Oscars 2009

Hugh Jackman was really great as MC – he showed himself to be a wonderful dancer and singer. The show itself was highly entertaining this year. Some of the highlights for me included Steve Martin & Tina Fey introducing an award, Ben Stiller playing a bearded, withdrawn and incoherent Joaquim Phoenix to a very exasperated Natalie Portman, the musical number played by Jackman and Beyonce highlighting some of the most famous musicals in Hollywood, and the new format of introducing the best acting categories. I was very happy for Penelope Cruz, Kate Winslet, and Sean Penn. Slumdog Millionaire certainly deserved all the awards it won. If you haven’t seen it yet, go see it. But I think the most important was for the movie Milk to get such recognition, giving Sean Penn and Lance Black (Best Screenplay) an opportunity to speak on behalf of equal rights. Bravo. Here are some of those moments:

Sean Penn:

Lance Black:

Penelope Cruz (loved the speech in Spanish at the end)

Milk

Going to watch it tonight. Can’t wait!

Boxing day at the movies

Some people line up early at electronic stores on Boxing Day. We decided to go to the movies to take advantage of the $6 special for the matinée and to hang out with  a friend. We watched Slumdog Millionaire and if you haven’t seen it yet, run to the closest theatre. It’s well worth it.

The Visitor

We watched The Visitor tonight. The story of an Economics professor, stuck in an emotional limbo who gets involved in the lives of two illegal immigrants in NY is captivating, powerful in its simplicity, and leave you feeling like you should run and join an immigrants’ rights NGO or something. It’s not surprising it won many awards and scored 92% at the tomatometer. In Toronto, you can still catch it at the Carlton. Don’t miss it.

Mamma Mia!

I can’t wait to see it!! I loved the play and the movie has Colin Firth, Meryl Streep and Julie Walters. Can’t miss it. Click on the pictures to watch the trailer.

Update: Just got back from the movie theatre. Alan and I LOVED the movie. I was afraid it wouldn’t be as funny as the play but I’m happy to say that I was wrong. It was quite entertaining and there were many moments when the audience clapped, sniffled, and clapped again. Meryl Streep’s performance of the The Winner Takes it All was one of the most emotionally-charged scenes I’ve seen in a long time. I had tears in my eyes and when I looked at the woman sitting beside me, she was sobbing. Now I’m seating on the couch listening to ABBA at full volume. Good thing I live in the gay village… I really want to see the movie again! The mission now is to try to convince a friend who doesn’t like ABBA that she has to see it… Such a feel-good movie.

Iron Man

I said it on Facebook and I’ll repeat it here: Robert Downey Jr rocks and there’s something to be said about a movie that begins with AC/DC and ends with Black Sabbath. All the actors did a supreme job, even Gwyneth Paltrow. Check out a good review on a friend’s blog.

Once

What a cute movie! Alan is now all inspired into getting back into his music… Once is an unpretentious Irish movie about two struggling musicians (played by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová) was shot entirely with two handheld cameras over 17 days and has collected awards everywhere. The soundtrack was nominated for a Grammy and one of the songs won the Oscars last month. Here’s the performance during the awards’ ceremony:

And here’s their award acceptance speech. Irglová was cut off during her acceptance speech but the academy had the decency to bring her back on stage:

If you have’t seen it, it’s available on DVD.

Always look on the bright side of life

I lost count how many times I’ve watched this movie…

Atonement & the Oscars

Last night we watched Atonement. I haven’t read the book but I really loved the movie. It’s sad, unfair, beautifully made, all the stuff of a great movie.

I know Hollywood’s Academy Awards (aka Oscars) is an over-hyped, self-centered event, but I’ve been a faithful watcher ever since I was a kid. Growing up in Brazil, my older brother and I used to watch the movies – or as many of thema s we could – beforehand, make our own lists, and make huge batches of popcorn while we sat in front of the TV for 3-4 hours to watch the show. We kept track of awards, made predictions, got upset when our favourites didn’t win…It’s one of those moments in the year when I miss my brother the most.

This years big nominees are: There Will Be Blood (8 nominations), No Country for Old Men (8), Atonement (7), Michael Clayton (7), Ratatouille (5), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (4), Juno (4).I’ve watched Ratatouille and Atonement and would really like to watch some of the others before the awards ceremony.

The only catch this year is that I don’t have a TV! I guess I’ll have to invite myself to a friend’s place that night… Or watch it at Massey…

Indigènes

Translated into English as Days of Glory, Indigènes is the story of a unit of North African soldiers recruited to help liberate France in the waning days of the Second World War. Sold on the idea that fighting to free la patrie would bring them closer to the ideals of liberté, égalité, fraternité, the natives (indigènes in French) of North Africa give it all in this epic film. Shedding blood for France, however, is not enough to overcome racism and discrimination within the military and the more valiant and competent among the indigènes see promotion after promotion going to the French soldiers.

Written and directed by Rashid Bouchareb, a French director of Algerian descent, Indigènes is the kind of film that makes me wish I taught twentieth-century history just so I could show it to my students.  Both the first and second world wars stirred hope in European colonies around the globe. No doubt many natives of the colonies felt that fighting for freedom alongside their colonizers would open doors for them at home. Such hopes were more often than not quashed at the end of the war, leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of many who felt they had given as much, if not more, than the European soldier but received no recognition of their efforts. It’s not surprise the movie come in a period in which France struggles with its inability to accommodate immigrants arriving from its former colonies.

The legacy of the colonized in shaping the internal history of the colonizers is a topic seldom explored. And this film is a good place to start.

A review here.