Across The Universe

I just don’t know what to think right now except I am so excited about this you have no idea. After disappointments in current movie musicals (went to see Dreamgirls in the theatre again last night, and the British audience laughed….they laughed out loud!!) I don’t want to get my hopes up again, but dammit if I am not twirling around in a whirlwind of screams and laughter at the thought of THIS. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

For Alice

While I was living back in Bermuda I made a lot of fantastic new friends. No one will come close to Alice. When most people would have broken, Alice marched on, with determination, and wicked sense of humour and fucking fierce shoes. Of course having an ocean between us has caused us to drift a little, and the news that she is getting married to the-so-perfect-for-her-Chris is jump-for-joy-fantastic, only dampened by the fact that finances prevent me from flying out. So this is for a woman who is a whole freezer of flavor……..

Music Video Backtrack 3

I remember hearing this back in the 90's. It made a blip on the charts, and I have no idea why it was bigger or why she never went any further than this. Imani Coppola, I am desperately waiting your return.

Panty Slang

Women get the raw deal when it comes to words. Bachelor sounds almost noble. Spinster sounds like a creature from a horror film. Fag sounds happy and light (except when used in a derogatory way). Dyke just sounds like it hurts. Where the ladies have us beat in the names for their core - the vagina.
So I am going to celebrate that various funny, cute, and highly imaginative names that are given to the centre of feminism.
The lovely woman I work with, Novelette, has entertained me for hours with the slang from her home of Jamaica. Especially this new term of panty slang:

word: poom poom

eg: Me botty man, me nwa like de poom poom.

MAFFE 2007

BEST PICTURE

BEST DIRECTOR

BEST SCREENPLAYS

BEST ACTOR

BEST ACTRESS

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Tuesday - Music I am listening to day

This is 'Relax, Take it Easy' by MIKA. First single was Grace Kelly and here is hoping the new talented gay on the block has great success! Buy the album!!!

Where have all the good Musicals gone?

Did the genre begin in 2000 and peak in 2001? In 2001 we not only got the cult fav Hedwig and the Angry Inch, but we also got Moulin Rouge!
The latter being a spectacular reinvention of the musical, and the former being an amazing adaptaion of John Cameron Mitchell’s stage play.
But a year before that we got Lars Von Trier and Bjork bringing us the brilliant and criminally under rewarded Dancer in the Dark. At least the French got it right giving it The Golden Palm (Best Picture) and Best Actress at Cannes.
Why does it seem that the movie musicals that have come out since ( Dreamgirls, The Producers and others) just seem, well, uneventful? Sure Chicago won Best Picture, but for me it didn’t hold a candle to these 3 outstanding examples of how this medium can transport our imaginations (Hedwig), our emotions (Dancer in the Dark) and even physically place us in another world (Moulin Rouge!). I guess Hollywood needs to learn a lesson from all of this. Keep the production budget small and be inventive. For example Moulin Rouge with its amazing costumes and set pieces cost $50,000,000 (what was so amazing about all that in Dreamgirls?). Hedwig only cost $6,000,000 and Dancer $12,000,000. Goes to show, passion and love can over come having no money.
Lets hope that with the upcoming Sweeny Todd, Tim Burton and co. can breathe life into this genre again.
I will leave you with a montage from Dancer in the Dark by brianlilith
over at You Tube. Enjoy.

Screen Actors Guild announce winners! zzzzzzzz

Best Ensemble: Little Miss Sunshine
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Little Oscar Factoids

1 – A Modern Comedy has not won Best Picture since 1977 – 30 years! Could Little Miss Sunshine end that? (for all you people wanting to argue Shakespeare in Love was a period comedy)/

2 – A Crime/Drama had not won since 1971, 36 years (The French Connection) great news for The Departed.

3 – It has been 26 years since an actor 75 years old plus has won Best Actor (Henry Fonda). Since this seems to be the year where they are celebrating the older thespian, could O’Toole win?

4 – It has been 14 years since an English actor won Best Actor – Could Peter end the streak too?

5 – Then again, in the last 5 years, 2 Best Actor trophies have been won by African Americans. If you are of the opinion that the Academy are getting more liberal – Go Forest and Will. If you are of the opinion that a large section of the Academy are a bunch of bigots who may feel black actors have been rewarded enough lately – Then Peter and Leo are front and centre.

6 – Only one actor under 30 has won best actor (Adrian Brody) so not good news for Ryan Nelson.

7 – Since 1990 over 1 third of the Best Supporting Actor trophies have gone to veteran actors over 60 year of age. Great news for Alan Arkin.

8 – Only two African Americans have won Best Supporting Actor in 15 years. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Morgan Freeman. Could be good news for Eddie (depending how jaded you are and how you look at it)

9 – Not since Whoopie Goldberg won in 1990 has a black actress won Best Supporting Actress. 15 years!! Very good news for Jennifer Hudson should they think it is time for another.

10 – Best Supporting Actress has been the kindest category to child actors (Tatum O’Neil, Anna Paquin). Abigail Breslin could be celebrating soon.

Screen Actors Guild predictions

Here they go. Trying to guess what the Screen Actors will do is usually easy, but not so much this year with all but 1 catergory up in the air.

Best Ensemble. The SAG's like comedys alot. Perhaps because all actors know that comedy is hard. Sidways, The Full Monty, The Birdcage, Gosford Park, Shakespear in Love, Chicago (a musical, but still in the same field). So in the past 11 years a comedy/musical have won the ensemble award. So barring Bobby winning, we are looking at the winner being the only true ensemble of the group:

Winner - Little Miss Sunshine

Best Supporting Actress. Helps to have a film nominated in Best Ensemble. Check Abigail Breslin, the Babel women, and Hudson. Helps to be a respected veterin or a head line grabbing bright young thing. Hudson the latter.

Winner - Jennifer Hudson just barely makes it though. Breslin or Kikuchi could still upset.

Best Supporting Actor. This usually goes to a respected actor who has been around. Tim Robbins, Iam McKellen, Christopher Walken, Albert Finney, Paul Giamatti, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Robin williams, Ed Harris, Martin Landau. The only deviation has bee Cuba Goodig Jr. This race is down to Alan Arkin, Eddie Murphy, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Winner - Expect Leo to take this one due to category fraud. (but Arkin and Murphy can still upset)

Best Actress...Ohhh difficult

Winner - Helen Mirren (unless they think she has already won for Gosford Park, and want to get Meryl up there. Unlikely...but food for thought)

Best Actor. Hmmm With Leo out of the way, and Ryan Gosling sitting this one out for now it looks like a 3 way race between Will Smith, Forest Whitaker and Peter O'Toole. It could really be any of these, but I am thinking they may want to award O'Toole. They didn't nominated Smith for Ali so the love is not over flowing there. The do like actors playing real like (Hoffman, Crowe) but they also like comedy (Depp, Benigni, Nicolson) I think O'Toole may just about take this. Last and only time the actors guild are likely to award him.

Winner - Peter O'Toole

Feelings!

Back at school, me and this girl Tracey Keeble used to do this, run around singing Feelings as Beaker from The Muppet Show. God this made me smile. Thank to my cousin Carolyn for sending it!

And just for shits and giggles, I added Manah Manah, because we all need a little sometimes. Those cows are sexy!!!!

Music Video Backtrack 2 - Shakespears Sister

Oh man did I love the combination if Marcella's high pitched squeek, and Siobhan's deep growl. One of those groups that most people remember for having that huge hit 'Stay', but that had such a strong back catalogue, and very inventive videos. Here is hoping they can put their differences behind them and reunite one day.

Oscar Talk - The Backlash - This year J-Hud.

Ok people, we all know this was expected. First out of the gates everyone was falling over themselves to praise J-Hud as the second coming. Now on certain blog discussion threads the same ugly voice is creeping up. "Jennifer Hudson doesn't deserve to win an Oscar as she doesn't act so much as perform."
Umm....ok.
Am I mistaken, or is the title of the award she is up for "Best PERFORMANCE by an Actress in a supporting role"? Since she is in a movie and speaks lines and got paid for it I would say…Yes…she is an actress. And what did she give in the movie…was it…a….performance?
I say leave her alone and give her the award.
This award is usually cursed as the one who wins it usually never goes on to repeat this career high point (CZJ, Jennifer Connelly, Angelina Jolie, Mira Sorvino, Kim Basinger, Mercedes Ruehl, Brenda Fricker). And if they do, it is only through smart script choices and perfecting their craft (Dianne Wiest, Cate Blanchette, Judi Dench, Meryl Streep, Vanessa Redgrave and Maggie Smith) so it is deserved. I doubt J-Hud is gonna do a Meryl.
Abigail Breslin already has work lined up for herself. So do Adriana Barraza and Cate ‘I never take a bloody break’ Blachett’. J-Hud and Rinko Kikuchi are the only ones with nothing for the future, and lets face it, the latter will now find loads of work, if not in America, definitely in Japan. Just let her win and leave it be. Plus she is really lovely and will really appreciate it….awwwwwwwwwww.

Back in my day - Movies worth getting excited about.

Ahhh...remember 2001. What a great year it was for movies. Peter Jackson introduced us to his trilogy. David Lynch introduced Naomi Watts, and we were all re-introduced to the brilliance of Robert Altman. Then we were hit by not 1, but 2 brilliant musicals (sorry Dreamgirls, but this is how it should be done)! Makes this year look so pathetic.

Oscar Talk - The Nominations

I was up watching the announcement on the internet this morning (love technology), texting my best mate Dean getting ready to pee myself from excitment. This was an unpredictable year a few months ago. But now, that the nominations have been announced, it all just seems so bloody dull. Best Actress and Supporting Actress were locks for a while. So was Best Actor (aside from Leo's 2 films), Best Supporting Actor was not even that hard in the end.
What I took away was never underestimate the power of Clint Eastwood. I do feel bad for the Dreamgirls team, even though it was not one of my favourite films. Oh well....a list of thoughts and questions.

1. The Departed is not as strong as I originally thought. 5 total nominations is not alot.

2. They really like Babel. Could the Globes be some sort of tragic fore shadowing?

3. The Academy love Clint Eastwood, but in honesty the man did make 2 companion films. I was expecting a nomination, just not at Dreamgirls expense.

4. Dreamgirls is technically strong, with 2 good performances. Kind of what I thought while watching it. I know people will scream (racism is already being flug about) about this, but most of the Academy would probably watch Dreamgirls on a DVD screener and it does not translate well at all. When it is released on DVD you will see.

5. I do think that Pan's Labyrinth came very close to the big two prizes. 6 nominations in total, tied with The Queen and beaten just by Babel and Dreamgirls. If only it had been release a month before.

6. For the first time in a long time there is no match between Best Actor and Best Picture. In fact 4 of the 5 nominated actors hold thier movies only nomination.

7. The Academy are idiots for not nominating Volver for Best Foreign Film. I am gobsmacked about that one.

8. Paul Greengrass made his statement, and got justly rewarded for it.

9. Finally, the costume category recognises the work of contemporary film. About bloody time. I think the last time was for Pricilla, Queen of the Desert (and it won)

10. I no not think all the categories are as locked up as people think. There still could be huge upsets especially in the acting categories....we will see how SAG plays out.

11. I have to stop guessing with my heart and use my head a little more when it comes to predictions. I just like to throw out a little hope sometimes.

Looking ahead - Link-a-rama

Since I am a little 'meh' with the nominations I am looking ahead to next years movies.

There are some films that look good...see if they make it.

An American Crime - with Catherine Keener, Ellen Paige and directed by Kimberly Pierce of 'Boy's Don't Cry' fame.
Black Snake Moan - Looks interesting, probably not Oscars taste, but I am sure it will have a huge fan base.
The Lookout - Could go either way, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been making interesting choices.
Becoming Jane - Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy and Julie Walters........I smell a nomination somewhere.