Tag Archives: Ewan McGregor

Not-Oscars 2013: The Year’s Best Performances

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(Originally published at JustinPlusSeven on January 10, 2013.)

best-performances-of-the-year-2012 You, dear reader, have the honor of reading this in the future, after the Oscar nominations have been announced.

But I am writing from this from the near past, before we know which five contenders are fighting it out in each category.

Of course, some are shoo-ins; there are only a very small handful of slots that are anybody’s guess at this point, including one in Best Supporting Actress that could really go to anybody and a bit of confusion in Best Supporting Actor as well. Best Actor and Actress, meanwhile, are mainly both six-person races that must be whittled down. Who will be sacrificed ― Bradley Cooper, John Hawkes, or Joaquin Phoenix? Emmanuelle Riva, Quvenzhane Wallis, or Marion Cotillard?

(You future readers are probably laughing at me, because instead, it was an unexpected sweep by the casts of What To Expect When You’re Expecting, Battleship, and The Odd Life of Timothy Green in all major categories.)

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The Tens: Best Of Film 2012

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holy-motors-motion-captureIt’s Oscar time!

As usual, the Academy Awards are poised to make some very wrong decisions this year. So as usual, I am prematurely correcting them by releasing my Top Ten of the year.

That year is 2012, of course — real film critics release such lists at the end of December or beginning of January, but since I have numerous other obligations, you get it in late February, once I’ve had a chance to catch up with nearly all eligible films.

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Swept Away: ‘The Impossible’ Is My Kind Of Disaster

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(Originally posted on JustinPlusSix on November 8.)  the-impossible-movie-naomi-watts-tom-holland Well, it’s been a hell of a week.

In the time since I wrote my review of Cloud Atlas last week, we’ve had Hurricane Sandy, Halloween, and we re-elected Barack Obama. (I know Sandy was technically more than a week ago, but I wrote my review beforehand.)

I wasn’t in New York for the hurricane this year, but I was there last August for Irene, so I know what the buildup was like, even though the aftermath of Sandy was much more severe. Probably at least half of my friends, in life and on Facebook, are in the New York area, so I was getting a constant stream of information about it the same way I was providing that stream last year. Truthfully, it made me miss New York, because it was emblematic of what makes New York such an amazing place to live in the first place. Anyone who’s spent more than a few weeks in the city knows that it’s not an easy place to live. As Madonna says, it’s not for pussies. Obviously a hurricane is a somewhat extreme event, but New Yorkers deal with extreme all the time. There’s a sense of pride in that city, not just during a hurricane but every day, that we’re all in this together.

At least, we used to be… but I’m gone now.

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The 7 Most Anticipated (And Least Obvious) Fall Movies

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As a kid, I got excited for summer movie season, because it brought sequels, superheroes, dinosaurs — that kind of thing. But the past few summers haven’t given us more than one or two blockbusters worth getting riled up about. These days, my event movies tend to be much smaller in scale, featuring powerhouse acting in favor of explosions and Oscar buzz in lieu of box office clout.

For a guy like me, fall is the new summer, because that’s when all the Academy Award hopefuls roll out. It’s starting already, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master (which opened last weekend), and something at least mildly tantalizing opening just about every weekend until the new year. Yay!

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The Not-Oscars 2012

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(Originally posted at FabApp.)

It’s that time of year again, folks! What I like to call “movie Christmas.” And like an actual holiday, the Academy Awards often end up as more of a disappointment than anything else — any Oscars handed out to not-so-great nominated films like Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and The Iron Lady can be chalked up to the cinematic equivalent of “ugly sweaters from grandma we’ll throw in the back of the closet and never speak of again.” But it’s really the excitement leading up to the big show and the discussions of film it creates that make it all worthwhile.

So here’s where I like to make up for the Academy’s occasional lapses in good taste by recognizing the movies and performances that are really worthy of celebration. Because what has a group of thousands of filmmakers with decades of experience in the entertainment industry got on me?

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The Tens: Best Of Film 2011

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Ah, 2011. You were a strange bird.

Is it me, or were movies more united by theme this year than is usual? Nostalgia was the big one, with several titles capitalizing not just on our nostalgia of a past era, but of movies from a past era — from silent films to Spielberg blockbusters and everything in between. People have been in an awfully romantic mood of late — perhaps because the recession made the present so unappealing. Cinema has always been about escapism, and this year more than ever, it’s taking us backward rather than forward.

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The Not-Oscars 2011

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(Originally posted over at Fabulous Apple. In preparation for this year’s “Not-Oscars,” here’s what I said about last year…)

We all know the Oscars don’t always get it right.

Of course, “right” is a matter of opinion — but with some perspective, there are a few awards and nominations we collectively agree did not go the way they should. A Beautiful Mind as Best Picture over Lord of the Rings, Gosford Park, In The Bedroom, and Moulin Rouge? Tommy Lee Jones as Best Supporting Actor for The Fugitive over Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List? The Green Mile and The Cider House Rules nominated for Best Picture in 2000 over Fight Club, Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Being John Malkovich, Election, or The Virgin Suicides? Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich beating Ellen Burstyn in Requiem For A Dream?

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The Girlfight Experience: Gina Carano Goes ‘Haywire’

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2011 is long gone — we’re a month into the new year, yet every movie I’ve seen this January is a 2011 release. By design. The studios always roll out way more movies than we could ever possibly see all at once, then let us scramble to catch them all in order to be caught up for the Oscars. (Leaving a dearth of enticing titles the other nine months of the year.)

Still, there is always a time to stop looking backward (for a few days, anyway) and start looking forward, and that time is now. So here it is. My first 2012 review.

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Hard 8: Best Of Film 2011

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Ah, 2011. You were a strange bird.

Is it me, or were movies more united by theme this year than is usual? Nostalgia was the big one, with several titles capitalizing not just on our nostalgia of a past era, but of movies from a past era — from silent films to Spielberg blockbusters and everything in between. People have been in an awfully romantic mood of late — perhaps because the recession made the present so unappealing. Movies have always been about escapism, and this year more than ever, they’re taking us backward rather than forward.

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When Peppy Met George: The Year Of Loving Nostalgically

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(Movies discussed in this post: Beginners, Certified Copy, Forget Me Not, One Day, Midnight In Paris, The Artist, The Future.)

I have two questions for you:

1) Have you ever been in love?

And, if so —

2) Was it quirky?

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