Oscar Remarks

So the Oscars have been given out again, and most of the predicted favourites have won. Of the main contenders, I have seen The Social Network, The King's Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter and Inception.

Of the lot, I believe that the two supporting awards given to Melissa Leo and Christian Bale were enormously deserved in a movie where the acting was just all around superb. Amy Adams was excellent as well but lost out to Leo and Mark Wahlberg was unfortunately overlooked due to him having the most understated of the roles. Bale, in particular, did an excellent job of embodying the accent and mannerisms of a great prize fighter turned junkie.

I was less enthused by the main acting awards. Firth worked suitably hard in the role, putting on a stammer and doing an excellent job mimicking the accent. But it certainly seemed a case of him being rewarded for a string of work rather than a particular stand out piece. I am a huge fan of Natalie Portman and I have had a schoolboy crush on her since I saw her in Leon (The Professional), but I thought the film as a whole (and her performance) rather overcooked. It was a perfect role for her in many ways (sweet, innocence finding a darker side) and one almost paralled by her taking on edgier roles (for her) - Closer, V for Vendetta, No Stings Attached.

The techncal awards largely went to Inception, though a thought must be spared for the great cinematographer Roger Deakins. That he is still Oscar-less is a great travesty that the Academy must rectify at some point.

In terms of the Best Picture winner, the King Speech was a very well made film. A film that used the best of what it had to the maximum in what was essentially just a film about a friendship between two strong individuals (albeit a rather unique friendship). The Social Network might have been edgier, and more consistently captivating throughout, but the King's Speech featured understated direction, an excellent cast (Rush, Bonham-Carter, Firth, Guy Pearce and Michael Gambon among others in cameo roles!). Though making the audience feel a sense of sympathy for a character like Mark Zuckerberg (as played by Jesse Eisenberg) was perhaps a harder feat than the unashamedly sentimental patriotism of the King's Speech.

30 Movies Before 30

I had earlier created a list of fifty movies to see as part of a thirty before thirty list. After a conversation with my sister who is creating a similar list (albeit with much more time to spare), I have decided to trim the list to thirty, in keeping with the general theme of 'thirty' before 30.

The new list is largely based on the previous one, with some simple rules: obviously only movies which I have not already seen will be added to the list. Additionally, there can only be a single film from a particular director represented on the list (this made for some very difficult choices).

Finally and this turned out to be a very important rule, the list is a mixture of aspiration and personal pleasure. In other words, this list in part represents films that are definitive, critically acclaimed, and otherwise essential works which I feel is vital to my film 'education', but tempered by the simple rule that I have to want to watch them. We often feel compelled to watch or read things which are recommended by critics, on the supposition that they are supposed to be good because some superior authority has decided it to be so. Part of turning 30 is the realization that life is too short to slavishly follow critical opinion and must see lists. Trust informed judgment but in the end, watch what you really want to. It is in this spirit that the following selections were made.

The list (with short explanations where appropriate) can be found below, followed by a section detailing some discarded choices and the rationale behind them:

1. 81/2
   
2. 400 Blows
   
3. Apu Trilogy, The
   
4. Apocalypse Now
   
5. Bicycle Thief, The
6. Big Sleep, The
7. Blade Runner
8. Blue Velvet
   
9. Bonnie and Clyde
10. Brazil
11. Breathless
12. Brief Encounter
13. Chinatown
14. Chunking Express
    
15. Clockwork Orange, A
16. Donnie Darko
17. Fight Club
18. Great Dictator, The
19. On the Waterfront
20. Roman Holiday
    
21. Rules of the Game
22. Seventh Samurai, The
23. Seventh Seal, The
24. Shoah
    
25. Taxi Driver
    
26. Touch of Evil
27. Tokyo Story
28. Umbrellas of Cherbourg
29. Unforgiven
    
30. Vertigo
    

Near misses: A lot near misses were made necessary by the one director rule. How to choose just one movie from the oeuvre of Fellini and Bergman (whose work I have yet to even sample), or Kurosawa (I have only seen Ran, and that on television many years ago), yet alone Chaplin (try choosing between Modern Times, City Lights, Gold Rush). In such circumstances, I often plumped for the most famous film, knowing fully well that it may not necessarily be the best (my friend Yogesh has written an excellent blog post on 30 films by notable directors which are better than their most famous works). So I shall leave it at that.

More interesting are some very well known films that I have chosen not to include because they fail my acid test rule (I just don't feel like watching it):

First, All About Eve. Screwball comedies or even intelligent comedies have just never been my thing, besides which I find I am much more attuned to British as opposed to American humour. Besides, Wilder, despite being famous as a comedic director, also made Double Indemnity, which I consider to be one of the greatest of film noirs, and of course Sunset Blvd. another noir masterpiece whose cynicism I can relate to far more than his later comedic works.

Some Like It Hot is probably considered to be the greatest American comedic film of all time. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are supposed to be one of the greatest comedic duos on film. It has Marilyn Monroe in one of her strongest performances, where she transcends her dumb blonde persona. Sadly it just doesn't appeal.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a huge academy favourite. It did the grand slam of big five Oscars (only It Happened One Night and Silence of the Lambs can match that feat), it has Jack, well being Jack. A good friend, Jake, who knows more about movies than most people I know, loathed it, saying it was completely over the top (then again Jake also disliked Shawshank for being fake, and sentimental). Still, based on what I saw of Amadeus, I could see how this criticism of Milos Forman might be accurate. Also, I already have Jack in Chinatown. If anything, I would be more curious to see another Forman film - the adaptation of the notorious 70s musical Hair featuring hippies, LSD, marijuana and unusual sex practices.

American Graffiti is a cult movie. It shows a different side of George Lucas before he went megabucks. But do you really want to be watching a coming of age in 60s America movie when you're going to be turning 30? Forget the post WWII boomer generation optimism. You're supposed to be far too close to a mid-life crisis to be watching stuff like this. If you feel nostalgic you could at least put on a re-run of Grease. And realise that John Travolta is now fifty. And Olivia Newton John has sagging breasts.

Easy Rider - yet another cult movie movie involving Jack. Two men riding around on motorcycles going against the establishment. You know what they say about mid life crisis - you know you are having one when you buy a Harley, and a motorcycle jacket to go with it. Do I really want to see a movie about two men riding on motorbikes exploring "freedom"? On the one hand it is cliched; on the other, it might just cause me to wonder what the hell I am doing with my life and quit my job and move to Tijuana. Better not push my luck.

E.T: The Extra Terrestrial - I know this is supposed to be brilliant. But I just could not bear a film that was liable to be far too sentimental (an early Spielberg trait). The thought of watching a little alien that looks like a shriveled prune riding in a bicycle basket is vomit inducing enough, worse is me remembering that when I was five and on a visit to Universal Studios, I was chosen to stand in for Elliot in showing how the shot was created (the magic of cinema!). Ergh, no.

The Exorcist: probably the greatest horror movie ever made. Problem is, I have never seen a point to horror movies, period. Except campy Zombie ones. Go George Romero.

Early silent classics: The Battleship Potemkin, Metropolis, Intolerance, Birth of a Nation, early works of Luis Bunuel. Sound is an essential part of the cinematic experience. That is why movies have been shot in sound since The Jazz Singer. I've made one exception - a Charlie Chaplin film, given the man's endlessly acclaimed genius, and out of sheer curiousity. Besides, physical humour I can see transcending the need for speech or sound (there is a reason why one of the most popular comedies of recent times is Mr Bean).

Best Movies of the Decade (Top 25)

Here I have attempted to distill a list of my favourite 25 movies released this decade. They aren't necessarily the movies I think will be the most influential in the years to come, nor are they necessarily the most critically acclaimed. What they do represent is quite simply movies I would definitely want to watch again, movies that I found hugely enjoyable or thought provoking. Movies that somehow lingered with me, and will continue to linger still:

1. The Lord of the Ring trilogy
   
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. The Lives of Others
4. City of God
5. Dogville
6. Y Tu Mama Tambien
7. Kill Bill (Vol. 1 and 2)
8. There Will Be Blood
9. The Dark Knight
10. Wall-E
11. Before Sunset
12. Atonement
    
13. Milk
14. Brokeback Mountain
15. The Dreamers
16. Michael Clayton
17. Sin City
    
18. Sideways
    
19. Good Night and Good Luck
    
20. Avatar
21. Downfall
22. Memento
    
23. The Incredibles
24. Spirited Away
25. The Pianist
    

Near Misses: Star Trek, Amelie, Gosford Park, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Minority Report, The Constant Gardener, The Queen, Borat, Finding Nemo, Million Dollar Baby, Once, Closer, Lost in Translation, The Wrestler, Spring Summer Autumn Winter Spring, Revolutionary Road, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Casino Royale, No Country for Old Men, Man on Wire, Bowling for Colombine, Match Point,

Acclaimed Films I Haven't Seen: The Royal Tenenbaums, Four Months Three Years and Two Days, Hurt Locker, United 93, Mulholland Dr., Knocked Up, A History of Violence, Mystic River

My Film Highlights of 2009

The year is not quite done, but I've decided to do a short run through of the best (and worst) movies I've seen in 2009.

Best Movie seen in the Cinema: To date, I have seen 40 movies in the cinema this year. If I go a December movie binge I might just bring the total to around one a week. There were many quite wonderful films - the brutal rawness of The Wrestler, the emotionally heart wrenching (some would say manipulative) yet also quietly funny Departures, the wonderfully adapted 1960s take on suburban unhappiness that is Revolutionary Road, the delightful Up! and the thought provoking and just generally provocative Waltz with Bashir, and the list goes on.

Two movies stood out for me, though. For sheer pure enjoyment, nothing quite beat J.J Abrams Star Trek. It managed to both pay homage to and reinvent and revitalize an old franchise, but more importantly it was just a tremendous blend of wonderfully good humour and great action. Sean Penn rightfully won the Best Actor Oscar for a chameleon like portrayal of Harvey Milk - Milk, in my opinion deserved the Best Picture Award as well. I was supposed to choose between them, but I honestly can't, so I'll fudge and pick both.

Best Movie Seen (Other Media): This was truly impossible to decide. How could I possibly choose, when I saw A Man For All Seasons, The Lion in Winter, The Third Man and The Hustler on DVD? All of them are classic films that are deservedly great. How to choose between Paul Schofield's tremendous portrayal of Thomas More as a man of conscience (A Man for All Seasons) or Paul Newman's immensely charismatic yet complex pool shark (The Hustler), not to mention a classic film Noir in The Third Man complete with a Orson Welles cameo. That's to discount Bernado Bertolluci's tremendously influential Last Tango in Paris with an unforgettable performance by Brando which I also saw for the first time this year. All brilliant movies which I would definitely watch again.

Worst Movie Seen (Any Media): Hollywood continues to churn out fairly bad, testosterone fueled action movies which ensures that Michael Bay will always have a job. While the first Transformers movie was fairly successful (mainly by not taking itself too seriously), the second one was bloated, overcooked and excessively long that took itself far too seriously. It was also not helped but some fairly bad acting (Sam's dad going "I don't wanna lose you" in such a terribly fake way in the middle of a war zone being the icing on the cake). New Moon was turgid and often excruciating. I found it impossible to overlook the often terrible lines such as "all you have to do is breath" [to make me happy], or "Bella, you're everything to me" (okay, I'll be honest and admit those aren't the exact lines, but rough paraphrases, but you get the idea!).

Occasionally I also feel the odd compulsion to watch a bad, generally brainless action movie without any plot. Thus, the abysmal Elecktra and the rather dull Fantastic Four. Oh, and I also did pay to watch Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li in the cinemas, but that had Kristin Kreuk in it, and a local Singapore actor!


Addendum: Avatar did indeed turn out to be a spectacular movie which made my Top 25 list of the decade (as did Milk) while Star Trek missed out in that regard. So I guess Avatar and Milk are my best of 2009.

When Harry Dumped Sally

I was having a random chat with M. when we both mentioned that we really enjoyed When Harry Met Sally. Which is unsurprising given that it is a cult romantic comedy classic but surprising given that we are both a little bit cynical and jaded, and don't ordinarily watch rom coms.

The cynical side of us did come through of course. Like in any romantic comedy, the two protagonists end up together at the end. That wasn't a spoiler. If you are watching a rom com you know it is going to happen. Anyhow, I mentioned that I always thought that Harry and Sally would divorce after say 5 years of marriage because they would start to drive each other nuts. M said that she always thought that it would happen that way too. Of course given that the American divorce rate is hovering at about 50%, we have a odds on chance of being right.

So we started imagining what would happen after the credits rolled. So they divorce after 5 years but what do they do then? Perhaps Sally buys a dog to help her get over the break-up and she meets a lovely guy while walking the dog in the park one day. M was like no no maybe Sally turns lesbian (being so put out by men after Harry) and meets this really hot chick and ends up with her! Maybe they meet while Sally is walking her dog.

As for Harry. Well, he probably leaves New York and goes out of state in order to try to find himself. M wanted him to turn fat, and lose his job and be miserable. But, he needs some kind of redeeming quality too. What if he turns gay as well? I tell M. that we can't have both of them turn gay as that will go beyond the bounds of all credibility. Maybe he joins a hippie commune or loses himself in Zen Buddhism.

Where we can agree is that Harry and Sally don't end up back together. We are too realistic and cynical for us to believe or even want that to happen. Life doesn't always imitate the movies. I proposed the title When Harry Dumped Sally as suitably nice. M did say that even she found the idea and the title depressing. It would make her lose all hope in love. Which probably means that it won't sell.

I've always harboured secret dreams of writing a screenplay. Why not write a cheap sequel to a cult classic. Goodness knows it has been done often enough before! I'll just go check on the availability of Rob Reiner to direct, and of course Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal to star......

Oscar Best Picture Nominees - To Watch

In yet another bit of procrastination, I have compiled a list of Best Picture nominees from the last twenty years which I have yet to see:

2008 - Frost/Nixon
2007 - None
2006 - None
2005 - None
2004 - Ray
2003 - Mystic River
2002 - None
2001 - In the Bedroom
2000 - Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Chocolat
1999 - None
1998 - The Thin Red Line
1997 - The Full Monty
1996 - Secrets and Lies
1995 - Sense and Sensability
1994 - Quiz Show
1993 - None
1992 - Unforgiven, The Crying Game, Howard's End
1991 - Prince of Tides, Bugsy
1990 - Ghost, Awakenings, The Godfather Part III
1989 - Driving Miss Daisy, Field of Dreams

So I have seen a total of 78 of the 100 Best Picture nominees during that period which is not a bad totally, actually. I have also seen all five nominees (making me able to fully judge whether the Best Picture award was given deservedly) on 6 Occasions: '93, '99, '02, '05, '06, '07. I have also seen 18 out of the 20 Best Picture Winners, the exceptions being Unforgiven (1992) and Driving Miss Daisy (1989).

Among the remaining nominees over the last twenty years, I will soon be watching Frost/Nixon (in late March '09) when it opens in Singapore. Of the remaining few, I am only really keen to watch Mystic River and Unforgiven (both Clint Eastwood), Quiz Show, Sense and Sensibility, Howard's End and the Godfather Part III (if only to see where Coppola went wrong). I would conceivably watch Driving Miss Daisy (since it won Best Picture), In the Bedroom (because it had an excellent cast). The rest of them don't really entice me that much, perhaps proof, if any were needed, that the Academy can often go very wrong.

Update: 05 Feb 2011 - I realize, rather coincidentally that this list can in a sense stand alone, for from 2009 onwards the Academy began shortlisting 10 films for Best Picture. Since this post I have gone on to watch Frost/Nixon as mentioned, Howard's End and Sense and Sensibility. The Eastwoods have thus far still escaped me. To add to the list, I guess I should watch Ghost, given its cult status, and in honour of Patrick Swayze who died in 2010.

Oscars: The Hits and the Misses

So the 81st Academy Awards is now over, and we will have to wait another year for another glimpse of the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood elite. In the meantime, we might as well dwell on what was good about the ceremony this year - from the host, to the fashion, to the presenters and the speeches.

The Host: Hugh Jackman was chosen because he was deemed to be charming, with style and elegance in spades, and he could sing to boot. He showed his class by successfully hosting the Tony Awards though the Oscars is a much bigger kettle of fish. The singing ability was definitely on show with two musical numbers - an opening pastiche poking fun at the Best Picture nominees (in the tradition of Billy Crystal) and a later spectacular tribute to movie musicals. Apart from a five minute opening spell, he was largely anonymous. It seems like the Oscar producers, wary of misfiring wisecracks from past Hosts (David Letterman, and Jon Stewart spring to mind), limited the role of the Host this year. This is a great shame - the witty one-liners from the host (misfiring or not) and the repartee were an integral part of the fun of the Oscars. Jackman did thrown in a few funny one-liners quipping that due to downsizing he would soon be starring in a film titled New Zealand and telling Meryl Streep that 15 nominations that makes you think of only one thing - steroids alluding to the recent scandals in baseball. Let's hope they will invite him back and give him more screen time next year.

The Presenters: The producers were keen to cut down the running time so presenters were largely formal and multiple awards were given out. Will Smith alone presented four, quipping that Hugh Jackman was in the back taking a nap. The one major change was in presenting the acting awards. This involved having five previous winners step forward and give a short speech praising each nominee in turn (effectively a hagiography of their performance). It was a nice gesture and it was genuinely touching (at the very least for the nominee), but I felt myself torn about it at the end of the day because it was also somewhat cloying and seemed just a touch self-congratulatory. Still, I would vote for keeping this format, if only to have a chance to see past luminaries again.

The Acceptance Speeches: The speeches have been getting more and more dull, with viewers often subjected to a rattling off of a long list of names in as short a time as possible. I understand the need for the one and a half minute time limit (imagine how long the show would be otherwise!) but it certainly stifles originality, humour and personal style. Mickey Rourke's acceptance speech at the Independent Spirit Awards and The BAFTAs is an example of what an Oscar acceptance speech no longer is. This year wasn't terrible. Kate Winslett didn't break down and cry and even managed a quip about making the speech as a nine year old in the bathroom with a shampoo bottle standing in as an Oscar. Sean Penn jokingly called everyone god-damned homo-loving sons of bitches, and acknowledged how "difficult I sometime make it for you to appreciate me", before calling for equal rights for everyone and predicting the great shame future generations will feel at those rejecting gay marriage. Danny Boyle did a tigger impersonation. But oh how I was wishing that Mickey had won the Oscar and gone on stage and uttered a few obscenities just to spice things up.

The Fashion: There weren't quite any fashion disasters on the scale of Bjork's infamous Swan outfit this year, but there were still a couple of questionable choices. Natalie Portman (who presented award) came in bubble-gum pink that was oh so girlie-girl though the strapless design was admittedly rather stylish. Sarah Jessica Parker is usually quite the fashionista but her 'barley mint' tightly corseted full length dress, with massive buckled belt could barely contain her cleavage and was strange to say the least. The biggest disaster would probably have to go to Whoopi Goldberg, who presented an award in a full leopard print patterned dress. Animals are so out!

On to the fashion successes. Heidi Klum will always be eye-turning and it takes a gutsy girl to wears full-blooded red on the red carpet, but her dress was a wonderfully intricate creation with origami like folds. Anne Hathaway is one of those stars that can look elegant in just about anything but she was dazzling in her bead and jewel encrusted strapless grayish-white gown. While the trend has been towards the strapless or one-shoulder bared look, I applaud Tilda Swinton for showing that covering it all up can be classy, stylish and beautiful yet edgy as well. Her black/beige combination was a stunner in my mind. Other standouts: Frida Pinto (of Slumdog Millionaire) in her midnight blue lace number, Miley Cyrus in her scalloped shaped glitter trimmed gown, and Marisa Tomei looked stunning in her pearl grey pleated gown (but then she would look stunning wearing practically anything - or in fact nothing at all as the Wrestler amply proved!)

Oscar Predictions 2009

The movie awards season is culminating with the Academy Awards. Amidst all the hoopla, I have decided to give my take on who will win. It is necessarily a myopic one, given that I have not seen all the nomination films/performances, but here is my two cents worth nonetheless.

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader, Milk, Frost/Nixon.

Will Win: Slumdog Millionaire
Should Win: Milk

The critical consensus is that this was a weak year in terms of Best Picture nominations. What we do have are five very different films. It is clear that the popular sentiment and the momentum is with Slumdog Millionaire. People love an underdog rags to riches story, and that Slumdog has in spades, though it has enough of an emotional heft to make it more than a lightweight. Slumdog will win mainly because it is the movie with the fewest detractors and because of its happy Hollywood feel good ending. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a superbly made film, but some found it overlong and not really engaging. The Reader was even more divisive - some thoroughly disliked it, though it has the holocaust theme going for it and a fine performance by Kate Winslett. Milk for all its great acting, is too controversial for many of the Academy voters. The two main contenders are Slumdog and Benjamin Button, but expect Slumdog to ride on a wave of sentiment and good feeling to take the award.

Among this year's contenders, I actually liked the two front-runners the least. Slumdog was a well-made film, but it tugged too obviously at the emotional heart-strings for me, and its Hollywood nature seemed just a little bit contrived despite the weightiness and grimness of the setting and the subject matter. Benjamin Button will win lots of technical awards (art direction, visual effects and make-up) and it features excellent direction and technical elements. But the movie was overlong, sometimes slow and seemed oddly detached. I thought The Reader was a movie that was very thought provoking and raised many difficult questions. It was an excellent adaptation. It didn't quite completely cohere though. Milk for me was a superb biopic of a specific time and a place, not just a person, with a knockout performance by Sean Penn. It also featured, for me, one of the most moving scenes in cinemas this year with the candlelit march at the end. It certainly tugged at the heartstrings, but the movie had earned it by then.

Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler; Sean Penn, Milk; Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Frank Langhella, Frost/Nixon; Richard Jenkins, The Visitor

Will Win: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Should Win: Sean Penn, Milk

This is going to be a toss-up between Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn. Jenkins' nomination was reward enough for constantly being overlooked, Pitt was decent enough but didn't even appear on camera for the first 40 minutes of the film, which in many ways was the more compelling portion of it. The strong sentimental favourite is Rourke who puts in a great performance as an ageing Wrestler whose life is on the ropes and headed for a three count. It was a role made for him, and the way it mirrors his own personal decline will win him huge sympathy. If the academy votes with its gut instead of its head, as it usually does, this is Rourke's award to lose.

Sean Penn was simply superb as Harvery Milk. He gave a performance that was so nuanced, so true to character and so real, that he practically lit up the screen throughout the movie. It was a virtuoso performance of technical acting ability that deserves the Oscar. They say that biopics do well in the acting categories which should mean Penn is a lock but Milk's character and the openly gay nature of the role will have drawbacks at the Academy. That is not to say I didn't like Rourke's performance, which given the gritty realism of the role could just as well be a fictional biopic. It was a tough call for me but I will have to go with Sean Penn.

Best Actress: Kate Winslett, The Reader; Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married; Meryl Streep, Doubt; Angelina Jolie, Changeling; Melissa Leo, Frozen River.

Will Win: Kate Winslett, The Reader
Should Win: Kate Winslett, The Reader

The only real contenders here are Kate and Meryl with Angelina as a strong dark horse. Anne Hathaway is still young, and though she showed real acting chops as the attention seeking guilt ridden younger sister the Academy will feel she still has the advantage of time. If she continues to take on edgier, deeper roles, she may well win an Oscar in the future. Angelina was good in Changeling and it was a wonderfully written role in yet another great Eastwood vehicle that has proven successful at spawning acting Oscars in the past (Tim Robbins, Sean Penn - Mystic River, Gene Hackman - Unforgiven, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman - Million Dollar Baby). But Eastwood was largely overlooked this year, and Jolie thought she was good, didn't do enough independent of the role to warrant a second Oscar.

Meryl Streep was nominated yet again. Some say she was brilliant, some say she was doing yet another version of the typical Meryl turn, but this goes for any movie she has made in the past decade. I thought she did a wonderfully good job as a nun full of righteous indignation who is determined to hold on to what she believes is the truth. A fifteenth nomination is deserved, but the Academy has shown its reluctance to reward her with another statuette and this will not change.

This will be Kate Winslett's year. Six nominations shows her range, diversity and an ability to really embody a character. She put in a bravura performance, in a truly difficult role - enabling us to empathize with a Nazi holocaust camp guard and feel for her at a human level. Besides, the old dictum holds - Holocaust movies always win Oscars (it certainly did the trick for Adrian Brody in The Pianist).

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight; Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt; Josh Brolin, Milk; Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder

Will Win: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Should Win: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

This award is a virtual certainty, but it is more than just a sympathy vote given in celebration of Heath Ledger's life and achievements. His turn in The Dark Knight was truly frightening. He made the role of the Joker his own, embuing it with a frightening malevolence, manic glee and perverse delight that was equally disturbing and enthralling to watch. His was the performance that held a superb movie together. The other nominees all turned in notable performances - Brolin providing excellent support to Penn, and Hoffman performing with his usual excellence as the priest at the center of the allegations in Doubt. I was happy that a comedic role was recognized (fewer and fewer such roles seem to get the Academy's attention) and Downey's turn in Tropic Thunder as an Australian method actor playing a Black was truly delicious. That said, as good as the rest of them were, they pale in comparison to Heath.

Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler; Amy Adams, Doubt; Viola Davis, Doubt; Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Will Win: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Should Win: Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Penelope Cruz puts in a wonderfully turn as a deranged, suicidal and fatally unbalanced ex-lover of Javier Bardem in Woody Allen's latest offering. This is Cruz in her element, darkly fun (and funny) - unlike a number of her recent roles where she was miscast as the smoldering Spanish flame which really doesn't suit her style. Woody Allen vehicles are good for acting Oscars for females (Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite; Dianne Wiest, Bullets Over Broadway and Hannah and her Sisters; Diane Keaton, Annie Hall) and Cruz is odds on to join the list.

Her closest challenger is Marisa Tomei, who complements Mickey Rourke superbly in The Wrestler as a stripper who is also his sometime love interest. Tomei is as utterly convincing as a stripper as Rourke is as a Wrestler, with both understanding that their occupations are performances of sorts. She gives us a character at once jaded and cynical while also showing a more human side as a single mother, creating a vulnerability that is never forced. She and Rourke hold the movie together, and her performance was a real standout. And I might also add here (though it obviously has absolutely no bearing on my choice) that Tomei is an absolute stunner and a knock out, even post-40.

Amy Adams is pleasant enough as the innocent nun torn between Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman but is very much the third leg in the acting trio. Viola Davis puts in a shattering and heartfelt 10 minute mucus strewn turn as the mother of the boy who may or may not have been sexually abused, but her lack of screen time doesn't give her the depth necessary to win (that is barring another Judi Dench). The academy will feel Taraji Henson's time might come, but it won't be for her role as Brad Pitt's mother.

Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire; David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Gus Van Sant, Milk; Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon; Stephen Daldry, The Reader

Will Win: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Should Win: Gus Van Sant, Milk

I initially thought that this might be one of those year's where there would be a Best Picture/Best Director split: Slumdog taking Best Picture, David Fincher recognized for lending Benjamin Button the artistic and technical mastery that it has. But I finally succumbed to the Slumdog onslaught. Despite Boyle being much more of a Hollywood outsider than Fincher (in fact that applied to just about everyone who worked on Slumdog), the rags to riches story set in the Mumbai slums has won the hearts of everyone.

Pity then to Gus Van Sant, who has a varied and interesting body of work and does an excellent job putting together Milk. From the choice use of archival footage which was subtle and well chosen (rather than egregious and attention grabbing like Forrest Gump) to enabling us to wholly inhabit San Francisco in the late 1960s, it was a superb achievement which will, sadly, go unrecognized.

Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire; Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; John Patrick Shanley, Doubt; Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon; David Hare, The Reader

Will Win: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
Should Win: David Hare, The Reader

Eric Roth's adaptation of Benjamin Button is not so much an adaptation as a re-write, not to mention a large scale plagiarism of Forrest Gump. If he wins, it will be a travesty. Beaufoy did a good job of cutting down large portions of Swarup's novel while staying true to its spirit but I thought Hare's work on The Reader was very compelling, giving us a superbly nuanced piece which was though provoking yet moving.

Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, Milk; Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Peter Doctor, Wall-E; Martin McDonagh, In Bruges; Courtney Hunt, Frozen River; Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky

Will Win: Dustin Lance Black, Milk
Should Win: Dustin Lance Black, Milk

My ability to judge this category is compromised by the fact that I have only seen Milk and Wall-E. There is usually a strong correlation between Best Picture and Best Original or Adapted Screenplay. As Milk is the only Best Picture nominee that is nominated here, it should be a shoo-in. Dustin Lance Black has written an excellent, personal and very heartfelt script, and from what I can tell, he deserves it. (It would be interesting to see In Bruges, which has been touted as a highly original script and film though)

Technical Awards Predictions (Should Wins in Brackets):

Best Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Best Music: Slumdog Millionaire (Wall-E)
Best Song: Slumdog Millionaire, Jai Ho (Slumdog Millonaire, Jai Ho) but it really should be The Wrestler by Bruce Springsteen which was not even nominated
Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (The Dark Knight)
Best Costume Design: The Duchess (The Duchess)
Best Make-Up: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire (Slumdog Millionaire)

Seen On the Big Screen So Far

Australia - rather long and self indulgent in spots especially over the second half, but Lurhmann's paean to his homeland is good, wild, rollicking fun for the most part. Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman were likeable enough leads but the child actor who play the young half aborigine boy steals the show. A perfect showcase for the marvelous scenery in the outback though the movie was never subtle and could have done with a fair bit of editing.

The Duchess - An interesting portrait of an era through an effervescent young aristocrat ahead of her time. Keira Knightley puts in another sparkling and high spirited performance as the title character the Duchess of Devonshire. Ralph Fiennes does a fine job portraying the everyday odiousness of the Duke, while enabling us to gain a richer understanding of the constraints of class, tradition and society into which he and Georgina are both bound. Somewhat slow at spots but good acting and clear idea of what the film sets out to accomplish makes it worth watching.

Rachel Getting Married - Hollywood loves films about dysfunctional families, and weddings often make the setting of popular runaway hits (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding). Rachel Getting Married succeeds because it avoids the minefield of cliches and gives us a group of characters who are multifaceted and richly written. Anne Hathaway puts in a standout performance as the sister in rehab who struggles with a drug habit, her own need to constantly be at the centre of attention and guilt for her responsibility in a family tragedy. The acting is good all-round here as is the script which creates real meaningful and nuanced individuals. The documentary feel of the movies and hand-held cinematography adds depth. Only beef - wedding sequence at the end of the movie was slightly overlong and removed some of the emotional heft.

Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea - Miyazaki's latest offering hearkens back to his more whimsical, child-like work from his earlier days, like Kiki's Delivery Service. The animation, as to be expected, is truly superb. The story itself however is rather simple, as is the movie on the whole. Still, a joy for the animation itself.

Changeling - Clint Eastwood seems to just get better and better with age. You run the gamut of emotions throughout this movie from serene happiness, to shock, despair, outrage, horror and then hope. Angelina Jolie takes a superb role and runs with it, though the standout performance is by Jason Harner who manages to ooze charm and odiousness in equal measure in a unhinged manner that is truly frightening. The movies is excellently produced and directed. It does have to follow the turn of the events (it is based on a true story) which leads to a sudden switch in the middle of the film, and a slightly long conclusion where some of the emotional force is lost. But overall very good indeed.

Inkheart - what was an interesting concept - the ability to read characters into life - is ultimately wasted in this movie, which manages to be wearying. The plot begins to make less and less sense as it goes along. The chief crime is that it lacks a sense of fun, which should have been inherent in any movie involving escaped fairytale characters.

The Reader - a wonderfully compelling, deep, thoughtful movie. The elements of guilt and shame are explored through the past of Hanna Schmidt who was a former guard at Auschwitz, though the film, at its core is about the guilt of Michael, the sixteen year old boy she has an affair with. A film which can only be appreciated when thought about deeply. Kate Winslett is very good and will be a front-runner come the awards season.

You Are What You Read (and Watch)

I read a lovely piece in the New York Times called "It's Not You, It's Your Books" (March 30, 2008) which I could eminently empathize with. Rachel Donadio, the author, recounted a "Pushkin" moment from a girlfriend who had just broken up with her boyfriend and was looking for some form of justification. Her answer? "He hadn't even heard of Pushkin!"

As a keen reader myself, her story resonated with me tremendously. After all, I am a person who first became attracted to one of my eventual girlfriends (we dated for a year) after she noticed that I was holding a copy of Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of the Hills at a party and mentioned that she enjoyed his books, especially The Remains of the Day. I will freely admit that if I visit the home of a friend (or any home at all), one of the things that I will surreptitiously do is quickly scan the bookshelves to see what lies therein.

As Donadio acknowledges, reading and what a person reads need not be the deal-breaker in a relationship. In fact, inveterate bookworms often get along smashingly well with counterparts for whom the daily newspaper and Reader's Digest is the limit of their literary tastes. Sara Nelson, who wrote the book memoir So Many Books, So Little Time admitted she married a man who read nothing and could not understand her love of reading. He tolerated her eccentric habit however, grew used to sleeping with the glow of a reading lamp in the background, and proved useful by building her bookshelves (he was a set designer by trade).

Indeed, the fact is that the written word is hardly the popular medium of choice in our modern generation. Book loving friends tell me that they are happy to find someone who reads at all - being picky about literary taste would probably mean a life of singlehood dreaming of Heathcliff and Mr Darcy (if you are female) and the appropriate female literary fantasy equivalent if you are male (Lolita? Elizabeth Bennett?). Still as Sloane Crosley, a publicist told Donadio, "if you're a person who loves Alice Munro and you're going out with someone whose favourite book is the Da Vinci Code, perhaps the flags of incompatibility were there prior to the big reveal".

One undoubtedly popular modern day entertainment medium, however, is the cinema. Almost everyone watches movies. In Singapore, going for a movie is about as standard a first date as there is. So while it would be difficult to assess your compatibility with a prospective date over literary tastes, finding out what movies she or he enjoys watching (or even what TV shows) can be instructive.

In fact, choosing the movie for a first date is an interesting exercise, one often fraught with difficulty. Taking a girl to the latest high octane Hollywood summer blockbuster might not send the right message if you are a guy (think Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer), worse is inviting her over for a Star Trek marathon. Insisting on a romantic comedy might be mildly off putting if you are female, especially one involving a woman desperate to get hitched and settle down (27 Dresses immediately springs to mind).

The specific movie you bring your date to can also be very illuminating. I remember taking a girl to watch My Summer of Love, a small indie movie about a young working class English girl who falls for a richer, more posh girl home for the summer from boarding school. She took my choice of a movie with a lesbian theme as a sign of a refreshing open-mindedness about homosexuality (the choice of the movie itself was completely coincidental, I had desperately wanted to watch it). We both enthused about being able to talk about specific scenes that we loved, including a beautiful shot of the two girls in the dark silhouetted by a camp fire.

I once fell completely for a girl with whom I had been exchanging long emails, more often than not about movies. She had amazing taste in movies (in my opinion) and it was refreshing to discuss Altman and Kubrick and Woody Allen with someone who was similarly enthusiastic. One eureka moments transpired when I told her I was keen to find a copy of a Kubrick war movie which was supposed to be a classic. She enthusiastically replied that it was a fantastic coincidence and she had just seen it on DVD and it was great! Turns out that I was talking about Path of Glory and she was referring to Full Metal Jacket. Our passion for film never did translate into very much else, but that was a moment where I truly felt a meeting of minds.

There are however, cases where the opposite happens. A girl I was having dinner with declared that she loved local Singaporean director Jack Neo and she would watch anything he did. I mean Jack Neo isn't bad but, surely there are better directors out there? After she decided one of her favourite movies of all time was I Not Stupid, an involuntary shudder went down my spine. It would be increasingly hard for me to date someone if what I wanted to see was Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen), Burn After Reading (Coen brothers), and My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar Wai) when what they preferred was The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Mamma Mia!, and Night in Rodanthe (just to use 2008 as an example).

Things came to a head recently when a date (whom I had just taken to see a movie) told me over dinner that she hadn't liked Wall-E. In fact she found it boring, was tempted to walk out (but didn't), found the plot completely unsubtle and pointless, and I mean, there wasn't even any dialogue in the first half an hour! I was mildly apoplectic. How can a person dislike and be totally bored by a Pixar film? This is a movie that scored close to 100% on the tomatoemeter (at Rotten Tomatoes). It was a beautiful love story to boot (shouldn't that at least appeal to some extent to a girl?). It was also powerfully human and very moving.

Is that the end then? Well, she is cute. But if I do pursue things, and they don't work out, I can always call a friend and moan - "but she didn't even like Wall-E!"

My Top 10 Movies of All Time

I've recently gone through and updated a list of all the movies I can recalling watching, either in the cinema, on VCD/DVD (or even on Laserdisc!), as well as on TV. It came up to well over 800 individuals titles. I also attempted to assign ratings for the majority of them, though it proved difficult given that I had seen some of them a long while back. However, in the process of doing that review, I have chosen my 1o favourite movies of all time, as of the start of 2009. In no particular order:

The Shawshank Redemption
Singin' in the Rain
Cinema Paradiso
Pleasantville
Double Indemnity
Patton
Pan's Labyrinth
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Casablanca
Raise the Red Lantern

A full list of all the movies I rated **** (out of ****) will follow, once I have finalised it. Comments on my choices are welcome.

Lord of the Rings Marathon

I finally succumbed and bought the DVD Special Edition Box Set of the Extended Versions of the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. Quite a mouthful, and indeed quite representative of the length of the movies themselves. 

What better way to celebrate the immensity of the purchase (it set me back around S$130) than to hold a massive marathon movie session to view all three movies back to back (to back) in its extended format? I had previously attended a Lord of the Rings marathon where all three theatrical releases were shown through the night at a cinema in Oxford, but this would be the ultimate test, with all the additional cut footage bringing each movie beyond four hours in length.

Watching the extended versions of the movies turned out to be quite a fun game of detective work, as various people chimed in as to whether this or that particular scene was 'in the original'. It also presented an interesting view into the movie editing process, particularly in scenes which had been retained, but where specific shots had been cut or edited. It is a pity that some scenes had to be cut out, particularly extended footage of the Shire at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, and the Houses of Healing scene in the Return of the King. The scenes involving the Mouth of Sauron were also immensely cool. One scene which I was happy to see cut involved Aragon in the Halls of the Dead, and involved Aragon, Gimli and Legolas running for cover to avoid being inundated by cascading skulls. That was Peter Jackson at his most B grade horror kitsch.

I must thank Edward, Vernon and Karin for staying all the way through the whole night, and Rachel and Hiankai for coming for portions of it. There is nothing like watching the Lord of the Rings with a group of fellow Tolkien fans. It was also something to watch the three movies together, as a seamless whole, which they are undoubtedly meant to be. Now, I have to start working on the three DVDs of extras, commentary, interviews and other footage, which should be an adventure in itself!

AFI Top 100 As Inspired by Rachel

Inspired by Rachel I am checking off all the movies on the American Film Institute 10th Anniversary Top 100 Film list that I have seen. The list is as follows, films I have seen are in bold:

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Raging Bull (1980)
5. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
6. Gone with the Wind (1939)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler's List (1993)
9. Vertigo (1958)
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
11. City Lights (1931)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977)
14. Psycho (1960)
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
17. The Graduate (1967)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)
20. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
21. Chinatown (1974)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. All About Eve (1950)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979)
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
35. Annie Hall (1977)
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
40. The Sound of Music (1965)
41. King Kong (1933)
42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
45. Shane (1953)
46. It Happened One Night (1934)
47. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
48. Rear Window (1954)
49. Intolerance (1916)
50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
51. West Side Story (1961)
52. Taxi Driver (1976)
53. The Deer Hunter (1978)
54. MASH (1970)
55. North by Northwest (1959)
56. Jaws (1975)
57. Rocky (1976)
58. The Gold Rush (1925)
59. Nashville (1975)
60. Duck Soup (1933)
61. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
62. American Graffiti (1973)
63. Cabaret (1972)
64. Network (1976)
65. The African Queen (1951)
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68. Unforgiven (1992)
69. Tootsie (1982)
70. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
72. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
74. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76. Forrest Gump (1994)
77. All the President's Men (1976)
78. Modern Times (1936)
79. The Wild Bunch (1969)
80. The Apartment (1960)
81. Spartacus (1960)
82. Sunrise (1927)
83. Titanic (1997)
84. Easy Rider (1969)
85. A Night at the Opera (1935)
86. Platoon (1986)
87. 12 Angry Men (1957)
88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
89. The Sixth Sense (1999)
90. Swing Time (1936)
91. Sophie's Choice (1982)
92. Goodfellas (1990)
93. The French Connection (1971)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994)
95. The Last Picture Show (1971)
96. Do the Right Thing (1989)
97. Blade Runner (1982)
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
99. Toy Story (1995)
100. Ben Hur (1959)

That makes 33 out of 100 films that I have seen in total or exactly one third of them. At this point I have to say, in all incredulity Titanic and The Sixth Sense on the list? Don't get me wrong, they are good enough films, but among the AFI's top 100, that really is quite stunning.

Movies high on my to watch list: The Searchers (a classic Western - I have been watching quite a few modern Westerns recently and it would be good to watch a seminal example of the genre), On the Waterfront (I coulda been a contender..... but I might save it for my movie appreciation group and Kris and Vern), Annie Hall (had the DVD for ages, Woody winning Best Picture), M*A*S*H (I have a growing appreciation of Altman after watching Gosford Park and Michelle has recommended this most highly).

Movies that rank on the whaddya mean you haven't seen this??! E.T The Extraterrestrial (I clearly had a deprived childhood), Rocky (I could have watched Rocky Balboa last year when it opened in cinemas but I refrained - Balboa was released thirty years after the original, goodness me), Jaws and King Kong (I loved the Peter Jackson remake and I really should watch the original).

Update (end Feb 2009): I have since added four movies to the list bringing the total to 37 - 2001: A Space Odyssey, Annie Hall, The Treasures of the Sierra Madre and MASH.

Oscar Turns 80

So it is the 80th annual Academy Awards which survived the Writer's strike to go ahead as planned. As host Jon Stewart quipped, Oscar turning 80, automatically made him the front runner for the Republican nomination in a dig at John McCain. He also cheekily asked which "Democrat everyone was going to vote for" and noted that the last time America had a black President, an asteroid took out the Statue of Liberty (think Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact).

I worked from home in order to watch the ceremony live and it was pretty entertaining. Jon Stewart proved quite a success as a host, making some well-timed quips, though he was threatened to be upstaged by a seemingly endless sequence of video montages (something he parodied in a video montage of Hollywood's best scenes involving people waking up from bad dreams).

So the pre-Oscar favourites did well for the most part, excepting a win for Marion Coutillard for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose beating out hot favourite Julie Christie's portrayal of an alzheimer's suffer in Away from Her. Given the general trend though this is hardly surprising. In the previous 10 years (including this year), only 2 Actresses have won the Best Actress Oscar in portraying completely fictional roles (Halle Berry for Monster's Ball and Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby). The others have all gone to individuals playing real life people - Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos, Nicole Kidman (and prosthetic nose) as Virginia Woolf, Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovitch and Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena. Add in Supporting Actress wins for Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth I, Jennifer Connelly as Alicia Nash in A Beautiful Mind, Marcia Gay Harden as the wife of Pollock in the biopic of the same name and of course Cate Blanchett's brilliant turn as Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator and the trend becomes blindingly obvious - play a real person and win an Oscar. Going by that logic however, Cate Blanchett should have won for her portrayal of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. She was hotly tipped to win but lost out to Tilda Swinton.

My ability to judge whether awards are deserved is limited by the fact that I didn't manage to see many of the performances. I did manage to catch all the Best Picture nominees bar There Will Be Blood (which I intend to do very soon). While I thought they were all worthy films, the one I personally enjoyed the most and favoured was Atonement. No Country for Old Men was a brilliant technical production with fantastic acting all round (particularly for Bardem, whose Oscar was very much deserved). But I guess I am inherently biased towards Atonement which was a wonderful adaptation of a brilliant novel (the same can actually be said for No Country as well). Juno was quirky, funny, moving and real; and Michael Clayton was another movie with a fine ensemble cast and excellent production values. All in all, a fine list of best picture nominees.In the end, there was general thanksgiving that the ceremony could take place at all. The big winners were the Coen brothers for scooping best adapted screenplay ("we had a big advantage - we've only ever adapted Homer and Cormac McCarthy"), director and finally best picture. It is a deserved set of honours for a wonderful body of work and for never losing their roots in independent filmaking. The famously reticent Coens lived up to the reputation - when Joel won for Best Director, he stared at the audience for at least 10 seconds, mouth agape, before saying "thank you", then when he won for Best Picture he said: "I have nothing to add to what I said just now". A fitting representation of the 80th Academy Awards - general relief and thanks that it could go ahead at all.

Chinese New Year

So it is the year of the Rat, marking the start of a new 12 year chinese zodiac cycle. If one believes the myth surrounding the origins of the animal zodiac, the Rat won the race between the animals and is thus the head of the zodiac cycle. What is more interesting is how it won. Knowing it was slow and a poor swimmer, it clung on to the Ox until the finish line was approaching. Then, it leapt off and ran ahead to win the race.

Anyhow, it has been a rather quiet Chinese New Year for me mainly on account of my parents being on holiday in New Zealand. Given that my house is currently in a rather disorganised state it is perhaps just as well that we are not having any visitors this year. Things started off naturally enough with the usual Tuan Nian Fan which was held at my Uncle Roger's place this time around. The family tradition (and indeed a common Singaporean one) is to have a steamboat dinner. I brought alcohol over as per my grandpa's instructions but limited it to Tiger beer so as not to raise my uncle's ire.

Thursday was lunch over at my grandfather's house where we all got to make our own popiah (according to my grandpa's special recipe and mix of ingredients). My uncle Albert then kindly agreed to give me a lift over to M's place on Duchess avenue. She had invited me to visit after hearing of my parent's decision to abscond to New Zealand and thus the likelihood that I would be left to my own devices this Chinese New Year. It was good to have the opportunity to see her in person (after corresponding mainly through email) though I ended up talking to a varied assortment of relatives (and meeting her wonderfully adorable for now niece and nephew).

I ended up staying quite late at M's, deciding that it was high time I left after we both watched American Idol (audition episode for the new season). To add to the general excitement, a fire broke out at the condominium across from her house, which naturally prompted the arrival of three fire engines, assorted small civil defence vehicles and police cars and of course the obligatory swarm of curious by-standers. What was more worrying was seeing several fire fighters stand around a fire hydrant hitting it with a metal object (my presumption was that there was no pressure). There was a general sense that this wasn't a serious fire but it certainly doesn't bode well, as M mentioned, for a situation where there was a serious fire.

I then stopped by the Old Brown Shoe for a drink (in my defence I need it after the long walk out of Duchess Avenue) and found it relatively empty. Had a long chat with Lino and then ended up trying to frantically arrange a last minute mahjong game with Jen after we both decided that we had itchy fingers. That having proved impossible, I finally went home.

Friday was a quite day with no visiting. I caught Sweeney Todd with D. It was a movie made for the macabre mind of Tim Burton and I loved the visual feel and the way it was shot. Johnny Depp (despite fronting a rock band) is only passable as a vocalist and Helena Bonham-Carter slightly weaker at best. But it was still a highly enjoyable movie (if one can find throat cutting, murder, and horrible tasting meat pies enjoyable). Later on in the evening, it was over to Harry's@Novena for drinks.

Instead of taking the wise and sensible option (to go home), I called my sister who was in MOS and she urged me to join her. Suffice to say it turned into a rather disastrous evening (I arrived at MOS to find that one of her friends had gotten drunk). We did manage to get a drink at Harry's@Boat Quay and get a listen to their new singer (think Reuben Studdard with more of a jazz vibe). Thankfully, my sister decided to head home after that, after another member of her group went all queasy.

Double Indemnity and A Quest for Conscience

This afternoon marked the second screening in the ongoing series of films shown under the Wagging Finger of Shame banner. We ultimately settled on Double Indemnity after deciding between that and Sleeper. Unfortunately, our association with the Library @ Esplanade screening room seems to be cursed. At least on this occasion, the booking was made (I had done so in person to minimize the possibility of a screw up) but when we went into the screening room it was to find that the television and later the sound wasn't functioning. It took almost 20 minutes for them to sort out the problem before we could start showing the film.

Double Indemnity is one of the classic noir films, considered to be representative of the genre and rightfully so. It was directed by cinema stalwart Billy Wilder and contains a cracking script co-written by crime noir novelist Raymond Chandler from the book by James M Cain. Suffice to say they just don't write movie scripts like that in hollywood anymore. The movie also contains probably one of the best film noir seductresses in the genre and of course a wonderful plot about the near perfect crime.

Afterwards it was off to the Substation to watch an ACSian theatre production called The Quest of Conscience. The play basically takes the form of an interview between a journalist and the commander of a Nazi concentration camp as she (and presumably the audience) struggles to understand how a man can be in charge of the killing of more than one million individuals and whether he accepts his cupability/guilt for the massacres that happened.

It was an interesting production, with a large supporting cast ensconed within metal frames (a physical manifestation of the entrapment suffered by the Jews). The supporting cast acting out the dialogue of the Commandant's wife and the Jewish prisoners as seen from extracts from interviews the journalist had done earlier. I especially liked the interweaving of Jewish/German songs and I thought the final scene with the blowing out of a single candle very artistic (if not completely original).

The key to the play was the performance of the two leads. I thought that the Commandant, while he tried hard enough, just didn't have the range and nuance of expression to fully carry the role. The hint of an accent and the occasionally unclear expression did not aid matters. Ultimately what didn't come through enough was the sense of fatalism inherent in the belief that one cannot be held responsible for doing one's job well, if forced to do so under duress and if one believed that even the gesture of sacrificing yourself for ideals would be merely token and ultimately ineffectual. In the end, did he accept that he was guilty insofar as so many of the Jews died while he was alive due to his own cowardice and determination to do what was necessary for his own survival and that of his family? Can one fault a man like him for deciding on survival, no matter how heinous the cost of that survival, given that the killings would have continued, with or without him? These nuances didn't come through.

The girl acting as the journalist was stronger in her role, and it helped that she very much looked the part. She was effective in adopting the persona of the hard hitting journalist demanding answers, demanding the truth. A criticism though was that she was too one-dimensional in her portrayal. In a sense what was a powerful aspect of the role of the journalist was that she genuinely could not comprehend how a man like the Commandant could live with himself after the acts (of omission if not commission itself) that he had committed. She isn't demanding an admittence of guilt so much as struggling herself to understand him as a fellow human being (as opposed to a heartless killer) who is somehow able to still reconcile what he did at least until the end. That is the quest for conscience that the audiences is brought along to see.

Top Grossing Movies - 2007

The Life! section in Saturday's Straits Times (19 Jan) listed the Top 100 grossing movies of 2007 in Singapore. The results were predictable if somewhat depressing. Spider-Man 3 and Transformers were the highest grossing films of the year respectively, and set a local record by being the first movies to gross over S$7 million with Spider-Man 3 taking in a cool S$7.8m. The previous gross record was unsurprisingly held by Titanic which rode on a wave of teenage infatuation to S$6.2m at the box office back in 1997.

As expected, the Top 10 was full of the usual blockbuster fare. Besides the two movies mentioned above, the latest Harry Potter installment placed third, number four was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the new Fantastic Four movie, the Rise of the Silver Surfer, ranked seventh, Rush Hour 3 was eight and Shrek The Third was ninth. Mr Bean's Holiday also did very well, raking in close to S$4m to rank sixth, just behind Pixar's latest offering Ratatouille. The local film industry can be buoyed by the fact that 881, Royston Tan's ge-tai offering, raked in a cool S$3.5m to round up the top 10.

The results clearly show yet again the dominance of big-budget blockbuster sequels - six in the top ten alone not to mention National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (14th), The Bourne Ultimatum (20th), Die Hard 4.0 (21st), Ocean's Thirteen (23rd), Resident Evil Extinction (24th) as well as comic book or television adaptations - besides Spider-Man, Transformers and The Fantastic Four in the Top 10 we also had Alvin and the Chipmunks (15th), Ghost Rider (16th), 300 (17th), The Simpson's Movie (22nd), Resident Evil: Extinction (24th), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (32nd) among others.

The sum total of the above is a rather depressing situation for those who love critically acclaimed, art house and independent films. We might have Cinema Europa and the newly re-opened Picturehouse but the reality is that it is the blockbusters that the major cinemas are going to plumb for - the brainless action flick and latest Hollywood adaption of a Japanese/Korean horror movie rather than a movie that is truly interesting and creative.

It does pain me that a truly amazing movie like Pan's Labyrinth is way down in 72nd place on the list with a gross of only $475,000 (or 6% that of Spider Man 3), not to mention the critically acclaimed Letters from Iwo Jima (77th - 439,000). Gallingly, Balls of Fury (36th place) grossed more than those two movies combined. Even more depressing is the enormous list of excellent independent films that didn't even make the list of the Top 100.

Not to sound elitist, someone with taste is so defined precisely because he has preferences that differ from the unwashed masses (would classical music and ballet be considered high class if they were as popular as say MTV and rock music?). This no doubt applies to film too, as evidenced all readily by the thermometer of unwashed mass popularity - box office receipts.

Addendum: One interesting thing I noted was that the R21 version of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution grossed twice as much as the NC-16 version (without the much hyped up sex scenes).

Dover Close East Adventures and Eastern Promises

I ended up making a visit to ACJC today. This came after I invited Mei out to watch a movie, which turned out to be Eastern Promises. She mentioned that a group of recently graduated students were making a trip back in order to attend a KI lecture (Mei, Charmaine and Deborah) and I decided to tag along.

Upon arrival, we were given a task by the great guru Mr Daniel Tan himself. Apparently, he was giving an introductory lecture on knowledge, and he thought it a good idea to do the whole Matrix red pill/blue pill thing. Having had our idea of using Panadol Menstrual tablets for the 'red pill' (apparently the pills had to be properly edible), Char managed to obtain breath mints that were pinkish and light bluish respectively. I couldn't help but note that the blue pills were very similar in colour to Viagra (thank you Rob Linham for this horrendously inappropriate and useless piece of knowledge).

The lecture went on well enough and I curbed my enthusiasm for heckling Mr Tan (why else would one go back to attend a KI lecture?) I instead managed some asides to Debs and Char instead while attempting not to be too much of a nuisance. It was also nice bumping into some of my former colleagues in the staff room, including Candida and Wendy, though I wish I could have spoken to many of the others. I did manage a few witty and sarcastic remarks (one hopes!) to Miss Ganga J in passing.

Then it was off to watch the movie. Eastern Promises was violent and shocking. That was hardly surprising given director David Croenenberg's B-grade horror background. I saw poor Mei cover her eyes with her sweater during some of the more realistic scenes, and I don't blame her. A full review of the movie will be put up at City Flickers.

Movies To Watch from 2007

After browsing through a general overview of the film releases in 2007 (in America to date), I have made a list of the movies that I want to watch. A number of them have yet to appear in cinemas in Singapore.

Yet to Open in Singapore (if ever):
Atonement [seen]
Michael Clayton [seen]
Into the Wild [seen - DVD]
Eastern Promises [seen]
No Country for Old Men [seen]
The Assassination of Jesse James
Juno [seen]
There Will Be Blood [seen]
Sweeney Todd [seen]
In the Shadow of the Moon
This Movie Is Not Yet Rated (mid Jan)

Movies I missed in Theatres:
Flag of Our Fathers
Letters from Iwo Jima [seen - DVD]
The Lives of Others [seen - DVD]
Death at the Funeral
Hairspray
The Simpson's Movie [seen - DVD]
Becoming Jane
Sicko
Broken English
Deathproof and Planet Terror (Grindhouse)
Hot Fuzz [seen - DVD]

Last Updates June 2009

The Three Best Movies I Watched in 2007:
Pan's Labyrinth
Ratatouille
The Wind that Shakes the Barley

The Holiday

I must admit surprise that I actually willingly sat through the whole of The Holiday when it showed on HBO today. Holiday movies and romantic comedies are not my usual thing and this movie was both - in spades. I am often told I am a killjoy about the holiday season (but seriously, there are the crowds, the endless muzak versions of popular Christmas songs etc.) which really puts my watching this movie into perspective.

The premise of the movie is your run of the mill deux ex machina romantic comedy. Cameron Diaz's character dumps her boyfriend after she discovers that he cheated on her. Kate Winslett's winter descends into one of discontent (apologies to Richard III here) and desolation when her colleague at the newspaper where she works, with whom she has been madly in love for the last three years, announces his engagement to the girl from circulation (her rival in love).

Seeing the need to get away from it all, they contrive to swap houses (tiny rural English cottage for enormous Hollywood mansion) and in the roundabout fashion that is necessary for any romantic comedy of decent length, they contrive to fall in love as well. Cameron with Kate's brother, a widower; Kate with record producer Jack Black. There is a nice subplot about an old time Hollywood scriptwriter whom Kate stumbles upon (he's a neighbour) with plenty of nostalgia for the good old days and how Hollywood used to be.

The movie was enjoyable enough, but I guess personally it just reached a point for me when I just felt so blatantly emotionally manipulated that I just couldn't get round to enjoying the movie as much as I should. I guess the whole point of a romantic comedy is the suspension of disbelief - you know at the end of the day everyone is going to end up getting together so your job is to sit there and enjoy the ride.

The performances were appealing enough. Kate Winslett was charming and delightful as always, Jack Black was funny in a more subdued way than he usually is (which actually works better for me), and Jude Law does the whole sensitive new-age British guy and father of two widower with aplomb. Even Cameroon Diaz, whom I normally find annoying, was well-suited to her part as an obsessive go-getter unable to relax.

I guess I really didn't mind the movie so much. If only the script writers weren't doing their utmost to recycle every trick in the book to tug at my emotional heart strings.