Fashion of the 2010 Oscars.

So, The Hurt Locker got Best Pic and Director, and Avatar swept the technicals. Just friggin' wonderful. I'm delighted I didn't waste my time watching it live (though I'll probably watch it, in normal time, just for the star-gazing), but at least the fashion was pretty.


Really digging Mariah in dark blue.


I'm still not keen on Mulligan's haircut, but her dress was pretty. Her Prada gown with Swarovski crystal embellishment really is something special.


Not one of Diane Kruger's best outfits, by her own extraordinarily high standards.




Aww, I love how Gabby Sidibe wears outfits that totally compliment her figure. I cracked up at her "I'd hit that" about Gerard Butler comment.






Tina Fey!




Anna Kendrick has got it spot-on with her awards season outfits this year, and this is no exception. Her draped Elie Saab Haute Couture gown highlights why nude is this season's black, and the diamonds compliment her outfit.




Mo'Nique, like her Precious co-star, also dazzles in blue.


I love the black-on-red on Sigourney Weaver.


Kristen Stewart looking as constipated as ever.




Oh dear, Vera.


She didn't deserve her nomination by any stretch of the imagination, but at least Pen looked beautiful in Donna Karan.


Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren looking appropriately regal.

So that's that! Who's outfit was your favourite, m'dears?

It could have been you and me before you broke my heart, and now I'm standing here.

I only watched three films this week, which is a bit poor, but in my defence, I did have tonnes of work as well as an increase in my TV-watching (Damages, Cambridge Spies, The Simpsons, The Wire, Desperate Housewives and Gavin & Stacey). Phew!

Up in the Air (Jason Reitman, 2009)

I wasn’t keen on this film from all the clips I’d seen (and the petty fact that I don’t like George Clooney), but it was a genuine surprise. Clooney, whilst playing a smug character, wasn’t actually as unbearably smug as he has been in the past, and was actually semi-likeable as he began to acquire an epiphany toward the end. Vera Farmiga was underused for the most part, but Anna Kendrick was utterly lovely and hilarious. The script was sharp enough, and I love the cameo from the guy that played Juno’s dad. On the whole, I would say I enjoyed the movie less than Juno, but it was much better-rounded as a piece of filmmaking.

Saving Face (Alice Wu, 2004)

I loved this film! It tells the story of Hwei-lang Gao, a 48-year-old Chinese woman living in America who, on getting pregnant, is sent into exile by her ultra-conservative father. She goes to live with her lesbian daughter Wilhelmina, who, from her sexuality, has enough problems of her own. What I loved so much about this film was that it expertly judged the dynamics of the Chinese community in a western society, both embracing its good points, and criticising its shortcomings. The main character, smart surgeon Wilhelmina who’s still struggling to come to terms with her sexuality, was likeable and I genuinely cared for her plight. A bit schmaltzy at the end, but nothing wrong with a bit of feel good. I felt proud to be Chinese after this movie.

Afterschool (Antonio Campos, 2008)
Um. This film was not good. A lad in a restrictive, internet-obsessed boarding school films the death of two cokeheads in his school and shows everyone the video, and afterwards, life just spirals out of control. An extremely pretentious movie, with a lot of long pausing, and one of the most awkward virginity-losing scenes in cinema. Not recommended at all.
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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.

7. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)

I love to laugh. Whether it be at some lame inside joke with my mates, laughing at silly lines in old episodes of Friends or laughing uproariously at stand-up comedy, I believe that laughter is terrific for the soul. Sadly, it isn’t all fun and games in my top 10, where there are 9 drama/romances and just the one comedy. And even the comedy, by the director and star’s standards, are surprisingly somber at times. The movie in question? The Apartment.

It’s 60s New York City and the protagonist, the kookily named C. C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) has a dead end job and an even more lamentable love life. He has an apartment on the Upper West Side (there’s your Sex and the City-style location referencing), which he lends the key out to four of his managers, so that they can take their mistresses there and bung without their wives finding out. It’s not a position C.C. particularly enjoys being in, but he’s not one for confrontation so he expresses his displeasure by purposely mixing up his workmates’ liaisons. Meanwhile, C.C. finds his eye caught by Fran Kubelik, the elevator operator from where he works. C. C.’s apartment earns him glowing reports from all four

managers and following that a promotion, though his director Mr Sheldrake suspects something. He allows for the promotion, only on the condition that he can also use the apartment, to which Baxter, delighted with his promotion, acquiesces. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that Sheldrake arranged the apartment to use with Fran Kubelik, thus making for a very dysfunctional love triangle.

At the time of its release, the themes of infidelity depicted in The Apartment meant it made for uncomfortable watching amongst American audiences, who until then had led a sheltered cinema-going experience where all is well and the only bad things in a marriage is when the wife undercooks the breakfast. As such, the film received pretty bad reviews. By today’s standards, however, the film is an extremely smart satire on the working world and the so-called “sanctities” of marriage, and one only needs to look in a local workplace or an ailing marriage and a husband with a wandering eye to know how this cynical film hits the nail on the head.

The wonderful thing about C.C. Baxter and Fran Kubelik is that they’re both far from perfect, getting themselves into some sticky situations, but the joy of it all is that they can get themselves out of it. Jack Lemmon, in one of his best roles, is wonderful as the mild-mannered, exploited Baxter, who’s sense of moral values leave him with precious little. But the star of the show is easily Shirley MacLaine, who shows the world that she’s more than just a pretty face. Her acting skills are truly tested as the complex Fran; smart and together at the start, a complete wreck in her confrontation with Mr Sheldrake, but sharp and getting some of her swagger back by the end. It’s a glowing and multi-layered performance that cemented MacLaine’s place as a true auteur. Fran likes C.C., for his kindness and warmness, but her feelings aren’t quite as ardent as his towards her, and it is both refreshing to see a film wherein it is the woman who is the more disinterested party, yet equally frustrating, because C.C. is a much better match for her than Mr Sheldrake ever could.

As you’d expect from a Billy Wilder film, the screenplay is flawless, taking us from one genre to another. The dialogue feels unforced and natural (C.C. Baxter could be the guy in the supermarket who you’ve known for ages), at the same time holding some wonderful repartee and sparring. Shirley MacLaine once revealed in an interview that much of The Apartment was improvised by the actors as they went along. It’s these little touches – along with the strong plot based on the script – that elevate this film out of “standard romantic comedy” territory, such as Jack Lemmon humming as he prepares the meatball sauce. There are moments in the film when things turn extremely sour and the tone is almost desperate, but Billy Wilder, being the expect director that he is, knows how to balance these emotions perfectly and make light of even the deepest sadnesses.

Like many of the films in my top 10, The Apartment is a romance. Unlike the other nine, it is a comedy. But within the comedy, there is also tragedy. We see good people compromising their principles in order to get a step up in the working world, as well as how love can lift you up, then, just as you’re feeling nothing can bring you down, give you a gigantic kick in the bollocks. In this love story there is duplicity, infidelity, depression, loneliness and despair aplenty. The Apartment doesn’t sugarcoat things like plenty of other films from that era did, and its honesty – and cynicism is invigorating. Because, at the end of the day, love ain’t all a bed of flowers, but Fran’s ambiguous closing line hints that she may or may not be willing to give it another chance.

Play it Again, Tom.

I watched the first part of the 2003 TV mini-series "Cambridge Spies" today, which starred, amongst a range of British talent, the wonderful Tom Hollander, and it dawned on me, in the middle of his hot-but-sadly-not-very-convincing love scene, how damn much I love the man. 

He's a terrific actor, always excelling in the roles he's been given, and also, I find his voice kind of bung. In 2009 alone, he did drama - The Soloist, sweary comedy - In the Loop, (coincidently, I saw both films in the same week!)  as well as a bungload of telly, including "The Thick of It", the show from the writers of In the Loop. 

I've decided to make it a mission of mine in March to watch as many of his movies that I haven't viewed already as possible. It'll be fun! And then, if it's a success and I can be arsed, I'll find another (relatively) low-key movie star to bum throughout April, then May, etc etc. :)

My Eyes are Blurred, My Senses are Limited. Am I suspecting a familiar twinge?

Chloe, starring three of my favourite actors, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried, and the very beautiful and talented Julianne Moore (50 this year, but still looking smokin'), is essentially a remake of 2003's Nathalie..., in which a wife, sensing that her husband may be philandering, hires the prostitute Nathalie to put his fidelity to the test. In the original, French screen icons Fanny Ardant, Emmanuelle Béart and Gérard Depardieu starred as the claustraphobic threesome. Here, Moore plays the suspicious doctor wife, Liam Neeson is the husband and Amanda Seyfried is Chloe, the epynomous escort. Of course, things never work out as smoothly as planned, and Moore's Catherine soon finds that she has let herself in for far more than she'd bargained for when she let Chloe into her life.

If the cast alone isn't enough to tempt you into seeing this film, there's also the rather exciting promise of seeing Amanda Seyfried ditch the sunny persona that suits her so well in movies like Mean Girls and Mamma Mia!, to see a darker side of her, which will surely test her acting muscles a bit more. This darker side even involves her in a scene wherein she seduces Julianne Moore's wide-eyed wife. My favourite cinematic wife of Liam Neeson's has thus far been Laura Linney, but it'll be exciting to see what a photogenic couple he'll make with Moore, and Nathalie..., whilst a little uneven, was a terrific watch, centred around a thrilling lead performance by the stunning Béart. With indie king Atom Egoyan at the helm, Chloe is sure to be a intruiging watch. When it hits cinema screens in the UK on the 5th March, I'll be one of the first ones there.