Oscar Nominations: Some surprises

Hey World Family,
The Oscar nominations have some surprises, some omissions, and some downright…huh?!

So, for the most part, the major nominations were predictable. Having 10 Best Picture nominations this year, but still only five Best Directors meant someone was going to be left out. Although the top pics have expanded, I still think they missed a few.

Of course, Avatar, An Education, A Serious Man, and Inglorious Basterds made the cut-Precious did, too, and Falcon is thrilled about that. Up in the Air is still going strong, and The Hurt Locker, one of the most powerful films Falcon and Dove have seen in a long time is also in the hunt. The Blind Side and Up round out the 10, along with District 9.

Okay, I just don’t get it. I admit it. District 9 is full of visual flaws every time I see something from it. I don’t like the story, I thought the editing left something to be desired. If we were gonna go sci-fi to round out the top 10, I would have had Star Trek in there: very well produced and directed. J.J. Abrams is a stone cold genius, and the ensemble actors assembled were perfect-something that is very difficult to do with a franchise like Star Trek has been. Star Trek has 4 Oscar nominations by my count, that is pretty darn good. District 9 is also nominated for Visual Effects, along with Avatar of course, and Star Trek, which left out Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which got a Best Cinematography nomination, and should have. I can’t believe voters sat in the 15 minute bake-off of each of the seven remaining films and decided District 9’s visual effects held up to the stuff done in HP: HBP’s use of Squirt and Maya. If I have left some of you behind on this one, don’t worry; just pick up a couple of copies of Cinefex magazine and it will explain it all.

Falcon also wants to go on the record for saying that we all enjoyed Up a lot. Should it be nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay when Avatar isn’t for the latter? Heck, no. Sorry, it just wasn’t that good. Cute, entertaining, but just not that good. Yes, I liked the love story, and I get the whole ‘wanting to get away from it all’ and ‘hero failure’ (Christopher Plummer will work forever-love you!) and I loved Dug the dog-I quote him frequently, but it just isn’t what I would have considered Oscar worthy in nomination for Best Picture, sorry. If I was going to nominate an animated feature from 2009 for Best Picture, it would be Coraline (which is nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, along with Up, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, and a surprise, The Secret of Kells, very cool) hands down. Magnificently realized stop-motion hand built animation with a strong story (although subtle, which may have left some in the dark about a couple of thematic overtones), organic POV, and stunning visual effects-Falcon just doesn’t think this film got enough attention. Glad it is nominated for Animation, though.

Most nominations is a tie between Avatar and The Hurt Locker. Both these films rock so no worries there. Did you know that Kathryn Bigelow, the director of The Hurt Locker and also the winner of this year’s Director’s Guild of America award (DGA) is the ex-wife of James Cameron? I think it’s hysterical that they are nominated against each other frequently for Oscar-they are both good natured about it, and wish the best for each other. That’s nice.

Favorites nominated: Colin Firth, in A Single Man-he is very talented and versatile: Falcon and Dove are glad he is getting some strong recognition recently for his outstanding work. Lee Daniels for Precious-enough cannot be said about how great this work is. Mo’Nique is nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, along with Gabby Sidibe for Best Actress and Lee for Best Director. This has been an outstanding year for film, and this film, its director, and its talent, stand high above the din. Lee Daniels is a gifted visionary, and deserves all of the accolades he receives. Stanley Tucci is one of my favorite actors, ever-he is superb in The Lovely Bones. Meryl Strep did Julia Child well, and this is coming from one of Julia’s biggest fans, Falcon. Stanley Tucci is also in Julie and Julia, and we loved him in that as well.

It is great to see The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (go Chris Plummer, again!) get a couple of noms, as well as Sherlock Holmes got one-we thought this one might get a little more. Documentary Feature nominee, Food, Inc. is an insightful work-nice to see it acknowledged for its strong character and unblinking interviews. The Messenger is nominated for Best Original Screenplay, and yet not Best Picture? A strange omission, me thinks. Woody Harrelson was outstanding in this film; nice to see his Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination.

CUROSITIES:
Best Makeup-just how much makeup difficulty was there in Il Divo? I didn’t see it, so I don’t know…someone let me know.

About The Blind Side…great story, good film. Oscar is pushing it. Do I love Sandra Bullock? Absolutely. Do I think this is a Best Actress performance? Nope. She was very uncomfortable with a lot of this role, and frankly, it shows. I love her films, and believe that she will one day be cast in a role that truly shows all of her spectrum. This is not the role, and this is not the film.

It feels good, it’s a true story, but when aligned with such strong performances in this category, Falcon would be disappointed that an Oscar would go to someone who has said time and time again in interview that they didn’t do their best work. We hope this category is given its full consideration and this isn’t a gimme. There are some tremendous performances nominated this year; let’s look at the ones that feel good… and the ones that don’t. I think the woman she portrays should have a bronze statue in her honor, but this category is stiff this year with tremendous performances.

Gabby Sidibe should not be written off as a one time; she is incredibly gifted and versatile-I hope she works a whole lot more. Screenwriters: write some strong women roles for these talented actresses. Hollywood: put some money behind the projects. Helen Mirren is stellar, and Carey Mulligan should get more than a passing glance for her performance in An Education. It is a Best Picture nomination-a joy to behold.

Missed-well, there’s a lot. It was a great year for film. The technical categories being narrowed down to three every year bothers me. Why three? Why not five? Five would be better. Art Direction is five; Cinematography is five-let’s do five (at least five) in all of them.

Quentin-now what are you going to do now that you are accepted by the establishment?! Hehe

The Academy Awards will be on March 7. Until then, everyone place your proverbial bets. There will be lots of discussion. In the meantime, we will be back to the issues of the day.
Every day is a new day.
Peace,
Falcon and Dove

Falcon and Dove’s Fall Movie Preview

Hello Everyone,
Well, it's time for the Fall Movie Preview. We tended to avoid writing about films that weren't that interesting, and instead have brought you a batch of what we thought were worth seeing...with only a couple of exceptions. Enjoy!


A Serious Man
The Coen Brothers are at it again, this time looking back at one of my favorite eras of waxing nostalgia, the late 1960’s. A young Jewish man is trying to make sense of his life in a world of Surrealistic Pillow by Jefferson Airplane and his marriage. He feels he is trying to do the right thing, yet he also thinks his world is changing faster than the world around them is spinning. It is supposed to be tongue in cheek funny, but there will be much too much profoundly familiar in this quirky film.

Act of God
Interesting independent doc involves conversations with people who have been struck by lightening (wow-I wish they would have talked to me!). This film looks at the metaphysical implications and eye witness stories of what these individuals were like before they were struck…and after. This film is by Jennifer Baichwal.

Aladin
Yes, another version, aka ‘Slumdog’ style; very modern Bollywood film with special effects, wild costumes and lots of dancing. It looks like Xanadu meets the classic Magic Lamp tale. Our take: skip it.

Amelia
Hillary Swank gets the nod to play the famous pilot Amelia Eckhart on Fox Searchlight. Ewan McGregor, Richard Gere give respectable performances. Great cinematography.

An Education
Alfred Molina stars with a strong British cast (Emma Thompson, Dennis Cooper) in a period piece (aka 1962 abouts) that looks a little like Educating Rita with less of an age gap. Girl gets into Oxford and runs off with a man she met to Paris-more exciting, yet not what she thought it would be, go figure.

As Seen Through These Eyes
Maya Angelou gives a powerful narration to a powerful documentary montage of images of Nazi survivors in photos and artwork, along with their own voices and stories. Magnificent art, challenging stories.

Avatar
We are all waiting for this. If the story unfolds as well as the trailer does, and the special effects deliver, this will be one of the best films of the year. It looks like moving Rodger Dean artwork with Native American embellishments. We hope the film lives up to the hype.

Broken Embraces
A nice French film with strong performances, featuring Penelope Cruz, beautiful yet a bit tortured since all of the saturation as that 60’s early 70’s feel, deliberately. Good date film.

Capitalism: A Love Story
Michael Moore’s magnificent indictment of greed, lying and the price the average person pays for a system without a moral compass. Includes sending perfectly good children to prison while judges get kickbacks (here in PA, believe it or not), farm families having their homes forclosed upon, and conversations with people who have just had it.

Dare
Teen film with Self-self discovery/affirmation film with Sandra Bernhard featuring Emmy Rossum, Zach Gilford and Alan Cumming (who I hadn’t seen in a film in awhile). It breaks out of the typical a bit, and the actors make it worth the trip.

Edge of Darkness
Mel Gibson returns as a homicide detective whose 24 year old daughter was killed on his doorstep. Turns out her world was more dangerous than his. This is a January release, so no one really holds a lot of hope for this one,(January is usually the time for films that are expendable) but it is better than it looks.

Endgame
From Monterey Media comes a very strong film with tricky filming that doesn’t blink with a highly diverse film of quality actors, including William Hurt. Very, very good.

Extraordinary Measures
True story about John and Aileen Crowley whose children were diagnosed with a fatal disease called Pompe, which is genetic, impacts the heart and usually fatal. They started a business, left their jobs and started extraordinary research to save their children’s’ lives. Appearances by Harrison Ford and Brendan Frazier.

Five Minutes of Heaven
Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt star in an interesting film about an adult revolutionary who killed Nesbitt’s character’s brother as a teen. The two have an opportunity to meet. It is a film about truth and reconciliation. Forgiveness…is it possible? The character’s are deeply well developed.

From Paris, With Love
Starring Welsh actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers and John Travolta, directed by Peter Morrell. Action, laughs, more action, lots of things blowing up.

Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

Heath Ledger has one more hurrah, Christopher Plummer and Colin Farrell along with Johnny Deep (sounds like a dream I would love to have) and directed by Terry Gilliam. Wow. It looks incredible and has all the makings of a spectacular nominee, IF the voting members don’t write this off as just a special effects feast. Shot in Bulgaria, it is visually stunning and magnificent. It is nice to see “Academy Award Winner” before Heath Ledger’s name. It is really sad that he is no longer with us here.

Killing Kastzner
Was he a hero or in collusion with the Nazi’s? A documentary looking at the trial, his daughter, and the questions. Did he make a secret deal? His name brings gratitude and rage to many. See the film and see how you feel.

Lies and Illusions
Cuba Gooding, Jr. along with Christian Slater star in a thriller about a man whose book of fiction has more truth to it than he wishes it did. Cuba, good to see you back; I hope you have a great agent and we will see more of you-such a strong actor. Christian has been on TV lately, and it is nice to see him back on the big screen. This film has some promise; I hope it delivers.

The Lovely Bones
An excellent thriller novel by Alice Sebold filmed in Pennsylvania, directed by Peter Jackson, handled with beauty and sensitivity. Susan Sarandon and Mark Walberg deliver strong performances. Must see it to believe it.

The Men Who Stare at Goats
Yu don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but this is based on a true story. Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, and George Clooney, Kevin Spacey star in this 1970’s tale of ‘remote viewers’ aka psychic Jedi Knights. Inspired by the book by Jon Ronson.
Just go with it…

Paranormal Activity
Produced for a mere $15,000, this film opened at number one for weekend receipts after garnering a million clicks demanding that this film be released country wide. Wow! What a story. The film itself is a fine first film and looks like a couple doing their own episode of “Ghost Hunters”, but it goes badly wrong. That’s the fun part for you! A little “Blair Witch” camera work in spots, but really well done overall.

Peter and Vandy
Relationship movie that is incredibly honest in its portrayal and entertaining. Jason Ritter is warm and loving, and controlling and manipulative-perfect.

Pirate Radio
Already out and fantastic, stars one of my favorite actors, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, along with Billy Nighy, and my absolute favorite, Kenneth Branagh

Precious
Every living human begin above the age of 12 should see this film. A Lee Williams film, based on the book, “Push” by Sapphirewith an unbelievable cast: Sherri Shepherd, Mariah Carey, Mo’Nique, Lenny Kravitz. Oscar, can you hear me?

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Extremely well cast ensemble around a central character who is looking at renewing the quality of her life at a crossroads. Alan Arka, Keanu Reeves, Juliann Moore, Winona Rider, Robin Wright Penn are part of an excellent examination of a woman’s personal portrait, exploration, and eventual liberation.

Red Cliff
A strong film by John Woo focus on epic battles during the third century in China during civil war. This picture makes Helm’s Deep look like a little skirmish at a stronghold.
Cinematography great, special effects, strong, period costuming, nice.

Serious Moonlight
Meg Ryan stars with Timothy Hutton stars in this comedy directed by Cheryl Hines. Over the top a bit, but entertaining. See this with the girlfriends, laugh a lot. See it with men, and the guys will be trying to escape the theater.

Sherlock Holmes
Like you have never seen him before, Sherlock Holmes is played by Robert Downey, Jr. and Watson is played by Jude Law. Rachel McAdams rocks! Watson whines a little. Robert Downey, Jr. and Mark Strong deliver the goods. Very nicely done. I bet if this one is successful, like Harry Potter, they will make more. By the way, this is not for the kids.

The Book of Eli
The Hughes brothers have put together a little post apocalyptic film with Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman that looks like a fun little romp in Mad Max land. It’s a January release. You know what that means. Maybe it will be better than they think. The trailer is very cool…kinda video game like, but cool.


The Road
Viggo Mortensen is awesome in this Cormac McCarthy’s unoptimistic novel made into a film. Charlize Theron is also in this portrait of what happens after…
This was filmed in Pittsburgh, and when we ran out of snow, up near Erie.

The End of Poverty
A stunning documentary narrated by Martin Sheen on how we got in such a financial mess, and how contrived poverty is. Some may actually be surprised that ‘trickle down’ doesn’t work, and how deliberate and systematic the atrocities are globally. This is another film I feel strongly about that everyone should see.

The Fourth Kind
Based on a sleep study, complete with footage of the actual sessions included in the narrative drama side by side, this film asks the question: have we had more than casual contact with aliens? Who are they? Why did these people in Alaska have the same experiences? Are they all delusional, abused…or what? This film may have you leaving with more questions than you came in with…

The Messenger
This just opened the Savannah Film Festival on Halloweeen and stars Woody Harrelson (finally in a film that’s actually good) with a magnificent support soundtrack of awesome pieces Ben Foster gives an unforgettable performance. This film will strike a chord with so many as these two men are the messengers of the undeliverable message of the loss of a man or woman at war. Very, very, very good.

2012
As good as the previous movie was: this film is the polar opposite of that one. Let me paint a picture: Roland Emmerich, who I had a ton of respect and support for when he did “The Day After Tomorrow” has completely abandoned his fracking mind and made a film that while the special effects are incredible, has virtually no real plot or character development.

Most films we here at Falcon and Dove thought just plain sucked we didn’t talk about in the Fall Preview. Some we just didn’t get a chance to properly review. Falcon has seen nearly 20 minutes of this film and can’t stand a moment of it. Why? Besides being kind of a downer (end of world on 12/21/12- I won’t mention what time, everything goes to you know where, and the government has secret underground bunkers for the select few, blah, blah, blah) it has some plausibility problems, and not just the obvious ones.

If I were a filmmaker showing the end of the world, with collapsing buildings all around, I would have remembered the people. THE PEOPLE> the ones being blown to bits, thrown around like rag dolls, and falling into the open crevasses in the earth that is now heated and cracking. You barely see any human toll. That would have been an “R” rating, I suppose. The human side of this story is gone. Woody Harrelson (can’t believe he did this film and The Messenger in the same year. Note from Falcon: if he doesn’t get an Oscar for his role in The Messenger, he may have this film to thank for it-memories are long at Oscar time). He plays a character who wants to leave the proverbial building first by setting himself in the middle of the caldera at Yellowstone. He’s on radio, the Net, takes questions and calls, and has a website for you to follow until the end. He wears a long haired wig and a Moroccan style hat-looks great on Dumbledore, on Woody…not so much.

So…where do I begin? First, Roland, you really DON”T understand the prophecy of the Maya; so stop. Not enough of the real feelings of many Native American people are in this film…oh, yeah! I forgot! It’s about the bang and the money. Silly, me…

The hopelessness of this film is so bad, I would not let a child see this film, period. There are children in it I feel sorry for. No one who has had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should see it either. There is a loss of continuity in this film that is astonishing, but no loss of special effects of destroying many monuments gone wild.

The dialog is occasionally comedic in the most inappropriate times. The moment before all of California is about to go from the inside, there are humorous remarks made by the lead character (John Cusack, who in interviews doesn’t sound like he believes it, either) about the state governor’s acting just moments before the bottom falls out-literally. There are moments that are so confused between comedy and annihilation that I wasn’t quite sure what the director was going for. The film doesn’t take itself very seriously in spots. Maybe we shouldn’t either.

So here’s the supposed science: the earth’s core will heat up and break up all the weak spots when the planets align with the Milky Way and the Sun on the other end. In Native tradition, it is a configuration of the Alligator (a representation of the Cosmic Matriarch) giving birth to the Sun). We personally consider this time a time of birth, higher consciousness and new revelations. That revelation may be that the earth will continue without us, if WE MESS UP. We do have choices, and our behavior is what determines our fate. What is written is change and transformation. It will not be easy, but it is not all doom and gloom unless we succumb to the misery and negativity of things, and fail to rise with courage to change what we can clearly change.

Otherwise, no underground bunker, hermitically sealed with O2 from plants clearly underground in greenhouses and energy from geothermal ( we ought to have plenty of that)can save us-according to their complete disaster, there won't be any fresh air for years, the underground too warm in most places and with plate shift, where are the fresh water aquafirs, or am I over thinking this? Contamination would be rampant, and we would be cooked anyway. The End. Wow...what a fun film!

Twilight Saga: New Moon
Okay, this will be better than the first film; it already looks better. I don't just mean the special effects...THE MEN!!! Look, this is an eye candy story; I am not a teen, I am there for the 'visual effects', you feel me? Yes, there's a bit of a story, and I am not even sure I like it. Dove says it's ok, but I am there for the guys. With an ensemble of men that hot, you tend to ignore weak storylines. Okay, actually generally I do pay attention to plot...who care? It looks great! I'll be there on Nov. 20, watching it with all the rest of the young men and women. The whole vampire thing doesn't really do anything for me...gotta love those werewolves, though! Whew! Is it hot in here???

Alright World Family, there is Falcon and Dove's quick overview of the fall movies. Our Holiday Film Special blog/podcast will be out during the Thanksgiving weekend, as always.

Be strong, stay safe, and enjoy the fall offerings.
Peace
Falcon and Dove