Thoughts

        Helloo all! Question- if you decided to go to a red carpet with a paper bag over your head, what would you write on it?

       Questions like this keep me up at night...

       Anyways, my movie-related thoughts for this week:

1) I have been planning to start on Ben Wheatley's filmography for a while now. Looks like his latest project is going to give me the push I needed. High Rise, based on the novel by J.G. Ballard, is about a doctor who gets involved in the secret world of a high rise built during the Thatcher era in England where the tenants are divided into quarrelling classist factions. And none other than Tom Hiddleston is going to star as the doctor whose name is Robert Laing. Hiddles is doing great things with his career and this whole projects sounds very exciting. Wheatley is also going to direct the first two episodes of Doctor Who series 8 so I'm really pumped to see his work.

2) One of my most anticipated films of 2015, the Fassy-Cotillard starrer-Macbeth, has started filming. While  the Macbeths are as perfect as they come, the rest of the characters are also going to be played by some excellent actors. Paddy Considine is going to be Banquo, Sean Harris is Macduff, and Jack Raynor and Elizabeth Debicki are also in the film. I am guessing that the former will play prince Malcolm and the latter will be Lady Macduff. Eitherways, this is one amazing and rather hot cast. I am currently studying the play in college and I swear, I just keep imagining this film during the lectures. I need it. Justin Kurzel is directing it.

3) Criminally underrated Paul Bettany will star as the Vision in the upcoming The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Bettany is actually one of the original Marvel actors from phase 1, voicing Tony Stark's awesome interface Jarvis. Of course, I am fairly certain this will be addressed in the movie. In the Marvel comic-verse, Vision goes from being a baddie android to a good guy and even marries the Scarlet Witch, who will be played by Elizabeth Olsen in the movie. I guess I should be more skeptical about this film because seriously, where do you go from after The Avengers, but I'm super duper excited about all these developments. It has started filming today in Johannesburg. BIG HULK YESSSSS!!!

4) Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill, easily my favourite on screen couple of 2013, are going to reteam for a drama about the bombing during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Hill will play Richard Jewell, a security guard who was first hailed as a hero for discovering the bomb and helping people to evacuate only to then be suspected as the perpetrator behind the bombing. Leo will play his attorney. After The Wolf of Wall Street, I am ready to watch these two in anything whatsoever and this actually sounds pretty fantastic.

5) Other casting stuff- Ewan McGregor, Tye Sheridan, Ciarin Hinds and Ayelet Zurer will be starring in Rodrigo Garcia's Last Days in the Desert. In it, McGregor will play a double role of a holy man and a demon who journeys through a desert. The synopsis is described as "an encounter with a family struggling to survive in this harsh environment forces the holy man to confront his own fate." McGregor is one of my most favourite actors and this sounds like an interesting plot. Emma Watson will star alongside Ethan Hawke in Alejandro Amenábar's Regression which is about "dealing with one's deepest primal fears". Amenábar directed one of my most favourite horror movies, The Others, so I will be looking forward to this. Johnny Depp and Tom Hardy will co-star in Black Mass about Whitey Bulger, one of America’s Most Wanted men and the leader of the the Winter Hill Gang, and who was also apparent;y an FBI informant. Depp will play Bulger and Hardy will play an FBI agent named John Connolly who was a childhood friend of Bulger's. One of Depp's best performances ever was in Donnie Brasco and it will be great seeing him go down the gangster road again, especially after his recent career choices.

6) If you weren't aware of it already, my fellow chick with accent from German/Danish-land, Mette has started a Youtube channel with her sister and it is awesome. Check out their second video-

7) Posters- Under the Skin's poster is a thing of beauty. I am kind of skeptical about the film because it really does not seem the kind I will like, but the poster is definitely gorgeous. The Transcendence poster is a bit creepy and not in a good way. It makes me feel gross for some reason. However, The Poster Of The Millenium, THE Poster To End All Posters is THIS ONE. It's from a Bengali movie called Obhishopto Nighty which roughly translates to 'haunted nightgown'. This poster is literally everywhere in my city. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. #onlyinIndia

8) Trailers- Not really a trailer but here's a 15 minute long "foreshadowing" of the upcoming season 4 of Game of Thrones, with bigger dragons and more Hodor (everyone say "HODOR!"). I can't wait. I have my Red Wedding t-shirt ready for the season premiere. The Two Faces of January's trailer is really thrilling and the film looks gorgeous. Pretty impressive people involved too. The second trailer of Hannibal is even more stunning than the first. Ugh! Finally, the trailer of the week is the latest one of Richard Ayoade's The Double. It looks crazy and creepy and cool and I still love Jesse Eisenberg in spite of how much picturing him as a tattooed Lex Luthor makes me anxious.

9) Finally, I adore the "Celebrities Read Mean Tweets" feature on Jimmy Kimmel. Benedict Cumberbatch's was one of the best-

His cheekbones though.

Toodles!

Thoughts

WAAZZZZAAAAA GUYSSSSSSS!! My weekly thoughts is back after a 2 month hiatus. Don't ask me why I stopped writing them. I started many but the news kept piling up and the thought of typing more just brought out the lazy ass in me. So now with the new year, I am going to start afresh with all the most recent movie stuff.

1) This is really the most important news- Paul Rudd is going to be Ant-Man in Edgar Wright's Ant-Man!!! Hurrah!!!!!! I lurve Paul Rudd and I really admire Wright for choosing actors like Rudd or Simon Pegg or Michael Cera, who aren't really "hero material" but they totally kick ass in his movies. Rudd will be playing Scott Lang and none other than Michael Douglas will play Dr. Hank Prym who in the comics is apparently the original Ant-Man and the guy who invents the technology that enables people to get minitiurized or whatever. The film will release in the 2015 during the slot when the Batfleck-Superman movie was going to come out. The latter has changed dates because of some reason that I don't care about.

2) Casting: Daniel Radcliffe continues to build an interesting career and his next project is Brooklyn Bridge about the brilliant but rookie engineer who has to oversee the building of the Brooklyn Bridge after the death of his father. There's a rumour that Gwyneth Paltrow will play his wife. I hope to god that does not happen because it is wrong on so many levels. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is going to star in the fictional take on renowned documentary Man on Wire. It is called To Reach the Clouds and it will be directed by Robert Zemeckis. The John Belushi biopic starring Emile Hirsch as the titular character has found its Dan Aykroyd in The Spectacular Now's Miles Teller. In spite of what I felt about the movie, I think Teller has great potential and this film sounds really interesting. Sarah Paulson has joined the cast of the Todd Haynes-directed Carol which will have Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara playing the leads. I love this beyond words. The Duchess of Ray Bridge herself, Margot Robbie is going to play Jane in the upcoming Tarzan movie that has Alexander Skarsgard donning the loincloth (hopefully!) and swinging from trees as our hero. This will obviously be a hot effing movie and I almost wish that it is R-rated because why not :)

3) Joe Wright's Pan is building up quite an ensemble. Hugh Jackman is going to play Blackbeard, the villain, and Garrett Hedlund is going to play Captain Hook who isn't apparently bad in this version. It was previously reported Hedlund would play Peter Pan which I thought was just strange, but Hedlund and Jackman will be a nice pair of hot pirates. Now we just have to cast Keira Knightley as Wendy or Tinkerbell.

4) So Quentin Tarantino wrote a first draft of a proper western, since Django Unchained wasn't proper enough or whatever, called "The Hateful Eight" but someone leaked it online, causing him shelve the project completely. While it is true that I will follow Tarantino to the ends of earth and he might be the only person who can get me interested in westerns, I am kind of glad because I want him to tackle new genres and give them his Tarantino-ian twist. It seems that is exactly what might be in store for us because he may be working on a script based on the Robert Blake case, about a 70s TV star who murdered his wife and was sued by his children. It could be a legal thriller, which in itself is a pretty cool genre, but what Tarantino will do with it is even more fun to speculate about. Could he possible go back to something like Jackie Brown even? Now I'm getting excited!

5) Rumour has it that Pixar might be making it's own Star Wars movie. I have nothing more to say other than I WANT IT NOW!!!!!!

6) The Sundance Film Festival just got over and many of the indies that we might be talking about the rest of the year till next awards season were shown. The films that have caught my eye the most are Whiplash, which won a number of prizes, starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons, Richard Linklater's epic that took twelve years to make, Boyhood, Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Fassy-in-a-head movie, Frank, the Belle and Sebastian movie, God Help the Girl, Life After Beth starring Dane DeHaan and a zombified Aubrey Plaza (which sounds so perfect!!) and vampire flick A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Also, The Raid 2: Berandal has gotten some rave reviews so really excited about that one too.

7) Lately, I have been reading a lot on the inevitable Jennifer Lawrence backlash. I think it is a really interesting cultural phenomenon, or rather she is. For someone who was so widely loved this time last year, a lot of people seem to despise her at present. But this is balanced by an equally rabid group of fangirls who will like cut you, virtually of course, if you say anything bad about her. I find it fascinating because JLaw at present represents both sides of our "Tumblr" age. Also the fact the she is probably the only female towards whom there is such complete devotion. I get why people like her- she's funny, pretty, relatable, a good actor and she is part of one of the biggest franchises in the world right now. I also get why people don't like her- all those incessant Buzzfeed posts, Oscar + Catching Fire + American Hustle + another Oscar nomination which is definitely undeserved. The fact that both of these things have happened within the course of one year is kind of unfortunate, because she has at least 3 big releases in the next two years, Mockingjay parts 1 and 2 and X-Men: Days of Future Past, so she's not going anywhere any time soon. And the dissenting voices will become even louder if by any chance she does manage to win the Oscar because it will then definitely become a popularity thing. This will be bad for both parties, even though the fangirls may not realise it yet, because she *will* almost definitely peak then and we might have to wait quite a while before she can give her next great performance that people will care about. I for one am still a fan, of both Jennifer Lawrence, the actress, and Jennifer Lawrence, the personality. Even if she might be putting on a show, I like that a 23 year old can be both neurotic and charming and may not have everything figured out even though she's a huge star. It's affirming.

8) Score-wise: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have re-teamed with David Fincher and are going to score his upcoming thriller, Gone Girl. I still listen to The Social Network score and I just rewatched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its opening continues to give me chills. Also, Carter Burwell will score the aforementioned Carol (and not Clint Mansell, *who* scored Stoker. I'm and idiot) so that is awesome. Most importantly though, Danny Elfman will score Fifty Shades of Grey! Woo hoo! I'm so excited to hear the music between the spanking and the sex noises!!!!!!

9) Speaking of, the teaser poster of Fifty Shades of Grey has released. It looks a lot like Dhoom 3's poster, which is just an odd connection. I don't like the font but Jamie Dornan, if it indeed is him, has a nice suit and a nice butt. These are my observations.

10) Andrew of Encore's World of Film & TV is doing his Motifs in Cinema blogathon again and I will be taking part this time 'round. I will be looking at the "coming of age" movies of 2013.

11) Trailers- Starred Up starring Jack O'Connell and Rupert Friend looks like a pretty intense film. I have loved O'Connell since his Skins days and this is a good year for him (he is the lead in Angelina Jolie's Unbroken). Karen Gillan stars in creepy horror flick Oculus. I was anyways going to watch it for Gillan but apparently it's also pretty good according to the TIFF'13 reports, so yaay. There isn't a trailer out yet but the clip from Fassy and Domhnall Gleeson starrer Frank looks really quirky and fun. Coming to television, Sam Mendes-produced Penny Dreadful has two teasers out (1, 2) and looks kind of generic but I love Eva Green and my 13 year old self still believes in Josh Hartnett, so I will be keeping an eye out for it. Finally, Hannibal season 2's trailer is out and it's beautiful. Can't wait for more murders that look like pretty works of art and Mads Mikkelsen in a bloody unbuttoned shirt!

12) Finally, Jonah Hill is living every girl's dream-

Forget getting Oscars for their performances in WoWS, they should be getting fucking Oscars for this! I heart them so much.

I also want to marry Leonardo DiCaprio.

Au revoir!

Dance, Leo! Dance!

I controlled myself from using the gif above in the Golden Globes post because I was hoping it could be better served if Leo got an Oscar nomination. AND HE DID!!!!!! I am so happy. I could barely sit through my first French class (Salut everyone).

As usual, the rest of the nominations are a mixed bag. For every Gravity nomination, there is an American Hustle nomination, literally. They each bagged 10 nominations followed by the 9 of 12 Years A Slave. Lee Daniels' The Butler got nothing, so yaay!

Expectations Vs Reality

Best Film: 9 out of 9- Really have to see this Philomania (yaay Steve Coogan's an Oscar nominee)

Best Director: 5 out of 5- Paul Greengrass was phenomenal so it's sad not to see him here.

Best Actress: 5 out of 5- Meryl Streep has 18 acting nominations now.

Best Actor: 4 out of 5- LEOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Did not expect the Bale nomination and that Tam Honks would get snubbed. I was so looking forward to writing Tam Honks throughout this award season.

Best Supporting Actress: 4/5 out of 5- since I did mention JLaw but it was more of a plea for her not to get nominated. I still love her but man, the backlash is going to be brutal.

Best Supporting Actor: 5 out of 5- Sad about no Franco but hellz yeah for Hill and Fassy (!!!!) getting nominated.

Best Original Screenplay: 4 out of 5- Forgot about Dallas Buyers Club.

Best Adapted Screenplay: 4 out of 5- Didn't predict Philomania but yaay for Coogan again. And the Before Midnight team, duhs.


Other thoughts-

• Dallas Buyers Club got a nomination for editing? What?
• No Stories We Tell :( I get that 2013 was an exceptional year for documentaries and I am going to watch as many of then as I can, but Sarah Polley's exploration of family and memories is so universal and touching, I really thought it had a chance.
• Happy about The Grandmaster's cinematography and costume design nominations. Of course, Lubezki ought to win the former, but gosh, the clothes in the movie were lovely!
• Of course films like Frances Ha, Spring Breakers and Stoker get nothing. Duh.
• So happy for Barkhad Abdi. Inspirational stuff.
• Yaay Karen O. and Arcade Fire are Oscar nominees!!
• Pacific Rim didn't get nominated for Best Visual Effects? What the fucking hell? These people deserve to be eaten by kaijus.

     And that's it. Au revoir and bonne nuit!

Thoughts

Sorry I'm a bit late. My mother hijacked my laptop since hers isn't working- MLIA. Anyways, here we go-


1) The Oscar nominations come out in 4 days. I completely forgot about this. In my head, it is still ages away. I have to start making my predictions/ wishlist. This will obviously be related to my final year-end lists. I saw most of the remaining "award-worthy" films this week- just have The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Shame left, them being the two films I think will feature majorly in my lists. I am very reluctant to watch J. Edgar and The Iron Lady, and maybe, if I can, will see My Week with Marilyn and A Dangerous Method. I think Harry Potter has lost all its chances except if someone puts an Imperius curse on the Academy voters (this is not a thought- it's a suggestion. Someone do this please!).


2) Anyways, this brings us directly to Awards Talk- right after its major win in the Golden Globes, I saw The Descendants. I liked it quite a bit in the first hour after seeing it, but with the realisation dawning on me that such a relatively bland and forgettable film is a front-runner for the Best Film in Oscars this year, its becoming less and less impressive for me. Clooney was rather good, though nothing tops his performance in Up in the Air for me; what can I say? I love Clooney playing Clooney. I was really impressed with Shailene Woodley and she was the best part of the film for me. Then I saw Moneyball. I know people say "it's the sports movie not about sports" and blah, but as much as I wanted to believe that, it still was a sports film for me. Here's a fact about me- I don't do sports. And then it was baseball, which is like the most foreign of all sports for me. I spent too long trying to figure out what Jonah Hill's idea was in the beginning that caused the whole stir in the system or whatever.  It did get better for me around the second-half, but I could not shrug the feeling of complete unfamiliarity. Also the song Brad Pitt's onscreen daughter keeps singing is "The Show" by Lenka, which came out in 2008 and this film is set around 2002-2003. I just could not understand why they had to use that song since it was obviously so anachronistic. Little things like this can really get me distracted, and Moneyball unfortunately suffered due to that. Pitt was good, but personally I prefer his performance in The Tree of Life. Hill was a revelation here, and the best scenes were seriously of him and Pitt together. Finally I just saw The Artist. And it was lovely. I would be overjoyed if such a film wins the top prize at Oscars this year. It is not a great or unique film on its own, but the ambition and heart put into making it in this day and age definitely is great AND unique. I loved Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo and even Uggie (I will still not sit in the same room with him though, obviously). For such a nostalgia-filled year, nothing could be better than a black and white, silent (mostly) film, with actors whose faces light up the screen like the celluloid gods and goddesses of  yesteryears. Ouie?


3) I saw the SNL episode hosted by Daniel Radcliffe. He was very good and confident, but he mostly got terrible sketches. His Harry Potter sketch was the best part, though I kind of dug the idea of  him and Kristen Wiig together. Still, his Allen Ginsberg film Kill Your Darlings has an excellent cast lined up. Elizabeth Olsen, who was amazing in Martha Marcy May Marlene; Jack Huston, who plays Richard Harrow in Boardwalk Empire and is possibly my favourite character in the show; and Dane DeHaan, who will be in Chronicle, The Wettest Country in the World and Gosling-starrer The Place Beyond Pines. It's an impressive group of young actors, and I am really looking forward to this.


4) Sherlock got over this week- oh the infinite sadness! :'( Three episodes per year, that which get over within the first half of the first month of the year, is just cruel. I have to finish rewatching the last episode, and then I will hopefully have a little write-up on it. It really is quite a marvelous show, and Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, and I have to mention him because even my ringtone is "Staying Alive" for him, Andrew Scott who plays Jim Moriarty, are all just superb! I'm a Freeman Fangirl!!


5) Trailers- Detachment, which has the fantastic Adrien Brody in lead. It's about teachers and their thankless lives- believe me, I know all about this. Therefore I think it will become either a love it or hate it film for me. Looking forward to Brody's work though, and the Tony Kaye is the director. He made American History X, which is a film I really need to watch completely at some point. Also there is Resident Evil: Retribution, which is apparently the 5th film in the series, though I don't know when the fourth one came out. I have seen the others, and have little-to-no interest in watching this. It is some sort of mobile ad/ culmination of all the previous ones/ whatever. Milla Jovovich is really gorgeous though.


6) Finally, I have barely been on Tumblr this week, so I don't have much to choose from. Most of it is just SOPA humour, like this. Or this. Or definitely this. 


Byee.