10 Most Attractive Women in a 2008 Film

I'm retrospectively going back through the screen sirens, year by year! The only requirement for an actress to be on Emma's list of most gorgeous ladies, is that it has to be a 2008 film I've actually seen (as opposed to not seen and only seen images of them in the film. That's what precluded me from including Ana de Armas for Blade Runner 2049, even though from the promotional images I saw, she clearly looked stunning).

My archive of hotties from 2009 to 2019, if you fancy a peruse of my taste in guys and gals! I might conduct a statistical analysis through the years, to see if there are any actors or actresses who appear often over multiple years (spoiler alert: it'll be Rooney Mara, Dave Franco and Zac Efron), but that will have to wait until after my last exam next Wednesday!

10. Hayley Atwell, The Duchess

8 Things I Learned from the 2018 BBFC Annual Report

This blog is rated 15 for references to violence, sexual violence, and bragging from the author.

The 2018 BBFC Annual Report actually came out a bit earlier this year than we're used to; last year's report dropped on July 19th, whereas 2018's one came almost two month's earlier. However, so switched on are my BBFC-senses that I seemed to anticipate this, as I wrote my prediction blog a few weeks ago!

So, as per tradition for the past three years (2015 et 2016 et 2017), here were some notable points I took when devouring the report!

01. Emma knows her BBFC

This was also one of my takeaways from last year's report, and I'm aware it's a bit self-aggrandising to bring it up again, but it's not like me to self-promote, now is it? 😏

In my anticipation blog, I correctly called that Red Sparrow would be the most complained-about film of 2018, followed by Peter Rabbit, Show Dogs, A Northern Soul and Ready Player One. I even correctly predicted that Love, Simon's trailer would get the BBFC complaints.

Golden Globe 2019 Predictions

Best Motion Picture, Drama: A Star Is Born
The fact that A Star is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody requested that they compete in the more competitive category (Drama has historically been harder to win than Musical or Comedy) shows the scope of their ambition. 

In the pantheon of category fraud, it’s usually been the other way round, for example last year, Get Out’s producers fraudulently campaigned for it as a ‘Comedy’ because they thought it would maximise their chances of a prize.

So the fact that ASIB and BR volunteered for the harder category demonstrates the belief the producers of the films have in their end products. In A Star is Born’s case, I reckon it will pay off.

Potential spoiler: BlacKkKlansman, very much a film for the moment.

A rude gesture at the MCU

This blog is rated 12A for implied strong language and references to violence and torture.

Those with a passing interest in British film certification will have noticed that they’ve recently adopted a new turn of phrase as part of their catalogue of film ratings reasons: ‘rude gesture’.

It’s been flagged for several films, including Pacific Rim Uprising, Rampage and Walk with Me. The former two are 12A and the latter is a PG, which suggests to me the BBFC can’t quite decide if using the middle finger is a 12A or PG-rated offence.

Best and Worst Dressed of the Oscars, 2018.

Obviously, fashion and looks are subjective, so this is by no means the gospel. And I'm not even gonna pretend that bias and love for certain performers (and disdain for others) did not creep until my rankings. I'm prone to playing favourites and being hella petty to those I dislike a la Miles Teller when he tweeted 'congratulations to Moonlight!'

The Dunkirk twinks Harry Styles and Fionn Whitehead weren't invited to the Oscars, but had they been, I'm sure they would have made the Best Dressed Males List.

So, without further ado...

Best dressed women

07. Beanie Feldstein

Jonah Hill's younger sister's dress reminds me, funnily enough, of Jonah's Superbad co-star Emma Stone's gorgeous City of Stars dress that she wore to the 2017 Golden Globes. Only a darker, more gothic version. Black is a slimming colour, and the winged eye make-up, wavy hair and dangly earrings complete the outfit nicely.

Film review: THE THIRD ALIBI (Montgomery Tully, 1961)

Composer Norman Martell (Laurence Payne) is the very definition of would pass in 2017 parlance as 'fuckboy'. Married to a devoted wife Helen (Patricia Dainton), he nonetheless carries on with her sister Peggy, which leads her to getting knocked up.

Out of betrayal and spite, his wife refuses to grant him the divorce he needs and being the nefarious individual that he is, Norma devises a plan to dispose of her, with the help of his mistress and a piece of recording equipment so that he has a watertight alibi.

My 10 favourite performances of 2016.

I've done the trash performances list, now for the good eggs!

10. Emily Blunt, The Girl on the Train

Clown music film is clown music, but Emily Blunt really deserves a shout-out on this list, for working her ass off in The Girl on the Train. Her unvain performance as a pathetic alcoholic was spot-on. 

10 Fittest Ladies in Film, 2014.

Happy Hump Day! Here be a previous post in the series. I post male and female lists alternately, every Wednesday.

10. Nina Dobrev, Let’s Be Cops

2017 Oscar nomination predictions.

The Oscar nominations come out on Tuesday, and seeing as there aren’t any awards shows/major critics circles announcing their wins/nominations before then, I thought there couldn’t be any harm in predicting Tuesday’s nominations now!

Best picture

Arrival

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

Hidden Figures

La La Land

Lion

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

Alt: Fences, Nocturnal Animals, Zootopia

BAFTA nominations!!!!!

Best film
Arrival
I, Daniel Blake
La La Land
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight

Aside from the inclusion of the very British (and very fine, my second of the year so far) I, Daniel Blake, the other four are all now considered locks when Best Picture at the Oscars get announced. 

Best British film 
American Honey 
Denial 
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 
I, Daniel Blake 
Notes on Blindness 
Under the Shadow

Best film not in the English language 
Dheepan 
Julieta 
Mustang 
Son of Saul 
Toni Erdmann

Elle and The Handmaiden weren't eligible because they're not being released here until March and April, respectively. Son and Saul and Mustang, which were nominated at last year's Oscars, weren't eligible in time for last year's BAFTAs, but were obviously too strong to be forgotten, so they have their belated nominations now.

Best documentary 
13th 
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years 
The Eagle Huntress 
Notes on Blindness 
Weiner 

I haven't seen any of these because documentaries bore me to tears. #SorryNotSorry

Best animated film
Finding Dory
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
Zootropolis

Haha at BAFTA not being able to find five Animated films they felt passionately about. Whilst I'm glad that means the overrated Your Name doesn't get nominated, I do feel When Marnie Was There deserves to be in the pantheon of the films listed; particularly Finding Dory which it was far superior to.

Best director
Denis Villeneuve (Arrival)
Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake)
Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)
Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals)

Barry Jenkins not getting nominated for Moonlight will damage the film's credentials as the main competitor to La La Land for Best Movie at the Oscars. :( I'm happy to see some recognition for Ken Loach, however. He crafted a really touching and powerful film in I, Daniel Blake and deserves to be nominated. Not so sure about Tom Ford, on the other hand.

Best original screenplay
Hell or High Water
I, Daniel Blake
La La Land
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight

Best adapted screenplay
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hidden Figures
Lion
Nocturnal Animals

Jesus, dat adapted screenplay category. It's a shame that Screenplay is the only place where Hidden Figures is recognised; I hear it's quite good. And no Fences in adapted but Nocturnal Animals and Hacksaw Ridge are present? Damn. The shade of it all.

I'm also disappointed that the very British treat Love and Friendship, an adaptation of a Jane Austen novella, wasn't recognised here, given it featured some of the wittiest one-liners in 2016.

Best actor
Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge)
Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Jake Gyllenhaal (Nocturnal Animals)
Ryan Gosling (La La Land)
Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic)

No Denzel, BAFTA???? WTF???? It's crazy that BAFTA have never nominated Denzel Washington.

I ain't even mad about David Oyelowo's snub for A United Kingdom, as well as A United Kingdom's absence on the list overall. I presume they didn't send screeners (or I'm just gonna tell myself that).

I love Jake Gyllenhaal a lot (Brokeback Mountain is my sixth favourite film of all time and he was snubbed of an Oscar nomination for Nightcrawler) but he was, dare I say it... a little hammy in Nocturnal Animals, especially in the scene where he breaks down in front of Aaron Taylor-Johnson's redneck. It would be a shame if he got nominated for an Oscar for his awards-begging turn.

Best actress
Amy Adams (Arrival)
Emily Blunt (The Girl on the Train)
Emma Stone (La La Land)
Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins)
Natalie Portman (Jackie)

With Isabelle Huppert out of contention due to her film's late release, this was pretty expected. I did expect BAFTA to use that fifth spot on their very own Emily Blunt, who was fantastic (my number 1 in Leading Actress so far) in the otherwise terrible The Girl on the Train, but, given they overlooked Charlotte Rampling last year for 45 Years, I couldn't be sure.

The fact that Jackie only has two other technical nominations indicate to me that BAFTA didn't love the film, thus they'll probably give the win to the Yellowfaced Felicia for playing Emma Stone in the Emma Stone Biopic. However, I'm praying for a curveball; Emma Stone doesn't need a BAFTA yet and Amy Adams or Emily Blunt deserve it more. I certainly haven't seen them taking any whitewashed roles.

Best supporting actor 
Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals)
Dev Patel (Lion)
Hugh Grant (Florence Foster Jenkins)
Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)

What a week Gorgeous Taylor-Johnson is having. A few weeks ago he wasn't in the Oscar race, with most preferring Michael Shannon's work in Nocturnal Animals. Now he has a Golden Globe win under his belt, and his home nation have gotten behind him. I'm not surprised BAFTA nominated ATJ; they liked Nowhere Boy a lot (which is where he met his missus, 50 Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson). His acceptance speech at the Golden Globes was very humble and concise and it's clear he loves his wife a lot, which I really adore. Would LOVE for all this momentum to result in an Oscar nomination. His days of being wooden in Anna Karenina are long-forgotten!

The other four nominations are probably going to be considered locks come Oscar nomination morning. It's funny; BAFTA go out of their way to show they're ~above Category Fraud~, for example, by nominating Felicia Vikander in The Danish Girl for Lead Actress last year when she campaigned for Supporting, and doing the same with Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit and as well as Bérénice Bejo for The Artist, amongst others. But Brits Dev Patel and Hugh Grant are commonly considered leading performances, yet BAFTA have nominated them in the only category they can find space for them.

The BAFTAs aren't above category fraud themselves, then.

Best supporting actress 
Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake)
Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)
Naomie Harris (Moonlight)
Nicole Kidman (Lion)
Viola Davis (Fences)

Delighted for Hayley Squires, who is currently fourth in my personal ballot. The food bank scene in I, Daniel Blake was gut wrenching and her acting in it was understated perfection.

The other four ladies on this list are probably locks for Oscar nominations now.

Best original music 
Arrival 
Jackie 
La La Land 
Lion 
Nocturnal Animals 


Best cinematography 
Arrival 
Hell or High Water 
La La Land 
Lion 
Nocturnal Animals 

Best editing 
Arrival 
Hacksaw Ridge 
La La Land 
Manchester by the Sea
Nocturnal Animals 

Best production design 
Doctor Strange 
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 
Hail, Caesar! 
La La Land 
Nocturnal Animals 

So they saw Hail, Caesar, then? Then where's Alden Ehrenreich's nomination for his unforgettably charming, perfectly comedic turn??

The rest of the technical noms here.

Overall, this is... pretty weak stuff. The suspect acting nominations, the category fraud, the shutout for Moonlight in direction and editing, all points to a sweep for Step Up 9: The Emma Stone Biopic in the manner of their massive Golden Globes wins on Sunday. It looks like BAFTAs have tried a wee bit too hard to predict the Oscars, and the results, bar Emily Blunt and ATJ's nominations, utterly, utterly inspiring. 

I really hope they throw some curveballs when announcing the winners!

2017 Screen Actor Guild nominations!!

I’d just come out of a meeting to check the nominations and when I saw my girl Emily Blunt got a surprise nomination, I almost started hyperventilating!!!!! I was not expecting that one at all, as the film was terrible, and usually when people nominate a performance in a film, they tend to take the quality of the film into consideration. But so happy to be proved wrong! Here be some of my quick thoughts on the film nominations (don’t know enough about TV to comment)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
CASEY AFFLECK  – “MANCHESTER BY THE SEA”
ANDREW GARFIELD– “HACKSAW RIDGE”
RYAN GOSLING–“LA LA LAND”
VIGGO MORTENSEN– “CAPTAIN FANTASTIC”
DENZEL WASHINGTON– “FENCES” 

Would love to see Denzel win, but unfortunately, we all know this award is going to the Groper of Women when they Sleep, Casey Affleck.

Andrew Garfield’s SAG nomination means we get (sort of) his-and-hers nominations for him and his ex-girlfriend Emma Stone; although they’ve broken up, they parted ‘very amicably’ and by all intents and purposes seem to adore each other. Awww.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
AMY ADAMS– “ARRIVAL”
EMILY BLUNT– “THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN”
NATALIE PORTMAN– “JACKIE”
EMMA STONE– “LA LA LAND”
MERYL STREEP– “FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS” 

Elated for Amy and Emily!!!!

Amy I was pretty sure was getting in, as she’s in a strong film and is popular with awards bodies, and she bloody deserves it. Adams is so talented she can even act well in Batman v Superman.

But I really did not see that Blunt nomination coming. The Girl on the Train was an absolute chore, tediously written and directed, but Blunt was far away the best thing about it. And she was absolutely phenomenal, one of the best drunk performances ever, even more impressive given she didn’t touch a sip of alcohol during the shoot. 

I just love how the top two performances from my Best Actress list so far this year have gotten recognised!

Now BAFTA better f_cking nominate Emily too and build some momentum for her to get that Oscar nomination! I'm not sure they will, tho, they didn't even nominate Charlotte Rampling for 45 Years last year...

The main loser from this list, sadly, is Isabelle Huppert, who had been gaining quite a lot of awards traction by scooping the majority of critics awards. Not being nominated here calls her chances of an Oscar nomination into doubt.

Her omission is good news for Natalie Portman and Emma Stone, who will probably go head-to-head for that Oscar.

Natalie has already won one (for being histrionic and taking the credit for her body double's excellent ballet dancing in Black Swan), so the odds probably favour the "half-Asian", Emma Stone.

Really hope Isabelle Huppert scuppers the both of them come Oscar time :P

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
MAHERSHALA ALI– “MOONLIGHT”
JEFF BRIDGES– “HELL OR HIGH WATER”
HUGH GRANT– “FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS”
LUCAS HEDGES– “MANCHESTER BY THE SEA”
DEV PATEL– “LION” 

I haven’t seen Florence Foster Jenkins, but the fact that Hugh Grant got nominated for Lead Actor at the Golden Globes suggests some category fraud here. Happy for him, nonetheless. 

Speaking of category fraud, this is the second time the SAGs have shamelessly enabled category fraud on the part of Dev Patel; he was nominated for Supporting Actor in 2009 for Slumdog Millionare. Supporting. When the whole film’s about his character! (but I’m very pleased for him;  he was great in Skins and seems a thoroughly sweet chap!)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
VIOLA DAVIS– “FENCES”
NAOMIE HARRIS– “MOONLIGHT”
NICOLE KIDMAN – “LION”
OCTAVIA SPENCER– “HIDDEN FIGURES”
MICHELLE WILLIAMS – “MANCHESTER BY THE SEA” 

With her Golden Globe and now SAG nominations, Octavia Spencer’s shots at an Oscar nomination for Hidden Figures have sky-rocketed. Her The Help co-star Viola Davis must be favourite for the win here, although her closest competitor is probably Michelle Williams.

I would have loved to have seen some recognition for Lily Gladstone's beautifully realised turn in Certain Women, but that film was probably too small-budget for major movie awards. Hopefully she'll win at the Independent Spirit Awards, tho.

I so, so wish Viola had campaigned for Lead; maybe then, someone could have put the brakes on Natalie’s second Oscar or the "half-Asian" winning. :'(

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
FENCES
HIDDEN FIGURES
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
MOONLIGHT 

This is the SAG category that is most correlative to ‘Best Picture’ at the Oscars, so it may seem strange not to see Best Picture frontrunner La La Land on here. But as many who’ve seen the film have commented, La La Land is essentially a duet between Stone and Gosling, and there’s not much in the way of memorable support. So fair play to SAG for actually nominating films for the category that it says, rather than bending to populism.

Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight were always going to get nominated in Ensemble, but the other three: Fences, Captain Fantastic and Hidden Figures not necessarily so, so their chances with Oscar have just been boosted. I think Moonlight will win this category, making it La La Land's main competitor for Best Pic.

The race just got exciting!

BAFTA better nominate Emily Blunt for Best Actress!!! She’s one of your own, BAFTA!

So many explanation marks in this post. I’m just so giddy on Emily Blunt’s behalf. What a week. Between Jonah’s surprise Golden Globe nomination on Monday and Emmy’s surprise nom today, I am just loving these noms!

Half-birthday Top 5s of 2016 (so far).

It's my 26.5th birthday today, so I thought I'd list my top 5 of the dominant 'Oscar' categories as of now (having seen 42 titles). 

For the acting categories I'll try my best to be objective and list in order of 'best' rather than 'favourite'. For example, my favourite performance of the year so far is Jesse Eisenberg in Café Society because I identify with his character the most. He'll almost certainly make my 10 favourite performances of 2016 list, but I concede that it's not necessarily the best male lead acting performance of the year.

To further illustrate this point, in my favourite performances of 2015, I listed Domhnall Gleeson in The Revenant because he looked damn gorgeous with a ginger beard. But objectively, he was probably only the fourth best performance in that dull film after Leo, Tom Hardy and Will Poulter.

I'm doing these lists now so I can show my love to some actors who didn't necessarily appear in prestige pictures, as they might get bumped out of the top 5s when Oscar bait like La La Land and Fences drops. For example, Jena Malone in The Neon Demon, an excellent, arresting turn, wouldn't get near the Oscars, but it was so good it needs to be highlighted. And not just due to the shock of Johanna Mason from The Hunger Games romancing the dead, haha.

And obviously, top films are not so objective because those are just favourites, haha.

Film

01. A United Kingdom 
02. Zootropolis
03. Café Society 
04. Kubo and the Two Strings 
05. Hell or High Water 

Direction
01. Amma Asante, A United Kingdom
02. Travis Knight, Kubo and the Two Strings
03. Pedro Almodóvar, Julieta
04. Dan Trachtenberg, 10 Cloverfield Lane
05. Nicolas Pesce, The Eyes of My Mother

Actor, Leading Role
01. David Oyewolo, A United Kingdom
02. Chris Pine, Hell or High Water
03. Jesse Eisenberg, Café Society 
04. Jonah Hill, War Dogs
05. Miles Teller, War Dogs

Actress, Leading Role
01. Emily Blunt, The Girl on the Train
02. Adriana Ugarte, Julieta
03. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 10 Cloverfield Lane
04. Rosamund Pike, A United Kingdom
05. Emma Suárez, Julieta

Actor, Supporting Role
01. Alden Ehrenreich, Hail, Caesar!
02. Ben Foster, Hell or High Water
03. John Goodman, 10 Cloverfield Lane
04. Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
05. Tom Bennett, David Brent: Life on the Road

Actress, Supporting Role
01. Kate McKinnon, Ghostbusters
02. Jena Malone, The Neon Demon
03. Viola Davis, Suicide Squad
04. Haley Bennett, Magnificent Seven
05. Kristen Stewart, Café Society 

Screenplay (adapted and original) because I CBA to google which were original and adapted and hence do separate categories for both, haha
01. Café Society 
02. War Dogs
03. Zootopia
04. Julieta
05. The Hunt for the Wilderpeople

I haven't watched enough big hitters to do the aural/visual categories, as the best scores and camerawork are usually in the films which aim high and have budgets to match. But yeah, that was that!

--

Because I'm a shady cow...

Worst Film

01. High-Rise my only 2/10 score of the year. What a load of bloated wank. Also, it should have been rated 18 because it was so unpleasant to watch.

02. The Boss

03. Mission Milano

04. So Young 2: Never Gone

05. Absolutely Unfunny Fabulous

Worst Performances

01. Cara Delevingne, Suicide Squad this probably won't change at the end of the year
02. Kris Wu, So Young 2: Never Gone 
03. Ricky Gervais, David Brent: Life on the Road
04. Sienna Miller, High-Rise
05. Chris Pratt, Magnificent Seven

Film review: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (Tate Taylor, 2016)

Rachel, a depressed 30-something alcoholic, embarks on a destructive Groundhog Day of a routine: taking a train which goes past her ex husband's house and peering at his newfound state of matrimonial bliss with the woman he cheated on her with, and their baby.

A few houses down from this seemingly perfect family is another equally photogenic, younger, couple, Megan and Scott, who have a penchant for shagging in clear view of commuters. One day, on her usual voyeuring, Rachel notices that Megan has switched up sexual partners, and, bringing up dark memories of her own, she reacts adversely, getting wasted and getting off the train at the station where she used to live. A while later, Megan goes missing.

In the title role, Emily Blunt is fantastic, giving a career best  turn. Her Rachel would be laughable if she weren't so pathetic, sipping vodka out of a plastic bottle, scaring off other commuters with her slurred speech and still pining for a relationship that long outgrew her.

Due to blackouts she gets from her deleterious drinking problem, her memory on the night of Megan's departure is hazy, rendering her a compelling yet unreliable narrator. Usually such a beautiful woman, Blunt de-glams considerably to play Rachel, looking quite rough indeed. She also convincingly plays drunk, no mean feat, given most attempts to act inebriated usually veer into insufferable caricature (see: Jennifer Lawrence as Rosalyn in American Hustle). 

With a stagger and slurred speech, Blunt evokes sympathy from the audience for such a broken woman, particularly her impassioned drunken monologues, which could be given from many a hammered young woman I’ve encountered on the 11.15pm train home, haha. That she was completely sober during filming (Blunt was pregnant), renders her performance even more remarkable.

As the audience tries to discern fact from fabrication, Megan and Anna, Tom's new wife, enter the fray with their narratives. In the novel, the story is told from the P.O.V. of all three of these women, but in film form, such a fussy storytelling device is frustrating and distracting. The end product feels like a very poor man's Rashômon, not aided by an awful script that features, amongst other things, whiny voiceovers from Rachel and Megan, and clunky conversations between characters. Note to the screenwriter: lines like 'I'm not the girl I used to be', and 'I'm the mistress of re-invention' don't really suit the big screen. They'd be better suited to stage. Or a bad shampoo commercial.

Furthermore, every single character in The Girl on the Train, from the therapist who Megan was confiding in to the incompetent cop investigating the case, are unlikable. The three main males in the film were all quite misogynistic in their own ways, and thus, I simply wasn't engaged with the plot. You find yourself not really caring what happened to Megan, and whodunnit. Although the plot 'twist', when it hits, is as contrived as it is predictable.

Finally, the film suffers from a crisis of identity, as Tate Taylor wants it to be both sensual (sex scenes pepper the film, but they’re loveless, mechanical, and as a result, completely unerotic) and unsettling at the same time. What he actually gets is a movie that is both bland and dull.

Emily Blunt deserves a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her tremendously convincing depiction of a fragile woman. Whether she gets one remains to be seen, but sadly, I have my doubts; it is a strong year for Best Actress with buzz surrounding a three-way frontrunner status for Emma Stone in La La Land, Natalie Portman in Jackie and hopefully the eventual winner, Viola Davis in Fences (it's Viola's time!).

Usually, for an actress to get nominated for her performance in a thriller (a genre that is not really one of Oscars' preferred), the film has to have fared well with the moviegoing public, as Gone Girl (the third highest grossing 18-rated movie in the UK after 50 Shades of Grey and Wolf of Wall Street) and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo did. What those two films had, which The Girl on the Train lacks, was an extremely adroit director in the form of David Fincher, who's dexterous ability to manipulate the audience helped Rosamund Pike and Rooney Mara, respectively, give performances that transcended their films' pulpy roots.

Tate Taylor is, lamentably, a less gifted storyteller, seems to feel that, when all else fails, he can always go to Plan B: heavy-handed close-ups of Blunt's blotchy face. The actress deserves so much better than the director, or the film, have to offer.

5/10

The Girl on the Bus

I’m a huge Emmy Blunt fan. She’s gorgeous, talented, and that West London accent does funny things to me. I even stood outside in the rain last year during the Sicario premiere just to get a glimpse of her, which resulted in me having a cold for a week just as I was beginning my thesis, so that was a bit foolish. (To add to the nonsensicalness of that exercise, I still haven’t gotten round to seeing Sicario . It’s just not my genre).

Anyway, I was really excited by The Girl on the Train trailer when I first saw it. The content looked extremely intriguing and dark, invariably evoking memories of Gone Girl. After all, both are big-screen adaptations of best-selling thrillers with a beautiful British actress playing the lead, unreliable narrators and the word ‘Girl’ in the title.

Furthermore, the employment of a remix of Kanye West’s Heartless was dope; it rivalled War Dogs’ using a cover of No Church in the Wild in terms of ‘using a Kanye song to entice the audience’ stakes (although the best use of Kanye West in a film trailer is still, IMO, Power in The Social Network trailer. The conflation of the lyrics [‘No one man should have all that power’] and the plot of that film, especially Jesse Eisenberg’s superb performance as a hubristic megalomaniac, is just so astute).

However, my interest in The Girl on the Train dwindled slightly when I saw it only got rated 15. I was hoping it was going to be the second 2016 film that I’d seen that was 18-rated, the other being the rather unremarkable The Neon Demon. I saw 5 2015 releases that were an 18 (Diary of a Teenage Girl, Fifty Shades of Grey, The Hateful Eight, Legend, Knock Knock), so I’d really be hoping to match that amount of 18s watched this year. But nah, The Girl on the Train is only a 15.

Not only that, it got a 15A in Ireland, who unlike the BBFC, have the 16 rating that they slap on movies that sit in that awkward 15/18 hinterland. But the fact that the Irish film board didn’t even need to get a 16 out tells me it’s not even gonna be a hard 15!

Boring.

So there goes my hopes of this film being 2016’s Gone Girl.

How could they be so heartless?

Film review: GNOMEO & JULIET (Kelly Asbury, 2011)

William Shakespeare’s timeless tale of star-crossed lovers gets an animated makeover, with our characters now gnomes of two next door neighbours who hate each other – reds and blues. Gnomeo is a handy lawnmower racer and Juliet is desperate to prove she’s not “delicate” like her dad believes. Cast as the eponymous couple are two bright young British stars who also happen to be two of my favourites – James McAvoy and Emily Blunt.

From top to bottom, Gnomeo & Juliet is an unqualified failure. The in-references to other Shakespeare plays are forced and will be lost on their target audience anyway. None of the characters draw you in; one of the main things that appealed to me about the play was how Romeo was such a hopeless romantic, as well as Juliet’s sense of isolation and malaise. 

A tad belated, but, needs to be done.

My favourite outfits from the 2010 SAGs:







And my favourite outfits from the 2010 Golden Globes:
Glee girls-


Emily Blunt looks sooooo bung!


All I can say is, dresses are love!

Emmabung's Top 10 Girlcrushes.

10. Diane Kruger
I'd always known Mrs. Kruger was a pretty face, but it wasn't until Inglourious Basterds last year that I realised, she can act too! She always looks priceless on the red carpet and can rock just about every single kind of look. Bonus points: she's fluent in German.

09. Rihanna

She sings tonnes of my favourite songs, is great at dancing and has gorgeous eyes. I ♥ Rihanna!

08. Romola Garai

I've always been a fan of Garai, but has really made me appreciate just how completely to-die-for she is!

07. Uma Thurman

The second of three Tarantino babes in my list, which tells me that even though the director is a a little on the self-preening side, he sure can coax great performances out of pretty performers.

06. Skins girls: Megan Prescott, Kathryn Prescott, Kaya Scodelario, Lily Loveless and Lisa Backwell

They're all just so pretty! All of them apart from Lily are always *younger* than me (and Lily's only two days older), which is about 56 different kinds of depressing. :P

04. Melanie Laurent

A new entrant! Inglourious Basterds was my favourite film of 2009 and a lot of that owed to the sheer coolness and je ne sais quoi of Melanie Laurent's Shosanna, easily one of the fiercest women in film. The only blonde in the top 5, her yellow hair, piercing eyes and amazing bone structure render her one of the most gorgeous women I've ever seen, and I'm digging her style too.

03. Leighton Meester

Last year's #1 girlcrush has fallen two spots, but that doesn't mean I don't still luff Leighton to death. I actually loved her little attempt at "rapping" on Good Girls Go Bad, and Blair Waldorf is the fiercest girl evar. Hence Leighton = also fierce.

02. Evangeline Lilly

I haven't seen Lost for quite a while, but Evangeline is still extremely high up on my girlcrush list because her beauty, the freckled, dimpled kind, isn't easily forgotten! Even her name is beautiful!

01. Emily Blunt

Oh, she's just complete perfection. ♥ A talented and versatile actress, a real lady with a stunningly rah West London accent, and every time I've seen her she's just exuded class in her outfits and general demeanor. To me, Emmy Blunt's like one of those girls at secondary school who's awesomeness I was always intimidated by, and could never summon the confidence to talk to, and hence only admired from afar. Beautiful!

My 20 Favourite Performances of 2006.

This is a mixture of talent & personal liking, with the latter making 75% affect on the final rank. :)

01. Ivana Baquero, El Laberinto del Fauno

02. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed

03. Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson

04. James McAvoy, The Last King of Scotland

05. Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

06. Emily Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada

07. Penélope Cruz, Volver

08. Helen Mirren, The Queen

09. Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond

10. James McAvoy, Starter for 10

The rest...

11. Samuel Barnett, The History Boys

12. Harry Dean Stanton, Alien Autopsy

13. Kate Dickie, Red Road

14. Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson

15. Danny Dyer, Severance

16. Peter O'Toole, Venus

17. Rupert Grint, Driving Lessons

18. Danny Perea, Duck Season

19. Jennifer Ehle, Alpha Male

20. Vera Farmiga, The Departed