Response to the Globes

The Golden Globes have never been my favorite. Sure, the actual show is more laid back and light hearted than the Oscars, making it hard for me to take it too seriously. The way they separate out the comedies and musicals from the dramas makes me think I’m in high school where a cheerleading squad is allowed to have 40 girls with pompons because ‘everyone deserves a chance’. One reason I love the Oscars more is because you have to be good to win – a well written/well acted comedy can win awards against the most serious dramas (Little Miss Sunshine), it is starting to have less and less to do with genre and more and more to do with quality. Also, did you know it is a panel of journalists that pick the winners? Not film makers, not actors, not even screenwriters – but entertainment news writers, which leads me to think the movies with the most press and hype should win, and not necessarily the movies with the best content and film making. I was disappointed in the picks this year, with a few exceptions. Here is my response. And I’m not going to talk about the TV side – that’s not what I’m about (tho I am stoked about Mad Men bringing home a couple of statues) Oh and I also am not commenting on all of the movie categories, some of them I haven’t seen yet (foreign and animated) so I can’t really say much now can I?

Best Motion Picture – Drama

Winner: Atonement

My Thoughts: A movie that translated so poorly to film that lacked in acting should never have won. This is like Lord of the Rings III winning for Best Picture without having any actor/actress nominations, a Best Picture is the big picture and acting makes up a big chunk of that movie…never should have happened.

What should have won: No Country For Old Men – this movie had the whole package and was brilliant. Totally robbed.

 

Best Actress – Drama

Winner: Julie Christie (Away From Her)

My Thoughts: Thank God it wasn’t Keira Knightley! I didn’t have a favorite…only a least.

Who should have one: can’t say, only saw two of them

Best Actor – Drama

Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)

My Thoughts: It’s all good, I thought this was the best category, totally packed with great actors

Who should have won: I was rooting for Day-Lewis or George Clooney, I’m happy.

Best Motion Picture – Musical/Comedies

Winner: Sweeny Todd

My Thoughts: The more I thought about it the less and less I wanted it to win…

Who should have won: Juno? Across the Universe? Something more original? I did like Sweeny Todd…but it wasn’t the best by far.

Best Actress – M/C

Winner: Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose)

My Thoughts: I’ve wanted to see this movie for a while…it’s at the top of my blockbuster list…no other thoughts really..

Who should have won: duh? Ellen Page – that girl may not be mainstream but she is versatile.

Best Actor – M/C

Winner: Johnny Depp (Sweeny Todd)

My Thoughts: Edward Scissorhands a few years older and with blades instead of scissors, nope not a winner in my mind. What the hell was Walk Hard doing getting a nomination? Remember when John C. Reilly was a good actor?

Who should have won: Ryan Gosling, I would have even settled for Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Best Supporting Actress

Winner: Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There)

My Thoughts: haven’t seen it

Who should have won: I liked Amy Ryan, but without seeing the winner in her film I can’t really say

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men)

My Thoughts: THANK GOD

Who should have won: he won it…and he’ll win it again. Hard to believe it was a supporting role…

Best Director

Winner: Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

My Thoughts: I guess that’s ok…I’ve heard good things

Who should have won: I like the Coens for their genius but I guess directing a movie about a guy who can only blink an eye for communication could be challenging too.

Best Screenplay

Winner: No Country for Old Men

My Thoughts: At least the Coens won something

Who should have won: I would have liked Juno…but I liked this one too

Best Original Score

Winner: Atonement

My Thoughts: This was one of the only good things about this movie.

Who should have won: Atonement..when it was good, it was real good

 

 

Trailer Trash – Wanted

I know I knocked James McAvoy in the movie Atonement (not really, but I was critical), so in a way to say I still believe in you Jimmy here is a trailer for his newest movie, Wanted. Starring him, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. This trailer looks awesome! The special effects are quite stunning – I want to see it…and there is something intriguing about a frat of assassins. Grab your guns and go nerdy boy! Looks like there may be some Matrix like camera work – hot! Choose your destiny, mine is to see this movie!

My Rating:

boo yah!

In the Dark – PS I Love You

 

Genre: Romantic Dramedy

 Tagline: Sometimes there’s only one thing left to say

Ebert gave it: nothing, he didn’t review this movie (you know this is a bad sign from the start)

PS I hate romantic comedies, and though they say this is a drama – it’s not, it’s just a chick flick…p to the s I hate those too! I was forced into going to this with my hopeless in love with love younger sister, and my mom who cries at Lifetime original movies and my dad who sleeps through everything. It was supposed to be a family bonding night…blah. I thought maybe since Hilary Swank was in this movie I might be able to enjoy myself and give my seriously dark side a break for the holidays – no. Not at all.

Hilary Swank plays Holly Kennedy who’s husband Gerry (Gerald Butler) has just passed from a brain tumor. Holly falls into a depression from being a widow and does all the things you’d expect a girl to do when she has lost love. On her 30^th birthday her family (unsympathetic mom who knows all about being alone played by Kathy Bates) and friends (played by Lisa Kudrow and Gina Gershon) decide to get her out of her slump, but someone else makes an appearance. Gerry, via a tape and a cake, letting Holly know he is still around and he is going to help her transition to a new person. Every so often throughout the year a letter is received, by not always delivered by the postman. Along the mourning journey Holly befriends Daniel (Harry Connick Jr.), takes a trip back to Ireland where her and Gerry met, meets Gerry’s parents and has a guilty romance with William (Jeffrey Dean Morgan – Denny from Grey’s and the dad from Weeds!). Holly finds her new self throughout all the tragedy and finally finds her niche in the world. Not only does Holly tranisition but so do her friends, until finally, a year later everyone seems to live happily ever after – some with a few question marks.

First off there is WAY too much going on in the movie – apparently people think it is best to pull on a girl’s heartstrings in every way possible, and what happens? A big mucky mess of chick flick. Every character has their own plot line instead of just complementing Holly’s, and then you have the underlying story line of Holly’s dad leaving the family at a young age. Hilary Swank is too good to be doing this cheap girly movies and should definitely stick to the great movies she’s done in the past (Million Dollar Baby, Boys Don’t Cry). Maybe she wanted a break from all the seriousness that come with her Academy Award winner performances, I say – take a vacation or something don’t do another movie like this. Kudrow was mediocre and reminded me a lot of her character Valeria on her show The Comeback (that never came back…) and comes off as trying too hard. The only times I laughed out loud were when Connick Jr. was on screen – and more because his socially inappropriate character was so over the top it made me uneasy (see nervous laugh). The only time I swooned was for Morgan – although I think he needs to fill out a bit, he is broad on top (HOT) and skinny on the bottom (hmm). But that has nothing to do with the film…but he was a good pick for a flirty, yummy dreamboat.

I figured I wouldn’t like this movie and oh, I was right. I hear the book is a good beach read, and I’ll give it a chance but this movie was awful. If you like to believe in stuff that will never happen, if you believe that boys ever plan ahead (especially when on their death bed) and that everything ends happily ever after you might actually love it. If you are a realist – don’t waste your time.

My Rating:

Popov, this movie was horrible, unrealistic, too sappy, trying to hard to be good. A few scenes made me say, “aww,” and the rest made me say, “aw shit I wish this were over!”

Plot Prediction

I’d just like to make a prediction about the upcoming (already released in some cities) movie, The Bucket List. Note: I have not seen this movie and this is just a prediction, and an amateur one at that as I hold no psychic powers. 

They never leave the hospital, the achieve the list in their imaginations and then die. Because when you have terminal cancer, you tend to feel like shit and wouldn’t want to galavant to Egypt to sit on a pyramid or to Africa for a safari. I know because I’ve seen people who were sick and they didn’t want to go anywhere – not even to Taco Bell. so there.

In the Dark – Atonement

Genre: Drama (read: not really a romance)

Tagline: You can only imagine the truth

Ebert gave it: 4 stars

Usually when a movie gets a million and one nominations including Best Picture my heart skips a beat. It makes me so excited to see the masterpiece, but in the recent past it hasn’t necessarily been one movie that takes all the high honors – and in my opinion this has been one of the better years for movies and it will be near impossible for a movie to monopolize at the award show. So I walked into Atonement not knowing what to expect. One fellow copywriter thought it looked like “paint by numbers Best Picture”: 1. Tragic romance, check 2. War epic, check 3. Period piece, check 4. Up and coming actor/actress, check. Interesting thing to hear right before I see this movie.

I have not read this book (I know, I know blah blah – I won’t mention anything about the adaptation) and I didn’t go to this movie alone – breaking two of my rules, but I was scared this would be a tear jerker filled with couples and normally I’m ok with that, but my co worker accompanied me to the theatre and it worked out for the best as we shared views on the movie afterward. This theatre was packed! There were girls taking up whole roles and couples galore – including the one sitting right in front of me who fed each other popcorn and kept kissing –eww keep it to yourselves when in public!

The movie opens at a wealthy English home of Cecilia and Briony Tallis (Keira Knightley and Romola Garai to start). Cecilia is rebellious and in love with the housekeeper’s son, Robbie (James McAvoy), who is educated but still seen as beneath her. Briony is the younger sister who has a crush (think first crush) on Robbie. She sees and misinterprets him flirting with Cecilia and is convinced he is sex crazed. Later when other events occur – an intercepted love letter, and two interrupted trysts (one being quite possibly the hottest sex scene I’ve seen on film in a while) Briony tells an unforgivable lie (out of doubt and possibly jealousy), breaking Cecilia and Robbie apart. Robbie is shipped off to jail and later joins the army, while Cecilia leaves home, trying to heal her broken heart and becomes a nurse for the war. Briony, feeling guilty year later and realizing her mistake seeks out her sister to set things right for the couple.

I really don’t like Knightley and for me she ruined this. Apparently you just have to have an English accent to be a leading lady sometimes. The movie is beautifully filmed; the cinematography and the music score (with the typewriter sounds pounding out the beats) are amazing. McAvoy is one person who can save Knightley, but even his skills run dry. Although there is one scene where he gets really intense with a monologue…but that’s about it (one monologue does not a movie make). I loved him in Becoming Jane and in The Last King of Scotland – I know he has it in him; unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of room for him to come out and perform with all the jumping around the movie does. There is a lot of cutting forward and flashing back to get difference character’s points of view, and although they are done flawless and without confusion it cuts some of the interior story lines short – not allowing us to see the development of certain things (like the love). Some movies can get away with this by filling an audience in later and making us feel like we have not actually missed all the time that has passed, but in Atonement it is not the case. I was pissed off with the ending until the turn came and then I was pleased, only to be let down tremendously with the ending scene that was unnecessary and horribly tacky after the beautiful film. The shots of the war and soldiers waiting to be shipped home is heartbreaking and really made the whole movie worth something. I was pissed off with the ending until the turn came and then I was pleased, only to be let down tremendously with the ending scene that was unnecessary and horribly tacky after the beautiful film. And one more thing, the tagline doesn’t make sense – there is really no misleading in this movie…no suspense – not for one minute do you doubt Robbie…but if you did it would make this a heck of a lot more interesting. (in my line of work we call this false advertising)Overall the movie was outstanding when it comes to the look and music, the acting however fell short. Maybe I’m cynical but this is not a movie about love , it’s a movie about lies, guilt, and consequences. The story between Cecilia and Robby would have been more believable and heartfelt had it been developed more, but it wasn’t and I was disappointed and found much of it awkward and foreign. I was pleased with Briony’s character and the way that she developed and that also helped the movie in a big way.

My rating:

Absolute, this movie fell way short for me; it left me (and my movie friend) feeling dissatisfied and iffy. The cinematography and direction were amazing, the musical score was to die for, and the story was there – it just wasn’t well presented by the actors and therefore I don’t think it is Best Picture material. One thing to remember is the Golden Globes allows for some leeway when it comes to the nominations. It is split between comedy/musical and drama so there are some movies that Atonement won’t have to compete with in this first award show meeting – but when the Oscars come I think this one won’t be close to the front…especially when so many other great movies have the acting talent needed to make a success.

For those of you who think I’m off base for whatever reason I’m not the only person who hated this, other reviewers felt that the whole thing fell short.