And the Oscar goes to....

The Oscars. Didn't see them. Have no idea how Wolverine did as host. Don't really care either. I do want to see the new Wolverine movie though. That will be good. Despite not watching the 'scars, I did, just now, tally up my guesses and found that I only picked 12/24 looks like. 50%. That's terrible!

I am very surpized! Granted, about half of my guesses were pure random. I did only see 7 of the films that were nominated in the main catagories-so I guess 50% ain't all that bad. (those 7 include Wanted, In Bruges, Ironman )

I was glad to see Kate Winslett win an Oscar. Half of the time it seems like they just give out these awards almost like "make-up calls" in basketball. Like, we really should have given you an award years ago, for when you were really really good, but we were dumb, so now you can have this for when you were just okay. (see: Martin Scorsese) Winslett was the winner this year in that vein. Perhaps some day Gus Van Sant will have his turn.

Shame that Mickey Rourke didnt' get the nod. I figure that a couple things happened with that. One, he is kind of a scary freak and just a bit too rebellious for those voters. Two, probably a bit of backlash, after his winning the Spirit Award and Golden Globe, and all the allocades...I think that maybe people had just heard enough about Mickey, so they went with the always stellar Penn. Okay, fine. Whatever...

So, here's to the most bland Oscars in recent memory, with the least exciting bunch of movie nominated!

At least I won my bet and now Cristin owes me a buck.

Molo's Oscar Predictions

Best Supporting Actress will be: Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler.

Best Supporting Actor will be: Heath Ledger for Dark Knight. Duh. This isn't even a contest.

Best Actress in a Leading role: Close call between Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. I think Hathaway will come away with this one.

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Mickey Rourke has this locked up.

Best Animated Feature: Wall-E. Duh.

Art Direction: who cares? Oh wait, I'm an artist I should care...but this never seems to go the most artful picture, it always seems to be some kind of technical category, like this was the most complex art direction...so let's say it will be...Benji Buttons. After all, with 13 nominations it must win some awards.

Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire

Costume Design: I have no idea how they figure this one out. The Duchess, sure, why not.

Directing: Hmmm...sometimes, rarely, they give the directing prize to a film that doesn't win the best pictures. This year is such a year, and I'm going out on a limb and saying that Gus Van Sant will be given this award.

Documentary Feature: Man on Wire

Documentary Short: Who sees these? The Final Inch, based on nothing

Film Editing: Benji Buttons

Foreign Language film: Watlz With Bashir

Make-Up: Buttons

Music (score): Buttons

Music (song): one of the 2 Slumdog songs...."O Saya"

Short Film (animated): This Way Up (random guess)

Short (live): The Pig

Sound Editing: Dark Knight (can you believe "Wanted" got a nomination???)

Sound Mixing: What is the difference between this and Editing? The Dark Knight

Visual Effects: Buttons

Writing (adapted screenplay): Doubt

Writing (original): Milk (I hope it goes to In Bruges though...)


and finally....



Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

artful lighting and light-art

IN FILM:

The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford.

What a mouthful of a title. What kind of idiot marketing squad came up with that one? I mean, yeah, it's probably based on a book or something, but sheesh. On the other hand, it is a good description. It speaks to the idea that...here is a story about Jessie James, one of the most famous, interesting, colorful gunmen from the wild west...and we are going to tell you a story about him getting killed, in cowardly fashion, by some chump named Robert Ford.

Really, in that sense, it's a perfect title.

This movie...though...my god it's quite awful. Really it's quite beautiful for about....40 minutes. If you rent this movie, watch it just after the point of the train robbery, then shut it off and save yourself 2 hours. There are some lovely shots, really quite beautiful, but they are all in the beginning, then the rest of the movie just repeats these same style of shots...it gets old fast. But great use of light and clever lens tricks.

Pitt is passable, his usual self. And yes Casey Affleck is fast becoming the best screen actor of his generation. (have you seen the film his brother directed, Gone Baby Gone? He's great in that movie). Even his stellar performance can't hold this movie for nearly 3 hours.

It's not the material-Jessie James, his enigma, and this wannabe "coward" who idolizes him-there is plenty of good stuff here. But the slow pace, the heavy handed stylized shots, and the lack of action and thin dialog just drag this attempt at an art house western down.

1.5 Molos

IN THE ARTS:

I caught the show at Western Bridge the other day, Light seeking Light/Untitled (a brink if infinity), which essentially is a bunch of work, some of which is rotating, from the collection that is up this winter. I shall not go into great detail here, but I'd say you should got check it out. It's worth it to see the piece by Anthony McCall (Pictured above). McCall's work is not smart, clever, or unique-it reminds me a great deal of going to see laser shows at the Science Center when I was in high school-that smell, of the smoke machine. Such an odd smell, kind of a good smell, but what exactly is that substance? In any case, the work really is just a nicely done laser show. Simple, elegant, and peaceful. Worth a look.

There are several other strong works in the show worth seeing. I wasn't all that interested in the centerpiece of the show: Mary Tempel's faux shadow wall painting. It's a clever trick, and well executed, but the imagery wasn't interesting or visually pleasing enough for me to have more than a simple-hey you fooled me for a second-type of reaction.

3 Molos

IN MUSIC:

I haven't been hearing a lot of new stuff yet this year, but the kids are all way into the new Animal Collective record, and I have given it a listen myself, and I actually like it a lot better than previous efforts of the band. It falls into that kind of multi/eclectic instrumental noise mess indie rock, like say, Broken Social Scene. Done well, though, and with a stronger sense of purpose this time around. It's called Merriweather Post Pavilion. 3.5 Molos

New Vetiver comes out this week, I'm sure that will be a lovely album.

2008 round-up

Yes, my blog has been ignored. Really I think this is because I lost all my pirated internet wifi connections at home, and my promotion does not afford me the same opportunities to play on the web.

But I can still sneak in a little, you know on "lunch".

So 2008, I didn't see nearly as many films as I had in previous years, but I did catch a few. Heard some good music too. So here's my roundup for top 10 so far. I'm sure the film one will change drastically as I finally catch the better movies on DVD.



Top 21 albums released in 2008 that I have been introduced to:


1. The Walkman - You and Me
2. The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
3. The Cool Kids - The Bake Sale
4. Cold War Kids - Loyalty to Loyatly
5. Restiform Bodies - TV loves you back
6. Neon Neon - Stainless Style
7. Sigur Ros - Meo Suo I Eyrum Vio Spilum
8. Astronautalis - Pomegranite
9. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
10. Local H - 12 angry months
11. Grand Archives - Grand Archives
12. Portishead - third
13. Tapes n' Tapes - Walk it off
14. Brian Eno/David Byrne Everything that Happens will Happen Today
15. M83 - Saturdays = Youth
16. MGMT - Ocular Spectacular
17. Fujiya + Miyagi - lightbulbs album
18. School of Seven Bells Alpinisms
19. Nick Cave - Dig Lazarus Dig!
20. Steve Malkmus and the Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
21. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Top 10 movie films I saw in 2008:

1. Batman - The Dark Knight
2. The Wrestler
3. Speed Racer (yeah that's right-the visuals in this movie are stunning!)
4. Gran Torino
5. Red Belt
6. Man On Wire
7. Cloverfield
8. Be Kind, Rewind
9. Iron Man
10. Death Race (he he he)

There's a lot of crap on this list, well not crap, but not exactly great either...I missed a lot, like these good/intriguing films that might make the list:

Milk, slumdog millionaire (everyone seems to love it, so it must be good, right?), The Changling, Choke, benji button, RockNRolla, The Reader, Revolutionary Road....etc etc...

fill me in if there are things I should be on the look out for. I heard something about some pretty good animation films this year, but they are slipping my mind.

2009 looks amazing, at least for entertaining movies!