Zero Dark Thirty

   I'm so glad the Emma Stone hype is finally over because now people can focus on another actor from The Help, Jessica Chastain.  You know, the good one?  With all the films she's been in lately this girl is on fire.  A character actor she is not.  I've only seen a few movies that she has been in, and all were very different causing her to be able to portray many different characters in a believable way.  Her performance as a C.I.A. agent actively involved in the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty has brought her her first nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.  I haven't witnessed the other women nominated for this award in their current films yet so I can't quite judge.  However, I do believe that she has a long acting life ahead of her, and if she doesn't get the Oscar this time, I don't doubt she will eventually.
    There has been controversy with this film, not only with the amount of torture being portrayed, but the fact that there is any torture at all.  Senators are furious with Kathryn Bigelow's (Oscar winner for Best Director-The Hurt Locker) decision to show audiences that torture was used to lead the C.I.A. to Osama's hiding spot. They insist torture was not used during the post 9/11 events.  Whether or not this is true (I leave my opinion out as this is not a political blog but a movie review blog), I do believe that Kathryn Bigelow was robbed for an Oscar nom for Best Director again.  However, that didn't stop the Academy for nominating Zero Dark Thirty for Best Picture.  A well deserved nomination, however I don't think it will win with all the controversy (even though I personally don't think it's as bad as the controversy following Django Unchained).
   Other nominations this film received were:  Best Achievement in Editing, Best Achievement in Sound Editing, and Best Original Screenplay.  Yeah I got nothing.  No one really cares about Editing or Sound Editing, plus my vote goes to Life of Pi which is a totally different blog yet to come.  As for writing, it was pretty good.  Sorry I don't have much else to say, but I was really excited to type this blog so I can praise Jessica Chastain, and now that I've done that I have nothing left to say.  See the film.  It was good!

Django Unchained

I had thought I'd seen the worst of Quentin Tarantino by just watching parts of his movie.  Boy was I wrong.  This was by far the grossest, most inappropriate, and offensive films I have ever seen.  It's like the douchebag said "I don't want to make a film, I just want to make people feel uncomfortable".  It worked.  I felt like I was watching an Eli Roth film.  I don't want to spend too much time discussing this movie because it still gives me nightmares.  I only watched it because it's nominated for Oscars, but it helped me discover my hate for Tarantino films is more powerful than my love for my future husband (Leonardo Dicaprio).

Thoughts on nominations:

Best Film (Not!  This was only nominated because it helps the old folks of the Academy reminisce on the times of the Spaghetti Western and original Clint Eastwood and John Wayne movies. Oh yeah it's modernized!  We're old men, we love violence and swearing.  And why not throw in a fake penis.)

Best Cinematography ( I don't know.  My eyes were closed during most of the movie so I couldn't really tell how good it was)

Best Sound Editing (Oh yeah. It was loud.  And even though I had my eyes closed, I could still hear the realistic sounds of a man being eaten alive by dogs, or another man having his eyes poked out, or whatever clever ways we can think of to torture someone that wasn't featured in a Saw movie)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz (Water for Elephants; Inglorious Basterds) (Yeah he did a good job playing the complete opposite of his Water for Elephants character.  I don't really want to know about the latter film I mentioned he was in but he was a good good guy in this terrible movie)

Best Writing, Original Screenplay (If it was written sans violence and swearing and nudity, then yes it deserves this award.  But knowing the sicko that Tarantino is, I highly doubt he left anything out in the script.)

If you're like the rest of America and like watching disgusting movies, then go see it.  If, like myself, you don't like overly disturbing images then please avoid it!  

Another Year of Not Watching Any of the Nominees

• Best Picture

• Amour Nominees to be determined 
• Argo Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producer*
• Beasts of the Southern Wild Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers 
• Django Unchained Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers *
• Les Misérables Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers*
• Life of Pi Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers*
• Lincoln Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers 
• Silver Linings Playbook Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers* 
• Zero Dark Thirty Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers*

• Actor in a Leading Role

• Bradley Cooper Silver Linings Playbook* 
• Daniel Day-Lewis Lincoln 
• Hugh Jackman Les Misérables* 
• Joaquin Phoenix The Master 
• Denzel Washington Flight

• Actress in a Leading Role

  • Jessica Chastain Zero Dark Thirty*
  • Jennifer Lawrence Silver Linings Playbook* 
  • Emmanuelle Riva Amour 
• Quvenzhané Wallis Beasts of the Southern Wild 
• Naomi Watts The Impossible 

• Actor in a Supporting Role

  • Alan Arkin Argo*
  • Robert De Niro Silver Linings Playbook* 
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman The Master
  • Tommy Lee Jones Lincoln 
  • Christoph Waltz Django Unchained* 

• Actressin a Supporting Role

  • Amy Adams The Master 
  • Sally Field Lincoln 
  • Anne Hathaway Les Misérables* 
  • Helen Hunt The Sessions 
  • Jacki Weaver Silver Linings Playbook* 

• Animated Feature Film

  • Brave Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman 
  • Frankenweenie Tim Burton 
  • ParaNorman Sam Fell and Chris Butler 
  • The Pirates! Band of Misfits Peter Lord 
  • Wreck-It Ralph Rich Moore 

• Cinematography

  • Anna Karenina Seamus McGarvey 
  • Django Unchained Robert Richardson* 
  • Life of Pi Claudio Miranda*
  • Lincoln Janusz Kaminski 
  • Skyfall Roger Deakins 

• Costume Design

  • Anna Karenina Jacqueline Durran  
  • Les Misérables Paco Delgado* 
  • Lincoln Joanna Johnston 
  • Mirror Mirror Eiko Ishioka 
  • Snow White and the Huntsman Colleen Atwood 

• Directing

  • Amour Michael Haneke
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild Benh Zeitlin 
  • Life of Pi Ang Lee* 
  • Lincoln Steven Spielberg 
  • Silver Linings Playbook David O. Russell*

• Documentary Feature

  • 5 Broken Cameras Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi 
  • The Gatekeepers Nominees to be determined 
  • How to Survive a Plague Nominees to be determined 
  • The Invisible War Nominees to be determined 
  • Searching for Sugar Man Nominees to be determined 

• Documentary Short

  • Inocente Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine 
  • Kings Point Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider 
  • Mondays at Racine Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan 
  • Open Heart Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern 
  • Redemption Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill 

• Film Editing

  • Argo William Goldenberg* 
  • Life of Pi Tim Squyres* 
  • Lincoln Michael Kahn 
  • Silver Linings Playbook Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers* 
  • Zero Dark Thirty Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg*

• Foreign Language Film

  • Amour Austri
  • Kon-Tiki Norway 
  • No Chile 
  • A Royal Affair Denmark 
  • War Witch Canada 

• Makeup and Hairstyling

  • Hitchcock Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel*
  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane 
  • Les Misérables Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell* 

• Music

  Original Score
  • Anna Karenina Dario Marianelli 
  • Argo Alexandre Desplat* 
  • Life of Pi Mychael Danna* 
  • Lincoln John Williams 
  • Skyfall Thomas Newman

• Music

  Original Song
  • "Before My Time" from Chasing Ice Music and Lyric by J. Ralph 
  • "Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from Ted Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane*
  • "Pi's Lullaby" from Life of Pi Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri*
  • "Skyfall" from Skyfall Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth  
  • "Suddenly" from Les Misérables Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil* 

• Production Design

  • Anna Karenina Sarah Greenwood (Production Design); Katie Spencer (Set Decoration) 
  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Dan Hennah (Production Design); Ra Vincent and Simon Bright (Set Decoration) 
  • Les Misérables Eve Stewart (Production Design); Anna Lynch-Robinson (Set Decoration)* 
  • Life of Pi David Gropman (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration)* 
  • Lincoln Rick Carter (Production Design); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration) 

• Short Film

  Animated
  • Adam and Dog Minkyu Lee 
  • Fresh Guacamole PES 
  • Head over Heels Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly 
  • Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare" David Silverman 
  • Paperman John Kahrs

• Short Film

  Live Action
  • Asad Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
  • Buzkashi Boys Sam French and Ariel N
  • Curfew Shawn Christensen 
  • Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw) Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele 
  • Henry Yan England 

• Sound Editing

  • Argo Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn* 
  • Django Unchained Wylie Stateman*
  • Life of Pi Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton* 
  • Skyfall Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers 
  • Zero Dark Thirty Paul N.J. Ottosson*

• Sound Mixing

  • Argo John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia* 
  • Les Misérables Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes* 
  • Life of Pi Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin* 
  • Lincoln Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins 
  • Skyfall Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

• Visual Effects

  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White 
  • Life of Pi Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott* 
  • Marvel's The Avengers Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
  • Prometheus Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill 
  • Snow White and the Huntsman Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson 

• Writing

  Adapted Screenplay
  • Argo Written by Chris Terrio* 
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin 
  • Life of Pi Written by David Magee* 
  • Lincoln Written by Tony Kushner 
  • Silver Linings Playbook Written by David O. Russell*

• Writing

  Original Screenplay
  • Amour Written by Michael Haneke 
  • Django Unchained Written by Quentin Tarantino* 
  • Flight Written by John Gatins 
  • Moonrise Kingdom Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola 
  • Zero Dark Thirty Written by Mark Boal*