Jairam's Jives: February 2010

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Oscar Award Nominations

The Academy Award nominations have been announced. The following is the list of the probably the most popular categories (at least these are the ones that I am really interested in) -

Actor in a Leading Role

* Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”

* George Clooney in “Up in the Air”

* Colin Firth in “A Single Man”

* Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”

* Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Actor in a Supporting Role

* Matt Damon in “Invictus”

* Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”

* Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”

* Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”

* Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Actress in a Leading Role

* Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”

* Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”

* Carey Mulligan in “An Education”

* Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

* Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Actress in a Supporting Role

* Penélope Cruz in “Nine”

* Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”

* Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”

* Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”

* Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Animated Feature Film

* “Coraline” Henry Selick

* “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson

* “The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements

* “The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore

* “Up” Pete Docter

Directing

* “Avatar” James Cameron

* “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow

* “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino

* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels

* “Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

Best Picture

* “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers

* “The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined

* “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers

* “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers

* “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined

* “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer

* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers

* “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers

* “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer

* “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

* “District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell

* “An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby

* “In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche

* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher

* “Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)

* “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal

* “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino

* “The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman

* “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

* “Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Rachel Getting Married - Movie Review

Every once in a while I watch a movie which just jumps out of the screen and bites me so hard in the brain that it pretty much leaves behind quite a lasting impression. ‘Rachel Getting Married’ is one such movie. I don’t know if it was the corny one-liner on the Tata Sky guide which made me choose this movie to watch over the weekend, or the fact that somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, I remembered having heard of this movie as being a must-watch movie, whatever the reason there I was watching this movie, for some funny reason, expecting a romantic comedy. This movie, if not anything else, was not a romantic comedy by any stretch of imagination.

The movie starts with Kym (Anne Hathaway, in probably the best role of her career till date) being released from rehab so that she can go home to attend her sister, Rachel’s wedding, at home. When she reaches home, Kym realizes that life and circumstances simply aren’t the same anymore and she is more or less being treated extremely differently by everybody there. While her sister didn’t make her the maid of honor at the wedding, her father is extremely worried and concerned about her whereabouts and actions at all times. Overall, Kym can clearly see the disconnect that has developed between her and her family.

As the movie goes on, we learn that Kym had accidentally driven off her younger brother off a bridge when she was driving a car under the influence of drugs. This particular incident had a huge impact on her life and personality. The family also learns of how Kym had been using lies and pretence to evade responsibility for her addiction during counseling sessions in the past. This doesn’t go down too well with her sister and her father. To complicate matters further is the fact that her sister pretty much blames Kym for being an attention-grabber and how her addiction problems always ended up being the topic of discussion for the family. Overall, at one point in the movie, things reach a point where almost everybody in the movie hates Kym for all that she has done. How the rest of the movie pans out, and how Rachel eventually gets married forms the rest of the story.

While this movie remains for the discerning movie-goer especially in terms of the extreme amounts of seriousness it treats the subject with, in my opinion, this remains a movie for anybody who enjoys movies which deal with the inner psyche of individuals and the complexities that human relationships bring with them. Anne Hathaway as Kym and Rosemarie Dewitt as Rachel play perfect foil to each other, one as the sister who is looking forward to home, the wedding, and associated festivities, and another as the sister who has always blamed Kym for diverting the entire family’s attention to herself at all times, even at the cost of spoiling her wedding. While both sisters have a lot of love, affection and concern for each other, there is a lot of simmering tension and unresolved issues between both of them, which make this relationship especially interesting when it unfolds on the screen.

This movie is a must-watch for anybody who enjoys complex human relationships, situational tragedies and good performances by the actors.

LAMBScore for this movie

Trailer

Monday, February 01, 2010

2012 - Movie Review

Ok, ok, we all know the story of 2012 by now, but then what other kind of movie did you expect from Roland Emmerich whose list of movies includes Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow and 10,000 BC. I mean, come on the guy has a reputation to live upto and man, does he make a mean disaster movie or what!!!

The basic premise of 2012 lies with the ‘Earth’s Crust Displacement Theory’ which in layman terms simply states that the axis of rotation of the earth, if suddenly changed would cause massive floods and large scale tectonic events, ie, tsunamis, earthquakes and the like. 2012 begins with neutrinos from a massive solar flare striking earth with the effect that these microwaves are heating up the earth’s core like nobody’s business. When American geologist Adrian Helmsley learns of this, he duly informs the White House Chief of Staff and the US President.

The US President in conjunction with world leaders then secretly proceeds to fund and build these humungous submarine-boat-type thingies (called Arks) in which approximately 400,000 humans and other assorted species would be kept safe on when the inevitable calamity befalls earth and its inhabitants. Now the catch is that nature being at its unpredictable best, Adrian gets his calculations wrong by a few years, and disaster strikes earlier than anticipated. This results in widespread tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes and the usual panic across the world.

Unwittingly caught up in all this is poor old John Cusack (playing Jackson Curtis), a loser writer in Los Angeles who also works part-time as a limousine driver for Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov. How and whether Jackson, his ex-wife, his children, and a small rag-tag group of people comprised of Yuri, his children, etc make it to the Arks makes up for the rest of the story. I am not going to give up the ending here, but suffice to say that all’s well that ends well.

Two of the most brilliantly shot scenes, as far as CGI is concerned in this movie are the ones where Jackson is driving his family down to the Santa Clara airfield avoiding falling freeways, buildings, etc and the one where the plane actually takes off from the airfield avoiding falling buildings, meteors, etc. Now, these scenes are to be seen to be believed and fully appreciated. Yes, this is a run of the mill disaster movie, but the screenplay and the amazing CGI keep you hooked to the screen and at the edge of your seat.

LAMBScore for this movie

Trailer

The Informant - Movie Review

As if there weren’t enough controversies in corporate America, that I get to know of yet another one through “The Informant”. Now this was one movie which I wanted to catch almost as soon as it hit theatres in September 2009, but for some funny reason kept eluding me until this weekend. Although the title suggests what the movie is all about, it doesn’t quite give you enough hints as to how entertaining the movie actually is, albeit in a ‘dark humor’ kind of way.

The movie deals with Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon, who in my opinion is playing quite the role of his career so far), a fast moving executive at ADM, a company engaged in the manufacture of various corn-based products for almost all related industries in early 90s America. The movie starts with Mark proposing a conspiracy theory where a Japanese competitor has purposely injected a bug into their lysine processing systems to gain an unfair advantage. This brings the FBI into the picture for an official investigation which quite literally starts off a bizarre chain of events.

Whitacre then confesses to the FBI Agent that he has been engaged in ‘price-fixing’ on behalf of his employer ADM for the past few years, and agrees to covertly co-operate with the FBI in unearthing more evidence and details regarding this scandal. He goes on to collect hundreds of hours of clandestine video and audio as evidence against this particular practice over the next four odd years for the FBI.

However, the twist in the tale comes when the FBI figures out that Whitacre has probably not been on the ‘up and up’ with them as far as his other activities at ADM are concerned. This provides a nice little twist in the tale as far as this movie is concerned and leads up to an awesome ending to the movie.

What intrigues me about this movie is the fact that this is almost entirely based on true events which took place at ADM in the 90s, and the fact that most of the names and events have actually occurred pretty much in the same spirit as they have been portrayed in the movie. This movie almost entirely relies on dialogs, excellent casting and true events to keep the screenplay moving, and it therefore pays to watch this movie with complete attention. One small interesting twist that Steven Soderbergh (of the Oceans’ series) has added is the fact that Whitacre keeps mumbling these small interesting little tit-bits of trivia to himself as he walks around performing his regular tasks.

All in all a must-watch movie for anybody who loves corporate scandals and controversies. An added advantage is the fact that all Matt Damon fans will really enjoy his role and his portrayal of Whitacre immensely.

LAMBScore for this movie

Trailer