Love), Jacek Borcuch
Portugal: Morrer Como Um Homem (To Die Like a Man), João Pedro Rodrigues (gay interest)
Puerto Rico: Miente (Lie), Rafi Mercado
Romania: Eu Cand Vreau sa Fluier, Fluier (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle), Florin Serban
Russia: Край Kray (The Edge), Aleksey Uchitel
Serbia:  Беса (Besa), Srđana Karanovića
Slovakia: Hranica (The Border), Jaroslav Vojtek (documentary)
Slovenia: 9:06, Igor Sterk
South Africa: Life, Above All, Olivier Schmitz
South Korea: 맨발의 꿈 Maen-bal-eui Ggoom (A Barefoot Dream), Kim Tae-gyun (Revised Romanization: Maenbalui Kkgeum)
Spain: También la Lluvia (Even the Rain), Icíar Bollaín
Sweden: I rymden finns inga känslor (Simple Simon), Andreas Öhman
Switzerland: La Petite Chambre, Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond
Taiwan: 艋舺 Báng-kah (Monga), Doze Niu
Thailand: ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives), Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Turkey: Bal (Honey), Semih Kaplanoğlu
Uruguay: La Vida Util (A Useful Life), Federico Veiroj
Venezuela: Hermano, Marcel Rasquin

ALL films have trailers or scenes. Watch trailers @MOC

If you feel like reading the Academy rules for this category go here.

The excellent news is that I have so many good films to watch that I could spend months watching them!!! (lol) Plus I discovered a Very Good video rental store near to where I live now.

Cheers!!!

The Special Relationship

A quite interesting film about the relationship of two powerful men, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, that if is accurate or not is not relevant; what is relevant for me is how their friendship aligns with what I can call “English-speaking” foreign policies that probably opened the door to more incidents that we can imagine. I’m very political but promised myself to not write anything political in this blog, so won’t do more than the above comment that perhaps some of you will notice my (not so) hidden sarcasm.

Anyway the film tells about Tony Blair going to Washington D.C. before getting elected and gets some smart advice on how to take the Labor party on top again. While on campaign Blair calls Clinton attention, gets an invitation to visit him and when Blair arrives in DC gets the VIP treatment. Blair gets elected and the so-called “special relationship” between UK and USA becomes more real as both leaders form a complex personal friendship. Just for the relationship story the movie is interesting but I believe is sprinkled with some very important words that I’m sure will make many think a lot about how world leaders handle world situations.

Performances are very good with Michael Sheen doing an extraordinary representation of Tony Blair as he has done in Stephen Frear’s The Deal and The Queen, so good are his performances than in my mind the imagine of real Blair is absolutely blurred by Sheen’s interpretation. But this made-for-TV movie reminded me of the real Tony Blair with the last real-life scenes with Bush and I’m really glad that director Richard Loncraine decided to skip the Bush-Blair relationship from the final cut as would have change the movie tone and manner to the not positive. Totally agree that the Blair-Clinton relationship not only is more colorful but also is more entertaining.

As a movie is acceptable for a made-for-TV film and at the end what makes it entertaining are actors’ performances and the story being told that even when we know it still can surprise us in many aspects when we’re watching a dramatization of true events.

If you enjoyed The Deal and The Queen I’m positive that you’ll enjoy this film and if you didn’t, you can also enjoy the film as a portrait of two powerful world leaders’ relationship as I believe this is the most interesting ‘political-wise’ story of the three. Can’t help to say that I strongly recommend this movie to everyone that does NOT live in UK or USA as maybe will make you think about issues that most people (and media) avoid to think (or talk) about.

Enjoy!!

Watch trailer @Movie On Companion

Sex in the City 2

Needed some time to relax so gave this movie a try. Love the beginning, the wedding was really nice and fun to watch; after became too serious for being a story from this franchise and maybe as Carrie's flop book talk about something she was unfamiliar, writers have a hard time to write about the girls when they aren't single anymore. The movie is uneven and I didn't enjoyed their time in UAE at all as felt it was disrespectful to country traditions.

In general the movie tells about the girls dealing with married life, motherhood and the only single left, with menopause. By the way maybe it was only me but two actresses look really older, especially when they have close-ups.

Won't invest more words on this movie that some like it and many didn't. Do I recommend it? Not really, but the gay wedding is so good that I do recommend watching the beginning, after the wedding is over stop don't watch anymore.

Enjoy.

Watch trailer @Movie On Companion

Robin Hood

I came to this film with no expectations as even when was the opening film of 2010 Cannes I wasn't really interested in watching 'another' Robin Hood tale, now with 'old' actors performing the audacious hero and his followers. How wrong I was!

My second 2010 Cannes film became a huge surprise to me and even when is only the second I'm able to watch I say: It was a great classic, epic, history based (even if is more fiction than fact) and highly entertaining film that slowly, very slowly grabs your attention, gets you inside the story until without you really realizing it, you're absolutely absorbed by it; excellent storytelling, the best I have seen from Cannes 2010 up-to-date.

No, is not 'another' Robin Hood tale as ends when all the other tales begin and if you want to find 'connections' between previous Robin Hood stories and the one told here, you'll probably not find many.

Film tells about how Robin Longstride, an archer with King Richard Lionheart Crusades army, becomes the man that many followed before and after he was declared an outlaw by King John. Set in times when King Richard is coming back to England from his not-so-glorious crusades, ransacking towns to get some riches for his almost broke kingdom and how King Philip of France plots to kill King Richard, turn English barons against King John to easily invade/conquer England.

So what's so great about this movie? First, the story that's engaging. Second, the recreation of the period is excellent. Third, Ridley Scott's extraordinary storytelling style. Fourth, amazing -truly amazing- cast. Fifth, excellent balance between drama, romance and yes, battles. Sixth, some awesome natural scenarios that totally add to the drama before the battle. Last, is a very complete and well-crafted cinematic experience.

Not long ago a friend asked me what was my Cate Blanchett favorite movie and I said, Elizabeth I; but after watching her outstanding performance here, I change and say it's Robin Hood. She had such an interesting character that with her amazing histrionic abilities she made a Marion like no other you have seen and probably will never do in the future. That's how great she's in this movie that you'll not be able to take your eyes from her when she's on a scene and some are gloriously slow allowing time to pay attention to her facial expressions that tell more than words could. Fantastic! To me she absolutely stole the movie.

But that doesn't mean that other actors were not good as all lead and supporting actors had great performances, including Russell Crowe, Max von Sydow, William Hurt, and Danny Huston to name a few.

When the movie was over I couldn't helped but wanted MORE , wanted the story to continue, wanted to go on watching such an amazing assembled cast. But most of all, I was surprised by how good the movie was, I even applauded!

I strongly recommend this movie as great epic Hollywood cinema, like maybe Scott's Gladiator was in his time - but this is nothing like Gladiator is a different 'beast'. If you were thinking about skipping the movie because you think that's another Robin Hood tale (like me) be assured that is not and is so different that some naive viewers ask: why this movie is called Robin Hood, if is not Robin Hood? Lol!

Absolutely enjoyed the film, but I know that has to not be what the majority expect from a Hollywood movie, which as you probably guessed, is exactly what makes it more appealing to me and definitively the dvd will go into my collection.

Big Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @Movie On Companion

Iron Man 2

Sequels are not always as good as the first impression you get in the first installment and that's exactly what happened to me with this film. After the so good impression of the first, I was really looking forward to the second and started to watch having so much fun recalling my experience and the stupendous Robert Downey Jr. performance when the character is arrogant, narcissist and extremely fun-to-watch. But suddenly everything changed and film started to be plain -boring- for a very long while until maybe in the last 20 minutes picks-up the pace to have a great finale. Before I tell more have to share that yes, will watch the next installment! Lol!

The film was uneven and today that I'm reading viewers comments and critics reviews notice that it wasn't only me finding the huge boring loop in the middle. What I believe went wrong in this installment is what I particularly liked in the first one, a good developed drama and some sharp/darkish comical moments, as the action is there, not-so-long fights are there, good special effects are there, and well, not much else.

Film tells about Tony slowly and painfully dying while the US government wanting to get hold of his suits, which he definitively doesn't want to give away as -loved the line and how was delivered- Tony privatized world peace; besides only him has the working technology to do the suits. That's it until a Russian -crazy- physicist proves him wrong. By the way, shortly after the first Russian-Tony fight is when the film becomes slow, plain and boring.

I really don't understand why Scarlett Johansson had such an obscure role and only in the too-short action scene her character does something interesting. Mickey Rourke was an excellent choice to play Ivan Vanko, but his character became so plain too soon. Absolutely disliked Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, terrible casting and didn't even remembered that Lt. Col. James Rhodes was played by another actor in the previous film, as Don Cheadle was a natural for the part.

But what saves the film are Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow performances that even when the loop is at its most boring moment, shine with their screen presence and interpretation.

I'm sorry that the drama had such a lousy treatment and hope that in the next installment (is it called Torch?) producers get better screenplay writer(s), all I can suggest is to go back to the original four screenplay writers that did a terrific work, as Justin Theroux can't do drama (in this kind of film) well.

Don't expect the film to get as many nominations as the previous installment and doubt will get even one; but on a personal level I'm still enjoying the Iron Man story and absolutely want more if only to be better told than this one.

Do I recommend the film? Yes I do. Only to watch another great performance by Robert Downey Jr. and if you're 'hooked' in the Iron Man stories like me. Still, the film was another summer entertaining movie like others that were premiered during the 2010 summer movie season.

Enjoy!

Watch trailer @Movie On Companion

Letters to Juliet

Looking to have a peaceful and very easy moment decided to watch this romantic movie and that's exactly what I found: an easy going romantic film with some absolutely beautiful Italian sights that were true pleasure to watch. I wish I was there in those beautiful grapes fields, those towns that look like architecture wonders and transit those roads in tiny -very tiny- Fiats. Definitively I was in the right mood to watch the movie and eventually I got inside it and was walking the streets, riding the roads plus having a great time.

The story? As you can imagine quite silly and predictable, but maybe my right mood made me appreciate the role of the Secretaries to Juliet as a service that could be very welcome by many women in the world. Tells about an engaged young woman finding true love thanks to answering a fifty-years-old letter to Juliet.

Performances? No, didn't enjoy them but I think was because the characters that were so silly (to use a kind word) that was at moments unbearable to watch them. But for me it's always a pleasure to watch Vanessa Redgrave that even with a terrible character she can make it look better than all her colleagues and I always liked Franco Nero so was a pleasure to watch him too.

Do I recommend the movie? Only if you want to travel the beautiful Italian sights that are colored with a golden touch to make them look even more beautiful. But if you skip it won't be missing much.

Enjoy.

Watch trailer @Movie On Companion

37th Telluride Film Festival - Update

If you want to learn some of the films that will be screened at the fest check this LATimes article.

The full list as well as all activities are posted at the official site here.

--end of Update--

One of the most prestigious -and very selective- American festivals will take place from September 3 to 6 in Telluride, Colorado. As always the program "It's a secret" and as those lucky enough to assist, we will learn the films screened this year when fest goers reach the mountains. But you can always check last year's program to get an idea of the kind of films and events they have, go here.

To my surprise this year they have a poster, seems that they are progressing marketing wise, so enjoy! Will check the site after the fest, but think that have an idea which films they'll screen this year.

Fall Preview: The 33 Must See Films

As Peter Knegt (yes, I will always say again-and again- that he's my favorite net writer) says, summer is over! (I'm so glad!) not necessarily by the calendar but certainly when it comes to festivals and movies. For many of us tomorrow the fall festival season starts with La Mostra/La Biennale/Venice Film Festival and the 2011 award season already started.

But Mr. Knegt today delighted readers with his Must See Films for the American fall and even if there are some that will not be must be seen for me (but surely will watch), we agree with many like -for example- Aronofsky's Black Swan (he says, "think of it as a violent, sexual, ballet world update of "All About Eve" -wow! - I know have to control expectations); Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist (the follow-up of extraordinary The Triplets of Belleville"); Schnabel's Miral; Julie Taymor's The Tempest; hmm... he's talking about Heartbreaker, maybe should watch it, with Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis); Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger; and others that could be interesting.

To check the complete article please go here.

By the way, the other favorite net writer, Anne Thompson is in Venice, so hope she does more than just reviewing movies, which will allow us to enjoy more the fest. Well, well... today she also has an interesting column "Critic vs. Critic: The Changing Landscape of Movie Coverage"... yep, about the many Internet "informal" critics/reviewers ... like me (LOL!). Suggest to read the article here.

Inception

Not exactly what I was hoping for based on mainly headlines (don't read articles) and trailer. Definitively I fell into the marketing trap that yes, raised my expectations. Maybe if I had approached this film with no expectations I would have enjoy it more as entertainment as is not a bad summer movie with some nice special effects and a good fantasy story even when I did guess everything quite early, too early, and the story just became predictable with a very noisy ride as the noise level even made my seat shake and there was no earthquake, lol!

But it was an entertaining ride with some thrilling moments and absolutely liked the idea of "dream worlds" against reality, plus the dream within a dream, within a dream (so on and so forth) seems unbelievably appealing to me (lol!). That's why I identified with the character that doesn't want to come out from that fantastic dream (s) world (s) and as I don't want to spoil the story, won't tell you who the character is, but if you already saw it you have to know.

I'm torn with telling you what's the story about, as if I tell you what I saw will absolutely spoil the film for you; so, the official plot says about a highly skilled thief (DiCaprio) of hidden (corporate) secrets who is given a final chance at redemption which involves executing his toughest job till date and do an inception. Inception is (more or less) planting an idea in a person while dreaming so when wakes up believes is his own idea.

The film has a great cast and was a true pleasure to watch Ellen Page and Marion Cotillard, has outstanding production values and some good special effects -nothing extraordinary in my opinion. Due to my (high) expectations wanted to watch the movie in the big screen but honestly it wasn't worth it. If you haven't watch it yet wait for the DVD and if you have a good theater system at home you probably will enjoy it the same or even more at home.

Will the film get an Oscar nomination? Probably or more likely, sure. Has all the elements that Academy members like plus general audiences like too. Could win the top award? Maybe as buzz and marketing for this film seems has been very successful and the film definitively is a crowd pleaser.

Do I recommend the film? Yes as good entertainment, but be aware that this Christopher Nolan film is NO Dark Knight.

Enjoy!

Watch trailer @Movie On Companion

It’s no secret: The Academy makes some strange choices

Just love this article about Oscar's Foreign Language Film category, very cleverly written. The first I ever like from Metacritic! As a teaser, a brief excerpt.

"So if the Academy voters aren’t selecting the most critically-acclaimed films, what exactly are they picking? The most accessible films? That doesn’t appear to be the case, either. As you can see above, the Academy’s selections rarely coincide with Metacritic user preferences. And, more surprisingly — given that an Oscar victory presumably provides some sort of box office bump — the Oscar-winning foreign film more often than not performs more poorly in U.S. theaters than at least one other nominee. Apparently, the only people who agree with Academy voters are … Academy voters."

You'll find data and much more. I strongly suggest you take a look at the complete article here.

Very Early 2011 Oscar Possible Nominations

Some newspaper men/critics/cinema aficionados are starting to list what each considers as probable contenders for the 83rd Academy Awards that will take place on Sunday, February 27, 2011. But as some of you know the Oscar race starts a lot earlier when countries start to announce their chosen submissions to the Best Foreign Language category. As a matter of fact registration for the Bleacher Seats starts in September 13, so we can say that this post inaugurates the Oscar season in the blog.

Our first key date is Tuesday, January 25, 2011 when the nominations will be announced to the world.

Our second key date is October 1st, 2010 that's the deadline for all countries to send in their submissions for Best Foreign film. My next post will start one of my very favorite posts, the slowly build up of all submissions to this Oscar edition.

So let's play around with what some have been publishing as possible Oscar contenders.

From my favorite net writer, Peter Knegt. To check the complete list go here.

Best Picture - Safe Bets: Inception
Best Director - Safe Bets: Chirstopher Nolan for Inception
Best Actress: Safe Bets: Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
Best Actor - Safe Bets: None
Best Foreign Language Film - Safe Bets: None

Another of my favorite net writers, Ann Thompson. Check her article here.

Best Actress: possibilities Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right, Anne Hathaway in Love and Other Drugs, Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone, Lesley Manville in Another Year, Helen Mirren in The Tempest, and Hilary Swank in Conviction.

Last, from Cinematical. Check article here.

Best Actress - Safe Bets: Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right and Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone.

Well is just a little teaser to make you all feel that the Oscar season just started. Been following the Best Actress category because some claim that this year Noomi Rapace could get a nomination for her extraordinary, outstanding, magnificent, and all the superlative adjectives you can imagine in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not all agree that she could qualify, but I still hope she makes it, as the film surely was screened in USA in time for the nominations.

So as of this very moment, the Oscar Party has started!

Cheers!!!

Shanghai

Thanks to a great friend from China -that noticed I'm back- was able to watch this great movie that even when is an American production doesn't look or feel like one; maybe because director Mikael Håfström is Swedish, the writer was born in Iran and the amazing cast comes from China, Japan, Germany and USA or maybe is the noir style that gives the film an air of old fashion movie from the times when Casablanca or Citizen Kane were born.

Yes the cast is outstanding and for starters here we have the extraordinary, beautiful and expressive Gong Li reunited with none other than great Yun-Fat Chow; next amazing Ken Watanabe and with a more supporting role Rinko Kikuchi representing Japan; from Germany great Franka Potente and from USA one of the few actors I really enjoy watching, John Cusack. Eclectic cast isn't?

Tells about an undercover American agent posing as a journalist Paul Soames (John Cusack) that's call to Shanghai to follow his friend -and also agent- investigation and find who kill him. All happens in the eve of December 1941 when Shanghai was the only major China's city not yet occupied by the Japanese and was a potboil of foreign and local inhabitants; a city divided into districts according to nationality, so you had the Japanese district, the German district and the American district. Also important to the story are the Chinese resistance with urban fighting against the Japanese.

Is in this scenario that Paul meets Anna Lan-Ting (Gong Li) the wife of Chinese mob and Japanese collaborator Anthony Lan-Ting (Yun-Fat Chow) and as Paul follows Anna trying to uncover the connection to his friend, the story unravels at times tense, at times with very sophisticated drama, some action, some not-usual romance, and most of the time looking and feeling like great Chinese cinema. The last surely happened because I saw a Mandarin dubbed version that today I'm sure is the best that happened to me to really appreciate and enjoy more the film.

This is another film that when was over I wanted more and be sure that I'll watch the movie again, as well as when the DVD is available will go directly to my collection along with all great Gong Li films.

I simply love the movie and believe that the chemistry between Gong Li and Cusack is unexpected, unimaginable but real which was an incredibly good surprise for me, as Gong Li has had some foreign co-stars that simply don't fit her unique style, kill the romance and make them a not-believable couple.

If you're a Gong Li fan this is absolutely must be seen for you; also if you appreciate good Chinese cinema (I know is an American production but is a reference) you have to watch this film. If you're expecting Hollywood in this film be sure that you will not find it in the narrative, the style, the performances, and the visuals; maybe there is a little Hollywood in the scenarios and tech specs but nowhere else.

Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @ Movie On Companion

There is another more commercial movie poster but I HAD TO post here the Chinese poster.

Salt

When the movie started I thought I was watching a Bond film with the only difference that Pierce Brosnan was not there and instead I was watching a barely dressed Angelina Jolie! So blond Jolie (don't like her blond and still doubt she could do Marilyn Monroe) does lots of action moves -that absolutely suits her perfectly- while we the audience stay wondering which side her loyalty resides. At the end I got the unsatisfying sensation that this film was more like a pilot for a TV series that nowadays almost look like big screen films.

But watching Angelina Jolie when she's not too skinny, like here, is always a pleasure that I can't miss and didn't. My problem was with the story that was (badly) rewritten for a female lead after none other than Tom Cruise was out of the project. Still there is lots of action and somehow I liked not knowing her side, that is until I saw her doing the spider thing that totally gave away her true loyalty and the story became less interesting.

Tells the story of Evelyn Salt a CIA agent that may or may not be a Russian spy as she was part of a Soviet Union old project that trained little kids to become "sleepers" while reaching adulthood and becoming successful professionals in key/strategic positions. When a Russian defector accuses her of being a Russian spy everything unravels and for the rest of the story is action , rest a few minutes, action, rest, and the same until the movie finally ends.

I know that Salt is not a video game character but might as well be the next video game and why not, the next TV series where she does all the follow-up to the SO predictable end. Summer action flicks are always not my favorites, but once in a while, one becomes the exception. Unfortunately this is not the case with Salt that again is worth watching ONLY to kill some time and IF you have to watch everything with Jolie.

Enjoy!

Watch trailer @ Movie On Companion

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

The video game has been called one of the "most visually stunning video games ever made" and the movie has good visuals but not stunning, at least for my eyes. Still I found the film to be very entertaining with an original story that easily grabs your attention and keeps it, even when watching the multiple very long -and sometimes boring- fights (don't we always know who will win?).

This video game based film tells the story of a young orphan, Dastan, that's adopted by the King of Persia and grows up to be equally loved by his two adopted brothers and father. But when his older brother decides to attack the holy city everything changes as the King is poisoned with a robe that Dastan gives him and we saw his older brother gave him. Dastan becomes a fugitive with Princess Tamina and nothing that will happen is like we think it is, which is what makes the story entertaining.

Lots of action, visual effects and predictable romance make this summer movie a worth watching film to kill some time and be aware that it's quite noisy! This is the kind of movie that critics dislike but young and always-young audiences tend to like. Seems that those that play the game also enjoyed watching the characters in the big screen.

I liked the movie because of the story and what I call "extreme" performances by Ben Kingsley and mostly by Alfred Molina. Do I recommend it, well ONLY if you have nothing else to watch and wish to kill some time with an entertaining story.

Enjoy!

Watch trailer @ Movie On Companion

Killers

What a terrible movie! Yes I was restless in my seat and almost leave, but I did stay as I couldn't believe that a "filmmaker" could do such a terrible movie. I strongly suggest to stay away even if you have enjoyed as entertainment previous romance/comedy movies with Ashton Kutcher and/or Katherine Heigl.

Tells about a hired gun (Kutcher) that falls for a vacationing woman (Heigl) in Nice. Back home they marry but she doesn't know the husband's other identity until everything is uncover. Silly, very silly plot awfully performed, scripted, directed, and even with tech specs flaws.

I do not recommend this movie.

Sigh.

Watch trailer (at your own risk) @ Movie On Companion

Just Wright

As a few days ago Queen Latifah was in the news (with some very "old news") and since had some time to watch a film decided to give a try to her latest as -for entertainment purposes- I have enjoyed some of her romantic comedies. Unfortunately this is not the case with this film even when there is good chemistry between Latifah and Common but the story not only is too predictable but the ride becomes boring with many not so credible situations that annoy you for being so much out of reality and you get to think "how on earth Latifah didn't changed the dialogue and narrative".

Story tells about Leslie Wright, 35-years-old, single, heavy basketball fan, and physical therapist that cares too much for others and not much for herself, until she meets Scott, the star basketball player; but he falls for Leslie's best friend... until he realizes that she's not the love of his life, is Leslie. Gosh, sounds so silly and honestly, the story is kind of silly.

But watched the complete movie just because I do enjoy her screen presence and definitively if you enjoy her you have to watch the film that she totally saves by just being there.

Sigh.

Watch trailer @ Movie On Companion

Burlesque - Update

Not really ready to be back to 'normal' but today I got the first indispensable element: a fast internet connection! I'm SO happy like child with a brand new toy!!! My stuff hasn't arrive and will not for a long while, but I'm ready to start posting.

Yesterday watched this movie trailer on TV and definitively is a must be seen for me (for entertainment purposes). Some early critics are saying that the film will be a long-length "Lady Marmelade" video from Moulin Rouge ... others say it's Christina's version of 'A Star is Born'... I say that if is both, the film will be just GREAT!

Here is the trailer so you don't have to go to the trailer blog.



-- End of Update --

I need to close the day on a better note (to cheer me up a little) so I'm going to share about a movie that will be released around Thanksgiving 2010, Burlesque.

If Cannes had Amalric's Tournee, about a Burlesque troupe 'lost' in provincial France (that has to be deliciously/gloriously decadent), Hollywood has its own version but the huge difference is who's starring. After almost 10 years Cher is back to the big screen and no matter whatever everybody says, she looks great! The other lead is the movie debut of Christina Aguilera, that from the few clips available looks as great as in that famous music video from Moulin Rouge. Then we have Kristen Bell with raven black hair looking different. Also starring Stanley Tucci in a role that somehow I imagine similar to Amalric's in Tournee...

Definitively interesting enough to become must be seen for me. Check an interview with some movie clips.