Happy Christmas!

3 things:

1 - I never listened to the "official" world cup anthem, Waka waka, because a) I wasn't sure why Shakira was singing the anthem for the first African cup and b) it's called waka waka. BUT! I just found out that it is technically Shakira ft. Freshlyground. I saw Freshlyground play at Kirstenbosch my first month living in Cape Town. They are amazing. Waka waka is a ridiculous song, but I highly recommend checking out some of freshlyground's other songs.

2 - TIFF has put out a list of their 100 Essential Films. Check it out. (I only have 74 more to see!)

3 - this made me laugh

The best year end list

Now that my life has settled (for the moment - thank you vacation!), I've been hyperactively scanning the year-end nominations and awards. I'm not going to bother to post and comment on most individual kudos here (it's mostly been a clean sweep for the Social Network, with one or two bones thrown to Black Swan and Winter's Bone). However, each year there is one list I eagerly anticipate; the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, because they have the best categories - even if they don't necessarily help predict the eventual nominees or winners.

Before I repost the nominations, it did also make me think of one other thing. Let's say the best picture nominees for this year shake out in some combination of these 15 films: Social Network, Black Swan, Winter's Bone, Kids are All Right, King's Speech, Blue Valentine, 127 Hours, Fighter, Another Year, Inception, Toy Story 3, True Grit, the Town, Rabbit Hole, Ghost Writer. (Quick digression; whatever happened to The Way Back?).

Of those 15 films, 6 are led by actress performances (Black Swan, Winter's Bone, Kids are All Right, Rabbit Hole, Another Year, Blue Valentine). And True Grit and the Fighter are both there in large part due to supporting actress performances.

Compare that to last year. Three films with a lead actress (An Education, the Blind Side and Push) and one with supporting actresses (Up in the Air). (I'm not including Avatar in that second category, because Zoe Saldana was not what got it a best picture nomination).

Go back further: 2009 - 1 lead, 2007 - 2 leads, 2006 - 1 lead, maybe 2 supporting, 2005 - 0 leads, 1 supporting, 2004 - 2 leads, 1 supporting, 2003 - 1 lead, 2002 - 2 leads, 2001 - 1 lead, 3 supporting, 2000 - 3 leads.

What I'm saying is; this has been a surprisingly good year for actresses.

Onto the AWFJ list. I'm including a few of their bigger nominations, and all the fun ones:

Listed by category and in alphabetical order, the nominees are:

Best Film:
•Black Swan
•Inception
•The King’s Speech
•The Social Network
•Winter’s Bone

Best Actress:
•Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right
•Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole
•Jennifer Lawrence - Winter’s Bone
•Lesley Manville - Another Year
•Natalie Portman - Black Swan
•Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
•Amy Adams - The Fighter
•Helena Bonham-Carter - The King’s Speech
•Melissa Leo - The Fighter
•Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit
•Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom

Best Ensemble Cast:
•The Fighter
•The Kids Are All Right
•The King’s Speech
•The Social Network
•Winter’s Bone

[Ed. note - The Fighter, Social Network and Winter's Bone are all great ensembles. I keep going back and forth with each one. The Fighter is most likely to see all the supporting cast eventually recognized, Winter's Bone boils down to three unforgettable performances (hopefully 2 will be recognized), with several excellent smaller parts, and Social Network has 3 great supporting parts, only 1 or 2 of which will be recognized. I think with that shake out, I go for Winter's Bone. Then again, I just saw the ensemble list for King's Speech (which I haven't seen yet), and it has some of my all time FAVORITE British (and Aussie) actors in it. Derek Jacobi! Guy Pearce! Timothy Spalls! ANTHONY ANDREWS - WHEN DID YOU COME OUT OF RETIREMENT?!? So I guess what I'm saying is, my opinion could change. Again. Some more. ]

Most Beautiful Film:
•Black Swan
•I Am Love
•Inception
•Never Let Me Go
•True Grit

[Ed. note - I love this category. We should so, so include this at the Oscars. I also love the inclusion of Never Let Me Go here.]

Best Cinematography:
•Black Swan - Matthew Libatique
•Inception - Wally Pfister
•The Social Network - Jeff Cronenweth
•True Grit - Roger Deakins
•Winter’s Bone - Michael McDonough

[Ed note - of course Roger Deakins did True Grit. One more reason to go see it. I think this is a great group. I'd like to see Wally Pfister win something - he's been so good for so long. And every year, cinematography awards make me sad that there are practically no women in the field.]

Best Film Music Or Score:
•127 Hours - A.R. Rahman
•Black Swan - Clint Mansell
•Inception - Hans Zimmer
•The Social Network - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
•True Grit - Carter Burwell

[Ed. note - awww.... where's Daft Punk? I'll pick Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross in the meantime.]

Best Non-English-Language Film:
•Applause - Martin Zandvliet, Denmark
•Biutiful - Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexico/Spain
•Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Niels Arden Oplev, Denmark
•I Am Love - Luca Guadagnino, Italy
•Mother - Joon-ho Bong, South Korea
•Un Prophet - Jacques Audiard, France/Italy

[Ed. note - no Uncle Boonmee? Also - I really fell down on my foreign film watching this year. I need to get on some of these. Also also - I'm glad lots of people are including A Prophet in their lists, but it screws with predictions, since it was nominated for the Oscar last year.]

EDA FEMALE FOCUS AWARDS
Best Woman Director:
•Andrea Arnold - Fish Tank
•Lisa Cholodenko - The Kids Are All Right
•Sofia Coppola - Somewhere
•Debra Granik - Winter’s Bone
•Nicole Holofcener - Please Give

[Ed. note - Fish Tank!!! Or Winter's Bone.]

Best Woman Screenwriter:
•Andrea Arnold - Fish Tank
•Lisa Cholodenko - The Kids Are All Right
•Sofia Coppola - Somewhere
•Debra Granik - Winter’s Bone
•Nicole Holofcener - Please Give
•Laeta Kalogridis - Shutter Island

Best Female Action Star:
•Angelina Jolie - Salt
•Helen Mirren - Red
•Chloe Moretz - Kick-Ass
•Noomi Rapace - Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
•Hailee Steinfeld - Ture Grit

[Ed. note - Love the category. Noomi Rapace ftw.]

Best Animated Female:
•Astrid - How To Train Your Dragon
•Barbie - Toy Story 3
•Jessie - Toy Story 3
•Margo, Edith and Agnes - Despicable Me
•Mother Gothel - Tangled
•Rapunzel - Tangled

Best Breakthrough Performance:
•Lena Dunham - Tiny Furniture
•Jennifer Lawrence - Winter’s Bone
•Chloe Moretz - Kick-Ass
•Noomi Rapace - Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
•Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit

[Ed. note - WOW. What a tough category! Lena broke into Hollywood, which is a big deal. But Noomi and Jennifer came closest to breaking into mainstream American success. Since Jennifer is up for best actress, I'll pick Noomi here.]

Women’s Image Award
•Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right
•Sally Hawkins - Made In Dagenham
•Helen Mirren - Red
•Noomi Rapace - Girl With The Dragon Tatoo
•Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit

Perseverance Award:
•Cher
•Lisa Cholodenko
•Melissa Leo
•Joan Rivers
•Winona Ryder

[Ed. note - CHER. Cher cher cher cher cher. Obviously. And it makes me a little sad to see Winona on this list.]

Actress Defying Age and Ageism:
•Annette Bening
•Patricia Clarkson
•Melissa Leo
•Helen Mirren
•Julianne Moore

Sexist Pig Award:
•Michael Bay
•Mel Gibson
•Michael Patrick King
•Michael Winterbottom
•Mark Zuckerberg (the character in The Social Network)

[Ed. note - Snort.]

This Year’s Outstanding Achievement By A Woman In The Film Industry:
•Lisa Cholodenko for The Kids Are All Right
•Lena Dunham for Tiny Furniture
•Debra Granik for Winter’s Bone
•Tanya Hamilton for Night Catches Us
•Helen Mirren for opening five movies in the US

[Ed. note - I hope I have that much energy at 74.]

Lifetime Achievement Award:
•Annette Bening
•Ruby Dee
•Claire Denis
•Helen Mirren
•Julie Taymor

AWFJ Award For Humanitarian Activism:
•Sandra Bullock
•Angelina Jolie
•Sean Penn
•Oprah Winfrey

EDA SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS
AWFJ Hall Of Shame Award:
•Jackass 3D
•Jonah Hex
•Mel Gibson
•Sex and The City 2, Michael Patrick King, Sarah Jessica Parker, cast and crew
•Valentine’s Day and Garry Marshall

[Ed. note - Sex and the City! No, Valentine's Day!]

Actress Most in Need Of A New Agent:
•Jennifer Aniston
•Halle Berry
•Katherine Heigl
•Sarah Jessica Parker
•Reese Witherspoon

[Ed. note - is Jennifer Aniston ever not included in this category? Also, allow Katherine Heigl to strangle herself on her own bad decisions, realize Sarah Jessica Parker has pretty much nothing left, and give this one to Reese Witherspoon - the one with the greatest potential of a continuing career.]

Movie You Wanted To Love But Just Couldn‘t:
•Black Swan
•Conviction
•For Colored Girls
•Inception
•The Social Network
•Waiting For Superman

[Ed. note - wait, how can you include Black Swan, Inception, and Social Network when they are up for Best Picture? Doesn't that mean you love them? I could see For Colored Girls easily in this category, but obviously for me, it's Conviction, hands down. *sigh*]

Unforgettable Moment Award: [ED. NOTE: SPOILERS!!!!!]
•127 Hours - Aron Ralston (James Franco) cuts off his arm.
•Black Swan - Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) sprouts black wings and final dance performance.
•Inception - Paris folds in on itself
•The Kids Are All Right - Nic (Annette Bening) finds out that Jules (Julianne Moore) is cheating.
•Winter’s Bone - Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) cuts off her dead father’s hands with a chain saw.

[Ed. note - I'm going to go with Black Swan on this one. That performance was indelible.]

Best Depiction Of Nudity, Sexuality, or Seduction:
•Black Swan
•Blue Valentine
•I Am Love
•The Kids Are All Right

[Ed. note - not having seen it yet, I'm going to guess Blue Valentine wins this one.]

Sequel That Shouldn’t Have Been Made Award:
•Iron Man 2
•Little Fockers
•Sex and The City 2
•TRON: Legacy
•Wall Street 2

[Ed. note - Well, Iron Man 2 wins the "Sequel That Should Have Been Better" award and TRON wins "Sequel That Shouldn't Have Been A Sequel". I'd say Sex and the City wins, with Little Fockers in hot pursuit.]

The Remake That Shouldn’t Have Been Made Award:
•A-Team
•Clash of the Titans
•Death At a Funeral
•Let Me In
•Robin Hood

ROBIN HOOD! ROBIN HOOD! ROBIN HOOD! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! (scroll down for Cleolinda's rant.)

Cultural Crossover Award:
•Four Lions
•Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
•The Kids Are All Right
•Mother
•Waste Land

Bravest Performance Award:
•Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right
•James Franco in 127 Hours
•Chloe Moretz in Kick-Ass
•Natalie Portman in Black Swan
•Paprika Steen in Applause

Most Egregious Age Difference Between The Leading Man and The Love Interest Award:
•Barney’s Version - Paul Giamatti and Rosamund Pike (12 years)
•Company Men - Tommy Lee Jones and Maria Bello (21 years)
•Machete - Danny Trejo and Jessica Alba (37 years)
•Solitary Man - Michael Douglas and Imogen Poots (45 years)
•You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger - Anthony Hopkins and Lucy Punch (40 years)

December means list time!

Probably my favorite year-end list; The AV Club's Best Films of 2010. Not only is it an interesting list, but be sure to check out page 2, which compiles the individual ballots, complete with categories like the next 5 (with descriptions), overrated, and guilty pleasure.

60 Women Who Define the Year of the Actress.

The 10 Most Overrated Movies of 2010. I completely agree with Shutter Island, Toy Story 3 (those "For Your Consideration" ads are unbelievably nauseating), and I've heard it is true for the Kids Are All Right. Hey, though, I liked Kick Ass! And I still plan on seeing Monsters and 127 Hours.

Poorly Reviewed Films that Deserve Another Chance. Well, I want to see Agora...

Christmas Gifts for Movie Lovers, Bechdel-Style. *sigh* It shouldn't be this hard to come up with 14 films.

The Alternative Awards: Supporting Actresses. I actually really like the Juliette Lewis suggestion. She makes an indelible impact with very little screen time.

Unmerriest Christmas Moments.

Not a list, but interesting in the midst of the awards race, Do the Oscars Have a Double Standard on Horror?

The Alternative Awards: Screenplays. Yay Fish Tank!

What Happens when Americans Travel Overseas... In the Movies?

The Film Society of Lincoln Center's top 50. Fun fact! I've seen 8. Gah. And the unreleased list is just cruel.

Weirdest Holiday art.

The indieWire Critic's Poll, which compiles 125 film critic and blogger opinions. (I've seen 12 of the top 50 here - yay Marwencol!). I also love that Michael Fassbender came in third for supporting performance behind John Hawkes (yay!) and Christian Bale.

The Ten Best Films of 2010, in quiz form!

The 35 Funniest Quotes of 2010.

25 best performances that won't win oscars. Here's to Jim Carrey (I Love You, Philip Morris), Dale Dickey (Winter's Bone), Katie Jarvis (Fish Tank), and Brendan Gleeson (Perrier's Bounty)!

The best movies about theater.

The Weekend Warrior's Top 25. Lots of great picks, and some fun cheating.

The NYT's 3: Manohla Dargis, A. O. Scott, and Stephen Holden.

And John Water's list.

15 TRON Easter Eggs.

The 10 best Scrooges. Um. This writer is on crack.

The Best Geek Outs of 2010. Wow. All of these, except for Fringe and the video games.

The best theater. *sigh* This is when I miss living in New York.

The best TV character deaths. (spoilers. Obvs.)

8 of the Naughtiest TV Characters of the year. Love the top 2.

This is not a list, but I really liked it: 3 Minutes on 3 Brothers. Oh, and here is King George IV actually speaking, pre-therapy.

TRON review and update

My internet has been pretty sketchy since getting home, so I'm blaming my lack of a Black Swan review on that. Suffice to say, I really loved it and I highly recommend it. 5/5 stars.

I'd also love to do a comprehensive round up of year-end lists, but we shall see if I get the chance.

So: onto TRON.

To preface my review, I need to say that I've never seen the original Tron. Perhaps those who have would enjoy the film more.

Overall, I'm glad I saw it on the big screen (we opted for IMAX 3-d), but the film had a lot of problems. Like, a LOT of problems. Here are my thoughts:

The good:
-Unexpected Cillian Murphy is unexpected.
-The score is fantastic. I really, really loved it and it was probably the best part of the film. Now, I don't know that I'd pick it over The Social Network, but.... maybe.
-I adore Michael Sheen. His Ziggy Stardust was easily the most entertaining character of the entire film. He had more energy in his performance than everyone else combined.
-I also really liked seeing James Frain, but possibly because every time he came on screen, I thought of this.
-The 3-D was the best that I've seen. There was no weird after-image, no headache. It worked beautifully.
-The production design. It's so shiny!

The bad:
-The plot points weren't just foreshadowed, they were lit up in GIANT NEON SIGNS.
-Seriously, the entire thing was SO predictable. I get that they were on the hook for $250 million, so I guess they decided to make the plot comprehensible to the lowest common denominator of American audiences in the hopes of making the money back. Too bad it ended up coming out after Inception.
-Clu worked occasionally, since he was supposed to be a computer program. But next to real actors and depending on how good the animation was, he often didn't. And every flashback to young Kevin Flynn did not work.

The ugly:
This is really two things, which both stem from one massive error; the techno babble and the second half of the film. The mistake is this: making this film a sequel.

Let me explain. I did not understand what the hell the characters were on about for most of the film. In fact, I really, REALLY would have rather seen this as a silent film. I think it would have worked better. Now, possibly this comes from my not having seen the original movie, but that describes a lot of the potential audience for this one, since the original TRON isn't accessible.

And since I didn't get a lot of the techno babble, the stakes never seemed very high to me. The early disc battle and light cycle races? Awesome. Predictable, sure, but visually cool and fun, and I got that Sam was playing to survive. Programs being reassembled into army programs to escape and slaughtering - I don't know nanotrons or something? I just don't care. Furthermore, I just didn't get the programs. We see them at a club at one point, but I don't really get what they go around doing. Why were some of them picked up early on? Why was one drinking in an alley? What is life on the grid like? We're given this whole world that then never gets explored, so how am I supposed to care about it?

Furthermore - Sam, who was seemingly our protagonist in the first half of the film, is given almost nothing to do after he leaves Castor's club. That was the point at which the film stopped working for me. The writers seem so excited to have had Jeff Bridges, that they focus on him, and the emotional empathy the audience had built up for Sam is sort of left hanging. He really needed to have a larger part towards the end. I don't know what Kevin was like in the first film, so I don't really care if he gets out of the grid or not. Or perhaps I didn't care since I knew EXACTLY WHAT WOULD HAPPEN about an hour and a half before it finally did.

Really, I wish they had taken the idea of Tron - the cool visuals and whatnot - and made an original film. The script may have been less predictable, they wouldn't have been constrained by the logic of the first film, and we would have been given the opportunity to focus on Sam and Quorra. We could have explored the grid through Sam's eyes as he tries to get back to the portal or something. You could even let Kevin pop up in a cameo, just don't end up focusing the film on him. I'd rather go watch the Big Lebowski.

So - should you see it? It depends on your thoughts on Avatar. It's basically the same. Amazing to see visually, but the story sucks. The first hour is fun. And if the spectacle is worth $20 to you, go see it. Unlike the Spiderman musical, no one's going to get hurt.

2/5 stars.

Update: in talking it over with a friend, he reminded me of a couple of things. 1 - Tron's change to bad and back again was given serious short shrift. What happened with him exactly? and 2 - I really hoped Cillian's cameo was to set him up as a villain in a future sequel. A sequel with a more original and interesting plot.

SAG noms, redux

And the tv nominations:

Best Ensemble (Drama): Boardwalk Empire, The Closer, Dexter, The Good Wife and Mad Men.

I'm going for Dexter on this one, since Breaking Bad is oddly absent (what is UP with the total lack of love for Emmy winner Aaron Paul... hmmmm? First the Globes TOTALLY OVERLOOK HIM and now this. Sheesh.)

(I'm also a little annoyed, because I went to watch Dexter on the plane, thinking it was the season finale, and... nope. It was the penultimate episode. So, I'm on a cliff hanger, and the internet here is so molasses slow I haven't been able to watch the finale. I can't watch anything on Hulu, either, and I'm majorly behind on Burn Notice and Glee. My life is so hard.)

Best Male Actor (Drama Series): Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Michael C Hall (Dexter) , Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Hugh Laurie (House)

OH HEY LOOK THEY HAVE SEEN BREAKING BAD. Harumph. I think I might pick Michael C Hall for season 6 of Dexter over Bryan Cranston for season 3 of Breaking Bad (is that what is up, here? Do they nominate individual episodes?) I think Dexter's personal arc this season has been fascinating and surprising. Bryan Cranston is always interesting and compulsively watchable, but I don't know that his character was as surprising this season as he was in season 2. Then again, will there ever be a moment as shocking as with Jane again on that show? (OH RIGHT, JESSE AND GALE).

Best Female Actor (Drama Series): Glenn Close (Damages), Mariska Hargitay (L&O: SVU) , Julianna Marguiles (The Good Wife), Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) and Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)

I'll go with Mariska Hargitay on this one. Since Christopher Meloni never gets nominated.

Best Ensemble (Comedy): 30 Rock, Glee, Hot in Cleveland, Modern Family, the Office

For entire ensemble? I'd say the Office. That has a lot of supporting players who are key to the show continuing to entertain this far into its run. I'd be okay with Glee or 30 Rock though.

Best Male Actor (Comedy): Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), Ty Burrell (Modern Family), Steve Carell (the Office), Chris Colfer (Glee), Ed O'Neil (Modern Family)

Yay Chris Colfer! It really has been his show so far this season, hasn't it? I'm glad they are recognizing him.

Best Female Actor (Comedy): Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie), Tina Fey (30 Rock), Jane Lynch (Glee), Sofia Vergara (Modern Family), Betty White (Hot in Cleveland)

Enough already for the Betty White frenzy. What the Hell? I'll vote for Tina Fey on this one.

Best Male Actor (Miniseries/Movie): John Goodman (You Don’t Know Jack), Al Pacino (You Don’t Know Jack), Dennis Quaid (That Special Relationship), Edgar Ramirez (Carlos) and Patrick Stewart (Macbeth)

Aww... John Goodman and Patrick Stewart! I think Al Pacino has this one wrapped up, though. And I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If Edgar Ramirez can be up here for Carlos, then Andrew Garfield should be up for Red Riding.

Best Female Actor (Miniseries/Movie): Claire Danes (Temple Grandin), Catherine O’Hara (Temple Grandin), Julia Ormond (Temple Grandin), Winona Ryder (When Love is Not Enough), and Susan Sarandon (You Don’t Know Jack)

Winona what now? Has anyone heard of that?

And why don't miniseries get best ensemble?

Another Day, another...

move cross-country. That's right, coming at you from foggy Pacifica, CA, it's.... your overdue news roundup!

First off, and very excitingly, I'm ranked 8th for the winter competition in my box office game (and still in the top 50 overall). I rule.

Secondly, and I will try to write this up in an actual, official way, but Black Swan is incredible. I really, really loved it.

And, the most important news of the day... the SAG noms!

Best Ensemble: Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids are All Right, The King's Speech, The Social Network.

Definitely going to be rooting for the Fighter and the Social Network in this one.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Robert Duvall (Get Low), Jesse Eisenberg (the Social Network), Colin Firth (The King's Speech), James Franco (127 Hours).

Hmm... no Ryan Gosling or Mark Wahlberg. But also no Johnny Depp.

Best Actress: Annette Bening (Kids Are All Right), Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole), Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Hilary Swank (Conviction).

Wow. Hilary Swank must have the best awards publicist in the biz. Either that, or the guild perversely wants to watch her lose to Annette Bening. Thrilled with the other 3 (I would've put Michelle Williams in over Hilary Swank). I'm glad Nicole Kidman is being welcomed back into critical acclaim now that her forehead moves again. I hope that serves as a life lesson to other actresses.

Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (the Fighter), John Hawkes (Winter's Bone), Jeremy Renner (The Town), Mark Ruffalo (Kids Are All Right), Geoffrey Rush (King's Speech).

THRILLED with John Hawkes being included. He so, so, so deserves it. Jeremy Renner over Andrew Garfield? Was he that much fun to be around last year? What?

Supporting Actress: Amy Adams (the Fighter), Helena Bonham Carter (King's Speech), Mila Kunis (Black Swan), Melissa Leo (the Fighter), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

Hmmm... the True Grit love pushes Jacki Weaver out. Interesting.

To keep this from getting too long, I'm going to put the SAG tv noms in another post.

Weight Loss and GG noms...

I'm posting this in its own entry because I found it a really well thought out piece looking at the differences in coverage between Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman in Black Swan and Christian Bale in the Fighter. Maybe he isn't being judged as harshly because thank god he didn't go to Machinist levels of extremism again? Then again, I couldn't help but think of the process Natalie Portman herself went through while preparing for the role of Nina and wondering if her own path had any similar echoes of Nina's.

I think pointing out how easily ballet becomes a horror film is worth noting, too.

Monday Morning Discussion: Christian Bale, Natalie Portman and the Body Image Debate