Rating: MMMM

Director: Drew Barrymore
Starring: Ellen Page, Kristen Wiig, Marcia Gay Harden, Eve, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis
Running time: 111 mins
Cert: 12A

Don’t be put off by the fuschia pink UK poster, covered in the faces of smiling women – this is not The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants or any of that saccharine-soaked ‘girl power’ drivel (that in fact evokes the very opposite of female empowerment). Whip It is a kick-ass, feisty and intelligent sports movie that neatly combines multiple genre elements (pop culture comedy, family drama, teen romance) to create and warm and entertaining film that is full of what Americans call ‘attitude’.

Whip It centres around 17 year old Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page), a disillusioned misfit resident of dead-end town, Bodeen, Texas. Bliss lives her life as put-upon waitress of kitsch diner the Oinkery and dutiful daughter, reluctantly  entered into beauty pageants by her mother (Marcia Gay Harden), a straightlaced postwoman who runs the Cavendar household as a tight ship.

On a shopping trip with her mother and sister in nearby city Austin, Bliss sees a flyer advertising a roller derby match – tough, scantily clad girls on skates speeding around a track, tackling and shoving each other violently in order to score points. Accompanied by best friend Pash, Bliss goes to the match and is immediately struck by the sport and particularly the women playing it – players with tough-girl names such as ‘Smashley Simpson’ and ‘Eva Destruction’. After the match, Bliss approaches one of the ‘Hurl Scouts’, Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig) who suggests that she should try out for the team as they are looking for new members. A tentative Bliss attends the trial, demonstrating a speed on skates that surprises even herself, consequently making the team and becoming a Hurl Scout by the name of ‘Babe Ruthless’.

Whip It combines sports movie, broad comedy, coming of age tale and teen flick to great effect – it is a highly engaging, entertaining and moving  film –  one of the final scenes involving Marcia Gay Harden’s mother character in particular will undoubtedly moisten a few eyes, as will a piercing moment of betrayal. Also, the early stages of Bliss’s relationship with love interest Oliver are equally charming, as are the tender swimming pool scenes, shot to great aplomb by debut director Drew Barrymore.

The script too is funny, witty, warm and clever. Barrymore’s directing is excellent, particularly the aforementioned underwater sequences, demonstrating she has considerable talent not just in the fields of acting and producing. She has a clear understanding of her characters and her scene: the rough and ready world of womens’ roller derby, the action of which is deftly handled in exciting, adrenaline fuelled scenes on the track, with Bliss and her team mates speeding around, giving and taking ‘hits’.

Whip It is great fun, despite the fact it not being exactly original. It is however, thoroughly enjoyable, with excellent little moments, and a great balance between sport and character relationships. In terms of acting, Barrymore’s cast does well. Ellen Page delivers a likeable, convincing performance as main character Bliss Cavendar, as does Kristen Wiig who is really impressive, proving she is capable not only of hilarious deadpan comedy (Knocked Up), but proving she is a credible dramatic actress. Juliette Lewis is deliciously malevolent in the villain role of ‘Iron Mavin’, and  Barrymore herself gives a hilarious cameo as knuckle-headed Hurl Scout, ‘Smashley Simpson’.  The film’s supporting characters are also played very well – feisty best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) is great, as is Bliss’s father, Earl (Daniel Stern).

All in all, Whip It is a great slice of easy-going American fun. Barrymore has not only made a hugely enjoyable film, but she has made the world of women’s roller derby accessible and interesting to a whole new audience – the heady mix of intimidating toughness, strength and machismo balanced with a female sexiness and power is thoroughly mesmerizing. And perhaps more importantly, the film bucks the girly teen movie trend in its closing act (not to give away too much) and proves that women’s lives do not centre around the wants and desires of men – they can be their own hero and go after whatever it is they wish. And who’d have thought all this from the little girl from E.T.? Get your skates on and see Whip It (if you’ll forgive the excruciating pun). Expect sales of roller skates and eyeliner to skyrocket.

Rating: MMMM

Last night I was lucky enough to get into a free preview screening of Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, the new film from director Edgar Wright, who also co-wrote the screenplay of this comic book adaptation. That’s Edgar ‘Spaced’ Wright. Edgar Shaun of the Dead Wright. Edgar Hot Fuzz Wright.

So those were my reasons for being OH SO VERY excited about seeing this movie – I hadn’t read the comic book or kept up with the pre-production gossip online, instead I’ve just spent a couple of months treasuring the lovely warm prospect of a new Wright film, and hoping that makes me laugh halfway as much as his previous collaborations with the glorious Pegg and Frost team. As I’m still utterly buzzing 12 hours after watching it, any fans worried that the hop across the pond may have meant a move away from the quirky, charmingly silly humour his previous British comedies were characterised by- well they can just start getting ridiculously excited instead.

As you’d expect from the trailer, we follow Scott Pilgrim in each of his visually awesome battles with the seven demented exes. Afterwards, we all agreed that Michael Cera was absolutely the perfect match for Scott’s dialogue, which was often very, very funny, but made hysterical by Cera’s faltering, understated manner. So many throwaway lines keep coming back to me that on paper just wouldn’t, but were perfect little moments that took me by surprise. I never want to see him in another Judd Apatow comedy- they’re not bad, but it would ruin the memory of him in this infinitely more quick-witted film.

The supporting characters in Scott Pilgrim’s world are far more hilariously drawn that I had any right to expect. You’re whipped into the quick-fire sarcasm of his bandmate friends, (who are endearing and are refreshingly not teeth-grindingly quirky as in so many indie flicks) and this made me more than happy to suspend my disbelief when all the really silly stuff kicked off. And boy does it ever kick off.
The action fits surprisingly well into the snowy Toronto setting, provided you’ve left enough of your cynicism at the door. Rather than realistic martial arts, expect instead to be left gawking at the comic book-capery it does so well. As far as I could see, no actual blood and gore will be strewn about in the final edit, which is entirely in keeping with the tone of the film and something I’m quite relieved about. Gore is all well and good in its place, but I felt the increasingly tragic zombifications towards the end of Shaun of the Dead really jarred with the slapstick at times.

Another thing we were agreed on was that the humour was far less exclusive than other slacker comedies, or indeed action comedies we’ve all seen recently. While the whole film is essentially both a very funny computer game AND comic book up on the big screen, with in-jokes to tickle die-hard nerds of either persuasion, none of this stops anyone else laughing. It didn’t matter in the slightest if you didn’t know where a pixelated gaming sight gag came from (for there are many) came from, it was still funny to me and every other person who can’t even play Mariokart successfully. There aren’t jokes for the lads, and token ones for their girlfriends, there is just joke after joke that will leave both sexes weak and spluttering at the memory long after.

Scott Pilgrim sets out to combine action, comedy and romance and does a damn fine job of blending the three throughout so that no aspects feel tacked on. Romance does however suffer slightly from a lack of screen-time- although Scott battles each evil ex for the love of the apparently too-cool-for-anything Ramona, I did wonder what exactly was so great about her that he would get beaten up seven times in a row. But the relentless action and humour didn’t leave me much time to ponder this, or the other issue that has since started to niggle at me. Will anyone else agree with me that maybe having our hero fight the exes for ownership of his girl is a little off-colour? Feisty though she is, Ramona falls victim to the ‘Bella Swan paradox’- the story revolves around her, but it’s largely the blokes who get to do all the fun action stuff. There is a wicked girly fight (calm down) but Buffy this ain’t.

The music gives the fight scenes some real fire power in my opinion, and is as integral to the film as the offbeat ‘kerpow!’ and ‘zap!’ animations that pop up at just the right moments to punctuate the very ordinary Toronto. To those literally-minded/boring people who may complain that this, and the action sequences are too zany and unrealistic, I will say that the weirdness of Scott Pilgrim’s world all comes directly from how teenage and 20/30-something slacker gamers might view things from a sideways angle. They spend days and nights solving puzzles, arming up and beating each level, a pattern which is seamlessly integrated (God knows how, it’s an utter miracle) into this story. The end result is gorgeous on screen, even to my pixel-blind eyes.

Although Edgar Wright was sitting RIGHT THERE in the cinema as I left the post-preview screening market research interview, there was something I just couldn’t bring myself to go up to him and say. So here it is:

“Edgar Wright, your television and film work has given me so much joy and will be forever embedded in my life. So much so, that a like, if not a love for ‘Spaced’ is an essential requirement for any boyfriends, past and future- I am completely incapable of sleeping with someone who hasn’t seen ‘Spaced’ and laughed like a fool with me at it.”

Ahem. While I can’t yet declare the same obsession for Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, it has pretty much blown his previous films out of the water. The same amount of love and attention to tiny funny details has gone into the film that made ‘Spaced’ so infinitely re-watchable. If Edgar Wright does not become a very rich man there is something very wrong with the world’s film viewing public.

Rating: MMMM

Review of Disney’s return to traditional 2-D hand-drawn animation and to familiar fairytales, this new adventure based on the tale of ‘The Princess and the Frog’.

Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Starring: (voices) Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Oprah Winfrey
Running time: 97 mins

Disney’s latest fairytale adventure sees the House of Mouse return to their roots with a hand-drawn animated fantasy based on the well known tale, the story of a princess kissing a frog to find her prince. This incarnation of the story is set in New Orleans in the late 1920s and our heroine (and princess) is Tiana, a hardworking and stoic waitress who dreams of one day owning her own restaurant. She works two restaurant jobs to save enough money to purchase a property which she plans to revamp into “Tiana’s Place”. However, her life takes a new and different course at the arrival of the handsome and exotic Prince Naveen – who, after dabbling in the dark arts of voodoo is turned into a frog by the evil villain Facilier.  Before she knows it, Tiana finds herself  also transformed into a frog and she and Naveen are forced to begin a journey to make themselves human again.

From the get-go, The Princess and the Frog is a fun, dynamic and entertaining film. It has all the ingredients of the famed ‘Disney magic’, but has something that lifts it above the rest of the studio’s fairytale canon. Firstly, the film’s heroine Tiana is not only the first African-American Disney princess, but she is one of their few heroines who is NOT a completely passive female character. Tiana works hard to achieve and realise what she wants – which incidentally is NOT simply to marry the handsome prince of her dreams. She doesn’t believe in wishing for things, she knows that you have to strive for what you want in life, not wait for it to fall into your lap without your lifting a finger. And she does NOT need a man to swoop in and save her, she is capable of saving herself.

Secondly, the film’s romantic plot that builds between Naveen and Tiana is not the hackneyed (and frankly unhelpful and unrealistic) depiction of ‘love at first sight’, it is a mutual affection based on friendship, respect and love. Naveen is not the perfect dreamy Adonis put high on a pedestal, he has flaws enough himself and in the face of the inevitable happy ending, supports Tiana’s ambitions instead of forcing her to change (unlike Ariel’ staying human in The Little Mermaid). This realtionship dynamic comes as direct result of the film’s ‘road movie’ style direction – Tiana and Naveen must journey through the swamps of Louisiana in search of a cure to their amphibiousness and on this journey they begin to trust and learn from each other.

The Princess and the Frog has everything – the characters are likeable, fun and sympathetic (the trumpet playing alligator Louis and Cajun firefly Ray are both wonderful creations, the latter playing an astonishing part in the emotional tone of the film), the musical numbers are dynamic and entertaining, the film is warm, bright and original and boasts a lot of laughs, for both adults and children (some lines have real wit and there is a lot of subtle humour throughout the film). And for this critic, where the film succeeds most is in its pleasingly positive portrayal of girls, relationships and outlook on life. A beautiful and entertaining film. Well done Disney.

Rating: MMMM

Rating: MMM

Review of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the 2002 best-selling novel of the same name, by Alice Sebold. The Lovely Bones tells the story of 14-year-old Susie Salmon who watches her family and friends from heaven after her grisly murder.

Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Saiorse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon
Running time: 135 mins

Based on Alice Sebold’s bestselling novel of the same name, Peter Jackson’s latest film sees Saiorse Ronan (Atonement) as Susie Salmon, a 14-year-old girl who is raped and murdered by a neighbour (Stanley Tucci) in January of 1973. The Lovely Bones is a film of two parts, one presenting the Salmon family mourning Susie and coming to terms with the trauma of her death; the other is an exploration of Susie’s life after death, in her ‘Inbetween’.

In The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson really succeeds is in his direction of some very tightly constructed scenes, in particular where Susie’s sister Lindsey breaks into murderer Mr Harvey’s house – the scene is brilliantly claustrophobic, tense and with a tightly drawn out sense of suspense. The acting is also very good – Saiorse Ronan builds on her already solid reputation (highly praised for her excellent performance in Joe Wright’s Atonement) and is every inch convincing in her role as Susie – the only problems come in scenes which are in themselves problematic, either in terms of tone or emotional and narrative momentum. Mark Wahlberg does well, as does Susan Sarandon in a role that seems rather incongruous at times with the overall tone of the film.

And tone is perhaps one of the major problems with The Lovely Bones – it doesn’t know what kind of film it wants to be. It seems to be part melodrama, part grisly murder tale whereas some sunnier scenes are played out to an obviously comedic soundtrack – sadly Jackson fails to marry scenes together to make a whole film that really works. In comparison, the source novel maintains a wonderful tension between Susie, her family and other minor characters and several sub-plots that inform the main story. Where in the novel there is gently tragic emotion balanced with a more distanced perspective, the film fails to accomplish anything similar. For example, the film’s ‘emotional crescendo’ scene where Susie meets her murderer’s fellow victims in the afterlife is completely void of the emotional anchor it needs. Jackson pitches the scene (and its point in the film) completely wrong  – the audience have no emotional connection with the other victims, so what should be a key moment fails entirely, becoming anti-climactic as a result.

Another problem is the film’s under developed characters which lack the depth needed for such a potentially emotional story. Again, Sebold’s novel succeeds admirably with characterisation, pushing main and periphary characters to be sympathetic and believable. Admittedly the film is constrained by time, but less time spent with Susie wandering around a strange (albeit visually arresting) afterlife would be well spent developing the family characters (particularly Lindsey, who becomes the novel’s heart) who are in fact key to the emotional denouement.

The Lovely Bones is in parts entertaining, interesting and disappointing. There are enough good elements to make it enjoyable and worth watching, but it is likely to leave those unfamiliar with the novel with a bad taste in their mouths.

Rating: MMM

Rating: MMMM

Review of latest animated children’s adventure fantasy from the Japanese anime maestro, Hayao Miyazaki – the story of a little fish who wishes to be a little girl.

Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: (voices) Noah Cyrus, Frankie Jonas, Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett
Running time: 101 mins

Inspired by Disney’s animated classic A Little Mermaid, Hayao Miyazaki’s latest feature Ponyo is a fantasy adventure that like its muse, explores worlds both above and below the sea. Miyazaki’s tale is the story of Sosuke (voiced by Frankie Jonas, younger brother of squeaky-clean teen sensations The Jonas Brothers), a little boy who lives with his mother (Tina Fey) in a small cliff-top house by the sea. Sosuke’s father (Matt Damon) is a ship captain who is rarely at home, leaving Sosuke’s mother to run the household by herself.

One day, a lonely Sosuke is paddling in the shallows of a cove near his home when he comes upon what appears to be a little red goldfish. Playing with it happily, Sosuke names the fish Ponyo and makes her his pet. However, Ponyo’s father, marine wizard king Fujimoto (Liam Neeson) wishes to return his daughter to her underwater home – to ‘restore the balnce of nature’, which has been sent off kilter by Ponyo’s fraternisation with humans.

As with most of the Miyazaki canon, the enjoyment of Ponyo rests entirely in the audience’s suspense of disbelief – in this particular tale one must be willing to accept that a goldfish can turn into a girl and that said transformation is readily accepted by the protagonists. This kind of acceptance and engagement with the fantastic will be familiar to Miyazaki fans but may be something newcomers find hard to swallow. But swallow you undoubtedly will – the film is so beautiful, charming and unashamedly lovely that you really will believe a man can fly (or at least in this case, a fish can turn into a girl). As ever, Miyazaki presents a wonderful dramatic world, both convincingly natural and ethereal at times, using a bright and dazzling palette to create dreamy seascapes and fantastical creatures – the entity of Ponyo’s mother inparticular is nothing short of breathtaking, presenting a popular trope in Miyazaki’s work, the spirit world, seen previously in features such as Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro. Indeed, Ponyo draws on much in Totoro, both in theme, tone and age-range – Ponyo is clearly meant for a younger audience than Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke.

Much more satisfying than Miyazaki’s previous film, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo is a gentle, beautiful story that is colourful, exciting, moving and entertaining. A sheer joy that proves that traditional hand-drawn 2D animation is still very much alive.

Rating: MMMM

Rating: MMMMM

Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Invictus tells the story of the true events that followed the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa, and Mandela’s subsequent attempt to unite his fragile and divided country with the help of South African rugby captain, Francois Pienaar.

Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon,
Running time: 133 mins

Based on John Carlin’s bestselling book, ‘Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed a Nation’, Invictus begins just after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison – with one scene in particular capturing the separated nature of the country, presenting two playing fields bisected by a long road – on one side white schoolboys play rugby, on the other black children play football. In this scene along with many others (and coupled with the use of real archive footage) Eastwood clearly and simply presents South Africa as a culturally divided nation torn apart by apartheid, but one that Mandela (Morgan Freeman) aims to rebuild.

Following the dissolution of the apartheid system and the oppressive politics that went with it, there is feeling in the country that all symbols and remnants of white Afrikaner power should be disbanded in order to build a new South African identity. However, Mandela recognises that this could potentially deepen the cultural rift between whites and blacks. While attending a Springboks rugby match, Mandela realises that uniting the country behind the national team would be a great foundation on which to build the new South Africa. President Mandela therefore enlists the help of the Springboks’ captain, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) and the two work together to make the rubgy team an emblem of national unity and one that all South Africa could support.

From the outset, Invictus is a warm, intelligent, inspiring film that presents its vision of hope with impressive conviction and overwhelming power. The film boasts a great script, (which is in fact surprisingly funny as Freeman is given some charmingly pithy one-liners as Mandela) great performances and a wonderful spirit that will win over those not au fait with rugby, sport or knowledge of the period in South African history. Eastwood has delivered a beautiful film that combines wonderfully directed personal scenes (those between Mandela’s security team are great, as are those between the President and Pienaar), emotional and haunting moments (where Pienaar visits Mandela’s cell on Robben Island is wonderful) and fast-paced adrenaline-charged rugby sequences.

In a role he was seemingly born to play, Morgan Freeman is completely convincing as Nelson Mandela, possessing all the gravitas and presence needed to play the man who has become such a symbol of greatness and goodness around the world. While Freeman’s accent does falter at times, this is a minor problem in a performance that is otherwise pitch perfect – Mandela is never presented as all-knowing and godlike, but a man struggling with his own problems, living apart from his family and estranged from his wife.

Matt Damon is also very good as captain Francois Pienaar, lifting what could have been (in the face of the Mandela character) a fairly dull and quiet role into the realms of inspiration, particularly in the Robben Island sequences and the closing stages of the rugby world cup final between South Africa and the fearsome New Zealand All Blacks.

Invictus is a wonderful, charming and uplifting film that will satisfy sports fans and newcomers alike. Eastwood has produced a piece of work filled with moments of sheer joy that will have you misty-eyed and a sense of hope that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled. One of the best films of 2010 so far, just fantastic.

Rating: MMMMM

Rating:

From celebrated director Jane Campion comes a biopic of nineteenth century Romantic poet John Keats, exploring his romance with Miss Fanny Brawne, beginning in 1818.

Director: Jane Campion
Starring: Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox, Paul Schneider
Running time: 119 mins approx.

Critically acclaimed for her early 90s period drama The Piano, New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion has created a beautiful and heartbreaking film in her latest effort, Bright Star. Exploring the life of John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his doomed love affair with Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), the film is beautifully shot – Campion makes excellent use of colours, textures and lighting to a wonderfully romantic effect. One scene in particular in which Fanny reads one Keats’ love letters takes place in a wooded sea of violet-hued bluebells, the bright purples and swathes of green perfectly contrasting each other. Throughout the film Campion uses her pastoral setting very well, utilising the landscape, trees, woods and flowers to create a believable and stunning world for the characters to fall in love in.

And fall in love they surely do. After an initially frosty first meeting, the feisty Fanny Brawne enlists Keats to teach her about poetry and language. At first, Fanny is not much enamoured by the young poet but this feeling changes rapidly after she notices Keats’ anxiety and affection for his brother who lies seriously ill. The two then meet with quickening frequency and find themselves entangled in a passionate love affair that sets the wider community gossiping. However, with Keats’ own health in serious speedy decline, a dark shadow is cast over the lovers’ affair, one that even the strongest love cannot overcome.

The gentle and tragic story of Bright Star is very well directed with the exception of a few scenes which are too languorous – it appears that Campion was aiming to create moods of tension and repressed passion but instead these scenes simply run out of steam.

Consequently the second act is slow and needs more dynamism and drama to keep the film interesting. However, in terms of acting, Bright Star certainly excels. Abbie Cornish is very good as the headstrong Fanny Brawne, simultaneously eliciting sympathy whilst not being an instantly likeable lead heroine. However, as her love for Keats blossoms, so does our fondness for her, to the point that her sorrow in the film’s tragic conclusion is heartbreaking. Cornish’s performance in this particular scene is excellent – Cornish presents Fanny feeling the emotional pain physically and with an arresting intensity.

As Keats himself, Ben Whishaw is haunting, having a suitably poetic quality about him. He is at all times thoroughly convincing as the young poet, being attractive, quiet and possessing a certain beautiful melancholic air. The only problem with Whishaw’s portrayal of Keats is that the character could at times do with some angry passion to measure the tender embraces and pained looks that seem to dominate his relationship with Fanny.

Bright Star is a beautiful, gentle and tragic romance that combines wonderful production design with good storytelling to haunting effect.

Rating: MMMM

On the show, ‘The Good Doctor’ (Kermode) discusses the week’s new film releases with Simon, engaging in witty banter and the like, all of which is as amusing and heartwarming as it is informative. No wonder over 10,000 people download the podcast every week.

Today, whilst resting my mysterious neck/shoulder injury, I happened to be listening live to the review show. When Simon and Mark were going through the UK box office top 10, I had an email read out! How exciting. It was concerning ‘Up In The Air’ and a certain particular moustache…

Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/kermode to hear it, click on the second part from Friday 5th February 2010.

Actress in a supporting role
Mo’Nique in Precious
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Penélope Cruz in Nine
Anna Kendrick in Up In The Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart

Actor in a supporting role
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Matt Damon in Invictus
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger

Actress in a leading role
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious
Carey Mulligan in An Education

Actor in a leading role
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air <<NO WAY does that performance warrant a nomination
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Animated feature film
Up
The Princess and the Frog
Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Secret of Kells

Foreign language film
Ajami (Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Israel)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France)
The Secret of Her Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina)
The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany)
The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, Peru)

Directing
Avatar (James Cameron) << dear God, NO.
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow) << please please please
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
Precious (Lee Daniels)

Writing (adapted screenplay)
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)
An Education (Nick Hornby)
Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)
In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche)

Writing (original screenplay)
The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Petersen)
The Messenger (Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman)

Best picture
Avatar (James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers) << Again, please NO. Let us not be blinded by visuals and forget that 3D wizardry does NOT a good film make!!
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 (Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, producers)
A Serious Man (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, producers)
Up in the Air (Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, producers)     << NO WAY
The Blind Side (nominees to be determined)
Up (Jonas Rivera, producer)

Art direction
Avatar (art direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; set decoration: Kim Sinclair)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (art direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; set decoration: Caroline Smith)
Nine (art direction: John Myhre; set decoration: Gordon Sim)
Sherlock Holmes (art direction: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer)
The Young Victoria (art direction: Patrice Vermette; set decoration: Maggie Gray)

Cinematography
Avatar (Mauro Fiore)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)
The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)
Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)
The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

Costume design
Bright Star (Janet Patterson)
Coco Before Chanel (Catherine Leterrier)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Monique Prudhomme)
Nine (Colleen Atwood)
The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)

Documentary (feature)
Burma VJ (Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller)
The Cove (nominees to be determined)
Food, Inc (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein)
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith)
Which Way Home (Rebecca Cammisa)

Documentary (short subject)
‘China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province’ (Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill)
‘The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner’ (Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher)
‘The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant’ (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)
‘Music by Prudence’ (Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett)
‘Rabbit à la Berlin’ (Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra)

Film editing
Avatar (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron)
District 9 (Julian Clarke)
The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski and Chris Innis)
Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)
Precious (Joe Klotz)

Makeup
Il Divo (Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano)
The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore)
Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow)

Music (original score)
Avatar (James Horner)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Alexandre Desplat)
Up (Michael Giacchino)
The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders)
Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)

Music (original song)
‘Almost There’, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
‘Down in New Orleans’, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
‘Loin de Paname’, from Paris 36 by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas
‘Take it All’, from Nine by Maury Yeston
‘The Weary Kind’, from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short film (animated)
‘French Roast’ (Fabrice O Joubert)
‘Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty’ (Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell)
‘Logoramam’ (Nicolas Schmerkin)
‘The Lady and the Reaper’ (Javier Recio Gracia)
‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’ (Nick Park)

Short film (live action)
The Door (Juanita Wilson and James Flynn)
Instead of Abracadabra (Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström)
Kavi (Gregg Helvey)
Miracle Fish (Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey)
The New Tenants (Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson)

Sound editing
Avatar (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)
The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson)
Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman)
Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin)
Up (Michael Silvers and Tom Myers)

Sound mixing
Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson)
The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson and Ray Beckett)
Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano)
Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J Devlin)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson)

Visual effects
Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R Jones)
District 9 (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken)
Star Trek (Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton)

New slick comedy-drama from the award-winning director of Juno, Jason Reitman.

Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick
Running time: 109 mins

In Jason Reitman’s new film Up In The Air, George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, self-confessed lover of the business and executive class lifestyle, spending more days ‘up in the air’ than days living life on the ground. His job is to fly to different cities across the USA to various company offices to fire employees because the people they work for haven’t the heart to do it themselves. The vacuous corporateness and emptiness that others find so repugnant is Ryan’s lifeblood. Until his life takes an unexpected and unwelcome turn in the form of bright new upstart Natalie (Anna Kendrick) whose ideas and plans would bring Ryan’s jet setting to a grinding halt.

In Up In The Air, Jason Reitman seems to have produced two very different films in one: the first two-thirds of the film explore the executive void of Ryan’s life and his contentedness with it, whilst it being under threat from a ’shift in company direction’ from Natalie’s cost-cutting and economising ideas. This is a slick corporate world, driven by money and a veneer of politeness with complimentary bath robes thrown in, a world which is well executed by Reitman. However, the problem comes when Ryan seemingly begins to question his values and moral behaviour and starts to view his life from a different perspective. From this point onwards the film changes tone entirely – almost like you left the cinema screen to get more popcorn and wandered into a different screen, except the characters are the same, just playing out a different story. And this is where the film inevitably falls down. Without giving too much away, the last third becomes more of a family centred tv movie than a glossy and hip George Clooney film. This tone change has a sadly negative impact on the film, as Reitman seems unable to follow through his initial ideas to the end with adequate conviction. On paper, the film works fine – on celluloid it fails somewhat.

However, all the ingredients of the film are essentially very good. George Clooney, while simply doing his charming, golden matinee idol smile that he seems to have patented, is very good and likeable as ever. Vera Farmiga as Clooney’s female opposite is also good, providing a convincing twist in the final act that comes as a genuine surprise. Anna Kendrick however delievers a standout turn as the young and naive Natalie, building on her solid work in Twilight as Jessica Stanley.

The script is well written and delivers some laughs, and there are some nice visual gags – most notably, the pilot’s ridiculous moustache which provided me with one of the biggest bellylaughs since The Hangover. In contrast too there are some genuine moments of shock, pathos and poignancy, with Natalie’s ill fated relationship and the fateful effects of some of the employees being let go from their jobs. The film is well directed, well acted and well scripted, just not really thought through, needing the courage to avoid the now hackneyed ‘man on a journey’ plot and stick to its guns of vapid corporateness and the emptiness so loved by the George Clooney character.

Engaging, witty, entertaining and funny, just not as good as expected.

Rating: MMM