A Love Letter to Michelle

I realised this morning, through runny-nosed sickness that nowhere on my blog had I spoken of my love for all things Pfeiffer. There are few actresses who I can get excited about like I can for my sweet Michelle. My first exposure to her was through my love for Batman and her stunning performance in Batman Returns (this may seem a little late in her filmography to become a fan but I was like 4, ok) and since then, I have been a die-hard fan. The stunning beauty, the natural glow, the ice queen persona, and, of course, the wonderful talent have had me smitten for most of my life and, now, at 49 she still looks so damn good. The most frustrating things about Pfeiffer are a) her self-imposed retirement (hopefully this year's I Could Never Be Your Woman changes all that) and b) her knack for turning down Great scripts. This is a woman who has turned down films like The Silence of the Lambs, Thelma and Louise, The Door in the Floor, Evita, Lorenzo's Oil, and to a lesser extent, Basic Instinct, Sleepless in Seattle, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and most recently, Narnia. That, however, is not to take away from the great gifts she has given to the world of cinema.

My favourite Pfeiffer performances would have to be:

1. The Fabulous Baker Boys (you know that Oscar was hers)
2. Batman Returns
3. The Age of Innocence (Scorsese + Pfeiffer + Day-Lewis = Heaven)
4. White Oleander
5. Scarface
6. Dangerous Liaisons
7. Married to the Mob
8. The Russia House
9. Frankie and Johnny
10. What Lies Beneath

If you haven't seen any of the above-mentioned films, go out and get them now. right now. go on. now.

Predictions

The Oscars are 5 days away, so I figure its time to give in and post my predictions..I'm doing a quick run-through, but if you'd prefer more detailed analysis of all the races, check out Kris's blog..

Best Picture: Brokeback Mountain
This race is all locked up, there's really nothing to say about it- NYFCC, LAFC, SFFC, PGA, DGA, WGA, the Globe + cultural watershed, big box office and critical darling spells OSCAR- anything else would be a huge shock.

Best Director: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
Best Actor in a Leadin Role: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain
I'm going out on a limb here- Clooney and Giamatti are the frontrunners but they're hardly locked for the win. Brokeback has 3 acting noms and when that happens, at least one can expect a win, Gyllenhaal with his Hollywood Royalty status seems like the film' best bet.
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener
I'm predicting her but with caution. Theoratically, any of the ladies other than Frances McDormand could take this, Michelle Williams is probably the spoiler

Best Foreign Film: Tsotsi (South Africa)
Best Animated Short: 9
Best Animated Film: Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Best Live Action Short: Six Shooter
Best Documentary Featue: Going out on a limb here and ignoring the Penguins for the critically acclaimed Darwin's Nightmare
Best Documentary Short: A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin

Best Original Screenplay: Crash
Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain
Best Costume Design: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Cinematography: Brokeback Mountain
Best Art Direction: Good Night, and Good Luck
Best Film Editing: Crash
Best Makeup: Narnia
Best Original Score: Brokeback Mountain
Best Original Song: 'Travelin' Thru', Dolly Parton from TransAmerica
Best Sound: Walk the Line
Best Sound Editing: King Kong
Best Visual Effects: King Kong

That's about it, if you noticed, I've gone out on a limb and said that George Clooney will go home empty-handed despite the 3 noms...stupid, I know, but I just can't see him winning for Syriana which is his best chance. I'm probably going to regret this come Monday, in fact, I already am...

Book Baton

Number of Books on Shelf
Does anyone have any idea? I really don't count-there are countless shelves with countless books that are shared by the whole family...

Last Book Purchased
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Book I'm Reading Right Now
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres - which is proving to be a great read
The Sixties by Arthur Marwick

5 books that I enjoyed (I'm sticking to fiction)
01. The Hours by Michael Cunningham (few books have touched me in such a profound way)
02. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
03. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
04. 1984 by George Orwell
05. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Most Disappointing Book Ever Read
The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
After American Psycho and Less Than Zero, it was just SUCH a letdown- self-absorbed, pretentious trite

Worst Book Ever Read
I've read some stinkers, but, Runaway Jury by John Grisham or, really, anything by John Grisham- he's the most pedestrian writer to havereceivedd so much success. Very overrated and very bad

I'm passing the baton onto:
Asvi
Bugoy
Naz
The Guy from the Future...
and basically any of you reading, feel free to share

Filler

Asvajit is a Great Artist-Check Out His Work, You Won't Regret It

click the pic


Ok, I felt the need to post in order to pass the time whilst I try to figure out who my winners are on my ballot (I'm trying to look at each category individually since I detest sweep mentality)...

First of all, I'd like to say fuck COMUN. I'm all for it and I enjoy it to a certain extent and it does look good on my CV but research is a bitch- Does anyone know a really good and consice resource to find information on Iraq's stance on world issues? If you do, please please help. Thanks..

And Idol has slowly sucked me in yet again. I don't know why I allow this show to get me but it is just so addictive. Anyway quick ranking on the girls and the guys...

Girls

1. Paris (great song choice, great performer)
2. Lisa (can't believe she's only 16- such a mature performance)
3. Mandisa (I still adore her but the performance just wasn't as great as it could've been)
4. Katharine (great voice and a very understated vocal performance)

and then there's the rest...none of who'm I really care about- haters beware, I still love my Brenna but I will admit the performance sucked ass. Kelly wasn't upto scratch but everytime she opens her mouth I melt into a puddle..sigh

Guys- the show really surprised me cos there were so many great performances

1. Bucky (like Randy, I was expecting something more country but I was very impressed + he says "Git-aaar")
2. Bald Sideburns Dude (He hadn't really impressed me so far but his 'Dead or Alive' was nothing short of fantastic)
3. Ace (really annoyed me before and I initially felt that this was a case of the Emperor's new clothes but 'Father Figure' was a great choice and he brought it)
4. Sway (just awesome)
5. Elliot Yamin (love the non-chalance, the voice and even the meth-head teeth)
6. Gideon (I love his voice and that wierdness about him actually attracts my attention. Not his best but still good)

I also liked Taylor Hicks but all this Ray Charles posturing (his aping of Charles's stance whenever the camera is on him was borderline offensive) has to go. I didn't care for any of the others and I'm really pissed that geriatrics and little girls of America will probably make sure that the pretty boys and the nerd go far

That's all for now..

R.I.P. Arrested Development

So Idol is on tonight for TWO hours and another two hours tomorrow + one hour on Friday so we have a total of FIVE MOTHERFUCKING HOURS of Idol this week. This kinda grosses me out? I love the show but imagine the waiting, imagine the pointless montages, the background info on the contestants, the botox on Seacrest's face... It makes me sick just thinking about it.

Onto more pressing matters...Arrested Development aired it's last episode last week on FOX. Now while the show will never return to the FOX network I'm still holding onto the small chance that ABC or Showtime will pick it up, but, for now, the show is dead-it had a breif, but fan-fucking-tastic, existence that brought us ever-closer those dispicable Bluths. For those of you not in the know, Arrested Development is simply the only comedy series that can rival Seinfeld's early years and maybe The Sopranos as the greatest thing on television. Ever.

Oh and if you STILL don't watch AD, the second season will begin 'sometime' on Star World. I myself download the show because I'm a greedy bastard who can't wait. I've been doing the same for Lost's second season, which starts on AXN next month, and let me just say to those of you who haven't seen it- OH MY MOTHERFUCKER. Fuck. Too Great. 13 episodes in and it is still awesome.

Also on the ballot below, I keep going back and forth on whether Jake Gyllenhaal belongs in Lead or Supporting- my only real reasoning for putting him in Supporting is that I love the performance and I don't think I could fit him into my Best Actor shortlist and maybe because the film focuses on Ennis just a little bit more. The fact remains though that the film IS a 'love story between two cowboys' and love stories have 2 leads, not one... I can't help but think that if the film was a straight love story I'd never even think of putting either actor in any other category but Lead

Any thoughts?

The Last of the Nominees

I made a couple of changes in the earlier post- I'd suddenly forgotten The New World and neglected to list it for Art Direction and Makeup- it replaces Downfall and Capote, respectively.

BEST PICTURE

• Brokeback Mountain (Focus Features)

• Downfall (Newmarket Films)

• Grizzly Man (Lion's Gate Films)

• A History of Violence (New Line Cinema)

• The New World (New Line Cinema)

Honourable mentions to Good Night, and Good Luck; 2046; The Forsaken Land; Pride and Prejudice and Junebug

BEST DIRECTOR

• George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck

• David Cronenberg for A History of Violence

• Oliver Hirschbiegel for Downfall

• Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain

and

• Terrence Malick for The New World

Honourable mentions to Joe Wright for Pride and Prejudice, Wong Kar-Wai for 2046, Vimukthi Jayasundara for The Forsaken Land and Miranda July for Me and You and Everyone We Know

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

• Bruno Ganz in Downfall

• Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote

• Terrence Howard in Hustle and Flow

• Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain

and

• David Strathairn in Good Night, and Good Luck

Honourable mentions to Viggo Mortensen in A History of Violence, Ralph Fiennes in The Constant Gardener, Jaoquin Phoenix in Walk the Line, Colin Farrell in The New World and Steve Carrell in The 40 Year-Old Virgin

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

• Joan Allen in The Upside of Anger

• Keira Knightley in Pride and Prejudice

• Naomi Watts in King Kong

• Rachel Weisz in The Constant Gardener

and

• Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line

Honourable mentions to Q'Orianka Kilcher in The New World, Maggie Cheung in Clean, Toni Collette in In Her Shoes and Natalie Press in My Summer of Love

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• Grizzly Man directed by Werner Herzog
• March of the Penguins directed by Luc Jacquet
• No More Tears Sister directed by Helene Klodawsky

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• 2046, Christopher Doyle, Pung-Leung Kwan and Yiu-Fai Lai

• Brokeback Mountain, Rodrigo Prieto

• The Forsaken Land, Channa Deshapriya

• Good Night, and Good Luck, Robert Elswit

and

• The New World, Emmanuel Lubezki

BEST SOUND EDITING

• King Kong, Mike Hopkins, Ethan Van der Ryn, Brent Burge, David Farmer and David Whitehead
• Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Eddy Joseph
• War of the Worlds, Richard King

and so that concludes my ballot...I'll be posting winners in a couple of days

The Nominations Continue...

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain

• William Hurt in A History of Violence

• Frank Langella in Good Night, and Good Luck

• Mickey Rourke in Sin City

and

• Donald Sutherland in Pride and Prejudice

Honourabale Mentions to Clifton Collins, Jr. in Capote and Kevin Costner in The Upside of Anger

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• The 40 Year-Old Virgin written by Judd Apatow and Steve Carrell
• Grizzly Man written by Werner Herzog
• Happy Endings written by Don Roos
• Junebug written by Angus MacLachlan
• Me and You and Everyone We Know written by Miranda July

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• Brokeback Mountain screenplay by Larry McMutry and Diana Ossana
• Capote screenplay by Dan Futterman
• Downfall screenplay by Bernd Eichinger
• A History of Violence screenplay by Josh Olsen
• My Summer of Love screenplay by Pawel Pawilkosky with Michael Wynne

BEST ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION DESIGN

• 2046, William Chang; Alfred Yau
• Good Night, and Good Luck, James Bissell; Jan Pascale
• King Kong, Grant Major; Dan Hennah
• The New World, Jack Fisk; Jim Erickson
• Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Alex McDowell; Colin Batty

BEST FILM EDITING

• Brokeback Mountain, Geraldine Peroni and Dylan Tichenor
• The Constant Gardener, Claire Simpson
• Good Night, and Good Luck, Stephen Mirrione
• Grizzly Man, Joe Bini
• A History of Violence, Ronald Sanders

BEST MAKEUP

• 2046, William Chang
• The New World, Paul Engelen and Joani Yarbrough
• Sin City, Greg Nicotero and Ermahn Ospina

BEST SOUND DESIGN

• Brokeback Mountain, Eugene Gearty, Reilly Steele and Drew Kunin
• King Kong, Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Tom Johnson and Michael Semanick
• Last Days, Felix Andrew and Marshall Garlington
• Walk the Line, Paul Massey and Peter F. Kurland
• War of the Worlds, Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Ronald Judkins

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST

• Downfall

Christian Berkel, Justus von Dohnanyi, Heino Ferch, Bruno Ganz, Matthias Habich, Corinna Harfouch, André Hennicke, Rolf Kanies, Thomas Krestchmann, Juliane Köhler, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Michael Mendl, Brigit Minichmayr and Ulrich Noethen

• Good Night, and Good Luck

Rose Abdoo, Alex Borstein, Robert John Burke, Patricia Clarkson, George Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Reed Diamond, Tate Donovan, Robert Downey Jr., Grant Heslov, Peter Jacobson, Frank Langella, Thomas McCarthy, Dianne Reeves, Matt Ross, David Strathairn and Ray Wise

• Junebug

Amy Adams, Embeth Davidtz, Benjamin McKenzie, Alessandro Nivola, Frank Hoyt Taylor, Celia Weston and Scott Wilson

• Me and You and Everyone We Know

Hector Elias, Ellen Greer, John Hawkes, Brad William Henke, Miranda July, JoNell Kennedy, Collette Kilroy, Brandon Ratcliff, Natasha Slayton, Miles Thompson, Najarra Townsend, Carlie Westerman and Tracy Wright

• Pride and Prejudice

Claudie Blakely, Brenda Blethyn, Judi Dench, Tom Hollander, Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Jena Malone, Sinead Matthews, Sylvester Morand, Carey Mulligan, Rosamund Pike, Talulah Riley, Kelly Reilly, Jay Simpson, Donald Sutherland, Pip Torrens, Janet Whiteside and Simon Woods

Nominees in the big 4 categories + Documentary, cinematography and sound editing...

Hello My Bitchez

Firstly, an apology for not posting regularly-I've been both busy and lazy, but fear not, dear readers I will make the utmost effort to post every fucking day...

I've decided not to wait a decade to see the movies listed on the left and instead start posting my own ballot. Drumroll please...

THE 2005 ARUN AWARD (?) NOMINEES

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Amy Adams in Junebug

• Maria Bello in A History of Violence

• Maggie Gyllenhaal in Happy Endings

• Michelle Williams in Brokeback Mountain

and

• Ziyi Zhang in 2046

Honourabale Mentions to Catherine Keener in The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Capote, Juliane Köhler in Downfall and Shirely MacLaine in In Her Shoes

BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• 2046 (Hong Kong) directed by Wong Kar-Wai
• Clean (France) directed by Olivier Assayas
• Downfall (Germany) directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
• The Forsaken Land (Sri Lanka) directed by Vimukthi Jayasundara
• The Holy Girl (Spain) directed by Lucrecia Martel

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• Howl's Moving Castle directed by Hayao Miyazaki
• Tim Burton's Corpse Bride directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson
• Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were Rabbit directed by Steve Box and Nick Park

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

• 2046, William Chang
• Capote, Kasia Walicka-Maimone
• The New World, Jacqueline West
• Pride and Prejudice, Jacqueline Durran
• Walk the Line, Arianne Phillips

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

• 2046, Peer Raben and Shigeru Umebayashi
• Brokeback Mountain, Gustavo Santaolalla
• The Constant Gardener, Alberto Iglesias
• Me and You and Everyone We Know, Mike Andrews
• Pride and Prejudice, Dario Marianelli

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

• Brokeback Mountain for the song 'A Love That Will Never Grow Old'
• The Constant Gardener for the song 'Dicholo'
• Crash for the song 'In the Deep'
• Hustle and Flow for the song 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp'
• TransAmerica for the song 'Travelin' Thru'

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• King Kong, Scott E. Anderson, Joe Letteri, George Murphy, Ben Snow, Marc Varisco, Shawn Dunn and Atsushi Sato
• Sin City, Robert Rodriguez
• War of the Worlds, Muren, Pablo Helman, Randal M. Outra and Daniel Sudick

More nominees tomorrow...

New Blogs, Kool, Nu Box, Idol and the Gang

First of all, this is Yanik-the man who takes all the photos of us..

Click on the pic to go to his photo blog

and this is Bugoy-you can click his pic to go to his blog: The Phat One

I wanted to post these in order to show you that seemingly everyone is catching the blogging bug- for that reason I'm not going to go into extreme detail over the Kool & the Gang concert since Yanik and Asvi have pretty much covered it. That said, the concert was awesome and it was fuckin' A getting in without being checked for a ticket and then climbing fences until we found ourselves smack in front of the stage. Great great night...

I started the week pretty good too, with the Nu Box show at Barefoot on Monday night. Avant-garde Jazz isn't anything I'm particularly crazy about but the show knocked me flat on my ass. A mix of well known hip-hop with Jazz instrumentals, it felt completely alive. The best way to describe it is to think of it as mash-ups of hip-hop with jazz. And you know I flipped out when they played M.I.A.

Finally, a couple of thoughts on everyone's favourite show American Idol... They announced the top 24 today and I thought I'd weigh in on my faves

Brenna: I love her..I do. If you don't then you just do not know what you're talking about- she's a star

Bucky: All throughout the episode I kept wondering if a good male country singer got in and I'm glad to see someone did. I don't know anything about him but I'm rooting for him and if he can muster the balls to sings some Hank Williams in the coming weeks I will worship him.

clockwise from top left: Heather, Kelly, Becky and Katharine

none of 'em strike me as particularly talented or even affable (except Kelly, who can't help but remind me of my beloved Amy Adams in Junebug) but slap my ass and call me Judy if they aren't hawt...

and

The young ones: Lisa and Gedeon are both really young (16 and 17, respectively) and really talented- though neither is bringing anything new to the table. She feels like a thousand other girls we've seen on this show and he's eerily similar to John Legend

Paris hasn't been bringing it quite like she did in her fan-fucking-tastic audition but I do love her

and, finally, the two I really wanna see win this thing

Taylor, who, despite the weird body-movements, continues to intrigue me and...

I ♥ Mandisa. So classy, so charismatic and so damn talented.

That's it for today, folks. Hope you've enjoyed yourselves and remember to check out the links on the sidebar. There's some great stuff just waiting for you to discover...