Academy Award | the m0vie blog

Jimmy Kimmel Presents… Trailer for Movie: The Movie…

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Darren

I’ve been a bit all over the place of late, recovering from the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. I’m just finishing up the last of my reviews of films caught at the festival, which will be up this week. Anyway, in the mean time, I thought I’d share this delightful post-Oscars parody from Jimmy Kimmel. Sure, the clip might run a little bit too long for its own good, but it has some wonderful laughs, and displays an astute knowledge of movie tropes and clichés. Enjoy.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, arts, film, Film festival, george clooney, Jimmy Kimmel, Movie, samuel l. jackson | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Monsieur Lahzar

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2012.

Monsieur Lehzar is a truly splendid piece of film-making, and a superb addition to the “teacher and class” subgenre, adhering to the type of mood and atmosphere that one expects from that sort of uplifting film, but with a little added nuance or bite to give it the edge. Adapted by director Philippe Falardeau from the play Bashir Lazhar by Evelyne De la Chenelière, it’s an impressively engaging film. It deals with fairly hefty themes in a way that never feels weighed down, or to sombre – providing a cautiously, rather than blindly, optimistic outlook on life.

Class act...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Academy Award, art, Bashir Lazhar, Energy, Environment, Evelyne De la Chenelière, Falardeau, film, Filmmaking, Hanford Site, Monsieur Lazhar, Movie, non-review review, nuclear, Nuclear Waste, Philippe Falardeau, Quebec, Radioactive waste, review, Technology, United States Department of Energy | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Jeff Who Lives at Home

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2012.

There’s a common misconception about the films of Mark and Jay Duplass. It’s easy to confuse their films with comedies. Just look at the cast they assembled for Cyrus, including Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly (with Marisa Tomei taking home her Oscar for a comedic turn in My Cousin Vinny), or even the one they’ve gathered here. After all, Jason Segel is still most recognisable from How I Met Your Mother or The Muppets or Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Ed Helms’ filmography includes The Office and The Hangover and Cedar Rapids. While Jay and Mark Duplass include a wonderful amount of humour in their work, it tends to distract away from their core themes or ideas. Beneath the awkward triangle in Cyrus, there’s a coming-of-age family drama. Underneath the witty exterior of Jeff Who Lives at Home, there’s a sincere and optimistic romantic drama. And I’m a sucker for romantic drama.

Rub a dub dub, two men in a tub...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Academy Award, cyrus, Ed Helms, Hangover, jason segel, Jay Duplass, Jeff, Jeff Who Lives at Home, john c. reilly, jonah hill, Marisa Tomei, Mark, Mark Duplass, Movie, susan sarandon | Leave a comment »

Berry Your Head in Shame: Watching The White Dwarf Stars In Slow Motion…

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Darren

Speedman is a dying star. A white dwarf headed for a black hole. That’s physics. It’s inevitable.

– Les Grossman, Tropic Thunder

Fame is like anything else. It’s like money or luck. It comes and it goes. Still, as the poster for Halle Berry’s latest film, Dark Tide, arrive, it’s hard not to feel a little bit sorry for those performers who have watched their fame and popularity slip out from underneath them.

Halle Berry won an Oscar for Monster’s Ball. She played one of the few James Bond characters to be considered for a spin-off, appearing in Die Another Day. She got a considerable pay increase for showing her breasts in Swordfish. She headlined one of the very few female-centric superhero films, the dire Catwoman. Not all of those were good films. In fact, being harsh, I’d argue that one of them was a good film, and the rest were significantly flawed, if not outright terrible. Still, it’s quite sad to see the former Oscar-winner relegated to appearing in the latest film from the director of Blue Crush and Into the Blue.

She did make some Berry questionable choices...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, adam sandler, al pacino, Black hole, Cuba Gooding, Cuba Gooding Jr, Daddy Day Camp, Dark Tide, eddie murphy, education, france, Gabriel Aubry, Halle Berry, Hero Wanted, Jerry Maguire, Michael Caine, Nahla, Olivier Martinez, robert deniro, robert downey jr, Wilde Salome | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Darren

Stephen Daldry’s latest film, and surprise Best Picture nominee, looks lovely. It opens with a credit sequence that see Tom Hanks falling through the air like an even more stylish version of the Mad Men opening credits. The blue background is just the right shade, the picture is crisp, the focus is tight. Of course, that beautifully illustrative opening sequence exposes the primary flaw with Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Some things just aren’t meant to look pretty, and some events can’t be wrapped up inside a feel-good blanket with a tidy ribbon on the outside.

Not quite picture perfect...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, Asperger syndrome, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, film, Jonathan Safran Foer, max von sydow, Movie, new york, non-review review, Oskar, Reader, review, sandra bullock, stephen daldry, tom hanks, viola davis | 3 Comments »

BAFTA Best Picture Brochure Covers…

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Darren

It’s a shame that the Oscars can never do something quite as a nice as this. Indeed, looking at the BAFTA Best Picture nominees, I can’t help but think that the British Academy of Film and Television has crafted a far more representative list of the best films of 2012. As with years past, the august group have crafted a unique piece of art around each of their five nominees, each intended for their awards brochure, and trying to capture the essence of the nominee in question. Arguably they manage to do a better job than most of theatrical posters for these films. Check them out below and click to enlarge.The five covers below have been designed by Eda Akaltun & StudioSmall (heartagency.com & studiosmall.com)

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, art, BAFTA, British Academy, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, martin scorsese, Movies | 2 Comments »

Is It Just Me Or Does The Artist Backlash Seem a Little Half-Hearted?

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Darren

The annual Oscar race is a process so predictable that it could be a movie formula all of its own. You have your initial race to nominations, with various films falling at certain hurdles, leaving you with a fairly well-spaced field. You have the frontrunner surging ahead, but a dark horse waiting in the wings. And, every year, you have a very eager publicity industry ready to launch a very vehement attack on that frontrunner simply because it has the tenacity of pulling ahead. This year is no different, and The Artist seems to be seeing its share of controversies. However, these seem to be unfolding simply because it’s expected at this point in the race. I can’t help but feel like any of the attacks on The Artist are anything more than half-hearted.

Barking up the wrong tree?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, arts, avatar, backlash, Dujardin, film, france, Jean Dujardin, Michel Hazanavicius, Movies, oscar, oscars backlash, paris, poster, slumdog millionaire, Sports, the artist backlash, Woody Allen | 6 Comments »

Academy Awards 2012: The Insiders’ Oscars…

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Darren

That was… underwhelming. I mean, I think I’m relatively happy with most of the nominees, and there’s very little I can vehemently object to as completely unworthy in yesterday’s Oscar nominations, but still… Yesterday’s Oscar nominations felt decidedly insular, as if the Academy had taken a complete U-turn on any of the amendments that had recently been made in an attempt to broaden the Academy’s horizons. The Oscars have always been a party thrown by the movie industry to celebrate themselves, but this year’s nominations feel increasingly isolated, with nominations and lists populated with the safest and most predictable choices. This is the first year in quite some time that there hasn’t been anything as pleasantly refreshing as the Best Picture nomination for District 9 or Toy Story 3.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, gary oldman, Melissa McCarthy, meryl streep, oscar, Rooney Mara, viola davis | 5 Comments »

My Best of 2011: Black Swan & The Elevation of Schlock…

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Darren

It’s that time of the year. To celebrate 2011, and the countdown to 2012, I’m going to count down my own twelve favourite films of the year, one a day until New Year’s Eve. I’m also going to talk a bit about how or why I chose them, and perhaps what makes this list “my” best of 2011, rather than any list claiming to be objective.

Black Swan is number six. Check out my original review here.

It’s interesting, how one can end up loving the same films, for very different reasons. I suspect that a great many critics and commentators lavish praise on Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan for its elegance and sophistication, which I appreciate and admire. There’s a lot to love about the film. However, my own appreciation of the movie seems to be for a very different reason. I think that what makes Black Swan so utterly compelling is the fact that it’s essentially a classic horror movie elevated to the status of fine art.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: Academy Award, Aronofsky, arts, best films of 2011, black swan, christian bale, Darren Aronofsky, film, Machinist, mila kunis, Movie, my best of 2011, my favourite films of 2011, Natalie Portman, New Year, oscar, silence of the lambs, swan lake, wes craven | 4 Comments »

My Best of 2011: True Grit & The Art of Modesty…

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Darren

True Grit is number eight. Check out my original review here.

Collective consensus is a funny thing. It pops up quite quickly and quietly, in the strangest sorts of places and the strangest sort of way. The Coen Brothers are respected filmmakers, to say the least. Even when a project of their doesn’t quite come off as smoothly as one might expect, it’s still compelling viewing. However, as with any other directors, there are greater films and there are lesser films. And there are those that sit in the middle. True Grit, for most critics, seems to sit firmly in the middle.

But not for me.