The Independent Spirit Awards traditionally occur the same weekend as the Oscars awarding all films Independent hence why there wasn’t a blue person in sight. This year it was Precious that took the major prizes home winning all five awards that it was nominated for; Best Feature, Best Director (Lee Daniels), Best Female Lead (Gabourey Sidibie), Best Supporting Female (Mo’Nique) and Best First Screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher).
Carey Mulligan at last nights BAFTA’s not only took home the Best Female award but also wowed audiences with her innovative choice of gown. For me she was the best dressed of the evening in her beautiful Vionnet floral monochrome gown and this I would say is her best appearance on the red carpet in this current award season where she has always looked good but last night this dress made her look like the winning actress that she is:
I am unashamed to admit that every year the one magazine issue that I look forward to is the Vanity Fair Hollywood issue which features photographic portraits of the years leading film men and women taken by the fantastic but financially challenged Annie Leibowitz (how someone of her talent has got in to the mess she is in is beyond me but that is another tale). In lieu of last years issue where Barack Obama usurped the usual actors cover I was having high hopes that this year would be a return to Hollywood form.
(from left to right Abbie Cornish, Kristen Stewart, Carey Mulligan, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Hall, Mia Wasikowska, Emma Stone, Evan Rachel Wood, Anna Kendrick)
This year however the problem isn’t that it isn’t Hollywood enough, the problem is that the hot new Hollywood is apparently a mixture of white, skinny girls. There is nothing diverse in this cover, in fact with a quick glance it is hard to distinguish some of the faces and it is because of this that this cover has come under fire.
Out of last years festival came such success stories such as Precious: Based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire, An Education, The Cove, The Messenger and (500) Days of Summer. This is a round up of the films that got Utah buzzing this year and could be getting those Oscar nominations in 2011:
The 14th of March is the tentative date for the start of the new miniseries ‘The Pacific’, a HBO production that will air on Sky Movies in the UK (advert free). The Pacific sees Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks providing us with another look at events in WWII, this time from the view of the battle being fought with Japan.
After the success of Band of Brothers (which is by far one of my favourite television series of all time) The Pacific has been highly anticipated since the first trailer was released last summer and early reports suggest that it will not disappoint.
The $128 million price tag for the series indicates that they will not be holding back on the fight sequences and special effects. Though this is not a show that will be brilliant for spectacle alone, if the story telling is anything like that of Band of Brothers it will be the smaller moments between the characters that will make this TV event special, that this journey that these young men are on is one worth telling beyond the explosions and gun fights.
A familiar face in the trailer is Joseph Mazzello who you probably recognise from another Spielberg hit Jurassic Park in which he played Tim. Looking over his IMDb page his work in film and TV since that childhood role has consisted with bit parts so hopefully this lead role will help reinvigorate his career. Other faces you might also recognise are James Badge Dale who was Chase in 24 and also starred in The Departed and Aussie actress Isabella Lucas who was in Transformers 2 and most recently Daybreakers. Hopefully this means that there will be some female involvement in this series that goes beyond the HBO required boob count.
This is the film that I have probably watched the most yet I never tend to watch the entire film (I have seen the entire film as a whole many times as well), I have a habit of skipping the part where the relationship between Joel and Clementine starts to crumble.
This in itself a strange act to do in a film that is about getting rid of the memories of a relationship that has ended, I edit a film that is about editing life, I just don’t like to see the bitterness and the negativity between the two leads, in this case I am the child shielded from the divorce of their parents (for the record my parents are still together). I also think it may have something to do with the fact that my favourite scene in the film is the point that Joel realises that he doesn’t want Clementine erased, and it is the ‘ugly Clementine’ doll story that is what does it for me, the moment when she becomes vulnerable and lays herself out for him to see beyond the crazy hair colours and wacky ideas.