The Golden Globe's Three Firsts

           It is almost a week past since the Golden Globes, and that means the Oscar nominations will be announced this weekend. And the final countdown towards the end of award season will begin. It also means, good movies will start getting re-released and whole bunch of blog (including us) will begin posting predictions, commenting, and arguing about the likely winners. And comment, complain, and accuse the Academy of bias afterwards. With so much fuss around them it is almost relaxing to watch the Golden Globes, a shorter, more relaxing, and somewhat more entertaining ceremony.

            The winners at the Globes will also end up being favorites at the Oscars, despite the fact that there will likely also be (as there is every year) a much-heated debate over which award show is fairer. All the members of the Academy decide the Oscars through a vote; this might be more democratic but it is also highly political. Meanwhile the Hollywood Foreign Press, a committee of 93 bribable journalists, decides who shall receive the Golden Globes. Nevertheless, they are also hosted by Ricky Gervais so they are quite a bit more entertaining, and shocking. Even after being toned down this year.

            Anyways, there wasn’t much surprise in the winners this year. The highest one being that Al Pacino, was not even nominated for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series, or Motion Picture Made for TV” for his work in You Don’t Know Jack. However there were a few “firsts” in the Best Movie Categories. The Artist has become the first black & white, as well as the first silent movie to earn the Motion Picture Comedy Award, and The Adventures of Tintin became the first non-Pixar film to earn Animated Film. The Artist in particular has been placed in the fast track to win Best Picture at the Oscars. If it does, it will be the first silent film since the first awards, when Wings won, to receive the award. 

You can check our reviews for The Artist, and The Adventures Tintin as well as Wilder's review for The Descendants (winner of Motion Picture Drama).

Review: WE BOUGHT A ZOO

 

           We Bought A Zoo claims to have been based on a true story; I double-checked the facts on Wikipedia (now that it is back online) and it seems to be true. Now that I think about it, it has to be true. Had this film not been “based on a true story”, it would have remained in development hell. The premise is so preposterously naïve that no Hollywood screenwriter could have come up with it, and no Hollywood producer would have backed it had it been an original idea. After all what type of character would ever buy a zoo on a whim?

Ad Classics: TARSEM SINGH, JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF WRONG, COSMOPOLITAN LAS VEGAS

          Tarsem might have produced history’s most boring film with the Immortals, but it stands that visually; he is one of the boldest directors out there. Best remembered by his trippy visuals in The Cell, or the gorgeous use of geography in The Fall, Tarsem uses a much more whimsical aesthetic in this commercial than what is generally seen on his films. Perhaps this is what we can expect from his upcoming Snow White adaptation Mirror, Mirror.

            Not surpassingly this campaign raised plenty of eyebrows, when it was first aired during the season finale of Mad Men. Criticisms went as far as critiquing that the ad promoted the mistreatment of animals; baby animals that is. But like any good piece of fiction, and advertising, getting people talking is exactly what it intended. For me the ad works. And it is a great example of Tarsem’s visual extravaganza. I hope you agree; here it is:

Review: TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

The next James Bond movie is in the works and movie audiences will likely be treated to the more familiar beats of the franchise than the last two films offered. Gritty reboots have run their course and the movie industry has begun to reestablish escapism proper. Fortunately, as in the 1990s, enough films will pride themselves on political intrigue and power acting—ala "The Stockholm Affair"—as to keep audiences moderately involved while gushing up and slurping down gummy worms. One such newly released mood-heavy movie is, the playfully titled, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”

Ad Classics: RIDLEY SCOTT, "1984" MACINTOSH

           We started posting these “ad classics” under the philosophy that a commercial is a movie told in thirty seconds (sometimes up to two minutes). And because today many movies, like Transformers or New Year’s, are so overwhelmed by product placement that they have essentially become two-hour ads. We have chosen to revive the ‘ad classics’ positing to collect a few more samples of good storytelling, even if they are for commercial ends.

            Ridley Scott is perhaps one of the greatest filmmakers working today. Right after working on Blade Runner, Scott was commissioned by Apple Computers to create the Super Bowl Spot for the release of the first Macintosh. At the time computers were regarded as objects from an Orwellian dystopia by most people. This was because the personal computer had not yet come into existence; the Macintosh was going to change that.

            Apple has always been known for great advertising. They gave us The Misfits Poem and Justin Long with their campaign “I Am A Mac”.  This is the ad that started it all. The  ad cost nearly 1 million dollars, an amount previously unheard of in advertising. Not only was it a marketing success (the ad was re-broadcasted in every subsequent talk show, generating millions in free advertising) but it also shows why we are all so excited for Ridley Scott return to Sci Fi with Prometheus. Enjoy:

The top image is from a "remastered" version where an iPod was added to the runner. George Lucas is not the only person who goes back to re-tweak masterpieces. 

Review: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

            I knew what was coming. I saw the Swedish film when it first came out. And read the book afterwards. Yet nothing could have prepared me for the visceral intensity that David Fincher’s take on the story of Lisbeth Salander (Ronney Mara) holds. Stieg Larsson’s story is already a gripping thriller that needs no further advertising. This is the story of a girl with a terrible past, who is proudly isolated and dangerously angry; the first installment doesn’t dwell too deep into the back-story, but it lays out a twisted series of murders where the broken heroine begins to heal.