The Real Rise of the Apes.

Film: Project Nim
Year: 2011
Director: James Marsh
Starring: Nim Chimpsky, Renne Falitz, Bob Ingersoll, Stephanie LaFarge, Jenny Lee, James Mahoney, Laura-Ann Petitto, Herbert Terrace, Bill Tynan.
Running time: 93 min.

As I sit down to tap away at this review of Project Nim, an excellent documentary about a chimp named Nim, I am faced with one considerable dilemma: I don't really know how to review a documentary. This is entirely due to the fact that I don't generally watch documentaries. I could probably count the amount of documentaries I've seen on one set of fingers. I'm not nearly well versed enough to know the ins and outs of documentary making, so I don't know how I'm supposed to critique that. I also don't know how you 'dislike' a documentary. Aside from the fact that all of the documentaries I've seen have been great (and Senna is a big advocate for that), I can easily get involved in things that I had no interest in beforehand. Mainly because documentaries usually tell stories that actually happened, so how am I supposed to critique that? I'll probably just get interested anyway. Such is the case with Project Nim, so don't laugh at me when I can't give you a review filled with technical terms and passages about lighting. But hey, that's not what I do anyway.

"Fear is exciting for me."

Film: Senna
Year: 2011
Director: Asif Kapadia
Written by: Manish Pandey
Starring: Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Viviane Senna, Milton de Silva, Neide Senna, Jackie Stewart, Sid Watkins.
Running time: 106 min.


If, for some reason, you think that you shouldn't watch Senna because it doesn't look like it'll interest you, let me tell you my story. I have never taken an interest in Formula One. I really dislike watching documentaries. I had never heard of Ayrton Senna before in my life. And guess what? Senna is my favourite movie of the year. You should have seen me at the end...I was crying more than I cried at the end of Toy Story 3. And this is a documentary of Formula One that we are talking about. So if you pass this movie by at the DVD store simply because you're not interested, then I've got news for you, my friend. I wasn't supposed to like this movie, but I loved it. Actually, love is a bit of an understatement.

AAN: Oscar predictions - the 'Bests' and Visuals

Welcome to Part Two of my Oscar predictions - the big one that Annual Awards Nerdism for 2011 has come down to.

Key:

My Leo - The one I would most like to win

My Zuck - The one that I predict to win

My Steve - The longshot.

Todays categories are:

-The 'Bests': Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, Best Documentary-Features

-Visuals: Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Editing, Best Achievement in Visual Effects

The 'Bests' Awards.

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

This category is better explained in the piece I did for this years 'LAMB Devours the Oscars'. But basically, we all know who's going to win, don't we?

My Leo: Toy Story 3

My Zuck: Toy Story 3

My Steve: The Illusionist

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Being as sheltered as we are here in New Zealand, there is only one film of this lot that has come out here, but of course, I'm too young to see it. And, unfortunately, because no one in Dannevirke likes reading a movie, I'll probably never get to see any of these unless I fork out and buy 'em all. So I'm just all about the statistics with these ones.

In a Better World, Haeven, Civilization...whatever you call it, has a good chance of winning if it capitalizes on its Golden Globes win. Biutiful has a good chance of winning because it stars Javier Bardem in his Oscar nominated performance and you can't go wrong with Alejandro González Iñárritu. Dogtooth might win because it has been widely viewed...and it looks pretty disturbing. Incendies might win because it has some very high ratings in high places. Outside the Law might win because it tackles an Oscar favourite topic: WW2. My money is going with Civilization.

My Leo: Civilization

My Zuck: Civilization

My Steve: Outside the Law

Best Documentary-Features

Also, being as sheltered as I am in Dannevirke, Documentaries don't get very far here, either. I plan to watch Exit Through the Gift Shop some time soon...it has been out on DVD here for two months but we never got it at Blockbuster so I shall wait for it to get really cheap or get it off iTunes or something. So of course, I haven't seen any of these either (slack, I know), and it looks like I'll be going with the statistics.
They all tackle very serious topics. I've heard great things about all of them. But I'm hoping that Exit Through the Gift Shop will win, because of all the Banksy hoopla. Wouldn't that be interesting? I think Inside Job will probably win though, seeing as it has gained so much momentum of the past few months.
My Leo: Exit Through the Gift Shop
My Zuck: Inside Job
My Steve: Waste Land

Visual awards.

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Though, essentially, some of my favourite cinematography happens in Black Swan, and whatever Matthew Libatique does is amazing, I simply can't ignore Wally Pfister's achievements in Inception. This definitely has to be the year for him. His main competiton comes in the form of the beautiful, show stopping cinematography in True Grit, which has a major chance of winning, also. You can't dismiss the work done in The King's Speech and The Social Network though. There is just too much goodness in this category!

My Leo: Black Swan

My Zuck: Inception

My Steve: The King's Speech

Best Achievement in Editing

Without Inception here, this category feels like a bit of a blur. Oh well, here's an award which The Social Network can take the lead in, and The King's Speech has no chance with. The editing in Black Swan is a favourite of mine too, because Darren Aronofsky's films need perfect editing otherwise they all just fall flat. 127 Hours has brilliant editing too, with all the split screens and what not. The Fighter is a likely chance too, but its down to The Social Network with slight competition from Black Swan, I think.

My Leo: The Social Network

My Zuck: The Social Network

My Steve: The King's Speech

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

This is a strange wee lineup here, but we all know who will win: none other than glorious Inception. The other nominees? Meh. Alice in Wonderland is too bright and Tim Burton-y for my liking. HP7PT1 is Harry Potter, so it has a nice chance. Hereafter didn't even get a cinema release here, which is weird considering its a Clint Eastwood flick. Weird thing is, you wouldn't expect a Clint movie to be in this category, would you? Iron Man 2...now that is a strange nomination. Come to think of it, the visual effects aren't too shabby. If Inception doesn't win, though, there will be a riot on my behalf.

See you back here tomorrow, same place, around the same time because it will be Friday (!). I will take a look at the writing awards and the directors.

Paranormal Activity

With District 9 coming out in the same year, it really makes me wonder...is the cheap documentary style film creating the most amount of hype after the Twilight franchise? Paranormal Activity (2007) was billed as the scariest movie of all time. Now I ouldn't say it was overly scary, but that is probably because I watched it during the day. God help me if I watched it at night.
Katie and Micah are a young couple living in San Diego, leading what appear to be normal lives. But since Katie was young, she has been followed and haunted by what is thought to be a 'demon', and it continues to wreak havoc while she is sleeping. Micah decides to have a camera film them to pick up what is happening in their house, and what they find starts messing with their lives and their ability to be normal.
I had no idea why this film caused so much hype, and still don't. I found it quite boring in the first 45 minutes, and it wasn't until the film finally started getting into it towards the end that I garnered interest in it. Okay, I will admit, I found some of the scenes in this film particularly terrifying and unsettling, and I will probably be haunted by them for a few weeks to come. But, this isn't the scariest movie ever made. It probably will be if you watch it alone, in the dead of the night. Oh, and please, please, do not make Paranormal Activity 2, it isn't needed.
7/10

Paper Heart

I didn't get the whole conception of Paper Heart (2009). I didn't know whether it was a documentary or a made up story, and I had to really watch it to find out. But even watching it, it felt like a story made up in a documentary style, but not as successfully as District 9.
You see, Charlyne Yi, a 'musician and comedian', doesn't believe in love. She decides to travel across America to find out why people love each other. And maybe even find love. When she meets Michael Cera (yes, the very funny and awkward actor), will she believe in love?
Charlyne Yi is not a musician, or a comedian. She can't sing and she's not funny. The reason why this movie was made is beyond me. Charlyne becomes so annoying in the end, because she is true to her word and doesn't believe in love. But we know this, and she just keeps going on and on and on. It really does become annoying and you get sick and tired of her. The movie is awkward, and unfortunately has few laughs to support it's self. The little puppet shows in it are a little random, but span most of the films originality.
Is it a documentary? Yes, that's its format, but it is unclear whether this is a made up story or true. And I hear Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera have broken up.
6/10