I could see why some people would think Meenaxi was a self-indulgent movie, but who am I to deny myself the self-indulgence of a lens focused solely on Tabu? Beautiful cinematography with a soundtrack by A.R Rahman to top it all off. I can’t. I could watch this film forever.
Oh, gosh. It hurts just to look at all this gorgeousity.
After watching Fanaa a few weeks ago, I thought I might continue the Indian adventure with Tabu. Then, I watched Devdas — still unimpressed with Aishwarya Rai’s acting prowess and totally committed to watching Indian films because I can write hers and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s names without googling now HUZZAH! — and was struck by Madhuri Dixit (no googling!) and her amazing “hooker with a heart of gold.” In fact, my favorite scene in Devdas is probably her dance duo with Aishwarya. And Bhansali’s films are still such a beauty to see. Sighs.
Then, when I thought I might head the Madhuri Dixit road, I watch English Vinglish and get struck by Sridevi (no google!). My first shock, of course, was realizing that I had knocked off ten years of her age right off the bat. Then while reading her wiki page (this is why it’s important to have a good Wiki page, fans), it hit me like a bucket full of cold water~
Sridevi was a successful child star, a sex symbol… and is possibly positioning herself as a MILF — my own observation here. Apparently English Vinglish was quite a hit, marking her comeback after 15 years off the screen.
I don’t think there’s ANYONE in the world of movies (or entertainment) that has been able to achieved this. I can’t think of a single actress (or maybe actor) who started out as a child, grew to be the actress made of dreams, moved on to becoming a sensible adult, apparently a great mother, and make a comeback to take all that’s “cinematically” hers.
The performance is okay (by Kpop standards, anyway), but Sridevi is totally charming in this show for the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA). I think the IIFA cameras shoot a quick reaction from Madhuri during the number, just as they showed Sridevi on Madhuri’s own performance (which rocked my socks) [1]. I could do with less Deepika reaction shots, though.
So… I am at a conundrum. Who should I go for first? Sridevi or Madhuri? And since both have sooooo many films, where do I start?
Forgive the late post. xD
Black Swan leads the Broadcast Film Critics nominations with 12 nods, including Best Film, Director, Actress, and Supporting Actress. In the newcomer award, Chloe “Hit Girl” Moretz earns two nods for Kick-Ass, as well as Let Me In… which could pretty much suck because that would mean her votes split… or she could win for Kick-Ass, just because Hit Girl is awesome.
Why couldn’t they nominate her once for both like they do in Japan?
Cool stuff from these nominations? Some love for I Love You Philip Morris! And nomination for Jennifer Lawrence for Winter’s Bone in Best Actress and Young Actor/Actress, that’s going against Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit in Supporting Actress and Young Actor/Actress – it’s on!
Sucky about this? There’s no consistency in nominees… you’ve got categories with only 3 nominations — they’d better have nominated Madeo (Mother) last year, or I’m calling foul.
To keep things interesting, I’ve decided to switch to the newest songs that made the best 100 songs of the decade. Just the heads up, it turned out to be very Asian. Is it trying to tell you something?
One of those examples was the Welcome to Beijing song, which had a HUGE bunch of Asian (mostly Chinese, Taiwan and Hong Kong) stars. The scale of the project is probably similar to (or even bigger than) Michael Jackson’s We Are the World song… which in its time was epic. To me, and to many Asian (and non-Asian) people who keep track of the Asian music industry it marked an important time. Not only did the Olympics opened China to the world… and the world to China, but it also felt like a huge switch on everything from basic economics, industry… and entertainment.
It’s as if Chinese musicians had been enclosed all those years while the economy started to pick up, and have exploded with a huge fireball of creativity. It’s amazing at the amount of talent coming out from there, especially now that they can upload their music through the many Chinese music websites like douban.com and haoting.com, and the amount of blogs and communities that are reporting on them.
Some really awesome music, which I have already blog in this place. This is the reason, I want to get over these ones first, before I post many other songs from 2002-2006 when I didn’t blog that much (or at all).
Well, I certainly don’t keep track with Grammy Awards anymore, so should I be adding the event to my Award Season calendar? Or should I just wait to run into it when it’s airing?
Grammy nominations were announced last night, and I’m glad I’m not the only one wondering why are the Grammy nominations so similar to MTV, the AMA and every other music-related award show? Just take a look at the General Field nominees to see what I’m talking about.
Record of the Year
Beyonce – Halo
The Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
Lady Gaga – Poker Face
Taylor Swift – You Belong with Me
Album of the Year
Beyonce – I Am… Sasha Fierce
The Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D
Lady Gaga – The Fame
Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King
Taylor Swift – Fearless
Song of the Year
Lady Gaga – Poker Face
Maxwell – Pretty Wings
Beyonce – Single Ladies
Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me
Best New Artist
Zac Brown Band
Keri Hilson
MGMT
Silversun Pickups
The Ting Tings
I’m also preparing for 2009, though to be honest~~~ I’ve noticed that I don’t have many 2009 albums – so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve chosen Top15 Songs of 2008 excluding Soundtracks, except for my #1 for sentimental reasons.
No, really. Continue Reading…
Oh, Hugh… what happened to thee~~
But that’s another subject~~ It’s not like I despised Beyonce, and the Disney people on ‘my’ stage. I didn’t like them, that’s all. LOL’
It’s not like their Moulin Rouge number was totally unnecesary, instead they should have performed the Original Songs separately… and NOT have John Legend trying to butt in Jai Ho. On that subject, the drums… VERY COOL.
Natalie Portman… hot. + Ben Stiller doing Joaquin Phoenix??? Just OH!-Some~~~
What else is cool (though mildly surprising…) – JAPAN WINNING, not ONE BUT TWO!!! For Best Short Film Animated – which was great – but also getting FOREIGN FILM, when I so totally thought Waltz with Bashir would win. Okuribito (Departures) took back home Foreign Film~~ I totally FLIPPED.
Other cool moments… Best Actress. GOSH! Sophia Loren… Shirley MacLaine… Marion Cotillard (My Marion, OUR Marion), Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman. AND! Kate Winslet winning! Introduced by Marion! And Sophia Loren with her accent… introducing the fab+++ Meryl! I’d die for an intro of any of those two.
Actually, that was my favorite category of the night, haha. I’m glad for Best Actor… and Supporting Actress~~~ Penelope!! I have to update an old post on Oscar Studded Films~~~
And Tina Fey!! She was funny~~ as James Franco was.
I think I did pretty good on predictions (20/24) … I hope no one did better than me in the contest I entered hahaha.
Slumdog took 8, while Button took 3, Milk 2, Dark Knight 2 – the rest, if not mistaken took 1. xD
Winners and more photos below the break~~
Paving the way to Oscar… BAFTA were just handed out~~ My private predictions weren’t too far off, scoring 15/20… considering this is my first BAFTA prediction, I think I did ok~~
Slumdog got 7 out of the 11 nods it had, including Best Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Score – Benjamin Button didn’t leave empty handed either (finally!, lol) – It took home 3 out of 11 nods, all in technical categories such as Best Visual Effects, Makeup and Production Design (which is Art Direction).
Kate Winslet pushes forward as the favorite in the Best Actress for winning for The Reader, Heath… well, like, is that a surprise anymore? I’m sure a lot of America will tune into Oscar night to see Heath winning. And Penelope Cruz pushes forward for an Oscar win as Supporting Actress for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona – and well, Mickey Rourke~~~ MAN, that’s a tough one to call. Sean or Mickey?
Animation was a tough category, WALL-E ended up victorious against AWESOME animated films, Persepolis and Waltz with Bashir, which also lost Best Foreign Film against I’ve Loved You So Long (Il y a Longtemps que Je t’Aime)
Read the whole list of winners here.
I do pretty good Oscar prediction nominees, it seems~ 78 of 92 from all categories (minus shorts and docus), and pretty much perfect score on major categories of acting, directing and film~
Surprises? Kate Winslet nominated for The Reader as Best Actress… No Bolt on the Best Song~~~ xD and Slumdog getting a double nod there. Wooo for Richard Jenkins!!
Not so good surprises… Waltz with Bashir snub in the animation category.
And as I predicted Benjamin Button is up for 13 nods (I said 12-14), and Slumdog is up for 10 (I said 9-10) LOL~
Check out the graphic list of nominees, or the print-friendly version that includes “film by awards” and “award # by film”.
Well, well~ I think I wasn’t too far off with my Oscar nod predictions with some BAFTA nominations. Biggest surprise? Kate Winslet competing against herself for Best Actress with The Reader and Revolutionary Road. Also… GREATEST thing in the world??? Best Animated Film with AMAZING nominees~~~ WALL-E, Waltz with Bashir & Persepolis! Persepolis was released in 2007, and it was up for an Oscar last time, but it gets to be nominated for a BAFTA, so I am happy~~~ No Bolt around~~ AWESOME.
And~~~ Son of Rambow is up for The Carl Foreman Award (given to the British director, writer and/or producer for their first feature film). Anyway~~ who’s leading? Of course it’s Slumdog Millionaire with 11 nods, also leading… The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with 11.
And no worries… Anne Hathaway and Melissa Leo were probably overlooked because it’s likely their films hasn’t opened in the UK… they haven’t even been seen much in the US.
For the full list of nominees, go here~ Check back the comments for future quickie predictions.
