Monthly Archives: January 2011

Movie Quote of the Day – Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1964 (dir. Stanley Kubrick)

President Merkin Muffley: Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room.

Cinema Fanatic Won!

I want to thank everyone who voted for Cinema Fanatic at the 2011 Total Film Movie Blog Awards. It is ever so appreciated.

New Trailer For Mike Mills’ “Beginners”

I saw the names Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Mélanie Laurent attached and I was interested. Then I saw the dog in the trailer and now I’m sold.

Read the rest of this entry

Movie Quote of the Day – The Departed, 2006 (dir. Martin Scorsese)

Lazio: Do you have anyone in with Costello presently?
Dignam: Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself.

Movie Quote of the Day – On Golden Pond, 1981 (dir. Mark Rydell)

Ethel Thayer: You’re my knight in shining armor. Don’t you forget it. You’re gonna get back on that horse and I’m gonna be right behind you, holding on tight and away we’re gonna go, go, go!
Norman Thayer Jr.: I don’t like horses. [beat] You are a pretty old dame, aren’t you?
Ethel Thayer: Oh!
Norman Thayer Jr.: What are you doin’ with a dotty old son of a bitch like me?
Ethel Thayer: Well, I haven’t the vaguest idea.

Movie Quote of the Day – All The President’s Men, 1976 (dir. Alan J. Pakula)

Deep Throat: I was at a party once and Liddy put his hand over a candle and he kept it there. He kept it right in the flame until his flesh was burned. Somebody said, “What’s the trick?” and Liddy said, “The trick is not minding.”

Thoughts On The 83rd Oscar Nominations

Well, my predictions were pretty right on. For Best Picture I got 9 out 10 right (though I had the 10th as an alternate). I was not expecting Nolan to get snubbed in favor of the Coen Bros. though. I got 5/5 for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress (Jacki Weaver! Yes!) and 4/5 for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor (though I had both Javier Bardem and Jeremy Renner as alternates). What excites me the most is John Hawkes and Hailee Steinfeld getting their nominations! I also am excited to see The Illusionist in the Best Animated Feature category over Tangled. I’ve actually not seen The Illusionist yet, but it just seems so beautiful from all the clips I’ve seen. Adapted Screenplay went exactly as I had predicted and Original Screenplay proved that the Academy still loves Mike Leigh. I wasn’t sure that they would so I had Black Swan over Another Year in my predictions (though Another Year was my #1 alternate). I am pretty shocked that 127 Hours got the nomination for Best Editing over Inception.

I guess the biggest snubs of the day are Christopher Nolan not getting nominated for Best Director. It just seems the Academy is not the biggest fan of his directing, though he’s now got two nominations for his writing. Also a bit shocking was no nomination for Andrew Garfield for The Social Network. I guess the lack of a SAG nomination was more telling than I wanted it to be.

[Edit] Also just realized that Waiting For “Superman” got snubbed. That’s a real shocker. It looked like the frontrunner to win.

What do you guys think on the nominations as announced this morning? Who do you want to win?

Nominations For The 83rd Academy Awards!

Rest of the nominees added as soon as they’re available

Best Picture:
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Best Director:
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
David Fincher – The Social Network
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
David O. Russell – The Fighter
The Coen Bros. – True Grit

Best Actor:
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours

Best Actress:
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams –  Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Actor:
Christian Bale – The Fighter
John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Stienfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

Best Animated Feature
How To Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

Best Adapted Screenplay:
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Best Original Screenplay:
Another Year
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech

Best Foreign Film
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
Hors la Loi (Outside the Law) (Algeria)
Incendies (Canada)
In a Better World (Denmark)

Best Cinematography
Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
True Grit

Best Editing
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
The Social Network

Best Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit

Best Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King’s Speech
The Tempest
True Grit

Best Makeup
Barney’s Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman

Best Original Score
127 Hours – A.R. Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell
Inception – Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
The Social Network – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

Best Original Song
127 Hour- A.R. Rahman, Rollo Armstrong, Dido(“If I Rise”)
Country Strong – Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey, Troy Verges(“Coming Home”)
Tangled – Alan Menken, Glenn Slater(“I See the Light”)
Toy Story 3 – Randy Newman(“We Belong Together”)

Best Sound
Inception
The King’s Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

Best Sound Editing
Inception
Toy Story 3
TRON: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

Best Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2

Best Documentary
Exit Through the Gift Shop
GasLand
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land

Best Documentary, Short Subject
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

Best Short Film, Animated
Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, a Journey Diary

Best Short Film, Live Action
The Confession
The Crush
God of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143

Final Oscar Nomination Predictions

I’ve made my final predictions of what I think the Academy will announce tomorrow morning. The nominations are broadcast live at 5:30AM PST/ 8:30AM EST tomorrow morning. There’s always a few surprise nominees (think Maggie Gyllenhaal for Best Supporting Actress last year, The Blind Side up for Best Picture). I’ve only predicted in 21 of the 24 categories (I have no idea about the animated/live action/documentary shorts), also I’ve included alternates.

Best Picture:
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
The Town
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
Alternates: 127 Hours, The Ghost Writer, Shutter Island

Read the rest of this entry

Oscar Vault Monday – Missing, 1982 (dir. Costa-Gavras)

I think it’s important to first point out that this film is based on a true story.  Journalist Charles Horman was one of the victims of the Chilean coup of 1973 led by General Augusto Pinochet, that deposed the socialist president, Salvador Allende. The coup was, in part, secretly backed by the United States government. The book on which this film was based came out in 1978 and this film was released in 1982, but the classified documents that prove that the events depicted in both are true were not released until 1999. I find this whole back story insanely interesting and if you’d like to read more about it, the Wikipedia article on Horman has a lot of information and links to further reading. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one: Best Adapted Screenplay (won), Best Actress Sissy Spacek, Best Actor Jack Lemmon and Best Picture. Strangely, Costa-Gavras was not nominated for Best Director (Wolfgang Petersen got nominated for Das Boot, while the film was not up for Best Picture). The other nominees for Best Picture that year were E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, Tootsie, The Verdict and winner Gandhi.


Read the rest of this entry