Golden Globe Winners

When the Golden Globe nominations were announced, I complained that this year lacked the excellence of last. While I wasn't quite wrong, I should have held out for those last few movies of the year before rendering my final judgment. This year did lack a Cache or Match Point, but it did have Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth. However, the Hollywood Foreign Press seems to have failed to notice, so it seems my cynicism was justified, at least in part. I really don't understand how Babel, a great movie, don't get me wrong, could beat Children of Men, an even greater one.



Oh well. I guess awards really are meaningless after all. After last years Oscar win for Crash, I should have figured that out on my own.





Technorati Tags: movies, cinema, film, oscars, crash, golden globes, babel

Ten best movies of 2006

I've been thinking about this quite a bit, and I think I've decided what I feel were the best movies of 2006.



1: Children of Men

2: Pan's Labyrinth

3: The Departed

4: Little Miss Sunshine

5: Science of Sleep

6: The Proposition

7: Volver

8: Stranger than Fiction

9: The Descent

10: Prestige

That "Almost made it" spot: Babel



I haven't seen Little Children or The Last King of Scotland, both of which could thoretically make the list, but I figured I'd make it without them.



Obviously, a lot of people are going to disagree with this list, especially the inclusion of The Descent, Science of Sleep, and The Prestige, none of which are getting much awards chatter. But I stand by the list.



Some of it was difficult to come up with. Especially choosing between Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth, both of which are excellent movies.



I was a bit disappointed in Babel. It didn't have the emotional "oomph" Inarritu's work has had previously. However, I think re-watching it is in order to come up with a final verdict, because I went into it expecting the level of melodrama found in Amorres Perros and 21 Grams, but instead found a more emotionally distant, and possibly more mature, film.



I'll also mention that I was highly disappointed in Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. I bring this up because I've been very excited about the film for a few years now, from back when it was announced as a three-hour epic with Brad Pitt and I anxiously awaited it making this list. But, alas, it is not nearly as good as it should have been and failed to make the cut.









Technorati Tags: movies, cinema, top ten, golden globes, oscars, awards, film, 2006

Grindhouse

There are a couple of trailers up now for the new movie(s), Grindhouse from Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez. This is an interesting concept they're trying out. The whole thing is that they are each making a feature length movie, but the two will be shown back-to-back. Very strange, indeed.

The two movies are very much in the vein of the old "grindhouse" movies. Grindhouse is an exploitation genre, generally focusing on sex. A lot of them were porn movies masquerading as documentaries about nudists and such. QT & RR's Grindhouse will probably have lots of sex, but it looks like the main focus is going to be schlocky horror-action, a la From Dusk 'til Dawn.

That leads me to my one problem with the whole thing. While I love Tarantino as much as the next person, and Robert Rodriguez is pretty cool, too, I worry that they may not be able to really give us something all that different from what they've already done. Tarantino's Kill Bill already used up the exploitation genre's post-modern, inter-textual reference quota. From Dusk 'til Dawn did the whole action-horror B movie thing as well as it can be done. What more do they really have to offer us?

I guess I should just have a little faith. Tarantino hasn't delivered a truly bad movie thus far, so why would he now? Plus, there's a girl with a machine gun for a leg. How can that possibly be anything less then awesome?

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Trailers:







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Golden Globes

Lets take a moment to examine the Golden Globe nominations, shall we?
For starters, 2006 has been a rather weak year for American cinema in general. Nothing (thus far- my hopes are high for Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, however) has really stood out in my mind the way Woody Allen's Match Point, or Michael Haneke's Cache did last year. Both of those are exceptionally well-made films that dove deep into the various themes they took on.

Nothing this year has really succeeded, in my mind, the way those and a few other films did last year. The Departed is a great movie. Brick is pretty awesome. The Proposition and The Prestige were both very interesting. Babel, though a little disappointing, was more-or-less sound.

Anyway - here are some of the nominees and my opinion about the particular category

Best Picture - drama:

BABEL
BOBBY
THE DEPARTED
LITTLE CHILDREN
THE QUEEN
I'd like The Departed to win, personally, but I've only seen that and Babel so far. The reviews for Bobby have been a little lackluster, so I'm not really sure what's going on there.

Best Picture - comedy:

BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
DREAMGIRLS
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING

I've seen all except Dreamgirls and The Devil Wears Prada in this category. Borat is a definite surprise here. It's a pretty funny movie, but not really the kind of stuff awards are made from. I'd like Little Miss Sunshine to win, I think. It is one of the few notable comedies this year. Missing from this category, I think, is Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep. It is quite the exceptional film and deserves some recognition. Gondry's career has made him kind of a wunderkind, so I'm sure at least one of his future efforts will make the award show cut.

There's another strange nomination further down the list; Running With Scissors is one of the worst reviewed movies of this year, but pulled a "Best Actress- Comedy" nomination for Annette Bening. I suppose acting can be good despite a bad flick, but it's a little surprising.

Leonardo DiCapprio and Clint Eastwood are both competing against themselves, which is kind of different as well.

Other then that, everythings more or less normal. I'm a little sad about the whole thing, but with a year like this has been, I guess the nominations can't be helped.