My Movie Biography: Where It's At Now in 2012

(2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) Well, we're heading into the home stretch now. Tomorrow is the big day. Just to let you know, you will probably have trouble visiting the site for a while. Don't worry, (fingers crossed) everything goes fine and I'll be back up and running this time tomorrow. Hope to see you there!  Anyway, 2012 in my movie biography...

• By some small coincidence, all of the movies I got at one time from Fatso were by Roman Polanski. So I started off the year with Chinatown, Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. That was...fun.
• I saw The Muppets and The Adventures of Tintin on the same day. I felt so awkward being this 16 year old all alone in cinemas filled with children. Funnily enough, I preferred Tintin a lot more, but now The Muppets is pretty much my go-to movie when I want to feel better about life.
• I finally got out of NZ! My father and I went to Melbourne, Australia for a week and that was exciting. I was pretty excited for the plane trip, because Drive was playing on the plane and I hadn't seen it because it was an R18. I did really like it when I saw it, but I completely forgot about the fact that it was censored, so I was left wondering what was so R18 about it. Then I looked it up on the internet and apparently there were 70 swearwords in it, but I hadn't heard any of them. When I got the film on DVD, I finally embraced it and it became my second favourite movie of 2011. While I was in Melbourne I bought a crapload of movies because they had everything that I'd been looking for. And there's like, five JB Hi-Fi's in the city, so I was in heaven. Also heavenly was the Pancake Parlour, but that's another story. I also went to the cinemas a fair bit because I wanted to escape the heat. I only really wanted to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, because I thought it was going to be an R18 in NZ and it was only an MA15+ in Australia. I was so excited to be all rebellious. Then I got back to NZ and I found out that it was only an R16. Which was somewhat disappointing. I also saw The Descendants and Hugo just because I could. I really miss Melbourne. It was such a nice place. One day I hope to go back.
• While I wasn't as excited for the Oscars as much as I was last year (I blame the fact that I hadn't watched many of the movies), I still thought it was a good idea to wake up at 3am and watch the Oscar nominations for fun. It wasn't all that fun until I saw that Rooney Mara got nominated, in which case I let out this weird squeal that woke up everyone in the house. I stayed up until at least 4.30am ranting with people on Facebook about them. Which probably wasn't the best idea, because once the morning hit we were going to Palmerston North to watch War Horse. It didn't affect the experience. I still spent the entire film crying my eyes out. And when I say the "entire film", I mean the entire bloody thing. As soon as I saw that horse I was in tears.

My 20 Favourite Movies of 2011.

Okay, here we are. 20 may seem like a big number, but it was the only way I could fit in everything that I wanted to fit in. So let's not spend any time waffling - it is time for me to close out 2011 once and for all...

Honourable mentions: Hesher, Moneyball, Like Crazy, The Ides of March, Incendies, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Captain America: The First Avenger, Sarah's Key, The Adventures of Tintin, Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Limitless, Thor, Young Adult, Hugo, Melancholia, Contagion, The Help, Crazy, Stupid, Love., Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Super 8, X-Men: First Class, Source Code, Jane Eyre, Rango, Another Earth, Perfect Sense.

20. The Skin I Live In - Dir. Pedro Almodovar

A little strange? Definitely. The Skin I Live In, Pedro Almodovar's latest film, explores themes of loneliness, sexual identity, death, and possibly the most unique tale of revenge that I've ever seen. In other hands, this would have been the stuff that fits right into The Human Centipede's generation of horror. Almodóvar creates his macabre, ominous tale with elegance, kitsch and malevolence. The Skin I Live In is almost in a breed of it's own, playing out as a horror that dares you to get under your skin and make you question your own identity. Which is somewhat funny to see these days when horrors are all about scaring you with more blood and guts than are probably possible to be inside one person.

9 of My Favourite Scenes with Horses

This post is inspired by Ruth, who posted her seven favourite scenes to do with horses earlier this week as part of a Horse-a-Thon, which I totally missed the deadline for. However, I couldn't let this opportunity slip. As you may know, I'm really a horse girl deep down. No, it wasn't one of those phases that every girl has. I couldn't help but love horses because, well, my family trained racehorses. I mean, I've been riding horses since before I was born (seriously). Here's a chance to put my two greatest loves together. Here are my favourite scenes that have horses in them - in no particular order:

The opening scene of The Fall.

The opening scene of Tarsem's wildly underseen and underrated beauty is pretty much the most amazing opening sequence I've ever seen. Okay, so there isn't a lot of horsey action for the large majority of the scene, but with that black and white and dripping slow motion, it manages to make the horses look even more amazing. Just watch it - I don't know how any words could possibly do it justice.

AAN: Oscar Predictions - Best Picture

Welcome to part five of my official Oscar predictions - this season of Annual Awards Nerdism is just about done. Tonight I will rank the 7 Best Picture nominations that I've seen (in order of how much I like them) and end with my final prediction for the big winner, but first, I have a few words about the Oscars this year.
PAST PREDICTIONS: Acting; Writing and Directing; the 'Bests' and Visuals; Sound and Design.

If I've been taught anything about this past year of film, it is that I am big on emotional manipulation. When I go to the movies, I like to have something to show for it when I first come out of the cinemas. Two films that made me show my experience clearly were The Help and War Horse. If you saw me after seeing those films, you would have thought that someone had stabbed me in the heart or something, because the tears just kept coming and coming. And when you cry in a movie, you obviously got something out of it. So where people were turned off by the emotional manipulation, I succumbed to it, and as I watched more and more 2011 films I started to find it was a vital ingredient. Which is perhaps why I didn't take after The Descendants, a film with barely any sentimentality, or I wasn't convinced by Moneyball's emotional coldness. I need emotions - I have to be able to connect with a film, which I believe is the main basis of this blog.

Anyway, enough of all of that deep stuff. A lot of people have been turning off the Oscars this year. Even 'prominent awards bloggers' (what does that even mean?) have been turning off in the Oscars. While I admit that I'm nowhere near as excited for the awards as I was last year, I'm still very much willing to jump to the defence of them. Sure, there are some strange nominations this year. Sure, the ones that did get nominated weren't the most exciting choices. Sure, this awards season has been predictable. But as I said before, I like emotions. And the Oscars are full of those. I like watching the reactions, the gushing speeches, the applause - I like seeing people rewarded, because film-making obviously is hard work, and when you make a movie good enough for the Academy, you did something right. I just think it is a magical day, no matter what happens. That probably stems from my dream to actually win an Oscar one day...I honestly couldn't think of anything cooler. Whatever the outcome of tomorrow, I'll still be checking my phone like crazy in my last class of the day (well, providing the teacher is distracted enough), I'll be rushing home after school to hopefully get a good online stream, I'll probably be squealing over some good wins. Because I'm cliché like that.

AAN: Oscar Predictions - Soundies and Design

Welcome to part one of my official Oscar predictions, which is what this series of Annual Awards Nerdism has boiled down to. In the five nights leading up to the Oscars I'll share my predictions with y'all...with some poetry to come in some categories. Tonight, I'll be dealing with the 'soundies' (Best Achievement in Sound Editing, Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures - Original Song, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures - Original Score) and the 'design' awards (Best Achievement in Art Direction, Best Achievement in Makeup, Best Achievement in Costume Design). 

As per usual, I shall be using Fassy, Loki and Owen for my predictions. Just in case you don't know what they mean in prediction terms:
Happy Fassy - Who I want to win. Doesn't necessarily mean that they will win, though.
Lowkey Loki - Who I think will win. This is my official prediction.
Overwhelmed Owen - The longshot. If this wins, there'll be a bit of an outrage.

Soundies awards.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Drive / The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Hugo / Transformers: Dark of the Moon / War Horse

Okay, so out of all the categories sound editing is the one I know the least about (apart from the shorts). But surprisingly, I've seen all of these films, so I should have a good idea of how great their sound was edited. A huge part of me wants Drive to win, since this is it's only nomination and it deserves so much more than this. However, I had MAJOR problems with the sound when I was watching this on the plane...which is probably just a by-product of how crap their sound system is. However, out of all of the nominees, I think that Hugo has the best chance of winning, since I think it will sweep most of the technical awards. And that's all I have, since I didn't go into any of these movies with the sole purpose of watching, or, er, listening to their sound editing.

I Will Find You and I Will Bring You Home

Film: War Horse
Year: 2011
Director: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Lee Hall and Richard Curtis
Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis, Niels Arestrup, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Celine Buckens, David Kross.
Running time: 146 min.

As you may remember from this post, I lost a horse who was very dear to me and I would give literally anything to have her back. So right from the start, War Horse was going to be a film which I would love. Which is also quite a bad thing, since whilst watching I failed to look at the movie from a critical, 'the-movie-snob-that-I've-become' standpoint. Instead, I was left in tears more often than not. And these moments of extreme emotion weren't because of the really sad parts. In fact, I found myself in tears right at the beginning when Albert (Jeremy Irvine) was teaching Joey to respond to his whistle. This is because I remember exactly what that was like, to build up a bond with a horse that no-one could possibly ever break. And I miss it. I miss everything about having a horse to call my own, whether it be just to wrap my arms around it's neck or head, or have it rubs it's nuzzle up against my face. It may sound stupid to anyone who has never owned a horse in their life, but when you spent 15 years of your life with them and now you're left with nothing, you would understand why there's a huge void in my heart. That's why the story of Albert having his horse taken off him (in the worst possible way - I know exactly how it feels to arrive home and find that my horse isn't there, and it isn't pretty) resonated with me so much, and why I loved War Horse practically more than anyone else did.

AAN: My Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations w/ Fassy, Loki and Owen

So, I got up at 2.30am this morning to watch my first Oscar nominations being announced.
This is all I remember:
-Wondering how Max von Sydow came out of nowhere for that nomination.
-Being over the moon about Jessica Chastain's nomination, but getting more excited when I saw her picture was from The Tree of Life than her nomination actually being for The Help. Dunno why.
-Actually squealing when Rooney Mara got nominated. So loud that my puppy came in and barked at me and I woke up the whole house. Awkward.
-NO MICHAEL FASSBENDER?!
-Ummmmmmmmmmmmm...Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? LOL wut.
-Not being able to sleep until 4.30am because I was thinking over how the hell I could write this post, all the snubs and ranting with people on Facebook about it. If I was talking to you after the nominations, I was trying to get to sleep, but I could only count so many sheep (lyrical genius).

I slaved on a post like this ALL DAY last year and no one read it, so I'm a bit hesitant to go into too much detail. But I have waited until the talk has simmered down (and I went to Palmerston North today to see War Horse so that took away most of my day), so hopefully you still might have some interest. Anyway, hopefully you remember what Happy (well, not so happy anymore) Fassy, Lowkey Loki and Overwhelmed Owen mean. If not:
Happy Fassy - I am completely content with these nominations.
Lowkey Loki - Meh. I can't decide whether I'm happy or angry about these.
Overwhelmed Owen - Get. OUT.

Here we go...

Best Motion Picture of the Year

The Artist / The Descendants / Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close / The Help / Hugo / Midnight in Paris / Moneyball / The Tree of Life / War Horse
Predictions right: 6 out of 9. Didn't put War Horse and The Tree of Life in my final prediction of six, but put them in my second tier predictions (if that makes sense). But Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close only existed in my November predictions.

There's one thing I'm happy about here: I've watched six of these movies, which is better than I usually do. Moneyball comes out in three weeks, so I'll be watching that asap. The Artist may not make it to any cinemas near me. And Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? Guess I'll have to see that now. I remember thinking that The Help and War Horse probably wouldn't get nominated because their RT ratings were in the 70% range. But no, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, with the 48% rating, gets in. Instead of the likes of Drive, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...anything, really. I'm happy with the other eight nominees (well, not so happy about The Descendants but it was going to happen anyway), but the fact that there are only nine nominees and Extremely Loud was the one to take the ninth spot...it just makes me really peeved off. So that'd be a Lowkey Loki, thanks to that movie dragging things down (although I haven't seen it - I should stop being so mean).
But yay for The Tree of Life!

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir for A Better Life / George Clooney for The Descendants / Jean Dujardin for The Artist / Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / Brad Pitt for Moneyball
Predictions right: 3 out of 5. No Bichir or Oldman (thought he'd miss out by a hair).

I honestly thought they'd nominate Michael Fassbender. In fact, this is much like what happened with Christopher Nolan last year. I put up a Facebook status saying that he got a DGA nod and that he'd obviously get an Oscar nomination. But no. With Fassy, I told someone that if he didn't get nominated I'd go all Magneto on the voters. I only said that half-heartedly, because I didn't expect him to get snubbed. However, it happened, and that makes me extremely sad and incredibly angry. Maybe it is because the voters are just jealous of what he has and they don't. Leonardo DiCaprio also didn't get nominated. If he did, I would have just been like 'meh', but I feel really sorry for him. He tried his little heart out in that movie (I'm guessing), but at least I don't need to make a special point of seeing it in cinemas next week. However, what about Bichir? Talk about a nomination like Javier Bardem in last year's Biutiful. And I'm glad that Gary Oldman FINALLY got a nomination. As for the other three, we knew it was going to happen. Now I just hope George Clooney doesn't win.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs / Viola Davis for The Help / Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady / Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn
Predictions right: 4 out of 5. Left Rooney out because I wasn't positive it could happen.

I was so so so so happy when Rooney got nominated! But of all people for her to take the place of, I thought it would have been Glenn Close, not Tilda Swinton. Oh well. It is a little sad that Rooney got the nomination while Noomi Rapace got next to nothing for her Lisbeth Salander, but Rooney was freaking awesome so it doesn't matter. Rooney basically makes this category for me...as for the others, well, we knew it was all going to happen. I don't know how you could possibly pick between them. Although I would have loved to have seen some Kirsten Dunst love for Melancholia.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn / Jonah Hill for Moneyball / Nick Nolte for Warrior / Christopher Plummer for Beginners / Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Predictions right: 4 out of 5. Anyone who predicted Max von Sydow deserves a medal.

I thought it was a risky move putting Nick Nolte into my predictions for Warrior, but it paid off. Max von Sydow, however? I may have seen it back in November when I thought Extremely Loud was going to be a good movie and whatnot, but I thought that Albert Brooks had it locked down. Not to be. No Brooks, which practically shut out the very deserving Drive. I've said time and time again that there were so many great options that everyone was refusing to go with, and the Oscars went that way, too. It is pretty weird that Jonah Hill is now 'Oscar nominee Jonah Hill', but I guess the time had to come. Anyway, we all know that Christopher Plummer is going to win, and it better happen that way.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role 

Bérénice Bejo for The Artist / Jessica Chastain for The Help / Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids / Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs / Octavia Spencer for The Help
Predictions right: 4 out of 5. Honestly didn't think they'd go with Melissa McCarthy.

It all started with that Emmy. And then everyone decided that it would be a great idea to campaign Melissa McCarthy for Best Supporting Actress. I kept telling myself that it wouldn't work because Oscars don't generally go for comedies, but it happened. While I should be happy that the Oscars are making a change, I just can't go along with this nomination. Especially when it came at the expense of Shailene Woodley, who was probably the only thing I really liked about The Descendants. Who also out-acted George Clooney, who is probably going to win the fucking Oscar this year. But at least we have Jessica Chastain, who just so happens to be the definition of perfect. Look at it this way: this is the day when Jessica got her first ever Oscar nomination. We can look back on this day in our old age and she'll probably be like Meryl Streep.

Everything else after the jump!

AAN: My thoughts on the Golden Globes nominations w/ Fassy, Loki and Owen

I must admit, I was anticipating a really crap lineup like last year for the Golden Globes. Alas, that was not the case, and I can say I'm more impressed with these nominations than the SAG nominations (which is a surprise). However, as with all awards, there are people snubbed, a few surprises...and how could I possibly sum up my reactions to these nominations? Of course, with Happy Fassy, Lowkey Loki and Overwhelmed Owen, who I introduced you to last night. Alrighty then, let's delve into the second most important nominations to the Oscars:

Best Motion Picture - Drama:

The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

Oooh, six nominations. This is different. But we can't say that we didn't expect it. Actually, something that I didn't expect was to see The Help get nominated. Sure, it's shaping up to be a bit of a The King's Speech (in the way that it kinda looks like Oscar-bait, but not as much as that one), but the critical response for the film wasn't that great. Also, I'm surprised to see The Ides of March nominated, since we haven't seen it around much at any of the other awards. However, I expected The Descendants, Hugo, Moneyball and War Horse to show up. Plus, you may say that War Horse is pure Oscar-bait, but I have to disagree. The book is freaking amazing, so it's no wonder that they wanted to share this beautiful story. Oh, and my own war horse-type horse (from this post) got sold, and now she's even further away. So, when I finally get to see this movie, I'll probably be crying throughout the whole thing.
There were a few snubs, though. To be honest, I'm not that surprised that The Tree of Life didn't get nominated. It's the Golden Globes, for heavens sakes. It will get in at the Oscars, though. While I love the movie, I'm not sure why the awards circuit would go for it, but it could happen. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is missing, despite the fact that it is winning itself a lot of fans. J. Edgar is also missing. No, I didn't really think it had much of a chance because of the lukewarm reaction towards it, but it just seems like the type of movie that the HFPA would go for (considering all of the people involved). And again, there's no Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Why has that film been so absent?
There are some good choices here, but they aren't amazing. Therefore, I'm Lowkey Loki about it.

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy:

The Artist
Bridesmaids
50/50
Midnight in Paris
My Week with Marilyn

This is a pretty alright line-up. Well, it's more than alright considering how last year we had an absolute train-wreck of a category. At least every movie on this list has been getting some actual good reviews. The Artist will probably win without a doubt, but won't it be weird to see a movie considered as a comedy win Best Picture? Yeah, I'm still predicting it. I still don't get the love for Bridesmaids, but I guess they had to nominate it. The ever elusive 50/50, which I've heard definitely deserves it's place here, gets a nomination, which is good for the indie section of the awards. Midnight in Paris still has a huge place in my heart, and I imagine it could well give The Artist a good run for it's money (after all, they're both nostalgia hits). I'm just not sure what My Week with Marilyn is doing here, since I imagine that it is more of a drama. Is it because there are a few songs in there? Wow, the criteria is so accepting.
I'm actually happy about this category, even if I don't love Bridesmaids like everyone else. And in comparison with last year, this gets a Happy Fassy from me.

The rest of the nominations after the jump...

Stevee's Best and Worst Posters of 2011...

Well, it's December (how, I do not know), so it's the time of the year when everyone rolls out their 'best of' lists for the year. While I might make a top ten films list (though it would be better if I did one at the end of next year), I'm going to look at all of the promotional stuff that I can see with the click of the fingers. Now, I'm quite the expert on movie posters, so I'll take a look at the five worst and ten best posters of 2011 films.

Here are the top five worst posters from 2011:

5. Main St - I already talked enough about this poster in this post. I still haven't seen this movie (I kinda plan to, just to see what went wrong), but here's some wishful thinking: it might be better than whoever photoshopped this hideous Coronation Street-esque poster.

4. The Darkest Hour - Sure, this isn't a horribly bad poster compared to some other ones. When it was one of the featured trailers on my IMDB app, the poster was so bad that I stopped using the app for a while until they changed it. Working at a DVD store, I see a whole lot of Z-grade straight-to-DVD disaster films, and this one - which is actually going to cinemas - looks exactly like one of those. I mean, just look at the lame lightning ripping through the city. And the awful colouring of the tagline. And that tagline being bigger than the title. It just makes it look really awful.

3. X-Men: First Class - The large majority of the X-Men: First Class posters were the victims of someone who got a bit too excited about photoshop. This one, showing all of the characters from the movie (and there are quite a few, hence the troubling one-dimensionality of some of them), is quite the eyesore. It all starts with the blueness, and then you wonder why half of these people are walking and the other half are just standing there looking menacing. James McAvoy probably came out worse off...I mean, look at how disproportionate his body is. Michael Fassbender looks like he is in pants that are miles too big to him and his turtleneck has made his neck disappear. And if you look really hard, you can see Lucas Till in the distance, all faded away. It's just such a silly poster.

2. I Don't Know How She Does It - Apart from having one of the most annoying titles of the year, this movie has an annoying poster to match. First of all, there is the colour. It makes me think of puke. Then there is Sarah Jessica Parker, who looks slightly uncomfortable and has a bizarre looking smile on her face. She's holding a teddy with her bag, just to show that no-one knows how she does it. On the right side of her she is a whole lot of things that she needs to do. I'm so glad that she has to make cookies. I don't know how she does that.

1. New Year's Eve - I don't know where to begin with this poster. It is just bloody awful. Just the way everyone looks. Some people look like they've been cut out of a tabloid magazine (ahem, Ashton Kutcher), some have been cut directly out of the official film stills, others just look purely idiotic. I'm talking about you,
Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges. I'm sorry, but you look like you're a prisoner applying to be Santa Claus, your smile is that un-genuine. There's just way too much gold. We get it, New Year's Eve is gold, but that doesn't mean it's the annual lottery holiday.

Best posters after the jump...

Why I'm Looking Forward to Steven Spielberg's WAR HORSE...

Okay, so if you've been around this blog for a little while, you'll know one key fact about me: my family used to train racehorses, so I am a very horsey person. Obviously, I quite like horse movies too. War Horse looks like a particularly special one. Why?

Well, allow me to tell you all a personal story about me and my horse Katie. Why am I telling this story? Because, I've heard a lot of people saying that it is quite implausible for a man and his horse who have been separated to go to the ends of the Earth to find each other. Or quite implausible that a horse would ever be a humans best friend. It happens. While my story might not involve a war of any kind, I just wanted to tell it because sometimes I miss Katie more than I can bear. And us teenagers always go on about out problems on the internet, don't we?

So mine and Katie's story began sometime in late 2003, when I was eight and she was one. We leased her off someone about an hour away so we could train her. She took a while to mature, so we didn't really get her up to racing speed for quite some time. I honestly thought that Katie was the prettiest horse I've ever seen, and also the kindest. She left our land for a little while in 2006, but she returned soon after, which I was really happy about.