And the Oscars went to.......

The Oscars are done and dusted for another year in what was another long and drawn out ceremony only occasionally bolstered by controversial host and Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane. Here are the major winners and highlights……..

BEST MOTION PICTURE: ARGO

Curiously announced by First Lady Michelle Obama via satellite after an unexpected political diatribe, an ecstatic director Ben Affleck who first picked up a golden man with Matt Damon for writing Good Will Hunting 15 years ago, referenced the hard road to his spectacular return to form (ten years ago he was at the depths starring in turkey gobbler Gigli) “I never thought I would be back here but I am,” said Affleck who was snubbed in the Best Director category. “You can’t hold grudges,” he said of working in the dream factory. “It doesn’t matter how you get knocked down in life. All that matters is that you’ve got to get back up.”

BEST LEAD ACTOR: DANIEL DAY LEWIS (LINCOLN)

Day-Lewis, now the first man to win three Best Actor Oscars and sporting a fresh congratulatory lipstick kiss from presenter Meryl Streep initially looked shell-shocked but proved what a good actor he is launching into a comedy set dropping some of the wittier lines of the awards;

“Since we got married sixteen years ago, my wife has had to live with some very strange men,” he quipped.

BEST ACTRESS: JENNIFER LAWRENCE (SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK)

Poor Jen had a stack up the stage stairs which was then rewarded by a standing ovation from the audience;

“You guys are just standing up because I fell and you feel bad, thank you, it’s so embarrassing” Lawrence joked.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: CHRISTOPH WALTZ (DJANGO UNCHAINED)

An unexpected winner beating favourite Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), the Austrian praised his director Quentin Tarantino who cast Waltz in his first Oscar winning role in Inglourious Basterds in 2010.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: ANNE HATHAWAY (LES MISERABLES)

No surprises here with Hathaway picking up a swag of awards for her portrayal of the tortured Fantine. And she, like the rest of the Les Mis cast, proved that their on-set vocal gymnastics were no fluke in a rousing Les Mis medley that was the highlight of the night.

BEST DIRECTOR: ANG LEE (LIFE OF PI)

Quite the shock win here but no less deserving, Ang Lee wins for Life of Pi beating favourite Steven Spielberg (Lincoln).

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: QUENTIN TARANTINO (DJANGO UNCHAINED)

The quirky Tarantino proved just as modest as ever accepting the gong for his original screenplay for his blood soaked ode to the spaghetti western;

"I actually think if people are knowing about my movies 30 or 50 years from now, it's going to be because of the characters I create. And I really only got one chance to get it right. I have to cast the right people to make those characters come alive and hopefully live for a long time. And, boy, this time did I do it,” said the king of self belief.

Oscars 2013: Crystal Ball

As Hollywood’s biggest stars walk the red carpet ready to duke it out for that most coveted shiny golden man that is Oscar, let’s get out the crystal ball and predict who or what will take home Oscar glory and who should win in the major categories…….

BEST MOTION PICTURE

Should Win: Zero Dark Thirty

Will Win: Argo

BEST LEAD ACTOR

Should Win: Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook) / Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables)

Will Win: Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

BEST ACTRESS

Should Win: Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

Will Win: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Should Win: Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Will Win: Tommy Lee Jones

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Should Win: Helen Hunt (The Sessions) / Jackie Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)

Will Win: Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)

BEST DIRECTOR

Should Win: Ang Lee (Life of Pi)

Will Win: Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

Margaret & David get their Rage on





Back away from your TVs as sparks might fly when the doyens of film criticism and spirited verbal combat Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton take control of the Rage playlist on ABC1 tonight from 11pm.

Pomz and Stratts are presenting a special ‘Auteur Edition’ showcasing music clips directed by some of cinema’s best known and most talented filmmakers.

Who knew that David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, The Social Network) directed Aerosmith’s ‘Janie’s Got A Gun’? Or that cinema icon Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) helmed Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’? Or that Brian DePalma (Scarface, Carrie) directed Bruce Springsteen’s suspect dance moves in ‘Dancing In The Dark’?



Courtney Loves Brucie

There’s sure to be many more surprises as Margaret and David show these clips and loads more from the likes of Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation), Kriv Stenders (Red Dog), Lasse Hallström (Good Will Hunting), Guy Richie (Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels), Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands), Tony Scott (Top Gun), The Coen Brothers (Fargo), Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing) and Spike Jonze (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) amongst a cavalcade of others.

Musical acts featured include The Beatles, Madonna, Radiohead, Elton John, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, INXS, The Angels, Divinyls, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Bob Dylan and Marianne Faithfull and many more.

To get the party started here’s the craptastic video clip ‘Reach’ by the equally craptastic so called new wave ‘80’s band Martini Ranch (featuring actor Bill Paxton!) It’s a madcap wild west themed clip directed by none other than James Cameron (Terminator, Titanic, Avatar) and featuring his ex wife director Katherine Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) as a gun-slinging hottie and Paxton (Apollo 13) hamming it up as a hapless outlaw. Did I say craptastic?

Top 10 Valentine's AND Anti-Valentine's films to 'snuggle' to. Or not.



Lost for words - Love Actually



Love Actually has scored the number 1 spot in a recent poll of the best romantic movies to ‘snuggle’ to by the appropriately named movie rental outfit LOVEFiLM and behavioural analysis firm Mindlab International, reports The Daily Mail. And the pollsters say that there’s a real science behind why romantic films can get us in the mood for luurrrve.

“If an on-screen couple share a passionate kiss, the mirror neurons in the viewers’ heads will fire as if they were doing the kissing,” says Mindlab International's resident neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis.

“They will experience the same powerful and pleasurable emotions that are being depicted on screen.”

He notes that romantic films can up adrenaline and heighten sexual attraction.

“When a couple watch a romance together each person mistakenly attributes a part of the adrenaline buzz produced by the film to the presence of their partner,” says Lewis.

“Couples are far more likely to touch, hold, hug and kiss one another than couples watching a less emotional film.”

LOVEFiLM editor Helen Crowley adds that a romantic movie session “may even help to ensure the evening concludes in the way you’d hoped.”

Here’s the Top 10, with particular head-scratching at the inclusion of Disney Pixar’s Wall-E!

 

What the?!! Wall-E



1. Love Actually
2. The Notebook
3. Wall-E
4. Notting Hill
5. Dirty Dancing
6. Ghost
7. Pretty Woman
8. Titanic
9. Jerry Maguire
10. Casablanca

And for those less romantically inclined, here are ten Anti-Valentine’s films from this millennium, courtesy of Kirk Baird of The Toledo Blade.

 

She loves me/She loves me not.... (500) Days of Summer



• High Fidelity 
• Lost in Translation
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Broken Flowers
• (500) Days of Summer
• Crazy Heart
• Blue Valentine
• Barney’s Version
• Like Crazy
• Take This Waltz

Bare flesh frowned upon at the Grammys. For women anyways......




Rihanna will have to cover up, Lil Wayne will not?



US Network CBS, broadcaster of tomorrow’s 55th Grammy Awards ceremony has laid down its own law on how music’s biggest stars should dress in an email titled “55^th GRAMMYS:
Standard and Practice Wardrobe Advisory.”

It makes for an amusing read and is clearly aimed at the ladies - does that mean the musical men folk can dress how they like, however scantily clad?

Here are the best bits of the email which CBS has required all attendees confirm receipt of;

“Please be sure that buttocks and female breasts are adequately covered. Thong type costumes are problematic. Please avoid exposing bare fleshy under curves of the buttocks and buttock crack.” Bare fleshy under curves??!! It seems CBS’s people have inadvertently invented their own brand of naughty “flesh” language in their effort to enforce fashion decency. Read on for more choice terms.

“Bare sides or under curvature of the breasts is also problematic. Please avoid sheer see-through clothing that could possibly expose female breast nipples.” Female breast nipples??!! So men, feel free to whip your male breast nipples out!

And now for the piece de resistance;

“Please be sure the genital region is adequately covered so that there is no visible ‘puffy’ bare skin exposure.” Speaks for itself really.

You can understand CBS’s concern, after all this is the network that got into so much hot water almost a decade ago as the broadcaster of Janet Jackson’s infamous Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction”.

Pink flaunts her pink bits

But with the Grammy red carpet no stranger to plenty of skin (not to mention the stage - has CBS forgotten Pink’s acrobatic 2010 performance in a fleshy bodysuit?) me thinks CBS may be pushing its luck.

Either that or Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and any number of music’s biggest names will be scrambling to cover up.

TV Review: Boy (3.5/5.0)

E.T, The A-Team, Michael Jackson…..Ah, the 80’s.

Boy, the sophomore feature from kiwi multi-hyphenate Taika Waititi (the comedian and creator of the quirky Eagle vs Shark writes, directs and co-stars) takes us on a nostalgic journey back to a lazy summer in 1984 to Waititi’s provincial childhood home in Waihau Bay on New Zealand’s east coast.

Here lives the plucky 11 year old Boy (newcomer James Rolleston) in a ramshackle house with his nan, his younger brother Rocky (Te Aho Eketone-Whitu) - a quiet soul who regularly visits his mother’s grave and believes he’s something of a superhero - his cousins and pet goat Leaf with whom he shares his ideal imagined life which includes a romance with school crush Chardonnay (RickyLee Waipuka-Russell). Also imagined are the exploits of absentee father Alamein (Waititi) in fantasy sequences which see him as a swashbuckling war hero, an intrepid deep sea diver and as the King of Pop, Boy’s other hero.

But when Alamein appears out of the blue, fresh from a stint in the slammer for robbery, it’s not the prodigal return Boy may have hoped for; his Dad is really back to find some buried cash. Still, a bond of sorts forms. Alamein offers dodgy sex advice and makes a bumbling attempt at sticking it to Boy’s bullies. He’s more of a child in many ways than his own kids, obsessed with 80’s pop culture (particularly E.T.) and his bikie gang ‘The Crazy Horses’. “We’re renegades,” he tells Boy “like The A-Team or The Hulk.”

In this coming of age tale, Boy realises he has to find his own potential and put to rest his heroic perceptions of his father.

In an apparent mix of Waititi’s own experiences, those of others and those imagined, Boy offers a peculiar blending of the surreal, the poignant and the absurd –it’s not surprising Waitiki’s visual and narrative style has been likened to that of Wes Anderson’s.

Fantasy sequences are imaginatively and inventively executed and feature several with Alamein as Jackson (Waitiki is a self confessed fan) in several guises – be sure to catch the Maori inspired rendition of Thriller in the end credits.

While Waitiki’s screenplay is lovingly steeped in whimsical pop culture references and 80’s nostalgia (characters names include Dynasty and Falcon Crest) he also depicts a rough-and-tumble life, where Boy’s imaginings bring temporary escape from a moribund existence; with Nan away at a funeral and Dad coming and going as he pleases, Boy is the sole carer of his family.

Boy doesn’t always soar. It borders on maudlin and mundane at times and some of the amateur actors can be wooden. And, while it’s a frequently funny film, the idiosyncratic, quirky kiwi humour doesn’t always gel and takes a while to get used to (perhaps that’s a case of being ‘lost in translation’). Still, it grows on you.

Boy’s three lead characters are strong and memorable, brought to life with impressive performances. Rolleston in his acting debut brings joy and intelligence, Eketone-Whitu as Rocky, understated poignancy.  Waititi as Alamein (whose healthy afro and handlebar moustache is reminiscent of The Village People) owns the character with fine comic timing and delivery and manages to transform his character from dead beat dad to a father with heart.

The film won the audience awards at 2010’s Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals and it’s not hard to see why. With plenty of charm and humour, Boy was a top condender for feel-good film of the year.

This review was first published online on Trespass Magazine, 2010.