Falcon and Dove: Oscar Predictions 2010

Hello World Family,
It's an annual event, and of course, this year is no different. It is time for our Oscar predictions: what we think will win, and what we wish would win.

We will keep it simple. This is a powerful year. We feel going to 10 films under consideration for Best Picture was a good idea, since there certainly are enough great films this year consider.

Best Picture-It is going to be a very tough category, but we feel AVATAR will win BEST PICTURE, although we think THE HURT LOCKER will give it a run for its money, and both are fine films. PRECIOUS is nominated, and were there not an AVATAR, this would be our choice for Best Picture.

Director-Kathryn Bigelow did a fantastic job, and of course, Lee Daniels was awesome. We would love to see Lee upset this category, but we are also fine with James Cameron getting his Oscar.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role should be Mo'Nique. She was devastatingly magnificent.

Best Actress-this is a very tough cetegory, and will probably be won by Sandra Bullock. Is it her best effort or role...well, no. This is a feel good category. Every single woman in this group did an extraordinary job this year.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role-probably Christophe Waltz

Best Actor-probably Jeff Bridges, but we would also like to give props to Colin Firth, whom we enjoy tremendously.

In technical categories, we would like to see awards for the following films: AVATAR, STAR TREK, HP: HBP, and The Secret of Kells.

Best Animation will probably be UP, but the best project this year was CORALINE.

Best Original Screenplay- It's a toss up: THE HURT LOCKER and THE MESSENGER

Best Adapted Screenplay-PRECIOUS should win-we will see

Best Visual Effects-AVATAR, period, seriously

Music-Randy Newman may get a win here for work in Disney's THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG

Best Documentary-FOOD, INC.

Doc Short-CHINA'S UNNATURAL DISASTER

Best Animated Short-FRENCH TOAST or WALLACE AND GROMMIT

Best Live Short-THE NEW TENANTS

It is truly a wonderful year for film. See as many of these great films as you can on screen, or on DVD.

Peace,
Falcon and Dove

Golden Globe Nominations Announced!!!

Hello World Family!
Falcon here with an analysis of the Golden Globe nominations. What a broad based list of superb contenders! Small films, independents, and strong Hollywood films all make an appearance. This may be the most balanced, fully-stocked with goodies award season in years. The Best Picture Nominations are: The Hurt Locker, Precious, Inglorious Bastards, Avatar, and Up in the Air. WOW!!! Can’t we just give them all the Best Pic and be done with it?! They are all excellent films, all for different reasons.

The Best Actress category is no easier, with Precious actress along side Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side, and Helen Mirren for The Last Station. The category is rounded out with young actresses Emily Blunt, who was delightful as The Young Victoria and Carey Mulligan in An Education. Three of these five we viewed in Savannah at the film fest and this will be another tough category for competition. I agree that getting the nomination is quite the honor.

Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart was a bit of a surprise, and I am happy to see him there. Colin Firth did an amazing job in A Single Man; Morgan Freeman is my favorite for this category because he plays Nelson Mandela and the film has Rugby-Invictus. The ever-present George Clooney for Up in the Air and Tobey Maguire surprises in the powerful and emotional, Brothers. Every one of these actors is so strong it is going to be tough to narrow down a winner. Can we have a tie?

The most difficult category for the judges? I think best animated feature, which has five of the most visually enchanting and extraordinary productions side by side in film history. Yes, it’s that good: The stop-motion masterpiece Coraline is not only a great tale, but the excruciatingly difficult details and work that shot approximately 4 seconds per week for years deserves a category award all its own. Fantastic Mr. Fox is another impressive work, along side with Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Disney’s new tale, The Princess and the Frog. How do you choose?! How can you choose?! The biggest winners are audiences this year who get to see all of them!

The most interesting nominations? Well, we can start with Robert Downey, Jr. for Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy or Musical for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. Does this guy have a broad spectrum or what?! He may be one of the most brilliant actors of a generation, and he has a lot of fun while he’s doing it. Matt Damon gets a double dip for noms both in The Informant and Invictus.

More great surprises: Kathryn Bigelow for Best Director, The Hurt Locker. This is an intense, never lets up film that must be seen. I suppose Quentin Tarrantino is dancing in the street after his Best Director nom for Inglorious Bastards.

Woody Harrelson got his Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination for The Messenger as well he should-along side other nominated thespians Christopher Plummer (The Last Station) and Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones). My mouth is watering already. Yum!

Mo’Nique has a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her brutal portrayal of the worse mommy ever in Precious and she deserves every bit of it.

Other expected nominations of note include Nine (8 ½ gone just a little further with a strong ensemble cast of all my favorites), some attention for It’s Complicated and some music nominations for scores-Where the Wild Things Are and Avatar.

On the television side of things, it all looks good with nominations for productions of Georgia O’Keefe, Dexter, The Mentalist, Mad Men (go Charles Shaughnessy), Wallander: One Step Behind (a nom for Kenneth Brannagh), 30-Rock…all the good stuff. Yes, House and The Closer are in contention again. Love these shows and television movies!

For a complete list of nominees, please go to the Golden Globe website. The awards will air on January 17.

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