#21 The Results Are In! Oscar Winners!

So the Oscars are now over and thus ending the big chain of award seasons. Now the Academy Awards are over and the winners are walking away with there little golden statues, we can talk about who won and if they deserved it. Like pretty much any awards ceremony that has happened this year It was somewhat quite predictable at times. Like how ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ ran away with eight, yes that’s right, eight Oscars. Not bad for a film that was planned to go straight to DVD.

First thing that I didn’t recognise at first was that the ceremony was very, how should I say… minimalistic in comparison to other years. There where no massive plastic statues and there was a lot of TV screens use which was fantastically set out. I tip my hat to the set designer. For every time an actors award came up the previous winners came on to announce the winners which was acutely quite nice to see. A couple of parts where tacky like when Ben Stiller came on dressed as Joaquin Phoenix, It was funny don’t get me wrong I found it quit funny however it wasn’t necessary in a presides awards ceremony.

So of course ‘Slumdog-‘ has was worth something but did it need to steal the show? Other films such as ‘Curious Case Of Benjamin Button’ were total lift in the dark only picking up small awards like ‘Best Achievement In Art Direction’ and ‘Best Achievement In Makeup’. However at least it won some awards unlike Eastwood’s fantastic drama ‘Changeling’ which got not nothing. I saw this film, it was good, it was bloody good and why it won nothing is beyond me. But this just shows how many classics have come out in a small space of time. However I was glad the Danny Boyle won best director because he does deserve it after filming ‘Slumdog-‘ but part of me wanted Gus Van Sant to win because I as starting to become a big Van Sant fan after watching his great indie films like ‘Elephant’ (2003) and ‘Last Days’ (2005). Hopefully in the future (close future) Van Sant will release another film that gets him some critical apprise. When Boyle took the stage he began jumping up and down like Tiger (from Winnie the Pooh) and after everyone and had given a puzzling look to the person sitting next to them he explained his actions on stage. Aparently he had promised his children, when they where young, that he would do so.

Now with the actors awards, firstly

“The award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role goes to…”

Penelope Cruz won the Best Supporting Female award for her psycho role in Allen’s 'Vicky Christina Barcelona’. I haven’t seen the film only the trailers so I can’t comment on if she is good or not but good on her. If I got to pick who I wanted to win it would be Taraji P. Henson from ‘Curious Case-‘ . Then came Best Supporting Actor and if anyone can’t guess who won your not in for a shock.

“The award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role goes to…”

Heath Ledger. Heath’s parents and sister went on stage to accept the award whilst a tearful audience (Adrian Brody and Brad Pitt to name a few) honoured his legacy. Heath really did go out with a band however I’m curios is history will repeat its self next year if he is nominated for his last film from director Terry Gilliam ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’. We will have to see if I’m still writing by then. Continuing on, another not so surprise was the Leading female award…

“The award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role goes to…”

Kate Whinslett, so give me a second whilst I applauded her. Second over. So she won for her role in ‘The Reader’ congratulations, I guess now I have to watch it. And Lastly,

“The award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role goes to…”

Not Mickey Rourke. Even though he’s been though hell and back he didn’t get the Academy Award it went to Sean Penn for his gay ol’ role in ‘Milk’. I loved ‘Milk’ and I do think he deserves it so badly because he was completely un-mislabel in that film however I kinda felt that Rourke would win it. Even if he had upset the Academy a couple of years ago I think he should have had a chance.

For the rest of the winners head on over to Empire Online, TotalFilm.com or pretty much any film web site.

Oliver Hunt

#14 Review For 'Milk' (2009)

Director
Gus Van Sant
Cast
Sean Penn
Josh Brolin
James Franco
Screenplay
Dustin Lance Black
Certification
15
Running Time
128min

First of all I’m not going to talk about the film but about 2009. I have very high hopes for the rest of the year if in the first two months there has already a ton of great movies. 'Slumdog Millionaire', 'The Wrestler', 'Frost/Nixon' and 'Curious Case Of Benjamin Button' just to name a few. And now Gus Van Sant’s never masterpiece ‘Milk’. I think that 2009 with be remembered as one of the great years for movies.

Now on to the film review. ‘Milk’ is directed by long time director Gus Van Sant. His other controversial films being ‘Elephant’ which was about the events surrounding the Columbine shootings and ‘Last Days’ which followed the life or musician Kurt Curbain in his final hours. Van Sant definitely strikes again with this in your face film about homosexuality and its struggle for expectance. It centres round Hervey Milk who was the first openly gay elected office. With Van Sant being gay himself it felt like he could finally express his inner self with the script. What I mean by this remark is that in all this films I have seen, there has always been a gay kissing scene, and with this film being about gay liberation it feels like sort natural over just being thrown in there.

One of the main things to why ‘Milk’ will suck in audiences is because of the acting talent. Firstly Josh Brolin was the… antagonist. Well I guess so because he was the opposite to Harvey Milk (one being Catholic the other gay). For the first time I have really have truly enjoyed James Franco on the screen (I haven’t seen ‘Pineapple Express’ yet). He didn’t steal the lime light from Penn or any other character and added to the hole ensemble along with the other cast members. Now on the Emile Hirsch who people will most likely now from ‘Speed Racer’ (2008) and ‘Lord Of Dogtown’ (2005), is definitely one the characters that stands out. With his reassembly small role I left the cinema remembering his impact on the movie. I think this could be a not so much a big break but Emile will definitely start to be noticed by not only me but hopefully other directors/producers. Now last but not least Sean Penn, before I saw the film a gay friend of mine asked if Sean Penn was homosexual himself, to which I simply replied no. Penn does such a good performance that I am sure that he deserves the Oscar over Rourcke and Pitt. But in fairness I would love to see Rourke win it and I haven’t seen ‘Curious Case-‘ yet so its hard to say.

Really the reason why people should go see this film is mainly for the acting of the script. Not that it’s a bad or boring one but the film has other things going for it. Mainly the acting but also the way Van Sant directed it with subtle little film experiments that he did with his other films. For instance though out the film there is a lot of reflected surfaces used. But now I am really torn with the Academy Awards like I said Penn for Best Male Performance but im wondering who deserves Best Director Boyle, Fincher or Van Sant. It definitely a good year for the Oscars and it is very unlikely that I will be disappointed.

* * * * *

Oliver Hunt