My Thoughts on The Woman in Black

Tonight I saw and advance screening of this new ghost story staring Daniel Radcliffe, which has its regular release next week.  This is Radcliffe's first post-Harry Potter film and it is definitely a different type of role for him, being a gothic horror film.

Radcliffe plays a lawyer, who comes to a small English town to look over the paperwork in an old mansion.  The mansion is haunted by a banshee-like spirit, who kills a child in town whenever she is seen.

It's definitely a spooky subject matter, though I thought the film had a very slow pace.  I thought that the early appearances of the ghost wasn't all that scary and I thought the scares peaked in the second act during an extended sequence when the mansion becomes akin to haunted fun house in an amusement park.

Overall, I thought that The Woman in Black was decent enough film.  It's not the scariest ghost story I've seen, but it had its moments.

7/10

My Thoughts on the Oscar Nominees

Award season kicked into full gear this morning as the Oscar nominations were announced.  As is my usual habit, I shall give my random thoughts:

• As a result of slightly modified rules (in which the Academy nominates UP TO ten films), there are only nine Best Picture nominees, six of which I have seen.  I highly doubt I'll see the three I haven't seen (Moneyball, The Help, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) before the Oscars (if at all).
• Shame, and Michael Fassbender's performance in it, were (not surprisingly) ignored
• Gary Oldman receives his first nomination ever
• Now we can say "Academy Award Nominated Actor Jonah Hill"
• Why is Bérénice Bejo (again) not nominated for LEAD actress?
• Sadly no animated nomination for Tintin.  Makes it easier to choose Rango.
• Second year in a row a Canadian film gets a Best Foreign-language Film nomination.  Will be checking out Monsieur Lazhar on Friday.
• Only two Best Song nominees? At least The Muppets is included.
• Despite being a silent film, The Artist, should have got a sound nominations for the two scenes with sound.
• I've seen two of the documentary nominees (I think that's a first).

Well, those are my random thoughts.  I definitely say that it will probably be The Artist's year and I expect it to win big during the ceremony.  I'll post my full predictions closer to the ceremony on February 26th.

My Thoughts on Haywire

Steven Soderbergh isn't often known for directing action films and, as it turns out, Haywire isn't your usual action film.  Storywise, this type of film, about a black ops agent who has been betrayed, has been told many time before and film is actually bit stylistically similar to the Bourne films.

The film stars former MMA fighter Gina Carano and features many well-choreographed fight scenes.  An interesting thing about these scenes is that they are not scored, so the only sounds that's heard are the kicks and punches during the fight.  As such, it allows the audience to respond in a very natural manner.

The film sports a very impressive supporting cast that includes Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton, Antonio Banderas, and Michael Douglas (Channing Tatum's in the film as well).  I should also mention Michael Angarano, who appears in an absolutely hilarious comic-relief role.

Overall, I have to say that Haywire was probably one of the most enjoyable January releases I've seen.

8/10

Movie Theatres of My Life

I've been going to cinemas for pretty much my entire life.  I can probably say that I've been to most cinemas in Toronto at least once and there's many that I still go to on a regular basis.

I thought that after all the posts I made about the Humber Cinema last year, I should go back and talk about the other cinemas I have fond memories of growing up.

While it would be too much to talk about EVERY cinema I've been to, I thought I would talk about the ones I have the fondest memories of and/or went to the most frequently.  Some of these cinemas are now closed, while others I still regularly go to. Enjoy.

Golden Globes Wrap-Up

Boy was I off.  The Golden Globes last night were not an enjoyable watching experience, as I only correctly predicted 4 of the 14 movie awards.  Some were slight miscalculations, with my alternate picks ending up willing, while others seemed complete out of left field.

The biggest surprise of the night for me was that the award for Best Picture - Drama went to The Descendants, with George Clooney also picking up the award for Best Actor - Drama.  I'm not sure if this will repeat come Oscar time, but both are now definite frontrunners.

Not so surprising was The Artist's win for Best Picture - Comedy/Musical.  It also won for Best Actor - Comedy/Musical and Best Score.  I think that The Artist is going to be the true film to beat during the Oscars.

The Oscar nominations are announced in just over a weeks time and it will definitely be an interesting race.

Golden Globes "Predictions"

This year I decided to write "predictions" in quotes as a way of acknowledging the Golden Globes is a bit of a sham of an awards show.

At one time you can say that the Globes were a good way to see who will win at the Oscars.  However, in recent years, you have had Best Picture winners that were out of left field (i.e. 2007's winner Atonement) or completely based on popularity (i.e. 2010's win for Avatar).

I'm going to make predictions because I like the game of it all, but I am sure that I am going to be shocked by at least one of the "winners" tonight.

Canada's Top Ten: My Thoughts on Take This Waltz

For my final film of Canada's Top Ten, I saw this quirky romantic comedy directed by Sarah Polley.  One thing that stands out for this film right away is that even though it's a Canadian film that takes place in Toronto, it features a very well-known cast of both Canadian and American actors, including Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby, and Sarah Silverman.

The film centres around a 20-something married woman named Margot (Williams), who lives a happy, yet mundane, life with her husband Lou (Rogen).  On a trip to Nova Scotia, she meets the suave Daniel (Kirby), who happens to be her neighbour.  Margot begins to believe that Daniel fills a void that is missing in her life with Lou and so begins a love triangle of sorts and Margot and Daniel develop feelings for each other, with Lou being oblivious to his wife's infidelity.

Trailer Thoughts: Casa de mi Padre

Will Ferrell goes español in this new Western spoof.

Canada's Top Ten: My Thoughts on Café de Flore

Last night I saw a film at Canada's Top Ten that I can probably say will end up being the best of the films that I have seen.

Café de Flore tells two stories.  The first story, set in present day Montreal, is about a love triangle of sorts in which a DJ named Antoine (Kevin Parent) recently left his wife Carole (Helene Florent) for a new woman named Rose (Evelyne Brochu).  Since Antoine and Carole believed each other to be soul mate, each are trying to come to term with this change and move on with their lives.  The second story takes place in 1960s Paris and follows Jacqueline (Vanessa Paradis), who has to face the challenges of raising her son Laurent, who has Down syndrome.

I thought the film was fantastically edited in how it seamlessly moved between the two stories.  At first it's bit puzzling how these two stories connect - other than the fact that both featured a musical number called "Café de Flore."  However, both stories come together by the end - in a very interesting way I might add.

In conclusion, I will say that Café de Flore was an excellent film and it will definitely be my top film of Canada's Top Ten.

9/10

I will conclude my Canada's Top Ten experience tonight when I see Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz.

Canada's Top Ten: My Thoughts on A Dangerous Method

I'm started to head into the cream of the crop of the Canada's Top Ten selection.  A Dangerous Method is of course the latest film by David Cronenberg.  The very fact that the film is directed Cronenberg might affect the opinions of some from an auteuristic point of view.  On it's the own, I thought that the film was a fairly decent historic drama about the early days of psychoanalysis.  However, most people have come to expect a certain type of film from Cronenberg and A Dangerous Method is not it.

This is a very talky film, with much of the plot made up of various conversations.  However, these conversations, mostly between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) were quite intriguing.  It was interesting watch them progress from professional colleagues, to friends, to rivals with differing opinions on psychoanalysis (essentially Jung wanted to include religion, Freud did not).