And the Oscar Goes to...

It is that time of the year again !! With last night's Oscar, this is time to officially wrap-up 2012 and look forward to everything else. Starting with this post and with few more to come in early March, I am ready to do just that. For various reasons, I chose to be absent from all the predictions and other games prior to the Oscars. All I did was few tweets on some of the categories below but I loved the certain uncertainly about many categories. I think it made the actual ceremony a little more interesting. But after skipping on so called mandatory post on these predictions, I am not skipping the second mandatory post. As always, I am only concentrating on the categories that I have some knowledge of. So, only Film, Writing, Directing and Acting and here is the list the winners and my brief thoughts on these categories.

Results: I am not exactly saying that ManFarlane's opening sequence wasn't funny but I am also not saying it was. One, it was offensive, even though he tried to make it up for it afterwards. I mean who wants to listen to 'I have seen your Boobs' on Oscar stage? Really? And more important than that, it went on forever. I might have had little different opinion of it, itf it was half its length. 17 Minutes? and then they cut off Visual Effects Winners. Not Cool, Academy !!

Best Picture: Argo
Argo did built a strong momentum in its favour winning almost every single major award in last month or two. Going into the ceremony, it was pretty much sure that it's Argo's to lose. I am not any kind of Oscar pundit and I am not going into any stats, but it was staggering to see people dive onto them and literally finding reasons for it not to win. I loved this movie when I first saw it, I love it even now and I do not have any problem with it taking the big one. Of the 9 nominees, it wouldn't be my first choice but I will choose it over any one of the rest of the nominees.
 
Best Director: Ang Lee for Life of Pi
Lack of nomination to Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow made this category a little lackluster but to put it mildly, intriguing. Predictions were all over the place, from Spielberg to Ang Lee to Russell and even to some rare, bold, dreamer minds, even Haneke. Eventually, it looked like it will be a pick between Spielberg and Lee. Personally, I wasn't a big fan of either of the movie but I would have picked Spielberg. Academy went the other way and picked Lee, who did a good job of adapting what was considered unfilmable novel.

Best Actress in Lead Role: Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
Riva would have been my choice in this category but initially I had no hope for her. Well, until few days back when out of nowhere, I saw almost everyone standing behind her. I mean, I had no problem with it. After all, she's the one I wanted to win but what happened to Chastain? Or Lawrence? Didn't they win almost every single award there was to win? I was surprised to see that. In the end, Lawrence took the momentum with her and went till the end.

Best Actor In Lead Role: Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln
I don't have anything against DDL but I wasn't much keen on Lincoln or even him in it. It is a good performance but it just didn't feel anything special to me. In my opinion, Joaquin Phoenix and Denzel Washington were better. But that doesn't matter since I would be fool not to believe DDL was going to win this. Probably only Meryl Streep would've beat him this year.

Best Actress in Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway for Les Miserables.
Again, Nothing agains Anne Hathaway or Les Miserables. She was excellent in that role and obviously was going to win this Oscar and she did. Good for her. However, I was getting rather tired of her over-dramatic, over-ecstatic acceptance speeches. I like Hathaway as an actress and I want to keep liking her but it just was a little too much. I am glad that she didn't act too surprised and gave much more composed and heartfelt speech. Not Bad.

Best Actor In Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained
I don't know if it makes it more interesting or frustrating but If ever there was a race more uncertain than this, I have not known it. I have seen people predicting practically every nominee in this race and it wasn't for nothing. Jones, Waltz and De Niro all had something going in there favour. I probably wouldn't have any problem with any of them winning though my favourite of 5 was Hoffman. But you have to choose one and I went with Waltz. And I was right. Waltz was awesome in Django, actually he was my favourite part of the movie. So, I am happy for his second Oscar.

Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
WOW!! QUENTIN TARANTINO !! It wasn't what I expected. I thought that Academy will go with the WGA and give it to Mark Boal for ZDT. But Tarantino took it home. Why am I even trying to justify my excitement? It's Tarantino and I am happy he won, despite having few problems with Django. I am ecstatic for proving my guess wrong Academy! If only, you would give us few more of such awesome surprises.

Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio for Argo

I know I sound like a brooked record when I say I ain't complaining and go on to do just that but Argo can not win the big prize and not win anything else, right? It didn't have any chance in any of the other categories. So, this award automatically belonged to Argo. The reason I say I am not complaining is, even though it would have been nominate in every damn category, I would have chosen this category for it to win. Argo's screenplay was the strongest aspect of the movie in my opinion. So, I am happy that it won.

Animated Feature: Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman for Brave
I haven't seen all the nominated movies but from what I have seen Brave was the best. Wasn't big fan of ParaNoramn and I haven't seen anything else yet. So I am probably not the right person to judge this but still I can be happy for Brave right?  

Foreign Language: Michael Haneke for Amour (Austria)
Well, that wasn't a surprise at all. I am yet to see two of the other four nominees

but Amour is my favourite movie of the year. So, I basically want it to win everything it can. But in reality, this was the only one award I was almost sure it will win. So, Team Haneke !! For once, I have seen the Best Foreign Film winner before it won the Oscar.

And we are Done with Life of Pi leading with 4, including Best Director, Les Miserables takes home 3, and today's big winner Argo taking home 3 as well. There were few surprises to keep it interesting for all of us - Ang Lee, Waltz, Tarantino and should I also say, Jennifer Lawrence? Not the best Oscars I have seen - I wasn't a big fan of Seth MacFarlane and his jokes, many of which seemed inappropriate to me but not to shabby either. I guess we will have to settle for that. Night hosted a lot of musical performances, most of which were quite decent actually. However, the highlight for me was Shirley Bassey. She was awesome. Michelle Obama introducing best picture nominee was a cool idea too. See you next year, Oscars !! I, for one, can not wait to officially close off 2012 and look forward to getting into all the other movies I have been stalling for past few months.

Wrapping it up: January 2013

Another month, another wrap-up post full of this month's viewings. I am still playing catch-up with 2012 movies and probably will keep on in February. Basically, I have seen everything I wanted to except Les Miserables(2012), which I am still not sure if I want to but I guess I will have to. Probably after that I will have my Top 10 of 2012 lists along with the male and female performances to cap off the year-end lists that I have already done like this and this. Hopefully it will be sometime in February, if not definitely first thing into March. Let us get into what I saw in the month of January.

January

The Sessions(2012): I am really surprised myself by how much I liked this movie. It was indeed a remarkable story which perfectly balanced between the melodrama and ickiness that might come with the territory of the subject. John Hawkes, who unfortunately missed the nomination, gets the majority of the credit for making it so enjoyable without making this a Lifetime movie but Helen Hunt has to get a credit for keeping it real, despite being naked most of the time. It shall be very high in my End-of-Year list.

The Imposter(2012): It has to be one of the best documentaries I have seen. For the most part, I could not believe what my eyes were seeing. Initially, it befuddled me that Nicholas' family was ready to accept that guy as a member of their family, which I could not believe even for one second. But as the events unfolded, they just blew my mind away. I have no idea what to believe and what not to believe. But the most disturbing thing to me was remorseless, casual look in Frederic Bourdain's eye and the fact that he even has a life now.  

Cool Hand Luke(1967): This was a great way to start 2013. Off course main catalyst for me to go and see this movie was Paul Newman in one of his most iconic roles and his 50 eggs in one hour scene. I certainly got all that but after watching first 45 minutes or so of the movie, I did not expect it get dark and go where it eventually did for even a minute and I have to commend the director for taking it there. It literally took this movie to a whole new level.

Django Unchained(2012): Tarantino's latest is a pure bliss in a typical Tarantino way. For the first time in his career, I felt like Tarantino was getting little indulgent and could have edited it to make it a little shorter, but that did not in any way stop me from enjoying this. Almost everyone in the cast did a great job and as usual he had a kick-ass soundtrack. Last thirty minutes or so of the movie, when things start going south, took me a little by surprise but that was by far, the most enjoyable part of the movie.

Silver Linings Playbook(2012): Off course, I have been meaning to see this movie before making the end-of-year lists but after getting nominated in every damn category possible for the Oscars, this movie immediately became a must watch. Great acting all around is the biggest attraction here but for a movie that is essentially a romantic movie, this movie does go well beyond the usual limit in all aspects, characters are more drawn out, story is much more developed and even emotions much stronger.

Snow White and Seven Dwarfs(1937): My Blind Spot for this month. I wanted to make the first one special. So, I chose something that has been a milestone film so many years. From the point of view of story, it was pretty straight forward and very normal story. No surprises there but what surprised me really was how beautiful this 75 year-old movie looked, even by today's standards. It was also such a thourough professional job, it was hard to believe it is first animated feature.

Reservoir Dogs(1992)(Re-Watch): For various reasons, I had a very sketchy memory of this movie. There are other movies that I saw earlier than Dogs and still remember more than this but somehow this was blurry. So, before I finally wrote my profile on Tarantino I gave it another go and I am happy to say that it is just as awesome as everyone says it is, despite now being 20 year old.

Zero Dark Thirty(2012): One of the movies I wanted to catch before doing my Top 10 list of the year. I had couple of small problems with it which I attribute to the fact that I am such a big fan of Homeland(2011) and it has set standards high but given some time, this movie found its footing and by the end made quite an impression on me. I think I will give the credit to its intense story and great cast led from the front by Jessica Chastain.

The Longest Day(1962): Second World War has always fascinated me to no end. I must have seen or read 50 different movies and books about various aspects of it but yet every time I see something new, I jump on it. Now when you talk about D-Day, first thing that comes to my mind is Saving Private Ryan(1998) and hence my expectations were high. Good thing about this "All Things D-Day" epic was it stood up to those expectations. It ends kinds abruptly, but I respect their decision of doing one thing and doing it right. 

Killing Them Softly(2012): I have no idea why people didn't like this movie so much. It is like a slow death but even then it was really interesting to me. I also loved the idea of using the actual economical meltdown as a backdrop. I do not know if there is any connection but there were quite a few people The Sopranos(1999) in this movie. James Gandolfini was pretty much wasted but Brad Pitt and Richard Jenkins more than made up for it.

Game Change(2012): The best thing about this extremely well-acted movie was it made me feel for Sarah Palin. For Sarah Palin. I am sure for many of us, like me, she has been nothing but a constant source of amusement since 2008. I mean at one point of time, I have spent days sifting through anything I can get on Internet about everything and everywhere she bombed and have had many a laughs on it. I still think she was hilarious but I will think little different of her now. 
 

Flight(2012): Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of those movies which have one great performance that is truly noteworthy but fail to offer anything more than that. Denzel Washington killed his role with almost perfection. Every single scene, every single emotion. He was simply on fire but I had problem with the script. In my expectation, it needed to focus more on the case which probably would have made it more interesting.

Sister(2012): Switzerland's official submission for this year's Oscars. Even though this did not make it to the last 5, it was in the 9 and I heard good things about it. After watching it, I feel like it was a very good story, it was very well built as well and Lea Seydoux with Kacey Mottet Klein playing her brother turned up with great performances but I kinda left me stranded in the end. It felt like it hasn't gone anywhere after two hours. I wanted a little definitive ending, make it good, make it bad - just give me something to hold on to.

Safety Not Guaranteed(2012): When I saw the trailer, it intrigued me. I even had some hopes since the reaction had been positive. As much as Aubrey Plaza was trying to save this movie for me, Mark Duplass kept bringing it down. She was really charming in her role and seems to have caught the nerve of her character perfectly. In case of Duplass, he just looked stupid and pretty much had the same expression on in every situation. Thanks God for the side cast and decent story that didn't make this unbearable.

ParaNorman(2012): It had an interesting concept that will work much better in the animation medium. It was a sweet movie, characters were mostly fun and voice-over acting was pretty good. But despite all that, it's story never really captured me. It had so many themes in it that it touched but never went much beyond scratching the surface of any of them and the worst part is it failed in holding my attention for the entire run and I was even bored by the end. It isn't bad but could have been much better.

Four Rooms(1995): Having four different stories directed by four different directors makes judging this movie as a whole kinda challenging, especially since I had polar opposite reactions to the two of the stories. I absolutely hated the first story whereas last one I thought was perfect. Second story was nothing special except THE dialogue and third was quite OK, only because of the little girl. Overall, Tim Roth and company did a lot of over-acting in every single one of the stories and only felt justified in the Tarantino one, where it was least.

Tabu(2012): Excruciatingly slow and weird. Most of the actors looked awkward, uncomfortable in their roles, except Ana Moreira playing young Aurora who looked amazing. I am not sure if they were supposed to or were just incapable of but almost all of them had no trace of emotion anywhere to be seen. It really was a strange movie, so strange that I am surprised I made it to the end. For most of the time, I wasn't sure what's going on and unfortunately, I wasn't even intrigued enough to make much of an effort.

Mujhse Freaaandship Karoge(2011): It is very rare that I pull out a movie out of a hat and watch it without any pretext and when it comes to Hindi movies, my senses have become so strong that I almost repel most of them away before even considering. I have no idea how this one slipped through all of them and how and why I ended up watching it because it was just as dumb, as predictable and as formulaic as I thought. But Damn!! it was fun and kinda cute. I have no regrets watching this.

Metropolitan(1990): I am not sure what was I expecting from this movie but I did hear it mentioned a couple of times here and there. Initially it looked interesting and different and even though most of the actors were unknown, they seemed right for the part. But then it basically kept on repeating the same thing, going from one night to another and from one party to other and got obnoxious and really uninteresting very fast. Ending did give it a little life but I think it was little too late.

Strictly Ballroom(1992): It took some time for me to get used to the whole set-up - their accents, their costumes, make-ups and very loud acting. It was all very peculiar. It seemed like 20 years that have passed since the release haven't been very kind to it. I kinda settled after 30 minutes or so and just about started enjoying it when story started to fail me. I was literally sitting there predicting what's going to happen next. I liked the leading couple but everything else failed miserably for me.

This is 40(2012): I have no idea why I went to see this but I did. It was bad. It was Gross, it was shallow, it was stupid. I really didn't have much expectations from it but even then it managed to disappoint me. When The Hollywood Reporter did their roundtable discussions, writer was my least favourite discussion. Now after watching it, I think they were out of their mind to call Judd Apatow there. After this I am taking a solemn oath of not watching anything that Judd Apatow ever touches. It was that bad. Remind me if I ever forget.

Total Count:21. 20 First Time Watches and 1 Re-watch .

Not the biggest of the month but I have to blame the majority of it on Netflix and The West Wing(1999). Somewhere around Christmas, Netflix released complete The West Wing on Instant. I have been meaning to watch it for quite some time and fortunately because of the mid-season break and the fact that I just finished watching The Sopranos(1999), I could afford to something different. So, I started watching it and around 25 days later, I was done with all the 7 seasons. That's the fastest I have finished the whole series, Ever. Off course, as a by-product, my movie watching suffered a bit but it happens. I loved The West Wing. So no regrets.

2013 YTD Count

Total Count: 21. 20 First Time Watches and 1 Re-watches.

So, how was your month ? Did you see anything interesting ? What do you think of the movies I saw ? Any favorites ?

Profile of a Director: Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino has got to be one of the most unique, most notorious and most direct directors in the film industry. This is the crazy maniac who openly admits that every single one of his movies has been stolen from many, many movies and none of us seem to mind it either. Well, if anyone can do it as well as he does, no one should either. 20 years ago, when he released his first movie and shocked everyone with it, he created lot of hype around his name right from the very start. Fast forward to 20 years later and now we kind of expect these things from his movies. We expect them to have a lot of violence, amazing soundtracks and to be very stylistic. Even though every one of his movies has come with great performances and gripping stories, I think I speak for everyone when I say that none of these have as much pull, as much power of summoning the movie enthusiasts into the theater as much as the title card saying "Directed by Quentin Tarantino", one of the reasons when Tarantino recently made his desire to retire after the age of 60 public, it became such a hot topic. He has successfully created a brand for himself. With the release of his latest Django Unchained(2012) on Christmas Day and Netflix making Four Rooms(1995) available for streaming gave me a chance to do something I have been meaning to do for a long time - finish his filmography. Which shall bring us to this post, getting into Tarantino's complete filmography, starting from his first short My Best Friend's Birthday(1987) to Django, every movie he has directed.

My Best Friends Birthday(1987)(short) - Tarantino actually made a movie before this as well or at least started making it because apparently he never finished it. So, this is his first attempt at film-making. Originally, he wrote it as a 70-minute movie where a young man, played by Tarantino himself, is trying to make sure that his best friend has a good birthday but nothing goes right. However, apparently due to some accident only 36 minutes of it survived and that is what I saw. I hate to say this but it feels very amateurish in every department. Now I know that it is 1987, it is his first film and only half of it has survived but even by that standard, I wish I had some kind words to say. Alas! At least it kick-started what would become a legendary career. Grade: C

Reservoir Dogs(1992) - So this is where it all really started. Tarantino's first full length feature film. Every single thing you now expect from Tarantino movie started with this. His language, his soundtracks, his title cards, the way his characters walk, talk, behave, his way of killing off important characters with a moment's notice and his way of showing violence on screen or not - it all starts here. I am sure most of us know the story of how Harvey Keitel got involved into producing this faltering script. I often wonder how it would be on the sets with Director being the most inexperienced person on the set ordering everyone around but then I remember it's Quentin Tarantino. I am sure he would be the first one to joke about it in his trademark style. Oh and he never gets his hands dirty by actually showing the robbery which everyone is so pissed about. Grade - A

Pulp Fiction(1994) - Saying that Pulp Fiction is one of my favourite movies would be such an understatement. Samuel Jackson reciting Ezekiel 25:17 and whatever happens before or after that in that apartment alone was enough to make it my favourite. It is much more than a movie that I really, really like. It is one of those movies that made me a movie buff that I am right now. Sure, I saw a lot of movies before Pulp and sure, there are quite a few that I loved as well but none of them made me want to go and seek out more movies like this one. If they make it anything like this, I seriously wanted a piece of that. At Once. I have been trying since. I am quite sure that this was the first Tarantino I saw, sometime around Fall of 2009. The fact that it had such a a huge impact on a novice like me almost 15 years after its release itself should speak volumes about how influential this movie is.  Grade: A+

Four Rooms(1995): (Segment "The Man From Hollywood") - I have my problems with this movie as a whole, especially with meaningless first segment and ridiculously over the top acting of Tim Roth and others. But if we start talking about just the Tarantino segment, all my issues disappear. Of the four stories in the movie, his is the best by a long margin. First of all it is a very straight forward and fun story, off course with a usual Tarantino zing to it. Even in the small 20 minute window, he leaves his footprints all over it. Once he enters the room, it doesn't leave for it's full length. It's like one long 20 minute sequence. It starts, quickly finds its footing, picks up the pace and soon ends with a blast, never missing a beat.  Grade: A-

Jackie Brown(1997) - This seems to be the start of Tarantino's decade worth of movies with female protagonist. Some also believe this to be his last normal movie or last good movie as after this he gets much more stylistic, violent if he wasn't already. Off course, I do not agree that he didn't make anything good after this but I understand the criticism and see where it comes from.  In my opinion, this is his most un-Tarantino-esque movie of his career. It seems like most of his signature items are dialed down a notch. But he has enough juice in his characters and in his script to carry them through. With the help of yet another flawless ensemble, this is a heist movie that keeps you guessing till the end. Admittedly, Jackie Brown suffers a little from being the follow-up of legendary Pulp Fiction but there were many years between my viewings. So, I never felt it was over shadowed. Grade: A

Kill Bill: Vol I(2003) - Taking a mini hiatus of 6 years to work on World War II screenplay which eventually became Inglourious Basterds(2009). However since that screenplay was taking a long time, he focused on another project in the mean time which will mark his most glorious, most bad-ass and even most dichotomous female protagonist in the form of Bride in this first part of a revenge story fueled by Tarantino's love for Samurai and Martial Arts movies. In his typical style, Tarantino throws us right into the action from the very first scene and never backs down from getting his hands dirty. With multiple action scenes that spill blood by barrels, this has to be his bloodiest movie. Being first part of two, another thing he does well is Tarantino gave it its own legs. He made sure that even though they both have strong connection with each other, they both also stand very well on their own.  Grade: A-

Kill Bill: Vol II(2004) - Apparently, it wasn't Tarantino's plan of making this movie in two parts from the start. Just being another one of his passion projects, he kept on adding stuff and never stopped until he felt it's done right. The final product was the more than four hour long revenge story which producers and distributors weren't sure about from the marketing point of view. And hence they did it in two parts instead of one. I have no idea what was the public reaction about this decision at the time of its release since I was nowhere in picture then but I don't think it would have been very enthusiastic. However, despite that second part seems to have much more favorable critical reaction than the first one and I can certainly see why. First one is much more of an action movie with a lot of action and much more blood whereas though second has its fair share of action and gut, being much more drama-centric has more gravitas.  Grade: A-

Death Proof(2007) - In the THR Directors Roundtable Tarantino himself said that Death Proof has got to be the worst movie he has made and if it stays like that, he'll be happy with it. I know, I'll be too but the question is do I agree with his assessment? To tell you the truth, I don't have any problem with this movie. I know that it is a little loose and maybe even disconnected story, but I think it is a fun movie with a long and electrifying chase involving Zoe Bell of all people in the end and with the risk of sounding sadistic, an amazing crash scene in the middle. I love the way it shows that crash from the perspective of everyone involved. But as much as I hate to admit it, if we are discounting Four Rooms as a whole and his first short, Tarantino is right. It is such a fun ride but is still his weakest. Grade: B+

Inglourious Basterds(2009) - At around the same time that I saw Pulp Fiction and went on some serious kick looking for his movies, Inglourious Basterds was in theaters. Imagine 1-2 punch of these two that knocked me out and I was sold. As I said earlier, this was the point where I was very much in infancy of being a movie-buff. I was still learning to appreciate what makes good movie a good movie. This movie added many things to that list. Have you ever seen anything like that long, continuous opening scene? I still cannot believe how lengthy many of his scenes are but even more importantly how brilliantly they build the tension in the scene, case in point French Tavern sequence. Now it does get a lot of criticism about being over-indulgent, especially over it's 'masterpiece' ending. But tell me, Do I give a Damn ? Grade: A+

Django Unchained(2012) - Tarantino's latest. This year's Oscar nominee for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay among others. Let me get the biggest concern out of the way first. For the first time in his career, his movie looked a little indulgent to me. Don't get me wrong, I still don't give a damn and I still love this movie but I believe I saw some chinks in the armor for the first time. What I loved the most about it is the way he blends multiple genres so inadvertently. Since I haven't mentioned it before anywhere, I have to mention the soundtracks of his movie which are one of his signature by now. Every single one of his movies has had an amazing soundtrack and this one isn't any exception but perfect way they reflect the 'western-ness' of this movie is exceptional.  Grade: A

Previous Profiles:
Paul Thomas Anderson
Wes Anderson
Billy Wilder
Christopher Nolan

Sidney Lumet
Martin Scorsese

Woody Allen