2010 Oscars: The Winners

Here are the winners of the 2010 Oscars:

• Best Picture: “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier, Greg Shapiro
• Best Director: “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
• Best Actor: Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
• Best Actress: Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
• Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”
• Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique in “Precious”
• Best Original Screenplay: “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
• Best Adapted Screenplay: “Precious” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
• Best Foreign Language: “The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)” Argentina
• Best Animated Film: “Up” Pete Docter
• Best Documentary: “The Cove” Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens
• Best Cinematography: “Avatar” Mauro Fiore
• Best Art Direction: Avatar” Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair
• Best Costumes: “The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell
• Best Editing: “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
• Best Score: “Up” Michael Giacchino
• Best Song: “The Weary Kind”(Crazy Heart) Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
• Best Makeup: “Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
• Best Visual Effects: “Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones
• Best Sound Editing: “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
• Best Sound Mixing: “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
• Best Animated Short: “Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
• Best Live Action Short: “The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson
• Best Documentary Short: “Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor

I did reasonably well in my predictions this year, getting 17 of 24 correct. If you count my first and second picks then the only one I was completely off on was Best Documentary Short (23 of 24). "The Hurt Locker" cleaning up both the Sound categories was a huge surprise. I really thought that the Academy would recognize "Avatar" over "The Hurt Locker" for Best Picture, but clearly (6 wins to 3 wins) they preferred the little war picture (which was excellent) to the amazing, cinematic experience from the creative genius of the unlikeable James Cameron. They both are great films but I suspect "Avatar" will be the one that is remembered more 50 years from now.

2010 Oscars: MadProfessah's Final Picks

I have previously posted my predictions for who I think should win (and who I think will win) in the Top 8 categories.

Here are my picks for all 24 categories:

Best Picture: Avatar (2nd: The Hurt Locker)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow (2nd: James Cameron )
Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker (2nd: Inglourious Basterds)
Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air (2nd: Precious)
Actor: Jeff Bridges (2nd: Jeremy Renner)
Actress: Sandra Bullock (2nd: Meryl Streep)
Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique (2nd: Maggie Gyllenhaal)
Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (2nd: Stanley Tucci)
Editing: The Hurt Locker (2nd: Avatar)
Art Direction: Avatar (2nd: Sherlock Holmes)
Sound: Avatar (2nd: The Hurt Locker)
Sound Editing: Avatar (2nd: The Hurt Locker)
Cinematography: Avatar (2nd: The Hurt Locker)
Costumes: The Young Victoria (2nd: Bright Star)
Documentary: The Cove (2nd: Food, Inc)
Foreign Language: A Prophet (2nd: The White Ribbon)
Animated Film: Up (2nd: Fantastic Mr. Fox)
Animated Short: A Matter of Loaf and Death (2nd: Logorama )
Live Action Short: The New Tenants (2nd: Abracadabra )
Documentary Short: China’s Unnatural Disaster (2nd: The Last Truck)
Makeup: Star Trek
Score: Up (2nd: Sherlock Holmes)
Song: The Weary Kind (from Crazy Heart)
Visual Effects: Avatar

I'll check in later. This year is much harder to predict than most!

Avatar Breaks $700m Domestic Gross Record

Avatar has now grossed a record-breaking $700 million, domestically. I guess that's just a consolation prize for writer-director-producer James Cameron, because it is looking more and more likely that his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow will win the Best Director Oscar, and her film The Hurt Locker, will win the Best Picture Oscar.

The two films went head-to-head at "British Oscars" (formally known as the BAFTAs) and The Hurt Locker won 6 awards: Picture, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing and Sound. (Avatar won one, for Visual Effects.) The BAFTAs are looked at closely as precursors for the Academy Awards because often the films that are nominated there are also nominated for BAFTAs and the two award ceremonies have similar categories.

The Oscars are on Sunday March 7th. I will have my annual Oscar prediction post up within the next week. I correctly predicted 82% of the Top 8 categories of this year's Oscar nominations. Last year I correctly preidcted all 8 of the Top 8 categories (no surprises with a Slumdog Millionaire sweep) and 20 of 24 categories overall.

2010 Oscars: Nominations Announced

The 2010 Oscar Nominations were announced this morning and MadProfessah did pretty well in predicting the Top 8 categories. I got 4 categories (Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor) completely correct and overall,out of 45 possible nominations, I predicted 37 correctly, or an 82%accuracy rate.

Interesting notes: Lee Daniels becomes the first openly gay and second African American nominated for Best Director, in the same year the 4th woman is nominated (Kathryn Bigelow, who will most likely win!)

Diane Kruger and Julianne Moore were robbed!

The fact that The Hurt Locker was able to tie Avatar for total nominations at 9 is huge, because roughly 100 times more people have seen the latter.

Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus An Education
Precious
Star TrekThe Blind Side
The HangoverA Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Accuracy Rate: 7 out of 10.

Best Director

• Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron, Avatar
• Lee Daniels, Precious
• Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Accuracy Rate: 5 out of 5

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren, The Last Station
• Casey Mulligan, An Education
  
• Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
• Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Accuracy Rate: 5 out of 5

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
• George Clooney, Up in the Air
• Colin Firth, A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman, Invictus
• Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Accuracy Rate: 5 out of 5

Best Supporting Actress

• Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
• Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
• Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds Penelope Cruz, Nine
  
• Mo'Nique, Precious
• Julianne Moore, A Single Man Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart

Accuracy Rate: 3 out of 5

Best Supporting Actor

• Matt Damon, Invictus
• Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
• Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
• Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
• Christophe Walz, Inglourious Basterds

Accuracy Rate: 5 out of 5

Best Original Screenplay

• Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron, Avatar Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman, The Messenger
• Joel & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
• Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, (500) Days of SummerBob Peterson and Pete Docter, Up

Accuracy Rate: 3 out of 5

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, District 9
• Nora Ephron, Julie & Julia Jesse Armstrong and Simon Blackwell, In the Loop
• Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
• Nick Hornby, An Education
• Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Accuracy Rate: 4 out of 5

2010 Oscars: Nominations Predictions

Tomorrow morning at 5:30am PST (Tuesday February 2) the 82nd Academy Award nominations will be announced for films released in 2009 (Review my Top 10 movies of 2009 list here). After seeing the actual nominations on Tuesday I will post a more extensive post with my predictions for the winners of the Top 8 awards. In previous years, Mad Professah has done pretty well in predicting both nominations and wins. In 2008 I won an online Oscars predictions contest (by picking 18 out of 24 awards correct) that resulted in having free Netflix for 6 months! Last year, I correctly picked all of the Top 8 winners and 20 of 28 categories but since the sweep by Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire was widely expected, I didn't win any Oscar contests.

The big change this year is a return to 10 nominees for Best Picture.

Best Picture

Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
Precious
Star Trek
The Hangover
Up
Up in the Air

Best Director

• Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron, Avatar
• Lee Daniels, Precious
• Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren, The Last Station
• Casey Mulligan, An Education
  
• Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
• Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
• George Clooney, Up in the Air
• Colin Firth, A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman, Invictus
• Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Best Supporting Actress

• Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
• Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
• Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds
• Mo'Nique, Precious
• Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Best Supporting Actor

• Matt Damon, Invictus
  
• Josh Brolin, Milk
• Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
• Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
• Christoph Walz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Original Screenplay

• Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron, Avatar
• Joel & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
• Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, (500) Days of Summer
  

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, District 9
• Nora Ephron, Julie & Julia
• Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
• Nick Hornby, An Education
• Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Total Nominations

1. Avatar, 10
   
2. Up in the Air, 8
   
3. The Hurt Locker, 7
4. Inglourious Basterds, Precious 6

'Avatar' Breaks $400m Domestic Box-Office Total

Avatar has now grossed $429 million dollars, domestically, and $1.35 billion worldwide. It reached the $400 million barrier domestically in 23 days, slightly slower than The Dark Knight's 18 days in 2008. Christopher Nolan's movie ended with a gross of $533 million domestic, $1 billion worldwide.

Avatar is now the #2 all-time box-office champ, behind James Cameron's previous blockbuster, Titanic, which grossed $600 million domestically and $1.8 billion worldwide. It is doubtful to surpass that number but it has a decent chance of reaching $500 million and perhaps beating The Dark Knight, depending on the upcoming Oscar race.

Top 10 Movies of 2009

For the first time, (unlike my lists from 2008, 2007, 2006 or 2005) my annual Top 10 list will only include movies that I saw in 2009, not just movies that were released in 2009 (and are eligible for the 2009 Oscar) but that actually I saw later. Anyway, here is MadProfessah's list of Top 10 movies for 2009:

10. A Single Man. The film debut by fashion designer Tom Ford, and featuring Oscar-worthy performances by Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, A Single Man is a film about loss, grief and hope.

9. Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotos). It's always a good year when there is a new Pedro Almodóvar film released. Features an incredible performance by Penelope Cruz and some fun self-referential jokes in the movie within a movie.

8. Outrage. A brilliant documentary about media hypocrisy in the coverage of homosexuality in political circles by the director of This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Kirby Dick. Senator Larry Craig, Governor Charlie Crist, Governor James McGreevey are just a few of the names that are bandied about in the film.

7. The Hangover. A bawdy, ridiculous comedy about a bachelor party weekend in Vegas that goes hyperbolically, hysterically wrong. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and the apparently ubiquitous Zach Galifianakis are pitch perfect in this screwball comedy directed by Todd Phillips.

6. Star Trek. J.J. Abrams has the Midas touch. The director took the dross that was the Star Trek brand and turned it into cinematic gold with this energetic, smart re-boot of the most venerable science fiction franchise in Hollywood. Yes, the plot is a mess, but the film (and its youthful stars) are well worth ogling.

5. District 9. Who says summer blockbusters have to have huge budgets and be mindless? South African director Neil Blomkamp is able to amaze and provoke the audience with his allegorical tale of mistreatment of a despised minority group by the government, in a country which has its own unique history with state-sanctioned mistreatment of its citizens.

4. Food, Inc. After seeing this film you'll never look at dinner the same way again, but you will be happy that you did. An absolutely must-see documentary in the spirit of An Inconvenient Truth and Sicko that tells uncomfortable truths about the way our society is organized and offers suggestions for how we can stop being complicit in making things worse for us all.

3. Up. Yet another Pixar masterpiece. It seems like the geniuses at the computer animation are just messing with our heads now. They just showed how to take a curmudgeonly old man, a socially awkward, chubby Asian kid and a talking dog and make an emotionally evocative, suspense-thriller summer blockbuster out of these unlikely elements. One of the better Pixar animated films, and that is saying something.

2. The Hurt Locker. After being exposed to another ecstatic review as the summer was winding down, me and the Other Half went to a nearly empty late screening of Kathryn Bigelow's masterpiece and were unceremoniously blown away by the visceral power the film has to transport the viewer into the heart of a war zone and too close for comfort to the mind of an adrenaline-junkie bomb dismantling soldier played with devastating impact by Jeremy Renner, in a performance that is now beoming widely celebrated.

1. Avatar. The most enjoyable time I spent at the movies all year (really, in several years) was the nearly six hours I spent immersed in watching this film by James Cameron twice in three days in 3-D. It brought back the joy of going to the movies that I remember the first time I saw Star Wars. An instant class and without a doubt the Best Picture of the year.

Honorable Mentions: Terminator Salvation, Up in the Air, Julie & Julia.

Not Seen in 2009: Precious, Fantastic Mr. Fox, A Serious Man, An Education, Invictus.

UPDATE: You might want to check out my Top 10 movies for the decade 2000-2009.

MOVIE REVIEW: Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotos)

The latest film from the Oscar-winning, openly gay, Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Talk To Her) is Los Abrazos Ratos (Broken Embraces). It stars Penélope Cruz as Lena and Lluis Horna as Harry Caine / Mateo Blanco.

The plot is typically complex, as Almodóvar is again playing with various genres of film here, just a few that I noticed are the film noir, the film-within-a-film device, the power of film itself, family drama and illicit love story.

The film is not emotionally resonant as some of his more recent films (Volver, Mala Educacion) but looks just as gorgeous as any of his previous movies and has the added feature of actually including an explicit parody of his breakthrough hit, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, this time called Chicas y Maletas (Girls and Suitcases).

Almodóvar has found another muse in female form with the gorgeous Penélope Cruz but unfortunately he is yet to find an equally compelling muse in male form to match his artistic connection with the young Antonio Banderas who appeared in many of the director's early works.

All in all, Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) is an amusing diversion featuring an engrossing story which reflects Almodóvar's colorful imagination.

Running Time: 2 hours, 7 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for sexual content, language and some drug material.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar.

OVERALL GRADE: B+/A- (3.5/4.0).

ACTING: A-.
IMAGERY: B+.
PLOT: A-.
IMPACT: B+ .

WATCH: Survey of Year in Movies (2009)

While you wait with bated breath for my list of Top 10 releases of 2009 (coming Monday), take a look back at this brilliant survey of the best cinematic achievements in 2009, set to the powerful music of Radiohead's "Exit Music For A Film."

Hat/tip to Awards Daily

MOVIE REVIEW: A Single Man

Fashion designer Tom Ford's first film is A Single Man and stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.

A Single Man is about a gay (closeted) professor of English in Los Angeles named George Falconer played by Firth who has lost his handsome, younger partner of 16 years, Jim (Matthew Goode) in the last year, and follows him during the course of one day, depicting his attempt to come to terms with grief, loss and hope. Julianne Moore plays George's best friend and neighbor, Charly, who also knew him years before in London and is now (again) single and clearly hopeful that now that George is single also the two could be more than friends.

Nicolas Hoult plays a youthful and attractive student with impossibly large, bright blue eyes who is curiously, inappropriately interested in George's personal life.

The most memorable features of the film is the incredibly detailed art direction which depicts southern California of 1962 with elegant accuracy. Another high point is Colin Firth's lead performance which does an excellent job of really communicating the depth of feeling of a man who is grieving the love of his life but is constrained by social conventions (this is almost a full decade before Stonewall, after all) from doing so. Unfortunately, it is clear that this is Tom Ford's feature film debut, because it is directed with a heavy, obtrusive hand.

Running Time: 1 hour, 39 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for some disturbing images and nudity/sexual content.
Director: Tom Ford.

OVERALL GRADE: B+ (3.42/4.0).

ACTING: A.
IMAGERY: B+.
PLOT: B.
IMPACT: B+.

MOVIE REVIEW: Up In The Air

Jason Reitman's previous film was the adorable Juno, for which he was nominated for Best Director and Ellen Page received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. His latest film Up in the Air stars Oscar-winner George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.

The story is about Ryan Bingham, whose job is firing people for firms who can't stomach dropping the axe themselves and who has used his position to rack up an incredible number of frequent flyer miles. He is a man who spends most of his time in transit, eschewing connections with other people.

Anna Kendrick plays a colleague of Clooney's who is forced to travel with him and who challenges his isolationist world view, but Clooney meets Vera Farmiga's character Alex who is also obsessed with earning frequent flyer miles.

Several film critics have awarded their Best Picture award to Up in the Air and Entertainment Weekly has officially granted the film frontrunner status in the Oscar Best Picture race by placing Clooney, Kendrick and Farmiga on the cover but I must respectfully disagree. There's no way that Up in the Air is remotely as good as Reitman's first film Juno, and that earned a Best Picture nomination in a tougher field.

I think it's a reasonably good film, but not one of the ten best of the year.


Running Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes.
MPAA Rating: R [See Full Rating] for language and some sexual content.
Director: Jason Reitman.

OVERALL GRADE: B/B+ (3.25/4.0).

ACTING: A-.
IMAGERY: B-.
PLOT: B+.
IMPACT: B+ .

MOVIE REVIEW: AVATAR (3D)

I saw James Cameron's Avatar in 3-D twice in the first three days of its release. I saw it opening day at the Arclight Cinemas Cineramadome using the XpanD 3D system and at the Regal Cinemas Alhambra Renaissance 14 in RealD 3D. I'll probably see it one more time, in 2-D to compare.

I should note that I can probably count on one hand the number of films I have seen multiple times in the theaters (Star Wars, Aliens, Tell No One, Finding Nemo). Avatar belongs on this list. It is an incredible cinematic experience, not just because of the immersive aspects of the 3-D film experience but due to the complexity and intensity of the storytelling.

The star of Avatar is the "It" boy of the moment, Sam Worthington, who plays Jake Sully, a paralyzed Marine who fills in for his recently murdered brother on a mercenary interplanetary mission to assist in the exploration and exploitation of an eden-like moon called Pandora which is rich with vast natural resources which humanity has only begun to understand. Sigourney Weaver a favorite of Cameron's from the Aliens franchise plays the head of the ecological team interacting with the 10-foot-tall, bright blue, cat-eyed alien natives called the Na'vi via the use of genetically engineered avatars. Zoe Saldana, who plays the lead alien native Neyitri captures Worthington while in avatar form and the story deepens from there. I really don't want to say any more about the explicit details of the story.

The central messages of the film are surprisingly pro-environmental and anti-militaristic and contain explicit depiction of native/tribal religio-cultural expression.

The visual impact of the film can not be overstated.

Running Time: 2 hours, 41 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 [See Full Rating] for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking.
Director: James Cameron.

OVERALL GRADE: A+.

ACTING: A+.
IMAGERY: A+.
PLOT: A+.
IMPACT: A+.

MadProfessah is watching AVATAR *right now*

I'm in the 7pm showing at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. Will try and write a review over the weekend. So, far the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Chicago Sun-Times have given the film rave reviews of 100/100 and Steven Spielberg reportedly said "The last time I came out of a movie feeling that way it was the first time I saw Star Wars."

Golden Globe Nominations Are Out

The Golden Globe nominations are out:

Motion Picture, Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Motion Picture, Comedy/Musical
500 Days of Summer
The Hangover
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

Actress, Drama
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabby Sidibe, Precious

Actor, Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Actor Comedy/Musical
Matt Damon, The Informant
Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
Joe Gordon Levitt, 500 Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

Actress, Comedy
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Meryl Streep, It’s Complicated

Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Screenplay
Neill Blomkampt & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Nancy Meyers, It’s Complicated
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Original Score
Michael Giacchino, Up
Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant
James Horner, Avatar
Abel Krozeniowski, A Single Man
Karen O. and Carter Burwell, Where the Wild Things Are

Foreign Language Film
Baria
Broken Embraces
The Maid
Un Prophete
The White Ribbon

Original Song
“Cinema Italiano,” Nine
“I Want To Come Home,” Everybody’s Fine
“I See You,” Avatar
“The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart
“Winter,” Brothers

Hat/tip to AwardsDaily

MOVIE REVIEW: Where The Wild Things Are

The Other Half and MadProfessah decided to go see Where The Wild Things Are in the theaters last weekend before it disappears to a television, computer screen or DVD. The film is directed by Spike Jonze well-known for his trippy, unique filmic vision song apparent in Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002) and several genre-defining music videos (Beastie Boys' "Sabotage," Björk's "It's So Quiet" to name a few).

Both Being John Malkovich and Adaptation were written by the even trippier Charlie Kaufman but the adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved children book was written by Jonze and Dave Eggers (who wrote the screenplay for Away We Go released earlier this summer directed by Mr. Kate Winslet, Sam Mendes--see MadProfessah's B/B+ review).

The movie got both rave reviews and indifferent responses but there was general consensus (rottentomatoes.com score of 70%) that it was a visually arresting, if emotionally harrowing and dark vision of the imaginary world of an 8-year-old named Max.

The Other Half liked the movie more than I did. I enjoyed trying to figure out who was playing the voices of the Wild Things. "Hey, is that Claire from Six Feet Under? I really think KW is the red-headed actress from HBO." I was correct that KW is voiced by Lauren Ambrose but did not figure out that James Gandolfini played the lead Wild Thing named Carol and Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine), Chris Cooper, Forrest Whitaker and Catherine O'Hara are in the amazing cast.

The film does look amazing, and there are some very fun visually uplifting sequences, but in the end the overall impact of the experience is somewhat emotionally draining because it is basically a depiction of the many ways adults use speech and emotional non-verbal communication to attempt to hurt and manipulate others. There is a lot of talking in this movie, and a lot of unrepressed rage displayed by little creatures and big creatures alike.

Running Time: 1 hour, 41 minutes. MPAA Rating: Rated PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language.

Plot: C-.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: B-.

Overall Grade: B/B-.

VIDEO: New Trailer for James Cameron's "Avatar"

MOVIE REVIEW: Ponyo

Saw Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo recently before it left movie theaters late this summer. Miyazaki is the acclaimed Japanese filmmaker who created Spirited Away, which won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2003.

Ponyo is not the director's best work, but it is an interesting diversion.

The main problem is the (feebleness of the) plot and (lack of) character development. It's mildly amusing to identify the voices of the famous celebrities who add their voices to the cast: Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, Betty White, Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin and Tina Fey.

The story is about Ponyo, who is both the daughter of the sea god and goldfish. One day, a 5-year-old boy named Sosuke finds the goldfish and takes it home but loses the goldfish back in the ocean. Ponyo uses her father's magic to transform herself from a goldfish to a little girl and returns to land to live with Sosuke. However, the magic unleashes a terrible storm and huge storm tide which floods the area where Sosuke and his mom live. Ponyo and Sosuke have to work together to find his mom and save the world from the increasingly dangerous effects of the rising tide.

The synopsis doesn't really do the plot justice, but as with most of Miyazaki's movies the point of the film is more about the emotional connection the filmmaker is able to make with the audience, and not the story, per se.

In films like Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle the magical moments can overwhelm any defects in the plot. Sadly, Ponyo is not one of those films.

Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes. MPAA Rating: Rated G for general audiences.

OVERALL GRADE: B.

ACTING: N/A.
IMAGERY: A-.
PLOT: B.
IMPACT: B.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is the most critically acclaimed movie of the summer (98% rating at rottentomatoes.com) although it is approaching the end of its run in movie theaters, having grossed just over $12 million dollars so far. Over Labor Day weekend the Other Half and I saw it at the Mann Theaters 10 in Glendale.

This is probably the first outstanding artistic venture inspired by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The movie is an intense experience, engrossing the viewer immediately and keeping you on the edge of your seats. The Hurt Locker has been called "the best action movie of the summer" and a "viscerally exciting, adrenaline-soaked tour de force of suspense and surprise" by A.O. Scott of the New York Times (who incidentally can now be seen every weekend taking over for Siskel & Ebert on ABC's At The Movies television show).

Although the film was written by Mark Boal and directed by Kathryn Bigelow it has the look and feel of an unscripted documentary peek at real life of soldiers working in an explosive detection and remediation unit. There are three main characters, played brilliantly by Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner and Brian Geraghty but the real main character is the war in Iraq itself and the frustrating, bewildering, terrifying predicament these soldiers (and our country) have found ourselves in.

Running Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes. MPAA Rating: Rated R for war violence and language.

OVERALL GRADE: A+.

ACTING: A.
IMAGERY: A+.
PLOT: A.
IMPACT: A+.

MOVIE REVIEW: District 9

District 9 is summer 2009's surprise late summer hit. Executive produced by Peter Jackson and directed by a surprisingly young wunderkind from South Africa named Neill Blomkamp on an incredibly small budget of $30 million, the film is surprisingly effective and entertaining.

MadProfessah and The Other Half saw the movie in its first week of release. He liked it more than I did; I felt that it got a little slow in the second act.

The basic story is about an alien ship which appeared suddenly above the city of Johannesburg a few decades. When humans explored the ship they found hundreds of thousands of malnourished and stinking aliens (who look like some kind of arthropod so that they get the nickname "prawns") who are then housed in horribly slum-like conditions. The movie has the form of a faux documentary covering the actions of a private corporation (Multi National United) who has received a contract to relocate the now 1.8 million prawns from their ghetto near the heart of a major South African city to a remote area hundreds of kilometers away which are a thinly disguised concentration camp.

The star of the documentary is a bureaucrat with clearly less-than-average intelligence named Wikus van der Merwe, played by the completely unknown actor Sharlto Copley.

The plot has a number of surprising twists and the visual effects are stunning.

District 9 is an excellent piece of film-making reminiscent of the original breakthrough hit 28 Days Later created by Danny Boyle (Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire) which is not perfect but is a significant innovation in the way action films are regarded. District 9 had a stunning marketing campaign (realistic signs on bus benches with "Restricted Area: For Humans Only") that raised the anticipation of the film to a fever pitch among fanboys and others, and then lived up to those expectations (89% on rottentomatoes.com).

Running Time: 1 hour, 52 minutes. MPAA Rating: Rated R [See Full Rating] for bloody violence and pervasive language.

OVERALL GRADE: A.

ACTING: A-.
IMAGERY: A+.
PLOT: A.
IMPACT: A.

MOVIE REVIEW: Outrage

At Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh I saw the documentary Outrage, directed by Kirby Dick (who made the acclaimed This Film Is Not Yet Rated) and starring Mike Rogers of PageOneQ and Michelangelo Signorile of The Gist.

Both Mike and Michelangelo are most well-known
for their involvement in the controversy about revealing the homosexuality of closeted homosexuals.

Mike Rogers outed U.S. Senator Larry Craig in October 17, 2006 several months before the Senator was arrested in a men's bathroom at the Minneapolis Airport.

Michelangelo Signorile is well-known for being the features editor at OutWeek magazine in the early 1990s, eventually outing celebrities such as David Geffen, Malcolm Forbes and Liz Smith, among others.

The movie Outrage is riveting. Using devastating actual audio and video footage of Larry Craig, Governor Charlie Crist and Rep. Jim Mcrery. Craig and Crist are actually shown on camera answering questions about whether they are gay or not. It is left up to the audience to evaluate the truthfulness of their responses.

Several LGBT activists appear as talking heads to show righteous outrage at the hypocrisy of closeted Republicans who actively worked against the needs of the broader LGBT community, or who were in positions of power to help and through inaction caused great harm to continue. Elizabeth Birch, Rodger McFarlane, Hilary Rosen, Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin, Jim Kolbe and Andrew Sullivan are just some of the members of the community who rain down scorn upon closeted homosexuals.

One curious aspect of the film is the attention it spends so much of its time on James McGreevey, the former governor of New Jersey who announced that he was "A gay American" and promptly resigned his post, and divorced his (second) wife. McGreevey is used to demonstrate the positive mental health aspects of politicians coming out of their own accord, but the more problematic aspects of McGreevey's story are not included in the film.

All in all, Outrage is required viewing for any gay person who is interested in LGBT politics, the debate over the ethics of outing and the media's role in both.

MPAA Rating: R [See Full Rating] for some language and sexual references. Running Time: 1 hour, 29 minutes.

OVERALL GRADE: A.

ACTING: N/A.
IMAGERY: A-.
PLOT/WRITING: A.
IMPACT: A.