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.

  

Film Review: Flight (3.0/5.0)

Spin. It makes the world of entertainment go round and no more so than in film. And by its very nature, marketing spin can oversell and misrepresent. So, when it comes to this latest film from director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) starring Denzel Washington, it’s best to be selective in what you believe.

I knew very little about Flight going in – sometimes the best way to be but increasingly hard in today’s digital world – but the descriptives used in the marketing material had me intrigued. On Flight’s official site it’s described as an “action-packed, mystery thriller.”

Based on the film’s opening 30 odd minutes, that’s pretty accurate. We meet Whip Whitaker (Washington) in bed after a boozy night of passion, a lithe young woman gratuitously strolling the hotel room naked as Whip snorts some coke as a pick me up.

But Whip is a veteran commercial pilot and he’s about to face undoubtedly the most terrifying flight of his career. First, he coolly overcomes some horrifying turbulence and just as horrifyingly we witness the cocky Whip as he reassures passengers while surreptitiously mixing a screwdriver.

Then, against all odds, he manages to land the plane after a monumental mechanical failure sends it into a terrifying plummet with only six of the 102 “souls” on board perishing. The media unsurprisingly hail Whip a hero but doubts soon emerge as to his fitness to fly and his culpability in the crash. An investigation begins.

It’s around this point that the spin starts to ring false. “As more is learned, more questions than answers arise as to who or what was really at fault and what really happened on that plane,” so says the official synopsis.

After its first heart-stopping half hour, Flight is hardly “action-packed” nor is it much of a “mystery thriller”. In retrospect it’s pretty obvious “who or what was at fault” early on thanks to some blatant signposting. No, Flight is more a meditative redemption/addiction drama. And if you take it as that, it’s a strong though fairly preachy one.

The hype you can believe is that as expected, Washington is a tour de force as the spiralling substance abuser Whip. While there’s his signature stoicism and cocky charm, it’s a vanity free performance from Washington who has scored an Oscar nomination for his troubles. When he’s out of his pilot uniform he’s often dishevelled and lets it all hang out; he reportedly gained around ten kilograms for the role, quit drinking for the shoot (ironically) and looked to YouTube to gain an accurate take on drunken behaviour.

But Washington leaves room for other cast members to shine including Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes) as a recovering drug addict and Whip’s love interest, Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) as his wily attorney, an almost unregnisable Melissa Leo (The Fighter) as his efficacious chief inquisitor and John Goodman (The Big Lebowski) who brings some welcome comic relief as his irreverent hippy pal and drug dealer.

The flight sequences are harrowing, stomach-churning and technically brilliant. You can’t tell that this is a low budget film (sub $US30 million) in Hollywood terms at least. And it’s nice to see Zemeckis doing live action again – his last live action film was Castaway with Tom Hanks in 2000 before he embarked on a series of motion capture films.

It’s just a shame that the screenplay by John Gatins (Coach Carter) relies too heavily on some incredulous coincidences, all too obvious religious references and most strikingly, the dangling carrot of some greater mystery, some spine-tingling thriller that (apart from the first act) never really materialises.

Like the promise of a First Class flight only to be downgraded to Business, Flight left me feeling partially satisfied but also cheated.

Film: 3.0/5.0 stars

Starring: Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly, Don Cheadle, John Goodman, Bruce Greenwood.

Director: Robert Zemeckis.

Written By: John Gatins.

Rated: MA 15+

Genre: Drama

Year: 2012

Run Time: 139 minutes.

Out: Now.

Celebs Get Their Freak On

Now for something a little different. And freaky.

Recent research suggests that we can be attracted to people who look like us. (There’s even a dating website that uses facial recognition software to face-ilitate - geddit?!! - the so called perfect facial match for the so called perfect union.)

As if to prove the point and the fact they may well have too much time on their hands (brazen hypocrisy intended) those crazy kids at the UK’s Daily Mail have been busy working their photoshoppy wizardry splicing together some of the world’s most famous celeb couples.

And as you can see, the results are freakin’ scary. 

I can think of a few movie titles for this experiment; Superstar Cyborg anyone? Or The Island of Madame Tussauds? 

Film Review: This Is 40 (3.5/5.0)

Barely has this latest film from enfant terrible Judd Apatow begun and his real-life wife Leslie Mann is telling ‘the big 4-0’ exactly where to go; it can suck an appendage she doesn’t have. You get the drift. We are in Apatow-land where a point is often conveyed with a crude slap in the face and where nothing is sacred.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

And so we revisit Debbie (Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd) some five years after we first met them as the sister and brother-in-law of Katherine Heigl’s reluctant mum-to-be in Apatow’s Knocked Up.

In this ‘sort of’ sequel – there’s no mention of Heigl or Seth Rogen’s charcters from the original – Debbie and Pete both happen to be turning 40 in the same week. Debbie is in denial, insisting she’s actually turning 38 while Pete seems resigned to impending middle age, for now.

Much like many parents, they’re finding raising their children somewhat of a combat zone - Sadie (Maude Apatow) is now a raging teen, youngest Charlotte (Iris Apatow) is full of cheek – and the generational gap only illuminates their lack of hipness. Meanwhile both Debbie and Pete’s respective businesses are struggling, they’re living beyond their means and their fathers' (Albert Brooks and John Lithgow adding some veteran comic flair) are each a source of tension.

So the stage is set for what is a very humorous look at what it means to arrive at middle age. And nothing’s off limits; from Viagra to turn-your-head-and-cough physicals, mammograms, anal abnormalities, the perky breasts of youth and the elastic effect of childbirth.

No, This Is 40 is not a subtle film but it does wring many laugh-out-loud moments out of its protagonists’ coming to terms with aging and some blackly comic observations about parenthood (loving and hating your kids all at once) and marriage (Pete and Debbie divulge graphically how they'd like to kill each other). There’s some great, very knowing dialogue with Apatow seemingly funneling his own insight of family life straight from the source, all with his trademark cutting sense of humour.

Mann has said she and Apatow wanted to represent a relationship as it truly is, unfurnished with Hollywood clichés. They almost succeed. This Is 40 with its dual mid life crisis writ large is undoubtedly honest - blisteringly so - but it can’t escape it’s Hollywood roots with sentimentality creeping through, another Apatowian trait.

And This Is 40 isn’t exactly “everyone’s story” as it purports to be in the film’s trailer. After all, Mann and Rudd are two mighty good looking specimens who look as if they should have nothing to complain about, at least not physically. But that’s also part of the gag perhaps. As Bridesmaid’s Melissa McCarthy, playing a rabid parent in a school spat with Debbie and Pete points out “They look like they’re in a bank commercial”.

We’re soon reminded they’re not perfect, far from it. But it is nice to be reunited with these characters again - as obscene and unlikeable as they can be - because they’re played so well by Mann and Rudd, two great complimentary comedic foils with their chemistry still strong.

They’re well bolstered by supporting players including Bridesmaid’s Chris O’Dowd and McCarthy, Megan Fox (Friends With Kids) and Jason Segel who returns as Jason, a stoner in Knocked Up now transformed as a perky personal trainer.

'This Is 40' doesn’t really break any new ground but in its exploration of aging, relationships and parenthood, it makes for a knowing, naughty and side-splitting interlude.

Film: 3.5/5.0 stars

Starring: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Chris O’Dowd. 

Director: Judd Apatow.

Written By: Judd Apatow.

Rated: MA 15+

Genre: Comedy

Year: 2012

Run Time: 134 minutes.

Out: Now.

Oscar Noms: Weaver drops the F Bomb, McFarlane drops H Bomb

The charmingly ever frank Aussie actress Jacki Weaver has revealed she dropped the F Bomb when she heard she’d scored a second Oscar nomination after her first for Animal Kingdom in 2011, this time for her performance as Bradley Cooper’s ‘Mom’ and Robert De Niro's wife in Silver Linings Playbook. (scroll down for the trailer)

And all while rugged up in Qantas pyjamas. Weaver was flying to Texas to shoot Parkland in which she’ll play mother to Lee Harvey Oswald when she heard the news.

"I wasn't sleeping well so I turned on the TV. I honestly wasn't expecting it, and it did take me quite by surprise,” she told Movieline. “I yelled out a rude word. That word began with f as in Freddie. And it sounded like the way Australians say 'park'."

Meanwhile, Family Guy and Ted creator Seth McFarlane who’ll host the Oscars next month, caused a storm of controversy when he announced Michael Haneke’s Amour in the Best Foreign Language category at Thursday’s nominations ceremony;

"I read Amour was co-produced by Austria and Germany," he said to co-presenter, actress Emma Stone. "The last time Austria and Germany co-produced something it was Hitler but this was much better."

McFarlane certainly seemed unrepentant when he responded to critics on his Twitter feed.

“Lotta flap over that Adolf joke. Look, Amour was a great film, so how about this: Austria, we'll give you the Oscar if you take back Arnold.”

If this is the sort of schtick McFarlane is capable of even before the big night, it should make for an interesting show come February 24.

Hitchcock warns of movie mobile menace from the grave

Ok, so that's a blatant lie, though you wouldn’t be blamed for confusing Sir Anthony Hopkins who plays The Master of Suspense in the just released Hitchcock with the real deal.

In this creepy, clever promo masquerading as a public service announcement Hopkins as Hitchcock warns of the dire consequences of using mobile phones during a movie echoing many a cinema lover’s sentiment;

“Nothing is more horrifying than talking or texting in the middle of a movie. Please do not text during the movie because it makes everyone psycho.”

Reviews for Hitchcock, a look behind the scenes of the making of Psycho and Hitchcock’s marriage to Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) and her influence on his work have been very mixed. While no one seems to deny the powerful performances of Hopkins and Mirren, the consensus of detractors is that the film doesn’t offer nearly enough insight into Hitchcock himself, that the tone is uneven and the truth very pliable;

“Hitchcock offers almost zero insight into the peculiar workings of creative genius, or into the rich, taboo-shattering legacy of the film whose making it documents,” wrote Justin Chang of Variety.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy was more generous;

“Hitchcock might be a work of fantasy and speculation as much as it is history and biography, but as an interpretation of a major talent's inner life and imagination, it's undeniably lively and provocative.”

And speaking of fantasy, well fantasy shattered that is, check out Hopkins having some fun with his prosthetic face on set below (fast forward to 2mins 10secs) .