happy (slightly belated) birthday to one of the all-time greats

all-time.

you heard me.

Globes?

I can never decide whether I like the Globes or not. On one hand, they really do seem to vote what they like. On the other hand, they're basically starfuckers and will nominate those they love for either terrible work or work that is so obscure nobody else recognizes it (Kidman, Zellwegger, Johansson, Depp) rather than those who deserve it. Aaaanyway.

Best Picture - Drama
Babel
Bobby
The Departed
Little Children
The Queen
Will win: The Departed
Should win: The Departed
Ew: Nothing, this lineup is pretty good. I'm not the biggest fan of Babel or Bobby but neither was terrible.
WTF?: Bobby. It seemed so dead, but again, the starfucking Globes probably nominated it just to get all those celebrities there. Strange, though, considering they didn't nominate Crash last year.

Best Picture - Musical/Comedy
Borat
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Little Miss Sunshine
Thank You For Smoking
Will win: Dreamgirls
Should win: ...I haven't seen Dreamgirls yet but I'm sure it deserves it. For now, let's go with Prada (it's between that and Sunshine, and though I gave them both the same grade, a B+, I like Prada a little bit more, probably because I was expecting a lot less from it. On the other hand, Sunshine would make the love of my life happy [don't ask]. Hmm)
Ew: None. This lineup's pretty good.
WTF?: I can't complain. But I think Dreamgirls has far less support than many think :(

Best Actor - Drama
DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
DiCaprio, The Departed
O'Toole, Venus
Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Will win: Ooh...tricky. For here, I'll go with Whitaker. The Globes don't feel the need to reward him for past snubs. The Oscars, on the other hand...
Should win: I've only seen Departed DiCaprio and Whitaker so far, and I'll go for DiCaprio. Both are fantastic, though.
Ew: None. Happyness is apparently getting lambasted by critics but Smith generally manages to shine... but I'll have to see.
WTF?: No Ryan Gosling. Matt Damon got snubbed for both The Departed (where he was almost as good as Leo but has a much, much, much less flashy part so he's getting way less attention) and The Good Shepherd (haven't seen it).

Best Actress - Drama
Cruz, Volver
Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Gyllenhaal, Sherrybaby
Mirren, The Queen
Winslet, Little Children
Will win: Mirren, Mirren, Mirren.
Should win: Uhh...Winslet.
Ew: None. I haven't seen Notes on a Scandal but I'll trust what everyone's saying about Judi Dench (namely, that she's amazing). This lineup is actually flawless and would probably be my very own in this category (maybe Li over Gyllenhaal).
WTF?: Nothing, really, except Mol over Gyllenhaal. I'd think she had more of a chance.

Best Actor - Musical/Comedy
Cohen, Borat
Depp, Pirates 2
Eckhart, Thank You For Smoking
Ejiofor, Kinky Boots
Ferrell, Stranger than Fiction
Will win: Cohen
Should win: Cohen, Ferrell and Eckhart were good too (I haven't seen Ejiofor but looking at his past work, he was probably good. The man's an acting genius)
Ew: JOHNNY DEPP. Ugh! If he gets an Oscar nomination...
WTF?: Ejiofor. Where did that come from? Depp is pretty WTF-y too.

Best Actress - Musical/Comedy
Bening, Running with Scissors
Collette, Little Miss Sunshine
Knowles (...Beyonce.), Dreamgirls
Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Zellweger, Miss Potter
Will win: Streep
Should win: Streep!
Ew: Bening...I loved her in American Beauty and then I realized that's really the only way she ever acts in films and now I kind of hate her. She was wildly uneven in Running with Scissors and wasn't anywhere near the best performance in the film (that'd be the ridiculously underappreciated Cross, thanks). I haven't seen Miss Potter but I've heard Renee is comically bad in it. I actually loved her in Cold Mountain (don't kill me) but she was just...meh in Bridget 2, and they nominated her for that, so yeah...
WTF?: Collette. She's great in everything (including Sunshine), but let's face it, Breslin was better. Most people weren't picking Zellweger or Bening, either (I thought Zellweger would get in, but not Bening...but that might have been wishful thinking). I would have absolutely loved to see O'Hara here, or even Dunst or Johansson (was I the only one that liked her in Scoop? And the Globes did nominate her for Bobby Long...).

Best Supporting Actor
Affleck, Hollywoodland
Murphy, Dreamgirls
Nicholson, The Departed
Pitt, Babel
Wahlberg, The Departed
Will win: Uh, probably Nicholson...but if Pitt wins this, he can easily ride it all the way to Oscar, just like Clooney last year.
Should win: Nicholson. So-o-o-o friggin' nuts in The Departed and I love it. These are great nominees though (I haven't seen Murphy).
Ew: None. Like I said, it's a great lineup. I know a lot of people don't like Affleck but really, the criticism toward him seems kinda...petty (like the criticism toward Little Miss Sunshine, which is actually really mean-spirited).
WTF?: None. It's a typical Globes starfuckery lineup. It's good though, so yeah.

Best Supporting Actress
Barazza, Babel
Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Blunt, The Devil Wears Prada
Hudson, Dreamgirls
Kikuchi, Babel
Will win: Hudson.
Should win: Uh, I haven't seen Dreamgirls, but I'm sure the answer to this should be Hudson... but I can only go with what I've seen. Kikuchi.
Ew: I've heard Blanchett is not at all right for the part in Notes on a Scandal and I generally don't like her, so... and Blunt. I like her in this movie, but not as much as many (a lot thought she was better than Streep?! Come onnnnn...), and there could have been better choices here. Then again, not that many have been taking traction, so meh.
WTF: Poor Mia Kirshner has not and will not get any awards for the best female supporting performance this year (so far...still need to see Hudson among others) in The Black Dahlia.

Best Director
Eastwood, Flags of Our Fathers
Eastwood, Letters from Two Jima
Frears, The Queen
Iñárritu, Babel
Scorsese, The Departed
Will win: Scorsese (please, please, please...)
Should win: Scorsese
Ew: WHERE. IS. CONDON?!?!?!?! And Greengrass. Eastwood 2x? The Queen is a good movie but Frears' direction there is kinda...overrated? It doesn't have that stamp of distinction like other, more flawed movies here, do (Babel).
WTF: No Condon. :( Major, major snub.

Best Screenplay
Babel
The Departed
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal
The Queen
Will win: Uh...this is the hardest category to call. Let's go with... The Queen?
Should win: No contest, The Departed
Ew: This category seems pretty good.
WTF: Uh...no Little Miss Sunshine I guess.

And I don't really want to do the rest except to say that Best Foreign Language Film might be the most exciting race of the night (all five nominees have quite a good chance of winning), and Helen Mirren is winning two Golden Globes.

The longest post yet? I think so!

so, critics' awards!

...go anyone that wasn't Helen Mirren! Love her I do (she's currently #2 in my Best Actress lineup), but...seriously. This year was just great actress-wise and it'd be fantastic to see the likes of Winslet, Dench, Streep, Li, Cruz, Gyllenhaal, Mol, Dern, O'Hara (though it looks like she's going supporting?) etc... mentioned.

Major update December 15ish when all my finals are done, AND THE GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINEES ARE ANNOUNCED!

Death of a Fucking Salesman

it takes brass balls to sell real estate.

...AKA Glengarry Glen Ross, suffers from the same problems a lot of stage-to-screen transfers have: it still feels like it'd be so much better on stage (I do love its jazzy score and the constant blue-tinted images of the train moving), but who cares when the acting's this good - it is, quite frankly, the best ensemble acting ever. The two highlights: Alec Baldwin who appears here in only the best cameo ever, and Jack Lemmon. This is the man that gave us Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Days of Wine and Roses, The Odd Couple, and Save the Tiger (no, he didn't deserve that Oscar then, but it's hardly an embarassing performance to say the least and he deserved it other years, that's for damn sure!), among sooo many others, and this is probably his best performance yet. He's utterly heartbreaking. You won't find a better Willy Loman anywhere than Jack's Shelley Levene. This movie wouldn't be at all special, or probably even all that good, without the acting - but what else does it have?

Movie: B- Acting: A+ Overall: B+

happy birthday julianne!

my favorite Julianne Moore (she has such a pretty name; is that a weird comment? Oh well) performances:

1. Safe
2. Boogie Nights
3. Far from Heaven
4. Vanya on 42nd Street
5. The End of the Affair

The Piano

Disclaimer: I cannot write reviews for shit, especially after weeks of writing essays for school. Ugh. This is more just an amalgamation of my thoughts as opposed to a real review.
I was actually shocked at how much I liked this movie. Shocked. It's certainly not the best film ever like I've heard some people say. Likewise, it's not the best film of the '90s. Hell, it's not even the best film of 1993 (Schindler's List, whether you think it's a masterpiece or manipulative trash, just worked for me, okay?), but it is really freaking excellent. For one thing, I thought it was going to be something different; based on what I've heard about it and the stills I've seen, I thought it was going to be one of those films that's easy to admire but hard to love with, you know, Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin just staring at each other on a beach for two hours. Yawn. But, not at all. This film is alive. It is vibrant (gotta love Australia), and even, at times, pretty darn funny. Holly Hunter is simply... incredible, to put it simply. She never says anything, but her performance is completely absorbing and you always know exactly what she is thinking and feeling. Amazing. One of the most deserved Oscars ever. Anna Paquin's fantastic too, and makes me wonder why she's so mediocre in everything she's been in since this movie. Harvey Keitel gives one of his very best performances (but did we really need to see his dick again?), and I just loved Kerry Walker (she bought a lot of the aforementioned humor). No, the movie's not perfect (there were a few too many shots of Hunter just kinda sitting there playing the piano [which is what I thought the movie would be like, actually, heh], and that scene where Keitel sticks his head under Hunter's dress and the dog starts licking Sam Neill's hand? Aaack), but it is pretty freaking spectacular. A- (A?)

And, of course, happy birthday to the person who may be my favorite director, Woody Allen. :D Recommendations of the day: Scoop (underrated, quite funny and I enjoyed it a lot more than Match Point) and Angels in America (for AIDS day. Then again, if you haven't seen this movie already, don't talk to me!).