After the Oscars

Those were great Oscars. Ben & DDL’s speeches were great. Jennifer Lawrence is beautiful and so lovable and brilliant even after she falls. Very happy with Argo winning. Anne and Christoph took best supporting actors. Pretty epic stuff.

Best Picture and Leading Actors

BEST PICTURE:

“Argo”: Great movie
“Django Unchained”: It’s actually quite refreshing that Django got nominated. I loved it.
“Les Miserables”: Beautiful
“Life of Pi”: It was nice visually.
“Amour”: Why is this even up here? I went and watched it because I thought it was going to be so good.
“Lincoln”: I liked Daniel Day Lewis and the lighting.
“Silver Linings Playbook”: This was actually my choice until early this week when I finally got around to seeing Zero Dark Thirty. It’s a close call though. I feel like maybe if I watch Silver Linings again now, my choice will switch back.
“Zero Dark Thirty”: It was a great movie. A propaganda film like Lincoln, and I suppose Argo could be considered one as well, but it easily beat the other two in my opinion. I was my favourite movie of the year.
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”: Beautiful movie! Unbelievably innovative. For all the people involved in this movie… ridiculously good. This movie inspires people who want to make it, to dream big.

There were so many good movies this year, and I literally just changed my mind, right now, back to the movie I was rooting for, for the last few months. I think “the Impossible” should have been nominated too, with all the movies that are up here.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:

Bradley Cooper – “Silver Linings Playbook”: He was fantastic. He was so good. He killed his performance. Maybe it wasn’t the best of the year, but he took his respective role the limit of perfection.
Daniel Day-Lewis – “Lincoln”: While I was watching Lincoln, I remember turning to my cousin and saying, “He did such a good job. You can’t even tell it’s him. I just see Lincoln.” And I mean, isn’t that the utmost goal for an actor? To become the character they’re playing completely? I had a bit where I was saying that DDL has already won an Oscar. He’s needs to do something crazy. But I was wrong. What more was he supposed to do? DDL wasn’t even in Lincoln. Lincoln was in Lincoln.
Hugh Jackman – “Les Miserables”: He was great, and as much as I love Hugh Jackman, there was better acting in the category. I genuinely think that the focus on singing took away from me actually focusing as much on the performance as I did in other movies. But overall, he was fantastic.
Joaquin Phoenix – “The Master”: He was a complete lunatic, and I mean that can be hard to do, but I can see an average actor having pulled off the role with almost the same calibre of talent. The movie just had a complete “what the heck?” reaction from me 50% of the time. I’ve seen him do much better in the past, and when I think of Joaquin Pheonix’ latest amazing performance, I completely skip the whole rapping charade, and go back to Walk the Line. I haven’t seen him do anything that blew my mind in a while, but I remember him when he was good. When he was good, he was so good. I don’t really even know… I need to watch this movie again. -__-
Denzel Washington – “Flight”: Denzel is such a good actor. I don’t think people even realize how good he is because he’s never been bad. Buuut, having said that, his acting wasn’t quite as good as the others. It wasn’t exactly lacking. There was just nothing that really said, “Actor of the Year” to me.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:

Jessica Chastain – “Zero Dark Thirty”: I absolutely love her as an actress and she’s great in everything that I have seen her in. Last year, I didn’t even know what her name was and I was actually unaware that I was seeing the same actress in different movies I watched: “the Help”, “Tree of Life”, “Lawless”. Although she is amazing, she wasn’t better than Jennifer Lawrence or Naomi Watts.
Jennifer Lawrence – “Silver Linings Playbook”: I saw some clips from Silver Linings today, and I just remembered how good she was in the movie. She totally deserves the award. But if anyone else takes it, it should be Naomi Watts.
Emmanuelle Riva – “Amour”: She was good, but the movie was whatever. But same issue as I had with Denzel. At the same time, I’m not even a fan of hers, cause I don’t really know her other movies, so… I don’t really know what kind of actress she is. I didn’t get a lot from Amour.
Quvenzhané Wallis – “Beasts of Southern Wild”: I’ve gotta say, I wasn’t really expecting much. Although I should have, because a 9-yr old was nominated for an Oscar. She must be ridiculous. I feel a little ashamed to have underestimated her just because she’s a child. She was exemplary. However, the fact that she was acting as a child still makes it difficult for me to compare her with the rest of the nominees. It’s times like these that I really wish that there was an award for these younger actors. If there was, Wallis would pwn that shit.
Naomi Watts – “The Impossible”: Just yesterday, I had switched my choice from Jennifer Lawrence to Naomi Watts, after watching the Impossible. She is remarkable. I was unable to choose between her and Jennifer Lawrence. So I decided, Jennifer’s doing great already. It’s okay, she’ll get the award another year.

The thing is, Jennifer Lawrence and Naomi Watts were both great in their roles, quite perfect really. If they switched places, I could not see them doing as great of a performance as the other. So, I’m rooting for both. I think I’m leaning slightly more towards Jennifer Lawrence though. It’s not because I like her more. I don’t think I do, and I have been obsessed with Naomi Watts’ acting for much longer.

Cutest photo too. I love them both so much.

In a Supporting Role

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:

Alan Arkin – “Argo”: Didn’t care.
Robert De Niro – “Silver Linings Playbook”
Philip Seymour Hoffman – “The Master”: Didn’t care.
Tommy Lee Jones – “Lincoln”: Didn’t care. (TLJ’s legit though.)
Christoph Waltz – “Django Unchained”: Hell yes! So good in Basterds, and still so good in this. Waltz takes the character to its full potential. Great delivery.

 

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:

Amy Adams – “The Master”: lol… uh. This movie just had me so confused that I don’t even know what I was supposed to expect from the acting. But Amy Adams is a fantastic actress anyways, so it was good. haha.
Sally Field – “Lincoln”: She was good. 
Anne Hathaway – “Les Miserables”: The clear winner. She was brilliant. I have underestimated her for so long. She was remarkable, and although it was a short role, it’s probably my favourite of hers ever.
Helen Hunt – “The Sessions”: Haven’t seen it. So, sorry hunt. I guess you lose. I haven’t really heard much about this movie anyways. Maybe I’ll get around to watching it post-Oscars.
Jackie Weaver – “Silver Linings Playbook”: Awww. She was so cute!! She would be my second choice because she’s just so loveable.

Animated Feature Film

“Brave”: Most people are going to choose brave. I’m not. If it was a Disney picture, it would have been done right. I just don’t understand the craze. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful. But I don’t think it reached its potential at all. I wasn’t nearly as emotionally attached as I wish to be in a movie like this.
“Frankenweenie”: To be completely honest, I don’t think I got all of the references except like the obvious Frankenstein ones, so I don’t think I was able to completely appreciate it. I don’t think I was the only one either. It was probably fantastic for people who got it. I didn’t really have anything to look back on that I enjoyed other than the characters (which Tim Burton always does a really good job with.)
“ParaNorman”: Haven’t seen it..
“The Pirates! Band of Misfits”: Haven’t seen it either. I know this is disappointing… It’s usually the animated movies that I see all of.
“Wreck-It Ralph”: I choose Wreck-It Ralph. Good plot that surprisingly, I don’t think I have ever seen before. It was genuine and I was more emotionally attached with this than Brave which is way overrated in my opinion. I’m assuming many people haven’t even seen it… which is pretty lame.

Look at that. That’s absolutely adorable.

Directing

“Amour” – Michael Haneke: No. (I’m not going to stop writing no next to this film title.)
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” – Benh Zeitlin: Have yet to see it.
“Life of Pi” – Ang Lee: meh. This was less about the directing and more about the visual aspects of the film which came from the acting, special effects, set design… the way I see it.
“Lincoln” – Steven Spielberg: no. lol. I’m being so mean. The part that I liked about it though was how Spielberg laid the actors out on the set– there were so many of them. But I didn’t like how many parts were filmed, which kind of ruined it for me.
“Silver Linings Playbook” – David O. Russell: So unless Beasts ends up being better, Silver Linings is my choice.

I’m just upset that Argo wasn’t nominated, because that’s my actual choice. Here’s my little photo tribute to affleck, that friggin movie god who I totally underestimated as a director prior to this. Let’s take a look at all the awards he racked up for best directing this year…

Film Editing

“Argo”
“Life of Pi”: It was good, but I didn’t notice. I learned that good editing is the editing that you don’t notice. I do believe that great editing is generally noticeable though.
“Lincoln”: I think it’s obvious from what I said in the other categories that I don’t like the editing in this movie. Just, god no. Please no. The movie was great. But its editing pissed me off so much. I have no idea what they were thinking about with the length of some takes and not letting us explore setting enough at the right times (that’s actually a directing/script fault). Instead they were just constantly throwing words into my face that it got so freaking boring at points. Daniel Day Lewis is the sole person that took me from hating this movie to accepting it as great. (I did get excited when I saw Joseph Gordon though. I didn’t know he was going to be in it.) I suppose I just lack an understanding for Spielberg’s intellect.
“Silver Linings Playbook”: I loved everything about this movie, but the editing isn’t something I was even paying attention to at all. I don’t recall anything exemplary. Although, it wasn’t irritating either. So it did good.
“Zero Dark Thirty”

I was initially a bit torn between Argo and Zero Dark Thirty. I liked both of them because they did right what I complained that Lincoln did wrong. In the end, I’m going to have to go with Argo. It was slightly better for me. That sort of related back to how great the directing was for Argo. Affleck did great. I still feel bad for the poor dude. But hey, he’s been racking up all of the other awards. I’m sure the Oscars know that they effed up at this point.

Music

ORIGINAL SONG:

“Before My Time” from “Chasing Ice,”: Beautiful composition. The lyrics are alright…
“Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from “Ted,”: Um… it’s cute. But lol. I don’t think it should win.
“Pi’s Lullaby” from “Life of Pi,”: So, I don’t speak Tamil. Therefore, I don’t have a clue what the actual lyrics are. And even if they’re translated in English, it’s obviously not the same thing; the actual vocabulary and word choice is what makes the lyrics good/bad.
“Skyfall” from “Skyfall,”: Please no. It was a good song. But Adele could have done more with it. It had a bit of a bond-esque feel to it, but alongside that it felt cartoony and lazy to me. I’m actually being extra-mean now. It’s a good song. But I really don’t want Adele to snub this award. She’s done so much better, and this song is incredibly overrated in my opinion.
“Suddenly” from “Les Miserables,”: This wasn’t from the original soundtrack? I haven’t seen the actual musical, which I thought this was based upon. Anyways, the song is better than a lot in the film. So, it’s great if this is an original. This song sounds beautiful and I adore the lyrics. As far as the actual singing goes, it’s good. Jackman has a pretty good voice, he’s not a singer though. I have to admit though, I kind of liked the fact that it wasn’t perfect. It added to the mood of the song for me.

ORIGINAL SCORE:

“Anna Karenina”: I LOVED the score for this film. It had a very mystical feel. A lot of the time I was getting a lot more out of the actual compositions than the dialogue.
“Argo”: The score was brilliant and extremely dramatic. The matching of music was perfection.
“Life of Pi”: Oh my goodness. This score was so magical. It’s so theatrical and although you can feel a connection between all of the songs, there’s is a vast range of emotions throughout.
“Lincoln”: The score was great. Very theatrical and dramatic as well. There was actually one part a liked in particular, which was the reoccurring music throughout which I believe was the same thing. I assume it’s the movie’s actual theme music if it has any. I will look into it.
“Skyfall”: It was classy at times, but a little cliche at others. Overall, I liked the score. Not my favourite of the nominated soundtracks though.

I’m quite torn between a few. I started at Argo, but my gut told me to go with Anna Karenina.

Foreign Language Film

Thus far, I have only seen Amour. I didn’t like it. So, anything but that.

“Amour” (Austria)
“Kon-Tiki” (Norway)
“No” (Chile)
“A Royal Affair” (Denmark)
“War Witch” (Canada)

Visuals

CINEMATOGRAPHY:

“Anna Karenina”
“Django Unchained”
“Life of Pi” : I’ve already mentioned that this movie was all about cinematography in an other section(s).
“Lincoln”
“Skyfall”

COSTUME DESIGN:

“Anna Karenina”
“Les Miserables”
“Lincoln”
“Mirror Mirror”: stupidass movie. It shouldn’t win anything. Most ridiculously pathetic and disappointing movie of the year which made every actor look like crap.
“Snow White and the Huntsman”: I actually loved the costuming in this movie– the hair, the makeup, the actual clothes. It’s my choice over Anna Karenina, which would be my second.

MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING:

“Hitchcock”: I didn’t watch this movie, and I’m not going to watch it either. I’m so freaking sick of watching Hitchock! I should stop hating. Man was a genius. Maybe I will eventually, but definitely not within the next few months.
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”: As awesome as the beards and dwarves looked, which I have talked about for a good long time… It’s not my choice.
“Les Miserables”: The visual transformations were great. I loved the authenticity of it because it wasn’t a movie packed with special effects and CGI. The hair and makeup was ridiculously good.

Short Films & Documentaries

So I only watched one short film and one documentary, both of which were amazing. I hope both take the awards for anything they’re nominated for.

Even though I only saw the two, they were both stunning. As far as Paperman goes, it brings back your love for disney. Every story needs a bit of magic, and it is absolutely magnificient. As I tweeted after watching it for the first time: “most beautiful thing I have seen all year.”

Short film (animated): Paperman

Documentary: Searching for Sugarman