Oscars 2012- Winners & Snubs

And there were winners and there were winners. Nobody lost. The 84th Academy Awards were  a celebration of the wonder and awe that the cinema inspires in all of us. Hosted by the evergreen Billy Crystal for the 9th time if I am not mistaken, this year’s Oscars were an ode to the magic of silver screen.  As expected, The Artist took home several of the top awards, including Best picture, Best director (Michel Hazanivicius) and Best Actor (Jean Dujardin). Martin Scorsese’s Hugo was another winner with 5 and the  The Iron Lady with two honors which included Meryl Streep‘s third Oscar. Woody Allen won with a best original screenplay win for his movie Midnight in Paris.

Almost most of the awards went to the predictable winners. Yes I too predicted them to win but I felt there were others who deserved to win got snubbed.  I would call Meryl Streep’s win was also for a surprise as Viola Davis was widely seen as the favorite in this category for her unassuming turn in “The Help.” which won her a Actor’s Guild so I consider her as a snub. Meryl Streep on her win said- “I could feel half the audience going her, oh god, not her again,”. “But, oh well,” she laughed and showed others what she deserved.

George Clooney was another snub according to me. Jean Dujardin is very good in The Artist but Clooney with his role of a father and a man in denial who is trying to cope up with relationships and his internal fight. A truly humane character which somebody or other will surely relate to.  Marty aka Martin Scorsese  didn’t win anything but his movie won 5 including wins in Cinematography, Visual Effects, and Sound Mixing. Marty also got most Thank You’s in the whole show.  Rango received the Best Animated Picture which I believed should have been given to The Adventures of Tintin which didn’t even got nominated.

With Oscars people talk about speech’s and dresses and etc etc. This one had its moments too. Our very own Jennifer Lopez in her  Oscar gown with a plunging V-neck by Zuhair Murad gave the audience a “tit”ilating view.  Uggie, the adorable dog in best-picture winner “The Artist,” got a place on the stage. Jolie’s slitted skirt and legs generated buzz on Twitter with hashtags like #angiesrightleg. Christopher Plummer became the oldest Oscar winner at 82  for  ”The Beginners also gave one of the best speech. Iranian movie A Separation got the Best Foreign Film & A Pakistani Director won the Best Documentary Short Subject with the Saving Face.

So in all there were moments and there are winners. Some go home with the Oscars and some go with better luck next time hopes.

Here is the complete list of winners-

Best Picture
War Horse
The Artist *WINNER
Moneyball
The Descendants
The Tree of Life
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Hugo
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Best Actress
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Viola Davis, The Help
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady *WINNER
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

Best Actor
Demian Bichir, A Better Life
George Clooney, The Descendants
Jean Dujardin, The Artist *WINNER
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Best Director
Michel Hazanivicius, The Artist *WINNER
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

Short Film (Animated)
Dimanche/Sunday
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore *WINNER
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

Documentary Short Subject
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
God Is the Bigger Elvis
Incident in New Baghdad
Saving Face *WINNER
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

Short Film (Live Action)
Pentecost
Raju
The Shore *WINNER
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic

Best Original Screenplay
Michel Hazanivicius, The Artist
Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, Bridesmaids
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris *WINNER
J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Asghar Farhadi, A Separation

Best Adapted Screenplay
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, The Descendants *WINNER
John Logan, Hugo
George Clooney, Beau Willimon and Grant Heslov, The Ides of March
Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin, Moneyball
Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Music (Original Song)
“Man or Muppet” from The Muppets, Bret McKenzie *WINNER
“Real in Rio” from Rio, Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown and Siedah Garrett

Music (Original Score)
John Williams, The Adventures of Tintin
Ludovic Bource, The Artist *WINNER
Howard Shore, Hugo
Alberto Iglesias, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
John Williams, War Horse

Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Christopher Plummer, Beginners *WINNER
Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo *WINNER
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon

Best Animated Feature
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango *WINNER

Documentary Feature
Hell and Back Again
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
Undefeated *WINNER

Sound Mixing
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo *WINNER
Moneyball
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon
War Horse

Sound Editing
Drive
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo *WINNER
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon
War Horse

Film Editing
Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Kevin Tent, The Descendants
Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo *WINNER
Thelma Schoonmaker, Hugo
Christopher Tellefsen, Moneyball

Supporting Actress
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help *WINNER

Best Foreign Feature
Bullhead
Footnote
In Darkness
Monsieur Lazhar
A Separation *WINNER

Makeup
Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle, Albert Nobbs
Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland, The Iron Lady *WINNER

Costume Design
Anonymous
The Artist *WINNER
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.

Art Direction
The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo *WINNER
Midnight in Paris
War Horse

Cinematography
The Artist
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo *WINNER
The Tree of Life
War Horse

127 Hours- Movie Review – Brilliance

Last night I  decided to watch 127 hours. After learning about the Oscar nominations it received I was prompted  to go and see what the big deal is all about.  Plus it was the return of the duo of Danny Boyle & AR Rahman who won Oscars in bulk. One confession I would like to make that as much as I hated Slumdog Millionaire, that much I was keen to watch this movie. Because I had a feeling that this will bring me back to be Danny Boyle’s fans list. And yes it did.

127 Hours’ is a gripping real-life account of climber Aron Ralston’s struggle to survive after his arm is trapped under a boulder. It shows five-day struggle of a man to survive in the Great Canyon. The movie is an adaptation of Between a Rock and a Hard Place- true account of Ralston’s having his arm lodged beneath a boulder. Boyle apparently has stuck with the facts and hasn’t added anything in story except the brilliant screenplay and brilliantly convincing performance from James Franco.

The movie dates back in 2003, where Ralston is an extreme sports enthusiast who goes . He goes hiking every weekend and just like every weekend he goes out hiking in the beautiful Blue John Canyon. He doesn’t tells anybody where is going.  There he meets two attractive women hikers who invites him to their party later on. Aaron’s  date with destiny starts with a dangerous climb where he gets trapped. His supply of food and water is running out. With a small  pocketknife with him Ralston begins a five day ordeal where he goes through flashbacks of his life, his dreams about the party, his dream about escaping,  his family,  his childhood, friends and the two hikers he met before getting trapped, importance of people in life and finally cutting off his arm.

Boyle captures the process and the build up to to the moment where Ralston flirts with the idea of chopping his right arm off for a couple days till the finally does it.  Danny Boyle goes into the head of the Ralston and shows every detail of what’s going on in the trapped guy’s head.  From Ralston’s excitement to his desperation, everything has been shown in a brilliant way.

Franco’s performance as Aaron Ralston is brilliant, gripping and convincing. Franco lives up to the life of the adventurer and a desperate man to get out of a trapped place. The way he tries to get free from that boulder to start shooting himself as a TV show host is just superb. The performance is believable and harrowing. I could hear the OOMPHs and Uffs by the women around when he cuts off his hand.  Now I am not eligible to comment on a master like AR Rahman. All I can say he has given a fantastic background score far better than Slumdog. The track If I rise is a fluid mix of many genres, the soundtrack album combines Rahman’s music with pieces by Free Blood, Bill Withers, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Esther Phillips, and Sigur Ros. A.R. Rahman captures the emotional intensity and pace of this film in the sounds he creates. The soundtrack is already being discussed as a clear front-runner for Best Soundtrack at the Academy Awards.

127 hours is a thriller which shows the pain, both physically and mentally of a trapped man. Danny Boyle shows why he is the master of genres with brilliant story plot, screenplay, editing and story telling.  The movie is visually quite compelling which is one of the strong parts of the movie. James Franco’s performance is commanding and convincing which puts up in the list of front runners for Oscar’s.  The movie and the performance will keep you gripped, make you take a deep breathe, a sigh of relief  and yeah not move at all. A must watch for the year after The Social Network.

Rating 4.5 out of 5

See the Trailer of the movie here -

India & Oscar- Always about Stars & Indian Poverty???

So Peepli Live is the Indian’s official Oscar nomination but now again as always it makes me question if it’s the right choice. This is not new that every time a movie is nominated for Oscar there are questions, but I feel these question are valid. Why not movies with less star power gets nominated. But I feel there were other good films also running for the same position. Apparently Vasanthabalan’s reality film ‘Angadi Theru’ was the closest competition.

Then why did it lose?? because it didn’t had backing of Aamir Khan.  Aamir Khan produced ‘Peepli Live’ was chosen saying “the film is a reflection of India’s culture and ethos, even as it highlights the burning problem — farmer suicides.” But don’t we think we want to win and show the world only the poor side of the country??

This year too like every year there were better movies ready to go but didn’t get recognized because of lack of star power. This year there were five Tamil films out of the initially shortlisted 27 Indian films. Singam, Angadi Theru, Madrasapattinam, Raavanan and Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya. Notable other language films were Paa, Raajneeti, My Name is Khan, Three Idiots and Pazhassi Raja.

Atleast in among the Hindi movies Udaan according to me was the best to be nominated. The issue the movie raised are not only valid in India but surely global too. The movie was nominated for Cannes which shows its appeal to the world cinema. It did won applauds at various film festivals worldwide. But just because they couldn’t market itself the way Aamir does they lost the spot. If they want to represent India then I don’t think Udaan falls short anywhere.Udaan is about dreams of the young and the innocent and that also form the perspective of the dreamers. Rebellious, impatient boys, relationships people share, tussle between parents and the children, the movie had what it required according to me.  India is known for relationships worldwide. Farmer suicides are also there but its our internal apathy. Why do we want to show our carelessness to the world and how our media and politicians behave or how poor we are if we are?? Why can’t we show how creatively and nicely we can portray a other sensitive matters like relationships. These relationships can be between anybody. Relationship is the only one thing required worldwide today.

Lets see at some movies gone to Oscars which had big names and got DUD -

• Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya: The Royal Guard was chosen, after a huge controversy, in 2007. But not surprisingly it failed to make it to the next round.
• Rang De Basanti- Aamir Khan has a history with the Oscars. Despite being a success in India and wining applauds, it was eliminated out of the Oscar race at early stages only
• Lagaan became the third Indian film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film after Mother India in 1957 and Salaam Bombay! in 1989
• 1947 Earth- Another Aamir movie which was considered as a powerful reminder of how a civilization cracked under certain pressures. But despite all such rave reviews, the film couldn’t crack the Oscars.
• Hey Ram- Another  failed attempts of Indian films at the Academy Awards
• Devdas & Paheli – Both were good success in the country but failed to impress the Oscar judges
• Jeans- Held some record for a Tamil film with the maximum number of prints but was it a Oscar material..god and selection committee only knows…or may be Aiswarya Rai
• Hindustani- Won 3 National awards, this Kamal Hassan starrer couldn’t win anything forget nominations or applauds
• Henna- How many of you know that The Rishi Kapoor starrer  was India’s Oscar nomination
• Parinda- Vidhu Vinod Chopra had Parinda besides, Eklavya, for Oscars  but as usual it was also disqualified at the 1990 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• Saagar – Ramesh Sippy’s movie starring Kamal Hasan & Rishi Kapoor starrer was also sent for the Oscars.

I can still name out a few more but then result has been the same. The only movies I don’t question has been Salaam Bombay & maybe Bandit Queen.  Our Nominators think that of all the movies from India that has been nominated in ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category – Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan are based on people with impoverished/rural background & they may have been trying to bank on the success of Slumdog Millionaire and the various discussions on poverty-porn.

I believe now its time for our Jury to give some rest to our “Stars” and “poverty” and see beyond them. Indian Cinema is growing and going places. Its time for us to think beyond few cliche’ and show what more we can give. I still say Peepli Live is not a bad story or not a god movie but Oscar material?? Doubtful.

The Hurt Locker- Movie Review

Brilliant, Insightful. It’s not only about war

Before this movie or before her Academy Award nomination I wonder how many people knew Kathryn Bigelow- the director of the movie. Now remember Point Break, Near Dark, and K-19: T  he Widowmaker.. The Hurt Locker is a war movie. A war movie which doesn’t preach. A war movie which is for people who don’t like war movies. The Hurt Locker puts you in the middle of the action and entertains you. It truly justifies the movie’s tag line- “You’ll know when you’re in it.

Centered around on three members of Bravo Company’s bomb disposal unit, the story follows the arrival of Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner), an bomb disposal expert who is brought in to replace a dead soldier. During their first assignment, however, by-the-books Sergeant Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and naive Specialist Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) finds out that James is a fearless yet unpredictable, mad guy. It’s the story of these three who slowly, learn to trust each other , but a twist comes when James is shaken to the core in an assignment & he ends up throwing his fellow soldiers into a dangerous and unnecessary encounter.

Kathryn Bigelow puts everything together perfectly by mixing just the right amount of drama, action, thriller everything. Everything there in the movie is there because there is a reason for it. There is nothing in it which is not required. No tacky romances or even special-effects. Features scene after scenes of tensed bomb investigations,captured with raw, handheld camera, one can feel the heat and the pressure the soldiers are under, It is so gripping you feel like you are with the movie. Early on, Bigleow establishes with a sequence that depicts a bomb’s detonation on the macro and micro level, brilliantly showing bursts of smoke and pressure and flame intercut with gravel and dust leaping  by the pressure wave. One of the best scenes in the movie.

The film begins with a quotation from Chris Hedges’ book War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning that addresses the seductive qualities of wartime: “The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” This makes for an excellent jumping-off point for a look at James’ character. James is a complex character, whose motivations are opaque. It helps that Renner’s performance is incredibly skilled. This relatively young actor delivers a natural portrayal marked by an extraordinarily mature sense. Guy Pearce, David Morse, and Ralph Fiennes appear in well-cast cameo roles.

Time to stop. I think if I tell more the fun of watching this movie will go. The Hurt Locker puts you inside the mindset of these soldiers who are just doing their job, concentrating on surviving another day. One of the best modern war movies. And don’t be surprised if Kathryn Bigelow wins the best director or The Hurt locker wins best movie Academy Award. So if you are not a war movie fan then watch this. And if you are then you will love this.

Rating- 4.5/5

Up In The Air- Movie Review

Up In the Air

As far as I know Jason Reitman began adapting Walter Kirn’s novel “Up in the Air” five or six years ago.  But today the movie can be related by a lot of people.  Reitman who in the past gave us movie likes “Thank You for Smoking”  & “Juno” presents a corporate comedy which is deeply personal and serendipitously relevant.  This is one of the year’s finest films.

Starring George Clooney as  Ryan Bingham, a career transition counselor who loves hotels , flying miles,  lives a life of isolation & for 322 days a year, he’s in and out of airports.  All izz well until he meets lady “who calls herself the female version of Clooney but with a Vagina-  Alex, played by beautiful & sexy Vera Farmiga. He is made  to teach the  student, Natalie, played by Anna Kendrick, to learn the ropes of the business before potentially making a change to Ryan’s way of life.

Up in the Air is a movie with slick line which are humorous and witty. George Clooney  is his most modest best & charming as usual.  He  makes everything look easy.  As he says, “The slower we move, the faster we die.”  He got the desrved Oscar nomination now for this. The movie is full of some of the best lines and delivered with that much punch too. Vera Farmiga as Alex is  beautiful and ugly too with her performance which helps her to land her first Oscar nomination. Her role is divisive and brilliant.

But for me Director Jason Reitman takes the cheese.  His screenplay and his direction is just super. I haven’t read the book though, but can be sure that the work done is a good job here.  While watching the movie I could see umpteen number of similarities of this movie with “Thank You For Smoking”.  One is a PR person of a cigarette company and other “fires people”.  The movie is good in terms of its screenplay and writing. The aerial shots of various cities, the montage of real life fired people who lost job because of recession to describe their anguish.. and the one liners take it a level ahead.

Up in the Air aks you to understand life, grow up and appreciate the relationships. Watch this movie for Clooney, for the one-liners, for the exy Vera & for a good movie for a change.

Rating: 41/2 out of 5