Showing posts with label Spike Jonze. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spike Jonze. Show all posts

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

"The one and only, Adele Dazeem!" - Random thoughts on Oscars

 
           We all know who won and who lost and who ate the pizza. Therefore, doing a proper recap is pointless. However, I have some Oscar-related thoughts and I'd like to share them. Simply put, here's what I liked and didn't like about the Oscars:

Liked/Loved-
1) Lupita's princess dress was just gorgeous. It makes me want to wear a big flowy gown myself and just twirl around.
2) Among other fashion-related stuff, I liked Kristin Chenoweth's and Karen O's outfits, Emma Watson's hairdo and Naomi Watts' necklace.
3) Coming to speeches, there were a few that stood out. Lupita's was the most heartfelt and inspirational. "It doesn't escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else's"- this was an incredibly powerful and perceptive sentence and I have been thinking about it ever since. All these biopics we watch, most of them are based around someone's struggle and Patsey definitely had one of the hardest lives ever. We see numerous actors thank and pay tribute to the people they play or their hardships but I don't think anyone has put it the way Lupita did. Also, the way she ended it-

4)The other speeches I liked were Cate Blanchett's "The world is round, people!" and "Hashtag: Suck it" badass woman power declaration, Darlene Love's acceptance ballad, the "Let It Go" duo with their perfectly rhimy speech, the short documentary winners' heartfelt tribute to the woman who was their subject, and all winners whose hands shook while they were on the stage.
5) Lupita, Meryl and Amy dancing with Pharrell. Goddesses.

6) That selfie.

7) And all its subsequent parodies.

8) Lupita Nyong'o's brother who is my new role model.
9) The other selfie where Benedict Cumberbatch just popped up from the back.

10) Cumberbatch photobombing U2. Not once, but twice. #winneratOscars

11) Cumberbatch crying during Lupita's speech.
12) Lupita photobombing Jared Leto.
13) Lupita and JLaw fake-fighting.

14) The fact that JLaw looked happier than Lupita when Lupita won. Bullet dodged.
15) Brad Pitt handing out plates.

16) ALL the pizza photos.
17) Kevin Spacey presenting.
18) Bill Murray standing up after Darlene Love sang.
19) The "Moon Song" performance and the fact that Ezra Koenig's socks matched Karen O's dress.

20) "Possibility number 1: 12 Years A Slave wins Best Picture. Possibility number 2: You're all racists. And now welcome our first white presenter, Anne Hathaway!" #burn
21) Steve McQueen jumping in the air after they won Best Picture. I love this so much. As much as people hate on the Oscars, and they are definitely not decisive word on what is best or not, even someone as unconventional as McQueen was overjoyed at his film getting the award because it is a recognition of efforts and that's always a good and happy thing.

22) The fact that 2 of the Fight Club cast members now have Oscars.
23) Alfonso Cuaron and Emmanuel Lubezki- Oscar winners. FUCK YEAH!
24) Actually, just the fact that Gravity won Best Editing. That movie is so clever with its cuts. I am super impressed with the Academy for this.
25) Daniel Day-Lewis. Such a puppy.

Sidenote: Meryl Streep gave DDL his Oscar last year. Imagine if she had won this year. Actually, imagine if they keep winning alternate years, giving each other Oscars for all eternity because true artists never die and time is a flat circle and ZOMG!

26) Lupita Nyong'o's lip balm.
27) I will talk about the montages later but just the fact that the last "heroes" montage included Indiana Jones, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Speed, The Princess Bride, Independence Day (speech and all), Harry Potter (more on that later too), Aliens, Back to the Future and Air Force One.
28) Spike Jonze winning Best Original Screenplay.

29) And Spike Jonze.

30) SPIKE JONZE!!!!!!!!

31) I love you, Spike Jonze. Please marry me.
32) The fact that I later dreamt that Joaquin Phoenix was hosting the Oscars. I don't remember more than that. Sorry.
33) Leo lost and that sucks but seriously though, WoWS is such a IDGAF movie that I can't feel that bad. But all the "Poor Leo" memes have been hilarious. This one's my fav-

34) Matthew McConaughey was very sweet when he presented with Kim Novak. She was definitely having some problems and he was very gracious.
35) Ditto for Angelina Jolie.
36) Ellen making all of the JLaw falling jokes, so that we didn't have to. Chill humans. We've all done stupid things when drunk (more on this later too though).
37) Ellen in Glinda's costume.

38) Ellen in general.
39) Nicholas Hoult. Dawwwwwwww.

40) Not playing most of the winners off.
41) That American Hustle didn't win anything. MUAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!

42) I laughed like hell in the Bradley Cooper nomination clip though. Best in show.
43) And my absolute favourite thing that happened at the Oscars- the coming together of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emma Watson. Such a perfect unison of good looks, charm and talent. Of course, I want them to get married now, but for the time being I will be totally happy with both of them starring in a romcom together. Preferably something set in the 1st half of the 20th century and screwball-y. You can see it, right? It can be all witty and stuff. DanRad can be there too. Remember when he and JGL danced at last year's Oscars? It's all perfect.


Disliked/hated-
1) The whole "heroes" theme. I happened to like Pink's performance but it was so unnecessary, as were the montages. No one bloody tunes in to watch the Oscars because of whatever theme they decide to go with. That's just silly and confusing and distracting.
2) Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto's white tuxedos. They looked like really good-looking waiters, but waiters nonetheless.
3) Harrison Ford. What happened, Indy?
4) Jim Carrey. It was super awkward to watch.
5) Most of the intros were awkward to watch. ADELE DAZEEM!!!!!!

6) Jared Leto's hair but that's like one of the things I hate most in the world. Well, not the hair but the hair on him. Annoyances!
7) I didn't listen to U2. BOTH times I watched the ceremony. I can't. Nope.
8) Also, Bette Midler singing "Wind Beneath My Wings". That song is one of the many we were made to sing throughout school and I will always feel resentful towards it. And it wasn't a very good performance either.
9) Jennifer Lawrence was a bit mental yesterday. When she came on stage to give Best Actor and randomly started screaming at the crowd- not funny, JLaw. Such a misfire.
10) Speaking of, the entire Jimmy Kimmel thing during the red carpet- what the fuck was that? If you must know, I was eating salsa at like 6:30 in the morning while watching the show. Problem?
11) Chris Hemsworth's wife was super preggers. The Loki in me kind of wanted her to give birth then though, just to see how people would react.
12) Where was Hiddles? Why was he not there? You must rectify this next year, Oscars.
13) Back to the "heroes" thing- why the fuck would you put the new Spider-Man and Superman only? They are barely heroic.
14) Also, I kind of hate it when anything Harry Potter-related is used during the Oscars. You had your chance, bastards. Avada kedavra!
15) The Great Beauty winning Best Foreign Film. Boo you pretentious whores.
16) I mean Mads was sitting there, razor-sharp cheekbones and everything. He could have come up if The Hunt had won. Dumasses.
17) The constant standing ovations. They just weren't cool anymore.
18) Matthew McConaughey's speech was actually kind of terrible. I listened to it twice to make sure. He should have just said "Alright alright alright" and left.
19) Those Oscar statuette shaped bauble thingies at the back. Terrifying! I'm surprised drunk JLaw didn't fight one of them.
20) In totes agreement with all who are angry at Oscars not including honorary Oscars in the main ceremony. Angelina Jolie's speech for that was one of the most beautiful things ever.
21) That I should really get off the net while the ceremony is going on. I missed a lot the first time tweeting and chatting with friends. Also that the whole Twitter shutting down thing made me panic a tad too much.
22) My absolute least-favourite thing about these Oscars- just how incredibly predictable and boring the winners ended up being. There were people on my Facebook page who have barely watched any of the movies but were announcing how they did with the predictions because they had obviously read about it in 150000 sites already. I really want Oscars to change its airdate. We need some excitement, come on! Nothing against the winners, just that an upset or two is always fun.

         And that's it. As you can see, I was quite happy with the ceremony in general. Let's end this with what has become the catchphrase of this award season. See you next year, O sweet headache-inducing Oscars.

Monday, 17 February 2014

Thoughts

       I know I keep changing the day of publishing these posts but I am really going to try and keep it on Sundays from now on. Anyways, here are my movie thoughts-

1) David Fincher will direct the pilot of Utopia, the American remake of a British series of the same name about a group of people who find a cult graphic novel called "The Utopia Experiments" that predicts all sorts of disasters and try to stop them while an organisation called The Network is set out to intercept their attempts. This sounds like a pretty cool project and Gillian Flynn, the author of Gone Girl, will also be involved as a producer. I just read Gone Girl and absolutely loved it and am now super duper excited for the movie adaptation, being directed by Fincher of course. The most amazing thing is that I am now totally for the Ben Affleck casting- it's perfect! Ditto with Neil Patrick Harris. Flynn seems like a really talented writer and I can't wait to read her other novels. Fincher is the ideal director for this movie. I can imagine it being something with Fight Club-esque narration, editing a la The Social Network, badass heroine/twisted leads like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and it also has a lot to do with crime and media so bits of Se7en and Zodiac too. And also the new ending is something to look forward to. After reading the novel, it has jumped up to being #2 on my most anticipated 2014 films list (since we're never going to get any promotional stuff for How to Catch A Monster EVER. Wtf, Gos?). Yaay!!

2) Greta Gerwig will write, produce and star in How I Met Your Dad, a spin-off show of How I Met Your Mother. This is a bit depressing. Gerwig was so excellent in Frances Ha, both as the lead and co-writer, that to see her in a spin-off television show is kind of shocking. I do like that she's writing and producing and hence she'll have more control on the show, which is apparently about a "female Peter Pan" whose one-year marriage is now failing. This actually doesn't sound a great deal like How I Met Your Mother but the fact that it will be on CBS is apparently a bad idea ('apparently' because I don't really know or care about American networks unless they are HBO). We'll see how this goes.

3) Ellen Page, who came out earlier this week (yaaay, go Juno!), will star in Freeheld, a movie based on the documentary of the same name about a woman, Stace Andree, who was denied pension benefits of her longtime partner, Laurel Hester, when the latter became terminally ill. Page will play Andree and Julianne Moore will play Hester. Zach Galifianakis will also join the cast as the activist Steve Goldstein who helps Andree in her court battle. Peter Sollett, who directed Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, is going to be at the helm. This is a pretty neat cast and it will be nice to see Page doing interesting roles again.

4) Have you guys read the alternative ending to Gravity? Sheesh, bleak stuff! The entire interview with Alfonso Cuarón is quite interesting actually. Also, the Jack O'Connell interview is pretty cool. It's nice to see someone so figured out and not blind after fame and stuff, though I do think this is going to be a huge year for him.

5) All the Best Original Song nominees (minus "Alone Yet Not Alone" obviously) will sing at the 86th Academy Awards come March 3rd. The one I am most excited about is this one-
My crush on Spike Jonze grows daily. I wish he would play on Oscar day too.

6) Trailers- The second trailer of Transcendence has Johnny Depp upping the creepy. I do like the idea of him being the baddie and Rebecca Hall and Paul Bettany being the heroes. The teaser of Tammy is fucking hilarious. Melissa McCarthy is a comic god.

7) Finally, I know I have to find like new hot people to put on this blog every week but just look at Benedict Cumberbatch!!!
Cumberbatch looks younger than I am and he was in his early-to-mid 30s then! How do these Brits do it, man? Also, I really want Martin Freeman's jumper.


Byeeeeeee!

Thursday, 16 January 2014

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!