Soundtrack to 2009.

Original, non-original, movie songs… all the tunes from films that I loved.

Almost There, The Princess and the Frog (Randy Newman)
Un Amico, Inglourious Basterds (Ennio Morricone)
Blue Jeans, Confessions of a Shopaholic (Jessie James)
Californian Dreamin’, Fish Tank (Bobby Womack)
Carl’s Maiden Voyage, Up (Michael Giacchino)

Cat People/Putting Out Fire with Gasoline, Inglourious Basterds (David Bowie)
Discombobulate, Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)
Dopo La Condanna, Inglourious Basterds (Ennio Morricone)
Down in New Orleans, The Princess and the Frog
Drop, 17 Again (Ying Yang Twins)
Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Confessions of a Shopaholic (Greg Laswell)
The Green Leaves of Summer, Inglourious Basterds (Nick Perito)
Fashion, Confessions of a Shopaholic (Lady Gaga)
Hero, (500) Days of Summer (Regina Spektor)
L.E.S. Artistes, 17 Again (Santogold)
Married Life, Up (Michael Giacchino)
Mushaboom, (500) Days of Summer (Feist)
Naïve, 17 Again (The Kooks)
Please, Please, Please, Let me Get what I want, (500) Days of Summer (The Smiths)
Rabbio e Tarantella, Inglourious Basterds (Ennio Morricone)
Sugar Town, (500) Days of Summer (Zooey Deschanel)
There is a Light that Never Goes Out, (500) Days of Summer (The Smiths)
Us, (500) Days of Summer (Regina Spektor)

Adorable!

I've just seen the most beautiful wedding photos ever. A newly wed couple, Lynette and James, sculpted their wedding photos on Up. Lovely!













source

STUNNING!

01. Katy Perry. Discuss.
02. Which cities have you never been to, but want to?
03. Do you exercise? How much? What kinds of exercise?
04. What's the most important quality you look for in a friend?
05. March. How was it for you?

Oscar Predictions, 2010.

So, Oscars tonight. I’m not actually staying up to watch tonight (for the first time since I was 13), purely because I have to be up at half seven tomorrow, and because, due to Inglourious Basterds and Up not having a donkey’s chance of winning Best Picture, and I am just beyond apathetic to the zomg Avatar vs. The Hurt Locker showdown! So yes, I’m giving it a miss this year. Still, here are my predictions!

Best Picture
The Hurt Locker  (Piece of tat.)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
I’d personally pick Firth. Freeman is my favourite actor of the five but I haven’t seen Invictus, whereas I have seen Colin Firth, and was greatly impressed by him.

(if it were up to me though, this man would win. And he wasn't even friggin' nominated. Guh.)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
I am not happy that Sandra will win this. Don’t get me wrong, I think she’s totally charming (loved her in Miss Congeniality), but Carey Mulligan was much better and Gabby Sidibe was much, much better. There just wasn’t anything out-of-the-ordinary to Bullock’s work,

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds
YAY!!! :D As terrifyingly convincing Stanley Tucci was in The Lovely Bones, there was one movie villain in 2009 who was acted even better than him, and that would be Christoph Waltz. Epic, epic performance, and I’m delighted that he’s garnished the attention that he has, because my lord, he was amazing!

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Mo'Nique for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
And rightly so. I’m beyond pissed that neither of the Inglourious Basterdesses Melanie Laurent or Diane Kruger, as well as Marion Cotillard (for either Nine or Public Enemies) were nominated, but thankfully, Mo’Nique will be awarded for an absolutely chilling performance.


Best Achievement in Directing
Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
Agggggh, the freakin’ irony. The one movie where I loved Tarantino’s direction, he won’t win for. Agh. And I've always been pro-female directors, yet the first one that's going to win, and it is going to be so, so undeserved. What a sad state of affairs.

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
Either Up or Inglourious Basterds deserve this. The Hurt Locker really, really doesn’t.

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner)
Although I prefer the snappy, swear-a-minute work in In the Loop, I was surprisingly taken with Up in the Air’s cynical-yet-sweet screenplay, so I can live with it winning.

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Avatar (Mauro Fiore)
I don’t even know.

Best Achievement in Editing
The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski, Chris Innis)
It baffles me somewhat what Precious is doing in this category, as I thought it extremely sloppily edited. Oh well.

Best Achievement in Art Direction
Avatar (Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair)
Noticing a pattern yet?

Best Achievement in Costume Design
The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)
Finally! A category that neither Avatar nor The Hurt Locker was nominated for! Phew!

Best Achievement in Makeup
Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, Joel Harlow)
SYLAR.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Up (Michael Giacchino)
Up has totally rocked the pre-cursors (BAFTA, Golden Globe), and deserves to win for the mixture of sweet/sour and major/minor in “Married Life” alone.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman ("Almost There")

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson)
Personally, I think Inglourious Basterds deserves to win for that ick-inducing finger-in-the-wound squelch, but what do I know.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson)

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andy Jones)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Up (Pete Docter)
Finally! A rightful win.

I love this film. <3 Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Das weisse Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (2009)(Germany)
It’s definitely between The White Ribbon and The Prophet. A total toss-up, but I feel A Prophet might be just a bit too adult for the academy choices.

Best Documentary, Features
The Cove (Louie Psihoyos, Fisher Stevens)

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Królik po berlinsku (2009): Bartosz Konopka, Anna Wydra

Best Short Film, Animated
Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death' (2008) (TV): Nick Park

Best Short Film, Live Action
Miracle Fish (2009): Luke Doolan, Drew Bailey



As you can probably tell, I’m dead excited about tonight. NOT.

I didn't mean to break it, b-b-b-break it babe.

Funny People (Judd Apatow, 2009)

Adam Sandler plays a jaded comedy star who, on discovering he may die of leukaemia, takes a step back and tries to sort his life out, with the help of eager-to-please Seth Rogen. This film dragged far too much for me, not gonna lie, and a lot of the jokes weren’t even funny. Rogen was charming in his own way, but Sandler, who seems to have three modes, two of which I love – serious actor Sandler and loveable comedy gold Sandler, instead spent most of the movie in the third mode – irritating goon Sandler who laughs at his own unfunny jokes. The subplot with ex-girlfriend Leslie Mann and her husband Eric Bana made me lol, quite a bit, but on the whole, 150 minutes running time was about 140 too many. Not that funny.

The Naked City (Jules Dassin, 1948)

Absolutely wonderful film noir set in New York, both a joy in terms of plotting and tension as well as technical elements- editing and cinematography (particularly the dark, ominous shadows) stunned. New York is caught in both its glory and its fugliness, just how I like it. The Naked City set the tone for many other (and inferior) modern day thrillers, such as The Black Dahlia. As per most crime movies, there's a murder, there's an investigation and there's a case of did-he-didn't he, but it never gets old. If I had any criticisms with this film, I suppose it would be that it resembles plenty other noirs, I’ve seen before, but the film manages to have its own plot and the semi-documentary style gives it an extra edge.

Up (Pete Docter, 2009)
Well, you had my initial reaction and full review here, but needless to say, I loved it. Beautiful, beautiful movie, so witty and cute and featuring that transcendent 4-minute clip at the start which stayed with me longer than any other 2009 film scene, and most other films scenes, come to think of it. "Tonal modulation" is a phrase I use frequently, but that four-minute vignette had it in spades, highlighting the sweet moments and the sour ones of Carl's life. I'm informed that my initial supposition that the bit I'd interpreted Ellie to have been told she was barren was actually being told she had miscarried, and that Disney dared to touch upon this, in their poignant way, completely blew me away. The bright colours, clash of happy and sad, and ultimate portrayal of love in this film is too beautiful.



In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
Nicholas Ray does dark dramas with impending sense of foreboding better than anyone, and this is no different. The chemistry between Gloria Grahame (who deserved more starring roles) and Bogie is incredible, the man himself giving one of his finest performances, a wonderful example of how love can make a man vulnerable. The "did he/didn't he" element lacks a little punch as so many poor imitations have been churned out, but with zingers of lines like “I didn’t say I was a gentleman, I said I was tired”
and “I always go home with the man who brought me”, In a Lonely Place is far ahead of the crap they churn out today. Classic noir.

44 Inch Chest (Malcolm Venville, 2009)
Basically in this movie, Ray Winstone’s wife Joanne Whalley leaves him for another man, completely bruising him. His mates kidnap the bastard that done it leave him in a room alone with Winstone, whilst they wait impatiently outside, wanting him to hurry up and kill him so they can go down to the boozer. The language in this film is coarse for coarse’s sake, with John Hurt in particular doing a none too impressive impression of Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast, with his wild abuse of the c-word. Winstone is, by his own standards, not up to much in this movie (though his woefully underwritten character has a lot to do with that), but Tom Wilkinson, as the hardman with a heart who still lives at home with his mother, Stephen Dillane as the curt accomplice and Ian McShane, playing terrifically against type as a coy homosexual, make terrifically great fun, almost making this movie worth watching.

À ma soeur! (Catherine Breillat, 2001)
Um, ew. I watched this with my best friends Luke and Anna and we were just so sickened throughout. Catherine Brellait needs locking up or something, paedo. I can’t think of any redeeming qualities in this movie whatsoever. The sister in the movie was a particularly nasty piece of work, and the scene in which she gets taken up the chuff by some pervert whilst her little sister watches is beyond grim. This isn’t cinema, this is child exploitation. That said, at least the fat girl in question is a looker.

Film review: UP (Pete Docter, 2009)

My 11-year-old brother Tom has a lol of a MSN profile, wherein he lists his favourite films as the likes of The Pink Panther II and Fantastic Mr Fox. However, a film choice he has there that I actually approve of is Up, the animation of 2009 that until today, I’d not actually seen. But you know what they say, good things come to those who wait. I’d waited long enough for Up, and it sure as hell was good enough.