Skyfall (2012)

3/30/14 I didn't realize that it had been almost two years since I saw this last. Of course I bought it. I think I was a bit afraid to rewatch it because I wasn't sure it would hold up to a second viewing. Sometimes you have such a good experience in the theater and then you take it home and it's just not the same. Fortunately, this stands as one of the best Bond films in the past twenty years, if not all time, and is well worth the buy. This time around I tried to pay more attention to the cinematography, since it was Roger Deakins' work and it is stunning. Still no word on when the next one comes out.
Original post:  11/11/12  Nominated for:  Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing   Ok, so I wasn't necessarily trying to watch all of the old Bond films before seeing this latest but I'm really glad I at least watch the first three.  There were so many loving little references that I would never have noticed otherwise.

The action begins with Bond (Daniel Craig) on assignment with Agent Eve (Naomi Harris) in Istanbul, tracking down a list of undercover agents that had been stolen from MI6.  Bond gets on top of a train with the guy while Eve gets into sniper position.  M (Judi Dench) tells her to make the shot anyway and Bond goes off the side of the train, presumably dead.  However, he decides to treat it as early retirement, moving to some tropical beach and just letting himself go.  His pity party gets cut short when he sees a CNN piece about a bombing at MI6.  Meanwhile, M is called on the carpet by her new boss, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes), who seems to think she should be put out to pasture like an old war horse.  M immediately clears her favorite agent for duty and sends him to Shanghai to track down the guy who originally stole the list.  There he becomes fascinated with the beautiful Severine (Berenice Marlohe) and hitches a ride with her to Japan, where he finally gets introduced to the big bad guy, Silva (Javier Bardem), a former agent and computer genius driven batshit crazy by a failed assignment who now has it out for M and her whole organization. In order to combat this villain with all modern technology at his disposal, Bond has to dive deep into his past, returning to the place where it all started:  Skyfall.

Holy shit, you guys, I have a new favorite villain.  I walked out of that theater and wished I could have a slumber party with Silva and Silver Lion where we could have pillow fights and s'mores and tease out each other's hair.  Javier Bardem plays him with such delightful dementedness, it's really outstanding to watch.  He is pretty much the sole source of humor in the film (him and Q who is just adorable) and his interactions with Bond are great. 

The end of the movie packs more of a sad punch that I was expecting.  It seemed almost like the perfect end to the Bond franchise, except I know it's not.  Daniel Craig has signed on for at least two more films and Idris Elba (Thor, Prometheus) has expressed interest in having it next.  Bond will go on for probably another fifty years, and I'm okay with that. 

If you don't have time to watch all 22 previous films before you head to the theater, you can Cliff's Notes it with this video on YouTube.  It's a supercut of all the films in five minute increments and kind of outstanding. 

Catching Up on TV

As many of you know, sometimes I get stuck when several seasons of TV shows come up on my rotation all at once, leaving me no time to watch a movie outright.  This is one of those times. 

Christy introduced me to the show Girl Code sometime last year.    It's a fun, half-hour show on MTV where a bunch of comics get together and talk about girl stuff.  It doesn't have a lot of re-watchability but the first time through it's pretty hilarious.  

I also watched all 26 episodes of Ghost in the Shell:  Stand Alone Complex and found it to be a thought-provoking and entertaining bit of anime.    Some of it was just weird but I quite liked the themes they were exploring, like the nature of life and what it means to be self-actualized, the process of individuality, and whether AI can develop a soul.  I also found it interesting to see how many things in their near-future (it's set in 2030) are being or could be developed by that time.  Fully-realized artificial intelligence, cyborg parts, full prosthetic bodies, virtual reality that feels like reality, and of course, giant robots.  If any of that sounds at all interesting, I would encourage you to check it out. 

And then there's Glee.    Glee was one of those shows I enjoyed watching for the first two seasons but the third one came on just as I was in the middle of moving from Virginia to Maryland.  I tried to keep up but around episode four I just couldn't.  The whole show is streaming on Netflix but this season was very hit-and-miss.  Most of the episodes have funny parts but overall this season was way more flat and more preachy in its messages.  The sub-plot about Coach Beiste's (Dot-Marie Jones) abusive marriage was tacked on to about three episodes for approximately .0089 minutes of total airtime.  You can't care about something that fast.  Plus, they made Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) nice which just felt wrong, although her interactions with swim coach Roz Washington (Nene Leakes) showed some of that old vim and verve.  Not nearly enough to save the season, however.

In other news, I bought Frozen and watched it with Rob, who loved it, but since I just reviewed it so recently, it didn't seem fair to post it again. 

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009)

  I will get to the movie in a second.  First, this is my 1000th post, you guys.  One thousand.  That is a crapload of movies and TV to watch in roughly four years.  Thanks to everyone who is still reading, if you started back in the day, and to everyone just joining, get to work because there's a lot to catch up on. 

When I told Christy that the next post I did would be my thousandth, she congratulated me and then asked if it was going to be a "good movie or one that nobody cares about" because she's a whore. 

This is the third film in the Swedish series based on the books by Stieg Larsson.  It probably should have all been watched at roughly the same time, instead of a year ago and a year and a half ago.  I didn't do it, but I would recommend that you do, if you're planning on seeing them. 

Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is charged with the attempted murder of her father, Alexander Zelachenko (Georgi Staykov), while she is in the hospital recovering from the wounds she got while trying to escape him.  Her buddy, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), hires his sister Annika (Annika Hallin) to defend her while he looks further into the government conspiracy that brought Zalachenko over to begin with.  However, the people in the conspiracy would rather this embarrassing little incident just be swept under the rug, so they hire Lisbeth's former psychiatrist Dr. Teleborian (Anders Albohm Rosendhal) to testify that she's insane. 

Each movie in this trilogy has been a totally separate genre.  The first one was a locked room mystery, the second was more of a conspiracy thriller, and this one is a courtroom potboiler.  That could seem disorienting but I found it refreshing since it wasn't just the same basic plot over and over again.  I have no idea if it's a deviation from the books since I quit after the first one because it bored me to tears. 

This trilogy was decent enough as a rental and all three are available on streaming, so there's really no excuse not to watch them.  I'm not adding them to my Christmas wish list but I felt like they were all solid efforts.

Quantum of Solace (2008)

  As I mentioned in my Casino Royale post, I like to think of this as a continuation of that film rather than a true sequel.

Picking up moments after the end credits of Casino Royale, Bond (Daniel Craig) has finally laid hands on Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), the man responsible for Vesper's death, and turns him over to M (Judi Dench).  Unfortunately, Mr. White's organization has people in every echelon of government, including MI6, and a shootout ensues.  Bond gets a little trigger-happy and then they basically have to start from scratch.  However, they trace some marked bills from the first movie to Haiti.  Bond kills another dude and meets Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a woman attached to shady environmental businessman Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric).  Greene belongs to the same organization as Mr. White and is starting a new business venture in Bolivia for deposed dictator General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio).  Meanwhile, M is getting some heat from above about her rogue agent 007 and after yet another person ends up dead at the opera, she puts the brakes on and sends embassy lackey Ms. Fields (Gemma Aterton) to send Bond packing.  This does not work out well for anyone.  Bond calls out his buddy Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) to help him figure out what Greene is really after in Bolivia.

The movie really took pains to try and have some sort of subtext about alternate energy and the water crisis and other things but really only managed to make fuel cells look dangerously unstable.  Whether that was the intention or not is for someone else to decide.  Greene is one of the sleaziest villains in the entire Bond canon.  The word that perfectly describes him is oleaginous, which just means oily but in the most pretentious way possible.  He practically leaves a slime trail through every scene.  I think it was genius to have that walking Deepwater Horizon be the head of an environmentally friendly front company.  He's probably my favorite person in the whole movie. 

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (2000)

  When I was in high school drama (yeah, I was a drama nerd.  Big shock, right?) we had to perform Hamlet and I got to be the title role because none of the boys wanted it.  Then, for shiggles, our teacher had us also do the abridged performance complete with the two minute encore.  We weren't very good at it but I at least recognized good material when I saw it.  So when Netflix recommended this production I jumped at the chance to see actual professionals do it justice.

Adam Long, Reed Martin, and Austin Tichenor take 37 of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets and perform them in 90 minutes.  As insane as that sounds, they cover Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, all the comedies at once, and the entire historical cycle.  These are three very talented guys clearly working with a subject they love, not just love to make fun of.  If you like theater, I would definitely recommend it as worth checking out, in person if you can.  If not, there's the DVD.

Casanova (2005)

  What is it with all the shitty rom-coms today?  I know, I know, that's redundant.

Giacomo Casanova (Heath Ledger) enjoys tomcatting around Venice but when he meets beautiful and brainy Francesca Bruni (Sienna Miller) he starts to wonder is settling down isn't the way to go after all.  Unfortunately, Francesca is engaged to a Genoese lard merchant (Oliver Platt) and Casanova is being targeted by Rome's top inquisitor (Jeremy Irons) for his many moral lapses necessitating the use of multiple aliases and cover identities. 

Honestly, the script is stupid and you'd be much better served by watching Chocolat 400 times in a row instead.  I liked Heath Ledger but this was not one of his more notable works.  The only thing that I found remotely interesting was seeing who would later go on to do good work in the present, like Natalie Dormer from Game of Thrones and Elementary and Lauren Cohan from Supernatural and The Walking Dead.  Kudos to both those ladies for managing to rise above this schlock.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)

  Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!  Here's a movie that will make you want to drink green booze until you can't even remember your own name, much less having seen this movie.

Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) is a self-absorbed, womanizing asshole who doesn't believe in love.  On the eve of his little brother's (Breckin Meyer) wedding, Connor is visited by the ghost of his mentor, Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), who tells him that he will be attended by the spirits of his past, present and future relationships in an effort to find out how he went so wrong with his childhood sweetheart Jenny (Jennifer Garner). 

This was a terrible version of Scrooged with McConaughey at his tannest and most irritating and Garner with not even the shadow of a personality.  She is supposed to be the main love interest and the only thing that separates her from the parade of other girls is that she is mildly disapproving.  The only reason to watch this movie at all is for a young Emma Stone hamming it up as the Ghost of Girlfriends Past.  If the whole movie had been about her, as the title implies, it would have been much more entertaining.

I asked Rob why he even had this movie on his server and he replied that someone had requested it.  I assume that means he watches it frequently and just doesn't want to hand over his man-card.  Regardless, at my request, he deleted it in front of me.  I feel now that I have made a positive change in the world.

Nebraska (2013)

  Son of a bitch, I totally forgot to review this movie.  It was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Bruce Dern), Best Supporting Actress (June Squibb), Best Cinematography, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.  It didn't win anything but that's okay.

I didn't see it until the weekend after the Oscars, when I was sick, but I could have sworn I wrote a review about it.  Oh well.

David (Will Forte) is kind of at loose ends in his life.  His job is going nowhere, his girlfriend left him, and he's just in a rut.  His brother, Ross (Bob Odenkirk) is being made a local anchorman but David doesn't really have any ambitions.  Then he learns that his father, Woody (Bruce Dern), keeps being picked up by the police for wandering down the highway.  Woody believes that he has won $1,000,000 in a sweepstakes and that he has to travel to Lincoln, Nebraska in order to pick up his winnings.  His wife, Kate (June Squibb), thinks he's an idiot but Woody is determined to get there.  David agrees to drive him from Billings, Montana to Lincoln in order to pacify the old man.  They stop over in Woody's old hometown for a weekend and soon everyone has heard about his windfall, which brings out vultures of every size and shape.

I was not a fan of The Descendants but I found this film to have a lot more charm.  Mostly because of June Squibb, who is flat-out hilarious.

Casablanca (1942)

  This is one of the best films ever made.  Period.  If you've never seen it (ahem, Christy) I hope you make a point of rectifying that immediately.

Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is an American expatriate living in Casablanca, Morocco.  Refugees from WWII-torn Europe fill the city trying to beg, borrow, or sleep their way into getting exit visas to Lisbon, Portugal in order to get to the USA.  Rick stays out of the trade, his neutrality making his bar all the more popular for smugglers, refugees, and cops.  But when Rick's old flame, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) shows up with Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid), a hero of the Underground, looking for an escape from the Gestapo, Rick finds his air of detachment sorely tested.

What is there left to say about this movie?  It defines the word classic and remains one of the greatest romances in history.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)

  After purchasing a model ship at an outdoor market, young journalist Tintin (Jamie Bell) finds himself beset with offers for it from an American (Joe Starr) and a cane-weilding Englishman named Sakharine (Daniel Craig).  He decides to look up the ship the model is based on, The Unicorn, and discovers that it was sunk after an ill-fated voyage from Barbados.  The ship's captain, Sir Francis Haddock (Andy Serkis), was the only survivor.  Soon after, Tintin's dog, Snowy, accidentally damages the model while chasing a cat, causing a hidden scroll to fall out and get lost behind a piece of furniture.  This turns out to be one of three scrolls hidden in three different models of the Unicorn that indicate the location of a sunken treasure.  During his investigation, Tintin discovers the last remaining descendent of Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) and the two team up to prevent Sakharine from getting Sir Francis' treasure.

The opening titles and fade scenes are easily the best part of the movie.  There was no real humor to speak of and the writing felt very flat.  It could have had much more personality but just felt completely lifeless, which is a shame considering how good the voice talent assembled is.  A lot of people are put off by motion capture animation (or mo-cap) but this wasn't nearly as creepy as I've seen before.  If it could have had just a little more wit and panache in dialogue I think it would have been stellar, instead of an uncut gem.

Cars (2006)

  I've had this movie sitting, unopened, in my box of DVDs-to-watch for almost five years now.  That is a long time to wait.

This is my least favorite Pixar movie, or it was until the sequel came out.  I understand that it is extremely beloved by children, so there's that.  I'm just not much of a car or Owen Wilson fan.  Luigi's "pit stop" at the big race still makes me laugh, however. 

Rookie racecar Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) has the chance of a lifetime, competing for the Piston Cup alongside veteran The King (Richard Petty) and perennial runner-up Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton).  It's the King's last race and Lightning knows that his sponsor, Dinoco, will be looking for a new face.  After a three-way tie, however, the decision is made to hold a tie-breaker in California.  Lightning wants to get there first so he can woo the sponsors but his driver, Mack (John Ratzenberger), falls asleep on the road and accidentally dumps Lightning out in the middle of nowhere.  With no headlights, Lightning wanders into the dying town of Radiator Springs and manages to destroy the road.  During the course of his community service (repaving) he learns that sometimes you have to slow down to be able to appreciate what's around you.

I didn't think Michael Keaton joined the Pixar team until Toy Story 3.  I had no idea he was in this but the last time I saw this movie was like 2007 so it's not really a surprise.

Gettysburg (1993)

  Well this was a war epic and no mistake.  It took nearly as long to watch as the battle took to fight.  

Halfway through the Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee (Martin Sheen) marched his army through Maryland and up into Pennsylvania in order to draw out the Federal Army.  With a decisive enough victory, Lee would then be able to march straight to Washington D.C.  The army is spotted by General Buford (Sam Elliott) near the town of Gettysburg, who rallies his Union troops to hold the high ground until reinforcements can arrive. 

The movie follows several leading figures of the war including General Longstreet (Tom Berenger), one of Lee's top strategists, General Pickett (Stephen Lang), a Virginia firebrand, and for the Union side Colonel Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) of the 20th Maine and his brother and aide-de-camp Tom (C. Thomas Howell).  Their stories are told sympathetically, with no agenda from either side.  Historian Ken Burns worked with the filmmakers to provide his unique insight.  The result is a very human portrayal of one of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War. 

Obviously, there's no real happy ending with this since it's a war movie, but if you have any interest in the history it's worth a watch.  Everybody looks as close to the historical photographs as they can get, which means a metric ton of fake facial hair.  Some of the more famous ones are damn near unrecognizable, which is all to the good since you shouldn't be focusing on who people are as much as who they're supposed to be. 

It's not really my cup of tea and the score is so saccharine it made my teeth hurt but not bad.

Which Way Home (2007)

  This year's Academy Awards are over but I still have a bunch in my Netflix queue from years past.  This one got nominated way back in 2009 as part of my very first Oscar marathon attempt on this blog.  Fortunately, there are only a couple of these left and that's mostly because they weren't available until months after the ceremony.

This documentary follows a handful of child migrants making their way from Central America to the United States.  They range in ages from 9 to 17 and they are traveling alone for the majority of the journey, riding on the tops of freight trains from Guatemala and Honduras, through Mexico, and hopefully across the border.  This is a dangerous route for full-grown adults, much less children, and many die along the way. 

Their motivations vary from child to child.  Some have family working in the States that they have not seen in years, some are hoping to be adopted after their own parents have abandoned them, and others plan to work and send money back.  They have no idea what the United States actually looks like, beyond what they see in movies and television, and no concept of the distance between major cities.  Their hope and naivety make their stories that much more tragic.

The dangers they face are very real.  Every year, children are crushed under train wheels, robbed and violated by human traffickers, and killed by exposure to the elements.  They risk all of that just to be deported back to their home countries either by Mexican authorities or American. 

No matter your political leanings on the subject of illegal immigration, I think everyone can agree that the thought of children traveling thousands of miles alone is both terrifying and depressing.  The documentarian, Rebecca Cammisa, used a Fulbright Scholar grant in order to follow these children, which means the camera work is as bare bones as it gets.  I can't say that I enjoyed the experience but it was certainly eye-opening.

Blue Jasmine

  I was not impressed with this film.  Cate Blanchett is a great actress but this is essentially A Streetcar Named Desire.  It didn't feel original or new in any way.

After her husband (Alec Baldwin) is revealed to be running a Ponzi scheme, rich socialite Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) finds herself with nothing and is forced to move from Manhattan to live with her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) in San Francisco.  She is determined to make a new life for herself but soon discovers that she isn't qualified to be anything other than rich.  Meanwhile, she despises the men in Ginger's life, from her ex-husband (Andrew Dice Clay) to her current boyfriend (Bobby Cannavale).

Blanchett gives her best Blanche Dubois here but Cannavale is no Brando and there is no dramatic tension between the two.  Just a lot of scenery-chewing.  It's not sexy, it's not funny and the character is too brittle to elicit sympathy.  Minus the emotional connection, the only reason to watch is to see Blanchett's character's wardrobe.

Marvel One Shots

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I was sick over this last weekend.  I was still trying to get Oscar nominees out while I could but it was very hard to pay attention while trying not to succumb to the NyQuil coma.  At some point on Sunday, or maybe it was Monday, I just said "to hell with it" and broke out my Phase One box set.  Nothing helps you get over a cold like some Marvel goodness.

If you haven't seen any of the short films Marvel has included on their major releases (called One Shots), you owe it to yourself to check them out.  Chances are good you already own the movies anyway so why not spend a little extra time with them?

First up is The Consultant:  basically just an extended bit from the end credits sequence of The Incredible Hulk, it does introduce SHIELD Agent Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernandez), who shows up later.  Plus, any extra time with Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) is always worthwhile.  The two agents meet at a diner to discuss how they should handle SHIELD's request to bring on The Abomination to the Avengers Initiative.  Coulson thinks it's a terrible idea so they want to make sure General Ross (William Hurt) is so offended by the suggestion, or at least by the suggester, that he'll never agree.  Included on the Thor blu-ray.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer:  Even SHIELD agents have to stop for gas and road munchies, and Agent Coulson is no exception.  On his way to New Mexico to investigate the appearance of Mjolnir, he is saved from trying to decide between powdered donuts and fudge donuts by the attempted robbery of the gas station.  Included on the Captain America:  The First Avenger blu-ray.

Item 47:  A down-on-their-luck couple think they've discovered the answer to their money troubles when Ben (Jesse Bradford) manages to activate a fallen Chitauri weapon.  He and Claire (Lizzie Caplan) go on a bank-robbing spree before Agent Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernandez) is sent to retrieve the alien artifact.  Included on The Avengers blu-ray.

Agent Carter:  Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) is having a hard time adjusting to post-war and post-Captain America life.  Her boss (Bradley Whitford) is a sexist jerk and she spends more time pushing paper than kicking ass.  But when a late-night mission comes in, Peggy sets out to prove that she's more than up to the challenge.  Included on the Iron Man 3 blu-ray.

Ranging from only a couple of minutes to about half an hour, each little piece brings something awesome.  The latter two were intended to set up TV shows Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and the yet-to-be-announced Agent Carter.  The plan is to have one of these attached to each new release, with All Hail the King being the latest.  I haven't seen that one yet but I'll be sure to mention it when I do.

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

  I don't think I'm a fan of the Coen Brothers.  I haven't enjoyed a film they've made since Intolerable Cruelty.  (I'm not including True Grit because it's a remake.)

Folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is barely making it.  He sleeps on a rotation of friends' couches, friend in this case being whoever he hasn't managed to piss off yet, and plays his guitar at low-rent bars across Greenwich Village, all the while disdaining more "commercial" ventures that might actually provide a paycheck.  But seeing as it's the middle of winter and he has no coat, he forces himself to sell out long enough to help his friend Jim (Justin Timberlake) record a novelty song in order to give the money to Jim's girlfriend Jean (Carey Mulligan) to pay for an abortion.  It's not that Jean doesn't want children, she just doesn't know if it's Jim's or Llewyn's and she'd rather not take the chance of it being a total fuck-up if it's the latter's.  Jean's kind of a bitch but she's not wrong.  Llewyn is the poster boy for poor decisions and has been apparently since the death of his partner, Mike.

The Coens have taken on Greek myth before so maybe this is their version of Greek tragedy, where you can chart the hero's downfall based on a central flaw in his character.  In this way the cat that keeps showing up is probably the symbolic equivalent of the chorus, a warning to change his ways that goes completely unheeded.  That's not my cup of tea, however, maybe you like that particular brew.

Oscar Isaac is excellent here as he makes what is essentially an unlikeable character at least sympathetic, plus he's a very good singer.  I'm not a huge fan of folk music but the songs included were very pretty.  I guess none of them are originals, however, and that's why it didn't get nominated for an Oscar except for Sound Mixing and Cinematography but that's just a guess.

Oscar winners (2014)

Did everyone have a good time watching the Oscars last night?  I've been sick as a dog since Thursday but I loaded my happy ass up on Dayquil just so I could get through the ceremony. 

Ellen DeGeneres hosted and did a great job which just goes to prove the old Hollywood adage:  if you want something done right, give it to the lesbians. 

No one says that?  Are you sure?  Well, they should start. 

The theme this year was "Heroes of Movies" and there were some cute montages to different kinds of heroes, from animated to real-life to super.  No host-led musical numbers this time, which was fine.  They wouldn't have fit the flow of the program and it gave more impact to the Best Original Song performances. 

There weren't any real trainwreck outfits this year, but the wax dummy that Kim Novak has become more than made up for that.  Holy shit.  She was so beautiful back in the day, it almost made me cry seeing what she looks like now.

Even Liza Minnelli looked better and she's been to rehab more times than Flava Flav. 

Moving on.  The only other thing that really annoyed me was John Travolta completely mangling Idina Menzel's name when he announced her to sing "Let It Go".  It is an unusual name, sure, but that's why you practice beforehand.  You don't think people struggled with Chiwetel Ejiofor? 

Anyway, here's a list of the winners.  Gravity clearly racked up last night while American Hustle will just have to be content with all its Golden Globes.

Best Picture	12 Years a Slave
Best Actor in a Leading Role	Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Best Actress in a Leading Role	Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
Best Animated Feature	Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho)
Best Cinematography	Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki)
Best Costume Design	The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)
Best Directing	Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)
Best Documentary Feature	20 Feet from Stardom (Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen, Caitrin Rogers)
Best Documentary Short	The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (Malcolm Clarke, Nicholas Reed)
Best Film Editing	Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger)
Best Foreign Language Film	The Great Beauty (Italy)
Best Makeup and Hairstyling	Dallas Buyers Club (Adruitha Lee, Robin Mathews)
Best Original Score	Gravity (Steven Price)
Best Original Song	Let It Go - Frozen
Best Production Design	The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn)
Best Animated Short Film	Mr. Hublot (Laurent Witz, Alexandre Espigares)
Best Live Action Short Film	Helium (Anders Walter, Kim Magnusson)
Best Sound Editing	Gravity (Glenn Freemantle)
Best Sound Mixing	Gravity (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, Chris Munro)
Best Visual Effects	Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, Neil Corbould)
Best Adapted Screenplay	12 Years a Slave (John Ridley)
Best Original Screenplay	Her (Spike Jonze)

Aquel No Era Yo (2012)/Pitaako Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (2012)

Nominated for:  Best Live Action Short    This is a Spanish short, set in Africa, and spoken mostly in English.

A pair of Spanish doctors are stopped at a checkpoint in Africa manned by child soldiers.  While they are trying to get through, a car full of rebels arrives and takes them hostage.  The general (Babou Cham) decides to use them as object lessons for his soldiers.

This was by far the hardest short to watch.  Like War Witch but condensed into 23 minutes of abject horror.

Nominated for:  Best Live Action Short    Did you ever have one of those days where everything just goes horribly wrong and everyone is looking to you for answers? 

Sini (Joanna Haarti) wakes up panicked because her entire family has overslept and they are due at a wedding.  She rushes around trying to take care of every crisis that arises only to find out that sometimes it's better to just say fuck it.

At only 7 minutes long, this Finnish short packs a lot of punch.  It helps that the material is so relatable.  Everyone has been in Sini's shoes at least once.  Is it enough to win?  Probably not. 

So that's all the Live Action shorts for the year.  I wasn't able to find any of the other categories, which makes me feel lied to, since Amazon and iTunes were supposed to have them, but tonight is the big night so it's not like I would have had the time to watch them all anyway.

Helium (2014)/The Voorman Problem (2012)/Avant Que de Tout Perdre (2013)

Nominated for:  Best Live Action Short    I finally found them!  Yay!  This short comes from Denmark and is about a janitor named Enzo (Casper Crump) and his tale of a magical world called Helium that he shares with Alfred (Pelle Falk Krusbaek), a young boy in the hospital.  Alfred has a terminal illness but fears that Heaven will be boring.  Enzo tells him that, instead, he could go in a lion-headed zeppelin to Helium and live in a house held up by balloons.

This was a really pretty film with some top-notch effects work showing all the wonders of Helium.  Be warned, however, this might induce a case of The Feels.

Nominated for:  Best Live Action Short    This short from the UK might be the closest thing to a horror film the Academy has recognized since The Exorcist.

Stuffy psychiatrist Dr. Williams (Martin Freeman) is called in to consult on a prisoner named Voorman (Tom Hollander) who believes that he is God.  The trouble is, he might be right.

It's only 13-minutes long but packs a wickedly funny punch.  As long as you don't mind the fact that God is kind of a dick.

Nominated for:  Best Live Action Short    And now we're off in a completely different direction, courtesy of France.

Miriam (Lea Drucker) is taking her two kids and leaving her abusive husband, Antoine (Denis Menochet), he just doesn't know it yet.  She goes to the store where she works in order to finalize some paperwork.  Her boss agrees to fire her so she'll get benefits and gets the accounting department to advance her money, while her co-workers take turns watching her children.  But everything could be completely ruined when Antoine unexpectedly shows up at the store looking for Miriam.

So far, I have seen poignant, funny, and now suspenseful.  You really feel Miriam's sense of determination in getting herself and her kids out of this terrible situation, and the helplessness of her co-workers.  They want to do more for her but they don't know how.  Sadly, this is also the most realistic of the shorts so far.

Her (2013)

Nominated for:  Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Production Design, and Best Original Screenplay    Every once in a while, the Academy picks a nominee for Best Picture that presents an idea so novel you just can't help talking about it.  It forces you to consider thoughts you held about a subject and challenges your perceptions.  That's probably why it will lose the statue but this is the first Best Picture nominee of the year that actually made me remember that motion pictures are an art form, and art is meant to provoke.

Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is going through a rough time.  He is trying to move on from his last relationship but isn't ready to sign his divorce papers.  He's lonely, withdrawn, and depressed.  Then he sees an ad for an AI personal assistant that promises a fully-formed artificial consciousness tailor-made to his specifications.  Her name is Samantha (Scarlett Johansson).  Initially just looking for novelty, Theodore soon finds that Samantha is integral to his life.  She is bright, bubbly, helpful, and sees the world through a fresh pair of eyes.  Soon enough, in fact, Theodore starts to fall in love but telling people you are dating an OS is the definition of "it's complicated".

This movie is so much more than some dude in love with a phone.  It highlights emotional reality, i.e. can emotions be genuine if they are not shared with another human.  Do you need a body to have a relationship?  Of course not.  Enough people date online to make that an easy pill to swallow.

For me, the main point of this movie was how willing we are to limit our love.  It is exceptionally difficult to know that your partner has completely outgrown you, has evolved without you into a totally different class of consciousness.  We prune our love down to an amount we're comfortable with, instead of encouraging it to grow and encompass the whole world.  Maybe then love wouldn't be something anxiously awaited and jealously guarded as if it only came around once in a lifetime.

So, after all that, let me ruin everything and say that I didn't actually like this movie.  I loved the ideas it brings up but the movie itself is slow with a color palette that needed anti-depressants, and irritating characters, especially Theodore Twombly.  What a sad sack.  The vision of the near-future is pretty neat, though.  Best Picture?  No.  Best Score or Song?  No.  Production Design is a maybe, but I would definitely pick it for Best Original Screenplay right now.