Oscar Reactions

Javi: Well the big day has come and gone. The Oscars are over, and now studios can go back to releasing movies that AREN'T about British people from the past with middling problems. It almost makes me look forward to the ridiculous summer movies coming up. Anyway, just a few thoughts about the show and then the winners and losers of the night.

First, the show. Apparently, a lot of the Internet hated the show, and they blame a lot of it on James Franco. He was tweeting, texting, and seemed overall distracted by the whole "hosting" thing. What's funny is that what people thought to be robotic and apathetic, I found to be part of his rather stoned composure. Then again, that's why I got so annoyed with Anne Hathaway's high school cheerleader act; she seemed to be trying to make up for Franco's attitude, but it got tiring so quickly for me. At first, the enthusiasm was slightly endearing, you could tell the young hosts were pretty excited to be in the presence of all of the invited stars of Hollywood, but by the time we saw that atrocious auto-tune number and Anne Hathaway seemed to be more amused about her dresses and being peppy, I was turned off by the whole affair. I get the reasons why people were turned off by James Franco's act, but I can't help but feel that maybe he was mimicking the way most of us actually feel about the Oscars and their "celebration" of film. I will say, this year was an experiment that failed, but please don't bring back someone safe like Billy Crystal.

Now, let's talk the actual awards. The big surprise for me was that there was no one movie that won a lot of awards. THE KING'S SPEECH and INCEPTION won four awards each, followed by THE SOCIAL NETWORK. It seems to speak volumes to me that there weren't any big sweepers this year. The Academy apparently couldn't decide between awarding originality or just going with the same old stuff. This trend started early in the night with Melissa Leo winning for THE FIGHTER. I am not knocking down her performance, but it would still have been amazing to see young Hailee Steinfeld win for TRUE GRIT. The fact that INSIDE JOB won over EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP continued the predictable trend for the evening, and it almost felt that the Academy did not want to deal with Banksy's antics. I will complete go all Armond White on Jonesy here and say the Auto Tune scenes from the movies would've been cool. A year ago. Just saying guys if that Home Intruder song hadnt been so big, it would've felt more relevant.

The big surprises of the night for me were the trophies for ALICE IN WONDERLAND, THE WOLFMAN, and a non-Pixar animated short winning (THE LOST THING.) With the Best Actor, Actress, and Supporting categories all being very obvious to everyone involved, the end of the night really came down to THE KING'S SPEECH and THE SOCIAL NETWORK. By snubbing David Fincher and THE SOCIAL NETWORK, the Academy has shown that progressive and original film making has no place in their ranks. I think that Spielberg said it best when he mentioned CITIZEN KANE, ET, and STAR WARS among movies that did not win Best Picture Oscars, right before announcing THE KING'S SPEECH as the Best Picture. A little passive aggressive, but it speaks volumes. With this, I leave you all with a very thought provoking article by Drew McWeeny. I'll be taking his advice next year. Although it's still kind of cool to say that I'm listening to Oscar winner Trent Reznor's Pretty Hate Machine from now on.


Jonesy: I remember when the Oscars use to be unpredictable. It was always up in the air who would walk out with a trophy. In the past few years, the Oscars seem to have taken a turn for the, well... boring. There never seem to be any upsets, you can always tell when it's a very political year (i.e. the Denzel Washinton and Halle Berry year), and they seem to never recognize anything truly new or innovative. It's all about the sweeping epics or personal dramas.

This "boring" trend is also apparent with the recent choice of hosts. Now, I understand the academy is trying to draw in young crowd with Hathaway and Franco hosting, but something just seemed off last night. The opening montage was a lot of fun, but once they got onstage, it seemed very lackluster. Franco didn't seem interested at all, and maybe he wasn't. So, Hathaway overcompensated with being overly bubbly, and in turn they didn't mesh well. Is that what the academy thinks young people relate to? Bubbliness or disinterested-ness?

The part I did enjoy the most was the short auto-tunes section. Then again, any chance to get Harry Potter more screen time makes me happy.

As for the awards themselves, I echo my cohort that I'm surprised no movie swept the awards. The academy appeared to spread the awards around. I was very proud of INCEPTION taking home four awards for all their amazing technical achievements. The acting awards, again, were predictable and boring. I was shocked that David Fincher was snubbed for Director. I figured he would win Director with THE KING'S SPEECH taking home Picture, that way both movies would get a taste of the big awards. However, when Tom Hopper's name was called, then I had, for a moment, a fleeting hope that THE SOCIAL NETWORK would take home Picture. However, then the academy went back to their old ways of giving the Director and Picture to the same movie. Again, boring.

Also, I remember when ALICE IN WONDERLAND came out last year, and I do not remember people loving really anything about that movie. Why in the world does the academy love it so much?? That was very surprising too.

I've read a lot of people giving the Academy crap because they don't recognize the truly great movies that come out, and that they seem to be getting more and more predictable. However, they do, somewhat, listen to outcry from the community. When THE DARK KNIGHT wasn't nominated, there was an uproar, and what happened? The next year we had ten best picture nominees. There are always going to be movies which should have won. Just like Speilberg stated at the awards shows, THE SOCIAL NETWORK will now join the ranks of STAR WARS and CITIZEN KANE, the latter considered the be THE best movie of all time. If we want the awards to be fun and unpredictable again, then we have to do what we're doing now. Writing about it and getting our opinions out there. Because like THE SOCIAL NETWORK says, the Internet is written in ink.

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Oscar Nominations 2011-Reactions!

It's about that time again... the Academy announces its award nominees, and movie nerds all around Twitter and the Interwebs get riled up.  Here at WDYMS, we figured we'd jump on the bandwagon:
(Full disclosure: between both of us, we have not seen all of the movies nominated)

Javi: Whenever I compile my Top 10 list of the year, I try to think of what was good but  also something off the beaten path that might make someone appreciate films in a different way than what everyone else is saying.  The Oscars this year seem to have looked at the every movie site's Top 10 and just copy and pasted it.  There are very few surprises, but it was more surprising at what isn't there.  

The big issue this year is The King's Speech.  I haven't seen this movie, and yet I don't care to because this movie looks boring Oscar bait.  It is the cinematic equivalent of a finely crafted pop song ready to go to the Top 40 and night clubs, but in this case 100% more British.  There's a reason why I am anti-Clint Eastwood and to a lesser extent anti-Daniel Day Lewis; their strategies are always to release Oscar bait movies every year.  It is very repetitive and frankly, artistically dishonest, more Eastwood than Day-Lewis, although that might be a personal bias.  

But I regress. The real shame here is poor Christopher Nolan, who directed one of the best stories of this year, on a technical sense, and was completely left out of the race, even if INCEPTION was nominated for Best Picture. If I had to guess, the King Speech director nomination for Tom Hooper was put there just for the potential of letting this movie sweep the major awards. If it ends up winning a lot and since every other director was legitimate, I guess Nolan was seen as the easily expendable one.  Another big shame is not including Ryan Gosling for his performance in BLUE VALENTINE.  It was one of the most tragic and believable performances of this year, and to me nothing will top it.  


I will say, as a personal note, I am amazed that Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World did not get nominated for Editing, Sound Mixing, Best Original Song, or even Best Visual Effects.  For anyone that has seen the movie and can appreciate the technical aspects of it, you can see that it's true that some recognition was in order.

Overall, this year left me with the impression that slowly but surely the Oscars are getting to the point of being as political as the Grammys.  Their complete lack of recognition of anything not catered 100% to them makes it seem obvious that they are phasing out recognition for excellence across the world of cinema.  Just the tiny scope of what they want to see.  


Jonesy:  For me this year, there were some interesting choices from the academy.  First, I am very disappointed in Christopher Nolan's snub for director.  Unfortunately, the academy doesn't seem to care too much for pure action movies, so I guess Inception's movie nomination will have to be enough. 


I feel he was snubbed to make room for the new academy's golden boys, The Coen Brothers.  Now, I like their movies, I do, but like my cohort mentioned Eastwood above, the Coens seem to have a knack for only releasing toward the end of the year, once a year.  That doesn't mean I write off their movies because I still go into their movies with as open-minded as possible, and I may like it or I may not.  But it's just an observation...


The only acting race that will be interesting to see is Best Supporting Actress.  I think it'll be anyones game, but how fabulous would it be for Hailee Steinfeld to win?


Toy Story 3.  Where do I begin?  Here's what the academy needs to do...either get rid of Best Animated catagory since there are ten nominations or don't let animated movies get Best Picture nominations since they have their own category. 


I am surprised with the amount of nominations The King's Speech received, but I'm also shocked with how many True Grit received since it apparently missed the drunken Golden Globe boat a couple weeks ago.  How do you go from nothing to 10 nominations?  What if it beats Social Network and The King's Speech (the apparent front runners) for Best Picture? That'd be a fun twist.


All in all, the academy is not where it should be in terms of recognizing great non-bait movies (cough, cough, Scott Pilgrim).  However, they're leaps and bounds where they use to be.  At least there are no sweaping epic war movies this year.  In the past, little movies like Winter's Bone, The Kids are All Right, and 127 Hours would have never had a snow ball's chance in hell in getting recognized.  In fact, besides Inception and Toy Story 3, all the movies deal with either personal or family drama.  Interesting. 


On a happier note...Yay for John Powell's HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON score getting a nomination!


And here are the nominations:

Best Picture

“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right ”
“The King’s Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3″
“True Grit”
“Winter’s Bone”


Best Direction
Darren Aronofsky for “Black Swan”
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”
David Fincher for “The Social Network”
Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech”
David O. Russell for “The Fighter”


Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
James Franco in “127 Hours”
Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”


Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”


Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech”


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


Adapted Screenplay
Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy for “127 Hours”
Aaron Sorkin for “The Social Network”
Michael Arndt, story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich for “Toy Story 3″
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini for “Winter’s Bone”


Original Screenplay
Mike Leigh for “Another Year”
Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson for “The Fighter”
Christopher Nolan for “Inception”
Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg for “The Kids Are All Right”
David Seidler for “The King’s Speech”


Animated Feature
“How to Train Your Dragon”
“The Illusionist”
“Toy Story 3″


Art Direction
“Alice in Wonderland”: Robert Stromberg (Production Design), Karen O’Hara (Set Decoration)
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″: Stuart Craig (Production Design), Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration)
“Inception”: Guy Hendrix Dyas (Production Design), Larry Dias and Doug Mowat (Set Decoration)
“The King’s Speech”: Eve Stewart (Production Design), Judy Farr (Set Decoration)
“True Grit”: Jess Gonchor (Production Design), Nancy Haigh (Set Decoration)


Cinematography
“Black Swan”: Matthew Libatique
“Inception”: Wally Pfister
“The King’s Speech”: Danny Cohen
“The Social Network”: Jeff Cronenweth
\“True Grit”: Roger Deakins


Costume Design
“Alice in Wonderland”: Colleen Atwood
“I Am Love”: Antonella Cannarozzi
“The King’s Speech”: Jenny Beavan
“The Tempest”: Sandy Powell
\“True Grit”: Mary Zophres


Documentary (Feature)
“Exit through the Gift Shop”
“Gasland”
“Inside Job”
“Restrepo”
“Waste Land”


Documentary (Short Subject)
“Killing in the Name”
“Poster Girl”
“Strangers No More”
“Sun Come Up”
“The Warriors of Qiugang”



Film Editing
“Black Swan”: Andrew Weisblum
“The Fighter”: Pamela Martin
“The King’s Speech”: Tariq Anwar
“127 Hours”: Jon Harris
“The Social Network”: Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter


Foreign Language Film
“Biutiful”: Mexico
“Dogtooth”: Greece
“In a Better World”: Denmark
“Incendies”: Canada
“Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)”: Algeria


Makeup
“Barney’s Version”: Adrien Morot
“The Way Back”: Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
“The Wolfman”: Rick Baker and Dave Elsey


Music (Original Score)
“How to Train Your Dragon”: John Powell
“Inception”: Hans Zimmer
“The King’s Speech”: Alexandre Desplat
“127 Hours”: A.R. Rahman
“The Social Network”: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross


Music (Original Song)
“Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
“If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3″ Music and Lyric by Randy Newman


Short Film (Animated)
“Day & Night”: Teddy Newton
“The Gruffalo”: Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
“Let’s Pollute”: Geefwee Boedoe
“The Lost Thing”: Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
“Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)”: Bastien Dubois


Short Film (Live Action)
“The Confession”: Tanel Toom
“The Crush”: Michael Creagh
“God of Love”: Luke Matheny
“Na Wewe”: Ivan Goldschmidt
“Wish 143″: Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite


Sound Editing
“Inception”: Richard King
“Toy Story 3″: Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
“Tron: Legacy”: Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
“True Grit”: Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
“Unstoppable”: Mark P. Stoeckinger


Sound Mixing
“Inception”: Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
“The King’s Speech”: Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
“Salt”: Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
“The Social Network”: Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
“True Grit”: Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland


Visual Effects
“Alice in Wonderland”: Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″: Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
“Hereafter”: Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
“Inception”: Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
“Iron Man 2″: Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Our 2010 Movie Favorites

When initially thinking back, 2010 seemed like a pretty horrible year for movies. Between more TWILIGHT, a SEX & THE CITY sequel, the generic (PRINCE OF PERSIA), the boring (CLASH OF THE TITANS), and bad 3D post converted movies (ALICE IN WONDERLAND), the year was off to a bad place in history. That is until you look between the cracks.

This year we were lucky enough to help an all-around awesome fella Devin with the Dallas International Film Festival and got the chance to see a lot of great movies we wouldn't have a chance to anywhere else. Coupled with Netflix, and the constant screenings we went to, this was probably the most movie filled year we've had. When thinking back, it was an exciting time; we saw a seemingly mind-boggling movie become a big summer hit and some great original horror movies (which is usually such a boring genre for me). While some of each of our favorites won't be released here or were box office flops, we still present to you each of our favorites (not necessarily the best) movies of this year.

Javi's Favorites:

FROZEN- Prior to this year, I'd never heard of Adam Green as a director. I'm not too well into the horror community because frankly, horror movies bore me for the most part. If you've seen a lot, you can tell who will die, who the killer is, and the ridiculous obligatory "plot twist" at the end. However, what Mr. Green did was create a realistic and downright frightening intimate piece of horror. I remember this being the first of the horror movies that left me with a tired and intense feeling after walking out of the theater. It's haunting in its everyday feeling which made me really nervous to go skiing now. Not to mention it being beautifully shot, this was one of the true great horror movies this year. You can see our review here.

TRUE GRIT- The Coen Brothers never make a simple movie. Even their bro favorite THE BIG LEBOWSKI has more depth and meaning than it initially let on. The same holds true to their just-released Western which was based more off the book and less off the Oscar-winning John Wayne adaptation. Jeff Bridges has become a cooler Daniel Day Lewis-type actor coming out with a good Award winning performances each year but still acts in blockbusters like IRON MAN and TRON: LEGACY.  Make no mistake that while this movie has some of the coolest action pieces the Coens have done this is a big character driven story. The interactions between the Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld are the meat and potatoes of this movie; and ultimately, the subtleties of a second and third viewing which make this gem of a movie come alive. You can see our review here.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK- "The Movie We All Laughed and Judged Too Soon" is one of the ways we can remember this movie while we admire the great dialogue and the compelling story dealing with ambition, friendship, betrayal, as well as how the Internet has changed business culture.  Jesse Eisenberg and James Garfield were impressive in their roles as the founders of Facebook, and director David Fincher tones down his normal style to serve the story in a very restrained yet successful way.  

ODDSAC- Animal collective is a band that is notorious in the indie music world as having been blamed for bringing both a renaissance and simultaneously bringing about its downfall.  When they announced that they would be releasing a movie, or as they put it, a visual album, I was excited as could be.  Bands nowadays don't have the ambition anymore to create something beyond a live DVD, but this was to be exclusive audio that you could only get in this release.  I went to the free screening of it at Good Records in Dallas, and I was completely blown away by what I saw, if not also completely confused as to the "plot" of the album/movie.  Suffice to say, it was one of the most complete mixes of sound visuals, and much like all of these movies I've listed is a completely immersing experience.

INCEPTION- In what some considered director Christopher Nolan's weakest effort, INCEPTION managed to captivate audiences in a summer that needed a shot on the arm. The super cynics will dismiss it, but just like many of my favorite movies this year, its impact is not diminished by repeated viewings but greatly enhanced by it. In what will be a greatly analyzed film, INCEPTION is a fun and interesting take on the caper film that is horribly entertaining even if its exposition gets ridiculous at times. Obvious standouts are my man crush Joseph Gordon Levitt as Arthur and Tom Hardy as the scene-stealing Eames. This is one of the movies everyone I know has seen which gives me hope for future challenging movies. You can see our review here.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON- It would be true fortune that this movie was released the same year we got a puppy at the house.  The strange relationship and understanding one can have with any sort of animal is amazing, and this movie portrays that in the best way.  One of the few movies that I saw multiple times in the theater in 3D, and it is truly the best 3D movie ever released. Try to compare the flying scenes from this movie to AVATAR, one can really see which is the clear winner.  The story is familiar territory, but at the same time, the great writing help elevate it to something else. 

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP- As a fan of arts in general, I'm always willing and excited to learn about a new world. Around the time I was reading the Juxtapoz art magazine, out comes an announcement that Banksy was going to get a movie. Not sure what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised at the funny, captivating, and all around entertaining movie that we got. Chronicling the unfortunate rise of Thierry Guetta, AKA Mr. Brainwash, as the "pop punk" of graffiti art who mimics the street art style but never the spirit. In his complete lack of understanding and respect for what he admires, he still makes for a compelling character study. It's a must watch for any art fan. You can see our review here.

THE LOVED ONES-This criminally unreleased Australian horror movie made me cringe and want to look away.  It is a testament to horror genre with a premise that is scary in its plausibility; this was a pleasant and shocking surprise when I saw it at the Dallas International Film Festival. There are rumors of this movie being released next year stateside.  When it does, be sure to be there. 

TOY STORY 3- Finally, we have a trilogy of movies that feels like it has a purpose.  Disney/Pixar could have ended with TOY STORY 2 and would have been okay, but this sequel brings an emotional and logistic close to this beloved series that a lot of us grew up with. 

BLACK SWAN- Aronofsky is a really gifted director.  All of his movies demonstrate this, and BLACK SWAN feels like the culmination of that skill. In what is one of the most beautifully shot movies of the year, he takes a subject full of ridiculous stereotypes and makes it compelling and scary.  The nature of performance art and perfection are put at the forefront of this story, and we witness how much can one person push their moral, mental, and physical boundaries. You can see our review here. 

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD- If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook, you’ve seen how many times I've seen/talked/gushed about this movie. I saw it five times in theaters, and I'm pretty sure a good 10 times since I got the Blu-Ray. Everything from the visuals, to the music, to the story was true to the comic Bryan Lee O'Malley told throughout the many books. It's a hilarious ADD metaphor for the troubles all of us go through when we meet someone that captivates us and the baggage we deal with when we do. It's a love letter to all of us that were born in the mid to late 80's. Here's my review!

Honorable Mentions: Shutter Island, The Last Exorcism, Kick-Ass


Jonesy's Favorites

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON- Like most movie goers, if an animated feature isn’t Disney and/or Pixar, I tend not to set my expectations too high. Even when I heard how great HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON was, I still didn’t go in with a Pixar-level expectations. However, I was completely taken by surprise. I fell in love with this movie. I saw DRAGON four times in theatres, including twice in IMAX 3D. I loved how much heart this movie had, and how much of the quirky relationship between Hiccup and Toothless I was invested in. I was jealous leaving the theatre that I would never be able to own my own dragon! This is also showed how 3D needs to be used movies. The effects made the flying sequences spectacular, and I found myself actually being scared (I have a little fear of heights). I can sit here and talk about this movie for hours, and I recommended it to everyone I knew the moment I saw it. It’s a near perfect film. My favorite of the year.

SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD- Sometimes a movie comes along that is a feast for your eyes. Last year, for me, it was Avatar. This year it was Scott Pilgrim. Scott Pilgrim is, at its core, a story about love set to a background of a video game with a pop-art motif. It’s fun, funny, romantic, and sort of insane. People fight and burst into coins when they’re defeated…let me repeat, burst into coins! How fun is that?! This movie demands multiple viewings to catch all the idiosyncrasies, references, and jokes. It’s a complete cultural love letter to my generation. See full review here.


FROZEN- A small independent movie that took what Jaws did for the ocean and made ski chair lifts flipping frightening. Three friends end up stuck on a ski lift when the resort shuts down for the weekend. With no connection to anyone but each other, they have to fight against the elements to survive. I was on the edge of my seat for the whole movie. I completely bought into everything filmmaker Adam Green threw at us. Proves you don’t need a lot of special effects to make an amazing thriller. See the full review here.


THE KING'S SPEECH- The most recent movie to make my list. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush play King George VI and his speech therapist, respectively, during a tumultuous time in England on the brink of the second world war. Firth is effortless and brilliant as King George, who has to overcome a speech impediment and lead a country. The chemistry between Rush and Firth is nothing short of first class. The movie is funny, poignant, and heart warming.


THE SOCIAL NETWORK- Being in college when Facebook became the staple social networking tool, I was mildly curious when I heard this movie was being made. The main aspect I wondered was how could this story be THAT interesting? Aaron Sorkin’s snappy and smart script brings what could have been a lot of boring technical jargon to life. What I loved the most was how the story portrayed the evolving world of business and ambition.  A fantastic look at the website that seems to control most of our lives.

BLACK SWAN- I’m a dance nerd. So, I was a little biased going into Black Swan. However, Darren Arnofsky’s dark, twisted tale of a ballerina losing her grip on reality had me spellbound. This gorgeous thriller is a technical masterpiece, and a very interesting perspective of determination and obsession of one‘s art. Natalie Portman’s performance was nothing short of fabulous. Towards the climatic ending, I found myself forgetting to breath. I left the theatre shaking from the experience. This film isn’t for everyone, but it’s the best original movie this year. See full review here.


GET HIM TO THE GREEK- Probably my most ridiculous movie on the list, but GREEK is an absolute riot. I loved this movie. This was this year’s HANGOVER for me. I’ve never really been a Russel Brand fan, but I found myself actually caring about his character. He’s a washed up musician who has failed at all his relationships, and he finally finds solace in Jonah Hill’s character as they try to make their way to the Greek in California. Each situation they find themselves in tops the previous, and I’m not sure if their livers will ever be the same by the end of the trip. This was an absolute riot and had me in stitches. See my review here.


HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART ONE- I’ve always wanted as much detail in the Harry Potter movies as possible because I love and adore the books. Though, I know that sacrifices in details must be made because a five hour movie would be crazy. Part one gave me and many obsessed fans what we wanted. The movie is the closest adaptation of the series. The film is beautifully shot with some amazing character moments between the trio. It’s a wonder to see the trio grow up on screen; we feel that they’ve become a part of our world too. I cannot wait until part two next summer! See our review here.


EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP- The only documentary to make my list; GIFT SHOP is a look at the world of street art and the elusive artist, Banksy. Now the film is marketed as a “Banksy” film, but we never know if the film itself is just a documentary about street art and "artist" Thierry Guetta, or the movie is an “art piece” by Banksy to show how street art has become just a bragging right for art collectors who value materialism.  Regardless of the intention behind the movie, GIFT SHOP is a rare and fantastic glimpse of this underground world.  See my review here.

TOY STORY 3- Trilogies can be scary because the magic of the series is usually gone by the third film. However, Pixar was able to show how to keep a series heart and soul throughout. Seeing TOY STORY 3 is like meeting old friends you haven’t talked to in a while, yet it seems that no time has passed. Most of us grew up with these characters, and I feel justified in saying we all received the closure we needed by the end.
Honorable Mentions: Inception, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, The Loved Ones, True Grit, Kick-Ass, The Last Exorcism
 
 
We've had such a great year finding our way through the movie world.  We can safely say our love and appreciation of movies has grown exponentially since we started a little over a year ago.  We have some great ideas coming up for 2011, and we cannot wait to share!

Inception

Inception

Directed By: Christopher Nolan

Written By: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon Levitt,

Ellen Page, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy 

Synopsis: In a world where people can go into each other's dreams,

 Cobb (DiCaprio), does one last job, where he has to implant an idea instead of stealing it,

 that will guarantee him getting home again.

Inception- He Said

Christopher Nolan is a director that has an almost Pixar-like streak of great movies under his belt.  With his latest movie, Inception, he manages to create a dense world of psychological and philosophical trickery.  Inception tells the story of Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his team of “dream thieves” that must undertake the most difficult job of their career in order for Cobb to be able to go home.  The premise of the movie is a high end that manages to prove engaging and complex but still understandable. 

For anyone that has seen both movies, one will be able to see that Inception is the spiritual sequel of The Dark Knight.  One of TDK’s themes was escalation; while Batman kept trying to outsmart the Joker, he was always one step ahead, and the meticulous planning on the Joker’s part was top notch.  Similarly in this movie we have this plot that keeps on getting more and more complicated as we go through the movie, but thankfully it doesn’t get convoluted like a Charlie Kauffman story could.  The story deals with Cobb’s team trying to steal an idea from a powerful businessman, Saito.  After they fail in the trippiest way possible, Saito offers Cobb the chance to go home if instead of extracting an idea, they insert an idea in the mind of the heir of a business empire, Robert Fischer, Jr.  Inception, as it is called, is the hardest thing to do to someone’s mind, as it is a really invasive procedure.  Cobb gathers a team of experts in very particular fields in relation to the dream world.  The best character, that isn’t Joseph Gordon Levitt, is Ellen Page’s Ariadne, as she serves as the character that is new to this world just like us.  She helps make this movie understandable which is one of the movie’s great strengths is in building and making you believe in a world where people can go into each other’s minds.  The rules are very well established, and explained in a way that doesn’t feel like dumbed-down exposition.

This movie has the great ability to keep you glued to your seat; literally, I don’t think that I saw more than 3 people get up during the movie to go to the bathroom.  This is because, by the time that the actual heist and plan come to fruition, the amount of tension and what is happening to all of the character is so much that you cannot look away.  This is where I find this movie becoming legendary because the action and “in the moment” occurrences are just plain bad-ass, but underneath there is a lot more emotionally gripping and interesting in a philosophical manner about reality and fantasy and what happens when the lines are blurred.  For one, the CG is used in a relatively classier manner and the story has much more layers that can be the subject of many a thesis in film studies classes.  And as a good point to note, Arthur
(Joseph Gordon Levitt) constantly steals the show, whether its his funny back-and-forth with Tom Hardy’s Eames, or his amazing gravity-defying action scenes; this character makes dazzles you in his complete badassery.  He is easily the Boba Fett of this movie.  

Depending on your point of view of certain events in the film, your opinion of the characters can shift.   I feel that some of the characters that aren’t Arthur or Ariadne aren’t as well developed as they could be.  When you see this movie, you definitely feel this is the Cobb show, where we see him deal with the repercussions of his past actions, but it is almost a detriment considering the players in the team feel more like spy movie clichés rather than fully fleshed out characters.  If you interpret the movie in a certain way, the lack of characterization makes sense.  Otherwise, this feels like really bad writing that feels reserved more to bad action movies than a brainy sci-fi thriller.

I have heard of reviews that are frustrated at not being able to keep up with plot, and to those people I say, they weren’t paying attention.  This movie has a lot going, and it is really busy, but just like a tasteful guitar solo. It serves the song, or in this case the movie’s story. When it’s all said and done, you get a movie that mixes the best parts of The Dark Knight and heist films coupled with Nolan’s mind-bending style.  In a truly lackluster and boring year of movies, this feels like fresh air, and this is exactly the kind of movie that needs to be seen, it’s either this or The Last Airbender.  Your pick moviegoers.